eople, there is a
counterbalancing advantage in the greater diversity of interests,
enlargement of sympathy, and vigour of enterprise introduced by the
close union of the descendants of different races. The people of New
England, almost to a man descended from the pilgrim fathers, have the
strong religious principle and feeling, the uprightness, the domestic
attachment, and the principled worldly prudence of their ancestors, with
much of their asceticism (and necessarily attendant cant) and bigotry.
Their neighbours in the middle states are composed of contributions from
all countries of the civilized world, and have, as yet, no distinctive
character; but it is probable that a very valuable one will be formed,
in course of time, from such elements as the genial gaiety of the
cavaliers, the patient industry of the Germans and Dutch, the vivacity
of the French, the sobriety of the Scotch, the enterprise of the Irish,
and the domestic tastes of the Swiss,--all of which, with their
attendant drawbacks, go to compose the future American character. The
chief pride of the New Englanders is in their unmixed descent;--a
virtuous pride, but not the most favourable to a progression which must
antiquate some of the qualities to which they are most attached. The
European components of the other population cherish some of the feudal
prejudices and the territorial pride which they imported with them, and
this is their peculiar drawback: but it appears that the enlarged
liberality which they enjoy from being intermingled more than
countervails the religious spirit of New England in opening the general
heart and mind to the interests of the race at large. The progression of
the middle states seems likely to be more rapid than that of New
England, though the inhabitants of the northern states have hitherto
taken and kept the lead.

It is the traveller's business to enter upon this course of observation
wherever he goes. When he has ascertained the conditions under which the
national character is forming,--whether its situation is insular or
continental, colonial or independent, and whether it is descended from
one race or more, he will proceed to observe the facts which indicate
progress or the reverse.

* * * * *

The most obvious of these facts is the character of charity. Charity is
everywhere. The human heart is always tender, always touched by visible
suffering, under one form or another. The form w