Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches
I have been twice in England. In 1833, on my return from a short tour in Sicily, Italy, and France, I crossed from Boulogne, and landed in London at the Tower stairs. It was a dark Sunday morning; there were few people in the streets; and I remember the pleasure of that first...
An ingenious anatomist has written a book[2] to prove that races are imperishable, but nations are pliant political constructions, easily changed or destroyed. But this writer d...
14. CHAPTER XIV.--LITERATURE.A strong common-sense, which it is not easy to unseat or disturb, marks the English mind for a thousand years; a rude strength newly applied to thought, as of sailors and soldie...
5. CHAPTER V.--ABILITY.The Saxon and the Northman are both Scandinavians. History does not allow us to fix the limits of the application of these names with any accuracy; but from the residence of a p...
11. CHAPTER XI.--ARISTOCRACY.The feudal character of the English state, now that it is getting obsolete, glares a little, in contrast with the democratic tendencies. The inequality of power and property sho...
1. CHAPTER I.--FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND.I have been twice in England. In 1833, on my return from a short tour in Sicily, Italy, and France, I crossed from Boulogne, and landed in London at the Tower stairs. It was a d...
16. CHAPTER XVI.--STONEHENGE.It had been agreed between my friend Mr. C. and me, that before I left England we should make an excursion together to Stonehenge, which neither of us had seen; and the project...
10. CHAPTER X.--WEALTH.There is no country in which so absolute a homage is paid to wealth. In America, there is a touch of shame when a man exhibits the evidences of large property, as if, after all,...
13. CHAPTER XIII.--RELIGION.No people, at the present day, can be explained by their national religion. They do not feel responsible for it; it lies far outside of them. Their loyalty to truth and their la...
8. CHAPTER VIII.--CHARACTER.The English race are reputed morose. I do not know that they have sadder brows than their neighbors of northern climates. They are sad by comparison with the singing and dancing...
12. CHAPTER XII.--UNIVERSITIES.Of British universities, Cambridge has the most illustrious names on its list. At the present day, too, it has the advantage of Oxford, counting in its _alumni_ a greater number...
18. CHAPTER XVIII.--RESULT.England is the best of actual nations. It is no ideal framework, it is an old pile built in different ages, with repairs, additions, and makeshifts; but you see the poor best yo...
6. CHAPTER VI.--MANNERS.I find the Englishman to be him of all men who stands firmest in his shoes. They have in themselves what they value in their horses, mettle and bottom. On the day of my arrival...
15. CHAPTER XV.--THE "TIMES.The power of the newspaper is familiar in America, and in accordance with our political system. In England, it stands in antagonism with the feudal institutions, and it is all t...
7. CHAPTER VII.--TRUTH.The Teutonic tribes have a national singleness of heart, which contrasts with the Latin races. The German name has a proverbial significance of sincerity and honest meaning. The...
3. CHAPTER III.--LAND.Alfieri thought Italy and England the only countries worth living in: the former, because there Nature vindicates her rights, and triumphs over the evils inflicted by the govern...
9. CHAPTER IX.--COCKAYNE.The English are a nation of humorists. Individual right is pushed to the uttermost bound compatible with public order. Property is so perfect, that it seems the craft of that ra...
2. CHAPTER II.--VOYAGE TO ENGLAND.The occasion of my second visit to England was an invitation from some Mechanics' Institutes in Lancashire and Yorkshire, which separately are organized much in the same way as...
17. CHAPTER XVII.--PERSONAL.In these comments on an old journey now revised after seven busy years have much changed men and things in England, I have abstained from reference to persons, except in the las...