I Found, However, That
Much Of That In The Gallery, Which Was Good, Had Been Done By Lads
Who Had Not Obtained Their Degree, And Who Had Shown An Aptitude
For Drawing, But Had Not Shown Any Aptitude For Other Pursuits
Necessary To Their Intended Career.
And then we were taken to the chapel, and there saw, displayed as
trophies, two of our own dear old English flags.
I have seen many
a banner hung up in token of past victory, and many a flag taken on
the field of battle mouldering by degrees into dust on some
chapel's wall - but they have not been the flags of England. Till
this day I had never seen our own colors in any position but one of
self-assertion and independent power. From the tone used by the
gentleman who showed them to me, I could gather that he would have
passed them by, had he not foreseen that he could not do so without
my notice. "I don't know that we are right to put them there," he
said. "Quite right," was my reply, "as long as the world does such
things." In private life it is vulgar to triumph over one's
friends, and malicious to triumph over one's enemies. We have not
got so far yet in public life, but I hope we are advancing toward
it. In the mean time I did not begrudge the Americans our two
flags. If we keep flags and cannons taken from our enemies, and
show them about as signs of our own prowess after those enemies
have become friends, why should not others do so as regards us?
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