It Is Not Only That Grand
Phrases Fail To Convince Us, But That They Carry To Our Senses
Almost An Assurance Of Their Own Inefficiency.
When we hear that a
people have declared their intention of being henceforward better
than their neighbors, and going upon a new theory that shall lead
them direct to a terrestrial paradise, we button up our pockets and
lock up our spoons.
And that is what we have done very much as
regards the Americans. We have walked with them and talked with
them, and bought with them and sold with them; but we have
mistrusted them as to their internal habits and modes of life,
thinking that their philanthropy was pretentious and that their
theories were vague. Many cities in the States are but skeletons
of towns, the streets being there, and the houses numbered - but not
one house built out of ten that have been so counted up. We have
regarded their institutions as we regard those cities, and have
been specially willing so to consider them because of the fine
language in which they have been paraded before us. They have been
regarded as the skeletons of philanthropical systems, to which
blood and flesh and muscle, and even skin, are wanting. But it is
at least but fair to inquire how far the promise made has been
carried out. The elaborate wordings of the constitutions made by
the French politicians in the days of their great revolution have
always been to us no more than so many written grimaces; but we
should not have continued so to regard them had the political
liberty which they promised followed upon the promises so
magniloquently made.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 481 of 538
Words from 128095 to 128375
of 143277
