82 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-XII 



lish literature, and must mainly be judged as such; that 

 to ask in the highest American literature something 

 absolutely different from English literature in general 

 was like looking for oranges upon an apple-tree; that 

 there had come new varieties in this growth, many of 

 them original, and some beautiful; but that there was 

 the same sap, the same life-current running through it 

 all; and I compared the treatment of woman in all 

 Anglo-Saxon literature, whether on one side of the At 

 lantic or the other, from Chaucer to Mark Twain, with 

 the treatment of the same subject by French writers 

 from Rabelais to Zola. To this he answered that in his 

 opinion the strength of American literature arises from 

 the inherent Anglo-Saxon religious sentiment. He ex 

 pressed a liking for Emerson, Hawthorne, and Whittier, 

 but he seemed to have read at random, not knowing at all 

 some of the best things. He spoke with admiration of 

 Theodore Parker s writings, and seemed interested in my 

 reminiscences of Parker and of his acquaintance with 

 Russian affairs. He also revered and admired the char 

 acter and work of William Lloyd Garrison. He had read 

 Longfellow somewhat, but was evidently uncertain re 

 garding Lowell, confusing him, apparently, with some 

 other author. Among contemporary writers he knew 

 some of Howells s novels and liked them, but said : Lit 

 erature in the United States at present seems to be in the 

 lowest trough of the sea between high waves. He dwelt 

 on the flippant tone of American newspapers, and told me 

 of an interviewer who came to him in behalf of an Ameri 

 can journal, and wanted simply to know at what time he 

 went to bed and rose, what he ate, and the like. He 

 thought that people who cared to read such trivialities 

 must be very feeble-minded, but he said that the European 

 press is, on the whole, just as futile. On my attempting 

 to draw from him some statement as to what part of 

 American literature pleased him most, he said that he had 

 read some publications of the New York and Brooklyn 

 Society for Ethical Culture, and that he knew and liked 



