I 



LETTER TO MILNE EDWARDS. 435 



nobility of character and the enthusiasm of 

 youth. Their look is wholly turned toward 

 the future ; their social life is not yet irrevo- 

 cably bound to exacting antecedents, and thus 

 nothing holds them back, unless, perhaps, a 

 consideration for the opinion in which they 

 may be held in Europe. This deference to- 

 ward England (unhappily, to them, Europe 

 means almost exclusively England) is a curi- 

 ous fact in the life of the American people. 

 They know us but little, even after having 

 made a tour in France, or Italy, or Germany. 

 From England they receive their literature, 

 and the scientific work of central Europe 

 reaches them through English channels. . . . 

 Notwithstanding this kind of dependence upon 

 England, in which American savans have vol- 

 untarily placed themselves, I have formed a 

 high opinion of their acquirements, since I 

 have learned to know them better, and I think 

 we should render a real service to them and 

 to science, by freeing them from this tutelage, 

 raising them in their own eyes, and drawing 

 them also a little more toward ourselves. Do 

 not think that these remarks are prompted by 

 the least antagonism toward English savans, 

 whom no one more than myself has reason to 

 regard with affection and esteem. But since 



I 



