336 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



despotic or not in name, and public opinion will exact 

 pledges for its continuance. At present all the efforts of 

 France are turned towards peace. If this were done with 

 a good motive, it would be respectable, though it were 

 weak. But the motive is a narrow selfishness. The pow- 

 ers that be know that a war, in the present state of Europe, 

 would inevitably throw the people uppermost ; and this is 

 a result they are determined to avoid at any hazard. They 

 wish to be nobles, and in that vulgar reason you have what 

 just now forms the whole spring of English and French 

 policy self, self, self. 



I am sorry I can tell you nothing of the person you name. 

 I never saw him but on that occasion, and I think I was 

 told that he was a clerk in the office of the " Revue Ency- 

 clopedique." It is nothing unusual for men of very indif- 

 ferent pretensions in Europe to make a figure in America. 

 Still, if he has imparted anything as from himself, you will 

 naturally estimate him by what he has done, rather than 

 by what he is. The journal to which he was then attached 

 is of no great reputation itself, nor do I know that there 

 is a single French literary journal of any reputation. Eu- 

 rope rates our men very differently from what they are 

 rated at home, and we rate theirs in the same way. If 

 we understood each other's terms better, we should not 

 make so many blunders. When I first reached Europe, 

 I was all wonder at the ignorance of this part of the 

 world concerning ourselves, and now that I have leisure 

 to look about me, I am all wonder at the ignorance of 

 America concerning Europe. I see by the returns that 

 your little city grows. I could wish you to mention me to 

 Mr. Day and Mr. Kingsley ; I dare say I should say Dr. 

 Kingsley, but of this I am in the dark. I remember the 

 latter with affection. He did his duty, and more than his 

 duty by me ; and could I have been reclaimed to study by 

 kindness, he would have done it. My misfortune was ex- 

 treme youth. I was not sixteen when you expelled me. I 

 had been early and highly educated for a boy, so much 



