86 A GREAT PUBLIC CHARACTER. 



difference in the intellectual training, in the literary cul- 

 ture and associations, in the whole social outfit, of the 

 men who were their antagonists and companions ! It 

 should seem that, if it be collision with other minds and 

 with events that strikes or draws the fire from a man, then 

 the quality of those might have something to do with 

 the quality of the fire, — whether it shall be culinary or 

 electric. We have never known the varied stimulus, the 

 inexorable criticism, the many-sided opportunity of a 

 great metropolis, the inspiring reinforcement of an un- 

 divided national consciousness. In everything but trade 

 we have missed the invigoration of foreign rivalry. We 

 may prove that we are this and that and the other, — 

 our Fourth-of-July orators have proved it time and again, 

 — the census has proved it ; but the Muses are women, 

 and have no great fancy for statistics, though easily 

 silenced by them. We are great, we are rich, we are all 

 kinds of good things ; but did it never occur to you that 

 somehow we are not interesting, except as a phenomenon ? 

 It may safely be affirmed that for one cultivated man in 

 this country who stiidies American, there are fifty who 

 study European history, ancient or modern. 



Till within a year or two we have been as distant and 

 obscure to the eyes of Europe as Ecuador to our own. 

 Every day brings us nearer, enables us to see the Old 

 World more clearly, and by inevitable comparison to 

 judge ourselves with some closer approach to our real 

 value. This has its advantage so long as our culture is, 

 as for a long time it must be, European ; for we shall be 

 little better than apes and parrots till we are forced to 

 measure our muscle with the trained and practised cham- 

 pions of that elder civilization. We have at length es- 

 tablished our claim to the noblesse of the sword, the first 

 step still of every nation that would make its entry into 

 the best society of history. To maintain ourselves there, 



