The American Trip. 



91 



thing American. ^' Never/' he wrote to Chancellor 

 Favargez, ^' did the future look brighter to me than 

 now." How firmly the American idea was taking 

 possession of his being is shown by a quotation from 

 a letter to a friend in which he says : I am con- 

 stantly asking myself which is better, — our old 

 Europe, where the man of exceptional gifts can give 

 himself absolutely to study, opening thus a wider 

 horizon for the human mind, while at his side thou- 

 sands barely vegetate in degradation or at least in 

 destitution ; or this new world, where the institutions 

 tend to keep all on one level as part of the general 

 mass, — but a mass, be it said, which has no noxious 

 elements. Yes, the mass here is decidedly good. 

 All the world lives well, is decently clad, learns some- 

 thing, is awake and interested. Instruction does 

 not, as in some parts of Germany, for instance, fur- 

 nish a man with an intellectual tool and then deny 

 him the free use of it. The strength of America 

 lies in the prodigious number of individuals who 

 think and work at the same time. It is a severe test 

 of pretentious mediocrity, but I fear it may also 

 efface originality." 



To Milne Edwards he wrote : Naturalist as I 

 am, I cannot but put the people first, — the people 

 who have opened this part of the American continent 

 to European civilisation. What a people ! But to 

 understand them you must live among them. Our 

 education, the principles of our society, the motives 

 of our actions differ so greatly from what I see here, 

 that I should try in vain to give you an idea of this 

 great nation, passing from childhood to maturity 



