in taking, but bound to take--the
plain course of saying what I think, and noting
what I saw; and as it is not my custom to exalt
what in my judgment are foibles and abuses at
home, so I have no intention of softening down,
or glozing over, those that I have observed
abroad.

"If this book should fall into the hands of any
sensitive American who cannot bear to be told
that the working of the institutions of his
country is far from perfect; that in spite of
the advantage she has over all other nations in
the elastic freshness and vigour of her youth,
she is far from being a model for the earth to
copy; and that even in those pictures of the
national manners with which he quarrels most,
there is still (after the lapse of several
years, each of which may be fairly supposed to
have had its stride in improvement) much that
is just and true at this hour; let him lay it
down, now, for I shall not please him. Of the
intelligent, reflecting, and educated among his
countrymen, I have no fear; for I have ample
reason to believe, after many delightful
conversations not easily to be forgotten, that
there are very few topics (if any) on which
their sentiments differ materially from mine.

"I may be asked--'If you have been in any
respect disappointed in America, and are
assured beforehand that the expression of your
disappointment will give offence to any class,
why do you write at all?' My answer is, that I
went there expecting greater things than I
found, and resolved as far as in me lay to do
justice to the country, at the expense of any
(in my view) mistaken or prejudiced statements
that might have been made to its disparagement.
Coming home with a corrected and sobered
judgment, I consider myself no less bound to do
justice to what, according to my best means of
judgment, I found to be the truth."

Of the book for whose opening page this matter introductory was written,
it will be enough merely to add that it appeared on the 18th of October;
that before the close of the year four large editions had been sold;
and that in my opinion it thoroughly deserved the estimate formed of it
by one connected with A