people. That the root-trait has developed somewhat differently in
the two portions of the family is an accident.

The Englishman--who, when at home, has himself lived, not entirely
secluded, but in a measure shut off from contact with other peoples--by
continual going abroad and never-ceasing friction with his neighbours,
by perpetual disheartenment with the perplexities of his colonial
empire, has become less of a critic than a grumbler; and to do him
justice he is, in speech, infinitely more contemptuous of his own
government than he is of the American or any other. The American on the
contrary remains cheerfully, light-heartedly, garrulously critical. He
comes out in the world and gazes on it young-eyed, and he prattles: "My
father is bigger than your father, and my sister has longer hair than
yours, and my money box is larger than yours." It is neither unkindly
meant nor, by Englishmen, very unkindly taken. It is less offensive than
the mature, corrosive sullenness of the Englishman; but it is the same
thing. "The French foot-guards are dressed in blue and all the marching
regiments in white; which has a very foolish appearance. And as for blue
regimentals, it is only fit for the blue horse or the Artillery," says
the footman in Moore's _Zeluco_.

Similarly, when he has been praised, the lad has plumed himself unduly
on the thing that found approval. He would not do it now; for the
American people of to-day is, as it were, grown up; but, again, the harm
has been done. Americans rarely make the mistake of underestimating the
excellence of their virtues. Nor is it their fault, but that of their
critics.

The American people labours under delusions about its own character and
qualities in several notable particulars. It exaggerates its own energy
and spirit of enterprise, its sense of humour and its chivalrousness
towards women. That it should be aware that it possesses each of these
qualities in a considerable degree would do no harm, for self-esteem is
good for a nation; but it believes that it possesses them to the
exclusion of the rest of mankind. And that is unfortunate; for it makes
the individual American assume the lack of these qualities in the
English and thereby decreases his estimate of the English character. I
am not endeavouring to reduce the American's good opinion of
himself--only to make him think better of the Englishman by assuring him
that in each of these particulars there is remarkably little to