rcumambient Ocean; that the inhabited part of the earth is to the
rest but as a tent in the desert; and that in the very centre of this
inhabited part is--Mecca. Their exclusive faith makes a part of their
nationality, and their insolence shows itself eminently in their
devotions. Their spiritual supremacy is their strong point; and they can
afford to be somewhat less outwardly contemptuous to the race at large,
from the certainty they have that all will be made plain and
indisputable at last, when the followers of the Prophet alone will be
admitted to bliss, and the punishments of the future world will be
eternal to all but wicked Mahomedans. There will be found among the
Arabs, in accordance with this pride, a strong mutual fidelity; and,
among the best class of believers, a real devotion and a kindly
compassion towards outcasts; while, among lower orders of minds, we may
expect to witness the extreme exasperation of vindictiveness, insult,
and rapacity.--We may pass over the pride of caste in India, of royal
race in Africa, and the wild notions of Caribbean and Esquimaux dignity,
which are almost as painful to contemplate as the freaks of pride in
Bedlam. There is quite enough to look upon in the most civilized parts
of the earth.--The whole national character of the Spaniards might be
inferred from their particularly notorious pride; the quarterings of
German barons are a popular joke; the French pride of military glory is
an index to the national morals of France; while, in the United States,
the pride of Washington and of territory is oddly combined and
contrasted. Nothing can be more indicative of the true moral state of
the Americans; they hang between the past and the future, with many of
the feudal prepossessions of the past, mingled with the democratic
aspirations which relate to the future. The ambition and pride of
territory belong to the first, and their pride in the leader of their
revolution to the last: he is their personification of that moral power
to which they profess allegiance. The consequences of this arbitrary
union of two kinds of national pride may be foreseen. The Americans
unite some of the low qualities of feudalism with some of the highest of
a more equal social organization. Without the first, slavery, cupidity,
and ostentation could not exist to any great extent; without the others,
there could not be the splendid moral conflict which we now see going on
in opposition to slavery, nor the r