aturday Review_ or the _Spectator_, may be successfully started in
the United States. Again, youth is apt to be jealous over its own
pretensions. Perhaps this quality also might be illustrated; but, for
obvious reasons, we will not press this point. Lastly, youth knows
nothing of the time which came immediately before itself. It is not
till comparatively late in life that a man connects his own
generation--his own history--with that which preceded him. When does
the history of the United States begin--not for the man of letters or
the professor of history--but for the average man? It begins when the
Union begins: not before. There is a very beautiful and very noble
history before the Union. But it is shared with Great Britain. There
is a period of gallant and victorious war--but beside the colonials
marched King George's red-coats. There was a brave struggle for
supremacy, and the French were victoriously driven out--but it was by
English fleets and with the help of English soldiers. Therefore, the
average American mind refuses to dwell on this period. His country
must spring at once, full armed, into the world. His country must be
all his own. He wants no history, if you please, in which any other
country has also a share.

In a word, America seems to present all the possible characteristics
of youth. It is buoyant, confident, extravagant, ardent, elated, and
proud. It lives in the present. The young men of twenty-one cannot
believe in coming age; people do get to fifty, he believes; but, for
himself, age is so far off that he need not consider it. I observed
the youthfulness of America even in New England, but the country as
one got farther west seemed to become more youthful. At Chicago, I
suppose, no one owns to more than five-and-twenty--youth is
infectious. I felt myself while in the city much under that age.

Let us pass to another point--also an essential--the flaunting of the
flag, I had the honour of assisting at the 'Sollemnia Academica,' the
commencement of Harvard on the 28th of June last. I believe that
Harvard is the richest, as it is also the oldest, of American
universities; it is also the largest in point of numbers. The function
was celebrated in the college theatre; it was attended by the governor
of the State with the lieutenant-governor and his aide-de-camp; there
was a notable gathering on the stage or platform, consisting of the
president, professors and governors of the university, together wit