Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1882-12-27
AMERICAS FUTURE.
o Commentary az uhe yisws ~ nssns1,
spsapsT,

The latest Euglish guest whom We
have entertained IN the Angl0-hasoh
Way-thal il, at dihner-is Herbert
spencer, II was very notable company
that greeted him, aud tho speaking was
capital, Mr., bpeneef'a own address was
40 interesting paper IN which lao
preached "the gospel OF relaxation"
IN al interview published some time
before he. had made some ineisiye ortiz
cisms upon American lie aud character,
and Ia his dinner address he said that he
was going 10 find fault, Tia, Was frank,
aud there las been no traveller among
W whose observations we're likely 10 bp
more valuable
"fhey III talk to M like uncles on
pedagogues," exelaimed Amereua i'm
patiently, "What bHsilesa have they
to lecture us IN this styleY We arc
quite old enough to take care OF our
selves, and quite able to run this cont
nent without any instruction from Eng
lishmeli, Suppose that some American
guest IN England should say to his hoStH
that he wanted 10 give them some good
advice, aud point out TO them iow OF
their defects, aud then proceed to pat
them on tho head, with patronizing
praise, don't You think there would he
6tOrm2 II styangers like ~, very
well II they don't like a., very we'll,
1t isa matter Of supreme indifference
10 u.s."
Why, then. do We aqk them how they
liko usS And why should the people OF
ono country scornfully decline to hear
tho comments OF sensible people Of 9th
or counttiesg Every mau ", or ought
to DO, glad to receive intelligent couG
sci, and 10 NO his lilo from other poinld
OF Wow than his own, Why should net
tho citizen DO equally seasIblcS We
did not ask De Tocluoyille to come aud
Ece us and analya' cur political inatiiu'
tions and their operations, Wc did not
ask Won Hoist to write our cons,itnlion
NJ history. Int Do Iucluvil!e aud
Won Hoist have laid ~ aud all other
lovers OF popular constitutional liberty
under grcat obligations. Both OF them
havo written better books OF their kind
about IN than any American has written,
II Ia absurd to snarl tina; We don't care
what they say, and that they had better
stay at home and not lecture US. When
Dickens stung us with tho satire ol
Martin Chuz1lewit hc was not only
accused Of ingralitude-as II u man
were bound to find no fault with any
abuse, and not TO criticise any tendency,
in country who o ho had been kindly
welcomed but ho was told TO look ut
home, and assured that II ho wanted to
depict outrageous evils and ridiculous
people, he had only to portray his be-
loved England. That was said with a
fine air OF indignation. But what else
was Dickens doing all his life? What
arc his books, in this point OF view, but
n prolonged arraignment Of the abuses
and of tho absurd social types OF his
native England? Bnt when Henry
James draws good-nitured and shrewd
sketch of tho American girl abroad in
Daisy Miller, although it is plainly
intended to show to conventional
Europe that the American girl is mis-
Judged, We petulantly wonder why he
could not choose another type to illus
trate.
The observations OF intelligent foreign
critics are no more hostile than the
American criticisms which they confirm.
When, for instance, after most intelli
gent recognition Of the material advan
tages of this county, Mr.. Spencer says
that If there had been another aud
higher progress commensurate with the
material advance, there would be moth
ing to wish, he says nothing which very
many Americans have not felt and said
and he adds m improvement from
history which had occurred to many
Americans, and had been strongly stated
by them, that while tho republics OF the
Middle Ages surrounded themselves
with material splendor, their liberty
decayed.
Mr.. Spencer further rer,arks tha
under the forms of freedom we may lost
its substance, and that in some ways
which he points out, we are losing it, Ii
the burden of the warning OF many AZ
intelligent American, which does not
need the old illustration Of Cie iar't
introduction Of the empire under repub
lican forms, nor the warning OF Burke
that "ambition, though it has ever the
same general views, has not at all time:
the same means nor the same particulal
objects" So when Mr.. Spencer sayl
that paper constitutions will not worl
as they are intended to work, ant
that the real basis and bulwark of ma
tional greatness and of progressiv'
liberty is character and not education
he says what every thoughtful American
percieves and believes He does no
say, indeed, what many American:
know, and what explains the emphasis
with which We insist upon education
that the perception Of the desirabilit.
OF general education ID in itself all evi
dence of character. Education alone
may not save a people from politica
trouble, but constitutional liberty vii
not be maintained by an ignorant peo
ple.--Editor's Easy Chair in HUper's.