Save a little in my
Unitarian minister, and this only conjecturally, I did not
encounter that fine spirit which in Old England used to imagine
the New World we have not quite turned out to be; but once I met
an Englishman who had lived in Canada, and who, gentleman-bred as
he was, looked back with fond homesickness to the woods where he
had taken up land, and built himself a personable house, chiefly
with his own hands. He had lived himself out of touch with his
old English life in that new country, and had drawn breath in an
opener and livelier air which filled his lungs as the home
atmosphere never could again.
XVI
Yet he was standing stiffly up for himself, and strewing his
convictions and opinions broadcast as the English all do when
pressed by circumstance, while we, with none of their shyness,
mostly think our thoughts to ourselves. I suppose we do it
because we like better than they to seem of one effect with the
rest of our kind. In England one sees a variety of dress in men
which one rarely sees at home.
Pages:
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259