The
effort involved in distinguishing ourselves breeds a sort of
annoyance, or call it no more than uneasiness, which is almost as
bad as a bad conscience; and in our sense of hopeless perdition
we turn vindictively upon our judge. But that is not fair and it
is not wise; he does not mean to be our judge, except when he
comes to us for the purpose; in his own house, he is civilly
unaware of putting us to any test whatever. If you ask him
whether he likes this thing or that of ours, he will tell you
frankly; he never can see why he should not be frank; he has a
kind of helplessness in always speaking the truth; and he does
not try to make it palatable.
XVII
An English Radical, who would say of his King no more than that
he was a good little man, and most useful in promoting friendship
with France, was inclined to blame us because we did not stay by
at the time of our Revolution, and help them fight out as
Englishmen the fight for English freedom. He had none of the
loyalty of sentiment which so mystifies the American, but plenty
of the loyalty of reason, and expected a Utopia which should not
be of political but of economical cast.
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