"_Pourrie avant d'etre mure. Mure_, America is certainly far from being;
but I am not disposed to accuse her yet of being quite_pourrie._"
"We had flattered ourselves," said Eve, a little reproachfully, "with
having at last found a countryman in Mr. Powis."
"And how would that change the question? Or do you admit that an American
can be no American, unless blind to the faults of the country,
however great?"
"Would it be generous for a child to turn upon a parent that all others
assail?"
"You put the case ingeniously, but scarcely with fairness. It is the duty
of the parent to educate and correct the child, but it is the duty of the
citizen to reform and improve the character of his country. How can the
latter be done, if nothing but eulogies are dealt in? With foreigners, one
should not deal too freely with the faults of his country, though even
with the liberal among them one would wish to be liberal, for foreigners
cannot repair the evil; but with one's countrymen I see little use and
much danger, in observing a silence as to faults. The American, of all
others, it appears to me, should be the boldest in denouncing the common
and national vices, since he is one of those who, by the institutions
themselves, has the power to apply the remedy."
"But America is an exception, I think, or perhaps it would be better to
say I _feel_, since all other people deride at, mock her, and dislike her.
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