But at present we have our culture from Europe and Europeans.
Let us be content and thankful for these good gifts for a while yet.
The collections of art, at Dresden, Paris, Rome, and the British
Museum and libraries offer their splendid hospitalities to the
American. And beyond this, amid the dense population of that
continent, lifts itself ever and anon some eminent head, a prophet to
his own people, and their interpreter to the people of other
countries. The attraction of these individuals is not to be resisted
by theoretic statements. It is true there is always something
deceptive, self-deceptive, in our travel. We go to France, to
Germany, to see men, and find but what we carry. A man is a man, one
as good as another, many doors to one open court, and that open court
as entirely accessible from our private door, or through John or
Peter, as through Humboldt or Laplace. But we cannot speak to
ourselves. We brood on our riches but remain dumb; that makes us
unhappy; and we take ship and go man-hunting in order to place
ourselves _en rapport_, according to laws of personal magnetism, to
acquire speech or expression.
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