lay out my money to advantage. Added to this, I did not much like the
puritanical manners of the large towns. Inequality of condition was
there most disgustingly galling. The only pleasure wealth afforded, was
to make an ostentatious display of it; for the cultivation of the fine
arts, or literature, had not introduced into the first circles that
polish of manners which renders the rich so essentially superior to the
poor in Europe. Added to this, an influx of vices had been let in by
the Revolution, and the most rigid principles of religion shaken to the
centre, before the understanding could be gradually emancipated from the
prejudices which led their ancestors undauntedly to seek an inhospitable
clime and unbroken soil. The resolution, that led them, in pursuit
of independence, to embark on rivers like seas, to search for unknown
shores, and to sleep under the hovering mists of endless forests,
whose baleful damps agued their limbs, was now turned into commercial
speculations, till the national character exhibited a phenomenon in the
history of the human mind--a head enthusiastically enterprising,
with cold selfishness of heart. And woman, lovely woman!--they charm
everywhere--still there is a degree of prudery, and a want of taste and
ease in the manners of the American women, that renders them, in spite
of their roses and lilies, far inferior to our European charmers. In the
country, they have often a bewitching simplicity of character; but, in
the cities, they have all the airs and ignorance of the ladies who give
the tone to the circles of the large trading towns in England. They are
fond of their ornaments, merely because they are good, and not because
they embellish their persons; and are more gratified to inspire the
women with jealousy of these exterior advantages, than the men with
love. All the frivolity which often (excuse me, Madam) renders the
society of modest women so stupid in England, here seemed to throw still
more leaden fetters on their charms. Not being an adept in gallantry,
I found that I could only keep myself awake in their company by making