Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LETTER I To Sir Frederic Waller
- LETTER II To the Baron Von Kemperfelt
- LETTER III To the Same
- LETTER IV To the Same
- LETTER V To Sir Edward Waller, Bart
- LETTER VI To the Same
- LETTER VII To the Same
- LETTER VIII To the Baron Von Kemperfelt
- LETTER IX To the Count Jules de Béthizy
- LETTER X To the Same
- LETTER XI To the Same
- LETTER XII To the Same
- LETTER XIII To the Same
- LETTER XIV To Sir Edward Waller, Bart
- LETTER XV To the Same
- LETTER XVI To the Same
- LETTER XVII To the Same
- NOTES
LETTER X - To the Same
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2011
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LETTER I To Sir Frederic Waller
- LETTER II To the Baron Von Kemperfelt
- LETTER III To the Same
- LETTER IV To the Same
- LETTER V To Sir Edward Waller, Bart
- LETTER VI To the Same
- LETTER VII To the Same
- LETTER VIII To the Baron Von Kemperfelt
- LETTER IX To the Count Jules de Béthizy
- LETTER X To the Same
- LETTER XI To the Same
- LETTER XII To the Same
- LETTER XIII To the Same
- LETTER XIV To Sir Edward Waller, Bart
- LETTER XV To the Same
- LETTER XVI To the Same
- LETTER XVII To the Same
- NOTES
Summary
It may be premature to pretend to speak with any certainty concerning the true state of ordinary American society. My opinions have already undergone two or three revolutions on the subject, for it is so easy, where no acknowledged distinctions prevail, for a stranger to glide imperceptibly from one circle to another, that the impressions they leave are very apt to be confounded. I have never yet conversed with any declaimer on the bad tone of republican manners (and they are not wanting), who has not been ready enough to confess this, or that, individual an eminent exception. Now, it never appears to enter into the heads of these Chesterfieldian critics, that the very individuals in question are so many members of a great class, that very well know how to marshal themselves in their ordinary intercourse with each other, although, to a stranger, they may seem no more than insulated exceptions, floating, as it were by accident, on the bosom of a motley, and frequently far from inviting state of society. I think, however, that it is not difficult to see, at a glance, that even the best bred people here maintain their intercourse among each other, under far fewer artificial forms than are to be found in almost any other country. Simplicity of deportment is usually the concomitant of good sense every where; but, in America, it is particularly in good taste.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Notions of the AmericansPicked Up by a Travelling Bachelor, pp. 204 - 237Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1828