In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? or goes to an American play? or looks at an American picture or statue?
Gigantic daughter of the West
We drink to thee across the flood. . . .
For art not thou of English blood?
So it's home again, and home again, America for me!
My heart is turning home again, and I long to be
In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunshine, and the flag is full of stars.
The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has been going on now for three hundred years.
Some Americans need hyphens in their names, because only part of them has come over; but when the whole man has come over, heart and thought and all, the hyphen drops of its own weight out of his name.
Just what is it that America stands for? If she stands for one thing more than another, it is for the sovereignty of self-governing people, and her example, her assistance, her encouragement, has thrilled two continents in this western world with all those fine impulses which have built up human liberty on both sides of the water. She stands, therefore, as an example of independence, as an example of free institutions, and as an example of disinterested international action in the main tenets of justice.
We want the spirit of America to be efficient; we want American character to be efficient; we want American character to display itself in what I may, perhaps, be allowed to call spiritual efficiency—clear, disinterested thinking and fearless action along the right lines of thought. America is not anything if it consists of each of us. It is something only if it consists of all of us; and it can consist of all of us only as our spirits are banded together in a common enterprise. That common enterprise is the enterprise of liberty and justice and right. And, therefore, I, for my part, have a great enthusiasm for rendering America spiritually efficient; and that conception lies at the basis of what seems very far removed from it, namely, the plans that have been proposed for the military efficiency of this nation.
Home from the lonely cities, time's wreck, and the naked woe,
Home through the clean great waters where freemen's pennants blow,
Home to the land men dream of, where all the nations go.
We must consult Brother Jonathan.
AMUSEMENTS
(See also Sports)
It was an old, old, old, old lady,
And a boy who was half-past three;
And the way they played together
Was beautiful to see.
Hail, blest Confusion! here are met
All tongues, and times, and faces;
The Lancers flirt with Juliet,
The Brahmin talks of races.
What revels are in hand? Is there no play, To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?</poem>
We cry for mercy to the next amusement,
The next amusement mortgages our fields.
ANCESTRY
(See also Posterity)
I am a gentleman, though spoiled i' the
breeding. The Buzzards are all gentlemen.
We came in with the Conqueror.
