LETTERS.
FROM 1853 TO 1861.
LONDON.
To Charles Eliot Norton, Esq., Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Here we are, pretty well on our way across, about 2,200 miles from New York.
Mr. Slidell of Louisiana, and a young man apparently his companion, are perhaps the most unexceptionable human beings that one sees. Some Spaniards from Mexico and Cuba are also pleasant to look at, specially two little boys. A maiden aunt and nephew from Burlington, New Jersey, sit near me. and are not so bad. A horrid woman from New York whines, or rather wheines, or whaines, or even whoines just beyond, whom it is misery even to think of. I feel convinced there is a purgatory for vulgar people.
Now I am here I find the case is altered a good deal. Still I like America best; and, but for the greater security which one has in a fixed salary, would give up all thought of staying here at once. At least I might take the place for a time. It is a temptation, if I am to live the rest of my life chez vous, to secure another year's schooling on this side first; πολλὰ δὲ διδασκόμενος, in short.
I like America all the better for the comparison with England on my return. Certainly I think you are more right
