is, in the best of us, an under-current of selfishness; indeed,
selfishness and unselfishness are convertible terms; this is a higher
kind of that, as the upper-current of the ocean is but the under-current
risen to the surface.

Saint James says: 'The love of money is the root of all evil.' I am not
exactly prepared to agree with him; it is a great branch, almost the
trunk; but I think selfishness is the root. You know Hahnemann thought
all diseases but a modification of one disease--_psora_. However it may
be with his theory, the one moral disease is not an itching palm. This
is but a modification of selfishness, which is not merely cutaneous.

But the form it is supposed to take in the system of Yankees, is the
above-named plebeian form. The supposition may be correct. Don't we most
feel our national troubles, the shock of the great national earthquake,
when it causes an upheaval from the depths of the pocket? If Uncle Sam's
sentiments are, as they are supposed to be, only a concentration of
those of the majority, isn't his lamentation over his run-away South,
who has changed her name without his consent, that of Shylock: 'My
daughter! Oh! my ducats!'? Though not exactly connected with this branch
of selfishness, I may as well, while speaking of our national
difficulties, mention what struck me very forcibly: It is said, that on
the eminence from which the spectators of the Bull Run battle so
precipitately fled, were found sandwiches and bottles of wine; and that
these refreshments actually lined the road to Washington. From this
might be inferred that 'to-day's dinner' not only 'subtends a larger
visual angle than _yesterday's_ revolution,' but that it also subtends a
larger angle than _to-day's_ revolution. If one could ever forget one's
own personal gratifications and comforts, it would be, I should think,
in overlooking a nation's battle-field--_our_ nation's battle-field. But