American, which glows beside the English equivalent as the sun beside
the moon, glows even oppressively. But apart from these inestimable
advantages I do not see that the American has much that an Englishman
need envy. There are certainly points of inferiority in the American
atmosphere, influences in development that are bad, not only in
comparison with what is ideally possible, but even in comparison with
English parallels.

For example, the theory that every man is as good as his neighbour, and
possibly a little better, has no check for fools, and instead of the
respectful silences of England there seems--to the ordinary English
mind--an extraordinary quantity of crude and unsound judgments in
America. One gets an impression that the sort of mind that is passively
stupid in England is often actively silly in America, and, as a
consequence, American newspapers, American discussions, American social
affairs are pervaded by a din that in England we do not hear and do not
want to hear. The real and steady development of American scientific
men is masked to the European observer, and it must be greatly hampered
by the copious silliness of the amateur discoverer, and the American
crop of new religions and new enthusiasms is a horror and a warning to
the common British intelligence. Many people whose judgments are not
absolutely despicable hold a theory that unhampered personal freedom
for a hundred years has made out of the British type, a type less
deliberate and thorough in execution and more noisy and pushful in
conduct, restless rather than indefatigable, and smart rather than
wise. If ninety-nine people out of the hundred in our race are vulgar
and unwise, it does seem to be a fact that while the English fool is
generally a shy and negative fool anxious to hide the fact, the
American fool is a loud and positive fool, who swamps much of the
greatness of his country to many a casual observer from Europe