The life, travels, and literary career of Bayard Taylor . and deserted NicholasNicklebys. The richest, the poorest, the best, theworst; the most cultivated, and the most ignorant;the most powerful monarch, and the most degradedfishmongers. Extremes! Extremes that meet ineverything there. They all instruct by teaching thebeholder what he ought to be, and Avhat he ought notto be. One sees much in London that ousfht not tohave been; and, strange to relate, many of the relicsconnected with such thinirs, are exhibited with orreatpride. If there is any one thing above all others, forwhich the Americ
The life, travels, and literary career of Bayard Taylor . and deserted NicholasNicklebys. The richest, the poorest, the best, theworst; the most cultivated, and the most ignorant;the most powerful monarch, and the most degradedfishmongers. Extremes! Extremes that meet ineverything there. They all instruct by teaching thebeholder what he ought to be, and Avhat he ought notto be. One sees much in London that ousfht not tohave been; and, strange to relate, many of the relicsconnected with such thinirs, are exhibited with orreatpride. If there is any one thing above all others, forwhich the American should be thankful, it is for thefact that the dungeon, the rack, the wheel, the thumb-screw, the guillotine, the gibbet, the headsmans block,the deadly hates of royalty, the cruelty of kings, andthe jealousy of queens, have no place in the historyof the Republic of the West. Yet there, somehow,the officials and guides who open to the public therecords of the past and show visitors their institutions,give the most prominent places to deeds of horrid. SCENES IN LONDON. 69 cruelty and shameless murders, as if they took pridein such fearful annals. It would seem as if, had ourrulers butchered in cold blood their sons and dausfh-ters ; had they cruelly starved their friends and relatives,we in America would be ashamed of it. It would beregarded as very natural here, if an ancestor was hungand quartered and his head carried about on a pole,to speak of it as seldom as possible. It would appearconsistent if, had our national government oppressedthe weak, degraded the poor, killed inoffensive cap-tives, and, for selfish ambition, laid waste the citiesand fields of an innocent people, we should attemptto bury the remembrance of those deeds so deep as tomake a resurrection impossible. But there, in Europe,they appear to revel in the hideous doings of theirancestors, and will show you where human heads orhands were exhibited, and where noble men andwomen were persecuted to martyrdom, w
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Keywords: ., bookauthorconwellr, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1879
