* * * * *
From a Review of Kent's Commentaries.
=_194._= DISADVANTAGES OF COLONIAL LIFE.
It is our misfortune, in one sense, to have succeeded, at the very
outset of our career, to an over-grown inheritance in the literature of
the mother country, and to have stood for a century in that political
and social relation towards her, which was of all others most
unfavorable to any originality in genius and opinions. Our good
fathers piously spoke of England as their _home_. The inferiority--the
discouraging and degrading inferiority--implied in a state of colonial
dependence, chilled the enthusiasm of talent, and repressed the
aspirations of ambition. Our youth were trained in English schools to
classical learning and good manners; but no scholarship--great as we
believe its efficacy to be--can either inspire or supply, the daring
originality and noble pride of genius, to which, by some mysterious
law of nature, the love of country and a national spirit seem to
be absolutely necessary. We imported our opinions ready-made--"by
balefuls," if it so pleases the Rev. Sidney Smith. We were taught
to read by English school-masters--and to reason by English
authors--English clergymen filled our pulpits, English lawyers our
courts--and above all things, we deferred to and dreaded the dictatorial
authority and withering contempt of English criticism.
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