"Other people are
born abroad, and never know the delight of real travel. But, after all,
America is best. The life of the world culminates here. We are the prow
of the vessel; there may be more comfort amidships, but we are the
first to touch the unknown seas. And the foremost men of all nations
are foremost only in so far as they are at heart American; that is to
say, America is, at present, even more an idea and a principle than it
is a country. The nation has perhaps not yet risen to the height of its
opportunities. So you have never crossed the Atlantic?"
"No; my father never wanted to go; and after he died, mamma could not."
"Well, our American Emerson says, you know, that, as the good of travel
respects only the mind, we need not depend for it on railways and
steamboats."
"It seems to me, if we never moved ourselves, our minds would never
really move either."
"Where would you most care to go?"
"To Rome, and Jerusalem, and Egypt, and London."
"Why?"
"They seem like parts of my mind that I shall never know unless I visit
them."
"Is there no part of the world that answers to your heart?"
"Oh, the beautiful parts everywhere, I suppose.
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