Virginia Free Press

THE SERMON.

We Americans are certainly a very singular people. We boast of our freedom, and, to show it, set at naught and violate all law, human and divine; we boast of our equality and refuse to associate with any but those who are able to purchase the entrance to "good society;" we profess to judge every one by his merits alone, and yet the moment that a 'lion' comes along, like a set of jackals, we all immediately run after him, and join in stuffing him with praise and flattery and humbly beg to be noticed by him, if it be only a sneer; we boast of being Americans and Republicans, yet no sooner does a foreigner, especially if he has wealth or a title, set his foot upon our soil, than we strive, by every possible means to ingratiate ourselves into his good graces, and induce him to honour us with his presence at a dinner or other party, merely that it may be said that "Lord so-and-so, or the distinguished Mr. such-a-one, was at our party." Call on us for a very small sum, for the purpose of promoting any national, useful, or benevolent object, to encourage literature and science, the introduction of any new and important branch of manufacture, or the trade and commerce of the place in which we reside, and no people in the world are more prudent, calculating, cautious, and close-fisted. But let our fashionable neighbor attempt to rival us, to outshine us in dress, furniture, and equipage; let it become fashionable to go to certain places of resort, whether to theatres, concerts, fairs, exhibitions, benevolent associations, or what not, no matter what the expense may be, you shall find us full of money, and ready to spend it as if it were mere dross, and of no value whatever.

The poor unfortunate, though deserving woman, who has a large family of children dependent upon her labor, shall be taken sick, and suffer all the want of misery and disease, and her friends cannot raise five dollars for her relief: but get up a benefit for a foreigner, and let it be understood that the audience will be a fashionable one, and then how liberal, how benevolent and how compassionate we become; the lap of the beneficiary will be filled to overflowing; he will have more money than he ever, in his most visionary moments, dreamed of possessing. Let a man praise and flatter us, tell us we are the finest, the most liberal, the most discriminating, and the most intelligent people in the world, and we will, spaniel-like, fawn and crouch, and follow after him; but let any one tell us plain truths and give us good wholesome advice, and we bristle up and snap at him like a cur, and if but one opens upon him, the whole 'bay deep mouthed' hate and pursue him with unrelenting fury.

The fact is, we have little self-respect, though we have abundance of self-conceit. We look, not to the approbation of ourselves, but are feverishly anxious to know what others, and particularly foreigners, think of us, and get into a great passion if they will not express as much admiration of us as we think we deserve. We are constantly humbugging ourselves, and we get so fond of it that we are never happier than when others are humbugging us, though we are at the same time conscious that we are humbugged.—[Phil. Com. Her.