AMERICA THE SELF-CRITICAL . 55

this respect as in so many others America is a
land of contrasts. Nowhere else is national self-
criticism "practised with a severity so relentless
and a mockery so bitter. In New York there
is a group of brilliant intellectuals who practise
it as a profession, which assumes at times the
character of a sour pastime, though one in which
the visitor is not expected to take part. Outside
the circles of these professional Jeremiahs thought-
ful people are to be met with all over the country
whose minds seem to be constantly exercised in
the diagnosis of the national diseases, and whose
speech drops into a minor key as they discuss
" the future of the country "—so many and grave
are the " problems " yet remaining to be solved.
I listened not long ago to a sermon preached by a
distinguished orator in the Chapel of a great
university, in which the picture of American
follies and sins was painted in colours so dark
that one almost expected the sermon to conclude,
not with the benediction, but with the crack of
doom. Most of what one is accustomed to hear
from unfriendly critics of America, even the most
unkind, was here repeated with staggering
illustrations from current events. " God's own
country " indeed! If half of what the preacher
.said was true—I believed less than half myself—
the owner of the country is certainly not God, but
Someone Else. I inquired of a professor after-
wards if this kind of sermon was common in the
university pulpit ? He replied, " We get more