It isn't even itself!
There are so many foreign and unrelated elements undergoing a steady, invisible process of blending; the picture changes slowly, yet ceaselessly; and no human camera is fast enough to catch it in the static focus of repose.
No one has portrayed New York as Dickens did London or Sue did Paris.
Those who tried have had to sectionalize it; none could wrap it all up into a comprehensive entity.
If they grasped the financial or theatrical or criminal or social or artistic or political aspect of the city's life, they could not extend the panorama into the human, the domestic, the personal phases.
If they looked on high they were so spellbound they could not turn to grope into the subterranean.
Those who realized the astounding things and people could not vitalize the humble, the ordinary, the devout and industrious bread-and-butter brothers and sisters.
Manhattan doesn't materialize to even those who spend their lives in it.
A thrilling, throbbing mystery!