"You will be happy, my dear, if it be in only one."
"These smaller vessels are less picturesque than those I have been accustomed to see."
"You have hit upon a very sound criticism, and, by going a little deeper into the subject, you will discover a singular deficiency in this part of an American landscape. The great-height of the spars of all the smaller vessels of these waters, when compared with the tame and level coast, river banks, and the formation of the country in general, has the effect to diminish still more the outlines of any particular scene. Beautiful as it is, beyond all competition, the Hudson would seem still more so, were it not for these high and ungainly spars."
The pilot now began to shorten sail, and the ship drew into that arm of the sea which, by a misnomer peculiarly American, it is the fashion to call the East River. Here our heroine candidly expressed her disappointment, the town seeming mean and insignificant. The Battery, of which she remembered a little, and had heard so much, although beautifully placed, disappointed her, for it had neither the extent and magnificence of a park, nor the embellishments and luxurious shades of a garden. As she had been told that her countrymen were almost ignorant of the art of landscape gardening, she was not so much disappointed with this spot, however, as with the air of the town, and the extreme filth and poverty of the quays. Unwilling to encourage John Effingham in his diposition to censure, she concealed her opinions for a time.
"There is less improvement here than even I expected," said Mr. Effingham, as they got into a coach on the wharf. They had taught me, John, to expect great improvements. "And great, very great improvements have been made in your absence. If you could see this place as you knew it in youth, the alterations would seem marvellous."
"I cannot admit this. With Eve, I think the place mean in appearance, rather than imposing, and so decidedly provincial as not to possess a single feature of a capital."
"The two things are not irreconcilable, Ned, if you will take the trouble to tax your memory. The place is mean and provincial; but thirty years since it was still meaner and more provincial than it is to-day. A century hence it will begin to resemble a large European town."
"What odious objects these posts are!" cried Eve.
"They give the streets the air of a village, and I do not see their uses."
"These posts are for awnings, and of themselves they prove the peculiar country character of the place. If you will reflect, however, you will see it could net well be otherwise. This town to-day contains near three-hundred thousand souls, two-thirds of whom are in truth emigrants from the interior of our own, or of some foreign country; and such a collection of people cannot in a day give a town any other character than that which belongs to themselves. It is not a crime to be provincial and rustic; it is only ridiculous to fancy yourselves otherwise, when the fact is apparent."