liberal; but their exalted sentiments in general decrease in exact proportion as they become powerful."
"In short," resumed the doctor, "I would willingly traverse the whole world; I know but one country that I should dislike to visit."
"And which is that?" asked Edric.
"America," replied the doctor. "I have no wish to have my throat cut, or my breath stopped by a bowstring. I have a perfect horror of despotic governments."
"Then how do you endure the one we live under?" asked Father Morris.
"The case is quite different," returned the doctor. "With us, the spur of despotism is scarcely felt; and the people, being permitted occasionally to think and act for themselves, are not debased and brutalized as the slaves of absolute power are in general. Despotism, with us, is like a rod which the schoolmaster keeps hung up in sight of his boys, but which he has very seldom any occasion to make use of. From such despotism as that of the Americans, however, Heaven defend us!"
