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��try; the brilliant series of their prosperity; the powerful success of their arms in the late war against Great Britain; and the respect which they fancy they have inspired in the principal powers of Europe^ have raised their vanity to an extreme, of which it is scarcely possible to form an idea. They consider themselves superiour to the rest of mankind, and look upon their Republick as the only establishment upon earth, founded upon a grand and solid basis, embellished by wisdom, and destined one day to become the most sublime colossus of human power, and the wonder of the universe. It is not only in the mouths of enthusi- asts, or demagogues, who seek to inflame the ima- ginations of the mob with seductive and exalted ideas, that this language is heard; it resounds from every side. The works of all the Anglo-Ameri- can writers, are strewed with these haughty senti- ments, these brilliant predictions, suggested by an overweaning vanity. Their publick monuments attest the excess of this pride and ostentatious con- fidence. The house in which the Congress hold their sessions, they call the Capitol: a little rivulet near it, about three yards wide and a fourth deep, they denominate the Tiber, Many of the meanest settlements, have the names of the most celebrated cities of Greece and Rome.* Every thing breathes
- Paris, London, Madrid, and even Rome itself, were
in their origin perhaps as inconsiderable and mean, as the
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