The Traveler Was Active; He Went Strenuously

What Is More Natural In A Democratic Age Than That We Should Begin To Measure The Stature Of A Work Of Art-especially Of A Painting-by How Widely And How Well It Is Reproduced?

Our Attitude Toward Our Own Culture Has Recently Been Characterized By Two Qualities, Braggadocio And Petulance. Braggadocio - Empty Boasting Of American Power, American Virtue, American Know-how - Has Dominated Our Foreign Relations Now For Some Decades. Here At Home - Within The Family, So To Speak - Our Attitude To Our Culture Expresses A Superficially Different Spirit, The Spirit Of Petulance. Never Before, Perhaps, Has A Culture Been So Fragmented Into Groups, Each Full Of Its Own Virtue, Each Annoyed And Irritated At The Others.

The Most Important American Addition To The World Experience Was The Simple Surprising Fact Of America. We Have Helped Prepare Mankind For All Its Later Surprises.

A Pseudo-event ... Comes About Because Someone Has Planned It, Planted, Or Incited It. Typically, It Is Not A Train Wreck Or An Earthquake, But An Interview.

I Write To Discover What I Think.