Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 2

[213] never return. He has passed this winter at Paris, and when he last wrote was on the point of going over to England, for the summer and autumn; at the end of autumn to take the steamer for Malta again, visit Algiers and the north of Africa; then to Spain, and through that country into France again, —all of which, I suppose, will consume another year. I say, constantly, cui bono, all this travel? Far better to be at rest in some one place, hiving up from books, study, and meditation, rather than this perpetual attrition with the world. There is an article by George in the July number of the ‘North American,’ on the affairs of Afghanistan and British India generally..

God bless you! Ever and ever yours,

Charles Sumner.

To his brother George, London.¹

Boston, July 6, 1842.

my dear George,—. . . You enjoy conversation on politics, statistics, and history. Do you sufficiently appreciate talent out of this walk? For instance, Kenyon does not care a pin's fee for these topics; but he is exuberant with poetry and graceful anecdote: so that I must count him one of the most interesting men I have ever met. And I remember breakfasts at his house which were full of the most engaging conversation, different in its style and interests, but, I must confess, more engaging than a dinner with De Gerando, a morning with the Duc de Broglie, or De Tocqueville, or an evening in company with Circourt,—--all of which, and much more, I enjoyed in Paris. Still, let me not disparage the latter. It is a pleasure to remember them; but the topics discussed and the tone of the discussion are different. Parkes is absorbed by politics, history, and the real. You and he will have many sympathies. But you would not sympathize with the imaginative, graceful, refined intellect of my friend Milnes,—--perhaps not with the epigrammatic, caustic, highly-finished sculptured mots of Rogers, or the brilliant, argumentative wit of Sydney Smith. I like to find good in every thing; and in all men of cultivated minds and good hearts-thank God I—there is a great deal of good to be found. In some it shows itself in one shape, and in some in another; some will select your favorite themes, while others enjoy ideality and its productions manifold. Let me ask you to cultivate a habit of appreciating others and their gifts more than you do. . . .

You think me prejudiced in favor of England. Those who know my opinions know that I saw and felt the plague-spots of England as much as anybody. The government is an oligarchy,—the greatest and most powerful in the history of the world. There is luxury the most surprising side by side with poverty the most appalling. I never saw this in England, I never think of it now, without a shock. I pray for some change,—in peace,—--by which this constant injustice may be made to cease. But because these things are so,