Accordingly they pronounce this man insane, for they know that
they could never act as he does, as long as they are themselves.
We dream of foreign countries, of other times and races of men,
placing them at a distance in history or space; but let some
significant event like the present occur in our midst, and we
discover, often, this distance and this strangeness between us and our
nearest neighbors. They are our Austrias, and Chinas, and South Sea
Islands. Our crowded society becomes well spaced all at once, clean
and handsome to the eye- a city of magnificent distances. We
discover why it was that we never got beyond compliments and
surfaces with them before; we become aware of as many versts between
us and them as there are between a wandering Tartar and a Chinese
town. The thoughtful man becomes a hermit in the thoroughfares of
the market-place. Impassable seas suddenly find their level between
us, or dumb steppes stretch themselves out there. It is the difference
of constitution, of intelligence, and faith, and not streams and
mountains, that make the true and impassable boundaries between
individuals and between states. None but the like-minded can come
plenipotentiary to our court.
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