John Bernard, the English comedian, who was in this country at the close of the eighteenth century, found the state of society very much like that which he had left in his own country. “They wore the same clothes, spoke the same language, and seemed to glow with the same affable and hospitable feelings. In walking along the mall I could scarcely believe I had not been whisked over to St. James’s Park; and in their houses the last modes of London were observable in nearly every article of ornament or utility. Other parts of the state were, however, very different.” (Bernard, _Retrospections of America, 1797–1811_, p. 29.) Bernard found in New England abundant evidences of progress such as he had not been accustomed to in England, and splendid stamina of character (p. 30). Nothing, apparently, suggested to him that the people were not virile and sound. [35] Bentley, _Diary_, vol. i, pp. 253 _et seq._, discusses at length “the Puerile Sports usual in these parts of New England”. Weeden, _Economic and Social History of New England_, vol. ii, p. 696, comments on the dearth of public amusement. _Cf._ also _ibid._, p. 864. The changed attitude of the public toward dancing, as reported by Weeden, pp. 696 and 864, doubtless finds its explanation in the growing consciousness that the resources in the way of entertainment deserve to be increased. At the close of the century, however, dancing was still frowned upon. Bentley, _Diary_, vol. ii, pp. 17, 232, 233, 296, 322, 363. [36] Brissot, _New Travels in the United States of America_, p. 72: “Music, which their teachers formerly prescribed as a diabolic art, begins to make part of their education. In some houses you hear the forte-piano. This art, it is true, is still in its infancy; but the young novices who exercise it, are so gentle, so complaisant, and so modest, that the proud perfection of art gives no pleasure equal to what they afford.” _Cf._ also Bentley, _Diary_, vol. ii, pp. 247 _et seq._, 292. [37] Brissot, _New Travels in the United States of America_, pp. 86 _et seq._ Brissot generously explains this fact upon the ground that in a country so new, whose immediate concerns were so compelling, and where, also, wealth is not centered in a few hands, the cultivation of the arts and sciences is not to be expected. On the side of invention the situation was far from being as bad as a reading of Brissot might seem to imply. Weeden, _Economic and Social History of New England_, vol. ii, pp. 847–858.