‘That happens a great deal more often. The English enjoy that. They feel very superior when they show to the Americans the cathedrals and castles of their country. They act as if they had built these things themselves, whereas, in fact, the dead who built them were as much the ancestors of the Americans as of the English. But the English are the elder branch that has inherited the place. The buildings the modern English themselves put up they do not point out with pride to anybody, and those that their fathers and grandfathers built they cover over, when they can, with great cloths. But many Americans are forever wandering to these new buildings and are filled with joy that they build such places larger and better. For the pleasure of travelling in Europe is spoilt for them by the thought that their hosts do not know what a wonderful place America is, and they are forever bringing it into the conversation. Then they grow happy again, but their hosts less happy.’ ‘But it is the old things that they think they want to see,’ said Agathon. ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘they want to see Europe because they themselves came from it originally.’ ‘They do not go to Mesopotamia,’ said Agathon, ‘though they believe they came originally from somewhere there.’ ‘It is curious,’ I said, ‘but none of them boast of belonging to one of the first families of Mesopotamia. They want distinctions that are rarer than that. They get more pleasure from thinking their ancestors had seats in the Mayflower than from thinking they had seats in the Ark, though both voyages were what they call exclusive cruises.’ ‘And have they a special affection for the island of England?’ asked Lysis. ‘Why yes, most of the rich ones came originally from there,’ I said. ‘Well, why do they not buy it?’ he demanded. ‘Many think that will happen in time,’ I replied, ‘or at least that they will purchase all the surface to a depth of forty feet, for that is the earth upon which English history has happened, and that they will lay out the island in their western districts by Yellowstone Park, where there is plenty of room for it.’ ‘Is it true’ asked Phaelon, ‘that the English will be forced to sell, Socrates, and that they can only live at all by getting the Americans to come and look at their country?’ ‘I thought,’ said Agathon, ‘the English had a great many factories like the Americans.’