PREJUDICES THIRD SERIES By H. L. MENCKEN PUBLISHED AT THE BORZOI · NEW YORK · BY ALFRED · A. · KNOPF 1922 CONTENTS I ON BEING AN AMERICAN II HUNEKER: A MEMORY III FOOTNOTE ON CRITICISM IV DAS KAPITAL V AD IMAGINEM DEI CREAVIT ILLUM 1. The Life of Man 2. The Anthropomorphic Delusion 3. Meditation on Meditation 4. Man and His Soul 5. Coda VI STAR-SPANGLED MEN VII THE POET AND HIS ART VIII FIVE MEN AT RANDOM 1. Abraham Lincoln 2. Paul Elmer More 3. Madison Cawein 4. Frank Harris 5. Havelock Ellis IX THE NATURE OF LIBERTY X THE NOVEL XI THE FORWARD-LOOKER XII MEMORIAL SERVICE XIII EDUCATION XIV TYPES OF MEN 1. The Romantic 2. The Skeptic 3. The Believer 4. The Worker 5. The Physician 6. The Scientist 7. The Business Man 8. The King 9. The Average Man 10. The Truth-Seeker 11. The Pacifist 12. The Relative 13. The Friend XV THE DISMAL SCIENCE XVI MATTERS OF STATE 1. Le Contrat Social 2. On Minorities XVII REFLECTIONS ON THE DRAMA XVIII ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN 1. To Him That Hath 2. The Venerable Examined 3. Duty 4. Martyrs 5. The Disabled Veteran 6. Patriotism XIX SUITE AMÉRICAINE 1. Aspiration 2. Virtue 3. Eminence PREJUDICES: THIRD SERIES I. ON BEING AN AMERICAN 1 Apparently there are those who begin to find it disagreeable—nay, impossible. Their anguish fills the Liberal weeklies, and every ship that puts out from New York carries a groaning cargo of them, bound for Paris, London, Munich, Rome and way points—anywhere to escape the great curses and atrocities that make life intolerable for them at home. Let me say at once that I find little to cavil at in their basic complaints. In more than one direction, indeed, I probably go a great deal further than even the Young Intellectuals. It is, for example, one of my firmest and most sacred beliefs, reached after an inquiry extending over a score of years and supported by incessant prayer and meditation, that the government of the United States, in both its legislative arm and its executive arm, is ignorant, incompetent, corrupt, and disgusting—and from this judgment I except no more than twenty living lawmakers and no more than twenty executioners of their laws. It is a belief no less piously cherished that the administration of justice in the Republic is stupid, dishonest, and against all reason and equity—and from this judgment I except no more than thirty judges, including two upon the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is another that the foreign policy of the United States—its habitual manner of dealing with other nations, whether friend or foe—is hypocritical, disingenuous, knavish, and dishonorable—and from this judgment I consent to no exceptions whatever, either recent or long past.