When foreigners speak slightingly of the country they happen to be in,
and praise their own, it shews in them a want of good sense and good
breeding. It is indeed natural to have an affection for one’s native
land, nor can we help preferring it to every other; but to express this
in another country, to people whose opinion it must needs contradict,
by the same rule that it is conformable to our own, cannot fail of
giving them just offence. It matters not how highly some particular
countries may stand in the estimation of the rest of the world: this
has little to do with private individuals; the advantage of having
been born in one of those favoured countries, is accidental, and no
man ought to be esteemed merely on that account. In order to merit the
respect of virtuous and wise men in every foreign land, it must appear
to them that by our talents, our acquirements, and our patriotism, we
do credit to the country which gave us birth.
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