But coming young from lands and scenes romantic,

Where lives, not lawsuits, must be risked for Passion

And Passion's self must have a spice of frantic,

Into a country where 't is half a fashion,

Seemed to him half commercial, half pedantic,

Howe'er he might esteem this moral nation:

Besides (alas! his taste—forgive and pity!)

At first he did not think the women pretty.