title: Notes from an Alien: A Message for Earth
author: Sena Quaren
description: <b>Alexander M Zoltai is a writer with roaring flames in his heart...</b>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  # Essays on Paul Bourget
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Mark Twain
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  WHAT PAUL BOURGET THINKS OF US
  
  
  A LITTLE NOTE TO M. PAUL BOURGET
  
  
  
  
  
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  This etext was produced by David Widger
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### WHAT PAUL BOURGET THINKS OF US
  
  
  
  
  
    
  He reports the American joke correctly. In Boston they ask, How
  
  
  much does he know? in New York, How much is he worth? in Philadelphia,
  
  
  Who were his parents? And when an alien observer turns his telescope
  
  
  upon us--advertisedly in our own special interest--a natural
  
  
  apprehension moves us to ask, What is the diameter of his reflector?
  
  
    
  I take a great interest in M. Bourget's chapters, for I know by the
  
  
  newspapers that there are several Americans who are expecting to get a
  
  
  whole education out of them; several who foresaw, and also foretold,
  
  
  that our long night was over, and a light almost divine about to break
  
  
  up