In a note on //The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî,// Burton quotes these words: "There's nothing new, and there's nothing true, and it don't signify." And then he attributes them to "the American."

I suppose Burton's readers in the 1880s knew which American he was talking about, but I don't.

If anyone knows -- or if you have a strong hunch -- please contact me directly at mbock@harrywinston.com. (I will try to check on this page again, but I am casting a wide net and would appreciate an email from you.)

Thank you very much

I believe "the American" that Burton refers to is in the general sense.
The passage in question in its entirety follows:

{p. 80}

X., and it was the age of the Pyramids, at once simple, solid, and grand. When the praiser of the Past contends that modem civilization has improved in nothing upon Homer and Herodotus, he is apt to forget that every schoolboy is a miracle of learning compared with the Cave-man and the palæolithic race. And, as the Past has been, so shall the Future be.

The Pilgrim's view of life is that of the Soofi, with the usual dash of Buddhistic pessimism. The profound sorrow of existence, so often sung by the dreamy Eastern poet, has now passed into the practical European mind. Even the light Frenchman murmurs,--

Moi, moi, chaque jour courbant plus has ma tête
Je passe--et refroidi sous ce soleil joyeux,
Je m'en irai bientôt, au milieu de la fete,
Sans que rien manque au monde immense et radieux.

But our Hâjî is not Nihilistic in the "no-nothing" sense of Hood's poem, or, as the American phrases it, "There is nothing new, nothing true, and it don't signify." His is a healthy wail over the shortness, and the miseries of life, because he finds all created things--

Measure the world, with "Me" immense.

So just as Burton refers to the "dreamy Eastern poet...the practical European" and the "light Frenchman", he refers to "the American" in the general sense.