Bracebridge Hall, or The HumoristsIrving, Washington
General
Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists
Irving, Washington
England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; National characteristics, English -- Fiction
To the magnanimous spirits of both countries must we trust to carry
such a natural alliance of affection into full effect. To pens more
powerful than mine, I leave the noble task of promoting the cause of
national amity. To the intelligent and enlightened of my own country,
I address my parting voice, entreating them to show themselves
superior to the petty attacks of the ignorant and the worthless, and
still to look with dispassionate and philosophic eye to the moral
character of England, as the intellectual source of our rising
greatness; while I appeal to every generous-minded Englishman from the
slanders which disgrace the press, insult the understanding, and belie
the magnanimity of his country: and I invite him to look to America,
as to a kindred nation, worthy of its origin; giving, in the healthy
vigour of its growth, the best of comments on its parent stock; and
reflecting, in the dawning brightness of its fame, the moral
effulgence of British glory.
I am sure that such an appeal will not be made in vain. Indeed, I have
noticed, for some time past, an essential change in English sentiment
with regard to Amerioar. In parliament, that fountain-head of public
opinion, there seems to be an emulation, on both sides of the house,
in holding the language of courtesy and friendship. The same spirit is
daily becoming more and more prevalent in good society. There is a
growing curiosity concerning my country; a craving desire for correct
information, that cannot fail to lead to a favourable understanding.
The scoffer, I trust, has had his day; the time of the slanderer is
gone by; the ribald jokes, the stale commonplaces, which have so long
passed current when America was the theme, are now banished to the
ignorant and the vulgar, or only perpetuated by the hireling
scribblers and traditional jesters of the press. The intelligent and
high-minded now pride themselves upon making America a study.
But however my feelings may be understood or reciprocated on either
side of the Atlantic, I utter them without reserve, for I have ever
found that to speak frankly is to speak safely. I am not so sanguine
as to believe that the two nations are ever to be bound together by
any romantic ties of feeling; but I believe that much may be done
towards keeping alive cordial sentiments, were every well-disposed
mind occasionally to throw in a simple word of kindness. If I have,
indeed, produced any such effect by my writings, it will be a soothing
reflection to me, that for once, in the course of a rather negligent
life, I have been useful; that for once, by the casual exercise of a
pen which has been in general but too unprofitably employed, I have
awakened a cord of sympathy between the land of my fathers and the
dear land that gave me birth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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