“I would only add, Mr. President, one other thing, and it is this, that
while the good will between the old country and yours can be maintained
and is going to be maintained by honorable international agreement, we
are encouraged to cherish the hope that the two nations will be bound
more and more closely together, until at last the day comes when from
Washington to London may go forth a voice on the great international
question of righteousness that no nation will dare to pass by.
(Applause.) While that can only be secured, and is being secured by the
agreement of eminent statesmen, yet surely, gentlemen, the coming and
going of individuals treated kindly and hospitably after a most friendly
fashion on this side, and I trust also treated after the same fashion
on the other side, will weave together many bonds that will not only
unite men of letters and men of grammars, but will also unite our two
great nations with silken cords that can never be broken. (Applause.)”
The speech by William Winter which followed Dr. Watson’s on this
occasion is also well worth being recorded here nearly in full. He said:
“You, my hearers, fortunate children of the lotos flower, have had the
singular happiness to come into personal communion with some of the
foremost men of your time, whether in action or in thought; with Froude,
who depicted so royally the pageantry and pathos of the past; with
Grant, who led so superbly the warrior legions of the present; with Mark
Twain, the best of modern humorists; with Irving, the prince of actors,
and with many more. I need not name them. You will recall them, you will
remember them all with deep affection; and I am sure you will agree with
me that in every case when the generous heart has paid its homage to a
great man, the impulse is not that of adulation, but that of gratitude.
(Applause.)
“Such is the feeling of this hour when now you are assembled to pay
honor to the finest literary artist in the art of mingled humor and
pathos that has come into literature since Sir Walter Scott. (Applause.)
“There are two canons of criticism to which I have fixed my
allegiance--that it is always better to show mankind the things which
are to be imitated, rather than the things which are to be avoided; and
since the moral quality is present in everything, whether as morality or
immorality, penetrating all subjects and everything that can be
imagined, no work of art should have any avowed and fixed moral. Those
principles are imitated in the writings of Dr. Watson. He has himself
told you that it is impossible to analyze a spiritual fact. We all know
that his race are noble in their influence, that they have exerted a
noble influence upon society. We do not know the secret of his charm. I
cannot tell it to you; I wish I could. I think perhaps it is that same
inaccessible magic which I find in ‘King Lear,’ which I find in the
death speech of Brutus:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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