Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After-Dinner Speeches E-O
General
Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After-Dinner Speeches E-O
Speeches, addresses, etc.
It seems to me that those who take such a view quite miscalculate the
force of the affection that a man feels for his country. It is something
deeper than a sentiment. If there were anything deeper, I should say it
was something deeper than an instinct. It is that feeling of
self-renunciation and of identification with another which Ruth
expressed when she said: "Entreat me not to leave thee nor to depart
from following after thee, for whither thou goest I will go: where thou
livest I will live, and where thou diest there will I die also." That,
it seems to me, is the instinctive feeling that a man has. At the same
time, this does not exclude the having clear eyes to see the faults of
one's country. I think that, as an old President of Harvard College said
once to a person who was remonstrating with him: "But charity, doctor,
charity." "Yes, I know; but charity has eyes and ears and won't be made
a fool of." [Laughter.]
I notice a good many changes in coming home, a few of which I may,
perhaps, be allowed to touch upon. I notice a great growth in luxury,
inevitable, I suppose, and which may have good in it--more good,
perhaps, than I can see. I notice, also, one change that has impressed
me profoundly, and when I hear that New England is drawing away, I
cannot help thinking to myself how much more prosperous the farms look
than they did when I was young; how much more neat is the farming, how
much greater the attention to what will please the eye about the farm,
as the planting of flowers and trimming the grass, which seems to me a
very good sign. I had an opportunity, by a strange accident, of becoming
very intimate with the outward appearance of New England during my youth
by going about when a little boy with my father when he went on
exchanges. He always went in his own vehicle, and he sometimes drove as
far west as Northampton. I do not wish to detain you on this point,
except as it interested me and is now first in my mind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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