Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z
History
Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z
Speeches, addresses, etc.
You may remember Wordsworth's fine lines on "Yarrow Unvisited," "Yarrow
Visited," and "Yarrow Revisited." "America Unvisited"--that is now for
me a vision of the past; that fabulous America, in which, before they
come to your shores, Englishmen believe Pennsylvania to be the capital
of Massachusetts, and Chicago to be a few miles from New York--that has
now passed away from my mind forever. "America Visited"; this, with its
historic scenes and its endless suggestions of thought, has taken the
place of that fictitious region. Whether there will ever be an "America
Revisited" I cannot say; but if there should be, it will then be to me
not the land of the Pilgrim Fathers and Washington, so much as the land
of kindly homes, and enduring friendships, and happy recollections,
which have now endeared it to me. One feature of this visit I fear I
cannot hope to see repeated, yet one without which it could never have
been accomplished. My two friends, to whom such a pleasing reference has
been made by Dr. Adams, who have made the task easy for me which else
would have been impossible; who have lightened every anxiety; who have
watched over me with such vigilant care that I have not been allowed to
touch more than two dollars in the whole course of my journey--they,
perchance, may not share in "America Revisited." But if ever such should
be my own good fortune, I shall remember it as the land which I visited
with them; where, if at first they were welcomed to your homes for my
sake, I have often felt as the days rolled on that I was welcomed for
their sake. And you will remember them. When in after years you read at
the end of some elaborate essay on the history of music or on Biblical
geography the name of George Grove, you will recall with pleasure the
incessant questionings, the eager desire for knowledge, the wide and
varied capacity for all manner of instruction, which you experienced in
your conversations with him here. And when also hereafter there shall
reach to your shores the fame of the distinguished physician, Dr.
Harper, whether in England or in New Zealand, you will be the more
rejoiced because it will bring before you the memory of the youthful and
blooming student who inspected your hospitals with such keen
appreciation, so impartially sifting the good from the evil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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