me, 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.

In the spirit of these sentiments, I now take my farewell of the
paternal soil. With anxious eye do I behold the clouds of doubt and
difficulty that are lowering over it, and earnestly do I hope that
they may all clear up into serene and settled sunshine. In bidding
this last adieu, my heart is filled with fond, yet melancholy
emotions; and still I linger, and still, like a child leaving the
venerable abodes of his forefathers, I turn to breathe forth a filial
benediction: Peace be within thy walls, O England! and plenteousness
within thy palaces; for my brethren and my companions' sake I will now
say, Peace be within thee!

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists
by Washington Irving

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