To a mind thus peculiarly
prepared, the most ordinary objects and scenes, on arriving in Europe,
are full of strange matter, and interesting novelty. England is as
classic ground to an American, as Italy is to an Englishman; and Old
London teems with as much historical association as mighty Rome."
There is, also, great amiability in the concluding paragraph:--"I have
always had an opinion, that much good might be done by keeping mankind
in good humour with one another. I may be wrong in my philosophy; but
I shall continue to practise it until convinced of its fallacy. When I
discover the world to be all that it has been represented by sneering
cynics and whining poets, I will turn to and abuse it also; in the
meanwhile, worthy reader, I hope you will not think lightly of me,
because I cannot believe this to be so very bad a world as it is
represented."
Soon after the publication of Bracebridge Hall, Mr. Irving left this
country, where he had passed two years with literary and pecuniary
advantage. He quitted England with a pathetic farewell; declaring that
if, as he is accused, he views it with a partial eye, he shall never
forget that it is his "fatherland." On the consanguinity of England
and America too, and the cultivation of good feeling between them, he
thus touchingly expresses himself in Bracebridge Hall: "We ask nothing
from abroad that we cannot reciprocate. But with respect to England,
we have a warm feeling of the heart, the glow of consanguinity
that still lingers in our blood.
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