Some will think I might have said
much more on such subjects as may suit their peculiar tastes; whilst
others will think I had done wiser to have left those subjects
entirely alone.
It will probably be said, too, by some, that I view England with a
partial eye. Perhaps I do; for I can never forget that it is my
"father land." And yet, the circumstances under which I have viewed it
have by no means been such as were calculated to produce favourable
impressions. For the greater part of the time that I have resided in
it, I have lived almost unknowing and unknown; seeking no favours, and
receiving none: "a stranger and a sojourner in the land," and subject
to all the chills and neglects that are the common lot of the
stranger.
When I consider these circumstances, and recollect how often I have
taken up my pen, with a mind ill at ease, and spirits much dejected
and cast down, I cannot but think I was not likely to err on the
favourable side of the picture. The opinions I have given of English
character have been the result of much quiet, dispassionate, and
varied observation. It is a character not to be hastily studied, for
it always puts on a repulsive and ungracious aspect to a stranger. Let
those, then, who condemn my representations as too favourable, observe
this people as closely and deliberately as I have done, and they will,
probably, change their opinion.
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