Of one thing, at any rate, I am
certain, that I have spoken honestly and sincerely, from the
convictions of my mind, and the dictates of my heart. When I first
published my former writings, it was with no hope of gaining favour in
English eyes, for I little thought they were to become current out of
my own country: and had I merely sought popularity among my own
countrymen, I should have taken a more direct and obvious way, by
gratifying rather than rebuking the angry feelings that were then
prevalent against England.
And here let me acknowledge my warm, my thankful feelings, at the
effect produced by one of my trivial lucubrations. I allude to the
essay in the Sketch-Book, on the subject of the literary feuds between
England and America. I cannot express the heartfelt delight I have
experienced, at the unexpected sympathy and approbation with which
those remarks have been received on both sides of the Atlantic. I
speak this not from any paltry feelings of gratified vanity; for I
attribute the effect to no merit of my pen. The paper in question was
brief and casual, and the ideas it conveyed were simple and obvious.
"It was the cause: it was the cause" alone. There Vras a
predisposition on the part of my readers to be favourably affected.
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