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MARK TWAIN SPEAKING 83 representing the United States ofAmerica. On that side ofthe Atlantic there are 40,000,000 of people. They may be respectable, and I will say in conclusion that I do hope "A brother American" will soon cease to be simply a phrase meaning, but will by and by become a reality, when Great Britain and the citizens of America will be brethren indeed. Text / "Mark Twain as a Scotchman," Lafayette, Indiana, Courier, January 14, 1874.· 20 · After two lecture engagements in Liverpool in January 1874, Mark Twain sailed for home, and this time he remained there for a while. When Charles Kingsley came overfor a lecture tour soon after, Mark Twain was delighted to introduce him to a Salem audience, also to entertain him and his wifefor several days at the Clemens home in Hartford. Livy thought that the visitor was "a most wonderful man," and Mark Twain, too, admired his gentle character, but he was not enthusiastic about Kinglsey's novels. Introducing the Reverend Charles Kingsley Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, ca. February 14,1874 Ladies and gentlemen: I am here to introduce Mr. Charles Kingsley, the lecturer of the evening, and I take occasion to observe than when I wrote the book called Innocents Abroad I thought it was a volume which would bring me at once into intimate relation with the clergy. But I could bring evidence to show that from that day to this, this is the first time that I have ever been called upon to perform this pleasant office ofvouching for a clergyman and give him a good unbiased start before an audience. Now that my opportunity has come at last, I am appointed to introduce a clergyman who needs no introduction to America. 84 MARK TWAIN SPEAKING And although I haven't been requested by the committee to endorse him, I volunteer that, because I think it is a graceful thing to do; and it is all the more graceful from being so unnecessary. But the most unnecessary thing I could do in introducing the Rev. Charles Kingsley would be to sound his praises to you, who have read his books and know his high merits as well as I possibly can, so I waive all that and simply say that in welcoming him cordially to this land of ours, I believe that I utter a sentiment which would go nigh to surprising him or possibly to deafen him, if I could concentrate in my voice the utterance of all those in America who feel that sentiment. And I am glad to say that this kindly feeling toward Mr. Kingsley is not wasted, for his heart is with America, and when he is in his own home the latchstring hangs on the outside of the door, for us. I know this from personal experience; perhaps that is why it has not been considered unfitting that I should perform this office in which I am now engaged. Now for a year, for more than a year, I have been enjoying the hearty hospitality ofEnglish friends in England, and this is a hospitality which is growing wider and freer every day toward our countrymen. I was treated so well there, so undeservedly well, that I should always be glad of an opportunity to extend to Englishmen the good offices of our people; and I do hope that the good feeling, the growing good feeling , between the old mother country and her strong, aspiring child will continue to extend until it shall exist over the whole great area of both nations. I have the honor to introduce to you the Rev. Charles Kingsley . Text / Eloquence(R), 5:691-92. The text is misdated and the occasion incorrectly identified. Charles Kingsley / (1819--75). British clergyman and writer. Canon of Westminster, Cambridge professor, and Christian Socialist, he was a writer ofimaginative literature and ofvigorous polemics against the Oxford Movement. He is best known for his novels of social import and adventure, among which are: Alton Locke (1850),Hypatia (1853), and Westward Ho! (1855). his high merits / The irony here is that Mark Twain found no merit. His only comment on Kingsley as a novelist is a remark in a letter to Livy in 1869, LLMT: 126, "Twichell gave me one of Kingsley's most tiresomest books-Hypatia-and I have tried to read it and can't. I'll try no more." ...

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