Farewell Reading, New York
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Ladies and gentlemen, The shadow of one word has impended over me all this evening, and the time has come at length when the shadow must fall. It is but a very short one, but the weight of such things is not measurable by their length, and two much shorter words express the round of our human existence. When I was reading David Copperfield here last Thursday night, I felt there was more than usual significance for me in Mr. Peggotty’s declaration, ‘My future life lies over the sea.’ And when I closed this book just now, I felt most keenly that I was shortly to establish such an alibi as would have satisfied even the elder Mr. Weller.
The relations which have been set up between us in this place – relations sustained, on my side at least, by the most earnest devotion of myself to my task: sustained by yourself, on your side, by the readiest sympathy and kindest acknowledgement – must now be broken, for ever. But I entreat you to believe that in passing from my sight, you will not pass from my memory. I shall often, often recall you as I see you now, equally by my winter fire and in the green English summer weather. I shall never recall you as a mere public audience, but rather as a host of personal friends, and ever with the greatest gratitude, tenderness, and consideration. Ladies and gentlemen, I beg to bid you farewell – and I pray God bless you, and God bless the land in which I leave you.