Read more
Excerpt from Transatlantic Traits: Essays
How often, too, have I not seen some lonely peasant mount a headland cliff and wistfully strain his eyes across the old sea,' as he ponders in silence and sadness on the unknown fortunes of his emigrant children! For America is, and has been for many years, the tir-nan-ogue of the Irish peasantry, though one realized in a more tangible and sordid way than even their unenlightened imagination would picture an 'earthly paradise,' since, however ignorant they may be, they are seldom gross or material in their ideas. On the contrary, a fault, if it is one, lies in the fact that their grasp even of this world's affairs is too visionary and unpractical. Their view of life is, indeed, strangely spiritual and mystical. Considering in how niggardly and precarious a manner the bare necessities of existence have been given to them, they are heroically indifferent to material results and prospects, so that America is, truly, a rather vulgar realization of their romantic wishes and expectations.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
