it is also said in the same sentence, "Give thy thoughts
no tongue." [Laughter.] And gladly, had it been possible, would I have
obeyed that wise injunction to-night. [Renewed laughter.]

The actor is profoundly influenced by precedent, and I cannot forget
that many of my predecessors have been nerved by farewell banquets for
the honor which awaited them on the other side of the Atlantic; but this
occasion I regard as much more than a compliment to myself: I regard it
as a tribute to the art which I am proud to serve and I believe that
feeling will be shared by the profession to which you have assembled to
do honor. [Cheers.] The time has long gone by when there was any need to
apologize for the actor's calling. ["Hear! Hear!"] The world can no
more exist without the drama than it can without its sister art, music.
The stage gives the readiest response to the demand of human nature to
be transported out of itself into the realms of the ideal--not that all
our ideals on the stage are realized--none but the artist knows how
immeasurably he may fall short of his aim or his conception,--but to
have an ideal in art and to strive through one's life to embody it, may
be a passion to the actor as it may be to the poet.

Your lordship has spoken most eloquently of my career. Possessed of a
generous mind and a high judicial faculty, your lordship has been
to-night, I fear, more generous than judicial. But if I have in any way
deserved commendation, I am proud that it was as an actor that I won it.
As the director of a theatre my experience has been short, but as an
actor I have been before the London public for seventeen years; and on
one thing I am sure you will all agree--that no actor or manager has
ever received from that public more generous and ungrudging
encouragement and support. [Cheers.]

Concerning our visit to America, I need hardly say that I am looking
forward to it with no common pleasure. It has often been an ambition
with English actors to gain the good-will of the English-speaking race,
a good-will which is right heartily reciprocated towards our American
fellow-workers, when they gratify us by sojourning here. Your God-speed
would alone assure me a hearty welcome in any land. But I am not going
amongst strangers; I am going amongst friends, and when I, for the first
time, touch American ground, I shall receive many a grip of the hand
from men whose friendship I am proud to possess. [Cheers.] Concerning
our exp