ADDRESS TO THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

OF ARTS AND LETTERS

By Sir Frederic Kenyon

It is a great privilege for me to be allowed to address
the American Academy of Arts and Letters as the repre-
sentative of the kindred institution in England, the British
Academy. You will not accuse me of affectation or false
modesty when I say that I could wish that our Academy
were represented on this occasion by either my predecessor
or my successor in the Presidential chair; for I was
preceded by Lord Bryce and succeeded by Lord Balfour.
I think you wiU bear me out when I express my belief
that no two recent British statesmen stand higher in the
respect of Americans. It is unnecessary for me to dwell
upon their merits. Lord Bryce you have probably all
known and heard; at once the much-travelled Ulysses,
with knowledge and wisdom drawn from a thousand
sources, and the Nestor of our time, who had known
three generations of men and was a king among the
fourth; who combined the wisdom of age with the alert-
ness of youth, and who was always ready to place his
great gifts at the service of any good cause. Lord Bal-
four you have seen less, but you know his great record;
and it was no surprise to us to hear, when he visited
America in the service of his country, that you recognized
his gifts of character and intellect, and welcomed in him
a representative of British statesmanship at its very best.
His courage in action, his independence and distinction in
thought, give him a position unrivalled by that of any
other statesman of our time; and you will readily be-
lieve how proud we are to have him as our President.

I wish indeed that either of them could have been here
to speak to you. You know what interest Lord Bryce
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