"My Little Travellers"
a "Goodbye Letter" from the great
Arthur Mee. 1923©
GOODBYE TO THE BOOK OF MY HEART
Travellers through the world are we all, and you
and I have been companions once again in this
journey through the realms of knowledge.
Into the homes of millions of people this Book of
my Heart has gone since it begin with a little
child so long ago, and from a great multitude all
over the Earth has come to me the love that is more
precious than gold.. And now we come to the last
page of all. It is the time to say Good-bye to this
old friend, and to turn to something new.
Yet with a book, as with a friend, it is surely not
the sadness of farewell, for the spirit of a book
lives on forever. And for us this book actually
does live on, in My Magazine each month and in the
Children's Newspaper each week, for both have grown
out of it.
Out of the first Children's Encyclopaedia grew the
first Children's Newspaper, which goes to the ends
of the Earth. I can never forget that citizen of a
foreign land who on putting down his Children's
Newspaper, said,
"You can't help loving that country after reading
that paper."
So it is that this book goes on. It has been made
out of the hearts of men and women and it grows
into the hearts and lives of a great multitude. It
carries through the world those things that do not
die, those things without which life would not be
worth while.
It will go on in your own life, as long as you see
with these eyes and feel with these hands; and when
these eyes no longer see, and these hands no longer
feel, all that this book has meant to you will go
on working in the lives of those who remember you.
And after them, for ages after them, whatever is
good in this book will live.
Shall we let its last word breathe the spirit that
I like to feel is in it everywhere, the spirit of
goodwill to all mankind,, and the faith that,
whatever may betide us, nothing ill can happen to
those who put their trust in God? He is our Refuge
and our Strength, and underneath us are His
Everlasting Arms.
And so, little travellers, Good-bye, and God be
with us till our journey's end.
Arthur Mee.
Born in 1875, Arthur Mee died suddenly in May 1943,
following an operation.