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Cornell University Library 
 PS 92.S59 
 
 A student's history of American llteratu 
 
 3 1924 022 058 444 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
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 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022058444 
 
J\y{/l/a/€^ S-u-j-^p^ >-Vi-».^ ^iiw-v..^ L^4L<a^ecW^^^:5^7-s^ 
 
STUDENT'S HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 AMEKICAN LITERATURE 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM EDWARD SIMONDS Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of English Literature in Knox College, 
 
 Author of "^ Student's History of 
 
 English Literature " 
 
 
 BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY WILLIAM EDWARD SIMONDS 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
PEEPACE 
 
 In the preparation of this book, the author has fol- 
 lowed in the main the principles embodied in A Stu- 
 dents History of English Literature, published in 
 1902 ; less reference has been made, however, to the 
 historical setting — it being assumed that the student 
 is well acquainted with the history of his own country. 
 
 The author has tried to present the story with di- 
 rectness, omitting what seemed unessential or of minor 
 importance, avoiding the technical both in criticism 
 and in vocabulary, and attempting in the arrangement 
 of material to find a plan as simple and clear as pos- 
 sible. Believing most emphatically that a course in the 
 history of our literature should in no degree supplant 
 the study of its masterpieces, but contribute rather to 
 the enjoyment and correct appreciation of them, he has 
 sought not only to interest his readers in the personal 
 narratives of men and women who have created our 
 literature, — and are still creating it, — but, through 
 the suggestions for study or reading, also to encourage 
 actual acquaintance with the works that compose that 
 literature. 
 
 Many of the reference books mentioned in the text 
 will be of more value to the teacher than to the pupil ; 
 and the experienced instructor will make napre fre- 
 quent use of illustration than of critical comment. It 
 would be gratifying if our principal authors were re- 
 presented in every school library, and if one such au- 
 thor could be read entire by each student in the course. 
 At all events, the library habit should be cultivated and 
 
iv PREFACE 
 
 the search for illustrative selections encouraged. Sted- 
 man and Hutchinson's Library of American Litera- 
 ture, Stedman's An American Anthology, and similar 
 collections are of the greatest value. Whitcomb's 
 Chronological Outlives of American Literature can 
 be used to excellent advantage in noting the produc- 
 tions of specific years. The current volume of Who 's 
 Who in America is our one reliable source of infor- 
 mation concerning living writers. Especially to be com- 
 mended are The Chief American Poets and American 
 Songs and Lyrics, both edited by Curtis Hidden Page ; 
 the former book, .which contains in a single volume 
 the great body of our best American verse, ought to 
 be in continuous use throughout the course. 
 
 Finally, let no teacher of American literature con- 
 sider it a part of his professional duty to depreciate or 
 deprecate the work of our American writers. It re- 
 presents a substantial and respectable achievement ; it 
 may well inspire a reasonable patriotic pride in the 
 minds of our youth ; it is, at the present time, as full 
 of promise for literary art in the future as is the na- 
 tional literature of any land. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. Early Colonial Literature. 1607-1700 
 
 I. The English in Yirg^ia 1 
 
 11. Pilgrims and Puritans in New England 11 
 
 ni. The New England Clergy 20 
 
 rV. Puritan Poetry in New England 32 
 
 II. The Eighteenth Century 
 
 I. The First Half of the Century 44 
 
 II. Benjamin Franklin : 1706-1790 52 
 
 III. The Second Half of the Century 65 
 
 IV. Poetry of the Revolution 71 
 
 V. The Close of the Century 80 
 
 HI. The Beginning of the NnfBTKBNTH Century 
 
 I. The New Literature : The Knickerbocker Gkoup . 94 
 IL Washington Irving: 1783-1859 104 
 
 III. James Fenimore Cooper : 1789-1851 119 
 
 IV. William Cullen Bryant : 1794r-1878 128 
 
 IV. Philosophy and Romance 
 
 I. The Literary Development of New England . . . 149 
 
 II. Ralph Waldo Emerson : 1803-1882 157 
 
 in. Henry D.Thoreau: 1817-1862 177 
 
 rV. Nathaniel Hawthorne : 1804-1864 183 
 
 V. Edgar AUan Poe : 1809-1849 200 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 V. The New England Poets 
 
 I. Henry WadsworthLongfeUow: 1807-1882 . . .217 
 
 II. John GreenleafWMttier: 1807-1892 234 
 
 ni. James Russell Lowell : 1819-1891 253 
 
 IV. OUver WendeU Holmes : 1809-1894 267 
 
 VI. GeNEBAI. LlTBBAKT DEVELOPMENT 
 
 I. The Historians .... 279 
 
 n. Oratois and Statesmen 286 
 
 in. Writers of Pennsylvania and New York .... 290 
 
 IV. Novelists and Humorists 302 
 
 V. Poetry, South and North 310 
 
 Vn. Recent Yeabb 
 
 I. Scholars and Essayists . . 326 
 
 n. Poets of this Generation 329 
 
 m. Contemporary Fiction 335 
 
 Index 359 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Thb Chief Ambeican Poets Frontispiece 
 
 Title-Page of John Smith's "Teub Relation" .... 5 
 
 Title-Paqe of Anne Bbadstreet's Book 37 
 
 Franklin's " Poor Eichard's Almanac " 59 
 
 New York City in 1801 96 
 
 Yale College in 1807 121 
 
 An Early View of Williams College 131 
 
 The Central Part op Concord in 1837 163 
 
 A View in Salem about 1840 185 
 
 The University op Virginia about 1830 203 
 
 BowDOiN College in 1820 219 
 
 Whittier's Birthplace, East Haverhill, Mass 235 
 
 Harvard College about 1840 255 
 
 Boston Common about 1860 275 
 
 Dartmouth College in 1804 287 
 
 The view of Whittier's birthplace is redrawn from a recent photograph. The 
 other views are from contemporary engravings. 
 
A STUDENT'S HISTORY OF 
 AMERICAN LITERATURE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE. 1607-1700 
 
 I. The English in Virginia. 
 II. Pilgrims and Puritans in New England. 
 
 III. The New England Clergy. 
 
 IV. iPuritau Poetry in Ne^r England. 
 
 I. THE ENGLISH IN VIRGINIA: CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, 
 WILLIAM STEACHEY, GEORGE SANDYS. 
 
 The story of a nation's literature ordinarily has its 
 beginning far back in the remoter history of that na- 
 tion, obscured by the uncertainties of an age of which 
 no trustworthy records have been preserved. The ear- 
 liest writings of a people are usually the first efforts at 
 literary production of a race in its childhood ; and as 
 these compositions develop they record the intellectual 
 and artistic growth of the race. The conditions which 
 attended the development of literature in America, 
 therefore, are peculiar. At the very time when Sir 
 Walter Ealeigh — a type of the great and splendid 
 men of action who made such glorious history for Eng- 
 land in the days of Elizabeth — was organizing the 
 first futile efforts to colonize the new world, English 
 Literature, which is the joint possession of the whole 
 English-speaking race, was rapidly developing. Sir 
 
2 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 Philip Sidney had written his Arcadia, &vst of the 
 great prose romances, and enriched English poetry 
 with his sonnets ; Edmund Spenser had composed The 
 Shepherd's Calendar; Christopher Marlowe had estab- 
 lished the drama upon heroic lines ; and Shakespeare 
 had just entered on the first flights of his fancy. When, 
 in 1606, King James granted to a company of Lon- 
 don merchants the first charter of Virginia, Sidney 
 and Spenser and Marlowe were dead, Shakespeare had 
 produced some of his greatest plays, the name of Ben 
 Jonson, along with other notable names, had been 
 added to the list of our great dramatists, and the 
 philosopher, Francis Bacon, had published the first of 
 his essays. These are the familiar names which repre- 
 sent the climax of literary achievement in the Eliza- 
 bethan age; and this brilliant epoch had reached its 
 full height when the first permanent English settle- 
 ment in America was made at Jamestown in 1607. 
 On New Year's day, the little fleet commanded by 
 Captain Newport sailed forth on its venturesome and 
 romantic enterprise, the significance of which was not 
 altogether unsuspected by those who saw it depart. 
 Michael Drayton, one of the most popular poets of his 
 day, later poet laureate of the kingdom, sang in quaint, 
 prophetic verses a cheery farewell : — 
 
 " You brave heroic minds, 
 Worthy your country's name, 
 
 That honor still pursue, 
 
 6o and subdue, 
 Whilst loitering hinds 
 Lurk here at home with shame. 
 
 ** And in re^ons farre. 
 Such heroes bring ye forth 
 
 As those from whom we came ; 
 
 And plant our name 
 Under that star 
 Not known unto our north. 
 
JOHN SMITH 3 
 
 "And as there plenty grows 
 Of laurel everywhere, 
 
 Apollo's sacred tree, 
 
 Yon it may see, 
 A poet's brows 
 To crown, that may sing there." 
 
 This little band of adventurers " in regions farre " 
 disembarked from the ships Discovery, Good 
 Speed, and Susan Constant upon the site of viiginu 
 a town yet to be built, fifty miles inland, on '"'"'°'' 
 the shore of a stream as yet unexplored, in the heart 
 of a vast green wilderness the home of savage tribes 
 who were none too, friendly. It was hardly to be ex- 
 pected that the ripe seeds of literary culture should be 
 found in such a company, or should germinate under 
 such conditions in any notable luxuriance. The surpris- 
 ing fact, however, is that in this group of gentlemen 
 adventurers there was one man of some literary crafty 
 who, while leading the most strenuous life of all, effi- 
 ciently protecting and heartening his less courageous 
 comrades in all manner of perilous experiences, com- 
 piled and wrote with much literary skill the picturesque 
 chronicles of the settlement. 
 
 Captain John Smith, the mainstay of the Jamestown 
 colony in the critical period of its early exist- j^^ai smitii, 
 ence, was a true soldier of fortune, venturesome, 1680-1631. 
 resolute, self-reliant, resourceful ; withal a man of great 
 good sense, and with the grasp on circumstances which 
 belongs to the man of power. His life since leaving his 
 home on a Lincolnshire farm at sixteen years of age, 
 had been replete with romantic adventure. He had been 
 a soldier in the French army and had served in that of 
 Holland. He had wandered through Italy and Greece 
 into the countries of eastern Europe, and had lived for 
 a year in Turkey and Tartary. He had been in Sussia, 
 in Germany, in Spain, and in Africa, and was familiar 
 
4 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 with the islands of the Mediterranean and those of the 
 eastern Atlantic. Smith afterward wrote a narrative of 
 his singularly full and adventurous life, not sparing, 
 apparently, the embellishment which in his time seems 
 to have been reckoned a natural feature of narrative 
 art. The honesty of his statements has been doubted, 
 perhaps to the point of injustice ; and at the present 
 time a reaction is to be seen which presents the writ- 
 ings of the sturdy old adventurer in a more favorable 
 light.' 
 
 It was natural enough that such a daring rover should 
 catch the spirit of enthusiasm with which the explora- 
 tion and settlement of the New World had inflamed Eng- 
 lishmen of his time and type. And it was a recognition 
 of his experience and practical sagacity which led to his 
 appointment as a member of the Council at the head of 
 affairs in the Jamestown colony. 
 
 In so far as the literary accomplishments of Captain 
 The True John Smith have any immediate connection 
 ReiaUen. ^ith American history, our interest centres 
 npon his True Relation of such occurrences and ac- 
 cidents of noate as hath hapned in Virginia since 
 the first planting of that Collony, which is now resi- 
 dent in the South part thereof, till the last returne 
 from thence (London, 1608). Smith's writings are 
 plain, blunt narratives, which please by their rough 
 vigor and the breezy picturesqueness of his rugged, un- 
 affected style. Hardly to be accounted literature except 
 by way of compliment, the True Relation is not un- 
 worthy of its place in our literary record as the first 
 English book produced in America. It supplies our 
 earliest chronicle of the perils and hardships of our 
 
 ^ For a full account of Smith's career and a discussion of the au- 
 thenticity of his claims, read John Fiske's Old Virginia and her Neigh- 
 bovrs, vol. i. 
 
T R V E RE 
 
 lation of (uch occur- 
 rences and accidents of noateas 
 
 halh hapned in Virginia fince the firft 
 plantingofthatCoUony, which is now 
 r efident in the South part thereof, till 
 the Jafl; returne from 
 thence. 
 Writte/tbyCaftAineSmkh one ofthefktd Cottony, to a 
 Tvorjhiffulltrkndoihis in England, 
 
 £ 2^D O 5^ 
 Primedfor/<7)&c Taffe-, and aretobeefolde attheGrcy= 
 hound in Paules Church yard byh^.tV. 
 I 6 o 8 
 
 TITLE-PAGE OP JOHN SMITH'S "TRUE RELATION" 
 (Reduced) 
 
6 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 American pioneers. The romantic story of Pocahontas 
 is found in its pages, briefly recounted by the writer in 
 terms which hardly warrant its dismissal as a myth ; 
 and many another thrilling incident of that distressing 
 struggle with the wilderness which makes a genuine 
 appeal to the reader now, as it undoubtedly did to the 
 kinsmen of the colonists in England for whom the book 
 was originally prepared. 
 
 Smith was the author of several other narrative and 
 otiierwrit- descriptive pamphlets in which he recounted 
 '^'' the early history of the colonies at Plym- 
 
 outh and on Massachusetts Bay. Indeed, it was the 
 redoubtable Captain who first gave to that part of 
 the country the name New England; and to "the little 
 harbor on Cape Cod, before the coming of the Puri- 
 tans, Smith had already given the name of Plymouth. 
 In 1624, he published A General History of Virginia, 
 a compilation edited in England from the reports of 
 various writers. 
 
 Another interesting chronicle of this perilous time 
 wiuiam ^*® written in the summer of 1610 by a gen- 
 straohoy, H. tlcmau recently arrived at Jamestown after a 
 ■ stormy and eventful voyage. This vivid nar- 
 rative, called A true Meportory of the wracke and 
 redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, knight, upon and 
 from the Hands of the Bermudas, his. coming to Vir- 
 ginia, and the estate of that colony, was written by 
 William Strachey, of whose personality little is known. 
 The tremendous picture of shipwreck and disaster is 
 presented in a masterly style. 
 
 "The clouds gathering thick upon us, and the winds 
 singing and whistling most unusually, ... a dreadful storm 
 and hideous began to blow from out the Northeast, which 
 swelling and roaring as it were by fits, some hours with 
 more violence than others, at length did beat all light from 
 
WILLIAM STRACHEY 7 
 
 heaven, which like an hell of darkness, turned black upon 
 us. . . . 
 
 " Prayers might well be in the heart and lips, but drowned 
 in the outcries of the Officers, — nothing heard that could 
 give comfort, nothing seen that might encourage hope. . . . 
 
 " The sea swelled above the Clouds and gave battle unto 
 heaven. 
 
 " Sir George Summers being upon the watch, had an ap- 
 parition of a little round light, like a faint star, trembling 
 and streaming along with a sparkling blaze, half the height 
 from the mainmast, and shooting sometimes from shroud to 
 shroud, tempting to settle as it were upon any of the four 
 shrouds, and for three or four hours together, or rather 
 more, half the night it kept with us, running sometimes along 
 the mainyard to the very end, and then returning. . . . 
 
 " It being now Friday, the fourth morning, it wanted 
 little but that there had been a general determination to 
 have shut up hatches and commending our sinful souls to 
 God, committed the ship to the mercy of the sea." 
 
 No wonder that when Strachey's little book, printed 
 in London, fell into the hands of William Shakespeare, 
 this dramatic recital of the furious storm which drove 
 the Virginia fleet on the reefs of " the. still vexed Ber- 
 moothes " should have inspired the poet in his descrip- 
 tion of the tempest evoked by Prospero on his enchanted 
 island.' 
 
 So other narratives were written and other chroni- 
 cles compiled by these industrious Jamestown settlers ; 
 but their chronicles and reports were 'largely official 
 documents prepared for the guidance of the company's 
 officers in London, and for the general enlightenment 
 of Englishmen at home. Nowhere among them do we 
 find the ring of that resounding style which makes 
 literature of Strachey's prose, 
 
 ' Compare Strachey's narrative with Shalcespeare's Tempest, Act I, 
 Sc. 1. There can be little doubt of Shakespeare's debt to this story 
 of the wreck. 
 
8 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 It did not seem likely that thus early in Virginia 
 og„gg history any laurels would be gathered from 
 Sandys, Apollo's sacred tree to crown a poet's brow — 
 ■ as Drayton had pleasantly predicted in his 
 lines of farewell. Yet, after all, among these gentlemen 
 adventurers who continued to come from England in 
 increasing numbers, there arrived in 1621, as treas- 
 urer of the Virginia company, one who was recognized 
 as a poet of considerable rank — George Sandys, 
 author of an excellent metrical translation of the first 
 five books of Ovid. To Sandys also, Drayton, now 
 laureate, had imparted a professional benediction, 
 exhorting his friend with appreciative words : — 
 
 " Let see what lines Virginia will produce. 
 Go on with Ovid. . . . 
 Entice the muses thither to repair ; 
 Entreat them gently ; train them to that air." 
 
 And amid the exacting duties of his position in a most 
 discouraging time, in experiences of privation and dis- 
 tress, amid the terrors of Indian uprising and mas- 
 sacre, he " went on " with Ovid. After four years of 
 strenuous life in the new America, Sandys went home 
 to England with his translation of the Metamorphoses 
 completed, and in 1626 presented his finished work to 
 the king. It was a notable poem, was so accepted by 
 contemporaries, and afterward elicited the admiration 
 of Dryden and of Pope. Thus came the first expres- 
 sion of the poetic art in the New World — " the first 
 utterance of the conscious literary spirit, articulated in 
 America." * 
 
 We record with interest these few literary appear- 
 ances in the annals of our early history, but we can in 
 no sense claim these writers as representatives of our 
 native American literature. Smith, Strachey, and San- 
 1 Tyler's History of American Literature, vol. i, p. 54. 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF VIRGINIA 9 
 
 dys were Englishmen temporarily interested in a great 
 scheme of colonization. After brief sojourn in the 
 colony, they returned to England. They were not col- 
 onists ; they were travelers ; and while their composi- 
 tions have a peculiar interest, and are not without 
 significance for us, they cannot be accounted American 
 works. 
 
 The record of Virginia's early struggles, its diffi- 
 culties with the Indians, its depletion by ill- Dgyeiop- 
 ness and famine, its losses due to the inca- ment of tbs 
 pacity of leaders and policies ill adapted to 
 the conditions of a true colonial life, its reinforcements, 
 its acquisition of colonists, its advancement in wealth 
 and importance, — this is familiar history. The re- 
 markable fact is the rapidity with which the colony 
 developed. In 1619, twelve hundred settlers arrived ; 
 along with them were sent one hundred convicts to 
 become servants. Boys and girls, picked up in the 
 London streets, were shipped to Virginia to be bound 
 during their minority to the planters. In the same 
 year a Dutch man-of-war landed twenty negroes at 
 Jamestown, who were sold as slaves — the first in 
 America. The cultivation of tobacco became profit- 
 able, the plantations were extended, and new colonists 
 were brought over in large numbers. Following the 
 execution of Charles I, and the establishment of the 
 Puritan Protectorate, hundreds of the exiled Cavaliers 
 migrated to Virginia with their families and tradi- 
 tions. These new colonists stamped the character of 
 the dominion that was to be. The best blood of Eng- 
 land was thus infused into the new enterprise, and the 
 spirit of the South was determined. In 1650, the popu- 
 lation of Virginia was 15,000 ; twenty years later, it 
 was 40,000. 
 
 Yet the southern soil did not prove favorable to liter- 
 
10 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 ary growth. Englisb books were, of course, brought 
 Literary i'^**' *^^ colony, and private libraries were to 
 Oondiuons. be found here and there in the homes of the 
 wealthy. There were no free schools in Virginia, and 
 but few private schools. The children of the planters 
 received instruction under tutors in their own homes, 
 or were sent to England for their education. For fear 
 of seditious literature, printing-presses were forbidden 
 by the king. In 1671, Governor Berkeley declared : — 
 
 " I thank God there are no free schools, nor printing, and 
 I hope we shall not have these hundred years ; for learning 
 has brought disobedience into the world, and printing has 
 divulged them and libels against the best of governments. 
 God keep us from both." ^ 
 
 Of original literary accomplishment, there was little 
 or no thought until well on in the eighteenth century. 
 Two or three" vigorous pamphlets, published in Eng- 
 land not long after 1650, are interesting as voicing the 
 first decided utterances of a genuine American spirit 
 in the southern settlements. John Hammond, a resi- 
 dent in the newer colony of Maryland, visiting his old 
 " Leah ana 1*0™® ^^ 1656, became homesick for the one 
 HaoiiBi." he had left in America. " It is not long since 
 I came from thence," he said, " nor do I intend, by 
 God's assistance, to be long out of it again. ... It is 
 that country in which I desire to spend the remnant of 
 my days, in which I covet to make my grave." His little 
 work, entitled Leah and Rachel (" the two fruitful sis- 
 ters, Virginia and Maryland "), was written with a pur- 
 pose to show what boundless opportunity was afforded 
 in these two colonies to those who in England had no 
 opportunity at all. 
 
 1 For a discussion of social and intellectnal conditions in Virginia at 
 this period, see G. P. Fisher's The Colonial Era, pp. 51-61, and K. G. 
 Thwaites's The Colonies, oh. v. 
 
NEW ENGLAND 11 
 
 II. PILGRIMS AND PURITANS IN NEW ENGLAND; HIS- 
 TORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE WRITERS: WILLIAM 
 BRADFORD, JOHN WINTHROP, FRANCIS HI6GINSON, 
 WILLIAM WOOD, THOMAS MORTON. 
 
 In the northern settlements, conditions socially and 
 intellectually were very different from those ^ew 
 existing in the South. The men who colonized ^b'™*- 
 New England represented a unique type ; their ideals, 
 their purpose, were essentially other than those which 
 inspired the settlers at Jamestown and the later colo- 
 nizers of Virginia. The band of Pilgrims who landed 
 from the Mayflower at Plymouth in November, 1620, 
 were not bent on mere commercial adventure, lured to 
 the shores of the New World by tales of its fabulous 
 wealth. They were not in search of gold ; they were 
 looking for a permanent home, and had brought their 
 wives and children with them. Their ideals were of the 
 most serious sort ; their deep religious feeling colored 
 all their plans and habits of life. 
 
 The Pilgrims were a congregation of " Separatists " 
 or non-conformists who had already endured ne 
 hardness for conscience' sake before they had ™sri™s. 
 ever left the old home. Under the leadership of the 
 Eev. John Robinson and Elder William Brewster, they 
 had fled to Holland in 1608. For ten years, this com- 
 munity of Englishmen had lived peacefully in the 
 Dutch city of Leyden, earning their own living and 
 enjoying the religious liberty they craved ; but they 
 felt themselves aliens in a foreign land, and saw that 
 their children were destined to lose their English birth- 
 right. After long deliberation, they determined " as 
 pilgrims " to seek in the new continent a home where 
 they might still possess their cherished freedom of wor- 
 ship, while living under English laws and following 
 the customs and traditions of their mother-land. 
 
12 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 This company of men obtained a grant from the 
 London Company under the same charter as 
 piymoniii that which had been given to the Virginia 
 Colony. Colony. They finally set sail from Plymouth, 
 in England, September 16, 1620. It was in the early 
 winter when the Mayflower sighted the shores of Cape 
 Cod. The story of " New England's trials," first told 
 in the narrative of Captain John Smith,' is as roman- 
 tic as that of the Jamestown Colony and even more 
 impressive. 
 
 Of the forty-one adult males who signed the famous 
 compact on board the Mayflower, only twelve bore 
 the title of " Gentleman." They were a sober-minded, 
 sturdy band of true colonizers, familiar with labor and 
 inspired with the conviction that God was leading them 
 in their difBcult way. Although half the colony perished 
 in the rigor of that first winter, for which they had been 
 wholly unprepared, the spirit of the Pilgrims spoke in 
 the remarkable words of their leader, Brewster : — 
 
 " It is not with us as with men whom small ^hings can 
 discourage or small discontentments cause to wish themselves 
 at home again." ' 
 
 The companies of settlers who followed the Pilgrims 
 Pnritan within the next few years were composed of 
 Si Now* t'^® same sturdy, independent class of thought- 
 EngiauA. f ul, high-minded men. They were Puritans, — 
 for the most part well-to-do, prosperous people; many 
 of them had been educated in the universities, and 
 brought the reverence for education with them. "If 
 God make thee a good Christian and a good scholar, 
 thou hast all that thy mother ever asked for thee," said 
 a Puritan matron to her son. The colonists who within 
 
 1 A Description of New England (1616) ; New England's Trials 
 (1620-22). 
 '^ Read John Fiske's The Beginnings of New England, p. 82. 
 
WILLIAM BRADFORD 13 
 
 the next fifty years dotted the New England coast-line 
 with their thrifty settlements were idealists. As Pro- 
 fessor Tyler puts it, they established " not an agricul- 
 tural community, nor a manufacturing community, nor 
 a trading community ; it was a thinking community." 
 Moral earnestness characterized every action. In 1636, 
 the General Court of Massachusetts voted to establish 
 a college at Newtown ; John Harvard, dying two years 
 later, bequeathed his library and half his estate to the 
 school, which was then named Harvard College in his 
 honor. In 1639, the first printing-press in America was 
 set up at Cambridge, as Newtown was then named out 
 of compliment to the numerous graduates of the Eng- 
 lish university, then settled in this vicinity. The colo- 
 nists had their grammar schools which prepared for 
 college ; and by 1650 public instruction was compulsory 
 in four of the five New England colonies, Rhode Island 
 being the exception. 
 
 The earliest literary efforts among the New England 
 colonists — like the beginnings in Virginia — were his- 
 torical and narrative writings, some in the form of jour- 
 nals, a few, more ambitious, representing real attempts 
 at formal history. 
 
 William Bradford, for whom the title Father of Ameri- 
 can history may well be claimed, was a native ^imj^ 
 of Yorkshire, and at seventeen, a member of Bradiord, 
 the Rev. John Robinson's famous congrega- 
 tion, fled with his brethren into Holland. He was promi- 
 nent among the Pilgrims at the time of their arrival in 
 America, and at thirty-two was elected governor of 
 Plymouth. Until his death, he continued to fill this hon- 
 orable office, except as he was permitted to break the 
 period of his service for intervals at five several times. 
 Bradford was a plain, sensible, truthful man, an able 
 leader under severe conditions. He felt the immense 
 
14 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 significance of what was then taking place, and sought 
 to provide a record which should preserve a faithful 
 picture of the settlement. No sooner had the Mayflower 
 sighted land, than Bradford began conjointly with Ed- 
 ward Winslow to keep a journal of all occurrences. 
 This journal was carefully continued to the end of the 
 first year. Ten years after the arrival, Governor Brad- 
 ford' began his notable History of the PUmoth Planta- 
 tion, on which he labored for twenty years. His purpose, 
 as he avowed, was to write " in a plain style, with sin- 
 gular regard unto the simple truth in all things." His 
 story goes back to the persecutions in England and de- 
 tails the causes of the flight into Holland ; describes the 
 sojourn there, and explains the reasons for the second 
 exodus to the shores of the New World. What follows 
 consists of a contemporaneous narrative of the experi- 
 ences of the colony, set down in simple chronicle with- 
 out much regard to proportion or unity ; but the unmis-" 
 takable touch of his own homely, honest personality and 
 the vigor of his blunt, realistic style impart a distinct 
 literary flavor to this primitive history of Plymouth, 
 which adds to its obvious value as the first detailed re- 
 port of the New England settlements. An illustration 
 is found in the writer's account of the Pilgrims and 
 their perilous situation upon their arrival in the New 
 World : — 
 
 " Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe 
 to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of 
 heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious 
 ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries 
 thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, 
 their proper element. . . . But here I cannot but stay and 
 make a pause, and stand half amazed at this poor people's 
 present condition ; and so I think will the reader too when 
 he well considers the same. Being thus passed the vast ocean 
 
WILLIAM BRADFOKD 16 
 
 and a sea of troubles before, in their preparation, . t . they 
 had now no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain or 
 refresh their weather-beaten bodies, no houses or much less 
 towns to repair to, to seek for succor. It is recorded in scrip- 
 ture as a mercy to the apostle and his shipwrecked company, 
 that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in re- 
 freshing them ; but these savage barbarians when they met 
 with them . . . were readier to fill their sides full of arrows 
 than otherwise. And for the season, it was winter ; and they 
 that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp 
 and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous 
 to travel to known places, much more to search an unknown 
 coast. Besides what could they see but a hideous and desolate 
 wilderness, fuU of wild beasts and wild men ? And what 
 multitudes there might be of them, they knew not. Neither 
 could they, as it were, go up to the top of Pisgah, to view 
 from this wilderness a more goodly country to feed their 
 hopes; for which way soever they turned their eyes (save 
 upward to the heavens) they could have little solace or con- 
 tent in respect of any outward objects. For summer being 
 done, all things stared upon them with a weather-beaten face ; 
 and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented 
 a wild and savage hue. If they looked behind them, there 
 was the mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as 
 a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts 
 of the world. . . . May not and ought not the children of 
 these fathers rightly say : ' Our fathers were Englishmen 
 which came over this great ocean and were ready to perish in 
 this wilderness ; but they cried unto the Lord and he heard 
 their voice and looked on their adversity. Let them therefore 
 praise the Lord because he is good and his mercies endure 
 for ever.' " 
 
 The manuscript of Bradford's history has itself had 
 a rather interesting story. At the death of its author, it 
 fell to the possession of his nephew, Edward Morton, 
 who made liberal use of it in his own New England's 
 Memorial (1669). It then came into the hands of 
 
16 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 Kev. Thomas Prince, who wrote a Chronological His- 
 tory of New England (1736). During the occupation 
 of Boston by the British troops in 1775-76, the manu- 
 script was lost with many other valuable documents 
 preserved in Prince's library, which was in the tower of 
 the Old South Church, In 1855, this valuable document 
 was discovered in the library of the Bishop of London, 
 was copied, and published in this country ; and in 1897, 
 the original itself was restored to America. It is kept 
 in the Massachusetts State Library at the State House 
 in Boston. 
 
 Among the company of English Puritans who, in 
 
 1630, settled on the shore of Massachusetts 
 John , r T 1 
 
 winthrop, Bay, the foremost figure was that of John 
 1588-1649. \yjiitjjpop^ already appointed Governor of 
 the colony. His family was well known in his home 
 shire of Suffolk, a family of property and position. 
 Winthrop himself was a man of noble character, a con- 
 scientious Puritan, yet catholic in spirit beyond some 
 of his associates, possessing the tastes and accomplish- 
 ments of culture. During his voyage to America, he 
 had busied himself in the composition of a little treatise 
 which was characteristic of this broad-minded man. 
 A Model of Christian Charity is the title of his essay ; 
 and in it he presents a plea for the exercise of an 
 unselfish spirit on the part of all the members of this 
 devoted band, now standing on the threshold of an 
 experience which could not but be trying in the extreme 
 on the nerves and temper of all. " We must be knit 
 together in this work as one man ! " was his cry. 
 
 John Winthrop's History of New England is the 
 History of contemporaneous record preserved in his 
 New journal of occurrences in the colony observed 
 
 ^ by him, or reported to him. The busy gov- 
 
 ernor made a brave effort to keep up with the march 
 
JOHN WINTHROP 17 
 
 of events. Notwithstanding tlie press of official duties, 
 which more than filled his days, he persevered with his 
 journal, which commences with the beginning of the 
 voyage and comes down to a date only some few weeks 
 previous to his death, in 1649. There are gaps in the 
 chronicle and a significant brevity in the records of par- 
 ticular incidents, some of these records passing from 
 the trivial to the pathetic with ludicrous conciseness. 
 
 " A cow died at Plymouth, and a goat at Boston, with 
 eating Indian corn." The fact is recorded as faithfully 
 as a previous item, mentioned with Spartan brevity : 
 ?' My son, Henry Winthrop, was drowned at Salem." 
 In the following passage, we get a curious glimpse into 
 the Puritan mind. The pathos of the original note is 
 almost lost in the unconscious humor of the historian's 
 wise deductions : — 
 
 "Mr. Hopkins, the governor of Hartford upon Connecti- 
 cut, came to Boston, and brought his wife with him (a godly 
 young woman, and of special parts), who was fallen into a sad 
 infirmity, the loss of her understanding and reason, which 
 had been growing upon her divers years, by occasion of her 
 giving herself wholly to reading and writing, and had written 
 many books. Her husband, being very loving and tender of 
 her, was loath to grieve her ; but he saw his error, when it 
 was too late. For if she had attended her household affairs, 
 and such things as belong to women, and not gone out of her 
 way and calling to meddle in such things as are proper for 
 men, whose minds are stronger, etc., she had kept her wits, 
 and might have improved them usefully and honorably in the 
 place God had set her. 
 
 " He brought her to Boston, and left her with her brother, 
 one Mr. Yale, a merchant, to try what means might be had 
 here for her. But no help could be had." 
 
 There are more momentous records than these in 
 the annals, and Winthrop's history shares with that of 
 Bradford in interest and importance. 
 
18 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 Through these straightforward, plain-spoken men 
 
 we get our clearest vision of the rugged, haz- 
 Slgnlllcance " ,.- , , ■ •i.'£ i.**. j 
 
 oi the . ardous pioneer life, its heroism, its tortituae, 
 
 ohronioies. j^^ romance, its curiously contradictory dis- 
 play of self-sacrificing sympathy and fanatical intol- 
 erance ; its superstition and narrowness ; its petty trials 
 and large tribulations ; its splendid faith, its aggressive 
 energy of zeal. It is well for the student of literature, 
 as for the student of history, to feel the spirit of these 
 early New England histories. Just as the Virginia set- 
 tlers developed on the fertile plantations of the South a 
 civilization which reflected the aristocratic traditions 
 of the Cavaliers, so on the rock-bound coasts of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay these northern colonists stamped their 
 descendants with the grave, stern, persistent type o£ 
 Puritan character. 
 
 There were not wanting in the colony those who 
 Early found delight in studying and describing the 
 
 DesciiptiTe natural wonders of this new land. The im- 
 pressive grandeur of the forest, the fertility 
 of the virgin soil, nature's luxuriant abundance re- 
 deemed from the wilderness, the strange picturesque- 
 ness of the savage natives, the wild things of the woods 
 — so much that was new and wonderful in their envi- 
 ronment — all this made its appeal to the imagination 
 of some among these hard-headed, practical pioneers. 
 Such an one was Rev. Francis Higginson (1567-1630), 
 a gifted and eloquent man, who came from England in 
 1629 to serve the community at Salem as its minister. 
 It was in June that the voyagers landed, and the glories 
 of a New England summer colored the impressions of 
 the newly arrived clergyman with a primeval splendor. 
 He had written a narrative of his voyage, and now he 
 began a description of the country itself. His little 
 book of • observations is a bright and genial picture. 
 
WILLIAM WOOD ' 19 
 
 poetically framed. Under the title New England's 
 Plantation, it was published in London in 1630. "A 
 sup of New England's air is better than a whole 
 draught of Old England's ale," declares its author. The 
 woods, the flowers, the plants, delighted him. " Here 
 are also abundance of other sweet herbs," he wrote, 
 "delightful to the smell, wbose names I know not, 
 and plenty of single damask roses, very sweet." Even 
 the stern rigidity of the Puritan coiJd bend above 
 the beauty of the sweetbriar and gratefully inhale 
 its fragrance. The chill breath of the New England 
 winter does not blight his enthusiasm. The great 
 hearth-fires in the cabins, and the inexhaustible sup- 
 ply of wood to feed the flames rejoice his heart. 
 "There is good living for those who love good fires ! " 
 he exclaims. 
 
 Something of a naturalist was William Wood, who 
 published in 1634 his New England's Pros- wmiam 
 pect, an interesting description of the coun- W""*- 
 try in which he had made his home. A little of a poet, 
 also, he enlivened his account by putting some of his 
 observations into verse — as, for example : — 
 " The beasts be as foUoweth : 
 
 " The kingly Lion and the strong-anned Bear, 
 
 The lai^e-limbed Mooses, with the tripping Deer ; 
 
 Qaill-darting Porcupines and Raccoons be 
 
 Castled in the hollow of an aged tree ; 
 
 The skipping Squirrel, Rabbit, purblind Hare, 
 
 Immured in the self -same castle are. 
 
 " Concerning lions I will not say that I ever saw any my- 
 self, but some affirm that they have seen a lion at Cape Ann, 
 which is not above six leagues from Boston ; some likewise 
 being lost in woods have heard such terrible roarings as 
 have made them much aghast : which must either be devils or 
 lions ; there being no other creatures which use to roar sav- 
 ing bears, which have not such a terrible kind of roaring." 
 
20 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 No record of early New England life can fail to 
 take account of the experiences of Thomas 
 enymoim . jy^j^j.^.^^^ ^ royalist who, in 1626, established 
 himself with some thirty boon companions on an 
 estate ' not far from the Plymouth settlement. The 
 presence of this lively neighbor proved anything but 
 agreeable to the strict and godly residents of Plymouth 
 and of Boston, who were scandalized by the goings-on 
 at Merrymount. Here were sports and revelings which 
 were viewed by the Puritans with consternation, and 
 then with righteous indignation. When Morton's little 
 company had increased to a considerable number, — 
 for various congenial spirits had been added to the 
 group, — these stern moralists rose in their wrath, 
 hewed down with axe and sword the lofty maypole 
 around which their rollicking neighbors had rehearsed 
 the dances and revels of Merry England, and banished 
 Morton with his followers from the country. Back in 
 his native land, he wrote his JView English Canaan 
 (1637), turning the shafts of ridicule upon his vic- 
 torious enemies. While the work in itself is of slight 
 importance, the incident is a diverting one, and gives 
 a humorous glow to the sober-hued picture of this 
 sombre Puritan age. 
 
 III. THE NEW ENGLAND CLERGY: THOMAS HOOKER, 
 THOMAS SHEPARD, JOHN COTTON, NATHANIEL 
 WARD, ROGER WILLIAMS, JOHN ELIOT, THE 
 
 MATHERS. 
 
 Among a people constituted in temper like the Puri- 
 
 Theoiogyin *^°^' * people with whom religion was life 
 
 NewEne- and whose life even on its temporal side was 
 
 closely identified with religion, it was natural 
 
 that religious ideas should find constant expression in 
 
 ' Kow WoUaston Heights. 
 
THEOLOGY IN NEW ENGLAND 21 
 
 literature. This we have seen to be true in the histori- 
 cal narratives of Bradford and Winthrop. The Puritan 
 writers are always impressed with the spiritual signifi- 
 cance of their conquest in this new Canaan. Even the 
 most casual accidents of pioneer experience are inter- 
 preted as filled with divine purpose. John Winthrop 
 soberly records the fact that in his son's library of a 
 thousand volumes, one, which contained the Greek 
 Testament, the Psalms, and the Book of Common 
 Prayer bound up together, was found injured by mice. 
 Every leaf of the Common Prayer was eaten through ; 
 not a leaf of the other portions was touched, nor one 
 of the other volumes injured. A marvelous providence 
 this, clear enough in its indications. So Edward John- 
 son, not an educated man, but a farmer and a ship- 
 carpenter, who had been active in the founding of 
 Woburn, in 1640, wrote his Wonder-Working Provi- 
 dence of Z ion's Saviour in New England (1654). 
 " For the Lord Christ intends to achieve greater mat- 
 ters by this little handful than the world is aware of." 
 
 The colonists are soldiers under the divine leader ; 
 they must not tolerate the existence among them of a 
 single disbeliever ; they must take up their arms and 
 march manfully on till all opposers of Christ's kingly 
 power be abolished. Thus spake Puritanism on the side 
 of its austerity and fanaticism. 
 
 There was in New England one class of men who by 
 natural aptitude and by training were well 
 fitted to be heard from on religious topics. 
 These were the ministers. As the village church, or 
 meeting-house, was the centre geographically, morally, 
 and socially, of every New England community, so 
 the minister was, usually, the dominating force among 
 his townspeople, maintaining the high dignity of the 
 sacred calling with a manner which commanded a 
 
22 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 deference amounting to awe. Not only was his authority 
 recognized on the purely religious questions of daily 
 life, not only was his voice reverently heard as he 
 preached for hours from the high pulpit on Sunday, 
 but the New England minister was the natural leader 
 of his flock in every field. He gave counsel in town 
 affairs, he directed the political policy of his people. 
 In cases of disagreement, the minister was usually the 
 mediator and the final court of appeal. The greater 
 part of the New England ministry were educated men 
 of noteworthy gifts. The majority were graduates of 
 the English universities ; many of them had been dis- 
 tinguished for their eloquence and piety before the re- 
 ligious persecution of Charles and his ministers had 
 driven them forth to find religious liberty elsewhere. 
 
 Three strong thinkers and eloquent preachers are 
 usually mentioned as conspicuous among these early 
 colonial ministers : Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepard, 
 and John Cotton. All three were graduates of the same 
 college at Cambridge ; all were Puritan preachers in 
 England until compelled to flee for their lives because 
 of the hostility of Bishop Laud. 
 
 Hooker had escaped into Holland, and in 1633 fol- 
 lowed in the track of those who had crossed 
 Hooker, • the ocean before him. He became the minis- 
 1686-1647. ^gj. g^j. Cambridge. Three years later he led 
 a colony of one hundred families through the wilder- 
 ness into the beautiful Connecticut valley and founded 
 the town of Hartford (1686). Here until his death, in 
 1647, Hooker wrote and preached and moulded the life 
 of his parish. His power in the pulpit is said to have 
 been wonderful. Many of his sermons were published ; 
 he wrote numerous treatises on theological and spiritual 
 themes. It is significant of the impression left by 
 Hooker on his contemporaries that an English clergy- 
 
JOHN COTTON 23 
 
 man affirmed that " to praise the writings of Hooker 
 would be to lay paint upon burnished marble, or add 
 light unto the sun." 
 
 Rev. Thomas Shepard arrived in America in 1635, 
 succeeding Hooker in Cambridge, where he 
 preached until his death in 1649. Unlike Shepoid, 
 the stalwart Hooker, whose physical strength 
 and bodily energy matched his intellectual stature, 
 Shepard was an invalid. He was, however, a profound 
 scholar, and a " soul-melting preacher." His writings 
 are not voluminous, but they exercised a strong influ- 
 ence even after his death. His diction is imaginative 
 and forceful, with the rugged force of Puritan vigor. 
 
 " God heweth thee by sermons, sicknesses, losses and 
 crosses, sadden death, mercies and miseries, yet nothing 
 makes thee better. 
 
 " Death cometh hissing . . . like a fiery dragon with the 
 sting of vengeance in the mouth of it. Then shall God surren- 
 der up thy forsaken soul into the hands of devils, who being 
 thy jailers, must keep thee till the great day of account ; so 
 that as thy friends are scrambling for thy goods, and worms 
 for thy body, so devils shall scramble for thy soul." 
 
 On the same ship which brought Thomas Hooker to 
 America came John Cotton, most noted of j^^^ 
 these three men. For nearly twenty years, he Oowon, 
 had served the parish of St. Botolph's in Bos- 
 ton in Lincolnshire, and was known far and wide for his 
 aggressive spirituality. In 1633, he discovered that he 
 was no longer safe in his native land. The principal col- 
 ony on Massachusetts Bay had longed for him. In com- 
 pliment to him, its members adopted the name of Boston ; 
 and John Cotton became the foremost minister in New 
 England, — "a most universal scholar, a living system 
 of the liberal arts, and a walking library," as his 
 grandson. Cotton Mather, described him. John Cotton 
 
24 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 wrote many theological treatises, and engaged in bitter 
 controversies. He was a laborious student. Near him as 
 he studied stood a sand-glass which would run four 
 hours. This glass, thrice turned, was the measure of his 
 day's work. This he called "a scholar's day." His 
 writings lack the picturesque imagery of Hooker and 
 Shepard. His style is lifeless now, but he carried pro- 
 digious weight among his contemporaries and was the 
 foremost champion in the theological battles of his 
 age. 
 
 Among the more noteworthy publications of these 
 The simple scholastic writers was a singular book which 
 OoWer. appeared in London in 1647. Its author was 
 Nathaniel Ward, a Cambridge graduate and retired 
 minister, who lived at what is now the town of Ipswich 
 in eastern Massachusetts. His work is quaintly ad- 
 dressed under the title of The Simple Cobler of 
 Aggawamin America. Upon the title-page, in accord- 
 ance with seventeenth-century custom, the author ex- 
 plains his purpose at considerable length : as — 
 
 " willing to help mend his native country, lamentably tattered 
 both in the upper-leather and sole, with all the honest 
 stitches he can take ; and as willing never to be paid for his 
 work by old English wonted pay. It is his trade to patch all 
 tlie year long gratis. Therefore I pray gentlemen keep your 
 pui-sea. By Theodore de la Guard." 
 
 This picturesque book, full of pungent wit, directs 
 its satire at what its author deemed the follies and per- 
 versions of his day. The allegory of the Cobbler is not 
 maintained much beyond the title-page. Himself a 
 refugee from religious persecution, he expresses the 
 usual Puritan intolerance of all independent opinion : 
 
 " That state that will give liberty of conscience in matters 
 of religion must give liberty of conscience and conversation 
 
ROGER WILLIAMS 25 
 
 in their moral laws, or else the fiddle will be out of tune, and 
 some of the strings crack." 
 
 Nathaniel Ward's Simple Cohler voices with charac- 
 teristic fervor the utterance of Puritan bigotry; but 
 there was in the colony one powerful champion of 
 religious tolerance who constitutes one of its most at- 
 tractive figures. This was Roger Williams, an 
 independent among the independents. Born wiiuams, 
 in Wales, a university man and a clergy- ^^^^'^s- 
 man in the Church of England, he had turned non- 
 conformist, and appeared in Plymouth colony in the 
 usual way. In 1633, two years after his arrival at 
 Plymouth, Williams went to Salem to be the minister 
 there ; but his teachings were altogether too radical to 
 suit his stern and narrow-minded Puritan brethren. He 
 preached a real liberty of thought and worship — even 
 for Baptists and Quakers ; taught that it was unright- 
 eous to rob the Indian of his land, and to treat captives 
 with cruelty ; and maintained that the State's author- 
 ity did not extend over the individual conscience or 
 opinion. Roger Williams was one of those who proclaim 
 the truth so far in advance of the conceptions held by 
 those about them, that they seem to be living years 
 before their proper time. He was banished from Massa- 
 chusetts in 1686 ; and making friends with the Pequot 
 Indians, he planted on Narragansett Bay the settlement 
 of Providence. Williams revisited England several 
 times, and was no inconspicuous figure there. He knew 
 Milton and had the friendship of Cromwell. It was on 
 one of these visits that he wrote his first important 
 treatise on " Soul Liberty," — The Bloody Tenet of 
 Persecution for Cause of Conscience. This was pub- 
 lished at London in 1644, the year in which Milton's 
 Areopagitica, a plea for the freedom of the press, 
 appeared. Williams's Bloody Tenet was the beginning 
 
26 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 of a famous literary battle between himself and that 
 belligerent Puritan defender, John Cotton, who in 1647 
 published his reply in The Bloody Tenet washed and 
 made white in the Blood of the Lamb. The final 
 rejoinder came from Roger Williams in The Bloody 
 Tenet yet more Bloody, hy Mr. Cotton's Endeavor to 
 wash it white in the Blood of the Lamb. And with this 
 brief summary of the encounter between these two 
 keen-minded, argument-loving minds, their blows de- 
 livered in what Williams called " sharp Scripture lan- 
 guage," we may well afford to take our leave of Puritan 
 controversy. 
 
 The attitude of the Englishman toward the native 
 inhabitants of America ^ has long been marked with 
 injustice and dishonor. The precarious situation of the 
 colonists surrounded by fierce and savage tribes natu- 
 rally produced occasion for the display of savage passions 
 on the part of the white man as well as on that of the 
 Indian. The horrors of war and massacre that redden 
 the early annals of colonial history were, no doubt, 
 due in part to the indiscretions and encroachments of 
 the superior race. Some one has said of the Puritan 
 pioneers that " first they fell upon their knees, and then 
 they fell on the aborigines." As we have seen, Roger 
 Williams declared boldly for a different policy ; and his 
 own methods with the savage peoples were well illus- 
 trated in the comparative peace and prosperity of his 
 settlement in Rhode Island. Another peacemaker is 
 discovered in the gentle personality of John Eliot, the 
 John EUot, " Apostle to the Indians," who came to Boston 
 1604-90. in 1631, and devoted his life to the conversion 
 of these children of the forest, whom he regarded as 
 descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. He studied their 
 
 1 In his Beginnings of New England, pp. 205-211, John Fiske sets 
 forth this matter in a light more f avoiahle to the Eng^lish. 
 
JOHN ELIOT 27 
 
 native tongue, preached to them, converted many, and 
 organized his converts in little churches of their own. 
 He wrote several books of minor importance ; but he is 
 to be remembered as a translator of the entire Bible 
 into the Algonquin tongue. It was a tremendous task 
 and a remarkable achievement. He published the New 
 Testament in 1661 and the Old Testament in 1663. It 
 was the first Bible in any language, printed in British 
 America. This translation of the Scriptures into the 
 vernacular of a people who had no written language, 
 done largely by candle-light after days devoted to 
 exacting work in his Roxbury parish, is a most remark- 
 able monument to " Apostle " Eliot's laborious industry 
 and his missionary zeal. 
 
 The scholarly attainments of colonial Puritanism 
 have been amply shown by this record of the The Ma- 
 New England ministry in the literature of ^^gj^j' 
 the time. The history of a single family fur- Pamiiy. 
 nishes our most conspicuous and most curiously inter- 
 esting illustration of scholastic eminence and its position 
 in popular regard. Through three generations the Ma- 
 thers — in grandfather, son, and grandson — appear 
 as brilliant intellectual leaders of the Massachusetts 
 clergy. 
 
 The first of the " dynasty," Richard Mather, an Ox- 
 ford graduate, who arrived in Boston in 1635, ujojarj 
 was one of that conscientious Puritan brother- Mather, 
 hood that of necessity sought a refuge and a 
 field for spiritual conquest in the New World. He 
 became the minister at Dorchester. " My brother 
 Mather is a mighty man," Thomas Hooker said of 
 him. Although he was a prolific writer, it is sufficient 
 here to recall the fact that Richard Mather's name 
 was the one appended to the preface of the old Bay 
 Psalm Booh. 
 
28 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 Four of Eichard Mather's six sons became mln- 
 isters ; it was, however, through Increase 
 Matter, Mather that the chief inheritance of scholarly 
 1639-1723, gj£j.g ^g^g transmitted. The father's eloquence 
 was more than equaled by the son's ; his Puritan zeal, 
 his love of learning, his industry in the production of 
 pamphlets and books, brought the name of Increase 
 Mather into greater prominence than Richard Mather's 
 vigorous quill had won. For fifty-nine years, he served 
 as minister of the North Church in Boston. He added 
 some ninety titles to the list of colonial publications — 
 the majority representing discourses prepared for his 
 congregation. Perhaps the only one of his books suf- 
 ficiently vitalized by human interest to be noted to-day 
 is An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Provi- 
 dences (1684), in which the piety, pedantry, and super- 
 stition characteristic of the religious scholar in that 
 age are curiously mingled. This collection of strange 
 visitations and marvelous deliverances was designed 
 for the pious entertainment and spiritual comfort of its 
 readers. It is one of the most interesting of these early 
 American classics ; and, like so many of the works pre- 
 viously cited, affords a vivid glimpse into the Puritan 
 mind. For sixteen years, Increase Mather served as 
 President of Harvard College. 
 
 The clerical succession of this remarkable family 
 Cotton ^^^^ continued in the third generation by 
 Mather, the most illustrious representative of the 
 
 1663-1728. T ^ 
 
 Ime. 
 
 " Under this stone lies Richard Mather 
 Who had a son greater than his father, 
 And eke a grandson greater than either." 
 
 Thus ran a 5'wasi-epitaph composed after the death of 
 Cotton Mather with intent to honor his achievements. 
 Nor was this paternal relationship the only source of 
 
COTTON MATHER 29 
 
 hereditary influence. The famous John Cotton, con- 
 temporary of Hooker and Shepard, was his grandfather 
 on his mother's side ; it was in memory of that stalwart 
 champion that Cotton Mather received his baptismal 
 name. All the accumulated piety and learning of his 
 distinguished ancestry seemed to reside in this extraor- 
 dinary man. His intellectuality was abnormal. He has 
 been not inappropriately termed " the literary behe- 
 moth of New England." He had read Homer at ten 
 years of age, and at eleven was admitted to Harvard 
 College. He took his first degree at fifteen ; at seven- 
 teen he began to preach, and soon afterward became 
 associate with his father in the pastorate of the North 
 Church in Boston, a connection which lasted for forty 
 years. In his religious life, he became abnormal also ; 
 at times he lay for hours on the floor of his study 
 in spiritual agony. He fortified himself for the con- 
 flict with error by fasts and vigils. His speech was 
 full of pious ejaculations. "When he saw a tall man he 
 prayed, " Lord, give that man high attainments in 
 Christianity ; let him fear God above many." And 
 each trivial act was the source of some devout medita- 
 tion. Unhappily, Cotton Mather is most often remem- 
 bered as a leader in the pitiful persecution of the 
 unfortunate people accused of witchcraft at Salem in 
 the last decade of the century. His Memorable Provi- 
 dences Relating to Witchcrafts (1691) and Wonders 
 of the Invisible World (1693) contain curious records 
 and much interesting matter relative to satanic posses- 
 sion ; ideas which were firmly believed at tbat time, 
 not only in New England, but very generally through- 
 out Europe also. 
 
 The most remarkable thing about Cotton Mather's 
 literary career is the number of his writings; four 
 hundred or more titles are included in the catalogue 
 
30 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 of his works. Many of these are fantastic treatises, 
 His grotesquely named, representing the vagaries 
 
 Industry, of Puritan thought ; many are sermons de- 
 livered on special occasions ; three or four are interest- 
 ing little books. 
 
 One, familiarly known under the title Essays to do 
 Good,^ was cordially praised by Benjamin Franklin, 
 who declared to the son of the writer that as a youth 
 he had derived great benefit and inspiration from the 
 book. But the great work, the magnum opus of Cot- 
 ton Mather's prolific industry, was the famous J/a^Tia^ia 
 Christi Americana, or Ecclesiastical History of New 
 England, from its First Planting in the Year 1620-, 
 unto the Year of our Lord, 1698. 
 
 Something over a thousand pages of closely printed 
 The matter is included in the seven parts or vol- 
 
 Ohrlsu'* umes of this monumental work. The planting 
 AmBiioana. of New England and its growth, the lives of its 
 governors and its famous divines, a history of Harvard 
 College, the organization of the churches, " a faith- 
 ful record of many wonderful Providences," and an 
 " account of the Wars of the Lord — being an histoiy 
 of the manifold afflictions and disturbances of the 
 churches in New England " — such is the scope of the 
 Magnolia Christi Americana, or The Great Acts of 
 Christ in America. 
 
 It begins like an epic : — 
 
 " I write the Wonders of the Christian Religion, flying 
 from the depravations of Europe to the American StrarU 
 and, assisted by the Holy Author of that Beligion, I do, 
 with all conscience of Truth, required therein by Him, who 
 is the Truth itself, report the wonderful displays of this 
 
 1 Bonifadus, an Essay upon the Good that is to be Devised and 
 Designed, with Proposals of unexceptionable Methods to do Good in the 
 World. 
 
MATHER'S MAGNALIA 31 
 
 infinite Power, "Wisdom, Goodness, and Faithfulness, where- 
 with His Divine Providence hath irradiated an Indian Wilr 
 
 The style is pedantic and artificial, but the spirit of 
 the writer is perfectly sincere. Now and then the narra- 
 tive grows simple and strong. There is a frequent use 
 of Old Testament phraseology which indicates a clear 
 perception of its poetical value. Such, for example, is 
 the account of Hannah Dustin's thrilling experiences 
 among the Indians, at Haverhill, in 1697. This is the 
 story of the woman's daring escape from captivity : — 
 
 " She heartened the nurse and the youth to assist her in 
 this enterprise ; and all furnishing themselves with hatchets 
 for the purpose, they struck such home blows upon the heads 
 of their sleeping oppressors that e'er they could any of them 
 struggle into any effectual resistance, at the feet of these 
 poor prisoners, they how'd, they fell, they lay down ; at their 
 feet they hawed, they fell; where they iowed, there they feU 
 down dead" * 
 
 The Magnolia, completed in December, 1697, was 
 published at London in 1702. It stands fitly gig^jg. 
 enough as the last important literary effort of canoe of 
 seventeenth-century colonial Puritanism. Al- 
 ready there were indications of a change in the current 
 of New England religious life. The old extreme Puri- 
 tan doctrines were in a decline ; and Mather's huge 
 volume was a final utterance in defense of the fathers' 
 faith. Not only had there come a change in the form 
 of thought; in the style of literary expression, the 
 change was as notable. English writers no longer fol- 
 lowed the models of the later Elizabethan essayists ; 
 their fantastic phraseology had been displaced by the 
 direct and forceful diction of Bunyan and Dryden ; the 
 easy, natural style of Addison, Steele, and Swift was 
 
 1 The Song of Deborah and Barak, Judges t. 27. 
 
32 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 giving a new charm to English prose. Cotton Mather 
 lived throughout the first quarter of the eighteenth 
 century; but in all essential respects, in personality 
 and in utterance, he belongs wholly to the seventeenth. 
 The consummate product of the old Puritan theology, 
 he stands as the last important representative of the 
 type in American literature. 
 
 IV. PURITAN POETKT IN NEW ENGLAND : BAT PSALM 
 B005, ANNE BRADSTREET, MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 
 
 The Puritans were not susceptible to the charms of 
 Early Fnit- poetry. The strenuous life of the pioneer left 
 tan Pootry. little time for cultivating any of the arts, and 
 the spirit of New England was too serious and too 
 stern to permit indulgence in what was merely pleasant 
 or beautiful. Even after the first critical years of dan- 
 ger and struggle were past, the intellectual life of the 
 people was bounded by the narrow limits of religious 
 discussion and theological debate. That the Puritan 
 was not without imagination, however, is abundantly 
 proved by the forceful figures and impassioned rhetoric 
 of the prose writers whom we have been considering. 
 Moreover, some of these same men did occasionally 
 slip into rhyme. William Wood has been quoted.' 
 Even John Cotton was the author of verses, halting 
 and rough-hewn, and full of the queer conceits which 
 were common at the time. It is significant that this 
 pious man wrote much of his verse in the pages of the 
 household almanac, where it remained hidden from the 
 public eye; and sometimes he disguised its metrical 
 character by inscribing it in Greek. 
 
 Much ingenuity was expended upon epitaphs and 
 obituary tributes— so solemn a theme as that of death 
 justifying poetical expression. If there were any oppor- 
 1 Page 19. 
 
THE BAY PSALM BOOK 33 
 
 tunity to play upon the name of the deceased, the op- 
 portunity was gracefully seized. When the Kev. Samuel 
 Stone, the successor of Thomas Hooker at Hartford, 
 died in 1663, his colleagues vied with one another in 
 their fervid appreciations of his virtues. He was com- 
 pared to the stone which Jacob set up and called Eben- 
 ezer, and also to the stone with which David slew 
 Goliath; he was termed 
 
 " Whetstone, that edgef y'd th' ohtusest mind : 
 Loadstone, that drew the iron heart unkind." 
 
 — and this within the compass of a single epitaph. 
 One quotation will serve to show the skill with which 
 
 these versifiers were sometimes able to conquer the dif- 
 ficulties of rhyme : — 
 
 " Here lies the darling; of his time, 
 Mitchell expired in his prime ; 
 Was four years short of forty-seven, 
 Was found full ripe and plucked for heaven." ^ 
 
 If poetry be rare among our forefathers, it is never- 
 theless true that the first English book printed 
 in America passed for poetry with them, and Bay Psaim 
 for poetry of an edifying and noble type. Tlie ^'^^ 
 Whole Boohe of Psalmes, commonly known as the Bay 
 Psalm Booh, was printed on the new press at Cam- 
 bridge in 1640.^ This work, designed to provide a met- 
 rical version of the Psalms of David, to be used in the 
 churches, contains the joint efiEorts of three New Eng- 
 land ministers — "the chief divines in the country," 
 
 — Richard Mather of Dorchester, Thomas Welde, and 
 John Eliot, of Roxbury. The preface, written by 
 Mather, declares that 
 
 * From an epitaph on Rev. Jonathan Mitchell of Cambridge, died, 
 1668. From the Magnolia of Cotton Mather. 
 
 ^ The first article printed here was The FreemaWs Oathr a single 
 sheet, and the second was Pierce's Almanack, 1639. No other work is 
 known to have been printed previous to 1640. ..'..' 
 
34 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 " It hath been one part of our religious care and faithful 
 endeavor to keep close to the original text. ... If , therefore, 
 the verses are not always so smooth and elegant as some may 
 desire or expect, let them consider that God's altar needs not 
 our polishings, for we have respected rather a plain translation 
 than to smooth our verses with the sweetness of any para- 
 phrase ; and so have attended Conscience rather than Ele- 
 gance, fidelity rather than poetry." 
 
 In illustration of the art displayed by these divines 
 in their paraphrase, historians have invariably cited 
 some of the most atrocious of the compositions. This 
 seems hardly fair. The following examples are sufficient 
 to show the average result of " the sad, mechanic ex- 
 ercise " of these godly men : — 
 
 " I in the Lord do tmst ; how then 
 to my soul do ye say, 
 As doth a little bird, unto 
 your mountain fly away ? 
 
 " For lo the wicked bend their bow, 
 their arrows they prepare 
 On string ; to shoot in dark at them 
 in heart that upright are." 
 
 From paraphrase of Psalm zL 
 
 " Praise ye the Lord, praise God 
 
 in 's place of holiness ; 
 O praise him in the firmament 
 
 of his great mightiness, 
 O praise him for his acts 
 
 that be magnificent, 
 
 " & praise ye him according to 
 
 his greatness excellent. 
 
 With trumpet praise ye him 
 
 that gives a sound so high : 
 
 & do ye praise him with the Harp 
 
 & sounding Psalterye." 
 
 Psalm cl. 
 
 The student may be sure that he will find many worse 
 compositions in this collection ; it is doubtful if he will 
 
ANNE BRADSTREET 35 
 
 find smoother. And yet the Bay Psalm Book served 
 its sacred purpose in the New England churches for 
 more than a century ; it was even used to some extent 
 by Puritan worshipers in England and Scotland until 
 after 1750. At the Old South Church in Boston, the 
 Bay Psalm Booh, although it had been revised, was 
 not displaced until 1786. 
 
 From the midst of the crude and sombre composi- 
 tions of Puritan verse-makers, there arose one . 
 writer for whom in some measure the poetical Biaistreet, 
 gift may be claimed. This was Anne Brad- ^^^^-''^^ 
 street. In 1650, the first volume of her poems was pub- 
 lished in London. Upon the title-page of this volume 
 the author was rather extravagantly introduced as " the 
 Tenth Muse lately sprung up in America." Anne Brad- 
 street, a really gifted woman, was the daughter of 
 Thomas Dudley, a Puritan soldier and. scholar, who 
 has been described as a " typical narrow-minded, strait- 
 laced Calvinist, for whom it is so much easier to 
 entertain respect than affection." * Nevertheless, Anne 
 Dudley was reared in comfort and enjoyed especially 
 the dear delight of books. She was married at sixteen 
 to Simon Bradstreet, a Puritan gentleman who after- 
 ward became a leader in colonial affairs and a gov- 
 ernor of Massachusetts. In 1630, the entire family 
 joined the company of emigrants to America, Thomas 
 Dudley holding the position of deputy governor under 
 Winthrop. The Bradstreets settled near the present 
 town of Andover, not far from the beautiful Merrimac. 
 For this young wife, accustomed to an atmosphere of 
 comfort and refinement, the experiences of pioneer life 
 must have been trying in the extreme. Yet, in the wil- 
 derness, amid its threatening perils, superintending the 
 work which falls to the mistress of a farm, rearing and 
 1 John Fiske, Beginnings of New England, p. 103. 
 
36 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 educating her eight children, Mrs. Bradstreet found 
 comfort in literary occupation, and both time and spirit 
 to write. The quality of her mind is shown in her prose, 
 but it was as a poet that she found fame. In her verse, 
 she is influenced by the work of such of the English 
 poets as would naturally have impressed her : the devo- 
 tional poems of John Donne, of Francis Quarles, author 
 of the Divine Emblems ; of the Puritan poet, George 
 Wither, and the deeply spiritual poetry of the saintly 
 George Herbert. The verse of these minor English 
 poets who flourished in the time of James and Charles I 
 — the period of Anne Bradstreet's girlhood and early 
 womanhood — was characterized by an unusual and 
 fantastic style of thought and diction. These men are 
 sometimes called the "metaphysical poets," because of 
 this artificial quality and on account of their grotesque 
 conceits. The crude rhymes of the colonial epitaphs 
 already quoted, with their incongruous puns, are rather 
 extreme examples of this fantastic style. The work of 
 the " Tenth Muse " shows the influence of this taste for 
 a strained and laborious ingenuity of expression. Her 
 longer works are didactic ; so filled with the eager pur- 
 pose to instruct and edify that the natural Puritan 
 scruples regarding a woman's practice of the literary art 
 were in large degree forgotten. The Four Elements 
 and The Four Seasons are in the form of dialogue, 
 wherein the speakers individually maintain their claims 
 to preeminence ; these poems are mechanical and heavy 
 compositions, but show a facility of phrase and rhythm 
 quite new to the readers of colonial verse. The Four 
 Monarchies, her most ambitious poem, is a rhyming 
 chronicle based upon Sir Walter Raleigh's History of 
 the World. When Anne Bradstreet's poems were pub- 
 lished, in 1650, they were received with extravagant 
 praise in America; and following her death, not a few 
 
« THE *• 
 
 I TENTH MUSE | 
 
 I Lately fprung up in Amer ica. | 
 
 1 ^^ . 1^ 
 
 I Severall Poems, compiled | 
 
 I with great variety of VVit g 
 % and Learning/ull of delight. |; 
 I Wherein efpecially is contained a com- g 
 >| pleac difcourfe and dcfcriptioa of $» 
 ^ ^Elements, ^ 
 
 I The FourX''»^''fi"'' | 
 
 ^ KSeafonsoftheTear. £ 
 
 I Together with an Exaft Epltomie of| 
 ig the Four Monarchies, viz. ^ 
 
 I The <F"^"^"^ 
 
 ( 'Roman, 
 Alfo a Dialogue between Old Englanrf and 
 NeWjConcerning the late troubles. 
 With divers other pleafant and ferious Poems. 
 
 By a Gentlewoman in thofe parts. 
 
 Printed at Lojk/«i for Stt^en Bomttt at the figne of the 
 Bible in Popes Head-Alley, itfjo. 
 
 TITLE-PAGE OF AMfB BRADSTEEET'S BOOK 
 (Reduced) 
 
38 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 of her admirers essayed to express their appreciation 
 in flattering verse. 
 
 John Kogers, who before his death became presi- 
 dent of Harvard College, paid his tribute to the genius 
 of Anne Bradstreet in quite exalted utterance. One 
 stanza of his composition may be quoted, in testi- 
 mony to the effect produced in contemporary minds of 
 literary taste by this gifted woman's work. 
 
 " Twice hare I druok the nectar of your lines, 
 Which high sublimed my mean-bom fantasy. 
 Flushed with these streams of your Maroniau wines, 
 Above myself rapt to an ecstacy, 
 Hethought I was upon Mount Hybla's top, 
 There where I might those fragrant flowers lop. 
 Whence did sweet odors flow, and honey-spangles drop." * 
 
 Let us now read a few stanzas written by Anne 
 Bradstreet herself, taken from her best known and 
 most attractive poem, Contemplations. It was written 
 late in her life, at her home in Andover, and is properly 
 described as " a genuine expression of poetic feeling iu 
 the presence of nature." 
 
 " I heard the merry grasshopper then sing. 
 The black-clad cricket bear a second part. 
 They kept one tune, and played on the same string, 
 Seeming to glory in their little art. 
 Shall creatures abject thus their voices ^aise ? 
 And in their kind resound their maker's praise. 
 Whilst I, as mute, can warble forth no higher lays ? 
 
 " Under the cooling shadow of a stately Elm, 
 Close sate I by a goodly River's side, 
 Where gliding streams the Rocks did overwhelm ; 
 A lonely place with pleasures dignifi'd. 
 I once that lov'd the shady woods so well. 
 Now thought the riyera did the trees excel. 
 And if the sun would ever shine there would I dwell. 
 
 1 Quoted by Professor Tyler in his History of American Literature, 
 vol. ii, ch. xi. 
 
MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH 39 
 
 " While musings thus with contemplation fed, 
 And thousand fancies buzzing in my brain, 
 The sweet tongu'd Philomel peicht o'er my head, 
 And chanted forth a most melodious strain. 
 Which rapt me so with wonder and delight, 
 I judg'd my hearing better than my sight, 
 And wisht me wings with her awhile to take my flight." 
 
 A few months before Anne Bradstreet's death, she 
 composed the following lines, which illustrate the aspi- 
 rations of Puritanism in their noblest form : — 
 
 ** As weary pilgrim now at rest 
 Hngs with delight his silent nest, 
 His wasted limbs now lie full soft. 
 That miry steps have trodden oft. 
 Pleases himself to think upon 
 His dangers past and travails done ; 
 
 " A pilgrim I, in earth perplexed, 
 With sins, with cares and sorrows vexed. 
 By age and pains brought to decay, 
 And my clay house mouldering away. 
 Oh, how I long to be at rest 
 And soar on high among the blest." 
 
 While Mrs. Bradstreet's verse at its best exhibits 
 the highest poetical accomplishment of seven- Hioiiaei 
 teenth-century Puritanism in New England, J^j^"" 
 there was one other Puritan versifier whose I63i-1705. 
 inspiration appealed yet more strongly to contemporary 
 minds. This most popular of early American poets was 
 Ee V. Michael Wigglesworth, minister at Maiden, Massa- 
 chusetts, author of a tremendous and dismal epic, sur- 
 charged with the extreme Calvinism of the time. This 
 masterpiece of Puritan theological belief is entitled The 
 Day of Doom ; it was published in 1662, and for a 
 hundred years remained — as Lowell expresses it — "the 
 solace of every fireside " in the northern colonies. 
 
 This long and desolate composition is an imaginative 
 
40 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 account of the Last Judgment. The voice of the trum- 
 TheDayoi P^* ^^ heard summoning the living and the 
 Doom. dead before the dreadful bar. 
 
 " Some hide themselves in Caves and Delves 
 
 in places underground. 
 Some rashly leap into the Deep, 
 
 to scape by being drowned : 
 Some to the Bocks (0 senseless blocks !) 
 
 and woody mountains run 
 That there they might this fearful sight, 
 
 and dreaded Presence shun." 
 
 In this jingling ballad measure, so strangely inap- 
 propriate to his solemn theme, the reverend author pur- 
 sues his gloomy way. It is not well to linger over this 
 grotesque presentation of mediaeval art and logic ; yet 
 it is through these crude expressions of the early litera- 
 ture that we are brought in closest touch with some 
 phases of the Puritan mind. First we are given the 
 appeals of the condemned ; the children argue with 
 reference to Adam's fall : — 
 
 " Not we, but he ate of the Tree, 
 
 whose fruit was interdicted : 
 Tet on us all of his sad Fall, 
 
 the punishment 's inflicted. 
 How could we sin that had not been, 
 
 or how is his sin our 
 Without consent, which to prevent, 
 
 we never had a power? " 
 
 The reply is heard that Adam stood not for himself 
 alone, but for all mankind ; that had he done well in- 
 stead of ill, all would have shared in his benefits — nor 
 would they have then protested that they deserved not 
 to share therein, on the ground now urged. The inex- 
 orable Judge does, however, yield a point in mercy to 
 the children and infants : — 
 
 " Yet to compare your sin with their 
 who lived a longer time, 
 
PURITAN TYPES 41 
 
 I do confess yours is much less, 
 though every siu 's a csrime. 
 
 " A crime it is, therefore in bliss 
 
 you may not hope to dwell ; 
 But unto you I shall allow 
 
 the easiest room in Hell. 
 The glorious King thus answering, 
 
 they cease and plead no longer : 
 Their consciences must needs confess 
 
 his reasons are the stronger." 
 
 Much of Wigglesworth's vision is too lurid to be de- 
 scribed here ; such raw strength as he applied in paint- 
 ing the details of his fiery picture but intensifies the 
 horror of it and increases our wonder that such con- 
 ceptions could have prevailed. 
 
 It is interesting to remember that at the very time 
 when the Maiden minister was writing his PTuttan 
 Day of Doom, John Milton was engaged Types, 
 upon the real epic of Puritan faith, one of the master- 
 pieces of all literature. Paradise Lost was published in 
 1667. It was but a decade thereafter that John Bunyan 
 completed his beautiful religious allegory, PilgrirrCs 
 Progress. But the Puritanism of New England — its 
 narrowness and hardness no doubt intensified by the 
 isolation and, perhaps, the depression incident to life in 
 a comparatively rude and struggling colony — was re- 
 presented by the zealot, Michael Wigglesworth, with his 
 sing-song verse, and the stem ascetic Cotton Mather, 
 with his laborious and often fantastic prose. It was 
 eminently fitting that when Wigglesworth died in 1705, 
 the author of the Magnolia should have preached his 
 funeral sermon. The two stand appropriately together. 
 They taught the same doctrine ; and in their two great 
 representative works they exhibit the literary attainment 
 of Colonial America in the seventeenth century. 
 
42 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 
 
 The following books will be found especially helpful for 
 SnEgestlons reference and for supplementary reading: John 
 Jor Reading. FJgke's Old Virginia and her Neighbours ; Be- 
 ginnings of New England ; George P. Fisher's The Colo- 
 nial Era (American History Series) ; R. G. Thwaites's 
 77ie Colonies (Epochs of American History). The one au- 
 thoritative work on early American literature is Moses Coit 
 Tyler's monumental History of American Literature dur- 
 ing Colonial Times (2 vols.) ; for teachers and advanced 
 students of the subject Prof essor Tyler's books are invaluable. 
 In Stedman and Hutchinson's Library of American Litera- 
 ture are to be found extended selections from the works of 
 all these early writers ; this excellent Library should be in 
 every school, and in constant use for illustration during the 
 course. 
 
 The series of Old South Leaflets (published by the Old 
 South Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts) contains re- 
 prints of various papers of interest, notably : A Description 
 of New England, by John Smith (No. 121 ). Manners and 
 Customs of the Indians (from the New English Canaan), 
 by Thomas Morton (No. 87). The Lives of Bradford and 
 Winthrop, by Cotton Mather (No. 77). Bradford's Memoir 
 of Brewster (No. 48). Soger Williams' Letters to Winthrop 
 (No. 54). Bradford's History of the Plimoth Plantation, 
 with a report of the proceedings incident to the return of the 
 manuscript to Massachusetts, was printed and published by 
 the State at Boston, in 1901. The lives and times of Francis 
 Higginson, Anne Bradstreet, and Cotton Mather have been 
 presented in recent interesting biographies. The Scarlet 
 Letter, by Hawthorne, F. J. Stimson's King Noanett, Mary 
 Johnston's To Have and to Hold, with other standard works 
 of fiction dealing with this colonial period, may be read with 
 great advantage also. 
 
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CHAPTEE II 
 THE EIGHTEENTH CEKTURY 
 
 I. The First Half of the Century. 
 
 II. Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790. 
 III. The Second Half of the Century. 
 IV. Poetry of the Revolution. 
 
 V. The Close of the Century. 
 
 I. THE FIRST HALF OF THE CENTURY; THE PERSONAL 
 TOUCH: SAMUEL SEWALL, MRS. KNIGHT, EBENEZER 
 COOK, WILLIAM BTRD, JONATHAN EDWARDS. 
 
 In the study of literature, there is nothing more 
 gratifying than the discovery of an author who" has 
 unconsciously put himself visibly into his book. Two 
 or three American writers wrote thus amiably at this 
 period of our colonial history, and their works form an 
 interesting and welcome group. 
 
 The most prominent of these was Judge Samuel 
 Somnei Sewall, who arrived in America in 1661 and 
 sewaii, settled at Newbury. He was a conspicuous 
 ■ man m the Massachusetts colony and became 
 the Chief-justice of Massachusetts. Like his friend, 
 Cotton Mather, he was involved in the witchcraft delu- 
 sion and was one of the judges who condemned the 
 victims to death. His repentance, his dramatic confes- 
 sion of error and his annual fast are familiar tradition.* 
 It should be remembered, also, that in a little book. 
 The Selling of Joseph (1700), Judge Sewall wrote the 
 first published argument against slavery. From 1673 
 to 1729, Samuel Sewall kept a diary — and thereby left 
 1 Read Whittier's poem, The Prophecy of Samuel Sewall. 
 
SAMUEL SEWALL 45 
 
 for generations of readers to come one of the most frank 
 and unconventional records of the time. The publication 
 of this journal * shows that it is worthy of a place with 
 that of Samuel Pepys (pronounced Peps), of London, 
 whose celebrated Diary covers the decade of 1659-69. 
 The social life of colonial New England is most happily 
 illustrated in Sewall's memoranda ; and the stiff state- 
 liness of the stern old Puritan type loses at least its 
 solemnity when we read the Judge's record of his 
 unavailing suit for the hand of Ma'danf Winthrop. 
 
 [Oct. 6, 1720.] « A little after 6 P.M. I went to Madam 
 Winthrop's. She was not within. I gave Sarah Chickering 
 the Maid 2?, Juno, who brought in wood l! Afterward the 
 Nurse came in, I gave her 18* having no other small Bill. 
 After a while Dr. Noyes came in with his Mother [Mrs. 
 "Winthrop] ; and after his wife came in : They sat talking, I 
 think, tin eight a' clock. I said I f ear'd I might be some inter- 
 ruption to their Business ; Dr. Noyes reply'd pleasantly : He 
 fear'd they might be an Interruption to me, and went away. 
 Madam seemed to harp upon the same string [she had pre- 
 viously declared that she could not break up her present 
 home]. Must take care of her children ; could not leave that 
 House and Neighborhood where she had dwelt so long. I told 
 her she might doe her children as much or more good by 
 bestowing what she laid out in Hous-keeping, upon them. 
 Said her son would be of Age the 7"" of August. I said it 
 might be inconvenient for her to dwell with her Daughter- 
 in-Law, who must be Mistress of the House. I gave her a 
 piece of Mr. Belcher's Cake and Ginger-Bread wrapped Tip 
 in a clean sheet of Paper ; told her of her Father's kindness 
 to me when Treasurer, and I Constable. My daughter Judith 
 was gon from me and I was more lonesome — might help to 
 forward one another in our journey to Canaan. — Mr. Eyre 
 came within the door ; I saluted him, ask'd how Mr. Clark 
 did, and he "went away. I took leave about 9 a'clock." 
 1 Collections of the Mass. Historical Society, Boston, 1879. 
 
46 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 The Judge's suit did not prosper. 
 
 "85 21 [October 21. J Friday, My Son, the Minister, came 
 to me p. m. by appointment and we pray one for another 
 in the Old Chamber ; more especially respecting my Court- 
 ship. About 6 a-clock I go to Madam Winthrop's. Sarah told 
 me her Mistress was gon out, but did not tell me whither 
 she went. She presently ordered me a Fire ; so I went in, 
 having Dr. Sibb's Bowells with me to read. I read the first 
 two Sermons, still no body came in : at last about 9 a-clock 
 Mr. Jn? Eyre came in ; I took the opportunity to say to him 
 as I had done to Mrs. Noyes before, that I hoped my visit- 
 ing his Mother would not be disagreeable to him ; he an- 
 swered me with much Respect. When twas after 9 a clock 
 He of himself said he would go & call her, she was but at 
 one of his Brothers : A while after I heard Madam Win- 
 throp's voice enquiring something about John. After a good 
 while and Clapping the Garden door twice or thrice, she came 
 in. I mentioned something of the lateness ; she bantered me, 
 and said I was later. She received me Courteously. I asked 
 when our proceedings should be made publick : She said 
 They were like to be no more public than they were already. 
 OfEer'd me no Wine that I remember. I rose up at 11 a'clock 
 to come away, saying I would put on my coat. She offer'd 
 not to help me. I pray'd her that Juno might light me home, 
 she open'd the Shutter, and said twas pretty light abroad ; 
 Juno was weary and gon to bed. So I came home by Star- 
 light as well as I could. At my first coming in, I gave Sarah 
 five shillings. I writ Mr. E3Te his name in his book with the 
 date October 21, 1720. It cost me 8? Jehovah jireh." 
 
 Among the most interesting personal narratives of 
 this period is the Journal of Sarah K. 
 Kemtis Knight, which contains a lively account of 
 ^1-1727. * journey from Boston to New York made 
 by this adventurous lady in 1704. Madam 
 Knight was thirty-eight years of age — a native of 
 Boston. She made the trip on horseback and was five 
 
WILLIAM BYRD 47 
 
 days on the way between Boston and New Haven ; the 
 distance between New Haven and New York occupied \ 
 two days. The story is eloquent of the inconvenience 
 and peril to which colonial travelers were subject, but 
 the charm of the narrative is due to the vivacious per- 
 sonality of its author, and to her abounding sense of 
 humor which broadly illuminates the oddities of human 
 nature encountered in the wilderness. 
 
 To the student, as to the general reader, these bright 
 and lively narratives of actual life are far more attract- 
 ive than essays in more formal history ; in their power 
 to revive the past they are far superior. The South as 
 well as the North is represented thus in this same 
 period. 
 
 Born on a beautiful estate at Westover, Virginia, 
 William Byrd became one of the most pro- ^jm^^ 
 minent and useful of those who served that Byii, 
 colony at the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury. He was also its wittiest writer if not its most 
 accomplished scholar. His education he received in Eng- 
 land — as was customary with the youth of the South 
 — and he was admitted to the English bar. After fur- 
 ther travel in Europe, he returned to Virginia. He filled 
 various o£B.cial positions and became famed as the master 
 of Westover, where he maintained a princely hospitality. 
 In 1729, his duties assigned him to an expedition which 
 fixed the boundary between Virginia and North Caro- 
 lina ; and a narrative of this expedition Byrd wrote in 
 the form of a journal. It was not until 1841, however, 
 that the Westover manuscripts were published. The 
 History of the Dividing Line, as its author called it, is 
 a picturesque and racy account of an interesting expe- 
 rience. It was a laborious task — this of running the line 
 of division from a point on the coast six hundred miles 
 westward through a country wild and almost unknown. 
 
48 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 and which traversed the Great Dismal Swamp. In the 
 gayest of spirits, the journal records the daily expe- 
 riences of the expedition, vivaciously describing the 
 locality, with its denizens both wild and tame. An his- 
 torical sketch of Virginia is included in the narrative 
 wherein Byrd humorously sets o£E the shortcomings of 
 the first colonists — " about a hundred men, most of 
 them reprobates of good families." Another journal en- 
 titled A Progress to the Mines contains the account 
 of a trip taken in 1733. 
 
 There was no lack of historical writings in the col- 
 onies during this period of their growth. A 
 
 Histories. -ir- • • V, i, . ti i x j ■ 
 
 young Virgmian, JKobert rJeverley, studying 
 in London, was shown the text of a work upon the 
 British Empire in America ; and was so disturbed by 
 its inaccuracies that he himself prepared a History 
 of Virginia which was honest and readable. Beverley's 
 history was published in London in 1705, and again, 
 enlarged and revised, in 1722. Kev. William Stith 
 (1689-1755), president of William and Mary College,' 
 published in 1747 his first part of The History of the 
 First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia, bring- 
 ing his narrative down only to 1624. He never car- 
 ried the work further. It is based directly upon " the 
 excellent but confused materials " of Captain John 
 Smith, of whom Stith adds loyally: "I take him to 
 have been a very honest man and a strenuous lover of 
 truth." 
 
 One other book dealing with a picturesque aspect of 
 j^j southern life at this time is worthy of notice ; 
 
 l^weea it was one entitled The Sot Weed Factor; 
 or, a Voyage to Maryland, published at Lon- 
 don in 1708. The name of its author, Ebenezer Cook, 
 
 ' William and Mary College was established at Williamsburg, Vir- 
 ginia, in 1693. 
 
JOXATHAN EDWARDS 49 
 
 appears on the title-page, but of him we know nothing ; 
 he may have been an American, he may have been 
 merely an English visitor to our shores ; however, his 
 work is a lively contribution to the literature of the 
 period and presents in rough and ready rhyme a coarse 
 but realistic satire of the writer's adventures among 
 the tobacco agents — the " sot-weed factors " of Mary- 
 land. He asserts his purpose to describe "the laws, 
 governments, courts, and constitutions of the country, 
 and also the buildings, feasts, frolics, entertainments, 
 and drunken humors of the inhabitants." His style 
 may be inferred from these opening lines : — 
 
 " Condemned by fate to wayward curse 
 Of friends unkind and empty purse, — 
 Plagues worse than filled Pandora's box, — 
 1 took my leave of Albion's rocks ; 
 With heavy heart concerned, that I 
 Was forced my native soil to fly, 
 And the old world must bid good-bye. 
 
 Freighted with fools, from Plymouth sound 
 To Maryland our ship was bound." 
 
 Returning to New England, we find once more the 
 intellectual leader of his age among the min- jono«ian 
 isters. Jonathan Edwards was not only a great Edwarfla, 
 scholar and one of the most noted theolo- ~ ' 
 gians of the century in which he lived, but one of the 
 most brilliant logicians that our country has ever pro- 
 duced; and in the literature of philosophical study, 
 he is still a commanding figure. Edwards was born in 
 Connecticut, and was graduated from Yale College* at 
 seventeen. After a brief connection with that insti- 
 tution as a tutor, he became pastor of the church in 
 
 ^ Tale College was founded, in 1701, at Saybrook, Connecticut; in 
 1718, the institution was removed to New Haven and given its name 
 in honor of Elihu Yale, its principal benefactor. 
 
60 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Northampton, Massachusetts, where he remained until 
 1750, when he resigned his charge and engaged in 
 missionary work among the Indians in the western part 
 of the colony. In 1758, he was called to the presidency 
 of Princeton College,' and died within a few weeks 
 after his installation. 
 
 In the records of Edwards's precocious childhood, in 
 the hreadth of his interests and in the scope and energy 
 of his scholastic labors there is much that recalls the 
 phenomenal career of Cotton Mather, but there was no 
 real resemblance in the men ; Mather was ponderous, 
 Edwards was profound. 
 
 When a boy of twelve, Jonathan Edwards was an 
 AScienutio acute observer of nature and wrote for a 
 student. naturalist in England an account of his obser- 
 vations on spiders. This interest in natural science he 
 maintained in mature years. He advanced a theory of 
 atoms, he demonstrated that the fixed stars are suns, 
 he made interesting studies on the growth of trees and 
 on the formation of river channels, he studied the 
 principles of sound, the cause of colors, and the tenden- 
 cies of winds, and anticipated Franklin's discovery of 
 the nature of the lightning. 
 
 Edwards's sermons have acquired a fame, not alto- 
 gether desirable, perhaps, but almost unique 
 in the recognition of their power. His most 
 noted sermon, preached at Enfield, Massachusetts, in 
 1741, on the theme Sinners in the Hands of an Angry 
 God, was so terrifying in its immediate effect that the 
 people bowed in agony and the noise of their weeping 
 and their cries obliged him to call for silence that he 
 might be heard. Edwards became recognized as a de- 
 fender of Calvinism at a time when strong opposition 
 was developing against it. He was one of the conspic- 
 * The College of New Jersey (now Princeton) was founded in 1746. 
 
THE FREEDOM OP THE WILL 51 
 
 uous leaders in the great revival movement in the 
 forties, known as the Great Awakening — the religious 
 movement in which the famous English preacher, 
 George Whitfield, was a prominent figure. 
 
 It is, however, as the author of an extraordinary 
 book entitled An Inquiry into the Freedom TtoFieeaom 
 of the Will, that Jonathan Edwards holds of the will, 
 his position in American letters. This work 
 is a defense of the Calvinistic doctrines of foreordi- 
 nation, original sin, and eternal punishment. It is a 
 masterpiece of philosophical reasoning, and although in 
 the broadening of men's minds the old theological ideas 
 have been greatly modified, the Freedom of the Will 
 is still recognized as a profound work, and has a defi- 
 nite place in the literature of theological discussion ; 
 it has been called "the one large contribution which 
 America has made to the deeper philosophic thought of 
 the world." 
 
 Jonathan Edwards was intensely spiritual, an " intel- 
 lectual saint." The presence of an inner light 
 glows in his refined and delicate features. 
 A deep poetical temperament underlies his spiritual 
 thought. His imagination revels in beautiful figures. 
 Holiness makes 
 
 " the Soul like a field or garden of God, with all manner of 
 pleasant flowers ; enjoying a sweet calm, and the gently vivi- 
 fying beams of the sun. The soul of a true Christian . . . 
 appears like such a little white flower as we see in the 
 spring of the year ; low and humble on the ground, opening 
 its bosom to receive the pleasant beams of the sun's glory ; 
 rejoicing, as it were in a calm rapture ; diffusing around a 
 sweet fragrancy; standing peacefully and lovingly, in the 
 midst of other flowers round about ; all in like manner 
 opening their bosoms, to drink in the light of the sun. 
 
 " So that, when we are delighted with flowers, meadows. 
 
52 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 and gentle breezes of wind, we may consider that we see 
 only the emanation of the sweet benevolence of Jesus Christ. 
 When we behold the fragrant rose and lily, we see His love 
 and purity. So the green trees and fields, and singing of birds, 
 are the emanation of His infinite joy and benignity. The 
 easiness and naturalness of trees and vines are shadows of 
 His beauty and loveliness. The crystal rivers and murmur- 
 ing streams are the footsteps of His favour, grace and beauty. 
 When we behold the light and brightness of the sun, the 
 golden edges of an evening cloud, or the beauteous bow, we 
 behold the adumbrations of His glory and goodness ; and in 
 the blue sky, of His mildness and gentleness. There are 
 also many things wherein we may behold His awful majesty : 
 in the sun in his strength, in comets, in thunder, in the hover- 
 ing thunder-cloud, in rugged rocks, and the brows of moun- 
 tains. That beauteous light with which the world is filled in 
 a clear day is a Uvely shadow of His spotless holiness and 
 happiness and delight in communicating Himself." 
 
 II. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN : 1706-1790. 
 
 Next to Washington the most conspicuous and most 
 widely useful of Americans throughout the eighteenth 
 century was Benjamin Franklin. He was perhaps the 
 most typical American of his time ; certainly he was 
 the most versatile man of affairs and the most pic- 
 turesque in personality of all that distinguished group 
 who helped to guide the nation in that troubled age. 
 Through the second quarter of the century he lived the 
 quiet life of a thrifty, sagacious man of business, at 
 the same time taking a practical interest in matters of 
 public moment and presenting the most original model 
 of good citizenship that can be found. His contribu- 
 tion to American literature, the larger portion of which 
 belongs to this earlier period of his career, is not great, 
 but it is noteworthy. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, in 1706, of 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 53 
 
 typical Puritan stock. His father, Josiah Franklin, 
 who had come from England in 1685, was Boytooa 
 a soap-boiler and candle-maker. At the sign •» Boston. 
 of the blue ball, near the South Meeting House, he had 
 his little shop where he sold his soap and candles. 
 Benjamin was the fifteenth in a family of seventeen 
 children, and while the opportunities for formal edu- 
 cation were not promising, Josiah Franklin, a man of 
 sound understanding, was ingenious in providing means 
 to improve the minds of his children. At table, he dis- 
 cussed useful topics for their benefit. Benjamin, he de- 
 signed for the ministry, and at eight years of age he 
 sent him to school. Within the year, however, he was 
 compelled to withdraw his boy from the school and soon 
 after set him to work in the shop cutting wicks for the 
 candles, filling the moulds, and running errands. This 
 work proved distasteful, and after some efforts to find 
 a trade that the boy would like, Ben was apprenticed 
 to his brother James, who owned a printing business. 
 It was a fortunate choice ; and here, for a time, he throve. 
 From his earliest childhood, Franklin had a passion 
 for books. So soon as he could read, he had Hahits oi 
 waded through the small library — a musty s*"*'- 
 collection of treatises on divinity — which he found on 
 his father's shelves. With his first spending money, he 
 bought the works of John Bunyan, in separate little 
 volumes ; and these he later sold in order to buy Richard 
 Burton's Historical Collections, small and cheap, in 
 forty volumes. Among his father's books, he discovered 
 a copy of Plutarch's Lives, which he read "abun- 
 dantly." A volume of Defoe, An Essay on Projects, 
 and that little work by Cotton Mather, known as Es- 
 says to do Good, Franklin afterward recalled as having 
 given a turn to his thinking which directly influenced 
 him in the principal events of his later life.' 
 1 See page 30. 
 
54 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 He now obtained other books, and by cbance secured 
 an odd volume of the Spectator. This became not only 
 a source of delight, but, by an ingenious system of his 
 own devising, it also became a means of instruction in 
 the art of expression, and in no small degree helped 
 him to acquire a sound literary style. 
 
 In 1721, James Franklin, the brother to whom Ben- 
 TI16 News- jamin had been apprenticed, began to publish 
 paper. g^ newspaper. The New England Courant, one 
 of the first in the colonies.' To this paper, articles 
 were sometimes contributed by acquaintances who were 
 interested in the project. It was not long before the 
 printer's apprentice got the idea that he, too, could write 
 readable articles ; but, suspecting that if he were known 
 to be their author, his brother would refuse to print his 
 pieces, Ben wrote the papers in a disguised hand and 
 slipped them under the door of the printing-office at 
 night. When these articles were read, the boy had the 
 pleasure of hearing them approved by gentlemen who 
 visited the office, and guesses made as to their author- 
 ship. Once when James Franklin was arrested on ac- 
 count of some indiscreet utterance regarding public 
 affairs in his newspaper and compelled to undergo brief 
 imprisonment, the conduct of the paper was turned over 
 to Benjamin, who managed it alone and with success. 
 However, the brothers did not get along well together ; 
 there were differences and disputes ; and in 1723, when 
 seventeen, Ben ran away. To raise a little money, he 
 sold his books, slipped secretly aboard a sloop, and after 
 three days' sail found himself in New York. He was 
 without acquaintance, recommendations, or resources 
 other than the knowledge of his trade, his shrewd prac- 
 tical sense, and the sturdy self-reliance developed by 
 his experience in the past. 
 
 1 The Boston News-Later was established in lt04; The Boston 
 Gazette and The American Weekly Mercury (in Philadelphia) in 1719. 
 
LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA 55 
 
 Franklin did not secure employment in New York, 
 but hearing that printers were needed in 
 Philadelphia, he proceeded to that city. The puiadei- 
 familiar sketch of Franklin as an awkward ''"'"■ 
 youth trudging along Market Street, a large roll under 
 each arm and hungrily devouring a third, dates from 
 this period. He describes the scene himself, and says 
 that a Miss Kead, his future wife, who was standing in 
 her father's doorway, saw him pass in this guise, and 
 commented on the uncouth appearance.^ 
 
 In Philadelphia, Franklin soon found work at one of 
 the two printing-shops then established in the town, and 
 before long received some flattering notice from the 
 governor of the colony, Sir William Keith. This gen- 
 tleman proposed that Franklin set up in business for 
 himself, promising him the government printing, and 
 suggesting that he go to England to secure equipment 
 for the office on the governor's indorsement. 
 
 Highly elated, Franklin set out on his errand, but 
 only to find that he had been grossly deceived, j^j^j 
 His supposed patron was discovered to be 
 without credit or other means to fulfill his promise of 
 assistance ; and thus again thrown on his own resources, 
 this time in the city of London, the young American 
 settled down to work at his trade. Eighteen months 
 Franklin now spent in London, accumulating experi- 
 ence — some of which he afterward deplored — and all 
 the while establishing himself in habits of study, indus- 
 try, and thrift. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1726, 
 as yet but twenty years of age and not inadequately 
 prepared for a picturesque and important career. 
 
 The story of Franklin's life as a citizen of Philadel- 
 phia is a record of successful enterprise and practical 
 philanthropy. Again engaged in printing, he devel- 
 1 Autobiography, chapter ii. 
 
66 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 oped a profitable business and in 1729 purchased a news- 
 paper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, recently 
 citizen, established by a business rival. Just previous 
 1726-1760. j.^ ^jjjg transaction, Franklin had written a 
 series of humorous and satirical sketches, which he 
 called The Busy 5ocZy papers; these appeared in the 
 issues of another Philadelphia paper which preceded 
 the Gazette. Soon after his return from England, 
 Franklin organized an association which he called the 
 Junto ; it was composed of a few earnest young men of 
 serious purpose and literary tastes who met regularly 
 to discuss important themes, debate public questions, 
 and in a general way to seek means of self-improve- 
 ment. Gut of this society, grew several interesting de- 
 velopments. In time, similar clubs were organized, each 
 presided over by one of the original members of the 
 Junto, the existence of which was to some extent a 
 secret. The usefulness of the institution was thus ex- 
 tended and at the same time a means of influence was 
 established which under the shrewd management of 
 its founder materially helped Franklin in the further- 
 ance of his ideas. 
 
 While his private interests prospered as a result of 
 Praotioai his shrewd practical policy, Franklin's activity 
 Beaeficenae. ^^^g y^^ ^^ means restricted to these. The 
 same principles of industry, thrift, and common-sense he 
 applied, as opportunity offered, in matters affecting the 
 comfort and common good of all. It was at his instance 
 that the first organized system of police protection dis- 
 placed the old method of the city "watch." He organized 
 the first volunteer fire department ; and by his efforts 
 the service of a state militia was inaugurated. At his 
 suggestion, the members of the Junto joined in buying 
 books for their use in common, and established a library 
 which was the beginning of the circulating library sys- 
 
A MAN OF LETTERS 57 
 
 tem in America. In 1744, Franklin organized the Philo- 
 sophical Society of Philadelphia, and five years later 
 succeeded after considerable effort in founding an acad- 
 emy for the education of the youth in the state ; out of 
 this academy grew the University of Pennsylvania. 
 Many minor improvements in municipal methods also 
 came through his suggestion and persistent advocacy. 
 Thus the Philadelphia markets were paved, and then 
 all the city streets, and provision was made for keep- 
 ing them clean. The invention of an open stove, still 
 used and known as the Franklin stove, he gave freely 
 to the public, refusing to accept apatent therefor, when 
 one was offered him by the governor. 
 
 Such a record speaks eloquently not only of Frank- 
 lin's sagacity, but also of his genuine benevolence. Al- 
 though it was his policy to keep his own personality in 
 the background, it is no wonder that his services were 
 recognized, and that he was now regarded as the lead- 
 ing citizen in Philadelphia. He was able to retire from 
 active business in 1748, and was henceforward wholly 
 employed in matters of public welfare. Since 1737, 
 he had been postmaster of Philadelphia. In 1750, he 
 was elected a member of the General Assembly. 
 
 We have already noted the modest beginnings of 
 Franklin's literary work in the contributions a Man at 
 made anonymously, while an apprentice, to ^**'"^- 
 his brother's paper in Boston. These articles, signed 
 with the pen-name Silence Dogood, inspired by Cotton 
 Mather's Essays to do Good, and formed on the style 
 of Addison, were merely experimental. jPhe Busy Body 
 papers, contributed to the PMladelpJiia Mercury in 
 1728-29, are not notable except for their well-devel- 
 oped sense of humor. But in 1732, Franklin published 
 the first issue of his famous Almanac, which for a quar- 
 ter of a century appeared annually, exercising no small 
 
58 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 influence on habits and morals throughout the colo- 
 nies. 
 
 To appreciate the popularity of Franklin's annual, 
 The it is necessary to recall the lack of original 
 
 AimaMo. literature in America at that time. Among 
 the common people, except the Bible, the printed ser- 
 mons of the New England clergy, and their theological 
 pamphlets, there was little if any reading matter of any 
 sort. The almanac, however, was an established and 
 cherished institution. It was as universal as the Bible 
 itself. Various printers issued almanacs ; peddlers car- 
 ried them about in their packs; one hung in every 
 chimney-corner. Their owners used them as receptacles 
 for their memoranda and accounts. Such crude para- 
 graphs and wise saws as might be found inserted among 
 the calculations supplied about everything in the way 
 of " profane " literature which was accessible to the 
 people at large. No less than seven of these annual 
 publications were appearing regularly in Philadelphia 
 when Franklin's first issue appeared. Their predictions 
 were vague and unsatisfying. " Eain here or in South 
 Carolina," said one ; " cold to the northward, warm to 
 the southward," it declared. The editors, however, 
 prided themselves on the fact that if they missed the 
 mark in their weather forecasts, they were usually cor- 
 rect in placing the day of the week on its proper date 
 in the month — and that, after all, was the most useful 
 thing in an almanac. 
 
 The new publication, " by Eichard Saunders, Philo- 
 "Poor math," was different from its predecessors. 
 Richara." Franklin created a character, Poor Eichard, 
 in whose name the work appeared, and whose real ex- 
 istence was debated humorously and seriously. Scat- 
 tered among the calculations, were many crisp sayings 
 introduced by the phrase « As Poor Eichard says," — 
 
Poor Richard, 1733. 
 
 AN 
 
 Almanack 
 
 FortheYearofChrift 
 
 1733' 
 
 Being the Firftafrer LEAP YEAR: 
 
 j(kJ maits Jtnce the Creation Years 
 
 By the Account of the EalYem Creelis 7241 
 
 By the Latin Church, when O ent. V tfjj* 
 
 By the Computation of W^.^. 5742 
 
 By the Roman Chronology 5<>Sz 
 
 By the Jiwijb Babbies 5494 
 
 Wherein is contained 
 
 The Lunations, EcUpfes, Jadgment.of 
 the Weather, Spring Titles, Planets Motions & 
 mutual Afpefls, Sun and Moon's Rifing and Set- 
 ting, Length of Days, Time" of High Water, 
 Faiis, Courts, aud oWervaWe Days 
 
 Fitted tothe Latitudcof Forty Degrees, 
 and' a Meridian of Five Hours Weft from Zeixtoij 
 but may without fenfible Error, (erye sU the ad- 
 jacent Places^ even from Newfouadlaud to tSiati- 
 
 CarQlma. 
 
 By RICHARD SJUNDBRS,Vlu\om, 
 
 PHFLADELPHIA: 
 
 Ptbtcd and fold by B. FKJNKL/tf, at the New 
 
 Priuing Office near the Market. 
 
 FIKST ISStJE OF FRANKLIN'S "POOR RICHARD'S 
 
 ALMANAC " — firet page 
 
 (Original size 2% X 5% inches) 
 
60 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 sayings which have taken their place among the max- 
 ims of the world. 
 
 " Keep thy shop, and thy shop -will keep thee." 
 " One today is worth two tomorrows." 
 " Plow deep while sluggards sleep." 
 " An empty sack cannot stand upright." 
 " Fools make feasts and wise men eat them." 
 " He that hy the plow would thrive 
 Himself must either hold or drive." 
 
 These and scores of similar homely proverbs were 
 incorporated in the Almanac. It was Franklin's idea to 
 teach lessons of thrift to his countrymen. Some of the 
 sayings he coined entire, others he quoted from various 
 sources. They were finally sifted and collected in per- 
 manent form in a lengthy discourse called Father 
 AbraharrCs Speech, which was included in the Almanac 
 of 1758 and found its way thus into well-nigh every 
 home in America. Father Abraham! s Speech was trans- 
 lated into every European language, and even to this 
 day continues to teach its useful lesson of industry, fru- 
 gality, and honesty, the world over. 
 
 Franklin's other literary success was his famous Au- 
 The Anto- tohiography, which he began to write in 1771, 
 wogiaphy. resumed in 1788, and left incomplete at his 
 death. The purpose of its author was to make the ex- 
 periences of his own career, the conduct and habit of 
 life which had led to success in his own case, a source 
 of help and inspiration to others. He therefore tells the 
 story of his struggles, his errors, his experiments with 
 himself, his accomplishment, with wonderful frankness 
 and extreme simplicity. 
 
 Take for example the following passage : * — 
 
 " The objections and reluctances I met with in soliciting 
 
 ' Chapter vi. The reference is to the subscription library established 
 by Franklin's effort. 
 
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY 61 
 
 the subscriptions made me soon feel the impropriety of pre- 
 senting one's self as the proposer of any useful project that 
 might be supposed to raise one's reputation in the smallest 
 degree above that of one's neighbors, when one has need of 
 their assistance to accomplish that project. I therefore put 
 myself as much as I could out of sight, and stated it to be a 
 scheme of a number ofjriends, who had requested me to go 
 about and propose it to such as they thought lovers of read- 
 ing. In this way, my affairs went on more smoothly, and I 
 ever after practiced it on such occasions ; and from my fre- 
 quent successes, can heartily recommend it. The present little 
 sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid. If it 
 remains a while uncertain to whom the merit belongs, some 
 one more vain than yourself may be encouraged to claim it, 
 and then even envy will be disposed to do you justice, by 
 plucking those assumed feathers, and restoring them to their 
 right owner. This library afforded me the means of improve- 
 ment by constant study, for which I set apart an hour or two 
 each day, and thus repaired in some degree the loss of the 
 learned education my father once intended for me. Beading 
 was the only amusement I allowed myself. I spent no time in 
 taverns, games, or frolics of any kind ; and my industry in 
 my business continued as indefatigable as it was necessary. I 
 was indebted for my printing-house ; I had a young family 
 coming on to be educated, and I had two competitors to con- 
 tend with for business who were established in the place be- 
 fore me. My circumstances, however, grew daily easier. My 
 original habits of frugality continuing, and my father having, 
 among his instructions to me when a boy, frequently repeated 
 a proverb of Solomon, ' Seest thou a man diligent in his 
 calling, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before 
 mean men,' I thence considered industry as a means of obtain- 
 ing wealth and distinction, which encouraged me, — though 
 I did not think that I should ever literally stand before kings, 
 which, however, has since happened ; for I have stood before 
 five, and even had the honor of sitting down with one, the 
 King of Denmark, to dinner." 
 
62 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 The predominant quality in all of Franklin's writ- 
 Character- ing is its genuine humanness ; this, is what 
 LHeraJy"" brought the Almanac into instant popularity, 
 Work. and what makes the AutohiograpJiy an en- 
 during American classic. It is a quality that had been 
 extremely rare in the earlier colonial literature. A keen 
 sense of humor, also, homely and blunt but true, is 
 constant in Franklin's work and one of the essential 
 factors in its success. Noted examples of his wit are 
 found in his anecdote of The Whistle and The Dialogue 
 between Dr. Franklin and the Gout, which are among 
 the papers entitled Bagatelles, written when Franklin 
 was in France. 
 
 Franklin's literary work was thoroughly typical of 
 himself. Honest, plain, democratic, clear-headed, 
 shrewd, worldly-wise, he was interested in the practical 
 side of life. To him the matter of " getting on " in the 
 world was a duty; and to enable others to see the 
 advantages of integrity, application, and thrift was his 
 self-appointed task. His influence in this direction was 
 immense. The absence of ideality is obvious in all his 
 compositions. He never reached the high levels of im- 
 aginative art, but on this lower plane of material 
 interest and every-day life he was, and is, without a 
 peer among writers. The works which have been men- 
 tioned possess a universal charm. " I will disinherit 
 you," said Sidney Smith to his daughter, " if you do 
 not admire everything written by Franklin." 
 
 Of Franklin's later life, his large usefulness to this 
 1760-1790, country throughout the Revolutionary pe- 
 to tiio°Sim- ^^^^1 bis distinctions and his honors, only a 
 ^- bare summary can be given here. In 1753, 
 
 he was appointed Postmaster-general and established 
 the postal system on a paying basis. In 1757, he was 
 sent to England as the representative of Pennsylvania 
 
SERVICE TO THE COUNTRY 63 
 
 — his duties keeping him there for the ensuing five 
 years. From 1764 to 1775, he was again in England, 
 the official representative of four of the colonies, Penn- 
 sylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Georgia. 
 The day after his landing again in America, he was 
 appointed a member in the Second Continental Con- 
 gress, where he was conspicuous for the next fourteen 
 months. It was he who, with characteristic humor, 
 declared, after the signing of the Declaration of Inde- 
 • pendence: "Yes, we must all hang together, or as- 
 suredly we shall all hang separately." In September, 
 1776, Franklin was sent to France as a special envoy 
 to win the sympathy and assistance of that country for 
 the new nation. How well he succeeded in his mission, 
 and what enthusiasm of popular admiration was aroused 
 by his homely, benevolent personality are matters of 
 familiar history. On his return, after having been 
 relieved by Jefferson, in 1783, he was at once made a 
 member of the Constitutional Convention, which finally 
 adopted the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 " I seem to have intruded myself into the company 
 of posterity," he said, "when I ought to have been 
 abed and asleep." He was seventy-seven years old. 
 He had seen the development of his country from ten 
 disunited colonies with a population of 400,000 into a 
 nation of thirteen united states with a population of 
 4,000,000. In the making of that nation, no American 
 had borne a more useful or more conspicuous part. 
 His place in our political history is emphasized by the 
 fact that his signature is found appended to four great 
 documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty 
 of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace with 
 England, and the Constitution. Of no other American 
 can this be declared. 
 
 But this record of Franklin's versatility is by no 
 
64 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUEY 
 
 means complete. The final word must be concerning 
 The Scholar ^'^ services to Science. Throughout his life, 
 and he was an eager searcher after truth, an ardent 
 
 student of nature. His private correspond- 
 ence is full of the matter of his investigations which 
 he prosecuted with great intelligence and with remark- 
 able results. As Mr. Franklin, the philosopher, he was 
 renowned among coniemporary scholars. That famous 
 experiment with the kite and key which identified elec- 
 tricity with the lightning, was only one of many which, 
 brought him fame. The colleges of Yale and Harvard 
 conferred on the soap-boiler's son the degree of M. A. 
 He was honored by the scientific scholars of St. 
 Petersburg, London, and Paris. He was a member of 
 the Eoyal Society. When his death occurred in 1790, 
 it was a French scholar who wrote the epitaph so of tea 
 quoted : — 
 
 " Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptmmque tyrannis." 
 Such is, in outline, the record of this remarkable man 
 — " the many-sided Franklin," as he is appropriately 
 called, our first great American. It was in keeping 
 with his intensely practical nature that Franklin should 
 devise a peculiar, a unique plan of beneficence for the 
 good of posterity. In his will, he bequeathed to the city 
 of Philadelphia, and to the city of Boston, each, the 
 sum of £1000. These funds were to be used in loans, 
 under restrictions, to young tradesmen, in small amounts ; 
 principal and interest were to be allowed to accumulate 
 in each case for one hundred years, when, as Franklin 
 calculated, each fund should amount to ^£131,000. A 
 division was then to be made, ^6100,000 to be with- 
 drawn and be applied by each city upon public works, 
 and the remainder be placed again in service for a 
 second hundred years. At the expiration of that period, 
 the donor thought that each fund would agjii-egate 
 
THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 65 
 
 something over £4,000,000, and devised that in each 
 instance the sum should then be divided between the 
 city and the commonwealth, to be applied in any form 
 that should be thought best. Unfortunately, in the face 
 of changed conditions, Franklin's idea proved imprac- 
 ticable ; however, the city of Boston did possess in this 
 fund, at the end of the period stipulated by the will, the 
 sum of $400,000. The city appropriated 1100,000 addi- 
 tional (which was used in buying land) and the entire 
 amount of the Franklin Fund was applied in building 
 and equipping a great evening technical school, to be 
 known as The Franklin Union. Mr. Andrew Carnegie 
 has given the sum of $400,000, which has been set aside 
 as an endowment fund, the income from which provides 
 for the running expenses of the institution. 
 
 III. SECOND HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ; THE 
 REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD: SPEECHES, ARGUMENTA- 
 TIVE ESSAYS, STATE PAPERS. 
 
 In the second half of the eighteenth century, our lit- 
 erature presents the vivid reflection of that momentous 
 struggle for independence upon which the American 
 colonies had entered. Fiery speeches, able arguments 
 set forth in newspapers and in pamphlets, sharp and 
 bitter satire served to give utterance to the thought and 
 passion of men's minds. One feature of this activity 
 must be emphasized : geographical lines were now for- 
 gotten ; the literature of this period is no longer local ; 
 essayists, versifiers, orators were inspired by a common 
 purpose and by a devotion to the interests of the country 
 at large. 
 
 Greatest of the Massachusetts orators and conspicu- 
 ous at the beginning of the struggle was James jj^jj qub, 
 Otis. He was a graduate of Harvard, and a 1725-83. 
 prominent lawyer in Boston. In 1761, following the 
 
66 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 accession of George III, in the previous year, there arose 
 in Massachusetts a debate over granting the new Writs 
 of Assistance to officers of the customs in that colony. 
 In February of that year, Otis, in the council chamber 
 at Boston, delivered an argument against the legality of 
 these writs which is sometimes described as the prologue 
 of the Eevolution.' Of this passionate address, no com- 
 plete record exists, but John Adams, who reported it, 
 declares that American independence was then and there 
 born. " Otis was a flame of fire," Adams declares. 
 " Such a profusion of learning, such convincing argu- 
 ment, and such a torrent of sublime and pathetic elo- 
 quence — that a great crowd of spectators and auditors 
 went away absolutely electrified." ^ Three years later, 
 Otis published a pamphlet, The Rights of thi British 
 Colonies Asserted and Proved — one of the most acute 
 and powerful among the many political papers of these 
 years. 
 
 The historic events of the period came in quick suc- 
 PoUHcai cession. The Stamp Act, passed in 1765, was 
 Essayists, repealed in the following year ; but taxes on 
 tea, paper, glass, paints, and other articles were levied 
 in 1767. Petitions, appeals, and resolutions were numer- 
 ous. Pamphlets and essays appeared in great numbers. 
 To these years belong the political papers of Franklin, 
 who contributed vigorously to these discussions. Samuel 
 Adams (1722-1803), tax collector of the town of Bos- 
 ton, was a voluminous essayist — of whom a tory gov- 
 ernor declared "every dip of his pen stings like a 
 horned snake." 
 
 Both sides participated in this fierce debate, for there 
 were not a few in the colonies who remained loyal to 
 England throughout the struggle. Following the assem- 
 
 1 Tyler's Literary History of the American Revolution, chapter ii. 
 
 2 Correspondence of John Adams, Works, vol. x, p. 183. 
 
THE ORATORS 67 
 
 blage of the first Continental Congress, in 1774, there 
 appeared in New York a series of four pamphlets 
 dealing with the great questions of the time from the 
 tory standpoint. These were signed "Westchester 
 Farmer " ; they were incisive, picturesque, witty, and 
 readable. " If I must be devoured, let me be devoured 
 by the jaws of a lion, and not gnawed to death by rats 
 and vermin," declared the audacious pamphleteer. 
 These papers aroused a storm of patriotic protest in 
 the midst of which it is interesting to find a pamphlet 
 entitled The Farmer Refuted, the essay of a youth of 
 eighteen, young Alexander Hamilton, then a student 
 in King's College.' The "Farmer" was identified with 
 the Rev. Samuel Seabury, an Episcopal clergyman of 
 Westc£ester, New York, and was made to pay dearly 
 for his bold utterances by some of the excitable patriots 
 in his vicinity. He suffered many indignities, but after 
 the close of the conflict resumed his position and ended 
 his life in peace, honored by many of his former foes. 
 
 Chief among the orators of the South was Patrick 
 Henry (1736-99), of whom Jefferson said : ^he 
 "He appeared to me to speak as Homer ora'ors. 
 wrote." It was he who in the opening speech of the 
 first Congress uttered the ringing declaration, " I am 
 not a Virginian but an American " ; and he who in 
 the Virginia Assembly, March 23, 1775, delivered the 
 address which ranks as one of the classics of American 
 eloquence. Along with Otis, in the North, stands the 
 familiar figure of John Hancock (1737-98). In the 
 speech which he delivered in 1774, on the anniversary 
 of the Boston Massacre, he expressed in characteristic 
 phrases the fervor of the time: "Burn Boston and 
 make John Hancock a beggar, if the public good re- 
 quires." Joseph "Warren (1741-1775), a Boston phy- 
 
 ^ Now Columbia UiUTersIty, founded in 1754. 
 
68 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 sician, in his address on the next anniversary of the 
 Massacre, exclaimed : " These fellows say we won't 
 fight ; by Heavens ! I hope I shall die up to my knees 
 in blood." It was but a few weeks thereafter that the 
 unconscious prophecy was realized at Bunker Hill. If 
 much of this oratory was turgid, it nevertheless ex- 
 pressed the sincere sentiment of those who gave it 
 voice. Such was the spirit of the time. Josiah Quincy 
 (1744-75) spoke for many another as well as for him- 
 self when he declared : " If to appear for my country 
 is treason, and to arm for her defense is rebellion — 
 like my fathers, I will glory in the name of rebel and 
 traitor, as they did in that of Puritan and enthusiast." 
 
 The newspapers teemed with articles signed with 
 symbolic names : Publius, Vindex, Candidus, Novan- 
 glus, etc. 
 
 In the flood of political papers, with which patriotic 
 Thomas writers deluged the colonies, there was none 
 Paine, which Wrought such effect as the pamphlet 
 ■ entitled Common Sense, published by Thomas 
 Paine. Paine was an Englishman of radical mind, who, 
 after an unpretentious career in his own country, came 
 to America in 1774, equipped only with a note of in- 
 troduction from Benjamin Franklin. Catching the spirit 
 of the hour, and seeing the logical issue of events as few, 
 if any, of the colonists had done, in 1776, he sent forth 
 his epoch-making work. He first pointed out that the 
 present struggle must lead to national independence. 
 His literary style was not impressive, the logic of his 
 argument was not invincible, but the effect of his paper 
 was electric. One hundred and twenty thousand copies 
 were sold within three months. In France, and even 
 in England, its power was felt. The authorship of the 
 pamphlet, which was anonymous, was ascribed to Frank- 
 lin. It carried conviction in America, and made the 
 
THE FEDERALIST C9 
 
 issues of the conflict clear. During the war, Paine 
 published a series of papers called The Crisis, the 
 opening sentence of which — " These are the times that 
 try men's souls," became a proverbial phrase. Later he 
 went to France, and in his enthusiasm for the cause of 
 Kevolution there, wrote The Bights of Man (1791-92), 
 a reply to Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution. 
 In The Age of Reason (1794-96), a bitter attack on 
 Christianity, Paine's radicalism appears in its extreme 
 form ; it is an unpleasant work and does not discover 
 the earlier power or skill of its author. 
 
 After the conclusion of the war, during that critical 
 period which preceded the adoption of a con- 
 stitution, there appeared at intervals a very Federalist, 
 notable series of papers which were designed ™^~* ' 
 in their entirety to set forth the fundamental principles 
 of government. These appeared as articles contributed 
 to various New York newspapers. There were eighty- 
 five in all, and their authorship was concealed under the 
 pseudonym of " Publius." In 1788, these papers were 
 collected and published under the name of The Fed- 
 eralist — a collection which ranks as our chief political 
 classic. Of these famous papers, five are attributed to 
 John Jay, twenty-nine to James Madison, and fifty-one 
 to Alexander Hamilton. 
 
 Two other great state documents — eloquent products 
 of this exalted time — demand a place in the mo 
 record of our nation's literature. The Decla- ^'f^f ° 
 ration of Independence was drafted by Consutuuon. 
 Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), a Virginian. Its sonor- 
 ous sentences need not be subjected to depreciation 
 by the colder literary criticism of to-day. Its lines 
 were written by men who were intensely stirred by the 
 spirit of their deeds. " We hold these truths to be self- 
 evident: that all men are created equal; that they are 
 
70 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
 rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pur- 
 suit of happiness." 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was a fluent writer and a states- 
 man who left a lasting impress on the political thought 
 of his country. An exponent of the principles of popu- 
 lar government and a champion of individual freedom, 
 he is the great representative of democracy in America, 
 and is looked upon as father of the ideas embodied in 
 the Democratic party. He published Notes on Virginia, 
 wrote a compact Autobiography, founded the Univer- 
 sity of Virginia, and established in that institution a 
 chair of English — the first in America. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States, adopted in 
 1788, which was described by Gladstone as " the most 
 wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the 
 brain and purpose of man," owed its precise formula- 
 tion largely to the labors of Alexander Hamilton 
 (1757-1804), the brilliant champion of the federal 
 principle in national government which insists upon the 
 centralization of authority, and the unity of the federal 
 relation. Hamilton, therefore, is recognized as the first 
 exponent of those ideas which are now represented 
 theoretically in the present Republican party. 
 
 These men, the orators, the pamphleteers, the states- 
 men, of that generation were not unworthy contempo- 
 raries of Fox, Chatham, and Burke, the great English 
 parliamentarians whose eloquence and statesmanship 
 were matched with theirs. " When your lordships look 
 at the papers transmitted to us from America, when 
 you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you 
 cannot but respect their cause," said the Earl of Chat- 
 ham, in 1775 ; and Edmund Burke, in his remarkable 
 speech on Conciliation with America, pays a notable 
 tribute to the legal knowledge of the colonists. 
 
POETRY OF THE REVOLUTION 71 
 
 Not to be overlooked by the student of this period 
 are a few productions which are not so deeply jo„n,jis 
 colored by the political spirit of the time, ana 
 Such are the collected Letters of Washington, 
 of Jefferson, of John Adams and his wife, Abigail; 
 the Farewell Address of Washington to his troops; 
 and the Journal of John Woolman, a Quaker, — which 
 was beloved of Whittier,' and received the praises of 
 Charles Lamb. 
 
 IV. POETRY OF THE REVOLUTION : SATIRES, EPICS, AND 
 BALLADS. 
 
 The Revolutionary period was not without its poets. 
 From the beginning of the conflict, in 1775, to the end, 
 there was a copious flow of verse which sprang naturally 
 enough from the turbulence of popular excitement and 
 emotion. Here and there among the crude productions 
 of these unschooled rhymers, one comes upon compo- 
 sitions which show an unexpected strength of feeling 
 expressed with considerable literary art. This is espe- 
 cially true of the political satires and the ballads which 
 are conspicuous in Revolutionary literature. 
 
 Foremost among the tory versifiers — for both parties 
 in the contest had their literary champions in jona^jn 
 metre as in prose— was Jonathan Odell, who o?«"' 
 
 . 1 T 1 1 1737— ioAO. 
 
 invoked -the muse thus : — 
 
 " Grant me for a time 
 Some deleterious powers of acrid rhyme, 
 Some ars'nic verse, to poison with the pen 
 These rats who nestle in the lion's den." 
 
 Odell came of pioneer Puritan stock and was himself 
 
 a native of New Jersey. He was a graduate of Princeton, 
 
 and became a surgeon in the British army. He later 
 
 went to England, where he took orders for the Church. 
 
 1 The Journal was edited hy Whittier, in 1871. 
 
72 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 ■Keturning to New Jersey, he became rector o£ the 
 parish in Burlington. With the outbreak of hostilities, 
 and the development of violence against all suspected 
 of royalist sympathies, the clergyman was forced to take 
 flight ; and as a refugee, he remained in New York until 
 the evacuation of the British troops. 
 
 Odell's literary talent was soon engaged in the com- 
 position of satiric poems; modeled on the satires of 
 Dryden and Pope, they show considerable merit. Odell 
 wrote with a trenchant pen. There is no humor in his 
 satire — it is wit, caustic, biting; the tone of his verse 
 is the tone of bitter, implacable invective. Four satires, 
 all written in 1779, furnish the best examples of his 
 verse: The Word of Congress, The Congratulation, 
 The Feu de Joie,^ and Thx, American Times. The fol- 
 lowing lines from the last of his satires are sufficient 
 to exhibit his skill in satire and in verse : — 
 
 " What cannot ceaseless impudence produce ? 
 Old Franklin knows its value and its .use : 
 He canght at Paine, relieved his -wretched plight, 
 And gave him notes, and set hrm down to write. 
 Fire from the Doctor's hints the miscreant took, 
 Discarded truth, and soon produced a book, — 
 A pamphlet which, without the least pretence 
 To reason, bore the name of Common Sense. 
 
 The work like wildfire, through the country ran. 
 And Folly bowed the knee to Franklin's plan. 
 Sense, reason, judgment were abashed and fled, 
 And Congress reigned triumphant in their stead." 
 
 Persistent in his attitude, irreconcilable and belliger- 
 ent still, Jonathan Odell forsook the colonies at the close 
 of the contest and migrated to Nova Scotia, where he 
 lived to old age, unconvinced and unrelenting to the 
 last. 
 
 Three Eevolutionary poets of large and serious pur- 
 
 1 The Bonfire. 
 
THE HARTFORD WITS 73 
 
 pose, and widely famed in their generation, may be 
 grouped tpgether, not only because of some ^^^ g^. 
 similarity in their verse, but also because they lora wits, 
 were all Connecticut men ; two were conspicuous mem- 
 bers of a coterie noted as " the Hartford "Wits." That 
 Connecticut town, indeed, enjoyed a reputation as a lit- 
 erary centre through the exploits of this group. The 
 two Hartford poets were John Trumbull and Joel Bar- 
 low ; the third of this group was Timothy Dwight. 
 
 Trumbull's contribution was a long satire, a burlesque 
 epic, entitled McFingal. It was modeled on j^j^ 
 Butler's Hudibras — a famous English satire Trumimii, 
 of the seventeenth century directed at the "^°~^*^^- 
 Puritans. The Yankee poet, borrowing the rollicking 
 measure of the earlier satirist, narrates the misad- 
 ventures of his hero — a tory squire in the midst of 
 patriots. The poem first appeared in January, 1776, 
 was afterward expanded and reappeared, in four cantos, 
 in 1782. McFingal is full of native Yankee wit and 
 humor, and contains many clever couplets — couplets 
 which have passed for Butler's : — 
 
 " No man e'er felt the halter draw, 
 With good opinion of the law ; 
 Or held in method orthodox 
 His love of justice in the stocks ; 
 Or failed to lose hy sheriff's shears 
 At once his loyalty and ears." 
 
 So popular was this merry epic, McFingal, that it ran 
 to thirty editions. It was a source of joy in the camps 
 of the Continentals, and nerved the arm of many a tired 
 soldier in the ranks. 
 
 Still more ambitious was the effort of Joel Barlow, 
 who published, in 1787, his Vision of Colum- ^^^^ 
 bus. In 1807, the completed work appeared Barlow, 
 under the epic title The Oolumhiad. It was 
 a prodigious poem, intended to be a second Iliad. Fol- 
 
74 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 lowing a plan employed by Milton in the eleventh book 
 of Paradise Lost, Columbus is led to the hill of Vision 
 and is shown the future greatness of the land he had 
 discovered. The patriotic fervor of the author is intense. 
 
 " I sing the mariner who first unfnrled 
 An eastern banner o'er the western worlds 
 And tanght mankind where future empire lay 
 In these fair confines of descending day." 
 
 In 1793, Barlow composed in lighter vein another 
 poem which has outlived the ponderous epic. This is the 
 happy composition in honor of Hasty Pudding, one of 
 our best examples of light and fanciful verse. The poem 
 was written when Barlow was abroad in Savoy, and was 
 dedicated to no less a personage than Lady Martha 
 Washington. The poet still uses the heroic couplet, this 
 time in mocA-heroic strain ; and the humorous realism 
 of his rural scenes is no less attractive to the modern - 
 reader than it was to those who first enjoyed the poet's 
 glorification of this homely theme. 
 
 The third writer in this group, Timothy Dwight, was 
 Timothy *^® grandson of Jonathan Edwards ; and he 
 Dwigit, became in time the president of Yale CoUege. 
 The subject of his epic — for his inspiration 
 was also epical — is Religion. It was entitled The Con- 
 quest of Canaan ; and it appeared in 1785. It is de- 
 scribed by its author as " the first of the kind which 
 has been published in this country." * The spirit of the 
 Eevolution is felt in the treatment of even this ancient 
 theme; and the ingenious device by which the great 
 event of American history in the latter part of the 
 eighteenth century is linked with this epic recital of 
 Israelitish wars is very amusing. 
 
 Timothy Dwight was, like his grandfather Edwards, 
 a man of marvelous energy and of great literary pro- 
 ' It preceded by two years Barlow's Yision of Columlms. 
 
REVOLUTIONARY SONGS AND BALLADS 75 
 
 ductiveness ; he inherited, however, none of the genius 
 which distinguished Jonathan Edwards's scholarly work. 
 His Theology Explained and Defended, in five vol- 
 umes, does not resemble the famous treatise on The 
 Freedom of the Will. The most interesting example of 
 his prose is the Travels in New England and New 
 York — four volumes of letters fictitiously addressed to 
 an English correspondent, and filled with observations 
 made during his summer travels in his gig. 
 
 In 1777 and 1778, Dwight served as an army chap- 
 lain and employed his lyric gifts with patriotic fervor. 
 His best remembered song, Columbia, Columbia, to 
 glory arise, was the fruit of this period. The fact 
 that he was the author also of the hymn, I Love thy 
 Kingdom,, Lord, should certainly not be forgotten. In 
 Greenfield Hill (1794) we find a very interesting at- 
 tempt at a descriptive as well as didactic poem. It is 
 in frank imitation of the English classic poets, Pope, 
 Denham, Thomson, Goldsmith, but shows some touches 
 distinctively American. 
 
 Among the most interesting compositions of the 
 Revolutionary period, are the numerous songs Eevomtun. 
 and ballads, hundreds of which were written ary songs 
 during the years of the war. Many of these 
 were mere doggerel, but some — as such songs of the 
 people often are — were characterized by a homely, 
 hearty strain, which in spite of crudity bears its own 
 appeal, and stirs the passion of men without the aid of 
 art. The names of their writers were often unknown 
 even in that generation. Sometimes these compositions 
 took the form of camp-songs like that to The Volunteer 
 Boys (1780): — 
 
 " Hence with the lover who sighs o'er his wine, 
 Chloes and Fhillises toasting, 
 Hence with the slave who will whimper and whine, 
 Of ardor and constancy hoasting. 
 
76 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Hence with love's joys, 
 
 Follies and noise, — 
 
 The toast that I give is the Volunteer Boys," etc. 
 
 Sometimes they are religious songs, one of the best 
 examples of which is found in The American Soldier's 
 Hymn : — 
 
 '"T is God that g:iTds onr armor on, 
 And all our just designs fulfils. 
 Through Him our feet can swiftly run, 
 And nimbly climb the steepest hills. 
 
 " Lessons of war from Him we take. 
 And manly weapons learn to wield ; 
 Strong bows of steel with ease we break, 
 Forced by our stronger arms to yield," etc. 
 
 But more numerous were the narratives in crude and 
 vigorous verse of battle, of incident, and of individual 
 exploit, such as we find in an anonymous poem on the 
 Battle of Trenton (December 26, 1776). The historic 
 crossing of the Delaware is mentioned in the opening 
 stanza : — 
 
 " On Christmas-day in seventy-six, 
 Our ragged troops with bayonets fixed 
 
 For Trenton marched away. 
 The Delaware see ! the boats below t 
 The light obscured by hail and snow ! 
 
 But no sign of dismay." 
 
 In each of the six stanzas which compose the song, there 
 is some clever touch which reveals the real poetic im- 
 pulse — none the less effective because of its artlessness. 
 
 " GSreat Washington he led us on. 
 Whose streaming flag, in storm or sun, 
 Had never known disgrace. 
 
 " In silent march we passed the night. 
 Each soldier panting for the fight. 
 Though quite benumbed with frost." 
 
 The account of the action is very brief, the surprise, 
 
FRANCIS HOPKINSON 77 
 
 the victory, the trophies of battle are tersely described, 
 and the song closes in conventional style : — 
 
 " Now, brothers of the patriot bands, 
 Let '3 sing deliveranoe from the hands 
 
 Of arbitrary sway. 
 And as our life is but a span, 
 Let 's touch the tankard while we can, 
 
 Li memory of that day.'* 
 
 One of the best naval ballads of the time was The 
 JTanlcee Man of War, a stirring record of an exploit 
 in 1778, wherein the bravery of John Paul Jones is 
 enthusiastically celebrated. Its unknown author writes 
 with the precision of one well versed in sea-craft, and 
 like an eye-witness of the incident. 
 
 " ' Out booms ! out booms ! ' our skipper cried, 
 
 ' out booms and give her sheet.' 
 And the swiftest keel that was ever launched 
 
 shot ahead of the British fleet. 
 And a-midst a thundering shower of shot 
 
 with stun'sails hoisting away, 
 Down the North Channel Paul Jones did steer 
 
 just at the break of day." 
 
 Scores of these spirited little lyrics may be read in the 
 collections of Revolutionary songs.' The patriotic fervor 
 of the singer is often more impressive than the inspira- 
 tion of his muse, and yet there are not a few poems in the 
 group which may claim a place in our national literature. 
 The humorous ballad on The Battle of the Kegs 
 illustrates another phase of this patriotic act- 
 ivity in verse. The author of these rollicking Hopkinson, 
 lines was Francis Hopkinson, a man promi- ^'3'"^^- 
 nent in all the serious and weighty movements of these 
 momentous times, yet full of vivacity and an irresistible 
 
 ' See Stedman and Hutchinson's Library of American Literature, 
 Tol. iii ; George Gary Eggleston's collection ot American War Ballads and 
 Lyrics, vol. i ; and Poems of American Patriotism, chosen by J. Brander 
 Matthews ; also Moore's Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution 
 (1856), and Burton E. Stevenson's Poems of American History (1908). 
 
78 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 humor whidi frequently broke forth in trenchant satire 
 and clever verse. In ITie Battle of the Kegs, his irre- 
 pressible wit runs merry riot. The incident which in- 
 spired the ballad belongs to the beginning of 1778. 
 Some Yankee inventor having constructed a sort of 
 infernal machine for the purpose, a lot of kegs were 
 equipped with the mechanism and charged with powder ; 
 these kegs were then sent floating down the Delaware 
 toward Philadelphia, where the British force under 
 Howe was quartered for the winter. Whether actually 
 dangerous or not, these suspicious-looking kegs caused 
 great excitement as they came floating by the city and 
 provoked a general bombardment from ships and gar- 
 rison. No harm resulted to the English from this fleet 
 of Yankee invention, but Hopkinson's doggerel rhymes 
 which followed appear to have had a most beneficent 
 effect upon the Continentals. The ballad proved to be 
 the most popular composition of the war period, and its 
 influence is thus described by Tyler: — 
 
 " It gave the weary and anxious people the luxury of gen- 
 uine and hearty laughter in very scorn of the enemy. To the 
 cause of the Revolution it was perhaps worth as much, just 
 then, by way of emotional tonic and of military inspiration 
 as the winning of a considerable battle would have been." ^ 
 
 Francis Hopkinson's impassioned Camp Ballad 
 (1777) exhibits the real lyric power of the poet in his 
 serious mood. Columbia, written by Timothy Dwight, 
 belongs to the same group of patriotic lyrics. Dwight's 
 poem begins with the lines : — 
 
 " Golnmbia, Columbia, to glory arise, 
 The queen of the -world, and the child of the skies." 
 
 It is not to be confused with the national song Hail 
 
 Columbia, which was written by Joseph Hopkinson 
 
 (not Francis) in 1798. If popularity were a standard 
 
 1 Tyler's Literary History of the American Revolution, vol. ii, p. 149. 
 
HALE IN THE BUSH 79 
 
 of excellence, these fervid compositions, along with The 
 Battle of the Kegs and The Yankees Return from 
 Camp ("Yankee Doodle"), would have to represent 
 the poetic accomplishment of our Revolutionary poets ; 
 happily this is not the case. Bold Hawthorne, the Sur- 
 geon's record of the cruise of the " Fair American," 
 Captain Hawthorne, 1777, has the homely flavor of an 
 honest folk-song, and so has the ballad of Brave Pauld- 
 ing and the Spy, which celebrates the patriotic integ- 
 rity of the captor of Major Andr^ ; but the best of all 
 these patriotic compositions is one entitled Hale in the 
 Bush, a wonderfully tender and impressive tribute to 
 the memory of Nathan Hale, captured and hanged by 
 the British as a spy. This remarkable poem merits 
 quotation in full. 
 
 HALE IN THE BUSH. 
 
 The breezes went steadily through the tall pines, 
 A-saying " oh ! hu-ush ! " assaying " oh ! hu-ush ! " 
 As stilly stole by a bold legion of horse, 
 For Hale in the bush, for Hale in the bush. 
 
 " Keep still ! " said the thrush, as she nestled her young 
 
 In a nest by the road ; in a nest by the road. 
 " For the tyrants are near, and with them appear 
 
 What bodes us no good, what bodes us no good." 
 
 The brave captain heard it, and thought of his home 
 In a cot by the brook ; in a cot by the brook. 
 With mother and sister and memories dear, 
 He so gaily forsook, he so gaily forsook. 
 
 Cooling shades of the night were coming apace, 
 The tattoo had beat, the tattoo had beat ; 
 The noble one sprang from his dark lurking place, 
 To make his retreat, to make his retreat. 
 
 He warily trod on the dry rustling leaves, 
 
 As he passed through the wood, as he passed through the wood; 
 
 And silently gained hjs rude launch on the shore, 
 
 As she played with the flood, as she played with the flood. 
 
80 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 The guards of the camp on that dark dreary night, 
 Had a murderous will, had a murderous will ; 
 They took him and tore him afar from the shore. 
 To a hut on the hill, to a hut on the hill. 
 
 No mother was there, nor a friend who could cheer. 
 In that little stone ceU, in that little stone cell ; 
 But he trusted in love from his Father above — 
 In his heart all was well, in his heart all was well. 
 
 An ominous owl with his solemn bass voice. 
 
 Sat moaning hard by, sat moaning hard by : 
 
 " The tyrant's proud minions most gladly rejoice, 
 
 For he must soon die, for he must soon die." 
 
 The brave fellow told them, no thing he restrained, — 
 The cruel general ! the cmel general ! — 
 His errand from camp, of the ends to be gained. 
 And said that was all, and said that was all. 
 
 They took him and bound him and bore him away, 
 Down the hill's grassy side, down the hill's grassy side. 
 'T was there the base hirelings, in royal array. 
 His cause did deride, his cause did deride. 
 
 Five minutes were given, short moments, no more, 
 For him to repent, for him to repent. 
 He prayed for his mother — he asked not another,— 
 To Heaven he went, to Heaven he went.. 
 
 The faith of a martyr the tragedy showed. 
 As he trod the last stage, as he trod the last stage. 
 And Britons will shudder at gallant Hale's blood. 
 As his words do presage, as his words do presage. 
 
 " Thou pale king of terrors, thou life's gloomy foe, 
 60 frighten the slave, go frighten the slave ; 
 Tell tyrants, to you their allegiance they owe — 
 No fears for the brave, no fears for the brave ! " 
 
 V. THE CLOSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. TKANSI- 
 TION : POETRY, DRAMA, FICTION, PERIODICAL LITER- 
 ATURE. 
 
 Coincidentally with the satires, the epics, the songs 
 and ballads, which owed their measure of inspiration 
 
PHILIP FRENBAU 81 
 
 immediately to the spirit of that strenuous time, we 
 note also the appearance of a different school of verse 
 which meant infinitely more in the development of our 
 literary art. 
 
 Among the satirists of the Revolutionary epoch, there 
 was none whose pen was readier pr sharper p^j 
 in its thrusts than Philip Freneau ; and Fienean, 
 among the poems of the war itself, none holds 
 a firmer place in our literature than Freneau's brief 
 elegy on the valiant who died at Eutaw Springs. One 
 line of this poem was thought worthy of adaptation by 
 the author of Marmion.^ But Freneau's strongest claim 
 for remembrance lies in a few compositions which mark 
 the beginning of nature poetry in America. 
 
 Philip Freneau owed his foreign name to Huguenot 
 ancestry, but he was born in New York and was gradu- 
 ated, in 1771, at Princeton, where he had been a class- 
 mate and room-mate with James Madison. In the early 
 part of his career Freneau engaged in commercial 
 ventures in the West Indies and made frequent voyages, 
 commanding his own vessel. Once (in 1780) he was cap- 
 tured by the British and was for several weeks confined 
 in an English prison ship in New York harbor. The 
 hardships of this experience are rehearsed in a poem 
 entitled The British Prison Ship, filled to the brim 
 with the horror and rancor of his suffering. Many 
 another fierce ^roadside did he hurl at the nation's foe, 
 until hostilities ceased. After the war, Freneau entered 
 
 1 " They aaw tbeir injured country's -woe, 
 The flaming town, the -wasted field ; 
 Then rushed to meet the insulting foe ; 
 
 They took the spear — but left the shield." 
 
 Eutaw Springs. 
 
 " When Prussia hurried to the field, 
 And snatched the spear, but left the shield." 
 
 Marmion (Introd. to Canto ui). 
 
82 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 journalism, but his later years were comparatively in- 
 active. Near the close of his eightieth year, on a De- 
 cember night, returning to his home from a gathering 
 with friends, he lost his way in the snow and fell by 
 the road-side; the next morning he was found dead. 
 The compositions which Jiave done most for Freneau's 
 fame as a poet belong to his earlier years. In 
 Natmo these productions, we find the beginning of 
 "•»»»■ genuine nature poetry in America. Here we 
 have Freneau's opening lines on TJie Wild Honey- 
 suckle : — 
 
 " Pair flower, that dost so comely grow, 
 
 Hid in this silent, dull retreat. 
 Untouched thy honied blossoms blow. 
 
 Unseen thy little branches greet ; 
 Ko roving foot shall crush thee here, 
 No busy band provoke a tear." 
 
 To a Honeybee, addressed to a wandering rover from 
 the hive resting luxuriously on the rim of the poet's 
 glass, is written with the same charming simplicity of 
 style and with a dainty touch of humor befitting the 
 theme. 
 
 " Welcome I — I hail you to my glass : 
 
 All welcome, here, you find ; 
 Here, let the cloud of trouble pass, 
 
 Here, be all care resigned. 
 This fluid never fails to please. 
 And drown the griefs of men or bees. 
 
 I 
 
 " Yet take not, oh ! too deep a drink, 
 
 And in this ocean die ; 
 Here bigger bees than yon might sink, 
 
 Even bees full six feet high. 
 Like Pharaoh, then, you would be said 
 To perish in a sea of red. 
 
 " Do as you please, your will is mine ; 
 Enjoy it without fear, 
 And your grave will be this glass of wine, 
 Your epitaph — a tear — 
 
A "CURIOSITY OF LITERATURE" 83 
 
 Go, take your seat in Charon's boat ; 
 We '11 tell the hive, you died afloat." 
 
 Of a different tenor are two poems in pensive key : 
 The Indian Student and The Indian Burying-ground. 
 In all these compositions, we feel the spirit of a true 
 poet who loves Nature and responds to her appeals 
 spontaneously and without artifice. There had been a 
 few previous attempts at this form of treatment in 
 American verse, but they had been isolated instances 
 and had failed of the excellence attained by Freneau. 
 These poems are therefore the more worthy of note. 
 The volume which contains these productions appeared 
 in 1786 — the same year in which the first volume of 
 the poems of Eobert Burns was published ; and twelve 
 years before the Lyrical Ballads introduced William 
 Wordsworth as the first recognized champion of sim- 
 plicity and naturalness in English verse. 
 
 The Parting Glass is in the lighter mood of the old 
 Cavalier Poets. On the Huins of a Country Inn 
 shows the influence of Thomas Gray. In one long 
 poem, The House of Night, Freneau enters the weird 
 domain afterward so skillfully worked by Edgar Allan 
 Poe. 
 
 A singular example of precocious literary development 
 is found in the work of a negro girl, Phillis i"(j„i„.. 
 Wheatley. Brought from Africa at the age of ity oiut- 
 seven or eight, she became a slave in the *"""*• 
 household of a family in Boston. She learned rapidly 
 under the guidance of her mistress and began to write 
 verse in the conventional style of the English classical 
 poets — verse as good as that produced by any of their 
 American imitators. A volume of Phillis Wheatley's 
 poems was published at London in 1773, the genuine- 
 ness of the work being vouched for by prominent people 
 in Boston. At the appearance of this volume, Phillis 
 
84 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 could have been scarcely twenty years of age, her pre- 
 cocity marking her development phenomenal. , 
 
 The beginnings of dramatic literature in America 
 The Drama belong to this Same period. Quite early in the 
 In America, century English plays had been acted by ama- 
 teurs in New York, but it was not until 1752 that a 
 professional company had been seen in the colonies pre- 
 senting standard plays. In that year, an English troop 
 of London players began a series of presentations at 
 Williamsburg, Virginia, afterward playing in New York 
 and Philadelphia. The Merchant of Venice, Richard 
 III, and Hamlet were included in their repertory. Two 
 or three plays had been written by Americans previous 
 to the Kevolution — for the most part so-called reading- 
 plays. Hugh H. Brackenridge (1748-1816), a class- 
 mate and associate with Philip Freneau, afterward 
 Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, wrote, 
 in 1776, a drama called The Battle of Bunker Hill, 
 Brackenridge was then a school-teacher, and the play 
 was presented by his pupils. Theatres had been built 
 in Philadelphia, New York, Annapolis, and Charleston 
 previous to the war. Boston's earliest play-house dates 
 from 1794. 
 
 The first American play to be performed by a pro- 
 EariT fessional company was The Contrast, written 
 
 American by Eoyall Tyler (1757-1826). It was pro- 
 ^^^"^ duced in New York, April 16, 1787, The theme 
 of this comedy was patriotic ; a contrast is drawn be- 
 tween those who ape foreign fashions and those who 
 hold to the plain but wholesome manners of home. In 
 this play the Yankee, Jonathan, is introduced effectively 
 as a typical character. Tyler was himself a Vermonter of 
 versatile talent. He produced other plays, a novel and 
 several poems. In 1789, another American comedy was 
 produced, — The Father, or American Shandyism, 
 
THE AMERICAN NOVEL 85 
 
 This was the work of William Dunlap (1766-1839) of 
 New Jersey. This play, one of some sixty written by 
 Dunlap, and the most worthy of them, contains two 
 characters modeled after the famous Uncle Toby and 
 Corporal Trim of Lawrence Sterne's whimsical novel, 
 Tristram Shandy. Dunlap became a theatrical man- 
 ager, and later wrote a, History of the American Theatre 
 (1832). He was also the biographer of the first Amer- 
 ican novelist of note, Charles Brockden Brown. 
 
 Contemporaneous with the appearance of the drama 
 in our literature, we have to record also the „^ 
 
 , The 
 
 entrance of the novel. The first native exper- Amoiioan 
 iment in this form of fiction, modeled — very "" 
 distantly — after Richardson's Pamela,^ was entitled 
 27ie Power of Sympathy. This work has a curious his- 
 tory. Madam Sarah Wentworth Morton, its author, a 
 member of one of New England's most aristocratic fam- 
 ilies, had won provincial fame as a " poetess," under the 
 sentimental name of " Phiienia " ; she had, indeed, been 
 described by one distinguished admirer as " The Ameri- 
 can Sappho." For her plot, Mrs. Morton utilized a mis- 
 erable scandal which had blighted her own family life, 
 and made the identity of her principal characters so 
 obvious that the persons most interested bought the 
 entire edition from the publisher — and The Power 
 of Sympathy, thus incontinently suppressed (1789), 
 was never published in that generation.^ 
 
 Two other New England women appeared thus early 
 in print ' with narratives of somewhat similar sort 
 " founded on fact." Susanna H. Rowson, an English 
 lady who had established a school for girls in Boston, 
 was the author of a very popular novel, Charlotte 
 
 1 Pamela (1740), by Samuel Richardaon, is commonly regarded as 
 the first novel of common life and manners in English literature. 
 
 2 An edition of this novel was published at Boston, in 1894. 
 
86 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Temple, a Tale of Truth (1790), and of other novels, 
 including a sequel, Lucy Temple, which was published 
 in 1828. 
 
 Hannah W. Foster wrote, in 1797, The Coquette; 
 or. The History of Eliza Wharton, a Novel Founded 
 on Fact. Mrs. Foster was the wife of a clergyman and 
 wrote, as did Mrs. Rowson, with a moral purpose. In 
 both these novels, the theme of indiscretion and deser- 
 tion is treated in the sentimental, didactic style which 
 characterized many of the English novelists of the same 
 period. The popularity of these two stories outlasted 
 their own generation. Pilgrimages were made by sen- 
 timental readers to the graves of both these heroines ; 
 and the old slate headstone in the ancient graveyard 
 in Salem, where the real " Eliza Wharton " is buried, 
 has been all but chipped away by relic-hunters. 
 
 Hugh H. Brackenridge, already mentioned as the 
 author of an early American play, wrote a satirical 
 romance called Modem Chivalry ; or. The Adventures 
 of Captain Farrago and Teague C Regan, his Servant, 
 the first part of which appeared in 1792, the second, 
 in 1806 ; and the playwright Eoyall Tyler also entered 
 the lists with a two-volume narrative entitled The Al- 
 gerine Captive, in 1799. Neither of these works, how- 
 ever, can be regarded as possessing the interest or 
 importance of Mrs. Rowson's arid Mrs. Foster's " tales 
 of truth " in the annals of American fiction. It is with 
 Charlotte Temple and The Coquette, that the novel of 
 manners appears. 
 
 While these earliest examples of the American novel 
 Charles are of interest historically, — and interesting 
 Broira *" mainly on that ground alone, — there appeared 
 1771-1810. before the close of the century one or two 
 essays in prose fiction which possess decided merit on 
 the ground of technical construction and on that of 
 
CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN 87 
 
 genuine narrative power. These were the early ro- 
 mances of Charles Brockden Brown. 
 
 Brown was a native of Philadelphia, where he re- 
 ceived his education. He chose the profession of the 
 law and prepared himself for practice ; but the duties 
 of the legal calling were wholly uncongenial, and the 
 effect of this trying situation was soon apparent in de- 
 pression of spirits and impaired health. At last, he 
 forsook the law for the profession of literature, and is 
 deserving of some distinction as the first American to 
 make deliberately so dangerous an experiment. He 
 removed to New York and formed associations with a 
 few men of literary tastes comprising the members 
 of the " Friendly Club," among whom was William 
 Dunlap, the future biographer of the novelist. It was 
 a period of considerable mental excitement in both 
 Europe and America. Revolutionary forces were vigor- 
 ously alive. New theories affecting political and social 
 relations were promulgated daily. As an essayist on 
 moral as well as literary themes, Brown had written 
 copiously before his abandonment of the law; he had 
 been a diligent student; his mind was even abnormally 
 active, and he wrote with a style noticeably strong and 
 vivid. In 1797, Charles Brockden Brown published his 
 first volume, Alcuin : a Dialogue on the Sights of 
 
 Women. It did not meet with success. But following 
 this. Brown produced in rapid succession a series of re- 
 markable novels which won for their author contem- 
 porary distinction, and, historically regarded, hold a 
 very notable place in American literature. The titles 
 of these novels are: Wieland; or, the Transformation; 
 
 Ormond ; or, the Secret Witness ; Arthur Mervyn ; 
 Edgar Huntley ; Clara Howard; and Jane Talbot. 
 The first of these was published in 1798 ; the remainder, 
 before the end of 1801. Besides writing his novels, 
 
88 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Brown was also conducting a magazine, Tlie Movtldy 
 Magazine and American Review, which consisted al- 
 most entirely of his own contributions. Near the close 
 of 1800, the novelist returned to Philadelphia, where 
 he founded The, Literary Magazine and American 
 Register, and where he continued to write miscellaneous 
 articles on political, biographical, and historical sub- 
 jects until his death at the age of thirty-nine. He suf- 
 fered from the attacks of consumption due presumably 
 to the early undermining of his health, and aggravated 
 by the intensity and laboriousness of his life. 
 
 The novels of Charles Brockden Brown are seldom 
 read to-day; but they attracted general attention at the 
 time of their appearance, and won the approbation of 
 some European writers, including Scott and Shelley, 
 who gave them a high rank. Both Poe and Hawthorne 
 were undoubtedly influenced by them. They reflected 
 strongly the characteristics of the romantic school of 
 fiction that arose in Germany and England near the 
 close of the eighteenth century. The plots of these 
 stories are psychological and are based on mystery; 
 the incomprehensible and the horrible are invoked to 
 stimulate interest. There is a marked solemnity of 
 diction which reinforces the peculiar style of the narra- 
 tive, and the emotions are played upon in the senti- 
 mental manner of the romance then in vogue abroad. 
 The general tone of the narratives may be properly 
 described as morbid, — a tone which pervades the 
 series as a whole. 
 
 In Wieland, the principal characters are introduced 
 under the spell of a mysterious catastrophe suggesting 
 the attack of some malignant force which may be the 
 product of electricity, or of spontaneous combustion. 
 Mysterious voices are heard which are finally accounted 
 for by the confession of an ill-disposed ventriloquist. 
 
PERIODICALS 89 
 
 A dreadful crime is committed by a person insane witli 
 religious mania ; and disaster overwhelms an entire 
 family through the operation of these mysterious 
 agencies which, at the last, are but unsatisfactorily ex- 
 plained. In Arthur Mervyn, the scene is laid in Phil- 
 adelphia during an epidemic of yellow fever (1793), 
 and the ghastly details of that visitation are faithfully 
 reproduced. In Edgar Huntley, there is an attempt at 
 murder committed during temporary madness; the 
 madman afterwards commits suicide while the intended 
 victim escapes. The principal personage in the story is 
 a somnambulist. 
 
 These novels of Charles Brockden Brown are not un- 
 impressive in their realistic portrayal of horrible and 
 loathsome scenes, and in their appeal to the sentiments 
 of curiosity and terror; they fail in characterization 
 and in life-likeness. Yet they compare not unfavorably 
 with contemporary English narratives like William 
 Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794) and Mrs. Eadcliffe's 
 Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) or Matthew Lewis's The 
 Monk (1795). A significant feature of Brown's work 
 is the fact that he always made use of American scenes ; 
 in Edgar Huntley, he employed the incidents of Indian 
 warfare to good purpose. 
 
 In connection with this account of our literary be- 
 ginnings in the eighteenth century, we must „ . „ , 
 not fail to note the earliest appearance of 
 periodical literature in America — a very important 
 phase of intellectual life. Newspapers came first, and 
 were established in the following order : — 
 
 1704. The Boston News Letter (continued to 1776). 
 1719. The Boston Gazette (first issue, Dec. 21). 
 1719. The American Weekly Mercury (Phila., Dec. 
 22). 
 
90 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUKY 
 
 1721. TTie New England Courant (Boston). 
 
 1725. The New York Gazette. 
 
 1728. Tlie Pennsylvania Gazette (Eranklin's). 
 
 Before the end of 1765, there we,re in the colonies 
 forty-three newspapers, nearly all weeklies, and in 
 comparison with the modern journal very diminutive 
 affairs. News was not abundant and not often up to 
 date. Prominence was given to correspondence from 
 England. Letters from local politicians, anecdotes, es- 
 says, poems, lampoons, etc., were introduced. In the 
 latter part of the century, some literary value was 
 claimed by the newspapers. It was not until 1784 that 
 the daily newspaper began to appear — with the found- 
 ing of The Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Adver- 
 tiser, at Philadelphia. 
 
 Two or three literary magazines were established in 
 the colonies previous to the Revolution. Such were 
 The General Magazine, started in Philadelphia, in 
 1741, and The American Magazine and Historical 
 Chronicle, established in Boston in 1743. The Boyal 
 American Magazine, started in Boston in 1774, was 
 one of the most elaborate of these publications ; few of 
 them survived more than a few months. One interest- 
 ing periodical of the Revolutionary period was The 
 Pennsylvania Magazine, edited by Thomas Paine. Its 
 career began in January, 1775, and ended gloriously 
 with the printing of the Declaration of Independence, in 
 July, 1776. Hugh H. Brackenridge edited The United 
 States Magazine at Philadelphia in 1779. The Boston 
 Magazine appeared — and disappeared — in 1785. But 
 it was not until the beginning of the new century that 
 anything like a substantial existence was enjoyed by 
 any periodical of this class. 
 
SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 91 
 
 Tyler's History of American Literature during Colonial 
 Times and his Literary History of the American snggostions 
 Revolution (2 vols.) will serve as authoritative 'or Heading, 
 background for this chapter. Stedman and Hutchinson's 
 Library of American Literature, vols. 2, 3, and 4, supplies 
 selections from all the writers enumerated here. The period 
 of the eighteenth century is admirably covered in American 
 Literature (Literatures of the World) by W. P. Trent. For 
 more personal reference, see The Samuel Sewall Papers — 
 Mass. Hist. Soc. Col. — 1879 ; also N. H. Chamberlain's Sam^ 
 ud Sewall and the World he lived in (Boston, 1897), the 
 life of Jonathan Edwards {American Religious Leaders') 
 by Alexander Allen, and Austin's Philip Freneau. Brief 
 authoritative biographies of Franlclin, Patrick Henry, Sam- 
 uel Adams, John Adam^, John Quincy Adams, Washing- 
 ton, Hamilton, Jefferson, Jay, and Madison are included in 
 the American Statesman Series. Selections from the Revo- 
 lutionary orators will be found in the third volume of The 
 Library of Oratory, and in volume eight of The World's 
 Famous Orations. Illustrations of the Revolutionary verse 
 are accessible in Stevenson's Poems of American History ; 
 Moore's Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution and 
 in American War Ballads, edited by George Cary Eggleston. 
 The best poems of Freneau are to be found in Sted man's 
 American Anthology (Houghton Mifflin Co.) . The Famil- 
 iar Letters of John Adams and his Wife Abigail Adams, 
 edited by Charles Francis Adams, are an especially interesting 
 record of the period, also Scudder's Men and Manners in 
 America One Hundred Years Ago. There are numerous 
 biographies of Franklin: Morse's Life in the American 
 Statesmen Series has been cited ; that by McMaster in the 
 American Men of Letters Series is excellent. A larger bio- 
 graphy in two volumes is the Life and Times of Benjamin 
 Franklin, by James Parton. Of course Franklin's own Auto- 
 biography is indispensable. The most recent authoritative 
 edition of the complete writings of Franklin is that edited 
 by Albert H. Smyth in ten volumes, now published in most 
 convenient form, for $15.00 (the Eversley Edition, Macmil- 
 
92 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Ian). Besides Cooper's The Spy and The Pilot, there are sev- 
 eral recent novels which may well be read as illustrating the 
 life of the colonies in the eighteenth century ; among these 
 are Lewis Band, by Mary Johnston, Hugh Wynne, by Dr. 
 Weir Mitchell, Janice Meredith, by Paul Leicester Ford, 
 and Richard Carvel, by "Winston Churchill. The student 
 should include in his reading at least one of the novels of 
 Charles Brockden Brown (reprinted in Philadelphia, by David 
 McKay, 1889). 
 
 Chapter 1 of McMaster's History of the People of the 
 United States will be found most interesting in its discussion 
 of social conditions in America during the century and at the 
 close of the Bevolution. Read especially the sections upon 
 the minister and the schoolmaster. 
 
 Recent and important \s Heralds of American Literature, 
 — Annie Russell Marble (University of Chicago Press, 
 1907). It contains chapters on Francis Hopkinson, Freneau, 
 Trumbull, The Hartford Wits, William Dunlap, and Charles 
 Brockden Brown ; also Life and Poems of Philip Freneau, 
 by F. L. Pattee (Princeton Historical Association). 
 
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CHAPTER III 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH 
 CENTURY 
 
 I. The New Literature: Tbe Knickerbocker Group. 
 II. Washington Irving: 1783-1859. 
 
 III. James Fenimore Cooper : 1789-1851. 
 
 IV. WllUam Culien Bryant: 1794-1878. 
 
 I. THE NEW LITERATTJKE. — NEW YORK AND THE 
 KNICKEKBOCKEK GROUP. 
 
 With the turn of the century, our young republic 
 entered upon an era of expansion and development 
 which can be described only as marvelous. The rapid 
 progress in the settlement of the West, the influx of 
 foreign immigration, the growth of the larger cities, 
 extension of transportation systems by construction of 
 canals and government roads, application of the new 
 inventions employing the power of steam in river navi- 
 gation and on railroads, — these features of American 
 progress during the first fifty years in our first com- 
 pleted century of national existence can be here but 
 thus briefly summarized. It is unnecessary to attempt 
 a full historical outline of that period of growth and 
 change except to note that coincidentally with this ex- 
 pansive period of material prosperity and growth, our 
 national literature entered upon what we may not inaptly 
 term its golden age — the age of its best essayists, nov- 
 elists and poets, our real American men of letters. 
 
 We have traced the slow steps of literary effort re- 
 corded in the several colonies to the close of their ex- 
 
THE KNICKERBOCKER GROUP 95 
 
 istence as colonies ; and, immediately after the period 
 
 of revolution, we have recognized the new _. ^ . ^ 
 
 1.1., (. .. . . Blrtli ol tlie 
 
 and iresh impulse oi creative imagination m Now 
 
 the little group of simple nature-poems by """'»"■ 
 Philip Freneau, and imaginative power of somewhat 
 differing type in the sombre but not altogether unreal 
 romances of Charles Brockden Brown. But Freneau 
 and Brown are only heralds of coming achievements ; 
 of the appearance of a' literature national in scope and 
 of importance sufficient to command recognition by the 
 people of England and the Continent, and possessed of 
 an artistic excellence felt and eajoyed by all. 
 
 There were evidences of literary activity in Boston, 
 in Philadelphia, and in New York. Little groups of 
 literati, as they liked to call themselves, mightily inter- 
 ested in t^e development of a national literature, gave 
 an atmosphere that was helpful to literary effort ; and 
 they themselves accomplished what could be accom- 
 plished by interest, patriotism, and industry when 
 joined with talent, modest if not mediocre. For 
 some reason, New Ybrk took precedence over ^^^ y,jjj_ 
 Boston and Philadelphia in these first decades 
 of the nineteenth century and not only sheltered a 
 coterie of enthusiastic, congenial comrades of the pen, 
 whose lively essays in both prose and verse provoked 
 the humor of the town, but pushed into the light of 
 more than local fame the names of Paulding, Halleck, 
 Drake, and Dana ; and before the quarter mark in the 
 century was reached had produced two of the century's 
 greatest writers, Irving and Cooper. These are the 
 Knickerbocker writers, so called in deference to the old 
 Dutch traditions of Manhattan, the spirit of which was 
 directly inherited by most of them, and the influence of 
 which appeared to some extent in their work. In 1825, 
 the poet Bryant came to live in New York, and his 
 
THE NEW LITERATURE , 97 
 
 name is therefore grouped with those already men- 
 tioned, although not a native of the state. He was, 
 however, of their generation and, like Halleck and 
 Dana, an adopted son of New York. 
 
 The significance of these first decades of the nine- 
 teenth century in their relation to the beginnings of 
 the new literature will appear when we note the dates 
 of the following events. It was in 1807 that the Ir- 
 vings, together with their friend Paulding, published 
 the first of the anonymous Salmagundi papers; in 
 1809, appeared the humorous masterpiece, the Knich- 
 erhocker History of New York. In 1817 it was that 
 the editors of the North American, Review — itself a 
 publication only two years old — printed Bryant's 
 great poem Thanatopsis and his Inscription for the 
 Entrance to a Wood. Irving's Sketch-Book, appearing 
 in 1819, established that writer's place permanently in 
 the leadership of American letters. In 1821, Cooper 
 published his second novel — and first success — The 
 Spy ; and that same year was further signalized in a 
 literary way by the printing at Boston of Bryant's 
 first volume of verse. By 1825, Irving had added 
 Bracehridge Hall and Tales of a Traveller to his ear- 
 lier volumes; Cooper had written The Pioneers and 
 The Pilot. Bryant had published among additional 
 poems The Yellow Violet, To a Waterfowl, Green 
 Hiver, A Winter Piece, and A Hymn to Death. 
 
 In comparison with the works of contemporary Brit- 
 ish writers, this brief list of American publications ap- 
 pears modest indeed ; for by 1 825 "Wordsworth, 
 Coleridge, and Southey had produced all that 
 was characteristic of their work ; Keats had died in 
 1821, Shelley in 1822, and Byron in 1824 ; Seott had 
 written the last of the Waverley novels ; Tom Moore 
 had reached the height of his popularity; Charles 
 
98 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Lamb had published the first series of the Essays of 
 Mia; DeQuincey's Confessions of an English Opium- 
 Eater had appeared in 1821; and Macaulay's first 
 essay, that on Milton, was printed in 1825. And yet, 
 although meagre when brought thus in comparison with 
 the literature of the mother-land, this beginning of our 
 national literature is after all not so insignificant as 
 it may seem ; it was a beginning, and the question 
 once derisively put in 1820, by Sidney Smith, a witty 
 Englishman — "Who reads an American book?" — 
 could now be answered, in 1825, affirmatively by many 
 of his countrymen. Before considering in detail the 
 work of the three prominent Americans in this group, 
 let us note briefly some of the minor authors who are 
 associated with them. 
 
 James Kirke Paulding was a typical member of the 
 James K. Knickerbocker group ; he was of Dutch de- 
 Faniiing, scent and made good use of the Dutch tradi- 
 tions in his most successful work, a novel, 
 published in 1831, entitled The Dutchman's Fireside. 
 A relative by marriage of William Irving, Paulding 
 was early associated with Washington Irving and his 
 brother, William, in the production of the humorous 
 Salmagundi papers which appeared in 1807. Subse- 
 quently Paulding undertook, alone, a new series of the 
 Salmagundi, which came out in 1819-20. During the 
 period of the War of 1812, he produced two clever 
 satires directed at the British navy — one of these, The 
 Lay of the Scotch Fiddle, being a parody upon Scott's 
 Lay of the Last Minstrel, In 1818, he published The 
 Backwoodsman, a metrical narrative of frontier life in 
 six books — not a strong performance. Paulding was 
 altogether overshadowed in a literary way by Irving 
 and Cooper, both of whom he attempted to follow. He 
 wrote considerable verse, nothing of which attains to 
 
FITZ-GREENE HALLECK 99 
 
 excellence, and of his novels three only call for men- 
 tion : Koningsmarhe, the long Finne, dealing with the 
 Swedish settlements (1823), The Dutchman's Fireside, 
 a study of old Dutch life along the Hudson (1831), and 
 Westward Ho ! a tale of Kentucky (1832). Paulding 
 was also the author of a popular life of Washington, 
 published in 1835. He served as Secretary of the Navy 
 under Van Buren. 
 
 One of the most energetic members of this New York 
 
 coterie was Fitz-Greene Halleck, a descend- „, „ 
 
 ' Fltz-Greena 
 
 ant of the apostle, John Eliot. Halleck was HaUecu, 
 born in Guilford, Connecticut, and in 1811 •^'^°~^*8'' 
 came to New York and was employed in a banking- 
 house as clerk. He later entered the office of John Jacob 
 Astor, who at his death left Halleck an annuity of forty 
 pounds. Halleck was a poet from his youth, and three 
 or four of his compositions are not likely to slip from 
 the memory of American readers so long as there are 
 schoolboys to declaim the stirring lines of his Marco 
 Bozzaris, or men to quote by the graves of their friends 
 his simple and tender poem, On the Death of Drake. 
 
 Of Halleck's poems, three are considered notable: 
 Alnwick Castle (1827), Burns (1827), and Marco Boz- 
 zaris (1825). The strength of the poet is in these com- 
 positions ; but perhaps this is surpassed by the pathos 
 and sincerity of the beautiful elegy on Drake — 
 
 " Green be the turf above thee, 
 Friend of my better days ! 
 None knew thee bnt to love thee, 
 Nor named thee but to praise." 
 
 A long poem. Faring, in the style of Byron's Beppo, 
 written in 1819, was popular at the time, but has fallen 
 into oblivion. Halleck retired on his annuity in 1849, 
 returned to his old home in Connecticut and there spent 
 the remainder of his days. Upon the eightieth anniver- 
 
100 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 sary of his birth, a monument erected by his townspeople 
 over his grave was dedicated to his memory — the first 
 honor of the kind bestowed upon an American poet. 
 
 The association of Halleek and Drake in the most inti- 
 josoDhH '^^.te of friendships is one of the pleasant in- 
 Diake, cidents of our literary history. Joseph Bodman 
 ■ Drake was born in New York, became a stu- 
 dent of medicine, wrote but a brief amount of verse, — 
 although that was of a high quality, — and died at 
 twenty-five. " There will be less sunshine for me here- 
 after," said Halleek, " now that Joe is gone." 
 
 The two poets joined in contributing to the New York 
 Evening Post a series of anonymous poems, under the 
 general title of The Croakers. These appeared in 1819; 
 they were light, satiric, often personal in aim, and 
 capital examples of what is frequently called " society 
 verse." They excited a great deal of comment at the 
 time, and are said to have been a subject of conversation 
 in drawing-rooms, book-stores, and coffee-houses on 
 Broadway and throughout the city. One of the best 
 poems in the series was Drake's The American Flag, 
 of which the concluding lines — 
 
 " Forever float that standard sheet I 
 
 Where breathes the foe hut falls hefore us, 
 With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, 
 And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us ? " 
 
 — were the suggestion of Halleek. 
 
 Drake's principal composition is a long but graceful 
 poem, full of charm and animated by a most poetical 
 fancy, entitled The Culprit Fay. It was written in 
 1816, and grew out of a discussion in the group of poets 
 
 — Cooper being with them at the time — as to the pos- 
 sibility of drawing from American streams poetical 
 inspiration like that found in the historic and legend- 
 haunted rivers of Scotland. Drake affirmed that it 
 
RICHARD HENRY DANA 101 
 
 could be done ; and in three days, it is said, he pro- 
 duced his brilliant poem, the scene of which is laid in 
 the Highlands of the Hudson. Although written pre- 
 vious to the appearance of Irving's Sketch-Book, the 
 poem was not published until 1835. 
 
 Kichard Henry Dana was born in Boston, and was 
 one of the associate editors of the North Amer- Riciiaia 
 ican Jieoiew, when Bryant's early poems were ^^ 
 accepted for that publication. In 1821, he i787-i879. 
 began in New York to publish a new magazine. The 
 Idle Man, in which Bryant's poems continued to appear. 
 When Bryant arrived in New York and took his first 
 editorial position in charge of the JVew York Heview, 
 in 1825, he included Dana's poem. The Dying Haven, 
 along with Halleck's Marco Bozzaris, in the first issue 
 of that magazine. Mr. Dana did not produce many 
 poems. A volume, entitled The Buccaneer, and Other 
 I^oems, was published in 1827. One lyric. The Little 
 Beach-Bird, has found a permanent place. It is inter- 
 esting to note that the poet was one of several descend- 
 ants of Anne Bradstreet to attain some distinction in 
 verse. The larger part of his long life was lived in re- 
 tirement, *id his influence in the development of our 
 literature was perhaps strongest indirectly in his criti- 
 cism, and in his personal association with his literary 
 friends. His son, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-82), 
 is even more widely known than his father, as the 
 author of the popular narrative, Two Years before the 
 Mast (1840). 
 
 Among the minor poets belonging to this period of 
 fresh beginnings, several call for mention ^^^ 
 who were not directly in association with Minor 
 the Knickerbocker group. John Pierpont 
 (1785-1866), a native of Connecticut and later a Unita- 
 rian clergyman in Boston, was the author of the spirited 
 
102 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Warren's Address, and of the poem, The Pilgrim Fa- 
 thers. His Airs of Palestine, and Other Poems was 
 published first in 1816. James Gates Percival (1795- 
 1857), a man of remarkajble versatility, also Connecticut 
 born, was a physician, a geologist, and a linguist. He 
 wrote fluently — although little of his work is familiar 
 now. TAe Coral Grove is one of his brightest composi- 
 tions. His first volume of poems, Prometheus, appeared 
 in 1820. Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791-1865), born 
 at Norwich, Connecticut, and for many years head of 
 a famous select school for girls, which she established 
 at Hartford in 1814, was a pioneer in the cause of 
 higher education for women. She was a prolific writer, 
 the author of fifty-three volumes in prose and verse. 
 Her first volume of Moral Pieces appeared in 1815. 
 Emma H. Willard (1787-1870), another Connecticut 
 woman who became famous as an educator, — she con- 
 ducted the Troy Female Seminary 1821 to 1838,— 
 published a volume of poems in 1830, in which was 
 included the well-known song. Pocked in the Cradle 
 of the Deep. George Morris (1802-64), who was the 
 author of many poems of sentiment popular in his day, 
 is now remembered for only one — Wbodrhan, Spare 
 that Tree. Samuel Woodworth (1785-1842) is like- 
 wise remembered as the author of one song — The 
 Old Oaken Bucket (1826). John Howard Payne 
 (1791-1852), whose name is immortalized because of 
 his Home, Sweet Home, was an actor and writer of 
 plays. He was born in New York and lived a wander- 
 ing life. His tragedy, Brutus (1818), was his moat 
 successful drama. The opera, Clari, the Maid of Milan, 
 in which occurs the famous song, was written in Paris, 
 in 1823, and produced at Covent Garden, London. 
 Payne was United States Consul at Tunis from 1841 
 until his death. In 1883, his remains were removed to 
 
OTHER MINOR POETS 103 
 
 Washington, and there interred. Francis Scott Key 
 (1779-1843) wrote The Star-Spangled Banner in 
 1814. Key was detained as a prisoner on board a 
 British man-of-war during the bombardment of Fort 
 McHenry ; all night he watched the engagement with 
 keenest anxiety, and in the morning wrote the words 
 of his song. It was printed immediately and to the air 
 of Anacreon in Heaven was sung all over the land. 
 Another national anthem, America, was written, in 
 1832, by Kev. Samuel F. Smith (1808-1905). The 
 name of Washington AUston (1778-1843) should be 
 included in this group, for the most distinguished of 
 our earlier American painters was also a leader in 
 literary culture and the author of numerous graceful 
 poems. James Abraham Hillhouse (1789-1841), of 
 New Haven, was one of the earliest of Americans to 
 attempt the poetic drama on the lines of Byron and 
 Shelley. His /dramas appeared in 1839. Charles Fenno 
 Hoffman (1806-84), founder of the Knickerbocker 
 Magazine in 1833, was the author of light and brilliant 
 verse. His career was closed by insanity in 1849. 
 
 In contemporary estimation, at least, no other member 
 of the New York group, during the thirties and forties, 
 quite equalled Nathaniel Parker Willis. He u.p.wiius, 
 was born in Portland, Maine, was graduated i806-67. 
 from Yale College in 1827, and served his apprentice- 
 ship as a man of letters in Boston. After his removal to 
 New York he was associated with George P. Morris as 
 editor of the J^ew York Mirror. In 1844 he made a 
 place on the Mirror for Poe. It was in that paper that 
 The Raven was published (January, 1846).* During 
 his visits to England and the continent, Willis wrote 
 for the Mirror or the Home Journal lively sketches 
 of picturesque scenes and notable people ; these were 
 gathered in Pencillings hy the Way (1835, 1844) and 
 1 See page 208. 
 
104 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Loiterings of Travel (1840). He wrote two plays, 
 also, Bianca Visconti (1837) and Tortesa, the Usurer 
 (1839). The Sacred Poems (1843) represent his most 
 worthy accomplishment in verse. 
 
 II. WASHINGTON IRVING: 1783-1859. 
 
 First among American writers to obtain universal 
 recognition abroad, our first true literary artist and our 
 earliest " classic," is Washington Irving. If some few 
 among our earlier pioneers in letters had already de- 
 tected in American soil the germs of a native literature, 
 it is Irving to whom belongs the honor of successfully 
 developing those germs in works which still preserve 
 their freshness, their delicacy, and their charm. To 
 the inspiration of native themes, Irving owed much of 
 his ample success. 
 
 Washington Irving was born in the city of New York, 
 Family April 3, 1783. It was the year which marked 
 and Biitii. the end of the long struggle for liberty and 
 the beginning of peace. The British troops evacuated 
 the city and the Continental forces assumed possession. 
 "Washington's work is ended," said Mrs. Irving, "and 
 the child shall be named after him." Some six years 
 later, we are told, when the first president returned 
 to New York, then the seat of government, a Scotch 
 maid-servant of the family finding herself and the child 
 by chance in the presence of Washington, presented 
 the lad to him. " Please, your honor," said Lizzie, all 
 aglow, " here 's a bairn was named after you." And the 
 Father of his Country gravely laid his hand upon the 
 head of his future biographer and blessed him. 
 
 The household in William Street was comfortably 
 well-to-do. The father, William Irving, a Scotchman, 
 born in the Orkney Islands, and until his marriage an 
 officer upon a vessel plying between Falmouth and 
 New York, was now engaged in the hardware trade. 
 
WASHINGTON IRVING 105 
 
 He was a man of strict iategrity, rather severe in his 
 attitude toward life, with a good deal of the old strict 
 Covenanter spirit in his make-up. He took little inter- 
 est in amusements, required that at least one of the 
 half-holidays in every week should be piously employed 
 with the catechism, and saw to it that his children 
 were well grounded in sound Presbyterian doctrine. 
 The mother, daughter of an English curate, was far 
 less rigid in her views and more vivacious in tempera- 
 ment. Needless is it to say that the future chronicler of 
 the Knickerbocker legends resembled the mother more 
 closely than the father in his inheritance of spirits. 
 Full of drollery and mischief, the boy ran merry riot, 
 sometimes a source of perplexity even to the more in- 
 dulgent parent, who once was heard to exclaim : " O 
 Washington, if you were only good ! " He loved music 
 and delighted in the theatre, whither, in spite of his fa- 
 ther's prejudices, the boy often betook himself, secretly, 
 in company with his young comrade, Paulding. 
 
 Irving's training was desultory, and his schooling 
 ended at sixteen. This cutting short of the 
 school-days was due to the state oi bis healtn 
 in these early years, which forbade confinement or close 
 association with books. Yet he read, and read intelli- 
 gently, becoming familiar with the best, especially 
 books of travel, voyages, and adventure. In his rambles 
 about the city — for he lived much out of doors — he 
 oftenest turned toward the docks, dreamily wandering 
 among the piers and along the waterside with mind 
 apparently stirred by the sight of the shipping and the 
 romantic suggestions of foreign lands. Up the Hudson, 
 also, he wandered — into the Highlands and over all 
 the country-side, until the suburbs of Manhattan and 
 the picturesque region of the Catskills were familiar 
 ground. 
 
106 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Nevertheless young Irving settled down more or less 
 Lawns. seriously to a professional career. Upon leav- 
 iiteratnro. jjjg gciiool, he began the study of law. Tradi- 
 tion has it, however, that Irving's reading was more 
 upon works of general literature than on those con- 
 cerned with legal practice. His excursions continued. 
 In 1798, he thoroughly explored that idyllic region of 
 Sleepy Hollow, afterward immortalized in the Sketch- 
 Booh. In 1800, he took an extended trip up the Hud- 
 son and into the Mohawk Valley. Although he had 
 become in 1802 a law clerk in the office of Josiah Hoff- 
 man, he was at least to outward appearance a good deal 
 of an idler. He had always been fond of society and 
 entered with zest into its pleasures. In the wide circle 
 of his friendships, he was a conspicuous and favorite 
 figure, admired for his genial, happy gayety, and for 
 his warmth and kindliness of heart. His first contri- 
 butions to literature were made at this time. In 1802, 
 he published in the Morning Chronicle, a paper just 
 established by his elder brother, Peter Irving, a series 
 of letters signed "Jonathan Oldstyle." These papers 
 were in frank imitation of the Spectator and Tatler 
 essays, full of boyish humor, and directed with the au- 
 dacity of youth at some of the visible follies of the day. 
 In 1804, Washington Irving was sent abroad, by his 
 i^gj brothers, who were anxious over the condi- 
 
 Enropean tion of his health. On this first visit, Irving 
 was absent a year and a half. He touched at 
 the Mediterranean ports and incidentally enjoyed the 
 experience of a real capture by pirates. He sojourned 
 four months in Paris, and the same length of time in 
 London. He made acquaintance with many distin- 
 guished people and drank joyously of the romance of 
 the Old World as found in its scenery, its manners, its 
 languages, its literature, and its art. The experience 
 
SALMAGUNDI 107 
 
 was ia every way broadening and educational; the 
 youth became a man of the world. Pleased and stimu- 
 lated as well as restored in health, he returned to 
 America early in 1806. 
 
 A year later Irving, together with his intimate friend, 
 James K. Paulding, and his brother, William sataiagmnu, 
 Irving, joined in a rollicking bit of literary I807. 
 mystification — the publication at irregular intervals 
 of a lively little journal entitled Salmagundi.^ This 
 publication appeared anonymously throughout its suc- 
 cessful career, which continued from January, 1807, 
 to January, 1808, and included twenty numbers. The 
 series was modeled upon the periodicals of Addison and 
 Steele ; the style was amateurish ; the humor was of a 
 coarser type, but it tickled the fancy of its readers from 
 the start. Its modest programme was announced in the 
 first number. " Our intention is simply to instruct the 
 young, reform the old, correct the town, and castigate 
 the age." 
 
 Two years later, in December, 1809, appeared Irving's 
 first notable work, the famous Knickerbocker The Eniok- 
 History of New York. Its author was now ^stor?^ 
 twenty-six years old. He was still unsettled 1809. 
 in his plans, although admitted to the bar ; he was not 
 attracted to his profession nor likely to make headway 
 in its pursuit. The months just preceding had, more- 
 over, been saddened by the experience of an over- 
 whelming sorrow, and the depression of its shadow was 
 not to be relieved for many years. Irving had become 
 tenderly attached to the beautiful Matilda Hoffman, 
 daughter of the gentleman in whose office he had fol- 
 lowed the study of law. She was stricken with fatal ill- 
 ness, and with the gradual fading of her life in the 
 
 1 Salmagnndi — a mixture ; orig:inally an Italian dish, consisting of 
 chopped meat, eggs, anohoyies, onions, oil, etc. 
 
108 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 almost constant presence of her devoted lover, the sun- 
 shine seemed to fade from the life of this hitherto light- 
 hearted youth. It is a marvel that out of these months 
 of doubt and gloom should have come a volume which 
 is still recognized as the masterpiece of American humor 
 — for as such the Knickerbocker History may fairly be 
 ranked. 
 
 This inimitable epic of the doughty Dutch burgh- 
 
 . « • ers of New Amsterdam purports to be the 
 
 A Master* , _.^, , ^ ^-^ , 
 
 piece of serious work of Diedrich Knickerbocker, in 
 
 Hnmor. ■vy'hose mystifying personality considerable in- 
 terest had been aroused by very ingenious advertise- 
 ments preceding the publication of the book. In the 
 broadly humorous pages of the narrative, Irving's lively 
 imagination runs with reckless abandon. In the golden 
 age of the settlement, the renowned Wouter van Twiller 
 sits in ominous silence, lost in his doubts and in the 
 cloud of smoke rising from his pipe, until he emerges 
 from both these hazy envelopments to pronounce judg- 
 ment in the affairs of the colony. His successor, Wil- 
 liam the Testy, wiry and waspish, in his broad-skirted 
 coat with its huge buttons, cocked hat stuck on the back 
 of his head, and a cane as high as his chin, storms 
 through the city; his soul burning like a vehement 
 rushlight in his bosom, inciting him to incessant bick- 
 ering and broils. Old Peter Stuyvesant, sumamed 
 "the Headstrong," brilliantly clad in brimstone-colored 
 breeches, stumps with his wooden leg before his ad- 
 miring people and valiantly leads his army against the 
 Swedes in that most awful of battles — when " the 
 earth shook as if struck by a paralytic stroke — trees 
 shrunk aghast, a»d withered at the sight — rocks bur- 
 rowed in the ground like rabbits — and even Christina 
 Creek turned from its course, and ran up a hill in 
 breathless terror." 
 
THE KNICKERBOCKER HISTORY 109 
 
 There is greater significance in the appearance of the 
 ITnickerbocker History of New York than at _. 
 nrst appears, iiom our modern point of view ot Knioner- 
 itwas the first American book.* Not only was *°'"'"- 
 it the starting-point of the Knickerbocker tradition,' 
 but it was pleasing testimony to the fact that even in 
 the recently developed civilization of the New World 
 material existed which possessed true literary value; 
 and that in the evolution of its artistic spirit America 
 had arrived where she might hope to produce works of 
 the creative imagination — where her representatives 
 might be recognized as men of letters, abroad as well as 
 at home. 
 
 While the lively humor of Knickerbocker proved un- 
 necessarily irritating to some of the descend- 
 ants of the Dutch heroes so cleverly carica- of Ksickei- 
 tured by Irving, the good-natured laughter of ^'"'^"■ 
 the historian was understood and heartily echoed by 
 most of Irving's contemporaries. In England the His- 
 tory was read and applauded. It proved the introduction 
 of Irving to the literary circle in which he was soon to 
 mingle ; and Sir Walter Scott declared that it was as 
 good as the work of Jonathan Swift. He afterward told 
 its author that he had read it aloud to his household, 
 and that they had laughed over its pages till their sides 
 were sore. 
 
 Still Irving remained undecided as to future plans 
 of life. Uncongenial though it was, he became in 
 a partner with his brothers in the hardware Business, 
 business, for the most part attending to the interests 
 of the firm outside of New York. He traveled much 
 and was a familiar as well as a welcome figure in the 
 society of Philadelphia, Washington, and Baltimore. 
 During the war of 1812, he bore himself patriotically 
 
 * Franklin's Autobiography was not published until 1817. 
 
110 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 and offered his services to the state. He was in fact 
 made governor's aid and military secretary, and was 
 addressed as " Colonel." 
 
 In 1815, Washington Irving made his second trip 
 to Europe, expecting to be absent but a few 
 Second months ; he remained abroad seventeen years. 
 Voyage. jj^ ^^g occupied with the business affairs of 
 the firm, which were at this time in a bad way; still he 
 found time for occasional visits to some of the principal 
 towns of England, making congenial acquaintance with 
 distinguished persons. It was in 1817 that he paid that 
 visit of personal tribute to Walter Scott, which he has 
 so charmingly described in the sketch of Abbotsford; 
 
 With the business failure of Irving Brothers in 1818, 
 Ths a crisis came in the personal affairs of the 
 
 Book''" younger brother, and Washington Irving be- 
 1819. took himself more seriously to literary effort. 
 
 The Shetch-Booh of Geoffrey Crayon, Esq., was pub- 
 lished in America, in 1819. This first series contained 
 the first five of the sketches including Mlp Van Winkle. 
 The completed work appeared in 1820. It proved an 
 instant success in America, and with its issue by a 
 British publisher that same year Irving's literary fame 
 was established. The genial spirit, delicate humor, and 
 graceful sentiment, together with its flowing diction, 
 placed the Sketch-Book among the best examples of 
 this familiar essay type in our literature. Twice in this 
 volume does Irving utilize for his sketches material 
 drawn from the old Dutch associations of Manhattan 
 and the Highlands of the Hudson. In the Legend of 
 Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, we recognize two 
 masterpieces, our most popular classics in the field of 
 the short story. Among the thirty odd papers which 
 comprise the Sketch-Book, there are several conceived in 
 the old spirit of the Spectator essays, notably those on 
 
THE SKETCH-BOOK 111 
 
 The Boar's Head Tavern, Westminster Ahhey, Rural 
 Funerals, The Pride of the Village, and The Angler. 
 A group of studies dealing with the household pleasures 
 of the holiday season at a typical English hall is par- 
 ticularly attractive, and is our first introduction to the 
 environment which Irving chose as the setting of his 
 next book, Bracebridge Hall. 
 
 This volume followed in 1822 ; and two years there- 
 after, the third in this series of sketch-books, — 
 for all are modeled on the same general plan, biidgeHaii, 
 — The Tales of a Traveller. Irving's best ^®^^' 
 work is found among these sketches and tales. The 
 influence of Addison and of Goldsmith is ob- „ , , 
 
 'FfllfiB of & 
 
 vious in the plan and in many details of this Traveller, 
 work, but the originality of Geoffrey Crayon 
 is just as evident. The native vein which had been 
 worked with such success in Hip Van Winkle was fol- 
 lowed almost as successfully in Dolph Heyliger, and was 
 drawn upon in Kidd the Pirate, The Devil and Tom 
 Walker, and Wolfert Webber. These tales exhibit their 
 author as a master in narrative, and are justly regarded 
 as our earliest examples of that highly developed form 
 of literature — the short story. 
 
 If we choose to group the works of Irving according 
 to their themes, it is easy to find an order of spanisi 
 division. Following that first group of early l^^^'^'^ 
 essays, including the Knickerbocker History, 1826-32. 
 the Sketch-Book, Bracebridge Hall, and Tales of a 
 Traveller (1809-24), we have a well-defined period in 
 the author's life during which his interest centres in 
 the historical records of Spain. 
 
 In 1826, Irving went to Madrid to make a transla- 
 tion of some important historical documents 
 coinmDus. ^j^^^ appearing as extracts from the jour- 
 nals of Columbus. Impressed with the richness of 
 
112 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 this material bearing on the discovery of the New 
 World, he determined to write a life of the great navi- 
 gator. Thus the author of the Sketch-Booh who had 
 recounted with such charm the old Dutch traditions of 
 his native land, creating for the valley of the Hudson 
 an atmosphere of romance which has never vanished^ 
 became the first among American writers to draw upon 
 that store of romantic legend and rich historic chron- 
 icle which, from the era of the Moors to that of the 
 Discoverer, have given fascination and allurement to 
 this poetic and picturesque land of Spain. Besides his 
 Life and Voyages of Columbus (1828) and the Voy- 
 ages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columhus 
 (1831), his most serious undertakings, Irving wrote 
 a Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada (1829) and 
 ij],, — most attractive of all the Spanish series — 
 
 Aiiamiira. the Alhamhra (1832). This last volume is 
 another " sketch-book." For a period Irving dwelt 
 within the walls of this historic structure under the 
 spell of its beautiful architecture and its romantic asso- 
 ciations ; haunting its marble halls, gazing from lofty 
 windows over the surrounding landscape, or pacing at 
 evening through its deserted gardens, melodious with 
 the song of the nightingale, it is no wonder that his 
 imagination kindled in the glow of ancient splendor 
 until he wrote in poetic strain of the moonlit nights 
 in this enchanted palace. 
 
 In 1829, Irving had been pleasantly surprised by an 
 Again In appointment as Secretary of Legation to the 
 Engianfl. Court of St. James. It had required, how- 
 ever, the urgency of his friends to induce him to accept 
 the honor. Naturally diffident, he shrank from the pub- 
 lic responsibilities of a diplomatic position ; moreover, 
 several literary projects were engaging his attention. 
 However, the post, once assumed, proved agreeable, 
 
SUNNYSIDE 113 
 
 and until the fall of 1831 he continued in the position. 
 It was during these last two years of official routine 
 that the series of Spanish volumes was completed. In 
 1830, Irving had been awarded one of the two medals 
 annually placed by George IV at the disposal of the 
 Royal Society of Literature, to be given to authors of 
 works of eminent merit. The historian, Hallam, re- 
 ceived the other. Shortly thereafter the University of 
 Oxford conferred upon the American writer the degree 
 of D. C. L. In May, 1832, Irving, who had been long- 
 ing for his native land, returned to America, distin- 
 guished and admired abroad, to find himself honored 
 and beloved by his countrymen at home. 
 
 The home-coming was signalized by a spontaneous 
 outburst of hearty welcome which partly ex- ^^j^^ 
 pressed itself in a public banquet tendered Period, 
 by the city of New York to her own humor- 
 ous historian, " the Dutch Herodotus, Diedrich Knick- 
 erbocker " — as the recipient was facetiously named in 
 a toast. Greatly impressed by the development of his 
 country during the years of his absence, Irving made an 
 extended tour in the South and the West, pushing out 
 into the wild regions of the Pawnee country, on the 
 waters of the Arkansas. In his Tour on the Prairies 
 (1835), the author describes the life of the ranger and 
 the trapper as he saw it on this excursion. But the 
 characteristic feature of this period in Irving's life is 
 his establishment at Sunnyside, near Tarrytown, on the 
 Hudson. 
 
 This comfortable little farm of earlier Dutch posses- 
 sion has, through its associations with our 
 n . J., ' t Siuuiysldo. 
 
 first conspicuous man of letters, acquired a 
 
 fame almost as general as that attaching to the home 
 of Scott. This American Abbotsford, as it is often 
 called, was an ideal location for the residence of 
 
114 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 "Knickerbocker." It was the old estate of the Van 
 Tassels. Its comfortable stone cottage was humorously 
 said to have been modeled after the cocked hat of 
 Peter the Headstrong; at all events, a whimsical 
 weather-cock brought over from Rotterdam perched 
 above its pretentious little tower, and ivy grown from 
 a slip secured at Melrose Abbey clustered thickly over 
 its walls. It was and is a charming place. Sleepy Hol- 
 low itself was hard by, and Sunnyside, in its owner's 
 lifetime at least, had an atmosphere of retirement and 
 seclusion delightfully congenial to the world-weary 
 traveler. Here, surrounded by a bevy of nieces whose 
 youth and spirits made the old Dutch cottage bright 
 with laughter, Irving felt himself finally at home. So 
 general and widespread was his popularity, however, 
 that many attempts were made to induce Irving's en- 
 trance upon a public career. He was urged to accept 
 nominations for the office of Mayor of New York, and 
 for a seat in Congress ; he was even obliged to decline 
 the portfolio of the Secretary of the Navy in President 
 Van Buren's cabinet. The charms of Sunnyside and of 
 his vivacious household held him fast. 
 
 The literary work of these ten years is compara- 
 Literary tively unimportant : A Tour on the Prairies 
 Product. (1835), Abhotsford and Newstead Abbey 
 (1835), Legends of the Conquest of Spain (1836), 
 Astoria (1836), Adventures of Captain Bonneville 
 (1837), and sketches contributed to the Knickerbocker 
 Magazine complete the record. 'A life-long project 
 — to write the history of the conquest of Mexico — 
 was during this period generously abandoned by Ir- 
 ving, when he learned that Prescott was contemplating 
 such a plan, — and this after long preparation, and 
 while actually engaged upon the early chapters of the 
 work. 
 
IRVING'S LAST YEARS 115 
 
 In 1842, Washington Irving was named by Daniel 
 Webster, then Secretary of State under 
 President Tyler, for the post of Minister to Spain, 
 Spain. This honor Irving accepted ; although ^^*2-46. 
 with the regret of departure before him, he was over- 
 heard murmuring to himself — " It is hard, — very 
 hard ; yet I must try to bear it. God tempers the wind 
 to the shorn lamb." 
 
 After four years' residence at Madrid, Irving re- 
 turned, once more eager for the quiet retire- i,jgtY«ai» 
 ment of Sunnyside. In the congenial envi- 1846-69. 
 ronment of his home it was now his pleasant lot to 
 pass in comfort and in qui^t the thirteen years remain- 
 ing to him. His Life of Goldsmith (1849), Mahomet 
 and his Successors (1850), and his noteworthy Life of 
 Washington (1855-59) occupied these last years. In 
 1855, the sketches contributed some years before to the 
 Knickerbocker Magazine were published under the title 
 of Wolfert^s Moost. Irving's Washington represents 
 the most serious labor of his entire career. Depreciated 
 by many critics as without historical value, it has been 
 praised by others ; its power and charm as a literary 
 work have never failed of appreciation. 
 
 These last years of Irving's life were happy and se- 
 rene. There is a picturesque sketch of his per- 
 sonal appearance in one of the Easy Chair 
 papers in Harper's Magazine * which describes the 
 author of Knickerbocker " on an autumnal afternoon 
 tripping with an elastic step along Broadway, with 
 ' low-quartered ' shoes neatly tied, and a Talma cloak 
 — a short garment that hung from the shoulders like 
 the cape of a coat. There was a chirping, cheery, old- 
 school air in his appearance which was undeniably 
 
 ^ By George William Cnrtia, Harper's Magazine, vol. 63, p. 145 
 (June, 1881) ; also included in Curtia'a Literary and Social Essays. 
 
116 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Dutch, and most harmonious with the associations of 
 his writing. He seemed, indeed, to have stepped out of 
 his own books ; and the cordial grace and humor of his 
 address, if he stopped for a passing chat, were delight- 
 fully characteristic. He was then our most famous man 
 of letters, but he was simply free from all self -conscious- 
 ness and assumption and dogmatism." 
 
 It is this simplicity, this cheeriness of spirit, this 
 native humor and cordial grace of address which most 
 distinguish the man in his literary work. He is al- 
 ways amiable — a truly lovable soul. For obvious rea- 
 sons when we think of the Sketch-Book and of Brace- 
 bridge Hall we are reminded of the Spectator essays 
 and Sir Roger de Coverley ; ' but the spirit of Irving 
 was more closely akin to that of Goldsmith than to 
 that of Addison. 
 
 " If, however, I can by lucky chance, in these days of 
 evil, rub out one wrinkle from the brow of care, or beguile 
 the heavy heart of one moment of sadness ; if I can, now and 
 then, penetrate the gathering film of misanthropy, prompt a 
 benevolent view of human nature, and make my reader more 
 in good-humor with his fellow-beings and himself — surely, 
 surely, I shall not then have written entirely in vain." 
 
 Such was the literary aspiration of Washington Ir- 
 ving as expressed in connection with his works which 
 are best remembered : an aspiration, perhaps, not the 
 most lofty which can impel a writer in the practice of 
 his art, — but one altogether worthy, and in its real- 
 ization eminently deserving of the appreciation and 
 gratitude of mankind. 
 
 Full of years and modestly happy in his fame, Wash- 
 ington Irving died at Sunnyside, November 28, 1859. 
 He was buried on a little elevation overlooking Sleepy 
 
 * The -vrorks of Joseph Addison. 
 
SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 117 
 
 Hollow, and commanding a view of the Hudson — so 
 intimately connected with his writings and associated 
 with his name. 
 
 The writings of Washington Irving are not, in the largest 
 sense, great ; but they have the literary qualities snggesUous 
 that always charm and are always valued. The to Roadlng. 
 student in his reading of this author will be impressed 
 with the gentleness, the geniality, the wholesome enjoyment 
 in life, the hearty sympathy with all things human, which 
 distinguished the winning personality of the man. He will 
 note that the sources of Irving's material are almost en- 
 tirely in the past, in history, biography, and tradition ; also 
 that the subjects which attracted his attention are romantic. 
 His whimsical humor it was that first claimed public recogni- 
 tion ; but this was more and more tempered by the delicate 
 sentiment which gives to his sketches and tales their finest 
 flavor. The mere humorist is without sentiment and is never 
 romantic. Irving was an idealist and a lover of romance. 
 
 One's reading of Irving will doubtless begin with the Sketch- 
 Book — probably with the world-famous narrative Bip Van 
 Winkle. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a companion piece. 
 Westminster Abbey should be compared with Addison's Visit 
 to Westminster Abbey. Next take the sketches of English 
 manners, Christmas, The Stage- Coach, ChristmMS Eve, 
 Christmas Day, and The Christmas Dinner. These papers 
 will furnish a pleasant introduction to the volume entitled 
 Bracebridge Hall, into which the reader may dip at will, by 
 no means feeling it necessary to read every sketch. One — 
 The Stout Gentlem,an — should be carefully studied ; it is 
 one of Irving's most brilliant essays, and should be appre- 
 ciated by the student. The story of Dolph Heyliger, at the 
 close of the volume, takes us back to the Dutch burghers of 
 Manhattan and the legend-haunted shores of the Hudson. 
 The sketch entitled The Author, at the opening of the volume, 
 and The Author's Farewell, at its close, should be included 
 for the insight they afford into the personality of Irving him- 
 self. The Tales of a Traveller exhibit the writer in his most 
 
118 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 vivacious mood. Charmingly reminiscent of his visit with Scott, 
 is Irving's delightful sketch of Abhotsford. The Alhambra 
 contains some of Irving's most attractive work. The imag- 
 inative and poetical qualities of his prose are found preemi- 
 nently in this volume. The wonderful charm of his style in 
 both narrative and descriptive writing is nowhere more in 
 evidence than here. His descriptions of the historic structure, 
 its gardens, its spacious courtyards, the orange and lemon 
 trees silvery in the radiance of moonlight, its pavilions and 
 arcades, the notes of guitar and lovers' serenades, the lulling 
 patter of its fountains — these descriptions are more than 
 sketches ; they are word-paintings which glow with color and 
 fitly interpret the spirit of romance which abides in the locality 
 and the theme. 
 
 As examples of Irving's more serious historical writing, 
 the account of the discovery of land. Book III, chapter iv, in 
 the Life of Columius, and of the landing of the discoverer, 
 Book IV, chapter i, are especially suggested. 
 
 For illustrations of this author's humor in its most rollick- 
 ing vein, the student is referred to the Knickerbocker Sis- 
 tori/, Book III, chapter i, which contains the description of 
 Wouter Van Twiller, and Book V, chapters i and viii, wherein 
 the character of Peter the Headstrong is introduced and the 
 account given of the famous battle between the Dutch and 
 the Swedes at the taking of Fort Christina. 
 
 In reading Irving, the student may feel assured that he is 
 giving his time to a writer who is not only a prince among 
 entertainers, but one who may well serve as a model of prose 
 style. As a master of English, Irving is well-nigh incompara- 
 ble among American authors; certainly, for ease, fluency, 
 vivacity, grace, and elegance he is yet unsurpassed. 
 
 The authoritative biography of Washington Irving is the 
 BlogiajM- ^^*' ^y Pierre M. Irving. In the American Men 
 oai and of Letters Series the volume on Irving is by Charles 
 ftMlUes*"' ^"^^^y Warner. A briefer life of the author is 
 that by H.W. Boynton in the Riverside Biographi- 
 cal Series. A delightfully written sketch of Irving by George 
 William Curtis maybe found among the Easy Chair articles 
 
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER 119 
 
 in Harper's Magazine (June, 1881), vol. 63, p. 145, and an- 
 other in the same magazine (April, 1883), vol. 66, p. 790. An 
 elaboration of this same material is included in Curtis's LU- 
 erary and Social Essays (Harper's), p. 239. An interesting 
 English estimate is given in Thackeray's Nil Nisi Bonum 
 {Roundabout Papers, or Harper's Monthly, March, 1860). 
 The Critic, Mai-ch 31, 1883, was published as an Irving 
 Centenary number. 
 
 III. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER : 1789-1851. 
 
 While the genius of Irving was winning for a newly 
 developed American literature the recognition and re- 
 spect of our kinsmen in England, his contemporary, 
 James Fenimore Cooper, suddenly appeared in the field 
 of letters to share in the distinction and the honor 
 of widely recognized literary success. Our first notable 
 writer of fiction. Cooper was in no sense a follower of 
 the first American romancer, Charles Brockden Brown, 
 nor an imitator of his fantastic and abnormal types. 
 He stands rather as the originator of the novel of ad- 
 venture in our literature, and is frequently termed 
 " the American Scott." 
 
 It is remarkable that many of the best English nov- 
 elists have begun their careers as professional story- 
 tellers almost by accident. This is true of Richardson 
 and Fielding, the fathers of the modern novel, as it was 
 of their great forerunner, Defoe. Walter Scott was 
 driven to romancing in prose when Lord Byron invaded 
 so successfully his chosen field of metrical romance. 
 Dickens and Thackeray stumbled into fiction through 
 the hedgerows of journalism. George Eliot had found 
 a place for herself in letters before her talent for char- 
 acter creation was discovered. Cooper's experience was 
 somewhat similar to that of Fielding ; for the author 
 of Joseph Andrews was provoked into novel writing by 
 
120 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 his impatience at the tediousness and unnaturalness of 
 Richardson's Pamela, and our first American novelist 
 of genius started upon his earliest venture to prove to 
 his wife that he could write a better story than one that 
 by chance he was trying to read. The secret of Cooper's 
 success is the same as that of these others ; given the 
 innate talent for narration, and the born story-teller 
 will — whatever and whenever the exciting cause of his 
 activity — in the fullness of time come to his own. 
 
 James Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington, 
 New Jersey, September 15, 1789 ; but before he was 
 quite one year old his father removed his family to a 
 most romantic homestead on the shore of Otsego Lake 
 in central New York. It was the frontier of civilization 
 Coopers- ^^ t^^* ^^7'> ^^^ On the very edge of the in- 
 town. terminable forest that stretched out over the 
 
 western wilderness. The deer, the wolf, the wildcat, 
 and the bear were familiar denizens of the still savage 
 woods. The tribes of the Six Nations still held their 
 pow-wows and followed the warpath beneath its shade. 
 The lonely cabins of more venturesome settlers were 
 still exposed to the horrors of Indian attacks. The 
 little village of Cooperstown itself exhibited all the 
 various phases of pioneer life and character. Amid 
 these scenes and in this vigorous atmosphere the child- 
 hood of Cooper was passed. It is no wonder that the 
 impressions of these early years should remain vividly 
 painted on his memory to give realistic coloring to the 
 picturesque tales of pioneer life which were later to be 
 written. 
 
 A second period of unconscious preparation came 
 On when, in 1806, having got himself expelled 
 
 supboarfl. from Yale College through some outbreak of 
 youthful folly in his junior year, he signed articles on 
 board the merchant ship Sterling, and entered upon a 
 
122 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 regular apprenticeship before the mast. A year later, 
 he secured a commission as midshipman in the United 
 States Navy, and for three years followed the service 
 on the Atlantic and the Lakes. In 1809, he was in com- 
 mand of the gunboats on Lake Champlain. Cooper 
 resigned from the Navy in 1811, but his experiences on 
 shipboard had made him master of material which he 
 afterward used in two or three as admirable sea tales 
 as ever were written. 
 
 James Fenimore Cooper was thirty years old when 
 he began to write. He was then living in Westches- 
 ter County, not far from the city of New York, on 
 what was known as the Angevine Farm, a beautifully 
 situated estate commanding an extended view of the 
 jjig Sound. His resignation from the Navy nine 
 
 Experiment, years before had been coincident with his 
 marriage to a Miss De Lancey, whose father during 
 the Revolutionary War had supported the cause of the 
 Crown. Cooper himself had not settled down to any 
 definite vocation — least of all had any thought of a 
 literary career entered his head. The occasion which 
 led to the writing of his first novel has been mentioned. 
 " I believe I could write a better story myself," he 
 said, laying down an English novel which had come 
 into his hand. "Try," said his wife. In November, 
 1820, the novel. Precaution, was published. No one 
 reads the book to-day; it is doubtful if many of 
 Cooper's contemporaries read it, but some of his friends 
 seemed to find evidence of promise amid its crudities 
 and encouraged the author to go on. The next year he 
 had something better to present them ; this time it was 
 The Spy, a tale of the Revolution. 
 
 This famous novel had some foundation in historical 
 fact. Cooper had heard from John Jay, years before, 
 an account of a patriot spy who had been in his service 
 
THE PILOT 123 
 
 during the war ; this was the germ of the narrative. 
 The story was vivid and impressive ; it was 
 full of local color ; it appealed to the patriot- '^' 
 ism of readers. In many ways it was the best piece of fic- 
 tion that had been produced in this country, and even 
 permitted comparison with Scott. Its success was imme- 
 diate and unprecedented at home, while in England its 
 success was relatively as great. It was translated into 
 French and then into other European languages. It 
 was dramatized and long remained popular on the stage. 
 Numerous imitations were inspired ; and the hero of 
 the novel, Harvey Birch, found a place in the popular 
 heart. 
 
 Between 1820 and 1830, Cooper produced eleven 
 novels. The Pioneers (1823) was the first of the 
 famous series by reason of which Cooper holds his rank 
 among the novelists. It was a labor of love — this at- 
 tempt to interpret the picturesque life of the frontier, 
 and with the final completion of the Leather Stocking 
 Tales he had fairly performed the task. This great 
 series, however, was not produced consecutively or in 
 regular order. Cooper's fourth narrative was The Pilot, 
 the first of his sea tales ; and this appeared in January, 
 1824. 
 
 The Pilot was, like The Spy, an experiment ; for 
 
 the real romance of the sea had not been at- 
 
 , , , T J. i The Pilot, 
 
 tempted, although the coarsely reahstic sto- 
 ries of Smollett had indeed introduced the theme into 
 English fiction. Scott's novel TAe Pirate had been pub- 
 lished near the close of 1821, and as the author's 
 identity was still concealed, the apparent familiarity 
 with nautical terms displayed in that narrative occa- 
 sioned much conjecture. It was declared that it must 
 be the work of a seafaring man. Cooper maintained 
 otherwise and asserted that the author's ignorance of 
 
124 THE NINETEENTH CENTUKY 
 
 maritime affairs was betrayed by the book. He went 
 further and determined to write a sea story to prove 
 his argument. The success of The Pilot was almost as 
 brilliant as that of The Spy. For the first time, a genu- 
 ine sea novel had been written ; and in spite of some 
 obvious defects, The Pilot remains to this day one of 
 the best novels of its class. The principal characters. 
 Colonel Howard, the American with tory sympathies. 
 Captain Borroughcliffe, the British officer, Captain 
 Manual of the Marines, the midshipman, Merry, Bolt- 
 rope, the quartermaster, and, above all. Long Tom 
 Coffin, the typical American sailor, are most happily 
 drawn. The "female" characters, as Cooper would 
 have designated the heroine and her companion, are — 
 as is always the case in his narratives — inane and un- 
 real. On the other hand, the actual hero of the story, 
 John Paul Jones, who appears in disguise and is known 
 only as the Pilot, is presented with considerable suc- 
 cess ; the character certainly maintains the impressive- 
 ness of the traditional hero of romance and presents as 
 commanding, a figure as any produced in more recent 
 attempts to portray this imposing personality of Revo- 
 lutionary days. 
 
 Thus was James Fenimore Cooper fairly launched 
 Cooper's on his career as a novelist. He wrote prolific- 
 Novels, a^iiy^ becoming the author of some thirty works 
 of fiction, of which perhaps a dozen may be called great 
 novels. Besides those already named, Precaution 
 (1820), The Spy (1821), The Pioneers (1823), and 
 The Pilot (1824), the following are included in the 
 list : Lionel Lincoln (1825), The Last of the Mo- 
 hicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), The Red Rover 
 (1828), The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish (1829), The 
 Water-Witch (1830), The Bravo (1831), The Hei- 
 denmauer (1832), The Headsman (1833), The Moni- 
 
COOPER'S NOVELS 125 
 
 Mns (1835), Homeward Bound (1838), Home as 
 Found (1838), The Pathfinder (1840), Mercedes of 
 Castile (1840), The Deerslayer (1841), The Two 
 Admirals (1842), Wing -and- Wing (1842), Wyan- 
 dotte (1843), Afloat and Ashore (1844), Miles 
 Wallingford (1844), Satanstoe (1845), The Chain- 
 hearer (1846), The Eedshins (1846), The Crater 
 (1847), Jac^ Tier (1848), The Dale Openings (1848), 
 The Sea Lions (1849), and The Ways of the Hour 
 (1850). In addition to these narratives. Cooper was 
 also the author of a History of the United States Navy 
 (1839), of a biography of one of his shipmates, Ned 
 Myers (1843), of tales contributed to Graham's Maga- 
 zine, and of ten volumes of travels. 
 
 Cooper's literary work was interrupted variously. 
 Seven years he spent in foreign residence, personal 
 Owing to an abnormal sensitiveness to criti- X'awa- 
 cism and lack of self-control in the vigorous expression 
 of his opinions, he established a reputation, not wholly 
 merited, for unreasonableness, intolerance, and pug- 
 nacity. His unfortunate irascibility of temper precipi- 
 tated quarrels. His belligerent patriotism was aroused 
 by European criticism of American institutions, and 
 the manner in which he expressed his protest aroused 
 resentment abroad. No less irritating were his own 
 criticisms passed upon some of our national defects and 
 crudities which he noticed after his return to the United 
 States. Several of his novels were written in the spirit 
 of satire solely as expressions of his censure; these are, 
 naturally, his poorest works. ' He was bitterly criticised 
 in the public press. To maintain his contentions, he in- 
 volved himself in lawsuits and, indeed, won most of the 
 
 ' This eriticisin applies especially to The Bravo, The Heidenmauer, 
 TTie Headsman, The Monikins, The Redskins, and Home as Found, this 
 last, perhaps, the worst of Cooper's performances. 
 
126 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 suits ; but he also won a most unpleasant notoriety, be- 
 coming in the highest degree unpopular both in America 
 and England. And yet, with it all, Cooper was at heart 
 a sincere, earnest, pure-hearted, truth-loving man of 
 honor, a fearless and devoted patriot. 
 
 Of undisputed power are the novels which comprise 
 The the famous Leather Stocking group ; and it is 
 
 stoc^g mainly upon the merits of this remarkable 
 Tales. series that Cooper's claim to distinction rests 
 
 both at home and abroad. The character of the hero. 
 Natty Bumppo, or Leather Stocking, portrayed from 
 youth to old age, is unique in literature. Professor 
 Lounsbury, the biographer of Cooper, declares it to be 
 " perhaps the only great original character that Ameri- 
 can fiction has added to the literature of the world." 
 It is a fact worthy of note that these Indian tales have 
 been translated into nearly all, if not all, the languages 
 of the civilized globe. When ThePrairie was completed 
 in 1827, five editions were published at the same time : 
 two appeared in Paris, one in French, and one in 
 English ; one in London ; one in Bei-lin ; and one in Phil- 
 adelphia. But the most picturesque statement regarding 
 the popularity of these novels abroad is found in a letter 
 written in 1833 by Morse, the inventor of the electric 
 telegraph. He says: — 
 
 " I have visited, in Europe, many countries, and what I 
 have asserted of the fame of Mr. Cooper I assert from per- 
 sonal knowledge. In every city of Europe that I visited, the 
 works of Cooper were conspicuously placed in the windows 
 of every bookshop. They are published as soon as he pro- 
 duces them in thirty-four different places in Europe. They 
 have been seen by American, travellers in the languages of 
 Turkey and Persia, in Constantinople, in Egypt, at Jerusa- 
 lem, at Ispahan." ^ 
 
 1 Lounsbury's James Fenimore Cooper, p. 76. 
 
MERITS AS A NOVELIST 127 
 
 The later years of the novelist's life were passed 
 mainly on his estate at Cooperstown. Here, 
 with many uncompleted literary projects in 
 mind, some of them already begun, death came upon 
 him, September 14, 1851. The fifteenth of September 
 would have been his sixty-second birthday; on the 
 twenty-fifth, a public meeting was held in the City Hall, 
 New York. Washington Irving presided, and a com- 
 mittee of prominent literary men was appointed to 
 arrange for suitable memorial exercises. These exercises 
 were held in Metropolitan Hall, February 25, 1852. 
 The audience was representative of the culture of New 
 York, Daniel Webster presided, and William Cullen 
 Bryant delivered the memorial address, which was elo- 
 quent and just. 
 
 No master of style in the large sense, Cooper did 
 possess the one essential gift of a great nov- Merits as a 
 elist. He had a story to tell and told it in MoveUst 
 such fashion as to make it real. In narrative and de- 
 scription, he was eminently successful. His word pic- 
 tures of forest and prairie, of land fights and sea fights, 
 of storm and wreck are superb. The account of the 
 Pilot's working the frigate from her perilous position 
 on a treacherous coast and the thrilling incident of the 
 Ariel's wreck are unsurpassed. Cooper was prolix, he 
 moralized to excess on commonplace themes. His char- 
 acters are often described as conventional rather than 
 living personalities. Nevertheless, in his best narra- 
 tives interest rarely flags. He is fertile in incident, good 
 in arousing suspense, and not too technical to be clear. 
 The reader who to-day takes up the volumes of the 
 Leather Stocking Series in their proper order — The 
 Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Path- 
 finder, The Pioneers, and The Prairie — will not be 
 disposed to question the preeminence of these tales in 
 
128 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 the field of native historical romance. If he adds to 
 these an equal number of the sea tales, including The 
 Pilot, The Red Rover, The Water- Witch, The Two 
 Admirals, Wing-and-Wing, he will find that the genius 
 of Cooper does not suffer when brought in comparison 
 with later story-tellers who — many of them his imi- 
 tators — are cultivating the romance of nautical adven- 
 ture to-day. 
 
 The Last of the Mohicans is the volume usually pre- 
 Snggestlons scribed for reading in school courses. It is a pity 
 JorHaaaing. that the pupil should not first read The Deer- 
 slayer, its predecessor in the series. As representative of 
 the sea tales, either The Pilot or The Red Rover may be 
 taken. The Spy will prove an interesting narrative for those 
 who enjoy historical romance. While it is impossible satis- 
 factorily to represent any novel by selections from it, the 
 first five chapters of The Pilot will serve well to illustrate 
 Cooper's style in narrative ; so will chapters 27, 28, 29, and 
 30 of The Deerslayer. The first includes the account of the 
 escape of the Ariel ; the second that of Natty Bumppo's 
 brief captivity among the Hurons. Both are thrilling incidents 
 admirably narrated. For a review of Cooper's life and work, 
 select the James Fenimore Cooper by Thomas R. Lounsbury. 
 It is an ideally written biography — one of the best in the 
 series of the American Men of Letters. A short sketch of 
 Cooper is the volume by Clymer in the Beacon Biographiei. 
 Bryant's memorial address, in the volume of his Orations and 
 Addresses, will repay the reference. The Atlantic Monthly, 
 for September, 1907, contains an interesting article on 
 Cooper, by Brand er Matthews. 
 
 IV. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT : 1794-1878. 
 
 William CuUen Bryant, first of our American clas- 
 Birtii and sic poets, was born November 3, 1794, at 
 Paroatage. Cummington, in the beautiful hill region of 
 western Massachusetts. His father, Peter Bryant, of 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 129 
 
 Puritan descent, was a physician and surgeon — a 
 country doctor of the old school, skilled by experience, 
 self-forgetful and self-sacrificing. He was a man of 
 literary tastes, and not alone encouraged his son in the 
 development of his talent, but was himself an occasional 
 writer of verse. For several terms he served in the 
 state legislature as representative and as senator. He 
 was revered for his high ideals, and was widely known 
 as " the good and learned Doctor Bryant." Mrs. Bryant, 
 a descendant of John Alden of the Plymouth Colony, 
 was a woman of great energy and keen moral sense, 
 thoroughly representative of the sturdy New England 
 type. With remarkable persistency, she kept a diary for 
 fifty-three solid years — in itself a moving testimony to 
 her conscientious, practical character. Each year had its 
 little volume, the paper being sometimes cut and bound 
 by her own hands, and sewed with linen thread of her 
 own spinning. One entry in the diary reads as follows : 
 
 "M[onday] 3. Stormy. Wind N.E. Churned — unwell. 
 Seven at Night a Son Born." 
 
 And this brief note records the birth of William 
 Cullen Bryant. 
 
 As an' infant, the future poet was frail and sickly. 
 Gathering strength as he grew he began early _^., ^ , 
 to take unusual delight in the beautiiul en- 
 vironment of his country home. Surrounded by rugged 
 hills, the Hoosack range not far distant, amid the nar- 
 row winding valleys with their rushing mountain streams, 
 and great tracts of woodland solemn and grand, the 
 boy became a lover of nature. As a child, he prayed that 
 he might be a poet. He was precocious, knew his let- 
 ters before he was two years old, and was placed in 
 school at four. At nine, he was writing little poems, 
 and paraphrased a part of the book of Job. In these 
 
130 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 efforts, William Cullen was encouraged and criticised 
 by his father — 
 
 " Who taught my youth 
 The art of verse, and in the bud of life 
 Offered me to the Muses." ^ 
 
 At thirteen, he composed a satire, The Embargo, 
 which Dr. Bryant thought worthy of publication. This 
 composition, aimed at the President, Thomas Jeffer- 
 son, after one of the unpopular acts of his administra- 
 tion, appeared in print at Boston in 1808, but was 
 afterward discarded by the poet. 
 
 The family was now living with Mrs. Bryant's 
 
 _ ^ . , parents on the farm belonging to Ebenezer 
 Sobool-days. J, ,, . -o • i i 
 
 Snell, a stern, rigorous Jr uritan, who neverthe- 
 less was not without the grace of humor ; and the influ- 
 ence of Grandfather Snell was strong in the develop- 
 ment of the growing boy. The activities of farm life 
 proving too laborious for William's strength, he wel- 
 comed the opportunity to secure a college education. 
 In 1809, he was sent to the home of an uncle, a clergy- 
 man in North Brookfield, to begin the study of Latin. 
 In eight months, he had mastered the grammar, had 
 read the New Testament, all of Virgil, and the Orations 
 of Cicero. The next year he attended a school in 
 Plainfield to learn Greek — to which he gave himself, 
 as he says, with his whole soul. In September, 1810, 
 Bryant entered Williams College as a sophomore. The 
 experience of college life was brief, however, for at 
 the end of seven months the student, dissatisfied with 
 the limited advantages then offered by the institution, 
 withdrew from Williams, expecting to enter Yale Col- 
 lege in the fall. But this anticipation was not realized, 
 as Dr. Bryant found it impossible to furnish the means 
 
 1 Hymn to Death. See also stanzas 11-14 in the autobiographical 
 poem, A Lifetime. 
 
132 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 necessary to go on, and the period of Bryant's student 
 life — to his own lasting regret — was thus abruptly 
 terminated. 
 
 Bryant's poetical talents were not, however, allowed 
 Tie Poet's to lie dormant. In his father's library, he found 
 AwaJiening. several volumes of the contemporary English 
 poets, which stimulated his imagination and directly 
 influenced his own expression. From an early age he 
 had read Cowper with delight ; he was familiar with 
 Thomson's Seasons; he now read Southey and Kirke 
 White ; and it is worthy of note that Blair's morbid but 
 remarkable poem. The Grave, which he discovered at this 
 time, moved him with melancholy pleasure. It must have 
 been during this period — in the autumn of 1811, as the 
 poet recalled it — that Thanatopsis was composed. 
 
 At the close of 1811, Bryant became a law student 
 stnaying in an office at Worthington. While diligent 
 ^*^- in his legal studies, poetry still allured him 
 
 and nature's hold upon his affections was strengthened 
 by a new experience. Bryant now read Wordsworth 
 for the first time. The Lyrical Ballads * fell into his 
 hands and, as he said in later life to his friend, 
 Richard Henry Dana, — " a thousand springs seemed to 
 gush up at once in my heart, and the face of nature of a 
 sudden to change into a strange freshness of life." This 
 influence of the English poet — the supreme interpreter 
 of nature and chief apostle of simplicity and natural- 
 ness in verse — is to be recognized not as setting a new 
 model for the western poet, but as confirming in his 
 mind the truthfulness and value of conceptions already 
 there. "Now he learned what nature herself might 
 mean to a genuinely poetic spirit, and §, new world lay 
 open before him."=' He knew that he, too, had re- 
 
 1 The Lyrical Ballads were pnljlished in 1798. 
 
 2 William A. Bradley's Bryant (English Men of Letters Series), p. 36. 
 
TO A WATERFOWL 133 
 
 ceived the gift of poetry. Yet he pupsued his law 
 studies to their natural close, and in 1815 was admitted 
 to the bar. 
 
 Bryant's twenty-first birthday fell in November, 1815. 
 On an afternoon in December, following, the to a 
 newly fledged lawyer trudged across the hills wateiiowi. 
 seven miles to the village of Plainfield, where it was de- 
 cided that he should begin the practice of his profes- 
 sion. His spirit was depressed, his ambition seemed 
 thwarted. In the previous year he had written to a 
 friend these lines : — 
 
 " And I that loved to trace the woods before, 
 And climb the hills a playmate of the breeze, 
 Have vowed to tune the riiral lay no more. 
 Have bid my useless classics sleep at ease. 
 And left the race of bards to scribble, starve and freeze." 
 
 We may well imagine that the dreariness of the wintry 
 landscape on that December afternoon reflected the 
 doubt and despondency of Bryant's mood. Then came 
 a glorious sunset, and as the young man gazed at the 
 rosy splendor of the clouds, a solitary bird appeared 
 winging its flight along the horizon. Bryant watched it 
 out of sight ; and that evening in his new abiding-place 
 he wrote his imperishable lines To a Waterfowl, with 
 its tender close : — 
 
 " He who from zone to zone. 
 Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, 
 In the long way that I must tread alone, 
 Will lead my steps aright." 
 
 Three months later, Bryant removed to Great Bar- 
 rington, settled down to his profession, and definitely 
 abandoned all idea of being a poet. 
 
 Meanwhile there occurred an event which makes a 
 very notable record in the history of American litera- 
 ture. Among his Boston acquaintance, Dr. Bryant 
 
134 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 numbered Ml-. Phillips, one of the editors of the new 
 North American Review ; ' and by that gen- 
 ' tleman he was asked to invite his son, William 
 Cullen Bryant, to contribute to the magazine. To this 
 invitation there came no immediate response from the 
 law office in Great Barrington ; but Dr. Bryant, look- 
 ing through a drawer in an old desk at Cummington, 
 came upon some of the verse which his son had left 
 there at his departure. Among the manuscripts, he found 
 the poems Thanatopsis and the Inscription for the En- 
 trance to a Wood. It was a dramatic discovery. It is said 
 that the poet's father was so affected by what he had 
 found, that he ran with the poems to an appreciative 
 neighbor, burst into tears, and exclaimed, " Oh, read 
 that; it is CuUen's." Without consulting their author, 
 Dr. Bryant immediately copied the poems, took them 
 to Boston, and placed them in the editor's hands. When 
 Phillips read Thanatopsis to Richard Henry Dana, 
 associate editor of the North American, the latter re- 
 marked with a smile, "Ah, Phillips, you have been 
 imposed upon ; no one on this side of the Atlantic is 
 capable of writing such verses." However, the two 
 poems appeared in the Review for September, 1817. 
 
 As already stated, Bryant had written Thanatopsis, as 
 Thanatopsis "^^^ly as he could recollect, in 1811. Through 
 some impulse of self-distrust or of diffidence, 
 he had refrained from submitting these unusual lines to 
 his father, whose kindly criticism he had commonly in- 
 vited, and they had lain thus hidden for six years. The 
 poem was a marvelous production for a boy of seven- 
 teen — this solemn " view of death," so calm and self- 
 controlled in its presentation, so universal and elemental 
 in its stately setting. Wben published in the Review, 
 the poem lacked its formal introduction — the exhortar 
 ^ The North American Seview was established in 1815. 
 
THANATOPSIS 135 
 
 tiou to " list to Nature's teachings," nor did it then 
 possess the familiar lines of its present effective con- 
 elusion. The poem began with what is now line 17, 
 " Yet a few days," and ended with line 66, " And 
 make their bed with thee." But it did include those 
 sonorous verses : — 
 
 " Yet not to thine eternal resting-place 
 Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish 
 Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down 
 With patriarchs of the infant world — with kings, 
 The powerful of the earth — the wise, the good, 
 Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past, 
 All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills 
 Kock-ribbed and ancient as the sun, — the vales 
 Stretching in pensive quietness between ; 
 The venerable woods — rivers that move 
 In majesty, and the complaining brooks 
 That make the meadows green ; and, poured round all. 
 Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste, — 
 Are but the solemn decorations all 
 Of the great tomb of man." 
 
 Marvelous indeed it was that one so young could 
 rise to such lofty thought and find such impressive 
 phraseology for its expression ; and no less wonderful 
 that this youth, roaming the woods alone, should com- 
 mand such skill in the use of blank verse, the resonant 
 voice of which has eluded many a clever versifier. In 
 the face of this achievement, we can ouly recall the 
 general precocity of Bryant's earlier youth and his en- 
 joyment of the poet Cowper. * 
 
 Similar comment may be passed upon the second of 
 these two poems, the Inscription for the En- ijj,, 
 trance to a Wood. Though expressive of a iMoripuon. 
 lighter, less solemn mood, it does not fall in excellence 
 
 ^ " Cowper's poems had been in my hands from an early age and I 
 now passed from his shorter poems ... to his Task, the finer pas- 
 sages of which supplied a form of blank verse that captivated my ad> 
 miration." — Autobiographic fragment. 
 
136 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 below its companion piece. It speaks of calm, tran- 
 quillity, and deep contentment. The forest shades 
 
 " Are still the abode of gladness ; the thick roof 
 Of green and stirring branches is alive 
 And musical -with birds. . • . 
 
 . . . The Rivulet 
 Sends forth glad sounds, and tripping o'er its bed 
 Of pebbly sands, or leaping down the rocks, 
 Seems, with continuous laughter, to rejoice 
 In its own being." 
 
 A prompt request for furthet contributions brought 
 The Prose forth in the following year an essay on Ameri- 
 Essay. cati Poetry, which is entitled to rank at least 
 as the first attempt by an American writer in the field 
 of literary criticism. In it the writer emphasized the 
 truth that for a literature to be national, it must be 
 natural ; and must originate, without imitation, in the 
 sincere personal expression of individual genius. 
 
 Personal experiences which deeply concerned the 
 poet occurred in quick succession. In 1820, Dr. Bryant 
 died, and Bryant's Hymn to Death was completed by 
 a noble tribute to his father's memory — infused with 
 more of personal feeling than had characterized the 
 poems just described. In June of the following year 
 came the poet's marriage to Miss Fanny Fairchild, a 
 farmer's daughter, whose virtues had inspired the lines 
 O Fairest of the Sural Maids, in which Poe saw 
 " the truest poem written by Bryant." Shortly after his 
 marriage, the poet was honored with an invitation from 
 the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College to 
 read a poem at the coming Commencement. 
 
 Such was the occasion of Bryant's first visit to Boston 
 The visit and Cambridge, and his first presentation to 
 to Boston, the men who were at that time leaders in 
 American scholarship, and in literary taste. The poem 
 read was The Ages. Its theme is the progress of man 
 
FIRST VOLUME OF VERSE 137 
 
 through the centuries and the triumph of virtue and 
 liberty in the New World. It is composed in the Spen- 
 serian stanza ; is, on that account perhaps, somewhat 
 artificial in its effect, and falls below the standard of 
 Bryant's best work ; yet the poem was heartily received 
 and, in the minds of many of his hearers. The Ages 
 placed its author "at the very head of American poets." 
 One result of this visit was the beginning of a warm 
 and intimate friendship between Bryant and 
 Richard Henry Dana, a friendship which con- 
 tinued unbroken until death. A second result was the 
 publication, through the influence of Dana and Phillips, 
 of the first volume of Bryant's verse. This appeared in 
 1821. It was a small pamphlet of forty-four pages, 
 bound in brown paper boards, and containing the fol- 
 lowing eight poems: The Ages, To a Waterfowl, 
 Translation of a Fragment of Simonides (written 
 apparently while Bryant was in college), the Inscrip- 
 tion for the Entrance to a Wood, The Yellow Violet, 
 Song "The Hunter of the West," Oreen River, and 
 Thanatopsis. While not all of Bryant's compositions 
 to that time are included, these poems were representa- 
 tive of his best work, and five of them were never sur- 
 passed by any subsequent composition. Thanatopsis 
 now appeared in its completed form — the conclusion 
 having been added, possibly, to meet some criticism 
 which had deplored the purely " pagan " sentiment of 
 the poem in its earlier form. The poet continued to 
 publish, his work appearing at intervals in the Heview, 
 and also in The Idle Man, a short-lived periodical es- 
 tablished by Richard Henry Dana in New York. In 
 1823, he began regularly to send his verse to a new mag- 
 azine in Boston, the United States Literary Gazette, 
 which, under the editorship of Theophilus Parsons, had 
 a distinguished although brief career. From this maga- 
 
138 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 zine the poet received and accepted an offer of f 200 a 
 year for his verse, to average a hundred lines a month. 
 In three years, Bryant published in its columns between 
 twenty and thirty poems, among vyhich were The Mas- 
 sacre of Scio, Rizpah, The Rivulet, March, Summer 
 Wind, Monument Mountain, Autumn Woods, To a 
 Cloud, and A Forest Hymn. 
 
 In 1825, Bryant withdrew from the practice of law, 
 Removal to ^"^ "^ response to the urgency of friends 
 Now York, removed to New York. Here he assumed 
 editorial charge of a new literary publication somewhat 
 heavily weighted by the title of The New York Re- 
 view and Athenaeum Magazine. To its first issue the 
 poet contributed A Song of Pitcairh's Island ; the 
 same number contained also a poem by Dana and 
 Halleck's now familiar poem, Marco Bozzaris. Besides 
 Halleck and Dana, the literary men of New York — 
 among them Paulding, Willis, and James Fenimore 
 Cooper — became his friends and associates. The city 
 atmosphere was not altogether congenial, nor were the 
 professional ideals of some in the group so high as 
 Bryant's ; they did not take the art of verse so seri- 
 ously as he who deemed the poet's exercise anything 
 but 
 
 " The pastime of a drowsy summer day." ^ 
 
 His poems during this period still breathe the love of 
 nature ; and frequently he journeyed back to his Massa- 
 chusetts hills for the freshening of the old environment. 
 The career of the Magazine was closed in 1827. But 
 ^j^^ Bryant's editorial course was only beginning. 
 
 Evening He was offered a position on the staff of the 
 ^°^*" New York Evening Post, founded in ISOl by 
 
 Alexander Hamilton, and at this time the best estab- 
 
 1 Read The Poet, written by Bryant in 1863, — especially the last 
 three stanzas. 
 
COLLECTED PIECES 139 
 
 lished of the metropolitan newspapers. In 1829, he be- 
 came editor in chief; thereafter, financially independent, 
 with a political influence national in its scope and a 
 growing reputation as the foremost American journalist, 
 he lived his long and useful life, absorbed in the exact- 
 ing duties of his profession, universally esteemed and 
 honored by his countrymen, but finding little time for 
 poetic utterance, and producing nothing that compares 
 in beauty or power with the compositions of his earlier 
 years. 
 
 In 1832, the poet published a volume of his collected 
 pieces, eighty-nine in all. Here were gathered volume of 
 all of his early poems which he cared to preserve 1832. 
 and those contributed to magazines, including a group 
 of compositions which had appeared in The Talisman, a 
 miscellany of prose and verse published under Bryant's 
 supervision as an annual in 1828, 1829, and 1830. Of 
 this group only two poems. The Past and The Even- 
 ing Wind, are worthy of note ; the first was considered 
 by the poet one of his very best ; Poe greatly admired 
 the second — which has been said to be " less a de- 
 scription than the very thing itself which it describes." 
 The Song of Marion's Men and the exquisite lines To 
 the Fringed Gentian were fltst published in the vol- 
 ume of 1832. During the forty-five years which fol- 
 lowed, Bryant's further compositions hardly equaled in 
 amount the verse included in this collection. 
 
 Bryant traveled much. Three times he visited the 
 middle west, whither his brothers and their _ 
 mother had removed after Dr. Bryant's death, 
 in 1820. The family was established in central Illinois. 
 The poet's first visit was in 1832. It was in the pioneer 
 period and the country was still to a large extent pic- 
 turesque and primitively wild. 
 
 " The unshom fields, boundless and beautiful," 
 
140 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 profoundly impressed his mind. The journey on horse- 
 back across the prairies was the inspiration of one of 
 his finest descriptive poems/ Here he pictures the en- 
 circling vastness swept by the shadow of the clouds, 
 aflame with tossing golden flowers, and still the haunt 
 of wolf and deer. His imagination was stirred also with 
 visions of the future ; he saw the " advancing multi- 
 tude " following fast upon those who had begun already 
 to till and tame this rich garden soil of the waiting 
 West. An interesting incident of the journey was his 
 chance meeting with a company of Illinois volunteers 
 led' by a tall, uncouth lad, on their way to help put 
 down an Indian uprising under the famous chief Black 
 Hawk. The young captain whose homely awkwardness 
 and breezy humor had aroused Bryant's interest was 
 introduced to him as young Abe Lincoln ; thirty years 
 later Mr. Bryant himself had the pleasure of intro- 
 ducing Mr. Lincoln to a great audience in New York 
 city, as a candidate for the presidency of the United 
 States. 
 
 In later years, the editor of the Evening Post made 
 several trips to Europe, one of which included a tour of 
 Egypt and the Holy Land. The letters sent by him to 
 his paper, descriptive of his travels, were published 
 under the titles Letters of a Traveller (1850) oaA. Let- 
 ters from the Far East (1869). 
 
 For practically fifty years, William Cullen Bryant 
 citizen and ^^s a distinguished citizen of New York. His 
 Orator. position as a leading representative of Ameri- 
 can letters became more and more conspicuous in spite 
 of the infrequency of his verse. He was one of the most 
 successful of public speakers; and on occasions demand- 
 ing oratory of an exceptional excellence, he was the 
 natural choice. His most notable addresses were those 
 1 The Prairies, 1832. 
 
TRANSLATION OF HOMER 141 
 
 delivered at the meetings commemorating the work of 
 Cooper, Irving, and Halleck. In all I his utterances, 
 private as well as public, two qualities characterized 
 Bryant — dignity and modesty. At a remarkable ban- 
 quet given in honor of his seventieth birthday, in 1864, 
 an occasion signalized by the presence and speech of 
 Emerson and by poetical tributes from the distinguished 
 contemporary poets of Cambridge and Boston, Bryant 
 modestly described himself "as one who has carried 
 a lantern in the night and who perceives that its beams 
 are no longer visible in the glory which the morning 
 pours around him." 
 
 At seventy-three, the poet began to translate the Iliad 
 in blank verse ; four years later, at the end of Translation 
 1871, both the Hiad and the Odyssey were "^ =»"'«• 
 finished and Bryant's excellent translation of Homer 
 was published. 
 
 The poet's old age was vigorous and hale. From youth 
 he had been compelled to take unusual care of 
 his health. He adopted strict rules regarding 
 diet and exercise. He rose early and regularly spent 
 between one and two hours in exercising with dumb- 
 bells and bar. It was his invariable practice without 
 regard to weather to walk to and from his office in the 
 city, and he discarded the use of the elevator. Bryant 
 was not tall, but erect and well proportioned. In old 
 age his appearance was distinguished and everywhere 
 commanded reverence. His leonine head, long silvery 
 hair and beard made him a venerable figure. He was 
 always courtly, always dignified ; to those who did not 
 know through intimacy his g;reat kindness of spirit 
 and his genial nature, Bryant seemed cold and austere. 
 Readers of his poems do not need to be told that the 
 religious feeling typical of the Puritan was strong and 
 vital. 
 
142 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Besides his residence in the city, Mr. Bryant owned 
 The root's two fijie country homes : one was the Snell 
 Homes. homestead (in Cummington, to which he re- 
 turned for a short period every year ; the other was an 
 estate at Eoslyn, I/ong Island, acquired in 1843, where 
 in a spacious old-fashioned mansion dating almost from 
 Revolutionary times, he made his principal residence. 
 He took especial delight in farm and garden, personally 
 superintending the care of both and experimenting with 
 fruits and flowers. Here he delighted to receive his 
 friends, and here he unostentatiously entertained many 
 a distinguished visitor from abroad. 
 
 Mrs. Bryant died in 1866. The poet's death occurred 
 twelve years later. The circumstances were 
 peculiar. A statue to the Italian patriot, Maz- 
 zini, was unveiled in Central Park, on the twenty-ninth 
 of May. Bryant delivered the address. He spoke bare- 
 headed, the sun shining directly upon him ; it was un- 
 usually warm for the season, and when he had finished 
 he appeared exhausted. After the exercises the poet 
 walked across the park with an old friend and ascended 
 the steps of the latter's bouse; but as he entered the 
 vestibule he fell suddenly backward through the open 
 door, striking his head on the stone platform. The re- 
 sults were fatal ; a fortnight later, he died at his own 
 home, in his eighty-fourth year. ' The funeral services 
 were held in New York ; then with simple exercises the 
 poet was buried by the side of his wife at Roslyn. 
 
 ' Bead Bryant's poem, June (1825). 
 
 '* I gazed upon the gloriouB sky 
 And the green mountains round, 
 And thought that when I came to lie 
 At rest within the ground, 
 'Twere pleasant that in flowery June, 
 When brooks send up a cheerful tune. 
 And groves a joyous sound, 
 The sexton^s hand, my grave to make, 
 The rich green mountain-turf should break." 
 
BRYANT AS A POET 143 
 
 The love of nature is preeminently the theme of Bry- 
 ant's verse, and his characteristic treatment of Bryant as 
 this theme is in connection with the elemental * p™*- 
 experiences — life and death. He is our recognized poet 
 of the forest ; no other American singer has interpreted 
 so impressively as he the mystery and sanctity of the 
 woods. To him the woodland solitude was eloquent of 
 majesty and monition, of benevolence and sympathy : 
 
 " The groves were God's first temples. 
 
 Fit shrine for hnmble worshipper to hold 
 Communion with his Maker." ^ 
 
 Bryant is both descriptive and reflective in his verse. 
 He is often called the American Wordsworth, Desoripuve 
 because he resembled the great English poet Poems. 
 in these traits ; but Bryant was never an imitator of 
 Wordsworth or of any other poet. He was distinctly 
 original in choice of themes and true to his own native 
 personality in his expression. He was faithful to the 
 scenes with which he was familiar and to the spirit of 
 what he himself had observed. In A Winter Piece, for 
 example, a poem which in its beginning contains many 
 suggestions of Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey, the atmo- 
 sphere is unmistakably that of the Massachusetts woods 
 in winter. The snow-bird twitters on the beechen bough, 
 the partridge nestles beneath the hemlock, the rabbit, fox, 
 and raccoon have left their tracks in the snow ; smoke 
 wreaths rise among the maples where the sap is being 
 gathered in brimming pails, the woods ring with, the 
 stroke of the axe ; and with the first breath of spring — 
 
 " Lodged in srumy cleft, 
 Where the cold breezes come not, blooms alone 
 The little wind-flower, whose just opened eye 
 Is blue as the spring heaven it gazes at." ' 
 
 1 A Forest Hymn. 
 
 ' Indeed it was this conscientious practice which made Bryant's work 
 most valuable to those who followed him. We must not forget that he 
 
144 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 The poet is wont to feel the serious and chastening 
 aspect of these scenes, and the spirit of his brooding is 
 often tinged with melancholy. He sings : — 
 
 " The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, 
 Of wailing winds and naked woods and meadows brown and sere." ' 
 
 But this tender poem was intensely personal, and was 
 inspired by the death of a dear sister. There are other 
 poems in which an entirely different spirit is mani- 
 fested, as The Planting of the Apple Tree and that 
 rollicking bird-song, Robert of Lincoln. Nor could any- 
 thing be cheerier than the musical lines of that beauti- 
 ful descriptive poem. Green River. 
 
 This descriptive quality in Bryant's compositions 
 „j^ must not be overlooked ; it is an important 
 
 DescriitiTs feature of his verse. We get exquisite illus- 
 ^' tration of it in the two flower-poems, The Yel- 
 low Violet and To the Fringed Gentian. Both these 
 poems are like many of Wordsworth's in their simplicity 
 and in the little moral lessons which they convey — a 
 characteristic resented by some critics as an intrusion 
 or a defect, although the imaginative insight of each 
 descriptive touch is disputed by nobody. 
 
 It is, of course, the reflective poems which have given 
 
 ^jjj to Bryant his lasting fame. For various rea- 
 
 Hefiectivo sons the early composition, Thanatopsis, over- 
 
 oems. shadows all the others. The universality of 
 
 its theme, its passionless exaltation of spirit, its rugged 
 
 was a pioneer ; and that subsequent American poets had the suggestion 
 of his example in this regard at least — and followed it. How clearly this 
 principle was recognized by Bryant is seen in a letter to his brother 
 John, in 1832. " I saw some lines by you to the skylark. Did you ever 
 see such a bird ? Let me counsel you to draw your images, in describ- 
 ing nature, from what yon observe around you." It was the genius of 
 Bryant that discovered the poetry in the Kew England landscape, its 
 hills, its forests, and its flowers. 
 1 The Death of the Flowers. 
 
BRYANT'S TECHNIQUE 145 
 
 and lofty eloquence, its diction so calm, so austere, 
 and elemental, place it yet among the great poetical 
 expressions of the race. The Hymn to Death is an am- 
 plification of the same theme in less impressive setting, 
 although the utterance of a personal grief gives pathos 
 to its close. In A Forest Hymn, which completes this 
 remarkable trilogy of poems on the mortality of man, 
 the poet's idea shapes itself more clearly: Death is 
 indeed universal — Lo ! all grow old and die ; — but 
 Life is ever reappearing. There is not lost one of 
 earth's charms. After the flight of centuries — 
 
 " The freshness of her far heginning lies 
 And yet shall lie. Life mocks the idle hate 
 Of his arch-enemy Death." 
 
 The Saxon element predominates in Bryant's verse. 
 His style is simple — sometimes severe; yet 
 always fitting. What crispness of diction do 
 we find, for instance, in the oft-quoted stanza: — 
 
 " Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again ; 
 Th' eternal years of God are hers ; 
 But Error, wounded, -writhes in pain, 
 And dies among his worshippers." ^ 
 
 Bryant commonly used the so-called iambic ten-syllabled 
 line. When he employed the stanza, it was usually 
 the four linps of alternating rhymes, known as the 
 quatrain ; but Bryant was at his best in blank verse, 
 which he used with a facility and power of expression 
 unsurpassed by any other American poet. 
 
 The volume of Bryant's poetry is comparatively small, 
 and its range of subjects is somewhat narrow. He is 
 called stern and cold by many of the critics; and it is 
 true, as they point out, that the poet lacked humor, 
 and his poetry passion. And yet in spite of these and 
 other limitations, a high estimate must be placed upon 
 1 The BattUfidd (1S37). 
 
146 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 the value of Bryant's work, and on its significance in 
 the development of our national literature. He was 
 original, natural, and sincere ; he drew his inspiration 
 not from the poets he read, but direct from Nature as 
 he saw her in the mountains and the valleys, the trees, 
 the brooks, and the flowers, of his New England home. 
 He proved that native themes were as poetical in Amer- 
 ica as in England, and that the true poet finds his ma- 
 terial at his hand. In his poems — as in his profession 
 and his private life — he celebrated the virtues typical 
 of the Puritan, truth, purity, moral earnestness, rever- 
 ence, and faith. He wrote a few poems which must re- 
 main a permanent possession in our literature, and what 
 is, after all, more notable yet, he laid a safe and sub- 
 stantial foundation for American verse. 
 
 The poem Thanatopsis calls for careful study, not only 
 Snggsstlons that the student may accurately grasp its central 
 loi Reading, thought, its "message," but also that he may 
 really appreciate the superb quality of its diction as shown in 
 the choice of words and moulding of phrases. The Inscrip- 
 tion for the Entrance to a Wood should be compared with 
 it. To a Waterfowl, The Yellow Violet, and To the Fringed 
 Gentian may be read in connection, and the poet's manner of 
 pointing a moral lesson noted. Wordsworth's poem To the 
 Small Celandine might be read for comparison ; also Fre- 
 neau's stanzas on The Wild Honeysuckle. Other of Bryant's 
 descriptive poems, like Green River, The Prairies, and The 
 Evening Wind, should be read with especial reference to 
 the spirit and truthfulness of the description. The Song of 
 Marion's Men, The Massacre at Seio, Not Yet, and Our 
 Country's Call exhibit another phase of Bryant's verse ; The 
 Planting of the Apple Tree and Robert of Lincoln illustrate 
 still another. A Lifetime is of interest as a summary of 
 the poet's experience, and The Poet as an expression of his 
 own ideal. A Forest Hymn, The Death of the Flowers, and 
 The Mood of Years (1876) are too important to be omitted 
 
SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 147 
 
 from the list ; and it is hoped that the study of Bryant's life 
 will have aroused a desire to read most if not all of the 
 poems mentioned in the preceding pages. 
 
 The only complete edition of Bryant's Poems is that edited 
 by Parke Godwin (his associate on the Evening Post, and 
 his son-in-law), published by Appleton. Mr. Godwin is also the 
 author of the authoritative biography of the poet (Appleton). 
 A more compact biography is the interesting William, Cullen 
 Bryant, by John Bigelow, in the American Men of Letters 
 /SeWes (Houghton Mifflin Co.). The most recent life of Bry- 
 ant is that by William A. Bradley, in the English Men of 
 Letters Series (Macmillan). Critical comment will be found 
 in E. P. Whipple's Literature and Life, Stedman's J*oets 
 of America, and Richardson's American Literature. There 
 are poetical tributes to Bryant by Stedman, Stoddard, Whit- 
 tier, Holmes, and Lowell ; with the stirring lines of Lowell's 
 birthday offering, On Board the '76, read also his humorous 
 characterization of Bryant in A Fable for Critics (1848). 
 
148 
 
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CHAPTER IV 
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 I. The Literary DeTelopment of Ne-w Englaad. 
 
 II. Ralph Waldo Emerson : 1803-82. 
 III. Henry D. Thoreau: 1817-62. 
 IV. Nathaniel Hawthorne: 1804-64. 
 
 V. Edgar Allan Poe : 180U-49. 
 
 I. THE LITERARY DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 The literary achievements of the Knickerbocker 
 group of writers were practically accomplished by 1850. 
 During the larger part of that first half century, there 
 had been no question of the literary predominance of 
 New York ; New England had played, comparatively, 
 an inconspicuous part in the field of national literature. 
 A few of Longfellow's earliest poems were published 
 previous to 1830, and some of Whittier's also ; but it 
 was really nearer 1840 than 1830 that either obtained 
 general recognition as a poet. Emerson's first series of 
 Assays was published in 1841, and Hawthorne's Mosses 
 from an Old Manse in 1846. ITie Scarlet Letter did 
 not appear until 1850. It was, nevertheless, a period 
 of intellectual activity. In Boston and Cambridge, new 
 ideas were stirring the minds of the thinkers, and 
 throughout the New England States, which were ad- 
 vancing rapidly in material prosperity by the establish- 
 ment of manufacturing interests and the building up of 
 a rich trade with the East Indies, the intellectual life 
 of the people was feeling the stimulus of its own 
 energy in rather remarkable degree. 
 
 The first phase of this new awakening is recognized 
 
150 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 in the so-called Unitarian movement which spread over 
 New England during the early years of the 
 trnitarian century. Opposition to the Calvinistic doc- 
 KovBinflat. ^jjugg (,f ^;^^Q Presbyterian and other ortho- 
 dox denominations had existed in the colonies even in 
 Revolutionary times, but it was not till near the end of 
 the eighteenth century that this opposition assumed the 
 aspect of an important religious controversy. The arena 
 in which John Cotton and his grandson, Cotton Mather, 
 Eoger Williams, and the many lesser controversial- 
 ists of the colonial period had waged their theological 
 battles was again the scene of an intellectual and re- 
 ligious agitation wbich in its immediate effects and 
 subsequent influence was more far reaching even than 
 that celebrated movement of the preceding century, — 
 the Great Awakening of 1734-44. In 1805, Harvard 
 College — the fountain-head of New England litera- 
 ture — elected a Unitarian as professor of Divinity. 
 By the end of the first decade, nearly every prominent 
 Congregational pulpit in eastern Massachusetts was 
 held by a preacher of Unitarian doctrine. The theo- 
 logical seminary at Andover was founded in 1807 to 
 combat the new teaching. Moses Stuart (1780-1852) 
 and Leonard Woods (1774-1854) became famous as 
 teachers in this institution and as defenders of the ortho- 
 dox creed. Lyman Beecher (1775-1863), the father of 
 Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, was 
 the ablest and best-known champion of orthodoxy in 
 New England. In 1826, he was called from his church 
 in Litchfield, Connecticut, to a prominent Boston pul- 
 pit, that he might have a position on the firing-line. 
 
 The recognized leader "of the Unitarians was William 
 EUery Channing, who was born at Newport, Rhode 
 Island, and received his education at Harvard. He be- 
 came the minister of a Boston parish in 1803. Cultured, 
 
TRANSCENDENTALISM 151 
 
 eloquent, and a persuasive writer, he became famed 
 throughout New England for his oratorical wiuiam 
 gifts and as a theologian. In seriousness of o^^J^, 
 purpose and in purity of character, Channing i78o-i842. 
 represented the strength and virtue of the old Puritan 
 stock. His portrait, presenting him in the conventional 
 black gown of the clergyman with the white bands at 
 the neck, shows a face highly intellectual and refined, 
 with features delicate, spiritual, almost ascetic in their 
 type. The influence of Dr. Channing was strongly felt ; 
 a sermon preached by him at an ordination in Balti- 
 more, in 1819, is especially famous as a rallying-cry of 
 Unitarianism. " Prove all things ; hold fast that which 
 is good," was his text ; the sacredness of the individual 
 conscience and the freedom of individual thought was 
 his theme. While his writings are largely controversial, 
 he was also a graceful essayist, and his literary influ- 
 ence was felt by contemporary writers who were stirred 
 by his thought and passion. 
 
 A second phase of this quickening in the intellectual 
 life of New England appears in the develop- Transoen- 
 ment of transcendentalism . Closely allied with amtausm. 
 the religious movement just described and including 
 many prominent Unitarians within its circle, transcen- 
 dentalism, nevertheless, was not Unitarianism. The lat- 
 ter was a religious movement ; it grew into the liberal 
 denominations of the present day. Transcendentalism 
 •designates a school of abstract thought, a philosophy 
 general in its application to life and conduct. -It was 
 distinctly local in its development. 
 
 This new school of abstract ideas arose among the 
 intellectual leaders of Boston and Cambridge 
 durinff the second and third decades of the Signui- 
 century. The teaching of German and French ""'°" 
 philosophy, the influence of Goethe, of Coleridge, and 
 
132 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 Carlyle had a part in its origin. The transcendentalists 
 were idealists. They opposed materialism in every form. 
 They regarded matter as an appearance and thought as 
 the reality. The old Platonic system, the doctrine of 
 ideas, was practically the basis of their belief. They 
 emphasized the necessity of the individual and the free 
 expression of the individual mind. They chose to be 
 led by the " inner light." " The highest revelation is 
 that God is in every man," said Emerson ; " I believe 
 in this life. I believe it continues. As long as I am 
 here, I plainly read my duties as writ with pencil of 
 fire." ' They thought and talked and wrote upon 
 the truths which cannot be demonstrated, which lie 
 beyond the sphere of the established, which transcend 
 human experience and ordinary knowledge. They 
 were deeply intent upon reform — social, civil, and reli- 
 gious. They were philanthropic in purpose, and mem- 
 bers of the group were often associated in schemes for 
 the betterment of society, which usually proved Utopian 
 dreams. 
 
 In July, 1840, a monthly periodical was started by 
 Dial *^^ transcendentalists, as the organ of their 
 views. At first under the editorship of Mar- 
 garet Fuller, a talented but visionary woman, whose 
 name is prominently associated with the movement, and 
 later under that of Emerson, The Dial ran its honorable 
 course for about four years, when it was discontinued 
 for lack of financial support. To this famous magazine, 
 Emerson contributed essays and poems, while others of 
 the coterie, Bronson Alcott, George Ripley, Theodore 
 Parker, James Freeman Clarke, and Henry David Tho- 
 reau, were among its best- known writers. Carlyle's com- 
 ment upon the early numbers of The Dial is probably 
 suggestive of the general attitude of those outside the 
 1 Emerson's Journal, 1833. 
 
BROOK FARM 153 
 
 circle toward these enthusiastic idealists. "But it is 
 all good and very good as a soul; wants only a body, 
 which want means a great deal."* Many of the new 
 views were far from clear and many hapless failures 
 resulted from these Utopian experiments ; at the same 
 time some practical progress was made and through this 
 campaign of debate, in more than one direction was 
 built the road to reform. 
 
 In 1841, an ideal community (one of several such ex- 
 periments) was established by some of these 
 enthusiasts at Brook Farm in West Roxbury, 
 nine miles from Boston. George Ripley was the pro- 
 moter and leader of the movement. It attracted some 
 whose names were to be well known in later days. The 
 young George William Curtis was an interested mem- 
 ber, and so was Charles A. Dana, afterward the dis- 
 tinguished editor of the New York Sun. For a time, 
 also, Nathaniel Hawthorne was a member of the colony ; 
 and, ten years later, utilized some phases of his experi- 
 ence in the Bliihedale Romance. Emerson was inter- 
 ested and an occasional visitor, although not an active 
 Brook Farmer himself. The experiment was not alto- 
 gether a failure. There were difficulties all along, but 
 for five years the community flourished, demonstrating 
 the possibilities of a simple, rational method of living, 
 until, in 1846, there came a disastrous fire, and soon 
 afterward the farm was sold. 
 
 The general influence of the thought and labors of 
 the transcendentalistswas stimulating in high Hgs^ng 
 degree to the intellectual and moral growth of oitto 
 the period, in spite of the numerous " isms " 
 which flourished among them. It stirred the minds of 
 men, and in general wrought for culture and for philan- 
 thropic and progressive measures. It enlisted the eager 
 ^ See Holmes's Emerson {American Men of Letters), p. 162. 
 
154 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 enthusiasm of young Lowell in temperance reform and, 
 for a brief period, in the agitation for woman suffrage ; 
 it labored with Whittier and Garrison and Phillips in 
 the cause of abolition. It reflected the intellectual 
 activity of Emerson ; and if Longfellow, Holmes, and 
 Lowell (in maturer life) were not personally identified 
 with the cult, their ideas were indirectly colored by 
 the influences which transcendentalism set afoot. It 
 was an important current in New England culture 
 and was significant of what Mr. Barrett Wendell has 
 appropriately called " the Renaissance of New Eng- 
 land." 
 
 Of this latter phase of the movement, Ealph Waldo 
 
 Emerson is the distinguished representative. 
 
 A leader among these students of ideas, a 
 preacher of moral and intellectual truths, a poet, a phi- 
 losopher, a teacher, his influence upon the intellectual 
 life of New England was stimulating in the extreme, 
 while the effect of his writings on American thought 
 and letters can hardly be reckoned. 
 
 Among the minor authors in this interesting group 
 The there are three or four that call for comment, 
 
 denfa"'"" although necessarily brief. George Ripley 
 Writers. (1802-80) was a Harvard graduate, and in 
 1826 became minister of a Unitarian Society in Boston. 
 He became conspicuous as a leader among the transeen- 
 dentalists with the founding of the Brook Farm com- 
 munity, was active as a writer, and together with Charles 
 A. Dana edited the iVew American Cydoprndia (1857- 
 63). Like others of the Brook Farm colonists, Ripley 
 enjoyed the helpful friendship of Horace Greeley, and 
 wrote, under Greeley's patronage, scholarly reviews for 
 the New York Tribune. He made, however, no perma- 
 nent contribution to literature. Amos Bronson Alcott 
 (1799-1888), famous for his eccentricities and for the 
 
THE ALCOTTS 155 
 
 unintelligibility of his mystical utterances, set out at 
 fifteen as a peddler. With the design of add- jj,^ ^. 
 ing to the family income he traveled through «»«s. 
 a part of the South, but returned with an empty pack and 
 four hundred dollars in debt. This experience was typi- 
 cal of later ones ; he was nothing if not unpractical. At 
 twenty-six, he tried school-teaching in Connecticut, but 
 his peculiar ideas kept him moving from place to place. 
 It is only fair to add that many of Alcott's original 
 methods are established principles in the school systems 
 of to-day. In 1834, he opened a school in Boston, which 
 lasted for five years. Attracted by Emerson's presence 
 in Concord, Mr. Alcott removed thither. The most ex- 
 treme notions of the transcendental brotherhood were 
 pushed by him beyond the extreme. With an idea of 
 improving upon the Brook Farm experiment, he organ- 
 ized a new community at " Fruitlands." His idealism 
 was so strong that he would not permit canker-worms 
 to be disturbed, and forbade the planting of such 
 vegetables and roots as grow downward instead of up- 
 ward into the air. After the failure of this communistic 
 experiment, he held " select conversations " which be- 
 came a settled institution in Concord. Like Emerson, 
 he traveled to some extent in the West, holding " con- 
 versations " and expounding the transcendental ideas. 
 To The Dial he contributed his Orphic Sayings, which 
 aroused much ridicule from those not of the elect. In 
 1879, the Concord Summer School of Philosophy and 
 Literature was established, and of this Mr. Alcott was 
 the recognized head. Alcott's essay on Emerson and 
 his Concord Days (1872) are his most readable re- 
 mains. A more practical member of the family was 
 Louisa May Alcott (1832-88), who struggled hard 
 to offset her father's deficiencies on the bread and 
 butter side of existence. She possessed talent as well 
 
156 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 as perseverance, and success came with the publica- 
 tion of her Little Women, in 1868. No more popular 
 series of stories for young people has ever been pro- 
 duced than that which contains this book and its sequel, 
 Little Men. Her later stories, Jo's Boys, An Old- 
 Fashioned Girl, Eight Cousins, and Rose in Bloom, 
 have, with their naturalness, humor and humanness, 
 well maintained the popularity of Miss Alcott's earlier 
 work. 
 
 Margaret Fuller, perhaps, commands more of interest 
 Maiearst ^^^"^ ^^^ other figure in the transcendental 
 Fnuer, group. A brilliant intellect marred by a some- 
 
 1810-60 . . . . 
 
 what morbid egotism characterized her literary 
 work ; she shared in the erratic tendencies of her asso- 
 ciates, but surpassed most of them in critical ability and 
 to a certain extent in literary expression. Like Alcott, 
 Margaret Fuller conducted " conversations " — for the 
 benefit of Boston ladies. She was prominent in the tran- 
 scendental circle at Concord, and was warmly esteemed 
 by Emerson. A frequent visitor at Brook Farm, Mar- 
 garet Fuller is assumed to be the original of Zenobia 
 in Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance. She, too, experi- 
 enced the practical friendliness of Horace Greeley, and, 
 in 1844, became the literary critic on the Tribune. De- 
 voted to philanthropy and reform, she was the friend 
 of the Italian patriot Mazzini. In 1847, she visited 
 Italy, and during her residence there was secretly and 
 romantically married to the Marquis Ossoli. In 1850, 
 the pair determined to come to America, and, with their 
 infant son, set sail from Leghorn. Within sight of the 
 American coast their vessel encountered a severe storm 
 and was wrecked. The entire family perished. It is un- 
 doubtedly to this tragic event that the general interest 
 in the personality of Margaret Fuller is in part due ; 
 but her place in American literary history is deserved. 
 
RALPH WALDO EMERSON 157 
 
 The most important of her works are Woman in the 
 Nineteenth Century (1844) and Papers on Literature 
 , and Art (1846).' 
 
 11. EALPH WALDO EMERSON : 1803-82. 
 
 Ealph Waldo Emerson came of the academic class. 
 His ancestors for five generations had been scholars 
 and most of them had been ministers. His father, Wil- 
 liam Emerson, minister of the First Church in Boston, 
 was a man of good sense, dignified after the manner of 
 the old New England type, and emphatic in the expres- 
 sion of his views. The mother of Balph Waldo was 
 known for her patience, her gentle courtesy, her quiet 
 dignity and serenity of spirit. Among the early com- 
 panionships of the household, there was another which 
 had a lasting influence in the development of Emerson's 
 character, that of an aunt, Mary Moody Emerson, whose 
 strong intellectuality was of the sort which distinguished 
 Emerson himself. 
 
 Ealph Waldo Emerson was born May 25, 1803, in 
 the parsonage on Summer Street, in Boston, go^io 
 not far from the house in which Franklin was Atmosphoro. 
 born almost a century before. His boyhood was passed 
 in an atmosphere of intellectuality and of literary effort. 
 In 1804, the Rev. William Emerson organized what was 
 known as the Anthology Club, and edited a publication 
 of the club, the Monthly Anthology, or Magazine of 
 Polite Literature. The circle of contributors included 
 John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster and much schol- 
 
 * Ten of her " conversations," dealings with the mythology of the 
 Greeks, are reported in Caroline H. Dall's Margaret and her Friends. 
 The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, hy R. W. Emerson, W. H. Chan- 
 ning,and J. F.Clarke, the biography by Julia Ward Howe in the ifamous 
 Women Series, and that by Thomas Wentworth Higginson in the Amer- 
 ican Men oj" Letters Series, are the chief authorities on Margaret Fuller 
 and her career. 
 
158 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 arly talent. The famous Boston Athenaeum library was 
 an outgrowth of this club ; and although with the death 
 of Mr. Emerson in 1811, the Anthology ceased publica- 
 tion, the appearance of the North American Heview, 
 in 1815, is regarded as a revival of the earlier maga- 
 zine. 
 
 Waldo was eight years old at his father's death ; and 
 Tonth and ^^^ household was in serious financial straits. 
 Education. There were five boys to be clothed and fed — 
 and educated as family tradition and innate talent re- 
 quired. By heroic exertion and a most rigid frugality, 
 Mrs. Emerson succeeded in realizing her ambition for 
 her sons. It is related that one winter when times were 
 especially hard in the family, Ealph and his brother 
 Edward had but one great-coat between them and had 
 to take turns in going without and in bearing the taunts 
 of their school-fellows, calling after them — "Whose 
 turn is it to wear the coat to-day ? " It is said, too, that 
 Ealph Waldo was obliged on one occasion to forego 
 the reading of the second volume of some work drawn 
 from a circulating library because the pennies needed 
 to secure it were not to be spared. Yet out of the en- 
 forced economy and the life bare of material comfort, 
 the boys emerged sweet-tempered, nobly-mannered, and 
 with the best academic training to be had. All but one 
 were graduates of Harvard College. 
 
 There are not many records of Emerson's school-days. 
 He studied at the Boston Latin School, and entered 
 Harvard at fourteen. Through his appointment as Presi- 
 dent's messenger, he had his lodging free in the Presi- 
 dent's house, and his board was paid by waiting on table 
 in the commons. He was not conspicuous as a student, 
 yet was always the scholar ; not talkative, his utterances 
 were well weighed, deliberate, and " with a certain flash 
 when he uttered anything that was more than usually 
 
EMERSON AS SCHOOL-TEACHER 169 
 
 worthy to be remembered."" Gentle and amiable, his 
 personality lacked a little, perhaps, in masculine vigor. 
 For mathematics, Emerson had no faculty ; but in all sub- 
 jects of a literary sort, he took a good stand. Like most 
 students who develop into geniuses, he read widely in 
 authors not prescribed in his course. He won prizes in 
 English composition, and at his graduation, in 1821, 
 delivered the poem for the class. 
 
 After leaving Harvard, Emerson taught for several 
 years, at first in a suburban school for girls, gohooi- 
 kept by his brother William, where the young teacher, 
 instructor does not seem to have been altogether 
 charmed with the teacher's lot. It was at this time 
 that he composed one of his most widely known poems, 
 Good-hye, proud world I I^m going home. The latter 
 half of this poem is descriptive of the sylvan retreat 
 amid the rocks and pines at Canterbury, whither Mrs. 
 Emerson had recently removed — a district now in- 
 cluded within the limits of Franklin Park. The lines 
 are significant of the spirit of this nature lover at the 
 age of twenty. 
 
 " O, when I am safe in my sylvan home, 
 I tread on the pride of Greece and Borne ; 
 And when I am stretched beneath the pines, 
 Where the evening star so holy shines, 
 I langh at the lore and the pride of man, 
 At the sophist schools and the learned clan ; 
 For what are they all, in their high conceit. 
 When man in the bush with Qod may meet ? " 
 
 Emerson was also employed in a characteristic New 
 England " academy " in the country near Lowell. His 
 manner in the school-room was impressive ; his self- 
 control was perfect, he never punished except with 
 words. His last experience as a schoolmaster was in 
 Cambridge. Here he is remembered as appearing " every 
 
 ' Letter from a classmate of Emerson to Dr. Holmes. 
 
160 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 inch a king in his dominion, or rather like a captive 
 philosopher set to tending flocks ; resigned to his des- 
 tiny, but not amused with its incongruities." ' 
 
 In 1823, Emerson began studying for the ministry. 
 Descended from a long line of ministers, deeply 
 spiritual in nature and equally a passionate 
 seeker after truth, full of ideals of helpfulness and phi- 
 lanthropy, this was the natural course ; but his activi- 
 ties in this profession were brief. He was ordained in 
 1829 as associate pastor of the Second Church in Bos- 
 ton, the historic Old North, which in the preceding 
 century had flourished for sixty years under the minis- 
 try of the Mathers, father and son. It was now one of 
 the important pulpits of Unitarianism. The young min- 
 ister, who in a few months became the sole incumbent, 
 took an active interest in public affairs ; he was a mem- 
 ber of the school board and was chosen chaplain of the 
 State Senate. He invited anti-slavery lecturers into his 
 pulpit and helped philanthropists of all denominations 
 in their work. Three months after his ordination, how- 
 ever, Emerson found himself fettered even by the liberal 
 doctrines of the Unitarians ; and in 1832, disapproving 
 the continuance of the Lord's Supper as a permanent 
 rite, he presented his scruples in a sermon to his parish- 
 ioners. His views not receiving their support, he quietly 
 withdrew from the church. 
 
 The young wife, Ellen, a delicate girl of seventeen 
 p. J when Emerson married her soon after his or- 
 
 European dination, died in 1831. The strain of this 
 bereavement, combined with that of his sep- 
 aration from his church, affected his own health, and 
 on Christmas Day, 1882, Emerson, urged by his friends 
 to take a sea voyage, sailed from Boston on a small 
 
 ' Recollections of Mr. John Holmes, quoted by his brother, Dr. 
 Holmes, in his life of Eraeison. 
 
CONCORD 161 
 
 vessel bound for the Mediterranean. He visited Italy, 
 France, and England ; and apparently found his great- 
 est satisfaction in the opportunity thus afforded to meet 
 the noted men whom he had long wished to see. 
 
 Coleridge he visited just one year before that writer's 
 death ; he saw Wordsworth also, then sixty- ij-jjijit. 
 three years old, and past the time of poetical "ices in 
 power. And then he went to see Carlyle, who "* "^ ' 
 was living on his lonely farm at Craigenputtock. " Of 
 course we could do no other than welcome him," wrote 
 Carlyle to his mother, "the rather as he seemed to 
 be one of the most lovable creatures in himself we 
 had ever looked on. He stayed till next day with us, and 
 talked and heard talk to his heart's content, and left us 
 all really sad to part with him." With this congenial 
 introduction began the life-long friendship of the two 
 great moralists. The Scotch essayist was seven years 
 the senior of his guest. 
 
 By his translations, his essays, and his Life of Schil- 
 ler, Carlyle had already won recognition from many like 
 Emerson, who were deeply interested in the newly dis- 
 covered fields of German literature. This was also the 
 year, 1833, in which Carlyle was putting forth his most 
 characteristic work, the Sartor Resartus ; and one re- 
 sult of this visit was the publication of that work dur- 
 ing the following year, in America, under the direction 
 of Emerson. 
 
 In 1834, Ralph Waldo Emerson became a resident 
 of Concord. For a year he lived with his 
 mother in the old-fashioned gambrel-roofed 
 house, built as a parsonage for his grandfather, who in 
 his time had served the Concord church. It was this 
 house which subsequently came to be occupied by the 
 novelist Hawthorne, and was given fame in the title of 
 his Mosses from an Old Manse. In 1835, Emerson was 
 
162 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 married to Miss Lidian Jackson, of Plymouth, and set- 
 tled in the house, then on the edge of the town, where 
 for almost fifty years he lived his serene and unevent- 
 ful life. 
 
 The quiet village has been a famous place ever since 
 the day when by the rude bridge the " embattled farm- 
 ers " fought the British soldiers in that first conflict of 
 the Revolutionary war ; and its fame has grown more 
 enduring because of the remarkable group of thinkers 
 and writers who made the town their home. To Emerson, 
 the surroundings were peculiarly attractive. From his 
 home a path led through open fields to the shore of 
 beautiful Walden Pond. There was plenty of space 
 about him. Meandering through an expanse of green 
 meadow land crept the sleepy Concord River, the Mus- 
 ketaquid of his poem, between its willow-bordered 
 banks. More than all else he loved the woods ; a forty- 
 acre lot of woodland he bought by the shore of Walden 
 that he might feel the sense of possession in it. In My 
 Garden he sings its beauty and significance to him. In 
 constant communion with Nature he wrote of her in 
 prose and verse. To him, God was near in every form 
 of natural life, and he loved to express in his writings 
 the deep spiritual significance of what he saw and heard. 
 He said : — 
 
 " I go to the god of the wood 
 To fetch his word to men. 
 
 " There was never mystery 
 
 But 'tis figured in the flowers ; 
 Was never secret history 
 
 But birds tell it in the bowers." ^ 
 
 Among his townsmen, Emerson moved a familiar and 
 a welcome figure. His duties as a citizen and neighbor 
 were never shirked. Everybody knew the tall, spare 
 1 The Apology, 1834. 
 
o 
 
 M 
 O 
 o 
 
 I 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 is 
 
 
164 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 man with the slight stoop of the shoulders, the shrewd, 
 wise, tender face with its smile " like the mild radiance 
 of a hidden sun." Whenever he spoke in the town hall 
 or in Concord church, they turned out in large numbers 
 to listen to his address with neighborly pride and due 
 respect — if not with entire comprehension of his utter- 
 ances. 
 
 There was, too, a circle of intimate friends about 
 him, some, like Bronson Alcott and Marga- 
 guisiiea ret Fuller, attracted thither by the presence 
 Weigiiiiors. p£ pjjg generally recognized as the ablest pro- 
 phet of transcendentalism. The young and talented 
 Thoreau, a disciple, although a very independent one, 
 early engaged his interest. In 1842, Hawthorne came 
 to Concord, and for five years dwelt in the Old Manse. 
 Occasionally, too, there appeared fantastic dreamers 
 with queer schemes of social reformation in their heads, 
 who sought out Emerson in his retreat as if to consult 
 the oracle at some sacred shrine. Altogether, the little 
 New England town became closely identified with that 
 strong intellectual movement which Emerson, more than 
 any other American writer, had inspired. 
 
 In 1836, there was published anonymously in Bos- 
 ton a little book of about a hundred pages, 
 entitled Nature. This was Emerson's first 
 characteristic utterance through the printed essay. " A 
 reflective prose poem " is what Dr. Holmes calls it : 
 beautiful in its exaltation of spirit, poetical, mystical, 
 vague — incomprehensible, doubtless, to many an un- 
 sympathetic reader. It was the first public enunciation 
 of the transcendental principles on which much of the 
 subsequent teaching was based. 
 
 " The foregoing generations heheld God and nature face to 
 face ; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy 
 an original relation to the universe ? Why should not we 
 
THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR 165 
 
 have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, 
 and a religion hy revelation to us, and not the history of 
 theirs?" 
 
 This is the question which serves to start the discus- 
 sion. Under the heads Commodity, Beauty, Language, 
 and Discipline, the essayist speaks of the varied advan- 
 tages which our senses owe to nature. A characteristic 
 passage is the following : — 
 
 " In the woods is perpetual youth. "Within these plantar 
 tions of God a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festi- 
 val is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of 
 them in a thousand years. In the woods we return to reason 
 and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — 
 no disgrace, no calamity (leaving roe my eyes), which nature 
 cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head 
 bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all 
 mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball ; I 
 am nothing ; I see all ; the currents of the Universal Being 
 circulate through me ; I am part or particle of God." 
 
 Nature attracted some attention, aroused some hostile 
 criticism. Its ideas were pronounced pantheistic, and 
 considerable ridicule was bestowed upon the transcen- 
 dental notions of the Concord sage. 
 
 In the following year, 1837, Emerson delivered be- 
 fore the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard 
 College bis famous address on The Ameri- Ameiiou 
 can Scholar, and with this notable utterance ^'''°'"- 
 emerged clearly into the light of public recognition. 
 This address is first of all a challenge of academic 
 ideals in that day, and then a plea to the scholar for 
 a larger vision of his relation to nature, a braver atti- 
 tude toward the conventions inherited from the past, a 
 stronger confidence in the sacred, the divine character ' 
 of his own perception of truth, and a call to participate 
 
166 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 in the life of his generation ; — not only to think, but 
 to live. 
 
 " The books which once we valued more than the apple of 
 the eye, we have quite exhausted." 
 
 " First one, then another, we drain all cisterns, and, wax- 
 ing greater by all these supplies, we crave a better and more 
 abundant food. The man has never lived that can feed us 
 ever." 
 
 " I ask not for the great, the remote, the romantic ; what 
 is doing in Italy, in Arabia ; what is Greek art, or Provengal 
 minstrelsy ; I embrace the common, I explore and sit at the 
 feet of the familiar, the low." 
 
 In sentences like these did the orator assail the au- 
 thority of scholastic tradition. His words disturbed the 
 grave dignity of many in his audience. But to the younger 
 generation of Harvard graduates who sat under the 
 spell of his eloquence, Emerson spoke a message of 
 wonderful power. 
 
 " Fear always springs from ignorance." 
 " In self-trust aU the virtues are comprehended." 
 " The unstable estimates of men crowd to him whose mind 
 ' is filled with a truth, as the heaped waves of the Atlantic 
 follow the moon," 
 
 Suggestive indeed are these words to-day ; more im- 
 pressive and inspiring were they then. " This grand 
 oration was our intellectual Declaration of Independ- 
 ence," says Dr. Holmes. " The young men went out 
 from it as if a prophet had been proclaiming to them, 
 ' Thus saith the Lord ! ' " The oft-quoted comment of 
 Lowell gives us a vivid impression of the effect pro- 
 duced by this address. 
 
 " It was an event without any parallel in our literary an- 
 nals, a scene to be always treasured in the memory for its 
 picturesqueness and its inspiration. What crowded and breath- 
 
EMERSON'S LECTURES 167 
 
 less aisles, what windows clustering with eager heads, what 
 enthusiasm of approval, what grim silence of foregone dis" 
 
 sent ! " 
 
 From this time on, Emerson was a familiar figure on 
 the public platform. His occasional addresses tu* 
 were regarded as events of importance in the ^^•'"°- 
 literary and intellectual world. The public lecture sys- 
 tem, the " lyceum," as it was usually called, had grown 
 into popular esteem. Throughout New England, Mr. 
 Emerson was looked upon as the most eminent lecturer 
 in the field. His tours were extended through the mid- 
 dle west as far as St. Louis ; and to this day in thriving 
 Illinois and Indiana towns, one may hear it mentioned 
 with complacent local pride that in such or such a year 
 Emerson spoke there. 
 
 The unmethodical manner in which these lectures 
 were prepared is perhaps exaggerated by jj,g 
 those who have dwelt on this feature of Em- Leotnres. 
 erson's work. From his commonplace book, or journal, 
 Emerson culled the ideas, epigrammatically recorded, 
 which touched bis theme ; and thus he built the dis- 
 course — almost haphazard, it would seem to a formal 
 writer, without the usual regard to logic or coherence 
 in composition. Yet these sharp, short, often paradoxi- 
 cal sentences, weighty with truth, yet brilliant with 
 their illuminating thought, keenly witty and delicately 
 fanciful, made a most effective appeal to the audiences 
 prepared to appreciate them. They stirred the minds 
 and kindled the souls of many. It was a new voice in 
 the land, a challenge and a prophecy, which came to 
 have vital force in the intellectual and moral growth of 
 thoughtful Americans in that generation. 
 
 There was no vociferousness in Emerson's lecturing. 
 Calm, simple, almost monotonous in delivery, without 
 gestures, he read from his notes with deliberation and 
 
168 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 with frequent pauses ; but his voice was melodious and 
 resonant, and all agree in the charm felt by his audit- 
 ors. He did not prolong his discourse to weariness ; at 
 the end of the sixty minutes, without peroration, with- 
 out climax, he stopped. Lecturing he found laborious ; 
 he followed it from necessity. And yet in spite of the 
 discomforts of long journeys and of unhomelike inns, he 
 enjoyed, too, the freedom of expression on the platform. 
 It more than supplied the opportunities of his old Bos- 
 ton pulpit, and immeasurably amplified the congregation 
 of his hearers, for to the last Mr. Emerson remained a 
 preacher. 
 
 The First Series of Emerson's Essays appeared in 
 „^ „ 1841. It included these now familiar dis- 
 
 courses : History, Self-Iieliance, Compensa- 
 tion, Spiritual Laws, Love, Friendship, Prudence, 
 Heroism, The Over-Soul, Circles, Intellect, and Art. 
 These were for the most part transcripts from his lec- 
 tures. The favorite doctrines appear felicitously ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 " Trust thyself : every heart vibrates to that iron string." 
 " Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist." 
 " A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." 
 " To be great is to be misunderstood." 
 " Insist on yourself ; never imitate." * 
 
 In such compact, oracular utterances, Emerson loved 
 to crowd his thought. Taken from their immediate set- 
 ting, they appear yet more paradoxical than when read 
 in their connection. These brief and startling epigrams 
 illustrate both the strength and the weakness of this 
 author's style. Many of these statements are debata- 
 ble ; extreme application of every precept to the general 
 conduct could hardly result in anything but confusion 
 and turmoil. Nevertheless, these ideas were intensely 
 
 1 These quotations are from the essay Self-Reliatice. 
 
REPRESENTATIVE MEN 169 
 
 stimulating, and if they made readers think, so much 
 the better. Agreement with the writer's thought was 
 by no means essential. Trust thyself ! was the burden 
 of his teaching. Even to our generation these Essays of 
 Emerson are illuminating and quickening epistles which 
 have their greatest value, perhaps, in arousing and con- 
 firming a wholesome independence of mind. 
 
 The Second Series of Essays, published in 1844, 
 included The Poet, Experience, Character, Manners, 
 Gifts, Nature (a second handling of this theme), 
 Politics, Nominalist and Realist, and The New Eng- 
 land Reformers. 
 
 In 1847, a cordial invitation to address lyceum audi- 
 ences in England and Scotland led to a second Represent- 
 trip across the Atlantic. The visit was a ^ajJI^'ush 
 success. Emerson delivered many lectures, Traits, 
 was warmly received, renewed the acquaintance with 
 Carlyle, and made many new friends. The material of 
 these lectures appeared in 1850 under the title Repre- 
 sentative Men. The opening chapter is on the uses of 
 great men — their most efficient and enduring service 
 being that of introducing moral truths into the general 
 mind. The characters selected for study and interpre- 
 tation are : Plato, or the Philosopher ; Swedenborg, 
 or the Mystic ; Montaigne, or the Sceptic ; Shake- 
 speare, or the Poet ; Napoleon, or the Man of the 
 World, and Goethe, or the Writer. While the volume 
 suggests a comparison with Carlyle's Heroes and Hero- 
 Worship, it wiU be seen that the plan and idea of Em- 
 erson's work are entirely different from his. 
 
 In English Traits (1856), Emerson produced a 
 thoughtful, appreciative, and not uncritical study of 
 British personality and the significance of the national 
 character. These two volumes stand by themselves as 
 the only works of the essayist having a formal struc- 
 ture and definite plan. 
 
170 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 The first collection of Emerson's poems appeared in 
 1846. He had been writing verse for many 
 TiePoBt years, and some of his best-known composi- 
 tions, TAe Problem, Woodnotes, The Sphinx, and others, 
 had appeared in The Dial. Some, like the famous Con- 
 cord Hymn, had been heard upon notable occasions. In 
 1867, a second collection appeared under the title May- 
 Day and Other Pieces. 
 
 The poetry of Emerson is, as one would expect to 
 find it, intellectual, subjective, abstract. It is unemo- 
 tional and often austere. " I do not belong to the poets, 
 but only to a low department of literature, the report- 
 ers, suburban men," Emerson had declared, writing 
 to Carlyle. Again he had said with more of justice to 
 his gift, " I am born a poet, of a low class, without 
 doubt, yet a poet. That is my nature and my vocation." 
 While criticism has often joined in the poet's own de- 
 preciation of his power, there are also many who find 
 the fire of genuine poetic genius in his verse. Stedman 
 calls him " our most typical and inspiring poet." The 
 thought, the substance of his verse has the originality 
 and vital strength of all his discourse ; the poetical form 
 is uneven. 
 
 Thus does Emerson write of the poet : — 
 
 " Oreat is the art, 
 
 Great be the manners, of the bard. 
 
 He shall not his brain encumber 
 
 With the coil of rhythm and number ; 
 
 But, leaving mle and pale forethought, 
 
 He shall aye climb 
 
 For his rhyme. 
 
 ' Pass in, pass in,' the angels say, 
 * In to the upper doors. 
 
 Nor count compartments of the floors, 
 
 But mount to paradise 
 
 By the stairway of surprise.' " * 
 
 1 Merlin, 1846. 
 
EMERSON'S POEMS 171 
 
 There are numerous passages of wonderful simplicity 
 and beauty in the poetry of Emerson : lines like the 
 familiar quatrain in Voluntaries, 
 
 " So nigh is grandeur to our duBt, 
 So near is God to man, 
 When Duty whispers law, Thou must. 
 The youth replies, J can "; 
 
 — and the perfect lines in Woodnotes : — 
 
 " Thou canst not wave thy staff in air, 
 Or dip thy paddle in the lake, 
 But it carves the bow of beauty there 
 And the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake." 
 
 In poems like The Humble-Bee, The Snow- Storm, 
 The Hhodora, Woodnotes, Mbnadnoc, Musketaquid, 
 Emerson is at his best, and ranks next to Bryant, if 
 not as his equal, among American nature poets. He de- 
 scribes the northward flow of Spring with its radiant 
 life: — 
 
 " As poured the flood of the ancient sea 
 Spilling over mountain chains. 
 Bending forests as bends the sedge, 
 Faster flowing o'er the plains, — 
 A world-wide wave with a foaming edge 
 That rims the running silver sheet." ^ 
 
 Of the dawn he writes : — 
 
 " O tenderly the haughty day 
 Fills his blue nm with fire." ^ 
 
 These are the phrases and figures of a true poet ; but 
 a large part of Emerson's verse is oracular, like the 
 paradoxes in his prose. Hence it is that much is said 
 derisively of such orphic breathings as we find in The 
 Sphinx, and Brahma — with its disconcerting 
 
 1 May-Day. ^ Ode, Concord, July 4, 1857. 
 
172 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 " If the red slayer think he slays, 
 Or if the slain think he is slain, 
 They know not well the subtle ways 
 I keep, and pass, and turn again." ^ 
 
 Subtly symbolic as this group of poems is, it appeals 
 to the intellect, and appeals strongly when once the 
 reader finds the key. 
 
 While Emerson never strikes the chord of passion, 
 there is one poem — and that one of his best — wherein 
 we feel the human heart-beat of a human grief. In 1842, 
 the poet lost his little son, " a perfect little boy of five 
 years and three months," he wrote Carlyle; "a few 
 weeks ago I accounted myself a very rich man, and 
 now the poorest of all." In Threnody we have the calm, 
 philosophic, yet very feeling expression of the father's 
 experience. It is not disconsolate. To him who so often 
 interpreted to others the mystic whisperings of the 
 great mother teacher, there comes a response from Na- 
 ture's heart : — 
 
 "Saying, What is excellent. 
 As God lives, is permanent ; 
 Hearts are dust, hearts' loves remain ; 
 Heart's love will meet thee again. 
 
 House and tenant go to ground, 
 Lost in God, in Godhead found." 
 
 Emerson's attitude on public matters during the 
 In War- period of agitation preceding the Civil War is 
 ^^'- interesting. His friends in the transcendental 
 
 coterie were vigorous abolitionists. With characteristic 
 self-restraint, Emerson refrained from violent utter- 
 ance. He spoke against slavery, but not aggressively 
 
 ^ It is said that a little school-girl, hidden hy her teacher to learn 
 some of Emerson's verses, recited Brahma. The astonished teacher in- 
 quired why she chose that poem. The child answered that she tried 
 several, hnt could n't understand them at all, so learned this one, " for 
 it was so easy. Mjust means ' God everywhere.' " 
 
LATER WORK 173 
 
 against the South. He proposed a plan to purchase the 
 slaves from the planters, because " it is the only practi- 
 cal course, and is innocent." As the struggle developed, 
 however, his position on the issue of the hour was per- 
 fectly clear. He stood with Wendell Phillips when the 
 speakers were mobbed at a public meeting in Boston ; 
 and when the Emancipation Proclamation went into 
 effect, January 1, 1863, he read the vigorous stanzas 
 of his Boston Hymn. He paid an eloquent tribute to 
 Lincoln in an address at Concord in April, 1865, and 
 was the orator at the services held by Harvard College 
 in memory of her sons fallen in the war — when Lowell 
 read his Commemoration Ode. 
 
 Emerson's literary activity continued throughout a 
 period of forty years. In 1868, 1869, and 1870, !.»,„ liib 
 he delivered courses of lectures at Harvard a^^woik. 
 •which furnished the material for the volume entitled 
 Natural History of Intellect. Society and Solitude 
 was published in 1870. Among the twelve essays in- 
 eluded under this title is the one on Books, in which 
 occur the oft-quoted but somewhat dubious rules : 
 " Never read any book that is not a year old. Never 
 read any but famed books. Never read any but what 
 you like." It is in the essay on Civilization of this series 
 that we find the famous precept, " Hitch your wagon 
 to a star ! " 
 
 The volume. Letters and Social Aims, appeared in 
 1874. JParnassus, a collection of poems by British and 
 American authors, a selection made by Mr. Emerson 
 for his own pleasure, was published in the same year. 
 The last public address written by Emerson was that 
 delivered at Concord, in April, 1875, on the centennial 
 of the fight at the bridge. 
 
 In 1871, the poet visited California. Soon after his 
 return to Concord, his house was partially destroyed by 
 
174 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 fire. A European tour followed for relief and recrea- 
 Ljg{ tion — a tour which extended as far as Egypt, 
 
 jonineys. During Mr. Emerson's absence a spontane- 
 ous movement among his friends resulted in the sub- 
 scription of some twelve thousand dollars — a gift which 
 Mr. Emerson was with some difficulty prevailed upon 
 to accept. It provided for the expense of the journey 
 and for the restoration of the house. At the home-com- 
 ing in May, 1873, the entire town of Concord assembled 
 at the station to greet its famous and well-loved citi- 
 zen. The church-bells announced his arrival, and the 
 appearance of the train was received with the cheers of 
 the assemblage. "Emerson appeared, surprised and 
 touched, on the platform, and was escorted with music 
 between two rows of smiling school-children to his 
 house, where a triumphal arch of leaves and flowers 
 had been erected." ' 
 
 Already, before the events just mentioned, there had 
 ipjie been indications of a weakening of the splen- 
 
 TwiugM. did intellectual power which had so long led 
 the thought of that generation on the higher levels 
 of the spirit. Memory failed, and now and then there 
 was the pathetic spectacle of one, whose mastery of the 
 written and spoken word had been preeminent, groping 
 vainly for some familiar term. " I can't tell its name," 
 he said once when he wanted an umbrella ; then, with a 
 flash of his old humor, — " but I can tell its history. 
 Strangers take it away." 
 
 But the shadows fell gently on these days of declin- 
 ing strength. In the spring of 1882, Mr. Emerson 
 suffered from a severe cold, which developed into pneu- 
 monia ; and after a brief illness the end came April 27, 
 the poet recognizing his friends with a smile of greeting 
 to the last. Upon Sunday, the thirtieth, simple and im- 
 i Memoirs o/B. W. Emerson, J. E. Cabot. 
 
EMERSON'S WORK 176 
 
 pressive services were held in the church at Concord. 
 The homes of the townspeople and the public buildings 
 were draped. Emerson was buried in the village ceme- 
 tery, Sleepy Hollow, at the dedication of which as a 
 burial-place he had delivered an address. His body was 
 laid at the foot of a tall pine, not far from the graves 
 of Hawthorne and Thoreau. 
 
 The writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, whether 
 prose or poetry, are philosophical ; but they Bmoiaon's 
 make no attempt to set forth a comprehensive work, 
 system of thought. Emerson is rather a spiritual teacher 
 than a philosopher. Truth came to him not through an 
 argument nor in logical progression, but in intuitions, 
 as it does to a poet; and these keen, condensed, author- 
 itative utterances so picturesquely expressed are self- 
 convincing by their very form. His real philosophy was 
 the purest idealism — an idealism which to material- 
 istic readers appeared merely vague and mystical. He 
 maintained that its application to conduct was the only 
 worthy, the only practical course. This ideal he sup- 
 ported with an independence and a self-possession that 
 were marvelous. We hardly appreciate now how radi- 
 cal he was, nor how indifferent to the views and opinions 
 of others. To many who disputed his opinions, Emer- 
 son's attitude seemed one of insolence. This was a mis- 
 interpretation of the spirit of one who was as gentle 
 and amiable as he was courageous. " What we admire 
 in Emerson is not only the intellectual elevation but the 
 moral purity and simple childlike goodness and sweet- 
 ness of the man " — says a noted English essayist.' In 
 his search for truth, he felt only one responsibility — 
 the responsibility to himself. Assured of his own integ- 
 rity, he stood serene and happy in absolute freedom. 
 
 This freedom of individual opinion and expression 
 1 Joseph Forater, in Four Great Teachers. 
 
176 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 which he claimed for himself, Emerson urged upon all; 
 it was a cardinal point in his teaching. He taught also 
 the simple life and practiced it. Above everything else, 
 he believed and taught the immanence of God, the 
 presence of divinity in all of nature and in man. He 
 liberalized thought in America. His crisp sayings are 
 everywhere quoted. Whatever of substantial value is dis- 
 coverable in the various schemes of the "new thought" 
 of to-day is pretty sure to go back to Emerson as its 
 proper source. His ideas are current wherever men 
 think seriously of life. Perhaps his greatest service to 
 literature was the stimulus and encouragement which 
 he gave to the youth of his own generation who fol- 
 lowed so closely in his steps. Hawthorne came under his 
 influence ; he was the direct inspiration of Whitman ; 
 Longfellow, Holmes, and Lowell felt the immediate 
 power of his message; and, together with Emerson, 
 these were the men who largely determined the character 
 of American literature in the nineteenth century, and 
 gave it such distinction as it has. 
 
 Of Emerson's prose, the following essays are especially 
 Snggestlons recommended : Self- Reliance, Compensation, 
 lor Heafllng. Books (in Society and Solitvde) ; the address, 
 The American Scholar, should certainly be read and the 
 ideas characteristic of the writer be noted. In the same way 
 parts of the first Nature should be considered. The student 
 will find in English Traits an interesting account of Emer- 
 son's visits with Wordsworth and Carlyle. Among the poems, 
 some should be compared with those of Bryant's which have 
 been read. These are particularly such nature poems as The 
 River, The Rhodora, The Humhl^Bee, The Snow-Storm, 
 Musketaquid, My Garden, The Titmouse, and Woodnotes 
 I and II. More directly suggestive of the poet's transcen- 
 dental utterances are : The Apology, Hach and All, The 
 Problem, The Sphinx, The Infiyrming Spirit, Experience, 
 Hamatreya, Nature (two versions, 1844, 1849), Bays, and 
 
HENRY D. THOREAU 177 
 
 Brahma. The Concord Hymn, Boston Hymn, and Volun- 
 taries are in a group by themselves, inspired by events. 
 Threnody and Termw/us are poems of experience. 
 
 The authoritative editions of Emerson's Works are those 
 published by Houghton Mifflin Company. The authorized bio- 
 graphy is the Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by J. B. 
 Cabot (2 vols.). The volume on Emerson in the American 
 Men of Letters Series is by Oliver Wendell Holmes ; that 
 in the English Men of Letters Series (the most recent 
 biography) is by George E. Woodberry. Sketches and criti- 
 cisms are almost numberless ; it is best to mention few. The 
 student, therefore, is referred only to the following titles : 
 Emerson in Concord, by E. W. Emerson (son of E. W.) ; 
 Concord Days, by A. Bronson Alcptt, and the same author's 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson: An Estimate of his Character 
 and Genius; G. B. Bartlett's Concord; H. E. Soudder's Men 
 and Letters, and E. P. Whipple's Recollections of Eminent 
 Men. Both Lowell and George W. Curtis have delightful 
 essays upon Emerson Lecturing, the former in Literary Es- 
 says, the latter in The Easy Chair. There is also a light 
 sketch of Emerson (principally of Concord) in Curtis's Lit- 
 erary and Social Essays. An English estimate, most appre- 
 ciative, is to be found in Four Great Teachers, by Joseph 
 Forster. An excellent account of the communistic experi- 
 ment in Roxbury is Brook Farm, by Lindsay Swift (in Na- 
 tional Studies in American Letters). 
 
 III. HENRY D. THOREAU: 1817-1862. 
 
 While several of those who composed this group of 
 transcendental thinkers in the Concord circle became 
 more or less noted either for eccentricity or utterance, 
 the most remarkable among them all, after Emerson, 
 was Henry David Thoreau. A genuine lover of nature — 
 a naturalist first of all — he was also a philosopher and a 
 poet, too, although a crude one. He was misunderstood 
 by most of those who knew or heard of him while he 
 
178 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 lived, — and these were not many, — but by the inner 
 circle of the transcendentalists he was comprehended 
 and beloved. It is characteristic of his career that but 
 two of his books were published in his lifetime while his 
 published writings now number twenty volumes. 
 
 Thoreau's ancestry was of mingled French and Scotch ; 
 his grandfather, John Thoreau, emigrated to 
 New England from the island of Jersey about 
 1773, and settled in Concord in 1800. Henry Thoreau's 
 father was a maker of lead pencils, and was in rather 
 poor circumstances. Nevertheless Henry received a clas- 
 sical education and was graduated from Harvard in 1837, 
 at the age of twenty. If he won distinction in any of his 
 studies it was in Greek, in which he was especially pro- 
 ficient. He taught for a while, but for the most part he 
 made his living by surveying and by making pencils. He 
 also lectured from time to time, and on his father's death 
 he continued the little business of pencil-manufactur- 
 ing, which included a small trade in plumbago. He was 
 thoroughly original and independent. Strongly Ameri- 
 can, he was yet more strongly idealistic in his concep- 
 tions of conduct and citizenship. He refused to pay the 
 old parish tax which was then still exacted, and spent one 
 night in jail because he would not pay his poll-tax on ac- 
 count of the government's permission of slavery. When 
 Emerson came to the cell with the inquiry, " Henry, why 
 are you here? " Thoreau received him with the question, 
 " Why are you Tiot here ? " He was a friend of John 
 Brown ; and declared that " any man more right than his 
 neighbors constitutes a majority of one already." He re- 
 garded only what was necessary as desirable. " A man is 
 rich," he said, " in proportion to the number of things 
 which he can afford to let alone." His acquaintance with 
 Emerson began early. He was for a time a member of 
 his household, and during Emerson's visit to England 
 
THE NATURALIST 179 
 
 in 1847, Thoreaii occupied his house and took charge of 
 affairs during his absence. 
 
 Concerning Thoreau's qualifications as a naturalist, 
 Emerson has this to say : — 
 
 "He knew the country like a fox or a bird and passed 
 through it as freely by paths of his own. . . . Under Tho 
 his arm he carried an old music-book to press plants ; Naturalist. 
 in his pocket his diary and pencil, a spy-glass for birds, mi- 
 croscope, jack-knife and twine. He wore straw hat, stout 
 shoes, strong gray trousers, to brave shrub-oaks and smilax, 
 and to climb a tree for a hawk's or squirrel's nest. He waded 
 into the pool for the water-plants, and his strong legs were no 
 insignificant part of his armor. . . . His power of observation 
 seemed to indicate additional senses. He saw as with micro- 
 scope, heard as with ear-trumpet, and his memory was a pho- 
 tographic register of all he saw and heard. . . . Every fact 
 lay in glory in his mind, a type of the order and beauty of 
 the whole. His intimacy with animals suggested . . . that 
 ' either he had told the bees things, or the bees had told him.' 
 Snakes coiled round his leg, the fishes swam into his hand, 
 and he took them out of the water ; he pulled the woodchuck 
 out of its hole by the tail, and took the foxes under his pro- 
 tection from the hunters." ^ 
 
 In 1845, Thoreau built for himself a cabin on the 
 shore of Walden Pond, and here for two years hb 
 he lived, cultivating potatoes, corn, and beans Hermitage, 
 sufficient for his subsistence, recording his observations 
 of all natural phenomena, and transcribing from his 
 journal the narrative of an excursion taken with his 
 brother in 1839. It is this experience in his life with 
 its subsequent record which has more than anything else 
 aroused interest in the personality of Thoreau. " My 
 purpose in going to Walden Pond," he says, "was not 
 to live cheaply nor to live dearly there, but to transact 
 
 1 From the Biographical Sketch, by R. W. Emerson, pp. 18-21. 
 
180 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 some private business with the fewest obstacles." He 
 did not by any means discard human society ; he made 
 frequent trips through the woods to his home in Concord 
 and received many visitors at his hut. The simplicity 
 and freedom of this unconventional life and its nearness 
 to the heart of nature were his delight. He was handy 
 with the axe and with all tools. He philosophized as he 
 hoed his beans in the early morning. 
 
 " When my hoe tinkled against the stones, that music echoed 
 to the woods and the sky, and was an accompaniment to my 
 lahor which yielded an instant and immeasurahle crop. It was 
 no longer beans that I hoed, nor I that hoed beans ; and I re- 
 membered with as much pity as pride, if I remembered at 
 all, my acquaintances who had gone to the city to attend the 
 oratorios." 
 
 Walden, or Life in the Woods, contains the story and 
 the thought of these two years ; it reveals Thoreau at 
 his best and has long since become an American classic. 
 The book was published in 1854. 
 
 An earlier volume had appeared in 1849, the prepa- 
 Tho Week *'^*''*'° °^ which had formed no small part of 
 that "private business" which had induced , 
 Thoreau's retirement to the hut on Walden Pond. A 
 Week on the Concord and Merrimack Sivers is the 
 title of the volume, and the voyage which is the basis of 
 its chapters had occurred ten years previous, when its au- 
 thor, two years out of college, together with his brother, 
 in a boat built by their own hands, had explored the 
 courses of these beautiful streams. Richly descriptive, 
 the Week is also full of the philosophy of Thoreau, some- 
 times expanded into essay-like proportions, sometimes 
 expressed in queer, crude lines of verse which some- 
 how suggest the rhyming of an ancient bard ; for 
 example : — 
 
A WEEK ON THE CONCORD 181 
 
 " Conscience is instinct bied in the house ; 
 Feeling and Thinking propagate the sin 
 By an unnatural breeding in and in. 
 I say, Turn it outdoors, 
 Into the moors. 
 
 1 love a life whose plot is simple, 
 And does not thicken with every pimple, 
 A soul so sound no sickly conscience binds it, 
 That makes the universe no worse than 't finds it." ^ 
 
 It is in his prose that the essayist oftenest shows himself 
 a poet.' 
 
 " It required some radeness to disturb with our boat the 
 mirror-like surface of the water, in which every twig and 
 blade of grass was so faithfully reflected ; too faithfully in- 
 deed for art to imitate, for only Nature may exaggerate her- 
 self. The shallowest still water is unfathomable. Wherever 
 the trees and skies are reflected, there is more than Atlantic 
 depth, and no danger of fancy running aground. We notice 
 that it required a separate intention of the eye, a more free 
 and abstracted vision, to see the reflected trees and the sky, 
 than to see the river bottom merely ; and so are there mani- 
 fold visions in the direction of every object, and even the 
 most opaque reflect the heavens from their surface. Some men 
 have their eyes naturally intended to the one and some to the 
 other object." * 
 
 Less than three hundred copies of the thousand com- 
 prising this first edition were sold ; the remainder were 
 thrown on the author's hands after four years' mute ap- 
 peal in the bookstores. " I have now a library of nearly 
 900 volumes," Thoreau wrote in his diary ; " over 700 
 of which I wrote myself. Is it not well that the author 
 should behold the fruit of his labor?" 
 
 Yet Thoreau continued to write. Shortly after leav- 
 ing college he had begun to keep a journal which was 
 both diary and commonplace book ; and this journal 
 he continued throughout his life. From this source he 
 ^ Biverside Edition, p. 94. ''' Biverside Edition, p. 59. 
 
182 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 drew the material of the Wefik and of Walden as well 
 as of his posthumous books and his lectures, essays, 
 and addresses. The journal was also drawn upon by 
 others after his death to make books and magazine 
 articles, and in 1906 was published in its entirety in 
 fourteen volumes. 
 
 Various articles by Thoreau were published in The 
 Essays ani Dial and, through the friendship and assist- 
 Bxcnrsiona. g^^gg (,£ Horace Greeley, in the New York 
 magazines as well as in the Tribune itself. Thoreau 
 made other excursions to the Maine woods, to Canada, 
 to Cape Cod ; and these furnished fresh material for ob- 
 servation and comment in his journal. He never mar- 
 ried, he lived simply and unconventionally in his own 
 independent way. Probably because of exposure — for 
 he gave little heed to the elements — he developed con- 
 sumption, and died in his forty-fifth year, at his home 
 in Concord. 
 
 The ground of Thoreau's more recent popularity has 
 been well summarized by Professor Trent: — 
 
 " The years have favored him more than they have any 
 Present °^ ^'^ friends in The Dial group. Mankind has re- 
 place In turned more and more to nature, and at the same 
 Llteratnie. j.jjj,g jjg^g shown a preference for the minute, semi- 
 scientific, semipoetic treatment of her which Thoreau was 
 supereminently qualified to give, over the rhapsodical, pan- 
 theistic treatment illustrated in the writings of Emerson and 
 other transcendentalists, American and British." ^ 
 
 The life of Thoreau in the American Men of Letters Series 
 A th riti '^ ^^ ^' ^' iS^^horn ; a more serviceable biography 
 ' is that by Henry S. Salt, in the Great Writers Series. 
 Thoreau : His Home, Friends, and Books, by Annie Russell 
 Marble, is a more intimate relation. A Biographical Sketch 
 by Emerson is prefixed to Thoreau's Miscellanies. 
 * Trent's American Literature, p. 337. 
 
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 183 
 
 IV. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE : 1804-1864. 
 
 In the historic town of Salem, well remembered for 
 its sad delusion concerning witchcraft in colonial times, 
 and better famed in New England tradition for many 
 brighter aiid happier events, Nathaniel Hawthorne was 
 born, July 4, 1804. WiUiam Hathorne,* first of the line 
 to appear in the colony, was an associate of Governor 
 Winthrop, and was known as a persecutor of the Quak- 
 ers; John, his son, was a judge, and left an unenviable 
 reputation as a bitter searcher out of " witches," relent- 
 less in the treatment of his victims. Many of the Haw- 
 thornes were seafaring men — for during those years 
 Salem was a thriving seaport and practically controlled 
 the rich East Indian trade. Nathaniel's grandfather 
 commanded a privateer in Revolutionary times and fig- 
 ures as the hero of the ballad on Bold Hathorne. The 
 novelist's own father, also Nathaniel, was captain of a 
 ship at an early age ; he died at Surinam only four 
 years after his son was born. From the shock of this 
 event Mrs. Hawthorne never recovered. To the end of 
 her life, forty years afterward, she lived in seclusion, 
 rarely emerging from her room, even taking her meals 
 apart from her children. 
 
 Under these peculiar conditions the child who was 
 destined to take his place as the foremost Hawthorne's 
 writer of fiction in America, and one of the CMiaiood. 
 world's great romancers, passed into boyhood. It is not 
 surprising that peculiarities of temperament were devel- 
 oped, or that even as a child he was lonely, sensitive, and 
 shy. When Nathaniel was nine years old, the family 
 lived for a time in Maine. Their home was on the shore 
 of Sebago Lake, in a region that was then almost wild, 
 
 ' The name was spelled Hathorne or Hawthorne, according to fancy, 
 down to the time of the author's own generation. 
 
184 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 where the boy enjoyed a freedom like that of the birds, 
 but where the inclination for solitude was intensified. 
 When Hawthorne entered Bowdoin College, in 1821, 
 his habits of seclusion were in a measure 
 broken. He was a healthy, hearty youth, slen- 
 der, but finely built, handsome and athletic. His com- 
 rades called him " Oberon." Here were begun two 
 intimate and lifelong friendships that had no slight in- 
 fluence in his later career : the friendships with Horatio 
 Bridge and Franklin Pierce, later President of the 
 United States. With Longfellow, also a classmate, 
 Hawthorne seems to have had rather a slight acquaint- 
 ance; but this was cordially renewed in later years. 
 The future story-teller was already meditating the pos- 
 sibility of a literary career ; in the dedication of one 
 of his volumes to his friend Bridge, he speaks of the 
 fact. The passage gives us such a pleasing glimpse 
 of these college days and intimacies that it deserves 
 quoting : — 
 
 " If anybody is responsible for my being at this day an 
 author, it is yourself. I know not whence your faith came ; but, 
 while we were lads together at a country college, — gathering 
 blueberries, in study-hours, under those tall academic pines ; 
 or watching the great logs, as they tumbled along the current 
 of the Androscoggin ; or shooting pigeons and gray squirrels 
 in the woods ; or bat-fowling in the summer twilight ; or 
 catching trouts in that shadowy little stream which, I sup- 
 pose, is still wandering river-ward through the forest, — 
 though you and I will never cast a line in it again, — two 
 idle lads, in short (as we need not fear to acknowledge now), 
 doing a hundred things that the Faculty never heard of, or 
 else it had been the worse for us, — still it was your prognos- 
 tic of your friend's destiny, that he was to be a writer of 
 fiction." 1 
 
 1 Dedication of The Snow-Image and Other Tales, pnblished in 
 1851. ' *^ 
 
186 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 Hawthorne was graduated in the class of 1825. It is 
 matter of record that while in college his superiority in 
 English composition was recognized by his instructors ; 
 it is also clear from the passage quoted that at least one 
 of his classmates already discerned the promise of the 
 future in the gifts of imagination, insight, and budding 
 genius. 
 
 The ensuing ten years were spent by Hawthorne in 
 his native city. His mother and sisters had 
 * *"' again established themselves in their former 
 home, and the peculiar habits of seclusion that had so 
 colored Nathaniel's childhood were now resumed. The 
 young man became a recluse. His meals were left be- 
 fore the locked door of his room, from which he issued 
 chiefly at night. However there were days when he 
 paced, solitary, the breezy pastures of Salem Neck, 
 which juts forth a mile or two out upon the island- 
 strewn bay ; sometimes he turned toward the western 
 suburbs, where he might stray for miles, uninterrupted 
 and alone, over pasture roads bordered with sumach 
 and barberry, or follow the upland ridge to the spot 
 associated with gloomy memories of the fanatical 
 severity of old Judge Hathorne and his associates in 
 the witchcraft period, — the low eminence of Gallows 
 Hill. We must not think, however, that it was Haw- 
 thorne's desire to shun all human society. He trod the 
 narrow winding streets of the ancient town with no 
 slight stirrings of affection for the associations of the 
 present and the past. He joined the groups of fisher- 
 men loafing around their drying nets or sun-bleached 
 lobster traps; he mingled with sailor-men in their 
 lounging-places, listening with an appreciative ear to 
 their salty conversation. Of course Hawthorne had his 
 acquaintance in the city ; but he was strangely diffi- 
 dent, reserved, and silent ; many thought him morose. 
 
TWICE-TOLD TALES 187 
 
 It was a dreary ten years in his existence. "We do not 
 even live at our house," he once exclaimed pathetically. 
 
 Yet Hawthorne was not idle. Shut in his chamber, 
 he studied regularly if not systematically, and read 
 widely. It was a period of reflection and experiment. 
 In his lonely chamber he pondered and brooded. " Here 
 my mind and character were formed," he wrote in 
 1840. "And here I sat a long, long time, waiting pa- 
 tiently for the world to know me, and sometimes won- 
 dering why it did not know me sooner, or whether it 
 would ever know me at all, — at least till I were in my 
 grave. ... By and by the world found me out in my 
 lonely chamber, and called me forth."' 
 
 He wrote — wrote much ; and burned much of what 
 he wrote. His first venture in print was a novel, crude 
 and not especially suggestive of the works that fol- 
 lowed. This was Fanshawe, published anonymously in 
 1828. It is a product of the first graduate years ; its 
 scene is laid at "Harley College" and its characters are 
 reminiscent of academic days. The book was suppressed 
 by its author afterward, but, in 1879, was republished. 
 
 With his sketches and short stories, the young author 
 had better success. In these the note of ori- 
 ginality was clearly struck, and their style, 
 wonderfully delicate and refined, speedily commanded 
 attention and praise, although their audience was lim- 
 ited. They were published in the annuals (several ap- 
 peared in the Boston Tohen, edited by S. G. Goodricli, 
 far-famed in that day under the pen name of " Peter 
 Parley," as the author and compiler of books for chil- 
 dren), in the Salem Gazette, and in the New England 
 Magazine. In 1837, by the kindly interest, unknown 
 to Hawthorne, of his classmate, Horatio Bridge, the 
 first collection was published under the title Twice- 
 ^ American Note-Books, Octolier 4, 1840. 
 
188 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 Told Tales. Here were gathered the historical sketches, 
 The Gray Champion and The May- Pole of Merry- 
 mount; the strange study of Wakefield, the man who 
 could not enter his own home ; the delightful and now 
 familiar Rill from the Town Pump ; the allegories, 
 Fancy's Show Box, The Great Carbuncle, and Ihe 
 Prophetic Pictures, — so suggestive of Hawthorne's 
 fondness for symbolism ; as a boy he had counted The 
 Faerie Queene and Pilgrim's Progress among his 
 favorite books. Here also was the pathetic story of The 
 Gentle Boy, and, with others, the characteristic tale, 
 Dr. Heidegger's Experiment. The future work of the 
 romancer was fairly foreshadowed in this representa- 
 tive collection. 
 
 The Twice-Told T'aZes attracted favorable notice and 
 
 . sold to the extent of six or seven hundred 
 Gorrespona- . 
 
 enoo-with copies. Longfellow made the volume the basis 
 longieuow. ^£ ^^ appreciative article in the North Ameri- 
 can Review; and a friendly correspondence followed. 
 Writing to Longfellow in June, 1837, Hawthorne 
 speaks with strong feeling of his hermit-like existence 
 during the past ten years. 
 
 " I have secluded myself from society ; and yet I never 
 meant any such thing, nor dreamed what sort of life I was 
 going to lead. I have made a captive of myself, and put me 
 into a dungeon and now I cannot find the key to let myself 
 out, — and if the door were open, I should be almost afraid 
 to come out. . . . For the last ten years, I have not lived, 
 but only dreamed of living." * 
 
 But the dreamer was already beginning to partici- 
 pate in the joy of life. Under romantic circumstances, 
 Hawthorne had made acquaintance with Miss Sophia 
 Peabody — an acquaintance that soon ripened into love; 
 
 ' The entire letter is worthy of quotation ; it is given in Lathrop's 
 Study of Hawthorne, p. 175. 
 
BROOK FARM 189 
 
 and in the glow of this experience, the ice of diffidence 
 and reserve was melted. 
 
 As we have already seen, the administration of Presi- 
 dent Van Buren, in its appointments to offi- ^^^ Boston 
 cial positions, was noticeably helpful to men oustom- 
 of literary talents. George Bancroft, the his- 
 torian, was at this time collector of the port at Boston ; 
 in 1839, Nathaniel Hawthorne was made a weigher and 
 ganger in the Boston custom-house. It is pathetic to 
 think of genius thus compelled to labor for existence 
 in uncongenial employment while his pen remains idle, 
 but this was the experience of Robert Burns, and many 
 others. So for two years the author of the Twice-Told 
 Tales discharged his duties faithfully, weighing car- 
 goes of salt or measuring coal — as he once described 
 — " on board a black little British schooner." Narrow 
 though it was, the experience may have been not un- 
 helpful in its opportunity for practical contact with 
 men. 
 
 Then came the year spent in the idealistic commu- 
 nity at Brook Farm. Hawthorne was not a 
 
 i,.,.., . p ^ Brook Farm, 
 
 transcendentalist in the strict sense ot the 
 
 term, but this experiment in simple living, conjoined 
 with high thinking, appealed to him ; association with 
 those who formed the colony would be profitable, and 
 possibly here he might find a congenial location for a 
 permanent home after his marriage, which was to occur 
 in the following year. With hearty zeal, he entered into 
 the life of the community. He performed his share in 
 all the labor of the farm — and it was strenuous enough. 
 
 "At the first glimpse of fair weather," he writes to his sister, 
 soon after arriving, " Mr. Eipley summoned us into the cow- 
 yard, and introduced me to an instrument with four prongs, 
 commonly entitled a dung-fork. "With this tool I have already 
 assisted to load twenty or thirty carts. . . . Besides I have 
 
190 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 planted potatoes and pease, cut straw and hay for the cattle, 
 and done various other mighty works." 
 
 His sister, sympathetic and practical, wrote, in reply to 
 another letter of similar tenor, — " What is the use of 
 burning your brains out in the sun, if you can do some- 
 thing better with them ? " Possibly Hawthorne himself 
 became somewhat doubtful of the desirability of pro- 
 longing the experience ; at all events, before the twelve- 
 month was quite up he withdrew from this interesting 
 circle of enthusiasts, whose characteristics and plans have 
 been described in a former chapter.' In the American 
 Note-Boohs, we find many picturesque details of this 
 experience, and in his Blithedale Romance, written 
 ten years later, the community life is presented as the 
 background of the fiction. 
 
 In 1842, — when Hawthorne was thirty-eight, — oc- 
 Thooid curred his marriage to Miss Peabody, and 
 ""■»■ their settlement in the " Old Manse " at Con- 
 cord. Here for four years they lived happy and hopeful, 
 in spite of the really straitened circumstances, due to 
 slender income from literary work. But Hawthorne wrote 
 busily, encouraged by evidences that his work was recog- 
 nized and appreciated more and more widely as its volume 
 increased. The second collection of the Twice-Told Tales 
 appeared in 1842. The Journal of an African Cruiser 
 (1845) was edited for his friend Horatio Bridge, who 
 had entered the American Navy and whose log-books 
 supplied the material of this narrative. The stories and 
 sketches produced during this period were published 
 collectively in 1846, under the happily chosen title 
 Mosses from an Old Manse. Although he never wholly 
 lost his habit of reserve, — the tendency to aloofness 
 which was in his nature, — Hawthorne was no longer a 
 recluse. He met Emerson more or less frequently, al- 
 * See page 152. 
 
THE SCARLET LETTER 191 
 
 though he "sought nothing from him as a philosopher." 
 He listened courteously to the conversation of Margaret 
 Fuller and the other members of that distinguished 
 coterie ; but he writes in his NoteSoohs most enthu- 
 siastically of excursions with EUery Channing and 
 Thoreau, " when we cast aside all irksome forms and 
 straight-laced habitudes, and delivered ourselves up to 
 the free air, to live like the Indians or any less conven- 
 tional race, during one bright semicircle of the sun." 
 
 This pleasant period of our author's life was termi- 
 nated in 1846 by an appointment to the sur- 
 veyorship at the custom-house in Salem. tom-House 
 Once more the Hawthornes were domiciled "' Saiom. 
 in the city of their birth. There were two children in 
 the household, a daughter, Una, born in Concord, and 
 Julian, well known as a writer in our own day, whose 
 birth occurred in Boston just before the removal to 
 Salem. It is in his companionship with these children, 
 gayly, even boisterously participating in their sports and 
 pastimes, that we catch our pleasantest glimpses of 
 Hawthorne in this period. In 1849, following his en- 
 forced retirement from office, — the result of political 
 schemes, — Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter. 
 
 Although Hawthorne's reputation as a writer of tales 
 was already well established, it was through ^^^ scarlet 
 this remarkable novel that his mastery in Letter, 
 the field of romantic fiction was really revealed. In this 
 narrative the inheritance of ancestral tradition is easily 
 perceived ; so, too, the influence of the old New England 
 religious atmosphere. The fact of sin and its effects on 
 the soul, the workings of conscience, the problems of 
 repentance and atonement, — these are the themes with 
 which Hawthorne works in the strong and impressive 
 narrative of Hester Prynne, the young minister, Arthur 
 Dimmesdale, and the elfish child, little Pearl. The 
 
192 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 sombre background of Puritan bigotry and persecution 
 affords a setting as effective as it is appropriate. In 
 construction and form it is beautifully developed, 
 vrhile its verbal style is exceptional in its delicacy and 
 beauty. " The finest piece of imaginative writing yet 
 put forth in this country ; " so Henry James describes 
 it.* The essay on The Ctistom-House, prefatory to 
 the novel, is one of the most charming of Hawthorne's 
 sketches. The picture of his associates at the seat of 
 custom, humorous and ironical in tone, was, perhaps, 
 too true to life to be relished ; at all events (when this 
 essay was read by his fellow citizens) irritation followed, 
 and there was a general expression of hostility toward 
 the novelist. He soon removed from Salem. 
 
 For a year and a half the Hawthornes lived in Lenox, 
 among the Berkshire Hills, — the beautiful re- 
 gion in western Massachusetts where William 
 CuUen Bryant had passed his early years. Here Haw- 
 thorne wrote The House of the Seven Gables (1851), 
 the only one of his romances the scene of which is actu- 
 ally laid in Salem. This novel, thought by its author to 
 be a greater work than The Scarlet Letter, is recog- 
 nized as one of his best productions, although not placed 
 above its predecessor. The working out of an ancient 
 curse invoked upon the head of a family line is the 
 theme of the romance. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that this writer of weird tales 
 ^jjg and of sombre romance was also a successful 
 
 ouiflren's story-teller for children, and that his essays in 
 this field are still favorites among the chil- 
 dren's classics. Here belong the earlier collections, like 
 Grandfather's Chair (1841) and Biographical Stories 
 (1842), which have not been previously mentioned. 
 From the grim pages of The House of the Seven Gables, 
 1 Life of Hawthorne (English Men of Letters Series). 
 
THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE 193 
 
 Hawthorne now turned to the preparation of the de- 
 lightful Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (1852); 
 and here, with a fascinating freshness of style, simply, 
 yet beautifully, he recounts the Greek myths of Midas, 
 Pandora, of Hercules in Quest of the Golden Apples, 
 Bellerophon and the Chimera, of Baucis and Philemon, 
 of Perseus and Medusa. A second series of classical 
 myths presented in the same entertaining manner ap- 
 peared in Tanglewood Tales (1853). 
 
 During a brief temporary residence in West Newton, 
 Hawthorne wrote The Blithedale Romance, ^j,g 
 not one of his most attractive works. It is a Biitbedaia 
 sombre tale, but commands a peculiar inter- 
 est because reminiscent of the sojourn at Brook Farm 
 and some of its associations. The romance was not pub- 
 lished until the following year (1862), when the Haw- 
 thornes were once more living in Concord, where the 
 novelist had bought a cottage, — it was the home of 
 the Alcotts, — to which the name of " The Wayside " 
 was now given. Unhappily this house is not associated 
 with the creation of any noteworthy work. 
 
 In 1852, the writer of romances took time to prepare 
 a campaign biography — a life of his old class- oonsnisUp 
 mate and ever loyal friend, Franklin Pierce, '•""i""'"- 
 Following Pierce's election as President, Hawthorne 
 was formally appointed United States Consul at Liver- 
 pool, and in July, 1853, sailed with his family for 
 England. There he remained until he resigned his 
 office in 1857. No literary work marks this period of 
 four years' English residence, except the usual minute 
 record of observation and experience comprised in Haw- 
 thorne's interesting note-books. 
 
 The next two years were passed in Italy, mainly in 
 Rome. It was for the most part a pleasing and illu- 
 minating sojourn. The associations with American resi- 
 
194 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 dents, notably with Story, the sculptor, were stimulat- 
 itaiv d ^^S' '^^® serious illness of the daughter, Una, 
 Tbe Maibie cast a cloud upou the last few months of the 
 ""'■ stay in Kome, yet here Hawthorne collected 
 
 the material for what was to prove his last and most 
 popular romance. During a summer in Florence, the 
 family occupied a romantic villa " with a moss-grown 
 tower " which had the reputation of being haunted. "I 
 mean to take it away bodily and clap it into a romance 
 which I have in my head," Hawthorne wrote in his note- 
 books ; and thus was Hilda's airy nest in The Marble 
 Faun projected. In the spring of 1859, the Hawthornes 
 returned to England, where the new romance was com- 
 pleted. It was published in England in the early part 
 of 1860, under the title Transformation, and simulta- 
 neously in America as The Marble Faun. The Haw- 
 thornes then came home. 
 
 The story of The Marble Faun, again, is psycholo- 
 gical ; it deals with the development of a soul under 
 the influence of a committed sin. The central figure 
 is that of Donatello, a youth whose resemblance to the 
 sculptured faun of Praxiteles is so marked as to sug- 
 gest that he himself is but half human, his free and 
 apparently irresponsible nature confirming the suspi- 
 cion. Through participation in a crime, the soul of Don- 
 atello appears to be awakened, and we infer that his 
 humanity begins in the self-revelation which follows his 
 sin. The effects of this act upon characters of con- 
 trasted types is subtly worked out : upon Miriam, the 
 chief actor in the crime ; upon Hilda, who is only a 
 witness, but whose intensely moral soul — puritan of 
 the puritans that she is — suffers most keenly of all. 
 The pure-minded, sweet-souled Hilda, feeding the doves 
 as they flock daily about her ancient tower, and in her 
 hour of self-torture groping for relief from the sense of 
 
THE MARBLE FAUN 195 
 
 contamination which comes only from her knowledge 
 of another's crime, — this is, for most readers, the most 
 attractive character in the book. There is much con- 
 cerning Italian art in The Marble Faun, at least much 
 concerning sculpture ; this fact and also the circum- 
 stance that historic spots are picturesquely described, 
 have made something of a glorified guide-book of the 
 romance, and have enhanced its value in the eyes of 
 many. But Hawthorne is not a sound critic of art. The 
 Marble Faun should be read for its story and its 
 characters, and the problems they present. 
 
 Once more the romancer and his family occupied 
 " The Wayside." Full recognition of Haw- oioaing 
 thorne's peculiar genius had been won; among Veais. 
 American writers he was regarded essentially the fore- 
 most. Yet the four years of life remaining were not 
 very happy ones. Various circumstances and events 
 conspired to create depression and to recall the old 
 spirit of aloofness and reserve. His daughter, Rose,' 
 at this period ten or twelve years old, gives this de- 
 scription of her father : — 
 
 " I always felt a great awe of him, — a tremendous sense of 
 his power. His large eyes, liquid with blue and white light 
 and deep with dark shadows, told me, even wlien I was very 
 young, that he was in some respects different from other 
 people. . . . "We were usually a silent couple when off for 
 a walk together, or when we met by chance in the household. 
 ... I longed myself to hear the splendidly grotesque fairy 
 tales . . . which Una and Julian had reveled in when our 
 father had been at leisure in Lenox and Concord." 
 
 Hawthorne was greatly agitated by the breaking out 
 of civil war. His politics identified him vrith the un- 
 
 * Rose Hawthorne became the wife of George P. Lathrop, biogra- 
 pher of Hawthorne. 
 
196 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 popular party in the North, and his stanch loyalty to 
 his friend Pierce, then in disfavor, seemed to arouse in 
 a degree public sentiment against himself. From his 
 English note-books he had culled material which was 
 published under the title Our Old Home, in 1863 ; 
 this volume, in spite of some protests from his friends, 
 he insisted upon dedicating to Franklin Pierce. The 
 appropriateness of the dedication is easily seen ; and 
 probably it was appreciated by most of Hawthorne's 
 readers then; still the novelist felt somewhat the 
 stigma of personal unpopularity. He became despond- 
 ent and his splendid health rapidly declined. He could 
 not advance with the literary work in hand. He made 
 a journey to Washington with his intimate friend, 
 Ticknor, the publisher, in the endeavor to shake off 
 his weariness and depression. Ticknor died suddenly 
 in Philadelphia, and Hawthorne returned, very ill. 
 Early in May, 1864, Mr. Pierce proposed that his 
 former classmate should accompany him on a tour 
 through the White Mountains, and the novelist left his 
 home in Concord with a last farewell. At a hotel in 
 Plymouth, New Hampshire, after his journey, Haw- 
 thorne retired to rest — and fell asleep. 
 
 On the 23d of May, the body of our great ro- 
 mance-writer was laid in the village burial-place at 
 Concord, a most distinguished company following to 
 the grave. Emerson, Longfellow, Lowell, and Holmes 
 were in the group. They were all his friends and ad- 
 mirers of his genius. The manuscript of the unfinished 
 work, The DoUiver Romance, was laid on the coffin. 
 It was this funeral which inspired Longfellow's tender 
 tribute to Hawthorne : — 
 
 " Now I look back, and meadow, manse, and stream 
 Dimly my thought defines ; 
 I only see — a dieara within a dream — 
 The hill-top hearsed with pines. 
 
PLACE IN LITERATURE 197 
 
 " I only hear above his place of rest 
 Their tender undertone, 
 The infinite longings of a troubled breast, 
 The voice so like his own. 
 
 " There in seclusion and remote from men 
 The wizard hand lies cold, 
 Which at its topmost speed let fall the pen, 
 And left the tale half told." i 
 
 The appearance of Hawthorne's writings did not cease 
 with his death. The note-books, so continu- ^^^^^ 
 ously and so carefully kept, have been drawn PuiUoaj 
 upon, and much of their material published. 
 Passages from the American Note-BooTcs (1868), 
 JEnglish Note-Boohs (1870), and French and Italian 
 Note-Books (1871) have thus appeared. In 1872, tho 
 romance, Septimius Felton, unrevised and therefore 
 unfinished, was published. A few fragmentary scenes 
 from The Dolliver Romance were included in a vol- 
 ume with other hitherto unpublished pieces in 1876. 
 The youthful production, Fanshawe, was reprinted. 
 Another unfinished romance, Dr. Grimshawe' s Secret, 
 was issued in 1883, together with more sketches, tales, 
 and studies. In the same year there appeared an edi- 
 tion of the Complete Works. 
 
 Hawthorne's place in our literature is established : 
 he is the most commanding figure that Amer- pijoetn 
 ica has produced in the field of romance. The Literature, 
 universal superiority of his genius has been challenged 
 by more than one critic ; yet others have granted him 
 the highest distinction even in this broader field. Henry 
 James describes him as " the most beautiful and most 
 eminent representative of a literature ; ... in the field 
 of letters . . . the most valuable example of the Amer- 
 ican genius." ^ Some points in comparison may be help- 
 
 1 Hawthorne, H. W. Longfellow. 
 
 ^ Life of Hawthorne (English Men of Letters Series). 
 
198 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 ful. It is obvious that he is altogether original; Irving, 
 in his sketches, was as obviously working after earlier 
 English models. Hawthorne's peculiar choice of theme 
 — the study of influences, supernatural in the noblest 
 sense, acting on the human soul in its development — 
 lifts his effort to a much higher plane than was reached 
 by Cooper, admirable story-teller that he was. Haw- 
 thorne's one contemporary rival in the domain of the 
 short story was Edgar Allan Poe ; while Hawthorne 
 lacks the intensity and passion of Poe, he also escapes 
 the morbidness which mars the beauty of Poe's art. 
 In spite of occasional vagueness in outline and in de- 
 tails, together with an inclination to allegory which is 
 perhaps too mechanical to be accepted as one of the 
 best methods of literary art, Nathaniel Hawthorne is 
 emphatically our greatest master in romantic fiction ; 
 and in that peculiar field in which he worked he re- 
 mains unique. 
 
 The volume of his production is by no means small. 
 We count but four successful romances completed ; one 
 of these, however. The Scarlet Letter, is acknowledged 
 by all critics to be the strongest work of fiction yet pro- 
 duced in America, and two of the other three. The House 
 of Seven Gables and The Marble Faun, are admirable 
 examples of narrative art. But Hawthorne's numerous 
 tales and sketches must also be taken into account. Many 
 of them stand forth with marks of high distinction. Tlie 
 Gentle Boy, The Snow-Image, The Great Stone Face, 
 The Ambitious Guest, — these are fine examples of the 
 short story, as then conceived, in quiet tone ; Wahefield, 
 Ethan Brand, Dr. Heidegger's Experiment, Roger 
 Malvin's Burial, Young Goodman Brown, The White 
 Old Maid, and RappaccinVs Daughter have the weird- 
 ness and the fantasy of more pronounced romance. The 
 historical sketches like The Gray Champion, The May- 
 
SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 199 
 
 Pole of Merrymount, and the Legends of the Promnce 
 House are unsurpassed in their kind. The allegories like 
 Fancy's Show Box, The Birthmark, and Earth's Holo- 
 caust perhaps do not call for especial praise, but the 
 sketches based on realities, of which we should note 
 particularly A Rill from the Town Pum,p, Main Street, 
 The Old Manse, and the essay on The Custom-House, 
 are well worthy of admiration. 
 
 It is a wonderful collection — the product of a won- 
 derful imagination, fantastic, sometimes grotesque, al- 
 ways subtle, always expressing itself in a style of the 
 utmost delicacy and charm. Hawthorne was ever an 
 idealist. Whether it was a result of his " tendency to 
 aloofness," his early years of solitude and contemplation, 
 or not, he had somehow received the gift of insight which 
 showed him the human heart. Certainly he achieved in 
 unusual degree the story-teller's art. 
 
 The reader may make his own selection from the various 
 groups of Hawthorne's tales mentioned in preced- Snggestlons 
 ing paragraphs ; but on no account should he miss *" Raaaing. 
 the introductory essays which accompany Mosses from, an 
 Old Manse and The Scarlet Letter ; he will also find it in- 
 teresting and worth while to dip here and there in the Amer- 
 ican Note-Books. 
 
 While Julian Hawthorne's Nathaniel Hawthorne and his 
 Wife will rank as chief authoritv, A Study ofHaw- 
 thorne, by Ueorge Jrarsons Lathrop, will prove more 
 generally useful, and the admirable brief sketch of Hawthorne 
 (in the Beacon Biographies) by Mrs. Fields may be used to 
 good advantage. Mrs. Rose Hawthorne Lathrop's Memories 
 of Hawthorne, and the Recollections of Hawthorne, by Ho- 
 ratio Bridge, are especially recommended. Henry James is 
 the author of the Hawthorne in the English Men of Letters 
 Series and Moncure D. Conway of that in the Great Writers 
 Series. In Yesterdays with Authors, by James T. Fields, and 
 the essays Hawthorne and The Works of Nathaniel Hawi 
 
200 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 thorne, by George W. Curtis {Literary and Social Essays ), 
 will be found picturesque and suggestive glimpses of this strange 
 personality. Professor Trent's American Literature contains a 
 most comprehensive study of Hawthorne's literary work. The 
 only editions of Hawthorne's complete works are published by 
 Houghton Mifflin Company. 
 
 V. EDGAR ALLAN POE : 1809-1849. 
 
 Four and a half years after the date of Hawthorne's 
 birth, there was born in Boston another child of eccen- 
 tric genius, — like the lonely orphaned boy in Salem 
 destined to literary fame as a dreamer of romance, — 
 and, alas, destined also to a career unique in the history 
 of American letters for its brevity, its pathos, and its 
 tragedy. 
 
 Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809. That 
 his birth occurred in Boston was due to the 
 aien ge. £^^^ ^j^^^ j^j^ parents, members of a theatrical 
 company, were filling an engagement in that city when 
 the event occurred. David Poe, the father of the child, 
 was a Southerner, a native of Baltimore, where the 
 Poes were people of character and standing. Connec- 
 tion with the parental home had ceased, however, when 
 the young man had recklessly pushed his law-books 
 aside for an uncertain career upon the stage. He was 
 never a brilliant actor ; the lady whom be married was 
 by far his superior in their profession, and possessed 
 the more vigorous personality of the two. It was from 
 his mother that Edgar inherited his artistic tempera- 
 ment ; while the prevailing weaknesses of the boy's 
 later life, it is safe to assert, were a natural inheritance 
 from his father. Within a year of Edgar's birth, his 
 father died, and a year or two later Mrs. Poe also died, 
 at Richmond, Virginia, in poverty, leaving three young 
 children to the charity of friends. A Mrs. Allan, wife 
 
EDGAR ALLAN POE 201 
 
 of a tobacco merchant of Richmond, had become inter- 
 ested in the suffering family, and took Edgar into her 
 home. 
 
 The black-eyed, curly-haired boy, handsome and pre- 
 cocious, soon won his way into the affections 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Allan. He was given the Aaoptea 
 name of his foster parents, was made the pet 
 of the household, and treated with a degree of indul- 
 gence far from wise. One of his accomplishments was 
 the ability to declaim childish speeches before the din- 
 ner guests, when the table was cleared for dessert, and 
 to pledge the health of the company in wine — " with 
 roguish grace." 
 
 In 1815, Mr. Allan went to England, taking his 
 family with him. Edgar, then six years old, sohooi- 
 was placed in the Manor House School, in a Days, 
 suburb of London, and there he remained five years. 
 The associations of this period left a strong and not 
 unpleasant impression on the boy's memory ; they are 
 recalled with some detail in the story William Wilson. 
 At this old and typical English school, the youth was 
 brought in contact with much that was ancient, with 
 many reminders of great historic characters and events. 
 He studied Latin and French, participated in all out- 
 door sports, and, before the close of his residence, had 
 begun to write occasional verse. The principal of the 
 school had " remarked nothing in Edgar Allan, as he 
 was called, except that he was clever, but spoilt by ' an 
 extravagant amount of pocket money.' " * 
 
 Upon the return of the "family to America in 1820, 
 the boy continued his studies at a private school in 
 Richmond, where he appeared to be a quick and bril- 
 liant pupil, although not always steady or accurate in 
 scholarship. He excelled in athletics, was a skillful 
 ' Woodberry's Edgar Allan Poe, p. 19. 
 
202 PHILOSOPHY AND KOMANCE 
 
 boxer and a daring swimmer ; having, it is said, one hot 
 June day, swum six miles in the James River, against 
 a strong tide. Like Byron, he was very proud of this 
 accomplishment. 
 
 The University of Virginia had been opened under 
 5],g the patronage of Thomas Jefferson in 1825. 
 
 nniversity. At the beginning of 1826, Poe, then seven- 
 teen, placed his name upon the register of students. 
 In the convivial atmosphere of undergraduate fellow- 
 ship, habits of irresponsibility and reckless indulgence 
 were easily acquired. To such habits this proud, im- 
 pulsive, and highly strung youth was especially sus- 
 ceptible. At the same time there was a reserve and a 
 self-absorption that checked intimacy. His classmates 
 hardly knew him except as a person of high spirit. His 
 favorite diversion was to wander off for a long, solitary 
 ramble among the outlying hills of the Ragged Moun- 
 tains, giving rein to his fancy and returning to his asso- 
 ciates with some wild romance, — story or poem, — which 
 he would recite for their pleasure. He was fairly regular 
 in attendance on the exercises, and at the end of the 
 year secured honors in French and Latin. He had also, 
 unfortunately, accumulated gambling debts to a large 
 amount, and when the year closed, Mr. Allan withdrew 
 Poe from the University, refused to pay the debts thus 
 incurred, and set the young man at work in his counting- 
 room. Smarting under a sense of injustice in the severity 
 of his foster father's treatment, Poe ran away to Boston 
 and enlisted in the army under the name of E. A. Perry. 
 But he first secured the publication of his earliest vol- 
 ume, Tamerlane and Other Poems, which appeared in 
 the spring of 1827. 
 
 Poe's record in the service was an honorable one. 
 In two years' time he had been promoted to the rank 
 of sergeant-major, for merit. Then occurred the death 
 
204 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 of Mrs. Allan, and this brought a reconciliation. Mr. 
 Allan secured Edgar's release from the serv- 
 and ice in January, 1829, and not long thereafter 
 
 wost Point, obtained his appointment as a cadet in the 
 military academy at West Point. Poe entered the acad- 
 emy in July, and for a time performed his duties with 
 credit. Then he became discontented and despondent, 
 neglected all obligations, was court-martialed and dis- 
 missed, in January, 1831. This made the breach with 
 Mr. Allan complete and final. 
 
 A second edition of his poems had been published 
 by Poe at Richmond, while waiting for his 
 appointment to the academy in 1829. There 
 had been additions to the volume issued at Boston, two 
 years before. Al Aaraaf, a vague and mystical poem, 
 the longest of Poe's compositions, was added to the 
 first collection. It reflects the influence of Shelley, as 
 the earlier poem, Tamerlane, suggests the influence of 
 Byron. After the dismissal from West Point, a third 
 edition, entitled simply Poems (1831), was brought out 
 by Poe in New York. Here were included some of his 
 finest compositions : To Helen, Isrqfel, The City in 
 the Sea, Lenore, and The Valley of Unrest.^ Already 
 his verse had acquired its haunting music — already 
 found its note of melancholy. 
 
 Now began Poe's struggle with fate. The panorama 
 of his " most stormy life "^ is a lurid one. A hurried 
 glimpse will be sufficient. For two or three years he 
 made his home in Baltimore with his father's sister, Mrs. 
 Clemm. He wrote for magazines and did all kinds of 
 literary hackwork. The romantic tales were now begun, 
 and one of these, MS. found in a Bottle, secured, in 
 1833, a prize of one hundred dollars offered by a weekly 
 
 ^ Several of these poems were subsequently altered and improved. 
 ^ See Poe's poem Alone. 
 
EDITORIAL WORK 205 
 
 literary paper in Baltimore. This success brought Poe 
 some timely friends who helped him to an editorial 
 position on the Southern Literary Messenger at a 
 salary of $500. This magazine was published at Rich- 
 mond, whither Poe now returned. 
 
 To the Messenger Poe contributed a few tales and 
 poems, none of which is now recognized as of Baitorial 
 more than minor importance. But it was as a Work, 
 critic that Poe now startled the readers — and the writers 
 — of that day. There had been some attempts at literary 
 criticism by American writers before this ; an article by 
 Bryant in the North American Review, in 1818, has 
 already been mentioned,' and there were some literary 
 studies written about the same time by Richard Henry 
 Dana, which are properly termed critical ; but there had 
 been no such outspoken and vigorous reviews as were 
 now produced by Poe. The noteworthy fact concern- 
 ing them is not that they were trenchant, but that they 
 were based upon certain definite principles of criticism, 
 formulated by Poe, and consistently followed by him 
 in his own literary work. It is an evidence of the in- 
 tellectual versatility of the poet that he appears con- 
 spicuously in this field also — and as a pioneer. The 
 Literary Messenger now came to be recognized as one 
 of the leading magazines of the country, if not the fore- 
 most ; and Poe's prospects appeared very bright. In 
 1836 he married his cousin, Virginia Clemm, the beau- 
 tiful and talented child-wife — then not quite fourteen 
 years of age — whom with passionate devotion the poet 
 loved and cherished until her pathetic and miserable 
 death in 1847. But the journalistic career which had 
 begun so promisingly was interrupted by the habits of 
 indulgence which were to prove the ruin of Poe. In 
 January, 1837, he lost his position on the Messenger 
 1 See page 136. 
 
206 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 and removed to New York. In 1838, he published his 
 longest story, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon, Pym. 
 
 Philadelphia now seemed to offer Poe a better op- 
 in Phiia- portunity for success ; and, in the summer of 
 deipua. 1838, he proceeded thither. Here the poet 
 seems to have made a successful effort to recover his 
 self-control. For a long period he appears to have re- 
 frained altogether from the use of wine. 
 
 This is the period of Poe's strongest work. The Tales 
 of the Grotesque and the Arabesque were published in 
 two volumes at the end of 1839 — two years after the 
 appearance of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales. In his 
 critical reviews of this period, Poe is even more inde- 
 pendent and emphatic than in the Messenger articles. 
 He made a notorious attack upon Longfellow, repeated 
 at various times, charging the New England poet with 
 gross plagiarism. While Longfellow bore Poe's attacks 
 with unfailing equanimity, this was not the case with all 
 who suffered; not a few of his victims became bitter 
 personal enemies of the imperious reviewer. 
 
 Poe now enters a new field of fiction, of which he may 
 The Anaiyt- be regarded as the discoverer ; this is the story 
 loai Tales, j^ which a mystery is apparently solved by 
 analysis and reason. The modern detective story is our 
 present popular example of the type. Poe's analytical 
 powers were remarkable. When the opening chapters of 
 Dickens's novel Barnahy Rudge appeared, Poe forecast 
 from them the entire plot of the novel. The solution of 
 papers written in cipher (cryptographs) was a favorite 
 pastime with him. He declared that no one could invent 
 a cipher that he could not solve ; and at one period he 
 was kept busy deciphering specimens of enigmatic pro- 
 ductions of this sort. It was in 1841 that Poe's master- 
 piece in this kind of fiction. The Murders of the Rue 
 Morgue, appeared. This was followed by another nar- 
 
EDITOR OF PERIODICALS 207 
 
 rative, The Mystery of Marie Soget, in which the au- 
 thor applied his method in the study of an actual murder 
 mystery which occurred in New York. In 1843 was pub- 
 lished ITte Gold Bug, the third in this group of real- 
 istic narratives, the most popular of all his tales. This, 
 also, was a competitive story and brought its writer a 
 second one-hundred-dollar prize. 
 
 Again Foe enjoyed unusual advantages. In 1839, he 
 became associate editor of Burton's Maga- Again an 
 zine, one of the most successful periodicals ^^*"' 
 of the time. But he quarreled with his principal and 
 lost his position before the close of 1840. Within a 
 month or two, however, he had been made the editor of 
 Graham's Magazine, as important a publication as 
 Burton's ; and then, for some irregularity the nature of 
 which is unknown, again he was discharged. Although 
 all evidence indicates that Foe had fairly conquered 
 his old vice of intemperance during these years, there 
 is unhappily other evidence that he was using opium. 
 The main cause of his journalistic failures, however, 
 probably lay in the temperament of the man himself. 
 Eccentric, irritable, self-willed, as audacious in his 
 treatment of others as he was sensitive to their treat- 
 ment of him, it is not strange that this singular man, 
 who did not lack admirers or friends, was unable to 
 retain business associations with them. In society, when 
 he chose to enter it, both in Fhiladelphia and later 
 in New York, he was a marked figure. He was often 
 serious and silent; but his broad and pallid brow, 
 large piercing eyes, his gracious manner when he did 
 converse, and his remarkably melodious voice gave a 
 peculiar charm to his presence. In his home, to both wife 
 and mother, he was the embodiment of kindness and 
 tenderness. 
 
 Fvom Philadelphia, the Foes removed to New York 
 
208 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 in 1844, and the struggle for existence became acute, 
 j^ j,g^ In the course of the first year of residence 
 York. in New York, Poe made the acquaintance of 
 
 Willis, the most popular and most influential member 
 of the Knickerbocker group. Willis at once made a 
 place for Poe on his paper, the Evening Mirror. Thus 
 it was that in this paper, in January, 1845, Poe pub- 
 lished JTie Raven. The appearance of this poem — 
 perhaps the most widely known of all American poems 
 — gave Poe a national reputation. It was copied in 
 well-nigh every newspaper in the land. Again the fu- 
 ture looked bright for one whom people now hailed as 
 the foremost among American poets. The Tales were 
 re-published. All of his poetical compositions that he 
 wished to preserve were collected and published under 
 the title of The JRaven, and Other Foems. Moreover 
 he had become in this year, 1845, editor and proprietor 
 of the Broadway Journal. But with the close of the 
 year the Journal was abandoned, and Poe was left with 
 a substantial debt. 
 
 In 1846, the family was established in a little cottage 
 Disaster °^ *^® humblest description at Fordham, now 
 in the borough of the Bronx, then not within 
 the limits of the city. Mrs. Clemm had become — and 
 not for the first time — the mainstay of the household. 
 Virginia was dying with consimiption. Poe himself was 
 broken in health. Half insane with anxiety and grief, 
 he had lapsed into the old excesses. Before the year 
 closed they were in absolute destitution. The death of 
 Virginia occurred in January, 1847, under conditions 
 too painful to be described. 
 
 The two years which followed were pitiable enough. 
 The End -^f ter the poet had in a measure recovered his 
 shattered health, he employed himself in va- 
 rious efforts without much success. He wrote a long 
 
FOE'S PERSONALITY 209 
 
 and elaborate essay, which he called Eureka ; it was an 
 attempt to explain the existence of the universe. He 
 thought that he had solved the mystery of creation. 
 But these conceptions of his erratic imagination have no 
 scientific value. Of more worth are the poems, written 
 during this period, Vlalume, The Bells, For Annie, 
 and Annahel Lee, — this last-named ballad a poignant 
 memory of the child-wife, Virginia. In 1849, Poe was 
 again in Richmond, hoping to get aid to establish a new 
 magazine. On the last day of September he departed 
 on his return to New York, and stopped over in Balti- 
 more to see some friends. He was drinking heavily. 
 On the 3d of October — it being an election day — 
 Poe was found, unconscious and in wretched plight, 
 in a rear room of a rum-shop, used as a polling-place. 
 Friends were summoned and the unfortunate man 
 was conveyed to a hospital. On the 7th of October, 
 without regaining his senses, he died — dismally. His 
 last words were : " Lord help my poor soul ! " The 
 next morning, five friends of the poet followed his body 
 to its cheerless burial in the old cemetery of West- 
 minster Church. 
 
 Such in outline is the tragic story of Edgar Allan 
 Poe. To add to these details would be to emphasize its 
 sordid aspects rather than to brighten it. The 
 blighted career, the disastrous climax of his 
 misfortune can excite but one feeling — a profound 
 pity for this unhappy soul, 
 
 " whom nnmercifnl Disaster 
 Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one hn^den bore." 
 
 Yet over this strange personality critics have con- 
 tended more fiercely than over any other in our literary 
 annals.' At the same time we may say that no Amer- 
 
 - ' With respect to Poe's principal failing we can do no better than 
 
210 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 ican poet lives more vividly in the memory of his coun- 
 trymen than Edgar Allan Poe ; nor is there any other 
 that in the eye of Europe ranks as high as he. Already 
 before his death, French writers had detected in Poe's 
 wprks a quality that appealed strongly to their artistic 
 sense ; his poems and tales were translated into their 
 language, later into Spanish and German also. To the 
 present time, Germany, Spain, and France regard the 
 author of The Raven as the supreme representative of 
 the West in literary art. 
 
 Let us look briefly at Poe's actual achievement, re- 
 membering — if in volume his imaginative work ap- 
 pears disappointing — that he died at forty ; and that 
 during the too brief years of his working life he was 
 beset with weaknesses and embarrassed by failures such 
 as occurred in the experience of no other American 
 writer of first rank. His productions fall into three 
 groups : the critical articles, the tales, and the poems. 
 
 Poe was, as has been said, a pioneer in this country 
 Pj5 gg in the field of serious criticism. As matter of 
 a Oiiuo. fact, nearly half of his literary work is of this 
 nature. Besides the pungent reviews of contemporary 
 writers, the critical essays on The Rationale of Eng- 
 lish Verse and The Poetic Principle must not be for- 
 
 refer to his own statement in a letter to one of his intimate friends, 
 dated Philadelphia, April 1, 1841. 
 
 At no period of my life was I ever what men call intemperate. I 
 never was in the habit of intoxication. . . . But for a brief period, 
 while I resided in Richmond, and edited the Messenger I certainly did 
 give way, at long intervals, to the temptation held out on all sides by 
 the spirit of Southern conviviality. My sensitive temperament could 
 not stand an excitement which was an everyday matter to my com- 
 panions. In short, it sometimes happened that I was completely intox- 
 icated. For some days after each excess I was invariably confined to bed. 
 But it is now quite four years since I have abandoned every kind of al- 
 coholic drink — four years, with the exception of a single deviation." 
 This letter is quoted in full in Woodberry's Edgar Allan Poe, pp. 
 
AS A ROMANCER 211 
 
 gotten. He was not always a sound critic ; he was not 
 infallible in his judgments, and in some of his attacks 
 he was inspired by jealousy or prejudice. But it is re- 
 membered that he was one of the earliest to recognize 
 the genius of Mrs. Browning and of Tennyson ; that he 
 applauded Dickens from the start ; that he was one of 
 the first to discover Hawthorne, and wrote warmly of 
 his work — although he later denied his originality and, 
 characteristically, declared that Hawthorne had stolen 
 some material from his own tale of William Wilson. 
 For Lowell's verse Poe had nothing but praise ; and 
 Longfellow — in spite of his own ill-tempered attack — 
 he placed at the head of American poets. He also noted 
 the limitations of Irving, Cooper, and Bryant ; and in 
 much of his criticism he has been justified by time. 
 The general effect of his critical work was apparently 
 helpful in the development of American literature. 
 
 Poe wrote some seventy tales of greatly varying 
 merit. These can be considered but briefly ^3^ 
 and in groups. We find, first, narratives of Romanoer. 
 romantic adventure, typified by MS. found in a Bottle, 
 intense in its suggestions of the mysterious and un- 
 earthly. His longest piece of fiction. The Narrative of 
 Arthur Gordon Pym, inspired, perhaps, by the popu- 
 lar success of Cooper's romances of the sea, is as real- 
 istic in its employment of commonplace and minute 
 details as any of the narratives of Defoe, the first great 
 master of realism in fiction. Poe's imaginative power 
 is exhibited in vivid pictures of murder, mutiny, ship- 
 wreck, and starvation, which are gruesome enough, 
 and sometimes become so morbid as to be offensive to 
 sound taste ; but in the conclusion of the tale his poetic 
 imagination asserts itself in wonderful descriptions of 
 an unknown land and of the mysterious white sea of 
 the Antarctic. In A Descent into the Maelstrom,, we 
 
212 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 have the finest example of this group, realistic, poetical, 
 and thoroughly impressive. The Adventures of one 
 Hans Pfaal, like the subsequent story. The Balloon 
 Hoax, is based upon the possibilities, real and romantic, 
 of aerial navigation, and is a prototype of such pseudo- 
 scientific fiction as the romances of Jules Verne. Poe 
 makes a brave display of scientific knowledge in all 
 these tales — a knowledge which is superficial in fact, 
 although efEective in the machinery of his realism. 
 
 Another group contains the analytical tales, which 
 Poe himself called " tales of ratiocination," because their 
 appeal is to the reasoning faculty rather than to the 
 emotions. The presentation of a mystery the solution of 
 which is to follow is always fascinating, and Poe's do- 
 minion over his reader is nowhere more complete than 
 in these tales. That the romancer, having first built up 
 his mystery, is obviously only retracing his own steps 
 in the working out of its solution^ does not at all affect 
 the interest of his story; for here his art is strong 
 enough to produce the illusion that the reader is watch- 
 ing the first unraveling of the plot. The Gold Bug,, 
 The Murders of the Rue Morgue, Hie Mystery of 
 Marie Roget, and The Purloined Letter still remain 
 our best examples, at least in the short-story form, of 
 this class of fiction. 
 
 Working more closely in the field cultivated by Haw- 
 thorne, Poe produced also a group of romantic tales in 
 which conscience is the theme. William Wilson, the 
 narrative of a man with a double, is the best ; it might 
 have been the suggestion of Stevenson's Dr. Jehyll and 
 Mr. Hyde. Here are to be included, also, the horrible 
 story of The Blach Cat, The Tdl-Tale Heart, and 
 Thou art the Man. But Poe's most effective tales are 
 those which are carefully, elaborately designed to pro- 
 duce a vivid effect on the reader's mind. Foremost 
 
AS A POET 213 
 
 among these is the remarkable fantasy The Fall of the 
 House of Usher, a masterpiece of literary art, wherein 
 every sentence is significant and almost every word a 
 contribution to the dismal effect. Here belongs, also. 
 The Masque of the Red Death, with its weird use of 
 colors, its atmosphere of revelry invaded by the horror 
 of the plague. Ligeia, a fantasy of transmigration, 
 The Cash of Amontillado, a study in revenge, and 
 Hop-Frog, in which the same theme again appears, 
 grotesquely treated, fall in the same group. The 
 morbid element is conspicuous in all. Death, horrible 
 and ghastly, — pestilence, — dissolution, — the awaken- 
 ing of the dead, — the awakening of those prematurely 
 buried: these are the instruments of horrible sugges- 
 tiveness which are here employed. It is no wonder that 
 one's flesh creeps as he reads — that was in the design. 
 
 Poe had little of the sense of humor. He wrote, how- 
 ever, a number of extravaganzas with intent to make 
 them humorous. In one. The Devil in the Belfry, he suc- 
 ceeded fairly. Another phase of his fancy is discovered 
 in two beautiful landscape pictures, masterpieces of 
 natural description, The Domain of Arnheim and Lou- 
 dor's Cottage, pure idealizations of romantic scenery 
 worthy of a poet's dream. 
 
 If the volume of Foe's verse is small, there is an un- 
 usual proportion of compositions that attain 
 the perfection of form. The best of them are 
 exquisite embodiments of Poe's own theories regarding 
 his art. Poetry and music were allied in his mind, the 
 aim in both to produce an impression. The poetical 
 effect, he said, could be prolonged only to a certain 
 limit ; and that he placed at about one hundred lines. 
 He had no sympathy with the idea that poetry should 
 inculcate a moral ; this idea he termed " the heresy of 
 the Didactic," and soundly rated the New England 
 
214 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 poets for their inclination so to write. Poetry he defined 
 as " the rhythmical creation of beauty." The poetic 
 principle manifests itself " in an elevating excitement 
 of the soul." In the service of beauty, Poe employed his 
 art. We can easily name the titles of his most effective 
 poems; they are the Song to Ligeia (in Al Aaraaf^, 
 the first To Helen, Israfel, The City in the Sea, The 
 Coliseum, The Haunted Palace, The ConquerorWorm, 
 Ulalume, For Annie, The Raven, The Bells, and An- 
 nabel Lee. 
 
 Poe's melodies are haunting ones. Sonorous words 
 play an important part in the mechanics of his compo- 
 sition. Eepetition, sometimes in the form of assonance, 
 as in the line, — 
 
 "From a wild weird dime that lielh, sublime ; " ^ 
 
 sometimes in the refrain, so effectively employed in The 
 Raven; sometimes in the recurrence of the identical 
 word, as in Dream-Land and in Vlalume, is used with 
 marked musical effect. Poe makes artful use of melo- 
 dious names, like Auber, Eldorado, Israfel, Ulalume, 
 Lenore. There is wonderful charm in the rhythmic 
 movement of Poe's verse, and there is also, for most 
 readers, a charm in that omnipresent melancholy which 
 pervades his poems. So characteristic is this last qual- 
 ity that Poe has been described — " not as a single- 
 poem poet, but the poet of a single mood." ^ 
 Weird, mystical, unearthly, 
 
 " Ont of Space — out of Time," 
 
 these compositions succeed in fulfilling the purpose 
 of their author ; they impress the mind with ideas of 
 supernal beauty. They speak no message of hope or in- 
 spiration, they teach no lesson. In Poe's conception of 
 his art, the poet as prophet had no place. 
 
 * Dream-Land. 2 Stedman. 
 
SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 215 
 
 If Poe had a literary master, it was the author of 
 Christabel and 27ie Rime of the Ancient Mariner. 
 Coleridge, more than any other poet, taught the author 
 of Israfel and The Raven the secret of melodious verse 
 and the fascination of the weird. 
 
 Of Foe's tales, selections should be made so as to include 
 the several types. The following will serve for the snggestlons 
 purpose : A Descent into the Maelstrom, The Gold '" Heading. 
 Biig, The Mtorders of the Bue Morgue, William Wilson, 
 The Fall of the Rouse of Usher, Ligeia, Landor's Cottage, 
 The Devil in the Belfry. These eight tales are fairly repre- 
 sentative of Foe's best work in romance ; having read these, 
 the average reader will not need urging to increase the list. 
 The student should make a study of the very impressive tale 
 The Fall of the House of Usher. Let him examine, word 
 hy word, the careful composition of the introductory para- 
 graph, heedfully noting the cumulative effect of the descrip- 
 tive phrases, like : " dull, dark and soundless day " ; " in the 
 autumn of the year " ; " when the clouds hung oppressively 
 low " ; " singularly dreary tract," etc., and also the iteration 
 of the feeling evoked in the narrator, as expressed in terms 
 like " insufEerable gloom " ; " utter depression of soul " ; 
 " unredeemed dreariness of thought.'' Then let him apply 
 the same method to the study of the piece as a structure ; and 
 he will perceive something of the mechanics of Foe's master- 
 piece, as he Qlearly recognizes its marvelous effect. 
 
 Of the poems, The Raven, of course, calls for our first 
 attention. Foe's article on The Philosophy of Composition 
 will be found helpfully suggestive in studying the poem, 
 although no one accepts seriously all that the author says 
 regarding its composition. At least all of the twelve poems 
 named in this text should be read, and the uniformity of 
 tone and theme be noted. 
 
 The standard edition of Foe's Complete Works is the 
 Virginia Edition, 17 vols., edited by James A. Harrison 
 (Crowell, 1902). The Works, in 10 vols., edited by E. C. 
 Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, is also authoritative. The 
 
216 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 
 
 latest full biogi-aphy is J. A. Harrison's lAfe and Letters of 
 Edgar AUan Poe (1903). G. E. Woodberry's Edgar Allan 
 Poe (American Men of Letters Series) is the best critical 
 biography. A briefer life of Poe by W. P. Trent, in the 
 English Men of Letters Series, ia announced. The sections 
 upon Poe in Trent's American Literature, Richardson's 
 American Literature, Wendell's Literary History of Amer- 
 ica, and Stedman's Poets of America are valuable for 
 reference. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 I. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: 1807-1882. 
 II. John Greenleaf Whittler: 1807-1892. 
 
 III. James Russell Lowell: 1819-1891. 
 
 IV. Oliver Wendell Holmes: 1809-1894. 
 
 I. HENET WADSWOETH LONGFELLOW : 1807-1882. 
 
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the most widely 
 read of all the American poets and the one that has the 
 closest hold upon the hearts of the American people, was 
 born in Portland , Maine, February 27, 1807. His father, 
 a graduate of Harvard College, was a leading lawyer in 
 the city. Both parents were of the best Eng- 
 lish stock and descendants of the early settlers "*" 
 in New England. On his mother's side, the poet traced 
 his ancestry to John Alden, whose peculiar courtship of 
 the Plymouth maid, Priscilla, he was to celebrate in one 
 of his happiest poems. It was from his mother, a lover 
 of nature and of poetry, that Longfellow inherited his 
 romantic taste and his literary ambition. 
 
 School life commenced early for this boy. He began 
 to study at three, and was placed in an acad- 
 emy at six; at seven he was well on his way 
 through the Latin grammar ; and was reported by his 
 master " one of the best boys we have in school. . . . His 
 conduct last quarter was very correct and amiable." 
 There were eight children in the home, four brothers and 
 four sisters ; Henry was the second child. Books were at 
 hand ; and out of doors there was not a little to stir the 
 
218 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 imagination of a boy in the brisk seaport town which has 
 always been noted for both enterprise and beauty. Its 
 picturesque features were never forgotten. In the de- 
 scriptive poem, My Lost Youth, written in 1855, they 
 are vividly recalled, — the pleasant streets of the sea- 
 side town, the gleam of the sunlight on the bay, the 
 harbor islands, the garrison in the little fort, the sea-fight 
 between the Enterprise and the Boxer, which was 
 watched by the citizens, from the shore. Like Irving, 
 Longfellow was fascinated by the sight of the wharves 
 and the shipping ; and thus he writes : — 
 
 " I remember the black wharves and the slips, 
 And the sea-tides tossing free ; 
 And Spanish sailors with bearded lips, 
 And the beantj and mystery of the ships, 
 And the magic of the sea. 
 
 " I remember the gleams and glooms that dart 
 Across the school-boy's brain ; 
 The song and the silence in the heart, 
 That in part are prophecies, and in part 
 Are longings wild and vain. 
 And the voice of that fitful song 
 Sings on, and is never still : 
 ' A boy's will is the wind's will, 
 And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.' " ' 
 
 Longfellow was twelve years old when Irving's Sketch- 
 Booh appeared ; the young reader was immediately 
 captivated by its charm. At thirteen, he began to write 
 verse, some of which was printed in the newspapers. 
 He was fourteen when he passed his entrance examina- 
 tions for college. 
 
 In 1822, Longfellow became a student at Bowdoin 
 
 College, and was admitted to the Sophomore 
 
 Class. In college, he was a general favorite, 
 
 social in disposition, but above everything else, the in- 
 
 ' My Lost Touth. Read the entire poem. 
 
220 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 dustrious student and voluminous reader. We have 
 already seen that his acquaintance with Hawthorne, his 
 classmate, was comparatively slight.^ Although Long- 
 fellow wrote considerable prose and verse, some of which 
 was published in the United States Literary Gazette, of 
 Boston, there is little in the work of this period which 
 calls for comment. We note the recurrence of nature 
 themes, and the influence of Bryant's poems — an influ- 
 ence so strong that these early compositions appear 
 iiiterar? hardly more than imitations. Before the end 
 AmMtioM. q£ ijjg college course, Longfellow had recog- 
 nized his true vocation, and had formulated his desires 
 in a letter to his father, written in his senior year. 
 
 " I most eagerly aspire after f utare eminence in literature ; 
 my whole soul burns ardently for it, and every earthly 
 thought centres in it." 
 
 Again he writes : " Whatever I do study ought to be en- 
 gaged in with all my soul, — for I will be eminent in some- 
 thing." 
 
 At the commencement exercises of his class in 1825, 
 Longfellow spoke on the theme Our Native Writers. 
 
 The opportunity for further equipment came speedily. 
 Travel laA A professorship of modern languages had just 
 study. ^jggjj established at Bowdoin, and to the young 
 graduate, already marked as a youth of talent, this posi- 
 tion was offered with permission to spend three years in 
 Europe for study. The call was accepted with eager- 
 ness and delight. This first European sojourn extended 
 from the spring of 1826 to the summer of 1829 ; and 
 Longfellow returned with a practical knowledge of 
 French, Spanish, and Italian. The study of these lan- 
 guages was then altogether new in American colleges, 
 and much of the professor's time was employed in pre- 
 
 ^ See page 184. 
 
PROFESSOR AND POET 221 
 
 paring texts for the use of his students. There was 
 little opportunity for literary composition ; nevertheless, 
 during 1833 and 1834, Longfellow began the publica- 
 tion of some travel sketches, which in 1835 appeared in 
 book form under the title of Outre-Mer: ' A Pilgrim- 
 age beyond the Sea. This volume is a lesser Sketch- 
 Boole, in the manner of Irving, without his skill. 
 
 In 1834, Longfellow received a call from Harvard 
 College, to follow the distinguished scholar ThoOauto 
 George Ticknor in the professorship of Belles- Harvara, 
 Lettres, which he was about to resign. A seooni 
 second trip abroad followed the acceptance '^''"■ 
 of this call. Longfellow was now accompanied by his 
 wife, — he had married, in 1831, Miss Mary Potter, of 
 Portland, — and in the autumn, while they were in Hol- 
 land, Mrs. Longfellow died. The loneliness and desola- 
 tion of that experience are suggested in the opening 
 pages of Hyperion : — 
 
 " The setting of a great hope is like the setting of the sun. 
 The brightness of our life is gone. Shadows of evening fall 
 around us, and the world seems but a dim reflection, — itself 
 a broader shadow. We look forward into the coming lonely 
 night. The soul withdraws into itself. Then stars arise, and 
 the night is holy." 
 
 The poet hastened on to Heidelberg, and, like Paul 
 Flemming, the hero of his romance, buried himself in 
 books. 
 
 For eighteen years, from 1836 to 1854, Longfellow 
 retained his active connection with Harvard professor 
 College. However exacting his duties, and ""^Poot. 
 there were times when they became irksome, he never 
 slighted them. His students found him patient and 
 gentle ; his presence, equally with his instruction, was 
 
 ^Outre-Mer — "Beyond Sea." 
 
222 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 an inspiration. Tbe poet's life is inseparably associated 
 with the history of Harvard and of Cambridge. In the 
 midst of a distinguished society, he became, as time 
 went on, its most distinguished member. Soon after his 
 arrival in Cambridge, Longfellow had taken rooms in 
 the stately and historic mansion known as Craigie 
 House, celebrated as having been the headquarters of 
 General Washington, but now more famous as the poet's 
 home.' It remained his residence until his death. 
 
 In 1839, Longfellow published two volumes which 
 Tbe Real commanded immediate recognition. The one, 
 Beginning, a prose romance, Hyperion, is more or less a 
 record of the moods and thoughts associated with its 
 author's sojourn in Germany and Switzerland, warmly 
 colored by the sentiment of youth and by the imagina- 
 tion of a poet who is stirred by romantic regions and 
 legend-haunted scenes. The other, a thin volume of 
 verse, entitled Voices of the Night, contained a num- 
 ber of his earlier compositions, together with eight new 
 poems of genuine worth. These were the impressive 
 Hymn to Night, beginning with its finely imaginative 
 stanza : — 
 
 " I heard the trailing garments of the Night 
 Sweep through her marble halls !' 
 I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light 
 From the celestial walls ! " — 
 
 the Psalm of Life, now so time-worn and so hack- 
 neyed that we treat it slightingly instead of submitting 
 our imagination to the stirring appeal of its verse. The 
 Reaper and the Flowers, The Light of Stars, Foot- 
 steps of Angels, Flowers, The Beleaguered City, and 
 Midnight Mass for the Hying Year. Simple and me- 
 lodious, these poems quickly found their way into the 
 
 ' The house became Mr. Longfellow's property after his second mar- 
 riage (1843). 
 
SUCCESSION OF WORKS 223 
 
 homes and hearts of the people. Two years later a vol- 
 ume of Ballads and Other Poems appeared ; and to 
 the songs in the earlier group were added the now fa- 
 miliar Skeleton in Armor, The Wreck of the Hesperus, 
 The Village Blacksmith, The Rainy Day, Maiden- 
 hood, and Excelsior — this last, like the Psalm of 
 Life, a favorite mark for the arrow of the critic. It is 
 worth while, in passing, to note how many of these com- 
 positions have held their place in popularity and justi- 
 fied the first impression of their merit. 
 
 Longfellow took little part in the political discussions 
 of his day. He was neither abolitionist nor transcen- 
 dentalist, nor did he, like Whittier or Lowell, employ 
 his verse in the furtherance of any specific cause. He 
 did, however, on his return voyage, after a six months' 
 stay in Europe, in 1842, compose seven poems poomj jn 
 dealing with the subject of slavery ; and these Slavery, 
 were published at the close of the year. They lack in- 
 tensity of feeling and possess little artistic merit, but 
 are interesting as the only utterance on this theme to 
 which the poet gave public expression. 
 
 In 1843, occurred the poet's marriage to Miss Fran- 
 ces Appleton, whom he had first met in Swit- second 
 zerland, seven years before. In the character Maniage. 
 of Mary Ashburton, she had figured in the romance 
 Hyperion. In this year of his marriage was published 
 the first of Longfellow's dramas. The Spanish Student. 
 
 The next ten years were richly productive. Two col- 
 lections were edited by Longfellow in 1845, g„5jj,jij„ 
 one of which, The Poets and Poetry of Eu- oithe 
 rope, contained numerous translations made 
 by the poet. Then followed, in 1846, the volume enti- 
 tled The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems ; and 
 in 1847, the first long narrative poem, Evangeline. 
 Kavanagh, a Tale, was completed in 1849, and a fresh 
 
224 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 volume of verse, jChe Seaside and the Fireside, ap- 
 peared in 1850. Another dramatic work, The Golden 
 Legend, was finished in 1851. In 1854, Longfellow be- 
 gan working upon Hiawatha. The work was completed 
 and published in 1855. 
 
 Of the two narrative poems it is necessary to speak 
 in some detail. The pathetic incident on which 
 Evangeline, ^j^^ gtory of Evangeline is based was related 
 first to Hawthorne, as a subject well suited to romance; 
 the novelist, however, made no use of the material thus 
 obtained, but willingly resigned the theme to Long- 
 fellow, who had shown a lively interest in the tale.' 
 
 There was no question of the poet's success. This 
 beautiful idyll of the Acadian exiles, with its plaintive 
 romance of Evangeline's weary, heart-breaking search 
 for the lover so ruthlessly separated from his bride, was 
 immediately accepted as the crown of the poet's work. 
 And it is worthy of note that the poem was finished 
 upon his fortieth birthday. 
 
 Longfellow had chosen a peculiar metre for Evange- 
 line. The use of hexameter verse had not 
 ' been deemed consistent with the principles of 
 English versification, and had not been employed with 
 marked success. It had, however, been used by the Ger- 
 man poet Goethe with very pleasing effect in his pas- 
 toral ]poem Hermann und Dorothea ; and Longfellow, 
 who had experimented slightly with the measure, deter- 
 mined to use it here. The poet was invariably happy in 
 his choice of metrical forms ; the reader of his poems 
 
 1 When Evangeline appeared, Hawthorne wrote to Longfellow that 
 he had read it " with more pleasure than it would be decorous to ex- 
 press." The poet, replying, after thanking Hawthorne for a friendly no- 
 tice of the poem in a Salem paper, said : " Still more do I thank you for 
 resigning to me that legend of Acady. This success I owe entirely 
 to yon, for being willing to forego the pleasure of writing a prose tale 
 which many people would have taken for poetry, that I might write a 
 poem which many people take for prose." 
 
HIAWATHA 225 
 
 is inevitably struck with the appropriateness of the 
 measure to the theme. As Dr. Holmes says in respect 
 to the metre of Evangdine : — 
 
 " The hexameter has been often criticised, but I do not be- 
 lieve any other measure could have told that lovely story 
 with such effect, as we feel when carried along the tranquil 
 current of these brimming, slow-moving, soul-satisfying lines. 
 . . . The poet knows better than his critics the length of 
 step which best befits his muse." ^ 
 
 The second of these great compositions makes use of 
 a distinctively native theme. Longfellow had 
 for some time been attracted to the American 
 Indian as a subject, and finally hit upon a plan for 
 weaving together a number of the Indian traditions in 
 narrative form. The Finnish epic Kalevala suggested 
 an appropriate measure and in other ways served as a 
 model for the poem, which he wrote with intense enjoy- 
 ment. As in the case of Evangeline, the form selected 
 proved remarkably apt to the treatment of this primi- 
 tive theme. The trochaic tetrameter, — using classic 
 terminology, — and the employment of parallelism and 
 repetition, gave an elemental effect to the narrative 
 that was both appropriate and rhythmically pleasing. 
 Hiawatha is the epic of the red man, and the romantic, 
 the heroic phase of Indian nature has never been better 
 presented. Considerable criticism greeted its appear- 
 ance, and there were many charges of plagiarism; 
 nevertheless, the poem was immensely popular, and is 
 now generally regarded as the poet's most original and 
 most satisfactory achievement. 
 
 The demands of the class-room had increased with 
 the years and college duties became more and more 
 
 ^ Introduction to the poem, in the Cambridge Edition of Longfellow's 
 poems. See also the Life of Longfdlow, by Samuel Longfellow, vol. ii, 
 p. 72. 
 
226 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 irksome to the poet. " This college work is like a grea 
 inMidAie hand laid on all the strings of my lyre 
 ^''•' stopping their vibrations," he writes in hi 
 
 journal in 1850. In 1854, Longfellow resigned the pro 
 fessorship and gave himself wholly to his vocation as 
 poet. Following Hiawatha, his next important worl 
 was the delightful Puritan pastoral. The Courtship oj 
 Miles Standish — a bit of refreshing human corned; 
 drawn from the sober annals of Plymouth. The poei 
 was published in 1858. Three years later, in 1861, th 
 happiness and serenity of Longfellow's life were sud 
 denly broken by the shocking accident which causei 
 the death of his wife. Sitting in the library of thei 
 home, sealing some packages of their little daughter' 
 curls, Mrs. Longfellow's dress caught fire. She died thi 
 following day. The deep grief of his loss the poet hon 
 in silence. After his death, there was found in his port 
 folio the sonnet entitled The Cross of Snow, writtei 
 in 1879, the single utterance of his grief in verse. 
 
 " There is a mouDtain in the distant West 
 
 That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines 
 
 Displays a cross of snow upon its side. 
 
 Snoh is the cross I wear npon my breast 
 
 These eighteen years, throngh all the changing scenes 
 And seasons, changeless since the day she died." 
 
 To occupy his mind and alleviate his sorrow, thi 
 poet began a translation of Dante. Upon this he workei 
 at intervals for several years. The Divine Comedy wa 
 completed in 1867 ; it holds a place among the best vei 
 sions of Dante's work in English. Meanwhile the firs 
 part of Tales of a Wayside Inn had appeared in 1863 
 in 1872 and 1873, the remaining parts were published 
 
 In the spring of 1868, Mr. Longfellow went again ti 
 Europe, accompanied by his children. The poet wa 
 everywhere accorded a royal welcome. The Universitie 
 
THE LATER VOLUMES 227 
 
 of Oxford and Cambridge honored hin^ with their de- 
 grees, and Queen Victoria received him as her Honors in 
 guest at Windsor. The winter was spent in England. 
 Florence and Rome and (after again visiting England) 
 the party returned home in the fall. 
 
 Longfellow's most ambitious, but not most successful, 
 dramatic work, Christus: a Mystery (which tii« Later 
 includes The Divine Tragedy, The Golden voinmea. 
 Legend, and The New England Tragedies), was pub- 
 lished, complete, in 1872 ; The Masque of Pandora and 
 Other Poems, in 1876 ; Keramos and Other Poems, in 
 1878 ; Ultima Thule, in 1880, and In the Harbor, in 1882. 
 Michael Angdo, a Fragment, did not appear until 1884. 
 The most notable among these later compositions was 
 the Morituri Salutamus * written for the fiftieth anni- 
 versary of the famous class at Bowdoin. 
 
 Longfellow's last years can hardly be termed declin- 
 ing years. His health continued vigorous, his closing 
 spirit was cheerful, his house remained a cen- ^'■'^^ 
 tre of sociability. His children married and established 
 their homes around him. Outside the circle of distin- 
 guished men in Cambridge and Boston who cherished 
 his friendship, he might well have called all his country- 
 men his friends, for no American man of letters was 
 ever so widely beloved. His popularity, indeed, had its 
 drawbacks. It was sometimes amusing and often an- 
 noying to the poet, — this insistent pressure of friendly 
 feeling. His time and strength were absorbed by well- 
 meaning but inconsiderate visitors whose only errand 
 was to express their admiration. Bequests for auto- 
 graphs were numberless ; in one day Longfellow wrote, 
 sealed, and directed seventy replies. One ingenious lady 
 in Ohio sent him a hundred cards, with the request that 
 he would write his name on each, that she might distribute 
 ' " We who are about to die salute yon." 
 
228 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 them among her guests at a party which she was to gh 
 upon the poet's birthday ! 
 
 No account of Longfellow's personality would 1 
 complete without reference to his love for chi 
 and the dren. His relation to them was singularly inj 
 ouidian. ,^g^iQ and tender. Among his sweetest poen 
 are those which treat of childhood. It was no perf unctoi 
 greeting that he uttered : — 
 
 " Come to me, O ye children ! 
 And whisper in my ear 
 What the birds and the winds are singing 
 In your sunny atmosphere. 
 
 "For what are all our eontrivings, 
 And the wisdom of our books, 
 When compared with your caresses, 
 And the gladness of your looks ? 
 
 " Te are better than all the ballads 
 That ever were sung or said ; 
 For ye are living poems, 
 And aU the rest are dead." ^ 
 
 And the children came to him. On his seventy-secoD 
 birthday they brought him the famous chair made froi 
 the wood of the " spreading chestnut tree " which ha 
 shaded the doorway of the village smith. They coi 
 tinued to come collectively and individually; for tl 
 warm-hearted poet gave orders that no child who wishe 
 to see the chair should be excluded ; and the mudd 
 print of many a little shoe was left on the floor of tl 
 haU in Craigie house. Longfellow's seventy-fifth birtl 
 day was celebrated in the public schools throughout tl 
 land. His last visitors were four Boston schoolboys wli 
 had asked permission to call, whom the poet receive 
 with accustomed kindliness. That night he ha 
 a sudden attack of illness, and six days late 
 March 24, 1882, he died. His last poem. The Bdls o 
 1 The Children. 
 
LONGFELLOW'S SIMPLICITY 229 
 
 San Bias, was written a few days before his death. One 
 finds a touch of prophecy in the closing lines — the last 
 verses that he wrote : — 
 
 " Out of the shadows of night 
 The world rolls into light ; 
 It is daybreak everywhere." 
 
 Among the many tributes to the memory of the poet 
 there was none quite so touching, none more apt, than 
 the comment made by Emerson at Longfellow's funeral. 
 He was then within a month of his own departure, his 
 memory was shattered, and he showed all the weakness 
 of his pathetic decline. Gazing intently upon the face 
 of the dead poet, he turned to a friend and said : " That 
 gentleman was a sweet, beautiful soul, but I have en- 
 tirely forgotten his name." ' 
 
 Longfellow's name is safe ; and the many thousands 
 who still read and love his poems continue to recognize 
 therein the " sweet, beautiful soul " of the poet. His 
 body lies in Mount Auburn, the resting-place of many 
 famous contemporaries. 
 
 The qualities which especially mark the poetry of 
 Longfellow are simplicity of style, beautiful po,tio 
 imagery, moral earnestness, and narrative '*'"''' 
 power. 
 
 So simple is this poet that many critics pronounce 
 him commonplace. Unquestionably he pos- 
 sessed what may be termed the common mind. 
 He was not a profound thinker, not one of " the bards 
 sublime " ; he spoke out of the common experience of 
 life, and it was this in large degree which gave him the 
 comprehension and affection of the common people.^ 
 
 * Emerson at Home and Abroad, by M. D. Conway. 
 
 ^ " The poet has nothing to tell, except from what is actually or 
 potentially common to the race." " Courage in frankly trusting the 
 personal as the uniTersal, is what made Longfellow . . . sovereign of 
 
230 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 We must remember, also, that when we dwell upon 
 the commonplaceness or the triteness of Longfellow's 
 sentiment, we are often emphasizing the fact that the 
 verse of our criticism has become worn by our own use. 
 
 Longfellow shared generously in the gift bestowed 
 Beauty of 0° 3,11 poets, the sense of beauty and the power 
 Imagery, of figurative expression. Not at all like the 
 magical art of Poe, Longfellow's art, impassionate, 
 quiet, restrained, often pensive, sometimes melancholy, 
 — never morbid, — is equally distinctive and equally 
 true. He, too, had a rare felicity of phrase which gave 
 artistic setting to his figures. The following passages 
 are characteristic illustrations of his simple but effec- 
 tive imagery : — 
 " From the cool cisterns of the midnight air my spirit drank repose." ' 
 
 " She struck where the white and fleecy waves 
 Looked soft as carded wool, 
 But the cruel rocks, they goared her side 
 Like the horns of an angry bull." ' 
 
 " Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, 
 Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels." ' 
 
 " Life had long been astir in the village, and clamorous labor 
 Knocked with its hundred hands at the golden gates of the mom- 
 ing."* 
 
 " For age is opportunity no less 
 Than youth itself, though in another dress, 
 And as the evening twilight fades away 
 The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day." * 
 
 Like Bryant, Longfellow is usually impressed by the 
 The Hotai " lesson " in the thing he sees, and often tags 
 siement his poem with a moral that is obvious enough 
 to be left unformulated. Yet the happy expression of 
 
 more hearts than any other poet of his generation and more than any 
 other poet who has lived." — W. D. Howells, North American Review, 
 1907. 
 
 1 Hymn to Night. =■ The Wreck of the Bespenu. 
 
 ' Evangeline. * Evangeline. ' Morituri Salutamug. 
 
LYRIC AND DRAMATIC POEMS 231 
 
 these wise observations is far from unattractive to the 
 average American reader ; and through them he won 
 his way to the hearts of many. Of this didactic ten- 
 dency we may take as familiar examples A Psalm of 
 Life and The Rainy Day, in which the moral lesson 
 is the main purpose of each. In The Village Black- 
 smith we are reminded of Wordsworth's manner ; — 
 
 " Thanka, thanks to thee, my worthy friend, 
 For the lesson thou hast taught ! " 
 
 It is as a writer of narrative poems that Longfellow 
 attains his chief distinction. No other Amer- g^^ ^ 
 ican poet compares with him in this field. NanaUv*. 
 Not only the three long poems which deal with themes 
 of national interest, but also the twenty-two tales of 
 the Wayside Inn series and the numerous ballads like 
 The Skeleton in Armor, The Wreck of the Hesperus, 
 King Witlafs Drinking-Hom, and The Discoverer of 
 the North Cape must be taken in account. Not all are 
 of equal merit ; The Tales of a Wayside Inn * attain a 
 varying degree of success, but this body of narrative 
 poems as a whole proves the poet to have been a mas- 
 ter of the story-telling art. 
 
 As a lyric poet, Longfellow ranks with the best. 
 Many of his poems are songs. We think at ^^^ ^^ 
 once of TTie Rainy Day, The Bridge, The Dramauo 
 Day is Done, Curfew, Stars of the Summer 
 Night, Resignation, Sanddlphon, The Children, The 
 
 ' The best of these Tales are included in Part I of the series. Pau2 
 Revere' s Side, Sing Robert of Sicily, and The Saga of King Olaf have 
 always been the most popular. The Wayside Inn was the old Red 
 HoTse Inn at Sudbury, Massachusetts. Of the personages who are 
 made to tell the tales, the poet was T. W. Parsons, a minor poet, and 
 translator of Dante ; the Sicilian, Lnigi Monti, a friend of Mr, Long- 
 fellow, an instructor at Harvard; the theologian, Professor Daniel 
 Treadwell of Harvard ; the student, Henry Ware Wales ; the Spanish 
 Jew, Israel Edrehi ; and the musician, the famous violinist, Ole Bull. 
 
232 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 Children's Hour, and many more. With the sonnet, 
 too, Longfellow was eminently successfnl; those ad- 
 dressed to Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and Keats 
 are among his best. The poetical dramas are inferior 
 as a group to the lyric and narrative poems. In The 
 Spanish Student and The Golden Legend his imagi- 
 nation is freer and stronger than in the other dramas, 
 and the dramatic poem, Michael Angela, shows the 
 poet's creative power in its highest development. 
 
 Longfellow's intimate acquaintance with the litera- 
 Transia- tures of Europe and the influence of profes- 
 tioni. sional study are shown in the large number of 
 
 f afiile translations from Scandinavian, German, French, 
 Italian, and Spanish poets. They are marked by in- 
 sight, sympathy, and felicity of interpretation; and 
 form no unimportant portion of his work. It is unfair 
 and ill-considered to cite these productions as proof 
 of the poet's lack of originality — as is sometimes 
 done ; the translator of The Castle by the Sea and 
 The Song cf the Silent Land is a poetical benefactor 
 indeed. 
 
 It is not altogether to his varied and rich accomplish- 
 ment in verse that Longfellow's place in the 
 affection of all Americans is due ; it was the 
 charm of his personality that confirmed it. He ap- 
 peared to be one among his countrymen, not above 
 them. Calm in spirit, gentle in utterance, benignant, 
 modest, the people saw in him the embodiment of the 
 beautiful ideal he taught. They admired him as a 
 poet, they trusted and revered him as a man ; they ac- 
 cepted him as a teacher ; they crowned him poet laure- 
 ate of the home. 
 
 To English readers, also, he became endeared. In 
 1884, a bust of Longfellow was placed with appropriate 
 honors in the Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. It 
 
SUGGESTIONS FOB, READING 233 
 
 was the first time that an American man of letters had 
 been commemorated in this place of high memorial. 
 We have seen that the poetry of Poe found great favor 
 among the Latin peoples of Europe ; Longfellow's 
 poems have enjoyed as wide if not wider popularity 
 abroad. There is an anecdote which gives a remark- 
 able illustration of this fact. It is said that on a French 
 steamer sailing from Constantinople to Marseilles, a 
 Eussian, an Englishman, a Scotchman, a Frenchman, 
 a Greek, and an American vied with one another in 
 quotations from our poet.^ In America, certainly, 
 Longfellow is still the poet of the people. It is an in- 
 teresting fact that in the great printing establishment 
 of Longfellow's publishers at Cambridge, there is 
 always some edition of the poet in the press. His poems 
 are printing continuously every working day in the 
 year. 
 
 Of the prose works of Longfellow, Hyperion will be found 
 most interesting. Selections from the poems should SnggesUons 
 include representative compositions in the various *" Heading, 
 groups described in the text. The poetry of Longfellow is so 
 familiar that particular directions are unnecessary. Houghton 
 Mifflin Company publish the only complete editions of Long^ 
 fellow's Works. The Cambridge Edition of the poems, in 
 one volume, is complete, and its bibliographical notes are 
 admirable. In the Riverside Literature Series, The Court- 
 ship of Miles Standish, Evangeline, Hiawatha, Tales of 
 a Wayside Inn, are printed in separate numbers. 
 
 The Life of Longfellow (3 vols.), by his brother, Samuel 
 Longfellow, is the standard biography. The Longfellow in 
 the American Men of Letters Series is by T. W. Higgin- 
 son ; that in the Great Writers Series is by E. S. Robertson. 
 The best brief biography is that by 6. B. Carpenter, in the 
 Beacon Biographies. Mrs. Annie Fields, in Authors and 
 Friends, Edward Everett Hale, in Fireside Travels : Cam- 
 
 ^ See Higginson's Longfellow (American Men of Letters Series). 
 
234 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 bridge Thirty Years Ago, and W. D. Howells, in My Liter- 
 ary Friends and Acqttaintance, have written interesting 
 reminiscences of the poet. Valuable studies of Longfellow 
 are to be found in Richardson's American Literature (vol. 
 ii), Stedman's Poets of America, Trent's History of Ameri- 
 can Literature, Wendell's Literary History of America, and 
 Vincent's American Literary Masters. An interesting book 
 of reference is The Wayside Inn, its History and Litera- 
 ture, by S. A. Bent. A delightful essay upon Longfellow is 
 found in the Literary and Social Essays, by G. W. Curtis. 
 Most noteworthy among the publications inspired by the 
 one hundredth anniversary of Longfellow's birth are the 
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, by Charles Eliot Norton 
 (Houghton MifiBin Company), The Centenary of Longfellow 
 (Atlantic Monthly, March, 1907), by Bliss Perry, and the 
 critical article in the North American Review, March, 1907, 
 by W. D. Howells. 
 
 II. JOHN 6KEENLEAF WHITTIER : 1807-18S2. 
 
 December 17, 1807, — the year in which Longfellow 
 was born, — occurred the birth of John Grreenleaf Whit- 
 tier, second in this group of New England poets and 
 one whose memory stands next to that of Longfellow 
 in the affection and reverence of the American people. 
 Unlike Longfellow, Hawthorne, and Emerson, Whittier 
 was neither city-born nor college-bred. In his prepara- 
 tion for life the academic element was entirely lacking. 
 He was a country boy of the genuine New England 
 stock ; for one hundred and sixty years his stalwart an- 
 cestors had cultivated the Whittier farm, and the very 
 house in which he was born had been built by the great- 
 great-grandfather of the poet in 1688. 
 
 The birthplace of Whittier lies a few miles from the 
 ij],B busy little city of Haverhill, in the northeast 
 
 BiitiipUGe. corner of Massachusetts. It was and is a 
 pleasant region, rather lonely, not so ruggedly romantic 
 
H 
 
 q 
 
 I 
 
 DQ 
 
 k 
 
 a 
 13 
 
236 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 as that in which young Bryant learned to commune 
 with nature, yet full of pastoral beauty. "Our old 
 homestead nestled under a long range of hills," says 
 Whittier ; " it was surrounded by woods in all direc- 
 tions save to the southeast, where a break in the leafy 
 wall revealed a vista of low green meadows, picturesque 
 with wooded islands and jutting capes of upland. 
 Through these a small brook, noisy enough as it foamed, 
 rippled and laughed down its rocky falls by our garden 
 side, wound, silently and scarcely visible, to a still 
 larger stream, known as the Country Brook. This brook 
 in its turn, after doing duty at two or three saw and 
 grist mills, the clack of which we could hear in still 
 days across the intervening woodlands, found its way 
 to the great river, and the river took up and bore it 
 down to the great sea." ' 
 
 The "great river" was the Merrimac, down which 
 Thoreau made his interesting expedition. It was not 
 far to the beaches of Salisbury, Eye, and Hampton, 
 where the poet pitched his imaginary tent, with the 
 great stretch of salt marsh to the westward, the limit- 
 less reach of the ocean in the foreground, the high bluff 
 of Great Boar's Head to the north, and to the south the 
 broad mouth of the Merrimac, with the ancient town of 
 Newburyport just beyond. With these localities, Whit- 
 tier has made his readers familiar. 
 
 If one would catch a glimpse of Whittier's boyhood, 
 The oonntiy ^^ ^'^^ ^^^ i* sketched in 7%e Barefoot Boy; 
 Bw- if he would know the spirit of the household, 
 
 he may find it in Snow-Bound, The farm itself was 
 not a very profitable one; it was encumbered with 
 debt, and strict economy was the law ; yet it was a 
 comfortable home, and the picture it left in the poet's 
 
 1 The Fish I Did n't Catch, Prose Works, toI. i. See also My Summer 
 with Dr. Singletary and Yankee Gypsies in the same volume. 
 
THE COUNTRY BOY 237 
 
 memory is an inviting one. The " old rude-furnished 
 room " with its " whitewashed wall and sagging beam," 
 its " motley braided mat " upon the floor, and its ample 
 fireplace ruddy with the flame of crackling logs, was a 
 scene of contentment and homely cheer. 
 
 " Shut in from all the world without, 
 We aat the clean-winged hearth about, 
 Content to let the north-wind roar 
 In ba£3ed rage at pane and door. 
 While the red logs before us beat 
 The frost-line back with tropic heat. 
 
 " And, for the winter fireside meet, 
 Between the andirons' straddling feet. 
 The mug of cider simmered slow, 
 The apples sputtered in a row, 
 And, close at hand, the basket stood 
 With nuts from brown October's wood. 
 
 " What matter how the night behaved ? 
 What matter how the north-wind raved ? 
 Blow high, blow low, not all its snow 
 Gould quench our hearth-fire's ruddy glow." 
 
 Here the winter evenings were passed with story-tell- 
 ing, or talk of guest, or poring over one of the scanty 
 volumes — perhaps the almanac, or the poems of the 
 Quaker Ellwood, or the Journal of John Woolman,' or 
 
 " The one harmless novel, mostly hid 
 From younger eyes " ^ — 
 
 a volume of Scott, read privily. 
 
 But one bright day the district schoolmaster brought 
 a copy of Kobert Burns into this country home and read 
 aloud the songs of Scotland's peasant poet. The New 
 England farmer's son, then fourteen, listened with de- 
 light, and felt his own soul kindled with poetic fire. He 
 began to write rhymes of his own, and the verses were 
 passed about and admired. He borrowed all the books 
 ' See page 71. * Snow-Bound. 
 
238 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 that were available, especially poems ; one of his first 
 purchases was a copy of Shakespeare's plays. His par- 
 ents were devout Quakers, and it was natural enough 
 that oftener than any other volume, the Bible was in his 
 hands. Meanwhile the youth was working hard at plow 
 and scythe, steadily employed in the severe manual 
 labor of the farm. District school he attended during the 
 twelve weeks' session every winter. 
 
 Whittier's father was a subscriber to the Free Press, 
 a weekly paper which young William Lloyd 
 Garrison was then editing at Newburyport; 
 and to this publication Mary Whittier, a sister two years 
 older than the youthful poet, sent anonymously one of 
 his early compositions. It was printed by the editor; and 
 one day when the eighteen-year-old lad was mending 
 fences the postman tossed him the weekly paper with his 
 verses in the "Poet's Corner." Whittier could hardly 
 believe his eyes. He stood dazed, reading the lines, 
 scarcely comprehending the fact that one of his poems was 
 actually in print. Itwasnotlong thereafter that Garrison 
 himself drove over to have a look at his new contributor ; 
 and the lifelong friendship of these two men was begun. 
 The visitor urged Mr. Whittier not to discourage the 
 literary ambitions of his son, and advised that the youth 
 be given an education. While not indifferent to his son's 
 desires, Mr. Whittier was a hard-headed, hard-working 
 practical man, upon whom the necessity of a livelihood 
 pressed heavily. True to the poet's characterization of 
 him in Snow-Bound, — 
 
 " A prompt, dedsiTe roan, no breath 
 Our father wasted: " — 
 
 his terse response to this appeal was, " Sir, poetry will 
 not give him bread ! " 
 
 But Whittier yearned for an education. His health 
 was delicate ; indeed, it had already suffered from the 
 
THE JOURNALIST 239 
 
 hard labor of the farm, and it was evident that his 
 physique could not endure the heavy demands nhe 
 of the agricultural life. It was not long after Aoa^omy- 
 Garrison's visit, therefore, that young Whittier ob- 
 tained his father's consent to his attendance at the 
 academy in Haverhill, provided that he could earn the 
 means. So the farm-boy learned how to make slippers 
 and labored at the shoemaker's bench. Thus he paid 
 his tuition for a six months' term in the Haverhill 
 school. The next winter he taught in the country dis- 
 trict and earned sufficient funds to secure another term 
 at the academy. This was the extent of Whittier's 
 scholastic training. A college course he was compelled 
 to renounce for lack of fiinds, and a disinclination to 
 accept assistance unearned. He had read a surprising 
 number of books, — sometimes walking miles to secure 
 a coveted volume, — had written a great deal of verse, 
 and was locally known as a poet. He even planned 
 to publish an edition of his poems, but the project 
 failed. 
 
 Under the circumstances, Whittier was fortunate in 
 the opportunities which now offered for a jj,, 
 career. In 1829, he became editor of a jour- JoumaUst. 
 nal published in Boston called the American Manufao- 
 turer, which supported the idea of a protective tariff, 
 and also contained literary matter. The position carried 
 no particular distinction with it, and the salary was 
 only nine dollars a week; but it served as a good 
 school for a young writer. Whittier wrote regularly for 
 his paper, both prose and verse, yet had considerable 
 leisure for reading, and making acquaintance with the 
 world. In August, his father's illness called him home, 
 and he was kept busy in the management of the farm 
 until his father's death. Early in 1830, he became 
 editor of the Haverhill Gazette. This engagement con- 
 
240 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 tinued for six months, when he assumed editorial 
 charge of the New England Review, published in 
 Hartford. That the young Quaker of Haverhill had al- 
 ready made some impression by his personality as well 
 as by his pen is evident from the introduction now 
 given him by George D. Prentice, the retiring editor 
 of the Review. 
 
 " I cannot do less than congratulate my readers," said 
 Prentice, " on the prospect of their more familiar acquaint- 
 ance with a gentleman of such powerful energies and such ' 
 exalted purity and sweetness of character. I have made some 
 enemies among those whose good opinion I value, but no 
 rational man can ever be the enemy of Mr. Whittier." ^ 
 
 For a year and a half, Whittier retained this posi- 
 tion, developing rapidly in power and in pro- 
 InHarMord. j- • ■, ... tt i • 
 
 lessional reputation. He gave his support to 
 
 Henry Clay and upheld the principle of the tariff. 
 Whittier also enjoyed the society of the literary people 
 more or less noted, who made their home in Hartford. 
 Among the members of this interesting group were the 
 poets James G. Percival and Mrs. Lydia Sigourney, 
 whose writings were at this time widely read and ad- 
 mired. It was in Hartford that Whittier, in 1831, 
 published his first book, Legends of New England, a 
 volume of rather crude sketches, including some verse ; 
 they had already appeared in the New England Mag- 
 azine. These Legends were not thought by Whittier 
 worthy of permanent place in his Prose Works; and 
 the same judgment was placed by him on most of his 
 early experiments in fictitious narrative. Of his poems 
 written previous to 1833, there are few which have sur- 
 vived. The spirited Song of the Vertnonters, a product 
 of his school-days, The Vaudois Teacher, and 77t,e 
 
 ' Pickard's Life of Whittier, vol. i. 
 
THE CRISIS 241 
 
 Star of Bethlehem are selected h^ Professor Carpenter 
 as the only ones of poetic value.' 
 
 From 1832 to 1836, Whittier was again upon the 
 farm struggling to make a living for his 
 mother, his ^sister, his aunt who lived with 
 them, and himself. We may recall the situation at this 
 period of the other writers whose lives have been al- 
 ready noted. It was in 1832 that Emerson resigned his 
 pastorate in Boston and retired to Concord ; Foe, re- 
 cently discharged from West Point, was in Baltimore 
 trying to support himself by hack-work for the maga- 
 zines ; Hawthorne was dreaming in the seclusion of his 
 hermit-like existence in Salem; Longfellow was now 
 settled in his professorship at Bowdoin. Bryant, of 
 course, representative of the earlier generation, had 
 emerged from his period of struggle, and had been for 
 three years editor of the Post. For Whittier, now in 
 his twenty-fifth year, the future was full of uncertainty. 
 Politics seemed to offer the only field of promise, but 
 this field he hesitated to enter ; — as he wrote to Mrs. 
 Sigourney, " There is something inconsistent in the char- 
 acter of a poet and a modern politician." ' A year later 
 he wrote to the same correspondent : — 
 
 " Of poetry I have nearly taken my leave, and a pen is 
 getting to be something of a stranger to me. I have been com- 
 pelled again to plunge into the political whirlpool, for I have 
 found that my political reputation is more influential than 
 my poetical." ' 
 
 But in 1833, Whittier's vocation was made clear. It 
 was the turning-point in his life. The poet found in- 
 spiration in an unexpected theme. 
 
 ' See Carpenter's John Greevleaf Whittier, p. 100. 
 '^ Letter, February 2, 1832. 
 
 ° January, 1833. Both letters are (Quoted by Fickard and by Car- 
 penter. 
 
242 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 The anti-slavery movement, whicli five years earlier 
 jj, had enlisted the extreme energies of the rad- 
 
 AboUttoniit ical and lion-hearted Garrison, had already 
 appealed to the humanitarian spirit of Whittier. He 
 )nras as strong an idealist as any transcendentalist of 
 Boston or Concord, and could not be otherwise than 
 strongly sympathetic with the ultimate purpose of the 
 movement. At twenty-six, therefore, the poet allied 
 himself for better or for worse with the abolitionists. 
 For twenty-seven years Whittier was one of the fore- 
 most among those identified with this cause. He was a 
 delegate to the first National Anti-Slavery Convention 
 at Philadelphia in 1833, and signed its Declaration. 
 Two years later he was mobbed in Concord, New Hamp- 
 shire, while traveling with an anti-slavery agitator. He 
 was threatened in Boston. In 1838, he took charge of 
 the organ of the Society, the Pennsylvania Freeman, 
 published in Philadelphia, and again encountered a 
 mob, which skcked and burned his office. Throughout 
 this turbulent experience, his courage and zeal knew no 
 limit. The shy and gentle Quaker had become the fear- 
 less advocate of an unpopular crusade. In 1833, he 
 published at his own expense a pamphlet, Justice and 
 Expediency, which exerted a wide influence. The verses 
 which he wrote rang like the voice of a trumpet through 
 the land. Randolph of Roanoke, Massachusetts to 
 Virginia, To Faneuil Hall, The SlaveShips, The 
 Hunter of Men, Clerical Oppressors, The Pastoral 
 Letter: these poems illustrate various phases of the 
 poet's utterance during these momentous years. When 
 we compare Whittier's Voices of Freedom (1846) with 
 Longfellow's Poems on Slavery (1842), we feel at once 
 the difference in the spirit of the two men in this mat- 
 ter. Longfellow's verses are " literary " ; Whittier's are 
 the vehement utterances of emotion and conviction. 
 
POLITICS AND JOURNALISM 243 
 
 " They were written," said the poet, " with no expectation 
 that they would survive the occasions which called them forth : 
 they were protests, alarm signals, trumpet-calls to action, 
 words wrung from the writer's heart, forged at white heat, 
 and of course lacking the finish and careful word-selection 
 which reflection and patient brooding over them might have 
 given. Such as they are, they belong to the history of the 
 Anti-Slavery movement, and may serve as way-marks of its 
 progress." ^ 
 
 It is interesting to see how loyal Whittier remained 
 to the ideals and inspirations of this period, the distinc- 
 tive epoch in his life. " The simple fact is," he wrote to 
 E. L. Godkin, " that I cannot be sufficiently grateful 
 to the Divine Providence that so early called my atten- 
 tion to the great interests of humanity, saving me from 
 the poor ambitions and miserable jealousies of a self- 
 ish pursuit of literary reputation." ^ The poet himself 
 never regretted the fact that this alliance had placed 
 these limitations upon his verse ; he rather saw in it 
 the real inspiration of his life, the true birth of poetical 
 power. " My lad, if thee would win success, join thy- 
 self to some unpopular but noble cause," said he in 
 after years to a youth who came to him for counsel. 
 
 In 1835, Mr. Whittier was elected as representative 
 in the Massachusetts legislature, and at the Fouucsana 
 close of the term was reelected ; but ill health •'<"™aii»>n. 
 prevented further service. In 1836, the homestead at 
 East Haverhill was sold and the adjoining town of Ames- 
 bury became the poet's residence, his mother and his 
 younger sister, Elizabeth, making his home. For a time 
 he was again associated with one or another local news- 
 paper; and from 1847 to 1860, he was corresponding 
 
 * From the Introdnotion to Whittier's Poetical Works, vol. i (Hough- 
 ton Mifflin Company). 
 
 * See John Greerdeaf Whittier, by Bliss Perry. 
 
244 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 editor of the New Era,^ published in Washington, the 
 mouthpiece of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery 
 Society. It was in this paper that a number of Whittier's 
 poems were first printed, including Ichdbod (1850), that 
 most effective utterance of scorn and grief, inspired by 
 the Seventh of March speech of Daniel Webster. 
 
 But meanwhile Whittier's pen had not been employed 
 Literary exclusively on writings for the cause. In 1836, 
 Work. hia narrative poem Mogg Megone had been 
 published — afterward a thorn in the poet's flesh, for to 
 his mature taste it did not appear deserving of a perma- 
 nent place in his works. He said that it reminded him 
 of "a big Indian in his war paint, strutting about in Sir 
 Walter Scott's plaid." In 1843, Whittier published iays 
 of My Home. The Songs of Labor appeared in 1850; 
 JTie Chapel of the Hermits, and Other Poems, in 1853; 
 The Panorama, and Other Poems, in 1856 ; and Home 
 Ballads, in 1860. In these collections Whittier was tak- 
 ing his position as distinctively the poet of New England. 
 Here are nature poems: Hampton Beach, Lakeside, and 
 Summer hy the Lakeside, April, and The Last Walk in 
 Autumn; narrative poems embodying old New England 
 legends : Cassandra SouthwicJc, Skipper Ireson's Pide, 
 and The Garrison of Cape Ann; idylls of the farm : 
 Maud Muller, The Barefoot Boy ; and in deeper vein, 
 the exquisite ballad. Telling the Bees, quaintly remi- 
 niscent of the New England setting, like the rest. Here, 
 too, we find the strongly personal poems, My Psalm, 
 Memories, and My Playmate. While Whittier's prose 
 works have never attracted much attention, we may note 
 the publication during this period of the following 
 volumes: The Stranger in Lowell (1845), a series of 
 sketches written while the writer was editing for a brief 
 
 1 Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was published first in the Era in 
 1851. 
 
IN WAR TIME 245 
 
 period a newspaper in the city named ; T%e Supernatu- 
 ralism of New England (1847); Leaves from Mar- 
 garet Smith's Journal (1849), an attractive study of 
 life in the Massachusetts Bay Province, realistically pre- 
 sented and worthy of a wider reading ; Old Portraits 
 and Modem Sketches (1850), and Literary Recrea- 
 tions and Miscellanies (1854), both volumes made up 
 of essays and studies which had appeared in the Era. 
 During the years of civil war, Whittier published 
 two volumes. In War Time (1864) and Na- in^fg, 
 tional Lyrics (1865), which included the '''»'•• 
 poems inspired by the events of this exciting period. 
 Like the earlier songs born of the movement against 
 slavery, these compositions lack art and finish; they 
 were written in the ardor of conflict and sent immedi- 
 ately into print without the opportunity to meditate 
 and correct. Waiting and The Watchers are among the 
 best of these war lyrics ; while in Barbara Frietchie 
 the poet produced what is often described as the finest 
 ballad of the struggle, although the story told in the 
 poem is now discredited. Laus Deo, the most stirring 
 of these lyrics, has an interesting history. It was com- 
 posed while the poet was sitting in the Friends' Meet- 
 ing-House in Amesbury, at the regular Fifth Day 
 meeting, listening to the bells of jubilation which an- 
 nounced the passage of the constitutional amendment 
 abolishing slavery, January 31, 1865. 
 
 " It is done I 
 Clang of bell and roar of gan 
 Send the tidings up and down." 
 
 "All sat in silence, bat on his retarn to his home, he re- 
 cited a portion of the poem, not yet committed to paper, to 
 his housemates in the garden room. ' It wrote itself, rather 
 sang itself, while the bells rang,' he wrote to Lucy Larcom." * 
 1 The Cambridge Edition of Wbittiei's Poems. 
 
246 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 In 1866, Whittier published his masterpiece, Snovi- 
 gj,„^. Bound, a Winter Idyl. This beautiful poem 
 Bonni. is a thoroughly realistic picture of the farm 
 in the grasp of a New England winter. The family- 
 circle grouped in homely comfort about the roaring 
 fireplace is that of the poet's own frugal home, but it 
 is typical of rural life in the New England of the six- 
 ties ; and the portraits are representative of the sturdy 
 class to which the poet's family belonged. Snow- 
 Bound takes its legitimate place beside Goldsmith's 
 Deserted Village and Burns's The Cotter's Saturday 
 Night. In Whittier's poem, the personal element is 
 strong. The devoted sister, Elizabeth, " our youngest 
 and our dearest," had died in 1864 ; perhaps it was 
 this event which had stirred the poet's memories of 
 childhood — certainly it was the inspiration of the ten- 
 derest passage in the poem. Snow-Bound brought its 
 author his first substantial pecuniary returns. The sales 
 were very large; from the first edition he received 
 $10,000, and the financial burden of many years was 
 permanently removed. 
 
 The large success of Snow-Bound was repeated a 
 TiiBTsnton twelvemonth later, when the collection of nar- 
 tiiB BeaoiL rative poems entitled The Tent on the Beach 
 appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. When the latter 
 poems were published in book form they began to sell 
 at the rate of a thousand copies a day. " This will never 
 do," wrote the poet in humorous self -depreciation to his 
 publisher, James T. Fields ; " the swindle is awful ; Bar- 
 num is a saint to us." .The comrades of the Beach were 
 the poet himself, Mr. James T. Fields, and the noted 
 traveler as well as all-around man of letters. Bayard 
 Taylor. The poems thus grouped in the manner of 
 Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863), are 
 sombre in tone, sad stories of ill-fated ships and legends 
 
PERSONAL TRAITS 247 
 
 of the days of delusion ; no one of them has gained a 
 strong hold on popular favor. The descriptions of the 
 sea, and the familiar portrait of the poet — 
 
 " And one there vaa, a dreamer bom, 
 Who, with a mission to fulfil, 
 Had left the Muses' haunts to turn 
 The crank of an opinion-mill " ^ — 
 
 these are the happiest touches in the work. 
 
 Successive volumes of his verse continued to appear 
 at frequent intervals during the remainder of Whit- 
 tier's life, ite was an old man in his eighty-fifth year, 
 universally venerated, when the final volume was pub- 
 lished. 
 
 During these latter years the poet lived a retired and 
 peaceful life, impelled thereto by delicate At Son- 
 health and the natural shyness of his disposi- ^own. 
 tion. Yet he never lost interest in public affairs or his 
 active sympathy with the ultimate results of that cause 
 which had enlisted his energies in youth. The educa- 
 tion of the freedmen in the South, the assistance of 
 individuals who had made their way to the North, were 
 matters of vital interest to him. He continued to make 
 his home in Amesbury, but visited with friends in Hamp- 
 ton Falls, or with relatives at Oak Knoll in Danvers. 
 There was a quiet corner in the White Mountains 
 where he loved to sojourn for a few weeks in. the heat 
 of summer ; and the artistic home of Celia Thaxter at 
 the Isles of Shoals was also a favorite retreat. 
 
 Whittier was the only one of this group of New Eng- 
 land writers who never went abroad. Indeed, personal 
 after the poet settled in the home at Ames- i^i«»t»- 
 bury, he seldom ventured far from his own fireside. The 
 society of his kindred and of a few intimate friends he 
 
 ' Bead the entire description in the first poem of the collection. 
 
248 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 dearly loved ; but he was too diffident to enjoy large 
 companies, and he shrank from all publicity. The 
 farmer of East Haverhill was most at home with com- 
 mon folks, understanding them perfectly and talking 
 with them in a language they could understand. He 
 used the pronoun "thee," the Quaker form of address, 
 and always remained heartily loyal to the simple man- 
 ners of the Friends. The militant spirit of his anti- 
 slavery poems wholly disappeared with the war, and 
 only gentleness, universal good-will, and a beautiful sim- 
 plicity of religious faith characterized his later verse. 
 
 The popularity of Whittier increased among all 
 classes of readers. His birthday, like that of Longfellow, 
 was observed with noteworthy tributes of esteem. Upon 
 his eightieth anniversary, the Governor of Massachu- 
 setts with other distinguished citizens visited the poet 
 at Oak Knoll to present the congratulations of his na- 
 tive state. Upon one of these anniversary occasions, 
 Whittier was deeply touched by a telegram sent by the 
 Southern Forestry Congress assembled in Florida: — 
 
 " In remembrance of your birthday, we have planted a live- 
 oak tree to your memory, which, like the leaves of the tree, 
 will be forever green." 
 
 Together with his gentle dignity of bearing and his 
 modest shyness of manner, Whittier possessed a keen 
 sense of humor and had a homely wit that flashed out 
 in conversation with his friends. Among these there 
 were a number of distinguished women : Mrs. Stowe, 
 Lucy Larcom, Alice and Phoebe Gary, Sarah Orne 
 Jewett, Celia Thaxter, and Mrs. James T. Fields. 
 With Longfellow, Emerson, and Holmes, Whittier had 
 a pleasant but not an intimate acquaintance. In per- 
 sonal appearance the poet was tall and spare ; his eyes 
 were unusually brilliant, large, and dark ; his smile was 
 
PLACE IN LITERATURE 249 
 
 wonderfully benignant. Although he suffered much 
 from ill health, he was patient, cheerful, and sweet- 
 tempered. His final illness was brief. He died at Hamp- 
 ton, September 7, 1892. Almost his last words were, 
 "Love — love to all the world." The funeral services 
 were held in the little garden of the home at Amesbury, 
 and the poet was buried in the village cemetery in the 
 family lot. 
 
 In comparison with our other American poets, Whit- 
 tier must be recognized as essentially provin- ^ymy,,,, 
 
 cial. Aside from the fact that a large body of waco in 
 1 . ii i- 1 o .. Llteiatnie. 
 
 his verse, the anti-slavery poems, was neces- 
 sarily of temporary value, we must remember also that 
 the best portion of his work belongs wholly to New 
 England. It is nevertheless true that while this cir- 
 cumstance places a limitation upon its scope, it does 
 not detract from the strength and value of his poetry. 
 While the poet has never received, like Longfellow and 
 Poe, the recognition of other peoples than our own, this 
 restriction of his field, with the fidelity and vividness of 
 his interpretation, is precisely what gives to Whittier 
 his chief distinction here at home. Nor was he in the 
 larger sense a great poet. No one recognized the tech- 
 nical faults of his verse more frankly than Whittier 
 himself. " I should be hung for my bad rhymes anywhere 
 south of Mason and Dixon's line," he wrote to Mr. 
 Fields. That he did not hold a place with the men of 
 profound insight, the " seers," he knew equally well. 
 His own modest estimate of his poetic gifts he has ex- 
 pressed in stanzas of unusual beauty, which to some 
 extent are themselves a contradiction of the statement : 
 
 " The rigor of a frozen clime, 
 The harshness of an untaught ear, 
 
 The jarring words of one whose rhyme 
 
 Beat often Labor's hurried time. 
 Or Duty's mgged march through storm and strife, are here. 
 
250 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 " Of mystic beanty, dreamy grace, 
 No ronnded art the Uwk supplies ; 
 
 Unskilled the subtle lines to trace, 
 
 Or softer shades of Nature's face, 
 I view her common forms with nnanointed eyes. 
 
 " Kor mine the seer-like power to show 
 The secrets of the heart and mind ; 
 
 To drop the plummet-line below 
 
 Our common world of joy and woe, 
 A more intense despair or brighter hope to find." ' 
 
 The fine artistic taste of Longfellow Whittier lacked, 
 as he lacked the culture of broad reading and of travel ; 
 but he possessed the genuine love of nature and human- 
 ity ; he had the virility of a strong character, free from 
 all artificiality, the ardor of the truest patriotism, and, 
 at the outset of his career, the inestimable advantage 
 of consecration to an uplifting cause. 
 
 The student will read, of course, the more noted of the 
 SngEssUons -A-nti-Slavery Poems, including those mentioned 
 tor Reading, jn tjjg preceding paragraphs. The Shoemakers and 
 The Huskers will serve as good examples of The Songs of 
 Labor. The group of Personal Poems contains Ickahod and 
 The Lost Occasion, the two impressive compositions based 
 upon the career of Daniel Webster, and also noteworthy 
 tributes to his friends and associates, Garrison and Sumner. 
 Here, likewise, are interesting verses inscribed to fellow poets : 
 Bryant, Halleck, Bayard Taylor, Longfellow {The Poet and 
 the Children), Lowell, and Holmes ; most happy of all, the 
 poem entitled Bums. Among the Narrative and Leg&ndary 
 Poems are some of the most familiar of Whittier's compo- 
 sitions : The Vaudois Teacher, Barclay of Ury (one of sev- 
 eral which deal with Quaker themes). The Angels of Buena 
 Vista, Maud Muller, Skipper Ireson's Bide, Telling the 
 Bees, My Playmate, and Avwng the Hills. The Poems of 
 Nature deserve some study in detail, and should be compared 
 with those of Longfellow and Bryant. Here we find descrip- 
 ' Proem, prefixed to the edition of 1848. 
 
SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 251 
 
 tive passages of simple yet compelling beauty. Such is this 
 stanza from Sunset on the Bewrcamp : — 
 
 " Touched by a light that bath no name, 
 
 A glory nsTer sung, 
 Aloft on sky and mountain wall 
 
 Are God'a great pictures bung. 
 • How changed the summits vast and old ! 
 
 No longer granite-browed, 
 They melt in rosy miat ; the rook 
 
 Is softer than the cloud ; 
 The valley holds its breath ; no leaf 
 
 Of all ite elma is twirled : 
 The silence of eternity 
 
 Seems falling on the world." 
 
 The following afford good illustrations of the poet's de- 
 scriptive power : April, Summer by the Lakeside, The Last 
 Walk in Autumn, The River Path, and The Trailing Ar- 
 buttts. It will be quickly noted that Wbittier is always the 
 subjective, the reflective poet ; that, like Bryant, he reads a 
 lesson in the scene. Thus, when wandering in the dusk of twi- 
 light along the river path, he comes upon a sudden opening 
 in the hills through whose green gates streams the " long, 
 slant splendor" of the setting sun, bridging "the shaded 
 stream with gold," he thinks of the river of death — " the 
 river dark " ; and prays : — 
 
 " So let the hills of doubt divide, 
 So bridge with faith the sunless tide I " ^ 
 
 And when, under dead boughs, amid dry leaves and moss, 
 he finds the perfumed arbutus, he says : — 
 
 "As, pausing, o'er the lonely flower I bent, 
 I thought of lives thus lowly, clogged and pent. 
 
 Which yet find room, 
 Through care and cumber, coldness and decay. 
 To lend a sweetness to the ungenial day. 
 
 And make the sad earth happier for their bloom." ' 
 
 Of the Religious Poems, one stands forth preeminent ; no 
 other American poem has ever touched with its message of 
 1 The River Path- ' The Trailing Arbutus, 
 
252 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 trustfulness the hearts of devout Christians more universally 
 than The Eternal Goodness, — 
 
 " I know not where His islands lift 
 Their fronded palms in air ; 
 I only know I cannot drift 
 Beyond His love and care." 
 
 The poem Our Master is also full of the deep religious feel- 
 ing so characteristic of the Quaker poet, and from its stanzas 
 have been arranged five of Whittier's best-known hymns. 
 
 Special attention should be given to a few of the poems clas- 
 sified as Subjective and Reminiscent. Here we find The 
 Barefoot Boy, In School-Days, and Memories, poems which, 
 besides affording intimate glimpses of the poet's child-life, 
 are to be recognized as among his best compositions. To these 
 must finally be added Snow-Bound, most intimately personal 
 of all his works, and yet artistically his masterpiece. The more 
 this little " classic " is read, the more its reader is impressed 
 with its simple strength and beauty. The apt phrasing, the 
 vivid portraiture, the happy touch of " local coloring," the 
 easy movement of its simple measure, its idyllic atmosphere 
 of domestic afEection, of serene and untroubled faith — these 
 are the qualities which give the poem its place with the best 
 in our literature. 
 
 The Complete Works of Whittier are published in seven 
 AntboritleB ^°'"™®^ ^7 Houghton Mifflin Company, also the 
 Cambridge Edition of the Poems, in one volume. 
 Snow-Bound and The Tent on the Beach, together with 
 other poems, are published in two numbers of the River- 
 side Literature Series. The Life and Letters of John G. 
 Whittier ( 2 vols.), by Samuel T. Pickard, is the standard 
 biography. The best brief biography is the Whittier in the 
 American Men of Letters Series, by G. E. Carpenter. The 
 little book Whittier : Notes of Ms Life and of his Friend- 
 ships, by Mrs. Annie Fields, is a charming study of the man. 
 Whittier-Land, by S. T. Pickard, is also valuable. In criti- 
 cism, consult Stedman's Poets of America, Vincent's Amerir 
 can Literary Masters, and the histories of American liter*- 
 
(JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 253 
 
 ture by Bichardson and Trent. John Greenleaf Whittier, 
 by Bliss Perry (a brief study of the poet), and Whittier for 
 To-day, by the same writer, in the Atlantic Monthly for De- 
 cember, 1907, are appreciative memoriala of the hundredth 
 anniversary of the poet's birth. 
 
 III. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL: 1819-1891. 
 
 James Russell Lowell, the youngest of the New Eng- 
 land group and the most versatile, was born in Cam- 
 bridge, February 22, 1819. 
 
 His American ancestry dated from colonial times, and, 
 like Emerson's, was throughout representative 
 of the academic class ; his father, grandfather, 
 and great-grandfather were graduates of Harvard Col- 
 lege. It was Lowell's grandfather who, in 1780, intro- 
 duced into the Bill of Bights of tbe state the clause 
 abolishing slavery in Massachusetts. An uncle was the 
 founder of the Lowell Institute in Boston. The poet's 
 father was pastor of the West Church in that city. 
 Mrs. Lowell, a woman of intensely imaginative mind, 
 a lover of poetry and music, was of Scotch parent- 
 age, her father having been a native of the Orkney 
 Islands. 
 
 The home of the Lowells, appropriately known as 
 
 Elmwood, was situated not far beyond the 
 
 , ElmwooA. 
 
 Craigie house, somewhat off the main avenue 
 
 of travel, a large mansion, surrounded by trees — a 
 
 " bowery loneliness " which drew the bluebirds, orioles, 
 
 and robins; beyond — the meadows, a stretch of marsh, 
 
 and the Charles Eiver, — 
 
 " a stripe of nether sky, 
 Now hid by rounded apple-trees between, 
 
 Whose gaps the misplaced sail sweeps bellying by, 
 Now flickering golden through a woodland screen." ' 
 
 1 An Indian-Summer Beverie. 
 
264 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 " Ah, this is a pleasant place ; I wonder who lives 
 here, what little boy" — his father said one day to 
 James, as they returned from a drive and passed through 
 the gate of Elmwood. Within the house were books, 
 Kev. Mr. Lowell's well-selected library, among which 
 the boy browsed knowingly. As a child he was read to 
 sleep from The Faerie Queene, and rehearsed its ad- 
 venturous episodes to his playmates. 
 
 After the first study days had been passed in attend- 
 _ J. ance at a classical school in Cambridge, where 
 
 Latin and Greek were the principal branches 
 taught, young Lowell entered Harvard College in 
 1834 — two years before Longfellow took up the duties 
 of his professorship. Here Lowell found further oppor- 
 tunity for wide and varied reading. In his own words, 
 he read " almost everything except the text-books pre- 
 scribed by the Faculty." After several whimsical 
 breaches of academic discipline, Lowell, near the close 
 of the senior year, was " rusticated," being required to 
 make his residence in Concord, there to remain until 
 Commencement Day. His father and mother were at the 
 time absent in Europe. The young man had already 
 been elected class-poet, and during his enforced stay in 
 the pleasant village where Emerson had recently settled, 
 the student-poet worked upon his production. With 
 Emerson, who was then thirty-five, Lowell now made per- 
 sonal acquaintance, walking and talking with him. One 
 of the events of his college course had been the delivery of 
 the famous Phi Beta Kappa address by Emerson at the 
 precedingCommencement in 1837, which had profoundly 
 impressed the minds of the young men who heard it.' 
 Still this independent youth, who always persisted in 
 thinking for himself, was at this time by no means a docile 
 disciple. In his class-poem he satirized the transcendent- 
 * See page 164. 
 
266 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 alists along witb the abolitionists, although before many 
 months elapsed he allied himself strenuously with both. 
 The poem, which he was unable to present in person on 
 class day, was privately printed and distributed among 
 his friends. ■' The year Lowell graduated," says Edward 
 Everett Hale, " we were as sure as we are now that in 
 him was first-rate poetical genius, and that here was to 
 be one of the leaders of the literature of the time."* 
 
 In his choice of a profession, Lowell selected the law; 
 The Law ^^^ ^^ ^^'^^ ^^^ admitted to the bar. Lowell's 
 Lit "'tnr ^^J^se received its first potent impulse in his 
 love for Maria White, the sister of one of 
 his classmates, a girl of remarkable beauty and rare 
 mental gifts, herself a poet by nature, and an enthusi- 
 ast in various humanitarian reforms. Their engagement 
 began in 1840. Before the twelvemonth ended, Lowell 
 published his first volume, a collection of poems with 
 the title A Year's Life. During the next three years 
 he wrote busily, finding a ready market for his poems 
 and sketches in leading periodicals like the Boston 
 Miscellany, the Dial, the United States Magazine, 
 and Graham's, then edited by Poe. Between Poe and 
 Lowell there was at this time an interesting correspond- 
 ence, Poe referring to Lowell's work in terms most ap- 
 preciative. Meanwhile the young lawyer had not found 
 the legal profession much to his taste ; and after three 
 years' waiting for the « First Client," of whom he wrote 
 humorously, Lowell abandoned law and elected litera- 
 ture. In January, 1843, he started a magazine of his 
 own. 
 
 The new magazine was an ambitious enterprise. The 
 first number contained contributions by Lowell, Poe, 
 Hawthorne, and Elizabeth Barrett (afterward Mrs. 
 
 1 James Bussell Lowell and his Friends, p. 40. Dr. Hale graduated 
 in 1839. 
 
THE ABOLITIONIST 257 
 
 Browning). Had it not been for a serious difficulty 
 with his eyes, which compelled him to go to tiio Liter- 
 New York for treatment, Lowell's first edito- "t i-ue- 
 rial experience might have been longer; as it was, the 
 venture came to an untimely close. With its third issue, 
 the Pioneer expired, and its editor was left eighteen 
 hundred dollars in debt. At the end of the year, Lowell 
 published a volume of Poems which included two or three 
 of marked excellence. The Shepherd of King Adme- 
 tus, An Incident in a Railway Car, and Rhmcus being 
 among the number. In December, 1844, Lowell was 
 married. For a few months thereafter, he was employed 
 in Philadelphia as an editorial writer on the Pennsyl- 
 vania Freeman, the paper edited by Whittier a few 
 years earlier. In the spring of 1845, the Lowells re- 
 turned to Cambridge. Passing through New York, 
 Lowell stopped to call upon Poe, but the visit proved 
 one of embarrassment ; he found Poe (as recorded by 
 Mrs. Clemm) " not quite himself." Life at Elmwood 
 was now delightfully idyllic, despite the limitations of 
 a small and somewhat uncertain income. Longfellow, 
 although twelve years the senior, was already a con- 
 genial friend ; and the social circle of the college 
 community was enlarged through the easy nearness of 
 Boston. The poet himself was fairly embarked on his 
 career as a man of letters, and his reputation as a writer 
 was firmly established. At the close of 1844, Lowell 
 published a volume of essays entitled Conversations 
 on Some of the Old Poets. This volume and also 
 the Poems of the previous year were republished in 
 London. 
 
 The ardor of Lowell in the political movement of these 
 pregnant years must not be overlooked, for TheAUoU- 
 it is vitally connected with an important phase *''"»'»♦• 
 of his literary work. The interest of his wife in some 
 
258 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 of the reform enterprises so numerous in the early forties 
 had enlisted the interest of the poet in these same re- 
 forms ; but definite inspiration came with the develop- 
 ment of his own democratic instincts and his own 
 humanitarian sympathies. In 1843, he became an abo- 
 litionist, and an ardent supporter of that movement 
 which had won Whittier as its champion ten years be- 
 fore. In 1843, Lowell wrote and published the Stanzas 
 on Freedom and the sonnet Wendell Phillips. The 
 Present Crisis, that superb climax of lyric eloquence, 
 came in 1845; "for twenty years the solemn monitory 
 music of this poem never ceased to reecho in public 
 halls." ' Its thrilling lines served as texts for thb leading 
 orators of the North. Phillips and Sumner quoted its 
 stanzas in their impassioned addresses. Its resonant call 
 to action was voiced with the prophetic note of authority. 
 
 " New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good nnconth ; 
 
 They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of 
 Truth; 
 
 Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires ! we ouTselves must Pilgrims be, 
 
 Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate win- 
 ter sea, 
 
 Kor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted key." 
 
 Henceforth, throughout that epoch of stormy debate, 
 the young Cambridge poet stood side by side with 
 Whittier, one of the two great champions of the cause 
 in verse. 
 
 In 1846, Lowell's genius was revealed in a new and 
 Satirist and thoroughly original vein. The Boston Cou- 
 Hnmoriat. ^-g^ began the publication of a series of 
 poems in genuine Yankee dialect, purporting to be the 
 work of one Hosea Biglow. These compositions were 
 accompanied by introductory letters, commenting on 
 the work in hand, and by editorial notes signed H. W., 
 
 * James Russell Lowell, by Ferris Greenslet. 
 
SATIRIST AND HUMORIST 259 
 
 these initials standing for the Eev. Horner Wilbur, 
 A. M., pastor of the First Church, in Jaalam, and critical 
 sponsor for his young parishioner, Hosea. The Biglow 
 Papers, as they were called when the series was collected 
 and published in 1848, present in crisp and pungent 
 satire the widely felt opposition of the North to the war 
 with Mexico. Lowell himself was moved by the convic- 
 tion that the real purpose of the war was to expand slave 
 territory, and thus voiced the protest of New England 
 against this design. The work is filled with epigram 
 and sarcasm, which of course were most effective at the 
 time which gave them their application. It is difficult 
 for us now to appreciate how effective these shafts of 
 Lowell's exuberant wit really were; but they are yet 
 recognized as the keenest examples of political satire 
 in our own literature, and among the best ever writ- 
 ten. In the same year which brought the publication of 
 The Biglow Papers, 1848, another humorous poem of 
 some length and of equal pungency appeared. This was 
 the Fable for Critics, a witty review of contemporary 
 American literature. It was in the strict sense an appre- 
 ciation of the writers of the time, in which compliment 
 is tempered with shrewd hits at their failings ; a piece 
 of good-natured fun which it is impossible to read with- 
 out a sense of the critical insight of its author. For 
 example: — 
 
 " There comes EmeTson first, whose rich words, every one, 
 Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on, 
 Whose prose is grand Terse, while his verse, the Lord knows. 
 Is some of it pr — No, 't is not even prose " — 
 
 and so on with the rest of the choir, including Lowell 
 himself. The Fable was written rapidly and without 
 thought of publication ; as the various parts were com- 
 pleted they were sent to a friend in New York. Eventu- 
 ally they were gathered and printed, as Dr. Holmes 
 
260 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 said, " capped with a percussion preface, and cocked 
 with a title-page as apropos as a wink to a joke." 
 In sharp contrast to the two works just described is 
 The Vision of Sir Launfal, composed and 
 sirLauniai. p^i^jigije^ i^ this same notable year, 1848. 
 This, the most popular and one of the most brilliant 
 of the poet's compositions, is a bold excursion into the 
 twilight land of Arthurian romance which Tennyson was 
 to make his own.' The exquisite preludes to the two 
 parts of rather slender narrative reveal Lowell's power 
 of lyric description at its best. 
 
 " And what is so rare as a day in June ? " 
 
 introduces the familiar passage which everybody recog- 
 nizes as the supreme tribute of poetry to the season of 
 perfect days, and distinguishes the singer as the poet 
 of the month. 
 
 Oftener than we are apt to remember, these years of 
 porsonai Lowell's early manhood were invaded by 
 Bxpertonoes. sorrow. In 1847, the parents lost their little 
 daughter Blanche, scarce a twelvemonth old ; three years 
 later, Eose, their third child, died in infancy. The in- 
 timate expression of the poet's grief is given in the 
 affecting lyrics She Came and Went, The Changeling, 
 and The First Snowfall. In 1850, occurred the death 
 of the poet's mother, from whom he had inherited the 
 mystical tendency so clearly felt in his serious work. 
 Her intensely imaginative mind had become disordered, 
 and for several years she had been an inmate of an 
 asylum. The cloud had rested heavily over the house- 
 hold, but bitterness was still in store. In 1852, while 
 
 1 In the preceding year (1847) Tennyson made a tonr of Cornwall, the 
 scene ot the Arthurian legends. Six years earlier he had published Sir 
 Galahad, Sir Launcetot and Queen Guinevere, and Morte d' Arthur. The 
 other Idylls came in later years. 
 
PROFESSOR AND EDITOR 261 
 
 enjoying their first trip abroad, the Lowells were again 
 bereaved in the death of Walter, their little son, as they 
 were spending the winter in Rome. Meanwhile Mrs. 
 Lowell's health was declining, and soon after the return 
 home, in 1853, the poet buried the wife of his youth. 
 His weight of sorrow is felt in Palinode, After the 
 Burial, and The Dead House. " Something broke my 
 life in two," he said later, " and I cannot piece it to- 
 gether again." 
 
 In the winter of 1854^1855, Lowell gave a course of 
 lectures on Poetry at the Lowell Institute, a t ^ ,„ , 
 course which established the poet's place as Proiessor, 
 an authority and critic of high rank. At the ^*"°'- 
 same time he was appointed to be Longfellow's suc- 
 cessor in the professorship at Harvard. A year was 
 spent in Europe preparatory to entering upon his 
 duties at the college. In 1857, coincidently with the 
 founding of the Atlantic Monthly, Mr. Lowell became 
 editor-in-chief of that most notable of American maga- 
 zines. This was also the year of his marriage to his 
 second wife, Miss Frances Dunlap, of Portland, Maine. 
 Four years later, Lowell resigned the editorial chair, 
 but in 1864 became an associate editor, with his friend 
 Charles Eliot Norton, of the Worth American Review, 
 a position which he retained ten years. To these two 
 periodicals, Lowell contributed most of his essays on 
 literary and nature subjects, including those which ap- 
 peared in the volumes Among My Boohs (two series, 
 1870, and 1876) and Jfy Study Windows (1871). Fire- 
 side Travels, a volume of reminiscent sketches, among 
 which is the delightfully humorous Cambridge Thirty 
 Years Ago, appeared in 1864. 
 
 During the years of conflict, Lowell was again moved 
 to wield the pen of satire. The second series of the 
 Biglow Papers appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, be- 
 
262 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 ginning in 1862 ; they were published collectively in 
 Tiisoivu 1867. While not so brilliant as the first 
 War. series, there were nevertheless some notable 
 
 examples of Yankee humor and patriotic feeling in 
 this group. In The CourtirC and SunihirC in the Pas- 
 toral Line, the poet exercises the homely dialect upon 
 themes remote from those of war. The farm-boy's de- 
 scription of springtime in New England is worthy to 
 stand with that famous picture of June in The Vision 
 of Sir Launfal. 
 
 " Fust come the blackbirds clatt'iin' in tall trees, 
 An' settlin' things in windy Congresses, — 
 
 Then saffern swarms swipg oS from all the willera 
 So plump they look like yaller caterpillars, 
 Then gray hossches'nuts leetle hands unfold 
 Softer 'n a baby's be at three days old: 
 Thet 's robin-redbreast's almanick ; he knows 
 Thet alter this ther 's only blossom-snows ; 
 
 'nuif aed, June's bridesman, poet o' the year, 
 
 Gladness on wings, the bobolink, is here ; 
 
 Half-hid in tip-top apple-blooms he swings, 
 
 Or climbs aginst the breeze with quiverin' wings, 
 
 Or, givin' way to 't in a mock despair, 
 
 Runs down, a brook o' laughter, thru the air." ^ 
 
 Fully in accord with the solemn and ominous spirit 
 of the time are The Washers of the Shroud, written in 
 1861, On Board the '76, written for the seventieth 
 birthday of the poet Bryant, in 1864, and the Ode Re- 
 cited at the Harvard Commemoration, July 21, 1865. 
 This last, one of Lowell's best compositions, was written 
 at white heat in two days' time, after the poet had de- 
 spaired of accomplishing anything worthy of the occa- 
 sion ; then, says he, " something gave me a jog and the 
 whole thing came out of me with a rush." ^ Although 
 not without technical defects, this sonorous Ode, which 
 
 ^ SunthM in the Pastoral Line. s Letter to R. W, Oilder. 
 
DIPLOMATIC SERVICE 263 
 
 glows with the patriotic fire so characteristic of its au- 
 thor, has come to have a recognized place among the 
 choicest compositions of American verse. The tribute to 
 Lincoln in the poem is perhaps the best ever paid to 
 the memory of the martyred President. 
 
 " Here was a, type of the tme elder race, 
 And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face." 
 
 Other poems, the accumulated compositions of these 
 years, were included in a new edition of his v«s»on 
 poems, published in 1869. A volume, entitled o*''" 
 Under the Willows, appeared in the same year 
 and also The Cathedral, the most important of Lowell's 
 subjective poems. When, in 1874, Louis Agassiz, the 
 great scientist and teacher, died, the event drew from 
 Lowell, who was then in Europe, another masterpiece, 
 the ]poem Agassiz. After the poet's return, two historic 
 anniversaries were the inspiration of two more notable 
 odes : that read at the one hundredth anniversary of the 
 fight at Concord bridge, and Under the Old Elm, on 
 the centenary of Washington's taking command of the 
 American army. An Ode for the Fourth of July, 1876, 
 completed the group published under the title Three 
 Memorial Poems, in 1876 . These three compositions con- 
 firm their author's fame as the foremost of our patri- 
 otic poets. Lowell's later compositions were collected in 
 the volume Heartsease and Rue (1888). 
 
 Like Irving, Mr. Lowell was called upon to serve 
 his country in the responsible and delicate ripiomaUo 
 position of a representative at foreign courts. Setvioe. 
 In 1877, he was appointed minister to Spain, under Pre- 
 sident Hayes. He was received in Madrid as a worthy 
 successor of the author of Knicherhocher and of Colum- 
 bus ; but Lowell found no time for literary work while 
 there. The duties of his position, though trying, he dis- 
 
264 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 charged with success, and in 1880 was transferred to 
 the English Court of St. James. Here, in the most im- 
 portant of all our diplomatic offices, Lowell was bril- 
 liantly successful. It is said that he became one of the 
 most popular men in England. The notable writers of 
 the time were all his friends. On all public occasions he 
 was a welcome guest, and an indispensable participant 
 on occasions of any literary significance. He delivered 
 addresses at the unveiling of busts of Fielding and 
 Coleridge, and was, naturally, the principal speaker 
 when the bust of Longfellow was placed in Westminster 
 Abbey. In these occasional speeches, Lowell was inevit- 
 ably happy — never more successful than in his famous 
 address on Democracy, delivered in 1884, on assuming 
 the presidency of the Birmingham and Midland Insti- 
 tute. This speech, now classic, was a clear and thoughtful 
 exposition of the American idea ; a striking interpreta- 
 tion to an English audience of our political system. If 
 the charm of Lowell's personality won the hearts of 
 Englishmen, the tact and firmness with which he con- 
 ducted the affairs of his office commanded their respect. 
 Lowell never forgot that he was an American, and no 
 one was ever more loyal to the ideals of his country; 
 nor has any of our official representatives done more to 
 cement the friendship between the two countries. 
 
 After five years' residence as minister in London, and 
 seven years since his departure for Madrid, Lowell re- 
 turned to America in 1885. He was again alone ; his 
 wife had died in England shortly before his return. 
 
 The remaining years were tinged with the melancholy 
 The Last that comes with the breaking up of old asso- 
 Aouvities. ciations and the loss of old friends. His health 
 was not robust, yet he was not inactive. He delivered 
 a number of public addresses, including a course of 
 Lowell Institute lectures in 1887 — again upon his 
 
LOWELL'S ART 265 
 
 favorite subject, Old English Dramatists. His volume 
 of poems, Heartsease and Rue, was published in 1888, 
 together with a volume of Political Essays. In 1889, 
 he delivered in New York an address upon Our Lit- 
 erature, and wrote an introduction for a new edition 
 of Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler. The summers of 
 1886, 1887, 1888, and 1889, he passed in England* 
 making his place of sojourn regularly in the ancient 
 town of Whitby, which had been a favorite resort dur- 
 ing his official term. His final task was the revision of 
 his works. The poet's home was again at Elmwood ; 
 and here the shadow fell upon him. He died August 12, 
 1891. 
 
 Lowell might, perhaps, have had a higher place 
 among the poets had he been more careful 
 in his art ; his composition is often marred by 
 haste ; he gave little time to revision, and even the more 
 important poems were put forth rapidly. But the poet 
 was a master of language and of rhythm. In the literary 
 training which helps to artistic expression, Lowell had 
 the advantage over his contemporaries except Poe and 
 Longfellow. The quality which in these two poets has 
 appealed so universally to readers abroad as well as at 
 home is apparently lacking in Lowell ; but we feel that 
 there is a masculine strength in his verse which we do 
 not find in Longfellow, and a sincerity of utterance 
 that does not appear in Poe. 
 
 A survey of Lowell's work in literature reveals the 
 versatility of his genius as well as the gen- General 
 eral excellence of his achievement. Not only snrvey. 
 is he the only American writer who has won high dis- 
 tinction in both prose and verse, — except Poe, — but in 
 both verse and prose he has touched so many keys with 
 such precision and such power, that he must be regarded 
 as distinctly the most gifted among Ameirican men of 
 
266 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 letters. He is the only notable critic who has appeared 
 on this side the Atlantic; his literary essays may even 
 outlive his verse. Through his well-known essay on 
 Dante, his name is permanently associated with the 
 critical study of the Italian poet. 
 
 In the rSle of Hosea Biglow, Lowell appears as the strong- 
 Snggostlons est of American humorists. No. 1 of the Biglow 
 loi Reading. Papers should be read with its epistolary introduc- 
 tion to understand the dramatic machinery of the satire. 
 No. 3 and No. 6 are good examples of Hosea's utterances. 
 Of the second series, The Courtin' and Sunthin' in the Pas- 
 toral Line should be read not only as illustrating the poet's 
 best achievement in the use of Yankee dialect, but also as 
 remarkable presentations of the sentimental phases of rural 
 New England life. Lowell's wit is exhibited most brilliantly 
 in the Fable fvr Critics. To appreciate this, and also some- 
 thing of his keen critical insight, read the passages portray- 
 ing Emerson, Bryant, Whittier, Cooper, Poe, Holmes, and 
 Lowell himself. The solemn strength of Lowell's patriotism 
 is felt especially in The Present Crisis and the Commemora- 
 tion Ode. Along with the portraiture of Lincoln in this Ode 
 should be read the fifth, sixth, and seventh strophes of Under 
 the Old Elm, for that other masterly description of Washing- 
 ton. As a nature poet, Lowell may be seen at his best in An 
 Indian-Summer Reverie, To a Dandelion, the preludes in 
 the Vision of Sir Launfal, Under the Willows, and Pictures 
 from, Appledore. Lowell was much freer than Longfellow in 
 the lyrical expression of his own joys and griefs. The love- 
 poems of his earliest volume tell the story of his own romance, 
 as Palinode, The Wind-Harp, After the Burial, and The 
 Dead House are the poignant memorials of his great be- 
 reavement. These poems are remarkable for the intensity and 
 frankness of their expression. Wonderfully pathetic are the 
 three poems on the death of the child : The Changeling, She 
 Came and Went, and The First Snowfall. On Board the 
 '76 (in honor of Bryant), To H. W. L., To Whittier on his 
 Seventy-fifth Birthday, and To Holmes on his Seventy- 
 
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 267 
 
 fifth Birthday are occasional poems which have a strong 
 personal interest. Of the miscellaneous poems, select the 
 sonnet To the Spirit of Keats, The Shepherd of King 
 Admetus, ColurrAus, The Vision of Sir Launfal, The Sing- 
 ing Leaves, and Turner's Old TSmSraire. 
 
 In Lowell's prose writings the student should read selec- 
 tions, at least, from Cambridge Thirty Tears Ago, My Gar- 
 den Acqtiaintance, and Democracy. Of the literary essays, 
 that upon Chaucer is particularly attractive. 
 
 The Complete Works of Lowell are published by Houghton 
 
 Mifflin Company. The Cambridge Edition con- , ,. ... 
 
 ■ • 1 T rni T I. AitnonUea. 
 
 tains the poems in a single volume. The Letters of 
 
 Lowell, edited by Charles Eliot Norton, should not be over- 
 looked ; they have a distinguished place in our literature. 
 Among biographies, that by Horace E. Scudder is standard. 
 The most recent life of Lowell, especially suggestive in the 
 critical study of his work and place in literature, is that by 
 Ferris Greenslet (1905). James Russell Lowell and his 
 Friends, by Edward Everett Hale, is a volume rich in remi- 
 niscence of the poet and his generation. T. W. Higginson, in 
 Cheerful Yesterdays, W. D. Howells, in Literary Friends 
 and Acquaintance, and J. T. Trowbridge, in My Own 
 Story, have written of Lowell. There are many noteworthy 
 essays on the poet, of which we may mention especially those 
 by Barrett "Wendell, G. W. Curtis, Henry James, G. E. 
 Woodberry, and H. W. Mabie. Stedman, Trent, Richardson, 
 and Wendell are authoritative references in criticism. 
 
 IT. OLIVEE WENDELL HOLMES: 1809-1894. 
 
 Although nearly ten years the senior of Lowell, 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes survived his younger contempo- 
 rary three years, and after Whittier's death in 1892 be- 
 came the last member of that distinguished group which 
 gave New England her preeminence in nineteenth-cen- 
 tury literature. A genial humorist in verse and prose, 
 a gracious and happy " poet of occasions," a shrewd 
 observer of the significant commonplaces of experience, 
 
268 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 and a master in the art of easy discourse upon things in 
 general, Dr. Holmes fairly holds his position in Amer- 
 ican letters, an original and conspicuous figure, while, 
 perhaps, less highly gifted than any of these poets with 
 whom he was so intimately associated. 
 
 Like Emerson and Lowell, Holmes was a typical re- 
 presentative of what he himself termed the 
 ana " Brahmin caste " of New England.' His fa- 
 
 OMWiioofl. ^jjgj,^ 3^ descendant of one of the early settlers 
 of Connecticut, was Rev. Abiel Holmes, for forty years 
 a minister in Cambridge, and an author of some note. 
 The poet's mother, Sarah Wendell Holmes, whom he 
 closely resembled in slightness of figure and vivacity of 
 spirits, was a lineal descendant of Governor Bradstreet 
 and his wife, Anne, best remembered for her poetical 
 gifts and celebrated in her generation as the Tenth 
 Muse.* His great-grandmother was the Dorothy Quincy 
 whose portrait is so charmingly presented in the poem 
 Dorothy Q. Wendell Phillips was his cousin. 
 
 The poet was born at Cambridge, August 29, 1809, 
 in a picturesque gambrel-roofed house on the edge of 
 the Harvard campus.^ His earliest literary explorations 
 were, like those of Lowell, associated with his father's 
 study, where, as he says, he " bumped about among 
 books," from the time when he was hardly taller than 
 one of his father's folios. 
 
 When ten years old, Wendell was placed in a school 
 Eflno H where Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and Marga- 
 ret Fuller were also pupils. Five years later, 
 as it was in the mind of Rev. Abiel Holmes that his son 
 should become a minister, the boy was sent to Andover 
 to take his preparatory course in Phillips Academy, 
 under the sober influences which dominated that ortho- 
 
 * Elsie Venner, chap. i. 2 ggg page 35. 
 
 * Described in The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, first paper. 
 
EARLY PRODUCTIONS 269 
 
 dox community.* Holmes remained but a year at the 
 Academy, however, and returned to Cambridge to enter 
 Harvard College in 1825, becoming a member of the 
 famous class of 1829,^ for whose successive anniversa- 
 ries some of his most notable poems were composed. 
 
 After graduation, Holmes decided upon the legal pro- 
 fession and entered the Harvard Law School. E„iy 
 It was at this period that he published his PwdnoUom, 
 earliest verse. The first of his poems to attract attention 
 was Old Ironsides (1830). This spirited lyric was in- 
 spired by the announcement that the frigate Constitu- 
 tion, then lying in the navy yard at Charlestown, was 
 to be dismantled and broken up. Hastily writing the 
 ringing lines which so effectively stirred the patriotic 
 feelings of the nation, the young law student sent his 
 verses to the editor of the Boston Advertiser, from 
 whose columns they were immediately copied far and 
 wide. The astonished Secretary of the Navy recalled 
 his order; the "tattered ensign," figuratively speak- 
 ing, was not torn down.' A year after Old Ironsides, 
 Holmes wrote The Last Leaf, one of his finest poems, 
 which with its exquisite blending of humor and pathos 
 still remains our choicest example of what is technically 
 called " society verse." Nearly all the other poetry of 
 this period is broadly humorous, and includes The Ballad 
 of the Oyster-Man, The Height of the Hidiculous, My 
 Aunt,a,nd The Comet. In 1831, also, he wrote for the iVew 
 
 1 Dr. Holmes gives an account of his school-days in the essay Cinders 
 from the Ashes (Pages from an Old Volume of Life). 
 
 ' The class of 1829 incladed an unusual numher of men who became 
 prominent in all the professions. Two, whose names are more widely 
 known than those of the others, were James Freeman Clarke, the cele- 
 brated Boston preacher, and Samuel F. Smith, author of America. 
 
 ' In 1834, the historic ship was rebuilt and continued in commission 
 until 1881. Since 1897, she has been lying again at her old anchorage 
 at Charlestown, once more rebuilt, and, so far as possible, restored to 
 her original appearance. 
 
270 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 England Magazine two papers entitled TTie Autocrat 
 of the Breakfast- Table, forerunners of the admirable 
 series resumed twenty-six years later in the Atlantic 
 Monthly. Thus at twenty-three, Oliver Wendell Holmes 
 had already entered the fields of literary effort in which 
 he was to win such happy success, and had duly regis- 
 tered his claim. 
 
 In 1832, Holmes turned from law to medicine, and 
 Medioina *^® ^®^* ^^^^ went abroail to study his pro- 
 fession. He remained in Europe, for the most 
 part in Paris, between two and three years, but re- 
 ceived his degree from the Harvard Medical School in 
 1836 ; at the same commencement he read before the 
 Phi Beta Kappa society the poem entitled Poetry, a 
 Metrical Essay. Dr. Holmes began the practice of 
 medicine in Boston, but was called in 1889 to the pro- 
 fessorship of anatomy in Dartmouth College. Eesign- 
 ing this position after a year's service, he returned 
 to Boston in 1840, the year of his marriage to Miss 
 Amelia Jackson. In 1847, he was appointed professor of 
 anatomy and physiology at Harvard, a position which he 
 filled actively for thirty-five years — a conscientious 
 and successful instructor, characteristically enlivening 
 his class-room with the brightness of his own high 
 spirits. He wrote frequently upon professional topics 
 and produced some noted medical essays. 
 
 Two volumes of Poems had appeared previous to 
 literature 1850, but, with the exception of the composi- 
 ^^^ tions already mentioned, nothing of especial 
 distinction had been published. In 1857, however, the 
 Atlantic Monthly began its brilliant course, and Dr. 
 Holmes became forthwith a conspicuous figure in the 
 literary life of America. It was, indeed, upon condition 
 that Holmes should be engaged as the "first contrib- 
 utor" that Lowell accepted the editorship of the new 
 
THE AUTOCRAT 271 
 
 magazine. And accordingly the first number of the 
 Atlantic — a name happily chosen by Dr, Holmes him- 
 self — contained the first installment of that work 
 which is most closely associated with its author's liter- 
 ary f anye, — the new Autocrat of the Breakfast- Table. 
 Dr. Holmes was forty-eight years old when the spark- 
 ling pages of the Autocrat began to appear, i^^g ^^tg. 
 Beginning whimsically with the sentence, " I '^'*•• 
 was just going to say, when I was interrupted," the 
 speaker resumed the thread of genial comment which 
 had been dropped a quarter of a century before. The 
 scene of colloquy is at the breakfast-table in a typical 
 Boston boarding-house. The " characters " who com- 
 prise the company are lightly sketched : the landlady's 
 sentimental daughter who is wont to receive the state- 
 ments of the speaker with a rising " yes ?" the ingen- 
 ious youth " B. F.," the divinity student, the professor, 
 the " old gentleman who sits opposite," the little school- 
 mistress, and the Autocrat himself — who presides so 
 wisely and talks to such excellent effect. There is, too, a 
 tiny romance, as a relish ; but the charm of the volume 
 is in the conversation, which is simple and familiar, 
 never commonplace. Shrewd observations, witty com- 
 ment, happily turned epigrams, pithy phrases, bits of 
 wisdom, passages of fantastic humor blend inimitably. 
 Sometimes it is an odd comparison that provokes a 
 smile — as when the difficulty of " winding-up " a poem 
 suggests the analogy to a diffident caller who finds it 
 hard to get out of a room after the visit is really over : — 
 
 " They want to be off, and you want to have them off, but 
 they don't know how to manage it. One would think they 
 had been built in your parlor or study, and were waiting to be 
 launched." 
 Or this : — 
 
 "Writing or printing is like shooting with ari£e; yon may 
 
272 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 hit your reader's mind, or miss it ; but talking is like playing 
 at a mark with the pipe of an engine ; if it is within reach, and 
 you have time enough, you can't help hitting it." 
 
 Here, too, Holmes introduced some of his best-known 
 verse. Contentment, Parson TurelVs Legaxyy, and the 
 never-to-be-forgotten narrative of The Deacon's Master- 
 piece ; or. The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay, are among 
 the humorous poems presented in the Autocrat. It is 
 not always understood that this last-mentioned classic 
 is something of an allegory ; the famous vehicle of an- 
 cient pattern which went to pieces all at once, — 
 
 " First of November, 'Fifty-five " 
 
 All at once, and nothing^ first, — 
 
 Just as bubbles do when they burst," — 
 
 reaUy typifies, in the narrator's mind, the old Calvin- 
 istic theology against which he tilts in many a breezy 
 phrase. It was David Holmes, the poet's grandfather, 
 a captain in the French and Indian wars, who built the 
 " One-Hoss Shay." In the pages of this same volume 
 also, we find the poet's choicest lyrics : The Voiceless, 
 The Living Temple, and The Chambered Nautilus. 
 
 The success of the Autocrat was so great that a new 
 series of essays under the title The Professor at the 
 Breakfast-Tahle was given to the Atlantic in 1858- 
 1859, and published in book form in 1860. The Poet at 
 the BreaTcfast-Talile was completed in 1872. 
 
 A volume of miscellaneous papers, contributions to 
 the magazines, appeared in 1863 with the title Sound- 
 ings from the Atlantic. With other papers it included 
 the interesting narrative My Hunt after " The Cap- 
 tain," the author's account of his experiences during 
 the search for his son who had been seriously wounded 
 in one of the great battles of the war. 
 
HOLMES'S NOVELS 273 
 
 In 1861, Dr. Holmes made his first experiment in 
 fiction, with a romantic novel, JElsie Venner, 
 which was followed by a second in similar vein, 
 The Guardian Angel, in 1867. Nearly twenty years 
 afterward, he wrote a third novel, A Mortal Antipathy, 
 which was published in 1885. Of these the first two are 
 the best. They are cleverly written and abound in the 
 qualities so characteristic of the Autocrat ; but they are 
 the physiological studies of a physician rather than the 
 narratives of an ordinary novelist. Both deal with the 
 subject of prenatal influence and the relation of inher- 
 ited tendencies to the conduct of individuals and their 
 moral responsibility. 
 
 Dr. Holmes was the author of two notable biographies, 
 a life of the historian Motley (1878), and a 
 delightful memoir of Emerson (1884), whose °^' 
 philosophy had had a commanding influence in the in- 
 tellectual development of Holmes himself. 
 
 The life of Oliver Wendell Holmes was as placid 
 and unclouded as the current of his own a Pleasant 
 vivacious humor. His pleasant home was for ^"*- 
 many years in what was then the aristocratic residence 
 district of Boston, on Beacon Street, overlooking the 
 Common and almost in the shadow of the historic State 
 House, which the Autocrat declares to be, in the 
 minds of all true Bostonians, " the hub of the solar 
 system." At the monthly dinners of the Saturday Club 
 Holmes was the liveliest of that brilliant company. 
 Indeed, " The Club " was his especial pride. Sadly he 
 wrote to Lowell, in 1883 : — 
 
 " I go to the Saturday Club quite regularly, but the com- 
 pany is more of ghosts than of flesh and blood for me. I 
 carry a stranger there now and then, introduce him to the 
 members who happen to be there, and then say : There at 
 that end used to sit Agassiz ; here at this end Longfellow ; 
 
274 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 Emerson used to be there, and Lowell often next him ; on such 
 an occasion Hawthorne was with us, at another time Mot- 
 ley, and Sumner, and smaller constellations, — nebulae if you 
 will, but luminous more or less in the provincial firmament." 
 
 His poem At the Saturday Club (1884) is a noble 
 tribute to this galaxy of friends. There are few events in 
 the poet's later life that call for record. In 1879, a com- 
 plimentary breakfast in honor of the Autocrat's seven- 
 tieth birthday was given him by the publishers of the 
 Atlantic MmitMy. Together with his daughter, he vis- 
 ited Europe in the summer of 1886, — just fifty years 
 after his student days in Paris. The major part of this 
 later visit was in England, where he was heartily wel- 
 comed and royally entertained. Honorary degrees were 
 conferred upon him by the universities of Cambridge, 
 Edinburgh, and Oxford. At Oxford, the ceremonial 
 dignity of the occasion was unexpectedly enlivened by 
 the inquiry of a vociferous undergraduate in the gallery, 
 " Did he come in the One-Hoss Shay ? " at which, says 
 Dr. Holmes, " there was a hearty laugh, joined in as 
 heartily by myself." * The volume Our Hundred Days 
 in Europe (1887) contains the interesting record of 
 these experiences, and is as characteristic of the author 
 in its modesty as in its lively humor. 
 
 The reappearance of the essayist in 1890 with a new 
 ovei the volume, appropriately entitled Over the Tea- 
 Teaonps. cups, was hailed with delight by the readers 
 who had sat with the Autocrat at breakfast a genera- 
 tion before. The writer was eighty-one years old ; but 
 the old-time shrewdness of expression, the homely di- 
 rectness of speech, and the mirthful spirit, always tem- 
 pered by charity and good will, had not been blunted 
 by age. It is the Dictator, now, who presides at the 
 table; there is an appreciative tinkling of the tea- 
 1 Our Hundred Days in Europe, p. 88. 
 
B 
 
276 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 spoons, as he discourses after the manner of past days. 
 Who but Oliver Wendell Holmes would have linked 
 the Salem witches to these new-fangled cars, and sent 
 them scudding from end to end of JiSsex County over 
 the inter-urban tracks ? The Broomstick Train belongs 
 with his best humorous poems. 
 
 It is inevitable that Dr. Holmes should live in the 
 memory of readers as the Autocrat ; yet it was 
 as a poet that he was ambitious of recognition. 
 His best humorous narratives, The Deacon's Master- 
 piece, Parson TurelVs Legacy, How the Old Horse 
 Won the Bet, and The Broomstick Train, are classics 
 of their kind. As the poet of occasions — notably in 
 the annual gatherings of his college class — Holmes is 
 without a peer. In The Boys (1859) and Bill and Joe 
 (1868) we have the class poet at his best. His patriotic 
 verse is not to be forgotten. The note struck in the thrill- 
 ing lines of Old Ironsides is heard in the war-time poems. 
 Union and Liberty (1861) and Voyage of the Good 
 Ship Union (1862) ; and again in Grandmother's Story 
 of Bunker-Hill Battle (1875). The strong religious 
 feeling of the poet finds expression in a number of hymns 
 which have a cherished place in the hearts of believers. 
 The Hymn of Trust, A Sun-Day Hymn (" Lord of 
 all being! throned afar"), and the Parting Hymn 
 ("Father of Mercies, Heavenly Friend") are the 
 most familiar. But after all, there are comparatively 
 few of Holmes's serious compositions that reach the 
 high standards of imaginative poetry ; and of these it 
 is The Chamhered Nautilus which holds the favored 
 place among the best-known and best-loved American 
 poems. The later volumes of his verse were published 
 as follows: Songs in Many Keys (1861), Humorous 
 Poems (1865), Songs of Many Seasons (1874), The 
 Iron Gate (1880), and Before the Curfew (1888). 
 
THE LAST LEAF 277 
 
 " And if I should live to be 
 The last leaf upon the tiee 
 In the spring," — 
 
 Holmes had written at twenty-two or twenty-three. Nei- 
 ther Whittier nor Longfellow had been heard The Last 
 from then. Poe's early poems, and Bryant's, ''*^' 
 of course, were being read. Lowell had not entered 
 college. The author of The, Last Leaf saw the flight 
 of all. He paid his tribute of respect to the patriarch 
 of American poets, on Bryant's seventieth birthday 
 (1864), and thirteen years later wrote in happy phrase 
 his greeting For Whittier's Seventieth Birthday. The 
 Iron Gate marked his own arrival at the milepost of 
 threescore and ten. It was for the Autocrat to pay lov- 
 ing tribute to the memory of Longfellow and of Emer- 
 son in well-known passages of At the Saturday Club 
 (1884), and then, in 1891, to lament the death of Lowell 
 in the most tender of all these personal poems : — 
 
 " Thou shouldst have awag the swan-song for the choir 
 That filled our groves with music till the day 
 Lit the last hill-top with its leddening fire, 
 And evening listened for th; lingering lay." 
 
 In the year following, Whittier died; and of him the 
 surviving poet sang: — 
 
 " Best loved and aaintliest of our singing train, 
 Earth's noblest tributes to thy name belong ; 
 A lifelong record closed without a stain, 
 A blameless memory shrined in deathless song." 
 
 Finally, two years later, October 7, 1894, Holmes, too, 
 passed away — last of the 
 
 " choir 
 ' That filled our groves with music," 
 
 in that long golden age of our national literature. 
 
278 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 
 
 It will not be necessary to specify regarding the selection 
 of material for reading in either the verse or prose 
 Authorltios. ^^ Holies. The Complete Works are published in 
 fourteen volumes by Houghton Mifflin Company. The Cam- 
 bridge Edition of the Poems is in one volume. The Life and 
 Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes (2 vols.) by John T. Morse, 
 Jr., is the standard biography. Mrs. Annie Fields, in Authws 
 and Friends, T. W. Higginson, in Old Camhridge, and J. T. 
 Trowbridge, in My Own Story (1904), have written of the 
 Autocrat. The usual authorities on American literature may 
 be read in general criticism 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT OF 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 I. The Historians. 
 II. Orators and Statesmen. 
 III. The Writers of Pennsylvania and New York. 
 IV. Novelists and Humorists. 
 v. Poetry South and North. 
 
 The period in our literary history which produced 
 our most distinguished writers in prose and verse has 
 not yet been fully described. Contemporary with these 
 — the popular classics of our literature — there were 
 many authors of lesser rank whose names belong in the 
 record of our literary development. Some of these may 
 be designated as the minor essayists, novelists, and poets 
 of their generation, while some are our foremost repre- 
 sentatives in other fields of literary effort as yet not 
 touched upon. 
 
 I. THE HISTORIANS. 
 
 First in this enumeration are the historical writers — 
 who constitute an important group among the authors 
 of the century. The most brilliant of the number were 
 Prescott, Motley, and Parkman. These three men were 
 thoroughly representative of the traditional New Eng- 
 land aristocracy of culture. They were all residents of 
 Boston and graduates of Harvard College. A peculiar 
 coincidence is found in the fact that both Prescott and 
 Parkman suffered from the affliction of partial blind- 
 ness, and that it was only in spite of extraordinary diffi- 
 
280 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 culty, by the exercise of consummate patieuce, that each 
 was successful in his achievement. 
 
 William Hickling Prescott was born in Salem ; but 
 his parents removed to Boston when the boy 
 FiesGott, was twelve years of age, and placed their son in 
 1796-1859. jjj^jyarj[ College as a Sophomore, in 1811. 
 It was in his junior year that the accident occurred which 
 caused his loss of vision. A crust of bread thrown in the 
 dining-hall by a fellow student struck his eyeball, and 
 the sight of the left eye was destroyed. Intervals of 
 complete blindness fell upon him, and the fear of losing 
 his sight altogether never left him. 
 
 Prescott's literary career was the result of a youthful 
 Hjg ambition. " I had early conceived," he says. 
 
 Ambition, "a passion for historical writing, to which, 
 perhaps, the reading of Gibbon's Autobiography con- 
 tributed not a little. I proposed to make myself an his- 
 torian in the best sense of the word." It was, however, 
 after long deliberation that he settled upon a romantic 
 period in Spanish history as his theme. Happily Pres- 
 cott's means were ample ; the physical difficulties in his 
 situation could hardly have been overcome otherwise. 
 
 The story of this effort is heroical enough. When 
 The Task oculists assured him that the sight of the re- 
 maining eye would be impaired if not de- 
 stroyed by literary labor, he refused to retreat. Calmly 
 he determined that even should sight fail, while hearing 
 remained his literary ambition should be realized. Dic- 
 tation he found impossible. He invented a mechanical 
 device for guiding his pencil over the paper, and em- 
 ployed readers to copy the manuscript he wished to con- 
 sult. There were long interruptions in the work. We 
 read in his journal entries like these : " The last fort- 
 night I have not read or written, in all, five minutes." 
 " If I could only have some use of my eyes ! " "I use 
 
THE HISTORIANS 281 
 
 my eyes ten minutes at a time, for an hour a day. So 
 I snail it along." 
 
 For ten years, Presoott labored over his first volume, 
 The History of Ferdinand and Isabella, con- ^j^^ 
 scientiously examining all accessible sources. Aohiave- 
 The work, which was published in 1837, met ™™'" 
 with immediate success in this country and abroad. It 
 was at once translated into five European languages, 
 and its author was welcomed to the fellowship of the 
 distinguished historians in England, Germany, and 
 France. The Conquest of Mexico followed in 1843, The 
 Conquest of Peru in 1847. A history of the reign of 
 Philip II was undertaken, but only three of the six 
 volumes proposed were finished, the third appearing 
 in 1858. Prescott died in January of the following 
 year. 
 
 Although to a certain extent discredited as authori- 
 tative upon historical fact, these works possess high 
 literary value. They read like romance ; their style is 
 pictorial and vivid. Prescott was the successor of Irving 
 in the romantic field of Spanish history. Irving himself, 
 indeed, had meditated a history of the conquest of 
 Mexico, had collected material therefor in Spain, and 
 was actually engaged upon the work; but when he 
 learned of Prescott's design, he quietly withdrew from 
 the field and placed his material in the hands of the 
 younger man. A few years later Prescott in turn per- 
 formed a similar act of kindness in resigning to Motley 
 an important part of the field naturally included in any 
 account of the reign of Philip II. 
 
 Dorchester, now a part of Boston, was the birthplace 
 of John Lothrop Motley. After graduation j j_ jj^,. 
 from Harvard in 1831, he spent two years ley, 1814- 
 as a student at the universities of Berlin and 
 Gottingen, forming an intimate acquaintance with Bis- 
 
282 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 marck, his fellow student, the future chancellor of Ger- 
 many. Motley's literary career began inauspiciously 
 with the publication of an unsuccessful novel, MortmCs 
 Hope (1839) ; and this was followed ten years later by 
 a colonial romance, Merry Mount (1849). 
 
 After a brief period of residence in St. Petersburg 
 Historical as a secretary of legation (1841-1842), he re- 
 stiuues. turned to America and soon became interested 
 in historical themes. A series of articles contributed 
 to the North American Review attracted general no- 
 tice. In 1850, he became absorbed in his study of the 
 Protestant struggle in Holland against the tyranny of 
 Philip II. Motley had not, like Prescott, determined 
 to be an historian and then searched for a theme. " My 
 subject had taken me up, drawn me on, and absorbed 
 me into itself," he wrote ; " it was necessary for me, it 
 seemed, to write the book I had been thinking much of, 
 even if it were destined to fall dead from the press, and 
 I had no inclination or interest to write any other." ' 
 After receiving the hearty approval and encourage- 
 ment of the older historian. Motley set himself at the 
 task. 
 
 Searching the archives of Europe and counting his 
 The Dutoii labor a joy, — so filled with enthusiasm was he 
 RepuMio. Qyg J ijjg theme, — Motley completed the major 
 portion of his work in 1856. The Rise of the Dutch 
 Republic was received, as Prescott's volumes had been, 
 with universal applause. The History of the United 
 Netherlands was published, the first two volumes in 
 1860, the last two in 1868. The Life of John of Barne- 
 veld (1874) was preliminary to the final work of the 
 series, a history of the Thirty Years' War ; but this 
 work was never written. 
 
 ^ Letter to Prescott's brother-in-law, written at Rome, in 1859, on 
 hearing of Prescott's death. 
 
THE HISTORIANS 283 
 
 Much of Motley's life was spent abroad. Besides his 
 early service as secretary at St. Petersburg, Diplomatic 
 he held two important appointments. He was service, 
 minister to Austria during the Civil War period, and 
 was appointed by President Grant minister to England 
 in 1869. His recall, however, — for which no satisfac- 
 tory reason has ever been given, — came in 1870. After 
 the publication of John of Banieoeld, in 1874, a year 
 marked also by domestic sorrow in the loss of his wife, 
 Motley undertook no further literary work. He died in 
 England in 1877, and was buried just outside London. 
 
 Motley's works are characterized, like those of his 
 predecessor, by the dramatic quality of the narrative 
 and by eloquence of style. His intense sympathy with 
 the oppressed and gallant Hollanders in their struggle 
 for independence, and his hearty admiration for their 
 great hero, William the Silent, permitted him to take 
 no impartial ground. He writes as an acknowledged 
 partisan, and in this respect his historical method is 
 rather the method of the past than of the present. 
 
 Francis Parkman, the youngest of the group, and 
 thoroughly modern in his method of investi- j., Paikmsn, 
 gation and presentation, was of Boston birth. 1823-1893. 
 His father was a clergyman ; his grandfather, a pros- 
 perous merchant, had established the family fortunes 
 upon a basis which gave the family financial inde- 
 pendence. A love of outdoor life was early bred in the 
 boy, whose health was delicate and who was on that 
 account allowed unusual freedom. He lived much in 
 the open air and conducted youthful explorations in 
 the surrounding woods. 
 
 During his student days at Harvard, Parkman was 
 seized with the desire to write the history of 
 the French and Indian War, and he deter- 
 mined to study the life of the Indian at first hand. 
 
284 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Two years after graduation, he started from St. Louis, 
 in 1846, upon the emigrant trail for the Dakota 
 country. The summer that followed was replete with 
 adventure, and productive of hardship from the effects 
 of which the historian never recovered. But Parkman 
 had lived among trappers and Indians; he had tra- 
 versed the plains, hunted the buffalo, dwelt for weeks in 
 the lodges of a tribe of Sioux, and gained by rough ex- 
 perience the knowledge that he sought. The narrative 
 of his adventure is told in a fascinating volume, The 
 California and Oregon Trail (1849). 
 The Conspiracy of Pontiac (1851) was the first of 
 Parkman's historical volumes to appear, al- 
 
 Frfljicfi 111 
 
 the New though it describes the culmination rather 
 ^""' than the opening of the epoch which he 
 chronicles. It was fourteen years before his Pioneers 
 of France in the New World (1865) really began the 
 story of the struggle between France and England for the 
 possession of America. The Jesuits in North America 
 in the Seventeenth Century (1867), La Salle ; or the 
 Discovery of the Great West (1869), The Old Pegime 
 (1874), Count Frontenac and New France under 
 Louis X7F(1877), Montcalm and Wolfe (1884), and 
 a supplementary volume, A Half Century of Conflict 
 (1892), constitute the impressive series of his works. 
 Parkman's style does not fall below that of Prescott in 
 picturesqueness and realism. His accuracy may be 
 safely assumed. Copyists were constantly at work for 
 him over manuscript records of the past, and he him- 
 self visited Europe five times to gather material. The 
 localities he described were usually traversed in person. 
 The difficulties which Parkman overcame in the ac- 
 complishment of his purpose were strikingly 
 similar to those which had confronted the 
 historian of Ferdinand and Isabella. With vision sadly 
 
THE HISTORIANS , 285 
 
 impaired by some obscure trouble of the brain which 
 affected also the action of the heart and the control of 
 the limbs, he was terribly handicapped. His working 
 time was frequently reduced to less than half an hour 
 a day and there were long periods of utter helplessness. 
 He was noted for his cheerful, sunny disposition. At 
 his pleasant home on the shore of Jamaica Pond, he 
 found recreation in the culture of roses, a pursuit of 
 which he was extremely fond. He published a Booh of 
 Hoses in 1866 ; for two years he held the chair of horti- 
 culture in Harvard. 
 
 With this record of our more famous literary histo- 
 rians there should be some account of those 
 who have dealt most effectively with the theme oi tia 
 of our national life. The most notable of these "***""■■ 
 writers is George Bancroft (1800-1891), another Mas- 
 sachusetts scholar, who after graduation from Harvard 
 studied at Gottingen and there received his doctor's de- 
 gree in 1820. For a time he conducted a private school in 
 Boston. The first volume of his History of the United 
 States was published in 1834, the second in 1837. The 
 author was then drawn into political life and served 
 successively as collector of the port of Boston, Secre- 
 tary of the Navy, minister to England, minister to 
 Prussia, and then to Germany. The volumes of his his- 
 tory appeared at intervals until the tenth, in 1874, 
 brought the narrative down to the close of the Revolu- 
 tion. Two later volumes (1882) were added to include 
 the formation of the Constitution. In 1885, the histo- 
 rian completed a revision of his work, which condensed 
 the narrative within the limits of six volumes. Bancroft's 
 History has always been recognized as a work of value, 
 although it does not hold a place in literature with those 
 of Parkman, Motley, and Prescott. Its author was a 
 stanch Democrat, and this political bias is obvious in 
 
286 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 the work. Eichard Hildreth (1807-1865), also a citi- 
 zen of Massachusetts, and a Whig, produced a History 
 of the United States (1849-1852) in six volumes ; it 
 does not measure up to the standard of Bancroft's work. 
 A scholarly History of New England (1858) by John 
 Gorham Palfrey (1796-1881), and two noteworthy 
 volumes dealing with the history of Louisiana (1861- 
 1852) by Charles ifetienne Gayarr^ (1805-1895) may 
 well be mentioned here, although local rather than 
 national in scope. The youngest, and not the least im- 
 portant among recent historical writers in this field is 
 John Fiske (1842-1901), a brilliant and popular essay- 
 ist upon philosophical and religious themes, whose first 
 historical study. The Critical Period of American His- 
 tory, appeared in 1888, Jared Sparks (1789-1866) 
 was a pioneer in the field of national biography. Sparks 
 was a Unitarian clergyman, a professor of history at 
 Harvard, and president of that college. He wrote the 
 lives of Washington and Franklin and edited their writ- 
 ings : the Washington, in 1834-1838, the Franklin, in 
 1836-1840. He also edited a great Library of American 
 Biography in twenty-five volumes which was completed 
 in 1848. 
 
 The student is referred to the William HicJcling Prescott, 
 by RoUo Oeden, and the Francis Parkman, by 
 
 AutkoriUBS. ' T^ c J . , . .. ^ • nr ^T i 
 
 Henry D. Sedgwick, in the American Men of Let- 
 ters Series. The Life of Motley, by his close friend, Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes, is the best available biography at present. 
 
 II. OKATOKS AND STATESMEN. 
 
 Among the men conspicuous in public life, who by 
 reason of their argumentative skill and the power of 
 their eloquence were the nation's leaders during the 
 critical years of the century, the first to be mentioned is 
 
J 
 
288 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Daniel "Webster. No more commanding personality has 
 
 ever moved among American statesman. His 
 
 weistor, portrait — after those of Washington and Lin- 
 
 1782-1852. jjqJjj — jg ^.jjg jj^Qgj familiar of those in our 
 
 national gallery. So impressive was he in presence, so 
 leonine in feature, that his personal appearance struck 
 every listener with awe. " That amorphous, crag-like 
 face ; the dull black eyes under the precipice of brows, 
 like dull anthracite furnaces needing only to be hlown ; 
 the mastiff mouth, accurately closed " — this is the way 
 in which Carlyle described his picture. He was an acute 
 reasoner as well as an eloquent speaker. His famous ar- 
 guments in the Dartmouth College case (1818) and in 
 the White murder case at Salem (1830) are models of 
 logical structure. His orations at the two hundredth 
 anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims (1820), at 
 the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monu- 
 ment (1825), and at the completion of the monument 
 (1843) are noted examples of his eloquence. It was his 
 self-appointed task to guard the integrity of the Con- 
 stitution ; and it was this idea which inspired the best 
 known of all his great addresses, the Reply to Hayne, 
 delivered in the United States Senate in 1830. It was 
 his devotion to the Union and the preservation of na- 
 tional unity which led to his support of compromise 
 measures when the separation of South and North 
 seemed imminent ; and it was this which brought forth 
 the speech on the seventh of March, 1850, — the speech 
 which aroused the indignation of the anti-slavery party 
 in New England and drew from Whittier that scathing 
 utterance of disappointment and grief, the poem Icha- 
 hod. Webster was born at Salisbury, New 
 Hampshire. He studied at Phillips Academy, 
 then recently founded at Exeter, and was graduated 
 from Dartmouth College in 1801. He practiced law in 
 
ORATORS AND STATESMEN 289 
 
 Portsmouth and served for a term as a representative 
 of New Hampshire in Congress. In 1816, he removed 
 to Boston, again went to Congress, and then entered 
 the Senate in 1827. He was Secretary of State (1841- 
 1843), and returned to the Senate in 1845. His home was 
 at Marshfield, Massachusetts, at the time of his death. 
 Representing the South in the arena of political de- 
 bate were John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) and j,^ ^^_ 
 Henry Clay (1777-1852) ; while the names sentative 
 of Rufus Choate (1799-1859) and Edward state™'"- 
 Everett (1794-1865) are joined with that of "Webster, 
 as representative of the eloquence of New England. 
 Foremost among the orators developed by anti-slavery 
 sentiment in the North were "Wendell Phillips (1811- 
 1884) and Charles Sumner (1813-1887). The eloquent 
 voice of Henry Ward Beecher (1818-1887) was raised 
 in the same cause. Nor should the names of Stephen 
 A. Douglas (1818-1861) and Abraham Lincoln (1809- 
 1865) be omitted from this list. In a dramatic series of 
 public debates conducted in 1858 upon the prairies of 
 Illinois, Lincoln and Douglas contended over the great 
 issue of the time, — the institution of slavery and the 
 momentous national problem to which it had given rise. 
 "While nominally a campaign for the Illinois senatorship, 
 this remarkable discussion between the rival candidates 
 — Douglas, the national leader of the Democratic party, 
 and Lincoln, the candidate of the recently organized 
 Republicans — aroused the interest of the entire coun- 
 try. Mr. Douglas was elected to the Senate; but the 
 contest made Lincoln, two years later, the logical can- 
 didate of the Republican party for the presidency of 
 the United States. It is not necessary here to discuss 
 the genius of Abraham Lincoln. His lowly 
 origin, his primitive suiToundings, the scanty 
 education, the unique personality, the lofty spirit in the 
 
290 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 awkward, almost grotesque frame, are all parts of a 
 familiar story. He was yet another in the group of so- 
 called self-made men in whom genius has triumphed 
 over circumstances. It should not be forgotten that the 
 opponent of the highly trained, debonair Douglas had 
 had his forensic training during twenty years of practice 
 before the Illinois bar, and that he was regarded as the 
 best jury lawyer in the state ; nor that the author of the 
 speech at Gettysburg had steeped his mind in youth 
 with the English of Shakespeare and the Bible — almost 
 his only text-books. Academic traditions were unknown 
 to Lincoln. His oratory was simple, keen, direct; his 
 eloquence was unadorned by the arts of rhetoric ; but 
 his inaugural addresses and that delivered at the dedi- 
 cation of the Gettysburg memorial betray the highest 
 qualities of head and heart. They are among the 
 choicest of our American classics. 
 
 III. WRITERS OF NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 For some time, our attention has been centred for 
 the most part in the work of our New England writers ; 
 but we must not think that the literary activity of this 
 long period was confined to the immediate vicinity of 
 Boston. The cities of Philadelphia and New York had 
 each its coterie of literary workers. In the rapidly 
 growing metropolis, the generation following that of 
 Irving and his associates of the Knickerbocker group 
 was not without its representatives, of greater or less 
 distinction, among whom at least two. Bayard Taylor 
 and George William Curtis, deserve especial recogni- 
 tion. Both were men of letters in the broadest sense, 
 versatile in talent and giving expression to that talent 
 in varied literary forms. 
 
 Taylor was born in a Quaker household upon a Penn- 
 sylvania farm, and as a child was conscious of two 
 
NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA 291 
 
 ambitions : to travel and to become a poet. His liter- 
 ary ambition was gratified prematurely by 
 the publication of a volume of verse, 2j,mena, Taylor, 
 — afterward regretted, — in 1844. In the """""■ 
 same year, his twentieth, he sailed for England, having 
 arranged with several editors to print the letters which 
 he purposed to write while on his travels. For nearly two 
 years, he tramped about over Europe enduring much 
 hardship ; his letters were published in 1846, under the 
 title of Views Afoot, or Europe seen with the Knap- 
 sack and Staff. An editorial connection with the New 
 York Tribune followed ; and in 1849, Taylor was sent 
 to California to report upon the fortunes of the gold- 
 seekers. The next year his letters to the Tribune ap- 
 peared in the volume Eldorado. A trip to the far East 
 in 1851 resulted not only in more correspondence but 
 also in a volume of verse, Poems of the Orient (1854), 
 containing some of his best compositions, including the 
 Bedouin Song. Bayard Taylor's fame as a traveler 
 and an entertaining descriptive writer was extended by 
 successive volumes recounting his experiences in Africa, 
 in Spain, in India, China, and Japan, and in the north- 
 ern countries of Europe. But he was ambitious to fill 
 a higher place in literature. 
 
 In 1863, he produced his first novel, Hannah Thur- 
 ston, and the next year, his second, John jfovoisana 
 Godfrey's Fortunes, which is to some extent P"on»s- 
 autobiographical. The Story of Kennett (1866), a 
 semi-historical romance, is his most successful work 
 of fiction. A long and elaborate narrative poem. The 
 Picture of St. John (1866), was followed by The 
 Masque of the Gods (1872), and Lars : a Pastoral 
 of Norway (1873). Other volumes of verse were pub- 
 lished in the latter years of his life, including The 
 National Ode, written for the Centennial at Philadel- 
 
292 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 phia in 1876 ; but no one of Taylor's original efforts 
 resulted in any enduring success. He wrote tirelessly 
 and unceasingly, yet without that inspiration which 
 gives immortality to the works of genius. His one 
 achievement which will most certainly endure is the 
 translation of Goethe's Faust, the two parts of which 
 were published in 1870 and 1871. This altogether ad- 
 mirable version of the German poet's masterpiece ranks 
 with Bryant's Homer and Longfellow's Dante, if it does 
 not surpass them in this delicately difficult field of 
 poetical translation. 
 
 But a portion of Taylor's literary labor is recorded 
 here ; he was an indefatigable worker, and his health 
 broke down under the steady strain. In 1878, he was 
 appointed minister to Germany ; and it seemed pe- 
 culiarly appropriate that the translator of Germany's 
 great classic should be thus honored. His appointment 
 was universally approved, for the poet was widely re- 
 spected and, in the circle of his literary associates, 
 greatly beloved. He was welcomed at Berlin, as Irving 
 had been at the court of Spain ; but his diplomatic 
 career was pathetically brief. Death came upon him sud- 
 denly while sitting in his library at the German capital 
 in December of the year of his appointment. 
 
 The boyhood of George William Curtis was spent in 
 0. w. Curtis, Providence, Khode Island, but his family re- 
 1824-1892. moved to New York when he was fifteen years 
 old. He was still in his teens when he, with an older 
 brother, entered the Brook Farm community at about 
 the time that Hawthorne joined it. Three or four 
 years of foreign travel, including a visit to Egypt and 
 Syria, resulted in two volumes of description and im- 
 pression: Nile Notes of a Howadji (1851) and The 
 Howadji in Syria (1852). Lotus Eating (1852) pre- 
 sents another series of travel sketches. In The Potiphar 
 
NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA 293 
 
 Papers (1853) he satirized some tendencies in New- 
 York society. 
 
 During the decade just preceding the Civil War, 
 Curtis participated not only as a writer but 
 also as a public speaker in the great debate 
 on slavery, and laid the foundation of his later fame as 
 one of the most forceful and graceful of American ora- 
 tors — a reputation maintained to the end of his career. 
 
 In 1856, Curtis published a charming little work of 
 light and delicate sentiment entitled Prue d, notion 
 and I, a work which was exceedingly popu- ""* Essay, 
 lar at the time, and which retains its popularity still. 
 Trumps, an experiment in novel writing, appeared in 
 1861. The chief claim of Curtis to literary distinction, 
 however, is as an essayist. For nearly fifty years he was 
 associated editorially with Harper's Magazine, and 
 throughout that period contributed regularly those de- 
 lightful papers — essays in miniature — which we asso- 
 ciate with the department so sympathetically named "the 
 Easy Chair." Something of the Addisonian flavor, with 
 more of the spirit of Charles Lamb, is to be recognized 
 in these vivacious contributions of comment, criticism, 
 and reminiscence. Nevertheless, Curtis was as much a 
 master of a style distinctly his own as was the author 
 of the Autocrat. Three volumes of selections from 
 these papers have been published, some of the essays 
 appearing in an expanded form. Two volumes of Ora- 
 tions and Addresses have also appeared, including the 
 eulogies on Wendell Phillips and James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Josiah Gilbert Holland was a Massachusetts physician 
 when he left his professional practice and, like , _ _ , 
 Taylor and Curtis, entered journalism in New iana,i8i9- 
 York. Over the pen-name Timothy Titcomb, ^'^^' 
 Dr. Holland, while editor of the Springfield (Mass.) 
 Republican, wrote a series of familiar essays, letters of 
 
294 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 wholesome counsel, which were received with favor in 
 book form under the title Timothy Titcomb's Letters 
 (1858). The publication of two volumes of verse, The 
 Bay Path (1857) and Bitter- Sweet (1858), gave 
 him a place among the "popular poets," which was re- 
 inforced by the appearance of JTathrina, a sentimental 
 romance in metre, in 1867. Dr. Holland's claims to lit- 
 erary distinction are not especially strong, but his novels, 
 Miss Gilbert's Career (1860), Arthur Bonnicastle 
 (1873), Sevenoaks (1875), and J^icholas Minturn 
 (1877), were widely read. In 1870, he became the editor 
 of the new Scribner's Magazine (which in 1881 changed 
 its name to the Century^. 
 
 Dbnald Grant Mitchell, a member of this same in- 
 "ntMai- teresting group of genial essayists who long 
 ▼•1." survived the rest, is the author of two delight- 
 
 ■ f ul books which, like Curtis's T'rue and I, still 
 retain a popularity hardly diminished by the lapse of a 
 generation. Reveries of a Bachelor was published in 
 1850, Dream Life in 1851. The same charm of style 
 and matter pervades My Farm of Edgewood (1863) 
 and Wet Days at Edgewood (1864) ; nor is it lacking 
 in the volumes of literary anecdote, English Lands, 
 Letters, and Kings (1889) and American Lands and 
 Letters (1897-1899). 
 
 Charles Dudley Warner, whose delightful sketch- 
 D War- ^^^^i ^V Summer in a Garden (1870), 
 1161,1829- suggests comparison with the "Edgewood" 
 books, was born in Massachusetts. For many 
 years he was a member of the famous literary coterie 
 in Hartford, Connecticut, his professional duties — he 
 was also a journalist — associating him with the New 
 York group. His pleasant volume of Backlog Studies 
 appeared in 1872. In collaboration with Samuel L. 
 Clemens ("Mark Twain"), he wrote The Gilded Age 
 
NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA 296 
 
 (1873). Two volumes of travel sketches, My Winter 
 on the Nile and In the Levant, were published in 1876. 
 Being a Boy, a picturesque presentation of youth on 
 a New England farm, belongs to the year following. 
 Warner was the author of numerous volumes, includ- 
 ing a Life of Washington Irving (1881) and two 
 realistic novels, efEective studies of New York society, 
 A Little Journey in the World (1889) and The 
 Golden House (1894). 
 
 Richard Henry Stoddard, whose early years were years 
 of poverty, was toiling in an iron foundry when uioj,„a g 
 he began his poetical career in New York. A sioidaid, 
 friendship with Bayard Taylor led to the pub- 
 lication of his first poems and to much literary work. 
 From 1859 to 1870, Mr. Stoddard was employed in 
 the New York custom-house, a position obtained with 
 the friendly assistance of Hawthorne. From that time 
 on, he was engaged in editorial work and held a high 
 place among our minor poets. An autobiographic vol- 
 ume of Mecollections (1903) is not the least interest- 
 ing of his prose works. The poet's wife, Elizabeth B, 
 Stoddard (1823-1902), was also a writer of verse and 
 the author of three noteworthy novels. The Morgesons 
 (1862), Two Men (1865), and Temple House (1867). 
 
 A Philadelphia writer, George Henry Boker (1823- 
 1890), represents substantial attainment in the field of 
 dramatic poetry. His successful tragedy, Francesca da 
 Rimini (1856), is possibly the best of several which 
 embody that romantic theme. Thomas Buchanan Read 
 (1822-1872), like Boker a Pennsylvanian and a friend 
 of Taylor and the Stoddards, was also an artist as well 
 as poet. Of all his verse the battle lyric, Sheridan's 
 Hide (1865), is the poem inevitably associated with 
 his name. 
 
 By far the most interesting and important figure 
 
296 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 among the New York writers of this generation is that 
 Walt presented in the picturesque personality of 
 
 wtitman, Walt Whitman. Strictly speaking, he was 
 1818-1892. ^^^ g^ much a member as one outside the 
 literary circle just described. A man of rich vitality, 
 lustily greeting life in all its phases, emphasizing, per- 
 haps needlessly, the physical side of life, Whitman 
 strode forth on his course, violating the conventionalities 
 at every step. Not only in what he had to say as a poet 
 was Whitman unconventional ; he was unconventional 
 also in the manner of saying. He violated the estab- 
 lished rules of poetical expression as boldly and as con- 
 fidently as he disregarded the ordinary rule of silence 
 concerning the topics which he discussed with such amaz- 
 ing frankness. He was an innovator, a representative of 
 new ideas. In the literary history of our country he 
 stands unique. At once the target of criticism, he per- 
 severed in the delivery of what he certainly believed a 
 " message "; and now, half a century and more since the 
 publication of his earliest volume, he still stands a some- 
 what problematical personality. In the minds of many 
 he appears a man of undoubted genius, Ossianic, ele- 
 mental, impressive ; to some he is the teacher of new- 
 found truths, the prophet and the poet of democracy. 
 Walt Whitman was born on a farm on Long Island. 
 His father was a descendant of pioneer New 
 England stock; his mother*s ancestry was 
 Dutch. While Whitman was a child, his parents re- 
 moved to Brooklyn, where his father practiced the trade 
 of carpenter and builder. The boy was educated but 
 scantily in the public schools, and entered a printer's 
 office at thirteen. He was not continuously employed ; 
 he found time to roam the moors and beaches of Long 
 Island in close touch with nature and delighting in the 
 sea ; he also found time to read much good literature, 
 
NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA 297 
 
 the Arabian Hlghts, Scott, Shakespeare, Ossian, the 
 hero-poetry of the Germans, and translations of the 
 Greek dramatists and poets. There was a strange fit- 
 ness in it — this abrupt, haphazard introduction to 
 the masterpieces of literature. Dante he read in the 
 shadows of a wood ; Homer he learned by heart in the 
 shelter of great rocks, listening to the roar of the surf. 
 At fifteen, he one day notices a ship under full sail, and 
 has the desire to describe it like a poet. At eighteen, 
 he teaches a country school. At twenty, he starts a weekly 
 paper in his birthplace, then edits in leisurely fashion 
 a daily paper in New York. He writes romances and 
 verse of the conventional sort for a magazine, rides on 
 the Broadway omnibuses and makes stanch friends with 
 the drivers, is welcomed in the pilot-houses of the ferry- 
 boats that ply on East River, frequents the Bowery, 
 and is a conspicuous figure among the Bohemians who 
 gather in Pfaff's restaurant. At twenty-eight, he is ed- 
 itor of the Bi-ooklyn Eagle, and then suddenly takes to 
 the " open road " to see the country and get near the peo- 
 ple. This " leisurely journey and working expedition," 
 as Whitman termed it, takes him through the Middle 
 States and down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Or- 
 leans, where for a time he works in a newspaper office. 
 Retracing his steps in part, he visits the Great Lakes, 
 sees Niagara, and crosses into Canada, finally returning 
 through Central New York and down the Hudson. 
 
 In 1855, appeared the first edition of Whitman's 
 poems, entitled Leaves of Grass, a title which Leaves ot 
 was used by the poet with each subsequent ^^^^ 
 issue until the eighth edition, in 1892. This first volume 
 was perhaps more widely talked about than widely read. 
 To most of those who did read it, it was both mystify- 
 ing and repellent. Not only did they find here a start- 
 ling freedom of speech which shocked them and an 
 
298 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 apparent egotism that amazed, but they found also a 
 form of expression that bade defiance to every principle 
 of constructive art. 
 
 " I celetrate myself, and sing mysalf," 
 
 chanted the poet ; * 
 
 " And what I assume yon shall assume, 
 For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to yon. 
 
 " I loaf e and invite my soul, 
 I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. 
 
 " A child said What is the grass ? fetching it to me with full hands ; 
 How could I answer the child ? I do not know what it is any more than 
 he. 
 
 " I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff 
 woven. 
 
 " Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, 
 A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt, 
 Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see 
 and remark, and say Whose f 
 
 " Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegeta- 
 tion. 
 
 " And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves." 
 
 This indeed seemed anarchy rather than art, and 
 it is not surprising that a new generation of readers 
 was born before the real significance of this strange 
 verse began to be clear. Yet Emerson recognized the 
 strength of originality in the " message " and wrote 
 Whitman a friendly and appreciative letter, which, with 
 very poor taste, Walt included in the next edition of 
 his poems. In time it became evident that the Song of • 
 Myself was to be interpreted as typical and universal 
 rather than egotistic, and that the spirit of Walt Whit- 
 man's poetry was democratic rather than personal, 
 1 Song of Myself . 
 
NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA 299 
 
 The peculiar verse-form Whitman persistently main- 
 tained. It represents his revolt from artifi- wMtmon's 
 ciality. It was premeditated and, indeed, ac- '^"'*- 
 quired with some effort. Of his compositions in this first 
 volume, he said : " I had great trouble in leaving out 
 the stock 'poetical' touches, but succeeded at last."^ 
 Rhyme and metre were abolished — but not melody or 
 rhythm. The device of the " catalogue " became his 
 favorite method of suggestion, often picturesque, often 
 musical, but often, too, unorganized and bewildering. 
 In later years Whitman's poetry became less turgid 
 and, at times, even symmetrical. The objectionable free- 
 doms of the early work disappeared entirely and the 
 poetical quality grew more tangible. 
 
 The Civil War stirred Whitman mightily. The spirit 
 of his verse during this period attains a dig- tio Poafs 
 nity and strength that is notable ; but this is WarHeoori 
 not all. A brother who had enlisted was wounded ; and 
 late in 1862, WaJt went to Washington to nurse him. 
 For the next two years the poet gave himself wholly 
 to the hospitals. The service which he then performed, 
 sometimes in the camps, sometimes on the field, can 
 hardly be described. Stalwart, health-breathing, sym- 
 pathetic, he assisted the surgeons, dressed the wounds, 
 spoke tender encouragement to the suffering, scattered 
 his simple little gifts among the sick, took the last 
 message, and held the dying soldier in his arms.^ His 
 own superb health finally broke. In Drum-Taps (1865) 
 are included some of his finest compositions, notably 
 the vivid descriptive poems Cavalry Crossing a Ford, 
 Bivouac on a Mountain-side, An Army Corps on the 
 March, and By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame, pictures 
 intense in their realism. The death of Lincoln inspired 
 two poems which command universal admiration : When 
 1 Notes and Fragments. ^ Read The Wound-Dresser. 
 
300 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Lilacs Last in the Doaryard Bloom' daxiA O Captain I 
 My Captain ! This last poem is in rhymed stanzas, and 
 shows Whitman's poetical power at its best. 
 
 The sea is the subject of many fine passages in these 
 ^jjg strange compositions. A Paumanoh Picture, 
 
 strongtii oi Patroling Barnegat, With Husky-Haughty 
 "*■ Lips, 0>S'ea, may be cited as examples, this last 
 especially a marvel of descriptive power. To the poems of 
 this interesting group, many as impressively suggestive 
 could easily be added. The bird-songs in Out of the 
 Cradle Endlessly Rocking and When Lilacs Last 
 in the Dooryard Bloomed are remarkable lyrics. To 
 the Man-of- War-Bird is another poem easily to be ap- 
 preciated. A picture dramatic in spirit and singularly 
 vivid, is that descriptive of the old mariner's passing, 
 in Old Salt Kossahone. 
 
 " Far back, related on my mother's aide, 
 Old Salt Kossabone, I '11 tell you how he died ; 
 
 (Had been a sailor all his life — was nearly 90 — lived with his mar- 
 ried grandchild, Jenny ; 
 Honse on a hill, with view of bay at hand, and distant cape, and 
 
 stretch to open sea ;) 
 The last of afternoons, the evening honra, for many a year his regular 
 
 custom, 
 In his great arm chair by the window seated, 
 (Sometimes, indeed, through half the day,) 
 Watching the coming, going of the vessels, he mutters to himself. — 
 
 And now the close of all : 
 One struggling outbound brig, one day, ba£3ed for long — cross-tides 
 
 and much wrong going, 
 At last at nightfall strikes the breeze aright, her whole luck veering, 
 And swiftly bending round the cape, the darkness proudly entering, 
 
 cleaving, as he watches, 
 'She's free — she's on her destination" — these the last words — 
 
 when Jenny came, he sat there dead, 
 Dutch Kossabone, Old Salt, related on my mother's side, far back." 
 
 More and more, as one learns to read Whitman, — 
 and the reading should be aloud, — his strength grows 
 upon the reader. The eccentricity, the uncouth forms, 
 
NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA 301 
 
 the jargon of names and words, disturb him less. In 
 some degree he must respond to the pervading spirit 
 of comradeship, of sympathy — boundless, indiscrimi- 
 nate. All mankind is brother and sister ; everything in 
 nature is wholesome and divine. 
 
 " He says indifferently and alike Sow are you friend f to the President 
 at his leyee, 
 And he says Good-day my brother, to Cudge that lives in the sugar-field, 
 And both understand him and know that his speech is right." ^ 
 
 This is certainly the spirit of democracy speaking. 
 The question is. Is it poetry ? 
 
 In 1873, a stroke of paralysis incapacitated the poet, 
 and Whitman, who had held a clerkship in 
 Washington, removed to Camden, New Jersey, 
 where his later life was spent. Here he lived in compar- 
 ative poverty, but-with the companionship of a few in- 
 timate friends, and with the knowledge of a growing 
 body of disciples who cared more for their master's 
 teaching than about his style of utterance. Tributes of 
 recognition from Great Britain and the Continent grat- 
 ified him. He began to be regarded by some enthusiasts 
 as an oracle, and the poet seemed not averse to the role. 
 Specimen Days and Collect, autobiographical data in 
 prose, was published in 1882. A new collection of verse, 
 November Boughs, appeared in 1888. The seventieth 
 birthday of the poet was marked by greetings from all 
 parts of the world. A new edition of Leaves of Grass 
 was issued, together with the new poems collected under 
 the title Sands at Seventy. A final volume, Good-bye 
 my Fancy (1891), contained his last poems. Whitman 
 died March 26, 1892. 
 
 The influence of Whitman has not yet been notice- 
 able in American verse ; but meanwhile the circle of ap- 
 preciative readers has been constantly increasing, even 
 ' Sony of the Answerer. 
 
302 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 outside the so-called Whitman cult. An intelligent read- 
 ing of Whitman is wholesome and invigorating. As to 
 his place among poets, that is a matter yet to be deter- 
 mined. 
 
 Concerning Walt Whitman and his work there is a super- 
 abundance of material. The best recent biography, 
 Beleiences. . , . . .,. . ... ■ ii. 
 
 with a satisfactory criticism ot nis verse, is tne 
 
 Life of Walt Whitman, by Bliss Perry. See also Walt 
 Whitman by George E. Carpenter, in the English Men of 
 Letters Series. A good short sketch of the poet is the volume 
 in the Beacon Biographies, by I. H. Piatt. The study of 
 Whitman in Trent's American Literature is impartial and 
 admirable. The volume of Selections from the Prose and 
 Poetry of Walt Whitman, edited by 0. L. Triggs, and Se- 
 lected Poems by Walt Whitman, edited by Arthur Stedman 
 (in Fiction, Fact, and Fancy Series), may prove more profit- 
 able as an introduction to the poet than an edition of his 
 complete works. 
 
 IV. NOVELISTS AND HUMORISTS. 
 
 Writers of fiction were numerous during the first half 
 Southern of the century, in the South as well as in the 
 Romanoers. Jforth. While Cooper and Poe were the only 
 ones who attained eminence in this field, there was no 
 lack of story-telling, and in several instances a wide 
 local reputation was built upon the success of a single 
 book. The influence of Cooper is strongly felt in the 
 work of three Southern novelists, Kennedy, Bird, and 
 Simms, of whom the last-named deserves a wider fame. 
 John P. Kennedy (1795-1870), a native of Baltimore 
 and a successful lawyer who represented his state in 
 Congress and was also Secretary of the Navy under 
 President Fillmore, is chiefly remembered as the author 
 of Horse-Shoe Rohinson (1835), his best work ; a cap- 
 ital romance of the Revolution in the South. The 
 Indian novel, Nick of the Woods (1837), constitutes the 
 
NOVELISTS AND HUMORISTS 303 
 
 principal claim of Dr. Eobert M. Bird (1803-1854) to 
 recognition in this group. He was, however, the author 
 of several romances dealing with the Spanish Conquest 
 of Mexico, and also of two or three plays, among which 
 The Gladiator holds the principal place. 
 
 William Gilmore Simms is, next to Poe, the most re- 
 presentative and most talented among the writ- ^ ^ 
 ers of the South previous to the Civil War. simms, 
 He was born in Charleston, South Carolina. 
 As his family belonged to the poorer class, he received 
 little in the way of formal education, but exhibited 
 unusual energy in literary pursuits. At twenty-three, 
 Simms had already published three volumes of youthful 
 verse. His first novel, Martin Faber (1833), reflects 
 the influence of Charles Brockden Browne ; but Guy 
 Rivers (1834) was the first of a series of border ro- 
 mances in which the influence of Cooper is plainly seen. 
 In 1835, Simms published The Partisan, one of his best 
 stories, a vivid and entertaining narrative of the parti- 
 san warfare conducted in the South during the Eevolu- 
 tionary struggle. InMellichampe (1836), ThelRnsmen 
 (1841), and Kntharine Walton (1851), he continued 
 the story of the characters thus introduced. His histori- 
 cal tales were as numerous as those of Cooper, and con- 
 tinued to appear down to the period of the Civil War. 
 Although defective in technical construction and by no 
 means comparable to Cooper's best novels, they never- 
 theless constitute a remarkable collection and are not 
 unworthy the attention of the modern reader. A volu- 
 minous writer, Simms was the author of biographies, 
 plays, and poems, in addition to the long list of ro- 
 mances, only the most important of which have been 
 named. 
 
 A follower of Simms was John Esten Cooke (1830- 
 1886), whose novels. The Virginia Comedians (1854), 
 
304 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 and Fairfax (1868), are representative of this author's 
 work in the same historical field. 
 
 Eev. William Ware (1797-1852), a Massachusetts 
 ricuon In clergyman, was the author of three sober nar- 
 tie North, ratives dealing with the persecution of the 
 Christians at Rome. To some fextent Zenobia (1837), 
 Aurelian (1838), and Julian (1841) still maintain 
 their place among popular religious romances. Rev. 
 Sylvester Judd (1813-1853) is more dimly remem- 
 bered as the author of a transcendental romance, Mar- 
 garet (1845), which was admired by Lowell for its de- 
 scription of humble rural life. The fiction of adventure 
 is represented at its best in the novels of Herman Mel- 
 ville (1819-1891), a native of New York city. His own 
 experiences on land and sea supplied the material of 
 his most successful books, Typee (1846), Omoo (1847), 
 and Moby Dick, or the White Whale (1851). Melville 
 was, moreover, master of a brilliant style which gave 
 his writings a distinction still retained. The tales of 
 Catherine M. Sedgwick (1789-1867) employed an his- 
 torical background; of these Hope Leslie, or Early 
 Times in Massachusetts (1827), and Tlie Linwoods, or 
 Sixty Years Since in America (1835), were especially 
 admired. Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880), whose phi- 
 lanthropic spirit brought her prominently into the anti- 
 slavery agitation, began her modest literary career with 
 the publication of two historical novels: Hobomoh 
 (1824), which depicted life in the colony at Salem, and 
 The Rebels (1825), the scene of which is laid in Boston 
 just previous to the Revolution. 
 
 One of the famous novels of its time — and still reck- 
 ReaUatio oned a classic by lovers of sentimental fic- 
 "o"''"- tion— was that tearful work The Wide, Wide 
 World (1850), written by Susan Warner (1819-1885). 
 Queechy followed in 1852. The Lamplighter (1854), 
 
NOVELISTS AND HUMORISTS 305 
 
 by Maria S. Cummins, was another example of the sen- 
 timental novel, which enjoyed widespread popularity. 
 But while these works of fiction had a large contemporary 
 fame, they were altogether eclipsed by the production of 
 another New England woman — the most widely read 
 and best known of all American novels, Uncle TomUs 
 Cabin, which was published in 1852. 
 
 Harriet Beecher, one year older than her famous bro- 
 ther, Henry Ward, was the daughter of Rev. g^^^jj, ^ 
 Lyman Beecher, who was settled in the little stows, 
 town of Litchfield, Connecticut, when Harriet ^^^ ~^^ 
 was born. She was a precocious child intellectually and 
 emotionally. A part of her early life was spent in Cin- 
 cinnati, whither, in 1832, her father had been called to 
 become the president of a theological seminary. Here 
 Harriet Beecher was married to Dr. Stowe in 1836. 
 During this period of residence in the Ohio city, she 
 visited friends in Kentucky and gained her knowledge 
 of slavery, as she observed the institution there. In 1850, 
 the Stowes removed to Brunswick, Maine, Dr. Stowe 
 having been called to a professorship in Bowdoin Col- 
 lege ; and it was here that she wrote her novel. Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin appeared first as a serial in the National 
 Era, the anti-slavery organ at Washington, with which 
 Whittier was at one time associated. The history of this 
 book is unique in American literature. It has been 
 translated into more than forty languages. It was dram- 
 atized immediately, and still makes its melodramatic 
 appeal from the stage — to a larger audience than any 
 other single play. Although severely handled by modern 
 critics with reference both to its portrayal of slavery as 
 an institution and to its artistic defects, the strong pa- 
 thos of the novel and its humanitarian spirit appear to 
 insure its literary immortality. It has been well said of 
 Uncle TorrCs Cabin that " a book that stirs the world 
 
306 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 and is instrumental in bringing on a civil war and free- 
 ing an enslaved race may well elicit the admiration 
 of a more sophisticated generation.'" Mrs. Stowe's 
 next novel, Dred, a Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp 
 (1856), was also a story about slavery. In 1858, she 
 began in the Atlantic Monthly a realistic story of colo- 
 nial life, The Minister's Wooing. The Pearl of Orr's 
 Island appeared in 1862. The novel, Agnes of Sor- 
 rento, published the same year, was the fruit of a 
 European trip. For many readers, Mrs. Stowe's most 
 attractive work appears in Oldtown Folks (1869), a 
 realistic study of the quaint and wholesome New Eng- 
 land character as she had known it intimately in child- 
 hood as well as in later life. After 1863, the Stowes 
 lived in Hartford. The husband died in 1886 ; Mrs. 
 Stowe survived, an invalid, until 1896. 
 
 The quality of humor has been already noted in 
 American connection with the work of more than one 
 Humor. American writer. The homely wit of Frank- 
 lin gives a distinct coloring to his pages. Irving, not 
 only in the robust mirthfulness of the Knickerbocker 
 History, but also in the delightful pages of his sev- 
 eral sketch-books, appears as a humorist of genial type. 
 Lowell and Holmes have conspicuous places among the 
 exponents of American humor ; and there are scores of 
 minor writers whose gifts in this field have not been 
 concealed. 
 
 The political humorist has long been in evidence. 
 The Poutioai " Major Jack Downing " was the character 
 Humorists, assumed in the days of President Jackson by 
 a young journalist of Portland, Maine, a graduate of 
 Bowdoin College, Seba Smith (1792-1868). The war 
 with Mexico later inspired his pen. The Civil War 
 brought out several journalistic humorists, among whom 
 * See Trent's American Literature, p. 504. 
 
NOVELISTS AND HUMORISTS 307 
 
 one, Eobert Henry Newell (1836-1901), of New York, 
 wrote under the name of " Orpheus C. Kerr" ; and an- 
 other, David Ross Locke (1833-1888), an Ohio editor, 
 figured as "Kev. Petroleum V. Nasby." His book 
 Swingin' round the Cirkle (1866) was immensely pop- 
 ular throughout the North. 
 
 Representative of a broader field and not connected 
 with politics are the comic characters " Widow pMiosopiir 
 Bedott," the creation of Mrs. Frances Whitcher *"* ^'™"- 
 (1812-1852), and the oft-quoted " Mrs. Partington " of 
 Benjamin P. ShiUaber (1814-1890), whose Life and 
 Sayings of Mrs. Partington appeared in 1854. Henry 
 W. Shaw (1818-1885), "Josh Billings," and Charles 
 F. Browne (1884-1867), "Artemus Ward," are the real 
 leaders in this group of humorous professionals. Both 
 appeared as entertainers on the public platform, as well 
 as in the columns of the newspapers. In 1866, Browne 
 visited England, where his lecture on The Mormons 
 created as much merriment as it had occasioned in the 
 United States. His complete writings were published 
 in 1875. Shaw's humorous philosophy was embodied 
 chiefly in Josh Billings' Farmer's Allminax, his absurd 
 system of spelling contributing to the fun. 
 
 Of those who have written humorously in verse, we 
 may mention John Godfrey Saxe (1816- 
 1887), whose humor mingling with sentiment 
 is inferior to that of Thomas Hood, which it otherwise 
 resembles, and Charles Godfrey Leland (1824-1903), 
 of Philadelphia, author of the Hans Breitmann Bal- 
 lads, published complete in 1871. 
 
 Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born near Hannibal, 
 Missouri, a distinctly western product, has ,.j_ ^ 
 come to hold the foremost place among Amer- Twain," 
 ican humorists, although his distinction as a '"'"'^^'^• 
 man of letters is by no means limited to this single field. 
 
308 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 His humor is broad and virile, often edged with satire. 
 Reverence for tradition is not one of his traits ; the 
 role of the iconoclast is one which he assumes with vigor 
 and with zest. After an apprenticeship in a newspaper 
 office, beginning at twelve years of age, and a brief ca- 
 reer as pilot on the Mississippi packets (it was the call 
 of the leadsman as he reported his soundings which 
 supplied the peculiar pen-name), Mr. Clemens went to 
 Nevada, where for a time he filled the post of territorial 
 secretary. Later, in San Francisco, he again took up 
 newspaper work, and here made his first literary success 
 with the story of The Celebrated Jumping Frog, which, 
 at the suggestion of Bret Harte, he published in The 
 Californian, a short-lived literary journal, in 1867. His 
 first book, Innocents Abroad (1869), was the humorous 
 record of a trip through Europe ; it brought immediate 
 fame. Houghing It (1872) was based upon early ex- 
 periences in the far West. The Gilded Age (1873), 
 written in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner, 
 introduced the noteworthy character " Col. Sellers," 
 with his sanguine temperament and his famous declara- 
 tion " There 's millions in it ! " Tom Sawyer appeared 
 in 1876, — a remarkable study of boy character, and re- 
 miniscent of the author's youth. Another European trip 
 resulted in A Tramp Abroad (1880). Mr. Clemens 
 then entered a province new to him and surprised his 
 readers with The Prince and the Pauper (1882), a 
 charmingly written romance for children. Life on the 
 Mississippi (1883) was followed by another strong 
 story of boy-life amid rude surroun,dings, Huckleberry 
 Finn (1884). The broad burlesque, A Connecticut 
 Yankee in King Arthur's Court, appeared in 1889. A 
 serious novel, Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and a his- 
 torical romance seriouslyconceived, JoanofArc (1896), 
 have increased the literary reputation of the author. 
 
NOVELISTS AND HUMORISTS 309 
 
 Numerous short stories, not altogether in the humorous 
 vein, have continued to appear along with occasional 
 volumes of the type represented in the early works. 
 Chapters of a leisurely Autobiography are now appear- 
 ing characteristically enlivened with the old-time humor, 
 mellowed but unimpaired by age. 
 
 The early work of Francis Bret Harte, in verse at 
 least, was largely humorous. His first success srst Harts, 
 was as a humorist. Born in Albany, New 1839-1902. 
 York, Harte's school training came to an end with his 
 father's death in 1854, and the fifteen-year-old boy, who 
 had already become a lover of Charles Dickens, and had 
 also published in a New York newspaper some immature 
 verse of his own, went with his mother to the Pacific 
 coast. The first few years of his life in California 
 brought him little except experience and intimate ac- 
 quaintance with the picturesque characters that later 
 figured to such advantage in his poems and tales. He 
 was a school teacher at Sonora, in Calaveras County ; he 
 tried placer mining in the gold-fields ; he was a messen- 
 ger in the employ of the Wells-Fargo Express Company ; 
 finally he became a compositor on a San Francisco paper, 
 and began to write sketches for the Golden Era. In 
 1861, while holding an appointment as secretary to the 
 superintendent of the San Francisco Mint, Harte be- 
 came the editor of the newly founded Overland MontMy ; 
 and in the second number of that publication appeared 
 his first noteworthy tale. The Luck of Moaring Camp. 
 Then followed The Outcasts of Poker Flat, Tennes- 
 see's Partner, and the other narratives which contain 
 his inimitable portraitures of the primitive western 
 civilization. A little later, he wrote the first and best 
 of his dialect poems, Plain Language from Truthful 
 James, or, as it was afterwards entitled. The Heathen 
 Chinee. 
 
310 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 In 1870, Bret Harte left California. The popularity 
 of his stories and poems was unbounded, especially 
 throughout the East, and in England. His subsequent 
 career was a disappointment. Such literary work as he 
 undertook was desultory and either an imitation of his 
 earlier efforts, or something inferior. He was given, in 
 1878, a minor German consulate and two years later 
 was transferred to Glasgow. Of this office he was re- 
 lieved in 1885. He continued to live in England and 
 published numerous volumes which did not increase his 
 fame. He died at the home of friends in Surrey, in 1902. 
 
 V. POETET, SOUTH AND NORTH. 
 
 Among the minor poets whose songs have found recog- 
 Kinor nition and whose names deserve some record 
 Vsrse. ju tijg history of our literature, the following 
 at least should be included. William W. Story (1819- 
 1895), the friend of Hawthorne and Lowell, was born 
 in Salem. He resided for the larger part of his life in 
 Italy, and attained considerable rank as a sculptor. He 
 was a poet of more than ordinary gifts, and an author 
 of several volumes, prose as well as verse, including the 
 well-known Moba di Roma, or Walhs and Talks about 
 Home (1862). Thomas William Parsons (1819-1892), 
 born at Boston, is more widely known as a translator 
 of Dante than as an original poet, although his lines 
 On a Bust of Dante are greatly admired by scholars. 
 Dr. Parsons, who was a dental surgeon, practiced his 
 profession abroad, and it was during his residence in 
 Italy that his interest in the Italian poet was aroused. 
 His translation ranks with the best American render- 
 ings of the Commedia, although it is not complete. His 
 version of the Inferno appeared in 1867 ; portions of 
 the Purgatorio and Paradiso were published in 1893. 
 Christopher Pearse Cranch (1813-1892), an artist living 
 
POETKY, SOUTH AND NORTH 311 
 
 in Cambridge, a member of the transcendental group, 
 published a translation of Virgil's ^neid in 1872. The 
 modest verse of Alice and Phoebe Gary (Alice, 1820- 
 1871; Phoebe, 1824-1871), serious in sentiment, often 
 religious, was widely read. The Gary sisters were na- 
 tives of Ohio, but in 1852 removed to New York. Mrs. 
 Julia Ward Howe (1819- ), a well-known lecturer 
 and leader in various reform movements, has written sev- 
 eral volumes of verse, but will be remembered chiefly as 
 the author of a great war-poem, The Battle Hymn of 
 the Republic. Lucy Larcom (1826-1893), whose early 
 songs, written while she was a worker in the mills at 
 Lowell, attracted the notice of "Whittier, and Mrs. Gelia 
 Laighton Thaxter (1836-1894), daughter of the light- 
 house-keeper on the Isles of Shoals, were, like Mrs. 
 Howe, typical New England women who found their 
 inspiration in subjects and activities close at hand. The 
 names of Mrs. Harriet Prescott Spofford (1835- ) 
 and Mrs. Louise Ghandler Moulton (1835-1908) should 
 be included in this list of our minor poets of recognized 
 worth. A larger distinction attends the literary career 
 of Mrs. Helen Fiske Jackson (1831-^1885), before her 
 second marriage Helen Hunt, whose signature " H. H." 
 was familiar to the readers of a generation ago. Mrs. 
 Jackson was born at Amherst, Massachusetts. Her 
 poems, issued in 1870, placed her at the head of the 
 women writers of verse in America. The last ten years 
 of Mrs. Jackson's life were spent in Colorado and Cal- 
 ifornia. Her interest in the Indians and her intense 
 sympathy with them in their wrongs led to the publica- 
 tion of her Century of Dishonor (1881), a book which 
 bore fruit in the official appointment of Mrs. Jackson 
 as special examiner to the mission Indians in California ; 
 and eventually in her striking novel, Bamona (1884). 
 A group of rather remarkable short stories by " Saxe 
 
312 GENEEAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Holm," published in two series (1873, 1878), although 
 unacknowledged, are usually attributed to Helen Hunt 
 Jackson. The poems of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) 
 are remarkable productions, which have commanded 
 recognition by our highest literary critics. Miss Dickin- 
 son was a townswoman of Helen Fiske, and her life was 
 spent at Amherst largely in seclusion. Only a few inti- 
 mate friends were aware of her poetical gift, and her 
 verses were not published until 1890, four years after her 
 death. John Hay (1838-1905), distinguished as a diplo- 
 matist and statesman, was born in Indiana. He began 
 the practice of law in Illinois in 1861, and became the 
 private secretary of President Lincoln. In collaboration 
 with John G. Nicolay he afterward wrote the authori- 
 tative Abraham Lincoln : A History (1886-1890) ; 
 his literary fame, however, is based upon a slender vol- 
 ume of L'ike County Ballads (1871), which, strong in 
 local color, portray the rough virtues of the Mississippi 
 Valley in the early days. There is a finer quality of 
 elegance and grace — with less originality — in the later 
 verse of his Castilian Days (1871) and Poems (1890). 
 A strong and siiccessful novel, The Breadwinners 
 (1884), attributed to John Hay, was never publicly 
 acknowledged by him. Edward Rowland Sill (1841- 
 1887), a native of New England, although compelled 
 by ill health to seek a residence in California, exhibited 
 a notable talent in his poetry which shows rich gifts of 
 spiritual insight and power. John Boyle O'Reilly (1844- 
 1890), an Irish patriot with a romantic history, a gifted 
 orator and an influential editor in Boston, was a lyric 
 poet of more than ordinary talent. He was the author 
 of many excellent songs and ballads. J. Maurice Thomp- 
 son (1844-1901), well known as a literary critic and 
 as the author of several popular romances, also deserves 
 recognition as a lyric poet. A disciple of Theocritus, 
 
POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 313 
 
 he was an enthusiast for nature, a lover of outdoor 
 life and sports. He revived the interest in archery, 
 and sang of birds and woods. Thompson was born in 
 Indiana, but lived as a boy in Kentucky and Georgia. 
 He served in the Confederate army during the war, and 
 at its close returned to his native state. 
 
 Since the death of Poe, the South has not been re- 
 presented by any poet of equal rank, yet it paets of ae 
 has been by no means without its representa- souti. 
 tives in verse, of whom one or two may be said to have at- 
 tained national prominence. William Q-. Simms (1806- 
 1870), whose contributions to American fiction have 
 been described, was the author of several volumes of 
 verse which enjoyed local popularity but which does 
 not rise above mediocrity. Albert Pike (1809-1891), 
 born in Boston, a settler in Arkansas, a soldier in the 
 Confederate army, published in 1831 his ambitious 
 Hymns to the Gods. Better known to-day is his charm- 
 ing ode To the. Mocking -Bird; and best known of all 
 his verse is the stirring war-song Dixie. In this con- 
 nection mention should be made of Theodore O'Hara 
 (1820-1867) of Kentucky, who, in 1847, wrote The 
 Bivouac of the Dead. This martial elegy, upon which 
 the reputation of its author rests, commemorates the 
 death of Kentuckians who fell at the battle of Bueua 
 Vista. Another famous song of the South in war- 
 time, Maryland, my Maryland, was the composition of 
 James Ryder Randall (1839-1908), a native of Bal- 
 timore. Three Southern poets belonging to the gener- 
 ation which followed Poe have risen to more than minor 
 rank. These are Henry Timrod, Paul H. Hayne, and 
 Sidney Lanier. There is a pathetic resemblance in the 
 circumstances and experiences of all. Each suffered 
 personally the distressing effects of the war which in- 
 terrupted the literary achievement and shortened the 
 
314 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 life of each. Both Timrod and Lanier died under 
 forty ; while Hayne, although surviving to the age of 
 fifty-five, was an invalid for many years before his 
 death. 
 
 The poet Timrod was born at Charleston, South 
 Ho Tim- Carolina. He studied at the University of 
 rod, 1827- Georgia, and began the reading of law. He had 
 already won recognition as a poet and had 
 formed a lifelong friendship with young Hayne, who was 
 also a native of Charleston. Together the poet-friends 
 entered on their literary career, and under the encourage- 
 ment of William G. Simms they were associated in an 
 editorial venture which proved short-lived. Timrod's 
 poems, which filled but a slender volume, were published 
 at Boston in 1860, his most elaborate composition being 
 A Vision qfJPoesie, the statement of his poetical creed. 
 Then came the war. Timrod's health was too delicate 
 to permit of military service, but he went upon the field 
 as correspondent for a Charleston paper. But this ex- 
 perience proved too strenuous, and in 1864 he became 
 associate-editor of the South Carolinian, at Columbia, 
 the state capital. When that city was destroyed at the 
 entrance of Sherman's army, his home was burned, and 
 everything that he possessed was lost. His poverty was 
 so great that his family was on the verge of starvation. 
 The last three years of the poet's life were years of acute 
 suffering. A visit to the rustic home of his friend Hayne 
 failed to benefit him ; his health rapidly declined, and he 
 died at thirty-eight. A complete edition of Timrod's 
 poems was edited by his brother poet in 1873. Much of 
 Timrod's verse is nature poetry, serious in spirit like 
 that of Wordsworth, elevated and musical. His best- 
 known poem, The Cotton Boll, is no less notable for its 
 patriotic fervor than for its fine description of the snowy 
 cotton-fields of the South. His highest achievement is 
 
POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 315 
 
 seen in the beautiful ode At Magnolia Cemetery 
 (1867), which closes with these lines : — 
 
 " Stoop, angels, hither from the skies I 
 There ia no holier spot of ground 
 Than where defeated valor lies. 
 By mourning beauty crowned." 
 
 Hayne was reared in the cultured and wealthy Charles- 
 ton home of his uncle, Robert Y. Hayne, Web- „ , „ „ 
 ' . •' ' Paul Hamll- 
 
 ster s great opponent m the United States ton Hayne, 
 Senate. Previous to the war, he had filled two ^^ao-iaae. 
 or three editorial positions, including the editorship of 
 SusselVs Magazine, the publication promoted by the 
 novelist William Gilmore Simms ; and, since the publi- 
 cation of his early poems in 1855, had been regarded as 
 the representative poet of the South. Hayne served with 
 the rank of colonel in the Confederate army. In the 
 bombardment of Charleston he lost all his possessions, 
 and found nimself at the close of the war in the deepest 
 poverty and a confirmed invalid. He then went to the 
 barren pine-lands of Georgia, built for himself and his 
 family a rude cottage on a piece of land known as Copse 
 Hill; and this was the poet's home until his death. He 
 published a volume, Legends and Lyrics, in 1872, and 
 The Mowntainofthe Lovers and Other Poems, in 1875. 
 A complete edition of his Poems appeared in 1882. 
 Hayne was essentially a poet of romance, and succeeded 
 admirably in his longer narrative poems and his ballads. 
 Yet he, too, wrote, like a true nature-lover, of the pines, 
 and the mockingbirds, and the warmth of the South- 
 land. In spite of loneliness and poverty, his poems con- 
 tain none of the sadness or melancholy so characteristic 
 of Poe ; they were tender and cheerful to the last. 
 
 More successful than any other Southern poet except 
 Poe in the impression of his genius on readers of verse, 
 Sidney Lanier is gradually coming to be recognized as 
 
316 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 entitled to a place with our chief American poets. 
 
 The story of his life is as pathetic as those 
 Sidney ^ , , - i j t_ 
 
 Lanier, just rehearsed, for his life, too, was colored by 
 
 1842-1881. ^^ shadows of ill-health and straitened cir- 
 cumstances which followed in the wake of war. Born 
 in Macon, Georgia, February 3, 1842, Lanier had just 
 completed his coUege course vo, Oglethorpe when the war 
 broke. He flung himself into the struggle with the same 
 ardor that sentTimrod andHayne to the support of the 
 Southern cause. Sidney and his brother Clifford — two 
 slender, gray-eyed youths, inseparable in their service 
 of danger and hardship — extracted all the romance to 
 be derived from their experience. In 1863, they were 
 on scout duty along the James; Lanier wrote later with 
 enthusiasm of this period in their army life: — 
 
 " We had a flute and a guitar, good horses, a beautiful 
 country, splendid residences inhabited by friends who loved 
 us, and plenty of hair-breadth escapes from the roving bands 
 of Federals. ClifE and I never cease to talk of the beautiful 
 women, the serenades, the moonlight dashes on the beach of 
 fair Burwell's Bay, and the spirited brushes of our little force 
 with the enemy." 
 
 In 1864, the brothers were transferred to Wilmington 
 and placed as signal officers upon the blockade'runners 
 Here Sidney Lanier was captured and for five monthE 
 was confined in the Federal prison at Camp Lookout; 
 it well-nigh became his tomb. With emaciated frame 
 and shattered physique the young soldier finally went 
 home, like so many other youthful veterans, south and 
 north, to fight for life In the coming years. With La- 
 nier, the struggle was for both life and livelihood. He 
 was twenty-three years old, unsettled as to his future, 
 and under the gloom of those "raven days" of the deso- 
 lated and demoralized South. 
 
 " Our hearths are gone out and our hearts are broken," 
 
POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 317 
 
 he sang plaintively ; yet he turned the plaint into a song 
 of cheer; and he still found the romance. In 1867, he 
 was married to Miss Mary Day, of Macon, and the 
 poems of his wooing-time and of his wedded life are as 
 graceful and tender as the lyrics Lowell sang to Maria 
 White. 
 
 For five years Lanier tried to follow the law, and 
 then, in 1873, gave himself to art. He went ^^g 
 to Baltimore alone, except for his flute. La- Musician, 
 nier's flute is as famous as Lanier; it is a part of his per- 
 sonality. Its mellow notes had cheered the soldier and 
 his comrades by camp-fire and in prison ; it had been 
 softly played in many a surreptitious serenade. And it 
 was widely known ; for Lanier was a remarkable musi- 
 cian, and was called by many the finest flute-player in 
 America if not in the world. Lanier's musical genius 
 must be taken in account by the student of his verse. 
 So far as he could trace his ancestry, it disclosed this 
 talent as a family possession. In the Restoration period, 
 there were five Laniers in England who were musicians ; 
 in Charles I's time, Nicholas Lanier, who was painted 
 by Van Dyck, wrote music for the masques of Jonson 
 and the lyrics of Herrick; the father of this Nicholas 
 was a musician in the household of Queen Elizabeth. 
 Thus Sidney Lanier came naturally by his gift. In Bal- 
 timore, his flute secured him a position in the Peabody 
 Orchestra, and furnished the means of living for several 
 years. Theodore Thomas is said to have been on the 
 point of making the artist first flute-player in his or- 
 chestra, when Lanier's health finally failed and he was 
 compelled to give up the struggle. 
 
 But Sidney Lanier found also in Baltimore the first 
 opportunity to gratify what had been the am- Litoratnrs 
 bition of the years since his college course, — "•* Poetry. 
 the opportunity to study literature and the scientific 
 
318 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 principles of verse. The unfulfilled dream of his youth 
 had been a systematic course in the German universities; 
 this was not to be realized, but in the richly equipped 
 Peabody Library he found his university. Never was 
 there a more assiduous student. Especially did he de- 
 vote himself to the field of Old English poetry. Soon 
 there were invitations to lecture, and in the city he 
 came to have an established reputation as a fascinating 
 lecturer on English literature. In 1875, he first won re- 
 cognition as a poet of more than ordinary power by the 
 publication of Corn, in Lippincotf s Magazine; four 
 months later his remarkable poem, ^Ae Symphony, ap- 
 peared in the same magazine. His new friendship with 
 Bayard Taylor produced the invitation to write the words 
 for the Centennial cantata. The first collection of his 
 poems was published in 1877. In rapid succession he 
 wrote three wonderful poems. The Hevenge of Hamish, 
 How Love looked for Hell, and The Marshes of Glynn. 
 In 1879, the poet was appointed to a lectureship in the 
 Johns Hopkins University. The fruit of this profes- 
 sional connection we have in two volumes, neither of 
 which is characterized by scientific precision or mi- 
 nutely accurate scholarship ; nevertheless The Science 
 of£!nglish Verse and The English Novel are recog- 
 nized as valuable contributions to the study of literature. 
 The first of these volumes is an essay on the technical 
 side of versification, embodying Lanier's theory of 
 rhythm and tone color ; it was his belief that the laws 
 of verse are identical with those of music. A series of 
 books for boys — The Boy's King Arthur, The Boys 
 Froissart, etc. — were the by-products from his studies 
 of the ancient chronicles, put forth to enlarge the scanty 
 income. 
 
 During the last two years of the poet's life the 
 struggle for poetical achievement grew tragic. In No- 
 
POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 319 
 
 vember; 1880, he wrote his friend, Paul Hamilton 
 Hayne : — 
 
 " For six months past a ghastly fever has taken possession 
 of me each day at about 12 m., and holding my AmMtlons 
 head under the surface of indescribable distress nnluiiiuoa. 
 for the next twenty hours, subsiding only enough each morn- 
 ing to let me get on my working harness, but never inter- 
 mitting. ... I have myself been disposed to think it arose 
 purely from the bitterness of having to spend my time in 
 making academic lectures and boys' books — pot-boilers all 
 — when a thousand songs are singing in my heart that will 
 certainly kill me if I do not utter them soon." 
 
 Three years earlier he had written bravely in The 
 Stirrvp-Cup : — 
 
 " Death, tbon 'rt a cordial old and rare: 
 Look how compounded, with what care I 
 Time got his wrinkles reaping thee 
 Sweet herbs from all antiquity. 
 
 " David to thy distillage went, 
 Keats, and Ootama excellent, 
 Omar Khayyd,m, and Chaucer bright, 
 And Shakspere for a king-delight. 
 
 " Then, Time, let not a drop be spilt: 
 Hand me the cup whene'er thou wilt, 
 'T is thy rich stirrup-cup to me ; 
 I '11 drink it down right smilingly.'' 
 
 And now, in his greatest poem. Sunrise, completed 
 soon after the date of his letter to Hayne, he could 
 write in the same jubilant strain : — 
 
 " — manifold One, 
 I mnst pass from thy face, I must pass from the face of the Sun : 
 Old Want is awake and agog, every wrinkle a-frown ; 
 The worker must pass to his work in the terrible town : 
 But I fear not, nay, and I fear not the thing to be done ; 
 
 I am strong with the strength of my lord the Sun : 
 How dark, how dark soever the race that must needs be ran, 
 I am lit with the Sun." 
 
320 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 In 1881, Lanier was taken to the pine-lands in the moun- 
 tains of North Carolina; and there in the September 
 following he died. His grave is in Baltimore. A bronze 
 bust of the poet is fittingly placed in one of the halls of 
 the university where, for so brief a term, he taught. 
 
 In spite of the limitations set by fate upon Lanier's 
 Lanier's poetical work, its high quality is evident. It is 
 Poems. poetry that charms the ear with its rich melo- 
 dies and stirs the spirit by its own spiritual power. A 
 Ballad of Trees and the Master is a familiar example 
 of this quality. How broad might have been the scope 
 of Lanier's eventual achievement can only be inferred 
 from the pathetically small amount actually produced. 
 He had a vivid imagination and a masterly command 
 of expression. His descriptive skill, evidenced in the 
 blithe Song of the Chattahoochee and the Hymns of 
 the Marshes, was very fine. The Revenge of Hamish is 
 an intensely dramatic narrative. A deep moral purpose 
 is easily felt in lyrics like Tampa Robins, The Stirrnp- 
 Cup, and At Sunset, poems which quite escape the 
 didactic tone. But it is in the longer compositions, 
 Com, The Symphony, Psalm of the West, Sunrise, and 
 The Marshes of Glynn, that the poet's genius is exhib- 
 ited at his highest reach. In Lanier's scanty bequest 
 of verse we recognize the beauty and perfection of 
 consummate art ; but the true source of his distinction 
 lies for most of his readers in the cheery optimism of his 
 message ; in the splendid faith, the hearty sympathy and 
 unconquerable courage of his own brave and loving 
 soul. The strength of his appeal is itself an evidence of 
 the truth expressed by the poet in the second line of 
 The Symphony, — 
 
 "The Time needs heart — 'tis tired of head." 
 In general, read Stedman's Poets of America, and refer to 
 that critic's American Anthology for selections from the 
 
POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 321 
 
 poets cited. Lanier is represented at length in Page's The 
 Chief American Poets. Hayne's Complete Poem^, 
 with Zi/e, were published in 1882. A Life of »""•""''«■ 
 Timrod was included in the edition of Timrod's poems edited 
 by Hayne. An admirable Life of Sidney Lanier has been 
 written by Edwin Mims (Houghton Mifflin Company). Con- 
 sult also Holliday's Histoid of Southern Literature. 
 
 Representative of a generation younger than that of 
 our chief American poets, yet closely associ- AUrioii ani 
 ated with them in personal companionship and steoman. 
 in the spirit of their work, are the two distinguished 
 writers, Aldrich and Stedman. They form an interesting 
 link between the present and the past. Holding more 
 than a minor rank as poets, both are prominent among 
 American men of letters; both achieved distinction in 
 other fields than that of verse. 
 
 Thomas Bailey Aldrich was born in Portsmouth, New 
 Hampshire, November 11, 1836. On account of m » j, 
 business connections in the South, the family anoi, 
 were for a time accustomed to spend the win- 
 ter at New Orleans ; but it is the New Hampshire seaport 
 town which figures as Rivermouth, the home of Tom 
 Bailey, in that most attractive romance of youth, The 
 Story of a Bad Boy (1870). His father's death in 1852 
 put an end to plans for a college education; and in his 
 seventeenth year, young Aldrich went to New York and 
 entered the banking house of his uncle. He soon began, 
 however, contributing to the literary journals and made 
 acquaintance with N. P. Willis, Bayard Taylor, Stod- 
 dard, and Stedman — the last named being only three 
 years older than himself. 
 
 The publication of his beautiful Ballad of Baby Bell 
 (1856) first bi'ought popularity, although a volume of 
 verse. The Bells, had appeared in the previous year, 
 when its author was but nineteen. 
 
322 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 After three years of commercial life, Aldrich aban- 
 Eiitoriai doned the counting-room for the editor's office, 
 Worn. and for the next ten years was associated with 
 one or other of the New York magazines, his principal 
 engagement being upon Willis's Home Journal. In 
 1865, he removed to Boston and took editorial charge 
 of the publication Every Saturday. In 1881, he suc- 
 ceeded Mr. Howells as editor of the Atlantic Monthly, 
 retaining this position until 1890. 
 
 Meanwhile Aldrich's poems had been appearing in 
 successive volumes : Cloth of Gold (1874), 
 filled with the rich color of oriental fantasy, 
 Flower and Thorn (1876), Friar Jeromes Beautiful 
 Book (1881). In the long narrative poem Wyndham 
 Towers (1889) the poet's work does not appear to such 
 advantage as in the dainty lyrics of sentiment and ro- 
 mance which were the fruit of earlier years. No Ameri- 
 can poet has written with a more delicate or graceful 
 touch. His technique is faultless in such brilliant pieces 
 as When the Sultan goes to Ispahan, The Lunch, Noc- 
 turne, Identity, and Bahy Bell, the tender pathos of 
 which still retains its grasp on the emotions of its read- 
 ers. Aldrich was his own severest critic, and his lines 
 were frequently revised. Nothing short of perfection 
 satisfied his keen sense of artistic expression. It is his 
 own ideal that is embodied in this splendid sonnet : — 
 
 *' Enamored architect of airy rhyme, 
 Build as thou wilt ; heed not what each man says. 
 Good souls, hut innocent of dreamers' ways. 
 Will come, and marvel why thou wastest time ; 
 Others, heholding how thy turrets climb 
 'Twixt theirs and heaven, will hate thee all their days ; 
 But most heware of those who come to praise. 
 Wondersmith, worker in sublime 
 And heaven-sent dreams, let art be all in all ; 
 Build as thou wilt, unspoiled by praise or blame, 
 Build as thou wilt, and as thy light is given : 
 
POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 323 
 
 Then, if at last the airy structure fall, 
 Dissolve, and vanish — take thyself no shame. 
 They fail, and they alone, who have not striven." 
 
 The Sisters^ Tragedy (1891) and Unguarded Gates 
 (1895) were the titles of the volumes which contained 
 his later verse. 
 
 Like his poems, Aldrich's prose works are charac- 
 terized by the qualities of vivacity, brilliance, pro«e 
 and delicate workmanship. Nothing pleases works, 
 him better than to surprise his reader by some unex- 
 pected turn. This is the case in his first successful story, 
 — in some respects his best, — Matjorie Daw (1873), 
 and in some of his later tales. The novels Prudence 
 Palfrey (1874) and The Queen of Sheha (1877) were 
 followed, in 1880, by an admirable detective story. The 
 Stillwater Tragedy. It is, however, in the field of the 
 short story that we most clearly recognize Aldrich's 
 power as a writer of fiction, — a field for which his art 
 was exceedingly apt. 
 
 Mercedes, a drama (1883), and Judith of Bethulia, 
 prepared for the stage in 1905, have not proved 
 dramatically successful. It is upon the best of 
 his short stories and his earlier lyrics, with their exqui- 
 site technique, that Aldrich's literary fame must rest.^ 
 
 Edmund Clarence Stedman was born at Hartford, 
 Connecticut, October 8, 1833. His mother, ^ ^ ^^^^_ 
 Elizabeth Dodge Stedman, was a writer of man, 
 verse, published several volumes of poems, 
 and, through a long residence in Italy, was an inti- 
 mate friend of the Brownings. During his undergradu- 
 ate course at Yale, young Stedman received a first prize 
 for a poem on Westminster Abbey. In 1855, he entered 
 the journalistic profession in New York and was one of 
 
 ^ An adequate and interesting hiography of the poet is Thomas 
 Bailey Aldrich, by Ferris Qreenslet (1908). 
 
324 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 the many talented men who became at various times 
 proteges of Horace Greeley, upon the staff of the Trib- 
 une. It was at this period that Stedman was thrown 
 into intimate association with Stoddard, Taylor, and 
 Aldrich. The first literary success came with the pub- 
 lication of The Diamond Wedding, a satirical poem, 
 inspired by a real incident in fashionable New York 
 society. His Poems, Lyric and Idyllic, were published 
 in 1860 ; and in that year the poet went to the front as 
 a war-correspondent for the World, 
 
 At the close of the wai^, Stedman became a banker 
 and remained a member of the Stock Exchange 
 Banirer- until 1890. While thus engaged in active busi- 
 ^"'' ness, he nevertheless found leisure to practice 
 
 the art of letters to good purpose. Some of his poems, 
 like Kearney at Seven Pines, How Old Brown took 
 Harper's Ferry, Wanted — A Man, and Pan in Wall 
 Street, hold a high place in American literature. Yet 
 Stedman is in no sense a popular poet and not many of 
 his compositions appeal to the public taste. He was not 
 subjective, nor is there much intensity or passion in his 
 verse. His themes were the immediate suggestions of 
 the hour. 
 
 Stedman ranks as our ablest critic of poetic liter- 
 ature. He lectured upon Poetry at Johns 
 Literary Hopkins University in 1892, and afterward 
 Oritto. repeated these lectures at other institutions. 
 
 It was at this time that he formulated his suggestive 
 definition of poetry — as " rhythmical, imaginative lan- 
 guage, expressing the invention, taste, thought, passion, 
 and insight of the human soul." His critical volumes 
 are: The Victorian Poets (1815'), Poets of America 
 (1885), and The Nature and Elements of Poetry 
 (1892). These works are almost indispensable to the 
 literary student. Mr. Stedman published A Victorian 
 
POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 325 
 
 Anthology iu 1895, and An American Anthology in 
 1900. In collaboration with G. E. Woodberry he edited 
 The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in 1895, and, with 
 Ellen M. Hutchinson, completed the monumental Li- 
 hrary of American Literature (11 volumes), in 1889. 
 At the funeral of his brother-poet, Aldrich, in March, 
 1907, Stedman was a conspicuous figure, fee- 
 ble and tottering with the weakness of advanc- 
 ing age. Yet death came upon him suddenly as he sat 
 among his books, at work, January 18, 1908, — such a 
 death as he had craved in Mors Benefica, — 
 
 " Glye me to die unwitting^ of the day 
 And stricken in Life's brave heat, with senses clear." 
 
 And thus the last representative of the older generation 
 of American poets had departed. 
 
CHAPTEE VII 
 
 EECENT YEARS 
 
 I. Scholars and Essayists. 
 II. Poets of this Generation. 
 III. Contemporary Fiction. 
 
 The main facts in the history of our national litera- 
 ture have now been mentioned as fully as the purpose of 
 the present volume will permit. Some account, however, 
 must be taken of contemporary literature ; and although 
 it is unwise to pronounce definite judgment on the work 
 of living writers, it will be desirable to note briefly the 
 more conspicuous literary achievements of the present 
 generation. We will therefore consider the work of our 
 principal essayists, poets, and novelists not hitherto 
 named, in order that we may recognize at least the wide- 
 spread activity at the present time in the field of letters. 
 Most of the writers to be enumerated belong entirely to 
 the period since the Civil War, although in each group 
 some are included who were a part of the older genera- 
 tion. 
 
 I. SCHOLAES AND ESSAYISTS. 
 
 In the field of literary criticism the work of Edwin 
 Literary Percy Whipple (1819-1886) was notable. He 
 Oiitios, ^g^g j.}jg author of several volumes of scholarly 
 essays including Literature and Life (1849), Litera- 
 ture of the Age of Elizabeth (1869), and American 
 Literature, and Other Papers (1887). Horace E. 
 Scudder (1838-1902), long associated with the publi- 
 cation of the Atlantic Monthly, — he succeeded Aldrich 
 
SCHOLARS AND ESSAYISTS 327 
 
 as its editor in 1890, — was an indefatigable writer, the 
 extent of whose service to American letters is hardly 
 understood, since much of his work was anonymous. 
 Henry N. Hudson (1814-1886), Richard Grant White 
 (1821-1885), WiUiam James RoKe (born 1827) and 
 Horace Howard Furness (born 1833) are to be remem- 
 bered for their services in the criticism and interpreta- 
 tion of Shakespeare's dramas. Their scholarly editions 
 of the plays are among the best that have been pro- 
 duced. The name of WiUiam Winter (born in Massa- 
 chusetts, 1836), author of Shakespeare's England 
 (1886) and our foremost critic of the stage, may be 
 mentioned in this connection. 
 
 Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909), the distinguished 
 Boston clergyman and philanthropist, long Reminis- 
 survived the generation which read his earlier oonces. 
 works. His literary career was remarkably versatile 
 and productive. A New England Boyhood (1893) 
 and Memories of a Hundred Years (1902) are pleas- 
 ant sketch-books of past experience. Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson (1902) and James Russell Lowell and his 
 Friends (1899) are further contributions to this in- 
 teresting series of reminiscent essays. Dr. Hale's 
 work in fiction will be referred to later.* Thomas 
 Wentworth Higginson (born at Cambridge, 1823) is 
 the author of two volumes of reminiscence. Cheerful 
 Yesterdays (1898) and Contemporaries (1899) which 
 are of especial interest to literary students. He has 
 also written biographies of Margaret Fuller Ossoli 
 (1884), Longfellow (1903), and Whittier (1903). 
 Yesterdays with Authors (1872), a volume written 
 by James T. Fields (1817-1881), should be men- 
 tioned here. Mr. Fields, a partner in the famous pub- 
 lishing house of Ticknor and Fields, has a recognized 
 * See page 340. 
 
328 RECENT YEARS 
 
 standing among the men of letters. He followed Lowell 
 as editor of the Atlantic Monthly, and was well known 
 in his day as a lecturer and an essayist. 
 
 John Burroughs (born in New York state, 1837) is, 
 Natnro after Thoreau, our foremost writer on nature 
 Books. themes. He is not only a lover of the woods 
 and fields, but he is a conscientious student of plant and 
 animal life. He has no sympathy and scant patience with 
 writers on these subjects whose imagination has inter- 
 fered with their accuracy ; he describes honestly what 
 he observes. Wahe-Robin (1871), Winter Sunshine 
 (1875), Birds and Poets (1877), Locusts and Wild 
 Honey (1879), Fresh Fields (1884), Signs and Sea- 
 sons (1886), Ways of Nature (1905) — these are some 
 of his outdoor books; he has written also Literary 
 Values (1904), a volume of critical essays, two books 
 on Walt Whitman, and Bird and Bough (1906), a 
 volume of poems. Harriet Mann Miller (" Olive Thorne 
 Miller"), born in New York state, 1831, and Bradford 
 Torrey (born in Massachusetts, 1843) have written 
 entertainingly of the ways and habits of birds ; while 
 Ernest Seton Thompson (born in England, 1860) has 
 narrated with a somewhat freer imagination the bio- 
 graphies of various wild animals he has known. 
 
 In the field of the distinctively literary essay, Lau- 
 Litoiary rence Button (1843-1904), Hamilton Wright 
 Essays. Mabie (born 1845), Henry van Dyke (born 
 1852), George Edward Woodberry (born 1855), Agnes 
 Kepplier (born 1857), Samuel M. Crothers (born 1857), 
 Bliss Perry (born 1860) are perhaps our best-known 
 representatives. There is also an important group of 
 Aoaaomio university men who have made noteworthy 
 '*""*■ contributions to literary history and criticism. 
 Chief of these is Moses Coit Tyler (1835-1900), a pro- 
 fessor in Cornell University, author of the monumental 
 
POETS OF THIS GENERATION 329 
 
 History of American Literature in Colonial Times 
 (1878) and The Literary History of the American Re- 
 volution (1897). Thomas E. Lounsbury (born 1838), 
 of Yale University, author of the volume on Cooper 
 (1882) in the American Men of Letters Series, Charles 
 F. Richardson (born 1851), of Dartmouth, Brander 
 Matthews (born 1852), of Columbia,, and Barrett 
 Wendell (born 1855), of Harvard, have all done con- 
 spicuous work in this field. Two distinguished Harvard 
 scholars, Francis J. Child (1825-1896) and Charles 
 Eliot Norton (1827-1908), should be included in this 
 list. Professor Child is our principal authority on the 
 Scotch and English ballads ; Professor Norton was the 
 author of a prose translation of Dante, and edited the let- 
 ters of Lowell, of Emerson, of Carlyle, and of Ruskin. 
 
 11. POETS OP THIS GENERATION. 
 
 At the head of our contemporary poets stands Richard 
 Watson Gilder (born in New Jersey, 1844). In 1870, 
 he became editor of Scrihner's Monthly, and in 1881, 
 of The Century — a position which he still retains. His 
 first volume of verse. The New Hay, appeared in 1875. 
 A complete edition of The Poems of Itichard Watson 
 Gilder was published in 1908. 
 
 John James Piatt (born in Indiana, 1835) and his 
 wife, Sarah M. Piatt (born in Kentucky, 1836) are 
 residents of Ohio. Mr. Piatt was associated with Wil- 
 liam Dean Howells in the publication of Poems of Two 
 Friends (1860). Numerous volumes of his poems have 
 appeared since, two of them in association with his wife. 
 Mrs. Piatt's Complete Poems (two volumes) were pub- 
 lished in 1894. 
 
 Joaquin Miller (born in Indiana, 1841), whose name, 
 until the poet changed it, was Cincinnatus Heine Miller, 
 removed with his parents to Oregon in 1855, and there 
 
330 RECENT YEARS 
 
 began a life replete with picturesque experience. His 
 first volume, Songs of the Sierras, was published in 
 London, in 1871, while the author was visiting England. 
 Miller's lyrical romances have not attained wide popu- 
 larity, but the fine stanzas of his stirring poem, Colum- 
 bus, may find a place, not undeserved, among the un- 
 forgettable poems of our literature. Joaquin Miller lives 
 in the mountains not far from Oakland, California, amid 
 surroundings similar to those so often reproduced in his 
 verse. 
 
 John Banister Tabb (born in Virginia, 1845), a 
 Catholic priest, professor of English literature in St. 
 Charles College, in Maryland, is the author of many 
 excellent lyrics. The lyric quality also distinguishes the 
 work of John Vance Cheney (born in New York, 1848), 
 who was from 1894 to 1908 librarian of the Newberry 
 Library in Chicago. Lloyd Mifflin (born in Pennsylr 
 vania, 1846) has won distinction especially through his 
 sonnets, a collected edition of which appeared in 1905. 
 
 Of the women who have contributed largely to our 
 contemporary verse, the following are perhaps the most 
 widely known for the literary quality of their work and 
 for its sympathetic appeal : Julia C. R. Dorr (born in 
 South Carolina, 1825, since 1830 living in Vermont), 
 Annie Fields (born in Boston, 1834), the widow of 
 James T. Fields, Edna Dean Proctor (born in New 
 Hampshire, 1838), Edith M. Thomas (born in Ohio, 
 1854, since 1888 living in New York), Helen Gray 
 Cone (born in New York, 1859), Louise Imogen 
 Guiney (born in Boston, 1861), and Dora Kead Good- 
 ale (born in Massachusetts, 1866). 
 
 Will Carleton (born in Michigan, 1845), a journalist 
 now living in Brooklyn, first attracted popular interest 
 by the publication of Farm Ballads in 1873. His poems 
 in dialect, both humorous and pathetic, have extended 
 through a lengthy series of volumes. 
 
POETS OP THIS GENERATION 331 
 
 Eugene Field (1850-1895), for a number of years a 
 journalist in Chicago, will long be remembered, not only 
 for the whimsical huinor of his prose, but for the tender 
 pathos of a few poems of child life, like Little Boy 
 Blue and Wynken, Blynhen and Nod. Field was a 
 lover of the Latin poet Horace, and the author of some 
 happy versions of his odes. A Little Book of Western 
 Verse (1890), With Trumpet and Drum (1892), and 
 A Second Book of Verse (1893) contain his familiar 
 poems. 
 
 Widely known as a writer of poems in the homely 
 dialect of the Indiana farmer, James Whitcomb Riley 
 has attained a popularity second to that of no other liv- 
 ing American poet. Filled with a genial optimism, a 
 universal sympathy, and a kindly sense of humor, Mr. 
 Riley's verse has won the hearts of the people. His na- 
 ture lyrics are vivid with rural charm and the simple joys 
 of country life. He has written many songs for children 
 which have long since become classics among child read- 
 ers. Mr. Riley was born in Greenfield, Indiana, in 
 1853. In 1873, he began newspaper work in Indianap- 
 olis, where he has since lived, contributing occasional 
 poems in dialect to Indiana papers, using the pen-name 
 "Benj. F. Johnson, of Boone." He soon became known 
 as " the Hoosier Poet." The Old Swimmin' Sole and 
 'Leven More Poems was published in 1883, and numer- 
 ous collections have since followed. Among his best- 
 known poems are : Griggsby''s Station, Knee-Deep in 
 June, An Old Sweetheart of Mine, Old Aunt Mary's, 
 Little Orphant Annie, When the Frost is on the Pun- 
 kin, The Old Swimmin' Hole, Tlioughts fer the Dis- 
 couraged Parmer — with its cheery strain, — 
 
 " Fer the world is full of roses, and the roses full of dew, 
 And the dew is full of heayenly love that drips fer me and yon," — 
 
 and many others; so marked by homely sense and a 
 
332 RECENT YEARS 
 
 democratic simplicity of style that their humanness has 
 commended them to readers of all ranks. 
 
 Edwin Markham (born in Oregon, 1852), while a 
 teacher in California, wrote and published a remarkable 
 poem, The, Man with the Hoe (1898), which by its 
 rugged strength and elemental feeling achieved an en- 
 during fame. Mr. Markham is the author of a poem 
 on Lincoln (^Lincoln, and Other Poems, 1901) which 
 deserves the wide recognition it has received; but in 
 no other of his quite numerous compositions has he 
 equaled the success of his first great poem. He has for 
 some years been engaged in editorial work in New York. 
 
 Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855-1896), formerly editor 
 of the humorous journal Puck, was a writer of verse 
 in which humor and sentiment were often delicately 
 blended. His Airs from Arcady and Elsewhere ap- 
 peared in 1884. Another writer whose field has been in 
 the poetry of sentiment, and whose popularity seems to 
 be well established, is Ella Wheeler Wilcox (born in 
 Wisconsin, 1855). Poems of Passion (1883) first drew 
 attention to her work. She is actively engaged in jour- 
 nalism. 
 
 Samuel Minturn Peck (born in Alabama, 1854) and 
 Frank Lebby Stanton (born in South Carolina, 1857) 
 are two popular poets of the South. Mr. Peck's first 
 volume, Gap and Bells, appeared in 1886. Mr. Stanton, 
 who is on the editorial staff of the Atlanta Constitution, 
 published Songs of the Soil in 1894. Comes One with 
 a Song (1898) and Songs from Dixie Land (1900) 
 have followed. 
 
 The poetical work of Frank Dempster Sherman (born 
 in Peekskill, N. Y., 1860) is represented by Madrigals 
 and Catches (1887), Lyrics for a Lute (1890), Lyrics 
 of Joy (1904). A Southern Flight (1906) was pub- 
 lished in association with Clinton Scollard (born in 
 
POETS OF THIS GENERATION 333 
 
 Clinton, N. Y., 1860), one of the most prolific of our 
 minor poets. Mr. Scollard's earliest publication was 
 Pictures in Song (1884). With Reed and Lyre fol- 
 lowed in 1886, and at least a dozen volumes of his verse 
 have appeared since. From 1888 to 1896, Mr. ScoUard 
 was professor of English literature in Hamilton College. 
 Mr. Sherman is a member of the Faculty of Columbia 
 University. 
 
 • Bliss Carman (born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, 
 1861) has been engaged since 1890 in editorial work in 
 the United States. He has attained a substantial posi- 
 tion among the younger generation of American nature 
 poets. His first collection, Low Tide on Grand Pre, 
 appeared in 1893. A Sea Mark (1895) and Ballads of 
 Lost Haven (1897) were followed by Songs from Vaga- 
 hondia (1894), written in collaboration with Kichard 
 Hovey. More Songs from Vagabondia appeared in 
 1896, and Last Songs from Vagabondia in 1900. A 
 collected edition of Bliss Carman's poems (two volumes) 
 was published in 1905. Eichard Hovey (1864-1900), 
 a poet of large promise, was born in Illinois. He, too, 
 was a journalist at the time of his collaboration with 
 Carman in the three volumes mentioned. Besides the 
 poems which celebrate the joys of the open road, — 
 Songs from Vagabondia a,iid Along the Trail (1898), 
 — he composed a series of poetical dramas, Launcelot 
 and GuervRvere (1891-1898), and Taliesin: a Masque 
 (1899). 
 
 William Vaughn Moody (born in Indiana, 1869), a 
 graduate of Harvard and professor of English in the 
 University of Chicago (1895-1907), published in the 
 Atlantic Monthly for May, 1900, a very noteworthy 
 poem. An Ode Written in Time of Hesitation, which 
 dealt with the popular feeling aroused by the outbreak 
 of the Spanish-American War. His first collection of 
 
334 RECENT YEARS 
 
 Poems appeared in 1901, but a lyrical drama, The 
 Masque of Judgment, had been published in 1900. The 
 Fire-Bringer (1904) follows as the second drama in a 
 proposed trilogy. Mr. Moody has since turned to the 
 prose drama. The Great Divide (1907) having met 
 with substantial success. 
 
 Percy "Wallace MacKaye (born in New York, 1875) 
 has won distinction in the dramatic field with two poet- 
 ical plays : Jeanne d'Arc (1906) and Sappho and Phaan 
 (1907), both of which have been produced with success. 
 The Canterbury Pilgrims (1903) and Fenris the Wolf 
 (1905) are earlier works, the former, in 1909, being 
 presented before various university audiences in the open 
 air. 
 
 Josephine Preston Peabody (born in New York, 
 1874) was for a time instructor in English literature in 
 Wellesley College (1901-1903). The Wayfarers— A 
 Booh of Verse appeared in 1898. Besides two other 
 volumes of occasional poems, she has published a poet- 
 ical drama of remarkable strength and beauty, Marlowe 
 (1901) ; Pan — A Ghoric Idyl (for music) appeared in 
 1904. Her sympathetic poems of childhood also call for 
 recognition. Since 1906, when Miss Peabody became 
 Mrs. L. S. Marks, her home has been in Cambridge, 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), the only re- 
 presentative of the African race to attain rank as an 
 American poet, was a native of Ohio. His verse is 
 often marked by real lyric excellence, his songs in negro 
 dialect attracting wide attention. 
 
 William Dean Howells, George Edward Woodberry, 
 and Henry van Dyke, although classified as prose 
 writers, have all written occasional verse which merits 
 more than passing recognition. And there are scores of 
 
CONTEMPOKARY FICTION 335 
 
 minor poets whose names might not unworthily find a 
 place in a list more complete than this.^ 
 
 III. CONTEMPOKARY FICTION. 
 
 To take adequate account of our contemporary 
 American fiction would require far more space than is 
 available in this hook ; nor has the time yet come to at- 
 tempt an estimate of literary values in this interesting 
 field. Hardly more than a list of the most prominent 
 among our present-day novelists can be included, with 
 a partial classification of their work. Although it is in 
 fiction that American writers are now most prolific and 
 most successful, it is doubtful if many of these works 
 will find a place in the literature which endures, or if 
 any of these popular novelists will be long remembered. 
 Two schools of fiction are represented : the realistic, 
 and the romantic. It is not always easy to discrimi- 
 nate, however, and there are writers who have used the 
 methods of both schools. 
 
 William Dean Howells, a consistent and uncompro- 
 mising representative of the claims of real- ^ j, ^^^^^ 
 ism, is recognized as easily the foremost eus, bom 
 American novelist in this generation. His 
 father was a country editor ; and it was in a printing- 
 office in his native state of Ohio that Mr. Howells re- 
 ceived his literary training. The publication, with John 
 J. Piatt, of Poems of Two Friends (1860) marked the 
 beginning of his career. A campaign JLife of Lincoln 
 in the same year secured his" appointment as consul to 
 Venice, a position which he held for four years. Vene- 
 tian Life (1866) and Italian Journeys (1867) were 
 the fruit of foreign residence. In 1866, Mr. Howells was 
 
 ' Consult Stedman's An American Anthology, The Younger American 
 Poets, hy Jessie B. Eitteuhouse, and A Treasury of American Verse, by 
 Walter Learned. 
 
336 RECENT YEARS 
 
 made assistant editor (under James T. Fields) of the 
 Atlantic Monthly/ ; and from 1871 to 1881, he was the 
 editor of the magazine. A vivacious novel, Their Wed- 
 ding Journey (1871), added to the reputation already- 
 gained by the two Italian books, and this was increased 
 by the stories which followed, A Chance Acquaintance 
 (1873) and A Foregone Conclusion (1874). Mr. 
 Howells is the author of more than thirty volumes, 
 mainly works of fiction. Of these, A Modern Instance 
 (1882), The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885), and A 
 Hazard of New Fortunes (1889) have probably 
 aroused widest interest. Mr. Howells's literary work- 
 manship is deserving of the highest praise. He is 
 minutely conscientious in his studies of character and 
 incident, ingisting upon careful observation and an 
 honest report. His theory of literary art is set forth in 
 an interesting essay. Criticism and Fiction (1891). 
 Since 1881, the novelist has been associated editorially 
 with various periodicals, including Harper's Magazine. 
 While fiction predominates in his published writings, he 
 has written a number of humorous parlor plays, several 
 volumes of essays upon literary themes, and not a small 
 amount of very charming verse. 
 
 Henry James is a native of New York and is pro- 
 Henry perly denominated an American writer, al- 
 james, though since 1869 he has made his home 
 in England. His novels are usually associated 
 with those of Mr. Howells as exemplifying the best work 
 of the American realists. In Mr. James's narratives we 
 find the extreme application of realistic theory along 
 with an analysis of character and motive wonderfully 
 minute. His novels and short stories are psychological 
 studies for the most part, and have a comparatively 
 small audience among American readers. As the nov- 
 elist was at one time fond of presenting studies of his 
 
CONTEMPORARY FICTION 337 
 
 countrymen as they sometimes appear in Europe, in 
 the environment of a superior culture, his work has 
 often aroused protest rather than favor here. Such was 
 the reception given to Daisy Miller (1878). Others of 
 the novels which are eminently characteristic of this 
 author are An International Episode (1879), The 
 Bostonians (1886), The Princess Casamassima, 
 (1886), The Tragic Muse (1890), and What Maisie 
 Knew (1897). It is in the craftsmanship and structure 
 of his narratives that Mr. James commands most gen- 
 eral admiration ; this artistic skill, along with his keen 
 wit and general brilliance of style, may be most ad- 
 vantageously studied in some of the short stories, — 
 which constitute a large portion of his fiction, — as, 
 for example, in Terminations (1896) or The Private 
 Life and Other Stories (1893). 
 
 Naturally the realistic novelists have, in the selection 
 of material, frequently turned to the study gmfli.,.. 
 of characters and manners with which their Local 
 environment has made them well acquainted ; ^°^" 
 there has therefore developed a large group of story- 
 writers who deal with local types. 
 
 Following the footsteps of Harriet Beecher Stowe 
 in the delineation of the quiet New England inuew 
 life, Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) pub- ^s^i. 
 lished the placid but impressive little story. Deep- 
 haven, in 1877. Miss Jewett's work in this field 
 has been sympathetic as well as accurate, and her 
 novels have appealed strongly to the affections of many 
 readers. Of these, A Country Doctor (1884), A 
 Marsh Island (1885), and The Country of the 
 Pointed Firs (1896) may be mentioned. Elizabeth 
 Stuart Phelps Ward (born at Boston, 1844) became 
 widely known by the publication of two mystical 
 novels, The Gates Ajar (1868) and Men, Women, and 
 
338 RECENT YEARS 
 
 Ghosts (1869). The daughter of a noted theologian 
 and reared in the serious atmosphere of Andover, Mrs. 
 Ward has given a distinctively religious coloring to 
 her numerous works, of which The Story of Avis 
 (1877), Beyond the Gates (1883), The Madonna of 
 the Tubs (1886), Jack the Fisherman (1887), The 
 Gates Between (1887), A Singular Life (1894), and 
 The Supply at St. Agatha's (1896), are important 
 examples. Margaret Wade Deland, born in Pennsyl- 
 vania, 1857, — whose residence, since 1880, has been 
 at Boston, — also touched the field of religious experi- 
 ence in her first novel, John Ward, Preacher, pub- 
 lished in 1888. Philip and his Wife (1894), Sidney 
 (1890), The Common Way (1904), and The Awak- 
 ening of Helena Richie (1906) are the most notable 
 of her later works. Perhaps the most distinguished suc- 
 cess in realistic fiction is found in the work of Mary 
 E. Wilkins Freeman (born in Massachusetts, 1862). 
 Mrs. Freeman has portrayed with great skill and in- 
 tense feeling the more subdued yet rugged phases of 
 New England life and character. Her short stories 
 are of exceptional strength and exhibit the technical 
 methods of realism in perfection. A Humble Romance 
 (1887), A New England Nun (1891), Jane Field 
 (1892), Pembroke (1894), and Jerome (1897) may 
 be cited as examples. Alice Brown (born in New 
 Hampshire, 1857) has been especially successful in her 
 short stories, such as are gathered under the titles 
 Meadow- Gt-ass (1895), Tiverton Tales (1899), and 
 The County Road (1906). Closely akin in local 
 color to the work of Mrs. Freeman, these tales admit 
 a little more of the brightness and warmth of the New 
 England sunshine as it creeps among the shadows of 
 humble circumstances, A later novel. The Story of 
 Thyrza (1909), is a work of genuine creative power. 
 
CONrEMPOKARY FICTION 339 
 
 There are other well-known writers of fiction who 
 belong to New England, — at least by birth, i,„jjgj,5a 
 — whose work does not permit of such defi- and ideai- 
 nite classification as that of the group just 
 considered ; it is not concerned with the local type. 
 Here belongs the name of Jane G. Austin (1831- 
 1894), whose historical novels, Standish of Stand- 
 ish (1889), Betty Alden (1891), etc., deal with Old 
 Colony times. Harriet Prescott Spofford (born in 
 Maine, 1835) is the author of numerous romantic 
 tales beginning with Sir Rohan's Ghost (1859). 
 Her more recent novels include Priscilla' s Love 
 Story (1898), The Maid He Married (1899), and 
 The Great Procession (1902). Ellen Olney Kirk 
 (born in Connecticut, 1842) published her first novel, 
 Love in Idleness, in 1877. She has written a score of 
 popular stories, including Through Winding Ways 
 (1880), The Story of Margaret Kent (1886), Sons 
 and Daughters (1887), The Apology of Ayliffe 
 (1904), and Marcia (1907). Blanche Willis Howard 
 (1847-1898), a native of Maine, became the wife of 
 Dr. von TeufEel, of Stuttgart in Wiirtemberg, in 
 1890. She died at Munich. Her first story. One Sum- 
 mer, a delicate idyl, appeared in 1875 ; Guenn, a 
 Breton Romance, in 1882. Clara Louise Burnham 
 (born in Massachusetts, 1854) is the daughter of Dr. 
 George F. Boot, the composer. She has been the au- 
 thor of numerous works of fiction, beginning with No 
 Gentlemen, in 1881. Among her later novels, which 
 deal largely with the teachings of Christian Science, 
 the most successful are The Wise Woman (1895), 
 The Right Princess (1902), and Jewel (1903). Ar- 
 thur Sherburne Hardy (born in Massachusetts, 1847), 
 a graduate of West Point and at one time professor 
 of mathematics in Dartmouth College, has written 
 
340 RECENT YEARS 
 
 several novels of unusual charm and strength. These 
 are But Yet a Woman (1883), The Wind of Destiny 
 (1886), Passe Rose (1889), and His Daughter First 
 (1903). Mr. Hardy was editor of T^e Cosmopolitan 
 Magazine (1898-1895) and has served as diplomatic 
 representative of the United States in the Orient, in 
 Switzerland, and in Spain. Edward Bellamy (1850- 
 1898) is best known by two popular studies in political 
 economy presented through the medium of romance : 
 Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897). 
 Robert Grant (born at Boston, 1852), a jurist, is well 
 known as a writer of stimulating essays and an author of 
 several successful novels. He has found American 
 society a fruitful field for his realistic studies, of which 
 the most prominent are: An Average Man (1883), 
 The Oarletons (1891), Unleavened Bread (1900), The 
 Undercurrent (1904) and The Chippendales (1909). 
 Frederic J. Stimson (born in Massachusetts, 1855), 
 like Judge Grant, a representative of the legal profes- 
 sion, wrote his earlier novels under the pen-name " J. S. 
 of Dale." Guerndale (1882), King JSfoanett (1896), 
 and In Cure of her Soul (1906) are representative 
 works. Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909), an inde- 
 fatigable gleaner in many fields, won merited fame 
 with his story, now classic. The Man without a 
 Country, which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 
 1863. A long series of tales and narratives — mostly 
 with a purpose — includes the novel Philip JVolan's 
 Friends (1876) and the religious romance. In His 
 Name (1873). John Townsend Trowbridge (born in 
 New York, 1827) has been, since 1848, a resident of 
 Boston or its suburbs. He, too, is a representative of 
 the earlier generation, whose works were popular with 
 old and young. His best-known novels are Neighbor 
 Jackwood (1857) and Cudjds Cave (1863). The nar- 
 
CONTEMPORARY FICTION 341 
 
 rative of Jach Hazard and his Fortunes (1871) be- 
 gan a series of entertaining stories for boys which long 
 maintained their place in the affections of the New 
 England youth. 
 
 Indeed juvenile fiction flourished early in New Eng- 
 land. The famous " Eollo " and " Lucy " juvenile 
 books of Jacob Abbott (1803-1879), which ^'"♦i""- 
 began to appear about 1840, are now recalled as 
 quaint examples of the old-fashioned children's books 
 in which instruction was generously mixed with enter- 
 tainment. The "Jack Hazard" books were of a differ- 
 ent type and were the delight of the younger genera- 
 tion that followed; so were the "Elm Island" stories 
 written by Eev. Elijah KeUogg (1813-1901), like Ja- 
 cob Abbott, a native of Maine. Mrs. Adeline D. T. 
 Whitney (1824-1906), author of Faith Gartney's 
 Girlhood (1863), Leslie Goldthwaite, and We Girls 
 (1870), and Louisa M. Alcott (1832-1888) were the 
 most popular writers for girls. 
 
 Silas Weir Mitchell (born at Philadelphia, 1830), a 
 distinguished physician, after several essays new York 
 in fiction became famous as a novelist with an^ Pann- 
 the publication of Hugh Wynne, in 1897. 
 This was the beginning in the recent revival of interest 
 in the historical novel dealing with the American Ke- 
 volution. It has its sequel in The Red City (1908). 
 Erancis R. Stockton (1834-1902), a native of Phila- 
 delphia, best known, perhaps, as the author of The 
 Lady or the Tiger (1884), is unique among American 
 story-writers for the whimsical mingling of the serious 
 and the humorous in fiction. His first notable work 
 was Rudder Grange (1879), which one hardly knows 
 whether to classify as a novel or as romance ; but its 
 very original vein of humor is delicious and runs 
 through all of Stockton's succeeding work. Mrs. Amelia 
 
342 RECENT YEARS 
 
 Edith Barr (born in England, 1831), since 1869 a 
 resident of New York state, has been the prolific au- 
 thor of more than thirty works of fiction, including Jan 
 Vedder's Wife (1885), The Black Shilling, The Bow 
 of Orange Bibbon (1886), etc. Hjalmar Hjorth Boye- 
 sen (1848-1895) is another successful American nov- 
 elist, not American born ; he was a native of Norway. 
 After coming to this country, he filled professorships 
 at Cornell and Columbia. Gunnar, a Norse Bomance, 
 his first novel, appeared in 1874. Edgar Fawcett 
 (1847-1904), also a writer of verse, wrote novels de- 
 picting some phases of society in New York. Among 
 these are An Ambitious Woman (1883), Social Sil- 
 houettes (1885), The House at High Bridge (1886). 
 Brander Matthews (born at New Orleans, 1852), since 
 1892 a professor at Columbia, a well-known essayist 
 and critic, has written i-ealistic studies — both novels 
 and short stories — of New York life ; such are 
 included in the volumes Vignettes of Manhattan 
 (1894), His leather's Son (1895), and A Confident 
 To-morrow (1899). Harold Frederic (1856-1898), a 
 New York journalist and foreign correspondent at the 
 time of his death, is best remembered by his strong, 
 purposeful novel. The Damnation of Theron Ware 
 (1896). Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909), most 
 cosmopolitan of American writers, both in residence 
 and in the material utilized in his novels, was also one 
 of the most productive of recent novelists. He was 
 the son of the sculptor, Thomas C. Crawford, and was 
 born in Italy. His education was attained at St. Paul's 
 School, in Concord, New Hampshire, at Trinity Col- 
 lege, Cambridge, at Heidelberg, and Rome. During 
 1879 and 1880, he engaged in editorial work in India. 
 Although his residence was for the rest of his life 
 in Italy, he remained strongly patriotic in his sentiment 
 
CONTEMPOKAKY FICTION 343 
 
 toward the United States, regarding it as his country 
 and asserting himself always an American. His first 
 novel, Mr. Isaacs, appeared in 1882, and was fol- 
 lowed by Dr. Claudius (1883), A Roman Singer 
 (1884), Zoroaster (1885), and A Tale of a Lonely 
 Parish (1886). The variety of sources from which 
 Mr. Crawford drew his material is strikingly suggested 
 in the titles of his representative novels, of which the 
 following may be mentioned: Paul Patoff (1887), 
 Saracinesca (1887), Greifenstein (1889), Khaled 
 (1891), Pietro GMslen (1893), Katherine Lauder- 
 dale (1894), In the Palace of the King (1900), 
 A Lady of Home (1906), Areihusa (1907). He was 
 the author of more than forty books, including impor- 
 tant studies of Italian history and several plays. Of 
 his novels it is conceded that those depicting Italian 
 life and character are the most valuable ; and of these, 
 three, constituting the Saracinesca series, are the best. 
 Mr. Crawford died at his villa in Sorrento, at the age of 
 fifty-five. Kate Douglas Wiggin, now Mrs. Eiggs 
 (born at Philadelphia, 1857), published her first notable 
 story, The Birds' Christmas Carol, in 1888, and 
 Ihe Story of Patsy in 1889. Of her subsequent stories 
 Bebecca (1903) has, perhaps, had the largest success. 
 The well-known character Penelope first appeared in 
 Penelope's English Experiences (1893). 
 
 Of the present-day novelists in the New York group, 
 Mrs. Edith Wharton (born at New York, ^^ „ 
 
 (1 T . . 1 1 The Yoimg- 
 
 1862) holds a place of distmction based oroenera- 
 largely upon her intensely realistic novels, "™- 
 The House of Mirth (1905) and The Fruit of the 
 Tree (1907). Owen Wister (born at Philadelphia, 
 1860) is known as the author of Tlie Virginian (1902). 
 Eichard Harding Davis (born at Philadelphia, 1864), 
 a journalist by profession and famed as a war cor- 
 
344 RECENT YEARS 
 
 respondent, is one of the most popular aiiort-story 
 writers of the day ; the creator of " Gallagher " and 
 " Van Bibber," and author of several popular ro- 
 mances, among which are The, King's Jackal (1898), 
 Soldiers of FoHune (1899), and The White Mice 
 (1909). Robert W. Chambers (born at Brooklyn, 
 1865) is another popular writer of romantic tales, of 
 which Lorraine (1896) and The Fighting Chance 
 (1906) are examples. Here, also, should be included 
 two representatives of this younger set, whose work 
 had aroused wide interest when interrupted by their 
 death : Paul Leicester Ford (1865-1902), author of 
 The Honorahle Peter Stirling (1894) and Janice 
 Meredith (1899), and Stephen Crane (1871-1900), a 
 young New York journalist, who wrote a remarkable 
 realistic study of battle. The Red Badge of Courage 
 (1896). 
 
 The Southern States are well represented in the fic- 
 Soutnom *'^°" which depicts local types of character, 
 story- and have, besides, produced novelists of note 
 
 T611675. 
 
 whose work is more general in its scope. 
 Similar to the work of some of the New England 
 realists is that of Richard Malcolm Johnston 
 
 In uBOTElfl 
 
 (1822-1898), whose novels and tales por- 
 tray the picturesque manners prevailing in portions of 
 his native state. Old Marie Langston (1883), The 
 Primes and their Neighbors (1891), Pearce Amer- 
 son's Will, and Old Times in Middle Georgia 
 (1897) are examples. Joel Chandler Harris (1848- 
 1908), for twenty-five years editor of the Atlanta Con- 
 stitution, has worked in the same field. Balaam and 
 his Master (1891), On the Plantation (1892), 
 Stories of Georgia, The Story of Aaron, Tales of 
 the Home Folks, are the titles of other well-known 
 volumes; but it is as "Uncle Remus," teller of tales 
 
CONTEMPORARY FICTION 345 
 
 concerning Br'er Rabbit and Br'er Fox, that this au- 
 thor is most widely known. Uncle Remus — His 
 Songs and his Sayings was published in 1880. Told 
 by Uncle Remus appeared in 1905, and almost the 
 last publication of this writer was a volume entitled 
 Uncle Remus and Br'er Rabbit (1907). 
 
 Thomas Nelson Page (born in Virginia, 1853) has 
 written stories which have their scene in the 
 Old Dominion. Among them are : In Ole 
 Virginia (1887), Two Little Confederates (1888), 
 Meh Lady, Marse Chan ; a later novel, Red Rock, 
 appeared in 1898. 
 
 James Lane Allen (born in Kentucky, 1849) is less 
 of realist than idealist ; the idyllic quality ap- 
 pears predominant in A Kentucky Cardinal 
 (1894) and its sequel, Aftermath (1896). The Choir 
 Invisible (1897) and The Reign of Law (1900) 
 are historical romances depicting early life in the state. 
 Mr. Allen's style is distinguished by unusual literary 
 charm. More distinctive studies of local types are 
 found in the realistic novels of John Fox, Jr. (born in 
 Kentucky, 1862). A Mountain Europa (1894), Hell 
 fer Sartain (1896), and The Kentuckians (1897) in- 
 troduced Mr. Fox to readers of fiction. More recently 
 have appeared The Little Shepherd of Kingdom 
 Come (1903) and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine 
 (1908). 
 
 Mary Noailles Murfree (born in Tennessee, 1850) 
 for some years successfully concealed her ^^jm^g^jg 
 identity under the pen-name " Charles Eg- 
 bert Craddock." In the Tennessee Mountains (1884), 
 The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountain (1885), 
 and In the Clouds (1886) began a series of strong and 
 interesting tales of the mountain whites — a class which 
 Miss Murfree has continued to depict in her later works. 
 
346 RECENT YEARS 
 
 The touch of the romanticist is evident in the work 
 
 of George Washington Cable (born at New 
 
 Lonisiaiia. q^^^^^^^ -^g^^^-y^ Although Mr. Cable has 
 
 been a resident of Massachusetts for many years, his 
 stories belong to the southland. Old Creole Days 
 (1879), The Grandissimes (1880), Madame JDel- 
 phine (1881), Dr. Sevier (1885), and Bonaventure 
 (1888) are representative works, Ruth McEnery 
 Stuart (born in Louisiana, 1856) has depicted with 
 keen sense of humor some phases of Southern life, both 
 white and black. A Golden Wedding and Other 
 Tales appeared in 1893 ; Carlotta's Intended and 
 The Story of Babette (ISM') were followed by Sonny 
 (1896), a unique and fascinating character study. The 
 reconstructed negro appears in the later creations of 
 Napoleon Jackson (1902) and George Washington 
 Jones (1903). The River's Children (1904) is a 
 genuine idyl of the Mississippi. Grace Elizabeth King 
 (born at New Orleans, 1852) has written of the 
 Creoles in Monsieur Motte (1888), Tales of Time 
 and Place (1892), and Balcony Stories (1893). 
 Frances Hodgson Burnett (born at Manchester, 
 England, 1849) removed to the United 
 Bioadei States in 1865, residing for ten years in 
 Scope. Tennessee, and then for a period in Wash- 
 
 ington, D. C. Mrs. Burnett's first novels. That Lass 
 o' Lowrie's (1877) and HawortKs (1879), portray 
 life among the working people of Lancashire. Her 
 Through One Administration (1883) deals with of- 
 ficial society life in Washington. Little Lord Faiint- 
 leroy (1886) was an exceedingly popular juvenile, 
 which was followed by others almost as successful. 
 Mrs. Burnett has lived of late years in England. A 
 Lady of Quality appeared in 1896, The Shuttle, 
 in 1907. Am^lie Rives, Princess Troubetzkoy (born 
 
CONTEMPORARY FICTION 347 
 
 at Richmond, Virginia, 1863), owes her literary repu- 
 tation largely to her first novel. The Quick or the 
 Dead, published in 1888. A Brother to Dragons ap- 
 peared the same year. Perhaps the best known of our 
 writers from the South is Francis Hopkinson Smith 
 (born at Baltimore, 1838), a versatile master of sev- 
 eral arts including the substantial one of building 
 lighthouses. His first success in fiction was the fine 
 character sketch. Colonel Garter of Cartersville 
 (1891). Tom Grogan (1896), Caleb West (1898), 
 and The Tides of Barnegat (1906) are all realistic 
 studies of the people whom the author may have known 
 when living the practical business life of a building 
 contractor and mechanical engineer. The Fortunes of 
 Oliver Home (1902) is said to be reminiscent of that 
 period in Mr. Smith's life when he was an art student 
 in New York. His recent stories. The Romance of an 
 Old-Fashioned G&ntleman (1907) and Peter (1908), 
 indicate a return to the more sentimental manner of 
 his earliest success. Albion W. Tourg^e (1838-1905), 
 a native of Ohio and an officer in the Union array 
 throughout the Civil War, lived in North Carolina 
 from 1865 to 1881, and during this period wrote three 
 or four novels dealing with political conditions in the 
 South. Of these, A Fool's Errand (1879) and Bricks 
 Without Straw (1880) aroused widespread interest. 
 Tourg^e afterward served as United States Consul at 
 Bordeaux and at Halifax, and was the author of 
 numerous stories and novels. 
 
 Among the younger writers who are natives of the 
 South, three have especial distinction as sue- ,^^ yonng- 
 cessful novelists in the broader field of fie- y^^™"*" 
 tion. Mary Johnston (born in Virginia, 1870) southern 
 has written three historical romances dealing Writers, 
 with old colony times in Virginia: Prisoners of Hope 
 
348 RECENT YEARS 
 
 (1898), To Have and to Hold (1900), and Sir Morti- 
 mer (1904). In Lewis Rand (1908), Miss Johnston 
 presents a picturesque study of political life at the 
 opening of the nineteenth century. The Goddess of 
 Reason (1907) is a notable drama on the theme of the 
 French Kevolution. Winston Churchill (born at St. 
 Louis, 1871) has taken a conspicuous place among writers 
 of historical romance with his impressive series dealing 
 ■with great epochs in American history : Richard Carvel 
 (1899), The Crisis (1901), and The Crossing (1904). 
 To these novels must be added his first story, The 
 Celebrity (1898), and his later work, Coniston (1906). 
 Ellen A. G. Glasgow (born at Kichmond, Virginia, 
 1874) is the author of three realistic novels of un- 
 usual power: The Descendant (1897), The Deliverance 
 (1904), and The Wheel of Life (1906). 
 
 The promise of the West as a field for the writer of 
 The Indiana fiction came with the publication of The 
 Novelists. Hoosier Schoolmaster (1871). This book 
 was a realistic study of character in southern Indiana 
 of the early fifties. Its author, Edward Eggleston 
 (1837-1902), was born in the pioneer days of the state 
 at the little town of Vevay, on the Ohio River. He 
 entered the ministry of the Methodist Church, and 
 became what was then known as a "circuit rider," 
 ministering to a parish which required a four weeks' 
 itinerary, involving both hardship and peril. In six 
 months his health broke down, and he removed to 
 Minnesota. In 1886, he engaged in editorial work at 
 Chicago, and in 1874 became pastor of a church in 
 Brooklyn, New York, to which he gave the name 
 of the Church of Christian Endeavor. The Hoosier 
 Schoolmaster met with wide popularity and was 
 translated into several languages. It was followed by 
 The Mystery of Metropolisville (1873), with its setting 
 
CONTEMPORARY FICTION 349 
 
 in Minnesota, and The Circuit Rider (1874), the 
 scene of which is laid in Ohio. Hoxy (1878) and The 
 Graysons (1887) are again portrayals of Hoosier 
 types. 
 
 The state of Indiana has made a remarkable record 
 in the literary history of the middle West. Lew Wallace 
 (1827-1905), the author of Ben JETur, was a native of 
 the state and made his home at CrawfordsviUe, the 
 " Hoosier Athens." He served in the Mexican War, 
 and later in the Civil War, receiving the rank of 
 Major-General, for gallantry in the field. His first ro- 
 mance, The Fair God (1873), was an Aztec story, the 
 inspiration of which came from the reading of Pres- 
 cott's histories. Ben Hur, a Tale of the Christ (1880) 
 was the result of a conscientious study of the founda^ 
 tions of the Christian faith. The author's treatment 
 of his difficult subject is scholarly and reverent. The 
 popularity of the work has fairly rivaled that of 
 Uncle Tom's Cabin. General Wallace was appointed 
 governor of New Mexico in 1878 ; and it was while 
 living at Santa F^ that he wrote the larger part of the 
 romance. A later story. The Prince of India (1893), 
 was an outcome of Wallace's residence at Constanti- 
 nople as minister to Turkey. 
 
 Maurice Thompson (1844-1901), also a resident of 
 CrawfordsviUe, has been mentioned already as a writer 
 of verse.* He was a novelist as well, the author of sev- 
 eral popular stories, of which A Tallahassee Girl 
 (1882) and Alice of Old Vincennes (1900) are note- 
 worthy. Among more recent writers who have added 
 to the literary reputation of the Hoosier state are: 
 Newton Booth Tarkington (born 1869), author of 
 The Gentleman from Indiana (1899), Monsieur 
 Beaucaire (1900), Tlie Two Vanrevds (IdOi}, Cherry 
 1 See page 312. 
 
350 RECENT TEARS 
 
 (1903), The Conquest of Canaan (1905), etc. Charles 
 Major (born 1856), whose very popular romance, When 
 Knighthood was in Flower, appeared in 1898; Mere- 
 dith Nicholson (born 1866), author of several romantic 
 narratives ' of which ITie House of a Thousand Can- 
 dles (1905) and The Port of Missing Men (1907) are 
 prominent ; and George Barr McCutcheon (born 1866), 
 whose Graustark (1900), Craneycrow (1902), and 
 Beverly of Graustarh (1904) are best known. Here 
 also should be included the name of the versatile hu- 
 morist George Ade (born 1866), whose first literary 
 successes, Artie, Pink Marsh, Doc Home, etc., were 
 produced while Mr. Ade was writing on the staff of a 
 Chicago newspaper (1890-1900). 
 
 Captain Charles King (born at Albany, New York, 
 The West 1844), now living at Milwaukee, a retired 
 In General, army officer, is the author of a long list of 
 tales, the material of which is mainly drawn from 
 military life. These include The ColoneVs Daughter 
 (1883), The Deserter (1887), Captain Blalce (1892), 
 The GeneraVs Double (1897), and many more. 
 
 Constance Fenimore Woolson (1848-1894), a de- 
 scendant of James Fenimore Cooper, was born in New 
 Hampshire, but her home in later life was at Cleve- 
 land, Ohio. Her summers were usually spent on the 
 shores of Lake Superior, or at Mackinac ; she resided 
 also in Florida. Her principal novels are : Castle No- 
 where (1875), Anne (1882), East Angels (1886), and 
 Jupiter Lights (1889). 
 
 Mary Hallock Foote (born in New York, 1847) 
 lived for some years in Colorado, California, and 
 Idaho, accompanying her husband, a civil engineer. 
 
 1 Mr. Nicholson is also author of The Hoosiers (1900), which gives an 
 account in detail of the Indiana -writers. It will be found interesting as 
 a source of further information on this section. 
 
CONTEMPORARY FICTION 351 
 
 Her most successful novels deal realistically with the 
 life of the mining camp and the hills. These are The 
 Led Horse Claim (1883), John Bodewin's Testimony 
 (1886), and Cceur d'Alene (1894). 
 
 Mary Hartwell Catherwood (1847-1902), a native 
 of Ohio, later a resident of Illinois, was the author of 
 several interesting historical novels for the most part 
 concerned with historic epochs in the region of the St. 
 Lawrence and the Great Lakes, and in the valleys of 
 the Mississippi and the Illinois. It was The Romance 
 of Dollard (1889) which began the series of her 
 works — a series which owed its inception to the fasci- 
 nating narratives of Francis Parkman. Old Kaskashia 
 (1893) and The White Islander (1893), The Lady 
 of Fort St. John (1892) and The Little Renault 
 (1897) are vigorous narratives of romantic adventure. 
 Mrs. Catherwood's last work, Lazarre (1901), is based 
 on the tradition which identifies the Dauphin of 
 France, who disappeared mysteriously from Paris at 
 *the outbreak of the Revolution, with a lad in America 
 who went by the name of Eleazar Williams and was 
 reputed of royal birth. 
 
 Alice French, " Octave Thanet " (born in Massa- 
 chusetts, 1850), is a resident of Davenport, Iowa. A 
 part of the year she makes her home in a quiet spot in 
 Arkansas. Both places serve as setting in some of her 
 stories. Miss French is a realist ; the relations between 
 labor and capital have proved interesting and effective 
 material in her hands. Among her works are : Knit- 
 ters in the Sun (1887), Expiation (1890), Otto the 
 Knight (1893), Stories of a Western Town (1893), 
 The Heart of Toil (1898), and The Man of the Hour 
 (1905). 
 
 Henry Blake Fuller (born at Chicago, 1857) has 
 ably represented the western metropolis in modern fie- 
 
352 RECENT YEARS 
 
 tion. Beginning his literary career with two fantastic 
 A Chicago romances, The Chevalier of Pensieri- Vani 
 group. (1891) and The Chatelaine of La Trinite, 
 Mr. Fuller (1892) next appeared as a realistic novelist 
 of keen vision and serious purpose. He portrayed some 
 phases of Chicago society in The Cliff Dwellers (1893), 
 and With the Procession (1895). Mr. Fuller's latest 
 work, The Last Refuge (1901), is in line with his earlier 
 volumes, romantic, whimsical, and strongly symbolistic. 
 
 Hamlin Garland (born in Wisconsin, 1860), for 
 a time resident in the East, but now identified with 
 Chicago, is a realist in principle, although some of his 
 more recent work is softened by touches of romanticism. 
 Mr. Garland's first publication. Main Travelled Roads 
 (1890), was a volume of short stories realistic and some- 
 what cynical in tone. Jason Edwards (1891), A Little 
 Norsk (1891), A Spoil of Office (1892), A Member of 
 the Third House (1892), and RoseofDutcher's Coolly 
 (1895) followed in similar vein. The Eagles Heart 
 (1900), Her Mountain Lover (1901), The Captain of 
 the Gray Horse Troop (1902), and Hesper (1903) 
 are all stories of the rugged, unconventional life of 
 mountain, mine, and camp, in which romance blends 
 with realism. 
 
 Will Payne (born in Illinois, 1865), since 1890 a 
 Chicago journalist and for several years editor of 
 The Economist, is the author of numerous short stories 
 and of several novels. Jerry the Dreamer was pub- 
 lished in 1896, The Story of Eva in 1901. Two of 
 Mr. Payne's realistic novels. The Money Captain 
 (1898) and Mr. Salt (1903), are distinctively studies 
 of commercial life and admirable essays in this field. 
 
 Robert Herrick (born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
 1868), a Harvard man and, since 1893, a member of the 
 Faculty in the University of Chicago, holds a leading 
 
CONTEMPORARY FICTION 353 
 
 place among western realists. Like Mr. Fuller, he has 
 been impressed by certain phases of American social 
 life and has written somewhat sombre but carefully 
 studied narratives which have their setting in the great 
 city of the middle West. These include The Gospel 
 of Freedom (1898), The Web of Life (1900), The 
 Common Lot (1904), and Together (1908). 
 
 One of the youngest and one of the most promising 
 in this group of western realists was Frank Norris 
 (1870-1902). Mr. Norris was born at Chicago, but part 
 of his life was spent on the Pacific coast and another 
 portion of it in New York. He was a journalist and 
 served as war correspondent in South Africa and 
 Cuba. At the time of his death he was a resident in 
 California. Mr. Norris's claim to distinction is found in 
 a projected series of three novels planned to embody his 
 great idea, — what he called the epic of the wheat. The 
 Octopus (1901) is the first of the series and deals with 
 the planting and harvesting of the crop ; its scene is 
 laid in southern California. The Pit (1903) pictures 
 the selling of the wheat, and dramatically portrays the 
 life which centres in the Chicago Board of Trade. The 
 last book of the trilogy was to have dealt with the 
 distribution of the wheat in Europe, and would have 
 been entitled The Wolf as symbolizing the experiences 
 of famine in Russia. Although uncompleted, the large 
 conception of this young enthusiast is worthy of more 
 than passing note, while his actual achievement is in 
 itself remarkable. 
 
354 
 
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INDEX 
 
 Abbott, Jacob, 341. 
 
 Abbots ford and Newstead Abbey 
 
 (Irving), 114. 
 Abraham Lincoln (Hay and Nico- 
 
 lay), 312. 
 Adams, Abioail, 71. 
 Adams, John, 66, 71. 
 Adams, John Quincy, 157. 
 Adams, Samuel, 66. 
 Addison, Joseph, 31, 57, 107, 111, 
 
 116, 293. 
 Ade, George, 350. 
 Adventures of Captain Bonneville 
 
 (Irving), 114. 
 Adventures of one Hans Pfaal (Poe), 
 
 212. 
 Afloat and Ashore (Cooper), 125. 
 After the Burial (Lowell), 261. 
 Aftermath (Allen), 345. 
 Agassiz (Lowell), 263. 
 Age of Reason, The (Paine) , 69. 
 Ages, The (Bryant), 136, 137. 
 Agnes of Sorrento (Stowe) , 3Q6. 
 Airs from Arcady and Elsewhere 
 
 (Bunner), 332. 
 Airs of Palestine (Pierpont), 102. 
 Al Aaraaf (Poe), 204. 
 Albany, N. Y., 309. 
 Alcott, Amos Bhonson, 152, 154, 
 
 164, 193. 
 Alcott, Lodisa May, 155, 341. 
 Alcuin (Brown), 87. 
 Aldrich, Thomas Bailey. First 
 
 poems, 321; editorial work, 322; 
 
 volumes of poems, 322; tech- 
 nique, 322; prose works, 323; 
 
 mentioned, 326. 
 Algerine Captive, The (Tyler), 86. 
 Algonquin Bible, The, 27. 
 Alice of Old Vincennes (Thompson), 
 
 349. 
 Allen, James Lane, 345. 
 Allston, Washington, 103. 
 Almanac (Franklin), 58, 62. 
 Almanack, Pierce's, 33. 
 Alnwick Castle (Halleck), 99. 
 Along the TraU (Hovey), 333. 
 Ambilious Guest, The (Hawthorne), 
 
 198. 
 
 Ambitious Woman, An (Fawcett), 
 
 342. 
 America (Smith), 103. 
 American Anthology, An (Stedman) , 
 
 325. 
 American Flag, The (Drake), 100. 
 American Lands and Letters (Mit- 
 chell), 294. 
 American Literature (Whipple) , 826. 
 American Magazine and Historical 
 
 Chronicle, The, 90. 
 American Manufacturer, 239. 
 American Note-Books (Hawthorne), 
 
 190, 197. 
 American Poetry (Bryant), 136. 
 American Soldier's Hymn, 76. 
 American spirit, first genuine, 10. 
 American Times, The (Odell), 72. 
 American Weekly Mercury, The, 89, 
 
 54. 
 Amesbury, Mass., 243. 
 Among my Books (Lowell), 2S1. 
 Anacreon in Heaven, 103. 
 Analytical tales, Poe's, 206, 212. 
 Andover, Mass., 35, 338. 
 Andover Theological Seminary ,150. 
 ANDKfi, Major, 79. 
 Angler, The (Irving), 111. 
 Annabel Lee (Poe), 209, 214. 
 Anne (Woolson), 350. 
 Apology of Ayliffe, The (Kirk), 339. 
 April (Whittier) , 244. 
 Arabian Nights, The, 297. 
 Areopagitica (Milton), 25. 
 Arethusa (Crawford), 343. 
 Army Corps on the March, An 
 
 (Whitman) , 299. 
 Art (Emerson), 168. 
 "Artemus Ward," 307. 
 Arthur Bonnica^tle (Holland) , 294. 
 Arthur Mervyn (Brown), 87, 89. 
 Artie (Ade), 350. 
 AsTOB, John Jacob, 99. 
 Astoria (Irving), 114. 
 At Magnolia Cemetery (Timrod), 
 
 315. 
 At Sunset (Lanier), 320. 
 At the Saturday Club (Holmes) , 274, 
 
 277. 
 
360 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Atlanta Constitution, 332, 344. 
 Atlantic Monthly, The, 246, 261, 
 
 270, 272, 274, 322, 326, 328, 333, 
 
 336, 340. 
 Aurelian (Ware), 304. 
 Austin, Jane G., 339. 
 Autobiography (Clemens), 309. 
 Autobiography (Franklin), 60, 62. 
 Autobiography (Gibbon), 280. 
 Autobiography (Jefferson), 70. 
 Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, The 
 
 (Holmes), 270, 271. 
 Autumn Woods (Bryant), 138. 
 Average Man, An (Grant), 340. 
 Aumkening of Helena Richie, The 
 
 (Deland), 338. 
 
 Backlog Studies (Warner), 294. 
 Backwoodsman, The (Paulding), 98. 
 Bacon, Francis, 2. 
 Bagatelles (Fianklin), 62. 
 Balaam and His Master (Harris), 
 
 344. 
 Balcony Stories (King), 346. 
 Ballad of Baby Bell (Aldrich), 321, 
 
 322. 
 Ballad of the Oyster- Man, The 
 
 (Holmes), 269. 
 Ballad of the Trees and the Master, 
 
 A (Lanier), 320. 
 Ballads, and Other Poems (Long- 
 fellow), 223. 
 Ballads of Lost Haven (Carman), 
 
 333. 
 Balloon Hoax, The (Poe), 212. 
 Baltimore, Md., 317. 
 Banckopt, Geobge, 189, 285. 
 Barbara Frietchie (Whittier), 245. 
 Barefoot Boy, The (Whittier), 236, 
 
 244. 
 Bablow, Joel, 73. 
 Bamaby Budge (Dickens), 206. 
 Babr, Amelia Edith, 342. 
 Battle Hymn of the Republic, The 
 
 (Howe), 311. 
 Battle of Bunker Hill, The (Brack- 
 
 enridge), 84. 
 Battle of the Kegs, The (Hopkinson) , 
 
 77, 79. 
 Battle of Trenton, The, 76. 
 Bay Path (Holland) , 294. 
 Bay Psalm Book, The, 27, 33. 
 Bedouin Song (Taylor), 291. 
 Bbecheh, Henby Wabd, 150, 289, 
 
 305. 
 Beecheb, Lyman, 150. 
 Before the Curfew (Holmes), 276. 
 Being a Boy (Warner), 295. 
 
 Beleaguered City, The (Lonefellow), 
 222. 
 
 Belfry of Bruges, and Other Poems 
 (Longfellow), 223. 
 
 Bellamy, Edward, 340. 
 
 Bells, The (Aldrich), 321. 
 
 Bells, The (Poe), 214, 209. 
 
 Bells of San Bias, The (Longfellow), 
 228. 
 
 Ben Hur (Wallace), 349. 
 
 "Benj. F. Johnson of Boone," 331. 
 
 Beppo (Byron), 99. 
 
 Betty Alden (Austin), 339. 
 
 Beverley, Robert, 48. 
 
 Beverly of Graustark (McOutcheon), 
 350. 
 
 Beyond the Gates (Ward), 338. 
 
 Bianca Visconti (Willis), 104. 
 
 Bible, The, 290. 
 
 Biglow Papers (Lowell). First 
 series, 259; second series, 261. 
 
 BUI and Joe (Holmes), 276. 
 
 Biographical and critical authori- 
 ties, Irving, 118; Cooper, 128; 
 Bryant, 147; Emerson. 177; 
 Thoreau, 182; Hawthorne, 199; 
 Poe, 215; Longfellow, 233 ; Whit- 
 tier, 252; Lowell, 267; Holmes, 
 278; the Historians, 286; Whit- 
 man, 302; the Southern Novel- 
 ists, 310; the Southern Poets, 
 320. See also Suggestions for 
 Reading. 
 
 Biographical Stories (Hawthorne), 
 192. 
 
 Bird, Robebt M., 302. 
 
 Bird and Bough (Burroughs), 328. 
 
 Birds and Poets (Burroughs), 328. 
 
 Birds' Christmas Carol, The (Wig- 
 gin), 343. 
 
 Birthmark, The (Hawthorne), 199. 
 
 Bishop Laud, 22. 
 
 Bitter-Sweet (Holland), 294. 
 
 Bivouac of the Dead, The (O'Hara), 
 313. 
 
 Bivouac on a Mountainside (Whit- 
 man), 299. 
 
 Black Cat, The (Poe), 212. 
 
 Black Shilling, The (Barr), 342. 
 
 BlUhedale Romance, The (Haw- 
 thorne), 153, 190, 193. 
 
 Bloody Tenet encounter between 
 Williams and Cotton, 25. 
 
 Boar's Head Tavern, The (Irving), 
 111. 
 
 BoEER, Geobge Henby, 295. 
 
 Bold Hathome, Ballad of, 79, 183. 
 
 Bonaventure (Cable), 346. 
 
INDEX 
 
 361 
 
 Bonifacius (Mather), 30. 
 Book of Roses (Parkman) , 285. 
 Boston, why so named, 23. 
 Boston, birthplace of Franklin, 52 ; 
 of Emerson, 157; of Poe, 200; 
 home of Holmes, 273. 
 Boston Advertiser, 269. 
 Boston Athenaeum, 15S. 
 Boston. Courier, The, 258. 
 Boston Gazette, The, 54, 89. 
 Boston Hymn (Emerson), 173. 
 Boston Magazine, The, 90. 
 Boston Massacre, The, 67. 
 Boston Miscellany, The, 256. 
 Boston News Letter, The, 54, 89. 
 Boston Token, The, 187. 
 Bostonians, The (James), 337. 
 Bow of Orange Ribbon, The (Barr), 
 
 342. 
 Bowdoin College, Hawthorne, 184; 
 Longfellow, 218, 241 ; Dr. Stowe, 
 305. 
 BOYBSEN, Hjalmar Hjorth, 342. 
 Boy's Froissart, The (Lanier), 318. 
 Boy's King Arthur, The (Lanier), 
 
 318. 
 Boys, The (Holmes), 276. 
 Bracebridge Hall (Irving), 97, 111. 
 Brackenridge, Hugh H., 84, 86, 
 
 90. 
 Bradford, William, 13. 
 Bradstreet, Anne, 35, 101, 268. 
 Brahma (Emerson), 171. 
 Brave Paulding and the Spy, 79. 
 Bravo, The (Cooper), 124. 
 Breadwinners, The, 312. 
 Bricks Without Straw (Tourgfe), 
 
 347. 
 Bridge, Horatio, 184, 187, 190. 
 Bridge, The (Longfellow), 231. 
 British Prison Ship, The (Freneau), 
 
 81. 
 Broadway Journal, 208. 
 Brook Farm, 153, 189, 193, 292. 
 Brooklyn Eagle, The, 297. 
 Broomstick Train, The (Holmes), 
 
 276. 
 Brother to Dragons, A (Rives), 347. 
 Brown, Alice, 338. 
 Brown, Charles Brockden, 86, 
 
 95, 119, 303. 
 Browne, Charles F., 307. 
 Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 
 
 211, 256. 
 Brutus (Payne), 102. 
 Bryant, William Ctjllen. School 
 days, 130; at Williams College, 
 130 ; The Embargo, 130 ; Thanaiop- 
 
 sis, 132 ; studying law, 132 ; To a 
 Waterfowl, 133; Inscription for 
 the Entrance to a Wood, 134; 
 American Poetry, 136; Hymn to 
 Death, 136 ; Fairest of the Rural 
 Maids, 136; The Ages, 136; first 
 volume of verse, 137 ; removal to 
 New York, 138; The Evening 
 Post, 138; volume of 1832, 139; 
 travels, 139; Letters of a Travel- 
 ler, 140; Letters from the Far 
 East, 140; citizen and orator, 
 140 r translation of Homer, 141 ; 
 in old age, 141 ; the poet's homes, 
 142; death, 142; as a poet, 143; 
 descriptive poems , 143 ; tech- 
 nique, 145; suggestions for read- 
 ing, 146; mentioned, 95, 97, 101, 
 127, 171, 192,205, 211, 220, 230, 
 241, 262, 277. 
 
 Buccaneer, The (Dana), 101. 
 
 Bunker Hill, 68. 
 
 BuNNER, Henry Cutler, 332. 
 
 BuNYAN, John, 31, 41, 53, 188. 
 
 Burke, Edmund, 69, 70. 
 
 Burnett, Frances Hodgson, 346. 
 
 Burnham, Clara Louise, 339. 
 
 Burns, Robert, 83, 189, 237, 246. 
 
 Bums (Halleck), 99. 
 
 Burroughs, John, 328. 
 
 Burton, Richard, S3. 
 
 Burton's Magazine, 207. 
 
 Busy Body, The (Franklin), 56. 
 
 Butler, Samuel, 73. 
 
 But Yet a Woman (Hardy), 340. 
 
 By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame, 299. 
 
 Byron, Lord, 97, 103, 119, 202, 
 204. 
 
 Cable, George W., 346. 
 
 Caleb West (Smith), 347. 
 
 Caleb Williams (Godwin), 89. 
 
 Calhoun, John C, 289. 
 
 California and Oregon Trail, The 
 (Parkman), 284. 
 
 Califomicin, The, 308. 
 
 Cambridge, Mass., site of Harvard 
 College, 13 ; centre of intellectual 
 activity, 149; Longfellow, 222; 
 Lowell, 253; Holmes, 268. 
 
 Cambridge Thirty Years Ago (Low- 
 ell), 261. 
 
 Camden, N. J., 301. 
 
 Camp Ballad (Hopkinson), 78. 
 
 Canterbury Pilgrims, The (Mac- 
 Kaye),334. 
 
 Cap and Bells (Peck), 332. 
 
 Captain Blake (King), 350. 
 
362 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Captain of the Gray Horse Troop, 
 The (Garland), 352. 
 
 Carleton, Will, 330. 
 
 Carletons, The (Grant), 340. 
 
 CarloUa's Intended (Stuart), 346. 
 
 Cablyle, Thomas, 152, 161, 169, 
 288. 
 
 Cabman, Bliss, 333. 
 
 Gary, Alice, 248, 311. 
 
 Gary, Phojbe, 248, 311. 
 
 Cask of Amontillado, The (Foe), 
 213. 
 
 Cassandra Southwich (Whittier), 
 244. 
 
 Castilian Days (Hay), 312. 
 
 Castle by the Sea, The (Longfellow), 
 232. 
 
 Castle Craneycrow (McCJutcheon), 
 350. 
 
 Castle Nowhere (Woolson), 350. 
 
 Cathedral, The (Lowell), 263. 
 
 Gatherwood, Mary Hartwell, 35. 
 
 Cavaliers, the, 9. 
 
 Cavalier poets, the, 83. 
 
 Cavalry Crossing a Ford (Whitman) , 
 299. 
 
 Celebrated' Jumping Frog, The 
 <Clemens), 308. 
 
 CelebrUy, The (Churchill), 348. 
 
 Century, The, 294, 329. 
 
 Century of Dishonor (Jackson), 311. 
 
 Chainbearer, The (Cooper), 125. 
 
 Chambered Nautiius, The (Holmes), 
 272, 276. 
 
 Chambers, Robert W., 344. 
 
 Chance Acquaintance, A (Howells), 
 336. 
 
 Changeling, The (Lowell), 260. 
 
 Channinq, William Elleby, ISO, 
 191. 
 
 Chapel of the Hermits (Whittier), 
 244. 
 
 Character (Emerson), 169. 
 
 Characters in Cooper's novels, 124, 
 126. 
 
 Characters in Hawthorne's The Mar- 
 ble Fanin, 194; in Hawthorne's 
 The Scarlet Letter, 191 ; in Whit- 
 tier's Snow-Bound, 246 ; in Long- 
 fellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn, 
 23 1 an Whittier 's rfte Tent on the 
 Beach, 246. 
 
 Characters interpreted in Emerson's 
 Representative Men, 169. 
 
 Characteristics of Franklin's liter- 
 ary work, 62. 
 
 Charles I, 9. 
 
 "Charles Egbert Craddock," 345. 
 
 Charleston, S. C, 303, 314. 
 
 Charlotte Temple (Rowson), 85. 
 
 Chatelaine of La Trinite, The (Ful- 
 ler), 352. 
 
 Chaucer (Longfellow), 232. 
 
 Cheerful Yesterdays (Higglnson), 
 327. 
 
 Cheney, John Vance, 330. 
 
 Cherry (Tarkington) , 349. 
 
 Chevalier of Pensieri^Vani, The, 
 (Fuller), 352. 
 
 Child, Francis J., 329. 
 
 Child, Lydia Maria, 304. 
 
 Children, The (Longfellow), 231. 
 
 Children's Hour, The (Longfellow), 
 232. 
 
 Chippendales, The (Grant), 340. 
 
 Choate, Rufus, 289. 
 
 Choir Invisible, The (Allen) , 345. 
 
 Christus (Longfellow), 227. 
 
 Chronological History of New Eng- 
 land (Prince), 16. 
 
 Chronological Reviews: 17th Cen- 
 tury, 43; 18th Century, 93; 
 1800-1835, 148; 1836-1880, 354r- 
 357. 
 
 CnnRCHiLL, Winston, 348. 
 
 Circles (Emerson), 168. 
 
 Circuit Bider, The (Eggleston), 
 349. 
 
 City in the Sea, The (Poe) , 204, 214. 
 
 CivHisation (Emerson), 173. 
 
 Clara Howard (Brown), 87. 
 
 Clari, the Maid of Milan (Payne), 
 102. 
 
 CJlarke, James Freeman, 152. 
 
 Clay, Henry, 240, 289. 
 
 Clemens, Samuel L., 294, 307. 
 
 Clergy, The New England, 21-31. 
 
 Clerical Oppressors (Whittier), 242. 
 
 Cliff Dwellers, The (Fuller), 362. 
 
 Cloth of Gold (Aldrich), 322. 
 
 CoBur d'AUne (Foote), 351. 
 
 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 97, 
 151, 161, 215, 307. 
 
 Coliseum, The (Poe), 214. 
 
 ColonelCarterofCartersville (Smith), 
 347. 
 
 Colonel's Daughter, The (King), 
 350. 
 
 Columbia (Dwight), 75, 78. 
 
 Columbia University, 67. 
 
 Columbiad, The (Barlow), 73. 
 
 Columbus (Miller), 330. 
 
 Comes One with a Song (Stanton), 
 332. 
 
 Comet, The (Holmes), 269. 
 I CommemoraiUm Ode (Lowell) , 173. 
 
INDEX 
 
 363 
 
 Common Lot, The (Heyrick), 353. 
 Common Smse (Paine), 68. 
 Common Way, The (Deland), 338. 
 Compensation (Emerson), 168. 
 Compleat Angler, The (Walton), 265. 
 Conciliation with America (Burke), 
 70. 
 
 Concord Days (Aloott), 155. 
 
 Concord Hymn, The (Emerson), 
 170. 
 
 Concord and Merrimack Rivers, A 
 Week on the (Thoreau), 180, 182. 
 
 Concord, Mass., the Alcotts, 155; 
 Margaret Fuller, Hawthorne, 
 Emerson, 164; Thoreau, 177; 
 Hawthorne, 190. 
 
 Concord, N. H., 242. 
 
 Cone, Helen Gbay, 330. 
 
 Confessions of an English Opium 
 Eater (De Quincey), 98. 
 
 Confident To-morrow, A (Matthews), 
 342. 
 
 Congratulation, The (Odell), 72. 
 
 Coniston (Churchill) , 348. 
 
 Connecticut Yankee in King Ar- 
 thur's Court (Clemens), 308. 
 
 Conqueror Worm, The (Poe), 214. 
 
 Conquest of Canaan (Dwight) , 74. 
 
 Conquest of Canaan, The (Tark- 
 ingtou), 350. ' 
 
 Conquest of Mexico, The (Prescott) , 
 281. 
 
 Conquest of Peru, The (Prescott), 
 281. 
 
 Conspiracy of Pontiac, The (Park- 
 man), 284. 
 
 Constitution of the United States, 70. 
 
 Contemplations (Bradstreet), 38. 
 
 Contemporaries (Higginson), 327. 
 
 Contemporary Fiction, 335. 
 
 Contentment (Holmes), 272. 
 
 Continental Congress, 67. 
 
 Contrast, The (Tyler), 84. 
 
 Conversations on Some of the Old 
 Poets (Lowell), 257. 
 
 Cook, Ebenezer, 49. 
 
 CooKE, John Esten, 303. 
 
 CooPEK, James Fenimore, 119; at 
 Yale, 120; on shipboard, 120; 
 Precaution, 122; The Spy, 122; 
 The Pioneers, 123; The Pilot, 
 123; Lionel Lincoln, 124; The 
 Last of the Mohicans, 124; The 
 Prairie, 124; The Wept of Wish- 
 ton-Wish, 124; The Water-Witch, 
 124 ; The Bravo, 124 ; The Heiden- 
 mauer, 124; The Headsman, 124; 
 The Manikins, 124; Homeward 
 
 Bound, 125 ; Home as Found, 125 ; 
 Satanstoe, 125; The Chainbearer, 
 125; The Redskins, 125; The Cra- 
 ter, 125; Jack Tier, 125; The Oak 
 Openingsll25 ; The SeaLions, 125 ; 
 The Ways of the Hour, 125 ; The 
 Pathfinder, 125 ; Mercedes of Cas- 
 tile, 125; The Deerslayer, 125; The 
 Two Admirals, 125; Wing-and- 
 Wing, 125 ; Wyandotte, 125 ; Afloat 
 and Ashore, 125; Miles Walling- 
 ford, 125; United States Navy, 
 125; personal traits, 125; The 
 Leather Stocking Tales, 126; 
 merits as a novelist, 127; sugges- 
 tions for reading, 128 ; mentioned, 
 95, 97, 98, 100, 138, 198, 211, 302, 
 303. 
 
 Cooper, James Fenimore (Louna- 
 bury), 329. 
 
 Coquette, The (Foster), 86. 
 
 Coral Grove, The (Percival), 102. 
 
 Com (Lanier), 318, 320. 
 
 Cosmopolitan Magazine, 340. 
 
 Cotter's Saturday Night, Tfte (Burns), 
 246. 
 
 Cotton, John, 23, 150. 
 
 Cotton Boll, The (Timrod), 314. 
 
 Count Fronlenac and New France 
 (Parkman), 284. 
 
 Country Doctor, A (Jewett), 337. 
 
 Country of the Pointed Firs, The 
 (Jewett), 337. 
 
 County Road, The (Brown), 338. 
 
 Courtin', The (Lowell), 262. 
 
 Courtship of Miles Standish (Long- 
 fellow), 226. 
 
 CowPEB, William, 132, 135. 
 
 Crane, Stephen, 344. 
 
 Crater, The (Cooper), 125. 
 
 Crawford, Francis Marion, 342. 
 
 Crawfordsville, Ind., 313. 
 
 Crisis, The (Churchill), 348. 
 
 Crisis, The (Paine), 69. 
 
 Critical Period of American His- 
 tory, The (Fiske), 286. 
 
 Critical Reviews, Poe's, 206, 210. 
 
 CrUieismand Fiction (Howells) , 336. 
 
 Croakers, The, 100. 
 
 Cross of Snow, The (Longfellow), 
 226. 
 
 Crossing, The (Churchill), 348. 
 
 Crothers, Samoel M., 328. 
 
 Cudjo's Cave (Trowbridge), 340. 
 
 Culprit Fay, The (Drake), 100. 
 
 Cummington, Mass., birthplace of 
 Bryant, 128. 
 
 Cummins, Maria S., 305. 
 
364 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Curfew (Longfellow), 231. 
 Curtis, Geobgb William, 153, 
 
 290, 292-294. 
 Custom-House, Tie (Hawthorne), 
 
 192, 199. 
 
 Daisy MUkr (James), 337. 
 Damnation of Tkeron Ware, The 
 
 (Frederic), 342. 
 Dana, Chaeles A., 153, 154. 
 Dana, Eichabd Henry, 95, 97, 101. 
 Dana, Richard Henry, Jr., 101, 
 
 268. 
 Dante, 297, 310. 
 Dante (Lowell), 266. 
 Dante, Longfellow's translation of, 
 
 292 ; Parson's translation of, 311. 
 Dante's Diuime Comedy, Norton's 
 
 tran^ation of, 329. 
 Dartmouth Collie, Webster, 288. 
 Davis, Bichard Harding, 343. 
 Doj/ is Done, The (Longfellow), 231. 
 Daiy of Doom, The (Wigglesworth), 
 
 39. 
 Deacon's Masterpiece, The (Holmes), 
 
 272, 276. 
 Dead House. The (Lowell), 261. 
 Declaration of Independence, The, 69. 
 Deephaven, (Jewett), 337. 
 Deerslayer, The (Cooper), 125, 127. 
 Defoe, Daniel, 53, 119, 211. 
 Deland, Margaret Wade, 338. 
 Deliverance, The (Glasgow), 348. 
 Democracy (Lowell) ,.264. 
 Descendant, The (Glasgow), 348. 
 Descent into the Maelstrom (Foe), 
 
 211. 
 Description, of New England, A 
 
 (Smith), 12. 
 Deserted ViUage, The (Goldsmith), 
 
 246. 
 Deserter, The (King), 350. 
 Demi and Tom Walker, The (Irv- 
 ing), 111. 
 Devil in the Belfry, The (Foe), 213. 
 Dial, The, 152, 170, 182, 256. 
 Dialogue between Dr. Franklin and 
 
 the Gout, 62 . 
 Diamond Wedding, The (Stedman), 
 
 324. 
 Diaries: Sewall's, 45; Madam 
 
 Knight's, 46; Byrd's, 47. 
 Dickens, Charles, 119, 211, 309. 
 Dickinson, Emily, 312. 
 Discoverer of the North Cape, The 
 
 (Longfellow), 231. 
 Divine Comedy, The (Longfellow), 
 
 226. 
 
 Divine Tragedy, The (Longfellow), 
 227. 
 
 Dixie (Pike), 313. 
 
 Dr. Claudius (Crawford), 343. 
 
 Dr. Grimshawe's Secret (Hawthorne), 
 197. 
 
 Dr. Heidegger's Experiment (Haw- 
 thorne), 188, 198. 
 
 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Steven- 
 son), 212. 
 
 Dr. Sevier (Cable), 346. 
 
 Doc Home (Ade) , 360. 
 
 Dolliver Romance, The (Hawthorne), 
 196, 197. 
 
 Dolph Heyliger (Irving), 111. 
 
 Domain of Amheim, The (Foe) ,213. 
 
 Donne, John, 36. 
 
 Dorchester, Mass., 27. 
 
 Dorothy Q. (Holmes), 268. 
 
 Dorr, Julia C. R., 330. 
 
 Douglas, Stephen A., 289. 
 
 Drake, Joseph Rodman, 95, 100. 
 
 Drama, beginnings of, 84. 
 
 Dramas (Hillhouse), 103. 
 
 Drayton, Michael, 2, 8. 
 
 Dream-Land (Foe), 214. 
 
 Dream Life (Mitchell), -294. 
 
 Dred (Stowe), 306. 
 
 Drum-Taps (Whitman) , 299. 
 
 Dryden, John, 8, 31, 72. 
 
 Dudley, Thomas, 35. 
 
 Dunbar, Faul Laurence, 334. 
 
 Dutchman's Fireside, The (Pauld- 
 ing), 98, 99. 
 
 Dwight, Timothy, 74. 
 
 Dying Raven, The (Dana), 101. 
 
 Eagle's Heart, The (Garland), 352. 
 Earth's Holocaust (Hawthorne), 199. 
 East Angels (Woolson), 350. 
 Economist, The, 352. 
 Edgar Huntley (Brown), 87, 89. 
 Education in Virginia, 10; in New 
 
 England, 13. 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 49-51, 75. 
 Eggleston, Edward, 348. 
 Ei^ht Cousins (Alcott), 156. 
 Eighteenth Century, Chronological 
 
 Review, 93. 
 Eldorado (Taylor), 291. 
 Eliot, George, 119. 
 Eliot, John, 26, 33, 99. 
 Elizabethan age, literary climax 
 
 of, 2. 
 Elm Island Stories, The, 341. 
 Elsie Venner (Holmes), 273. 
 Emancipation Proclamation, 173. 
 Embargo, The (Bryant), 130. 
 
INDEX 
 
 365 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Youth 
 and education, 158 ; school 
 teacher, 159 ; Good-bye, proud 
 world ! I 'mgoing home, 159 ; theo- 
 logy, 160; first European visit, 
 160 ; acquaintances in England, 
 161; Concord, 161; Nature, 164; 
 The American Scholar, 165; 
 the lyceum, 167; the lectures, 
 167; Essays, First Series, 168; 
 Essays, Second Series, 169; Re- 
 presentative Men, 169; English 
 Traits, 169; the poet, 170; in 
 war-time, 172; later life and 
 work, 173; Natural History 
 of Intellect, 173; Society and 
 Solitude, 173; Letters and Social 
 Aims, 173; Parnassus, 173; 
 last journeys, 174; declining 
 strength, 174; estimate of work, 
 175 ; suggestions for reading, 176 ; 
 mentioned, 149, 152, 154, 177, 
 178, 179, 190, 196, 229, 234, 241, 
 248, 254, 298. 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo (Hale), 327. 
 
 Enfield, 60. 
 
 English classic poets, 75. 
 
 English in Virginia, the, 1-10. 
 
 English Lands, Letters and Kings 
 (Mitchell), 294. 
 
 English Note-Books (Hawthorne), 
 197. 
 
 English Novel, The (Lanier), 318. 
 
 EngUsh parliamentarians, 70. 
 
 English Traits (Emerson), 169. 
 
 English university graduates in the 
 colonies, 22. 
 
 English writers contemporary with 
 the Virginia colony, 2. 
 
 Equality (Bellamy), 340. 
 
 Essay on Milton (Macaulay), 98. 
 
 Essays, First Series (Emerson), 168. 
 
 Essays, Second Series (Emerson), 
 169. 
 
 Essays of Elia (Lamb), 98. 
 
 Essays to do Good (Mather), 
 30, 53, 57. 
 
 Estimate of Emerson's work, 176. 
 
 Ethan Brand (Hawthorne), 198. 
 
 European judgment of Poe, 210. 
 
 E'itaw Springs (Freneau), 81. 
 
 Evangeline (Longfellow), 223, 224. 
 
 Evening Wind, The (Bryant), 139. 
 
 EvEKETT, Edward, 289. 
 
 Every Saturday, 322. 
 
 Excelsior (Longfellow), 223. 
 
 Experience (Emerson), 169. 
 
 Expiation (French), 3S1. 
 
 Fable for Critics, A (Lowell), 259. 
 Faerie Queene (Spenser), 188, 254. 
 Fair God, The (Wallace), 349. 
 Fairfax (Cooke), 304. 
 Faith Oartney's Girlhood (Whitney), 
 
 341. 
 Fall of the House of Usher, The (Poe) , 
 
 213. 
 Fancy's Show Box (Hawthorne), 
 
 188, 199. 
 Fanny (Halleck), 99. 
 Fanshawe (Hawthorne), 187, 197. 
 Farewell Address (Washington), 71. 
 Farm Ballads (Carleton), 330. 
 Farmer Refuted, The (Hamilton), 
 
 67. 
 Father, The, or American Shandy- 
 ism (Dunlap), 85. 
 Father Abraham's Speech (Frank- 
 lin), 60. 
 Faust, Taylor's translation of, 292. 
 Fawoett, Edqar, 342. 
 Federalist, The, 69. 
 Fenris the Wolf (MacKaye), 334. 
 Feu de Joie, The (Odell), 72. 
 Fiction, Idealistic, 339. 
 Field, Eugene, 331. 
 Fielding, Henry, 119. 
 Fields, James T., 246, 327, 330, 
 
 338. 
 Fields, Mrs. James T., 248, 330. 
 Fighting Chance, The (Chambers), 
 
 344. 
 Fire-Bringer, The (Moody), 334. 
 Fireside Travels (Lowell), 261. 
 First American novel, the, 85. 
 First American play, the, 84. 
 First Church in Boston, 157. 
 First Discovery and Settlement of 
 
 Virginia (Stith), 48. 
 First English book produced in ' 
 
 America, 4. 
 First Snowfall, The (Lowell), 260. 
 FisKE, John, 286. 
 Flower and Thorn (Aldrich), 322. 
 Flowers (Longfellow), 222. 
 Fool's Errand, A (TourgSe), 347. 
 FooTE, Mary Hallock, 350. 
 Footsteps of Angels (Longfellow), 
 
 222. 
 For Annie (Poe), 209, 214. 
 For Whittier's Seventieth Birthday 
 
 (Holmes) , 277. 
 Ford, Paul Leicester, 344. 
 Foregone Conclusion, A (Howells), 
 
 336. 
 Forest Hymn, A (Bryant) , 138, 145. 
 Fort McHenry, 103. 
 
366 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Fortunes of Oliver Home, The 
 (Smith), 347. 
 
 Four Elements, The (Bradstreet) , 
 36. 
 
 FmiT Monarchies, The (Bradstreet), 
 36. 
 
 Four Seasons, The (Bradstreet), 36. 
 
 Fox, 70. 
 
 Fox, John, Jr., 345. 
 
 Francesca da Rimini (Boker), 295. 
 
 Franklin (Sparks), 286. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin. Birth, and 
 boyhood, 52; habits of study, 
 S3 ; the newspaper, 54 ; arrival in 
 Philadelphia, 55; in England, 55; 
 the Junto, 56; practical benefi- 
 cence, 56; a man of letters, 67; 
 The Almanac, 58; "Poor Rich- 
 ard," 58 ; Autobiography, 60 ; char- 
 acteristics of his literary work, 62 ; 
 service to the country, 62 ; scholar 
 and scientist, 64; the Franklin 
 Union, 65; mentioned, SO, 52, 
 306. 
 
 Franklin Union, The, 65. 
 
 Frederic, Harold, 342. 
 
 Free Press, 238. 
 
 Freedom of the Will, The (Edwards), 
 51, 75. 
 
 Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins, 338. 
 
 Freeman's Oath, The, 33. 
 
 French, Alice, 351. 
 
 French and Italian Note-Books 
 (Hawthorne), 197. 
 
 Freneau, Philip, 81, 95. 
 
 Fresh Fields (Burroughs), 328. 
 
 Friar Jerome's Beautiful Book 
 (Aldrich), 322. 
 
 "Friendly Club," The, 87. 
 
 Friendship (Emerson), 168. 
 
 Fruil of the Tree, The (Wharton), 
 343. 
 
 Fuller, Henht Blake, 351. 
 
 FtTLLER, Margaret, 166, 164, 191, 
 268. 
 
 FuRNBSS, Horace Howard, 327. 
 
 Garland, Hamlin, 352. 
 
 Garrison of Cape Ann, The (Whit- 
 tier), 244. 
 
 Garrison, William Llotd, 154, 
 239, 242. 
 
 Gates Ajar, The (Ward), 337. 
 
 Gates Between, The (Ward), 338. 
 
 Gayarre, Charles Stienne, 286. 
 
 General History of Virginia, A 
 (Smith), 6. 
 
 General Magazine, The, 90. 
 
 General's Double, The (King), 350. 
 
 Genius, Lanier's, 320. 
 
 Gentle Boy, The (Hawthorne), 188, 
 
 198. 
 Gentleman from Indiana, The (Tark- 
 
 ington), 349. 
 "Geoffrey Crayon," 111. 
 George III, 66. 
 George IV, 113. 
 George Washington Jones (Stuart), 
 
 346. 
 Gettysburg, Lincoln's speech at, 
 
 290. 
 Gibbon, 280. 
 Gifts (Emerson), 169. 
 Gilded Age, The (Warner), 294, 
 
 308. 
 Gilder, Richard Watson, 329. 
 Gladiator, The (Bird), 303. 
 Gladstone, William E., 70. 
 Glasgow, Ellen A. G., 348. 
 Goddess of Reason, The (Johnston), 
 
 348. 
 Godwin, William, 89. 
 Goethe, 151, 224, 292. 
 Gold Bug, The (Poe), 207, 212. 
 Golden Bra, The, 309. 
 Golden House, The (Warner), 295. 
 Golden Legend, The (Longfellow), 
 
 224, 227, 232. 
 Golden Wedding and Other Tales, A 
 
 (Stuart), 346. 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, 75, 111, 116, 
 
 246. 
 Good-bye my Fancy (Whitman), 
 
 301. 
 Good-bye, proud world I I'm going 
 
 home (Emerson), 159. 
 GooDALE, Dora Read, 330. 
 Goodrich, S. G., 187. 
 Gospel of Freedom, The (Herrick), 
 
 353. 
 Graham's Magazine, 207, 256. 
 Grandfather's Chair (Hawthorne), 
 
 192. 
 Grandissimes, The (Cable), 346. 
 Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill 
 
 Battle (Holmes), 276. 
 Grant, Robert, 340. 
 Grofustark (McCutcheon) , 350. 
 Gram, The (Blair), 132. 
 Gray Champion, The (Hawthorne), 
 
 188, 198. 
 Gray, Thomas, 83. 
 Graysons, The (Eggleston), 349. 
 Great Awakening of 1734-44, 51, 
 
 160. 
 Great Barrington, Mass., 133. 
 
INDEX 
 
 367 
 
 Greet Carbuncle, The (Hawthorne), 
 
 188. 
 Great Divide, The (Moody), 334. 
 Great Procession, The (Spofford), 
 
 339. 
 Great Stone Face, The (Hawthorne), 
 
 198. 
 Greeley, Horace, 154, 156, 182, 
 
 324. 
 Green River (Bryant), 97, 137, 144. 
 Greenfield Hill (Dwight), 75. 
 Greifenslein (Crawford), 343. 
 Griggsby's Station (Riley), 331. 
 Guardian Angel, The (Holmes) ,273. 
 Guenn (Howard), 339. 
 Guemdale (Stimson), 340. 
 Guilford, Conn., 99. 
 GniNET, Louise Imogen, 330. 
 Gunnar (Boyesen), 342. 
 Guy Rivers (Simms) , 303. 
 
 "H. H."311. 
 
 Hail Columbia (Hopkinson), 78. 
 
 Hale, Edward Everett, 256, 327; 
 
 340. 
 Hale, Nathan, 79. 
 Hale in the Bush, 79. 
 Half-Century of Conflict, A (Park- 
 man), 284. 
 Hallam, 113. 
 Hallece, Fitz Greene, 95, 97, 99, 
 
 138. 
 Hamilton, Alexander, 69, 70, 138. 
 Hampton Beach (Whittier), 244. 
 Hancock, John, 67. 
 Hannah Thurston (Taylor), 291. 
 Hannibal, Mo., 307. 
 Hans Breitmann's Ballads (Leland), 
 
 307. 
 Hardy, Arthur Sherburne, 339. 
 Harper's Magazine, 115, 293, 336. 
 Harris, Joel Chandler, 344. 
 Harte, Bret, 308, 309. 
 Hartford founded, 22, 294, 306, 
 
 323. 
 Hartford Wits, The, 73. 
 Harvard, John, 13. 
 Harvard College, founded, 13; in 
 
 the Unitarian movement, 150; 
 
 Emerson, 158; Thoreau, 178; 
 
 Longfellow, 222; Lowell, 264; 
 
 Holmes, 269. 
 Hasty Pudding (Barlow), 74. 
 Haunted Palace, The (Poe), 214. 
 Haverhill, Mass., birthplace of 
 
 Whittier, 234. 
 Haverhill Gazette, 239. 
 Haworth's (Burnett), 346. 
 
 Hawthorne, influenced by Charles 
 Brockden Brown, 88. 
 
 Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Child- 
 hood, 183; at Bowdoin College, 
 184 ; class-mates, 184 ; Salem, 186 ; 
 Fanshawe, 187; sketches and 
 short stories, 187; Twice-Told 
 Tales, 187; correspondence with 
 Longfellow, 188; in Boston Cus- 
 tom House, 189; Brook Farm, 
 189; American Note Books, 190; 
 Blithedale Romance, 190; mar- 
 riage, 190; the "Old Manse," 
 190; second collection of Twice- 
 Told Tales, 190; Journal of an 
 African Cruiser, 190; Mosses 
 from an Old Manse, 190 ; in Salem 
 Custom House, 191 ; The Scarlet 
 Letter, 191; The Custom House, 
 192; at Lenox, 192; The House of 
 the Seven Gables, 192; Grand- 
 father's Chair, 192; Biographical 
 Stories, 192; Wonder Book, 193; 
 Tanglewood Tales, 193; The 
 Blithedale Romance, 193; consul- 
 ship at Liverpool, 193; in Italy, 
 193; The Marble Faun, 194; 
 closing years, 195; Our Old 
 Home, 196; death, 196; after 
 publications, 197; place in liter- 
 ature, 197; suggestions for read- 
 ing, 199; authorities, 199; men- 
 tioned, 149, 153, 161, 164, 175, 
 176, 211, 220, 234, 241, 256, 292, 
 295. 
 
 Hay, John, 312. 
 
 Hayne, Paul H., 313, 314, 315. 
 
 Hayne, Robert Y., 315. 
 
 Hazard of New Fortunes, A (How- 
 ells), 336. 
 
 Headsman, The (Cooper), 124. 
 
 Heart of Toil, The (French), 351. 
 
 Heartsease and Rue (Lowell), 263. 
 
 Heathen Chinee, The (Harte), 309. 
 
 Heidenmauer, The (Cooper), 124. 
 
 Height of the Ridiculous, The 
 (Holmes), 269. 
 
 Hellfer Sartain (Fox), 345. 
 
 Henry, Patrick, 67. 
 
 Her Mountain Lover (Garland), 
 352. 
 
 Herbert, George, 36. 
 
 Hermann und Dorothea (Goethe), 
 224. 
 
 Heroes and Hero Worship (Carlyle), 
 169. 
 
 Heroism (Emerson), 168. 
 
 Herrick, Robert, 317, 352. 
 
368 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Hesper (Garland), 352. 
 
 Hexameters, in Evangeline, 224. 
 
 HiGQiNSON, Thomas Wentwokth, 
 327. 
 
 HiLDRETH, Richard, 286. 
 
 HiLLHOusE, James Abraham, 103. 
 
 His Daughter First (Hardy), 340. 
 
 His Father's Son (Matthews), 342. 
 
 Historical Collections (Burton), 53. 
 
 History (Emerson), 168. 
 
 History of American Literature in 
 Colonial Times (Tyler), 329. 
 
 History of Ferdinand and Isat>ella 
 (Prescott), 281. 
 
 History of New England (Palfrey), 
 286. 
 
 History of New England (Winthrop) , 
 16. 
 
 History of Plimouth Plantation 
 (Winslow and Bradford), 14. 
 
 History of the American Theatre, 
 85. 
 
 History of the Dividing Line, The 
 (Byrd), 47. 
 
 History of ths United Netherlands 
 (Motley), 282. 
 
 History of the United States (Ban- 
 croft), 285. 
 
 History of the United States (Hil- 
 dreth), 286. 
 
 History of the United States Navy 
 (Cooper), 125. 
 
 History of the World (Raleigh), 36. 
 
 History of Virginia (Beverley), 48. 
 
 Hobomok (Child), 304. 
 
 Hoffman, Charles Fenno, 103. 
 
 Holland, Josiah Gilbert, 293. 
 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell. Child- 
 hood, 268; Dorothy Q., 268; edu- 
 cation, 268; early productions, 
 269 ; medicine, 270 ; Poems, 270 ; 
 The Autocrat of the Breakfast- 
 Table, 271; The Professor at the 
 Breakfast-Table, 272; The Poet 
 at the Breakfast-Table, 272 ; 
 Soundings from the Atlantic, 272; 
 Elsie Venner, 273 ; The Guardian 
 Angel, 273 ; A Mortal Antipathy, 
 273; biographies of Motley and 
 of Emerson, 273; later life, 274; 
 Over the Tea-cups, 274; the poet, 
 276 ; death, 277 ; authorities, 278 ; 
 mentioned, 154, 164, 166, 176, 
 196, 225, 248, 259, 306. 
 
 Home as Found (Cooper), 125. 
 
 Home Ballads (Whittier), 244. 
 
 Home Journal, 103, 322. 
 
 Home, Sweet Home (Payne), 120. 
 
 Homer, 297. 
 
 Homer, Bryant's translation of, 
 
 292. 
 Homeward Bound (Cooper), 125. 
 Honorable Peter Stirling, The (Ford), 
 
 344. 
 Hood, Thomas, 307. 
 Hooker, Thomas, 22. 
 Hoosier Schoolmaster, The (Eggles- 
 
 ton), 348. 
 Hope Leslie (Sedgwick), 304. 
 Hop-Frog (Poe), 213. 
 HoPKiNSON, Francis, 77. 
 Hopkinson, Joseph, 78. 
 Horse-Shoe Robinson (Kennedy), 
 
 302. 
 " Hosea Biglow," 258. 
 House at High Bridge, The (Faw- 
 
 cett), 342. 
 House of a Thousand Candles 
 
 (Nicholson), 350. 
 House of Mirth, The (Wharton), 
 
 343. 
 House of Night, The (Freneau), 
 
 83. 
 House of the Seven Gables, The 
 
 (Hawthorne), 192, 198. 
 HovEY, Richard, 333. 
 How Love looked for Hell (Lanier), 
 
 318. 
 How Old Brown Took Harper's 
 
 Ferry (Stedman), 324. 
 How the Old Horse Won the Bet 
 
 (Holmes), 276. 
 Howadjiin Syria, The (Curtis), 292. 
 Howard, Blanche Willis, 339. 
 Howe, Julia Ward, 311. 
 Howells, William D., 322, 329, 
 
 334, 335. 
 Huckleberry Finn (Clemens), 308. 
 Hudibras (Butler), 73. 
 Hudson, Henry N., 327. 
 Hugh Wynne (Mitchell), 341. 
 Humble-Bee, The (Emerson), 171. 
 Humble Romance, A (Freeman) , 338. 
 Humorous Poems (Holmes), 276. 
 Hunter of Men, The (Whittier), 242. 
 Hutchinson, Ellen M., 325. 
 HuTTON, Laurence, 328. 
 Hymn of Trust (Holmes), 276. 
 Hymn to Death, A (Bryant), 97, 
 
 136, 145. 
 Hymn to Night (Longfellow), 222. 
 Hymns of the Marshes (Lanier), 
 
 320. 
 Hymns to the Gods (Pike), 313. 
 Hyperion (Longfellow), 221, 222, 
 
 223. 
 
INDEX 
 
 369 
 
 / love thy Kingdom, Lord (Dwight), 
 75. 
 
 Ichabod (Whittier), 244, 288. ' 
 
 Identity (Aldrich), 322. 
 
 Idle Man, The, 101, 137. 
 
 •'Ik Marvel," 294. 
 
 Illustrative Passages: Drayton, 2, 
 8; Strachey, 6; Gov. Berkeley, 
 10; Gov. Bradford, 14; Gov. 
 Winthrop, 16 ; William Wood, 19 ; 
 Thomas Shepard, 23; Nathaniel 
 Ward, 24; Mather's Magnalia, 
 30, 31 ; The Bay Psalm Book, 34; 
 Anne Bradstreet, 38, 39; Michael 
 Wigglesworth, 40; Samuel Se- 
 wall, 45 ; The Sot Weed Factor, 49 ; 
 Jonathan Edwards, 51 ; Benjamin 
 Franklin, 60; Jonathan Odell, 71, 
 72 ; John Trumbull, 73 ; Joel Bar- 
 low, 74 ; Revolutionary Songs and 
 Ballads, 75-77, 79; Philip Fre- 
 neau, 82 ; Washington Irving, 116; 
 William Cullen Bryant, 133, 135, 
 136, 142, 143, 144, 145; Ralph 
 Waldo Emerson, 159, 165, 166, 
 168, 170, 171, 172, 179; Henry 
 David Thoreau, 180, 181; Na- 
 thaniel Hawthorne, 184, 190; 
 Edgar Allan Poe, 209, 214; 
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 
 218, 221, 222, 226, 228, 229, 230; 
 John Greenleaf Whittier, 237, 
 238, 245, 247, 249, 251, 252; 
 James Russell Lowell, 253, 258, 
 259, 260, 262; Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, 271, 272, 277; Walt 
 Whitman, 298, 300; Henry 
 Timrod, 314; Sidney Lanier, 
 319; Thomas Bailey Aldrich, 322. 
 
 Illustrious Providences (Mather) , 28. 
 
 Imagery, Longfellow's, 230. 
 
 In Cure of her Soul (Stimson), 340t 
 
 Incident in a Railway Car, An 
 (Lowell), 257. 
 
 Indian Burying-ground (Freneau), 
 83 
 
 Indian Student, The (Freneau), 
 83. 
 
 Indiana novelists, The, 348. 
 
 Indians, English attitude towards, 
 26. 
 
 Influence, Whitman's, 302. 
 
 In His Name (Hale), 340. 
 
 In Ole Virginia (Page), 345. 
 
 Innocents Abroad (Clemens), 308. 
 
 Inscription for the Entrance to a 
 Wood (Bryant), 97, 134, 135, 137. 
 
 Intellect (Emerson), 168. 
 
 International Episode, An (James), 
 337. 
 
 In the Clouds (Murfree), 345. 
 
 In the Harbor (Longfellow) ,227. 
 
 In the Levant (Warner); 295. 
 
 In the Palace of the King (Crawford) , 
 343. 
 
 In the Tennessee Mountains (Mur- 
 free), 345. 
 
 In War Time (Whittier), 245. 
 
 Ipswich, Mass., 24. 
 
 Iron Gate, The (Holmes), 276, 277. 
 
 IRVING, Peter, 106. 
 
 Irving (Warner), 295. 
 
 Irving, Washington. Education, 
 105; his study of law, 106; first 
 contributions to literature, 166; 
 first European journey, 100; 
 Salmagundi, )j07; Knickerbocker 
 History of New York, 107; at- 
 tachment to Matilda Hoffman, 
 107; significance of Knicker- 
 bocker, 109; reception of Knick- 
 erbocker, 109; in business, 109-; 
 second voyage to Europe, 110; 
 failure in business, 110; The 
 Sketch-Book, 110 ; Bracebridge 
 Hall, 111; The Tales of a Trav- 
 eller, 111; Spanish history and 
 romance. 111; Columlms, 112; 
 Companions of Columbus, 112; 
 Conquest of Granada, 112; The 
 Alhambra, 112; appointed Secre- 
 tary of Legation at London, 112; 
 awarded Royal Society of Litera- 
 ture medal, 113; Oxford confers 
 degree, 113; returns to America, 
 113; Tour of the Prairies, 113; 
 Sunnyside, 113; declines nomina- 
 tions to public office, 114; Abbots- 
 ford and Newstead Abbey, 114; 
 Legends of the Conquest of Spain, 
 114; Astoria, 114; Adventures of 
 Captain Bonneville, 114; contrib- 
 utes to the Knickerbocker Maga- 
 zine, 114; abandons to Prescott 
 project of writing history of con- 
 quest of Mexico, 114; minister to 
 Spain, 115; Life of Goldsmith, 
 115; Mahomet and his Successors, 
 115; Life of Washington, 115; de- 
 scribed by G. W. Curtis, 115; 
 death, 116; mentioned, 95, 97, 98, 
 127, 198, 211, 218, 221, 263, 281, 
 306. 
 
 Irving, William, 107. 
 
 Israfel (Poe), 214, 204. 
 
 Italian Journeys (Howells), 335. 
 
370 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Jack Hazard and His Fortunes 
 
 (Trowbridge), 341. 
 Jack the Fisherman (Ward), 338. 
 Jack Tier (Cooper), 125. 
 Jackson, Helen Fiske, 311. 
 James I, 2. 
 
 James, Henky, 192, 336. 
 Jamestown founded, 2. 
 Jan Vedder's Wife (Barr), 342. 
 Jane Field (Freeman), 338. 
 Jane Talbot (Brown), 87. 
 Janice Meredith (Ford), 344. 
 Jason Edimrds (Garland), 352. 
 Jay, John, 69. 
 
 Jeanne d'Arc (MacKaye), 334. 
 Jeffehson, Thomas, 67, 69, 71, 
 
 130, 202. 
 Jerome (Freeman) , 338 . 
 Jerry the Dreamer (Payne), 352. 
 Jesuits in North America (Park- 
 man), 284. 
 Jewel (Burnham) , 339. 
 Jewett, Sarah Obne, 248, 337. 
 Joan of Arc (Clemens) , 308. 
 John Bodemn's Testimony (Foote), 
 
 361. 
 John Godfrey's Fortunes (Taylor), 
 
 291. 
 John Ward, Preacher (Deland), 338. 
 Johns Hopkins University, 324. 
 Johnston, Mahy, 347. 
 Johnston, Richard MAiiCOi/M, 344. 
 "Jonattian Oldstyle," 106. 
 Jones, John Paul, 77. 
 JONSON, Ben, 2, 317. 
 Jo's Boys (Alcott), 156. 
 " Josh Billings," 307. 
 Josh Billings' Farmer's Almanac 
 
 (Shaw), 307. 
 Journal (Woolman), 71. 
 Journal of an African Cruiser 
 
 (Hawthorne), 190. 
 "J. S. of Dale," 340. 
 JCDD, Sylvester, 304 
 Judith of Bethulia (Aldrich), 323. 
 Julian (Cooke), 304. 
 Junto, the, 56. 
 
 Jupiter Lights (Woolson), 350. 
 Justice and Expediency (Whittier), 
 
 242. 
 Juvenile fiction, 341. 
 
 Kalevala, The, 225. 
 
 Katharine Walton (Sirams), 303. 
 
 Katherine Lauderdale (Crawford), 
 
 343. 
 Kathrina (Holland), 294. 
 Kavanagh (Longfellow), 223. 
 
 Kearney at Seven Pines (Stedman), 
 324. 
 
 Keats, John, 97. 
 
 Keats (Longfellow), 232. ] 
 
 Kelloqg, Elijah, 341. 
 
 Kennedy, John P., 302. 
 
 Kentuckians, The (Fox), 345. 
 
 Kentucky Cardinal, A (Allen), 345. 
 
 K^amos, and Other Poems (Long- 
 fellow), 227. 
 
 Key, Francis Scott, 103. 
 
 Khaled (Crawford), 343. 
 
 Kidd the Pirate (Irving), 111. 
 
 King, Charles, 350. 
 
 King, Grace Elizabeth, 346. 
 
 King Noanett (Stimson) , 340. 
 
 King Wiilaf's Drlnking-Hom (Long- 
 fellow), 231. 
 
 King's Jackal, The (Davis), 344. 
 
 Kinsmen, The (Simms), 303. 
 
 Kirk, Ellen Olney, 339. 
 
 Knee-Deep in June (Riley), 331. 
 
 Knickerbocker group. The, 94. 
 
 Knickerbocker History of New York, 
 97, 107-109, 306. 
 
 Knickerbocker Magazine, 103, 114, 
 115. 
 
 Knight, Sarah Kemble, 46. 
 
 Knitters in the Sun (French), 351. 
 
 Kaningsmarke (Paulding), 99. 
 
 La Salle (Parkman), 284. 
 
 Lady of Fort St. John, The (Cather- 
 wood), 351. 
 
 Lady of Quality, A (Burnett), 346. 
 
 Lady of Rome, A (Crawford), 343. 
 
 Lady or the Tiger, The (Stockton), 
 341. 
 
 Lakeside (Whittier), 244. 
 
 Lamb, Charles, 71, 293. 
 
 Lamplighter, The (Cummins), 304. 
 
 Landor's Cottage (Poe), 213. 
 
 Lanier, Sidney. Army experiences, 
 316 ; the musician, 317 ; literature 
 and poetry, 317; lectureship in 
 Johns Hopkins University, 318; 
 books for boys, 318; death, 320; 
 genius, 320; mentioned, 313, 315. 
 
 Larcom, Lucy, 248. 
 
 Lars (Taylor), 291. 
 
 Last Leaf, The (Holmes), 269. 
 
 Last of the Mohicans, TJie (Cooper), 
 124, 127. 
 
 Last Refuge, The (Fuller), 352. 
 
 Last Songs from Vagabondia (Car- 
 man and Hovey), 333. 
 
 Last Walk in Autumn, The (Whit- 
 tier), 244. 
 
INDEX 
 
 371 
 
 Launcelot and Guenevere (Hovey), 
 333. 
 
 Laus Deo (Whittier), 245. 
 
 Lay of the Last Minstrel, The (Scott), 
 98. 
 
 Lay of the Scotch Fiddle, The (Pauld- 
 ing), 98. 
 
 Lays of My Home (Whittier), 244. 
 
 Lasarre (Catherwood) , 351. 
 
 Leah and Rachel (Hammond), 10. 
 
 Leaves from Margaret Smith's Jour- 
 nal (Whittier), 245. 
 
 Leaves of Grass (Whitman), 297, 
 301. 
 
 Led Horse Claim, The (Foote), 351. 
 
 Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The (Irv- 
 ing), 110. 
 
 Legends and Lyrics (Hayne), 315. 
 
 Legends of New England (Whittier), 
 240. 
 
 Legends of the Conquest of Spain 
 (Irving), 114. 
 
 Legends of the Province House (Haw- 
 thorne), 199. 
 
 Leland, Charles Godfrey , 307. 
 
 Lenore (Poe) , 204. 
 
 Leslie Goldthwaite (Whitney), 341. 
 
 Letters (Adams), 71. 
 
 Letters (Washington), 71. 
 
 Letters and Social Aims (Emerson), 
 173. 
 
 Letters from the Far East (Bryant), 
 140. 
 
 Letters of a Traveller (Bryant), 140. 
 
 Letters: of Loweil, Emerson, Car- 
 lyle, and Ruskin, 329. 
 
 Lewis, Matthew, 89. 
 
 Levns Rand (Johnston), 348. 
 
 Leyden, 11. 
 
 Library of American Biography 
 (SparliS), 286. 
 
 Library of American Literature 
 (Stedman and Hutchinson), 325. 
 
 Life of Goldsmith (Irving), 115. 
 
 Life of John of Bameveld (Motley) , 
 282. 
 
 Life of Lincoln (Howells), 335. 
 
 Life of Schiller (Carlyle), 161. 
 
 Life of Washington (Irving), 115. 
 
 Life of Washington (Paulding), 99. 
 
 Life on the Mississippi (Clemens), 
 308. 
 
 Ligeia (Poe), 213. 
 
 Light of Stars, The (Longfellow), 
 222. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 289, 312. 
 
 Lincoln, Emerson's tribute to, 173. 
 
 Lincoln, Lowell's tribute to, 263. 
 
 Lincoln (Markham), 332. 
 
 Linwood (Sedgwick), 304. 
 
 Lionel Lincoln (Cooper), 124. 
 
 Lippincott's Magazine, 318. 
 
 Litchfield, Conn., 305. 
 
 Literary Conditions in Virginia, 10. 
 
 Literary Development of New Eng- 
 land, 149. 
 
 Literary History of the American 
 Revolution, The (Tyler), 329. 
 
 Literary Magazine and American 
 Register, The, 88. 
 
 Literary Recreations (Whittier) , 245. 
 
 Literary Values (Burroughs), 328. 
 
 Literature of the Age of Elizabeth 
 (Whipple), 326. 
 
 Literature and Life (Whipple), 326. 
 
 Little Beach-Bird, The (Dana), 101. 
 
 Little Book of Western Verse, A 
 (Field), 331. 
 
 Little Boy Blue (Field), 331. 
 
 Little Journey in the World, A, 
 (Warner), 295. 
 
 Little Lord Fauntlsroy (Burnett), 
 346. 
 
 LUtle Men (Alcott), 156. 
 
 Little Norsk, A (Garland). 352. 
 
 Little Orphant Annie (Riley), 331. 
 
 Little Renault, The (Catherwood), 
 351. 
 
 Little Shepherd of Kingdom Ceme, 
 The (Fox), 345. 
 
 Little Women, (Alcott), 156. 
 
 Living Temple, The (Holmes), 272. 
 
 Local Types, Studies of, 337. 
 
 Locke, David Ross, 307. 
 
 Locusts and Wild Honey (Bur- 
 roughs), 328. 
 
 Loiterings of Travel (WiUis), 104. 
 
 Longfellow. Youth, 217; My 
 Lost Youth, 218; at Bowdoin Col- 
 lege, 218; acquaintance with 
 Hawthorne, 220; Uterary am- 
 bitions. 220; travel and study, 
 220; Outre-Mer, 221; the call to 
 Harvard, 221 ; professor and poet, 
 221; Hyperion, 222; Voices of 
 the Night, 222 ; Ballads and Other 
 Poems, 223; poems on slavery, 
 223; The Spanish Student, 223; 
 The Poets and Poetry of Europe, 
 223; The Belfry of Bruges and 
 Other Poems, 223; Evangeline, 
 223 ; Kavanagh, 223 ; The Seaside 
 and the Fireside, 224; The Golden 
 Legend, 224; Evangeline, 224; 
 Hiawatha, 225; The Courtship 
 of Miles Standish, 226 ; The Cross 
 
372 
 
 INDEX 
 
 of Snow; 226 ; The Divine Com- 
 edy, 226; Tales of a Wayside 
 Inn, 226 ; honors in England, 227 ; 
 Christus, 227; The Masque of 
 Pandora, and Other Poems, 227; 
 Keramos, and Other Poems, 227 ; 
 Ultima Thule, 227 ; In the Harbor, 
 227; Michael Angela, 227; Mori- 
 turi Salutamus, 227; last years, 
 227; the poet and the children, 
 228; The Bells of San Bias, 228; 
 death, 228 ; poetic gifts, 229 ; sim- 
 plicity, 229; beauty of imagery, 
 230; skill in narrative, 231; lyric 
 and dramatic poems, 231; trans- 
 lations, 232; personality, 232; 
 suggestions for reading, 233; 
 mentioned, 149, 154, 176, 184, 
 188, 196, 206, 211, 234, 241, 248, 
 249, 254, 267, 265, 277. 
 
 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (Hig- 
 ginson), 327. 
 
 Looking Backward (Bellamy), 340. 
 
 Lorraine (Chambers), 344. 
 
 Lotiis Eating (Curtis), 292. 
 
 LouNSBURY, Thomas R., 329. 
 
 Love (Emerson), 168. 
 
 Love in Idleness (Kirk) ,339. 
 
 Low Tide on Grand Pr€ (Carman) , 
 333. 
 
 Lowell Institute, The, 253, 261, 264. 
 
 Lowell, Jamss Hussbll. Elm- 
 wood, 253; at Harvard College, 
 254 ; choice of a profession, 256 ; 
 first volume, 256; editorial ex- 
 perience, 256; Poems, 257; Con- 
 versations on Some of- the Old 
 Poets, 257 ; the abolitionist, 258 ; 
 Stanzas on Freedom, 258; Wen- 
 dell Phillips, 258; The Present 
 Crisis, 258; satirist and humor- 
 ist, 258; The Biglow Papers, 259; 
 A Fable for Critics, 259; The 
 Vision of Sir Launfal, 260 ; per- 
 sonal experiences, 260 ; She came 
 and Went, 260; The Changeling, 
 260; The First Snowfall, 260; 
 Palinode, 261; After the Burial, 
 261; The Dead House, 261; lec- 
 turer, professor, editor, 261; 
 Among my Books, 261 ; My Study 
 Windows, 261; Fireside Travels, 
 261 ; Cambridge Thirty Years Ago, 
 261; Biglow Papers, second 
 series, 261; the civil war, 262-; 
 The Washers of the Shroud, 262 ; 
 On board the '76, 262; Harvard 
 Commenwralian Ode, 262; Under 
 
 the WiXlows,2&3; The Cathedral, 
 263 ; Agassiz, 263 ; Under the Old 
 Elm, 263 ; Three Memorial Poems, 
 
 ■ 263; Heartsease and Rue, 263; 
 diplomatic service, 263 ; Old Eng- 
 lish Dramatists, 265; Political 
 Addresses, 265; Our Literature, 
 265; death, 265; his art, 265; 
 general survey, 265; suggestions 
 for reading, 266 ; authorities, 267 ; 
 mentioned, 154; 176, 196, 211, 
 223, 268, 270, 277, 293, 304, 306 
 317, 328. 
 
 Lowell, James Russell (Hale), 327. 
 
 Luck of Roaring Camp, The (Harte), 
 309. 
 
 Lucy books. The, 341. 
 
 Lucy Temple (Rowson), 86. 
 
 Lunch, The (Aldrich), 322. 
 
 Lyrical Ballads (Wordsworth), 88. 
 
 Lyrics for a Lute (Sherman), 332. 
 
 Lyrics of Joy (Sherman), 332. 
 
 Mabie, Hamim'On Wright, 328. 
 
 MaoKate, Pekcy Wallace, 334. 
 
 Macon, Ga., 316. 
 
 Madame Delphine (Cable), 346. 
 
 Madison, James, 69. 
 
 Madonna of the Tubs, The (Ward), 
 
 338. 
 Madrigals and Catches (Sherman), 
 
 332. 
 Magnolia Christi Americana (Ma- 
 ther), 30, 41. 
 Mahomet and his Successors (Irving), 
 
 116. 
 Maid He Married, The (Spofford), 
 
 339. 
 Maidenhood (Longfellow), 223. 
 Main Street (Hawthorne), 199. 
 Main Travelled Roads (Garland), 
 
 352. 
 Major, Charles, 350. 
 "Major Jack Downing," 306. 
 Maiden, Mass., 39. 
 Man of the Hour, The (French), 351. 
 Man with the Hoe, The (Markham), 
 
 332. 
 Man Without a Country, The (Hale), 
 
 340. 
 Manners (Emerson), 169. 
 Marble Faun, The (Hawthorne), 
 
 194, 198. 
 March (Bryant), 138. 
 Marcia (Kirk), 339. 
 Marco Bozzaris (Halleck), 99, 101. 
 Margaret (Judd), 304. 
 Marjorie Daw (Aldrich), 323. 
 
INDEX 
 
 373 
 
 •'Mark Twain," 307. 
 Markham, Edwik, 332. 
 Marlowe, Christopher, 2. 
 Marlowe (Peabody), 334. 
 Marmion (Scott), 81. 
 Marsh Island, A (Jewett), 337. 
 Marshes of Glynn, The (Lanier), 
 
 318, 320. 
 Martin Faber (Simms), 303. 
 Maryland, Colony of, 10. 
 Maryland, My Maryland (Randall), 
 
 313. 
 Masque of Judgment, The (Moody) , 
 
 334. 
 Masque of Pandora, and Other 
 
 Poems (Longfellow), 227. 
 Masque of the Gods, The (Taylor), 
 
 291. 
 Masque of the Red Death, The (Poe), 
 
 213. 
 Massachusetts State Library, 16. 
 Massachusetts to Virginia (Whit- 
 tier), 242. 
 Massacre of Scio (Bryant), 138. 
 Mather, Cotton, 28-32, 41, 53, 
 
 150. 
 Mather, Increase, 28. 
 Mather, Richard, 27, 33. 
 Matthews, Brander, 329, 342. 
 Maud Muller (Whittier), 244. 
 Mayday, and Other Pieces (Emer- 
 son), 170. 
 May-Pole of MerrymourU, The 
 
 (Hawthorne), 188, 199. 
 Mazzini, 156. 
 
 McCnTCHEON, George Barr, 350. 
 McFingal (Trumbull), 73. 
 Meadom-Grass (Brown), 338. 
 Meh Lady, Marse Cham (Page), 345. 
 Mellichampe (Simms), 303. 
 Melodious names, Poe's use of, 214. 
 Melville, Herman, 304. 
 Member of the Third House, A 
 
 (Garland), 352. 
 Memorable Providences (Mather) , 
 
 29. 
 Memories (Whittier), 244. 
 Memories of a Hundred Years (Hale) , 
 
 327. 
 Men, Women and Ghosts (Ward), 
 
 337 
 Mercedes (Aldrich), 323. 
 Mercedes of Castile (Cooper), 125. 
 Merry Mount (Motley), 282. 
 Merrymount, 20. 
 
 Metamorphoses of Ovid (Sandys), 8. 
 Michael Angela (Longfellow), 227, 
 
 232. 
 
 Midnight Mass for the Dying Year 
 
 (Longfellow), 222. 
 MiFFUN, Lloyd, 330. 
 Miles Watlingford (Cooper), 125. 
 Miller, Harriet Mann, 328. 
 Miller, Joaquin, 329. 
 Milton, John, 25, 41. 
 Milton (Longfellow), 232. 
 Minister's Wooing, The (Stowe), 
 
 306. 
 Miss Gilbert's Career (Holland), 
 
 294. 
 Mr. Isaacs (Crawford), 343. 
 Mr. Salt (Payne), 352. 
 Mitchell, Donald Grant, 294. 
 Mitchell, Silas Weir, 341. 
 Moby Dick (Melville), 304. 
 Model of Christian Charity, A 
 
 (Wintlirop), 16. 
 Modem Chivalry (Brackenridge) , 
 
 86. 
 Modem Instance, A (Howells), 336. 
 Mogg Megone (Whittier), 244. 
 Monadnoc (Emerson), 171. 
 Money Captain, The (Payne), 352. 
 Manikins, The (Cooper), 124. 
 Monk, The, (Lewis), 89. 
 Monsieur Beaucaire (Tarkington), 
 
 34. 
 Monsieur Motte (King), 346. 
 Montcalm and Wolfe (Parkman), 
 
 284. 
 Monthly Anthology, 157. 
 Monthly Magazine and American 
 
 Review, The, 88. 
 Monument Mountain (Bryant), 138. 
 Moody, William VAnoHN, 333. 
 Moore, Thomas, 97. 
 Moral Pieces (Sigoumey), 102. 
 More Songs from Vagabondia {Cslt- 
 
 man and Hovey), 333. 
 Morgesons, The (Stoddard), 295. 
 Morituri Salutamus (Longfellow), 
 
 227. 
 Mormons, The (Browne), 307. 
 Morning Chronicle, The, 106. 
 Morris, George P., 102, 103. 
 Mors Benefica (Stedman), 325. 
 Mortal Antipathy, A (Holmes), 273. 
 Morton's Hope (Motley), 282. 
 Mosses from an Old Manse (Haw- 
 thorne), 190. 
 Motley, John Lothrop, 279, 281- 
 
 283. 
 Mountain Europa, A (Fox), 345. 
 Moulton, LomsE Chandler, 311. 
 Mountain of the Lovers, The (Hayne) , 
 
 315. 
 
374 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Mrs. Partington, 307. 
 
 MS. found in a Bottle (Poe), 211. 
 
 Murders of the Rue Morgue (Poe), 
 
 206, 212. 
 
 MuHFKEE, Mary Noailles, 345. 
 Musketaquid (Emerson), 171. 
 My Aunt (Holmes), 269. 
 My Farm of Edgewood (Mitchell), 
 
 294. 
 My Garden (Emerson), 162. 
 My Hunt after "The Captain" 
 
 (Holmes), 272. 
 My Playmate (Whittier), 244. 
 My Psalm (Whittier), 244. 
 Mystery of Metropolisville, The 
 
 (Eggleston), 349. 
 My Study Windows (Lowell), 261. 
 My Summer in a Garden (Warner) , 
 
 294. 
 My Winter on the Nile (Warner), 
 
 295. 
 Mysteries of Vdolpho, The (Rad- 
 
 cliffe), 89. 
 Mystery of Marie Roget, The (Poe), 
 
 207, 212. 
 
 Napoleon Jackson (Stuart), 346. 
 
 Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym 
 (Poe), 206, 211. 
 
 National Era, The, 305. 
 
 National Lyrics (Whittier), 2->-5. 
 
 Natiimal Ode, The (Taylor), 291. 
 
 Natural History of Intellect (Emer- 
 son), 173. 
 
 Nature, Bryant's inspiration from, 
 146. 
 
 Nature (Emerson), 164, 165. 
 
 Nature, second essay (Emerson), 
 169. 
 
 Nature and Elements of Poetry, The 
 (Stedman), 324. 
 
 Nature in Emerson's poems, 171. 
 
 Nature poetry, beginning of, 81. 
 
 Neighbor Jackwood (Trowbridge) , 
 340. 
 
 New American Cyclopaedia, 154. 
 
 New Day, The (Gilder), 329. 
 
 New England Boyhood, A (Hale), 
 327. 
 
 New England Chronicles, signifl- 
 ■ cance of the. 18. 
 
 New England Courant, The, 51, 90. 
 
 New England life, delineation of, 
 337. 
 
 New England Nun, A (Freeman), 
 338. 
 
 New England, Pilgrims and Puri- 
 tans in, 11-20. 
 
 New England Magazine, 187, 240. 
 New England Reformers, The (Em- 
 erson), 169. 
 New England Review, 240. 
 New England Tragedies, The (Long- 
 fellow), 227. 
 New England's Memorial (Morton), 
 
 15. 
 New England's Plantation (Higgin- 
 
 son), 19. 
 New England's Prospect (Wood), 
 
 19. 
 New England's Trials (Smith), 12. 
 New English Canaan (Morton), 20. 
 New Era, The, 244. 
 New Literature, The, 94. 
 New York, leading literary centre, 
 
 95; birthplace of Irving, 104; 
 
 Bryant's editorial work, 138; 
 
 later writers, 290-295 ; Whitman, 
 
 298. 
 New York Evening Post, 100, 138, 
 
 140, 241. 
 New York Gazette, The, 90. 
 New York Mirror, 103, 208. 
 New York Review, 101. 
 New York Review and Alherueum 
 
 Magazine, 138. 
 New York Sun, 153. 
 New York Tribune, 154, 156, 182, 
 
 291, 324. 
 New York World, 324. 
 Newbury, Mass., 44. 
 Newell, Robert Henry, 306. 
 Newport, R. I., 150. 
 Newtown (Cambridge), 13. 
 Nicholas Minium (Holland), 294. 
 Nicholson, Meredith, 350. 
 Nick of the Woods (Bird), 302. 
 NicoLAY, John G., 312. 
 Nile Notes of a Hovrndji (Curtis), 
 
 292. 
 Nocturne (Aldrich), 322. 
 No Gentlemen (Burnham), 339. 
 Nominalist and Realist (Emerson), 
 
 169. 
 NoRRis, Frank, 353. 
 North American Review, The, 97, 
 
 101, 134, 158, 188, 205, 261, 
 
 282. 
 North Church in Boston, 28, 29, 
 
 160. 
 Northampton, Mass., 50. 
 Norton, Charles Eliot, 261, 329. 
 Norwich, Conn., 102. 
 Notes on Virginia (Jefferson), 70. 
 Novels, Cooper's, 127. 
 November Boughs (Whitman), 301. 
 
INDEX 
 
 375 
 
 O Captain! My Captain I (Whit- 
 man), 300. 
 
 O Fairest of the RutaX Maids (Bry- 
 ant), 136.. 
 
 Oak Openings, The (Cooper), 125. 
 
 "Octave Thanet," 351. 
 
 Octopus, The (Norris), 353. 
 
 Ode for July 4th, 1S76 (Lowell), 
 263. 
 
 Ode Recited at the Harvard Com- 
 memoration (Lowell), 262. 
 
 Ode Written in Time of Hesitation, 
 An (Moody), 333. 
 
 Odeli., Jonathan, 71. 
 
 Oglethorpe College, 316. 
 
 O'Haka, Theodore, 313. 
 
 Old Aunt Mary's (Riley), 331. 
 
 Old Creole Days (Cable) , 346. 
 
 Old English Dramatists (Lowell), 
 265. 
 
 Old Fashioned Girl, An (Alcott), 
 156. 
 
 Old Ironsides (Holmes), 269, 276. 
 
 Old Kaskaskia (Catherwood), 351. 
 
 Old Manse, The (Hawthorne), 199. 
 
 Old Mark Langston (Johnston), 
 344. 
 
 Old Oaken Bucket, The (Wood- 
 worth), 102. 
 
 Old Portraits and Modem Sketches 
 (Whittier), 245. 
 
 Old Regime (Parkman), 284. 
 
 Old Salt Kossabone (Whitman), 
 300. 
 
 Old South Church in Boston, 16, 35, 
 53. 
 
 Old Sweetheart of Mine, An (Riley), 
 331. 
 
 Old Surimmin' Hole, The (Riley), 
 331. 
 
 Old Times in Middle Georgia 
 (Johnston), 344. 
 
 Oldtovm Folks (Stowe), 306. 
 
 Omoo (Melville), 304. 
 
 On a Bust of Dante (Parsons), 
 310. 
 
 On Board the '76 (Lowell), 262. 
 
 On the Death of Drake (Halleck) , 99. 
 
 On the Plantation (Harris), 344. 
 
 On the Ruins of a Country Inn, 
 (Freneau), 83. 
 
 One Summer (Howard), 339. 
 
 Orations and Addresses (Curtis), 
 293. 
 
 O'Reili.t, John Boyle, 312. 
 
 Ormond (Brown), 87. 
 
 "Orpheus C. Kerr," 307. 
 
 Orphic Sayings (Alcott), 155. 
 
 OssiAK, 297. 
 
 Ossoli, Margaret Fuller (Higgin- 
 son), 327. 
 
 OssoLi, Marquis (see Fuller, Mar- 
 garet), 156. 
 
 Otis, James, 65. 
 
 Otto the Knight (French), 351. 
 
 Our Hundred Days in Europe 
 (Holmes), 274. 
 
 Our Literature (Lowell), 265. 
 
 Our Old Home (Hawthorne), 196. 
 
 Outcasts of Poker Flat, The (Harte), 
 309. 
 
 Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking 
 (Whitman), 300. 
 
 Ouire-Mer (Longfellow), 221. 
 
 Over-Soul, The (Emerson), 168. 
 
 Over the Tea-Cups (Holmes), 274. 
 
 Overland Monthly, The, 309. 
 
 Page, Thomas Nelson, 345. 
 Paine, Thomas, 68, 90. 
 Palfrey, John Gorham, 286. 
 Palinode (Lowell), 261. 
 Pamela (Richardson), 85, 120. 
 Pan (Peabody), 334. 
 Pan in Wall Street (Stedman), 324. 
 Panorama, The (Whittier), 244. 
 Papers on Literature and Art (Ful- 
 ler), 157. 
 Paradise Lost (Milton), 41, 74. 
 Parker, Theodore, 152. 
 Parkman, Francis, 279, 283-285. 
 Parnassus (Emerson), 173. 
 Parson Turell's Legacy (Holmes), 
 
 272, 276. 
 Parsons, Theophilus, 137. 
 Parsons, Thomas William, 310. 
 Parting Glass, The (Freneau), 83. 
 Parting Hymn (Holmes), 276. 
 Partisan, The (Simms), 303. 
 Passe Rose (Hardy), 339. 
 Past, The (Bryant), 139. 
 Pastoral Letter, The (Whittier), 242. 
 Pathfinder, The (Cooper), 125, 127. 
 Patrolling Bamegat '(Whitman), 
 
 300. 
 Paul Patoff (Crawford), 343. 
 Pahldinq, James Kirk, 95, 97, 
 
 98, 107, 138. 
 Paumanok Picture, A (Whitman), 
 
 300. 
 Payne, John Howard, 102. 
 Payne, Will, 352. 
 Peabody, Josephine Preston, 
 
 334. 
 Pearce Amerson's Will (Johnston), 
 
 344. 
 
376 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Pearl of Orr's Island, The (Stowe), 
 
 306. 
 Peck, Samuel Mintukn, 332. 
 Pembroke (Freeman), 338. 
 Pencillings by the Way (Willis), 104. 
 Penelope's English Experiences 
 
 (Wiggin), 343. 
 Pennsylvania Freeman, 242, 257. 
 Pennsylvania Gazette, The, 66, 90. 
 Pennsylvania Magazine, The, 90. 
 Pennsylvania Packet and Daily 
 
 Advertiser, The, 90. 
 Pepys, Samuel, 45. 
 Peecival, James Gates, 102, 240. 
 Periodicals, 89. 
 Perby, Bliss, 328. 
 Peter (Smith), 347. 
 "Peter Parley," 187. 
 "Petroleum V. Nasby," 307. 
 Phelps, Elizabeth Stuakt, 337. 
 Phi Beta Kappa Society, 136, 165, 
 
 254, 270. 
 Philadelphia, Pa. Early literary 
 
 activity, 95; Whittier's editorial 
 
 worls, 242 ; later writers, 295. 
 Philadelphia Mercury, The, 67. 
 "Philenia," 85. 
 
 Philip and His Wife (Deland), 338. 
 Philip Nolan's Friends (Hale), 340. 
 Phillips, Wendell, 164, 173, 289, 
 
 293. 
 Phillips Academy, Andorer, 268; 
 
 Exeter, 288. 
 Philosophical Society of Philadel- 
 phia, 57. 
 Piatt, John James, 329, 335. 
 Piatt, Sabah M., 329. 
 Picture of St. John, The (Taylor), 
 
 291. 
 Pictures in Song (Scollard), 333. 
 PiEECE, Franklin, 184, 193, 196. 
 Piebpont, John, 101. 
 Pietro Ghisteri (Crawford), 343. 
 Pike, Albert, 313. 
 Pike County Ballads (Hay), 312. 
 Pilgrim Fathers, The (Pierpont), 
 
 102. 
 Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan), 188, 
 
 41. 
 Pilgrims, The, 11. 
 Pilot, The (Cooper), 97, 124, 128. 
 Pink Marsh (Ade), 350. 
 Pioneer, The, 257. 
 Pioneers, The (Cooper), 97, 124, 127. 
 Pioneers of France in the New World 
 
 (Parkman), 284. 
 Pirate, The (Scott), 123. 
 Pit, The (Norris), 363. 
 
 Place in literature, Hawthorne's, 
 197; Thoreau's, 182; Whittier's, 
 249. 
 
 Plain Language from Truthful 
 James (Harte), 309. 
 
 Planting of the Apple Tree, The 
 (Bryant), 144. 
 
 Plutabch, 63. 
 
 Plymouth colony, the, 12. 
 
 PoE, Edgab Allan. School days, 
 201 ; at the University ol Virginia, 
 202 ; Tamerlane and other poems, 
 202; in the army, 202; at West 
 Point, 204 ; poetry, 204 ; romantic 
 tales, 204; editorial work, 205; 
 marriage, 205; The Narrative 
 of Arthur Gordon Pym, 206 ; Tales 
 of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 
 206; critical reviews, 206; the 
 analytical tales, 206; The Mur- 
 ders of the Bue Morgue, 206; 
 The Mystery of Marie Roget, 
 207; The Goldbug, 207; editorial 
 work, 207 ; The Raven, 208 ; Tales 
 republished, 208 ; death ot his wife, 
 208; Eureka, 209; Poems, 209; 
 death, 209; Poe as a critic, 210; 
 as a romancer, 211; as a poet, 
 213 ; mentioned, 83, 88, 103, 136, 
 198, 200, 230, 241, 249, 266, 267, 
 266, 277, 302, 303, 313, 315. 
 
 Poems (Gilder), 329. 
 
 Poems (Hay), 312. 
 
 Poems (Hayne), 315. 
 
 Poems (Holmes), 270. 
 
 Poems (Lowell), 257. 
 
 Poems (Moody), 334. 
 
 Poems (Mrs. Piatt), 329. 
 
 Poems (Poe), 204. 
 
 Poems, Lyric and Idyllic (Stedman), 
 324. 
 
 Poems of Passion (Wilcox), 332. 
 
 Poems of the Orient (Taylor), 291. 
 
 Poems of Two Friends (Piatt and 
 Howells), 329, 335. 
 
 Poems on Slavery (Longfellow), 242. 
 
 Poet, The (Emerson), 169. 
 
 Poet at the Breakfast Table, The 
 (Holmes), 272. 
 
 Poetic Principle, The (Poe), 210. 
 
 Poetry of the Revolution, 71. 
 
 Poetry, Bryant's, 143, 145; Emer- 
 son's, 170 ; Holmes's, 276 ; Long- 
 fellow's, 229, 230, 231; Lowell's, 
 265; Poe's, 204, 213; Whitman's. 
 299; Lowell's lectures on, 261; 
 defined by Poe, 214; Stedman 's 
 definition of, 324, 
 
INDEX 
 
 377 
 
 Poetry (Holmes), 270. 
 
 Poets of America (Stedman), 324. 
 
 Poets and Poetry of Europe, The 
 (Longfellow), 223. 
 
 Political Addresses (Lowell), 265. 
 
 Political satires and ballads, 71. 
 
 Politics (Emerson), 169. 
 
 "Poor Richard," 58. 
 
 Pope, Alexander, 8, 72, 75. 
 
 Port of Missing Men (Nicholson), 
 350. 
 
 Portland, Me., 103, 217, 261, 306; 
 birthplace of Longfellow, 217. 
 
 Portsmouth, N. H., 321. 
 
 Potiphar Papers, The (Curtis), 292. 
 
 Power of Sympathy, The (Morton), 
 85. 
 
 Prairie, The (Cooper), 124, 126, 127. 
 
 Precaution (C!ooper), 122. 
 
 Prentice, George D., 240. 
 
 Prescott, William Hickling, 
 114, 279, 280-281, 282. 
 
 Present Crisis, The (Lowell), 258. 
 
 Pride of the Village, The (Irving), 
 111. 
 
 Primes and Their Neighbors, The 
 (Johnston), 344. 
 
 Prince and the Pauper, The (Clem- 
 ens), 308. 
 
 Prince of India, The (Wallace), 349. 
 
 Princess Casamassima, The (James) , 
 337. 
 
 Princeton College, 50, 71, 81. 
 
 Printing-press, the first in America, 
 13. 
 
 Printing-presses, forbidden in Vir- 
 ginia, 10. 
 
 PriscUla's Love Story (SpofEord), 
 339. 
 
 Prisoners of Hope (Johnston) ,348. 
 
 Private Life and Other Stories, The 
 (James), 337. 
 
 Problem, The (Emerson), 170. 
 
 Proctor, Edna Dean, 330. 
 
 Professor at the Breakfast Table, 
 The (Holmes), 272. 
 
 Progress to the Mines, A (Byrd), 
 48. 
 
 Prometheus (Percival), 102. 
 
 Prophet of the Great Smoky Moun- 
 tain, The (Murfree), 345. 
 
 Prophetic Pictures, The (Haw- 
 thorne), 188. 
 
 Prose works, Whittier's, 244. 
 
 Protectorate; Cromwell's, 9. 
 
 Providence, R. I., 25, 292. 
 
 Prudence (Emerson), 168. 
 
 Prudjence Palfrey (Aldrich), 323. 
 
 Prue and I (Curtis), 293. 
 
 Psalm of Life, A (Longfellow), 222, 
 223, 231. 
 
 Psalm of the West (Lanier), 320. 
 
 Public instruction in the colonies, 13. 
 
 " Publius," 69. 
 
 Puck, 332. 
 
 Pudd'n head Wilson (Clemens) , 308. 
 
 Puritan colonies in New England, 
 12. 
 
 Puritan doctrines, decline of, 31. 
 
 Puritan Poetry in New England, 
 32-42. 
 
 Puritan Protectorate, 9. 
 
 Puritan types, in England and in 
 America, 41. 
 
 Puritanism, aspirations of, 39; aus- 
 terity of, 21. 
 
 Purloined Letter, The (Poe), 212. 
 
 QuARLES, Francis, 36. 
 Queechy (Warner), 304. 
 Queen of Sheba, The (Aldrich), 323. 
 Quick or the Dead, The (Rives) , 347. 
 QniNCY, JosiAH, 68. 
 
 Radcliffe, Mrs., 89. 
 
 Bainy Day, The (Longfellow), 223, 
 231. 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 1, 36. 
 
 Ramona (Jackson), 312. 
 
 Randall, James Ryder, 313. 
 
 Randolph of Roanoke (Whittier), 
 242. 
 
 Rappaccini's Daughter (Haw- 
 thorne), 198. 
 
 Rationale of English Verse (Poe), 
 210. 
 
 Raven, The (Poe), 103, 208, 209, 
 210, 214. 
 
 Read, Thomas Buchanan, 295. 
 
 Reaper and the Flowers, The (Long- 
 fellow), 222. 
 
 Rebecca (Wiggin), 343. 
 
 Rebels, The (Child), 304. 
 
 Recollections (Stoddard), 295. 
 
 Red Badge of Courage, The (Crane), 
 344. 
 
 Red City, The (Mitchell), 341. 
 
 Red Rock (Page), 345. 
 
 Red Rover, The (Cooper), 124, 128. 
 
 Redskins, The (Cooper), 125. 
 
 Reflections on the French Revolution 
 (Burke), 69. 
 
 Reign of Law, The (Allen), 345. 
 
 Religious liberty in New England, 
 25. 
 
 Reply to Hayne (Webster), 288. 
 
378 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Repplier, Agnes, 328. 
 
 Representative Men (Emerson) ,169. 
 
 Besisnaiion (Longfellow), 231. 
 
 Revenge of Hamish, The (Lanier), 
 318, 320. 
 
 Reveries of a Bachelor (Mitchell), 
 294. 
 
 Revolutionary Songs and Ballads, 
 75. 
 
 Rhode Island, 13. 
 
 Rhodora, The (Emerson), 171. 
 
 Bhaecus (Lowell), 257. 
 
 Rhythm, Lanier's theory of, 318. 
 
 Richard Carvel (Churchill), 34%. 
 
 Richardson, Charles F., 329. 
 
 Richardson, Samuel, 85, 119, 120. 
 
 Richmond, Va., 200. 
 
 Bight Princess, The (Burnham), 
 339. 
 
 Rights of Man, The (Paine), 69. 
 
 Rights of the British Colonies, The 
 (Otis), 66. 
 
 Riley, James Whitcomb, 331. 
 
 Bill from the Town Pump, A (Haw- 
 thorne), 188, 199. 
 
 Bip Van Winkle (Irving), 110, 111. 
 
 Ripley, George, 152, 153, 154. 
 
 Rise of Silas Lapham, The (Howells), 
 336. 
 
 Rise of the Dutch Republic, The 
 (Motley). 282. 
 
 River's Children, The (Stuart), 346. 
 
 Rives, Amislie, 347. 
 
 Rivulet, The (Bryant), 138. 
 
 Bvipah (Bryant), 138. 
 
 Boba di Roma (Story), 310. 
 
 Robert of Lincoln (Bryant) ,144. 
 
 Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep 
 (Willard), 102. 
 
 Roger Marvin's Burial (Hawthorne), 
 198. 
 
 Rogers, John, 38. 
 
 RoLPE, William James, 327. 
 
 Rollo books. The, 341. 
 
 Roman Singer, A (Crawford), 343. 
 
 Romancfi of an Old-Fashioned Gen- 
 tleman, The (Smith), 347. 
 
 Romance of Dollard, The (Gather- 
 wood), 351. 
 
 Romantic school of fiction, 88. 
 
 Romantic tales, Foe's, 204, 211, 
 212. 
 
 Rose in Bloom (Alcott), 156. 
 
 Rose of Dutcher's Coolly (Garland), 
 352. 
 
 Roughing It (Clemens), 308. 
 
 Roxbury, Mass., 27, 33. ' 
 
 Roxy (Eggleston), 349. 
 
 Royal American Magazine, The, 90. 
 Royal Society of Literature, 64, 
 
 113. 
 Rudder Orange (Stockton), 341. 
 Rural Funerals (Irving), 111. 
 Russell s Magazine, 315. 
 
 Sacred Poems (Willis), 104. 
 
 Salem, Mass., birthplace of Haw- 
 thorne, 183. 
 
 Salem Gazette, 187. 
 
 Salmagundi Papers, 97, 98. 
 
 Sandalphon (Longfellow). 231. 
 
 Sands at Seventy (Whitman), 301. 
 
 Sandys, George, 8. 
 
 Sappho and Phaon (MacKaye), 
 334. 
 
 Saracinesca (Crawford), 343. 
 
 Sartor Besartus (Carlyle), 161, 
 
 Satanstoe (Cooper), 125. 
 
 Satirist, Lowell as, 258. 
 
 Saturday Club, The, 273. 
 
 Saxe, John Godfrey, 307. 
 
 Saxon element in Bryant's verse, 
 145. 
 
 Scarlet Letter, The (Hawthorne), 191, 
 192, 198. 
 
 Schools in Virginia, 10. 
 
 Science of English Verse, The 
 (Lanier), 318. 
 
 ScoLLARD, Clinton, 332. 
 
 ScoTT, Sir Walter, 88, 97, 109, 
 110, 119, 123, 237, 297. 
 
 Scribner's Magazine, 294, 329. 
 
 ScuDDBR, Horace E.. 326. 
 
 Sbabury, Samuel, 67. 
 
 Sea Lions, The (Cooper), 125. 
 
 Sea Mark, A (Carman), 333. 
 
 Seaside and the Fireside, The 
 (Longfellow), 224. 
 
 Sebago Lake, Me., 183. 
 
 Second Book of Verse, A (Field), 
 331. 
 
 Second Church in Boston, 160. 
 
 Sedgwick, Catherine M., 304. 
 
 Self Reliance (Emerson), 168. 
 
 Selling of Joseph. The (Sewall), 44. 
 
 Separatists, The, 11. 
 
 Septimius Felton (Hawthorne), 197. 
 
 Seven Oaks (Holland) ,294. 
 
 Seventeenth Century, literary at- 
 tainment of. 41. 
 
 Sewall, Samuel, 44. 
 
 Shakespeare (Longfellow), 232. 
 
 Shakespeare 's Tempest, and Strach- 
 ey's narrative, 7. 
 
 Shakespeare, plays of, 2, 84, 238, 
 290, 297, 327. 
 
INDEX 
 
 379 
 
 Shaw, Henrt W., 307. 
 
 iSfte Came and Went (Lowell), 260. 
 
 Shelley, PBBcr Bybshe, 88, 97, 
 
 103, 204. 
 Shepard, Thomas, 23. 
 SJtepherd of King Admetw, The, 
 
 257. 
 Sheridan's Ride (Read), 295. 
 Sherman, Frank Dempster, 332. 
 Shillabee, Benjamin P., 307. 
 Short stories, Hawthorne's, 198; 
 
 Poe's, 212. 
 Short story, earliest examples of, 
 
 111. 
 Shuttle, The (Burnett), 346. 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, 2. 
 SigniBcance of early colonial chron- 
 icles, 18. 
 Significance of Mather's Magnolia, 
 
 31. 
 Signs and Seasons (Burroughs), 
 
 328. 
 SiGOnRNEY, Lydia Huntley, 102, 
 
 240. 
 •' Silence Dogood," 57. 
 Sill, Edward Rowland, 312. 
 SIMMS, William Gilmore, 303, 
 
 313-315. 
 Simple Cobler of Aggawam, The 
 
 (Ward), 24. 
 Simplicity, Longfellow's, 229. 
 Singular Life, A (Ward), 338. 
 Sinners in the Hands of an Angry 
 
 God (Edwards), 50. 
 Sir Mortimer (Johnston) , 
 Sir Rohan's Ghost (Spofford), 339. 
 Sisters' Tragedy, The (Aldrich), 
 
 323. 
 Skeleton in Armor, The (Longfel- 
 low), 223, 231. 
 Sketch-Book (Irving), 97, 101, 106, 
 
 110, 218. 
 Sketch-Book compared with the 
 
 Spectator essays, 116. 
 Skipper Ireson's Ride (Whittier), 
 
 244. 
 Slavery, first published argument 
 
 QiSSiirtstf 44 
 Slave-Ships, The (Whittier), 242. 
 Smfth, Francis Hopkinson, 347. 
 Smith, John, 3. 
 Smith, Samuel F., 103. 
 Smith, Seba, 306. 
 Smith, Sidney, 98. 
 Snow-Bound (Whittier), 236, 238, 
 
 246. 
 Snow-Image, The (Hawthorne), 198. 
 Snow-Storm, The (Emerson), 171. 
 
 Socio! Silhouettes (Fawcett), 342. 
 
 Society and Solitude (Emerson) , 173. 
 
 Soldiers of Fortune (Davis) ,344. 
 
 Song of Hiawatlia, The (Longfellow), 
 224. 
 
 Song of Marion's Men (Bryant), 
 139. 
 
 Song of Myself (Whitman), 298. 
 
 Song of Pitcaim s Island, A (Bry- 
 ant), 138. 
 
 Song of the Chattahoochee (Lanier), 
 320. 
 
 Song of the Silent Land, The (Long- 
 fellow), 232. 
 
 Song of the Vermonters (Whittier), 
 240. 
 
 Song " The Hunter of the West " 
 (Bryant), 137. 
 
 Song to Ligeia (Poe), 214. 
 
 Songs from Dixie Land (Stanton), 
 332. 
 
 Songs from Vagabondia (Carman 
 and Hovey), 333. 
 
 Songs in Many Keys (Holmes) , 276. 
 
 Songs of Labor (Whittier), 244. 
 
 Songs of Many Seasons (Holmes), 
 276. 
 
 Songs of the Sierras (Miller), 330. 
 
 Songs of the Soil (Stanton), 332. 
 
 Sonny (Stuart), 346. 
 
 Sons and Daughters (Kirk), 339. 
 
 Sot Weed Factor (Cook), 48. 
 
 Soundings from the Atlantic 
 (Holmes), 272. 
 
 South Carolinian, The, 314. 
 
 Southern Flight, A (Sherman and 
 Scollard), 332. 
 
 Southern LUerary Messenger, 205. 
 
 Southern story-tellers, 344. 
 
 Southey, Robert, 97, 132. 
 
 Spanish Student, The (Longfellow), 
 223, 232. 
 
 Sparks, Jared, 286. 
 
 Specimen Days and Collect (Whit- 
 man), 301 
 
 Spectator, The, 54, 106, 110, 116. 
 
 Spenser, Edmund, 2, 188. 
 
 Sphinx, The (Emerson), 170, 171. 
 
 Spiritual Lav)S (Emerson) ,168. 
 
 Spofford, Harriet Presoott, 311, 
 339. 
 
 Spoil of Office, A (Garland), 
 
 Springfield Republican, 293. 
 
 Spy, The (Cooper), 97, 122. 
 
 Stamp Act, The, 66. 
 
 Standish of Standish (Austin) ,339. 
 
 Stanton, Frank Libby, 332. 
 
 Stanzas on Freedom (Lowell), 258. 
 
380 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Star of Bethlehem, The (Whittler), 
 241. 
 
 Star Spangled Banner, The (Key), 
 103. 
 
 Stars of the Summer Night (Long- 
 fellow), 231. 
 
 Stedman, Edmund Clabencb, 170, 
 321, 323-325. 
 
 Steele, Richard, 31, 107. 
 
 Sterne, Laurence, 85. 
 
 Stevenson, Robert Louis, 212. 
 
 StUlviater Tragedy, The (Aldrich), 
 323. 
 
 Stimson, Frederic J., 340. 
 
 Stirrup-Cup, The (Lanier), 319, 
 320. 
 
 Stith, William, 48. 
 
 Stockton, Francis R., 341. 
 
 Stoddard, Elizabeth B., 295. 
 
 Stoddard, Richard Henry, 295, 
 321, 324. 
 
 Stories of a Western Town (French), 
 351. 
 
 Stories of Georgia (Harris), 344. 
 
 Story, William Wetmore, 194, 
 310. 
 
 St(yrv of a Bad Boy, The (Aldrich), 
 321. 
 
 Story of Aaron, The (Harris), 344. 
 
 Story of Avis, The (Ward), 338. 
 
 Story of Babetie, The (Stuart), 346. 
 
 Stm-y of Eva, The (Payne), 352. 
 
 Story of Kennett, The (Taylor), 291. 
 
 Story of Margaret Kent, The (Kirk), 
 339. 
 
 Story of Patsy, The (Wiggin), 343. 
 
 Story of Thyrza, The (Brown), 338. 
 
 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, ISO, 
 248, 305. 
 
 Strachey, William, 6 
 
 Stranger in Lowell, The (Whittier), 
 244. 
 
 Stuart, Moses, 150. 
 
 Stuart, Ruth McEnert, 346. 
 
 Suggestions for Reading. Early 
 colonial period, 42; the Eight- 
 eenth Cfentury, 91; Irving, 117; 
 Cooper, 128; Bryant, 146; Emer- 
 son, 176; Hawthorne, 199; Poe, 
 215; Longfellow, 233; Whittier, 
 250; Lowell, 266. See also 
 Biographical and critical authori- 
 ties. 
 
 Sutmner by the Lakeside (Whittier) , 
 244. 
 
 Summer Wind (Bryant), 138. 
 
 Sumner, Charles, 258, 289. 
 
 Sun-Day Hymn, A (Holmes), 276. 
 
 ,Sunrise (Lanier), 319, 320. 
 
 Sunthin' in the Pastoral Line (Low- 
 ell), 262. 
 
 Supematuralism of New England, 
 The (Whittier), 245. 
 
 Supply at St. Agatha's, The (Ward), 
 338. 
 
 Swift, Jonathan, 31, 109. 
 
 Swingin' round the Cirkle (Locke), 
 307. 
 
 Sydney (Deland), 338. 
 
 Symbolism in Hawthorne's stories, 
 188. 
 
 Symphony, The (Lanier), 318, 320. 
 
 Tabs, John Banister, 330. 
 Tale of a Lonely Parish, A (Craw- 
 ford) , 343. 
 Tales of a Traveller (Irving) , 97. 
 Tales of a Wayside Inn (Longfellow), 
 
 226, 231, 246. 
 Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque 
 
 (Poe), 206. 
 Tales of the Home Folks (Harris), 
 
 344. 
 Tales of Time and Place (King), 
 
 346. 
 Taliesin (Hovey), 333. 
 Talisman, The, 139. 
 Tallahassee Girl, A (Thompson), 
 
 349. 
 Tamerlane and other poems (Poe), 
 
 202, 204. 
 Tampa Robins (Lanier), 320. 
 Tanglewood Tales (Hawthorne), 193. 
 Tahkington, Newton Booth, 
 
 349. 
 Tatter, The, 106. 
 Taylor, Bayard, 246, 290-292, 
 
 295, 318, 321, 324. 
 Technique, Bryant's, 145. 
 Telling the Bees (Whittier), 244. 
 TeU-Tale Heart, The (Poe), 212. 
 Temple House (Stoddard), 295. 
 Tennessee's Partner (Harte), 309. 
 Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 211, 
 
 260. 
 " Tenth Muse," The, 35. 
 Terminaiions (James), 337. 
 Thackeray, William Makepeace, 
 
 119. 
 Thanatopsis (Bryant), 97, 132, 134, 
 
 137, 144. 
 That Lass o' Lowrie's (Burnett), 
 
 346. 
 Thaxteh, Celia Laighton, 247, 
 
 311. 
 Theatres, 84. 
 
INDEX 
 
 381 
 
 Their Wedding Journey (Howells), 
 336. 
 
 Theocritus, 313. 
 
 Theology, Emerson's, 160. 
 
 Theology explained and, defined 
 (Dwight), 75. 
 
 Theology in New England, 20. 
 
 Theory of rhythm, Lanier's, 318. 
 
 Thomas, Edith M., 330. 
 
 Thomas, Theodore, 317. 
 
 Thompson, Ernest Seton, 328. 
 
 Thompson, Maurice, 312, 349. 
 
 Thomson, James, 75, 132. 
 
 Thorbau, Henry D., 177; the nat- 
 uralist, 179; Walden, 180; A 
 Week on the Concord and Merri- 
 mack Rivers, 180; journal, 181; 
 essays and excursions, 182; pre- 
 sent place in literature, 182; 
 authorities, 182; mentioned, 152, 
 175, 191, 328. 
 
 Thou art the Man (Poe), 212. 
 
 Thoughts for the Discouraged Parm- 
 er, (Riley), 331. 
 
 Three Memorial Poems (Lowell), 
 263. 
 
 Threnody (Emerson), 172. 
 
 Through One Administration (Bur- 
 nett), 346. 
 
 Through Winding Ways (Kirk), 339. 
 
 TicKNOR, George, 196, 221. 
 
 Tides ofBamegat, The (Smith), 347. 
 
 " Timothy Titcomb," 293. 
 
 Timothy Titcomb's Letters (Hol- 
 land), 294. 
 
 Timrod, Henry, 313, 314. 
 
 Tintem Abbey (Wordsworth), 143. 
 
 Tiverton Tales (Brown), 338. 
 
 To a Cloud (Bryant), 138. 
 
 To a Honeybee (Freneau), 82. 
 
 To a Waterfowl (Bryant), 97, 133, 
 137. 
 
 To Faneuil Hall (Whittier), 242. 
 
 To Have and to Hold (Johnston), 
 348. 
 
 To Helen (Poe), 204, 214. 
 
 To the Fringed Gentian (Bryant), 
 139, 144. 
 
 To the Man-of-War Bird (Whit- 
 man), 300. 
 
 To the Mocking-Bird (Pike), 313. 
 
 Together (Herrick), 353. 
 
 Told by Uncle Bemus (Harris), 345. 
 
 Tom Grogan (Smith), 347. . 
 
 Tom Sawyer (Clemens), 308. 
 
 ToRREY, Bradford, 328. 
 
 Tartesathe Usurer (Willis), 104. 
 
 ToDKGEE, Albion W., 347. 
 
 Tour of the Prairies (Irving), 113. 
 Tragic Muse, The (James), 337. 
 Trail of the Lonesome Pine, The 
 
 (Fox), 345. 
 Tramp Abroad, A (Clemens), 308. 
 Transcendentalism, 151. 
 Transformation (Hawthorne), 194. 
 Translation of a Fragment of 
 
 Simonides (Bryant), 137. 
 Translation of the Iliad (Bryant), 
 
 141. 
 Translation of the Odyssey (Bryant), 
 
 141. 
 Translation of Ovid (Sandys), 8. 
 Translations by Longfellow, 232. 
 Travels in New England and Nevr 
 
 York (Dwight), 75. 
 Tristram Shandy (Sterne), 85. 
 Trowbridge, John T., 340. 
 True Relation, The (Smith), 4. 
 Trumbull, John, 73. 
 Twice-Told Tales (Hawthorne), 187, 
 
 188, 189, 190, 206. 
 Two Admirals, The (Cooper), 125, 
 
 128. 
 Two Little Confederates (Page) , 345. 
 Two Men (Stoddard), 295. 
 Two Vanrevels, The (Tarkington), 
 
 349. 
 Two Years before the Mast (Dana), 
 
 101. 
 Tyler, Moses Coit, 328. 
 Typee, (Melville), 304. 
 
 Ulalume (Poe), 209, 214. 
 Ultima Thule (Longfellow), 227. 
 Uncle Remus and Br'er Babbit 
 
 (Harris), 345. 
 Uncle Remus — His Songs and His 
 
 Sayings (Harris), 345. 
 Uncle Tom's Cabin (Stowe), 305, 
 
 349. 
 Under the Old Elm (Lowell), 263. 
 Under the Willows (Lowell), 263. 
 Undercurrent, The (Grant), 340. 
 Unguarded Gates (Aldrieh), 323. 
 Union and Liberty (Holmes), 276. 
 Unitarian Movement, The, 150. 
 United States Literary Gazette, 137, 
 
 220. 
 United States Magazine,The, 90, 256. 
 University of Georgia, 314. 
 University of Pennsylvania, 57. 
 University of Virginia, founded, 
 
 70 ; Poe, 202. 
 Unleavened Bread (Grant), 340. 
 
 Valley of Unrest, The (Poe), 204. 
 
382 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Van Dyke, Henry, 328, 334. 
 
 Vaudow Teacher, The (Whittier). 
 240. 
 
 Venetian JAfe (Howells), 335. 
 
 Verne, Jules, 212. 
 
 Verse form. Whitman's, 299. 
 
 Victorian Anthology, A (Stedman), 
 325. 
 
 Victorian Poets (Stedman), 324. 
 
 Views Afoot (Taylor), 291. 
 
 Vignettes of Manhattan (Matthews). 
 342. 
 
 Village Blacksmith, The (Longfel- 
 low), 223, 231. 
 
 Virginia, settlement, and develop- 
 ment of, 3-9. 
 
 Virginia Comedians, The (Cooke), 
 303. 
 
 Virginian, The (Wister), 343. 
 
 Vision of Columbus (Barlow), 73. 
 
 Vision of Poesie, A (Timrod), 314. 
 
 Vision of Sir Launfal, The (Lowell), 
 260, 262. 
 
 Voiceless, The (Holmes), 272. 
 
 Voices of Freedom (Whittier), 242. 
 
 Voices of the Night (Lonrfellow), 
 222. 
 
 Voluntaries (Emerson), 171. 
 
 Volunteer Boys, The, 75. 
 
 Voyage of the Good Ship Union 
 (Holmes), 276. 
 
 Waiting (Whittier), 245. 
 
 Wake Robin (Burroughs), 328. 
 
 Wakefield (Hawthorne), 188, 198. 
 
 Walden (Thoreau), 180, 182. 
 
 Walden Pond, 179. 
 
 Wallace, Lew, 349. 
 
 Walton, Izaak, 265. 
 
 Wanted — A Man (Stedman) , 324. 
 
 Ward, Mrs. E. S. P., 337. 
 
 Ware, William, 304. 
 
 Warner, Charles Dudley, 294r- 
 
 295. 
 Warner, Susan, 304. 
 Warren, Joseph, 67. 
 Warren's Address (Pierpont), 102. 
 Washers of the Shroud, The (Lowell), 
 
 262. 
 Washington, George, 71. 
 Washington (Sparlts), 286. 
 Watchers, The (Whittier), 245.^ 
 Water-Witch, The (Cooper), 124, 
 
 128. 
 Wayfarers, The (Peabody), 334. 
 Ways of Nature (Burroughs), 328. 
 Ways of the Hour, The (Cooper), 125. 
 We Girls (Whitney), 341. 
 
 Web of lAfe, The (Herrick), 353. 
 
 Webster, Daniel, 115, 127, 157, 
 244, 288, 315. , 
 
 Welde, Thomas, 33. 
 
 Wendell, Barrett, 329. 
 
 Wendell Phillips (Lowell), 258. 
 
 Wept of Wish-ton-Wish, The 
 (Cooper), 124. 
 
 West Church in Boston, 253. 
 
 West Newton, Mass., 193. 
 
 West Roxbury, Mass., 163. 
 
 "Westchester Farmer," 67. 
 
 Westminster Abbey (Irving), 111. 
 
 Westminster Abbey (Stedman), 323. 
 
 Westover, Va., 47. 
 
 Westward Hoi (Paulding) , 99. 
 
 Wet Days at Edgewood (Mitchell), 
 294. 
 
 Wharton, Mrs. Edith, 343. 
 
 What Maisie Knew (James), 337. 
 
 Wheatley, Phillis, 83. 
 
 Wheel of Life, The (Glasgow), 348. 
 
 When Knighthood was in Flower 
 (Major), 350. 
 
 When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard 
 Bloom'd (Whitman), 300. 
 
 Wlien the Frost is on the Punkin 
 (Riley), 331. 
 
 When the Sultan goes to Ispahan 
 (Aldrich), 322. 
 
 Whicher, Frances, 307. 
 
 Whipple, Edwin Percy, 326. 
 
 Whistle, The (Franklin), 62. 
 
 White, Kirke, 132. 
 
 White, Maria, 256. 
 
 White Islander, The (Catherwood), 
 351. 
 
 White, Richard Grant, 327. 
 
 White Mice, The (Davis), 344. 
 
 White Old Maid, The (Hawthorne), 
 198. 
 
 Whitfield, George. 51. 
 
 Whitman, Walt. Early life. 296. 
 297; Leaves of Grass, 297; his 
 verse form, 299 ; war record. 299 ; 
 Drum Taps. 299; his strength, 
 300; death, 301; influence, 302; 
 references, 302; mentioned, 176. 
 
 Whitman, Walt (Burroughs), 328. 
 
 Whitney, Mrs. A. D. T., 341. 
 
 Whittier, John Greenleaf. 
 Youth, 236; The Barefoot Boy. 
 236; Snow-Bound, 236; early 
 compositions. 238 ; education, 
 239 ; as a journalist, 239 ; in Hart- 
 ford, 240; first book, 240; early 
 poems, 241 ; the abolitionist, 242; 
 Voices of Freedom, 242 ; politics 
 
INDEX 
 
 383 
 
 and journalism, 243; Ichabod, 
 244; Mogg Megone, 244; Lays 
 of My Home , 244 ; Songs of Labor, 
 244; The Chapel of the Hermits 
 and Other Poems, 244; The 
 Panorama, and Other Poems, 244 ; 
 Home Ballads, 244; prose works, 
 244; In War Time, 245; National 
 Lyrics, 245; Snow-Bound, 246; 
 The Tent on the Beach, 246; 
 latter years, 247 ; personal traits, 
 247; deatti, 249; place in litera- 
 ture, 249 ; suggestions tor reading, 
 250; authorities, 252; mentioned, 
 71, 149, 154, 223, 257, 258, 277, 
 311. 
 
 WhMier, John Greenleaf (Higgin- 
 son), 327. 
 
 Wide, Wide World, The (Warner), 
 304. 
 
 "Widow Bedott," 307. 
 
 Wieland (Brown), 87, 88. 
 
 WiGGiN, Kate Douglas, 343 
 
 WlGQLESWOHTH, MiCHAEL, 39. 
 
 Wilcox, Ella Wheeler, 332. 
 Wild Honeysuckle, The (Freneau), 
 
 82. 
 WiLKiNS, Maky E., 338. 
 WiLLABD, Emma H., 102. 
 William and Mary C!ollege, 48. 
 William WUsm (Poe), 201, 211, 
 
 212. 
 Williams, Roger, 25, 150. 
 Williams (College ; Bryant, 130. 
 Williamsburg, Va., 84. 
 Willis, Nathaniel Parker, 103, 
 
 138, 208, 321, 322. 
 Wind of Destiny (Hardy), 340. 
 Wing-and-Wing (Cooper), 125, 128. 
 WiNSLow, Edward, 14. 
 Winter, William, 327. 
 Winter Piece, A (Bryant), 97, 143. 
 Winter Sunshine (Burroughs), 328. 
 WiNTHROP, John, 16, 183. 
 Wise Woman, The (Burnham), 339. 
 WiSTER, Owen, 343. 
 Witchcraft in Salem, 29, 183, 186. 
 With Husky Haughty Lips O Sea 
 
 (Whitman), 300. 
 With Reed and Lyre (Scollard), 333. 
 With the Procession (Fuller), 352. 
 With Trumpet and Drum (Field), 
 
 331. 
 
 Wither, George, 36. 
 
 Wolf, The (Norris), 353. 
 
 Wolfert Webber (Irving), 111. 
 
 Wolfert's Boost (Irving), 115. 
 
 Woman in the Nineteenth Century 
 (Fuller), 157. 
 
 Wonder Book (Hawthorne), 193. 
 
 Wonder Working Providence (John- 
 son), 21. 
 
 Wonderful One-Hoss Shay, The 
 (Holmes), 272. 
 
 Wonders of the Invisible World 
 (Mather), 29. 
 
 Woodberby, George E., 325, 328, 
 334. 
 
 Woodman, spare that tree (Morris), 
 102. 
 
 Woodnotes (Emerson), 170, 171. 
 
 Woods, Leonard, 150. 
 
 Woodworth, Samuel, 102. 
 
 WooLMAN, John, 71, 237. 
 
 WooLSON, Constance Fenimoee, 
 350. 
 
 Word of Congress, The (Odell), 72. 
 
 Wordsworth, William, 83, 97, 
 132, 143, 161, 231, 314. 
 
 Wreck of the Hesperus, The (Long- 
 fellow), 223, 231. 
 
 Writs of Assistance, 66. 
 
 Wyandotte (Cooper), 125. 
 
 Wyndham Towers (Aldrich), 322. 
 
 Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (Field), 
 331. 
 
 Ximena (Taylor), 291. 
 
 Yale College; Cooper, 120. 
 
 Yankee Doodle, 79. 
 
 Yankee Man of War, The, 77. 
 
 Yankee's Return from Camp, The, 
 79. 
 
 Year's Life, A (Lowell), 256. 
 
 Yellow Violet, The (Bryant), 97. 
 
 Yesterdays with Authors (Fields), 
 327. 
 
 Young Goodman Brown (Haw- 
 thorne), 198. 
 
 Zenobia (Ware), 304. 
 
 Zenobia, in Hawthorne's Blithedale 
 
 Romance, 156. 
 Zoroaster (Crawford), 343. 
 
CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
 U . S . A