I du believe in prayer an' praise I DU believe in Freedom's cause, I love to see her stick her claws But libbaty's a kind o' thing Thet don't agree with niggers. Lowell's Essays owed their origin in great part to lectures; they are, consequently, characterized by both the merits and the defects of the spoken word. They are addressed to a limited circle of persons, who are presumably upon a somewhat like level of culture; who, at any rate, are prepared in a certain measure for the subject of the discourse. This often leads the lecturer to content himself with a brief intimation. In the printed essay, which is addressed to the world at large, this brevity sometimes produces an effect of paucity and obscurity. The humor of the Essays becomes ponderous at times by being based too largely upon literary reminiscences and far-fetched allusions. The delicious Moosehead Journal (1853), in its present shape, yields ready enjoyment only to the highly educated; had not Lowell, on the very first page, conjured up Virgil, Kenelm Digby, and Empedocles, its fresh, popular tone and its wealth of brilliant fancies would regale thousands of readers. By his dauntless devotion to truth alone, Lowell's literary criticism towers above that worship of success, tending to halftruths and all manner of compromises, which marked the Victorian age. When Carlyle was at the zenith of his fame (1866), Lowell wrote that estimate,* which, with all its urbanity and reverence, made the hollow thunder-din of Carlyle's verbosity ridiculous. In a few delicious epigrams he disposed of the stage-lightning of Carlyle, the supposed demigod. "Mr. Carlyle is for calling down fire from Heaven whenever he cannot readily lay his hand on the matchbox."-"Cromwell would have scorned him as a babbler more long-winded than Prynne Friedrich would have scoffed at his tirades as dummes Zeug." And the same inexorable *Literary Essays II, 77 ff. judge is the most unstinting, the most enthusiastic, admirer of genuine greatness. No German has paid so high a tribute to the genius and character of Lessing as has Lowell; no professional politician has so enthusiastically lauded the civic patriotism of great Americans of the stamp of Josiah Quincy and James Abram Garfield. The delectable and refreshing thing about Lowell is that in spite of his predilection for the utterance of generalizations, which often comes dangerously near to Puritan didacticism, he always remains natural, spontaneous, chatty, playful. When he relates in his "Leaves from My Journal in the Mediterranean," how he made the acquaintance of the Chief Mate, he does not content himself with recounting the fact that the Mate admired his pocket-knife, but (genuine Lowellesque: a little nature, a little human nature, and a great deal of I) he appends a generalization: "I like folks who like an honest bit of steel. There is always more than the average human nature in a man who has a hearty sympathy with iron. It is a manly metal, with no sordid associations like gold and silver." Not exactly new, not astonishing, but individual, spontaneous, convincing. Lowell had a profound sympathy for the unadulterated soul of the people, for persons in the lowest ranks. His spirit always found repose and refreshment in intercourse with the unlettered, "like what the body feels in cushiony moss." Conversation with people of kindred pursuits he likens to the grinding of the upper and nether millstones, which wear each other smooth. Genuine human nature was always a source of delight to him. He found it "wholesome as a potato, fit company for any dish." His wit rejoiced in the comedy of homely topics. One need only instance his little known but deliciously humorous translation of Prof. F. J. Child's Il Pesceballo (The Fishball!), a mock Italian operetta." 5. KINDRED SPIRITS.-The cosmopolitan tradition of Harvard is represented by other men besides these. Charles Eliot Norton (18271908) maintained the relationship with the great men of England. To him we are indebted for the publication of the correspondence between Goethe and Carlyle (1886), the "Letters of J. R. Lowell" (1893), and "The Letters of John Ruskin" (1904). George Ticknor (1791-1887) wrote "A His *Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1862. Reprinted by Thomas B. Mosher, Portland, Maine, 1911. tory of Spanish Literature" (1849) which has not to this day been surpassed. Francis James Child (1825-1896) became famous the world over by his monumental work, 'English and Scottish Popular Ballads” (1859). 66 Thomas Wentworth Higginson has a trait in common with the great ones of Harvard-his versatility; and Barrett Wendell is an excellent representative of literary history at the famous seat of learning. A figure of a peculiar kind of greatness, such as could perhaps be produced on Massachusetts soil alone, is Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909), who did notable work as journalist, story-teller, preacher, historian. By his famous story, "The Man Without a Country," he will perhaps outlive all the celebrities of the day. |