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""Tis not for the mean;

It requireth courage stout,
Souls above doubt,
Valor unbending;
Such 'twill reward,
They shall return

More than they were,
And ever ascending.

"Yet hear me, yet

One word more thy heart behooved,
One pulse more of firm endeavor,
Keep thee to-day,

To-morrow, forever

Free as an Arab

Of thy beloved.

"Cling with life to the maid;
But when the surprise,
Vague shadow of surmise,
Flits across her bosom young
Of a joy apart from thee,
Free be she, fancy free,
Do not thou detain a hem,
Nor the palest rose she flung
From her summer diadem.

"Though thou loved her as thyself,

As a self of purer clay,

Though her parting dims the day,

Stealing grace from all alive,

Heartily know,

When half gods go

The gods arrive."

This is noble stoicism. Among Emerson's poems are some which bear witness to a less noble spirit—to a selfconsciousness which rejoices in its contempt of the world; that knows itself to have enough, while the world perishes of hunger; a something which reminds one of the answer of the ant to the grasshopper, in La Fontaine's fable., But this shadow passes away, as do all clouds, from the clear heaven of the poet, having not there their abiding home. One strongly prominent feature in him is his love. of the strong and the great. Thus he speaks in his poem, "The World-Soul:"

"Thanks to the morning light,

Thanks to the seething sea,

To the uplands of New Hampshire,

To the green-haired forest free;
Thanks to each man of courage,

To the maids of holy mind,

To the boy with his games undaunted

Who never looks behind."

But nobler even than this is the song of our Geijer:

"I greet with love each field and grove,

And thou, blue billowy sea, I love;
Life-giving light in depth and height,
Thou heavenly sun, art my delight!
But more than all earth's fair array,
More than the blue waves' dancing play,
Love I

The dawning light of heavenly rest

Within a trembling human breast!"

Of this light Emerson knows nothing. Emerson has, in other respects, many points of resemblance with Geijer, but he stands as much below him as heathenism stands below Christianity.

I can not, perhaps, do full justice to Emerson's poems by my translation; I never was very clever at translation; and I fancy it almost impossible to render the poetic element of Emerson into another tongue, because it is of so peculiar a kind, and has, like the character of the poet, its own extraordinary rhythm and spirit.

Longfellow, the author of "Evangeline," is perhaps the best read and the most popular of the poets of America; but this is owing to qualities which are common alike to the elder poets of all countries, rather than to any peculiar characteristics of the New World's poets. Those sentiments, whether happy or sorrowful, which exist in the breast of every superior human being, are peculiarly his domain, and here he exercises his sway, and in particular in his delineation of the more delicate changes of feeling. In "Evangeline" alone has he dealt with an American subject, and described American scenery.

But enough now, my sweet sister, of this poesy of morning. We will now have our dinner. Men of the two countries are invited, and yet a third, namely, the Swedish consul, from Boston, Mr. Benzon, who is coming to see me.

In the Evening. The day is ended, with its changing scenes and impressions. If I could only take every thing more coolly! But I am too ardent, too easily excited. Every impression goes directly to my heart, and there it remains too strongly impressed. I am alone in my room, and see from my window, through the dark yet star-bright night, the steam-boats which pass along the Hudson, and send forth from their chimneys sulphur-blue and yellow flames.

To-morrow morning I am going with the Downings to visit some of their best friends, a family of the name of H., who live on the Hudson, in the neighborhood of Washington Irving; and next week I return to New York, there to begin my campaign, for which this little taste of rural life and society is merely a prelude.

Among the people who, during this time, have come to see me are, in particular, a married couple, Mr. and Mrs. S., who came hither with their little baby from New York solely to offer me their house as my home when there. They were so beautiful and so earnestly kind'; there appeared to me to be something so pure, so single-minded about them; they seemed to speak so entirely from their own honest hearts, that I was glad to accept their invitation, and to arrange to go to them before I took up my quarters in any other homes, as I had promised to do for a time: among others, that of Miss Lynch. It seems as if I should scarcely be obliged to pay any thing for my liv ing in this country, if I am to continue being thus entertained. But I must not expect that it will be thus every where. Besides, it has its disadvantages, as well as its advantages and its great pleasures.

Mr. and Mrs. S., who are of the class called Socialists

and Abolitionists, and who belong to the Liberal Movement party in the country, are universally acknowledged to be remarkably noble and estimable people. "From them," said Mr. Downing, "you will hear what is going forward in this party, and you will probably see at their house William Henry Channing, one of our most distinguished lecturers and extempore speakers, and through him you may become acquainted with Emerson."

I can not tell you, my Agatha, how fortunate I esteem myself, that, immediately at the commencement of my visit here, I have come into contact with so profoundly thinking and so universally comprehensive a mind as that of Mr. Downing, and who, besides, is so indescribably kind to me, and so careful that I shall derive every possible advantage from my journey, and see every thing, both good and bad, in their true light. He never dictates, never instructs me, but now and then, and as if by chance, he mentions to me the names of persons who are active for the future of the New World in one way or another, and makes me observant of what is going on in the country. I notice, among other things, with what precision all branches of intellectual labor seem to be carried on; and how easily ability and talent make their way, find their place and their sphere of action, become known and acknowledged.

Mr. Downing has mentioned to me Horace Mann, as one of the persons who have most effectually labored for the future, as an individual who has brought about, by his enthusiasm and determination, a great reform in the work of instruction, who has labored for the erection of beautiful new schools in all parts of the country, and has infused a new life into the organization of schools. It appears that the reformers and the lecturers who develop the spiritual and intellectual life in America, and call forth its ideal, come from the Northern States, from New England, and in particular from Massachusetts, the oldest home of the pilgrims and the Puritans.

Of that which he himself has done, Mr. Downing speaks with the utmost modesty; but I heard from Miss Sedgwick that few men in the United States are so universally known, or so generally influential as he. His works. on architecture, on gardening, on flowers and fruits-and all of which are calculated to ennoble the taste, to make the purest productions in their branches of science and art accessible to every man-these works are to be found every where, and nobody, whether he be rich or poor, builds a house or lays out a garden without consulting Downing's works. Every young couple who sets up housekeeping buys them.

"It happens," said Mr. Downing, modestly, "that I came at a time when people began universally to feel the necessity of information about building houses and laying out gardens."

He is what people call here "a self-made man," that is to say, a man who has less to thank education for what he is than his own endeavors. "He is one of our best men," said Miss Sedgwick.

It will readily be supposed that it was painful to me to leave him and his truly sweet and kind little wife. Mr. Downing has drawn up for me a proposed route of travel -the plan of a journey for one year through the United States, as well as furnished me with letters to his friends in the different states. I still had a deal to say to you about my happiness in being here, my happiness in the new vitality which seems given to me, although I feel that the outer life is a little wearisome sometimes; and I expect to have to pay for it one of these days. But ah! how few there are who have to complain of having too many objects of interest, of experiencing too much goodwill! My beloved Agatha, think of me in thy prayers; and that I know thou dost, and thank God for me that He has so abundantly fulfilled my secret prayers, has satisfied my hunger and my thirst, and nourished me with His riches and His goodness!

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