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James Fennimore Cooper ranks highest among American novelists who had appeared before 1850.

Scientific writers were Wilson, Audubon, Silliman, Thompson. and others.

Theology was represented in the Trinitarian branch of the church by Lyman Beecher, John M. Mason, Moses Stuart, etc., and in the Unitarian by William Ellery Channing, Henry Ware, Sr., and his sons Henry and William Ware, Andrews Norton, and others.

Moses Stuart was one of the finest Biblical scholars of the age.

The works of Channing belong essentially to literature, and he is better known by his Essays than by his theological writings.

The most prominent writer of the time was Washington Irving.

Prescott had written before 1850 his History of Ferdinand and Isabella, Conquest of Mexico, and Conquest of Peru.

Other writers of history and biography were Jared Sparks, William Wirt, John Marshall, Timothy Flint, etc.

Oratory flourished in the early days of the Republic.

Among the chief orators and statesmen were John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Alexander and Edward Everett.

Margaret Fuller was a friend of Emerson. She, with Emerson, edited the "Dial."

Henry Reed was one of the most promising of American critics.

Horace Binney Wallace, like Reed, gave great promise of excellence as a critic. Both were natives of Philadelphia.

Lydia Maria Child was a prolific and delightful writer.

Mrs. Kirkland wrote humorous sketches of Western pioneer life.
Verplanck edited Shakespeare's works with notes.

Griswold furnished numerous volumes of biographical sketches of authors, with selections from their works.

Noah Webster completed his Dictionary in 1828.
Worcester's Dictionary was completed in 1846.

LONGFELLOW.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE AGE OF EMERSON.

1850-1882.

O period was ever marked with footsteps of progress like those within the last fifty years-progress in science, in art, in literature and humanity. It is encouraging to see, the world over, that the most valuable product of intellectual culture is a higher moral culture, and that both are mainly the results of written or spoken thoughts. It is impossible to estimate the value of literature-the refining influence of its poetry, the thought quickened by its philosophy, the nobler action shaped by its oratory, and the kindlier sympathy induced by its stories of every-day life.

It is well for a nation to pay just tribute to its great thinkers and writers. It was said of a Danish poet* that "his death set a whole empire weeping," and no more touching evidence of the refining, beneficent influence of poetry and true thinking, in our own country, could be given than the universal bereavement lately felt in the death of our loved poets, and the sage whom his own generation delights to honor, and whom posterity with clearer vision will perceive in truer relations.†

* Adam Gottlob Ohlenschläger (1779-1850).

+ You cannot see the mountain near.--Emerson's Essay on Shakespeare the Poet

Poets.

LONGFELLOW.

It is perhaps not too much to say that there never was a poet more widely loved than HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. The man was not less loved than his songs. All the genial spirit of his lays emanated from his own genial spirit. "All the many sounds of nature

Borrowed sweetness from his singing,

All the hearts of men were softened
By the pathos of his music.

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Thus he sang of Hiawatha's poet-friend, and it now may be fitly said of himself.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882) was born at Portland, Me. He graduated at Bowdoin College in 1825. A professorship of modern languages was offered him, and to further qualify himself for the position, he spent three years in France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. In 1829 he entered upon the duties of his professorship at Bowdoin. On the resignation of George Ticknor from the chair of modern languages at Harvard, Longfellow was elected to that position. Again he went abroad-this time to study the languages of the North. Returning the next year, he assumed his professorship at Cambridge, in which position he remained until 1854. He still, however, continued to reside in Cambridge, in the "Craigie House," memorable not only as the Revolutionary headquarters of Washington, but as being the college quarters of several of the distinguished men of the country besides Longfellow.* Mr. Longfellow purchased the house in 1843, the same year in which he married Miss Appleton.

* Mrs. Craigie, when in reduced circumstances, let out rooms in the grand old mansion to the students of Harvard-to Everett, Worcester, Sparks and others.

The care with which the poet prepared himself for every duty is clearly reflected in his writings. The song of the Builders was his creed :

"Build, to-day, then, strong and sure,

With a firm and ample base;

And ascending and secure

Shall to-morrow find its place."

Could we sum up the daily labors of the hardest-working men, they would not seem more laborious than the work of our greatest literary men. While at Bowdoin as a studentconsequently before his eighteenth year-Longfellow had written the Hymn of the Moravian Nuns, Sunrise on the Hills, and The Spirit of Poetry. Many of his early works are reminiscences of foreign travels. Outre Mer, a Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea, and his translation of Coplas de Manriqué (verses of Manriqué*) appeared in 1835. Hyperion, a prose romance, was published in 1839, also a collection of poems called Voices of the Night. He was at this time contributing to the "North American Review" and to the "Knickerbocker Magazine." In 1841 Ballads and other Poems was published, and in 1842, Poems on Slavery. His first drama, The Spanish Student, was written in 1843. The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems followed in 1845. The same year he published The Poets and Poetry of Europe, with biographical sketches. Many of the translations he made himself. In 1847 the most celebrated of his poems, Evangeline, appeared, and in 1849, Kavanah, a Tale; then followed a volume of poems called The Seaside and the Fireside, and in 1851 that most melodious drama, The Golden Legend. In 1855, Hiawatha, an Indian Edda, appeared, unrhymed and with no attempt at alliteration even, the beautiful trochaic measure flowing on so softly that rhyme was not needed. Miles Standish was written in 1858, in the same measure as Evangeline. The Tales of a Wayside Inn was the next collection of poems. Flower-de-Luce and New England Tragedies appeared the same year (1863). Again Mr. Longfellow visited Europe, and, returning, published in 1870 a translation of Dante's Divina Comedia, and in 1872 his second drama, The

* Jorge Manriqué, a Spanish poet of the fifteenth century.

Divine Tragedy. The Golden Legend, New England Tragedies, and The Divine Tragedy are published in a volume called Christus. Morituri Salutamus was a poem delivered at Bowdoin College in 1879.

BRYANT.

One of the earliest poets of this century, yet one whom we love to think upon as our contemporary, was WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (1794-1878). He was born in Cummington, Massachusetts, where he resided much of his life. He was remarkable as a child for his thoughtfulness, and in his tenth year paraphrased the first chapter of the book of Job, and wrote other poems, which, though immature, were published in the "Hampshire Gazette." Before he was fourteen he wrote the Embargo, a political satire, which became so popular that a second edition was demanded, when he produced with it several additional poems. His most popular poem, Thanatopsis, was written at the age of eighteen, and To a Waterfowl, when he was twentyone. Both show equal seriousness of thought. Thanatopsis is, as its name implies, a view of death. The youth of eighteen did not speculate on the hereafter; he simply trusted, and herein lies the exceeding beauty of the poem. The last stanza is surcharged with the spirit of trust. Earth is described as the tomb of man, and the mountains, vales, and woods as the decorations of that tomb. The poem is material in its structure, but none the less poetical. The fact that man's body shall mingle with the elements, and become part and parcel of the clod that covers him, does not stay the soul in its onward career. The lines To a Waterfowl, which followed soon, suggest the flight of a disembodied soul.

In 1827 Bryant became editor of the "New York Evening Post," which position he held until the close of his life. He entered into every political conflict, and "never waited to catch the breath of popular opinion before flinging abroad his standard." Quick to perceive the right, he was as ready to espouse it.

His first visit to Europe was in 1834. Six times he travelled abroad. In 1845 he took up his residence at Roslyn, Long Island, where he spent most of his time until his death, varying it each year with short residences at the old homestead at Cummington, and at his city home in New York. Never

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