HENRY THE SECRET OF THE SEA. WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (18071882). Few names in American history are so well known and so beloved as the name of Henry W. Longfellow. He was descended through his mother from John Alden, made famous through the poem Miles Standish. His infancy and boyhood were passed in Portland, Maine. He graduated from Bowdoin College at the age of 18, and was elected to a professorship of modern languages in that institution. Later he occu HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. pied the chair of languages in Harvard College. Among the longer writings of Longfellow are The Courtship of Miles Standish, Hiawatha, and Evangeline. His best-known prose work is entitled Outre-Mer. He was a member of the famous Saturday Club, that at a dinner in 1856 projected the Atlantic Monthly magazine. His poems are translated into ten different languages. He has made some fine translations from other languages, notably, Dante's Divina Commedia and The Children of the Lord's Supper. Longfellow was one of the most scholarly of our American writers. His poetry is marked by the exquisite beauty of its figures, and the refinement of its style. Longfellow himself was a gentleman of unusual refinement and culture, and a man of noble, up right character. 1. Ан! what pleasant visions haunt me All the old romantic legends, All my dreams come back to me. 2. Sails of silk and ropes of sandal, 3. Most of all the Spanish ballad 4. Like the long waves on a sea-beach, 5. Telling how the count Arnaldos, 6. How he heard the ancient helmsman 7. Till his soul was full of longing, And he cried, with impulse strong, "Helmsman! for the love of heaven, Teach me, too, that wondrous song!" 8. "Wouldst thou," so the helmsman answered, Learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers Comprehend its mystery!" 9. In each sail that skims the horizon, Hear those mournful melodies, 10. Till my soul is full of longing And the heart of the great ocean Sends a thrilling pulse through me. HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. XXXV. ENCOURAGEMENTS IN THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE. EDWARD EVERETT (1794-1865) was born at Dorchester, Massachusetts. At the age of seventeen he graduated from Harvard with high honors, and entered the ministry. He gave up preaching at the age of twenty-one, to take the chair of Greek literature in Harvard College. Later he edited the North American Review for EDWARD EVERETT. several years. He was a noted and powerful orator, and much of his lasting fame is due to this gift. He served his State as Congressman for ten years. Next he was made Governor of Massachusetts for six years, being defeated for reëlection at the end of that time by a single vote. In 1841 he was sent by President Harrison as minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain. He was made president of Harvard College in 1845. Next he was called to President Fillmore's cabinet, to take the position of Secretary of State. He was then elected to the United States Senate. His last great service for his country was the successful carrying on of a plan to purchase and preserve Mount Vernon, the home of Washington, as a national possession. To do this he wrote an oration on Wash ington, which he delivered nearly one hundred and fifty times. He used the proceeds of this lecture for the Mount Vernon fund. By his efforts he secured more than $100,000. This crowning act of Mr. Everett's life is an object lesson. It teaches the force of patriotism and the value of the preservation of history. His career speaks for him all praise. Few American names glow with brighter luster. 1. An idea, I fear, prevails, that truths are obvious enough in themselves, but that they apply only to men of literary education to professional characters, and persons of fortune and leisure; and that it is out of the power of the other classes of society, and those who pass most of their time in manual labor and mechanical industry, to engage in the pursuit of knowledge with any hope of being useful to themselves and others. 2. This I believe to be a great error. What is it that we wish to improve? The mind. Is this a thing monopolized by any class of society? God forbid! It is the heritage with which He has endowed all the children of the great family of man. Is it a treasure belonging to the wealthy? It is a talent bestowed alike on rich and poor, high and low. But this is not all: mind is, in all men, and in every man, the same active, living and creative principle; it is the man himself. 3. One of the renowned philosophers of heathen antiquity beautifully said of the intellectual faculties: "I call them not mine but me." It is these which make the man, which are the man. I do not say that opportunities, that wealth, leisure, and great advantages for education, are nothing; but I do say that they are much less than is commonly supposed; I do say, as a general rule, that the amount of useful knowledge which men acquire, and the good they do with it, are by no means in direct proportion to the degree to which they have enjoyed what are commonly called the great advantages of life. 4. Wisdom does sometimes, but not most commonly, feed her children with a silver spoon. I believe it is perfectly correct to say, that a small proportion only of those who have been most distinguished for the improvement of their minds have enjoyed the best advantages for education. I do not mean to detract, in the least degree, from the advantages of the various seminaries for learning which public and private liberality has founded in our country. They serve as places where a large number of persons are prepared for their employment in the various occupations which the public service requires. 5. But, I repeat it, of the great benefactors of our race, the men who, by wonderful inventions, remarkable discoveries, and extraordinary improvements, have conferred the most eminent services on their fellow-men, and gained the highest names in history—by far the greater part have been men of humble origin, narrow fortunes, small advantages, and self-taught. 6. And this springs from the nature of the mind of man, which is not, like natural things, a vessel to be filled up from without, into which you may pour a little or pour much, and then measure, as with a gauge, the degrees of knowledge imparted. The knowledge that can be so imparted is the least valuable kind of knowledge; and the man who has nothing but this may be very learned, but cannot be very wise. In this great respect, the most important that touches human condition, we are all equal. 7. It is not more true, that all men possess the same natural senses and organs, than that their minds are endowed with the same capacities for improvement, though not, perhaps, all in the same degree. Shakespeare, whose productions have been the wonder and delight of all who speak the English language, for two hundred years, was a runaway youth, the son of a wool |