other of his early poems burned with a steady glow in after years, and illumined poems of which we shall speak presently. After a year and a half spent in travel, Lowell was appointed in 1855 to the Belles Lettres professorship at Harvard, previously held by Longfellow. When the Atlantic Monthly was established in 1857 he became its editor, and soon after relinquishing that post he assumed part editorship of the North American Review. In these two magazines, as also in Putnam's Monthly, he published poems, essays, and critical papers, which have been gathered into volumes. His prose writings, besides the volumes already mentioned, include two series of Among my Books, historical and critical studies, chiefly in English literature; and My Study Windows, including, with similar subjects, observations of nature and contemporary life. During the war for the Union he published a second series of the Biglow Papers, in which, with the wit and fun of the earlier series, there was mingled a deeper strain of feeling and a larger tone of patriotism. The limitations of his style, in these satires forbade the fullest expression of his thought and emotion; but afterward in a succession of poems, occasioned by the honors paid to student-soldiers in Cambridge, the death of Agassiz, and the celebration of national anniversaries during the years 1875 and 1876, he sang in loftier, more ardent strains. The interest which readers have in Lowell is still divided between his rich, abundant prose, and his thoughtful, often passionate verse. The sentiment of his early poetry, always humane, was greatly enriched by larger experience; so that the themes which he chose for his later work demanded and received a broad treatment, full of sympathy with the most generous instincts of their time, and built upon historic foundations. In 1877 he went to Spain as Minister Plenipotentiary. In 1880 he was transferred to England as Minister Plenipotentiary near the Court of St. James. His duties as American Minister did not prevent him from producing occasional writings, chiefly in connection with public events. Notable among these are his address at the unveiling of a statue of Fielding, and his address on Democracy. Mr. Lowell returned to the United States in 1885, and was not afterward engaged in public affairs, but passed the rest of his life quietly in his Cambridge home, prevented by failing health from doing much literary work. He made a collection of his later poems in 1888, under the title Heartsease and Rue, and carefully revised his complete works, published in ten volumes in 1890. BOOKS AND LIBRARIES. AN ADDRESS GIVEN AT THE OPENING OF THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY IN CHELSEA, MASS., 22 DECEMBER, 1885. A FEW years ago my friend, Mr. Alexander Ireland, published a very interesting volume which he called The Book-Lover's Enchiridion, the handbook, that is to say, of those who love books. It was made up of extracts from the writings of a great variety of distinguished men, ancient and modern, in praise of books. It was a chorus of many voices in many tongues, a hymn of gratitude and praise, full of such piety and fervor as can be paralleled only in songs dedicated to the supreme Power, the supreme Wisdom, and the supreme Love. Nay, there is a glow of enthusiasm and sincerity in it which is often painfully wanting in those other too commonly mechanical compositions. We feel at once that here it is out of the fulness of the heart, yes, and of the head too, that the mouth speaketh. Here was none of that compulsory commonplace which is wont to characterize those "testimonials of celebrated authors," by means of which publishers sometimes strive to linger out the passage of a hopeless book toward its requiescat 2 in oblivion. These utterances which Mr. Ire 1 Handbook is a translation of the Greek word enchiridion. 2 It was once more common than now to place upon tombstones the Latin words Requiescat in pace: May he rest in peace. |