The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood,
Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down,
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks
And supplication.

III.

Forest Hymn.

Spirit that breathest through my lattice, thou
That cool'st the twilight of the sultry day,
Gratefully flows thy freshness round my brow;
Thou hast been out upon the deep at play,
Riding all day the wild blue waves till now,
Roughening their crests, and scattering high their spray,
And swelling the white sail. I welcome thee

To the scorched land, thou wanderer of the sea.

IV.

The Evening Wind

So live that, when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan that moves

To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,-
Thou go, not like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

LONGFELLOW. 1807-1882.

Thanatopsis.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the most popular of our poets, was born at Portland, Maine, in 1807. He graduated at Bowdoin College in the class of 1825, and afterwards, at various times, further enriched his mind by European study and travel. For twenty-five years (1829 to 1854) he filled a professorship in college, six years in Bowdoin, and nineteen years in Harvard.

He lived at Cambridge, Mass., in an old house once occupied by General Washington as his headquarters. To this fact he al ludes in his poem, To a Child, in which he says,—

"Once, ah, once within these walls,
One whom memory oft recalls,
The father of his country dwelt."

Professor Longfellow was twice married.

His first wife

died at Rotterdam, Holland, in 1835; his second wife was burned to death in 1861, her clothes having accidentally taken fire while sealing an envelope at the flame of a taper.

The following are some of Mr. Longfellow's most popular poems: Evangeline, Tales of a Wayside Inn, Courtship of Miles Standish, The Building of the Ship, The Old Clock on the Stairs, Santa Filomena, The Bridge, The Builders, Resignation, The Day is Done, The Hanging of the Crane, and Morituri Saluta

mus.

He also published three popular prose works-Outre Mer, Hyperion, and Kavanagh—and an excellent poetical Translation of Dante, with copious notes and commentaries.

Longfellow's chief characteristics are simplicity, grace, and refinement. Of imagination and passion he has but little. He does not often startle his readers by the utterance of a new and striking thought, but he perpetually charms them by present. ing the ordinary sentiments of humanity in a new and more attractive garb. He died March 24, 1882.

II.

There is no death; what seems so is transition;

This life of mortal breath

Is but a suburb of the life elysian
Whose portal we call death.

Resignation.

Songo River.

On Charles Sumner.

Up soared the lark into the air,
A shaft of song, a winged prayer,
As if a soul, released from pain,
Were flying back to heaven again.

VI.

The Sermon of St. Francis.

The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do, without a thought of fame.

WHITTIER. 1807-1892.

John Greenleaf Whittier was born at Haverhill, Mass., in 1807. While a boy he worked with his father on a farm, sometimes assisting, during the winter months, in making shoes. His edu cation was obtained in the schools of his native village. On becoming of age he became editor of a paper, and from that time devoted himself to literature. He never married. His residence, during the greater part of his life, was at Amesbury, Mass., where he died in 1893, in the enjoyment of the love and veneration of all his countrymen.

Whittier has written much both in prose and poetry, but is chiefly distinguished as a poet. Among his most popular poems are--Maud Muller, Barbara Frietchie, My Psalm, My Playmate,

Snow-Bound, Among the Hills, A Tent on the Beach, Mabel Martin (The Witch's Daughter revised), and Centennial Hymn. His principal prose works are Old Portraits and Modern Sketches, and Literary Recreations.

In Whittier's poems we find masculine vigor combined with womanly tenderness; a fierce hatred of wrong, with an allembracing charity and love. In his anti-slavery and patriotic lyrics, "he seems," as Whipple says, "to pour out his blood with his lines," so terrible is his energy; but in most of his poems, especially his later ones, we find only the calm earnestness of the inquirer after truth, combined with the sublime faith and prayerful resignation of the true Christian. He lacks Longfellow's wide and elegant culture, but surpasses him in real poetic genius, and ranks next to him in popularity.

Are free, strong minds and hearts of health;

And more to her than gold or grain,

The cunning hand and cultured brain.

III.

For still in mutual sufferance lies

The secret of true living;

Love scarce is love, that never knows

The sweetness of forgiving.

IV.

Our State.

Among the Hills

The clouds which rise with thunder, slake

Our thirsty souls with rain;

The blow most dreaded falls to break
From off our limbs a chain;

And wrongs of man to man but make
The love of God more plain;
As, through the shadowy lens of even,
The eye looks farthest into heaven,

On gleams of star and depths of blue
The glaring sunshine never knew.

All's Well.

LOWELL. 1819-1891.

James Russell Lowell, poet, essayist, and critic, was born at Cambridge, Mass., in 1819, graduated at Harvard, and was for many years Professor of Belles-Lettres in that institution. He was appointed by President Hayes Minister to Spain, and was afterward ransferred to the Court of St. James, where he greatly distinguished himself, not only by his diplomatic abilities, but still more by the dignity and affability of his deportment and the marvellous learning and eloquence of his public addresses. He died in 1891.

Prof. Lowell is about equally distinguished in poetry and prose. Among the best of his poems are--The Biglow Papers, The Present Crisis, Sir Launfal, A Glance Behind the Curtain, Under the Willows, Commemoration Ode, The First Snowfall, Longing, and The Changeling.

His principal prose works are his three volumes of essays and reviews, two of which are entitled Among My Books, and the other My Study Window.

Lowell excels in so many things that it is difficult to say what is his leading characteristic. Probably nowhere else in the whole range of contemporary literature can be found such versatility combined with such excellence. In some of his poems we most admire his wit, in others his delicacy and pathos, in others his fine descriptive power, in others his airy fancy, in others the daring sweep of his imagination and the terrible energy of his passion; and always and everywhere there is an ease and facility of movement that makes us feel that he is not putting forth half his strength. But with all his excellence he is not a popular poet, like Longfellow. He is too subtle and profound; requires too much thought on the part of the reader. This is particularly the case in his later poems. These are not only difficult but obscure, so that reading them is to ordinary minds not a pleasure but a task. His great learning and his thought-power seem to have got the better of his