distinguish some of the elements that entered into his unique character. His piercing vision gave him a deep sense of spiritual reality. Like every finely organized nature, he was profoundly reverent. In the seclusion of his chamber and on his lonely rambles he felt what he calls "the spirit's natural instinct of adoration towards a beneficent Father." This was the secret of his independence and of his loyalty to truth. His ideals were lofty, and any departure from the strictest integrity of thought or act appeared to him in the light of treason. With his eye constantly fixed on the realities of life, he demanded everywhere the most perfect sincerity. Few men have ever had a more cordial contempt for every form of pretence and hypocrisy. He was a keen reader of character, and only true and honest natures were admitted to the sacred intimacy of his friendship. His tastes were almost feminine in their delicacy. He had an exquisite appreciation of the beauties of nature and art. He caught their secret meaning. Retiring and modest in disposition, he loathed the vulgarity of every form of obtrusiveness. He was peculiarly gentle in manner and in spirit; but it was that noble gentleness born, not of weakness, but of conscious power. His reflective temperament had a predilection for the darker and more mysterious side of life. He fathomed the lowest depths of the soul. As we read his romances and tales, we have a new sense of the meaning and mystery of existence.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

LONGFELLOW has gained an enviable place in the affections of the American people; and in England his works, it is said, have a wider circulation than those of Tennyson. This popularity has not been attained by brilliancy of genius. There have been more exquisitely gifted poets, who by no means have held so large a place in public esteem. The highest genius is perhaps excluded from popularity by its very originality. Longfellow, while possessing poetic gifts of a high order, has treated themes of general interest. He has wrought within the range of ordinary thought and sentiment.

His life was beautiful in its calm, gradual, healthful development. It was not unlike the river Charles, of which he sang :

"Oft in sadness and in illness,

I have watched thy current glide,
Till the beauty of its stillness
Overflowed me like a tide.

And in bitter hours and brighter,
When I saw thy waters gleam,
I have felt my heart beat lighter,

And leap onward with thy stream."

His life was itself a poem a type of all that he has writ- ten. It was full of gentleness, courtesy, sincerity, and manly beauty. It was free from eccentricity; it breathed a large sympathy; it grounded itself on invisible and eternal realities. The message he brought was sane and helpful. He did not aim at the solution of great problems; he was not ambitious to fathom the lowest depths. But for half a century he contin

ued to send forth, in simple, harmonious verse, messages of beauty, sympathy, and hope.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Me., Feb. 27, 1807. He sprang from a sturdy, honorable New England family, the founder of which came to Massachusetts toward the close of the seventeenth century. His father was a graduate of Harvard, a prominent lawyer in Portland, and at one time a member of Congress. The poet inherited the disposition and manners of his father, who has been described as a man “free from everything offensive to good taste or good feeling." On his mother's side the poet counted in his ancestral line John Alden and Priscilla Mullen, whom he has immortalized in "The Courtship of Miles Standish." While his ancestors on both sides were characterized by strong sense and sterling integrity, there was no indication of latent poetic genius. Its sudden appearance in the subject of our sketch is one of those miracles of nature that cannot be fully explained by any law of heredity.

During the early years of his life, Portland possessed the charm of beautiful scenery and stirring incident. The city rises by gentle ascent from Casco Bay. Its principal streets are lined with trees, so that it has been not inaptly called "The Forest City." Back of the town are the stately trees of Deering's Woods. It was a place of considerable commercial importance, and foreign vessels and strange-tongued sailors were seen at its wharves. In the War of 1812 defensive works were erected on the shore. In a naval combat off the coast between the British brig Boxer and the United States brig Enterprise, the captains of both vessels lost their lives. The deep impression made by these scenes and associations is reflected in the beautiful poem, My Lost Youth."

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Longfellow entered Bowdoin College at the age of fifteen. He was courteous in his bearing, refined in his tastes, and studious in his habits. A classmate, writing of him a half-century later, says, "He was an agreeable companion, kindly and social in his manner, rendering himself dear to his associates