JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

457. More than a Writer.—Lowell was more than a writer. His writings, numerous and excellent as they are, do not fully represent him. He tried to follow his own precept :

"The epic of a man rehearse;

Be something better than thy verse."

None of our literary men were great in so many ways. He ranks high as a poet. His critical papers are among the most elaborate and excellent produced in this country. He was a speaker of no mean ability, and a scholar of wide attainments. But overshadowing all these literary accomplishments stands his personality, a man of strong intellect, with wide sympathies, and sterling integrity.

458. Forceful Originality. He appeared among the earlier singers of the century. Though influenced for a time, as all young writers are apt to be, by favorite authors, Lowell is strikingly original. In his earlier verse we detect an occasional note from Tennyson or Wordsworth; but his strong intellect soon hewed out a course of its own. His mind was tumultuous with the interests of his day. He rushed to the combat for truth and freedom with abounding zeal. He proclaimed his message in verse distinguished, not for harmony and grace, but for vehemence and force. He was armed with heroic courage :

"They are slaves who dare not be

In the right with two or three."

He believed in bravely doing his part to right existing wrongs; for

volume of poems, in which the hand of a master is apparent. He aims to rise above the empty rhymer,

"Who lies with idle elbow on the grass, And fits his singing, like a cunning timer,

To all men's prides and fancies as they pass."

He sings of love, truth, patriotism, humanity, religion, courage, hope-great themes which his large soul expands to meet. His verse may be at times exuberant and rhetorical, but it embodies virile power of thought and emotion. The fundamental principles, not only of all his poetry but of his character, are found in this volume. In "An Incident in a Railroad Car" we see his sense of human worth, regardless of the accidents of fortune :

"All that hath been majestical

In life or death, since time began,
Is native in the simple heart of all,
The angel heart of man.

And thus, among the untaught poor,

Great deeds and feelings find a home,

That cast in shadow all the golden lore
Of classic Greece and Rome."

466. Fundamental Beliefs. He had unwavering confidence in the indestructible power of truth.

the Curtain," he says:-
:-

In "A Glance Behind

"Get but the truth once uttered, and 'tis like
A star new-born, that drops into its place,
And which, once circling in its placid round,
Not all the tumult of the earth can shake."

A well-known passage in "The Present Crisis" reveals his faith in the watchful care of God:

"Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the Word;
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,-
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.”

His love of human freedom is revealed in the poem Capture of Fugitive Slaves near Washington":

"On the

"He's true to God who's true to man; wherever wrong is done,
To the humblest and the weakest, 'neath the all-beholding sun,
That wrong is also done to us; and they are slaves most base,
Whose love of right is for themselves, and not for all their race."

These are all characteristic themes; and because they came from the poet's heart, we find in subsequent poems the same truths presented again and again in richly varied language.

With his strong, positive nature, it was natural for Lowell to take part in the slavery agitation of the time. When it cost him unpopularity, he had the courage of his convictions. He acted as he wrote:-

"Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust, Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just." 467. "The Biglow Papers."-The first series of "The Biglow Papers" belongs to the period of the Mexican War; the second series, to the period of the Civil War. In these poems, written in what he calls the Yankee dialect, Lowell gives free rein to all his resources of argument, satire, and wit. He hits hard blows. A forcible truth is sometimes clothed in homely language:

"Laborin' man an' laborin' woman

Hev one glory an' one shame.
Ev'y thin' that's done inhuman

Injers all on 'em the same."

The "pious editor," who reverences Uncle Sam, "partic'larly his pockets," confesses his creed :—

"I du believe in prayer an' praise

To him that hez the grantin'
O' jobs,--in every thin' thet pays,
But most of all in CANTIN';
This doth my cup with marcies fill,

This lays all thought o' sin to rest,

I don't believe in princerple,

But O, I du in interest."