unveiling of the bust of Mazzini, in Central Park, New York, is a masterpiece of descriptive oratory, unsurpassed by any of his previous similar efforts. Bryant usually wrote at length and committed to memory what he desired to say; but he sometimes spoke on impulse, and generally with more animation and earnestness of manner than in his prepared addresses. But whether he delivered a prepared or an extemporaneous address, his remarks were sure to contain some wise observation, some scrap of learning, some agreeable historical reminiscence, some stroke of humor, or some felicity of phrase, which rendered them worthy of note. Suggested Selections for Study: "On American Poetry," On American Poetry," "Letters from the East.' Suggested Orations for Study: "Cooper," "Irving," "Morse," "Scott," "Mazzini." Mastering his work to the very end, it was his lot at last to bow, as became a poet of nature, before her own life-nurturing forces, and thus submit to her kindest universal law. The question of a passage in "An Evening Revery" was answered and the prophecy fulfilled. 66 I-The Man. CRITICISMS. Simple in habits, plain and unassuming in address, slender in figure, with a slight stoop. He early became bald, and in late years his white beard and hair gave him a patriarchial look. His forehead was high, narrow and impending, eyebrows heavy, eyes dark and keen, nose aquiline. Some traces of New England country brogue remained in his conversational speech, but were not perceptible in his public addresses, which were eloquent and impressive."— Hawthorne and Lemon. "The man was the soul of the poet and the patriot, and his life was marvelously consistent, his character and his works whole and without stain. His quick and gentle eye, his delicate and vigorous senses, and his apt and agile hand and foot showed the sensibility and strength that worked his career, and enabled his pen to paint his page with beauty, truth, and courage. He was more of a practical sage than a speculative philosopher. In his affections he was kindly and constant. He had many friends and kept and served them and made sacrifices for them. He never set himself above the lowliest of his associates, and was as free from arrogance as from servility. If not a very social man he came to be more than almost any in sympathy with his neighbors and the community by his hold upon the great principles and interests. He was, in his way, poet, editor, farmer, forester, herdsman, chemist, physiologist, political economist, naturalist, artist, historian, and somewhat of a theologian, and ready to say his word whenever called and able to comply. His social life deepened with advancing years, and in his enthusiasm for public interests and associations during the last twenty years he seemed to have a second youth more susceptible and sometimes more impulsive than his first youth."Samuel Osgood. "The strongest point in Bryant's character was simplicity. This is no more true of his poems than of his prose writings; no more true of either than of his daily pur suits and habits. In winter he rose at half-past five; in summer from half an hour to an hour earlier. With little clothing on his body he immediately began an hour's exercise with dumb-bells, a horizontal bar, and a light chair swung round his head. Sometimes he gave more than an hour to this exercise, but never less. When it was over he bathed from head to foot. In the summer, if living at Roslyn, he usually shortened the exercise in the chamber, and went out of doors to engage in work that required brisk exercise, such as pruning trees and cutting wood. After the bath, if breakfast was not ready, he sat in his library. No breakfast could be plainer than his -hominy and milk, or brown bread, oatmeal and wheaten cakes he did not refuse, but coffee and animal food he never took; occasionally he drank chocolate. After the meal he engaged for a while at his studies, and if in the city walked to the Evening Post office, a distance of three miles. After three hours he returned, always walking, whatever the condition of streets or weather might be. If living in the country, he studied or read until weary, and then went into the garden to prune pear-trees, or walked through the woods; he seldom drove. He dined early on vegetables, with a little meat or fish. At supper he never drank tea, but was satisfied with bread, butter, and fruit. Fruit formed a large part of his diet, and he ate it at almost any time without inconvenience. In the city he ate only two meals a day. Water was his almost exclusive drink, though he occasionally took wine. He once said that he was a natural temperance man, his mind being rather confused than exhilarated by alcohol. He retired early; in town at ten, in the country somewhat earlier. For several years he avoided in the evening any kind of literary occupation which tasked the faculties, such as composition, even to the writing of letters, because it excited his nervous system, and prevented sound sleep. never used tobacco. 'I never meddle with it except to quarrel with its use. I abominate drugs and narcotics, and have always carefully avoided everything which spurs nature to exertions which she would not otherwise make.'"-N. Y. Tribune. II.-The Poet. He "The true measure of Bryant's greatness is that he has written at least two score of pieces of which any one would wreathe a deathless halo around his head. In all of them we are impressed by the same absolute truth of tone and manner, the same chastity of thought and word, the same easy and pliant grace of movement, the same deep and grave and yet tender and almost plaintive spirit of humanity. Poetry with him was not a divine madness, but the deliberate exercise of his highest faculties. He was not whirled hither and thither by whims, but was always calm and steadfast. He saw clearly and he wrote clearly. His range of subjects is not large, but within that range he is supreme. He sings of nothing alien to the nature of man. The feelings he expresses, the experiences he describes are common to the race. It is not difficult to follow him in the highest flights of his imagination and the profoundest meditations of his soul; for his language is understood by plain, unlettered folk. needs to be something of a scholar, however, to appreciate the exquisite grace and purity and precision of his diction; and one needs also to have a surer taste than is in vogue now to appreciate his poems."-R. H. Stoddard. One The range of his poetic gift embraces with comprehensive sympathy the progress and struggles of humanity, seeking its vindication in universal and enlightened liberty, the beauties and harmonies of nature in her many forms and the inspirations of art in its truthfulness to nature, and all these find their legitimate expression in productions of his muse."-James Grant Wilson. "It is certain that Bryant has written some of the very best poetry that we have had in America."-Emerson. "Bryant's name is classical in the literature of the language. Wherever English poetry is read and loved, his poems are known by heart. Collections of poetry, elegant extracts, school-books, national readers, and the like, draw largely upon his pieces. Among American poets his name stands, if not the very first, at least among the two or three foremost. Some of his pieces are perhaps greater favorites with the reading public than any others written in the United States."-G. S. Hilliard. Bryant's verse is always stately and impressive, with a deep, lingering music of its own, not with the subtle cadences of pas sionate outbursts characteristic of Poe, not with the pathos, variety or sweetness of Longfellow, or the homely grace and natural simplicity of Whittier, but with a deeper, more resonant and abiding note than any possessed by any of these. The impulse of Bryant's poetry is always fresh and natural; his reflections, grave, appropriate, stimulating; and in his finer pieces there is a depth of feeling fitly accompanied by the organ-tones of rhythm that subdues, while it holds ear and heart at time spell-bound." -Thomas Bradfield. 66 'Bryant's prose is admirable, a model of good English, simple, manly, felicitous, That its excellence has not been universally recognized is owing to several circumstances: (1) It appeared in crowded columns of a daily journal; (2) the Americans' appetite for works of travel demands more stimulating food than Mr. Bryant has chosen to give it; and (3) his poetry has overshadowed everything else that he has done."R. H. Stoddard. "Bryant's style in his 'Letters of a Trav eler in Europe and America' is an admirable model of descriptive prose, without any appearance of labor, and finished with exquisite grace. The genial love of nature, and the lurking tendency to humor, which it everywhere betrays, prevent its severe simplicity from running into hardness, and give it freshness and occasional glow in spite of its prevailing propriety and reserve."-Harper's Magazine. V.-Bryant's Style. Bryant's prose has always received high commendation. The secret of it, so far as genius can communicate its secrets, may be found in a letter addressed by Bryant to the Christian Intelligencer, in reply to questions and published July 11, 1878: "Roslyn, Long Island, July 6, 1863. "It seems to me that in style we ought first and above all things to aim at clearness of expression. An obscure style is of course a bad style. In writing we should consider not only whether we have expressed the thought in a manner which meets our own comprehension, but whether it will be understood by readers in general. "The quality of style next in importance is attractiveness. It should invite and agreeably detain the reader. To acquire such a style I know of no other way than to contemplate good models and consider the observations of able critics. The Latin and Greek classics of which you speak are certainly important helps in forming a taste in respect to style, but to attain a good English style something more is necessary-the diligent study of good English authors. I would recur for this purpose to the elder worthies of our literature-to such writers as Jeremy Taylor and Barron and Thomas Fuller-whose works are perfect treasures of the riches of our language. Many modern writers have great excellences of style, but few are without some deficiency. "I have but one more counsel to give in regard to the formation of a style in composition, and that is to read the poets-the nobler and grander ones of our language. In this way warmth and energy is communicated to the diction, and a musical flow to the sentences. I have here treated the subject very briefly and meagrely, but I have given you my own method and the rules by which I have been guided through many years mostly passed in literary labors and studies." In answer to a young man asking for criticism on an article he had written, Bryant sends this letter: "My young friend: I observe that you have used several French expressions in your letter. I think that if you will study the English language you will find it capable of expressing all the ideas that you may have. I have always found it so, and in all that I have written I do not recall an instance where I was tempted to use a foreign word, but that, on searching, I have found a better one in my own language. Be simple, unaffected; be honest in your speaking and writing. Never use a long word, when a short one will do just as well. "Call a spade by its name, not a wellknown oblong instrument of manual labor; let a home be a home, and not a residence; a place, not a locality, and so on of the rest. When a short word will do you will always lose by a long one. You lose in clearness; you lose in honest expression of meaning; and, in the estimation of all men who are capable of judging, you lose in reputation for ability. "The only true way to shine, even in this false world, is to be moderate and unassuming. Falsehood may be a thick crust, but, in the course of time, truth will find a place to break through. Elegance of language may not be in the power of us all, but simplicity and straightforwardness are." "His style is remarkable for its purity and elegance, no less than for the felicity of its illustrations. In controversy, he most frequently resorts to caustic but graceful irony. He is playful without being vulgar, pointed without grossness."-Democratic Review. "As a writer of prose Bryant would have, perhaps, enjoyed a more brilliant reputation if he had been less distinguished in the walks of poetry. His acute political disquisitions, his admirable narratives of foreign travels, and his suggestive critical papers, which would have made the fame of a less eminent writer, are comparatively little known, and somewhat to the disadvantage of the younger race of writers in this country who would find in the study of these productions many choice lessons in the art of composition. The language contains few more perfect models of the simple graces of style, of chaste descriptive power, and of nameless felicities of expression which dif VII.-Bryant's Versification. "The versification of Bryant is always correct, and often highly artistic and grand, abounding in fine though minute effects, which never could have been produced by any but a cunning word-artist, deep in the knowledge of language and its capabilities, and in sonorous rhythms and cadences. Smoothness and roughness, seeming roughness, but in reality harmony-as distinguished from and opposed to melodyalternate beautifully in many of his poems; after lines and passages of liquid softness, after melting cadences, come harsh words and lines, harsh, yet harmonious changes of cadences, which break the preconcerted flow of the rhythm, then becoming monotonous, and startle into delight from their very newness. His pauses frequently fall on the odd number of syllables, both in rhyme and blank verse, and the effect is fine. Throughout his volume are nicest points, rhyming sounds or artistic alliterations, which few save poets would see the fitness of and thoroughly appreciate." -National Magazine. 66 VIII-Bryant's Religion. While not yet out of his teens, Bryant composed Thanatopsis.' It is solemn, awful in its solemnity, cheered by no ray of immortal hope; death, all death, death of all sublime, but dreadful. He grows in years and wisdom; his mind expands with knowledge of truth; his heart is touched with the love of God and His Son Jesus Christ. He asked to be baptized, and to be permitted to receive the emblems of the sufferings He endured for our sakes.' No longer is the future black with 'Thanatopsis, a View of Death;' but the western horizon toward which his eyes now turn, is all aglow with the rosy dawn of immortality. The sun is setting in golden glory to rise in tenfold splendor on the world beyond; and the noble old bard, his vision filled with the image of one like unto the Son of God, exclaims: There can be no admiration too profound, no love of which the human heart is capable too warm, no gratitude too earnest and deep, of which He is justly the object. It is with sorrow that my love for Him is so cold, and my gratitude SO inadequate." "—Leisure Hour. 66 IX.-General Survey of Bryant. "All Bryant's work, whether rhyme or blank verse, is carefully finished, and, with such consummate art, that it is perfect, simple, and natural, leaving no trace of the chisel; while his manifest keen enjoyment of the varied aspects of nature, and his powers of accurately describing them, are alike great and marvelous.”—A. J. Symington. In reading Bryant's prose and verse, and in observing the poet himself, our judgments were the same. He always held in view liberty, law, wisdom, piety, faith; his sentiment was unsentimental; he never whined nor found fault with conditions or nature; he was robust, but not tyrannical; frugal, but not too severe; grave, yet full of shrewd and kindly humor. Absolute simplicity characterized him. Ethics were always in sight. His intellectual faculties, like his physical, were balanced to the discreetest level, and this without abasing his poetic fire. His genius was not shown by the advance of one faculty and the impediment of others; it was the spirit of an even combination, and a fine one."-Stedman's Poets of America." “Bryant's writings transport us into the depths of the solemn primeval forest, to the shore of the lovely lake, the banks of the wild nameless stream, or the brow of the rocky upland, rising like a promontory from amidst a wide ocean of foliage, while they shed around the glories of a climate fierce in its extremes but splendid in all its vicissitudes."-Washington Irving. "The only fault we have to find with Bryant is that he has written so little, and has chosen to scatter his brilliance amidst a constellation of little poetic stars, rather than to concentrate the light of his genius in some |