The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-03-27

most man can do in the way of dis
figuring nature. Your memory of the
dinner is expected to reconcile you to
the prospect of the graveyard"
"Your latest sensation is Newman's
death. A beautiful old man, as l re-
member him, but surely futile life
if ever there was one, trying to make
past unreality supply the place of
present one that was becoming
past, and forgetting that God is al
ways I am never I was.' He will
be remembered chiefly by his Lead
kindly light which is as far from
poetry, as l hope most hymns are
from the ear to which they were ad-
dressed. Else would it be shut to all
our petitions"
II haven't had much of week. My
wits are sluggish as cold molasses. 1
have to wait for thaw, like my neigh
Dor the brook here, who is in fine
view this morning, as contemptuous
of dams as Universalist."
"Now to fresh proofs and bothers
new." II have seen Gladstone sew
eral times, and he is light-hearted as
boy-as light-headed, too, | might
almost say" Upon my word, l
think am beginning in my old age
to find a more impressive and poig-
nant solitude in the great city than
in the country" AFTER all, Carlyle
was man of genius, and it is sheer
waste of time to be looking ones gift
horse in the mouth aud examining his
hoofs, if he has wings and can lift us
away from this lower region of tur-
moil at will" I'm biography, as in
law, the greater the truth the greater
the libel"
81 have been to see lrving's
Faust "a wonderful spectacle, but
very disagreeable play and Mde.
Sarah Bernhardt, who has gone off a
little. but is still diabolically effec-
tive, in certain rather unpleasant
ways. l used to forget who and what
Rachel was, but can't divorce Sarah
from herself. Whom the devil hath
joined together can't be put asunder." !"
"As for originality I have read too
much not to know it is never abso-
Lutte. When man begins to be
touchy about it, he has already lost
what little he ever had. One might
as we'll take out patent on the cut
of his jib, when those who remember
the family know perfectly well that
his grandfather invented it for him."
But enough.
Lowell was poor during his early
married life, having only his profes-
sional salary to live upon, as his writ
ings were not at that time a source of
much income. But he owned some
fine land in Cambridge, and the an
cestral home Elmwood, in which he
lived the greater part of his life.
When he sold his land, which had
become quite valuable, he was for
the first time in easy circumstances.
He wrote quite exultantly to his
English friends of being very inde-
pendent of fortunes frowns now that
he had an incomeof about five thous-
and dollars year. His copyrights,
also, had now become valuable, and
he never felt hampered again by the
lack of money.
He went abroad for a couple of
years, but resumed his professorship
at Harvard on his return. He had
some very intimate friends in Eng
land, literary men and others, but he
often said, even after having lived in
England and Spain for many years
as United States Minister-that he
had never seen as good society any
where as in Cambridge, instancing
especially the Saturday Club. When
we recall the membership of that
club, containing Longfellow, FELTON,,
Agassiz, among many other college
notables,--and the frequent visitors,
DIR. Holmes, Charles Sumner, Haw-
thorne, Fields and Emerson,.wec can
hardly wonder at his opinion. He
was greatly wounded, after his return
from his long residence in England,
at the unkindness of the criticism to
which he was subjected by the po.
litical papers. He had become an in
dependent in politics, as had many
other old Abolitionists and early Re-
publicans, and his position brought |
upon him great reproach. He speaks
rather bitterly about it at times, say
ing once in regard to the old party he
had loved "time was that when the |
brains were out man would die"
but implying it was not so with
parties. He was one of the earliest
advocates of Civil Service Reform,
and shared with Curtis the odium
haanaA ,,nOn ;fo o1vooaka. - kIoA