New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-13
LOWELL.
"A BIOGRAPHY OF THE POET BY EDWARD
EVERETT HALE.

TO ,h. moro or less formal collection OF Low
els letters edited by Professor NORTON 'h's
discursiye volume OF DR.. Hales is weicone
Communion. II is a biographical composition
x.t a roads less like a deliberate Life than
like a genial discourse put forth by fr1eho III
moments Of leisure. 1t is full OF talk aoou'
Iowelrs friends. well as about Lo"eh MIN
self. This is particularly interesting where the
book is concerned with the poets earlier yeas
with his college days and the influences '""'
went to form him at Cambridge and Boston
DR. Hale belonged TO the circle in which bo"e''
sbonc pre-eminent nearly seventy years ago
He writes Of Harvard in those days as Vi Q
place winch he knew from top to bottom anu
NC volua the renort that he gives Of the quail
Ties in II which appealed to his FRIEND anu
fostered that friends genius. He says, Tor eN-
ample: 4,
Now as 10 the atmosphere Of the college IL
.e, write these words in the same "eeh9
in which am reading the life or 'o"e'' az
Oxford II is curious 1t is patheuc' 10 o0,i'p
PaIiol College in 1861 with Harvard Oo
Iege AT the same time So clear is IL 'ia' INV
impulse and direction were given III ONi'' ~
The teachers while with us the Impulse anu VI
rection were given by the boys Inc oos' "
variably called themselves men, even ""ei
they were as Lowell was when he entered, ou'
fifteen years old. Let it be remembered '"e'''
that the whole drift Of fashion. occupation anu
habit among the undergraduates ran III me-
-astad M, literature Athletics and sociology
are I suppose now tine fashion at CaHloi iue0
Nm, literature was the fashion then. In NO
vemher when the State election came lo""N'
there would be the least possible spasm OF poh''-
"a, ,,,.rest hit Won might really say that
hoa,, 20 rcd FOR notifies Not FIVE men in COL
,ege saw a daily newspaper. My classmate VIII
lam Francis Chanhmz would have been SPOKEN
~ 7 think as the o1ly abolitionist In colleee
In 1898 the year when Lowell was gradua'eu'
remember that DR. Walter Channlhe' '"e
brother of our professor, came out 10 iec'uie
one day on temperance. There was d ueOV"'
attendance OF the undergraduates out IL was oil
attendance Of pure condescension on thelr pai"
Literature was. l said the fashion Inc
hooks which the fellows took out or the hoiai y
the hooks which they bought for their own SUI
sc,intion libraries were not books OF SCIENCE
nor history nor sociology, nor pohucs' my
were books OF literature. Some Fhiiaoelphi"
publisher had printed in one volume Coieriuee 3
,oans Shelley's and Keats's-a queer enough
combination but for it's chronological "'He'7
.rd Won saw this book pretty much every
where"
This book was seen. of course. as much in
,ou.e,ps hands as in those of any other student
Like William Story his classmate' ne may nave
"studied about projectiles at Cambridge. but
,,,btacts NJ that sort never could have made any
more impression upon his mind than they ala
unon Storv's Iongfellow was among MS IN
structors and he and his colleagues were eager
to get Lowell through the regular course VI
studies and examinations at Harvard Out TIC
dreamy spirit Of the poet was already worhiHs
\ in him In his senior year as PREVIOUSLY nc
was hardly as attentive as the facui'y "isheu
him 10 be- As for attendance at chapel tha'
was quite beyond him. He was absent SIX uays
IN seven and of course. he was rusticateo. Dr'
Hale disposes in short order OF the SHY tales
which have gathered about this event. He dis
misses as ridiculous the charge that Loweil was
over incorporate and leaves the reader to take
his cue from Lowel's father who said on hear
ing of the lads rustication "Oh DEAR james
nron,jsed me that he would quit writing poetry
and would go to work" II was probably poetry
that sent Lowell into disgrace. Not only was
literature the fashion among the undergradu-
otes OF his day. II was the one interest In life
that appealed irresistiby to him. II is the less
necessary to blame him now. moreover mas
much as he certainly got sufficient punishment
at the time He was exiled to Concord 10
dwell with the Rev BarZillai Frost. the clergy
man who is believed to have served to some ex-
tent as the model for Parson Wilbur in The Big
low Papers" and under the chaste but solemn
roof Of that individual he found reason enough
TO regret his peccadilloes at Harvard. with the
Reverend Barzlai he read Locke on the HUI
man Understanding" and recited to his mentor
ten pages of that authority every day. incl
dentally his wits were sharpened, and he began
TO feel his way toward that sphere OF delicate
criticism. touched with quiet humor, in which
of fha triumDhs
OF his maturity. How Loweesque is his char
acterization Of the worthy gentleman to whose
rather pompous merces he was delivered! He
Is one OF these men," he wrote to a friend, who
walk through this world with a cursed ragged
undersuit OF natural capacity entirely concealed
IT. a handsome borrowed surtout of other men
ideas buttoned up TO the chin" Lowell talked
in vein like this to the day he died Yet ne
was never cynical never heedlessly severe
Even of the Reverend Barzillai he could speak
with genialty in later years. and all his life
long as DR. Hale shows U.s. he was one Of the
sunnest Of men.
Most Of his kindness came. OF course. from
the natural grain of his temperament. but DR.
Hale Justly lays stress upon the gracious. fertil
izing environment in which Lowell grew &c
manhood. We have seen what Harvard was
like in his day, a centre Of liberal ideas. of noble
enthlsiasms of devotion to the highest ideals
in literature. and old. Boston was worthy
of Cambridge. II. too. was alive with intel
lectual ambition. Abiding TO Lowelrs oppor
tunities in the city. DR. Hale writes as follows
Lowell could talk with Wendell Phillips o
applaud him when he spoke. He could go int
Garrisons printing office with a communica
ton He could discuss metaphysics or ethic
with Brownson. He could hear Latter-Da!
Church preacher on Sunday. He could listel
while Miller, the prophet of the day, explaine
from Rollins History and the Book Of DAME
that the world would come to end on tn
21st OF March. 1912. He could lounge into IN
Corner Bookstore where James T. Fields woul
show him the new Tennyson or where the Mu
tual Admiration Society would leave an ep