The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-07
BOOKS OF THE HOUR
EDWARD EVERETT HALE'S JAMES
RUSSELL LOWELL AND HIS
FRIENDS"
PORTRAIT IN PEN AND INK

An Admirable Picture of the Life
and Times in Which Lowell Was
So Large IL Part-WiIIiam Roscoe
Thayer's ''ThrOne Mnkers"-
Charles Morris ''IsIand Empire"-
''The Capsina'' and Other Books.
''James Russell Lowell and His Friends"
by Edward Everett Hale. Houghton,
Biiffiin * Co, New York. For sale by
the St Paul Book and Stationery CON-
pany.
The intimate life of literary favorites
has a perpetual charm, for We seem
therein to be learning the secret of their
power. But alas, the secret Always
eludes us for it lies too deep for COM
mon eyes, but the charm remains, for
at least we stand awhile just outside the
threshold of the gods. One of the latest
of the old New England school of poets
and thinkers, Lowell, has a secure place
among the very first of them all in ex-
celIence and power.
DR. Hale's study of him Is not In any
strict sense a biography; it is still less
a gathering up of his literary miscellany
in the form of letters and the like 1t
is most OF all a portrait in pen and ink.
and an appreciation. 1t was a happy
thought that added to the title the
words And His Friends" for it gave
a freedom such as is dear to DR.. Hale al
ways and brought into the work Incl
dents and "reminiscences of men and
things in which his memory Is so itch.
The friend of Emerson, Longfallow,
Holmes, Charming, Parker and all that
glorious company, whom he understood
and remembers, has much to tell Of uni
versal interest. And the fact that it
comes by way of sidelights and impress
sions makes the story none the less
worth telling
In the account of Harvard college as
1T was sixty years ago, an opportunity
is given to compare the vast though 81
lent changes which have overtaken 7du-
cational methods under the leadership
of such men as President Eliot There
were two hundred and fifty students, who
studied chiefly Latin, Greek and mathe-
matics." There was no study of Eng
hsh literature, but the best possible
drill in the writing of the English Ian
guage." But literature was the fash
ion just the same, and Coleridge, Smell
ley and Keats were the common heroes,
with Il certain enthusiasm for tie new
men. such as the freshly discovered Ten
nysOn. There was little or no reading
of science, or history, or politics, and
such thing as sociology was unknown.
In those good old days it was a rule that
the men must appear every morning at
chapel for prayers. Lowell would not
pray, or at least neglected to attend
when the professors were praying fer
the benefit of the boys He did go
on Monday mornings generally, for the
faculty meetings came in the afternoon
of that day. and he wanted fresh sr-
pearance to mitigate the offenses of the
week before. But at last forbearance
ceased to be a virtue and Lowell was
rusticated-was sent to Concord to study
with the Rev. Barzilai Frost for the
rest of his senior year
In vain was Concord then as now, the
literary center par excellence, for not
even the living presence of IN Emerson
could 1t make the habitatiOn fair, to
say nothing of Thoreau, Alcott and IIaw-
thorne. Lowell looked on Concord as
St. John looked on the loneliness of Pat
mos. His boyish letters of the time
steadily called it his prison or the place
of his. exile" He did not get on we'll
with the Rev. Mr.. Frost. ''The n ans
Cardinal vice is that he delights to hear
the sound of his own voice. Sometimes
l think silence is the best plan. So
hold my tongue till he brings up film
Ii,
rssit it no longer. So out / burst, with
greater fury for having been pant up
so long, like a simmering volcano.
think it was Herder who called Hoff-
mans life a prolonged Shrek Of thirty
volumes Now / would call Barzillafs
life one stretched syllogism."
The. venerable author gives an inter-
esting account of Bottom as it was up
ward Of fifty years ago Aus:ere Bos-
ton had its dances to be sure, but there
were no trif1es to be discussed with
the awful young women of that day.
Lowell could discuss with a
partner in dance the significance Of the
Fifth Symphony of Beethoven in COM
parison with the moral lessons of the
Second or the Seventh. Another part
ner in the next quadrille would reconcile
for him the conflict of free will and fore
knowledge. In saying such things 1 am
not inventing instances. I could almost
tell where the conversations were held Z"
That last remark betrays you, DR.. Hale
1t was with you that these versatile and
farsighted maidens held such reconcile
and high converse. For Lowell the dis.
Greet but tender young persons must
have had something to say of Shelley's
lyrics and Tennyson's young dreams Of
love.
happy account of the 'Lyceum" sys-