Arizona republican., 1909-12-09
AN INTIMATE TALK
 ON THE POET WHITTIER
Extracts From an Address Delivered By Rev. J. W. Atwood Before
 the Woman's Club

In the early dawn of the last cen-
 tury in the quiet and remote home stead of Haverhill, Massachusetts. the scene and inspiration of Snow Bound
 the great idyl of New England life, John Greenleaf Whittier was born. He belonged to the aris:ocracy of New England by his birth. for his family was one of the oldest. and he came into the world when our New England fafEas were occupied by high thinking. strong minded. simple, sturdy. dignified and independent race of men, who if any> could claim the title, truly constituted the nobility l of~our American nation.
 His early life was not one of pow erty in any sense of the word. The country was new and modern luxury unknown, but spartan though the simplicity of that Massachusetts home might be. it was not the dwelling place of those poor in body or in spirit Peace and religion, refine ] ment and intelligence. the simple, every day comfort and life of that Yearly period could be found in Nthis attractive old house nestling in among ! the valleys and hills of Essex coun- I ty. Whoever would learn the sim | plicity and the true grandeur of our | New England country life, which
 now. alas. has almost departed, who would look into the heart of that home-life, who would know the early | formative influences that moulded
 the character and the career of Mir. Whittier must read this poem in which he lays bare the sacred fam l fly life in which he was nourished. where the old New England home life is presented in the fresh and liv- | ing colors of a true artist, which can
 never fade away from the canvas on
 which they have been so faithfully
 presented.
 We have been told how that first
 poem was sent to the newspaper of i flee in Newburyport and there found | the editor William Lloyd Garrison. 1 the future leader of the anti slavery movement, Who struck with the pow
 CT of the verses, sought out the young
 writer. little dreaming of the mighty
 part they were both to play in the greatest reform of the century. There
 was no university training for the |
 can claim him as their own. but all
 ways a deep student of books he ac-
 quired in the long retirement of his
 life a culture so deep, knowledge so
 wide that not many men whom I have known with all the advantages of our noblest schools and colleges could surpass him in pure scholarship
 alone.
 I may, perhaps, be permitted to mention here two slight anecdotes which show somewhat the attitude ! of his mind. l once said to him | that it seemed to me impossible for slavery to have ever been put, down.
 and the heresy of states rights de-
 stroyed except through a civil war. and that the result justified the means employed for their destruc- i tion. Yes" he replied, Thee re-
 members that in the old days. even ! Christ could not drive out some of | the evil spirits without rending the
 body"
 ! When General Hawley, the commits
 sioner of the Centennial exposition, I came to Amesbury in order to induce
 MT. Whittier to write the poem for
 the opening services, he declined. on
 the ground that the poet of such an
 occasion must be one who believed in | and who would eulogize war, And you krow," he said, that I do not
 believe in war" know this" said
 General Hawley. that it was your | writings which sent me into war" l His poems of freedom. written in
 behalf of the oppressed slave, are full
 of ire and spirit. Through them he
 first became known, and so he must
 always be known in history as the
 poet of the great cause to which he ! gave so large part of his life and
 energy.
 Few men ever had a more intense ] love of nature, and it was a delight
 to watch his keen joy in a beauti-
 full mountain scene. a fine sunset, or
 a bunch of simple golden-rod gather
 ed from the field. His poet imagina-
 tion was immediately stirred, and to
 this strong appreciation of nature in
 the external world we owe in one
 aspect of the case his finest poems.
 But back of nature. or rather reach
 ing into the very heart of na- J ture, he saw the living God and
 Father who animated it all. Nature
 taught him the deep things of God and man, and he never could forget
 or lose sight of the personal element
 and of the ethical spirit whenever he
 sought communion with her. ''The
 hn cold after