The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-10-10

sor. At SO early a period Lnat we
ao,ot regard it as by any means a
/ FAIR representation of the capabilities
which lay within MN.
siu was born at Windsor, Conn,
,nrs % 1871, thS year in which
naonar.s "Deerslayer," Emerson's Es-
cos first s~eries). and l-Or2fellOW'S
.p,j,sds and Other Poems appeared.
u" received his collegiate training
al Vale. from which institution Fte
~. graduated in 1861. The years
immediateiy following his graduation
n,ara Years Of restless change, as is
aoovn by the fact that between 1861
and 1874 he was successfully IN puSl-
ness in California, IN the Gl.tniI!
school at Harvard. in journalism in
New York City. in an academic posi-
flor in Ohio. and in public school
work It Oakland, Cat. The YEARS
1s-4-lSS2 found him occupying the
chair Of English iitera .nre in tie
University of California; ard during
the remaining five years OF his life
he lived in retirement a iuyahGSa
Falls. Ohio, a beautiful little suburb
Of cleveland. He died ttebruar| =.
1887. at an age when. his life VAS most
full OF promise.
During Siirs lifetime his work, both
prose and verse, appeared IN the
magazineS-uSually t2e Atiantlc
Monthly-sometimes under his own
name, and sometimes under the
pseudouyrn. Andrew Hedbrooke." His
prose works onsist Of essays and re-
views, literary and academic. His
poetry has been collected into three
Volumes and published by the Hough-
ton-Mimin Company. under the titles
Poems" The Hermitage n Later
Poems and 'Hermione and Other
Poems
There are at least two character
fa.ics of Silrs verse which are, l
think. the logical results respectively
of two phases Of his life. The first
OF these is the spirit of unrest, Of
inquiry of troubled doubt, which per-
yadeS such lines as:
Would thy faith were mine, robin!
Then, though night were long,
All its silent hours should melt
Ttleir sorrow into song.
@ silent stars, that over ages past
Have stone serenely as We shine to-
unseai. unseal the secret tina We keep!
is 1t not time to tell us why We live?
Tin leads US blindly onward, till in
wrath
Tired Life would seize and throttle it's
stern guide.
And force him tell US whittier and
how long.
Into the silent. s~tarless Night before
Naked we glide:
No iI3nC3 IN aS nnnn tn, onpcfaI1a-
tons Ger us,
NO cOmrade at our side,
No chart. no guide.
such lines seem less surprising when
We remember that by inheritance Ed
ward Rowland Sill received from his
pdtetnal ancestors the scientific spirit
his father and paternal grandfather
were physicians-while on his moth
TS side. the poets ancestors for
several generations had been Puritans
OF a rigid type. his maternal grand
1ather having been a pious clergyman
VINO mad borne the nickname, Priest
ho"iand. SiliS life thus became a
constant struggle between the ten
uencF' on the one ffand, toward a
philosophy approaching Positivism.
@"o lne tendency, on the other hand.
.o"aru he acceptance of the tradi-
IONS OF Calvin and knox-a struggle
TIE teachings OF an early
auIlan environment. n ideas ac-
polred at college. notably tie reading.
III 1893. OF Charles Darwin's Origin
= species. The reaction of all this.
al the case of Sill, was a breaking
away. on the one hand. from ortho-
uoA Churchianity." and a decided
e-o"th. on the other hand. of inter
80 IN really vital spiritual matters. In
rltSe aspects. Sill has often been COM
Jared to Matthew Arnold; but the
s'"parlson is not altogether fortunate,
i"r while he English poets CON
tiaslon is that
lhe world. which seems
- lie before US like a land Of dreams