American Men of Letters who have known Diplomatic Service.

John Lothrop Motley, George Bancroft, George P. Marsh, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bayard Taylor, James Russell Lowell, Bret Harte, Francis H. Underwood, John Bigelow.

Lowell and His Literary Compeers.

66

'He had more virility and mass than Longfellow, homelier philoso-
phy and more musical utterance than Emerson, finer literary
sense than Whittier, warmer human sympathies than Haw-
thorne, loftier and more serious imagination than Holmes.".
C. T. WINCHESTER.

His Service to American Literature.

"Of Lowell's service in strengthening and broadening our literature in the critical period of its development, too much cannot be said. As editor during an important epoch of The Atlantic Monthly, the mouthpiece of the most remarkable group of authors that our nation has produced, and later as editor of The North American Review, he had a chance which is presented to few literary men. His impress on the literary product of the period is everywhere visible. There are but few of the younger school of writers who did not receive their first impetus from a kind word of criticism or encouragement from this zealous builder of American literature." - F. L. PATTEE.

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.

LYRIST, REFORMER, EDITOR, PREACHER.

EXTRACTS.

THEN of what is to be, and of what is done,

Why queriest thou?

The past and the time to be are one,

And both are now.

MY SOUL AND I.

YET Love will dream, and Faith will trust, (Since He who knows our need is just,) That somehow, somewhere, meet we must.

LIFE is ever lord of Death,

And Love can never lose its own.

SNOWBOUND.

IBID.

FOR still in mutual sufferance lies

The secret of true living;

Love scarce is love that never knows

The sweetness of forgiving.

AMONG THE HILLS.

FOR of all sad words of tongue or pen,

The saddest are these: It might have been.

MAUD MULler.

BLESSINGS on thee, little man,

Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!

THE BAREFOOT BOY.

DEAR FRIEND! thy gift of love has brought
More than thy early spring to me;

And words, to thank thee as I ought,
Should all of bloom and fragrance be.

(Written to a colored friend in the South upon the
receipt of some early spring flowers.)

Be near me in my hours of need

To soothe, or cheer, or warm;

And down the slopes of sunset lead
As up the hills of morn!

MY BIRTHDAY.

WITH warning hand I mark Time's rapid flignt, From life's glad morning to its solemn night, Yet through the dear God's love I also show There's light above me by the shade below. INSCRIPTION ON A SUN-DIAL.

AND thou, O Lord! by whom are seen

Thy creatures as they be, Forgive me if too close I lean

My human heart on thee.

THE ETERNAL GOODNESS.

"SHOOT, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country's flag," she said.

BARBARA FRIETCHIE.

No longer forward nor behind

I look in hope or fear;

But, grateful, take the good I find,

The best of now and here.

MY PSALM.