" Yet he watched men as keenly as he
did "laylocks" and bobolinks, and no shrewder American essay has
been written than his "On a Certain Condescension in Foreigners."
Wit and humor and wisdom made him one of the best talkers of his
generation. These qualities pervade his essays and his letters,
and the latter in particular reveal those ardors and fidelities
of friendship which men like Emerson and Thoreau longed after
without ever quite experiencing. Lowell's cosmopolitan
reputation, which was greatly enhanced in the last decade of his
life, seemed to his old associates of the Saturday Club only a
fit recognition of the learning, wit, and fine imagination which
had been familiar to them from the first. To hold the old friends
throughout his lifetime, and to win fresh ones of a new
generation through his books, is perhaps the greatest of Lowell's
personal felicities.
While there are no other names in the literature of New England
quite comparable with those that have just been discussed, it
should be remembered that the immediate effectiveness and
popularity of these representative poets and prose writers were
dependent upon the existence of an intelligent and responsive
reading public.
Pages:
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207