"The gentle are the strong."

If ever in modern days the character of the apostle John has been reproduced among men it was in John G. Whittier. See with what sweetness and meekness the shy and loving Quaker moved through the ranks of society in times of peace and prosperity, and with what an adamantine boldness and bravery he stood up before the mob in Philadelphia when his types and manuscripts were scattered, his printing office burned and himself threatened with personal violence by the foes of human equality and freedom. Did he quail before the storm? Not he. Did he abandon his principles and retire from the arena? Oh, no; no more than did the apostle John—the apostle of love—forsake his Christian faith when the persecutors immersed him in boiling oil and exiled him to a desert island in the Ægean Sea.

The poetry of Mr. Whittier is a complete autobiography. It is a reflection, as in a polished mirror, of himself. We miss only the accidents of dates and places, which are of merely external importance; but we find in his works, amply displayed, the portraiture of the man; even as the architect records himself and his thoughts in his plans, and builds his own soul into his edifices. Read the poetry of Mr. Whittier, and you have no need to ask what kind of man produced it. Behold the portrait: a thorough New England man, a son of its soil and a legitimate product of its institutions; a fruit of the simple education which was open to the people in the times of his youth and manhood; a philanthropist, loving all righteousness and all men, and scorning all oppression, injustice and iniquity; a stern advocate of human freedom, prepared to fight for it even "to the bitter end;" a bachelor, but having always a sweet and tender side for women; petted by society, but never tempted to swerve from the straight line of his principles; holding the faith of his fathers as a birthright and the result of his honest convictions, but with sympathies as broad as the universe and an appreciation of the privilege of private judgment on religious matters as the right and duty of all men; animated by a patriotism which took in his whole country, but a yearning for his own New England, its people, its scenery, its institutions and its honor; warmly attached to the friends whom he met along the pilgrimage of this life, but preserving to the last the memory and the love of the survivors whom he knew in his school days in the Haverhill Academy; living very much apart from his fellow-men, as he did in his latter days, on account of the increasing infirmities of his age, and absorbed in the world of his own thoughts, yet ever most affable, and as accessible as a most warm-hearted and cordial associate; every inch a man, as in stature, so also in soul, but exhibiting also the simplicity and the loving and confiding spirit of a child ("of such is the kingdom of heaven"); conscious of his human weakness and dependence on a higher Power, as he approached the goal of life, but relying on that higher Power with a sublime courage and a firm faith. How the man stands forth, like an orator on the stage, in the presence of throngs of admiring and reverent spectators! Unconsciously he sets forth in his works, whether they be prose or poetry, an example of the beauty of righteousness, the charm of philanthropy, the power and attractiveness of the broadest charity, the fervor of patriotism and the controlling force of love. The century which is about to close has been honored and made better, as well as gladder, by his presence in it. He has enriched its literature. He has elevated its ethics. He has breathed a divine life into its inspirations. He has warmed its heart.

Mr. Whittier, like another Wordsworth, glorifies the scenes of common life, and hallows the landscapes of his New England homes. His verses speak in the dialect of the people, and deal with themes with which they are familiar. He lifts toil above its drudgery, and sanctifies, as with a sacred glow, the things with which men in common spheres chiefly have to do. He admired nature as he saw in it the landscapes which surrounded his several homes, the rolling green hills of Haverhill and Bradford, the mighty trees of Oak Knoll, the flowing stream and graceful curves of the Merrimack; the sober and quiet graces of Amesbury; and with his pen he stamped upon them immortality.

The sun has set, but no night follows. The singer is gone, but his songs remain, and will long be a power among men far beyond the places adorned and honored by his personal presence. We love his poems which on account of their helpfulness the grateful world will long continue to read. How little he wrote—did he ever write anything—"which, dying, he could wish to blot?" and his life was a poem. The seal of Death is on his virtues, and the seal of universal approval is on his works.

S. F. Smith.

CONTENTS.

Part I.—Life.

I. [Ancestry]9
The Poet's Titles. Heredity. Spelling of the Name Whittier. WhittierAncestors. Greenleaf Ancestors. The Husseys and Batchelders. Portrait ofWhittier's Mother.
II. [The Merrimack Valley ]24
Description of Essex County, Haverhill, Amesbury, Newburyport, SalisburyBeach, and the Isles of Shoals. Extracts from the "Supernaturalism ofNew England." The Spirit of the Age.
III. [Boyhood ]36
Birthplace. Kenoza Lake. Whitman and Whittier. The Old Homestead.Members of the Household. Harriet Livermore and Lady Hester Stanhope.The Poet's School Days. "My Playmate." Ellwood and Burns. OldStragglers. "Pilgrim's Progress." The Demon Fiddler. First Poem. WilliamLloyd Garrison and the Free Press. Haverhill Academy. Robert Dinsmore,the Quaint Farmer-Poet of Windham.
IV. [Editor and Author: First Ventures ]83
Whittier as Editor of the Boston Manufacturer, the Essex Gazette,and the New England Review. First Volume, "Legends of New England."The Poet, J. G. C. Brainard. Ballad of "The Black Fox." Whittier's Viewson the Poetical Resources of the New World. "Moll Pitcher."
V. [Whittier the Reformer ]97
Identifies Himself with the Anti-Slavery Movement. Publication of hisBrochure, "Justice and Expediency." Social Martyrdom. PrudenceCrandall and her Battle with the Philistinism of Canterbury, Conn.Tailor Woolman and Saddler Lundy. Account of the Philadelphia Conventionfor the Formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Whittier'sAccount of the Convention. William Lloyd Garrison draws up the FamousDeclaration of Principles. Samuel J. May Mobbed at East Haverhill.Whittier and George Thompson Mobbed at Concord, N. H. Story of theLandlord and the Flight by Night. The Poet's Account of the Mobbing ofWilliam Lloyd Garrison. Letters of John Quincy Adams. Harriet Martineauon Slavery. Attitude of Whittier toward the Quakers on the SlaveryQuestion.
VI. [Amesbury ]123
Removal to Amesbury. Description of the Town and of the Poet'sResidence. The Study. Whittier Corresponding Editor of the NationalEra. Various Works Written, including "Stranger in Lowell,""Supernaturalism of New England," "Songs of Labor," "Child-Life,""Child-Life in Prose," "Introduction" to Woolman's Journal, and "Songsof Three Centuries" (Edited). Whittier College Established.
VII. [Later Days ]141
Danvers. Oak Knoll. Summerings of the Poet at the Isles of Shoals andthe Bearcamp House. The Literary World Tribute, and the WhittierBanquet at the Hotel Brunswick. The Whittier Club. Various Volumes ofPoetry Published.
VIII. [Personal ]153
Whittier's Personal Appearance Described by Frederika Bremer, Geo. W.Bungay, David A. Wasson, and others. Incident of his Kind-heartedness toa Stranger. Dom Pedro II. and Whittier at Mrs. John T. Sargent'sReception. Letter to Mrs. Sargent. Humor. Love of Children. Offices ofDignity and Honor.