with interest, and are not unworthy of being collected. and preserved.

"Margaret Smith's Journal" is a more noteworthy book, belonging to the class of which examples are to be found in "The Household of Sir Thomas More,” “The Maiden and Married Life of Mary Powell, afterwards Mistress Milton," and "The Artist's Married Life, being that of Albert Dürer." Strictly speaking, it is an historical novel, though to the modern novel-reader it will perhaps seem hardly a novel at all, but only a dry series of sketches of character, manners, and scenery, done in antique phraseology. To any one who has a smack of the tastes of an antiquary there can scarcely be a more delightful book. It is not oppressively learned or archaic; the fair young English girl who is supposed to chronicle her sojourn among her American relatives at Boston, and on the Merrimac and elsewhere in Yankeeland, from May, 1678, to November, 1679, is not a Quaker nor other sectary, but sincerely of the Church of England, so that the view is from without, free from prejudice and uncircumscribed. There is a slender thread of story, continuous enough to give a sense of real life; and the style, perfect for its purpose, is far less rigid and crabbed than the usual writings of the time. Secretary Rawson, Sir Christopher Gardiner, Judge Samuel Sewall, Robert Pike, Richard Saltonstall, Rev. Mr. Ward, the "simple Cobbler of Agawam," Eliot the Apostle, Cotton Mather, Simon Bradstreet, and other personages seen by turns in the narrative, are drawn by a capable hand. Their conversation is separately, vitally characteristic, and every detail is in such perfect keeping

that the vrai-semblance grows upon the reader, and time and place become present. There is no parallel to this book in the prose literature of the United States. For full enjoyment, indeed, of the book may require that the reader must own a kindred taste for a chastened view of life and for the beauty to be seen in humble and familiar things. It should be added that the religious questions in which the colonists at the supposed time of the journal were so deeply interested, are treated with honest candour, and yet with generosity and an almost touching delicacy. Margaret herself cannot have much sympathy with the exalted feeling and strained demeanour of some she met, who, according to the point from which they might be regarded, were fanatics or martyrs; but she manifests a sweet courtesy, not to say pity, for those who incurred ecclesiastical and secular penalties for following the dictates of conscience.

Many poems and scraps of verse are interspersed, some of them in imitation of the laboured and pedantic style of the Rev. Michael Wigglesworth and Mrs. Ann Bradstreet of early colonial fame. Two, "Autumn Thoughts" and the ballad of "Kathleen," appear again in the "Complete Poems."

It is such a book as might have been written by Leigh Hunt, or rather by Lamb. They would have been. delighted with it. Unowned, it might have been taken. for the dainty work of the authoress of "Cranford," or have passed as the veritable journal of a true English girl of the time. One could fancy, if the date would suit, that Elizabeth Whittier, whose few graceful poems are not undeservedly printed with the complete Whittier, might have helped her brother with it.

CHAPTER XI.

`HERE was a collection of Whittier's poems made

TH

in 1849, published by B. B. Mussey and Co., in a large and handsome octavo volume, with illustrations in steel by H. Billings. Mr. Mussey was a prominent Free-soiler, had presided at a State Convention of the party, and took pride in the reputation of the Poet of Freedom. It was the first time that Whittier's verse had been considered likely to be profitable as a speculation, even with the aid of pictorial illustration. Mussey dying in 1855, the plates were purchased by Ticknor and Fields. This Mussey edition contained a few poems which have since been dropped out; but the bulk remains in the standard edition, unchanged. It may, however, be observed that in regard to historical and topographical notes the Mussey edition was more satisfactory. The full significance and justification of the earlier verse must be lost to the modern reader; and even as to later events it should be remembered that the beginning of the anti-slavery struggle is behind the recollection of the present generation, and it will not be long before all of the younger poet's work, and how much of his maturity, all indeed that may be classed as political or occasional, will need annotation.

Of the "Songs of Labour," four were published in 1845-6, in the Democratic Review-the "Ship-Builders," the "Shoemakers," the "Fishermen," and the "Lumbermen." The "Drovers," the "Huskers," the "CornSong," and the "Dedication" were written later for the National Era. And the series was issued as a volume by Ticknor and Fields, in 1850. These are bright and cheery poems, in accord with the cheerful and energetic character of the thriving New England artizans of their period. The verse is good common-sense, one may say common-place, of the table-land of poetry on which Charles Mackay earned his popularity, but far below the heights of Parnassus. We may spare room for a characteristic stanza from the "Shoemakers."

"Thy songs, Hans Sachs! are living yet
In strong and hearty German;
And Bloomfield's lay, and Gifford's wit,
And patriot fame of Sherman ;
Still from his book, a mystic seer,

The soul of Behmen teaches,

And England's priestcraft shakes to hear
Of Fox's leathern breeches."

In 1852 a selection of his poems was published in London by Routledge. In 1853 was published the "Chapel of the Hermits," reprinted from the Era. In 1854 appeared in book-form the last, not last written, of his prose works, "Literary Recreations." In 1857 came the "complete" edition of Ticknor and Fields, to be supplemented by later completion in after years

In this year 1857 Whittier's mother died, aged 77. She had lived to see the fruition of her hopes in his widespread fame as a poet and in the appreciation of his noble character as a man. The elder sister, Mary, married to Mr. Caldwell, lived to 1861; and the younger, Elizabeth, until 1864. Uncle Moses had died in 1824. The poet's only brother, Matthew, was alive until the 7th of January, 1883. Matthew seems to have been not without some talent, a maker of verses, and a contributor to newspapers of humorous dialect articles, over the signature of "Ethan Spike, from Hornby."

The life of Whittier from the time he had his home at Amesbury was uneventful. As before said, he lived six. months at Lowell in the year 1845, but there was no other change in his quiet course. He had become known to widening circles of readers, and he found employment for his pen; but there were no epochs except the publications of successive volumes. It may be a fair opportunity here to note some poems, written after the issue of the volume of 1843, that need comment as referring to persons or events. Whittier has seldom taken any pains to give explanation of scenes or portraits, both probably considered sufficiently obvious to the readers on the first appearance. But time passes, and later readers lose for want of explanatory words. The poem of the "Hero," written for the National Era, is a case in point. New Englanders, and others acquainted with the public men and institutions of Boston, would have no difficulty in deciding who he was, after seeing that the Hero had served as a soldier in the Greek war for independence, had been imprisoned in Germany, and after