toils and his triumphs; they represent his inmost feelings at the time when they were profoundly moved. They accord with his deepest convictions of right and duty; and their high solemn phrases seem to come with a divine authority. For an Abolitionist to assume a critical attitude in regard to the "Voices," would be as hard as for a Hebrew to find fault with "The Horse and his Rider," or "By the Waters of Babylon." It will be for neither of the parties that were engaged in the long and momentous struggle to decide upon the purely poetical merit of these lyrics. If the prime test of poetry were to be its power to move the heart, there could be but one opinion; but we must remember that impassioned eloquence, which is not necessarily poetical, does the same thing. There are many of Whittier's ringing stanzas which are scarcely more than rhymed eloquence; but, judged by the same rule, some of the most stirring passages of Byron and Dryden, and nearly all the heroic verses of Pope, come into the same category. One more observation. In certain of the most outspoken of the "Voices," such as the "Pine Tree," "Massachusetts to Virginia," "Texas," and the "Branded Hand," there seems to prevail a spirit which is not only intense, but fierce. But those who understand the reality of the danger then impending, which was the entire subjection of the Government to the Slave Power, will not only pardon but applaud the energy with which the momentous issue was met. It was felt by all far-seeing men to be a question of life and death; and in such a terrible crisis courtesy would have been folly, and compliment crime. It was a combat à outrance. too Here is part of the fiercest and most declamatory,— who now will say 66 uncalled for," "too fierce," fervently violent in its prompting "-the "Pine Tree," written in 1846. "Lift again the stately emblem on the Bay State's rusted shield! with their Bibles round the board, What the fathers did of old time, Tell us not of banks and tariffs! that your gains may sum up higher, pass our children through the fire? Is the dollar only real, God and Truth and Right a dream ? Weigh'd against your lying ledgers, must our manhood kick the beam ? O my God! for that free spirit which of old in Boston town spin you cotton's latest pound, But in heaven's name keep your honour! Keep the heart o' the Bay State sound!" We cannot desire that even one of the "Voices " should have been silenced, uttered as they were at the stern call of duty. The "burden" was upon the poet as upon the old Hebrew prophet. And what is the poet if not a seer? Whose but his the prophetic mission? Whittier never faltered in his mission. His part in the great revolution is now historical; and after its triumphant success, he could look back with more than satisfaction upon the results he had aided in bringing about. WE CHAPTER IX. E can now look upon what, to a certain extent, may be called his purely literary work, partially beginning, indeed, so early as 1832. Either in Hartford, or shortly after his return to Haverhill, he wrote a long poem called "Moll Pitcher," already mentioned. Some passages had appeared in his newspaper, but in the completed poem the main portions were new. Moll Pitcher was a fortune-teller, famous in the last century; and the story is of a country maiden and her sailor lover. The poem, writes the author in a prefatory note, was written during a few weeks of such leisure as is afforded by indisposition, and is given to the world in all its original negligence." So little he thought of it that it never was reprinted. The short quotation, given by Mr. Underwood, would show it to be in the measure and manner of Scott's poems, only not so good. Concerning it, the New England Magazine reviewer, May, 1832, while admiring certain portions for their versification, is not very complimentary. This magazine had made its first appearance in 1831, under the editorship of Joseph T. Buckingham, continuing to December, 1835, nine volumes, when it was merged in the American Monthly Magazine of New York. To Buckingham Lowell's first series of the "Biglow Papers" was addressed. John O. Sargent, a noted journalist of the time, and Dr. S. G. Howe, the educator of the blind, succeeded Mr. Buckingham, at the beginning of the eighth volume, but soon gave up the editorship to Park Benjamin, a writer of both prose and verse, a brother-in-law of the historian Motley. The writers for the magazine, having no compensation but the publicity of their writing, were not always of the highest class. Many of the papers read like themes of undergraduates, or moral essays by budding clergymen. But there was a leaven in the midst. About a dozen of Wendell Holmes' humorous, yet tender and graceful early poems appeared during the first two years. Whittier furnished four prose writings and seven short poems. There were also poems by Mrs. Sigourney, James G. Percival, and other minors; and Hawthorne's "Twice-told Tales made here their first appearance. The magazine was poorly printed upon dingy paper, and was "illustrated" with bad lithographs, only interesting for their subjects, not as works of art. Whittier's contributions consist of "Powow Hill," a prose sketch, 1832; "Passaconaway," a prose story, 1833; the "Opium-Eater," prose, 1833; the "Female Martyr," a poem, 1833; "Stanzas," "Toussaint L'Ouverture," ""A Lament," "Suicide Pond," the "Demon of the Study" (humorous), "Lines to Governor McDuffie," and "Mogg Megone "-these all poems. During these years also occur the earlier poems of |