his mind by this class of parasites, who usually approached him on the moral side of his nature, because it was the most impressionable.

Though accustomed daily for more than half a century to discuss professionally the doings of our federal and state governments, he was never at Washington before the war, I believe, but once, except as a traveler passing through to some remoter point. He was once urged to visit the federal capital during an important crisis in our struggle for free labor and free speech. He declined, assigning as a reason that he had been there once, I think it was during the administration of President Van Buren, and found that he was more content with the judgment he formed in his office of the doings at the seat of government than with any he was able to form under the shadow of the Capitol. Once also during a critical period of the war he yielded reluctantly to the importunities of some friends, and went to Washington to urge a more vigorous prosecution of the war and the immediate emancipation of the slaves. He shrank too from the restraints which personal intercourse with the public servants imposed upon the freedom of his pen. According to his view, a journalist did less than his duty who did not strive at least to leave the world better than he found it; who did not wrestle with those social and political abuses which are amenable to public opinion. The reform of society, as he thought, like Mahomed's paradise, lies in the

shadow of crossed swords. Controversy, therefore, always earnest and sometimes acrimonious with those whom he regarded as the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Perizzites of the land, was inevitable. With them he made no terms. He had no personal antagonisms, but he could not compromise or transact with those whom he regarded as the enemies of society.

CHAPTER VII.

THE POET.

As a poet, Bryant is to be judged by the quality rather than the quantity of his work. The sum of all his verse that he thought worth preserving did not exceed thirteen thousand lines. Of these, about one third were written before 1829. The double task of mastering his new profession and that of discharging its duties pretty effectually absorbed his time and thoughts for several of the succeeding years. He wrote but thirty lines in 1830, but sixty in 1831. In 1832, he wrote two hundred and twenty-two. It does not appear that he wrote any in 1833. In the ten years immediately succeeding 1829, he seems to have produced only eleven hundred and thirty-seven lines, or a trifle over one hundred lines a year. But though he produced comparatively little during this decade, he did not suffer the waters of "livid oblivion" to roll over him.

In 1831, he published a volume containing about eighty of his poems, in addition to those which had appeared in the pamphlet collection in 1821. He was induced to try the fortunes of this little volume by more impartial and less indulgent tests

than those to which his verse had hitherto been

subjected.

A friend had shown him a letter written by Washington Irving, from Madrid, in which occurred the following passage:

"I have been charmed with what I have seen of the writing of Bryant and Halleck. Are you acquainted with them? I should like to know something about them personally; their view of thinking is quite above that of ordinary men and ordinary poets, and they are masters of the magic of poetic language."

Encouraged if not determined by these words of commendation from such a competent authority, Mr. Bryant sent a copy of his volume to Murray in London, and at the same time addressed the following note to Irving:

"SIR, I have put to press in this city a duodecimo volume of two hundred and forty pages, comprising all my poems which I thought worth printing, most of which have already appeared. Several of them I believe you have seen, and of some, if I am rightly informed, you have been pleased to express a favorable opinion. Before publishing the thing here, I have sent a copy of it to Murray, the London bookseller, by whom I am anxious that it should be published in England. I have taken the liberty, which I hope you will pardon a countryman of yours, who relies on the known kindness of your disposition to plead his excuse, of referring him to you. As it is not altogether impossible that the work might be repub

lished in England, if I did not offer it myself, I could wish that it might be published by a respectable bookseller in a respectable manner.

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"I have written to Mr. Verplanck desiring him to give me a letter to you on the subject, but as the packet which takes out my book will sail before I can receive an answer I have presumed so far on your goodness as to make the application myself. May I ask of you the favor to write to Mr. Murray on the subject as soon as you receive this? In my letter to him I have said nothing of the terms, which, of course, will depend upon circumstances which I may not know or of which I cannot judge. I should be glad to receive something for the work, but if he does not think it worth while to give anything, I had rather he should take it for nothing than that it should not be published by a respectable publisher.

"I must again beg you to excuse the freedom I have taken. I have no personal acquaintance in England whom I could ask to do what I have ventured to request of you; and I know of no person to whom I could prefer the request with greater certainty that it will be kindly entertained.

“I am, sir,

With sentiments of the highest respect,

Your obedient and humble servant,

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

"P. S.-I have taken the liberty to accompany this letter with a copy of the work."

Bryant received the following reply from Mr.