JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 429 



to him into a limitation of his powers. It was shortly after this that 

 he wrote, in one of those poetic ahsences from his every -day life, 

 which were to overtake him more than once afterward, his " Vision of 

 Sir Launfal," and the exuberance of his nature together with his keen 

 power of criticism found expression about the same time in his witty 

 '• Fable for Critics." A third volume of Poems appeared in the 

 same year, 1848, as the last named. 



A year in Europe, 1851-52, with his wife, whose health was then 

 precarious, stimulated his scholarly interests, and gave substance 

 to his study of Dante and Italian literature. In October, 1853, his 

 wife died, and in 1855 he was chosen successor to Mr. Longfellow as 

 Smith Professor of the French and Spanish Languages and Litera- 

 tures, and Professor of Belles Lett res in Harvard College. He spent 

 two years in Europe in further preparation for the duties of his office, 

 and in 1857 was again established in Cambridge and installed in his 

 academic chair. He married also at this time his second wife, Miss 

 Frances Dunlap, of Portland, Maine. 



Lowell was now in his thirty-ninth year. As a scholar, in his pro- 

 fessional work, he had acquired a versatile knowledge of the Romance 

 languages and was an adept in old French and Provencal poetry ; he 

 had given a course of twelve lectures on English Poetry before the 

 Lowell Institute in Boston which had made a strong impression on 

 the community, and his work on the series of British Poets in connec- 

 tion with Professor Child, especially his biographical sketch of Keats, 

 had been recognized as of a high order. In poetry he had published 

 the volumes already mentioned. In general literature he had printed 

 in magazines the papers which he afterward collected into his volume 

 " Fireside Travels." It was not long after he entered on his college 

 duties that "The Atlantic Monthly" was started, and the editorship 

 given to him. For the details of the office he had little aptitude, 

 although he looked keenly after nice points of literary finish in the 

 proof-reading ; he was relieved of much of the detail by his active 

 assistant, Mr. F. H. Underwood, to whom the inception of the maga- 

 zine was largely due. But the Atlantic afforded a good outlet for his 

 literary production, and though he held the editorship but a little more 

 than two years he stamped the magazine with the impress of his high 

 ideals in literature and criticism ; his selection of articles wa9 judicious, 

 his own contributions and criticism were full of life, and he was most 

 generous in his critical aid to contributors. In 1862 he was associated 

 with Mr. Charles Eliot Norton in the conduct of "The North Ameri- 

 can Review," and continued in this charge for ten years. In 1877 



