viii ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. [May 17 



fading laurel of fame : he was surrounded with affectionate friends : 

 he was richly honored : he was dearly loved : and the pathway to 

 yet more splendid achievements in letters and a yet wnder circle 

 and ampler wealth of friends and of honors seemed opening before 

 him, in one long vista of golden promise. His vitality, alike of 

 body and mind, was so extraordinary that no thought of death could 

 ever be associated with him. He seemed formed to lead battalions 

 of thought and to endure forever. His countenance was the beacon 

 light of hope and joy. He animated every mind with which he 

 came in contact. He dissipated all doubts of a glorious future, 

 and he dispelled all dejection. He was a ripe and thorough scholar, 

 and he used his scholarship to cheer the onward march, and not 

 to dispense gloom. He was a natural orator. He possessed a 

 wonderful memory, and it was richly stored with knowledge of the 

 classic literature of all lands. It is doubtful whether, in this re- 

 spect, his equal exists among American men of letters. He was 

 a reverent student of Shakespeare, and he was entirely competent 

 as a Shakespeare scholar. Among his works there is a most ad- 

 mirable book on '' Pericles and Apollonius." He wrote a life of 

 '' Bayard Taylor " and a charming book upon the magazines of 

 Philadelphia and the literary movement in that old city — which he 

 so much loved and in which he will be so deeply mourned and so 

 tenderly remembered. His ambition was to excel in learning and 

 to augment the excellence of American literature. He always 

 advocated the right. He abhorred and denounced all the " crank " 

 movements of the day, and all the efforts now in progress to corrupt 

 the pure stream of literature with erotic mush. In one word, he 

 was all that is meant by gentleman. Our society can ill afford to 

 lose such a man as Albert Henry Smyth. Intellectual men find 

 the strife of this world very hard, advocating that which is right, 

 but the best that any thinking worker can do is to follow in his 

 footsteps. The loss of him is unspeakable — but his example 

 remains. 



" W. W." 



