I.nUKI.I.. .IAMKS KTSSKI.. 



There are few themes >f vital interest -MI which 

 ha- iii-i -pukcn. in proscor in verse. We 

 (noted ins utterances mi love, patriotism, 

 r, sla\cr\. education and culture, nature, 

 n, politics, and free trade. Of socialism, 

 .-.and faith lie treats in the preface to a 

 entitled " The Progress of the World." 



All well -meaning and Immune iiu-n sympathise 

 with theainm ot'Lasallc and Karl Marx. All thoui;hi- 



t'ul men sec \Vell-!''Ull<led Illlil insuperable difficulties 



in the way f their uci'omplUhnieut. . . . We have. 

 i-ved a movement toward the introduc- 



.socialistic theories into hoth state and nation- 

 al legislation ; though if history teach anything it 



* that the true function of government is the 

 prevention and remedy of evils so far only as these 

 depend on cause* within the reach of law, and that it 

 ho* lost any proper conception of ito duty when it be- 



;i distributer of alma. 



of science, he says: 



I .-an not shun- their fears who arc made unhappy 

 tiy the foreboding that Science is in some unexplained 

 wa\ to take from us our sense of spiritual things. 

 What she may do is to forbid our vulgarizing them 

 by materialistic conceptions of their nature; and in 

 this she will be serving the best interest* of truth 

 and ot mankind also. . . . Give to Science her undis- 

 puted prerogative in the realm of mutter, and she 

 must become, whether she will or no, the tributary of 

 Faith. . . . Should the doctrines of natural selection, 

 survival of the fittest, and heredity be accepted as 

 laws of nature, they must profoundly modify the 

 thought of men, and, consequently, their action. But 

 we should remember that it is the privilege and dis- 

 tinction <>t' man to mitigate natural Jaws, and to make 

 them liis partners if lie can not make them his 

 wrv ants. 



Tn 1889 Mr. Lowell responded to the toast 

 " Our Literature," at a banquet given in New 

 York in commemoration of the hundredth anni- 

 versary of Washington's 'inauguration. He said, 

 in part : 



Scarcely had we become a nation when the only 

 part of the Old World whose language we under- 

 Rtood began to ask, in various tones of despondency. 

 where was our literature. We could not improvise 

 Viririls and Mil tons, though wo made an obliging ef- 

 fort to do it Failing in this, we thought the question 

 partly unfair and wholly disagreeable. And, indeed, 

 it had never been put to several nations far older 

 than we. and to which a vattt sacer had been longer 

 wanting. Hut, perhaps, it was not altogether so ill- 

 natured as it seemed, for, after all, a nation without a 

 literature is imperfectly represented in the parliament 

 of mankind. It implied, therefore, in our cane the 

 obligation of an illustrious blood. ... I admire our 

 energy, our enterprise, our inventiveness, our multi- 

 plicity of resource no man more; but it is by less 

 visibly remunerative virtues, I persist in thinking, 

 that nations chiefly live and feel the higher meaning 

 of their lives. Prosperous we may be in other \\avs, 

 contented with more specious successes, but that na- 

 tion is a mere horde supplying figures to the census 

 which docs not acknowledge a truer prosperity and a 

 richer contentment in the things of the mind. Kail- 

 ways and telegraphs reckoned by the thousand miles 

 are excellent things in their way, but I doubt whether 

 it be of their poles and sleepers that the rounds arc 

 made of that ladder by which men or nations scale 

 the dills whose inspiring obstacle interposes itself 

 between them and the fulfillment of their highest 

 purpose and function. The literature of a people 

 should be the record of its joys and sorrows, its as- 

 pirations and its short-comings, its wisdom and ito 

 folly, the confidant of it* soul. We can not sav that our 

 own as yet suifices us ; but I believe that he who stands 



VOL. xxxi. 30 A 



a hundred yearn heneo when* I am Mnnding now. 

 <.iii.cii.iiH that he *pukn to the lnot |>wi-rlul ti;d 

 :"ii- community ever : \< l<.j^<l l,j 



man, will *|>cak of our literature, with the uwunuice 

 ot' OIK- who l.ehld whut We ho)*- tor and arpm: 

 alter hccoiiii- u reality and u |toMti-Miuii lorever. 



The closing passages of this speech, among 

 his hist public utterances, strikingly character- 

 i/ed his own literature, which is. indeed, the 

 record of his joys and sorrows, his aspiration.- 

 and his short-comings, his wi.-dom and his folly, 

 the confidant of his soul ; and to Ins countrymen 

 that literature will become u reality and a pos- 

 session forever. 



The following is a complete list of Mr. Low- 

 ell's publications: "Class Poem "(Boston, 1888); 

 "A Year's Life" (1841); " iv-m-" (Cambridge, 

 1844); "The Vision of Sir Launfal " (Boston, 

 1845; second edition, 1848, and included in 

 " Vest-pocket Series ") ; " Conversations on some 

 of the Old Poets" (1845); "Poems" (1848); 

 "The Biglow Papers" (1848): "A Fable for 

 Critics " (1848); "Poems" (2 vols., 1849); " Life 

 of Keats,'' prefacing an edition of his works 

 (1854) ; " Poems " (2 vols., 1854) " Poetical 

 Works" (2 vols.. 1858); "Mason and Slidell, a 

 Yankee Idyl " (1862) ; " Fireside Travels " (1864) ; 

 "The President's Policy " (1864): "Ode recited 

 at the Commemoration 'of the Living and Dead 

 Soldiers of Harvard University," 21 July, 18<i5 ; 

 " The Biglow Papers." second series (18B7) ; 

 " Under the Willows, and other Poems " (1869) : 

 "Among my Books" (1870); "The Courtin'" 

 (1874) ; " Three Memorial Poems " (1876) ; 

 "Among my Books." second series (1876); and 

 " Democracy, and other addresses " (1887). A 

 new uniform edition of his works (four volumes 

 of poetry and seven of prose) was issued in 1891. 

 to which another volume will probably be added 

 in 1892. Charles Eliot Norton is his literary ex- 

 ecutor and will write his life. Mr. Lowell's works 

 did not circulate very largely during his lifetime, 

 but for some years there has been a steady increase 

 in their sale. At the public libraries, in the 

 calls for American poets he is surpassed only by 

 Longfellow. Early in 1892 a movement was 

 begun in England for the erection of a testi- 

 monial to him in Westminster Abbey. 



LUTHERANS. The following is a summary 

 of the statistics of the Evangelical Lutheran 

 Church in America for the year 1891, as they are 

 given in the "Church Almanac," and may be re- 

 garded as approximately correct : The Church 

 numbers 61 synods, 4,861 clergymen, 8,232 con- 

 gregations, and 1,185,116 communicant mem- 

 bers, 2,790 parochial schools with 2.454 teachers 

 and 111,777 pupils, 3.748 Sunday schools with 39,- 

 183 officers and teachers and 358,178 pupils. The 

 institutions of learning number 24 theological 

 seminaries, having property valued at |960.800, 

 endowment amounting to $475,686 (8 having no 

 endowment, but de|>ending for their income on 

 annual gifts of individuals and congregations, 

 and 4 reporting their endowment under the head 

 of colleges or academies), having 66.850 volumes 

 in their libraries, employing 85 professors, and 

 having 1)00 students; 80* colleges, having prop- 

 erty valued at $1,884,000, endowment amounting 

 to "$721,520 (15 reporting no endowment). 1'J?.- 

 000 volumes in tneir libraries, employing 236 

 professors and instructors, having 4,086 stu- 



