542 BELLES-LETTRES 



land. Poets-laureate have at times been chosen who were unable 

 to maintain the dignity of their lofty office, but it is a common feeling 

 that a weakling in the post is worse than none at all. 



Now Lowell took the Smith Professorship of Belles-Lettres with 

 general commendation of the propriety of his appointment. If some 

 have felt inclined to demur at the fidelity with which he performed 

 the routine of his position, no one has ever denied his fitness, by 

 nature and training, for what he was called upon to do, even as all ad- 

 mit that Tennyson's choice as poet-laureate merited public applause. 

 It is well, then, to inquire what qualities Lowell possessed that led 

 the wise to seal his election with open marks of approval. In the first 

 place, he was not only a gentleman (in the best sense of that fine old 

 word a man of gentle, courteous instincts, of careful cultivation 

 and dignity) he was also a scholar, in both the ancient and the 

 modern way. 



This point I should like to emphasize. Xo one can read Lowell's 

 letters or essays without becoming aware of the fact that he had 

 large learning at his command. But if any one desires further 

 confirmation, he will examine the books of Lowell's private collec- 

 tions that are now possessed by the Harvard Library. These are 

 numerous and varied. They are not confined to productions of any 

 one period. The poet himself declares, for example, that he had read 

 every work of Old French literature available to him. And examin- 

 ation of his own texts (for he bought everything) shoAvs that he read 

 them with scrupulous pains, not in the superficial way that Tair.e 

 might have adopted, but with the conscientiousness of Gaston Paris, 

 to whom every fact had significance, who was not content to gen- 

 eralize on the basis of mere casual knowledge, who left no avenue 

 unapproached to seek out the truth in its fullness. 



And Lowell read to make use of the knowledge he thus acquired. 

 He matured his opinions with the intent to set them forth. This fact, 

 too, I would emphasize. I am aware that there is a foolish importance 

 attached to publication nowadays. Every young student is encour- 

 aged to get into print, whether he have anything new to say or not. 

 And it is too often forgotten that a man may Avrite reams and not 

 have one tenth the ideas of one who has been absolutely silent to the 

 world at large. But even as music is not music, or poetry poetry. 

 until it is composed, even as a building is not a building before it is 

 erecte<"l. so ideas demand publication to be capable of estimate. 

 Publication, of course, can be achieved in other ways than by written 

 books. A professor may most potently publish his ideas by word 

 of mouth. But where there is no evidence of a teacher's influence 

 either by its effect on the personally taught or the impersonally 

 wrought upon, we are justified in believing that it is a thing of 

 nought. 



