iv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



Expression appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in I860* 

 £,nd most of his contributions to literature have been in the 

 form of papers first published in the magazines, and after- 

 wards collected into books. He more than once paid 

 tribute to his teachers in literature. His first book, now 

 out of print, was Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and 

 Person, published in 1867 ; and Whitman : A Study, 

 which appeared in 1896, is a more extended treatment of 

 the man and his poetry and philosophy. Birds and Poets, 

 too, contains a paper on Whitman, entitled The Flight of 

 the Eagle, besides an essay on Emerson, whom he also 

 treated incidentally in his paper, Matthew Arnold on 

 Emerson and Carlyle, in Indoor. Studies ; and the latter 

 volume contains his essay on Tiioreau. 



In the autumn of 1863 he went to "Washington, and IE 

 the following January entered the Treasury Department 

 He was for some years an assistant in the office of the 

 Comptroller of the Currency, and later chief of the organi- 

 sation division of that Bureau. For some time he was 

 keeper of one of the vaults, and for a great part of the day 

 his only duty was to be at his desk. In these leisure hours 

 his mind traveled off into the country, where his previous 

 life had been spent, and with the help of his pen, always a 

 faithful friend and magician, he lived over again those 

 happy days, now happier still with the glamour of all past 

 pleasures. In this way he wrote Wake-Robin and a part 

 of Winter Sunshine. It must not be supposed, however, 

 that he was deprived of outdoor pleasures while at Wash- 

 ington. On the contrary, he enjoyed many walks in the 

 suburbs of the capital, and in those days the real country 

 came up to the very edges of the city. His Spring at the 

 Capital, Winter Sunshine, A March Chronicle, and other 

 papers bear the fruit of his life on the Potomac. He went 

 to England in 1871 on business for the Treasury Depart 

 ment, and again on his own account a dozen years later. 

 The record of the two visits is to be found mainly in his 

 chapters on An October Abroad, contained in the volume 



