CORRESPONDENCE. 27 



a few of his poems that will last with those of George Herbert and 

 Henry Vaughan. His poetic vein was a slender rill, but pure, clear, 

 coming from a deep source, and like that of Siloa that flowed 

 "Fast by the oracle of God." 



Very sincerely yours, 



JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 



BOSTON, 71 CHESTER SQ., DEC. 13, 1880. 

 DEAR SIR : 



With sincere thanks to the Essex Institute 



for their kind invitation to be present at the Memorial Meeting in 

 honor of Jones Very, while I regret that it will be out of my power 

 to be with you on. this interesting occasion, I heartily rejoice that you 

 are to pay this merited tribute to a man of such true excellence and 

 exalted genius. 



Modest as he was, and shrinking from observation, there might 

 naturally have been many wjio did not fully appreciate his real 

 worth. 



We find that such men as Emerson, Bryant and Dana, recognized 

 him as a truly gifted man of genius, one set apart by Heaven and 

 endowed with the faculty divine, whose soul was kindled with celestial 

 fire, and whose words would have immortality. With each year this 

 conviction has been extended through wider and w'icler circles. The 

 beauty, the sweetness, the depth of what he has written have been 

 more universally felt. 



There was nothing about him meretricious. His words come from 

 the very heart of Nature, breathing her harmonies and partaking of 

 her inmost spirit. 



I knew Very intimately during his college life, and while he was at 

 the Divinity School in Cambridge. He was ever one, who, in the 

 language of Milton, " beheld the bright countenance of truth, in the 

 quiet and still air of delightful studies." He was a thorough classical 

 scholar, an able and acceptable teacher, a profound lover of Milton 

 and Shakespeare, a man of individual research and thought, a man of 

 simple manners, pure and delicate tastes, and of noble character. 



His fondness for Nature was intense. The stars above and the 

 flowers below were an unfailing delight. They were a sacred com- 

 panionship; while 



" With an eye made quiet by the power 

 "Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, 

 " He saw into the life of things." 



