of the very first class. I
honor LONGFELLOW.'

'He is perhaps our smoothest versifier, next to HALLECK.'

SEATSFIELD: 'Nay, he is the only one among us who can combine extreme
polish and the utmost facility of flow with deep-seated reflection.'
SEATSFIELD then quoted, with a sublime energy, from the celebrated 'Psalm
of Life:'

''Not enjoyment and not sorrow
Is our destined end or way,
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

'In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of life,
Be not like dumb driven cattle,
Be a hero in the strife.

'Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant,
Let the dead Past, bury its dead;
Act, act in the glorious Present,
Heart within and GOD o'er head.''

'You give the poet a great advantage,' I said, 'in quoting his very finest
production, and picking out the choicest stanzas. Beside, his theme here
is one of so general a nature, and so familiar to philosophy, that it
would be hard for any one to moralize upon it in verse without
accidentally hitting upon some sublimity. The commonest intellect has
lofty and awful thoughts whenever it gives way to serious meditation upon
our mortality.'

SEATSFIELD: 'That is partly true; but LONGFELLOW is not only great upon
that ground. His realm is very extensive. No man has the power (had he
only the will) of depicting the simplicity of every-day life and objects
with more grace or comprehensiveness. There are some touches in his
'Village Blacksmith' inexpressibly beautiful, and worthy of BURNS'
'Cotter's Saturday Night:'

'His hair is crisp and black and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate'er he can,' etc.

And then again:

'He goes on Sunday to the Church,
And sits among the boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
He hears his daughter's voice
Singing in the gallery,
And it makes his heart rejoice.'

SEATSFIELD repeated these verses with much emotion; and I observed that a
tear stood upon his lids. I therefore turned the conversation upon
hydropathy, and introduced a quotation from PINDAR: [Greek: ariston men
hydor], _etc._

SEATSFIELD: 'PINDAR, Sir, has expressed a great truth; but I think that
PIERPONT has expressed it better. In his exquisite 'Ode on the Opening of
the Marlborough Temperance-House' how beautifully he says, after speaking
in regard to the virtues of cold water:

'Oh! had EVE'S