that of any other American, or, indeed, of
any other man who was not a fellow-countryman of our own. To very many
in England it will be counted as a grave personal loss; and thousands
more will miss in him one whom through his writings they had admired,
felt with, laughed with, as with a friend. For a long time past, in
fact ever since he quitted the Legation, his long annual visits to
London have been regarded by a wide circle as one of the events of the
year, and he himself as one of the most valued guests. We had hoped
that this last June would again see him in his old London haunts,
bright, genial, interesting as ever; but a cruel fate decided that
this was not to be, and neither the Old World nor the New should know
him more. Never a strong man, he has succumbed, at a ripe age, it is
true, but prematurely, as all will think who knew how fresh his
intelligence and his sympathies were to the last. With him there
passes away one of the very few Americans who were the equals of any
son of the Old World--of any Frenchman or any Englishman--in that
indefinable mixture of qualities, which we sum up for want of a better
word, under the name of culture. How did he arrive at it? The answer
is, by natural gifts, by constant play of mind with mind in talk, and
by reading. On those who casually met Mr. Lowell in society, he
certainly did not make the impression of a book-worm, or of a man to
whom books were indispensable; but none the less is it true that
whenever official business was not too heavy, he invariably read for a
_minimum_ of four hours a day. This did not include the time that he
gave to ephemeral literature; it was the time that he spent in the
serious reading of books, generally old books. How many of us, not
professed students, can show a record as good, or half as good? He
read quickly, too, in various languages, his favorites being the
English of the Elizabethans, Spanish, old French, and modern French.
His excellent memory and wonderful assimilative power built up this
reading into the mental endowments that all the world admired.

When Mr. Lowell came to England as the representative of the United
States under the last Republican administration, London felt a
sympathetic curiosity as to the author of the famous _Biglow Papers_
and of so much excellent prose criticism. In a very short time the
feeling warmed into admiration and friendship. The official world
spoke well of the way in which the new minister pe