ife-work had been completed a few months ago, when his
publishers presented the reading world with his writings in ten
sumptuous volumes, six containing the prose works, and the other four
the poems and satires. He was, with the single exception of Matthew
Arnold, the foremost critic of his time. Everything he said was well
said. The jewels abounded on all sides. His adroitness, his fancy, his
insight, his perfect good-humor, and his rare scholarship and delicate
art, emphasize themselves on every page of his books. His political
and literary addresses were models of what those things should be.
They were often graceful and epigrammatic, but always sterling in
their value and full of thought. Long ago he established his claim to
the title of poet, and as the years went by, his muse grew stronger,
richer, fresher, and more original. As an English critic, writing
pleasantly of him and his work, in the London _Spectator_ said lately:
"His books are delightful reading, with no monotony except a monotony
of brilliance which an occasional lapse into dulness would almost
diversify."

James Russell Lowell was descended from a notable ancestry. His father
was a clergyman, the pastor of the West Church in Boston. His mother
was a woman of fine mind, a great lover of poetry, and mistress of
several languages. From her, undoubtedly, the gifted son inherited his
taste for _belles-lettres_ and foreign tongues. He was born at
Cambridge, Mass., on the 22d of February, 1819, and named after his
father's maternal grandfather, Judge James Russell. After spending a
few years at the town school, under Mr. William Wells, a famous
teacher in his day, he entered Harvard University, and in 1838 was
graduated. He wrote the class poem of the year, and took up the study
of law. But the latter he soon relinquished for letters. His first
book was a small collection of verse entitled "A Year's Life." It gave
indication of what followed. There were traces of real poetry in the
volume, and none who read it doubted the poet's future success in his
courtship of the muse. In 1843 he tried magazine publishing, his
partner in the venture being Robert Carter. Three numbers only of _The
Pioneer_, _a Literary and Critical Magazine_, were published, and
though it contained contributions by Hawthorne, Lowell, Poe, Dwight,
Neal, Mrs. Browning, and Parsons, it failed to make its way, and the
young editor prudently withdrew it. In the next year he published the
"L