g My Books" and "My Study Windows,"
and most fitly concludes with the "Latest Literary Essays," published in
the year of his death in 1891. My sincere hope is that this book will
not be found to be an unworthy successor to these volumes.

Though some of Lowell's literary opinions are old-fashioned to us (one
author even wrote an entire volume to demolish Lowell's reputation as a
critic), there is much in his work that the world will not let die. He
is highly regarded abroad, and he is one of the few men in our
literature who produced creative criticism.

Thanks and acknowledgments are due the _Century Magazine_ and the
literary representatives of Lowell, for permission to reprint in this
volume the first five essays, which are copyrighted and were published
in the _Century Magazine_.

ALBERT MORDELL

_Philadelphia, January 13, 1920_

CONTENTS

ON POETRY AND BELLES-LETTRES

THE FUNCTION OF THE POET
With note by Charles Eliot Norton.
_Century Magazine_, January, 1894

HUMOR, WIT, FUN, AND SATIRE
With note by Charles Eliot Norton.
_Century Magazine_, November, 1893

THE FIVE INDISPENSABLE AUTHORS (HOMER, DANTE,
CERVANTES, GOETHE, SHAKESPEARE)
_Century Magazine_, December, 1893

THE IMAGINATION
_Century Magazine_, March, 1894

CRITICAL FRAGMENTS
_Century Magazine_, May, 1894
I. Life in Literature and Language
II. Style and Manner
III. Kalevala

REVIEWS OF CONTEMPORARIES

HENRY JAMES: JAMES'S TALES AND SKETCHES
_The Nation_, June 24, 1875

LONGFELLOW: THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH
_Atlantic Monthly_, January, 1859

TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN
_North American Review_, January, 1864

WHITTIER: IN WAR TIME, AND OTHER POEMS
_North American Review_, January, 1864

HOME BALLADS AND POEMS
_Atlantic Monthly_, November, 1860

SNOW-BOUND: A WINTER IDYL
_North American Review_, April, 1866

POETRY AND NATIONALITY
_North American Review_, October, 1868

W.D. HOWELLS: VENETIAN LIFE
_North American Review_, October, 1866

EDGAR A. POE
_Graham's Magazine_, February, 1845;
R.W. Griswold's edition of Poe's Works (1850)

THACKERAY: ROUNDABOUT PAPERS
_North American Review_, April, 1864

TWO GREAT AUTHORS

SWIFT: FORSTER'S LIFE OF SWIFT
_The Nation_, April 13 and 20, 1876

PLUTARCH'S MORALS
_North American Review_, April, 1871

A PLEA FOR FREEDOM FROM SPEECH AND FIGURES OF SPEECH-MAKERS
_Atlantic Monthly_, December, 1860