times, both Whig and Democratic. Garrison
through the columns of the Liberator (issued from
an obscure garrett in Boston) had just begun to
denounce the Union as a "covenant with death
and a league with hell” on account of its support
of Slavery; Wendell Phillips had dedicated his
young manhood, his learning, his culture [and his
eloquence to the unpopular cause of Anti-Slavery;
Salmon P. Chase had imperiled his reputation as
a lawyer, by accepting the hunted fugitive as his
client; and Lowell, urged by his young wife was
devoting his muse to the the same cause. The
hearts of the people were profoundly stirred upon
the question of human rights, and the poetry of
Whittier gave a powerful stimulus to the agitation.
One can get no clearer conception of the spirit of
the times, than by reading his poems of that pe
riod,—such as the "Slave Ship,” “The Christain
Slave,” "Massachusetts to Virginia,” "A Voice to
New England,” "ToFaneuil Hall,” etc. Prophetic
andintense-they met with a quick response. They
were read at the domestic hearth, and declaimed
in Lyceums and at Anti-Slavery gatherings.
Whittier himself actively engaged in the crusade,
by corresponding for and editing Anti-slavery pa
pers. While editor of the Pennsyvania Freeman,
in Philadelphia, he was mobbed and his paper
burned out. He continued in this "Moral War
fare” until the adoption of the admendment to
the Constitution of the United States, forever
prohibiting human slavery.
His labors in that direction were then ended,
and he commemorated the victory by the poem
"Laus Deo” closing with the lines:
It Is done t
In the circuit of the sun
Shall the sound thereof go forth,
It shall hid the sad rejoice,
It shall give the dumb a voice,
It shall belt with joy the earth I
Bing and swing
Bells of joy I On morning’s wing
Send the song of praise abroad 1
With a sound of broken chains
Tell the nations that He reigns,
Who alone is Lord and Qod
- With the conclusion of this stress period of his
THE FREE LANCE.
life the poet returned to his home at Amesbury,
Massachusetts. In the quiet of domestic life, liv
ing with his mother and sister, he wrote the bal
lads and other poems, that like the lyrics of Burns,
find an echo in every human heart not wholly de
void of sensibility. It is these later poems which
have given him his enduring fame. Every one
will recall among such : “Maud Muller,” "Mary
Garvin,” "My Playmate,” "Barefoot Boy,”
"Snow Bound,” etc.
Whittier’s belief in an overruling and loving
Providence was as fixed as his own New England
hills, and is frequently revealed in his poems as
in the one entitled "Eternal Godness:”
Edited with explanatory notes, by Thomas Chase LL. D.,
late President of the Haverford Collego. Eldredge and
Brothor, Philadelphia, 1892.
Horace is the business man’s poet. He would
have been the laureate of commuters, if express
trains had existed in B. C. 33. Not that he ever
celebrated the joys of the ledger; or indited rom
ances on the overdue mortgage : such specialties
were left for modern bards, the news paper poets,
the base-ball editors, the Will Carleton’s, and S.
W. Foss’s of our day. But the poetic side of
man’s life is not found in Wall Street, it appears
after business hours.
To hurry down to the ferry and snatch a
breath of salt air, as one crosses the North River,
to press one’s nose to the car window and watch
the varied panorama of the closing day, streets
crowded, stores closing; to rush through salt
marshes and green fields, •to thunder past quiet
stations with their little groups of wide eyed watch
ers, to climb off -the train at one of them, and
peep through the blinds at the waiting family—
this is the romantic part of business life—and it
is the part of which Horace sang. He could not
I know not where His Islands, lift
Tlielr fronded palms in air;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care.
THE WORKS OF HORACE.