Page:A Memorial of John Boyle O'Reilly from the City of Boston.djvu/71

Rh 1873; "Songs, Legends, and Ballads," 1878; "Statues in the Block," 1881; "In Bohemia;' 1886. His novel, "Moondyne," appeared in 1880; his "Athletics and Manly Sport," in 1887. He edited many books and prefaced not a few, including among the latter George Makepeace Towle's "Young People's History of Ireland," Justin McCarthy's "Ireland's Cause and England's Parliament," and Mrs. J. Ellen Foster's "Crime against Ireland." He had several works in preparation; among them "The Country with a Roof," an allegory, illustrating the defects in the American social system; and a work on the material resources of Ireland.

He was for many years past in great demand as a lecturer, and has been the chosen spokesman of the city of his home on several historic occasions. Perhaps the best of his orations is, "The Common Citizen Soldier," delivered in Boston on Memorial Day, 1886. The oftenest in demand were his "Illustrious Irishmen of one Century," and "Irish Poetry and Song."

Perhaps the best estimate of his literary genius is implied in the fact that he, for the past seven years, was called upon to write where Longfellow, or Whittier, or Holmes would have been chosen ere the infirmities of age made them shrink from the tasks involved. He ranked next to these beloved names in the popular heart of New England and America. Three of the greatest poems of the past