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12 the purpose of fitting himself for this chair, with the understanding that on his return he should re- ceive the appointment of professor. It was a re- markable testimony to the impression that Long- fellow had made and to the confidence he had in- spired. Nothing could have been more delightful to him than the prospect it opened. It settled the question of his career in accordance with the de- sire of his heart, and his father gladly approved.

After passing the autumn and winter of 1825-'6 in preparatory studies at home in Portland, Long- fellow sailed for Havre in May, 1820. The dis- tance of Europe from America, measured by time, was far greater then than now. Communi- cation was comparatively infrequent and irregular ; the interval of news was often months long ; the novelty of such an experience as that on which Longfellow entered was great. " Madam," said a friend to his mother, " you must have great confi- dence in your son." " It is true, Henry," she wrote, " your parents have great confidence in your uprightness and in that purity of mind which will instantly take alarm on coming in contact with any- thing vicious or unworthy. We have confidence ; but you must be careful and watchful." Sixty years ago Europe promised more to the young American of poetic temperament than it does to-day, and kept its promise better. Longfellow's character was already so mature, his culture so advanced, and his temperament so happy, that no one could

be better fitted than he to profit by a visit to the Old World. A voyage to Europe is often a voyage of discovery of himself to the young American ; he learns that he possesses imagination and sensibilities that have not been evoked in his own land and for which Europe alone can provide the proper nurture. So it was with Longfellow. He passed eight months in Paris and its neighborhood, steadily at work in mastering the language, and in studying the literature and life of France. In the spring of 1827 he went from France to Spain, and here he spent a like period in similar occupations. It was a period of great enjoyment for him. At Madrid he had the good fortune to make acquaintance with Irving, who was then engaged in writing his " Life of Columbus," of Alexander Everett. theV. S. minister, and of Lieut. Alexander Slidell. U. S. navv (afterward honorably known as Com. Slidell-Mackenzie), who in his "Year in Spain" pleasantly mentions and gives a characteristic description of the young traveller. In December, 1827, Longfellow left Spain for Italy, where he remained through a year that was crowded with delightful experience and was well employed in gaining a rich store of knowledge. His studies were constant and faithful, and his genius for language was such that when he went to Germany at the end of 1828 he had a command of French,"Spanish, and Italian such as is seldom gained by a foreigner. He established himself at Gottingen in February, 1829, and was pursuing his studies there when he was called home by letters that required his return. He reached the United States in August, and in September, having received the appointment of professor of modern languages at Bowdoin college, with a salary of $800, he took up his residence at Brunswick. He was now twenty-two years old. and probably, with the exception of Mr. George Ticknor, was the most accomplished scholar in this country of the languages and literatures of modern Europe. He devoted himself zealously to teaching, to editing for his classes several excellent text-books, and to writing a series of lectures on the literatures of France, Spain, and Italy. The influence of such a nature and such tastes and learning as his was of the highest value in a country college remote from the deeper sources of culture. "His intercourse with the students," wrote one of his pupils, "was perfectly simple, frank, and manly. They always left him not only with admiration, but guided, helped, and inspired." In addition to his duties as professor he performed those of librarian of the college, and in April. 1831, he published in the "North American Review" the first of a series of articles, which were continued at irregular intervals for several years, upon topics that were connected with his studies. His prose style was already formed, and was stamped with the purity and charm that were the expression of his whole nature, intellectual and moral. Poetry he had for the time given up. Of those little poetic attempts dating from his college years he wrote, that he had long ceased to attach any value to them. "I am all prudence now, since I can form a more accurate judgment of the merit of poetry. If I ever publish a volume, it will be many years first." In September, 1831. he married Miss Mary Potter, of Portland. It was a happy marriage. About the same time he began to publish in the " New England Magazine" the sketches of travel that afterward were collected, and, with the addition of some others, published under the title of "Outre Mer; a Pilgrimage beyond the Sea" (New York, 1835). This was his earliest independent contribution to American literature, and in its pleasant mingling of the record of personal experience, with essays on literature, translations, and romantic stories, and in the ease and grace of its style, it is a worthy prelude and introduction to his later more important work. The narrowness of the opportunities that were afforded at Bowdoin for literary culture and conversation prevented the situation there from being altogether congenial to him, and it was with satisfaction that he received in December, 1834, an invitation to succeed Mr. George Ticknor in the Smith professorship of modern languages at Harvard, with the suggestion that, before entering on its duties, he should spend a year or eighteen months in Europe for study in Germany. He accordingly resigned the professorship at Bowdoin, which he had held for five years and a half, and in April, 1835, he set sail with his wife for England. In June he went to Denmark, and, after passing the summer at Copenhagen and Stockholm studying the Danish. Swedish, and Finnish languages, he went in October to Holland on his way to Germany. At Amsterdam and Rotterdam he was detained by the serious illness of Mrs. Longfellow, and employed his enforced leisure in acquiring the Dutch language. Near the end of November his wife died at Rotterdam. The blow fell heavily upon him ; but his strong religious faith afforded him support, and he was not overmastered by vain grief. He soon proceeded to Heidelberg, and