Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/893

 L N L N 863 assume, whether the epic, as in &quot;Evangeline,&quot; &quot;The Courtship of Miles Standish,&quot; and &quot;Hiawatha,&quot; the dramatic, as in &quot;The Spanish Student,&quot; &quot;The Golden Legend,&quot; and &quot;The Mask of Pandora,&quot; or the didactic, as in &quot;The Psalm of Life&quot; and many of the minor poems ; they are all subjective. This is not the highest praise that can be given to works of art ; but it implies less dis praise in Longfellow s case than in almost any other, by reason of his noble subjectivity. If we look in Longfellow s poetry for originality of thought, pro found psychological analysis, or new insights into nature, we shall be disappointed. Though very far from being hampered by any dogmatic philosophical or religious system of the past, his mind, until near the end, found sufficient satisfaction in the Christian view of life to make it indifferent to the restless, inquiring spirit of the present, and disinclined to play with any more recent solution of life s problems. He had no sympathy with either scepticism or formal dogmatism, and no need to hazard rash guesses respecting man s destiny. He was willing to say &quot; I do not know; nor will I vainly question Those pages of the mystic book which hold The story still untold, But without rash conjecture or suggestion Turn its last leaves in reverence and good heed, Until The End I read.&quot; He disliked the present psychological school of art, believing it to be essentially morbid and unhealthy. He had no sympathy with the tendency represented by George Eliot, or with any attempt to be analytic in art. He held art to be essentially synthetic, creative, and manifesting, not analytic, destructive, or questioning. Hence he never strove to draw from nature some new secret, or to show in her relations never discovered before. His aim was to impress upon her familiar facts and aspects the seal of his own gracious nature. And in this no one ever succeeded better. &quot;The light of the life of him is on all past things.&quot; For this reason, while his poems never reveal to us a new meaning in nature or show us a new spring of hope in man, they make us love both better than we did before. Though he never raised the curtain that hides the stage upon which the physical and moral powers of nature rehearse the drama of human life, yet he opens our ears to the notes of the orchestra that sits before the stage and plays the overture ; and, as we listen to these notes, there rise before us touching pictures of love, and faith, and devotion, until we find ourselves melted down and sim plified into little children, whereof is the kingdom of heaven. We have said that Longfellow s protracted residence in Europe in some degree unfitted him for expressing the new life of the American republic ; and this is true. He was essentially a poet of the past, not, like Lowell, a grasper and moulder of the present, or like Whitman, a John the Baptist of the future. But, just as Dante summed up the ages of faith, and Shakespeare the ages of feudalism, so Longfellow has summed up the period of transition from these to the ages of truth and liberty a period in which the killing letter of Christian womanliness and pagan manliness has slowly been yielding to their vivifying spirit, and preparing the way for that simple humanity of which he was the earnest and the type. As a man, Longfellow was almost perfect, as much so as it is ever given to human nature to be. A man in intellect and courage, yet without conceit or bravado; a woman in sensibility and tender ness, yet without shrinking or weakness ; a saint in purity of life and devotion of heart, yet without ascetism or religiosity ; a knight-errant in hatred of wrong and contempt of baseness, yet without self-righteousness or cynicism ; a prince in dignity and courtesy, yet without formality or condescension ; a poet in thought and feeling, yet without jealousy or affectation ; a scholar in tastes and habits, yet without aloofness or bookishness ; a dutiful son, a loving husband, a judicious father, a trusty friend, a useful citizen, and an enthusiastic patriot, he united in his strong, transparent humanity almost every virtue under heaven. A thoroughly healthy, well-balanced, harmonious nature, accepting life as it came, with all its joys and sorrows, and living it beautifully and hopefully, without canker and without uncharity. Xo man ever lived more completely in the light than Henry &quot;Wadsworth Longfellow. Perhaps the most remarkable traits in Longfellow s character were his accessibility and his charity. Though a great worker, he seemed always to have time for anything he was asked to do. He was never too busy to see a caller, to answer a letter, or to assist, by word or deed, any one that needed assistance. His courtesy to all visitors, even to strangers and children who called to look at him, or who, not venturing to call, hung about his garden-gate in order to catch a glimpse of him, was almost a marvel. He always took it for granted that they had come to see Washington s study, and, accordingly, took the greatest interest in showing them that. He never, as long as he could write, was known to refuse his autograph, and so far was he from trying to protect himself from intruders that he rarely drew the blinds of his study windows at night, though that study was on the ground floor and faced the street. His acts of charity, though performed in secret, were neither few nor small. Of him it may be said with perfect truth, &quot;He went about doing good&quot;; and not with his money merely, but also with his presence and his encouragemsnt. To how many sad hearts did he come like an angel, with the rich tones of his voice waking harmonics of hope, where before there had been despair and silence ? How many young literary people, disappointed at the unsuccess of their first attempts, did he comfort and spur on to renewed and higher efforts ! How careful he was to quench no smoking flax ! How utterly free he was from jealousy or revengefulness ! While poor, morbid Edgar Allan Poe was writing violent and scurrilous articles upon him, accusing him of plagiarism and other literary mis demeanours, he was delivering enthusiastic lectures to his classes on Poe s poetry. His charity was unbounded. Once when the present writer proposed to the president of the Harvard University Visiting Committee that Longfellow should be placed on that committee, the president replied: &quot;What would be the use? Longfellow could never be brought to find fault with anybody or anything.&quot; And it was true. His whole life was bathed in that sympathy, that love which suffers long and envies not, which for gives unto seventy times seven times, and as many more if need be. Even in his last years, when loss of friends and continual physical pain made life somewhat &quot;cold, and dark, and dreary &quot; for him, he never complained, lamented, or blamed the arrangements of nature, and the only way in which it was possible to know that he suffered was through his ever increasing delight in the health and strength of younger men. His whole nature was summed up in the lines of his favourite poet : Luce intellettual, plena d amore, Amor di vero ben, pien di letizia, Letizia che trascende ogni dolzore. (T. DA.) LOXGFORD, an inland county of Leinster, Ireland, is bounded on the N.W. by Leitrim, N.E. by Cavan, E. by Yestnieath, S. by Westmeath and Meath, and W. by Lough Ree and Roscommon. With the exception of Carlow, Louth, and Dublin, it is the smallest county in Ireland, its greatest length being about 28 miles, its greatest breadth about 20, and the total area comprising 269,409 acres, or about 421 square miles. The general level surface of the country is broken occasionally by low hills, which cover a considerable area at its northern angle. The principal rivers are the Camlin, which rises near Granard, and flows past Longford to the Shannon, and the Inny, which, entering the county from Westmeath, crosses its southern corner, and falls into Lough Ree. Lough Ree is partly included in Longford, and the other principal lakes are Lough Gownagh, Derry- lough, Lough Drum, and Lough Bannow. The Royal canal intersects the county. The southern division of the county, bounded partly by the Camlin, belongs to the great limestone plain of Ireland, and the northern division is occupied chiefly by clay-slate and greywacke. In the west of the county there is an interpolation, between the two divisions, of yellow sandstone and conglomerate. Isolated hills of sandstone occur at Slievegauldry and at Ballymahon, on both sides of the Inny. Marble of fine quality has been raised near Ledwithstown. In the north indications of iron are abundant, and there are also some traces of lead. Agriculture, The climate is somewhat moist and cold, partly owing to the large extent of marsh and bog. The soil in the southern districts resting on the limestone is a deep loam well adapted for pasture, but in the north it is often so thin and poor as to be incapable of reclamation. In 1881 there were 74,876 acres under tillage, 125,838 pasture, 3697 plantation, and 51,333 waste. The total number of holdings in 18SO was 8682, of which 685 were less than 1 acre. More than one-half of the total number were included in those between 5 and 15, and 15 and 30 acres in extent, which numbered respectively 2482 and 2658. The following table shows the areas under the principal crops in 1855 and in 1881 : Wheat. Oats. Other Cereals. Potatoes. Turnips. Other Green Crops. Flax. Meadow and Clover. Total. 1855 1881 2,253 307 38.841 18,670 328 233 10,258 13,108 2,730 2,621 936 1,792 2&amp;lt;!2 236 20,156 17,899 81.764 74,866 The total number of horses in 1881 was 6856, of which 4253 were used for agricultural purposes ; of cattle 51,547, of which 16,212 were milch cows; of sheep, 24,140 ; of pigs, 17,900; and of poultry, 232,324. There were 3066 asses and 670 mules. According to the latest return, the land was divided among 436 proprietors possess-