Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/106

 ^8 I^^TK OD UC TION

ance or rejection was the intrinsic value of the suggestion itself ; and I do not remember that in a single case I dis- sented from his judgment of this at last, after we had talked the matter over in all its lights.

Daily intercourse with such a mind, so strong, so free, so imbued with the love of truth and beauty for their own pure sakes, was in itself an education. Now that my friend is dead, it may be permitted to me here to confess my gratitude to him for incalculable benefits that no words of mine can fitly describe. At my request, he gave me the original manuscripts of the " Consolations of Soli- tude " after the printers had got through with them, some in his own writing, some in that of his devoted sister Belinda, One of these poems in pencil, " A New Year's Wish," he told me he had written for me, the friend whom he held second to his lost Ingersoll alone ; and I was more than glad to hold the second place in that great heart.

�� �