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 56 INTRODUCTION

seemed to be the only thing necessary to make his virtues and accomplishments of lasting benefit to his friends and society. But the somewhat obscure indications of con- sumption rapidly increased after his graduation. He filled, while he was able, with much success the position of As- sistant in the High School at Brookline, where he was born and educated, and was the first of the Class to pass the veil, dying in March, 1836, at the early age of twenty- two."

Ingersoll's premature death was the first great grief of Randall's life. How deeply the iron entered his soul, how incurable the wound remained after the lapse of a score of years, is revealed in the " Dedication " of the " Consola- tions of Solitude," and no less in the " Retrospect " which tells so much. Fired by a common enthusiasm for all that was noblest and most beautiful in literature, the two friends had planned large enterprises together in the culti- vation and dissemination of it, and looked forward to joint republication of the chief masterpieces of lyrical poetry, as well as to original contributions of their own. This faded pressed-flower, sole glimpse now to be got into a pure young heart long since gone to dust, has a peculiar and pathetic interest of its own, quite apart from the side-light it throws on some aspects of Randall's life which are otherwise lost in obscurity. Here is the letter: —

��Brookline, Sept. 20, 1835. My dear Friend,

Your letter has given me the greatest pleasure — if you knew how great, I think you would write to me often. It seemed, while reading it, as though we were once more together, and I heard you again pouring out your feelings

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