Final Tributes from Life-Long Friends 57 James Russell Lowell, then American min JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, 1819-1891 ister, delivering the address, and saying: "Never have I known a more beautiful character. * * * His nature was consecrated ground, into which no unclean spirit could ever enter." No epitaph could have been more worthy than the remark made at his funeral by Ralph Waldo Emerson, himself already on the edge of the grave, his memory lost. After looking at Longfellow in his RALPH WALDO EMERSON, 1830-1882 coffin, he said as he stepped back: "I have entirely forgotten that gentleman's name, but he was a sweet and beautiful soul." REFERENCES 1 Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with extracts from his journals and correspondence. Edited by Samuel Longfellow. Two vols. Boston, 1886. Final Memorials of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Edited by Samuel Longfellow. Boston, 1887. 3 Longfellow. By Edmund C. Stedman. October, 1883. The Century, 4 Letters of James Russell Lowell. Edited by Charles Eliot Norton. Two vols. Boston, 1894. 5 The Life of Charles Dickens. By John Forster, New York. 6 The Letters of Charles Dickens. Edited by his sister-in law and his daughter. Three vols. London, 1880, 1882. 7 The article on Longfellow in the Encyclopædia Britannica xiv. 860-863). |