have reached me too late; others have perished or are not now to be found. But it is a satisfaction to believe that, however much they might have added to the interest of these volumes, they would have afforded no new aspect of their writer. CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. SHADY HILL, CAMBRIDGE, Mass. CONTENTS OF VOL. I EARLY LIFE.-COLLEGE DAYS.-RUSTICATION IN CONCORD.-IN THE HARVARD LAW-SCHOOL.-FIRST LITERARY VENTURES. "THE BIGLOW PAPERS.' -THE "FABLE FOR CRITICS."- LETTERS TO GEORGE B. LORING, WILLIAM A. WHITE, CHARLES F. BRIGGS, MISS L. L. WHITE, H. W. LONGFELLOW, EDWARD TURES ON THE ENGLISH POETS.-APPOINTMENT TO PRO- FESSORSHIP IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY.-SECOND VISIT TO LETTERS TO C. F. BRIGGS, E. M. DAVIS, S. H. GAY, FRANCIS G. SHAW, C. E. NORTON, MISS ANNA LORING, F. H. UN- DERWOOD, MISS JANE NORTON, W. J. STILLMAN, J. T. - JOINT EDITORSHIP OF THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.-THE 66 COMMEMORATION ODE." LETTERS TO H. W. LONGFELLOW, MISS NORTON, C. E. NORTON, C. F. BRIGGS, S. H. GAY, W. J. STILLMAN, T. W. HIGGINSON, O. W. HOLMES, THOMAS HUGHES, NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, LITERARY ESSAYS IN THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW AND LETTERS TO E. L. GODKIN, E. C. STEDMAN, LESLIE STEPHEN, C. E. NORTON, H. W. LONGFELLOW, T. W. HIGGINSON, LETTERS OF JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL I 1819-1839 EARLY LIFE.-COLLEGE DAYS.-RUSTICATION IN CONCORD.IN THE HARVARD LAW-SCHOOL.-FIRST LITERARY VENTURES. LETTERS TO R. T. S. LOWELL, W. H. SHACKFORD, G. B. LORING, C. U. SKATES. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1819, on the 22d of February, a day dear to Americans as the birthday of Washington. There was a happy conjunction of stars at his birth. Family stock, parents, condition in life, time, and place, all were of the best. His father, the Reverend Charles Lowell, was a man of gracious character and rare personal qualities. His presence was striking and comely, and his looks and manners corresponded in their benignity with the sweetness and simplicity of his nature. As a clergyman he was unusually beloved, and he discharged his clerical duties with devout fidelity and with quick and tender sympathies. He was a lover of books, and he possessed more culture, both literary and social, than most of the |