ful sallies of the younger poet in his earlier writings, only terminated with the death of the elder. The young satirist saw the humorous side of the social movements of the day, and the class-poem, scintillating with wit, attacked the abolitionists, Carlyle, Emerson, and the transcendentalists. In the law-school of Harvard, Lowell received the degree of LL. B., and was admitted to the bar in 1840. The only record of the practice of his profession is found in a story entitled “My First Client,” published in the “Boston Miscellany.” Henceforth he gave himself entirely to literature. In 1841 a volume of poems, written under the influence of affection for a woman of genius who became his wife, was published under the title of “A Year's Life.” The key-note of the poems, buoyant with youth and love, is in the closing lines:
| “ | The poet now his guide hath found, |
The volume was never re-published, and of the seventy poems only a small part have been deemed worthy of re-printing by the author. His marriage to the woman who inspired these poems took place in 1844. Maria White was an ardent abolitionist, and no doubt her influence assisted in turning his thoughts to the serious side of that cause to which he rendered immortal service. To understand Lowell's career, it is necessary to remember that he was not only a poet, a scholar, and a humorist, but always a conservative and a critic. No man was more thoroughly imbued than he with the fundamental principles of American democracy — a democracy without demagogism — no man more jealous than he of the untarnished reputation of America in politics and literature, no man more quick to see any departure from the high ideal of the republic, and his flaming pen was turned to attack whatever assailed this ideal &mdash at one time slavery, at another time vicious political methods threatening the purity of democratic society. His radicalism was always conservative, his criticism always constructive. Lowell and his wife were regular contributors to the “Liberty Bell,” and his name appears in 1848 in “The Anti-Slavery Standard” as corresponding editor. In this paper, from 1843 to 1846, his poems during that period mostly appeared. Later the “Boston Courier” was the vehicle of his productions, and in its columns the first series of the “Biglow Papers” was given to the public, beginning in the issue for June, 1846, and ending in 1848. This satire was an event of the first importance in the history of the world's literature. In wit, scholarship, and penetrating knowledge of human nature, it took the place, which it has ever since maintained, of a masterpiece. Age has only increased its reputation, and it is a recognized classic both in England and America. The test of its power and universality is the constant quotation from it on both sides of the Atlantic. Locally its effect was amazing. It consisted of a series of poems in the Yankee dialect, ostensibly by Mr. Hosea Biglow, and edited, with an introduction, notes, glossary, index, and “notices of an independent press,” by “Homer Wilbur, A. M., pastor of the first church in Jaalam, and prospective member of many literary, learned, and scientific societies.” In the main it was a satire on slavery and the Mexican war, but there was scarcely any cant, hypocrisy, or meanness in politics, the pulpit, and the press that was not hit by it. The hitherto despised abolitionists, the subject of gibes and satire, found a champion who turned the batteries of the scholar, in unequalled wit, merriment, and ridicule, upon their enemies and the ene- mies of the free republic, exposing to the laughter of the world the sneaking attitude of compromising politicians and of those who wore the livery of heaven in the cause of human slavery. Thereafter the fight took on a very different character; it was respectable to be on the side of freedom. The “Biglow Papers” will no doubt preserve the Yankee dialect, and cause it to be studied ages hence in order to the comprehension of the effect upon our national life of one of the most opportune allies that freedom ever had.
His interest in the anti-slavery contest did not
prevent Lowell from purely literary labors. In
1843 he undertook the editing of “The Pioneer, a
Literary and Critical Magazine,” in joint editorship
with Robert Carter (q. v.); and Poe,
Hawthorne, Neal, Dwight, Jones Very, Parsons, Elizabeth
Barrett (Mrs. Browning), Whittier, and William
W. Story were contributors. Only three
numbers were published, the venture failing through
financial disaster to the publishers. In this magazine
was begun a series of essays on the poets and
dramatists, which afterward formed the material
for “Conversations with Some of the Old Poets”
(Cambridge, 1845). In 1844 came a volume of verse,
containing “A Legend of Brittany,” with thirty-three
miscellaneous poems and thirty-seven son-
nets (among them sonnets to Wendell Phillips and
Joshua R. Giddings), written in a vein that
foreshadowed and even announced the poet's position
in the great anti-slavery revolution. These were
followed in 1845 by “The Vision of Sir Launfal,”
one of the most exquisite productions of his genius,
a poem founded on the legend of the Holy Grail,
which is said to have been composed in a sort of
frenzy in about forty-eight hours, during which
the poet scarcely ate or slept. The “Conversations
on the Poets” was Lowell's first work in literary
criticism, and was the basis of his lectures before
the Lowell institute, 1854-'5, and of his lectures in
Harvard university during his professorship of
modern languages and belles-lettres. A third volume
of poems, containing many new anti-slavery
pieces was published in 1848, and the same year
was brought out anonymously the “Fable for
Critics,” a youthfully daring but amusing and
racy skit at the American poets, in which the
laughing author did not spare himself. In 1849 a
collected edition of his poems in two volumes was
published, the “Biglow Papers” and “A Year's
Life” being omitted. In the mean time Lowell
had been a contributor to the “Dial,” the
“Democratic Review,” the “Massachusetts Quarterly
Review,” in which he reviewed Thoreau's first volume
in 1849, and to “Putnam's Monthly” in 1853
and several years later. In 1851 the poet and his
wife travelled in Europe, visiting England, France,
and Switzerland, and residing for some time in
Italy. The chief fruits of this journey were the
