2. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

Following James Fennimore Cooper and Washington Irving, who laid the foundations of American literature, comes William Cullen Bryant. During his long active life of nearly a century, and, even after his own fame was well established, he saw many of our noted authors rise to prominence. He was born in 1794 at Cummington, among the hills of western Massachusetts.

His father, Dr. Peter Bryant, of Puritan descent, was a distinguished physician who had given much · time to mental culture.

The mother, formerly Miss Sarah Snell, a descendant of John Alden, the handsome secretary of Miles Standish, was dignified, of good judgment and tact, and thoroughly devoted to home.

Dr. Bryant's seven children all received much attention from their father. He intended William for a doctor, naming him after a noted Scotch physician, Dr. William Cullen, who died in Edinburgh about the time of William's birth.

William was not the robust child his tall, broadshouldered father desired him to be. His body was very small and feeble, while his head was unusually large. This alarmed the parents, but the father adopted a course of treatment which proved beneficial to him.

Near the house was a deep spring of cold water. Into this William, protesting with all his might, was immersed every morning. All the vitality of the child was roused in resisting the process and he grew to be a healthy, vigorous boy.

Puritan sternness lingered in the Bryant home. The boy liked to escape from its rigid discipline and lengthy exhortations, to the green fields, the rippling brooks, or the solemn woods. These imprinted themselves upon his nature.

At ten years of age he began to write poetry, and at thirteen he published a lengthy poem called "The Embargo."

He attended the district school until he was fourteen years old. At sixteen, having studied Latin and Greek with two clergymen, he entered Williams College, at Williamstown, Massachusetts, near his home. Here he remained two years, winning the esteem of his teachers, intending to finish at Yale. But his father's altered fortunes afterward prevented this. Eight years later he was given the honorary title of A.M. at Williams College and was enrolled as an alumnus.

On leaving school, he studied law and practised it very successfully several years in Plainfield and Great Barrington. At this time he wrote his fine poem "Thanatopsis," a solemn revery on death.

In Great Barrington he married Miss Fanny Fairchild, an accomplished and beautiful lady of a

well-known family. Among the New York guests who spent the summer in Great Barrington were James Fennimore Cooper, the novelist, the poets Halleck and Percival, and the distinguished Judge Sedgwick. This group of literary friends, admirers of young Bryant, desired him to go to New York. Accordingly, they obtained for him the position of associate editor of a New York paper. From that time Bryant lived in New York, conducted his paper, wrote poems, and delivered orations, broadening his knowledge from time to time by travel.

He made six different trips to Europe, studying the people and mastering the principal European languages. He also traveled much in America.

In 1829 he became editor in chief of the New York Evening Post, a position which he held till his death, a period of nearly fifty years. His paper became a model of journalism, for behind the editor's desk sat a high-minded man, a keen critic of men and principles, a traveler in foreign lands and a master of language. It vigorously discussed all the questions of the day, yet with no party spirit. It aimed at truth. Its moral tone was high, and courtesy toward all was practised. Its columns were a model of pure English, no slang or extravagant language being permitted.

Bryant was strongly opposed to slavery, though his visits to the south enabled him to see the other side of the question also.

It was much that the most influential paper in the land should have had such a man behind it, during a long and critical period.

During this time he wrote most of his numerous poems. "Sella" and "The Little People of the Snow," two very pretty stories, are his longest. Some of his best poems are "Thanatopsis," "To the Fringed Gentian," "To a Waterfowl," and "The Death of the Flowers." All of his poems show a habit of observing nature closely and holding "communion with her visible forms." Most of them are meditative and full of solemn, religious feeling. Many express the most beautiful and delicate fancies, and all are calm and soothing.

He also prepared seven prose works worthy the result of his travels. He published "Picturesque America" and a "History of the United States."

In 1845 Bryant bought a beautiful home on Long Island near the town of Roslyn, overlooking New York Bay, which he named "Cedarmere," from its small lake or mere bordered by tangled cedars. A rippling brook flowing from this lake turns a little mill, housed in a vine-clad Swiss cottage.

The house, built in 1787, in Quaker style, was large, plain and old-fashioned. Mr. Bryant added porches and bay windows, erected picturesque summer houses, planted groups of choice trees, and built a conservatory.

The rooms within were enriched by the choicest

paintings, while his library contained the masterpieces of all languages. The airy rooms and open grates were suggestive of free hospitality. Here with his wife and daughter Julia, he lived many happy years, his other daughter, Mrs. Park Godwin, living not far away. In 1866 the happiness of this home was shadowed by the death of Mrs. Bryant.

Mr. Bryant had also a New York residence, and finally came into possession of the old homestead at Cummington; but Cedarmere was his favorite home. Here, at an advanced age, he translated Homer's works from the Greek.

He built a fine hall for the people of Roslyn, and at Cummington erected a schoolhouse and established a library for public use. He was accustomed to do kind, helpful deeds in the most quiet way.

Mr. Bryant was nearly six feet in height, being slender, symmetrical, and graceful. His eyes were piercing gray with large projecting brows. His features were large, but thin. His silvery hair ⚫and beard for many years gave him a most venerable appearance.

His life was plain and exact. He rose very early, practised an hour with light dumb-bells and a pole, bathed completely, and took a light breakfast of oatmeal or hominy with fruit. hominy with fruit. He never used tea or coffee, took no condiments with his food, and used very little meat. He always walked to and from his office three miles distant.

He