John Greenleaf Whittier
His Life, Genius, and Writings
BY W. SLOANE KENNEDY
Author of a "Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow," Etc.
REVISED AND ENLARGED
INTRODUCTION BY REV. S. F. SMITH, D.D.
Author of Hymn "America"
Sang in his ear, he sang aloud
As meadow streamlets flow,
Where fresher green reveals alo
The noiseless ways they go
CHICAGO NEW YORK
THE WERNER COMPANY
COPYRIGHT 1892
By D. LOTHROP COMPANY
COPYRIGHT 1895
By THE WERNER COMPANY
John Greenleaf Whittier
INTRODUCTION.
Who does not admire and love John Greenleaf Whittier? And who does notdelight to do him honor? He was a man raised up by Providence to meet anexigency in human history, and an exigency in the experiences of theUnited States. And he met the exigency with distinguished success. Hewas a true exponent of New England life and the New England spirit. Hedrew his inspiration from the soil where he was born, from thenecessities of the times, from the demands of human rights, from thelove of God and of man. He was a unique man. We knew not his like beforehim. We shall see no other like him after him. He was the product of hisage; and the age in which he lived belonged to him, and he to and in it.He was a unique literary man. He was so meek and retiring; he was sokeenly sensitive to the wrongs done by man to man; he was so devoid ofself-seeking; so pure and exalted in motive, and so sturdy a defender ofthe rights of the oppressed; he was so full of trust in God that we seemnever to have seen his equal among men. His beautiful gentleness ofcharacter and his inflexible and fearless advocacy of the cause ofrighteousness—even when such advocacy involved persecution andpersonal[Pg 6] harm and loss, a rare combination of qualities—remind us ofthe sentiment of Oliver Wendell Holmes,
If ever in modern days the character of the apostle John has beenreproduced among men it was in John G. Whittier. See with what sweetnessand meekness the shy and loving Quaker moved through the ranks ofsociety in times of peace and prosperity, and with what an adamantineboldness and bravery he stood up before the mob in Philadelphia when histypes and manuscripts were scattered, his printing office burned andhimself threatened with personal violence by the foes of human equalityand freedom. Did he quail before the storm? Not he. Did he abandon hisprinciples and retire from the arena? Oh, no; no more than did theapostle John—the apostle of love—forsake his Christian faith when thepersecutors immersed him in boiling oil and exiled him to a desertisland in the Ægean Sea.
The poetry of Mr. Whittier is a complete autobiography. It is areflection, as in a polished mirror, of himself. We miss only thea