were the harvest, were sown by other hands in this very abbey. His mother seemed half-ashamed of him, and did not hide her feelings. The woman he loved and worshiped, and who had answered back his love with pledges of eternal fidelity, forsook him with a sneer on her proud lips, when a wealthier suitor came. Who can wonder that Byron became a cynic? Who can wonder that he should become the Poet of Despair? I plucked an ivy leaf from near the poet's window, which kept green in my pleasant study-window through many a changing year. I never looked at it but I thought of Newstead, and of its gifted lord, and of that sad verse-saddest of all things Byron ever wrote-a wail of a broken heart, bleeding drop by drop:

"My days are in the yellow leaf,

The buds and blooms of joy are gone;
The worm, the canker and the grief,

Are mine alone!"

After a few hours spent at Newstead, our party journeyed to the little village of Hucknall Torkard, where all that is mortal of the greatest genius of his age is peacefully resting. The peaceful village church, the plain marble slab that points out his grave, reminded me of the quiet resting-place of that greatest poet of the ages, down at Stratford-on-Avon. And standing by Byron's grave, I could not help quoting Shakespeare's words:

"After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well."

The latter days of Lord Byron were radiant with romance. He conceived a burning enthusiasm for the Greeks; and no Grecian of them all was more earnest and patriotic than Byron. He inspired the Greeks with courage, and would have been as intrepid in the field as he was inspiring in his song. The Greeks never forget. Tidings come from that far-away classic land that a statue to Lord Byron has just been erected at Mis

solonghi, where Byron spent the last years of his life, and where he died.

We conclude this brief sketch with two of Byron's best known brief poems:

SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY.

She walks in beauty, like the night.
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Runs mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half-impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face:
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent.

THE WILD GAZELLE.

The wild gazelle on Judah's hills
Exulting yet may bound,
And drink from all the living rills

That gush on holy ground;

Its airy step and glorious eye,

May glance in tameless transport by:

A step as fleet, an eye more bright,
Hath Judah witnessed there;
And o'er her scenes of lost delight,
Inhabitants more fair.

The cedars wave on Lebanon,

But Judah's statelier maids are gone!

More blest each palm that shades those plains Than Israel's scattered race;

For, taking root, it there remains

In solitary grace;

It can not quit his place of birth,

It will not live in other earth.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

T the head of living American poets stands James Russell Lowell. He was born at Elmwood, near Cambridge, February 22, 1819. He came of a family already famous in the annals of earlier American history. For many interesting facts concerning the Lowell family we are indebted to an able and exhaustive article in The Weekly Magazine.

Prominent among the many families of Massachusetts eminent through several generations for high character and talents, may be ranked the Lowells. It well illustrates the cumulative effects of genius and culture, and the old saying that "blood will tell."

Percival Lowell, the progenitor of the Massachusetts Lowells, was an English merchant, who came to the colony and settled at Newbury as early as 1637. Fifteen of his descendants have been graduates of Harvard.

The first to attain national distinction was John Lowell, LL. D., born in 1760. He graduated from Harvard, studied law, located at Boston, where he soon took a prominent position in the political affairs of the colony. As delegate to the convention which framed the constitution of Massachusetts, he caused to be inserted in the " Bill of Rights" the clause, " All men are born free and equal." This was intended as a blow at the institution of slavery, which then had a foothold in Massachusetts. After the constitution had been adopted, he publicly offered his legal services to aid any person who desired to acquire personal freedom under this clause. In 1783 the Supreme Court established his construction of the constitution, which abolished slavery in the old Commonwealth.

John Lowell was also a member of the Continental Congress, and after the establishment of the Supreme Court, he was appointed by the President one of its justices. Three of his sons, John, Charles and Francis, attained eminence. John, the eldest, graduated from Harvard, studied law, and added to his culture by foreign travel. Politics was his favorite study and pursuit. Although he invariably declined public office for himself, he greatly helped to mould public opinion through his political essays, published principally in pamphlet form, and in the North American Review; and it is said that no man in New England carried with him a greater weight of influence. He was not only the champion of political rights, but he was also the friend and patron of learning and the arts. To him, Boston is chiefly indebted for the foundation of the Athenæum. In him, as in his distinguished father, we find all the elements which go to make up a great public character.

The next brother of the above, Francis Cabot Lowell, became a merchant of Boston. He established the first cotton factory in America, and the city of Lowell is named in his honor. His son, John Lowell, Jr., received, according to the family custom, a liberal education, having graduated from Harvard. He afterward engaged in commercial pursuits. After the early death of his wife and children, he devoted his life to travel. It is related that he made his will amid the ruins of Thebes. One of his bequests provided the sum of $250,000 to be applied toward founding in his native city of Boston, courses of popular lectures on Theology, Literature and Science. Lowell Institute is the result of this bequest.

A third son of Judge John Lowell was Charles, the father of the poet. He also graduated from Harvard, and afterward studied law, which he finally abandoned for theology. After several years spent in travel and study abroad, he returned to Boston and was settled as pastor over the West Church (Conservative Unitarian) January 1, 1806; here he preached for over fifty years.

We now come to James Russell, who was born February