Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/566

LOWELL. 502 LOWELL. The work of Lowell, in a way, supplemented this. He interpreted for his public the spirit of authors then not widely read in America. His essiiys on Dante, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dryden, and other poets, the main facts of whose lives and whose significance have now become literary common- places, were a new and fresh handling of de- lightful subjects. The temper in which these essays were written was not that of the contem- porary accumulative study of literature, but of an enthusiastic attempt to enter into the spirit of these men and expound their significance. The per.sonality of Lowell, though not obtrusive, is so constantly present that the essays may be called literature as justly as criticism. The specific ideas and details are often very elusive and are easily forgotten, there is little grasping of principles to be afterwards applied, but the impression of the author and his attitude re- mains. Indeed, it may probably be said that although Lowell is scarcely a great critic in the radical sense of that term, few writers have excelled him in conveying to readers a sense of the flavor of the best books and of the personality of their autliors. The sketches and political writings are of less importance. The former comprise such essays as A Moosehead Journal, Leaves from My Jour- nal in Italy and Elseiohere, Cambridge Thirty Years Ago, My (Harden Acquaintance, and A Good Word for Winter. On a Certain Conde- scension in Foreigners is a dignified and em- phatic protest against the attitude of Europeans . toward the United States. The essay is per- haps the clearest expression of Lowell's patri- otism. Its mood is that of a believer in his country. He was no blind worshiper of num- bers or of the power of the masses, but lie had faith in the nobility of the founders of America and enthusiasm for institutions capable of pro- ducing men of the temper and character of Lincoln and Emerson. Such also is the attitude underlying the political addresses and essays, published in the volumes entitled Democracy and Political Essays. His address on Democracy, de- livered at Birmingham, England, in 1884, has scarcely been surpassed for lofty faith in man- kind, comliincd with keen insight into the nature and functions of government. The manner of Lowell, alike in poetry and prose, is difficult and uneven. His prose is often charged to the point of turgidity with literary and historical allusion and reference. His early prose seems to be the outpouring of a fidl mind, often provokingly unaware of its superfluity. Toward the end of his life, as in The Old English Diamatists, his style became more terse, and these essays are much more simple and straight- forward, and the superabundant brilliance of figure is much more restrained, but they are rather a series of interesting thoughts about the subject in hand cast into a semblance of unity. Consequently the essays are difficult to grasp as connected wholes, and are freqiiently more mem- orable for their brilliancy of detail than fnr sus- tained intellectual power. In the main, however, no American critic has had so much influence as he, and in occasional power and insight he may be placed with the most eminent of his critical contemporaries. BrBLiOGR.pnT. The best edition of the com- plete works hf Lowell is the Riverside ( 1 1 vols., Boston, 1890-91). The letters have been edited in two volumes by Charles Eliot Norton (New York, 1894). There is a liiographical Htudy by F. H. Underwood (Boston, 1893), and a life by Edward Everett H.ale, entitled, James Russell Lotccll and IJis Friends (Boston, 1899) ; and one by H. E. Scudder, entitled James Russell Loivell, a liiogra/ihy (ib., 1901). A short sketch, by E. E. Hale, Jr., is to be found in the "Beacon Biographies Series." Personal reminiscences of Lowell occur in Howells's Literary Friends a>id Acquaintance (New York, 1900) ; critical esti- mates in Stedman'.s Poets of America (Boston, 1885), and in the work of other literary his- torians, as Richardson, Atncrican Literature (New York. 1887-88). and Wendell. .1 Literary History of .Imerica (New York, 1900). LOWELL, John (1743-1802). An American jurist. He was born at Newburyport. ilass. ; graduated at Harvard in 1700; was admitted to the bar in 1762, and rapidly attained prominence in his profession. He was an enthusiastic pa- triot, took an active part in the pre-Revolution- ary movement in Massachusetts, and after the outbreak of hostilities served for a time as a lieutenant of Massachusetts militia. In 1776 and again in 1777 he was elected from Newbury- port to the Provincial Assembly. In 1780 he was a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention, and took a prominent part in drafting the Con- stitution which was adopted. He is said to have been the author of the declaration in this instru- ment that 'all men are born free and equal.' which was held by the State Supreme Court in 1783 to have abolished slavery in Massachusetts. In 1782^83 he was a member of the Continental Congress, and in 1782 was appointed by that body one of the three judges to try appeals from tlie local courts of admiralty. In 1784 he was a member of the New York-Massachusetts Bound- ary Commission, and in 1789 was appointed by President Washington the first judge of the United States District Court in Massachusetts, which office he held until his death. LOWELL, John (1769-1840). An American political pamphleteer, born at Newburyport, Mass. He graduated at Harvard in 1786; was admitted to the bar in 1789: took up his resi- dence in Boston, became eminent as a lawyer, and was an active, honored, and public-spirited citizen, but refused to take office. He was the author of about twenty-five pamphlets upon the current topics of his time, including; Peace With- out Dishonor — War Without Hope (1807) ; Can- did Comparison of the Washington and Jefferson Administrations (1810) ; and Mr. Madison's War ( 1812) . He was for many years president of the State Agricultural Society, and for his interest and success in horticulture was known as 'the Columella of the New England States.' LOWELL, John (1799-1836). An American philanthropist. He was born in Boston, the grandson of Judge .John Lowell, was educated in Eldinburgh, Scotland, and at Harvard, and spent the years 1816-17 in travel in India and the East. He was then engaged in commerce in Boston until 1831, when he retired from busi- ness, and spent the rest of his life in study and travel. He was a man of literary culture, and at his death left a fund of $2.50.000 to found the- famous 'Lowell Institute' at Boston, which pro- vides for annual courses of free lectures. Con-