beyond them, and of the far blue hills seen rising in vistas on vistas through the distant valleys. The scenery is beautiful and richly varied on every side-whether the contrasts of light and shade be seen at noon, in the slanting glow of the morning or evening sun, or after sunset, when a pale, silvery, subdued light gleams up, ethereally pure, from the north-western horizon, and, blending softly and imperceptibly, at length fades away into the blue of the zenith; or when beheld "beautiful exceedingly" under the glorious and magical effects of moonlight in "the leafy month of June." There are, in truth, few lovelier spots in the world than the Hoosac valley. To a visitor from Europe it seems scarcely credible that, not more than about one hundred and fifty years ago, these hills and valleys were covered with dense primeval forests; that here a few red men lived in wigwams, and wandered by the river's brink, and that hostile Indian tribes from Canada made savage incursions on these and on the early settlers. Now the vale is a scene of peace, and a centre of civilization; Williams College, as a seat of learning, science, and religion, having already made itself powerfully felt for good, in many places scattered over the whole habitable globe. Such were the outward aspects and surroundings of Williamstown, where the youthful Bryant dearly loved, in solitude, to wander and muse, seeing visions and dreaming dreams as to a possible future, which his great capacity for work, together with an unswerving devotion to truth and duty, afterwards enabled him to realize. Till near the close of his long life he continued, from time to time, to revisit these scenes of natural beauty, so charming to strangers, but to him dearer still, because suggestive of many early associations; and whenever he was able to renew acquaintance with them, it was always with fresh delight. CHAPTER IV. 1811-1820: THANATOPSIS-PLAINFIELD AND GREAT Home Studies-Thanatopsis written-Law Studies-Admires WordsworthOdes-Admitted to the Bar-Plainfield-Great Barrington-Thanatopsis published - Recollections of and Criticisms on Thanatopsis by Dana, Bryant, Miller, Palmer, Stoddard, and Curtis-The Poem itself-Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood-Bryant's Life at Great Barrington— Soothing Influences of Nature-Green River-To a Waterfowl-Prose Articles-Miss Sedgwick-Miss Frances Fairchild-Song, Oh Fairest of the Rural Maids. At home, Bryant, for a year, devoted himself to the classics and mathematics, in the hope of accompanying his former class-mate to Yale College; but his father, still finding that the cost would be too great, could not afford to send him; so, with the Williamstown days, Bryant's schooling ended. The muses, however, were not neglected; and in the Hampshire Gazette appeared an'ode, a patriotic effusion, beginning "The Birthday of our nation Once more we greet with smiles," which the editor introduced to his readers, identifying the authorship by telling them that it was "from the pen of Mr. William C. Bryant, son of Dr. Bryant of Cummington." Bryant was now thinking out and planning "Thanatopsis," a remarkable meditative poem on death, the first rough draught of which he wrote out in a week or so. This, the first enduring poem in American literature, displays an originality, power, and stately solemn grandeur of which none of his previous efforts, clever though they be, had given the slightest presage. The youthful genius was now a master. Local tradition erroneously represents him as having composed "Thanatopsis" in his student days, while seated on a rock in a ravine situated on the outskirts of Williamstown, which rock is still pointed out to curious visitors. He may, probably, have thought of it there, and of many other things besides, as he wandered and mused, "nourishing a youth sublime;" but we have the definite authority of his own words for saying, that "Thanatopsis" was written in his eighteenth or nineteenth year, he was not certain which; it was probably the former, but, in any case, after he left college, and before he began his law studies in 1813. For some reason he did not send it, as he had sent other verses, to the Hampshire Gazette; nor did he seek, for it, publication in any form; but, laying it aside with the intention of retouching it, he would seem to have forgotten all about it. Bryant now betook himself to the study of law under the guidance of Judge Samuel Howe of Worthington, near Cummington, with whom he resided for nearly two years. On one occasion, we are told, the judge, finding a volume of Wordsworth in his student's hands, seriously warned him that such reading would spoil his style! His admiration for Wordsworth was great, and on reading that poet's writings for the first time he must have felt as Keats did on first looking into Chapman's Homer, --a new planet had swum into his ken, and he had encountered one of the memorable delights of his life. He once told Richard H. Dana, that, "Upon opening Wordsworth, a thousand springs seemed to gush up at once in his heart, and the face of nature, of a sudden, to change into a strange freshness and life." In the Hampshire Gazette appeared an ode, beginning, "Amid the storms that shake the land, The din of party fray," written sometime after the first draft of "Thanatopsis," which had been laid aside in his portfolio for revisal and correction. Bryant completed his legal studies, at Bridgewater, with the Hon. William Baylies, and, in 1815, at the age of twenty-one, was admitted to the bar at Plymouth. He opened an office at Plainfield, where he had previously studied when being prepared for college, but there being little scope for practice and few clients there, in 1816, in the month of October, when the woods were in all the glory of autumn, he turned his back upon the Hampshire hills for the adjoining county of Berkshire, and settled in Great Barrington. There he was to pass the next nine years of his life; and there some of his well-known poems were to be written. One day, Dr. Peter Bryant, then a member of the legislature, in turning over the contents of a drawer at Cummington, came upon several MS. poems which his son William had left behind him; and, among these was "Thanatopsis," with which he was greatly struck. It is related, that when the father showed it in manuscript, before its publication, to a lady well qualified to judge of its merits, simply saying, "Here are some lines that our Willie has been writing," she read the poem, raised her eyes to the father's face, and burst into tears, in which Dr. Bryant, a somewhat reserved and silent man, was not ashamed to join. "And no wonder," continues the writer; "it must have seemed a mystery that in the bosom of eighteen had grown up thoughts that even in boyhood shaped themselves into solemn harmonies, majestic as the diapason of ocean, fit for a temple-service beneath the vault of heaven." Quite unknown to his son, Dr. Bryant sent it, and two other of the poems, to the North American Review. Richard H. Dana, who was then on the committee of its management, was also greatly struck by the poems, but quite mystified as to their authorship at the time; and latterly, too, his memory was entirely at fault in supposing that the son had any hand whatever, either in sending the MSS. for publication, or in leading him to form any misconception on the subject. The following is the late venerable Dana's interesting account-subject to the correction we have pointed out-of what he remembers of the first publication of "Thanatopsis": "Going into town one day while assisting E. T. Channing (now Professor) in the North American Review (1817), he read to me a couple of pieces of poetry which had just been sent to the Review-the 'Thanatopsis' and 'The Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood.' While C was reading one of them I broke out saying, 'That was never written on this side of the water,' and naturally enough considering what American poetry had been up to that moment. I remember saying also, 'The father is much the cleverer man of the two.' Bryant's father was afterwards in our senate, and I went there to take a look at him. He was anything but a 'plain business-like aspect.' On the contrary, he had a finely marked and highly intellectual-looking head-you would have noticed him among a hundred men. But with all my examination I could not discover 'Thanatopsis' in it-the poetic phase was wanting to me. I remember going away with a feeling of mortification that I could not discover the poetic in the face of the writer of 'Thanatopsis.' There was no 'mistake of names,' you see, as |