ement was in faithfully mirroring the life of a new
and striking epoch. He seems to have discovered that it was picturesque
and to have been almost alone in impressing this fact on the world. He
sketched pictures of pioneer life as he saw or imagined it with
matchless beauty and compelled the interest and enjoyment of all
mankind.

His chief medium was the short story, to which he gave a new vogue.
Translated into many tongues, his tales became the source of knowledge
to a large part of the people of Europe as to California and the
Pacific. He associated the Far West with romance, and we have never
fully outlived it.

That he was gifted as a poet no one can deny. Perhaps his most striking
use of his power as a versifier was in connection with the romantic
Spanish background of California history. Such work as "Concepcion de
Arguello" is well worth while. In his "Spanish Idylls and Legends" he
catches the fine spirit of the period and connects California with a
past of charm and beauty. His patriotic verse has both strength and
loveliness and reflects a depth of feeling that his lighter work does
not lead us to expect. In his dialect verse he revels in fun and shows
himself a genuine and cleanly humorist.

If we search for the source of his great power we may not expect to find
it; yet we may decide that among his endowments his extraordinary power
of absorption contributes very largely. His early reference to "eager
absorption" and "photographic sensitiveness" are singularly significant
expressions. Experience teaches the plodder, but the man of genius,
supremely typified by Shakespeare, needs not to acquire knowledge slowly
and painfully. Sympathy, imagination, and insight reveal truth, and as a
plate, sensitized, holds indefinitely the records of the exposure, so
Harte, forty years after in London, holds in consciousness the
impressions of the days he spent in Tuolumne County. It is a great gift,
a manifestation of genius. He had a fine background of inheritance and a
lifetime of good training.

Bret Harte was also gifted with an agreeable personality. He was
even-tempered and good-natured. He was an ideal guest and enjoyed his
friends. Whatever his shortcomings and whatever his personal
responsibility for them, he deserves to be treated with the
consideration and generosity he extended to others. He was never
censorious, and instances of his magnanimity are many. Severity of
judgment is a custom that few of us c