nd literatures. After a period of study in Europe, he
assumed charge of classes at Harvard in 1856, and for sixteen years
continued in this work, bringing to it with most remarkable success all
the warmth and sincerity and broad scope of his own interest in the
subjects that he taught. Not many months afterward he was still further
honored by being given the editorship of the newly founded _Atlantic
Monthly_, a position that he held until 1861. The year 1857 was made
memorable also by his marriage to Miss Frances Dunlap, a much-valued
friend and the governess of his daughter. In 1864 he became joint editor
of the _North American Review_, and in this magazine continued the
second series of the _Biglow Papers_, begun in the _Atlantic Monthly_,
the series in which is expressed his finest power as a poet-patriot. Of
the same excellence is the famous _Commemoration Ode_ written for
memorial ceremonies held at Harvard College in honor of the students who
had fallen during the war. Among other contributions to these
periodicals were numerous studies of poets and poetry--essays that rank
among the best of their kind. Thus did Lowell prove himself to possess a
rare combination of the powers of original composition and of criticism.

So ably had he served the best interests of his country through his
writings, that in 1877 he was appointed Minister of the United States to
Spain, and served here until 1880, when he was sent as Minister to
England. These high trusts, it proved, had not been wrongly placed.
Lowell's devotion to the truest American principles, together with his
large experience in public affairs, made him a most successful diplomat.
He was given high honors by British universities, and he made many
friends in England.

After his return to America in 1885 he withdrew gradually from his
former active life. Occasionally he wrote and lectured, and several
times he made trips to England where he always received a cordial
welcome. It was in his much loved Elmwood that death came to him August
12, 1891.

Lowell was a man of wide learning, and has a prominent place in American
literature for his exceptional critical ability and delightful wit, and
for the artistic excellence of both his prose and poetry; but the secret
of his power lies not so much in these things as in the sincerity and
vigor of thought that rise above all bookishness, and in the warm human
feeling that reached out for the love of his fellow-men rather th