an for
fame and distinction. Probably that which most endears him to his
countrymen is the quality he attributes to others in these words of
admiration: "I am sure that both the President (Hayes) and his wife have
in them that excellent new thing we call Americanism, which, I suppose,
is that 'dignity of human nature' which the philosophers of the last
century were always seeking and never finding, and which, after all,
consists, perhaps, in not thinking yourself either better or worse than
your neighbors by reason of any artificial distinction. As I sat behind
them at the concert the other night, I was profoundly touched by
the feelings of this kingship without mantle and crown from the
property-room of the old world. Their dignity was in their very
neighborliness, instead of in their distance." Certainly in the realm of
American literature, there is no one better entitled than Lowell to this
"kingship without mantle and crown."

A CHILD'S THOUGHT OF GOD

_By_ ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

They say that God lives very high,
But if you look above the pines
You cannot see our God, and why?

And if you dig down in the mines
You never see Him in the gold;
Though, from Him, all that's glory shines.

God is so good, He wears a fold
Of heaven and earth across His face--
Like secrets kept, for love, untold.

But still I feel that His embrace
Slides down by thrills, through all things made,
Through sight and sound of every place.

As if my tender mother laid
On my shut lids, her kisses' pressure,
Half-waking me at night, and said,
"Who kissed you through the dark, dear guesser?"

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Round the young life of Elizabeth Barrett was so much of illness and
dreariness, that we have accustomed ourselves to thinking joy came to
her only with her marriage, and we forget, often, that her childhood was
not unhappy. Few children, it would seem, were ever born with greater
promise of a bright life. Her father was wealthy and generous; she had
brothers and sisters near her in age and congenial in tastes, and she
was, at least, a fairly strong, active child.

She was born on March 6, 1806, at Coxhoe Hall, in the county of Durham,
and when she was but three years old, her father removed to Hope End, in
Herefordshire. The estate which he purchased there was a beautiful one,
and the house, with its Turkish windows an