sited France, Spain, Italy, and Germany, meeting
with adventure everywhere, and storing up memory after memory that
came back to his call in after-years to serve some purpose of his art.

We have thus preserved in his works the impressions that Europe then
made upon a young American, who had come there to supplement his
education by studying at the universities, and whose mind was alive to
all the myriad forms of culture denied in his own land.

The vividness of these early impressions was seen in all his work, and
was perhaps the first reflection of the old poetic European influence
that began to be felt in much American poetry, where the charm of old
peasant love-songs and roundelays, heard for centuries among the lower
classes of Spain, France, and Italy, was wrought into translations and
transcriptions so perfect and spirited that they may almost rank with
original work.

One of Longfellow's great pleasures while on this trip was the meeting
with Irving in Spain, where the latter was busy upon his _Life
of Columbus_; and Irving's kindness on this occasion was always
affectionately remembered.

Longfellow returned to America after three years' absence, and at once
began his duties at Bowdoin College, where he remained three years,
when he left to take a professorship at Harvard, which he had accepted
with the understanding that he was to spend a year and a half abroad
before commencing his work.

The results of his literary labors while at Bowdoin were the
publication of a series of sketches of European life called _Outre
Mer_, in two volumes; a translation from the Spanish of the _Coplas
de Manrique_, and some essays in the _North American Review_ and
other periodicals. And considering the demand upon his time which his
college duties made, this amount of finished work speaks well for his
industry, since it does not include a number of text-books prepared
for the use of his pupils, and numberless papers, translations,
and other literary miscellany necessary to his work as a teacher of
foreign languages. _Outre Mer_, which had first appeared in part in
a periodical, was very favorably received. It was really the story of
picturesque Europe translated by the eye and heart of a young poet.

After his return to America Longfellow settled down to the routine of
college work, which was interrupted for the next ten years only by his
literary work, which from this time on began to absorb him more and
more. Two years