give the author a high place in any literature.

In _Evangeline_ Longfellow took for his theme the pathetic story of
the destruction of the Acadian villages by the English during the
struggle between the English and French for the possession of Canada.
In this event many families and friends were separated never again to
be reunited, and the story of _Evangeline_ is the fate of two young
lovers who were sent away from their homes in different ships, and who
never met again until both were old, and one was dying in the ward of
a public hospital. Longfellow has made of this sad story a wondrously
beautiful tale, that reads like an old legend of Grecian Arcadia.

The description of the great primeval forests, stretching down to the
sea; of the villages and farms scattered over the land as unprotected
as the nests of the meadow lark; of the sowing and harvesting of the
peasant folk, with their _fetes_ and churchgoing, their weddings and
festivals, and the pathetic search of Evangeline for her lost lover
Gabriel among the plains of Louisiana, all show Longfellow in his
finest mood as a poet whom the sorrows of mankind touched always with
reverent pity, as well as a writer of noble verse.

Everywhere that the English language is read _Evangeline_ has passed
as the most beautiful folk-story that America has produced, and the
French Canadians, the far-away brothers of the Acadians, have included
Longfellow among their national poets. Among them _Evangeline_ is
known by heart, and the cases are not rare where the people have
learned English expressly for the purpose of reading Longfellow's poem
in the original, a wonderful tribute to the poet who could thus touch
to music one of the saddest memories of their race.

In _Hiawatha_ Longfellow gave to the Indian the place in poetry that
had been given him by Cooper in prose. Here the red man is shown with
all his native nobleness still unmarred by the selfish injustice of
the whites, while his inferior qualities are seen only to be those
that belong to mankind in general.

_Hiawatha_ is a poem of the forests and of the dark-skinned race who
dwelt therein, who were learned only in forest lore and lived as near
to nature's heart as the fauns and satyrs of old. Into this legend
Longfellow has put all the poetry of the Indian nature, and has made
his hero, Hiawatha, a noble creation that compares favorably with the
King Arthur of the old British romances. Like Arthur, Hiawatha has