his may
our Lord Jesus Christ, who is himself the supreme type of divine wisdom,
guard you and exalt you, and cause you to attain to the glory of His own
blessed and everlasting vision.

HENRY M. ALDEN

(1836-)

Henry Mills Alden, since 1864 the editor of Harper's Magazine, was born
in Mount Tabor, Vermont, November 11th, 1836, the eighth in descent from
Captain John Alden, the Pilgrim. He graduated at Williams College, and
studied theology at Andover Seminary, but was never ordained a minister,
having almost immediately turned his attention to literature. His first
work that attracted attention was an essay on the Eleusinian Mysteries,
published in the Atlantic Monthly. The scholarship and subtle method
revealed in this and similar works led to his engagement to deliver a
course of twelve Lowell Institute lectures at Boston, in 1863 and 1864,
and he took for his subject 'The Structure of Paganism.' Before this he
had removed to New York, had engaged in general editorial work, and
formed his lasting connection with the house of Harper and Brothers.

As an editor Mr. Alden is the most practical of men, but he is in
reality a poet, and in another age he might have been a mystic. He has
the secret of preserving his life to himself, while paying the keenest
attention to his daily duties. In his office he is immersed in affairs
which require the exercise of vigilant common-sense, and knowledge of
life and literature. At his home he is a serene and optimistic
philosopher, contemplating the forces that make for our civilization,
and musing over the deep problems of man's occupation of this earth. In
1893 appeared anonymously a volume entitled 'God in His World,' which
attracted instantly wide attention in this country and in England for
its subtlety of thought, its boldness of treatment, its winning
sweetness of temper, and its exquisite style. It was by Mr. Alden, and
in 1895 it was followed by 'A Study of Death,' continuing the great
theme of the first,--the unity of creation, the certainty that there is
in no sense a war between the Creator and his creation. In this view the
Universe is not divided into the Natural and the Supernatural: all is
Natural. But we can speak here only of their literary quality. The
author is seen to be a poet in his conceptions, but in form his writing
is entirely within the limits of prose; yet it is a prose most
harmonious, most melodious, and it exhibits the capacity of our English