e college found itself; and he began
after three years to consider the possibility of a transfer to other
scenes, perhaps to some professorship in New York or Virginia.

The following letter, hitherto unpublished, gives us the view taken in
the Longfellow house of another project, namely, that of his succeeding
to the charge of the then famous Round Hill School at Northampton, about
to be abandoned by its projector, Joseph G. Cogswell. The quiet judgment
of the young wife thus sums it up in writing to her sister-in-law:--

Sunday afternoon [February, 1834].

... Henry left us Friday noon in the mail for Boston, as George will
tell you. I do not like the idea of his going to Northampton at
all--although it would be a most beautiful place to reside in. Still
I feel sure he would not like the care of a school, and such an
extensive establishment as that is too. He heard that Mr. Cogswell
was to leave them for Raleigh and wrote him--in answer to which he
received a long letter, wishing him much to take the place, &c.;
which determined him to go immediately to Northampton. He requires
$1600 to be advanced, and it would be incurring a certain expense
upon a great uncertainty of gaining more than a living there. I do
not think Henry calculated at all for such a situation. If he
dislikes so much the care of such a little family as ours, how can
he expect to like the multifarious cares of such a large one! He has
promised not to decide upon anything till he returns, and I feel so
confident that all uninterested persons will dissuade him from it,
that I rest quite at ease. I wished him to go to satisfy himself, he
was so very sanguine as to the result of it. We expect him home the
last of next week. This Northampton business is a profound secret
and is not mentioned out of the family!

Another extract from the same correspondent shows us how Longfellow was
temporarily influenced at Brunswick, like Lowell afterwards at
Cambridge, by the marked hygienic and even ascetic atmosphere of the
period; an influence apparently encouraged in both cases by their young
wives, yet leaving no permanent trace upon the habits of either
poet,--habits always moderate, in both cases, but never in the literal
sense abstemious.

Friday evening [April, 1834].

... He has gone to a Te