Agassiz comes, broken down even to tears by
the loss of health and strength; on another day there is "a continued
series of interruptions from breakfast till dinner. I could not get half
an hour to myself all day long. Oh, for a good snow-storm to block the
door!" Still another day it is so cold he can scarcely write in his
study, and he has "so many letters to answer." Yet he writes during that
month a scene or two every day. We know from the experience of all poets
that the most brilliant short poems may be achieved with wonderful
quickness, but for a continuous and sustained effort an author surely
needs some control over his own time.

It is a curious fact, never yet quite explained, that an author's
favorite work is rarely that whose popular success best vindicates his
confidence. This was perhaps never more manifest than in the case of
Longfellow's "Christus" as a whole, and more especially that portion of
it on which the author lavished his highest and most consecrated
efforts, "The Divine Tragedy." Mr. Scudder has well said that "there is
no one of Mr. Longfellow's writings which may be said to have so
dominated his literary life" as the "Christus," and it shows his
sensitive reticence that the portion of it which was first published,
"The Golden Legend" (1851), gave to the reader no suggestion of its
being, as we now know that it was, but a portion of a larger design.
Various things came in the way, and before "The Divine Tragedy" appeared
(1871) he had written of it, "I never had so many doubts and hesitations
about any book as about this." On September 11 in that year he wrote in
Nahant, "Begin to pack. I wish it were over and I in Cambridge. I am
impatient to send 'The Divine Tragedy' to the printers." On the 18th of
October he wrote: "The delays of printers are a great worry to authors;"
on the 25th, "Get the last proof sheet of 'The Divine Tragedy;'" on the
30th, "Read over proofs of the 'Interludes' and 'Finale,' and am
doubtful and perplexed;" on November 15, "All the last week, perplexed
and busy with final correction of 'The Tragedy.'" It was published on
December 12, and he writes to G. W. Greene, December 17, 1871, "'The
Divine Tragedy' is very successful, from the booksellers' point of
view--ten thousand copies were published on Tuesday last and the
printers are already at work on three thousand more. That is pleasant,
but that is not the main thing. The only question about a book ought to
be wheth