ould not be the end
of its application in this respect.

"The company then proceeded to Poets' Corner, where, taking his stand in
front of the covered bust,

"The Sub-Dean then said: 'I feel to-day that a double solemnity attaches
to this occasion which calls us together. There is first the familiar
fact that to-day we are adding another name to the great roll of
illustrious men whom we commemorate within these walls, that we are
adding something to that rich heritage which we have received of
national glory from our ancestors, and which we feel bound to hand over
to our successors, not only unimpaired, but even increased. There is
then the novel and peculiar fact which attaches to the erection of a
monument here to the memory of Henry Longfellow. In some sense,
poets--great poets like him--may be said to be natives of all lands; but
never before have the great men of other countries, however brilliant
and widespread their fame, been admitted to a place in Westminster
Abbey. A century ago America was just commencing her perilous path of
independence and self-government. Who then could have ventured to
predict that within the short space of one hundred years we in England
should be found to honor an American as much as we could do so by giving
his monument a place within the sacred shrine which holds the memories
of our most illustrious sons? Is there not in this a very significant
fact; is it not an emphatic proof of the oneness which belongs to our
common race, and of the community of our national glories? May I not
add, is it not a pledge that we give to each other that nothing can long
and permanently sever nations which are bound together by the eternal
ties of language, race, religion, and common feeling?'

"The reverend gentleman then removed the covering from the bust, and the
ceremony ended."{99}

{99 _Life_, iii. 346-351.}

CHAPTER XXIII

LONGFELLOW AS A POET

The great literary lesson of Longfellow's life is to be found, after
all, in this, that while he was the first among American poets to create
for himself a world-wide fame, he was guided from youth to age by a
strong national feeling, or at any rate by the desire to stand for the
life and the associations by which he was actually surrounded. Such a
tendency has been traced in this volume from his first childish poetry
through his chosen theme for a college debate, his commencement oration,
his plans formed during a first foreign trip, a