c still,
and on the whole nearer to the facts, is this description by an English
military visitor who met him at a reception in Boston in 1850. I
happened upon the volume containing it amid a pile of literary lumber in
one of the great antiquarian bookstores of London:--

"He was rather under the middle size, but gracefully formed, and
extremely prepossessing in his general appearance. His hair was
light-colored, and tastefully disposed. Below a fine forehead gleamed
two of the most beautiful eyes I had ever beheld in any human head. One
seemed to gaze far into their azure depths. A very sweet smile, not at
all of the pensively-poetical character, lurked about the well-shaped
mouth, and altogether the expression of Henry Wordsworth [_sic_]
Longfellow's face was most winning. He was dressed very
fashionably--almost too much so; a blue frock coat of Parisian cut, a
handsome waistcoat, faultless pantaloons, and primrose-colored 'kids'
set off his compact figure, which was not a moment still; for like a
butterfly glancing from flower to flower, he was tripping from one lady
to another, admired and courted by all. He shook me cordially by the
hand, introduced me to his lady, invited me to his house, and then he
was off again like a humming bird."{106}

A later picture by another English observer is contained in Lord Ronald
Gower's "My Reminiscences." After a description of a visit to Craigie
House, in 1878, he says: "If asked to describe Longfellow's appearance,
I should compare him to the ideal representations of early Christian
saints and prophets. There is a kind of halo of goodness about him, a
benignity in his expression which one associates with St. John at Patmos
saying to his followers and brethren, 'Little children, love one
another!'... Longfellow has had the rare fortune of being thoroughly
appreciated in his own country and in other countries during his
lifetime; how different, probably, would have been the career of Byron,
of Keats, or of Shelley, had it been thus with them! It would be
presumptuous for me, and out of place, to do more here than allude to
the universal popularity of Longfellow's works wherever English is
spoken; I believe it is not an exaggeration to say that his works are
more popular than those of any other living poet. What child is there
who has not heard of 'Excelsior,' or of 'Evangeline,' of 'Miles
Standish,' or of 'Hiawatha'? What songs more popular than 'The Bridge,'
and 'I know a maid