Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

As one who, walking in the twilight gloom,
     Hears round about him voices as it darkens,
And seeing not the forms from which they come,
     Pauses from time to time, and turns and hearkens;

So walking here in twilight, O my friends!
     I hear your voices, softened by the distance,
And pause, and turn to listen, as each sends
     His words of friendship, comfort, and assistance.

Thanks for the sympathies that ye have shown!
     Thanks for each kindly word, each silent token,
That teaches me, when seeming most alone,
     Friends are around us, though no word be spoken.

In another age or country Longfellow would have been laurelled, medalled, or ennobled; but he has had what his essentially republican spirit doubtless preferred, the simple homage of a nation's heart. He had his share of foreign honors; and these did not come from Oxford and Cambridge only, since in 1873 he was chosen a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and in 1877 of the Spanish Academy. At home he was the honored member of every literary club or association to which he cared to belong. In the half-rural city where he spent his maturer life—that which he himself described in ‘Hyperion’ as ‘this leafy blossoming, and beautiful ’