Now has this man of real genius come to be with me, to teach me humility, even toward my fellowcreatures. He has shown me the difference between real genius and a self-confident talent and the lesson though useful is severe. I do not believe a vainer person than I ever existed. I have never really felt that anything that a mortal can reach was beyond me. It was negative rather than positive. What my mission was to be I never knew. I only felt assured thatDespair! thy name is written onwas not meant for a lesson for me.
The roll of common men!
This text is part of:
[72]
About this friend he said, ‘He is a beautiful soul, though there is a certain shadow of reserve about him. He spoke of his sister “Mrs. Fanny” [Mrs. H. W. Longfellow]. I got a charming idea of the household goddess.
She was just Wordsworth's “phantom of delight,” he said.’
While living in Divinity Hall Higginson formed a romantic attachment for a brilliant youth named Hurlbut, who was also a theological student.
This friendship was destined to make a permanent impression on Wentworth's life, being freighted with much joy, but ending in deep sorrow.
During his first year in the school, our young theologian came into contact with an older student named Greene who had great influence over him.
Books for libraries press. Freeport, New York. 1914.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.