review “Witchcraft” or “A Great Public Character”; and the political speech, “Democracy” or “Tariff Reform,” adds a certain virility to the notes of a response to the toast “Our Literature” or to the address on “Books and Reading” delivered at the opening of a free public library. Lowell is ironical in “On a Certain Condescension in Foreigners,” witty in “A Good Word for Winter,” genial in “A Library of Old Authors,” sympathetic in “Emerson the Lecturer,” just in “Thoreau,” firm in “Reconstruction” and “Abraham Lincoln,” thoughtful in “The Rebellion: Its Causes and Consequences,” and scholarly in “Chaucer” and “Dante.” Aristocratic in the best sense of that much abused term, cultured in manner, robust and vigorous in thought, clean and fresh in mind, Lowell still stands forth as America’s finest representative man of letters. The greatness of Lowell has by no means dimmed the renown of certain of his lesser contemporaries. Edward Everett Hale (born in 1822), Thomas Wentworth Higginson (born in 1823), and Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908) deserve at least passing mention, although the first two are better known for contributions to magazines than for books, and the last has gained attention mainly through his biographical work and his translation of Dante. Owing to the popularity of a story, “The Man Without a Country,” Dr. Hale has unfortunately become known as an author of one book, but his “Puritan Politics in England and New England” (1869) is valuable, and his “Franklin in France” (1887), written with the assistance of his son, is interesting and trustworthy. Mr. Higginson has tried his hand at biography, historical memoranda, criticism, and fiction: probably his best work is found in “Outdoor Papers” (1863), “Atlantic Essays” (1871), and “The New World and the New Book” (1891). Of the three authors here mentioned, Dr. Norton is the most important; he is more than a writer; he is in addition a scholar. Knowing intimately all of the foremost writers of this country, he was hardly less well acquainted with the most important English authors of the middle and later Victorian period. In addition to his monumental prose translation of Dante’s “New Life” (1858) and “Divine Comedy” (1892), he has edited such books as “The Early Letters of Thomas Carlyle” (1886), “The Letters of James Russell Lowell” (1893), and “The Letters of John Ruskin” (1904). His chief original works are “Notes of Travel and Study in Italy” (1859) and “Historical Studies of Church-Building in the Middle Ages” (1880). The scholarship of Dr. Norton immediately suggests that of other men. George Ticknor (1791-1887) by the date of his birth seems to belong to a period slightly earlier than that of Norton; in fact he immediately preceded Longfellow as professor of belles-lettres at Harvard. His chief work was “A History of Spanish Literature” (1849). As a valuable piece of criticism, it has not been superseded, and even in Spain is accepted as authoritative.