American Ideas For English Readers. [Illustration: JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, AFTER THE BUST BY WILLIAM ORDWAY PARTRIDGE. (TAKEN FROM THE CLAY)] American Ideas For English Readers By James Russell Lowell With Introduction by Henry Stone Published by J, G, Cupples Co, 250 Boylston St. Boston Copyright, 1892, BY J. G. CUPPLES. _All rights reserved._ Contents. INTRODUCTION vii BEFORE THE EDINBURGH PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION 1 BEFORE THE LONDON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 9 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE 15 ON ROBERT BROWNING 21 AT THE UNVEILING OF THE GRAY MEMORIAL 25 BEFORE THE TOWN COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WORCESTER 33 ON INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 39 AT A ROYAL ACADEMY DINNER 47 AT THE STRATFORD MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN PRESENTATION 57 AT THE DINNER TO AMERICAN AUTHORS 63 BEFORE THE LIVERPOOL PHILOMATHIC SOCIETY 81 Introduction. Among his many titles to the special consideration and gratitude of his countrymen, James Russell Lowell had one in pre-eminence--an unyielding loyalty to all that was best in American ideas and aims. It was this quality that gave point to the wit of Hosea Biglow, and loftiness to his imagination in his more serious poems. In the earliest of the Biglow papers, he calls upon Massachusetts to “Hold up a beacon peerless To the oppressed of all the World,” and the tone is not changed to his very latest utterance. In that Commemoration Ode, which will remain the crown of his literary and poetical work, his passion found its highest expression: “O Beautiful! My Country! * * * Smoothing thy gold of war-dishevelled hair O’er such sweet brows as never other wore * * * * * What words divine of lover or of poet Could tell our love--and make thee know it Among the Nations bright beyond compare?”