_The Stranger in Lowell_, a volume of more or less related essays, is in part a record of impressions made on the author during a brief residence in the new manufacturing town by the Merrimac. The extraordinary growth of ‘The City of a Day’ was then, and is still, a legitimate cause for wonder. All the eighteen papers are readable, and that entitled ‘The Yankee Zincali’ is a little classic. Whittier’s next volume of prose, _The Supernaturalism of New England_, consists of nine chapters on witches, wizards, ghosts, apparitions, haunted houses, charms, and the like. It is rather a wide survey of the subject, from the Indian powahs to the Irish Presbyterians who settled in New Hampshire in 1720, and brought with them, ‘among other strange matters, potatoes and fairies.’ Whittier dwells on these traditions of his country with deep interest and sets them forth with no little humor. It is a fault of the book that he does not dwell on them at greater length. _Leaves from Margaret Smith’s Journal_ is an admirable study of colonial New England in 1678. The style is sweet, the narrative flowing, the characters, many of them historical, are consistent and lifelike, and the tone of delicate irony running through the book is most engaging. Genuinely illuminating to the student of manners are such passages in the journal as those describing the ordination of Mr. Brock at Reading, the meeting at the inn with a son of Mr. Increase Mather, ‘a pert talkative lad’ abounding in anecdotes of the miraculous, the antics of Mr. Corbet’s negro boy Sam, and the encounter on the way back to Boston with the good old deacon under the influence of flip. A strong and engrossing plot might have made the book more popular, as it might also have been inconsistent with the artlessness of what purports to be a young girl’s journal. _Old Portraits and Modern Sketches_ is a volume of character studies of ancient worthies (such as Bunyan, Ellwood, Baxter, Marvell) and of two or three moderns (like William Leggett, to whom Whittier pays a generous tribute). _Literary Recreations and Miscellanies_ consists of a reprint of material used in earlier books, together with a group of reviews and other papers. IV NARRATIVE AND LEGENDARY VERSE Whittier’s instinct drew him irresistibly to native themes. He believed that the American poet should write about America. ‘New England is full of Romance,’ he had said in his sketch of Brainard. ‘The great forest which our fathers penetrated--the red men--their struggle and their disappearance--the Powwow and the War-dance--the savage inroad and the English sally--the tale of superstition, and the scenes of Witchcraft,--all these are rich materials of poetry.’ And it is safe to assume that Whittier never questioned the wisdom of his own choice of subjects, though he was often dissatisfied with the treatment.