III. A KEATS MANUSCRIPT 21 IV. MASSASOIT, INDIAN CHIEF 31 V. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER 45 VI. CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN 55 VII. HENRY DAVID THOREAU 65 VIII. EMERSON’S “FOOT-NOTE PERSON,”—ALCOTT 75 IX. GEORGE BANCROFT 93 X. CHARLES ELIOT NORTON 119 XI. EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN 137 XII. EDWARD EVERETT HALE 157 XIII. A MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL, RUFUS SAXTON 173 XIV. ONE OF THACKERAY’S WOMEN 183 XV. JOHN BARTLETT 191 XVI. HORACE ELISHA SCUDDER 201 XVII. EDWARD ATKINSON 213 XVIII. JAMES ELLIOT CABOT 231 XIX. EMILY DICKINSON 247 XX. JULIA WARD HOWE 285 XXI. WILLIAM JAMES ROLFE 313 XXII. GÖTTINGEN AND HARVARD A CENTURY AGO 325 XXIII. OLD NEWPORT DAYS 349 XXIV. A HALF-CENTURY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE 367 I CARLYLE’S LAUGH CARLYLE’S LAUGH None of the many sketches of Carlyle that have been published since his death have brought out quite distinctly enough the thing which struck me more forcibly than all else, when in the actual presence of the man; namely, the peculiar quality and expression of his laugh. It need hardly be said that there is a great deal in a laugh. One of the most telling pieces of oratory that ever reached my ears was Victor Hugo’s vindication, at the Voltaire Centenary in Paris, of that author’s smile. To be sure, Carlyle’s laugh was not like that smile, but it was something as inseparable from his personality, and as essential to the account, when making up one’s estimate of him. It was as individually characteristic as his face or his dress, or his way of talking or of writing. Indeed, it seemed indispensable for the explanation of all of these. I found in looking back upon my first interview with him, that all I had known of Carlyle through others, or through his own books, for twenty-five years, had been utterly defective,—had left out, in fact, the key to his whole nature,—inasmuch as nobody had ever described to me his laugh.