Ode 255 Lines 257 To ---- 258 Freedom 259 Bibliolatres 261 Beaver Brook 262 Appledore 263 Dara 265 TO J. F. H. 267 MEMORIAL VERSES. Kossuth 268 To Lamartine 269 To John G. Palfrey 271 To W. L. Garrison 273 On the Death of C. T. Torrey 274 Elegy on the Death of Dr. Channing 275 To the Memory of Hood 277 Sonnets 278 L'envoi 289 The Vision of Sir Launfal 293 A Fable for Critics 303 The Biglow Papers 357 The Unhappy Lot of Mr Knott 471 An Oriental Apologue 496 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. In the year 1639 Percival Lowle, or Lowell, a merchant of Bristol, England, landed at the little seaport town of Newbury, Mass. We generally speak of a man's descent. In the case of James Russell Lowell's ancestry it was rather an ascent through eight generations. Percival Lowle's son, John Lowell, was a worthy cooper in old Newbury; his great-grandson was a shoemaker, his great-great-grandson was the Rev. John Lowell of Newburyport, the father of the Hon. John Lowell, who is regarded as the author of the clause in the Massachusetts Constitution abolishing slavery. Judge Lowell's son, Charles, was a Unitarian minister, "learned, saintly, and discreet." He married Miss Harriet Traill Spence, of Portsmouth,--a woman of superior mind, of great wit, vivacity, and an impetuosity that reached eccentricity. She was of Keltic blood, of a family that came from the Orkneys, and claimed descent from the Sir Patrick Spens of "the grand old ballad." Several of her family were connected with the American navy. Her father was Keith Spence, purser of the frigate "Philadelphia," and a prisoner at Tripoli.