I gave my first series of talks at Tilden Seminary at West Lebanon,
New Hampshire, only a few miles from Hanover. President Asa D. Smith
of Dartmouth came to hear two of them, and after I had given the whole
series from Chaucer to Burns, he took them to Appleton & Company, the
New York publishers, who were relatives of his, and surprised me by
having them printed.
I give an unasked-for opinion by John G. Whittier:
I spent a pleasant hour last evening over the charming little
volume, _Home Pictures of English Poets_, which thou wast kind
enough to send me, and which I hope is having a wide
circulation as it deserves. Its analysis of character and
estimate of literary merit strike me as in the main correct.
Its racy, colloquial style, enlivened by anecdote and citation,
makes it anything but a dull book. It seems to me admirably
adapted to supply a want in hearth and home.
I lectured next in various towns in New Hampshire and Vermont; as St.
Johnsbury, where I was invited by Governor Fairbanks; Bath, New
Hampshire, asked by Mrs. Johnson, a well-known writer on flowers and
horticulture, a very entertaining woman. At one town in Vermont I
lectured at the large academy there--not much opportunity for rest in
such a building.
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