Lyte. His contributions to "the service of song in the house of the Lord," and in the domestic sanctuary, have been numerous and excellent.-HATFIELD, EDWIN F., 1884, The Poets of the Church, p. 391.

A poet whose singular beauty of nature and true instinct for his art were not always adequately rendered in his verse. -PALGRAVE, FRANCIS T., 1896, Landscape in Poetry, p. 249.

"Abide with Me." This was the Swan Song of the Rev H. F. Lyte. He produced it on the evening of the Sunday on which he preached his last sermon. It is generally used as an evening hymn. It was not so intended. It refers to the evening of life, not of the day, and is more of a hymn for the dying than for those about to renew their strength by a night's rest. It was sung at the burial of Professor Maurice, and is in constant use throughout the English-speaking world. Lyte is buried. in Nice, and his grave is still sometimes

sought out by pilgrims from far across the seas who attribute their conversion to this hymn.-STEAD, W. T., 1897, Hymns that Have Helped, p. 207.

Lyte had a tender feeling for nature and a sense of the sublime, but he lacked originality and the creative power of imagination. His general poems have no permanent interest. His lines "On a Naval Officer buried in the Atlantic" have been praised, and have received musical setting at the hands of Sir Arthur Sullivan, but they remind one of Campbell, and suffer by the comparison, while the last verse approaches perilously near to bathos. "The Poet's Plea" is one of the best of his longer poems, but it is too long for quotation. The best of his hymns are wholly admirable, and have become indispensable to the psalmody of the Church. MILES, ALFRED H., 1897, The Poets and the Poetry of the Century, Sacred, Moral and Religious Verse, p. 157.

PERSONAL

He is, in his conversation, extremely active, simple, entertaining, and I know not when we have had among us a man so much to my mind in all things. I dined with him five or six times, and he dined with us the last day, and a rare display of fine talk we had at table, between him, Mr. Prescott, Mr. Lowell, and Mr. Webster. . . . Everybody was delighted with him. His whole visit among us was an unbroken triumph, which he enjoyed with the greatest openness. . . . Indeed, the Chancellor seemed to give an uncommon stir and brightness to men's faculties, while he was with us, there seemed to be a happy and healthy excitement of the intellectual powers and social feelings of all

with whom he came in contact, that was the evident result of his rich talents and transparent simplicity of character, and which I have never known to be produced among us in the same degree by any other individual.-TICKNOR, GEORGE, 1823, To C. S. Davies, Sept. 19; Life, Letters and Journals, vol. 1, pp. 339, 340.

He went to the grave as it is given to few men. Having spent a life of the highest usefulness, acknowledged at home and abroad, of an extent far beyond the common limits of human existence; loved, almost adored, by his family, and cherished with venerating affection by bands of friends; active almost to the very limit of his life, he was allowed to depart in the arms of his own, leaving a name loved as

long as they live, and honored as long as our nation shall exist. Are there many mortals who can compare with him?LIEBER, FRANCIS, 1847, Letter to William Kent; Memoirs and Letters of James Kent, ed. Kent, p. 277.

His industry and learning, his intellectual powers, and his unblemished character were all the capital he possessed, and the only dowry of the bride were her personal charms, her firm principles and excellent judgment, the sweetness of her temper, and the purity of her heart. It is true, then, that they were poor-exceedingly poor; but it is also true that, in their poverty, they were exceedingly rich; for, in addition to the riches I have named, their mutual affection was disinterested and sincere, and their trust in Providence unlimited and unwavering.-DUER, JOHN, 1848, A Discourse on the Life, Character and Public Service of James Kent.

In the discharge of his judicial duties there was so much gentleness, modesty and simplicity, united with such depth of learning and compass of mind, that the profession and people loved him quite as much as they admired and respected him. Often, during an argument, he reminded counsel of decision touching the case at bar, that, with all their scrutiny and research, they had overlooked. Few of the thousands, in and out of the profession, who have read and admired the writings of Kent understood the unpretentious character and simple manners of their author. In this respect he resembled Chief Justice Marshall and Judge Peterson, of the United States Supreme Court. In his intercourse with his friends and neighbors, he was et id genus omne, one of them, without any reserve, though he never lost that ineffable grace of manner which results from a union with exalted mental endowments. A perpetual sunshine seemed to surround him, lighting up all phases of his life, subordinating them almost to a woman-like affection and sympathy. But on the bench he was one of the most dignified of American Judges.-PROCTOR, L. B., 1888, The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Lawyer, p. 4.

As Judge Kent himself notes, he did not possess forensic talent, nor was he ever distinguished in contentions at the bar. He spoke through his pen, and, upon the few occasions on which he made public

addresses, he spoke entirely from his notes. He was a graceful, eloquent, and interesting speaker. . . . Throughout the long and busy life of Chancellor Kent there was one unchanging undercurrent of feeling which appears in all his correspondence, his strong and ardent love for his home, his wife, his family, and the pursuit of learning, of which he never wearied. His highest anticipation was that, at some time, he might retire from the "busy haunts of men," and, gathering about him his family and belongings on some sunny hillside, pass the rest of his days in ideal repose. It was the early cultivation of these peaceful pleasures and pursuits which brought such tranquil happiness to his declining years.-KENT, WILLIAM, 1898, Memoirs and Letters of James Kent, pp. 227, 257.

During his judicial career his greatness never seems to have been questioned by his contemporaries. They saw that he was a great judge; we see that he was a legal giant-one of those masters whose stature is above that of ordinary men. But when we read his Life, and perceive his simplicity and modesty, and his unfailing refusal to trust to anything but industry and minute accuracy and research, we feel that, wonderful as his powers were, he earned his fame by labor as unusual, and hence to record of his achievements inspires in us, as it did in his contemporaries, less envy than a sort of affectionate veneration. . . . Simplicity of feeling and expression, sometimes approaching naïveté ; shrewdness and capacity for dealing with men; honesty, industry, strong domestic affections, combined with great kindliness, suavity, humility, and modesty, shine out in the reminiscences and letters preserved. Kent's career was the opposite of adventurous-in fact, had few incidents of any sort; his biography cannnot be made. picturesque. Dramatic in a certain sense it is, for he was the architect of a great and enduring position, which he made himself by sheer native force of mind and character. SEDGWICK, A. G., 1898, Chancellor Kent, The Nation, vol. 67, pp. 95, 96.

DECISIONS

In his decisions we can everywhere trace the happy use of that marvellous system of doctrines which Justinian collected with so much care, and which stands unrivalled in the world for its general

equity, and nice adaptation to the necessities of mankind. Let those who now doubt the importance of the study of the civil law by common lawyers read diligently the opinions of Mr. Chancellor Kent, and they will find all the objections raised by indolence and ignorance and prejudice practically refuted, and the civil law triumphantly sustained. They will perceive the vivid lights which it casts on the paths of juridical science; and they will be instructed and cheered in the pursuit, though they may not hope to move in the brilliant career of such a judge with equal footsteps. . . . . . As to the chancery decisions of Mr. Chancellor Kent, they are as full of learning, and pains-taking research, and vivid discrimination, as those of any man that ever sat on the English woolsack.―STORY, JOSEPH, 1820, Chancery Jurisdiction, North American Review, vol. 11, pp. 141, 142, 165.

His researches on every point were so full as to leave little or nothing to be supplied by those who might afterwards wish to have his decisions re-examined or to test the correctness of his conclusions. . . His judicial opinions are, therefore, uncommonly interesting and instructive to all, but especially to those who have commenced the study of the law, and aspire to eminence in that profession. JOHNSON, WILLIAM, 1835, Life of Chancellor Kent, National Portrait-Gallery of Distinguished Americans, vol. II.

His decisions must forever remain a monument of judicial wisdom, learning, and eloquence, without superior in those of any country or any age. -HOFFMAN, DAVID, 1836, A Course of Legal Study, 2nd ed.

I do not scruple to affirm that they (Decisions), form a series of unequalled excellence, and to the Equity lawyer of inestimable value: they are the most precious treasure his library contains. None who reflect on the nature and amount of instruction that these volumes supply, and on the method and style in which that instruction is conveyed, if able to make the comparison, will refuse to admit that there is no series of Reports in England, or in the United States, that, in these distinctive proofs of a superior and permanent value, resembles or approaches them.—DUER, JOHN, 1848, A Discourse on the Life, Character and Public Services of James Kent.

COMMENTARIES UPON AMERICAN LAW 1826-32

They ["Commentaries"] may be recommended to the English law-student of the present day as a substitute for Blackstone. They contain not only a clear statement of the English law, with all the alterations that have taken place since the time of Blackstone, but a full account of the main principles of Equity (a topic on which the English commentator is confessedly deficient); also a review of the modifications engrafted on the English law by the different States of the Union, and on all important questions, an instructive parallel between the English, American, Modern Continental, and Civil Laws.-JOHNES, ARTHUR JAMES, 1834, Reform of the Court of Chancery.

They ["Commentaries"] are fine examples of lucid and manly reasoning, and the style in which they are written is perspicuous and forcible. From the nature of the work, Chancellor Kent was only able to devote a small portion of his treatise to the Law of Nations; but their brevity is the only thing that is objectionable in these lectures, for all that the author does give us is valuable.-MANNING, WILLIAM OKE, 1839, Commentaries on the Laws of Nations, p. 44.

It is the character of the "Commentaries" as a national work, and their masterly execution as such, that have stamped upon them a peculiar value. It is to these causes that the extent of the influence which they rapidly acquire and now exert on the jurisprudence, not of a single State, but of all, must be ascribed.

It is now in the hands of every student and of every practitioner of the law, and it ought to be in the hands of every legislator and statesman, and indeed of every man of cultivated mind and liberal studies.-DUER, JOHN, 1848, A Discourse on the Life, Character and Public Services of James Kent, pp. 76, 79.

In 1826 he published the first volume of his Commentaries, at the earnest solicitation of his friends, he himself having little expectation of a favourable reception by the public. He originally contemplated but two volumes, but these expanded as he proceeded, into four, the last of which appeared in 1830. They at once took the high place they have since held in legal

thrown upon them by his letters, and by some of his sonnets, which last are rendered into English with rare felicity. GRISWOLD, RUFUS W., 1842, The Poets and Poetry of America, p. 76.

Besides his investigation in the literature of Dante he made a special study of the vexed question connected with the life of Tasso. The result of this he gave to the public on his return to America in his "Conjectures and Researches concerning the Love, Madness, and Imprisonment of Torquato Tasso," a work of diligent scholarship, in which the elaborate argument is enlivened by the elegance of the frequent original translations of the sonnets. In this he maintains the sanity of Tasso, and traces the progress of the intrigue with the Princess Lenora D'Este as the key of the poet's difficulties.-DUYCKINCK, EVERT A. AND GEORGE L., 185565-75, Cyclopædia of American Literature, ed. Simons, vol. 1, p. 806.

I know, however, in the whole range of imitative verse, no line superior, perhaps I should say none equal, to that in Wilde's celebrated nameless poem.

Yet as if grieving to efface
All vestige of the human race,

On that lone shore loud moans the sea. Here the employment of monosyllables, of long vowels and of liquids, without harsh consonantal sounds, together with the significance of the words themselves, gives to the verse a force of expression seldom if ever surpassed.-MARSH, GEORGE P., 1860, Lectures on the English Language, Lecture xxv.

Mr Wilde was [one day] surprised to find in a Georgia newspaper a Greek Ode, purporting to have been written by Alcæus, an early Eolian poet of somewhat obscure fame, and it was claimed that Mr. Wilde's verses were simply a translation of this Ode, the ideas in both being almost identi

cal. As Mr. Wilde had never heard of Alcæus, he was much puzzled to account for this resemblance of the two poems. At the suggestion of a friend, the Greek Ode was sent to Mr. Binney for examination and criticism. He at once, much to the relief of Mr. Wilde, pronounced it a forgery, pointing out wherein its style differed from that of the classical Greek. It turned out afterwards that the Ode in

question had been written by an Oxford scholar on a wager that no one in that University was sufficiently familiar with the style of the early Greek poets to detect the counterfeit. To carry out this scheme, he had translated Mr. Wilde's verses into Greek.-STILLÉ, CHARLES J., 1870, Memoir of Horace Binney, Jr.

The stanzas beginning "My life is like the summer rose" have a curious history. Mr. Wilde had a brother James, an officer in the United States army, who, on his return from the Seminole war, told numerous entertaining stories of his adventures in Florida. This suggested to Richard the idea of a song supposed to be sung by a European held captive among the savages of the Florida coast; and these stanzas, which were intended as the beginning of a longer poem, were the result. Mr. Anthony Barclay, of Savannah, translated the poem into Greek, and afterward somebody started the story that Wilde had. stolen it from the Greek of Alcæus. Georgia Historical Society has published a little volume to set the matter right. JOHNSON, ROSSITER, 1875, Little Classics, Authors, p. 246.

The

These "Stanzas" were not the work of a "single-poem-writer," for the author wrote other finished and beautiful short poems that have been undeservedly forgotten.-ONDERDONK, JAMES L., 190001, History of American Verse (16101897), p. 164.