The Masque of Pandora (1875), Kéramos (1878), Ultima Thule (1880), In the Harbor (posthumous, 1882) little need be said. One poem has hardly attained the currency it deserves - The Hanging of the Crane, a history of the home in panoramic pictures. But, as a whole, the latest efforts added little to the reputation of their author. American thought has undergone changes during the past sixty years; and from the movements that brought them about Longfellow remained stolidly aloof. In his latter days. American literature was not the meagre growth he had found it in the beginning of the century. Perhaps it had risen above the standards he had set for himself.

In addition to the poems mentioned there are several plays: The Spanish Student (1843), Judas Maccabæus (1872), Michael Angelo (posthumous, 1883), and Christus, a trilogy including The Divine Tragedy, The Golden Legend, and The New England Tragedies, the whole designed to show the course of Christianity. The drama has a fascination for all poets, principally on account of its associations with the past. But to one successful attempt at play-writing there are many failures. The demands of the classic drama, such as a great poet must aim at, are so multifarious that few can meet them.

Moreover, academic duties and interest in literature

in general called forth text-books and compendiums of various kinds. The translation of Dante's Divine Comedy was purely a labor of love.

It was a busy life that ended on March 24, 1882. Not so eventful as the lives of great men usually are, but none the less sublime on that account. Its even

course was disturbed by the shocking death of Mrs. Longfellow, in 1861: her dress caught fire from a match that had fallen lighted upon the floor, and from the injuries received she died within twenty-four hours. But the poet was not accustomed to parade his griefs before the public. His own theories urged resignation and devotion to duty; and is it not his chief glory that he was the best exponent of his theories? The world readily recognizes the claims of sincerity. It was to the man as well as to the poet that two continents did honor. In 1868, when he visited Europe for the fourth time, the great English universities acknowledged his services to literature by conferring upon him the highest academic degrees; the great men of England, France, and Germany saw in him the highest type of manhood. Nor were his own countrymen backward. Pilgrimages to Cambridge became the fashion. But the most significant of all is that tribute of the children of Cambridge to the author of The Village Blacksmith.

And how stands it with his poetry? There is no

need of denying natural limitations. He himself conceded them when he said, "With me all deep feelings are silent ones. The masterpieces of literature owe their origin to deep feelings that are not silent. Longfellow was thus restricted to the expression of common emotions; yet for that very reason he reached a larger circle of readers than a greater intensity could have hoped to reach. And so, while his poems may lack a subtile force, which we look for in verse of the highest order, they nevertheless belong among

"The pleasant books, that silently among

Our household treasures take familiar places,
And are to us as if a living tongue

Spake from the printed leaves or pictured faces.” 2

1 Life, II. 424. 2 The Seaside and the Fireside. Dedication.

THE ACADIANS1

AFTER the discovery of America it became a custom for the monarchs of Europe, especially those of England and France, to grant to such of their subjects as wished to undertake the enterprise, the right to colonize certain portions of the New World. These districts were always described in vague terms; in fact, the grantors themselves did not know what they were giving. In this way it happened that the two peoples frequently came to regard themselves, each as the sole possessor of the same stretch of territory. For instance, in 1579 Queen Elizabeth granted to Sir Humphrey Gilbert a patent "for the discovering, or occupying, and peopling such remote, heathen, and barbarous countries, as were not actually possessed by any Christian People." Acting under this grant Sir Humphrey took possession of Newfoundland. Similarly certain Frenchmen, with equal powers from their sovereign, reached and attempted to colonize what is now Canada. They named their land, with no well-defined limits, Nova Scotia.

The peninsula which we call Nova Scotia was discovered by Sebastian Cabot, in the English service.

1 Haliburton's History of Nova Scotia; Smith's Acadia; Hannay's History of Acadia; Murdock's History of Nova Scotia; Gayarré's History of Louisiana.

Its settlement is due to the French. The first attempt to colonize it was made by the Marquis de la Roche, in 1598. The Marquis was forced by unfavorable conditions to return to France, leaving the settlers to get along as best they might. They probably perished. More successful was the attempt of De Monts, who was made governor-general of the province by Henry IV., in 1603. Two years later De Monts planted the first permanent French colony in America, at Port Royal, in what he called Acadia. From this time the growth of the settlement was rapid. But the names Nova Scotia and Acadia were used indiscriminately in the documents; and in subsequent treaties neither party was slow to take advantage of the confusion arising from this fact.

The English and the French had been enemies for centuries in the Old World, and it was only to be expected that their quarrels should be carried on by their representatives in the New. The English were constantly encroaching upon what the French regarded. as their exclusive territory. For one hundred and fifty years (1605-1750) Nova Scotia, or Acadia, passed back and forth, like a tennis ball. By the treaty of Breda (1667) England was to give up all claim to Acadia. But in the course of Queen Anne's War, Port Royal was taken by English and colonial troops. Its name was changed to Annapolis, in honor of the Queen, and encouragement was given to the inhabit