and Pilgrims are boldly sketched-nei- | ell's birthright too.
ther unduly flattered nor summarily con-
demned.

Bookish men will delight more in the literary essays. They are redolent of learning. They have an incommunicable flavor. The essay on Shakspeare is the best. There will always be some new light radiating from the works of that great poet, and each succeeding generation will be satisfied only with its own estimate; but the most comprehensive estimate to-day is Lowell's.

In general it may be said that the quality which prevents the general appreciation of Lowell's prose is its exceeding richness. It is like cloth of gold, too splendid and cumbrous for every-day wear.

It is upon his poems that the sure foundation of Lowell's fame will rest. Some of them are the clear and fortunate expression of the noblest modern thought, and others are imbedded in the history of an eventful time.

In person Lowell is of medium height, rather slender, but sinewy and active. His movements are deliberate rather than impulsive, indicating what athletes call staying qualities. His hair at maturity was dark auburn or ruddy chestnut in color, and his full beard rather lighter and more glowing in tint. The eyes of men of genius are seldom to be classified in ordinary terms, though it is said their prevailing color is gray. Colonel Higginson mentions Hawthorne's gray eyes; while the present writer, who once studied them attentively, found them mottled gray and brown, and at that time indescribably soft and winning. That they were sometimes accipitral we can readily believe. Lowell's eyes in repose have clear blue and gray tones with minute dark mottlings. In expression they are strongly indicative of his moods. When fixed upon study, or while listening to serious discourse, they are grave and penetrating; in ordi- | nary conversation they are bright and cheery; in moments of excitement they have a wonderful lustre. Nothing could be finer than his facial expression while telling a story or tossing a repartee. The features are alive with intelligence, and eyes, looks, and voice appear to be working up dazzling effects in concert, like the finished artists of the Comédie Française. The wit of Hosea Biglow is the native wit of Lowell-instantaneous as lightning; and Hosea's common-sense is Low

When the same

man, moreover, can extemporize chuckling puns, and blow out a breath of poetical reverie as naturally as the smoke from his pipe, the combination becomes almost startling. Other men may have been as witty, though we recall but three or four in our day; some may have had a similar fund of wisdom mellowed with humor; others have talked the staple of idyls, and let off metaphors like soap-bubbles; but Lowell combines in conversation the varied powers of all. His resources are inexhaustible. It is no wonder that he has been admired, for at his best he is one of the most fascinating of men. There is but one compeer-the immortal "Autocrat"-and it would be difficult, and perhaps impossible, to draw a parallel between them.

Steele said of a lady that to have known and loved her was a liberal education. More than one man who enjoyed Lowell's society found that the wise and witty converse of years did much to supply lamented defects in his own study and training, and perhaps warmed even late-flowering plants into blossom and fruitage. This also should be said, that every man who has known Lowell well considers him much greater than the aggregate of his works. He always gives the impression of power in reserve.

He used to enter upon the long walks which have aided in making him one of the poets of nature with the keenest zest. There was no quicker eye for a bird or squirrel, a rare flower or bush, and no more accurate ear for the songs or the commoner sounds of the forest. Evidences of this the reader will find in the Study Windows. But those who have visited Fresh Pond, Clematis Brook, Love Lane, or the Waverley Oaks in his company remember an acuteness of vision and a delight in every form of beauty of which the essay gives no conception.

His habits were scarcely methodicalreading, correspondence, composition, exercise, and social converse coming often · hap-hazard; yet, being incapable of idleness, he accomplished much. His works show the effective use he has made of the intellectual treasures of the world.

Mrs. Hawthorne relates that before her husband completed The Scarlet Letter there was a visible knot in the muscles of his forehead, caused by the intensity of thought. When a great theme was in

The

mind, Lowell has always gone to his desk | the story was told, or the puns had corwith all his might. Like Sir Walter Ra- uscated amid roars of laughter, the Proleigh, he could "toil terribly." It has fessor would blandly ask, "What are been already mentioned that "Sir Laun- trumps?" fal" was written in about two days. Other players must rest in shadow. production of a poem like "The Cathe- Two of them may be named in whom the dral" or the "Commemoration Ode" taxed | reading world has an interest. One was his faculties to the utmost, and always left | John Bartlett, author of the book of Fahim exhausted in body and mind. miliar Quotations, a charming companion, and a man of refined taste. The other, who was the delight of all companies, was John Holmes, brother of the poetprofessor. He was the songless poet, the silent Autocrat. It is difficult to say what he might have done if shut up with pen, ink, and paper; for he had the rarest humor, and a genius for the unexpected. He always had the art of showing the other side of a statement, and of bringing a joke out of the impossible, like a conjurer.

Between 1850 and 1860 Lowell was not much in society, in the present restricted sense of the word. The dinner parties and receptions of the fashionable appeared to have little attraction for him. He never enjoyed being lionized. In Cambridge there were several men with whom he was on intimate terms, and to them he gave his society ungrudgingly. Chief among these was his brother-in-law Dr. Estes Howe, a man of liberal education and delightful social qualities. He is "the Doctor" referred to in the preface to the "Fable for Critics." The Don" was a pleasant nickname for Mr. Robert Carter, formerly Lowell's coadjutor in the short-lived Pioneer, and employed at that time as secretary by Mr. Prescott, the historian. Carter was a remarkable man, principally on account of his great reading and retentive memory. He was an able writer also; and he had read more out-of-the-way things than any man living. Lowell used to say that he would | back Carter on a wager to write off-hand an account of a journey in the fifth century B.C. from Rome to Babylon or Pekin, with descriptions of all the peoples on the way. Carter lived at first in a modest house near the Willows (celebrated in Lowell's verse), and afterward in Sparks Street, not far from the Riedesel house. The Sparks Street house has associations such as belong to the tavern of Kit North's friend Ambrose, lacking, however, the overplus of toddy and the coarseness which smirched the discourse of the Blackwood coterie. Carter's house was often a rendezvous for whist parties; but whist was the least of the business or pleasure of the evening. The new books-or old ones-magazines, pictures, reminiscences, and stories occupied the available intervals. The silence and severity of Mrs. Battles were unknown. Charles Lamb and his venerable dame were often quoted by Lowell; but the "rigor of the game" was a transparent joke. When a story came to mind, or an epigram, or doubleshotted pun, the cards might wait. When

Changes in the whist parties occurred, as was natural, owing to illness or absence, but they continued for several years. The members are all living except Carter, who died in Cambridge about a year ago, universally regretted. May he rest in peace! The recollections of that period form a bond not to be sundered while life and thought continue.

Of other intimate friends of Lowell much might be said if there were room. Some of them are named in his books.

The edition of poems published in 1849 was affectionately dedicated to the eminent painter William Page. The second series of the Biglow Papers was appropriately inscribed to E. R. Hoar, who is

"the Jedge, who covers with his hat More wit an' gumption an' shrewd Yankee sense Than there is mosses on an ole stone fence." Fireside Travels is a series of letters addressed to Story the sculptor. Under the Willows bears the name of Charles E. Norton, Professor of the History of Art at Cambridge. The Cathedral is inscribed to Mr. James T. Fields; Three Memorial Poems to Mr. E. L. Godkin, editor of The Nation; My Study Windows to Francis | J. Child, Professor of English Literature; Among my Books to the present Mrs. Lowell; the second volume of the same series to the illustrious Emerson. The chief honor appears to have been paid to George William Curtis, to whom the complete edition of the poetical works is dedicated.

Arthur Hugh Clough, an English scholar and poet, lived in Cambridge for about

since Chancellor Kent wrote as above, or Van Amringe, of Columbia College, Great Britain and Ireland have come to has put it: "Of every ten policies which assure 1935 millions of dollars on 810,000 cease, but one will cease by death and lives; the United States assures 2705 mill- | expiry. One and a half will be given up ions on 1,100,000 lives; while the French, for a slight compensation, and seven and who save more money annually than any a half will be absolutely thrown away by other country, assure but 390 millions the holders." on only 198,000 lives. Is the Frenchman's caution or the American's confidence the better justified by experience? "There are in this country more than half a million families who have voluntarily subjected themselves to a tax amounting in the aggregate to about 100 millions of dollars a year, and are under bonds, more or less, in the aggregate amount of about 400 millions to continue to pay this tax for life or for a long period."*

Let us look at some of the facts in their experience. I will keep mostly to recent dates, in order to avoid the objection which may be made that life-insurance is an essentially different thing to-day from what it was a few years ago. How far it has been bettered, and how far it still needs improving, I will try to show.

Since 1861 thirty-six companies have started in New York State alone: in March of this year only four of them remained. From 1859 to 1878, fifty-two companies ceased doing business in this State: the most of them failed. Of all American life insurance-companies, two have failed, thus far, to one that survives; while not one of our surviving large companies has yet reached the critical period of its career the age when heavy pressure from death claims might be expected. But that pressure, it must be added, is not likely to be put upon any of our companies very soon, for the sufficient reason that our companies confiscate the vast majority of the policies for non-payment of premiums. This is done generally at an early period in the so-called investment. The average duration of an American policy is only about seven years. Of the multitude of policies which terminate yearly in our companies, only "one in ten matures by death; the other nine mature by causes other than death."+ Or, as a searching critic of the subject, Profess

* Traps Baited with Orphan. By ELIZUR WRIGHT, Ex-insurance Commissioner. Boston, 1877.

Testimony of Sheppard Homans. Assembly Documents for 1877, No. 103, pp. 348-350. Mr. Homans adds, "The odium attached to the forfeiture of so many policies has made it very difficult to get new business." One would hope so.

The amount now at risk in the American companies, 2705 millions, though less than it was a few years ago, is more than one-twelfth of the entire capital wealth of the Union. Their yearly income is more than half the yearly accumulation of wealth in the German Empire. In New York State thirty-four companies were doing business at the end of 1878. They had over 600,000 policies outstanding, assuring 1481 millions. Their assets were 404 millions-more than the value of the entire cotton crop of the world. Their income for the year was 80 millions—a sum equal to twice the American tobacco crop of the year, and to more than the entire potato crop; or equal, again, to the entire silk crop of India, China, and Japan.*

II. THE GETTING OF THE MONEY.

How have the companies come into the possession of this money? By inducing the public to pay it to them in premiums, and by the interest from investments. Most of their bargains with the public are made in the shape of life policies; and endowment assurance policies constitute about a fifth of the business. The first question is, Do the insurance companies make fair bargains with the public? Our annual accumulation of wealth is greater than that of any other nation, and we are paying about one-ninth of it to the lifeinsurance people. Is that too much or too little? Have the companies charged an equitable price, say within forty millions per year, for the insurance that they have promised?

1. They make a large profit on receiving interest at a higher, and paying it (when they pay it) at a lower rate. They calculate the interest which they promise to pay at four per cent.; they receive six or seven per cent. This is legitimate enough, but the policy-holders are commonly led to think that they are to get much more than four per cent.

*Mulhall's Progress of the World. London, 1880. In this article I give the nearest round numbers, whether of cents or of millions of dollars, whenever round numbers will help to make the case clearer.

"A. Robbery and plunder.

Q. In what way?

they would call upon a poor unsuspecting policy. "A. They sent agents out all through the West; holder, and by telling him the company was insolvent, induce him to give up the policy for a small amount, and then pocket the reserve.

would get the policy surrendered for a small sum? "Q. In other words, if the reserve was $600, they "A. Yes, for $40; and then pocket the difference. "Q. Who would?

"A. The president and vice-president: they have run away."

2. In computing the risks of their business the companies use "a table which gives a death rate, on the whole, considerably larger than that which it expects in practice." Having computed the chances below the average, they then pick out the lives that are above the average, and most of the companies refuse to insure any other. A man can not go in from the street and claim life-insurance at the average mortuary rates: he will not be accepted unless he can satisfy the medical examin- 5. The profit from all these sources is ers that his health and strength are better many millions of dollars per year. Yet than the average. This selection of risks even these profits do not account for is another source of great profit. One half of the enormous wealth of the surNew York company reported its gain from viving companies. They have a fifth this source, for eleven months of 1869, as source of profit, which is more abundant $649,000. Did that company charge too than any or all of these four; namely, the little or too much in making its bargains? confiscation, as already said, of the vast 3. Every premium on a life policy is majority of the policies. In spite of the composed of three distinct elements. First, law of 1879, to be mentioned presently, the net premium, calculated more or less the forfeiture of the policy and the total equitably from the mortality tables. That confiscation of the reserve is still the fate is intended to insure the risk of death with- of all but a small minority of the insured. in the average lifetime. Second, the re- Here are some of the facts: In 1871 lapse serve, or self-insurance; it is the yearly and surrender swallowed up ninety-three payment which will amount, at four per per cent. of the number of policies that cent., to the face of the policy at the time were terminated in the New York busiof the average lifetime. This is the policy-ness (Van Amringe). In 1876 one comholder's own money, put out at interest for pany confiscated about 2500 policies-nearhim. Third, the loading: that is guessedly the same number that it issued during at by the companies: it is the charge for expenses. These three items make up the gross, office, or load premium; and all three are legitimate items.

But how great is this third charge, the "loading" for expenses? Instead of computing it, as they should, upon the net premium, they make a charge amounting to one-third of the gross or office premium -say thirty-three per cent. of the many millions per annum which they receive directly from the public. This would seem, indeed, enough to conduct the expenses of the business. An expert estimate gives eighteen per cent. as sufficient, even under the present lavish system, to pay all legitimate expenses of management.

4. Another source of great profit to the companies has been the buying up of policies. This, happily, is not so common as

the year; 1254 of them were absolutely forfeited, the holders getting nothing for them. In another company, during the same year, about 3000 policies were terminated, only about 300 of these by death. Of the balance, about 150 were re-instated; the rest, over 2000 in number, were absolutely forfeited. Still another company, in the same year, 1876, issued 8000 policies, and confiscated (always legally) no less than 7500. Of these, however, it bought up, according to its actuary's testimony, a large number "simply as a gratuity," being "not legally bound to pay anything" to the policy-holder who is behindhand with his premiums.* During the year 1879 the same company reports 8615 of its policies as terminated; the company is thirty-seven years old, and yet only 1156 of these policies were terminated by death! How many lapses and surrenders there were in its business does not appear in its annual report. The latest State returns are for 1878. During that year the number of policies terminated in the New York business was

Assembly Documents, 1877, No. 93, p. 23.