We regret to note the death of J. G. Whittier,
the American "Quaker Poet," whose life was so strong a testimony to the value of the old New-England system of upbringing, now un- happily passed away. Born a peasant, he discovered in him- self a gift of writing stirring rhyme, and through a long life he devoted it to the cause of the oppressed. His songs attracted his countrymen, and for thirty years he poured them forth continuously, rousing the North first against the spread, and afterwards against the existence, of slavery. He did good and successful work for his great cause when it was dangerous to do it, and we hold him in all honour, though we cannot admit that he was a poet even of the second rank. He rose to that level, perhaps, in " Snow-bound," which is, in passages, not far beneath the quieter passages of Scott ; but most of his work should be ranked with that of Ebenezer Elliott, the " Corn-Law Rhymer." It is too occasional for true poetry, and, except in a few fierce lines scattered through his masses of versification, does not strike deep enough to live. And yet we hesitate to say it, for there was living fire in Whittier, though it was the fire of the roused preacher rather than of the poet. It is forty years since the writer first read " Cassandra Southwick," but he can repeat most of it still ; and, reading it again to-day, felt once more the old thrill. Peace be with the strong old Puritan, who knew no object equal to the staying of oppression, and, if he saw it, never paused in fear.
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