It is a mighty loss. He had
faults, like all of us, and needed forgiveness; but I think he could
say, with David of old, that he would rather fall into the Lord's
hands than into the hands of man."
It is anticipating the years and interrupting the narrative to mention
here a few of the men who gladdened his later life by their
friendship, but the subject demands a brief space before we return to
the current story of his days.
Matthew Arnold went to see him upon his arrival in this country, and
it is needless to say that Whittier derived sincere pleasure from the
visit; but Arnold's delightful recognition of Whittier's "In School
Days" as one of the perfect poems which must live, gave him fresh
assurance of fulfilled purpose in existence. He had followed Arnold
with appreciation from his earliest appearance in the world of
letters, and knew him, as it were, "by heart" long before a personal
interview was possible. In a letter written after Arnold's return to
England, he says: "I share thy indignation at the way our people have
spoken of him--one of the foremost men of our time, a true poet, a
wise critic, and a brave, upright man, to whom all the English-speaking
people owe a debt of gratitude. I am sorry I could not see
him again."
When the end came, a few years later, he was among the first to say,
"What a loss English literature has sustained in the death of Matthew
Arnold!"
As I have already suggested, he kept the run of all the noteworthy
persons who came to Boston quite as surely as they kept in pursuit of
him.
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