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The Writings of James Russell Lowell (6); Literary and Political Addresses
The Writings of James Russell Lowell Literary and Political Addresses - 6 Author:James Russell Lowell Volume: 6 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1890 Original Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. Subjects: American literature History / General Humor / Form / Essays Juvenile Nonfiction / Poetry / General Literary Collections / Essays Literary Criticism / American / General Poetry / American / G... more »eneral Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: OUE LITERATURE" RESPONSE TO A. TOAST AT THE BANQUET IN NEW YORK, APRIL 30, 1889, GIVEN IN COMMEMORATION OF THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF WASHINGTON'S INAUGURATION. A Needfcl frugality, benignant alike to both the participants in human utterance, has limited the allowance of each speaker this evening to ten minutes. Cut in thicker slices, our little loaf of time would not suffice for all. This seems a meagre ration, but if we give to our life the Psalmist's measure of seventy years, and bear in mind the population of the globe, a little ciphering will show that no single man and brother is entitled even to so large a share of our attention as this. Moreover, how few are the men in any generation who could not deliver the message with which their good or evil genins has charged them in less than the sixth part of an hour. On an occasion like this, a speaker lies more than usually open to the temptation of seeking the acceptable rather than the judicial word. And yet it is inevitable that public anniversaries, like those of private persons, should suggest self-criticism as well as self-satisfaction. I shall not listen for such suggestions, though I may not altogether concealthat I am conscious of them. I am to speak for literature, and of our own as forming now a recogniied part of it. This is not the place for critical halancing of what w...« less