Many readers will
enjoy, in these days of the ouija board and messages from the dead, the
raps at spiritualism here and there. Moreover, there is a passage in the
first essay showing that Lowell, before Freud, understood the
psychoanalytic theory of genius in its connection with childhood
memories. The passage follows Lowell's narration of the story of little
Montague.
None of the essays in this volume has appeared in book form except a few
fragments from some of the opening five essays which were reported from
Lowell's lectures in the _Boston Advertiser_, in 1855, and were
privately printed some years ago. Charles Eliot Norton performed a
service to the world when he published in the _Century Magazine_ in 1893
and 1894 some lectures from Lowell's manuscripts. These lectures are now
collected and form the first five essays in this book. I have also
retained Professor Norton's introductions and notes. Attention is called
to his remark that "The Function of the Poet" is not unworthy to stand
with Sidney's and Shelley's essays on poetry.
The rest of the essays in this volume appeared in Lowell's lifetime in
the _Atlantic Monthly_, the _North American Review_, and the _Nation_.
They were all anonymous, but are assigned to Lowell by George Willis
Cooke in his "Bibliography of James Russell Lowell." Lowell was editor
of the _Atlantic_ from the time of its founding in 1857 to May, 1861.
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