Even the
paper they were printed on was such as Wasson especially disliked. It
seems a pity that he should have been denied this little celebrity.
He received better justice from Mr. Frothingham, who has published an
excellent memoir of his life and work together with a number of his
essays,--a handsome volume well bound and printed. Yet one cannot help
thinking that here also the author's fame, as well as the interest of
the general public, might have been better consuited by a more careful
selection and a wider range of subjects. "Epic Philosophy" at least
ought by no means to have been omitted, nor is there any example given
of Wasson's fine literary criticism, in itself enough to have made a
writer celebrated. His essay on Whittier is not only a just estimate,
but seems also in its wise and tender application to include Whittier
poetically, as the sea encircles an island. In this department of
writing he was the equal of Lessing and almost of Goethe; but with
characteristic modesty he celebrated Lowell as the first of American
critics. Wasson's book notices in the "Boston Commonwealth" were most
interesting reading and contained much of his finest thought.
His famous Groveland address was not directed against a faith in the
divinity of Christ, for he held that belief in profound respect, as
signifying the divine origin and mission of mankind.
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