When these two were once discussing a book on
pantheism, which had lately been published by Rev. J. W. Manning of the
Old South Church, Whittier, who had been walking to and fro on the
piazza just within reach of their voices, finally, came up and said: "I
told Manning that the one kind of pantheist he had omitted from his
book, was the orthodox pantheist. For that matter, I believe there are
pantheists in every religious sect. They start like Professor Parsons
the Swedenborgian, with the proposition that as even God could not make
the universe out of nothing, he must have made it out of Himself; and
you cannot argue them away from it. At the same time, they will insist
that they are perfectly good Christians." He then cited several
instances of this which had come under his own observation: and Colonel
Greene also remembered some cases; but this was the only time we knew
Whittier to speak on a religious question.
Longfellow, Tennyson and Whittier were the three most popular poets of
the latter part of the present century, and it is difficult to determine
which of them may be considered the best. While neither of them rises to
the very highest rank, each has excellences peculiarly his own. Whittier
does not equal the others in their graceful diction and rare metrical
skill, but he surpasses them in earnestness and intensity. He paints in
deeper colors, and with a firmer touch.
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