Those who think
that American children are all precocious little men and women would have
been surprised to see the door boisterously thrown open by a little
blooming boy, who scrambled mirthfully upon his father's knee, as though
used to be there, and asked him to whittle a stick for him.
It is not often that the conversation of an author is equal in its way to
his writings, therefore I expected in Mr. Longfellow's case the
disappointment which I did not meet with. He touched lightly on various
subjects, and embellished each with the ease and grace of an accomplished
scholar, and, doubtless in kindly compliment to an English visitor,
related several agreeable reminiscences of acquaintanceships formed with
some of our literati during a brief visit to England. He spoke with much
taste and feeling of European antiquities, and of the absence of them in
the New World, together with the effect produced by the latter upon the
American character. He said that nothing could give him greater pleasure
than a second visit to Europe, but that there were "six obstacles in the
way of its taking place."
With him as a very able cicerone I had the pleasure of visiting
Cambridge University, which reminded me more of England than anything I
saw in America; indeed there are features in which it is not unlike its
English name sake.
