we know as names and powers, and whom we willingly let the ages have when
they die, for, living or dead, they are alike remote from us. They have
never been with us where we live; but this great man was the neighbor,
the contemporary, and the friend of all who read him or heard him; and
even in the swift forgetting of this electrical age the stamp of his
personality will not be effaced from their minds or hearts.




VI.

Of those evenings at the Taylors' in New York, I can recall best the one
which was most significant for me, and even fatefully significant. Mr.
and Mrs. Fields were there, from Boston, and I renewed all the pleasure
of my earlier meetings with them. At the end Fields said, mockingly,
"Don't despise Boston!" and I answered, as we shook hands, "Few are
worthy to live in Boston." It was New-Year's eve, and that night it came
on to snow so heavily that my horse-car could hardly plough its way up to
Forty-seventh Street through the drifts. The next day, and the next, I
wrote at home, because it was so hard to get down-town. The third day I
reached the office and found a letter on my desk from Fields, asking how
I should like to come to Boston and be his assistant on the 'Atlantic
Monthly'. I submitted the matter at once to my chief on the 'Nation',
and with his frank goodwill I talked it over with Mr. Osgood, of Ticknor
& Fields, who was to see me further about it if I wished, when he came to
New York; and then I went to Boston to see Mr. Fields concerning details.
I was to sift all the manuscripts and correspond with contributors; I was
to do the literary proof-reading of the magazine; and I was to write the
four or five pages of book-notices, which were then printed at the end of