In November, 1857, the firm of Phillips & Sampson issued the first number
of the _Atlantic Monthly_ in the cause of high-minded literature,--a
cause which ultimately proved to be their ruin. Lowell accepted the
position of editor, and such a periodical as it proved to be under his
guidance could not have been found in England, and perhaps not in the
whole of Europe; but it could not be made to pay, and two years later
Phillips & Sampson failed,--partly on that account, and partially the
victims of a piratical opposition.

Lowell published Emerson's "Brahma" in spite of the shallow ridicule with
which he foresaw it would be greeted; but when Emerson sent him his "Song
of Nature" he returned it on account of the single stanza:

"One in a Judaean manger,
And one by Avon stream,
One over against the mouths of Nile,
And one in the Academe."

which he declared was more than the _Atlantic_ could be held
responsible for. Emerson, who really knew little as to what the public
thought of him, was for once indignant. He said: "I did not know who had
constituted Mr. Lowell my censor, and I carried the verses to Miss
Caroline Hoar, who read them and said, that she considered those four
lines the best in the piece." He permitted Lowell, however, to publish
the poem without them, as may be seen by examining the pages of the
_Atlantic_, and afterwards published the original copy in his "May
Day."

Lowell's editorship of the _North American Review_, which followed