Bryant's  birth.  Surely  an  author  who  was  the  senior
of  seven  presidents  of  the  United  States,  and  whose
literary  career  in  New  York  alone  was  uninterrupted
from  1826  to  1878,  might  fairly  be  called  a  living  his
tory  of  American  letters.  Only  Richard  Henry
Dana,  Senior,  of  all  our  surviving  poets,  was  born
before  Mr.  Bryant ;  but  the  latter,  unlike  his  Massa-


112  Poets'   Homes.
chusetts  friend,  who  has  long  lived  in  retirement,  was
an  active  worker  up  to  the  day  of  his  death  in  that
most  perfunctory  and  imperious  of  literary  pursuits,
the  editing  of  a  daily  newspaper.
William  Cullen  Bryant  was  born  in  Cummington,
Massachusetts,  in  1794.  Cummington,  a  little  Hamp
shire  County  town,  was  a  small  village  then,  and  to
day  it  contains  barely  a  thousand  inhabitants.  But,
besides  giving  birth  to  Bryant,  it  is  proud  to  number
among  its  natives  Luther  Bradish,  a  New  York  poli
tician  of  note,  in  his  time,  and  Henry  L.  Dawes,  one
of  the  present  senators  from  Massachusetts.  There
seems  to  be  something  in  its  fresh  mountain  air  favor
able  to  longevity;  for  the  Rev.  Dr.  Snell,  one  of
Cummington's  sons,  baptized  and  buried  the  people
of  North  Brookfield,  Massachusetts,  for  the  space  of
sixty-four  years.
The  scenery  of  Cummington,  with  its  nooks  and
fields,  and  dashing  Westfield  river,  gave  the  boy
Bryant  his  first  liking  for,  and  knowledge  of,  Nature.
His  father,  Dr.  Luther  Bryant,  the  village  physician,
was  both  guide  and  friend,  teaching  his  little  son  how
to  think  wisely  and  how  to  write  well,  as  well  as  lead
ing  him  through  the  natural  scenery  which  became
almost  a  part  of  his  very  self.  What  was  his  father's
nature,  and  what  the  value  of  his  teachings,  Mr.
