ciples of the American Revolution," is a republica- tion of the Fourth-of-July address already noticed. In 1871 was published "Success and its Con- ditions," the key-note of which is that " virtue is an aid to insight," and which enforces and illus- trates the truth that sham, in a large sense, is never successful. In 1872 Mr. Whipple became literary editor of the " Globe," then a new daily paper in Boston, but resigned the place in the next year. In 1876 the " Literature of the Age of Elizabeth," a series of critical essays originally delivered at the Lowell institute, was published. In this work, which is a discussion of the merits and defects of the English dramatists, with also critical estimates of Sidney, Raleigh, Bacon, and Hooker, Mr. Whip- ple's genius reaches high-water mark. In 1877 he wrote for the " North American Review " a paper on George Eliot, which she and Mr. Lewes declared to be the most satisfactory criticism on her writings that had then appeared. In 1878 Mr. Whipple and James T. Fields compiled and edited the " Family Library of British Poetry." After Mr. Whipple's death was published his " Recollections of Eminent Men, with other Papers," with an introduction by Cyrus A. Bartol (Boston, 1887). In this volume are vivid portraitures of Rufus Choate, Louis Agassiz, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John L. Motley, Charles Sumner, and George Ticknor ; and to these are added a paper on Matthew Arnold, who is praised for the expansiveness, fertility, and subtlety of his intellect, his felicitous critical phrases and definitions, and the exquisite beauty of his style, but severely censured for his "moral and intellect- ual superciliousness " as a critic ; and papers on Barry Cornwall and some of his contemporaries, and on the private life of George Eliot, who " al- lowed her understanding to adopt opinions which her deepest reason and affections repudiated." In the same year with the latter work was published
- ' American Literature and other Papers," with a
brief introduction by the poet Whittier. The vol- ume contains five essays ; the centennial review of " American Literature," published in " Harper's Magazine " in 1876, a masterpiece of condensation and of apt and discriminating criticism ; " Daniel Webster as a Master of English Style," which had been prefixed to a collection of that statesman's principal speeches published in 1879 ; and papers on" Emerson and Carlyle," " Emerson as a Poet," and the " Character and Genius of T. Starr King." The last collection of Mr. Whipple's periodical ?apers was " Outlooks on Societv, Literature, and olitics " (Boston, 1888).
Mr. Whipple was one of the very few men who have made the most of their natural gifts. Though chiefly self-educated in the popular sense of the term, his mental training and equipment were such as most college graduates might envy. He was chiefly distinguished for his critical faculty. En- dowed by nature with a rare degree of acuteness, penetration, judgment, and sympathy, he devel- oped and strengthened these faculties by ceaseless training and discipline, which made him a mas- ter in his chosen calling. Uniting a keen insight, that was " almost a species of mental clairvoyance," with the power of logical analysis, a tenacious memory with a playful imagination, and a grave spirit with a lively sensibility to the comic, he in- stinctively discriminated between the essential and the accidental, the wheat and the chaff, in letters, and set forth the reasons for his discrimination with a force and clearness that carried conviction to his readers. Pure and sensitive, however, as was his literary taste, his distinctive excellence was not so much his judgment upon the quality of a book as a more or less cunning work of art, as the reve- lation which he saw in it of the genius and charac- ter of the author. Like Sainte-Beuve, he sought to detect the man in his writing, his spiritual physi- ognomy, his originality and independence or sla- very as a thinker, the atmosphere in which he lived, and the experiences of which the work was the • product. Few critics have been influenced less by their idiosyncrasies and predilections, by the secret leanings which " haunt every man as his shadow," and warp the mind from absolute rectitude. Rare- ly blind to faults, he had a quick and keen eye for excellence, and when he erred it was on the side of leniency, never on that of excessive severity. Con- scientious in all his statements, he carefully weighed his words, and never sacrificed the truth to epi- gram and brilliant effect. Few writers have been more painstaking. He was as fastidious and self- exacting when writing an ephemeral article for a newspaper as when preparing a paper for a review, often throwing into the fire three or four draughts in succession, because they did not satisfy his critical judgment. His style is said to have been formed on Macaulay's ; but he was no copyist or imitator. If, as some will think, it is sometimes oratorical, and sometimes injured by an excess of antithesis and anecdote, the faults are accounted for by the fact that some of his most characteristic S reductions were written for delivery as lectures, [r. Whipple had fine conversational powers. He had an inexhaustible fund of anecdote and illus- tration from history and literature, ready for in- stant use, and the felicity of his citations was only equalled by that of his original wit. " The effete of society," " the gentleman of wealth and pleasure," " the organ of distaste " (said of a certain journal), were some of his current sayings. Of Walt Whit- man's " Leaves of Grass " he said : " It has every leaf except the fig-leaf." He had an even tempera- ment, and was noticeably free from envy, jealousy, irritability, and other faults that too often deform the literary character. His married life was a con- tradiction to the popular notion concerning the hymeneal infelicity of literary men. In 1847 he married Miss Charlotte Hastings, in whom he found at all times an intellectual, congenial, and sympathetic companion. Personally Mr. Whipple was of spare figure and below medium stature, with a face of remarkable mobility and expressiveness, the large, lustrous eyes glowing with interest as he talked on favorite inspiring themes.
WHIPPLE, Henry Benjamin, P. E. bishop, b. in Adams, Jefferson co., N. Y., 15 Feb., 1822. He prepared for college, but, on account of feeble health, turned his attention to mercantile pursuits, and took an active interest in politics for several years. Upon deciding to study for the ministry, he followed a theological course under Dr. William D. Wilson, who was afterward professor in Cornell university. He was ordered deacon in Trinity church, Geneva, N. Y., 17 Aug., 1849, and ordained priest in Christ church, Sackett's Harbor, N. Y.. 16 July, 1850, both by Bishop De Lancey. In the same year he became rector of Zion church, Rome, N. Y., where he remained seven years. In the spring of 1857 he removed to Chicago, 111., and assumed the rectorship of the Church of the Holy Communion in that city. This position he held until his election to the episcopate. He was consecrated the first bishop of Minnesota in St. James's church, Richmond, Va., 13 Oct., 1859. In 1860 he took an active part in organizing the Seabury mission, out of which has grown Seabury divinity-school ; St. Mary's Hall, a school for girls; and Sliattuck school for boys— all at Faribault,
