Henry Lee Higginson's
Thoughts on Charles Lowell and Stephen Perkins
In 1907, Edward Waldo
Emerson's Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell
was published, citing in it a letter from Henry Lee Higginson
to Emerson (no date given). In this letter, Higginson
shares his thoughts on friends from childhood who died during the war: Charles Lowell and Stephen Perkins. He
remembered these friends all his life, and what they
represented to him motivated Higginson's actions in his
later adulthood. The following passages are excerpts
from Higginson's letter.
It was about mind and spirit and
the meaning of life that I used to hear Charley
discussing with Stephen Perkins. Neither of them took
anything for granted, as it were, in such conversations,
which I suppose is the only true attitude.
They both of them had an immense belief in the natural
affections, such as love of one's family, maternity, and
the like, but this far-away, lofty mood was a thing that
Charley indulged in at times, and it is all the more
strange because of his great capacity for active,
practical life, and his enjoyment of it. He was, at one
time, crazy about self-development, and, as you can see
by his letters, he threw that over, by and by, for the
higher wish to do his duty to his fellow creatures in the
world.
This love of practical life,
dealing with daily affairs, Stephen Perkins didn't enjoy,
but he did enjoy the intellectual life enormously. It was
a wonderful thing to see him—very handsome and tall,
with a complexion and hair that any woman would envy,
dressed with care—acting as second lieutenant in the
Second [Mass.] Infantry and directing the men in sweeping
the company street, cleaning the kitchens, and making the
camp tidy. It was really a pitiful sight, for he belonged
where his brain could be used, and not where common hands
were needed. He was always very particular in the care of
his own person, just as Charley was—they couldn't bear
to have dirty hands for half an hour.
They both really loved their friends very much. They
didn't mind vexing them, and their tongues would wag very
freely—but they loved their friends dearly. Irish in
part they both were; Stephen from the Sullivan family,
and Charley from the Tracy family. Another point about
Charley was his immense love for the young,—young
animals, young people,—and he would have been very glad
to have a large family....
Special thanks to Brian Pohanka for providing the following materials:
Excerpts of Higginson's letter from Edward Waldo Emerson's Life
and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1907; image of Charles Russell Lowell
(top) from Emerson's book, and image of Stephen Perkins
(bottom) from Mr. Pohanka's collection.
Index
to Higginson's Pages
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