This I say of me, but think of you, Love! 
     This to you—­yourself my moon of poets! 
     Ah, but that’s the world’s side, there’s the wonder;
     Thus they see you, praise you, think they know you! 
     There, in turn I stand with them and praise you—­
     Out of my own self, I dare to phrase it. 
     But the best is when I glide from out them,

     Cross a step or two of dubious twilight,
     Come out on the other side, the novel
     Silent silver lights and darks undreamed of,
     Where I hush and bless myself with silence.

     Oh, their Rafael of the dear Madonnas,
     Oh, their Dante of the dread Inferno,
     Wrote one song—­and in my brain I sing it,
     Drew one angel—­borne, see, on my bosom!

     R.B.

ORESTES AUGUSTUS BROWNSON

(1803-1876)

Orestes Brownson, in his time, was a figure of striking originality and influence in American literature and American political, philosophical, and religious discussion.  His career was an exceptional one; for he was connected with some of the most important contemporaneous movements of thought, and passed through several distinct phases:  Presbyterianism, Universalism, Socialism—­of a mild and benevolent kind, not to be confused with the later fiery and destructive socialism of “the Reds”; afterward sympathizing somewhat with the aims and tendencies of the New England Transcendentalists; a close intellectual associate of Ralph Waldo Emerson; then the apostle of a “new Christianity”—­finally becoming a Roman Catholic.

[Illustration:  ORESTES BROWNSON]

Coming of old Connecticut stock on his father’s side, he was born in Vermont, September 16th, 1803; and, notwithstanding that he was brought up in poverty on a farm with small opportunity for education, contrived in later years to make himself a thorough scholar in various directions, mastering several languages, acquiring a wide knowledge of history, reading deeply in philosophy, and developing marked originality in setting forth new philosophical views.  His bent in childhood was strongly religious; and he even believed, at that period of his life, that he held long conversations with the sacred personages of Holy Scripture.  Yet while in manhood he devoted many years and much of his energy to preaching, his character was aggressive and his tone controversial, he however revealed many traits of real gentleness and humility, and the mixture of rugged strength and tenderness in his character and his work won him a large following in whatever position he took.

He performed the remarkable feat, when the support of American letters was slight, of founding and conducting almost single-handed, from 1838 to 1843, his famous Quarterly Review, which was a power in the land.  He started it again in 1844 as ‘Brownson’s Quarterly Review,’ and resumed it thirty years later in still a third series.  He died in 1876 at Detroit, much of his active career having been passed in Boston, and some of his later years at Seton Hall, New Jersey.