AT SUNDOWN

That darker grows the shortening day,
And colder blows the wintry air!

The wrecks of passion and desire,
The castles I no more rebuild,

May fitly feed my drift-wood fire,

And warm the hands that age has chilled.

I know the solemn monotone

Of waters calling unto me;

I know from whence the airs have blown
That whisper of the Eternal Sea.

As low my fires of drift-wood burn,
I hear that sea's deep sound increase.
And, fair in sunset light, discern
Its mirage-lifted Isles of Peace.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne

A

HIS LIFE

MONG the passengers in the ship which brought Winthrop and Dudley to the New World was William Hathorne, the ancestor of the novelist. A man of character, versatile, naturally eloquent, and a born leader, he rose to a position of influence in the colony. One of his sons, John Hathorne, was destined to sinister renown as a judge at the trials for witchcraft held at Salem in 1691.

Daniel Hathorne, a grandson of the old witch judge, took to the sea, and during the Revolutionary War served as a privateersman. He had seven children. Nathaniel, his third son, also a sea-captain, married Elizabeth Clarke Manning, and became the father of Nathaniel Hawthorne,

Julian Hawthorne: Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife, second edition, 1885.

Horatio Bridge: Personal Recollections of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1893.

G. E. Woodberry: Nathaniel Hawthorne, American Men of Letters,' 1902.