The young poet-lawyer had come to New York city from Great Barrington, Mass., at the beginning of 1825, when he was but thirty years old, brought thither3 by Henry D. Sedgwick and Gulian C. Verplanck, two citizens of substance and influence who had been struck by the genius shown in his first volume of verse. The Sedgwicks were a well-known Berkshire family. Catharine M. Sedgwick, later modestly famous as a novelist, was the first to make Bryant’s acquaintance, and had strongly commended the struggling barrister to her older brother Henry, who was a leader at the New York bar. With neither his profession nor with life in a small town was Bryant contented4; and the applause which had been given to “Thanatopsis” in the North American Review, to “The Ages” when he read it before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard, and to his first thin volume in 1821, seemed to justify5 his hopes for a metropolitan6 literary career. “The time is peculiarly propitious,” Henry Sedgwick122 urged him from New York; “the Athen?um, just instituted, is exciting a sort of literary rage, and it is proposed to set up a journal in connection with it.” If his pen did not yield a full living, he could make an additional sum by giving lessons to foreigners in the English language and literature. Bryant willingly yielded. Leaving his wife and baby behind, he settled in a boarding house that spring, and became one of the two editors of the monthly New York Review, the first number of which appeared in June, 1825.
His arrival to reside in New York had attracted general notice. To all discerning lovers of literature in the city, and they were many, his best poems were well known. Verplanck had given his first volume a cordial review in the New York American, and when he had made a preliminary visit to the city in 1824 the Evening Post had reprinted “Thanatopsis” with a warm word of praise. At the homes of Sedgwick and Verplanck, the former a sort of Holland House for New York, Bryant was at once made acquainted with Fitzgreene Halleck and J. G. Percival, with the aspiring8 young poets Hillhouse and Robert Sands, with the artists S. F. B. Morse and Dunlap, with Chancellor9 Kent and President Duer of Columbia. We may be sure that Coleman, who was proud of his friendship with Brockden Brown and Irving, did not fail to seek out the young New Englander who had come from near his former home, and whose poem “Green River” celebrated10 a stream that Coleman knew well. On Nov. 16, 1825, the Evening Post republished from the New York Review Bryant’s “The Death of the Flowers,” on March 3, 1826, it took from a magazine his “To a Cloud,” and on June 11 it reprinted “The Song of Pitcairn’s Island”; while various flattering references were made to his work.
Yet Bryant’s position was a precarious11 and anxious one. He wrote his friend Dana that, relieved as he was to get out of his “shabby” profession as a lawyer, in which he had been shocked by a bad miscarriage12 of justice and by the petty wrangles13 in which he was involved, he was123 not sure that he had found a better. Reviewing books was not the most congenial of employments. His salary was at first $1,000 a year; but the Review drooped14, and after an effort had been made to bolster15 it up by amalgamation16 with two other periodicals, Bryant found himself in the early summer of 1826 co-editor of the United States Review and Literary Gazette, with a quarter ownership and a salary of only $500. His confidence in his ability to live by his pen was so shaken that he obtained a permit to practice law in the city courts, and was actually associated with Henry Sedgwick in a case.
At this juncture17, in the middle of June, William Coleman was thrown from his gig by a runaway18 horse. It was for a time doubted whether he would recover, and as he was confined to his room for ten weeks, it was necessary to find some one to assist his son on the Evening Post. A temporary position was offered Bryant, and Verplanck and others earnestly counselled him to take it. “The establishment is an extremely lucrative19 one,” wrote Bryant. “It is owned by two individuals—Mr. Coleman and Mr. Burnham. The profits are estimated at about thirty thousand dollars a year—fifteen to each proprietor20. This is better than poetry and magazines.”
Throughout July Bryant was busy upon the Evening Post; on Aug. 2 he wrote an account of the Columbia Commencement for it, criticizing the young speakers for confusing “will” and “shall”; and on Aug. 12 he furnished it two brief poetic21 translations, from Clement22 Marot and Dante, neither of which is included in his collected works. Immediately thereafter he set out on a trip to Boston, to bear to Richard H. Dana also an offer from the Evening Post of a permanent place on its staff, which Dana, after some hesitation23, refused. This trip was made possible by Coleman’s renewed attention to the journal. The poet’s absence gave the Evening Post an opportunity to speak highly of Bryant, whom it now considered a full staff-member. On Aug. 21–22 it republished his poem “The Two Graves” from the United States Review, writing of the accomplished24 author as one124 to whom, “by the general assent25 of the enlightened portion of his countrymen
Another evidence of the high esteem29 in which the newspaper held Bryant appeared when on Sept. 5 it translated from the Revue Encyclopedique of Paris a flattering notice of “the exquisite30 and finished beauty of the little poems from the pen of W. C. Bryant.” The French magazine credited “the poet of the Green River” with having destroyed “the too commonly received opinion that the moral and physical features of the New World are too cold and serene31 for the glorious visions of poetry.” In October Coleman spoke32 of the editors of the United States Review as “men whose labors33 heretofore have contributed so much to the elevation34 of the American character in the republic of letters”; and he reprinted Bryant’s “Mary Magdalene.” The poet returned from Boston via Cummington, and brought his wife with him to live.
It was made clear to readers that fall that there was a new and vigorous hand in the management of the journal. Coleman’s steady loss of health had been accompanied by a decline in the strength of his editorial utterances36. Moreover, he was an editor of the old school that had passed away with the era of good feeling, and that was now out of place. He liked to fight over old battles—he debated the Hartford Convention with Theodore Dwight, and the Florida Purchase with the National Advocate. His newspaper was neither Whig nor Democrat37, but might best be described as a Federalist sheet qualified38 by a mild attachment39 to Andrew Jackson. In the Presidential election of 1824 it had supported Crawford simply because Coleman hated John Quincy Adams as a traitor40 to Federalism. It was prosperous, for Michael Burnham, still an active man, saw to that. It had improved in many respects. In 1816 it had been enlarged to offer six columns to the page, instead of five, or twenty-four125 in all, and the amount of miscellaneous matter had increased; a short time earlier it had begun printing two editions, one at two and the other at four p. m.; in May, 1819, it had used its first news illustration, a rough drawing of “the velocipede, or swift-walker”; and in January, 1817, it had begun to make a very rare use of the first page for news. But the journal tended too much to look backward, not forward.
Bryant’s son-in-law and biographer, Parke Godwin, states that in the years 1826–29 we can trace his labors in the Evening Post in longer and better book reviews, more attention to art, clearer characterizations of public men, and frequent suggestions of reform in city affairs. This is in part misleading. The frequent suggestions for local improvements were an old feature of the journal, and did not become more numerous. Characterizations of public men were not often written nor were they important. More books were noticed, especially those of Bliss41 & White and the young firm of Harpers, because there were more books—the Post remarked that in the last three months of 1825 no less than 233 volumes had come from the American press, apart from periodicals, of which 137 were original American works; but mere43 notices were furnished, not reviews. More than once Bryant, who unmistakably penned these notices, apologizes for their brevity and sketchiness44 by saying that he had not had time to do more than glance through the book in hand. However, the frequency of these notices, and the inclusion of much literary gossip and book announcements, gave the newspaper an increased literary flavor.
There was, as Godwin says, more news of art, for Bryant was interested in painting, and supplied long critical descriptions of new canvases by Dunlap and Washington Allston, both his friends. There was an increased amount of news about Columbia College and those professors, Anthon, Da Ponte, and Henry J. Anderson, whom Bryant knew well. The English magazines and newspapers were read more diligently45, and interesting126 items from them grew in number. Bryant took in charge the filling of the upper left-hand corner of the news page with poetry, and we see fresher and better verse there—verse by Thomas Hood46, Bishop47 Heber, Hartley Coleridge, and other Englishmen who preceded Tennyson and Browning. The poet wrote some fresh little essays; as editor of the United States Review, for example, he had compiled a curious article from an old colonial file of the New York Gazette, and he made another on the same topic equally curious, for the Evening Post. A few of the essays were satirical—e.g., one of April 23, 1828, dealing48 with the fashion of indiscriminate puffery that had grown up in dramatic criticism.
Between 1826 and his departure upon a trip to Europe in June, 1834, Bryant—with one exception to be noted49 later—wrote no signed verse for the Evening Post, reserving his few productions, since he was too busy for much poetical50 composition, for the magazines and annuals. But several effusions from his pen can nevertheless be identified. In the first two months of 1829 the town was much interested by the courageous51 woman lecturer, one of the first of the long line which has struggled to enlarge woman’s sphere, Miss Fanny Wright. Bryant, as his letters show, wrote the rather scornful ode to this free-thinking disciple52 of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, which appeared in the issue of Jan. 29:
127
Thou wonder of the age, from whom
Her quiet death, her euthanasia,
* * * * *
O ’tis a glorious sight for us,
While Col. Stone, the learn’d and brave,
Hangs on the words that leave thy mouth,
In that rich stream of eloquence,
And notes thy teachings, to repeat
Their wisdom in his classic sheet ...
Another bit of verse, a short political satire61 (March 25, 1831), is identifiable by the fact that it is signed “Q,” the initial Bryant used for dramatic criticism, and that it is marked as his in the files presented by the Evening Post to the Lenox Collection. Called “The Bee in the Tar62 Barrel,” it represents the buzzings of the National Gazette—Henry Clay’s organ in New York—over the tariff63, the removal of the Cherokees, and other current topics:
I heard a bee, on a summer day,
Brisk, and busy, and ripe for quarrel—
Do you ask what his buzzing was all about?
And the topics he chose were all political ...
Bryant also is probably to be credited with several of the last New Year’s addresses of the carriers, long rhymed reviews of the year’s events which were then expected annually68. He could have tossed off more easily than any one else in the office such hexameters as the following (Jan. 2, 1829):
Since New Year’s day came last about,
The Emperor Nicholas sent out
Cossack, and Pole, and Muscovite,
To give the Turks a castigation70,
Such as they ne’er had since creation.
They passed the Pruth in fine condition,
And meeting no great opposition71,
They thought to make their winter quarters
By Hellespont’s resounding72 waters ...
There are frequently unsigned poems of a serious character128 in the Evening Post during these years, but nine in ten are so poor that it is impossible to believe that Bryant wrote them. Now and then occurs one which might be his; such, for example, are the translations of lyrics73 from the German of Gleim which appeared on Nov. 13, 1827, and Dec. 2, 1828. Bryant did not claim all of his poems in even the United States Review; it has been assumed of these, and it may be assumed of any lost in the Evening Post files, that they were not worth claiming.
As a young man, Bryant took his journalistic duties light-heartedly, and one of his distinctive74 contributions lay in his literary hoaxes76. He and his close friend Robert C. Sands, a talented young assistant of Col. Stone in editing the Commercial Advertiser, delighted in them. “Did you see a learned article in the Evening Post the other day about Pope Alexander VI and C?sar Borgia?” he wrote Gulian Verplanck, then a Congressman77 in Washington. “Matt. Patterson undertook to be saucy78 in the Commercial as to a Latin quotation79 in it, so we—i. e., Sands and myself—sent him on a fool’s errand.” The editor of the Commercial had corrected the Evening Post’s Latin, and Bryant had replied as follows, inventing the authority he cited:
As to the Latin of the phrase, “Vides, mi fili, quam parva sapientia gubernatur mundus,” he affirms that it is not good. He says that it should be, “Vides, mi fili, quantilla sapientia regitur mundus.” He adds, however, that it was not said by any of the Popes, but by some great statesman, whose name he does not give, probably because he does not know it. As to the correctness of the Latin, that is no business of ours.... If any of the Popes spoke bad Latin, two or three hundred years before we were born, it should be recollected80 that it was not in our power to help it. As to the fact of the phrase being made use of by one of the Popes, we will only say to the writer in the Commercial, that if he will consult the work entitled Virorum Illustrium Reliqui?, collected by the learned Reisch and published at the Hague, by John and Daniel Steucker, in 1650, a work well known to scholars, he will find that the words, as we have quoted them, were addressed by Pope Alexander VI to his son C?sar Borgia.
129 Upon a more elaborate hoax75 Bryant and Sands were assisted by Professors Anderson and Da Ponte—“a very learned jeu d’esprit,” he called it. It was a long letter to the Evening Post signed John Smith, in which they took a familiar couplet and translated it through all the principal tongues, ancient and modern, even into several Indian languages. It is hard to believe that these erudite quips had a large audience; but Bryant’s ode to Fanny Wright was much admired, and was generally attributed to Halleck, until that gentleman disclaimed81 it. In these high-spirited productions we see a side of Bryant that largely disappeared under his growing cares and the dignity that increased with his celebrity82. We see the Bryant who used to meet with Verplanck and Sands at the house of the latter’s father in the hamlet of Hoboken, and make it ring with declamation83 and uproarious laughter. We see the poet-editor who used to throw off all anxieties and go for long walks, studying nature or chatting with companions, and who once at an evening party apologized for his fatigue84 by explaining that he had covered the road from Haverstraw to New York, nearly forty miles, that day. Bryant had his fun-loving side, and the few men whom he found closely congenial had no reason to complain of his coldness, as others often did.
But the new editor’s most effective impress upon the Evening Post was in its political and economic utterances. The journal had already inclined toward a low-tariff policy, for the commercial community of New York opposed protection; but its editorials upon this subject, as upon many others, were feeble. Bryant in the years 1822–24 had been led by his friends the Sedgwicks to study the British economists85, Adam Smith, Thornton, and Ricardo, and the debates upon tariff questions prominent in Parliament about 1820. Theodore Sedgwick was a pronounced advocate of free trade, and completely converted Bryant. From the young man’s convictions upon this subject flowed his attachment to Jackson as an opponent of protection and monopoly, and his intense dislike of Clay, the leading advocate of the so-called American130 tariff system. He had once been a Federalist, and as a boy had written a hot Federalist poem, “The Embargo,” but his free-trade views now fast made him an ardent86 Democrat. His sympathies in commercial legislation were not with his native New England, but with the South.
Martin Van Buren writes in his Autobiography87 regarding the “American” or protective tariff theories that “To the very exposition of the system and the persistent88 assaults upon its injustice89, and impolicy by the New York Evening Post, the country is more indebted for its final overthrow90, in this State [New York] at least, than to any other single influence.” This was true. Bryant, who was to oppose protection till his death in 1878, lost no time in 1826 in aligning91 the journal against the legislation then proposed for higher duties upon woolens93. He characterized the act of 1824 as “our last and worst” tariff, and that autumn supported his friend Verplanck, with C. C. Cambreleng and Jeromus Johnson, for city seats in Congress as “the avowed94 opponents of restrictive and prohibitory laws.” On Nov. 16 he wrote concerning the woolens bill:
From 1815 to the present day the demands of our manufacturers have been incessant95; and the more bounty96 they receive, the more exorbitant97 their claims. It is time that they should be taught to wait, as other branches of industry do, for that revival98 of trade which can alone give them relief.... If the woolen92 manufactures have grown with unnatural99 rapidity during the last ten years, no legislative100 remedy can be applied101; it is an evil which in every branch of industry periodically finds its own remedy. All acquainted with the subject know that our manufacturing is our most profitable branch of industry, and we trust Congress will no longer continue to pamper102 capitalists so highly favored by circumstances.
Almost alone among the Northern newspapers—the Providence103 Journal was its most important ally—the Evening Post unsuccessfully combated the tariff of 1828. The newspaper ascribed to it the Paterson textile strike of 1828, and predicted that these industrial outbreaks131 would yet equal the Manchester and Birmingham riots. In 1830 it asked where were the busy thousands who had once been employed in the city’s shipyards, along the docks, or in establishments for fitting out vessels104. A few half-idle men were left; the rest, thanks to the tariff, were “in the miserable105 abodes106 of poverty, or in the poorhouse.” John Jacob Astor early in 1831 asked for a higher duty upon furs, declaring that he was undersold in the Eastern market by British traders who possessed107 an advantage in dealing with the Indians. The blankets, strouds, and garments which the savages108 liked were not made in the United States, but had to be imported from England and to pay a heavy duty, so that the Canadian fur agents could offer much more than the Americans for pelts109. The Evening Post pounced110 upon this as an argument not for a tariff upon furs, but for abating111 the tariff on blankets and clothing.
Naturally, in 1828 the Post supported Jackson against J. Q. Adams for the Presidency112, Bryant adding new reasons to those Coleman had used against Adams four years earlier. He represented the section that clamored for protection, while Jackson was for a lower tariff. Under the urgings of Senator Rufus King a decade before, the Post had said hard things about Jackson, but now it praised him for his long public service, for his Roman strength of will, and for his clearsighted political tenets. When he became President, it supported his Indian policy; it urged him on, as we shall see later, in his determination to crush the United States Bank. The tariff act of 1832, carrying a moderate reduction of duties, it naturally applauded. It was a compromise bill, Bryant admitted. “Yet a large majority of the friends of free trade are satisfied with it, because although not what they would have it, it is still a positive good, it simplifies the collection of the revenue, it removes many of the embarrassments113 in the way of the fair trader, it diminishes the temptation to smuggling114, and it is an approach, if nothing more, to a fair and equal system of duties.”
132 While giving the Evening Post a clear-cut, courageous tariff policy, Bryant did much else with the editorial page. Early in 1827 he came out with a far more ringing denunciation of lotteries115 than it had before printed, and in August he induced it to announce that it would accept no more advertisements relating directly or indirectly116 to tickets in them. During the same year, following a number of business failures in the city, he wrote in advocacy of a comprehensive national bankruptcy117 act, such as was not passed till near the end of the century. To his surprise, merchants frowned on the proposal, and the Evening Post was left, in his expressive118 words, “like a public actor who believes he has just said something highly to the purpose, and looks around for applause, but meets only hisses119.” Later, in 1837, Van Buren formally recommended a general bankruptcy law to Congress, but again it met with no favor. A number of steamboat accidents caused the journal to press for legislation punishing criminal carelessness and manslaughter by fitting penitentiary120 sentences. It took up with zeal121, following Jackson’s inaugural122 message, the Administration’s campaign against the policy of national aid to internal improvements, for Bryant regarded such gifts to special local and political interests as an evil almost as great as protective tariff.
When the first rumblings of nullification were heard from South Carolina in 1829, the Evening Post refused to follow those newspapers which treated the subject flippantly. “Every man of common sense must know that if but a single stave is withdrawn123 from the barrel, it inevitably124 tumbles to pieces,” Bryant warned his readers; “and that whatever be the dimensions of the stave withdrawn, the catastrophe125 is equally sure and fatal.” It was impossible for the journal not to sympathize with the hot-tempered South Carolinians who wanted to destroy the application of the tariff of 1828 to their State. It thought that Col. Hayne was no more wrong about the Constitution than the turncoat Webster was wrong about the tariff; but it warned Calhoun’s and Hayne’s followers126 that their project was “insane”:
133
It is the destiny of all republics to be agitated127 occasionally by the desperate plans of disappointed and ambitious men, resolved to rule or ruin. Such might succeed with a corrupt128 people, but not in our intelligent and free land. Public opinion has indignantly rejected every proposition to dismember our confederacy, and has pronounced a just judgment129 on those who prefer themselves to their country—we have already among us more than one blasted monument of selfish ambition. The wreck130 of our republic is not yet at hand—the people’s devotion to the union is invincible131, and the same verdict awaits every man, whether of the North, the South, the East, or the West, who would dare to violate its integrity. (Aug. 29, 1832.)
Whether applauding Jackson as he sternly recalled South Carolina to its senses, or attacking the protectionist doctrines132, Bryant tried to open his editorials with a flash of humor or an apposite story. When the American delayed a twelvemonth in apologizing for an insult to Jackson, he told the anecdote133 of the worthy134 widow whose husband had been dead for seven years and who declared that she could stand it no longer. The opponent who sighed for the time when the Administration would go into a state of “retiracy” reminded him of the Irishman who had rushed for a map when he learned that Napoleon had taken Umbrage135. An exchange with a discourteous136 antagonist137 recalled the member of the House of Commons who, having said that a colleague was not fit to carry guts138 to a bear, and being required to apologize, stated: “I retract—you are fit to carry guts to a bear.” During 1831 many Americans were boasting of having known Louis Philippe when he was an expatriate in this country; and in rebuke139 to their snobbery140, the editor spoke of the man who was proud of having been noticed by a king—the king had said, “Get out of my way, you scoundrel!” Bryant wrote laboriously141, not fluently, and made so many corrections that his copy was often almost illegible142; but he wrote with polish.
Coleman’s health after his runaway accident steadily143 failed. He had wholly lost the use of his lower limbs, and Bryant tells us that his appearance was remarkable144. “He134 was of a full make, with a broad chest, muscular arms, which he wielded145 lightly and easily, and a deep-toned voice; but his legs dangled146 like strings147.” The National Journal of July, 1827, commented upon his declining strength, in April and June, 1828, Evening Post readers were told that he was confined to his home, and on July 14, 1829, he died. Bryant instantly became, what he had previously148 been in all but name, editor-in-chief. Some assistance was needed, for Coleman’s son, though a man of literary tastes, did not wish to enter the office. In 1827 a share in the newspaper had been offered to Robert Sands, but after some hesitation he had declined it. Now an editorial position, and the opportunity of becoming part owner, was tendered William Leggett, a spirited young reformer who had been connected with the Morning Chronicle, and more recently had been editor of a frail149 weekly called the Critic, the final numbers of which he had not only written but set up, printed, and delivered himself. He gladly accepted.
Within four and a half years of coming to the city a literary adventurer, Bryant had thus become editor of one of its oldest and most prosperous journals. He had done this not because he had an inborn150 tendency to journalism, not because he wished to make a newspaper the sounding board for certain ideas or doctrines, but chiefly because he could not live by pure literature, and because the bar, for which he was in many ways well equipped, did not please him. But he did bring to the newspaper great ability and high ideals. No American editor of importance had made such use of the editorial page as he began to make. He had a love of freedom, a sense of justice, and a shrewd judgment of men and affairs, which his retiring nature debarred him from bringing into play in any other way. As an editor, this shy, unsocial man could work at arm’s length for the benefit of the people and nation, and except at arm’s length he could have had no public career at all. He was willing to toil151 hard in his chosen calling, and for many years to push poetry, though upon poetry alone he relied for enduring fame, into a135 secondary position. He had a keen sense of the dignity that should belong to his profession, and by word as well as example preached against that use of epithet152 and insult which was then common in it. In one of his early essays he deplored153 the character of many journalists:
Yet the vocation154 of a newspaper editor is a useful and indispensable, and, if rightly exercised, a noble vocation. It possesses this essential element of dignity—that they who are engaged in it are occupied with questions of the highest importance to the happiness of mankind. We cannot see, for our part, why it should not attract men of the first talents and the most exalted155 virtues156. Why should not the discussions of the daily press demand as strong reasoning powers, as large and comprehensive ideas, as profound an acquaintance with principles, eloquence as commanding, and a style of argument as manly157 and elevated, as the debates of the Senate?
Once established in full charge of the Evening Post, with a capable lieutenant158, he was able to make rapid, far-reaching, and profitable improvements in the form of the journal. In 1829 it was still closely akin1 to the Evening Post of 1801—four pages of six columns each, much smaller than newspaper pages of to-day, dingily159 printed and ineffectively made up. When he left for Europe five years later the four pages had seven columns each, and were much larger than present-day pages—great blanket papers. Old John Randolph of Roanoke wrote Bryant complaining that these expansive sheets crinkled so badly in the mail that he had to have his housekeeper160 iron them out. But the results of the enlargement were an enhanced revenue from advertisements, and a rise of the subscription161 list, at $10 a year, above 2,000. In 1834 the management boasted that the journal had never been in a more prosperous condition, and that not three other papers in the city were so productive. The whole number of employees, including those in the mechanical departments, was then thirty.
When Bryant wrote his wife in 1826 that the Evening Post’s profits were $30,000 a year, he overestimated136 them; its gross receipts were only that much. But Bryant’s share in the newspaper, which was at first one-eighth, which in 1830 became one-fourth, in 1832 was one-third of seven-eighths, and in 1833 was a full third, sufficed to free him from all money cares at once, and within a short time to make him prosperous. The journal’s books were balanced each year on Nov. 16, the anniversary of its founding. On that date in 1829, it was found that the net profits were $10,544, of which Bryant’s one-eighth made $1,318.04. The next year the net profits had risen to $13,466, and Bryant’s quarter share was $3,366.51. In 1831 there was a further increase to $14,429, making Bryant’s income $3,507.24. A heavy slump162 occurred the following twelvemonth, cutting the net profits to $10,220, and the poet’s share to $2,980.99, but this was only temporary. For the half-year alone ending May 16, 1833—the figures for the full year are lost—the profits were $6,000.35, making Bryant’s income for six months exactly $2,000; and for the full year which closed Nov. 16, 1834, his one-third share yielded no less than $4,646.20. In those days an income of $4,000 or above was handsome, and Bryant was able to sail in the summer of 1834 with a full purse.
The literary world, however, looked with cold disapproval163 upon Bryant’s entrance into the newspaper field, which it believed was occupied by cheap political controversialists, and thought offered an atmosphere hostile to poetry. It found confirmation164 for this attitude in the marked slackening of Bryant’s productiveness as a poet. Of the whole quantity of verse which he wrote during his long lifetime, about 13,000 lines, approximately one-third had been composed before 1829. During 1830 he wrote but thirty lines, during 1831 but sixty, in 1832 only two hundred and twenty-two, and in 1833 apparently165 none at all; nor was his verse of this period in his best vein166. He was too completely occupied in mastering his new calling to cultivate the muse167.
“Would that Mr. Bryant was employed in writing poetry ... and sending back his thoughts to the streams137 and mountains which his young eyes were familiar with, and from which he drank his first inspiration!” lamented168 a writer in the New England Magazine for 1831. “But alas169! he is busied about far other things, and what he is writing, is as little like poetry, as Gen. Jackson is like Apollo.” This writer had called on the editor in his little Pine Street office. “He is a man rather under the middle height than otherwise, with bright blue eyes and an ample forehead, but not very distinguished170 either in face or person,” we are told. “His manners are quiet and unassuming, and marked with a slight dash of diffidence; and his conversation (when he does converse171, for he is more used to thinking than talking), is remarkably172 free from pretension173, and is characterized by good sense rather than genius.” Why could he not have remained a lawyer in Great Barrington, amid his Berkshire hills and brooks174?
We cannot close this notice without again expressing our sorrow at the nature of Mr. Bryant’s present occupation, and that a man capable of writing poetry to make so many hearts throb175, and so many eyes glisten176 with delight, should be lending himself to an employment in which the greater the success the more occasion there is for regret, for it must arise from the exertion177 of those very qualities which we are least willing a poet should possess. “’Tis strange, ’tis passing strange, ’tis pitiful, that” he should hang up his own cunning harp42 upon the willows178, and take to blowing a brazen179 and discordant180 trumpet181 in the ranks of faction182.
An early number of the Southern Literary Messenger regretted that Bryant was to be found “dashing in the political vortex” with those who “engage in party squabbles.” The New York Courier and Enquirer183, in an utterance35 of 1832 which is to be discounted because of editorial jealousy184, remarked that “he has embarked185 in a pursuit not suited to his genius and utterly186 at variance187 with all his studies and habits of mind. We wish him a better fate than can ever be his while doomed188 to follow a business for which he has not a solitary189 qualification, and compelled to give utterance to sentiments he most cordially despises.”
138 To a certain extent Bryant agreed with these writers. He did not believe journalism an unworthy or undignified occupation. In the Evening Post of July 30, 1830, he gave reasons for holding the contrary opinion, descanting upon the value of the opportunity to guide the thinking of thousands. “In combating error in all shapes and disguises,” he wrote, it was ample compensation for an editor’s trials “to perceive that you are understood by the intelligent, and appreciated by the candid190, and that truth and correct principles are gradually extending their sway through your efforts.” But he had no attachment as yet to the editorial career, he wanted with all his heart to have leisure for pure literature, and he meant to get out of the newspaper office as quickly and finally as possible. He bracketed it with the law as a “wrangling profession,” and talked of being chained to the oar7. Always fond of travel, he escaped from his desk after 1830 as much as he possibly could. In January, 1832, he took a trip to Washington, making the establishment of a regular Washington correspondence his excuse, and had a conversation of three quarters of an hour there with Jackson. That spring he made an excursion to Illinois, to visit his brothers. During the summer of 1833 he went to Montreal and Quebec. When he took passage abroad on June 24, 1834, he hoped that the business capacity of Michael Burnham and the editorial capacity of William Leggett would make anything but intermittent191 attention by him to the Evening Post thenceforth unnecessary. “I have been employed long enough with the management of a daily newspaper, and desire leisure for literary occupations that I love better,” he later wrote his brother. “It was not my intention when I went to Europe to return to the business of conducting a newspaper.” He hoped that his third share would support him.
How these expectations were suddenly wrecked192, and how Bryant was brought back by harsh necessity to rescue the Evening Post from ruin, is a dramatic story.
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adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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4 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
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5 justify | |
vt.证明…正当(或有理),为…辩护 | |
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6 metropolitan | |
adj.大城市的,大都会的 | |
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7 oar | |
n.桨,橹,划手;v.划行 | |
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8 aspiring | |
adj.有志气的;有抱负的;高耸的v.渴望;追求 | |
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9 chancellor | |
n.(英)大臣;法官;(德、奥)总理;大学校长 | |
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10 celebrated | |
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的 | |
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11 precarious | |
adj.不安定的,靠不住的;根据不足的 | |
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12 miscarriage | |
n.失败,未达到预期的结果;流产 | |
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13 wrangles | |
n.(尤指长时间的)激烈争吵,口角,吵嘴( wrangle的名词复数 )v.争吵,争论,口角( wrangle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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14 drooped | |
弯曲或下垂,发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15 bolster | |
n.枕垫;v.支持,鼓励 | |
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16 amalgamation | |
n.合并,重组;;汞齐化 | |
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17 juncture | |
n.时刻,关键时刻,紧要关头 | |
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18 runaway | |
n.逃走的人,逃亡,亡命者;adj.逃亡的,逃走的 | |
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19 lucrative | |
adj.赚钱的,可获利的 | |
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20 proprietor | |
n.所有人;业主;经营者 | |
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21 poetic | |
adj.富有诗意的,有诗人气质的,善于抒情的 | |
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22 clement | |
adj.仁慈的;温和的 | |
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23 hesitation | |
n.犹豫,踌躇 | |
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24 accomplished | |
adj.有才艺的;有造诣的;达到了的 | |
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25 assent | |
v.批准,认可;n.批准,认可 | |
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26 laurels | |
n.桂冠,荣誉 | |
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27 trophies | |
n.(为竞赛获胜者颁发的)奖品( trophy的名词复数 );奖杯;(尤指狩猎或战争中获得的)纪念品;(用于比赛或赛跑名称)奖 | |
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28 triumphant | |
adj.胜利的,成功的;狂欢的,喜悦的 | |
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29 esteem | |
n.尊敬,尊重;vt.尊重,敬重;把…看作 | |
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30 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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31 serene | |
adj. 安详的,宁静的,平静的 | |
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32 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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33 labors | |
v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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34 elevation | |
n.高度;海拔;高地;上升;提高 | |
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35 utterance | |
n.用言语表达,话语,言语 | |
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36 utterances | |
n.发声( utterance的名词复数 );说话方式;语调;言论 | |
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37 democrat | |
n.民主主义者,民主人士;民主党党员 | |
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38 qualified | |
adj.合格的,有资格的,胜任的,有限制的 | |
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39 attachment | |
n.附属物,附件;依恋;依附 | |
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40 traitor | |
n.叛徒,卖国贼 | |
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41 bliss | |
n.狂喜,福佑,天赐的福 | |
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42 harp | |
n.竖琴;天琴座 | |
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43 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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44 sketchiness | |
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45 diligently | |
ad.industriously;carefully | |
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46 hood | |
n.头巾,兜帽,覆盖;v.罩上,以头巾覆盖 | |
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47 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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48 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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49 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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50 poetical | |
adj.似诗人的;诗一般的;韵文的;富有诗意的 | |
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51 courageous | |
adj.勇敢的,有胆量的 | |
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52 disciple | |
n.信徒,门徒,追随者 | |
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53 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
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54 eloquence | |
n.雄辩;口才,修辞 | |
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55 beholds | |
v.看,注视( behold的第三人称单数 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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56 gaping | |
adj.口的;张口的;敞口的;多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 );张开,张大 | |
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57 throng | |
n.人群,群众;v.拥挤,群集 | |
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58 dispense | |
vt.分配,分发;配(药),发(药);实施 | |
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59 atlas | |
n.地图册,图表集 | |
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60 slaking | |
n.熟化v.满足( slake的现在分词 ) | |
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61 satire | |
n.讽刺,讽刺文学,讽刺作品 | |
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62 tar | |
n.柏油,焦油;vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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63 tariff | |
n.关税,税率;(旅馆、饭店等)价目表,收费表 | |
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64 bustling | |
adj.喧闹的 | |
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65 fragrant | |
adj.芬香的,馥郁的,愉快的 | |
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66 wondrous | |
adj.令人惊奇的,奇妙的;adv.惊人地;异乎寻常地;令人惊叹地 | |
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67 flout | |
v./n.嘲弄,愚弄,轻视 | |
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68 annually | |
adv.一年一次,每年 | |
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69 potent | |
adj.强有力的,有权势的;有效力的 | |
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70 castigation | |
n.申斥,强烈反对 | |
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71 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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72 resounding | |
adj. 响亮的 | |
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73 lyrics | |
n.歌词 | |
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74 distinctive | |
adj.特别的,有特色的,与众不同的 | |
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75 hoax | |
v.欺骗,哄骗,愚弄;n.愚弄人,恶作剧 | |
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76 hoaxes | |
n.恶作剧,戏弄( hoax的名词复数 )v.开玩笑骗某人,戏弄某人( hoax的第三人称单数 ) | |
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77 Congressman | |
n.(美)国会议员 | |
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78 saucy | |
adj.无礼的;俊俏的;活泼的 | |
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79 quotation | |
n.引文,引语,语录;报价,牌价,行情 | |
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80 recollected | |
adj.冷静的;镇定的;被回忆起的;沉思默想的v.记起,想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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81 disclaimed | |
v.否认( disclaim的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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82 celebrity | |
n.名人,名流;著名,名声,名望 | |
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83 declamation | |
n. 雄辩,高调 | |
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84 fatigue | |
n.疲劳,劳累 | |
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85 economists | |
n.经济学家,经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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86 ardent | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,强烈的,烈性的 | |
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87 autobiography | |
n.自传 | |
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88 persistent | |
adj.坚持不懈的,执意的;持续的 | |
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89 injustice | |
n.非正义,不公正,不公平,侵犯(别人的)权利 | |
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90 overthrow | |
v.推翻,打倒,颠覆;n.推翻,瓦解,颠覆 | |
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91 aligning | |
n. (直线)对准 动词align的现在分词形式 | |
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92 woolen | |
adj.羊毛(制)的;毛纺的 | |
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93 woolens | |
毛织品,毛料织物; 毛织品,羊毛织物,毛料衣服( woolen的名词复数 ) | |
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94 avowed | |
adj.公开声明的,承认的v.公开声明,承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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95 incessant | |
adj.不停的,连续的 | |
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96 bounty | |
n.慷慨的赠予物,奖金;慷慨,大方;施与 | |
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97 exorbitant | |
adj.过分的;过度的 | |
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98 revival | |
n.复兴,复苏,(精力、活力等的)重振 | |
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99 unnatural | |
adj.不自然的;反常的 | |
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100 legislative | |
n.立法机构,立法权;adj.立法的,有立法权的 | |
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101 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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102 pamper | |
v.纵容,过分关怀 | |
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103 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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104 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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105 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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106 abodes | |
住所( abode的名词复数 ); 公寓; (在某地的)暂住; 逗留 | |
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107 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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108 savages | |
未开化的人,野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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109 pelts | |
n. 皮毛,投掷, 疾行 vt. 剥去皮毛,(连续)投掷 vi. 猛击,大步走 | |
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110 pounced | |
v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 );猛扑;一眼看出;抓住机会(进行抨击) | |
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111 abating | |
减少( abate的现在分词 ); 减去; 降价; 撤消(诉讼) | |
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112 presidency | |
n.总统(校长,总经理)的职位(任期) | |
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113 embarrassments | |
n.尴尬( embarrassment的名词复数 );难堪;局促不安;令人难堪或耻辱的事 | |
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114 smuggling | |
n.走私 | |
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115 lotteries | |
n.抽彩给奖法( lottery的名词复数 );碰运气的事;彩票;彩券 | |
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116 indirectly | |
adv.间接地,不直接了当地 | |
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117 bankruptcy | |
n.破产;无偿付能力 | |
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118 expressive | |
adj.表现的,表达…的,富于表情的 | |
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119 hisses | |
嘶嘶声( hiss的名词复数 ) | |
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120 penitentiary | |
n.感化院;监狱 | |
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121 zeal | |
n.热心,热情,热忱 | |
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122 inaugural | |
adj.就职的;n.就职典礼 | |
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123 withdrawn | |
vt.收回;使退出;vi.撤退,退出 | |
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124 inevitably | |
adv.不可避免地;必然发生地 | |
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125 catastrophe | |
n.大灾难,大祸 | |
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126 followers | |
追随者( follower的名词复数 ); 用户; 契据的附面; 从动件 | |
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127 agitated | |
adj.被鼓动的,不安的 | |
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128 corrupt | |
v.贿赂,收买;adj.腐败的,贪污的 | |
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129 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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130 wreck | |
n.失事,遇难;沉船;vt.(船等)失事,遇难 | |
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131 invincible | |
adj.不可征服的,难以制服的 | |
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132 doctrines | |
n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 );教义;学说;(政府政策的)正式声明 | |
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133 anecdote | |
n.轶事,趣闻,短故事 | |
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134 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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135 umbrage | |
n.不快;树荫 | |
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136 discourteous | |
adj.不恭的,不敬的 | |
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137 antagonist | |
n.敌人,对抗者,对手 | |
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138 guts | |
v.狼吞虎咽,贪婪地吃,飞碟游戏(比赛双方每组5人,相距15码,互相掷接飞碟);毁坏(建筑物等)的内部( gut的第三人称单数 );取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 );内脏;消化道的下段;肠 | |
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139 rebuke | |
v.指责,非难,斥责 [反]praise | |
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140 snobbery | |
n. 充绅士气派, 俗不可耐的性格 | |
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141 laboriously | |
adv.艰苦地;费力地;辛勤地;(文体等)佶屈聱牙地 | |
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142 illegible | |
adj.难以辨认的,字迹模糊的 | |
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143 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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144 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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145 wielded | |
手持着使用(武器、工具等)( wield的过去式和过去分词 ); 具有; 运用(权力); 施加(影响) | |
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146 dangled | |
悬吊着( dangle的过去式和过去分词 ); 摆动不定; 用某事物诱惑…; 吊胃口 | |
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147 strings | |
n.弦 | |
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148 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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149 frail | |
adj.身体虚弱的;易损坏的 | |
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150 inborn | |
adj.天生的,生来的,先天的 | |
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151 toil | |
vi.辛劳工作,艰难地行动;n.苦工,难事 | |
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152 epithet | |
n.(用于褒贬人物等的)表述形容词,修饰语 | |
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153 deplored | |
v.悲叹,痛惜,强烈反对( deplore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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154 vocation | |
n.职业,行业 | |
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155 exalted | |
adj.(地位等)高的,崇高的;尊贵的,高尚的 | |
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156 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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157 manly | |
adj.有男子气概的;adv.男子般地,果断地 | |
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158 lieutenant | |
n.陆军中尉,海军上尉;代理官员,副职官员 | |
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159 dingily | |
adv.暗黑地,邋遢地 | |
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160 housekeeper | |
n.管理家务的主妇,女管家 | |
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161 subscription | |
n.预订,预订费,亲笔签名,调配法,下标(处方) | |
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162 slump | |
n.暴跌,意气消沉,(土地)下沉;vi.猛然掉落,坍塌,大幅度下跌 | |
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163 disapproval | |
n.反对,不赞成 | |
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164 confirmation | |
n.证实,确认,批准 | |
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165 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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166 vein | |
n.血管,静脉;叶脉,纹理;情绪;vt.使成脉络 | |
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167 muse | |
n.缪斯(希腊神话中的女神),创作灵感 | |
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168 lamented | |
adj.被哀悼的,令人遗憾的v.(为…)哀悼,痛哭,悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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169 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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170 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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171 converse | |
vi.谈话,谈天,闲聊;adv.相反的,相反 | |
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172 remarkably | |
ad.不同寻常地,相当地 | |
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173 pretension | |
n.要求;自命,自称;自负 | |
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174 brooks | |
n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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175 throb | |
v.震颤,颤动;(急速强烈地)跳动,搏动 | |
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176 glisten | |
vi.(光洁或湿润表面等)闪闪发光,闪闪发亮 | |
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177 exertion | |
n.尽力,努力 | |
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178 willows | |
n.柳树( willow的名词复数 );柳木 | |
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179 brazen | |
adj.厚脸皮的,无耻的,坚硬的 | |
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180 discordant | |
adj.不调和的 | |
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181 trumpet | |
n.喇叭,喇叭声;v.吹喇叭,吹嘘 | |
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182 faction | |
n.宗派,小集团;派别;派系斗争 | |
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183 enquirer | |
寻问者,追究者 | |
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184 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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185 embarked | |
乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 ); 装载; 从事 | |
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186 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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187 variance | |
n.矛盾,不同 | |
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188 doomed | |
命定的 | |
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189 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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190 candid | |
adj.公正的,正直的;坦率的 | |
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191 intermittent | |
adj.间歇的,断断续续的 | |
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192 wrecked | |
adj.失事的,遇难的 | |
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