LANGUAGES OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE : : ::: An Inaugural Address by HENRY WADsworth LonGFELLOW Professor of Modern Languages PREFATORY NOTE AMONG the treasured books in Bowdoin College Library is a well worn copy of Horace, used by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow during his college course. From its pages, tradition tells us, he made one day so brilliant a rendering of an ode, that a prominent trustee, Hon. Benjamin Orr, present in his capacity of examining committee, never forgot the circumstance. In September, 1825, the trustees by formal vote established a professorship for instruction in the modern languages of Europe, and informally decided, at the suggestion of Mr. Orr, to ask Longfellow, now known to many of them as a youth of marked literary tastes and unusual ability, to prepare himself to discharge its duties. With what zeal and pleasure he made preparation, we may read between the lines in Outre Mer. Four years later he began his brief, but successful, service as a teacher in his Alma Mater. Required study of the modern languages was then unusual in New England colleges. Most institutions merely recommended certain resident foreigners as competent teachers from whom undergraduates might receive instruction at their own ex |