Among My Books. First Series

Book excerpt: "Among My Books. First Series" is a collection of literary essays by James Russell Lowell. Lowell was an American poet, essayist, and diplomat who was associated with the literary movement known as the Fireside Poets. Excerpt: "The "first sprightly running" of Dryden's vintage was, it must be confessed, a little muddy, if not beery; but if his own soil did not produce grapes of the choicest flavor, he knew where they were to be had; and his product, like sound wine, grew better the longer it stood upon the lees. He tells us, evidently thinking of himself, that in a poet, "from fifty to threescore, the balance generally holds even in our colder climates, for he loses not much in fancy, and judgment, which is the effect of observation, still increases."