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Show N. P. WILLIS. Though born in Portland, he was bred mostly in Boston, and yet he was one of the most unYankee characters I ever met. He did not well affiliate with our free and easy democracy, rather holding himself aloof from the every-day contact of persons whose taste and pursuits were not in accordance with his own. In conversation Mr. Willis was generally easy and communicative, but certainly not suggestive in thought, though very much so in fancy. To women he uttered graceful nothings, and as they cost him no effort he did not over-estimate them. He paid courteous respect to me as he did all others, often uttering elegant compliments, which might have half turned the head of a vain woman, but to a woman who mothers a great pride, or mothers a great sorrow, these pretty sayings are regarded as the fine fencing of a practical master of the foils. I think men like a woman who can receive a compliment gracefully but not too seriously. "I am most happy," I once said to Willis, "in that I suggest compliment; I provoke men to the exhibition of their affluent store of fancy; I imagine I am like a military wax figure designed for the exhibition of beautiful fabrics." "How foolish we all are!" he replied, "to lavish incense upon a shrine that never yields a response." "That is too finished a paragraph to be lost, Mr. Willis; put it your next book. Why cannot writers give us their real compliments in their books? That would be far finer than what we read there." "In the closet we lack the inspiration of fine eyes and speaking faces; the best things written are from the reminiscences of an evening like this, when we are able to recall the most fleeting thing in the world, a woman's smile." "I imagine, Mr. Willis, you have never quite done your genius justice - you have never been quite enough in earnest, pardon me, to accomplish all you are capable of doing." "There you do me more than justice. I have really been a very diligent man, and have made the best of myself. From the first, I weighed my capacity, and estimated what I was able to perform; I have kept within my limits, and made the most of the field in which I am best capable of moving." "You are not pretentious, I am sure; and it seems to me your estimate of yourself is too moderate." "I think not; I think I have achieved more from this determination I made early in life to keep within my prescribed bounds." "Ay, but it narrows the sphere and represses aspiration." "This vague tendency of the mind is a barrier to achievement. I determined to represent a phase in American society which was apt to be not only neglected but treated with contempt, namely the refined, the fashionable, if you will, in contradistinction to that hard national utilitarianism so prevalent among us. I have succeeded, and have shown that there is much that is desirable to foster and cultivate amid the appliances of wealth if we would redeem it from vulgarity. We have too many dreamers among the poetic, who make no mark because they have no purpose." "I half fear, Mr. Willis, not withstanding your defense that many fine shades of character may evaporate under this aesthetic utilitarianism." "Not necessarily; we may present a phase to the public and preserve something at home - exhibit our peonies and lilacs, and keep our violets and roses. I often have letters from strangers who imagine I am not doing myself justice - earnest women, who urge me into this or that sphere, but I know myself better." "I like that, provided one is well assured. Old Montaigue is an excellent authority upon this head, and advises every man to see that the work he is doing is truly his own work, and not that which another man should do." Mr. Willis, by this rigid adherence to his own estimate of himself, secured a very distinct reputation - fashionable, a poetic one. He was for many years a journalist of much tact, and his pen always preserved a generous airing but not advocacy of the liberal ideas of the day. Not earnest enough for a partisan, he leaned to the isms of radicalism, while at the same time; he preserved a strictly conservative ground. - E. Oakes Smith. |