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 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF ALBERT HENRY SMYTH. 
 
 By JOSEPH G. ROSENGARTEN. 
 
 ( Read May 17, 1907.) 
 
 Albert Henry Smyth was elected a member of the American 
 Philosophical Society on May 20, 1887. He has been continuously 
 active and useful in it. At the request of the President this brief 
 statement of Professor Smyth’s life and work is presented in ac- 
 cordance with our custom. 
 
 He was born in Philadelphia on June 18, 1863, and was educated 
 at the George G. Meade Public School, graduated in the June ’82 
 class of the Philadelphia High School, was the valedictorian, and 
 encouraged by the then President Dr. Riche and Professor Taylor, 
 later President, went to Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, where 
 he received a Master of Arts degree “ causa honoris,” in 1886, — it 
 was his thesis for his M.A. degree, “ Shakespeare’s Pericles and 
 Apollonius of Tyre,” that rewritten and with large additions, he 
 read before this Society. It is printed in our Proceedings, and 
 earned praise for its research on a recondite subject. 
 
 His services to this Society were constant and valuable, — he 
 was one of its curators, a member of the Library Committee, repre- 
 sented it at the University of Glasgow on its forty-fifth anniversary, 
 and at the dedication in Paris of the Statue of Franklin, the gift 
 of John H. Harjes, a former resident of this city, — on that occasion 
 too by the appointment of the President of the United States, he 
 was the representative of this country, and his address received the 
 well deserved praise of all his auditors and readers, among them 
 many of the foremost representatives of French eloquence and 
 learning. His addresses at the annual celebration of this Society 
 were always noteworthy, and his last appearance at the general 
 meeting in April of this year, shortly before his untimely death, was 
 warmly welcomed. 
 
 His printed works include a sketch of “ American Literature,” 
 
 Reprinted from Proceedings American Philosophical Society , Vol. xlvi. , 1907. 
 
 f,t9 366 
 
11 
 
 ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. 
 
 [May 27. 
 
 published in 1888; “Philadelphia Magazines and Their Contribu- 
 tors, ’’ 1892 ; “ Bayard Taylor ” in “ American Men of Letters ” 
 series, 1896; “ Shakespeare’s Pericles and Apollonius of Tyre,” 1898. 
 He was the founder and editor of “ Shakesperiana,” and was 
 thoroughly imbued with knowledge and love of the great dramatist ; 
 he edited “ Burke’s Letter to a Noble Lord,” 1898, and “ Pope’s 
 Homer’s Iliad,” 1899, and he was a frequent contributor to maga- 
 zines and newspapers. His papers were like his popular lectures, 
 for some years, notably about Shakespeare’s country, with which 
 he was intimate from frequent pilgrimages, often in the companion- 
 ship of English men of letters whose friendship and sympathy he 
 enjoyed to a degree rare indeed for a man of his age, — he was as 
 much at home among scholars abroad as at home. 
 
 His greatest service to this Society, to the public, and to the fame 
 of our founder, was his ten volume edition of the “ Works and 
 Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin,” only recently completed. 
 It was a great task and it was carried through with characteristic 
 industry, devotion and critical ability. He was largely inspired to 
 this undertaking by his familiarity with the unrivalled collection of 
 Franklin Papers, over seventy folio volumes, long in the possession 
 of this Society. He atoned for the careless editing of Franklin’s 
 Works by Wm. Temple Franklin, — he corrected the errors and 
 restored the real words of Franklin, so frequently altered in Sparks’ 
 edition, and he made large and valuable additions to Bigelow’s, and 
 that venerable and learned master of Franklin literature generously 
 and heartily commended his young successor’s work. 
 
 Professor Smyth had in contemplation at the time of his too 
 early death, a popular Life of Franklin, and a Life of Washington, 
 and historical students may well regret that his life was not spared 
 for the accomplishmerfc of these tasks. 
 
 Elected in 1886 Professor of English Language and Literature 
 in the Central High School of Philadelphia, he showed remarkable 
 gifts for his task, and won the affection and admiration alike of his 
 colleagues and his pupils. He was constantly helping the students 
 who showed ability, and encouraged them in securing admission to 
 Colleges and Universities, or positions, where many of them gained 
 marked distinction. His popularity with the large body of stu- 
 
1907.] 
 
 ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. 
 
 iii 
 
 dents of the High School was an unusual tribute to his ability, his 
 industry and his broad and generous sympathy with all who shared 
 his love of study. 
 
 His “ Shakespeare’s Pericles and Apollonius of Tyre,” a study 
 in Comparative Literature, was the outcome of his Johns Hopkins 
 thesis for his M.A. degree,— recast and expanded, it was read before 
 the American Philosophical Society and was printed in volume 
 thirty-seven of its Proceedings. Reprinted in 1898, it obtained 
 great praise from competent Shakespearean critics at home and 
 abroad, and it is a monument of his learning and critical ability. 
 As he said in reply to some verbal criticism of his frequent use of 
 Shakespearean words and phrases, .“ A student’s nature is soon sub- 
 dued to what it works in, like the dyer’s hand, and I have worked 
 in Shakespeare, steeping myself in his language, until unconsciously 
 I use words and phrases which are, to me, rich in suggestion and 
 association,” and he made good use of his mastery of Shakespere. 
 
 His great work was his “ Writings of Franklin.” It was the 
 most effective and important tribute to Franklin’s Bicentenary, 
 so well celebrated by this and kindred societies, founded by Frank- 
 lin and of which he was a member. The ten volumes of Franklin 
 will be a lasting monument of Professor Smyth’s industry, research 
 and critical acumen. He unearthed new material at home and 
 abroad to the extent of three hundred and eighty-five letters and 
 forty papers all from Franklin’s pen, and not printed by any 
 previous editor; he corrected more than tyyo thousand errors 
 in earlier editions, and restored the text so much altered by 
 Sparks in his mistaken notion of improving Franklin’s racy and 
 vigorous English. He found new material in public and private 
 collections, in that recently acquired by the Library of the University 
 of Pennsylvania, as a tribute to its great founder, and in public 
 archives at home and abroad, and in the collections never before 
 consulted by any editor of Franklin’s writings. He gave a full ac- 
 count of the Franklin Papers, rescued from neglect and now rever- 
 ently preserved in the Library of .the American Philosophical So- 
 ciety, in the Congressional Library, 'and in that of the University of 
 Pennsylvania. He gave a bibliography of the printed editions of 
 Franklin’s Writings, an analysis of his works, philosophical, politi- 
 
 PROC. AMER, PHIL. SOC., XLVI. 185M, PRINTED JULY l6, I907. 
 
IV 
 
 ROSENGARTEN —ALBERT HENRY SMITH. 
 
 [May 17 
 
 cal and economical, of his satires and bagatelles and of his multi- 
 farious correspondence. With all his zeal and admiration for Frank- 
 lin, and his ability in so many directions, scientific, economic, poli- 
 tical, diplomatic, financial and social, Professor Smyth put a proper 
 limit and restriction upon the reproduction of some of Franklin’s 
 writings, as unfitted for the public of today, and of some public 
 papers wrongly attributed to Franklin or that have lost their 
 value and interest. What he gives shows Franklin at his best, and 
 justifies that admiration of him as a man and a philosopher, as a 
 statesman and a diplomatist, which has made Franklin’s fame world 
 wide. 
 
 Smyth’s Franklin is a work of great and lasting value, it is the 
 definitive edition of his writings, for the editor gave to it the best 
 results of modern literary canons as to the right way to edit the 
 writings of so marked and individual a man as Franklin. In these 
 days of sound historical methods, and in absolute adhesion to the 
 fixed rule to give the words of the original text of letters and other 
 writings, Professor Smyth edited Franklin’s Writings, with a 
 fidelity that commends his edition to all students. The Index, that 
 trying test for all editors, is so complete and exhaustive that an 
 inquirer can easily find every item of Franklin’s multifarious writ- 
 ings under subject, place, correspondent or other proper heading. 
 Professor Smyth unburied the earliest of Franklin’s writings, the 
 newspaper articles which first revealed his remarkable ability, fol- 
 lowed his many notable publications, illuminated his widely scattered 
 correspondence by judicious notes, compressing in many of them in 
 a few lines, the result of many and far reaching investigations. 
 He showed critical care alike in exclusion, inclusion and explana- 
 tion. 
 
 His “ Life of Franklin ” was all too short, and he had planned 
 to use his large knowledge in the preparation of a Life of Franklin, 
 free from the restraint of space prescribed by the publishers of his 
 “ Franklin’s Writings,” and in it he would have used that intimate 
 knowledge of Franklin which he showed in frequent addresses, in 
 some magazine articles, and in lectures, and particularly in his 
 masterly and eloquent oration on the unveiling of the statue of 
 Franklin in Paris, the work of a Philadelphia artist, Boyle, the 
 
i 9 °7 ] 
 
 ROSENGARTEN- ALBERT HENRY SMITH. 
 
 V 
 
 gift of an old resident of Philadelphia, Mr. John H. Harjes, — 
 on April 27, 1906, in the Trocadero. In the presence of a great 
 audience, Professor Smyth added to his reputation by an oration 
 on Franklin that won the plaudits of the foremost French men 
 gathered together to honor Franklin’s memory. That he was chosen 
 by President Roosevelt to make the address of presentation of 
 the Franklin statue, was another tribute to his successful work as 
 the editor of “ Franklin’s Writings,” and brought home to French 
 statesmen and men of letters, the wisdom of the choice made by 
 President Roosevelt, himself an historian well qualified to select 
 the best man. 
 
 Professor Smyth had a legion of admirers abroad, — he made 
 almost annual pilgrimages to great historical shrines,- and had 
 hosts of friends among the foremost men of letters in Great 
 Britain, in Germany and in France, — he had found sympathetic 
 fellow students in Russia and Poland, in Greece and Italy. He 
 knew Stratford on Avon as he knew Shakespeare, thoroughly, and 
 in London literary clubs, in the great Libraries of London and the 
 English Universities, in Paris and Berlin, he was a familiar visitor, 
 known as a sound student, and welcomed for his many and varied 
 gifts; alike in speech and familiar letters he showed his mastery of 
 English literature, and in his many lectures, his wonderful memory 
 was always helpful to his great gift of eloquence. 
 
 As a lecturer in University Extension and Free Library courses 
 and on other occasions, he was heard by thousands, and always 
 with delight and instruction. Under the pressure of the hard work 
 on his ten volume Franklin, he was obliged to curtail his lectures, 
 but in the few given by him during the last winter, he seemed to 
 find relaxation from his Franklin and from his High School work, 
 in delightful lectures on the literature and the literary men and 
 shrines with which he was so familiar. Gifted with a fine presence 
 and an admirable voice, his lectures were a source of infinite pleasure 
 and of much solid instruction. 
 
 He gave to the Philosophical Society two capital memorial ad- 
 dresses, one on Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, the other on Henry Phillips, 
 Jr., both scholars and men who had given much of their best work 
 to this Society, and Professor Smyth’s tributes were well worthy 
 
VI 
 
 ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. 
 
 [May 17 
 
 of the subjects. His many avocations were always so arranged as 
 to allow him to be a frequent attendant at the meetings of the 
 Society and its committees ; his share in its annual meetings was 
 an active one, and all who heard his brief, incisive, witty and well 
 turned addresses in introducing the speakers at its last Annual 
 Dinner, felt that the death of such a man at the age of forty-three, 
 was indeed a great loss and a lasting sorrow. 
 
 That such a man as Albert Smyth, with his vigor and outspoken 
 courage, should have enemies was natural, and to their discredit 
 rather than to his, for he outlived the attacks made upon him, and 
 showed that there was little or no foundation for them, by the 
 amount and excellence of his work, by the appreciation of his col- 
 leagues and pupils at the High School, and by the admiration of 
 all who were associated with him in his many fields of activity. 
 Life seemed just bringing him the best fruits of his laborious 
 youth, — he was asked by Publishers to undertake more literary 
 work, and with each year this became easier to him, for his large 
 store of learning was always at his call. One of our great Uni- 
 versities was about to call him to succeed a well recognized leader 
 in history and literature, another was about to confer on him a 
 degree of LL.D., and it was thought that he might well have the 
 offer as one of the professorial American representatives in a great 
 German University. His only doubt was as to giving up teaching 
 and lecturing to enable him to devote himself to authorship, — but 
 the end came suddenly, and now we have only his literary remains, 
 and the recollection of a personality that attracted all who came 
 within its reach. Wit, eloquence, learning, many unusual gifts con- 
 centrated in him. 
 
 His early youth up to manhood was one of much hardship and 
 struggle, but he was never embittered by his hard experience of 
 poverty, nor was he spoiled by the success of his mature years 
 and the praise that came with it. He never forgot any kindness 
 or help shown to him in his hours of trial, — and he was always 
 watchful and helpful of the young men who came under his obser- 
 vation, — to them he repaid in abundant measure, all and much more 
 than all of the help that had benefited him. This was the truest 
 test and proof of the sound manliness of his character, and this it 
 
1907.1 
 
 ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. 
 
 Vll 
 
 was, quite as much as admiration for his gifts and talents and the 
 good use he made of them, that made him hosts of friends and en- 
 deared him to them. 
 
 Mr. John Bigelow, the leading authority on Franklin and the man 
 who rescued the original MS. of the famous Autobiography from 
 oblivion, wrote of Professor Smyth’s Franklin, “ The develop- 
 ment of the scientific side of Franklin will be new to the general 
 reader, and the lack of it was perhaps the most conspicuous de- 
 ficiency of all previous collections,” and again on the completion 
 of the work, “ Your collection of the literary remains of Franklin 
 constitutes in my judgment one of the most, faithful, conscientious 
 and thorough pieces of editorial work with which our literature has 
 been enriched. It places the crown of glory upon the fame of 
 Franklin which no one will ever dare or desire to displace.” Such 
 praise from such a man as John Bigelow, himself the foremost 
 exponent of Franklin literature, was indeed grateful. 
 
 Of all the many and touching obituary notices of Professor 
 Smyth, the most eloquent was that of William Winter, in the New 
 York Tribune of May fifth, the day after Professor Smyth’s death. 
 Winter himself is a Shakespearian scholar, a poet and a man of 
 letters,— he had great sympathy with his younger brother in litera- 
 ture, and it is admirably shown in his biographical and critical 
 sketch. I am sure it will be welcomed by all who knew Professor 
 Smyth and admired his gifts. 
 
 “ Albert Henry Smyth . 1 
 
 “ One of the noblest minds, one of the gentlest spirits, one of the 
 most auspicious lives in American literature, passes from this world, 
 in the death of Albert Henry Smyth, which befell yesterday morn- 
 ing in Philadelphia. To those who intimately knew him the news 
 of this sudden bereavement brings with it a shock so dreadful as 
 almost to paralyze thought and make any sort of commemorative 
 word impossible. He was in the prime of life : he was in the 
 affluence of enjoyment and hope: he had just completed and pub- 
 lished his superb edition of the works of Franklin, together with 
 his Life of that statesman : the echoes of his oratorical triumph at 
 Paris, where he spoke, at the international unveiling of the statue 
 of the great philosopher, had not died away: he had gained an un- 
 
 1 New York Daily Tribune, Sunday, May 5, 1907. 2nd Edition. 
 
viii ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. [May i 7 
 
 fading laurel of fame : he was surrounded with affectionate friends : 
 he was richly honored : he was dearly loved : and the pathway to 
 yet more splendid achievements in letters and a yet wider circle 
 and ampler wealth of friends and of honors seemed opening before 
 him, in one long vista of golden promise. His vitality, alike of 
 body and mind, was so extraordinary that no thought of death could 
 ever be associated with him. He seemed formed to lead battalions 
 of thought and to endure forever. His countenance was the beacon 
 light of hope and joy. He animated every mind with which he 
 came in contact. He dissipated all doubts of a glorious future, 
 and he dispelled all dejection. He was a ripe and thorough scholar, 
 and he used his scholarship to cheer the onward march, and not 
 to dispense gloom. He was a natural orator. He possessed a 
 wonderful memory, and it was richly stored with knowledge of the 
 classic literature of all lands. It is doubtful whether, in this re- 
 spect, his equal exists among American men of letters. He was 
 a reverent student of Shakespeare, and he was entirely competent 
 as a Shakespeare scholar. Among his works there is a most ad- 
 mirable book on “ Pericles and Apollonius/’ Pie wrote a life of 
 “ Bayard Taylor ” and a charming book upon the magazines of 
 Philadelphia and the literary movement in that old city — which he 
 so much loved and in which he will be so deeply mourned and so 
 tenderly remembered. His ambition was to excel in learning and 
 to augment the excellence of American literature. He always 
 advocated the right. He abhorred and denounced all the “ crank ” 
 movements of the day, and all the efforts now in progress to corrupt 
 the pure stream of literature with erotic mush. In one word, he 
 was all that is meant by gentleman. Our society can ill afford to 
 lose such a man as Albert Henry Smyth. Intellectual men find 
 the strife of this world very hard, advocating that which is right, 
 but the best that any thinking worker can do is to follow in his 
 footsteps. The loss of him is unspeakable — but his example 
 remains. 
 
 “ W. W.” 
 
I 9 ° 7- 1 
 
 ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. 
 
 IX 
 
 Some of the Subjects of Professor Smyth’s Lectures. 
 
 As characteristic of the width and breadth of his studies, the 
 following list will show how far reaching were his lectures, the 
 fruit of much reading and study. 
 
 Franklin; Pepys; Thos. Love Peacock; Modern Polish Litera- 
 ture ; Modern Symbolists ; American Literature ; English Literature ; 
 Shakespeare; Shakespeare Readings; Burns and Scott; The Lake 
 School and Country; Nineteenth Century Authors; Literary Me- 
 morials of Philadelphia ; Irving and ' Cooper ; Hawthorne and Poe ; 
 Whittier ; The Argonauts of ’49 ; Lowell ; The Land of Shakespeare ; 
 Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, illustrated by an exposition of 
 the construction of the Merchant of Venice and Midsummer Night’s 
 Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear. 
 
 American Literature : — The Colonial Period ; The Revolutionary 
 Period; Washington Irving and the New York Writers; Emerson 
 and the awakening of New England; Hawthorne and Poe; Lowell 
 and American Culture ; Burns, Scott and the Lake Poets ; Bayard 
 Taylor; The Land of Burns and Scott; Wordsworth; Coleridge; 
 Southey, Wilson and De Quincey, Harriet Martineau, the Arnolds, 
 Ruskin and Wm. Watson. 
 
 English Literature from Shakespeare to Tennyson ; Byron, 
 Shelley, Tennyson, Meredith, Hardy, Kipling. 
 
 This is but part of the lecture courses given by Professor Smyth 
 from 1890 to 1907, and not only in Philadelphia and its neighbor- 
 hood, but in many distant localities. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ALBERT HENRY SMYTH. 
 
 Bayard Taylor. (American men of letters.) 1896. 
 
 Philadelphia Magazines and Their Contributors. 1892. 
 
 Shakespeare’s Pericles and Apollonius of Tyre, a Study in Comparative 
 Literature. 1898. 
 
 Syllabus of a Course of Six Lectures on American Literature. (Ameri- 
 can Society for the Extension of University Teaching.) University 
 extension lectures, syllabi. 1890-96. Ser. A. 
 
 Syllabus of a Course of Six Lectures on Bayard Taylor and his Friends. 
 (American Society for the Extension of University Teaching.) Uni- 
 versity extension lectures syllabi. 1890-96. Ser. D. 
 
 Syllabus of a Course of Six Lectures on English Literature. (Ameri- 
 can Society for the Extension of University Teaching.) University ex- 
 tension lectures, syllabi. 1890-96. Ser. A. 
 
X 
 
 ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. 
 
 [May 17 
 
 Obituary. Notice of Henry Phillips, Jr. (Proceedings of American Philo- 
 sophical Soc., Memorial Volume 1, p. 26-35.) 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, Writings. 10 v. 1905-07. Macmillan, N. Y. 
 
 American Literature. Philadelphia (Eldredge), 1889. 
 
 Pope’s Homer’s Iliad. 1899. Macmillan, New York. 
 
 Burke’s Letter to a Noble Lord. 1898. Ginn and Co., Boston. 
 
 Syllabus of a course of six lectures on Shakespeare. (American So- 
 ciety for the Extension of University Teaching. University extension 
 lectures, syllabi 1897-98.) 
 
 Halliwell-Phillipps Collection : An Address delivered before the Penn- 
 sylvania Library Club, January, 1895 in Pennsylvania Library Club 
 occasional papers, No. 2. 1894 — to date. (Free Library of Phila- 
 
 delphia.) 
 
 Benjamin Franklin: — An oration delivered in Paris April 27, 1906 — on 
 “ Bi-Centenary of the Birth of Benjamin Franklin.” Paris 1906. 
 
 Daniel G. Brinton : — An address — delivered before the American Phil- 
 osophical Society. Jan. 16, 1900. (Proceedings of American Philo- 
 sophical Society Memorial Vol. 1., pp. 221, etc.) 
 
 A “Franklin’s Autobiography” with notes was Professor Smyth’s last 
 piece of work, — it is to be published in the Gateway Series edited by 
 Henry Van Dyke. 
 
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