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 oli^ 
 
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 
 
 FOET, LITTERATEUR, 
 SCIENTIST 
 
 BY 
 
 i^ 
 
 WILLIAM SLOANE KENNEDY 
 
 AUTHOR OF A " LIFE OF HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW," ETC. 
 
 ' Two Single Gentlemen roll'd into One." 
 
 George Cohnan, the Younger. 
 
 
 ! !l 10 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 S. E. CASSINO AND COMPANY 
 
 1883 
 
 3hiU-p 
 
 op VVASHIM"^ 
 
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 Copyright, 
 BY S. E. CASSINO & CO. 
 
 1883. 
 
 ELECTROTYPED. 
 
 BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, 
 No. 4 Peasl Stkeet. 
 
/ Y 
 
 9 
 
 " It is an ungenerous silence which leaves all the fair words 
 of honestly-earned praise to the writer of obituary notices and 
 the marble-workerP 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 The following work does not profess to 
 be a biography in the strictly technical 
 sense (may the proper time for such an 
 undertaking be long deferred ! ) ; but it is 
 designed to serve as a treasury of infor- 
 mation concerning the ancestry, childhood, 
 college life, professional and literary career, 
 and social surroundings of him of whom it 
 treats, as well as to furnish a careful critical 
 study of his works. .1 have also added a 
 full bibliography of the writings of Dr. 
 Holmes to date, including his contributions 
 to periodical literature. 
 
 W. S. K. 
 
 Old Cambridge, Mass., 
 
 New Year's Daj, 1883. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The Triple-Branched Tree . . ii 
 
 II. Cambridge . 46 
 
 III. Harvard 77 
 
 IV. Physician and Professor . . . 103 
 V. The Autocrat of the Breakfast- 
 Table . 128 
 
 VI. Novels and Essays 150 
 
 VII. Beacon Street 201 
 
 VIII. Characteristics ....... 234 
 
 IX. Poetry 267 
 
 X. The Scientist . 292 
 
 XL AUTOCRATIANA 316 
 
 Appendix I. The Palanquin Bearers . 330 
 
 II. Bibliography 334 
 
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE TRIPLE-BRANCHED TREE. 
 
 The twenty-ninth day of August, in the 
 year eighteen hundred and nine, was Com- 
 mencement Day in a double sense in the 
 town of Cambridge, Massachusetts ; for on 
 that day of smiles and greetings, — the mer- 
 riest of all the year, the day of the gradu- 
 ating festival of Harvard College, — the Rev. 
 Dr. Abiel Holmes entered in his little al- 
 manac the memorandum, "Son b.," at the 
 same time sprinkling over the writing a few 
 grains of sand, which still glisten upon the 
 page just as they did when he closed the 
 book, seventy-four years ago. 
 
 It was commencement in a double sense, 
 
 and it was commencement in a triple sense ; 
 
 since, in addition to the beginnings that have 
 
 II 
 
12 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 already been mentioned, there was in the 
 nerves that feeling of new vigor, in the land- 
 scape that touch of garnet and crimson, in 
 the air that tinge of coolness, and in all. nature 
 that strange stillness, that kind of dead-point 
 in the revolving wheel of the seasons, which, 
 combined with the chirping of the black-coat 
 crickets, and the first goldening of the golden- 
 rods, formed unmistakable premonitions of 
 the approach of the autumnal season, the 
 pleasantest time of the year in New Eng- 
 land. It was under cheerful auspices, then, 
 that the laughing philosopher (at that time, 
 however, the little crying philosopher) of St. 
 Botolph's town took his first degree, and made 
 his first public speech, graduating summa 
 cum laude from the dormitory of his alma 
 wiater. In the country at large, however, 
 there happened to be great depression of 
 spirits and flagging of business interests, 
 owing to the embargo, or non-intercourse 
 policy, enacted and enforced by the American 
 government against the then warring Euro- 
 pean powers. There was in Boston at that 
 time an almost total cessation of commerce ; 
 her merchant ships lay rotting at the wharves, 
 
THE TRIPLE-BRANCHED TREE. 13 
 
 or were drawn up on the beach and dis- 
 mantled ; and the sound of the busy ham- 
 mer was unheard in her ship^yards. But all 
 this was to be changed in a few years (after 
 the war of 1812) by international adjustment 
 and proclamation of peace. 
 
 The ancestral tree of Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, whose birth we have just been re- 
 lating, is a triple-branched one, and the three 
 branches are memorized in his own name. 
 By way of sportive symbol, we might hang 
 upon the Oliver branch a loaf of brown bread 
 ("rye 'n' injun") and a pot of baked beans; 
 upon the Wendell branch a doughnut, or 
 Dutch olykoek ; and upon the Holmes branch 
 a wooden nutmeg. We will begin with the 
 olykoek branch. 
 
 The mother of our poet was Sarah Wen- 
 dell, daughter of the Hon. Oliver Wendell of V 
 Boston. The Wendells are a Dutch family 
 who came to Boston from Albany in the 
 eighteenth century, and it is doubtless largely 
 from them that Dr. Holmes has inherited the 
 solid practical qualities — thrift, industry, cau- 
 tion, — which have made him successful as a 
 physician and professor. Perhaps his humor, 
 
 \ 
 
14 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 too, came in with that Dutch strain of blood. 
 In his poem on " The Hudson " the Autocrat 
 says that his mother used often to sing in 
 soft lullaby the story of his descent from the 
 Albany Wendells : — 
 
 " ' There flows a fair stream by the hills of the 
 
 West,' — 
 She sang to her boy as he lay on her breast ; 
 'Along its smooth margin thy fathers have 
 
 played ; 
 Beside its deep waters their ashes are laid.' " 
 
 The original settler in Albany was Evert 
 Jansen Wendell, who, about the year 1645, 
 came from Embden, in East Friesland, a town 
 just on the border-line between Germany 
 and the Netherlands. We know that in 1656 
 Evert was the Regerendo Dijaken of the 
 Dutch church in Albany, but details of the 
 lives of the early ancestors are very scarce.* 
 "Other early members of the church were 
 Evert Wendell, his wife Merritje, and his 
 sons John and Evert. Two of the family 
 
 * To get an idea of Dutch life in America one should 
 study Irving's "Knickerbocker" (with caution and 
 abatements), as well as the numerous early annals of 
 New York and Albany. 
 
THE TRIPLE-BRANCHED TREE. , 15 
 
 were shoemakers ; some were fur-traders ; and 
 the family is still a wealthy and powerful one 
 in Albany, f The old square Dutch church 
 (1715-1806) was extremely quaint, resembling 
 a good deal, one would judge, the present 
 Swedes' church in Philadelphia, The walls 
 were perforated near the top with loop-holes, 
 and when there was danger of an invasion 
 the stout burghers sat through the service 
 with their guns beside them, smoking their 
 pipes and wearing their hats and muffs. The 
 stoves were placed on posts in the air, and 
 were against and on a level with the galleries. 
 The hats of the men were ordinarily hung on 
 rows of nails placed along the front of the 
 galleries. There was an hour-glass on the 
 pulpit for the guidance of the preacher. The 
 window-panes were five inches square, and 
 upon them were emblazoned the names and 
 family arms of some of the church-membersj 
 The arms of the Wendells (a ship riding at 
 two anchors) were stained on some panes 
 of the east window.* Other quaint mansions 
 
 * It is a pitj that none of these old stained window- 
 panes survive. The arms of the Wendells are, how- 
 ever, given in Thomas Bridgman's " Memorials of the 
 
1 6 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 of the old patrons, or Knickerb<3;ckers, were 
 the Koeymans' mansion, the houses of the 
 Verplancks, and the residence of the fur- 
 trader, Harman Wendell, a cut of which is 
 given in Harper s Monthly Magazine for 
 April, 1857.* (See also '' Collections of the 
 History of Albany.") 
 
 It would need a Van Ostade or a Teniers 
 to paint the domestic life of these high-stom- 
 ached, home-loving, portly old Hollanders of 
 Albany, — these old Walter the Doubters, 
 and Peter the Headstrongs, sitting by their 
 firesides with their pipes, and pondering their 
 unutterable ponderings. But come, Mr. Artist, 
 you can at least paint us, if you please, the 
 typical Dutch mansion, with its low-sweeping 
 eaves, glazed windows, tiled roof, and gable of 
 small, imported black and yellow bricks, the 
 narrow windows, the grotesque face of the well- 
 burnished knocker, the date of erection in 
 figures of iron on the door, and the absurd 
 
 Dead in Boston" (King's Chapel Burying Ground), 
 Boston, 1853. 
 
 * A good example of a reproduction of the general 
 features of the antique Dutch gable of these old Albany 
 houses may be seen in the brick residence built a few 
 years ago by Mr. F. B. Sanborn, of Concord, Mass. 
 
THE TRIPLE-BRANGEED TREE. 1/ 
 
 painted weather-cock on the roof. And paint 
 us, too, the well-scrubbed sto^p, the sanded 
 floors, the spare-room hung round with many- 
 colored petticoats, the huge kitchen with its 
 flaming side-board, its festoons of dried apples 
 and ears of Indian corn, the fireplace, the tea- 
 table with its elephantine delftware tea-pot 
 (richly painted), its great dish of brown pork- 
 scraps, huge apple-pie, and dish of olykoeks. 
 And, finally, let us see at her household tasks 
 the good wife, with her neatly-braided hair 
 and high-heeled shoes ; and by the fireside 
 show us the worthy burgomaster with hi^, 
 homespun coat, his ten or twenty (or such a 
 matter) pairs of breeches, his huge shoe- 
 buckles, eel-skin queue, broad-brimmed hat, 
 and long, painted, delftware pipe. Some such 
 picture as this (only somewhat toned down) 
 we should have to present to our minds if we 
 would know how the early Wendells lived. 
 
 Two of the Albany Dutchmen — the bro- 
 thers, Abraham and Jacob — came to Boston 
 early in the eighteenth century, as has been 
 stated. Of these, Jacob was the great-grand- 
 father of Oliver Wendell Holm.es. He was 
 one of the wealthiest merchants of Boston, 
 
1 8 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 was colonel of the Boston regiment, and mem- 
 ber of the city council, resided in a brick 
 mansion on the southwest corner of Tremont^ 
 and School Streets. He married Sarah, 
 daughter of Dr. James Oliver. Tradition 
 says that Jacob caught his first glimpse of 
 his future wife as he was one day passing by 
 her father's house, and when she was only 
 nine years old ; and that he was so much 
 struck with her beauty that he purposed then 
 and there in his heart to wait for her to grow 
 up that he might make her his wife. Jacob 
 had twelve children who married into the Oli- 
 ver, the Sewall, and the Phillips families. The 
 youngest daughter married William Phillips, 
 the first mayor of Boston, whose son, Wendell 
 Phillips, has rendered the name familiar to 
 the present generation.* The distant rela- 
 tionship between Wendell Phillips and Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes was humorously alluded to 
 by the poet in his *' Post-Prandial," Phi Beta 
 Kappa poem of 1881 : — 
 
 " Fair cousin Wendell P., 
 Our ancestors were dwellers beside the Zuyder Zee; 
 Both Grotius and Erasmus were countrymen of we, 
 And Vondel was our namesake, though he spelt it with 
 a V." 
 
 * Heraldic Journal, April, 1865 
 
THE TRIPLE-BEANCEED TUEE. 19 
 
 Jacob Wendell died in 1761. His son 
 Oliver (the grandfather of Dr. Holmes), born 
 in 1733, and graduated at Harvard College in 
 1753, entered into the mercantile business 
 with his father in Boston. He became Judge 
 of Probate for Suffolk County, was a member 
 of the Corporation of Harvard College from 
 1778 to 18 12, was a selectman during the siege 
 of Boston, and joined in the congratulatory 
 address to Washington upon its termination ; 
 he was, moreover, employed by Major-Gen- 
 eral Greene, upon an order of Washington, 
 to procure men to watch the British by land 
 and sea after the evacuation, in order that no 
 spies might convey intelligence to the British 
 commanders of the movements of the Ameri- 
 can troops. (See Drake's " Old Landmarks 
 of Boston," pp. 65, 6G). Judge Wendell 
 married Mary, daughter of Edward and Dor- 
 othy (Quincy) Jackson. The judge's daugh- 
 ter Sarah married the Rev. Abiel Holmes, 
 and became the mother of Oliver W^endell 
 Holmes. Judge Wendell passed his last years 
 in quiet retirement in the old Holmes man- 
 sion in Cambridge. In the latter part of his 
 life he was burdened with lameness and other 
 
20 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 infirmities of age. He died in 1818 at the 
 age of eighty-four, bequeathing the Holmes 
 estate to his daughter. He was distinguished, 
 says his friend. President Quincy, for uncom- 
 mon urbanity of manners, and unimpeachable 
 integrity of conduct. The punctuality with 
 which he performed the duties of office were 
 highly exemplary. 
 
 We shall now say good-by to the worthy 
 Wendell burghers, and pay our respects to 
 the brown loaf (or Boston) branch of Dr. 
 Holmes' ancestral tree. 
 
 ^he Dorothy Quincy, who was the wife of 
 Edward Jackson, and the mother-in-law of 
 Judge Oliver Wendell, is the great-grand- 
 mother of the poet, and is the one whose 
 portrait is celebrated by him in his well- 
 known poem, "Dorothy Q." : — 
 
 " Hold up the canvas full in view, — 
 Look ! there's a rent the light shines through, 
 Dark with a century's fringe of dust, — 
 That was a Red-Coat's rapier-thrust ! 
 Such is the tale the lady old, 
 Dorothy's daughter's daughter told." 
 
 The first Quincy was Edmund. He was 
 
TEE TRIPLE-BRANCHED TREE. 21 
 
 one of the first settlers of Boston, and lived 
 in Wollaston, now Quincy. It is unnecessary 
 to do more than refer to the members of this 
 family, whose name and works are familiar to 
 all students of American history. The first 
 Josiah Quincy, distinguished as a patriot, died 
 young and greatly lamented; the second of 
 that name, statesman and scholar. President 
 of Harvard University, and author of a his- 
 tory of that institution, was one of the first 
 to denounce the slaveholding tyranny in 
 America ; the third of the same name, ex- 
 mayor of Boston, has long been identified 
 with the municipal interests of the city. The 
 estate of the family was on the site of the 
 present Quincy Block. The house was a 
 stately pilastered structure, with honey- 
 suckles and high damask rose-bushes twming 
 about its porch, — its lawn a glacis adorned 
 with tall robin-and-oriole-haunted elms. There 
 were three Dorothy Quincys in the family. 
 The Dorothy who was the niece of Dr. 
 Holmes' great-grandmother was the wife of 
 John Hancock, one of the signers of the 
 Declaration of Independence. She was a 
 noble, strong-willed woman of the old heroic 
 
22 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 type. It is related of her that at one period 
 of her life she was accustomed to invite all 
 classes to her Saturday salt-fish dinners at 
 the well-known mansion fronting Boston 
 Common. On one occasion, when Admiral 
 d'Estaing and his three hundred officers had 
 been invited to breakfast with Mr. Hancock, 
 and sufficient milk could not be procured, 
 she sent out her servants with orders to milk 
 sa'Jts ceremonie all the cows they could find on 
 the Common, and to send to her any one who 
 complained. It is said that the owners of 
 the cows took the jest in the best of humor, 
 laughing heartily at her free and unconven- 
 tional procedure.* 
 
 * For the genealogy of the Quincjs, see the " New 
 England Historical and Genealogical Register" for 
 1857, p. 2. In the same journal for 1881, p. 39, a 
 writer gets his "Dorothy Q^'s" pretty badly mixed. And 
 the subject is still further confused in the minds of 
 others. At a breakfast given to Dr. Holmes, in 1879, by 
 the Rev. Dr. Henry C. Potter, in the rooms of the 
 Century Club, New York, Chief Justice Daly is re- 
 ported by. a newspaper to have made the following neat 
 repartee apropos of " Dorothy Q. " : — 
 
 " ' I was present' (Judge Daly is speaking) 'last 
 Thursday evening when Mr. Holmes read to a highly- 
 gratified circle several of his poems, with an account of 
 how they came to be written. The one that especially 
 
THE TRIPLE-BRANCHED TREE. 23 
 
 To turn now to the Olivers. This strain 
 of blood came in with Jacob Wendell, who 
 married Sarah Oliver, daughter of Dr. James 
 Oliver. The first Oliver was Thomas, who 
 came to Boston from London in 1632. Dan- 
 iel Oliver, father of Lieutenant-Governor An- 
 drew Oliver, was for many years a councillor 
 in Boston, and died in 1732. His will con- 
 tained the following provision : — 
 
 "Imprimis, I give and bequeath my house 
 adjoining to Barton's Rope- Walk, called Spin- 
 ning House, with the lands as now fenced 
 
 fixed my attention was " Dorothy Qj," especially when 
 he informed us that that lady was his great-grand- 
 mother.' 
 
 " Mr. Hohnes. — ' My grandmother, Judge ?' 
 *' Judge Daly. — ' I apologize to your grandmother 
 for depriving her memory of the nearer share she had 
 in your creation. ' " 
 
 Now, unfortunately for this reported repartee, the 
 poem itself shows (if the genealogies did not do so) 
 that " Dorothy Q^" was the great-grandmother of the 
 poet. The opening words of the poem tell us that the 
 verses are about "grandmother's mother," and in the 
 second stanza it is written, 
 
 " Such is the tale the lady old, 
 Dorothy's daughter's daughter told.''^ 
 
 The "daughter's daughter" here refers to Dr. 
 Holmes' mother. 
 
24 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 in, — about fifty feet square, — with all the 
 profits and incomes of it, as it now stands in 
 my books (since built), forever to be improved 
 for learning poor children of the town of Bos- 
 ton to read the word of God, and to write, if 
 need be, or any other work of charity for the 
 public good." (Mem. Hist. Boston, 11. 539, 
 note.) 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor Andrew Oliver, the 
 obnoxious stamp distributor who was burned 
 in effigy, was one of the most affluent of the 
 old Bostonians, and had a private establish- 
 ment equal to that of any in the province. 
 Coaches, chariot, negro slaves, and good 
 sterling plate in abundance bore witness to 
 his wealth. 
 
 In his paper on ^'The Medical Profession 
 in Massachusetts," published in a volume of 
 Lowell Institute Lectures, by the Massachu- 
 setts Historical Society, in 1869, Dr. Holmes 
 has a few characteristic remarks about his 
 great-great-grandfather. Dr. James Oliver, 
 who died in 1703. He says: ''When I was 
 yet of trivial age, and suffered occasionally, 
 as many children do, from what one of my 
 Cambridgeport schoolmates used to call 
 
THE TRIPLE^BEANCHED TREE. 2$ 
 
 * ager/ — meaning thereby toothache, or 
 faceache, — I used to get relief from a cer- 
 tain plaster which never went by any other 
 name than * Dr. Oliver.'" Dr. Oliver prac- 
 tised in Cambridge, and his descendant 
 found among some old books a small manu- 
 script account-book of his, by which it ap- 
 pears that other remedies used by him in that 
 day were the usual simples, elder, parsley, 
 fennel, saffron, snake-root, and the Elixir 
 Proprietatis, with other elixirs and cordials, 
 as if he rather fancied warming medicines. 
 One of the items in the account-book is a bill 
 against the estate of Samuel Pason, of Rox- 
 bury, for services rendered during his last ill- 
 ness. Says Dr, Holmes, *' It is a source of 
 honest pride to his descendant that his bill, 
 which was honestly paid, as it seems to have 
 been honorably earned, amounted to the 
 handsome sum of seven pounds and two 
 shillings. Let me add that he repeatedly 
 prescribes plasters, one of which was very 
 probably the *Dr. Oliver' that soothed my 
 infant griefs, and for which, I blush to say, 
 that my venerated ancestor received from 
 Goodman Hancock the painfully exiguous 
 
26 OLIVES WENDELL EOLMES. 
 
 sum of no pounds, no shillings, and six- 
 pence." * 
 
 We come now to the Bradstreets. Sarah 
 Oliver (wife of Jacob Wendell) was the 
 daughter of Mercy Bradstreet, who was the 
 daughter of Dr. Samuel Bradstreet, son of 
 Governor Simon Bradstreet and Anne Dudley. 
 Simon Bradstreet was Governor of the Mas- 
 sachusetts Colony in 1689. He was educated 
 at Emanuel College, Cambridge, and came to 
 America with Winthrop. The Labadist mis- 
 sionaries I described him as an old man, quiet 
 and grave, dressed in black silk, but not 
 sumptuously. The arms of the Bradstreets 
 are impressed on the seal attached to Gov- 
 ernor Bradstreet's will, which is on file at the 
 Suffolk Probate Office in Boston. The crest 
 is also found on a piece of embroidery pre- 
 served in the family. Burke gives the arms 
 of one of the English Bradstreets as follows, 
 and they are substantially those of Governor 
 Bradstreet : — 
 
 Ar. a greyhound, pas. gu., on a chief, sa., three 
 crescents or. 
 
 * For the Oliver Genealogy, see " New England His- 
 torical and Genealogical Register," 1S65, p. loi. 
 t See Long Island Hist. Soc. Coll., I. 
 
THE TnjPLE-BRANGEED TREE. 2/ 
 
 Mrs. Anne Dudley Bradstreet was, as is 
 well known to students of American litera- 
 ture, the first poet of the New World, — her 
 book, " The Tenth Muse lately sprung up in 
 America " (London, 1650), being the first vol- 
 ume of original verse by an American. She 
 was the daughter of Governor Thomas Dud- 
 ley, to whom Mather applies this epitaph : — 
 
 " In books a prodigal they say ; 
 A living cyclopgedia ; 
 Of histories of church and priest, 
 A full compendium, at least ; 
 A table-talker, rich in sense, 
 And witty without wit's pretence." 
 
 Mrs. Bradstreet's poems went through 
 eight editions. The Harvard College library 
 possesses a copy (presented by James Russell 
 Lowell) of the small-sized second edition. It 
 is a pretty damaged article of book, and seems 
 to have been in its day a vade-mecum of va- 
 rious lovers of poesy. Readers of this day, 
 however, will scarcely welter in delight over 
 it, as President John Rogers of Harvard Col- 
 lege said he did. In that day, the fact of a 
 woman being able to write anything of merit 
 
28 OLIVER WENDELL' EOLMES. 
 
 was regarded as almost miraculous, and ex- 
 cited in some quarters adverse criticism. 
 Ward, author of the " Simple Cobbler," in 
 his adulatory verses prefixed to Mrs. Brad- 
 street's poems, puts this sentiment into the 
 mouth of Apollo : — 
 
 " It half revives my chil frost-bitten blood, 
 To see a Woman once, do aught that's good." 
 
 The title of her book v^ill indicate the 
 nature of its contents : " Several Poems 
 compiled v^ith great variety of Wit and 
 Learning, full of Delight ; Wherein especially 
 is contained a compleat Discourse, and De- 
 scription of the Four Elements, Constitutions, 
 Ages of Man, Seasons of the Year, together 
 with an exact Epitome of the three first 
 Monarchyes, viz.. The Assyrian, Persian, 
 Grecian, And beginning of the Romane Com- 
 monweal to the end of their last King : With 
 diverse other pleasant and serious Poems. 
 By a Gentlewoman in New-England. The 
 second Edition, Corrected by the Author, and 
 enlarged by an Addition of several Poems 
 found amongst her Papers after her Death. 
 Boston, Printed by John Foster, 1678." 
 
THE TRIPLE-BRANGHED TREE. 29 
 
 There are a few enjoyable passages in the 
 poems. In the piece on '' Summer " we 
 read, — 
 
 " Now go those froUck Swains, the Shepherd Lads 
 To wash the thick cloth'd flocks with pipes full 
 
 glad, 
 In the cool streams they labor with delight, 
 Rubbing their dirty coats till they look white. 
 
 " This moneth the Roses are distil'd in glasses, 
 Whose fragrant smel all made perfumes surpasses. 
 The Cherry, Gooseberry are now in th' prime, 
 And for all sorts of Pease, this is the time. 
 
 " I heard the merry grasshopper then sing, 
 The black clad Cricket, bear a second part, 
 They kept one tune, and plaid on the same string, 
 Seeming to glory in their little Art." 
 
 In the Epilogue, entitled " The Author to 
 her Book," she says : — 
 
 " Thou ill-form'd offspring of my feeble brain. 
 
 Who after birth did'st by my side remain. 
 
 Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise than 
 
 true. 
 Who thee abroad, expos'd to publick view, 
 
30 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Made thee in raggs, halting to th' press to trudg, 
 
 Where errors were not lessened (all may judg). 
 
 At thy return my blushing was not small 
 
 My rambling brat (in print) should mother call, 
 
 I cast thee by as one unfit for light, 
 
 Thy Visage was so irksome in my sight ; 
 
 Yet being mine own, at length affection would 
 
 Thy blemishes amend, if so I could," etc. 
 
 Among the descendants of Mrs. Bradstreet 
 we may enumerate, besides the poet Holmes, 
 Dr. William Ellery Channing, the Rev. Joseph 
 Buckminster Lee, the two Richard Henry 
 Danas, and Wendell Phillips. Mrs. Brad- 
 street's complete works have been sumptu- 
 ously edited in a single quarto volume by 
 John Harvard Ellis (Charlestown : Abram 
 E. Cutter, 1867). 
 
 Let us now turn our attention to the Holmes 
 family, which we have jestingly styled the 
 wooden-nutmeg branch, the original seat 
 of the family being at Woodstock, called 
 the best and fairest of ail the agricultural 
 towns of Connecticut. Lower, in his " Eng- 
 lish Surnames" (3d ed. vol. i., p. 74), says 
 that the surname Holm, or Holmes, is classed 
 among those local names which describe the 
 
THE TEIPLE-BBANCEED TREE. 31 
 
 nature or situation of the original bearer's 
 residence, such as Hill, Dale, Wood. He 
 defines it as follows : '^Holm, Holmes, flat 
 land, a meadow surrounded with water." 
 
 In E. Holmes Bugbee's '^ Genealogy of the 
 Holmes Family of Woodstock" (Killingly, 
 Conn., 1877; printed on the type-writer), in- 
 teresting details relating to the various ances- 
 tors are given. The first Holmes of this 
 branch of the family was Thomas Holmes of 
 London, a lawyer of Gray's Inn, who was 
 killed during the Civil War at the siege of 
 Oxford (1646). It seems that Woodstock 
 was settled in 1686 by a colony from Rox- 
 bury, Mass., and that John Holmes was one 
 of the colony and one of the first proprietors 
 in the new town. John was born about the 
 year 1664, near Boston, and married Hannah, 
 daughter of Isaac Newell, of Roxbury, Mass. 
 He was a prominent man in the new colony 
 and was elected to many important positions 
 in. the town. Frequent grants of land were 
 made to him for services rendered to the 
 settlement. His son David, called ''Deacon 
 David," was a prominent man in the First 
 Church of Woodstock. His widow Bathsheba 
 
32 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 (maiden surname unknown) married as her 
 second husband Joseph Edmunds. (By her 
 first husband she had a son David, who 
 became the father of Abiel Holmes, who in 
 turn was the father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
 the poet.) Grandmother Edmunds, as she 
 was called by her descendants, lived to an 
 advanced age, and was always spoken of by 
 them as '' a remarkable woman, and of recog- 
 nized authority in all matters of housewifery." 
 She had a wide reputation as a doctress and 
 midwife. It is recorded of her that at the 
 time of the great snow-storm of 1717, when 
 the snow almost buried the houses, she got 
 out of the upper window of her residence in 
 Woodstock, and travelled on snow-shoes over 
 hill and dale to Dudley, Mass., to attend a 
 sick woman. She was accompanied by two 
 men who had hold of the ends of a long pole, 
 she holding on by the middle thereof. The 
 genealogist records the following tradition of 
 this same brave ancestress of our poet : — 
 
 "During the Indian troubles in the early part 
 of the eighteenth century there was consid- 
 erable alarm in all the isolated settlements, 
 and garrison-houses, or forts, were erected, in 
 
THE TRIPLE-BBANGHED TREE. 33 
 
 which to place the women and children while 
 the men were away at work in the fields. 
 On one of these occasions of general alarm, 
 when the women and children were alone in 
 the fort, it was proposed that some one of 
 their number should go to the garden, which 
 was some way off, and gather vegetables for 
 dinner. Volunteers were called for, and of 
 them all in the fort that day Bathsheba 
 Holmes alone dared to go. Nothing daunted 
 at the thought that Indians might be lurking 
 about, — and they were frequently seen, — 
 she bravely sallied forth, and with her capa- 
 cious basket wended her way through a long, 
 narrow, winding path to the garden, and there 
 gathered of beans and various vegetables a 
 heaped basketful, and safely returned to the 
 garrison, where the viands, fresh grown on 
 virgin soil, and fit food for royal tables, were 
 skilfully cooked and eaten with thankful 
 hearts. Many years afterward, — the Indians 
 almost all gone to other hunting-grounds, and 
 grandmother Edmunds now an old woman, — 
 a solitary Indian, decrepit and broken in 
 spirit, called at her door begging, as was ever 
 the custom of the red men, for cider, promis- 
 
34 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 ing a story if the favor were granted. The 
 cider was drawn and proffered and the story 
 told. It was this : On asking her if she re- 
 membered going to the garden, with her 
 basket long years ago, when the women and 
 children were alone in the fort, and on being 
 answered in the affirmative, he said he saw 
 her when she left the fort, and determined 
 to have her life before she returned. He 
 secreted himself in the thick brushwood by 
 the side of the path she would travel, and 
 when she had approached sufficiently near, 
 he stoutly bent his bow, and was about to let 
 the well-aimed arrow fly, when suddenly a 
 mysterious power forbade him, and stayed his 
 arm. When she had gone he upbraided him- 
 self for being a cowardly Indian, and redeter- 
 mined to have her life when she returned. 
 But the same power stayed his arm again, 
 and he went his way wondering greatly at his 
 inability to kill a squaw. All the years since 
 then, he said, he had been watching her as 
 one who was under the protecting care of 
 the Indians' God. He thought it was the 
 Great Spirit that held his arm and saved 
 her life." 
 
THE TRIPLE-BBANGEED TREE. 35 
 
 Well for US that Indian's superstition ! for 
 if that arrow had been sped it is probable that 
 the world would have had no Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes. 
 
 David (2) the paternal grandfather of 
 our poet, married for his first wife Mehita- 
 ble, daughter of Ephraim Mayhew ; his second 
 wife was Mrs. Temperance Bishop, by whom 
 he had Abiel Holmes. David served in the 
 French and Indian wars as Captain of Colonel 
 Fitch's regiment, through three campaigns — 
 the last terminating with the conquest of 
 Canada. On the first intelligence of the 
 battle of Lexington he joined the army in 
 his professional character of surgeon, and con- 
 tinued in the service till the fourth year of 
 the war, when, worn out with the fatigues of 
 the camp, he returned home, and soon after 
 died, March 19, 1779. Besides Abiel, David 
 had seven other children, brothers and sis- 
 ters ; one of them (named Lathrop) who was, 
 like his father, a physician, went to Midway, 
 Georgia, and married there, but perished by 
 shipwreck with his wife on the return voyage. 
 
 In his poem, "A Family Record," read, in 
 1877, at the Fourth of July Celebration in 
 
36 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Roseland Park, Woodstock, Dr. Holmes thus 
 alludes to a visit made by him to the home of 
 his ancestors : — 
 
 *' In days gone by I sought the hallowed ground ; 
 Climbed yon long slope ; the sacred spot I found 
 Where all unsullied lies the winter snow, 
 Where all ungathered Spring's pale violets blow, 
 And tracked from stone to stone the Saxon name 
 That marks the blood I need not blush to claim, — 
 Blood such as warmed the Pilgrim sons of toil, 
 Who held from God the charter of the soil." 
 
 There is a large Holmes family at East 
 Haddam, Conn., but it is not connected with 
 the Woodstock family by any known link in 
 this country. In sly satire upon the folly of 
 American coat-of-arms hunters, Mr. D. Wil- 
 liams Patterson, in his sumptuously printed 
 genealogy of the East Haddam family, offers 
 as a substitute for the ordinary European 
 imitation a bit of Yankee Heraldry, or kind 
 of Indian totemism, in the shape of the foL 
 lowing mark of a certain John Holmes (the 
 mark recorded in the Proprietors' book of the 
 town) : '*john holmes his marke for his Cre- 
 turs is two slits one y® top of y® off eare and 
 
THE TRIPLE-BRANGEEB TREE. 37 
 
 a half peny one y® under side of y® neare 
 eare. Apriell y® 17th 17 16." Mr. Patterson 
 also gives" a representation, or cut, which he 
 offers as a substitute for the usual emblazon- 
 ments of the heraldry books. His "repre- 
 sentation " consists of a very creditable 
 picture of the head of a belled heifer with 
 her ears cropped. There is good grim 
 humor about this Patterson. How Carlyle 
 or Thoreau would have liked to expatiate on 
 the sincerity, the eternal veracity, etc., of the 
 heifer's-head coat-of-arms ! One is reminded 
 of Sydney Smith, who said that his ancestors 
 never had any arms, and invariably sealed 
 their letters with their thumbs. 
 
 We have now swept the wide circuit of the 
 genealogical outskirts of our subject, and are 
 nearly ready to enter the charmed circle of 
 the poet's boyhood, described by himself with 
 such tender and lingering fondness in so 
 many parts of his writings. But first we 
 must present a picture of his father, Abiel 
 Holmes. 
 
 Born in Woodstock in 1763, his father 
 David, the surgeon-physician, sent him in 
 1779, at the age of sixteen, to Yale College. 
 
38 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 We are told that young Abiel rode all the 
 way to New Haven on horseback. At col- 
 lege he was considered one of the most ac- 
 complished scholars of his class.* 
 
 He graduated in 1783 ; was for a time tutor 
 in the college under President Ezra Stiles ; 
 preached for some years in Midway, Georgia ; 
 in 1790 married Mary, daughter of President 
 Stiles; in 1791 removed to Cambridge for his 
 health ; was installed as pastor of the First 
 Congregational Church in that town (then 
 having about two thousand inhabitants), and 
 remained pastor of the church for forty years. 
 In 1795 his wife died, leaving no children. 
 In 1800 he married Sarah Wendell, by whom 
 he had five children, namely : Mary Jackson^ 
 born in 1802, married Dr. Usher Parsons, of 
 Providence; A7Z7t Stcsan, born in 1804, mar- 
 ried Charles W. Upham, who was successively 
 a clergyman, mayor of Salem, State Senator, 
 and Congressman ; Sarah Lathrop, born in 
 1805, died in 18 12; Oliver Wendell^ born 
 
 * Many of the details immediately following are 
 taken from the eighth volume of the Mass. Hist. Soc 
 Collections, and from Dr. Alex. McKenzie's Lectures 
 on the History of the First Church in Cambridge. 
 
THE TRIPLE-BBANCHEB TREE. 39 
 
 August 29, 1809; JohUj born 18 12. Sarah 
 (Wendell) Holmes, the mother of these chil- 
 dren, died August 19, 1862, in the ninety- 
 third year of her age. She was a bright, 
 keen-witted, vivacious woman, much beloved 
 by her neighbors and by her husband's parish- 
 ioners. Her son, the poet, has dedicated to 
 her one of his books. 
 
 In 1807 Dr. Abiel Holmes moved into the 
 famous Gambrel-Roofed House near the Col- 
 lege ; in 18 1 7 he delivered a course of lec- 
 tures on Ecclesiastical History in Harvard 
 College; in 1831 he asked a release from his 
 pastoral duties, which was granted, with noble 
 testimonials to his character and learning. 
 He died June 12, 1837, at the age of seventy- 
 four. 
 
 '' The words which Dr. O. W. Holmes ap- 
 plies to the Rev. Pitt Clarke, father of Dr. 
 Edward Hammond Clarke, of Boston, may 
 be used of his own father : " He was one 
 of those excellent New England clergymen 
 whose blood seems to carry the scholarly and 
 personal virtues with it to their descendants, 
 oftentimes for successive generations." He 
 was pre-eminently a scholar and antiquarian, 
 
40 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 and loved to buy rare old editions of classic 
 works. His contributions to the Massachu- 
 setts Historical Society are very numerous, 
 and he was for more than twenty years its 
 corresponding secretary ; his handwriting 
 was nearly as plain as print. It was he who, 
 in 1816, discovered in the Prince Library the 
 third manuscript volume of the invaluable 
 Winthrop Journals, which was deciphered 
 and published. Dr. O. W. Holmes once re- 
 marked to the writer that he thought his 
 father should have been an historian and 
 antiquarian solely ; he said that he himself 
 inherited from him a love of books and 
 an antiquarian taste — a thing that his 
 readers do not need to be told. During 
 the conversation just alluded to Dr. Holmes 
 remarked that it was a curious fact that years 
 before Tennyson made the '' In Memoriam '* 
 stanza famous, his own father had written 
 verses in that style, which were published by 
 the Stiles family in their '' Family Tablet." 
 
 The personal appearance of Abiel Holmes 
 was most genial and pleasant, as indeed his 
 portrait, preserved in the rooms of the Massa- 
 chusetts Historical Society, witnesses. This 
 
THE TRIPLE-BRANCHED TREE. 41 
 
 small oil-portrait shows asymmetrical, massive 
 head, reminding one a good deal of the son's, 
 especially in the unusual height of the cere- 
 bral portion, or the part above the ears. The 
 lips are full, showing a rich nature ; the nose 
 ample, the face possessing in general a good 
 deal of feature ; the expression somewhat 
 professionally clerical, but very kindly and 
 sweet. The artist has painted the good doc- 
 tor in his surplice and gown, and, although 
 not yet old, he shows signs, as to his head, 
 that he may yet reach the "hairless and 
 cappy " condition. There are those living in 
 Cambridge who remember his pleasant and 
 kindly manners, and tell how as he walked 
 the streets he would often stop to talk with 
 little children, and make them presents of 
 confectionery. 
 
 At the Holmes Breakfast in 1879 Colonel 
 T. W. Higginson spoke of him as that most 
 delightful of sunny old men. Colonel Hig- 
 ginson passed his boyhood in Cambridge in 
 a roomy old mansion, which was at that time 
 the very next door to the Gambrel-Roofed 
 House. He relates that one evening when he 
 and some other boys at the house were playing 
 
42 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. \ 
 
 in the library the gray-haired, gentle old j 
 
 divine, who had been taking an interest in I 
 
 their sports,^ never complaining of their 
 loudest noise, — went to the frost-covered 
 window, and sketched with his penknife what 
 seemed a clump of bushes and a galaxy of 
 glittering stars, and above it he wrote the in- 
 scription. Per aspera ad astray — through 
 difficulties to the stars, — at the same time 
 explaining to the boys what the words meant. 
 
 Of a sermon preached by Abiel Holmes, 
 and afterwards printed, a contemporary said :' 
 "It reads as placid as he looked: ... it is 
 another instance of that now lost art of 
 felicitously weaving in Scripture language 
 with the texture of every sentence and the 
 expression of every thought, which gave such 
 peculiar unction to the most common utter- 
 ances of the elder divines." 
 
 The severe Calvinistic faith in which he 
 was bred did not chill his genial social na- 
 ture. Nor was he in any respect bigoted. 
 His position at Cambridge was a peculiarly 
 delicate one, the Unitarian faith prevailing in 
 the University, and the Unitarian spirit being 
 very strong in the whole community. But 
 
THE TRIPLE-BRANCHED TREE. 43 
 
 his charitable and Uberal nature led him to 
 fraternize cordially with all good men, and 
 for years he was in the habit of exchanging 
 pulpits with the Unitarian clergymen of 
 Cambridge and Boston. 
 
 Dr. Holmes was one of the founders of the 
 Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, 
 and also of the American Education Society. 
 He was a member of the American Academy 
 of Arts and Sciences, Overseer of Harvard 
 University, and a trustee of the Institution 
 at Andover. He received in 1805 the degree 
 of Doctor of Divinity from the University 
 of Edinburgh, and was made LL.D. by 
 Alleghany College in 1822. In 1801 he 
 published a *^ History of Cambridge" — a 
 sort of handbook of the town. His life of 
 President Ezra Stiles is clear, lucid, and 
 manly in style, and is excellent reading to 
 this day. Take, for example, this description 
 of the personal appearance and habits of the 
 subject of his memoir : — 
 
 " President Stiles was a man of low and 
 small stature ; of a very delicate structure ; 
 and of a well-proportioned form. His eyes 
 were of a dark gray color ; and, in the 
 
V. 
 
 44 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 moment of contemplation, singularly pene- 
 trating. His voice was clear and energetic. 
 His countenance, especially in conversation, 
 was expressive of mildness and benignity ; 
 but, if occasion required, it became the index 
 of majesty and authority. 
 
 " He always carried a pencil in his pocket, 
 and a small quarto sheet of blank paper, 
 doubled lengthwise, on which he minuted 
 every noticeable occurrence and useful infor- 
 mation. When he travelled he carried several 
 blank sheets, folded in the same manner, and 
 applied them to the same purpose. When 
 these memoranda formed materials sufficient 
 for a volume he had them bound ; and they, 
 collectively, compose four curious volumes of 
 Itineraries, preserved in his cabinet of manu- 
 scripts." * 
 
 * At the rooms of the Rhode Island Historical 
 Society in Providence they show jou a little vest- 
 pocket almanac and note-book of President Stiles, some 
 of the memoranda in which are in English and some 
 in Hebrew characters. One of the entries consists of 
 the following quaint and pithj line : " Col. Ethan 
 Allen of Vermont died and went to Hell this daj ! " 
 Whole volumes of divinity could not better embody the 
 spirit of Connecticut Puritanism, — as it was and as it 
 is. 
 
THE TRIPLE-BBAXGHED TREE. 45 
 
 Jared Sparks spoke of Dr. Holmes' Ameri- 
 can Annals as among the most valuable pro- 
 ductions of the American press. It is a 
 book that fetches a high price to this day. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 ^^ Know old Cambridge? Hofe you do. — 
 Born there ? DonH say so ! I was, too" — Holmes. 
 
 Topographically speaking, the city of 
 Cambridge at the present day is Hke a vast 
 spider's web with nine main radii, compacted 
 with numerous circular and cross lines, along 
 which, as well as along the chief radii, the 
 houses are strung like beads of dew. At the 
 centre of the web stands the old Gambrel- 
 Roofed House, and close by are the buildings 
 of Harvard University; on the south of the 
 city glides the silent Charles River through 
 its salt marshes, — ' 
 
 " Full without noise, and whispers in his reeds." 
 
 Over all the houses, the old gardens, the aca- 
 demic quiet, the culture, soars the gargoyled 
 tower of Memorial Hall, seen from far off as 
 the most conspicuous feature in the landscape. 
 There is a particular charm in the rural en- 
 46 
 
CAMBRIDGE. 4/ 
 
 virons of Cambridge, — its invigorating air, 
 charged full of ozone, iodine, oxygen, its wide 
 prospects, and its beautiful surburban villas. 
 The Belmont and Arlington region is especially 
 beautiful ; the hills thrown up against the sky 
 like an embroidered curtain, netted with old 
 winding lanes, and dreamy at dusk with dim 
 indigo and violet tints ; at sunset enormous 
 spokes diverging from the sunken orb through 
 gold-smoke and rift and cumulus cloud ; in 
 the summer the trees of greenest emerald ; in 
 autumn chromatized with red and yellow ; the 
 ash trees a cool and delicate purple ; the oaks 
 and birches by the pond sides glowing with a 
 subdued glory (garnet and pale lemon) ; and in 
 sequestered woodland walks no sound to break 
 the silence save the rustle of the footsteps 
 through thick rugs of colored leaves. It was 
 impossible that leafy, blossoming old Cam- 
 bridge, with her population of literary people, 
 should not produce poets. She has had not 
 only three or four eminent bards, but a great 
 many minor ones, as well as a goodly number 
 of writers of poetical prose. Cambridge society 
 is distinguished for a temperate elegance and 
 refinement of life somehow reconciled and 
 
48 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 harmonized with a most plentiful lack of 
 money. United with the quiet urbanity and 
 reserve which always accompany the finer 
 nervous organizations, there is also the cos- 
 mopolitanism of culture and travel, and the 
 timidity of scholarly conservatism ; in religion 
 the polite silence of minds cheerfully resigned 
 to philosophical nescience ; in political mat- 
 ters a subdued cynicism, capable of bursting 
 forth, however, into the fiercest patriotism 
 when stung into activity ; and finally, in the 
 matter of family traditions and caste, a pretty 
 generous democratic indifference, — intellect, 
 personal bravery, and choice manners open- 
 ing every door, except in the case of a very 
 few idiotic old families. As a matter of course, 
 there are in Cambridge, as in every other 
 college town, two other classes besides that 
 which gives the town its distinctive social 
 complexion, — namely, the tradespeople and 
 the transient student class. Each of these 
 groups keeps up an independent life. Topo- 
 graphically viewed, the arrangement is like 
 that of the Chinese ivory thimble; the first 
 compartment, ring, or layer on the outside is 
 that of "the people," monotonously common- 
 
CAMBRIDGE. 49 
 
 place and alike in every city, and only in spots 
 original and picturesque ; drawing the circle 
 still closer, you include the old families and 
 the professors' families (culture, pride, limited 
 incoraes, charming society, comfortable resi- 
 dences, with here and there a quaint heavy- 
 beamed, ancestral house, occupied by nice 
 old-fashioned people, as snugly ensconced for 
 life with their books and flowers as your heart 
 could wish); and, finally, in the centre comes 
 the student-class with its Bohemian life apart, 
 and glad to be apart. 
 
 At the time our poet was born the city had 
 a population of three thousand five hundred 
 souls. Listen to a description of some of its 
 local grandeurs, taken from Dr. Abiel Holmes' 
 "History of Cambridge." He says that 
 *' West Boston Bridge, connecting Cambridge 
 with Boston, is a magnificent structure " ! — 
 " There are five (!) college edifices belonging 
 to Harvard University." — ''The gardens of 
 Thomas Brattle are universally admired." — 
 " It is generally conceded that this town emi- 
 nently combines the tranquillity of philosophic 
 solitude with the choicest pleasures and ad- 
 vantages of refined society." That last sen- 
 
50 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 tence is as true to-day as it was nearly a hun- 
 dred years ago ; but how changed is almost 
 everything else ! Cambridge has now some 
 fifty-eight thousand inhabitants, a quarter of 
 a hundred college buildings ; and the gardens 
 of Thomas Brattle, where are they ? 
 
 Of the appearance of Cambridge in the early 
 part of this century Lowell has something 
 to say in his delightful "Fireside Travels." 
 He tells of the noisy belfry of the college, the 
 square, brown tower of the little Episcopal 
 church (still in existence), the slim, yellow 
 spire of the parish meeting-house, the few 
 old houses that stood around the bare Com- 
 mon, the half-dozen stately old Georgian 
 houses fronting southward on the " Old 
 Road," — now Mt. Auburn Street, — along 
 which the Charles slipped quietly through 
 green and purple salt-meadows darkened 
 in patches with the " blossoming black grass/' 
 
 Then there was the snowy-gleaming, vine- 
 covered cottage of the old whitewasher, who 
 had bestowed the candent baptism of his lime 
 upon his house, the stems of his trees, and 
 his fence, and would tolerate, we are told, 
 only whitest fowls and whitest china-asters in 
 
CAMBRIDGE:. 5 1 
 
 his dooryard. There was but one brewer in 
 the town, a certain venerable Ethiopian named 
 Lewis, who manufactured the village beer, 
 both spruce and ginger. His whole stock he 
 carried in a roofed hand-cart, ''on whose 
 front a sign-board presented at either end an 
 insurrectionary bottle." The barber's-shop 
 was a sunny little room fronting on the com- 
 mon, — the proverbial loquacity of the place 
 made still more lively by the sweet jangle of 
 birds — canaries, Java sparrows, robin, thrush, 
 and bobolink, and a white cockatoo that, as 
 the barber averred, spoke in the Hottentot 
 language. 
 
 The home of a poet's childhood, if a 
 pleasant one, is to him always the most beauti- 
 ful and poetical spot on earth. There he 
 first dreamed those unutterable dreams of an 
 ideal realm ; there life unfolded its rosy petals 
 noiselessly around his wondering mind, and 
 the crumbling maroon and red-gold cloud- 
 bars of dawn hung trembling over an en- 
 chanted land of dreams. How keen the 
 senses ! — that first sniff of fresh cracker- 
 fragrance in a baker's shop ; the scent of that 
 jessamine that clung by grandmother's win- 
 
52 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 dow ; those bees in the gigantic, sunshine- 
 drunken, red hollyhocks ; those wonderful 
 great horses in the barn, and those gliding, 
 epicurean old loafers — the frogs in the pond, 
 — but once in our life are we permitted such 
 enjoyment as we took in these things, and 
 that is in the period of childhood, when the 
 universe stretches in soft illusion about us, 
 infinite in mystery and infinite in poetical 
 beauty. 
 
 None more fortunate in his childhood than 
 our young Oliver, and no wonder that he has 
 never tired of talking and writing about it. 
 
 For a poet to have lived until adolescence 
 in the soothing scholastic quiet of a quaint 
 rural town is something enviable. But if, in 
 addition, he chance to be the son of one of 
 the most influential and beloved citizens of 
 the place, connected with the noblest families 
 in the community, and living in a spacious 
 old mansion consecrated by historical mem- 
 ories, and surrounded by flowers and trees 
 and gardens — breathed over twice a day by 
 the sweet breath of the sea, — then we may 
 count his childhood as almost an ideally perfect 
 one. And such a happiness as this fell to the 
 
CAMBRIDGE. 53 
 
 lot of Oliver Wendell Holmes. The old 
 yellow hip-roofed house in which he was born 
 is now, alas ! fairly over-crowed and out- 
 shone by the iwo large and elegant buildings 
 erected immediately at its side and rear, 
 namely, the Harvard College Gymnasium (of 
 brick) and the new brown-stone Law School 
 Building. The old house now seems to wear 
 almost' a shamefaced look, like an old lady 
 in mits and calash bonnet in the midst of an 
 audience of fashionable young people. In 
 Dr. Holmes' youth there stood in the imme- 
 diate neighborhood of the old manse the Red 
 Lion Tavern, the quaint barber-shop described 
 by Lowell in his '' Fireside Travels," and the 
 house of Royal Morse, of college fame, resi- 
 dent here from 1809 to 1872. Somewhere 
 about the place there was a honeysuckle 
 vine, with its pink and white perfumed 
 blossoms, and on the western side of the 
 house stood a row of tall Lombardy poplars : 
 a row of elms still leads up to the west- 
 ern entrance. The house is now about 
 one hundred and sixty years old, and with 
 proper care is good for another cen- 
 tury. It was built in the old massive, 
 
54 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 beamy fashion, wrought-iron nails being used 
 throughout. A large barn was formerly con- 
 nected with the premises, as well as a four- 
 acre lot in the rear, now used as a playground 
 by the students of Harvard University, and 
 known as Holmes' Field. The successive 
 owners of the estate have been : Barnabie 
 Lamson, 1683 ; Nathaniel Sparhawk; a "Mr. 
 ffox," ■ 1707, probably the Rev. Jabez Fox 
 of Woburn ; Jonathan Hastings (" Yankee 
 Jont.") ; Jonathan Hastings, Jr., for nearly 
 thirty years steward of the college ; Eliphalet 
 Pearson, Professor of Oriental Literature ; 
 Judge Oliver Wendell ; Rev. Abiel Holmes ; 
 and finally Harvard University, to which cor- 
 poration the estate was sold in 1871 for 
 fifty-five thousand dollars. Oliver Wendell 
 had paid seven thousand dollars for it in 
 1807. Occupants of the house since the 
 death of Abiel Holmes, have been Pro- 
 fessor William Everett and Professor James 
 Bradley Thayer. 
 
 Every New Englander knows, or ought to 
 know, the following historical facts : That 
 immediately after the battle of Lexington the 
 neighboring population rallied to Cambridge 
 
CAMBRIDGE. 55 
 
 by thousands; that what is now known as 
 the Holmes House was selected by General- 
 in-Chief Artemas Ward as his headquarters ; 
 that here was planned the occupation of 
 Bunker Hill; that in the long, low dining- 
 room, looking out through its heavily sashed 
 windows on the Common, General Ward 
 entertained Washington and his staff, the 
 banquet being enlivened by patriotic songs ; 
 and finally that in this house the lamented 
 General Warren rested on his way to Bunker 
 Hill, and that here Benedict Arnold received 
 his first commission. In "The Poet at the 
 Breakfast-table" Dr. Holmes speaks of the 
 tall mirror in which the British officers used 
 to look at their red coats ; and the deep, 
 cunningly wrought arm-chair in which Lord 
 Percy used to sit while his hair was dressing, 
 and which he considerately protected with a 
 cloth to save the silk covering embroidered 
 by the poet's grandmother. 
 
 The study was, of course, a place of great 
 attraction for young Oliver and his brother 
 John. It was in that heavy-beamed room 
 (the southeast ground-floor apartment), lined 
 utterly, as to its walls, with books, that they 
 
56 OLIVER WENDELL E0LME8. 
 
 played and tumbled about among the leather- 
 coated folios and other o's, the like of which 
 in after years they would both learn to love 
 with the enthusiasm of the scholar and the 
 antiquary. There is a tradition that the 
 many dints to be seen upon the floor of the 
 study were made by the butts • of muskets 
 belonging to British soldiers ; but of the 
 truth of this surmise no man for certain 
 knoweth. The old house had its nooks and 
 crannies, and its mysteries. In the "Auto- 
 crat '* we learn of a certain odorous closet on 
 whose shelves used to lie bundles of sweet- 
 marjoram, and pennyroyal, and lavender, and 
 mint, and catnip, and where apples and 
 peaches were stored away to ripen. Else- 
 where we are told of wainscoats behind 
 which the mice were always scampering and 
 squeaking and rattling down the plaster; of 
 the cellar where the cold slug clung to the 
 walls, and the long white potato-shoots went 
 groping along the floor toward the light ; and 
 finally of the garret with its flooring of lath 
 with ridges of mortar bulging out between 
 them (" which if you tread on you will go to 
 — the Lord have mercy on you! where will 
 
CAMBRIDGE. 57 
 
 you go to ?"), its old beams with the marks of 
 the axe plainly visible, and its old decaying 
 furniture — arm-chair, churn, spinning-wheel, 
 andirons, cradle, and leather portmanteaus 
 "like stranded porpoises, their mouths gaping 
 in gaunt hunger for the food with which they 
 used to be gorged to bulging repletion." 
 
 Just under the old garret are chambers, 
 on the windows of which names had been 
 scratched, some of them with romantic asso- 
 ciations. The southeast chamber was used 
 as a library-hospital, or museum, where disa- 
 bled and veteran books were placed to end 
 their days in dusty peace. Young Holmes 
 seems to have spent some rainy days to good 
 purpose in this book-infirmary. He says a 
 work he found there on the "Negro Plot" in 
 New York helped to implant a feeling of 
 dislike of the negroes which it took Mr. 
 Garrison a good many years to root out. 
 Another book he found here was the novel 
 "Thinks I To Myself," as well as an old 
 work on alchemy, in which he sought in vain 
 for information which would enable him to 
 convert his lead-sinkers and the weights of 
 the kitchen clock into good yellow gold. 
 
58 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 In the Atlantic Almanac for 1868 Dr. 
 Holmes writes in a charmingly colloquial and 
 confidential style of the old garden and his 
 experiences therein. Such delightful egotism 
 and naivete disarm criticism and win our 
 sympathy : — 
 
 " How long ago was it — Consule Jacobo 
 Monrovio, — nay even more desperate than 
 that, Consule Jacobo Madisonio — that I used 
 to stray along the gravel walks of The Gar- 
 den } It was a stately pleasure-place to me 
 in those days. Since then my pupils have 
 been stretched, like old India-rubber rings 
 which have been used to hold one's female 
 correspondence. It turns out by adult meas- 
 urement to be an oblong square of moderate 
 dimensions, say a hundred by two hundred 
 feet. There were old lilac bushes at the 
 right of the entrance, and in the corner at 
 the left that remarkable moral pear-tree 
 which gave me one of my first lessons in life. 
 Its fruit never ripened, but always rotted at 
 the core just before it began to grow mellow. 
 It was a vulgar, plebeian specimen at best, 
 and was set there no doubt only to preach its 
 annual sermon, a sort of ' Dudleian Lecture,* 
 
CAMBRIDGE. 59 
 
 by a country preacher of small parts. But in 
 the northern border was a high-bred Saint 
 Michael pear-tree, which taught a lesson that 
 all of gentle blood might take to heart ; for 
 its fruit used to get hard and dark, and break 
 into unseemly cracks, so that when the lord 
 of the harvest came for it it was like those 
 rich men's sons we see too often, who have 
 never ripened, but only rusted, hardened, and 
 shrunken. We had peaches, lovely nectar- 
 ines, and sweet white grapes, growing and 
 coming to kindly maturity in those days ; we 
 should hardly expect them now, and yet there 
 is no obvious change of climate. As for the 
 garden-beds they were cared for by the Jon- 
 athan or Ephraim of the household, some- 
 times assisted by one Rule, a little old Scotch 
 gardener, with a stippled face and a lively tem- 
 per. Nothing but old-fashioned flowers in 
 them, — hyacinths, pushing their green beaks 
 through as soon as the snow was gone, or 
 earlier; tulips, coming up in the shape of 
 sugar ' cockles,' or cornucopiae, — one was al- 
 most tempted to look to see whether nature 
 had not packed one of those two-line ' senti- 
 ments ' we remember so well in each of them ; 
 
60 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 peonies, butting their way bluntly through 
 the loosened earth ; flower-de-luces (so I will 
 call them, not otherwise) ; lilies, roses, dam- 
 ask, white, blush, cinnamon (these names 
 served us then) ; larkspurs, lupines, and gor- 
 geous hollyhocks. With these upper-class 
 plants were blended, in republican fellowship, 
 the useful vegetables of the working sort, — 
 beets, handsome with dark red leaves j car- 
 rots, with their elegant filigree foliage ; pars- 
 nips that clung to the earth like mandrakes ; 
 radishes, illustrations of total depravity, a 
 prey to every evil underground emissary of 
 the powers of darkness ; onions, never easy 
 until they are out of bed, so to speak, a com- 
 municative and companionable vegetable, 
 with real genius for soups ; squash-vines with 
 their generous fruits, the winter ones that will 
 hang up * agin the chimbly' by-and-by, the 
 summer ones, vase-like, as Hawthorne de- 
 scribed them, with skins so white and delicate, 
 when they are yet new-born, that one thinks 
 of little sucking-pigs turned vegetables, like 
 Daphne into a laurel, and then of tender hu- 
 man infancy, which Charles Lamb's favorite 
 so calls to mind ; these, with melons, promis- 
 
GAMBBIDGE. 6 1 
 
 ing as ' first scholars/ but apt to put off ripen- 
 ing until the frost came and blasted their 
 vines and leaves, as if it had been a shower 
 of boiling water, were among the customary 
 growths of the garden. 
 
 "But Consuls Madisonius and Munrovius 
 left the seat of office, and Consuls Johannes 
 and Quincius, and Andreas, and Martinus, 
 and the rest, followed in their turn, until the 
 good Abraham sat in the curule chair. In 
 the meantime changes had been going on 
 under our old gambrel-roof, and The Garden 
 had been suffered to relapse slowly into a 
 state of wild nature. The haughty flower- 
 de-luces, the curled hyacinths, the perfumed 
 roses, had yielded their place to suckers from 
 locust-trees, to milkweed, burdock, plantain, 
 sorrel, purslain ; the gravel walks, which 
 were to Nature as rents in her green gar- 
 ments, had been gradually darned over with 
 the million-threaded needles of her grasses, 
 until nothing was left to show that a garden 
 had been there. 
 
 *' But the garden still existed in my mem- 
 ory ;- the walks were all mapped out there, 
 and the place of every herb and flower was 
 laid down as if on a chart. 
 
62 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 " By that pattern I reconstructed The 
 Garden, lost for a whole generation as much 
 as Pompeii was lost ; and in the consulate 
 of our good Abraham, it was once more as 
 it had been in the days of my childhood. 
 It was not much to look upon for a stranger ; 
 but when the flowers came up in their old 
 places the effect on me was something like 
 what the widow of Nain may have felt when 
 her dead son rose on the bier and smiled 
 upon her. 
 
 "Nature behaved admirably, and sent me 
 back all the little tokens of her affection she 
 had kept so long. The same delegates from 
 the underground fauna ate up my early rad- 
 ishes ; I think I should have been disappointed 
 if they had not. The same buff-colored bugs 
 devoured my roses that I remembered of old. 
 The aphis and the caterpillar and the squash- 
 bug were cordial as ever, just as if nothing 
 had happened to produce a coolness or an 
 entire forgetfulness between us. But the 
 butterflies came back too, and the bees and 
 the birds. 
 
 " The yellow-birds used to be very fond of 
 some sunflowers that grew close to the pear- 
 
CAMBRIDGE. 63 
 
 tree with a moral. I remember their flitting 
 about, golden in the golden light, over the 
 golden flowers, as if they were flakes of 
 curdled sunshine. Let us plant sunflowers, 
 I said, and see whether the yellow-birds will 
 not come back to them. Sure enough, the 
 sunflowers had no sooner spread their disks, 
 and begun to ripen their seeds, than the yel- 
 low-birds were once more twittering and flut- 
 tering around them." 
 
 The references to the sandy sterility of the 
 soil of the old garden remind one of a passage 
 in *'The Poet at the Breakfast Table," wherein 
 Dr. Holmes facetiously says that he might, 
 if he chose, find an excuse for his moral short- 
 comings and peccadillos in the characteristics 
 of this region. He says that the pests of the 
 soil induced in him Manichsean ways of think- 
 ing. 
 
 Never were there two boys who drank 
 in enjoyment at every pore more incessantly 
 than did young Oliver and John Holmes. 
 The latter has as gay and effervescent a 
 spirit as his more widely-known brother. 
 The larks they engaged in as boys were 
 undoubtedly numerous and racy. There are 
 
64 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 some hints of these in the writings of Dr. 
 Ohver W. Holmes. The following lines from 
 a college poem * of his, entitled " Scenes from 
 an Unpublished Play," have about them an 
 aroma and suggestion of " high old times " : — 
 
 " Back-room at Porter's, — Dick, solus. 
 
 " I'm not well to-night — methinks the fumes 
 Of overheated punch have something dimmed 
 The cerebellum or pineal gland, 
 Or where the soul sits regent." 
 
 There are a good many glimpses, too, of 
 first school-days in the poet's writings. His 
 first school-teacher was Ma'am Hancock, 
 whose cottage (called the *' ten-footer") stood 
 close by the district school-house. Another 
 school-mistress of his was Dame Prentiss, in 
 whose low-studded room stood, we are told, a 
 pail full of drinking water, flavored with the 
 white pine of which the pail was made, and a 
 brown mug " out of which one Edmund, a 
 red-faced and curly-haired boy, was averred to 
 have bitten a fragment in his haste to drink." 
 The old lady had a long willow stick with 
 which she could reach refractory pupils. We 
 
 * Published in the Collegian, and not reprinted. 
 
GAMBBIDGE. 65 
 
 further learn that there were certain infantine 
 love-makings going on beneath the good 
 dame's nose, but of which she was, of course, 
 entirely oblivious. 
 
 Holmes says that as a child he was afraid 
 of the tall masts of ships and schooners, and 
 used to hide his eyes from them. Another 
 source of terror to him was a great wooden 
 hand, the sign of a glove-maker who lived a 
 mile or two from Cambridge. One of the 
 luxuries of the boy was to lie in bed in the 
 early morning and listen to the creaking of 
 the heavily-loaded wood-sleds drawn slowly 
 over the shrieking snow by the large, patient 
 oxen. ■ It was the custom in those days for 
 the Sabbath to begin with Saturday night, 
 and on such occasions playthings must be 
 put away and work cease, while a solemn 
 hush and awe fell upon the household — a 
 silence only broken by the continuous chirp- 
 ing of the evening crickets mingled with 
 the batrachian hymns from the neighboring 
 swamp. 
 
 One of the great holidays for boys was the 
 College Commencement, which will be de- 
 scribed in the next chapter. Moreover, about 
 
66 OLIVEB WENDELL EOLMES. 
 
 the time of the college vacation in May came 
 two Boston holidays, styled "Nigger 'lection" 
 and "Artillery Election," — the former so 
 called because on that day (the last Wednes- 
 day in May) the colored people were allowed 
 to engage in the festivities on the Common, 
 the occasion being the assembling of the Leg- 
 islature. Both days somewhat resembled 
 country fairs. The Tremont Street mall was 
 then (as it still is ,to-day) appropriated by 
 penny refreshment venders and small won- 
 der-workers. It was lilac time, and every- 
 body carried huge bunches of the delicious 
 blossoms, "with heart-shaped leaves of rich 
 green," and overmastering odor. The Cam- 
 bridge boys had grand fun on these occasions. 
 " A bunch of ' laylocks ' and a 'lection bun 
 used to make us happy in old times," wrote 
 Dr. Holmes once, as he called up the happy 
 days of his boyhood. And there was some- 
 thing stronger than water drank on the occa- 
 sion ; the rummy perfume of egg-pop and 
 " black joke," mingled with whiffs of pepper- 
 mint and checkerberry from the candy stalls, 
 and the floating fragrance of the omnipresent 
 lilacs. 
 
CAMBRIDGE. 6/ 
 
 Of the books read by the boys in Abiel 
 Holmes' household his son Oliver has enu- 
 merated Miss Edge worth's " Frank," and 
 " Parents' Assistant," " Original Poems," 
 "Evenings at Home," and "Cheap Reposi- 
 tory Tracts." A book whose moral made 
 a great impression on his mind was a pleas- 
 ant story called " Eyes and No Eyes," which 
 tells of a certain discontented boy who thought 
 that he could have improved on the arrange- 
 ment of the seasons, but finally discovered 
 that he had an equal love for each of them. 
 
 But to return to school experiences. In 
 the brief description which the poet has given- 
 of Dame Prentiss' school, he mentions the 
 existence of " a great forfeit-basket filled with 
 its miscellaneous waifs and deodandsT This 
 last word is one of the few in Dr. Holmes' 
 writings which seem to show traces of his 
 legal studies. In legal language a deodand 
 was a personal chattel (a cart or a horse, e.g}) 
 which had occasioned the death of a rational 
 creature, and been forfeited to the crown. 
 The deodands, or forfeits, of Dame Prentiss' 
 school were probably instruments designed 
 for the capture and imprisonment, or torture, 
 
68 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 of those wonderful little creatures which so 
 attract the school-boy's itching palm, and so 
 allure his fancy, — i.e. flies! After leaving 
 this school young Holmes became a pupil of 
 Master William Biglow, mentioned by Duyc- 
 kinck as a writer of considerable merit. 
 
 From a paper by Dr. Holmes in the Pro- 
 ceedings of the Massachusetts Historical 
 Society for September, 1865, and from an 
 article by him entitled " Cinders from the 
 Ashes," published in the Atlantic Monthly 
 for January, 1869, the following facts con- 
 cerning his experiences at the Cambridge- 
 port school have been culled : — 
 
 This school was established in 18 19 by the 
 efforts of Dr. James P. Chaplin and others. 
 It was about a mile from the Holmes man- 
 sion to the school, and the way led through 
 that thinly-inhabited, woody, marshy, huckle- 
 berryish tract which many citizens of Cam- 
 bridge, not yet very old, are fond of telling 
 you about, — doubtless because it was the 
 scene of so many of their childish adventures 
 and sports. There were very few houses 
 then between Old Cambridge and ''The 
 Port." The school was limited to thirty 
 
CAMBRIDGE. 69 
 
 students, was sometimes called the Academy, 
 and was considered to offer much better ad- 
 vantages than other schools of the time. It 
 stood, during most of the period when it was 
 attended by young Holmes, on the left hand 
 side of Prospect Street as you turn down 
 from Main Street. Holmes was ten years 
 old when he began to attend the school, and 
 he remained there for about five years, leav- 
 ing it in 1824, to go to the Andover Phillips 
 Academy. The first instructor at the Port 
 School was Edward S. Dickinson, a graduate 
 of Harvard College, and at that time a stu- 
 dent of medicine. Other instructors when 
 Holmes attended were the Rev. Samuel 
 Barrett, the Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett, Mr. 
 John Frost, Mr. Edward Frost, the Rev. 
 Nathaniel Gage, and Mr. Thaddeus Bowman 
 Bigelow. The boys of the school were a 
 good ' deal given to fighting. Their cham- 
 pion, a nephew of Washington Allston, had 
 at least two combats with outside boys, who 
 were styled Port-chucks in the parlance of 
 the Academy boys. One of the poet's school- 
 mates at the '' Port " was Richard Henry 
 Dana, Jr., and another was — the poet him- 
 
JO OLIVER WENDELL HOLME 8. 
 
 self shall tell who. (See his magazine article, 
 " Cinders from the Ashes.") 
 y " Sitting on the girls' benches, conspicuous 
 among the school-girls of unlettered origin 
 by that look which rarely fails to betray 
 hereditary and congenital culture, was a 
 young person of very nearly my own age. 
 She came with the reputation of being 
 * smart,' as we should have called it, ' clever * 
 as we say nowadays. This was Margaret 
 Fuller, the only one among us who, like Jean 
 Paul, like the Duke, like Bettina, has slipped 
 the cable of the more distinctive name to 
 which she was anchored, and floats on the 
 waves of speech as Margaret. Her air to 
 her schoolmates was marked by a certain 
 stateliness and distance, as if she had other 
 thoughts than theirs and was not of them. 
 She was a great student -and a great reader 
 of what she used to call 'naw-vels.' I remem- 
 ber her so well as she appeared at school and 
 later, that I regret that she had not been 
 faithfully given to canvas or marble in the 
 day of her best looks. None know her aspect 
 who have not seen her living. Margaret, as 
 I remember her at school and afterwards, was 
 
GAMBBIDGE. 7 1 
 
 tall, fair-complexioned, with a watery, aqua- 
 marine lustre in her light eyes, which she 
 used to make small, as one does who looks at 
 the sunshine. A remarkable point about 
 her was that long flexile neck, arching and 
 undulating in strange sinuous movements, 
 which one who loved her would compare to 
 those of a swan, and one who loved her not 
 to those of the ophidian who tempted our 
 common mother. Her talk was affluent, 
 magisterial, de haut e7t has, some would say 
 euphuistic, but surpassing the talk of women 
 in breadth and audacity. Her face kindled, 
 and reddened, and dilated in every feature as 
 she spoke, and, as I once saw her in a fine 
 storm of indignation at the supposed ill- 
 treatment of a relative, showed itself capable 
 of something resembling what Milton calls 
 the viraginian aspect." 
 
 A school essay of Margaret's was brought 
 to the poet's father for examination. When 
 young Oliver took it up he found that it 
 began thus: "It is a trite remark." Alas ! 
 he did not know the meaning of this word. 
 It was, he says, a crushing discovery of her 
 superiority. 
 
72 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 After five years' study at the Cambridge- 
 port school, Holmes was taken to Andover 
 to study a year in Phillips Academy as a 
 preparation for college. At this time he was 
 an energetic and vivacious youngster, full of 
 all sorts of fun and mischief, with " ten- 
 dencies in the way of flageolets and flutes," 
 and a weakness for pistols and guns and 
 cigars, which latter he would hide in the 
 barrel of his pistol, where maternal eyes 
 would never dare to look for them. 
 
 In due time parents and '' slightly nostal- 
 gic boy " jogged away in the old carriage for 
 Andover, up the old West Cambridge road, 
 now North Avenue, past the powder-house, 
 and on through country lanes and roads till 
 their destination was reached. They stopped, 
 just at the entrance of the central village, at 
 a low two-story white house, the residence 
 of one of the theological professors. The 
 carriage and his fond parents left him at 
 last, and he watched the retreating vehicle 
 rising and sinking along the road until at 
 length it entirely disappeared. He was the 
 most homesick boy that ever lived. His case 
 excited sympathy. '' There was an ancient, 
 
CAMBRIDGE . 73 
 
 faded old lady in the house," he says, " very 
 kindly but very deaf, rustling about in dark 
 autumnal foliage of silk or other murmurous 
 fabric, somewhat given to snuff, but a very 
 worthy gentlewoman of the poor-relation 
 variety. She comforted me, I well remem- 
 ber, but not with apples, and stayed me, but 
 not with flagons. She went in her benevo- 
 lence, and taking a blue and white soda- 
 powder, mingled the same in water, and 
 encouraged me to drink the result. It might 
 be a specific for sea-sickness, but it was not 
 for home-sickness. The fizz was a mockery, 
 and the saline refrigerant struck a colder chill 
 to my heart. I did not disgrace myself, how- 
 ever, and a few days cured me, as a week on 
 the water often cures sea-sickness." 
 
 One of the masters who sat in the dreary 
 old academy building was the Rev. Samuel 
 Horatio Stearns, an excellent and kindly man 
 who won the little Cambridge boy's heart. 
 On the side of the long school-room was a 
 large clock-dial, bearing these words : — 
 
 Youth is the Seed-Time of Life. 
 Mr. Holmes gives us some account of his 
 
74 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 schoolmates at Andover. One of them "with 
 a fuliginous complexion, a dilating and 
 whitening nostril, and a singularly malignant 
 scowl," years afterwards committed some act 
 of murderous violence, and ended his days in 
 a madhouse. The delight of this ferocious 
 youngster was to kick our Oliver's shins 
 under the bench. Another little fellow, upon 
 whom young Holmes' eye was riveted from the 
 moment of his entrance, had black hair and 
 very black eyes, and his gaze was fastened 
 to his book as if he had been reading a will 
 that made him heir to a million. This was 
 the future distinguished Greek scholar and 
 Bible commentator, Prof. Horatio Balch 
 Hackett. Another classmate was the well- 
 known Phineas Barnes, of Portland, Maine. 
 
 Among the professors were Dr. Porter, 
 Dr. Woods, and the well-known Prof. Moses 
 Stuart, — the latter tall, lean, Roman-faced, 
 impressive, the very incarnation of a noble 
 Roman orator, carrying his broadcloth cloak 
 over his arm like a toga, and looking more 
 like a walking statue than a man. 
 
 The boys had their sports, visits to Indian 
 Ridge, climbing- the hills, swimming in the 
 
CAMBBIDGE. 75 
 
 dark and rapid Shawsheen or in the not very 
 distant Merrimack, etc. One of young 
 Holmes' exercises was a very creditable 
 translation from Virgil. It is preserved in 
 his complete poetical works. 
 
 Then there was a visit with a classmate to 
 Haverhill, where our Cambridge lad saw the 
 door of the ancient parsonage with the bullet- 
 hole in it, through which Benjamin Rolfe, the 
 minister, was shot by the Indians on the 29th 
 of August, 1703. 
 
 An absorbing occupation of the boys was 
 watching one of the tutors who had had a 
 dream that he would fall dead while he was 
 praying. He regarded it as a warning, and 
 asked the boys to come to see him in turn 
 before he died. " More than one boy kept 
 his eye on him during his public devotions, 
 possessed by the same feeling the man had 
 that followed Van Amburgh about with the 
 expectation, let us not say hope, of seeing the 
 lion bite his head off sooner or later." 
 
 Years afterward, in 1867, Dr. Holmes re- 
 visited the scene of his year's schooling, and 
 gives us, in the same article from which we 
 have quoted, a pleasant account of his ex- 
 
^^6 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, 
 
 periences. He says the ghost of a boy was 
 at his side as he wandered among the places 
 he knew so well : " * Two tickets to Boston,' 
 I said to the man at the station. 
 
 " But the little ghost whispered, * When 
 you leave this place you leave me behind you. ^ 
 
 " ' One ticket to Boston, if you please. 
 Good-by, little ghost.' " 
 
 ^\ 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 HARVARD. 
 
 In this country of monotonous uniformity 
 of social classes there is a tendency to make 
 the most of such exclusive associations as 
 are not obnoxious to the spirit of democracy. 
 Probably in no other country in the world do 
 college men cling to each other through life 
 with such tenacity as they do here ; and col- 
 lege men know that there is no other social 
 relation in life so purely enjoyable and valu- 
 able to them as is the gentle free-masonry of 
 the college class, both in undergraduate and 
 postgraduate life. The Harvard College 
 class of 1829 has been fortunate in possess- 
 ing a poet (Dr. Holmes) who is an enthu- 
 siastic college man, and has made his class 
 unique by his poems in its honor. " The 
 Boys of '29" he delights to call them; and 
 he is the greatest boy of them all. His 
 whole life is pervaded by college associations. 
 How delightful to perpetuate through a life- 
 
 77 
 
78 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 time those first fresh and indefinable feel- 
 ings of our college life, — days of divine 
 leisure when we drank deep, unquenchable 
 draughts from the fountains of the wisdom of 
 the ages, and heard afar off the indistinguish- 
 able roar of life, content, as we thought, to 
 eat of that sweet lotus fruit of knowledge for- 
 ever ! 
 
 In 1825, immediately after his return home 
 from Phillips Academy, young H£)lmes entered 
 Harvard, the class containing the then un- 
 usually large number of seventy-one freshmen, 
 fifty-eight of whom graduated. Among the 
 professors whose names appear on the pages 
 of the four little college catalogues issued 
 from 1826 to 1829, inclusive, there is the 
 name of only one man now living, and that is 
 Dr. Oliver Stearns, of the class of 1826. In 
 his class poem of 1879, "Vestigia Quinque 
 Retrorsum," Dr. Holmes has given a pleasing 
 sketch of President Kirkland and the college 
 professors of his day : — 
 
 " Look back, O comrades, with your faded eyes, 
 And see the phantoms as I bid them rise. 
 Whose smile is that ? Its pattern Nature gave, 
 A sunbeam dancing in a dimpled wave ; 
 
HABVAED. 79 
 
 KiRKLAND alone such grace from Heaven could 
 
 win, 
 His features radiant as the soul within ; 
 That smile would let him through Saint Peter's 
 
 gate 
 While sad-eyed martyrs had to stand and wait. • 
 Here flits mercurial Farrar; standing there, 
 See mild, benignant, cautious, learned Ware^ 
 And sturdy, patient, faithful, honest Hedge, 
 Whose grinding logic gave our wits their edge ; 
 Ticknor, with honeyed voice and courtly grace ; 
 And Willard larynxed like a double bass ; 
 And Charming with his bland superior look, 
 Cool as a moonbeam on a frozen brook, 
 While the pale student, shivering in his shoes, 
 Sees from his theme the turgid rhetoric ooze ; 
 And the born soldier, fate decreed to wreak 
 His martial manhood on a class in Greek, 
 Popkin ! How that explosive name recalls 
 The grand old Busby of our ancient halls ! 
 Such faces looked from Skippon's grim platoons. 
 Such figures rode with Ireton's stout dragoons ; 
 He gave his strength to learning's gentle charms. 
 But every accent sounded ' Shoulder arms ! ' " 
 
 At the time Holmes entered college the 
 spirit of the age v^as already setting against 
 ministers and "orthodoxy." In 1826 Am- 
 
8o OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 herst College was founded for the express 
 purpose of counteracting the liberal tenden- 
 cies of Harvard, and Henry Ware was severely 
 denounced for not preaching eternal punish- 
 ment to the students. It is well to remember 
 these facts when we would seek the causes of 
 the life-long warfare against the bigotries of 
 '* orthodoxy " which has been waged by Dr. 
 Holmes. 
 
 At college he delivered the poem before 
 the Hasty Pudding Club, had the poem at 
 Exhibition, also one at Commencement, and 
 was chosen as the class poet. Among the 
 classmates of Holmes were Professor Ben- 
 jamin Peirce, the eminent mathematician and 
 astronomer (who, by the way, was born in the 
 same year with Holmes, i. e., 1809) ; Judge 
 Benjamxin R. Curtis of the United States 
 Supreme Court; Rev. Dr. James Freeman 
 Clarke, author and clergyman (the ''good 
 Saint James ") ; Judge George T. Bigelow 
 of the Massachusetts Supreme Court ; the 
 Hon. George T. Davies ; the Rev. Dr. 
 Chandler Robbins ; the Rev. William H. 
 Channing ; and the Rev. Samuel Francis 
 Smith, author of ''My Country, 'tis of 
 
HARVARD. 8 1 
 
 Thee," and the hymn, " The Morning Light 
 is Breaking." Dr. Holmes has thus wittily 
 spoken of his classmate, Smith : — 
 
 " And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith, — 
 Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith ; 
 But he shouted a song for the brave and the 
 
 free, — 
 Just read on his medal, ' My country,' ' of 
 
 thee ! ' " 
 
 Charles Sumner was a member of the 
 class of 1830, and the historian Motley be- 
 longed to the class of 183 1. Motley roomed 
 at the historical Brattle House, amid elegant 
 • surroundings. Dr. Holmes has said of him 
 that he was probably the youngest student 
 in college. An unusual affection and inti- 
 macy between Holmes and Motley continued 
 through life, and the former has written the 
 life of his historian friend. In a communica- 
 tion addressed to the Massachusetts Histori- 
 cal Society, Dr. Holmes said : — 
 
 " Motley was more nearly the ideal of a 
 young poet than any boy — for he was only 
 a boy as yet — who sat on the benches of 
 the college chapel. His finely shaped and 
 
82 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 expressive features, his large, luminous eyes, 
 his dark waving hair, the singularly spirited 
 set of his head, which was most worthy of 
 note for its shapely form and poise, his well- 
 outlined figure, gave promise of his manly 
 beauty, and commended him even to those 
 who could not fully appreciate the richer 
 endowments of which they were only the 
 outward signature." 
 
 Of another of his college-mates, Charles 
 Chauncy Emerson, Dr. Holmes has thus 
 spoken : " A beautiful, high-souled, pure, 
 exquisitely delicate nature in a slight but 
 finely wrought mortal frame, he was for me 
 the very ideal of an embodied celestial intelli- 
 gence. I may venture to mention a trivial 
 circumstance because it points to the char- 
 acter of his favorite reading, which was likely 
 to be guided by the same tastes as his 
 brother's, and may have been specially di- 
 rected by him. Coming into my room one 
 day, he took up a copy of Hazlitt's British 
 Poets. He opened it at the poem of Andrew 
 Marvell's, entitled "The Nymph Complain- 
 ing for the Death of her Fawn," which he 
 read to me with delight irradiating his ex- 
 
EABVAJiD. 83 
 
 pressive features. The lines remained with 
 me, or many of them, from that hour : — 
 
 * Had it lived long, it would have been 
 Lilies without, roses within.' 
 
 I felt as many have felt after being with his 
 brother, Ralph Waldo, that I had entertained 
 an angel visitant. The Fawn of Marvell's 
 imagination survives in my memory as the 
 fitting image to recall this beautiful youth ; 
 a soul glowmg like the rose of morning with 
 enthusiasm, a character white as the lilies in 
 its purity." 
 
 It is, of course, impossible now to produce a 
 complete picture of the undergraduate life of 
 Harvard College as it was when Holmes was a 
 student. But that excellent journal. The Har- 
 vard Register^ (meteoric in its brilliancy), 
 brought to light many invaluable reminis- 
 cences of life at Harvard fifty years ago, 
 and we shall thankfully avail ourselves of 
 them here. And first a word about college 
 societies. One of these, to which Motley 
 and John Osborne Sargent belonged, was 
 called "The Knights of the Square Table." 
 In 1829 Holmes was Curator "Medicati 
 
84 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Apparatus," in the waggish club called the 
 *'Med. Facs." There were some twenty 
 burlesque professors ; Cornelius C. Felton 
 being Bugologiae et Cornucopialogiae Pro- 
 fessor; Ezra Stiles Gannett, Craniologiae 
 Professor, etc. 
 
 The first meeting of the year was held in 
 an upper room in Hollis, which, as we are 
 informed by Mr. Henry Winthrop Sargent, 
 was draped in black cotton, and decorated 
 with death's-heads and cross-bones in chalk : 
 a table also hung with black extended length- 
 wise through the room. In the centre on a 
 raised seat sat the Praeses, and on either side 
 of him various Professores and Professores 
 Adjuncti, clad in black, and wearing the fiat 
 Oxford cap. Near at hand stood two gens- 
 d'armes, usually the two strongest men in the 
 class, entirely clothed in flesh-colored tights, 
 the oldest holding the celebrated club, " In- 
 tonitans Bolus," and the younger the smaller 
 Bolus. Upon the stairs were crowds of 
 Juniors, from whom some twenty or thirty 
 were to be initiated into the society. The 
 initiation consisted either in answering disa- 
 greeable questions put by the Professores, or 
 
HARVARD. 85 
 
 in doing such things as standing on your head, 
 crawUng about the floor with the collar-bone 
 of an ass over your neck, singing Mother 
 Goose melodies, or making an oration in one 
 of the dead languages. 
 
 Holmes belonged while in college to an- 
 other small temporary association called the 
 Jiacpij/ni'Qovoc, or Notables. (See the Life of 
 Benjamin R. Curtis, by George T.- Curtis.) 
 Another member of this little debating 
 society was William Henry Channing. 
 
 According to the Rev. Cazneau Palfrey, 
 the Hasty Pudding Club then met at the 
 rooms of its menibers. Chairs were obtained 
 from neighboring rooms, and the pudding 
 was prepared by a worthy matron of the 
 village, who was familiarly spoken of in the 
 club as Sister Stimson, and was regarded as 
 a quasi member of the society. 
 
 The " providers " of the evening slung 
 their two huge pots of boiling mush, or 
 porridge, upon a stout pole, and resting the 
 ends thereof upon their shoulders mounted 
 gallantly to the room where the members 
 were assembled, — often in the third or 
 fourth story. Strange to say there is no 
 
86' OLIVER WERDELL HOLMES. 
 
 tradition of anybody having been scalded 
 to death while engaged in this perilous feat. 
 A bowl of pudding was always carried as a 
 propitiatory offering to the officer of the 
 entry in which the meeting was held, and 
 after adjournment the occupants of neigh- 
 boring rooms were invited to partake of the 
 generous abundance of pudding that still 
 remained.* 
 
 Of course there were the usual practical 
 jokes and students' pranks. Hazing in a mild 
 form was in vogue, and that there were noc- 
 turnal deciperes goes without saying. Gen- 
 eral H. K. Oliver, in his hilarious and inimi- 
 table style, tells of " the raiding-for, the 
 slaying, the unfeathering (we did not pause 
 to eviscerate), the roasting, — tied to a string, 
 and twirled before an open fire, at No. 19 
 Hollis Hall,, — and the festal surfeit over th-e 
 well-cooked corpus morttciim of a proud bird 
 known to naturalists as the Meleagris Gal- 
 lopavo, — Aiiglice, Gobbler! All the need- 
 
 * For further particulars of the Club see "The Har- 
 vard Book," and an article by the author on "Under- 
 graduate Life in Harvard," published in The Continent 
 for January 10, 1883. 
 
EABVAED. 87 
 
 fuls for the due spread of the table, and all 
 fitting condiments were ensconced in a trap- 
 door-covered box beneath the floor, the artil- 
 lery of prying eyes of proctors wise being 
 foiled by a barricade of blankets so effectual 
 that total darkness seemed to reign within." 
 
 It was justly considered a great affliction 
 to be obliged to attend prayers before day- 
 light in winter in a bitterly cold room, and 
 many tricks were played by the students to 
 testify their repugnance. 
 
 On one occasion the candles were slyly cut 
 and pieces of lead inserted and covered over 
 with tallow : of course the lights went out 
 when the lead was reached. On another 
 occasion '' pull-crackers " were fastened to 
 the lids of the Bible, and when the book was 
 opened they exploded with loud reports. 
 One day a hog's head appeared on the Bible, 
 to the astonishment and horror of the offici- 
 ating clergyman. 
 
 In further illustration of the college life of 
 those days. Dr. A. P. Peabody tells us of the 
 Spartan simplicity of the college rooms, ten 
 dollars being a fair auction price for the fur- 
 niture of the carpetless studies. The fires 
 
88 OLIVER WENDELL HOLME 8. 
 
 were of wood, and were lighted by flint, steel, 
 and tinder-box. "Almost every room had, 
 too, among its transmittenda a cannon-ball, 
 supposed to have been derived from the 
 arsenal, which on very cold days was heated 
 to a red heat, and placed as a calorific radiant 
 on some extemporized metallic stand ; while 
 at other seasons it was often utilized by being 
 rolled down-stairs at such time as might most 
 nearly bisect a proctor's night-sleep." The 
 only conveyance to Boston was a two-horse 
 stage-coach, which ran twice each day. 
 
 A great institution in those days was the 
 Harvard Washington Corps, or college mili- 
 tary company, for which the State lent arms 
 and equipments. There were so few college 
 sports then — no base-ball, no -cricket, no 
 boating, no gymnasium — that the corps 
 attracted great attention. The brigade band 
 contained twenty-eight pieces. The uni- 
 form consisted of the prescribed college 
 dress, which was dark Oxford mixed-gray 
 single-breasted coats, with three crow's feet 
 on the sleeve to distinguish a Senior, two for 
 a Junior, one for a Sophomore, and none for 
 a Freshman ; the skirts of the coat were 
 
HAEVABD. 89 
 
 cut away like those of our present dress- 
 coats, White cross-belts were worn ; and 
 the officers had felt caps with black leather 
 visors and black fountain plumes : they also 
 wore gilt buttons, gold epaulets, white trou- 
 sers, white sword-belt, and scarlet silk sash. 
 The motto of the corps was, " Tam Marti 
 quam Mercuric." 
 
 One of the dormitories of the days we are 
 speaking of was an old three-story wooden 
 building called the Devil's Den, which stood 
 just south of the spot where is now the Uni- 
 tarian Church. Flutes and other worldly 
 musical instruments were generally repro- 
 bated by orthodox clergymen, and General 
 Henry Kemble Oliver tells us that he used 
 to conceal his flute beneath his feather-bed, 
 his father having forbidden him to play upon 
 the heathen instrument. The Pierian Sodal- 
 ity was in existence, and there was excellent 
 singing by the college choir. Prayers twice 
 a day, — in winter by candle-light in a cold 
 room ; two services on Sunday ; commons 
 eaten in University Hall, which then had a 
 broad piazza in front, with wide steps at each 
 end. The curriculum and ai^s docendi were 
 
90 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 similar to the same in an old-fashioned West- 
 ern college at the present day, and the feeling 
 between students and professors was one of 
 antagonism. 
 
 A good recitation story is told by General 
 Oliver of Professor Popkin ('' old Pop "). He 
 was accustomed to call up the lads in alpha- 
 betical order. " But somebody had amazed 
 him by hinting that the innocents with whom 
 he had to deal might possibly be in the habit 
 of counting noses, and preparing accordingly, 
 as was the lamentable fact. He had, on a 
 certain day, closed recitation with the W's, 
 and it was expected that he would next begin 
 with the A's ; and therefore some twenty A's, 
 B's, and C's, — but very few else, — got 
 'booked,' the fellows at the tail taking it 
 easy. In due time we gathered together : 
 the good man came in, and taking his seat, 
 earnestly gazed awhile (his right foot over 
 his left knee, and his right shin rejoicing 
 under its customary manipulation) at Todd 
 Adams. -Then whisking round with a sudden 
 jerk, he shrieked out, with a grim and mis- 
 chievous chuckle, * Williams, now I've got 
 you ! ' and so he had. A roar of laughter rent 
 
HABVABD. 91 
 
 the room ; and Williams, with sundry other 
 bankrupts at the tail end of the division, took 
 the ' deadest of screws.' " 
 
 In the year 1827, while in college, Holmes 
 became joint author with John Osborne Sar- 
 gent and Park Benjamin of a little volume, 
 entitled " Poetical Illustrations of the Athe- 
 nseum Gallery of Paintings." The poems are 
 chiefly satirical in cast. In the copy owned 
 by the Athenaeum Library in Boston, the 
 poem called "The Boy with the Golden 
 Locks" is marked in pencil with the name 
 O. W. Holmes ; the boy of the painting was 
 Samuel Eliot, and the artist R. Peale. It is 
 stated in the ''Memorial History of Boston" 
 that the first attempt at an art gallery in 
 Boston was made in 1826, when a collection 
 of casts from the antique, the gift of Augustus 
 Thorndike, together with one or two poirtraits 
 of benefactors of the Athenaeum, were exhib- 
 ited by that institution. The next year 
 (1827) the first regular exhibition of paintings 
 and sculpture was opened to the public. It 
 curiously marks the advance made in enlight- 
 ened views of women when we are told by 
 Miss Sarah Freeman Clarke, that at the time 
 
92 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 this exhibition was opened *' a joyous whisper 
 went round that ladies might go to it unat- 
 tended by gentlemen ! " 
 
 The great event of college life was Com- 
 mencement (Class Day as yet was not, that 
 institution coming in with President Quincy). 
 The festival of Commencement resembled a 
 modern fair. Listen to this description of 
 Dr. Holmes : — 
 
 " The fair plain (the Common), not then, as 
 now, cut up into cattle-pens by the ugliest of 
 known fences, swarmed with the joyous crowds. 
 The ginger-beer carts rang their bells and 
 popped their bottles, the fiddlers played 
 Money Musk over and over and over, the 
 sailors danced the double-shuffle, the gentle- 
 men of the city capered. in lusty jigs, the town 
 ladies even took a part in the graceful exer- 
 cise, the confectioners rattled red and white 
 sugar-plums, long sticks of candy, sugar and 
 burnt almonds into their brass scales, the 
 wedges of pie were driven into splitting 
 mouths, the mountains of (clove-besprinkled) 
 hams were cut down as Fort Hill is being 
 sliced to-day ; the hungry feeders sat still and 
 concentrated about the boards where the 
 
EARVABD. 93 
 
 grosser viands were served, while the milk 
 flowed from cracking cocoanuts, the fragrant 
 muskmelons were cloven into new-moon 
 crescents, and the great watermelons showed 
 their cool pulps sparkling and roseate as the 
 dewy fingers of Aurora." 
 
 From a paper styled a " Sketch in Senti- 
 mental Antiquarianism " (in '' The Harvard 
 Book "), written by our genial friend John 
 Holmes, the brother of the poet, we obtain 
 many pleasant glimpses of the informal and 
 subordinate features of Commencement as it 
 appeared fifty or sixty years ago. A day or 
 two before the eventful occasion, spaces for 
 tents were measured on the Common by the 
 town agent, and the number of each marked 
 in the sod. Everything was in a delightful 
 tumult. Old friends and relatives returned. 
 " On Tuesday, after the nearer relatives had 
 arrived, there might drop in at evening a third 
 cousin of a wife's half-brother from Agawam, 
 or an uncle of a brother-in-law's step-sister 
 from Contoocook, to reknit the family ties. 
 The runaway apprentice, who was ready to 
 condone offences and accept hospitality, was 
 referred to the barn, as well as the Indian 
 
94 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 from Mr. Wheelock's Seminary, whose equip- 
 ment was an Indian, catechisrri and a bow and 
 arrow, with which latter he expected to turn 
 a fugitive penny by shooting at a mark on the 
 morrow." ... At night, "if any villager 
 awoke from troublous dreams of pillage, the 
 sounds from the Common as of * armorers 
 with busy hammers closing rivets up,' in other 
 words, the blows of shadowy tent-builders, 
 refreshed his moral nature, and anon he sank 
 pleasantly into festive visions. ... At Miss 
 Chadbourne's, the numerous lodgers in the 
 garret pensively studied by the light of the 
 lantern which served as police the antiquities 
 suspended from the rafters, or stowed under 
 the eaves. The disabled spinning wheel, the 
 old bonnet that had attended Governor Bel- 
 cher's first Commencement, the screen with 
 the figures of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed- 
 nego, that had been placed too near the fire, 
 — these and other articles had been perused 
 to the verge of desperation, when a sudden 
 blank — and lo ! the great day had come." 
 
 The tents were upon the western side of 
 the college yard,' and, "having opposite them 
 various stands and shows, made a street 
 
EARVABD. 95 
 
 which, by nightfall, was paved with water- 
 melon rinds, peach-stones, and various debris, 
 on a ground of straw, — all flavored with rum 
 and tobacco-smoke. The atmosphere thus 
 created in the interests of literature was to 
 the true devotee of Commencement what the 
 flavor of the holocaust was to the pious an- 
 cient." In the afternoon all was freedom and 
 gayety. "The rough village doctor, though 
 witnessing the abominable breach of hygienic 
 law everywhere, felt the cheering influence of 
 the day, and his old mare with perplexity 
 missed half her usual allowance of cowhide. 
 The dry, sceptical village lawyer returned 
 from dinner at Miss Chadbourne's to his dusty 
 office in his best mood, prepared to deny 
 everything advanced by anybody, and demand 
 proof. On the Common the Natick Indians, 
 having made large gain by their bows and ar- 
 rows, proceeded to a retired spot, and silently 
 and successively achieved the process of ine- 
 briation." Such were some of the features of 
 Commencement at Harvard sixty years ago, 
 and such were probably the features of that 
 particular Commencement Day of which the 
 Autocrat has written the following : — 
 
96 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 " 'Tis the first year of stern ' Old Hickory's ' rule, 
 When our good Mother lets us out of school, 
 Half glad, half sorrowing, it must be confessed, 
 To leave her quiet lap, her bounteous breast, 
 Armed with our dainty, ribbon-tied degrees. 
 Pleased and yet pensive, exiles and A. B.'s." 
 
 For a year after leaving college Holmes 
 studied law at Harvard under Judge Story 
 and Mr. Ashmun (1830). At the end of that 
 time he decided to abandon the study of 
 Blackstone and Chitty for medicine, the pro- 
 fession of his grandfather, David Holmes of 
 Woodstock. He has remarked that he can 
 hardly say v^hat induced him to give up law 
 for medicine, but that he had from the first 
 regarded his legal studies as an experiment. 
 He has also said, half jocosely, that but for 
 the seductive attractions of college journal- 
 ism, he might have applied himself with more 
 diligence to his legal studies, and carried a 
 green bag in place of a stethoscope and a 
 thermometer to this day. 
 
 It is said that it was at one time the hope 
 of his father that he might study for the min- 
 istry, and it is thought that one of the reasons 
 why he was sent to school at Andover was 
 
HARVARD. 97 
 
 that he might acquire a liking for theology in 
 the pious atmosphere of that place. 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes in the pulpit ! The 
 very idea raises a merry laugh, and we seem 
 to see a congregation of upturned faces, each 
 irradiated by the broadest of grins. And 
 yet there is a good deal of the preacher in 
 Holmes : his essays are lay sermons. 
 
 His first taste of types and proof-sheets 
 ("attack of author's lead-poisoning," he calls 
 it) he got while studying law. To the six 
 months' college periodical, called the Col- 
 legian, he contributed twenty-five poems, 
 some of which are retained in his complete 
 editions, and have not been surpassed by his 
 later productions. Certainly he has written 
 no humorous poems more irresistibly droll 
 than " The Dorchester Giant," " Evening by 
 a Tailor," "The Spectre Pig," and "The 
 Height of the Ridiculous." That the edi- 
 tors and readers of the Collegian appreciated 
 the unique merit of the verses is evident from 
 the fact that in the index to the periodical all 
 of Holmes' pieces are indicated by an asterisk. 
 Perhaps they did not know that for clear and 
 unstudied humor, a sense of Which creeps 
 
98 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 slowly and delightfully throughout the whole 
 frame, the poems of their young contributor 
 were superior to those of Hood, the great 
 humorist of that day. But we know this 
 now. The chief editor of the Collegian was 
 the genial John Osborne Sargent, who wrote 
 bright and vivacious prose and poetical pieces 
 under the noin de plu^ne of '' Charles Sperry." 
 William H. Simmons was " Lockfast," and 
 Theodore W. Snow figured as "Geoffrey la 
 Touche." Assistant editors or regular con- 
 tributors were Epes Sargent (brother of J. O. 
 Sargent), Robert Habersham, Jr., of Boston, 
 and Frederick W. Brune, of Baltimore. 
 
 The first poem of Holmes in the collection, 
 probably the first ever published by him 
 ('* Runaway Ballads," February, 1830), is a 
 serio-comic piece in two parts, with just a 
 spice of naughtiness in it, to be generously 
 overlooked in a young man : — 
 
 I. 
 
 " Wake from thy slumbers, Isabel, the stars are in 
 
 the sky, 
 And night has hung her silver lamp, to light our 
 
 altar by ; 
 
HAEVABD. 99 
 
 The flowers have closed their fading leaves, and 
 
 droop upon the plain, 
 O wake thee, and their dying hues shall blush to 
 
 life again." 
 
 II. 
 
 " Get up ! get up ! Miss Polly Jones, the tandem's 
 
 at the door ; 
 Get up, and shake your lovely bones, it's twelve 
 
 o'clock and more ; 
 The chaises they have rattled by, and nothing 
 
 stirs around, 
 And all the world but you and me are snoring 
 
 safe and sound. 
 
 I've got my uncle's bay, and trotting Peggy, too, 
 I've lined their tripes with oats and hay, and now 
 
 for love and you ; 
 The lash is curling in the air, and I am at your 
 
 side, 
 To-morrow you are Mrs. Snaggs, my bold and 
 
 blooming bride." 
 
 Another poem (like the foregoing, never 
 republished) bears the title "Romance ": — 
 
 " O ! she was a maid of a laughing eye, 
 And she lived in a garret cold and high ; 
 And he was a threadbare whiskered beau, 
 And he lived in a cellar damp and low." 
 
 
100 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 The Collegian had been preceded in the 
 year 1 827 by The Harvard Register (the first 
 of that name), which, although it had no genius 
 like Holmes on its staff, was yet supported in 
 a brilliant manner by a corps of contributors, 
 many of whom afterwards became famous. 
 Among these were C. C. Felton, Robert C. 
 Winthrop, C. C. Emerson, Robert Rantoul, 
 George S. Hillard, and James Freeman Clarke, 
 — all undergraduates in the college. It is 
 pleasant to see the Rev. James Freeman 
 Clarke in the role of a humorous writer, — 
 namely, in a piece entitled " The Miseries of 
 the Spectacle Family ; or, the Near-sighted." 
 The lurking humor which has always charac- 
 terized him had, very appropriately, a livelier 
 and more piquant spirit in that bright heyday 
 of youth. 
 
 It was about 1829 or 1830 that Holmes- 
 wrote his stirring lyric, " Old Ironsides," — 
 this term being the popular nickname for the 
 battle-ship Constitution. The old war vessel 
 appeared in Boston harbor on the Fourth of 
 July, 1828, firing a salute in honor of the day, 
 and also firing the popular heart with new en- 
 thusiasm for herself. In turning over the files 
 
HARVARD. lOI 
 
 of the Boston Advertiser, the writer found the 
 following sentence in an editorial of July 8, 
 1828. It neatly sums up the popular senti- 
 ment concerning the old ship: *'We may 
 safely challenge the annals of the world to 
 name the ship that has done so much to fill 
 the measure of her country's glory." It 
 was found that some of the timbers were so 
 unsound that it was proposed by the govern- 
 ment to break her up. Holmes voiced the 
 protest of the whole land in his poem ; the 
 verses ran through every newspaper in the 
 Union, and were circulated on handbills in 
 Washington, so that Mr. Secretary Branch, 
 unwilling to incur the odium of carrying out 
 his previous intentions, gave orders to have 
 the ship overhauled and repaired, which was 
 accordingly done. The curious will find much 
 entertaining information about the Constitu- 
 tion in Drake's " Old Landmarks of Boston.'* 
 Dr. Holmes tells us elsewhere that he wrote 
 the poem, " Old Ironsides," by a window in 
 the white chamber of the Gambrel-roofed 
 House, ^^ stans pede in tmo, pretty nearly." 
 But however hastily written, it is certainly 
 one of the finest patriotic lyrics in the Ian- 
 
102 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 guage, and thrills the heart as only works of 
 the highest genius can do. Standing, as it 
 does, at the portal of Dr. Holmes' complete 
 poetical works, it forms a most spirited in- 
 troduction to these. The genius of Holmes, 
 like that of Emerson, seems to have flowered 
 out at once into vigorous poetical expression 
 without the necessity of a long apprentice- 
 ship to the art. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 PHYSICIAN AND PROFESSOR. 
 
 From the autumn of 1830 to the spring of 
 1833 Holmes studied medicine in Boston, 
 his instructors being Drs. Channing, Ware, 
 Lewis, Otis, Jackson, and others. For Dr. 
 James Jackson he always had a deep attach- 
 ment, and has repeatedly written about him 
 in terms of affection and reverence.* By his 
 marriage, Dr. Holmes afterwards became the 
 son-in-law of Dr. Jackson's brother. The 
 life of a young saw-bones is hardly compat- 
 ible with the cultivation of poetry. There 
 is unfortunately, but undeniably, something 
 
 * He sajs of him that, "while he studied his patients 
 with all the inquisitiveness which belongs to science, 
 he cared for every individual among them as one who 
 thought only of them and their welfare. Those who 
 enjoyed the privilege of his teaching would bear testi- 
 mony that no man more entirely forgot himself in his 
 duties; that he taught them to rely on no oracular 
 authority, but to look the facts before them in the face ; 
 that he educated them for knowledge beyond his own ; 
 and that, while they recognized in him a master of his 
 
 103 
 
104 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 hardening and materializing (almost animal- 
 izing) in the first acquaintance of a medical 
 student with dissections, and in the investi- 
 gation of the repulsive diseases of the human 
 body.* In the few literary productions of 
 Holmes published from 1830-33 we seem to 
 find traces of this influence. 
 
 In the New England Magazine appeared 
 about this time the poem, '' My Aunt," as 
 well as some boyish prose pieces, one de- 
 scribing a little street flirtation, and another 
 being a bit of antiquarian talk on books, — a 
 topic on which Dr. Holmes always likes fondly 
 to expatiate. He is a genuine bibliophile, and 
 when in Europe as a student eagerly indulged 
 the inherited passion. '' What a delight " 
 (he says in a little-known pamphlet) "in 
 the pursuit of the rarities which the eager 
 book-hunter follows with the scent of a 
 
 art, they left him with minds fully open to new convic- 
 tions from fresh sources of truth." 
 
 * Dr. Holmes has said that he began the study of 
 medicine as most young men do, — with a quickened 
 pulse at sight of the grinning skeletons of the school, 
 and with his cheeks reflecting the whiteness of the hos- 
 pital sheets, — but that these sights soon became the 
 merest commonplace to him. 
 
PHYSICIAN AND PBOFESSOB. 105 
 
 beagle! Shall I ever forget that rainy day 
 in Lyons, that dingy bookshop, where I found 
 the Aetius, long missing from my Artis Me- 
 dicae Principes, and where I bought for a 
 small pecuniary consideration, though it was 
 marked rare, and was really tres rare, the 
 Aphorisms of Hippocrates, edited by and 
 with a preface from the hand of Francis 
 Rabelais ? And the vellum-bound Tulpius, 
 which I came upon in Venice, afterwards my 
 only reading when imprisoned in quarantine 
 at Marseilles, so that the two hundred and 
 twenty-eight cases he has recorded are, many 
 of them, to this day still fresh in my memory. 
 And the Schenckius, — the folio filled with 
 casus rariores, which had strayed in among 
 the rubbish of the book-stall on the boulevard, 
 — and the noble old Vesalius, with its grand 
 frontispiece not unworthy of Titian, and the 
 fine old Ambroise Pare, long waited for even 
 in Paris and long ago, and the colossal Spige- 
 lius with his eviscerated beauties, and Dutch 
 Bidloo with its miracles of fine engraving 
 and bad dissection, and Italian Mascagni, the 
 despair of all would-be imitators, and pre- 
 Adamite John de Ketam, and antediluvian 
 
I06 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Berengarius Carpensis — but why multiply 
 names, every one of. which brings back the 
 accession of a book which was an event 
 almost like the birth of an infant ? " 
 
 In 1833, before sailing for Europe to pursue 
 his medical studies at the schools and hos- 
 pitals of Paris, Holmes, in company with John 
 Osborne Sargent and Park Benjamin, put out 
 a little volume called "The Harbinger — a 
 May Gift, dedicated to the ladies who have 
 so kindly aided the New England Institution 
 for the Education of the Blind." The collec- 
 tion was made at the suggestion of Dr. 
 Samuel G. Howe, and was for sale at the fair 
 for the blind got up in Faneuil Hall under the 
 auspices of Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis, one of 
 the most brilliant leaders of society in her 
 day. "The Harbinger" contains five or six 
 of the poems of Holmes that had elsewhere 
 been published, including " The Ballad of the 
 Oysterman." 
 
 From April, 1833, to October, 1835, Holmes 
 was in Europe, most of the time in Paris, fol- 
 lowing various courses at the Ecole de Mede- 
 cine, and at various hospitals, especially at 
 La Pitie with M. Louis. There are hints 
 
PHYSIC IAN AND FBOFSSSOB. lO/ 
 
 here and there in his writings of the two years 
 in Europe, and of his gay but not dissipated 
 life in Paris. He made le grand tour^ but was 
 too young to derive such benefit from the art 
 and life of Europe as he would have received 
 later in life, when more deeply versed in the 
 history and literature of the Continent and of 
 Great Britain. Boston is the most purely 
 English of American cities, and Holmes, like 
 a true Englishman, remained loyal, while 
 abroad, to the kindred points of heaven and 
 home. He has never taken so enthusias- 
 tically to objective humanitarian culture (art, 
 ethnology, history, etc.) as he has to technical 
 science and to the study of the human mind 
 and character at first hand. Boston is his 
 idol, to Boston he has addressed all his writ- 
 ings, and Boston it would seem he carried 
 with him to Europe. 
 
 In August, 1836, after his return from 
 abroad. Holmes read before the Phi Beta 
 Kappa Society his long poem in rhymed 
 heroics, styled "Poetry, a Metrical Essay," 
 and designed to express some general truths 
 on the sources and the machinery of poetry. 
 It was the first of many read before the same 
 society : — 
 
I08 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 " Scenes of my youth ! awake its slumbering fire ! 
 Ye winds of Memory, sweep the silent lyre ! 
 
 Long have I wandered ; the returning tide 
 Brought back an exile to his cradle's side ; 
 And as my bark her time-worn flag unrolled, 
 To greet the land-breeze with its faded fold, 
 So, in remembrance of my boyhood's time, 
 I lift these ensigns of neglected rhyme ; 
 O more than blest, that, all my wanderings 
 
 through, 
 My anchor falls where first my pennons flew ! '' 
 
 Mr. George Ticknor Curtis has spoken of 
 the delivery of the poem to this effect : — 
 
 "Dr. Holmes had then just returned from 
 Europe. Extremely youthful in his appear- 
 ance, bubbling over with the mingled humor 
 and pathos that have always marked his 
 poetry, and sparkling with coruscations of his 
 peculiar genius, his Phi Beta Kappa poem of 
 1836, delivered with a clear, ringing enuncia- 
 tion, which imparted to the hearers his own 
 enjoyment of his thoughts and expressions, 
 delighted a cultivated audience to a very un- 
 common degree." 
 
 A writer in the Arnericari Monthly Maga- 
 
PET SIC IAN AND PROFESSOR. 109 
 
 zine for 1837, p. 73 (probably Park Benjamin, 
 one of the editors), also said : — 
 
 "A brilliant, airy, and spirituelle manner, 
 varied with striking flexibility to the changing 
 sentiment of the poem, — now deeply impas- 
 sioned, now gayly joyous and nonchalant, and 
 *anon springing up almost into an actual flight 
 of rhapsody, — rendered the delivery of this 
 poem a rich, nearly a dramatic, entertain- 
 ment, such as we have rarely witnessed. A 
 grave, learned, and most intellectual discourse 
 by Dr. Wayland of Brown University formed 
 the solid part of this feast ; and when this 
 had been finished, the cloth cleared, and the 
 entremets of a little music had been discussed, 
 on came the mellow wine, the ingenious, 
 heterogeneous 'Trifle,' the fine-grained crys- 
 tals of 'Ices,' and the golden fruit of a 
 Dessert, in the shape of this beautiful poem." 
 
 In the same year Holmes published the 
 first collection of his poems (Boston : Otis, 
 Broaders & Co., 1836). The book includes 
 forty-five poems and a preface of seven pages. 
 The preface contains a defence of the extrav- 
 agant, or hyperbolical, in poetry : — 
 
 "The extravagant is often condemned as 
 
no OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 unnatural ; as if a tendency of the mind, 
 shown in all ages and forms, had not its foun- 
 dation in nature. A series of hyperbolical 
 images is considered beneath criticism by the 
 same judges who would write treatises upon 
 the sculptured satyrs and painted arabesques 
 of antiquity, which are only hyperbole in 
 stone and colors. As material objects in 
 different lights repeat themselves in shadows 
 variously elongated, contracted, or exagger- 
 ated, so our solid and sober thoughts carica- 
 ture themselves in fantastic shapes insepar- 
 able from their originals, and having a unity 
 in their extravagance which proves them to 
 have retained their proportions in certain 
 respects, however differing in outline from 
 their prototypes." 
 
 We shall consider the poems of the volume 
 in another chapter. But a little well-known 
 anecdote about one of them is in point here. 
 Abraham Lincoln, in conversation with some 
 one, once said : '' There are some quaint, 
 queer verses, written, I think, by Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes, entitled * The Last Leaf,' 
 one of which is to me inexpressibly touch- 
 ing." He then repeated the poem from 
 
PHYSICIAN AND PROFESSOR. 1 1 1 
 
 memory, and as he finished this much ad- 
 mired stanza, — 
 
 " The mossy marbles rest 
 On the Ups that he has prest 
 
 In their bloom. 
 And the names he loved to hear 
 Have been carved for many a year 
 On the tomb," — 
 
 he said: " For pure pathos, in my judgment, 
 there is nothing finer than those six lines in 
 the English language." (See Appendix to 
 Lamon's " Lincoln.") Poor Lincoln ! v^as he 
 thinking of that lonely grave of his first love 
 far away in Illinois } " Oh, I cannot endure 
 the thought of her lying out there v^ith the 
 storms beating upon her," he said. There is 
 nothing more touching in the annals of the 
 heart than the overwhelming despair and 
 actual and long-continued insanity of that 
 noble mind over the death of the first idol 
 of his soul. 
 
 It was in 1836 also that Holmes received 
 his degree of M.D. from Harvard College, 
 and we are therefore to think of him now as 
 a young practising physician of Boston, his 
 
112 OLIVER WENDELL HOLME b. 
 
 service in that capacity stretching over the 
 years 1836-38 and 1840-47. It goes with- 
 out saying that a young man with the finest 
 medical education that the world could offer, 
 related to "the first families" of Boston, en- 
 gaging in manners, and popular with both 
 sexes, would receive a warm welcome as a 
 practitioner, and undoubtedly he could have 
 built up a still greater practice than he did if 
 he had not so soon entered upon the career 
 of a college professor. As a practitioner he 
 was, or eventually became, opposed to giving 
 drugs in large quantities, unless in rare cases. 
 His nature made it easy for him to enter a 
 sick-room with a bright, cheerful countenance 
 so as to inspire hope in the patient's mind. 
 In his writings we get hints, here and there, 
 of his working maxims, one of which, for ex- 
 ample, was this : " When visiting a patient, 
 enter the sick-room at once without keeping 
 the patient in the torture of suspense by 
 discussing the case with others in another 
 room." 
 
 Boston, then a place of about sixty-five 
 thousand inhabitants, had still somev/hat of a 
 semi-rural air with its quiet streets, old lawns 
 
PHYSICIAN AND PROFESSOR. 1 1 3 
 
 and mansions, and stretches of green landscape 
 westward from the city's side. The hterary 
 centre was the Old Corner Bookstore on Wash- 
 ington Street, and the young lions of the day 
 were George Ticknor, Edward Everett, Daniel 
 Webster, Sumner, Howe, Phillips, and others. 
 Holmes met all these in society, as well as 
 most of the Tories of Beacon Street, for 
 whose company he has always had a fond- 
 ness, or weakness. During the years 1835, 
 1836, and 1837 he was in the habit of spend- 
 ing many pleasant hours with Motley at the 
 house of Park Benjamin, No. 14 Temple Place. 
 Benjamin had been an old college friend, and 
 they were received with the greatest cor- 
 diality. The curious antiquary who turns 
 over the leaves of the old Knickerbocker 
 magazines will find there many poems by 
 Benjamin. His two sisters, at the time of 
 which we are speaking, were in the bloom 
 of young womanhood, and of course were the 
 cynosure that had attracted the young men. 
 Mary Benjamin became eventually the wife 
 of Motley, and her sister married Motley's 
 intimate friend, Mr. J. L. Stackpole. 
 
 In 1803 Ward Nicholas Boylston estab- 
 
114 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 lished in Boston a fund, the income of which 
 was to be expended in prizes for medical dis- 
 sertations. In 1836-37 the prizes were two 
 medals worth fifty dollars each. Dr. Holmes 
 gained these and one more, making three out 
 of the four offered in two successive years. 
 These ^'Boylston Prize Dissertations," which 
 were published in book form in 1838, are fine 
 scholarly essays, showing thoroughness of 
 research on the inductive method. Their 
 value is shown by the fact that in 1881, 
 forty-three years after their publication, the 
 editor of the Boston Medical a^i'd Surgical 
 Journal advised his readers to peruse Dr. 
 Holmes' Boylston Prize Essay on Intermit- 
 tent Fever, the disease having recently reap- 
 peared. The essay is also very freely quoted 
 in Dr. Adams' paper on intermittent fever, 
 published in the i88r report of the Health 
 Department of the Massachusetts Board of 
 Health, Lunacy, and Charity. 
 
 In 1838 Dr. Holmes was appointed Pro- 
 fessor of Anatomy and Physiology in Dart- 
 mouth College, New Hampshire. He filled 
 this position for two years, having for asso- 
 ciate professors in the Medical Faculty Elisha 
 
PHYSICIAN AND PROFESSOR. II5 
 
 Bartlett, John Delamater, Oliver P. Hubbard, 
 Dixi Crosby, and Stephen W. Williams. 
 
 After resigning his position at Dartmouth, 
 Dr. Holmes returned to Boston, and on the 
 1 6th of June, 1840, was united in marriage to 
 Miss Amelia Lee Jackson, daughter of the 
 Hon. Charles Jackson, an eminent jurist and 
 judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Court 
 from 1813 to 1824. Judge Charles Jackson 
 was a brother of Dr. James Jackson, the 
 eminent medical author, and professor in the 
 Harvard Medical School for many years. 
 
 The first residence of Holmes after his 
 marriage was at No. 8 Montgomery Place, 
 Boston, a little court leading out of Tremont 
 Street, near Bromfield Street. In that house 
 (at the left-hand side next the farther corner) 
 he lived for nearly twenty years. *' When he 
 entered that door, two shadows glided over 
 the threshold ; five lingered in the doorway 
 when he passed through it for the last time, 
 — and one of the shadows was claimed by its 
 owner to be longer than his own. What 
 changes he saw in that quiet place! Death 
 rained through every roof but his ; children 
 came into life, grew into maturity, wedded. 
 
Il6 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 faded away, threw themselves away ; the 
 whole drama of life was played in that stock- 
 company's theatre of a dozen houses, one of 
 which was his, and no deep sorrow or severe 
 calamity ever entered his dwelling. Peace 
 be to those walls, forever, — the Professor 
 said, — for the many pleasant years he has 
 passed within them ! " 
 
 The three children born to Dr. Holmes 
 in Montgomery Place were Oliver Wendell 
 (born 1 841), Amelia Jackson, and Edward. 
 The daughter is now Mrs. John Turner Sar- 
 gent, and it is at her house in Beverly Farms, 
 near Boston, that Professor Holmes has passed 
 his summers for a number of years. Mr. 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and Mr. Edward 
 Holmes are both lawyers, — the former well- 
 known for his legal writings, and withal so 
 much of a public character, and so beloved 
 by a wide circle of friends for sterling quali- 
 ties of mind and heart, that one may be par- 
 doned a few references to his life and work. 
 
 He studied as a boy in Boston at the 
 school of Mr. E. S. Dixwell, whose daughter, 
 Miss Fanny Dixwell, he afterwards married. 
 In April, 1861, the year of his graduation 
 
PHYSICIAN- AND PROFESSOR. 1 17 
 
 from Harvard College, he joined the Fourth 
 Battalion of Infantry, Major Thomas G. Ste- 
 venson, then at Fort Independence, Boston 
 Harbor, where he wrote the poem for Class 
 Day. He was wounded in the breast in the 
 battle of Ball's Bluff,* and received a wound in 
 the neck at Antietam, September 17, 1862, 
 while acting as captain of Company G. In the 
 Atlantic Monthly iox 1862 (p. 738) Dr. Holmes 
 has given a lively account of his '' Hunt after 
 the Captain " on this occasion, and of his 
 journey to and from the battle-field. The 
 piece is also included in Dr. Holmes' "■ Sound- 
 ings from the Atlantic." We could ill have 
 spared such an artless and feeling chapter in 
 the history of parental love as that paper 
 forms. The yearning of parental affection, 
 delicately revealed in those pages, is a better 
 testimony to the tender and beautiful emo- 
 tional nature of the poet than the encomiums 
 of a thousand friends would be. On his re- 
 covery Captain Holmes entered the service 
 again, and received the commission of Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel, but was not mustered in (the 
 
 * See T. W. Higginson's Harvard Memorial Biogra- 
 phies, Vol. II. p. 478. 
 
Il8 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 regiment being too much reduced), and served 
 as aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General H. G. 
 Wright, during General Grant's campaign of 
 1864. In 1866 he received the degree of 
 LL.B. from Harvard University, and became 
 a practising lawyer in Boston. He has taught 
 and lectured on Constitutional Law and Juris- 
 prudence in Harvard College. He had at 
 one time editorial charge of the American 
 Law Review. To the editing of Chancellor 
 James Kent's "Commentaries on American 
 Law" (Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1873, 
 4 vols.), he devoted three years of steady 
 labor, and produced an edition of Kent which 
 was received with the highest praise by 
 jurists and lawyers. He has also published 
 " The Common Law," and written, among 
 other papers, the biography of A. Dehon in 
 the Harvard Memorial Biographies. In 1882 
 Mr. Holmes was appointed Professor in the 
 Harvard Law School, and served in that 
 capacity for some weeks, when he resigned 
 to accept an appointment as Justice in the 
 Supreme Court of Massachusetts. 
 
 The career of Dr. Holmes as a practising 
 physician drew to a close in the latter part pf 
 
PHYSICIAN AND PROFESSOR. 1 19 
 
 1847, when he accepted an invitation to fill 
 the chair of Anatomy and Physiology in the 
 Harvard Medical School, a position which he 
 held in unbroken continuity from that date 
 up to the autumn of the year 1882, — a period 
 of thirty-five years. He continued for two 
 years after his appointment to act as a physi- 
 cian, but in 1849 ga^^ ^P general practice 
 altogether. Of his introductory lecture, de- 
 livered before the medical students, the Bos- 
 ton Medical and Surgical Journal (December, 
 1847) said : "The high expectations in regard 
 to the new Professor of Anatomy in Harvard 
 University have not been disappointed. His 
 introductory lecture is the best discourse 
 ever delivered in the Medical School of Har- 
 vard University." It is a singular circum- 
 stance, by the way, that only three persons 
 in a century have held the chair recently 
 vacated by Professor Holmes, — namely. Dr. 
 John Warren, his son, John Collins Warren, 
 and, lastly. Dr. Holmes. For many years 
 Holmes delivered four lectures each week 
 during the college year. Early in the admin- 
 istration of President Eliot the system of 
 instruction was expanded by the division of 
 
/ 
 
 120 OLIVER WENDELL HOLME 8. 
 
 the Parkman professorship into the chair of 
 Anatomy and the chair of Physiology, Pro- 
 fessor Holmes retaining the former. 
 
 The Medical School was removed to its 
 present site at the foot of North Grove Street 
 in 1846. It is not an inviting locality, and 
 the interior of the building has a dilapidated, 
 neglected, *' old particular, brandy-punchy " 
 appearance. The anatomical lecture-room is 
 a deep pit, looking something like a ship's 
 / cabin (barring the amphitheatre of seats). 
 
 There is a skylight, there are anatomical 
 charts, and skeletons dangling from frames. 
 The present writer attended one of the 
 last recitations held by Professor Holmes in 
 this room. As the instructor entered he was 
 received with applause, — proof sufficient of 
 his popularity. The tone of feeling mani- 
 fested by the students was one of mingled 
 respect, affection, and subdued gayety, — a 
 state of titillation which might explode at 
 any moment in a laugh ; and be sure that 
 laughs were not infrequent at every lecture 
 or recitation. After examining and testing 
 two prepared specimens of nerve-fibre and 
 nerve-cell, the Professor passed them around 
 
PHYSIGI AW AND PROFESSOR. 121 
 
 for inspection, they having been mounted in 
 two of the convenient microscopes (with 
 lamp attachment) devised by himself for class 
 use. While the microscopes are passing 
 around, the human scapula, or shoulder-bone, 
 is taken up and questions asked about it in 
 quick, decisive tones. At the anatomical 
 blunders of the young saw-bones a laugh goes 
 round ; the eyes of the doctor twinkle, and a 
 kindly, mirth-provoking expression lights up 
 his whole face while he looks not always at, 
 but away from the student whom he is ques- 
 tioning : — 
 
 Professor. — " Smith ! Here take the bone ! 
 What is the reason that the thigh-socket is 
 so much deeper than the arm-socket 1 " 
 
 Student does not seem clear on the point. 
 
 Professor. — ''Because upon the leg rests 
 the entire weight of the body, and it does not 
 need much range of movement ; but the arm 
 requires to be moved in every direction, as, 
 for example, in knocking a man down, thus, 
 or in the oratorical gesture " (both gestures 
 being gracefully exemplified). 
 
 A general and hearty laugh by the class 
 ensues, and the bone is passed on to the next 
 man. 
 
122 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Dr. Holmes' instruction was usually given 
 in the shape of extemporaneous lectures, illus- 
 trated by diagrams, microscopical preparations, 
 models, etc. In some cases written lectures 
 were prepared by him. For the purpose of 
 making the young men acquainted with na- 
 ture at first hand, he provided for them ten 
 skeletons, each of which was divided into six 
 parts, placed in boxes with handles and slid- 
 ing covers. By taking these boxes to his 
 room the student was enabled to study oste- 
 ology to the best effect, i. e., by actual hand- 
 ling of the objects studied. 
 
 Speaking at a certain anniversary meeting 
 of Dr. Holmes' power as a specialist, Presi- 
 dent Eliot, of Harvard, said : — 
 
 **Most of you have perhaps the impression 
 that Dr. Holmes chiefly enjoys a beautiful 
 couplet, a beautiful verse, an elegant sen- 
 tence. It has fallen to me to observe that he 
 has other great enjoyments. I never heard 
 any mortal exhibit such enthusiasm over an 
 elegant dissection. ... It is his to know 
 with absolute precision the form of every 
 bone in this wonderful body of ours, the 
 course of every artery and vein, of every 
 
PHYSICIAN AND PROFESS OB. 12^ 
 
 nerve, the form and function of every mus- 
 cle, and not only to know it, but to describe 
 it with a fascinating precision and enthu- 
 siasm." 
 
 By way of pleasant relief and contrast to 
 urban matters, we are now to turn our atten- 
 tion to the enchanting Berkshire region, the 
 ** Switzerland of New England," where, in his 
 Pittsfield residence of Canoe Place (so called 
 by him in allusion to the mark on the ancient 
 Indian deed of the estate). Dr. Holmes passed 
 seven happy summer vacations, which, he 
 says, stand in his memory like seven golden 
 candlesticks seen in the beatific vision of the 
 holy dreamer. His Pittsfield farm inured to 
 Dr. Holmes through his mother, whose grand- 
 father, Jacob Wendell, bought, in 1735, the 
 entire township of Pontoosuc, containing 
 twenty-four thousand acres. From the house 
 a noble prospect was to be seen, including 
 the windinsf river below and the distant hills 
 and mountains. Near neighbors of the poet 
 were the traveller and novelist, Herman Mel- 
 ville, and the novelist, G. P. R. James; not 
 far to the south, in the Lenox region, were 
 Miss Sedgwick and Miss Fanny Kemble, and 
 
124 OLIVE E WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 also, for a short time, Hawthorne. The praises 
 of the Berkshire region have often been sung 
 and spoken, and will be so spoken and sung 
 as long as the sentiment of beauty exists in 
 human minds : a height of twelve hundred 
 feet above the sea ; no mosquitoes ; air pure 
 and cool as " frozen dew poured from a silver 
 vase"; the sun-garden of the titanic azure 
 hills, far billowing ; the sod-plush of the 
 mountains a tangle of hardy flowers and 
 beautiful wayside weeds and crispy sedge and 
 moss ; the gold-vapor of sunset topping the 
 soft, distant violet and indigo tints of the 
 hills ; the wine-colored brooks humming old 
 tunes and flashing white curls to the sun as 
 they hurry down the mountain sides (Oh, the 
 joyous Arcadian life of those pastoral moun- 
 tains ! ) ; the huckleberry pastures, inter- 
 sprinkled with sweet-scented bayberry and 
 the high-bush blackberry ; the barberries 
 with their "bright-red coral pendants"; the 
 steeple-top, pussy-willow, yarrow, tanzy, the 
 white-flowered Indian sage, the yellow ele- 
 campane, mouse-ear, crane-bill, gentian, wild 
 caraway, sweet fern, mountain mint ; and, 
 in the woods, white scented violets, the 
 
 ^ 
 
PET 8 IC IAN AND PROFESSOR. 1 25 
 
 dark-stemmed maiden-hair, the swamp cab- 
 bage, birches, alders, hemlocks, and maples. 
 A vast table-land of dim-blue hills, hung 
 out in immensity like an exhalation or a 
 dream, — this is the poetical view of it. A 
 mighty fine milk country, — the practical 
 view. By the way, we had almost forgotten 
 to pay our respects to those arbutus flowers 
 of Berkshire, — the Goodale sisters of South 
 Egremont. Miss Elaine's pretty "Journal 
 of a Farmer's Daughter "^ will help to fill out 
 the picture of Berkshire scenery for those who 
 are interested therein. 
 
 In 1852 Dr. Holmes delivered, in various 
 cities, a course of lectures on the " English 
 Poets of the Nineteenth Century," — Words- 
 worth, Moore, Keats, Shelley, and others. 
 
 "The style," says Duyckinck, "was precise 
 and animated ; the illustrations sharp and 
 cleanly cut. In the criticism there was a lean- 
 ing rather to the bold and dashing bravura of 
 Scott and Byron than to the calm, philo- 
 sophical mood of Wordsworth. Where there 
 was any game on the wing, when the ' servile 
 herd * of imitators and poetasters came in view, 
 they were dropped at once by a felicitous 
 
126 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, 
 
 shot. Each lecture closed with a copy of 
 verses, humorous or sentimental, growing out 
 of the prevalent mood of the hour's discus- 
 sion." 
 
 As a lecturer Holmes was much in demand, 
 and for a half-dozen years or so he travelled a 
 great deal in this capacity. The reader will 
 find some humorous remarks on the subject 
 in the "Autocrat.".. 
 
 About the year 1856 Dr. Holmes thus 
 defined his lecturing terms in a letter to a 
 certain official : — 
 
 " My terms for a lecture, when I stay over 
 night, are fifteen dollars and expenses, a room 
 with a fire in it, in a public house, and a mat- 
 tress to sleep on, — not a feather-bed. As 
 you write in your individual capacity, I tell 
 you at once all my habitual exigencies. I am 
 afraid to sleep in a cold room ; I can't sleep 
 on a feather-bed; I will not go to private 
 houses ; and I have fixed upon the sum men-' 
 tioned as what it is worth for me to go away 
 for the night to places that cannot pay more." 
 
 Fifteen dollars ! 
 
 The Autocrat's landlady, too, delivers her- 
 self as follows on this subject : — 
 
PHYSICIAN AND PROFESSOR. 12/ 
 
 " He was a man that loved to stick round 
 home as much as any cat you ever see in your 
 life. He 'used to say he'd as lief have a tooth 
 pulled as go away anywheres. Always got 
 sick, he said, when he went away, and never 
 sick when he didn't. Pretty nigh killed him- 
 self goin' about lecterin' two or three winters, 
 — talkin' in cold country lyceums, — as he used 
 to say, — goin' home to cold parlors and bein' 
 treated to cold apples and cold water ; and then 
 goin' up into a cold bed in a cold chamber, and 
 comin' home next mornin' with a cold in his 
 head as bad as the horse distemper. Then 
 he'd look kind of sorry for havin' said it, and 
 tell how kind some of the good women was 
 to him, — how one spread an edderdown com- 
 forter for him, and another fixed up somethin' 
 hot for. him after the lecter, and another one 
 said, * There now, you smoke that cigar of 
 yours after the lecter just as if you was at 
 home,' — and if they'd all been like that, he'd 
 have gone on lecterin' forever, but as it was, 
 he got pooty nigh enough of it, and preferred 
 nateral death to puttin' himself out of the 
 world by such violent means as lecterin." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 
 
 Boston, — city of the brown loaf, and the 
 
 marrow-searching icy winds ; city of the brave 
 
 heart and powerful hand; city beloved of 
 
 freedom, 
 
 " Hie illius arma, 
 Hie currus ; " 
 
 city whirling through space with bright golden 
 dome and streaming starry flags ; 
 
 " Peace, Freedom, Wealth ! no fairer view, 
 Though with the wild bird's restless wings 
 We sailed beneath the noontide's blue 
 Or chased the moonlight's endless rings ! " 
 
 — Holmes. 
 
 What Addison and Steele were to the Lon- 
 don of their day ; what Lamb and Hazlitt 
 were to the same city at a later date ; what 
 De Quincey, North, and Jeffrey were to dun 
 Edin of Scotland, — that Holmes and the 
 
 Atlantic Monthly coterie of a quarter of a cen- 
 
 128 
 
THE AUTOCRAT. • 1 29 
 
 tury ago were to Boston. The streets of 
 London were not more loved by Johnson 
 and Lamb than those of Boston have been 
 by Holmes. A perfect thing in its kind 
 is always admirable. Hence to the au- 
 tocrat and laureate of Boston, to Holmes 
 the consummate, the most perfect and de- 
 lightful oppidan, richest distillation of the old 
 Puritan strain of blood, master at will of 
 smiles or tears, — to him we are constrained 
 to yield our homage. He has only made 
 short swallow-flights beyond the limits of his 
 beloved city. If he goes to Paris, he carries 
 Boston with him ; if he goes to New York or 
 Philadelphia, he only sighs and compares 
 them with 'Boston to their disadvantage, and 
 gets back as quick as he can to the hub of 
 the solar system. A barnacle is not more 
 closely identified with its rock, or a pearl with 
 its oyster, than Holmes is with St. Botolph's 
 town. All his books might be labelled " Talks 
 with my Neighbors," and this very provin- 
 cialism, or urban patriotism, forms their chief 
 charm. 
 
 What then is Boston t What is the typical 
 New Englander .? He is above all things a 
 
I30 OLIVER WENDELL EOLMES. 
 
 person of almost pure and unmixed English 
 blood ; he is a proud English squire, unmel- 
 lowed, exacerbated, and sestheticized by 
 change of climate ; for juicy mutton, split 
 codfish ; for the delicate and soothing air of 
 the Gulf Stream, the icy winds of Labrador ; 
 for the sweet hawthorn hedge, the boulder 
 fence ; for_ fat haunches of turf peppered 
 with buttercups and daisies, a soil that 
 scarcely hides the granite. The Bostonian is 
 simply an Americanized Englishman. Hence 
 his hauteur and gigantic egotism. As the 
 Englishman is the physical bully of the world, 
 so the Bostonian is the aesthetic and intellect- 
 ual bully of America ; underneath the high 
 polish of consummate manners (the Pheidian 
 faces finished with a hair-pencil, the animal 
 faultlessly encased) there lurk the stony 
 glare of self-aggrandizement, the icy compla- 
 cency of ancestral pride {pdiprofamtni vulgus)^ 
 the de Jiattt eit has air of an intellectual and 
 social aristocracy well ballasted by the 
 weighty annals of the past. Boston idealizes 
 itself in its artists' ateliers, enjoys artificial 
 aesthetic aspiration in its wealthy ecclesias- 
 tical clubs, sublimates its emotions in Music 
 
THE AUTOGBAT. 131 
 
 Hall, martyrs its comfort with the arid inani- 
 ties of drawing-room receptions, speculates in 
 its granite exchanges, intellectualizes New 
 England with its pale cast of thought, and, in 
 the intervals, subjects the universe in general 
 to the remorseless inspection of its critical 
 eye-glass. 
 
 Ten years of refrigeration and camphora- 
 tion, two lustrums of severe study, are hardly 
 too much for you, O sunny-hearted child 
 of the South or West, if you would hope to 
 pass unscathed the gauntlet of eyes, and 
 move unterrified in the social circles of the 
 Puritan capital. But be sure to persevere ; 
 beware of a precipitate judgment and flight ; 
 for you will soon find that ''the old red-running 
 blood" is in the arteries of the New Eng- 
 lander too, the old warm human heart and 
 tender compassion. Only wait, and you shall 
 find yourself possessed of a warm affection for 
 the gallant city, solidly seated there on its 
 storied hill, — distinguished in its manners, 
 profuse in its philanthropies, splendid in its 
 patriotism, and a model of excellence in its 
 highly organized corporate life. In what 
 other Amxcrican city as yet is materiality, the 
 
132 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 grossness of life, properly subordinated to the 
 intellectual or ideal? Look, e.g., at these 
 blooming young women and these silver-haired 
 matrons coming out of one of their clubs on 
 Park Street ; observe the mingling of gracious- 
 ness and French delicatesse of manners with 
 austere sweetness, firm will, transparent inno- 
 cence, and energetic carriage and action ; out- 
 wardly, snow and roses on a porcelain vase ; 
 inwardlyj aflame with ideal aspiration, and 
 busied with noble charities and humanitarian 
 reforms. There are plenty of European 
 cities dominated even more than Boston by 
 the spirit of idealism ; but there is no other 
 spot on the globe where women hold so high 
 a position ; — and the status of woman in a 
 society is the most delicate test of its civili- 
 zation. 
 
 In the midst of this homogeneous and cul- 
 tured community the Atlantic Monthly maga- 
 zine one day, in November, 1857, spread out 
 a literary feast,* and at the head of its table 
 
 * In the same number of the magazine, and just pre- 
 ceding the first instahnent of the " Autocrat," appeared 
 a cluster of Emerson's philosophical poems, including 
 the famous "Brahma." 
 
THE AVTOCEAT. 1 33 
 
 appeared one of the most brilliant and ver- 
 satile conversationalists of modern times, — 
 the Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, one 
 who ''invented a new kind in literature," — a 
 combination of poetry, psychical introspection, 
 and practical philosophy, irradiated by deli- 
 cate wit, gay humor, and irresistible drollery. 
 A periodical magazine is just the kind of 
 medium suited to a conversationalist. He is 
 sure of a wide group of sympathetic listeners, 
 whom he can address in a familiar, colloquial 
 style, and have his words reach them while 
 still warm from his lips. The " Autocrat " 
 papers created a lively sensation. " The reader 
 of the Atlantic,'' says Mr. Francis H. Under- 
 wood, " always turned to the 'Autocrat ' first. 
 This was proven after the first number by 
 the notices of the press. Very odd most of 
 the early notices were. The good, sedate 
 critics did not know what to make of the 
 thing. Some thought it undignified. Others 
 professed to be more confirmed in their opin- 
 ion that Holmes was only an inordinate 
 egotist. The suckling reviewer undertook to 
 put the puns under his microscope for analy- 
 sis. The solemn purist lamented the ten- 
 
134 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 dency to slang ; and while he admitted the 
 brilliancy of the poems that were interspersed, 
 he thought they showed as ill as diamonds 
 among the spangles of the court fool." 
 
 But before discussing the " Autocrat " 
 papers any further let us recall the circum- 
 stances connected with the founding of the 
 Atlantic Mojithly. Its establishment was due 
 to the then vigorous publishing firm of Phillips 
 & Sampson. Mr. Phillips was especially active 
 and sanguine in promoting the enterprise. 
 One of the objects of the magazine was 
 to give aid and countenance to the anti- 
 slavery cause. The financial outlook at 
 that time was hardly such as to promise 
 success to the new enterprise, and the 
 wiseacres shook their heads over it, fore- 
 boding its early collapse. And in truth it 
 did have a hard struggle for existence, 
 and many thousand dollars of capital were 
 thrown overboard in the effort to keep the 
 ship afloat. It is thought that but for the 
 prestige vi\i\<z\i the "Autocrat" papers gave, 
 the concern would inevitably have gone to 
 pieces. 
 
 The first editor was James Russell Lowell, 
 
THE AUTOCRAT. 1 35 
 
 who was nominated by Mr. Francis H. Under- 
 wood. Mr. Lowell thought that Dr. Holmes 
 would have been the better choice, and ex- 
 pressed the conviction that he (Holmes) 
 would do great things, and make himself felt 
 as a new force in literature. This well- 
 fufilled prediction must have been chiefly- 
 based on Mr. Lowell's acquaintance with the 
 rich and brilliant conversation and poetry of 
 Holmes, for he had as yet done nothing great 
 in the way of prose, with the exception of his 
 (still unpublished) Lectures on the " English 
 Poets of the Nineteenth Century," which 
 were first delivered before the Lowell Insti- 
 tute in Boston in 1852. 
 
 The name of the magazine was suggested 
 by Dr. Holmes. The founders, or first corps 
 of contributors, included Longfellow, Emer- 
 son, Holmes, Motley, Charles Eliot Norton, 
 Edmund Quincy, J. Elliot Cabot, Francis H. 
 Underwood, and others, — fourteen in all. 
 According to a statement of one of the found- 
 ers, the magazine was born in Cambridge 
 at Porter's Tavern on North Avenue, an 
 old inn famous for its cuisine and its punch 
 since half a century. Not that our staid Puri- 
 
136 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 tan divines and essayists ever indulged in 
 such drinking as did their predecessors at 
 Ambrose's in Gabriel's Road. But be sure 
 that " the old man of the lion heart and the 
 sceptre crutch " (Kit North), supported by 
 Ensign Odoherty and the Ettrick Shepherd, 
 never delivered a steadier fire of crackling 
 jests than shot back and forth over the glit- 
 tering table at Porter's or at Parker's when 
 such wits as Holmes and Lowell sat opposite 
 to each other : — 
 
 " Such jests, that, drained of every joke, 
 The very bank of language broke, — 
 Such deeds that Laughter nearly died 
 With stitches in his belted side ; 
 While Time, caught fast in pleasure's chain, 
 His double goblet snapped in twain, 
 And stood with half in either hand, — 
 Both brimming full, — but not of sand ! " 
 
 ■ — Holmes. 
 
 To Mr. F. H. Underwood in Scrihter s Mag- 
 azine we are indebted for the following bril- 
 liant bit of reminiscence of these early ^//<3:;/- 
 tic dinners, associated with the founding and 
 first days of the magazine : " The sparkle of 
 the after-dinner talk was incommunicable, — 
 
THE AUTOCRAT. 1 37 
 
 not in the least studied, but natural and 
 exuberant. The absolute loss of those con- 
 versations and encounters of wit, when Em- 
 erson, Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell, and 
 others sat about the board, is greatly to be 
 regretted. Judge Hoar, who inherits the wit 
 of Roger Sherman, bore his full part. Lowell 
 probably uttered more elaborate sentences, 
 — glowing with new-born images; Holmes 
 made the simplest play and scored most 
 points, both serious and comic. Meanwhile 
 Emerson's wise face was lighted by a mi- 
 raculous smile that would have been the 
 delight and despair of a painter ; and in the 
 end he took the thought which the others 
 were playing hocky with, and calmly set it in 
 an apothegm of crystal beauty. 
 
 " The * Atlantic ' Club at times was ambu- 
 latory, although it generally met at Parker's. 
 Once or twice it dined at Point Shirley with 
 Taft, who is facile rex of our sea-board. Once 
 it dined at a little restaurant in Winter Place, 
 kept by a man of versatile genius, M. Fon- 
 tarive, the first of the French cooks of the 
 time. Once it met at Zach. Porter's in North 
 Cambridge, — not a hotel, but an old-fashioned 
 
138 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 tavern. The cooking was marvellous, and was 
 done under the landlord's eye. His creed 
 was that of Ezra Weeks of the Eagle Inn : — 
 
 " ' Nothin' riles me, I pledge my fastin' word, 
 Like cookin' out the natur' of a bird.' 
 
 " The ducks were brought in and carved by 
 Porter himself, as a mark of consideration to 
 the distinguished guests. The knife was 
 keen, and was wielded by a deft hand ; the 
 slices fell about the platter like a mower's 
 swath until the carcass was bare as a barrel. 
 
 " ' What do you do with the bird after that ? ' 
 Lowell asked of the landlord. 
 
 '' ' Wal,' said Porter, with a curious twinkle 
 in his eyes, 'when I've sliced off the breast, 
 an' the wings, an' legs like that' (pointing to 
 the shell), ' I gin'rally give the carkess to the 
 poor.' 
 
 "Dr. Palmer, whose East Indian sketches 
 had just been published and greatly admired, 
 was a special guest on this occasion ; and the 
 fun of the chorus of palanquin bearers was as 
 current about the table as ' Pinafore * phrases 
 to-day. Holmes was in high spirits, and 
 talked his best, mostly to Longfellow. It 
 
THE AUTOCBAT. 1 39 
 
 was almost like a veritable autocrat in full 
 activity, coruscating, punning, and bearing 
 all before him.' 
 
 " There were no horse-cars then, I think, 
 or it might have been late ; at all events, the 
 whole party, including Emerson, Longfellow, 
 and the other Olympians, walked down to 
 Harvard Square through nearly a foot of new- 
 fallen snow. The impression of this intellect- 
 ual feast is ineffaceable, but it seems now as 
 far away as the Trojan war." 
 
 The Dr. Palmer alluded to by Mr. Under- 
 wood was Dr. John Williamson Palmer, who 
 in 1852-53 had served through the Burmese 
 campaign as surgeon in one of the East India 
 Company's war steamers, and had travelled a 
 good deal in India. His Oriental papers in 
 the first numbers of the Atlajitic are full of 
 the most rollicking fun. (See Appendix I.) 
 
 Another organization which brought to- 
 gether many of the contributors to the Atlan- 
 tic was the Saturday Club, which met, and 
 still meets, every Saturday at two o'clock in 
 the mirror-room at Parker's. Members in 
 the early days were Felton, Whipple, Judge 
 Hoar, James Freeman Clarke, Agassiz, and 
 
140 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Others. It has owed its longevity to its 
 entire informality, and its freedom from 
 speech-making. 
 
 To return to the '' Autocrat of the Break- 
 fast-Table." The original, or prototypal, 
 papers published under this title in Bucking- 
 ham's New Engla7id Magazine for 1831 and 
 1832, were written by Holmes while a law- 
 student in Cambridge, and are indeed boyish 
 and uncombed literary productions, although 
 the searching glance may detect in them the 
 germ or crude hint of every characteristic of 
 the " Autocrat" of 1857. They consist of 
 detached paragraphs, — fragmentary and un- 
 related aphoristic remarks on all manner of 
 subjects. We must respect the wisdom that 
 led their author to deprecate a resurrection of 
 these early pieces. Their coarse slang, egot- 
 ism, flippancy, and priggishness are scarcely 
 redeemed by the few gems that glitter here 
 and there, giving promise of the genial writer 
 into which the boy of twenty-two was to 
 develop in after years. Yet, in spite of the 
 rawness and unabashed sophomorism of the 
 style, one feels, in reading these early trial 
 chapters, that pleasant excitation which de- 
 
THE AUTOCRAT. 141 
 
 cided originality always produces. In this 
 respect, but in no other, they are supe- 
 rior to Longfellow's articles styled ''The 
 Schoolmaster," published in the same num- 
 bers of the magazine. The following whim- 
 sical stanzas appear in Buckingham's maga- 
 zine, and have not been republished by Dr. 
 Holmes ; but they are so good that he will 
 doubtless pardon their reproduction : — 
 
 *' TO A LADY WITH HER BACK TO ME. 
 (Written while sailing up the Delaware.) 
 
 " I know thy face is fresh and bright, 
 Thou angel-moulded girl ; 
 I caught one glimpse of purest white, 
 I saw one auburn curl. 
 
 *' O would the whispering ripples breathe 
 The thoughts that vainly strive — 
 She turns — she turns to look on me ; 
 Black ! cross-eyed ! seventy-five ! " 
 
 There are two or three prose bits in the 
 first "Autocrat" papers worth quoting, — as 
 these : — 
 
 "There is a dilute atmosphere of learning 
 which extends to some distance around a lit- 
 erary institution, almost as bad as the vacuum 
 
142 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 of ignorance. Within such precincts I would 
 look for the Flat in his most spiritless in- 
 anity, and the Bore at the acme of intensity." 
 
 ''Drink as much as you please before your 
 grandfather, but mind whom you kiss before 
 your little brother." 
 
 Here is a powerful psychological delinea- 
 tion of a murderer's soul : — 
 
 " His eye, as nearly as I could tell of a 
 misty-gray, was fixed and calm, but it seemed 
 to convey no more perception to his mind 
 than if he had been talking to a phantom. 
 When the springs that supply the soul are all 
 cut off, for a little while, her dark waters 
 heave vainly against their barriers, and then 
 hush themselves into stillness and blackness. 
 A few hidden fountains may break up and 
 pour themselves into her bosom ; but day by 
 day her circle is narrowing, and the depths, 
 once covered, lie" bare in their desolation." 
 
 It is hardly necessary to state that the early 
 '* Autocrat " papers gave only their title to the 
 later ones of 1857. In the twenty-five years 
 that had passed, the entire diapason of man- 
 hood had been played over, and the most that 
 life has to offer of joy or sorrow had been 
 
THE AUTOCRAT. I43 
 
 tasted. The pent-up thoughts of this long 
 period — all its observations and experiences 
 — are now (in 1857) flung out upon the page 
 in the light and airy form of breakfast-table 
 chat. The charm is in the spontaneity. 
 " Remembering," says Holmes, *' some crude 
 papers of mine in an old magazine, it occurred 
 to me that their title might serve for some 
 pert papers, and so I sat down and wrote off 
 what came into my head under the title, ' The 
 Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table.' This work 
 was not the result of an express premedita- 
 tion, but was, as I may say, dipped from the 
 running stream of my thoughts." 
 
 As in actual life our pleasantest hours are 
 those intensified periods passed at table in 
 social converse, so in these papers we have a 
 vigorous and sustained creation of thoughts 
 and feelings and table-chat so true to the life 
 (the conversational part of it) as to seem like 
 an actual short-hand report. The " Autocrat " 
 is packed full of sententious practical knowl- 
 edge, nut-shell sayings, polished gems of 
 thought, flashes of wit, and keen and sub- 
 tle aperqus into the foibles and idiosyn- 
 crasies of men and women. It is glowing 
 
144 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 poetry in a prose dress (there are poems 
 too) ; it is the rich liquor of experience 
 decanted from its darkling receptacle into 
 the sheen and sparkle of cut-glass. There 
 is nothing in literature with which it can 
 be compared unless it be the " Noctes Am- 
 brosianae " of Professor Wilson ; and it has 
 a clearer, more delicate ring than that work, 
 although not so grand-hearted and tumultuous 
 and self-forgetful. It is a book, said an Eng- 
 lish critic,* "to conjure up a cosey winter- 
 picture, of a ruddy fire, and singing kettle, 
 soft hearth-rug, warm slippers, and easy 
 chair; a musical chime of cups and saucers, 
 fragrance of tea and toast within : and those 
 flowers of frost fading on the windows with- 
 out, as though old winter just looked in, but 
 his cold breath was melted, and so he passed 
 by. A book to possess two copies of ; one to 
 be read and marked, thumbed and dog-eared ; 
 and one to stand up in its pride of place with 
 the rest on the shelves,- all ranged in shining 
 rowS) as dear old friends, and not merely as 
 nodding acquaintances." 
 
 One of the features of the book is its ren- 
 
 * In the North British Review for November, i860. 
 
THE AUTOCRAT. 145 
 
 dering of those subtle and elusive thoughts 
 that are rarely put into words ; as that about 
 the sensation we so often experience of hav- 
 ing done or thought something similar or 
 identical before, and in similar circumstances, 
 and of having had this feeling in dreams also ; 
 or that remark about the tendency we have to 
 string adjectives or epithets in triads, and the 
 explanation offered that '' it is an instinctive 
 and involuntary effort of the mind to present 
 a thought or Image with the three dimensions 
 that belong to every solid." 
 
 To all the pleasant interpretations of our 
 unspoken thought in the "Autocrat" we 
 keep saying, in the words of the old gentle- 
 man who sat at the landlady's table, ''That's 
 it ! that's it ! " as when we read that the thing 
 that more than anything else spoils good con- 
 versation consists of ''long arguments on 
 special points between people who differ on 
 the fundamental principles on which these 
 points depend"; or when the Autocrat an- 
 nounces that he allows no bullying facts at 
 this table, and remarks that the fluent har- 
 monies of conversation may be spoiled by 
 the intrusion of a single false note ; or when 
 
146 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 he says that the work of logic is, generally- 
 speaking, to build a pons asinorum over 
 chasms which shrewd people can bestride 
 without such a structure; or when London 
 on Derby day is likened to a shelled corn- 
 cob, ''and there is not a clerk who could 
 raise the money to hire a saddle with an old. 
 hack under it that can sit down on his office- 
 stool the next day without wincing." 
 
 There are one or two sayings in the " Au- 
 tocrat" that have become proverbial ; namely, 
 the remark that the finest specimens of the 
 New England character are raised under 
 glass ; and the mot which gives to Boston the 
 title ''hub of the solar system" (not "hub of 
 the universe," as it is sometimes quoted).* 
 The poems included in the volume are, as a 
 body, the author's very best, — "The Cham- 
 bered Nautilus," " Latter-Day Warnings," 
 "Estivation," "The One-Hoss Shay," "Ode 
 
 * The Hon. George Folsom, in his Life of Sir Ferdi- 
 nando Gorges, quotes a certain querulous agent of the 
 Plymouth Colony to this effect. "All the frame of 
 heaven moves upon one axis, and the whole of New 
 England's interest seems designed to be loaden on one 
 bottom, and her particular motions to be concentric to 
 the Massachusetts tropic." 
 
THE AUTOCRAT. 147 
 
 for a Social Meeting, with slight Alterations 
 by a Teetotaller," etc. There are a few 
 slight deficiencies in the "Autocrat." The 
 poems are introduced a little awkwardly, and 
 the machinery of the characters and of the 
 boarding-house is a little tiresome, and in the 
 succeeding volumes of the "Professor" and 
 the " Poet " becomes unspeakably wearisome. 
 In the latter volumes the poor straw-men, or 
 lay-figures, set up for the author to exercise 
 his wit upon, get completely worn out with 
 being so long buffeted about, poor things ! 
 The straw sticks out at their elbows, and the 
 sawdust dribbles from their armpits, until, 
 like Don Quixote at Master Peter's Puppet- 
 Show, we would fain, in our impatience, fall 
 upon the whole rabble rout and hustle them 
 out of our sight. But in the " Autocrat " 
 proper these characters — the Schoolmis- 
 tress, Benjamin Franklin, the Landlady, etc., 
 — are pretty skilfully subordinated to the 
 chief actor, or talker, in the scene, and, as a 
 whole, the work is justly ranked with such 
 productions as Emerson's " Conduct of Life " 
 or Lamb's "Essays of Elia." 
 
 Narrow and acrid, indeed, must be the 
 
148 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 nature that would find fault with Dr. Holmes' 
 chief work because it is mainly monologue. 
 Shall not the Autocrat wield his sceptre ? 
 Grant that — 
 
 " Though he changes dress and name, 
 The man beneath is still the same, 
 Laughing or sad, by fits and starts, 
 One actor in a dozen parts, 
 And whatsoe'er the mask may be, 
 The voice assures us, This is he.^^ 
 
 Grant this> and say that this is not good 
 drama^ still we are glad to have his thought 
 in any shape ; and, regarding the "Autocrat " 
 alone, we say with its author that it is not 
 much matter, after all^ 
 
 " If the figures seen 
 Are only shadows on a screen, 
 He finds in them his lurking thought, ^ 
 And on their lips the words he sought, 
 Like one who sits before the keys 
 And plays a tune himself to please." 
 
 In 1882, twenty-five years after the pen- 
 ning of the "Autocrat," Dr. Holmes wrote 
 a new preface to the work, and added some 
 
THE AUTOCRAT. 1 49 
 
 interesting foot-notes. He alluded to the 
 great change that had taken place in the 
 religious opinions of people, saying that when 
 he wrote his Breakfast-Table series it almost 
 meant social martyrdom to utter truths that 
 can now be spoken and defended in any 
 circle of listeners without offence. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 
 
 ,/" In the Proceedings of the Massachusetts 
 Historical Society for December, 1859, Dr. 
 Holmes gives an agreeable account of a visit 
 paid by him to Washington Irving in Decem- 
 ber, 1858, the year before Irving died : — 
 
 ** Sunnyside was snowyside on that Decem- 
 ber morning ; yet the thin white veil could 
 not conceal the features of a place long fa- 
 miliar to me through the aid of engravings 
 and photographs, and as stereotyped in the 
 miraculous, solid sun-pictures. The sharp- 
 pinnacled roof, surmounted by the old Dutch 
 weather-cock ; the vine-clad cottage, with its 
 three-arched open porch, — open on all sides, 
 like the master's heart, — were there just as 
 I knew them, just as thousands know them 
 who have never trodden or floated between 
 the banks of the Hudson. 
 
 "We knocked and were admitted, feeling 
 150 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 151 
 
 still very doubtful whether Mr. Irving would 
 be able to see us. Presently we heard a slow 
 step, which could not be mistaken in that 
 household of noiseless footfalls. Mr. Irving 
 entered the room, and welcomed us in the 
 most cordial manner. He was sHghter and 
 more delicately organized than I had sup- 
 posed ; of less than average stature, I should 
 think, looking feeble, but with kindness beam- 
 ing from every feature. He spoke almost in 
 a whisper, with effort, his voice muffled by 
 some obstruction. Age had treated him like 
 a friend ; borrowing somewhat, as is his wont, 
 but lending also those gentle graces which 
 give an inexpressible charm to the converse 
 of wise and good ol4nien, whose sympathies 
 keep their hearts young and their minds 
 open. . . . Something authorized me to al- 
 lude to his illness, and my old professional 
 instincts led me to suggest to him the use of 
 certain palliatives which I had known to be 
 used in some cases having symptoms resem- 
 bling his own. 
 
 " After returning home I sent him some 
 articles of this kind. Early in January he 
 wrote me a letter of considerable length ; 
 
1 5 2 OLI VER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 saying, among other things, that he had used 
 some medicated cigarettes I sent him with 
 much relief. This letter was overflowing 
 with expressions of kindness ; but, though 
 written in his own hand, it had no signature. 
 I sent it back to him for his name ; telling 
 him that his was the first autograph I had 
 ever asked for, but that I must have it at the 
 end of such a letter. The next post brought 
 the letter back signed." ^^ 
 
 In 1858 Holmes removed from the old 
 Montgomery Place home to 21 Charles Street, 
 where he had as neighbors Governor Andrew 
 and James T. Fields. His study, in the rear 
 of the house, commanded a wide and beauti- 
 ful view of Charles River, with the towns of 
 Cambridge and Brighton, and the green 
 slopes of Corey and Parker hills in the dis- 
 tance. Here twice a day, almost beneath the 
 very windows, the tidal waters of the ocean 
 come surging in along the sinuous Charles, 
 bearing the perfume and strength of the 
 sea in their arms. To the right one sees the 
 long procession of travellers along West Bos- 
 ton bridge ; in the distance loom the spires 
 of Cambridge ; the far-off hills are full of 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 153 
 
 beauty, their tints ever changing; and at 
 evening you have in full view 
 
 " The gorgeous, indolent, sinking sun, 
 Burning, expanding the air." 
 
 At night there is something Venetian in 
 the appearance of the Back Bay, as the ex- 
 pansion of the Charles River here is styled. 
 The long lamp-rows of the bridges and of 
 the Brighton road, the colored lights stream- 
 ing down into the reflected abyss of the 
 sky, the gleam of the smooth elastic sur- 
 face of the stream, the expanse of stars, — it 
 is all very soothing and beautiful of a summer 
 evening. By day a prominent feature of the 
 landscape is formed by the smoke-pillars from 
 the tall East Cambridge factory-chimneys, — 
 the giant-twisted smoke-columns of jet or snow, 
 pinnacled in the azure sky, silent, sinuous, 
 stately, the grace of motion and contour in 
 perfect and harmonious expression. In win- 
 ter the scene is still full of charm, with variety 
 of tint and aspect, — the distant snow-line 
 meeting that of the sky, the ships, the ice, 
 the wheeling gulls, etc. From his study- 
 window Dr. Holmes used to look out .with an 
 
154 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 opera-glass at the little groups of tent-like 
 screens made of sail-cloth and used by men 
 who were fishing through the ice. There was 
 then, and there is to-day, a good deal of fish- 
 ing for eels and smelts from West Boston 
 bridge. In the " Autocrat " Dr. Holmes 
 tells us about his rowing experiences on the 
 Charles and about the harbor. He kept 
 several boats at the foot of his garden. His 
 boat was the delicate "shell" with its an- 
 tennae-oars. 
 
 The ""Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table" 
 was followed in 1859 by "The Professor at 
 the Breakfast-Table," a work distinctly in- 
 ferior to its predecessor, but containing 
 many fine single passages, and one episode, 
 the " Story of Iris," which possesses great 
 pathos and beauty, and has been reprinted in 
 Rossiter Johnson's " Little Classics." The 
 last moments of the poor old starved tutor, 
 and his words to his little daughter, will draw 
 the tears from the eyes of many a reader : 
 " ' Iris ! ' he said, — ^filiola mea ! * — The 
 child knew this meant my dear little daughter 
 as well as if it had been English. — * Rain- 
 bow!' — for he would translate her name at 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 1 55 
 
 times, — ' come to me, — vent ' — and his 
 lips went on automatically, and murmured, 
 'vel veitito !' — The child came and sat by 
 his bedside, and took his hand, which she 
 could not warm, but which shot its rays of 
 cold all through her slender frame. But 
 there she sat, looking steadily at him. Pres- 
 ently he opened his lips feebly, and whis- 
 pered, ^ Moribundiis' She did not know 
 what that meant, but she saw that there was 
 something new and sad. So she began to 
 cry ; but presently remembering an old book 
 that seemed to comfort him at times, got up 
 and brought a Bible in the Latin version, 
 called the Vulgate. 'Open it,' he said, — 'I 
 will read, — segnios irritant^ — don't put the 
 light out, — ah ! haeret lateri, — I am going, 
 
 — valey vale, vale, good-by, good-by — the 
 Lord take care of my child ! — Domini audi, 
 
 — vel audito !' His face whitened suddenly, 
 and he lay still, with open eyes and mouth. 
 He had taken his last degree." 
 
 As a treasury of practical philosophy and 
 observation, the " Professor " is a valuable 
 and readable book ; but as a story or narra- 
 tive it is a failure. The everlasting boarders 
 
156 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 appear on the stage again, as lifeless and 
 characterless as ever. The style is turgid, 
 and frothy, and wearisome. Simplicity and 
 the calmness of a great nature is what the 
 reader comes to long for. The Christian Ex- 
 ami?ier said of '' The Professor at the Break- 
 fast-Table": *' The anxiety to leave out 
 nothing in the estimate of the universe, whe- 
 ther of old ideals or of new experiences, and 
 the- anxiety not to be too anxious, are curi- 
 ously balanced throughout the book. There 
 is a keen susceptibility to impressions, out- 
 ward or inward, checked by the desire not to 
 be led away by these impressions, and a 
 belief that the base and issue of things are 
 both good and right." 
 
 In the ^' Autocrat " Professor Holmes had 
 expressed the opinion that every man has in 
 him the material for one novel at least ; for 
 one's own life experiences would furnish him 
 with such material. This hint of the inev- 
 itable novel, at which everybody nowadays 
 tries his or her hand, took shape in 1859 in 
 that weird New England story, *' Elsie Ven- 
 ner, a Romance of Destiny," which exerted 
 its subtle and thrilling fascination over a wide 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 1^7 
 
 circle of readers, and was followed in i ^6^ by 
 the somewhat similar novel, " The Guardian 
 Angel." 
 
 / Oi the /^<:/^;22V^/ qualifications of the pro- 
 fessional novel-wright Holmes has not where- 
 with to furnish forth even a third-rate genius ; 
 there are twenty-and-one novelists now living 
 who would laugh to scorn the threadbare 
 conventionalisms of his plots, notwithstand- 
 ing their few thrilling dramatic incidents. 
 But then his two novels are not so much 
 novels of plot as they are stories written to 
 illustrate a psychological theory of heredity, 
 and the interest chiefly centres, and was in- 
 tended to centre, upon the one character in 
 the novel whose nature and life experiences 
 set forth the theory. The strength of " Elsie 
 Venner " and " The Guardian Angel " lies in 
 their shrewd psychological analysis of char- 
 acter (or rather of mental states), and in their 
 wealth of practical philosophy, incidental in- 
 formation, and strong flavor of New England- 
 ism. Certain types of New England charac- 
 ter are sketched in coarse, raw pigments with 
 great fidelity ; but, when the author is de- 
 picting his subordinate and ruder personages, 
 
158 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 you generally receive the impression of gro- 
 tesque exaggeration and caricature (like that 
 of firelight shadows on the wall). On such 
 occasions he has an irresistible tendency to 
 indulge in a kind of horse-play, a coarse real- 
 ism of portraiture to a great extent lacking 
 in the subtle and delicate touch by which the 
 great novelists reveal the hidden springs of 
 feeling and nobleness even in their least 
 prominent characters. There is a certain 
 harshness or hardness of manner in Dr. 
 Holmes' novels. " Elsie Venner " and *^The 
 Guardian Angel" are pervaded through- 
 out by a physiological atmosphere, with a 
 whiff now and then from the peculiar medi- 
 cated air of the physician's office. When 
 Dr. Holmes brings a new character before us, 
 or before himself, he is apt to begin his de- 
 lineation with a sensuous, physiological study 
 of the outward casing, tells us about the 
 suits of muscles — the trapezius, the del- 
 toid, the triceps — and many other facts of 
 the kind. 
 
 The readers of Holmes who know that his 
 chief trait is self-consciousness, and that the 
 power of projecting himself into the lives of 
 
UrOV^LS AMD ESSAYS. 1 59 
 
 others, and becoming those others for a time, 
 is something only with difficulty and effort ac- 
 complished by him, get the feeling that, in the 
 character of novelist, he is only playing a rolcy 
 — as if he had said,. "Go to! I can write a 
 novel as well as others ; see in how approved a 
 fashion I do it." A feature of his two novels 
 which strengthens this impression is that 
 many of their details seem not to have been 
 premeditated, but to have been ground out 
 as the writer went on. 
 
 But in spite of their deficiencies the stories 
 hold us fascinated to the end. This means 
 that they are successful works ; and, indeed, 
 they have had, and still have, a wide circle of 
 readers. " Elsie Venner," especially, has 
 attracted great attention on both sides of the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 A few words should be said about our 
 author's types of women, or let us say his 
 typical woman. It is, perhaps, too much to 
 expect that a physician and physiologist should 
 have a very exalted idea of woman. We 
 should hardly expect one who spends his life 
 in considering the weak and diseased speci- 
 mens of any group of nature's productions, to 
 
l60 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 have a high ideal view of the present excel- 
 lences and latent possibilities of develop- 
 ment of the group as a sound and beautiful 
 whole. Dr. Holmes, at any rate, is half a 
 century behind the times in his conception of 
 woman. His women are little more than 
 pretty pieces of flesh, "fine specimens of 
 muliebrity," "fine specimens of young fe- 
 males." " The less there is of sex about 
 a woman," he says, " the more she is to be 
 dreaded." There is of course a good deal of 
 truth in this statement, and there is truth in 
 Dr. Holmes* delineation of the womanly type 
 as being at its best and highest (domestically, 
 speaking) when the softness and grace of wife- 
 hood and maternity are in normal and har- 
 monious expression. But what we quarrel 
 with him for is that he stops there and shows 
 himself apparently incapable of conceiving of 
 woman in her relations outside of the domes- 
 tic -circle, where, equally with man outside of 
 the relations of fatherhood and the home, she 
 appears as an aspiring human being, athirst 
 for knowledge and power and aesthetic enjoy- 
 ment. There is not apparently in all of Dr. 
 Holmes' writings a single passage which ex- 
 
WOVELS AND ESSAYS. l6l 
 
 presses any sympathy with woman in her 
 nobler ideal aspirations and struggles. Per- 
 sonally, he is popular with women, as most 
 physicians are ; but he has been taken to task 
 for his low ideal of womanhood by more than 
 one female writer." Listen to him : '* I con- 
 fess I like the quality-ladies better than the 
 common kind even of literary ones. They 
 haven't read the last book, perhaps, but they 
 attend better to you when you are talking to 
 them. If they are never learned they make 
 up for it in tact and elegance. Besides, I 
 think, on the whole, there is less of self-asser- 
 tion in diamonds than in dogmas." He has no 
 doubt that Esther '* was a more gracious and 
 agreeable person than Deborah, who judged 
 the people and wrote the story of Sisera." . . . 
 "A woman who does not carry a halo of good 
 feeling and desire to make everybody con- 
 tented about with her wherever she goes, — 
 an atmosphere of grace, mercy, and peace, of 
 at least six feet radius, which wraps every 
 human being upon whom she voluntarily be- 
 stows her presence, and so flatters him with 
 the comfortable thought that she is rather 
 glad he is alive than otherwise, isn't worth 
 
1 62 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 the trouble of talking to as a woman; she 
 may do well enough to hold discussions 
 with." 
 
 Observe the complacent masculine arro- 
 gance (so nai've !), the reference of the whole 
 matter to one's self : the question with him is 
 not whether woman shall develop herself nobly 
 or not, but does she please ine^ does she 
 flatter me, comfort me, and add to my enjoy- 
 ment. It is such seraglio philosophy as this 
 that brings the sneer to the lips of the nobler 
 women when they are discussing men among 
 themselves. But we may not be too harsh in 
 our strictures. For, although such philosophy 
 as this is now happily almost entirely rele- 
 gated to the less liberalized ranks of society, it 
 was not so thirty or forty years ago ; the prev- 
 alent conception then was that which appears 
 in the writings of Holmes. He has of late 
 both in print and in private conversation ex- 
 pressed the wish that he could recall many 
 things written in his earlier years, and we 
 shall doubtless be right in including among 
 these certain pages or paragraphs in which he 
 has treated of woman. Let us not forget to 
 add that his portraitures of the doll-type of 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 1 63 
 
 women are very pretty arid attractive. Iris, 
 Myrtle Hazard, Olive Eveleth, Letty Forres- 
 ter, — they are all charming little women, 
 lovable and wifely. What a subtle concep- 
 tion that of Iris ! Falling in love with the 
 deformed Little Gentleman, and then, in the 
 utter goodness and eternal womanly devotion 
 of her soul, trying to idealize deformity, and 
 look at it as one of Nature's eccentric curves, 
 and a necessary part of the system of beauty ; 
 and then filling her drawing-book with crea- 
 tures having twisted spines, humped drome- 
 daries, high-shouldered herons, buffaloes, and 
 twisted serpents ! And her devotion in car- 
 ing for the poor dwarf in his last illness, all 
 this is very noble, and goes far toward making 
 us pleased with Dr. Holmes' conception of 
 woman as wife. Iris is indeed a delicate 
 creature. 
 
 But the reader will get better hints of Dr. 
 Holmes' methods as a novelist by examining 
 with us the separate works, " Elsie Venner " 
 appeared under the title of " The Professor's 
 Story," in 1859 ^^^ i860. The central con- 
 ception of the novel is a weird and powerful 
 one, strongly grasped and consistently and 
 
164 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 
 
 subtly elaborated in its details. One who is 
 about to become a mother is bitten by a rat- 
 tlesnake. The mother lives for three weeks 
 after the birth of the child and then dies. 
 The child, infected and serpentized by the 
 poison, grows up, and manifests many of the 
 characteristics of the snake. The story is a 
 tragedy : poor serpentoid Elsie excites either 
 pity or horror in all breasts but one, that of 
 her old black nurse, Sophy, who really loves 
 her. But her rich and passionate nature asks 
 a deeper and more intimate love than this, 
 and when she finds that the young scholar 
 upon whom she has bestowed her affection 
 cannot return it she dies in despair ; but love 
 has acted as a spell to release her from the 
 weird enchantment, and before she dies she 
 seems completely free from the terrifying 
 serpentine looks and actions which have char- 
 acterized her, and leaves with us the impres- 
 sion that if she could only have had her love 
 returned she would have been cured of her 
 inherited taint, and would have had a happy 
 married life.* This bringing back into 
 
 * Compare carefully pages 231 and 232 with' page 
 262 (Vol. II., original edition). 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 1 65 
 
 human fellowship and sympathy of some 
 abnormal or sin-scarred individual through 
 the potent might of love, or the growth of 
 human affection and sympathy, is also the 
 central idea of ''The Guardian Angel," of 
 A>^ the " Silas Warner" of George Eliot, and of 
 nearly all of Hawthorne's works, — only in 
 Holmes', stories the taint is physiological ; in 
 the others it is ethical. The isolation which 
 was the lot of poor Elsie is described by 
 Hawthorne in " The Marble Faun " as the 
 " perception of an infinite shivering solitude, 
 amid which we cannot come close enough to 
 human beings to be warmed by them, and 
 where they turn to cold, chilly shapes of 
 mist." This isolation was the lot of Gervase 
 Hastings, of Ethan Brand, of old Rappaccini, 
 Hollingsworth, Roger Chillingsworth, Hester 
 Prynne, and Donatello. When Hester forgot 
 herself in ministrations to the suffering and 
 sorrowing she lost the sense of her guilt, and 
 " the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma ; " 
 in the case of Donatello, '' when first the idea 
 was suggested of living for the welfare of his 
 fellow-creatures, the original beauty, which 
 sorrow had partly effaced, came back elevated 
 
1 66 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 and spiritualized. In the black depths the 
 Faun had found a soul, and was struggling 
 with it toward the light of heaven " ; and in 
 Hawthorne's story of " Egotism, or the Bosom 
 Serpent," Roderick Elliston, haunted by the 
 belief that a serpent is lodged in his bosom, 
 was cured of his hallucination the moment 
 that his gentle wife whispered in his ear 
 the words, '' Forget yourself in the idea of 
 another." Then did he perceive that the ser- 
 pent in his bosom was his own selfishness.* 
 In "The Marble Faun" Hawthorne has given 
 us, in the character of Donatello, an idea 
 like that which Dr. Holmes has embodied 
 in " Elsie Venner," namely, of a human 
 being inheriting certain characteristics of an 
 animal. 
 
 Almost all of Dr. Holmes' books are written 
 to combat some theological dogma. The 
 moral intended to be conveyed by " Elsie 
 Venner " is that men are not responsible for 
 many of their crimes, shortcomings, and 
 moral and mental twists, the tendency to 
 
 *_ See The Califorman magazine for August, 1881, 
 where the writer has discussed Hawthorne's treatment 
 of sin. 
 
JSrOV^LS AND ESSAYS. 16/ 
 
 these things having been inherited. This is 
 a favorite thesis with Dr. Holmes. He be- 
 lieves in free will, but thinks, with many 
 other eminent writers, that its freedom is 
 very much limited. The old pastor in " Elsie 
 Venner" is led by the story of the heroine's 
 life to adopt charitable conclusions about 
 the total depravity of people ; and Helen 
 Darley thinks that " if, while the will lies 
 sealed in its fountain, it may be poisoned at 
 its very source, so that it shall flow dark and 
 deadly through its whole course, who are we 
 that we should judge our fellow-creatures by 
 ourselves.-*" It should be remembered that 
 Dr. Holmes does not assert his absolute be- 
 lief in the possibility of animal characteristics 
 being introduced into the nature by foetal 
 transmission, as in the case of Elsie Venner, 
 but he says that he has received startling 
 confirmation of its possibility. 
 
 The scene of " Elsie Venner " is laid in 
 the Connecticut Valley, apparently in or near 
 Northampton, where, in a quaint and roomy 
 old mansion, lives Dudley Venner, the father 
 of the heroine. To this neighborhood comes 
 one day, as a teacher, a young man of the 
 
1 68 OLIVER WENDELL E0LME8. 
 
 "Brahmin caste," — the cultured bookish 
 class, — named Bernard Langdon, and with 
 him Elsie eventually falls in love. Silas 
 Peckham, proprietor of the Apollinean Insti- 
 tute, employs, besides Langdon, a Miss Helen 
 Darley, — a frail, sensitive, conscientious, 
 overworked young teacher. Silas Peckham 
 is admirably drawn, — only a little too hid- 
 eous for the reality, — a Yankee Squeers, a 
 hard, grasping, merciless man, " thin as if he 
 had been split and dried ; with an ashen kind 
 of complexion, like the tint of the food he is 
 made of (split codfish) ; and about as sharp, 
 tough, juiceless, and biting to deal with as the 
 other is to the taste." And Elsie, — "She 
 was a splendid scowling beauty, black-browed, 
 with a flash of white teeth which was always 
 like a surprise when her lips parted. She 
 wore a checkered dress, of a curious pattern, 
 and a camel's-hair scarf twisted a little fan- 
 tastically about her. . . . Black piercing eyes, 
 not large, — a low forehead, as low as that of 
 Clytie in the Townley bust, — black hair 
 twisted in heavy braids, — a face that one 
 could not help looking at for its beauty, yet 
 that one wanted to look away from for some- 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 1 69 
 
 thing in its expression, and couLd not for 
 those diamond eyes." She wore a barred 
 skirt, had on her arm as a bracelet a golden 
 asp with emerald eyes, and around her neck 
 sometimes a torque chain, and sometimes a 
 necklace of enamelled scales ; she loved to 
 haunt the dreaded rattlesnake cavern, especi- 
 ally in hot mid-summer, when the fierce pois- 
 ons of nature were generated in the heats, 
 and when her own nature became most un- 
 governable and serpentoid ; she had castanets 
 which she loved to rattle as an accompani- 
 ment to her dance ; she had the habit of nar- 
 rowing her eyes like a sleepy cat, and of 
 drawing down, or flattening, her forehead ; 
 she had a just perceptible lisp; her hands 
 were cold, and her glistening eyes had the 
 power of fascinating people and making them 
 shudder and shiver ; the hysterical school- 
 mistress, Helen Darley, was absolutely made 
 ill by the sight of her ; her handwriting was 
 sharp-pointed, long and slender, and she 
 wrote on wavy, ribbed paper ; for the olive- 
 purple leaves of the white ash she had a 
 strong and unconquerable aversion, which is 
 said to be the case also with the rattle-snake. 
 
I/O OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 A passage in the second volume of the 
 story throws hght on the mystery of this 
 poor girl. When Helen Darley, Elsie's 
 teacher, learns from old Sophy the secret of 
 the "ante-natal impression which had mingled 
 an alien element in her nature," she then un- 
 derstood the fascination of her cold, glittering 
 eyes. ** She knew the significance of the 
 strange repulsion which she felt in her own 
 intimate consciousness underlying the inex- 
 plicable attraction which drew her towards 
 the young girl in spite of this repugnance. 
 She began to look with new feelings on the 
 contradictions in her moral nature, — the 
 longing for sympathy, as shown by her wish- 
 ing for Helen's company, and the impos- 
 sibility of passing between the cold circle of 
 isolation within which she had her being. 
 The fearful truth of that instinctive feeling 
 of hers, that there was something not human 
 looking out of Elsie's eyes, came upon her 
 with the sudden flash of penetrating convic- 
 tion. There were two warring principles in 
 that superb organization and proud soul. 
 One made her a woman with all a woman's 
 powers, and longings. The other chilled all 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. I /I 
 
 the currents of outlet for her emotions. It 
 made her tearless and mute, when another 
 woman would have wept and pleaded. And 
 it infused into her soul something — it was 
 cruel now to call it malice — which was still, 
 watchful, and dangerous, — which waited its 
 opportunity, and then shot like an arrow 
 from its bow out of the coil of brooding pre- 
 meditation." 
 
 The author of ''Elsie Venner" wisely 
 keeps his heroine mysteriously in the back- 
 ground of his picture, or rather keeps her in 
 view, but does not permit her to speak much. 
 This heightens the mystery and whets our 
 curiosity. The deathbed scene of poor Elsie 
 is as pathetic as that of the tutor in the story 
 of Iris. A rich, deep, strange nature that of 
 Elsie, and one that gets hold of our sympa- 
 thies in a very strong manner. Who, indeed, 
 can ever forget her ? No character in Eng- 
 lish literature more eldritch and fantastical ; 
 and in English poetry but two characters at 
 all resembling her. In Coleridge's " Christa- 
 bel" the lovely Lady Geraldine exercises 
 over the fair Christabel a fascination like that 
 of a serpent : — 
 
1/2 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 " A snake's small eye blinks dull and shy, 
 And the lady's eyes they shrunk in her head, 
 Each shrunk up to a serpent's eye. 
 And with somewhat of malice, and more of 
 
 dread, 
 At Christabel she looked askance ! " 
 
 The Lamiae of antiquity were fabulous mon- 
 sters with the head and breast of a woman 
 and the body of a serpent. They allured peo- 
 ple to destruction by a soothing, strange kind 
 of hissing. Keats gives a picture of one of 
 these creatures : — 
 
 " A palpitating snake, 
 Bright, and cirque-couchant in a dusky brake. 
 
 Upon her crest she wore a wa-nnish fire. 
 Sprinkled with stars, like Ariadne's tiar ; 
 Her head was serpent, but ah, bitter sweet ! 
 She had a woman's mouth, with all its pearls com- 
 plete." 
 
 The minor characters in " Elsie Venner " — 
 Old Sophy, Dick Venner, Helen Darley, and 
 the Doctor, — are finely individualized. The 
 Sprowles' party affords the Autocrat an oppor- 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 1 73 
 
 timity to display a good deal of his character- 
 istic satirical wit, slang, and buffoonery. There 
 is considerable fun and much local coloring 
 in this bit of opera comique, or variety show 
 — the Sprowles* party ; but the sketch is over- 
 done, and has a touch of coarseness, unkind- 
 liness, and cockneyism in it. However, the 
 ludicrousness of the situation grows irresist- 
 ible, and, when one reaches the incident of 
 the Deacon and the ice-cream, laughter be- 
 comes uncontrollable and violent. The Dea- 
 con mistook the ice-cream for custard, and 
 after swallowing an immense spoonful set up 
 a sound something between a howl and an 
 oath ; his features assumed an expression of 
 intense pain, his eyes staring wildly ; and, 
 clapping his hands to his face, he rocked his 
 head backward and forward in speechless 
 agony. After a good deal of slapping on the 
 back he recovers. Here is another bit of 
 realism : " The elder Miss Spinney, to whom 
 she made this remark, assented to it, at the 
 same time ogling a piece of frosted cake, 
 which she presently appropriated with great 
 refinement of manner, — taking it between 
 her thumb and forefinger, keeping the others 
 
174 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 well spread, and the little finger in extreme 
 divergence, with a graceful undulation of the 
 neck and a queer little sound in her throat, as 
 of an m that wanted to get out and perished 
 in the attempt." 
 
 The tea-party of the widow, Marilla Row- 
 ens, forms an agreeable companion-piece to 
 the vulgarities of this party of the Sprowles. 
 As a pendant to this theme one may add the 
 following ludicrous advice of the " Professor ": 
 " A few rules are worth remembering by all 
 who attend anniversary dinners in Faneuil 
 Hall or elsewhere. Thus : Lobsters' claws 
 are always acceptable to children of all ages. 
 Oranges and apples are to be taken one at a 
 time, until the coat-pockets begin to become 
 inconveniently heavy. Cakes are injured by 
 sitting upon them ; it is, therefore, well to 
 carry a stout tin-box of a size to hold as many 
 pieces as there are children in the domestic 
 circle." 
 
 "Elsie Venner" is a novel strongly fla- 
 vored with rural and dialect language, of 
 which, however. Dr. Holmes does not appear 
 to have made quite so artistic a study as has 
 Lowell. Some of the rural characters of the 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. ' 1 75 
 
 work well illustrate negatively Dr. Holmes' 
 saying that the best specimens of New Eng- 
 land character are raised under glass. Such 
 Yankeeisms as the dispute, in '' Elsie Venner," 
 over the skin and shoes of the dead horse, and 
 the negotiations of Silas Peckham for the 
 remainder delicacies of the Sprowles' party 
 to feed his Institute pupils with, are capital 
 satirical strokes. 
 
 For the sake of convenience we may here 
 consider Dr. Holmes' second novel, ''The 
 Guardian Angel," although it was not pub- 
 lished in book-form until 1867. Perhaps the 
 germ, or suggestion, of the work is found in 
 this sentence from " Elsie Venner": " Every 
 young girl ought to walk, locked close, arm 
 in arm, between two guardian angels." Myr- 
 tle Hazard, however, has but one, the old bach- 
 elor and book-worm, Byles Gridleyj whom it 
 seems slightly absurd, by the way, to dub 
 with the title of angel. The central idea of 
 the story is this : There is evidence which 
 seerds to show that persons who have long 
 been dead " may enjoy a kind of secondary 
 and imperfect, yet self-conscious life " in our 
 bodily tenements. "This body," says the 
 
176 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 author, "in which we journey across the 
 isthmus between the oceans is not a private 
 carriage, but an omnibus." The plan of the 
 novel is to show how in the life of Myrtle 
 Hazard (the heroine of the book) the traits 
 and experiences of ancestors reappear, and 
 produce, in her strange and unaccountable 
 actions, until love and self-sacrifice break the 
 spell. One of her ancestors had been accused 
 of sorcery, or witchcraft : consequently Myr- 
 tle is full 'of wild and eldritch freaks and fits of 
 waywardness. A tinge of tropical fierceness 
 is added to her character from the circum- 
 stance that she was born in India ; when she 
 was a little girl she wore a scarlet dress, and 
 was styled by a young man in the town " the 
 fire-hang-bird," or oriole. Another of her an- 
 cestors was burned at the stake : accordingly 
 she is represented as being cured of her in- 
 herited taint, partly, indeed, through her love 
 of Clement Lindsay, but chiefly through her 
 self-denying offices of mercy in the hospitals, 
 as well as in her self-sacrifice in the choice of 
 a poor but noble husband : " What change 
 was this which Myrtle had undergone since 
 love had touched her heart, and her visions 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 1 7/ 
 
 of worldly enjoyment had faded before the 
 thought of sharing and ennobling the life of 
 one who was worthy of her best affections, — 
 of living for another, and finding her own 
 noblest self in that divine office ,of woman ? 
 . . . If it could be that, after so many gene- 
 rations, the blood of her who had died for her 
 faith could show in her descendant's veins, 
 and the soul of' that elect lady of her race 
 look out from her far-removed offspring's dark 
 eyes, such a transfiguration of the martyr's life 
 and spiritual being might well seem to manifest 
 itself in Myrtle Hazard." ..." In the offices 
 of mercy which she performed for sick and 
 the wounded and the dying the dross of her 
 nature seemed to be burned away. The con- 
 flict of mingled lives in her blood had ceased." 
 The plot of the work has some dramatic 
 crises and developments, — as, for example, 
 the scene at the rapids, the management of 
 the will, and the finding of the old leather 
 mitten, with the fist full of silver dollars, and 
 the thumb of gold half-eagles. The villain, 
 Murray Bradshaw, is almost too cold and pas- 
 sionless an abstraction to be lifelike ; but not 
 so Byles Gridley, author of "Thoughts on 
 
178 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 the Universe," the dear, honest, hearty old 
 bachelor, who countermines so handsomely 
 the plots of Bradshaw. The oily and nau- 
 seous cant of the Rev. Mr. Stoker seems as 
 accurately reported as it could be, and the hits 
 at the preachers are good and well-deserved. 
 When the Rev. Mr. Stoker begins to take a 
 too tender interest in the rich young beauty, 
 Myrtle Hazard, Mrs. Hopkins advises the 
 procuring of a bull-dog who would take the 
 seat out of his black pantaloons the next time 
 he called. Old Dr. Hurlbut adds his contri- 
 bution to the good cause by remarking that 
 he always had to lay in an extra stock of 
 valerian and assafoetida whenever there was 
 a young minister around, — '' for there's 
 plenty of religious ravin', says he, that's 
 nothin' but hysterics." The vain and silly 
 poetaster is hit off so well in Gifted Hopkins 
 that the character at once recalls the numer- 
 ous acquaintances of that genus which we 
 have all had : the interview with the publisher 
 is full of the richest humor. Silence With- 
 ers and Miss Cynthia Badlam seem to have 
 been photographed from the life. A writer 
 in the Spectator thinks that the character of 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 1 79 
 
 Myrtle Hazard is effectually analyzed, but 
 not reconstructed again in a unity of person- 
 ality; also thinks that ''to precipitate an old 
 book-student, however keen at reading gen- 
 eral character, into the task of unravelling 
 and countermining the conventional con- 
 spiracy of a legal rogue like Murray Brad- 
 shaw was not a very artistic idea." 
 
 A writer in T/ie Nation for November 14, 
 1867, offered the following caustic criticism 
 on ''The Guardian Angel " : — 
 
 " What ' goes without saying/ as the 
 French put it, Dr. Holmes is very apt to 
 say ; that, we believe, is the thing which 
 chiefly interferes with our enjoyment of his 
 works." The reviewer cites as instances the 
 talk of Professor Gridley, and the hit at the Cal- 
 vinists in the dismal ululations of the hell-fire 
 hymns of those low-spirited Christian pessi- 
 mists, Cousin Silence and Miss Cynthia. " Dr. 
 Holmes," he continues, " goes through his 
 story, — too often bearing on hard when only 
 the lightest touch would have been pleasing, 
 not to say sufferable; sternly breaking on 
 his wheel the deadest of bugs and butterflies." 
 — "There is a good deal of triteness and dul- 
 
l80 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 ness and flippancy in his book." — " When he 
 had written ' The Autocrat of the Breakfast- 
 Table,' Dr. Holmes would have done well, as 
 it has since appeared, had he ceased from 
 satire. That series of papers gave him a 
 brilliant reputation, which from that time for- 
 ward he has gone on damaging, diminishing 
 it by each new book ; diminishing the bril- 
 liance of it, at any rate, though it may well 
 enough be that he has extended it among 
 more people. He has never stopped ham- 
 mering on the same nail which he hit on the 
 head when he first struck. 'The Professor' 
 took away something from the estimation in 
 which we had been holding the 'Autocrat ' ; 
 * Elsie Venner' took away a little more; and 
 ' The Guardian Angel ' takes away a larger por- 
 tion than was removed by either of the others. 
 " We speak of the author as a satirist. 
 That he is, mainly ; he is hardly to be called 
 a novelist. His characters are figures labelled 
 and set up to be fired at, or are names about 
 which a love-story is told, or they embody 
 some physiologico-psychological theory ; but 
 they are never to be called characters in any. 
 true sense of the word." 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. l8l 
 
 The year 1861 saw the opening of the 
 Civil War waged for the preservation of the 
 Union and of the rights of man. There is 
 nothing like the glowing furnace of a great 
 moral conflict to purge away the dross and 
 slag from men's natures. Dr. Holmes pos- 
 sesses, or possessed, a generous share of those 
 very human frailties of character which do 
 so much to level distinctions among men. 
 He has probably written and spoken more 
 offensive ineptitudes about "the quality," the 
 "swell-fronts," the "Brahmin caste," "the 
 unpaved districts," etc., than any other writer 
 in America. The fierce war struggle, and the 
 close sympathy it excited between all classes, 
 served to take a good deal of this pride 
 out of him. He says somewhere, " The camp 
 is deprovincializing us very fast. ... It takes 
 all the nonsense out of everybody, or ought 
 to do so, to see how fairly the real manhood 
 of a country is distributed over its surface." 
 
 Professor Holmes' attitude on the slavery 
 question in the ante-bellum days is not wholly 
 such as we could wish it had been. Like so 
 many others in the early days of abolitionism, 
 he thought that offensive measures against 
 
1 82 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 the South would result disastrously to the 
 integrity of the Union. He therefore took 
 to the fence, unwilling to identify himself 
 fully with either party in the dispute. In an 
 address before the New England Society of 
 New York City he expressed admiration for 
 the manly logic of the faction of the extreme 
 left, — the Abolitionists, the " melanophiles." 
 He said : " We have respect for the men of the 
 extreme party ; namely, the respect which we 
 feel for Othello in his murderous delusion. 
 But then we also demand consistency in the 
 party of the centre and the moderate left : 
 they should either annul the Constitution, or 
 else keep it in its evident spirit ; not act 
 double, crying out against slavery, and yet 
 clinging to the Constitution." 
 
 A citation from a very careful and schol- 
 arly writer who was an active participant in 
 the stormy struggles of the war will throw 
 more light on this topic than we can get 
 from any other source : " Boston," says Mr. 
 F. B. Sanborn,* '' then abounded with those 
 natural Tories, who, in the rough dialect of 
 
 * In his excellent and valuable article in "The Homes 
 and Haunts of our Elder Poets." 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 1 83 
 
 their radical opposites, were styled 'Hunkers.' 
 They made up the powerful class which con- 
 trolled the market, the college, and the draw- 
 ing-room ; they opened or closed at will the 
 avenues of preferment for young men of tal- 
 ent ; they ignored Emerson, loathed Garrison, 
 detested Parker, ridiculed Alcott and Mar- 
 garet Fuller, tolerated Sumner and Phillips 
 for a time on account of their talents, and then 
 quietly sent them to Coventry. In this well- 
 fed, well-bred minority, supported by a well- 
 fed, but ill-bred majority. Dr. Holmes was 
 content to remain for years, scoffing at re- 
 formers now and then to please his audience, 
 but chafing a little under the dull oppression 
 of the popular theology, against which he 
 finally revolted as completely as Theodore 
 Parker had done before him. In his ' Urania,' 
 written in 1846, Dr. Holmes went so far as to 
 denounce John Quincy Adams, by implica- 
 tion, as an enemy of the Union, while that 
 
 * old man eloquent ' was fighting the battle of 
 freedom in Congress. The poet exclaimed: — 
 
 * Chiefs of New England ! by your sires' renown, 
 Dash the red torches of the rebel down ! 
 Flood his black hearthstone till its flames expire, 
 Though your old Sachem fanned his council JireJ 
 
1 84 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 " This *■ old Sachem ' was Adams, and the 
 ' rebel ' was the Abolitionist, not the slave- 
 holder, who turned out in fact to be so. Pat- 
 riotism, always strong in Dr. Holmes, united 
 with Toryism to hold him on the * Hunker ' 
 side until toward the beginning of the Civil 
 War, or, perhaps, no later than 1857, when 
 the anti-slavery party definitely gained control 
 of Massachusetts, re-electing Sumner to the 
 Senate almost unanimously.^ Indeed, in 1856, 
 when Sumner was assaulted by the South 
 Carolina bully. Dr. Holmes at a public dinner 
 in Boston denounced the outrage as an as- 
 sault upon the Union. And when the Civil 
 War broke out none stood more firmly by the 
 cause of the North than the laughing Profes- 
 sor. He sent his eldest son to the fight, and 
 saw him twice or thrice wounded, without 
 shrinking from the sacrifice which his country 
 demanded. This manly attitude, from which 
 Dr. Holmes never receded, atoned, in the 
 eyes even of his cousin Wendell Phillips, 
 for the early antagonism to what few men 
 then recognized as the sacred cause of civili- 
 zation." 
 
 Mr. Sanborn may well say that the war 
 
NOVELS AND H 88 AYS. 1 85 
 
 record of Holmes atoned for his early indif- 
 ference. We hardly expect poets to be lovers 
 of strife, and it is not much wonder that 
 Holmes took the attitude he did toward 
 abolitionism. But read his patriotic war 
 poems, his splendid Fourth of July Oration, 
 delivered in Boston in 1863, s-^^d his many 
 patriotic articles in the Atlantic Monthly, if 
 you would know how glowing and earnest was 
 his love of the Union and of human rights. 
 His inherited toryism and conservatism made 
 it harder for him than for others to grieve at 
 the subjugation of an inferior class : as late 
 as 1882 he was taken to task by a Boston 
 paper for depreciation of the Irish in their 
 efforts to free their throats from the teeth of 
 the British bull-dog. But of his patriotism 
 no one can doubt. His Fourth of July Ora- 
 tion was delivered at one of the gloomiest 
 moments of the war, when Lee was in the 
 heart of Pennsylvania, and just before the 
 capture of Vicksburg. The argument of the 
 oration is this : The principle of self-govern- 
 ment involve^ the right of free discussion and 
 free political action. The exercise of this 
 right led to the war between slavery and 
 
1 86 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 freedom, and in striving to preserve the 
 Union the North vindicates a principle fatal 
 to the existence of slavery. Hear a few sen- 
 tences : — 
 
 " By those wounds of living heroes, by 
 those graves of fallen martyrs, by the corpses 
 of your children, and the claims of your chil- 
 dren's children yet unborn, in the name of 
 outraged honor, in the interest of violated 
 sovereignty, for the life of an imperilled nation, 
 for the sake of men everywhere, and of our 
 common humanity, for the glory of God, and 
 the advancement of his kingdom on earth, 
 your country calls upon you to stand by her 
 through good report and through evil report, 
 in triumph and in defeat." 
 
 In the Atlantic Monthly for October, 1861, 
 Dr. Holmes published an article entitled 
 ** The Wormwood Cordial of History." It is 
 an historical paper, designed to give corrifort 
 to the people of the North after their defeat 
 at the battle of Bull Run. The Romans were 
 beaten at Lake Trasimenus and at Cannae, 
 and the Prussians were beaten at Jena ; yet 
 both peoples retrieved those disasters, and so 
 will the North. The fable of " The Front 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 1 8/ 
 
 Teeth and the Grinders " will bear repeat- 
 ing:— 
 
 " Once on a time a mutiny arose among 
 the teeth of a man, in good health, and 
 blessed with a sound constitution, commonly 
 known as Uncle Samuel. The cutting teeth, 
 or incisors, and the eye-teeth, or canines^ 
 though not nearly so many, all counted, nor 
 so large nor so strong as the grinders, and 
 by no means so white, but, on the contrary, 
 very much discolored, began to , find fault 
 with the grinders as not good enough com- 
 pany for them. The eye-teeth being very 
 sharp, and fitted for seizing and tearing, and 
 standing out taller than the rest, claimed to 
 lead them. Presently one of them com- 
 plained that it ached very badly, and then 
 another and another. Very soon the cut- 
 ting teeth, which pretended they were sup- 
 plied by the same nerve, and were proud of 
 it, began to ache also. They all agreed that 
 it was the fault of the grinders. 
 
 '' About this time. Uncle Samuel, having 
 used his old tooth-brush (which was never a 
 good one, having no stiffness in the bristles) 
 for four years, took a new one, recommended to 
 
1 88 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 him by a, great number of people as a homely 
 but useful article. Thereupon all the front 
 teeth, one after another, declared that Uncle 
 Samuel meant to scour them white, which 
 was a thing they would never submit to, 
 though the whole civilized world was calling 
 on them to do so. So they all insisted on 
 getting out of the sockets in which they had 
 grown and stood for so many years. But the 
 wisdom teeth spoke up for the others, and 
 said : — 
 
 " ' Nay, there be but twelve of you front- 
 teeth, and there be twenty of us grinders. We 
 are the strongest, and a good deal nearest the 
 muscles and the joint, but we cannot spare 
 you. We have put up with your black stains, 
 your jumping aches, and your snappish looks, 
 and now we are not going to let you go, under 
 the pretence that you are going to be scrubbed 
 white if you stay. You don't work half so 
 hard as we do, but you can bite the food well 
 enough, which we can grind so much better 
 than you. We belong to each other. You 
 must stay.' 
 
 "Thereupon the front-teeth, first the ca- 
 nines, or dog-teeth, next the incisors, or cut- 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS, 1 89 
 
 ting-teeth, proceeded to aeclare themselves 
 out of their sockets, and no longer belonging 
 to the jaws of ' Uncle Samuel.' 
 
 '' Then Uncle Samuel arose in his wrath, 
 and shut his jaws tightly together, and swore 
 that he would keep them shut till those ach- 
 ing and discolored teeth of his went to pieces 
 in their sockets, if need were, rather than 
 have them drawn, standing, as some of them 
 did, at the very opening of his throat and 
 stomach. 
 
 " And now, if you will please to observe, 
 all those teeth are beginning to ache worse 
 than ever, and to decay very fast, so that it 
 will take a great deal of gold to stop the holes 
 that are forming in them. But the great 
 white grinders are as sound as ever, and will 
 remain so until Uncle Samuel thinks the time 
 has come for opening his mouth. In the 
 mean time they keep on grinding in a quiet 
 way, though the others have had to stop 
 biting for a long time. When Uncle Samuel 
 opens his mouth they will be as ready for 
 work as ever; but those poor discolored 
 teeth will be tender for a great while, and 
 never be so strong as they were before they 
 
190 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 foolishly declared themselves out of their 
 sockets." 
 
 *^ Soundings from the Atlantic " is the 
 title of a volume made up chiefly of papers 
 first published in the Atlantic Monthly. They 
 are very readable, — breezy and light as well 
 as solid. Those on the photograph and the 
 stereoscope are certainly unique in their 
 combination of airy humorous treatment with 
 solid scientific discussion, or teaching. He 
 has made the subject of the photograph and 
 the stereoscope in their aesthetic relations 
 peculiarly his own by the thoroughness and 
 enthusiasm of his investigations and experi- 
 ments. On one page he gives you a charm- 
 ingly poetical and lucid description of the 
 way a photograph is made, and of his amateur 
 apprenticeship to the art ; and on the next 
 page you have a record of original scientific 
 observations and studies. It is probably 
 known to but few that to Dr. Holmes' invent- 
 ive genius we owe the stereoscope in the 
 convenient form in which it is now made ; 
 the public obtained his improvements unpat- 
 ented, and consequently at a lower price. 
 There is room for but a single paragraph 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 191 
 
 from the article on the stereoscope and the 
 stereograph : — 
 
 " We were just now stereographed our- 
 selves, at a moment's warning, as if we were 
 fugitives from justice. A skeleton shape, of 
 about a man's height, its head covered with a 
 black veil, glided across the floor, faced us, 
 lifted its veil, and took a preliminary look. 
 When we had grown sufficiently rigid in our 
 attitude of studied ease, and got our umbrella 
 into a position of thoughtful carelessness, and 
 put our features with much effort into an un- 
 constrained aspect of cheerfulness tempered 
 with dignity, of manly firmness blended with 
 womanly sensibility, of courtesy, as much as 
 to imply, * You know me, sir,' toned or sized, 
 as one may say, with something of the self- 
 assertion of a human soul which reflects 
 proudly, ' I am superior to all this,' — when, I 
 say, we were all right, the spectral Mokanna 
 dropped his long veil, and his waiting slave 
 put a sensitive tablet under its' folds." 
 
 From an article on " Sun-Painting and Sun- 
 Sculpture" the following is extracted : — 
 
 " We may regard those shadows of bodies 
 which are fixed by photography as films, or 
 
192 OLIVE E WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 subtle effluences, thrown off from the bodies 
 themselves. Hence, we may say that "we 
 lift an impalpable scale from the surface of the 
 Pyramids. We slip off from the dome of St. 
 Peter's that other imponderable dome which 
 fitted it so closely that it betrays every scratch 
 on the original. We skim off a thin, dry 
 cuticle from the rapids of Niagara, and lay it 
 on our unmoistened paper without breaking a 
 bubble or losing a° speck of foam. We steal 
 a landscape from its lawful owners, and defy 
 the charge of dishonesty. We skin the flints 
 by the wayside, and nobody accuses us of 
 meanness." 
 
 An amusing chapter in " Soundings " is 
 the "Visit to the Asylum for Aged and De- 
 cayed Punsters." Here are some of the puns 
 of the afflicted inmates : — 
 
 " ' Don't you see Webster ers in the words 
 center and theater f 
 
 " ' If he spells leather lether, and feather 
 fetker, isn't there danger that he'll give us 
 a bad spell of weather ? 
 
 " ' Look ! ' said the Director, — ' that is our 
 Centenarian.' 
 
 " The ancient man crawled towards us, 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 1 93 
 
 cocked one eye, with which he seemed to see 
 a Uttle, up at us, and said, — 
 
 " ' Sarvant, young gentleman. Why is a — 
 a — a — like a — a — a — ? Give it up ? Be- 
 cause it's a — a — a — a — .' 
 
 " He smiled a pleasant smile, as if it were 
 all plain enough. 
 
 " * One hundred and seven last Christmas,' 
 said the Director." 
 
 As the Autocrat assures us that a pun 
 does not commonly justify a blow in return, 
 we are encouraged to quote here two or three 
 good ones from his own poems, as this : — 
 
 " Long metre answers for a common song, 
 Though common metre does not answer long." 
 
 Or this : — 
 
 " Thus great Achilles, who had shown his zeal 
 In healing wounds, died of a wounded heel." 
 
 Or this first stanza from the poem read at 
 the meeting of the Harvard Alumni in 
 
 1857:— 
 
 " I thank you, Mr. President, you've kindly broke 
 
 the ice ; 
 Virtue should always be the first, — I'm only 
 
 Second Vice — 
 
194 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 (A vice is something with a screw that's made to 
 
 hold its jaw 
 Till some old file has played away upon an ancient 
 
 saw.) " 
 
 There are two more interesting papers in 
 "Soundings from the Atlantic." "The Hu- 
 man Wheel, its Spokes and Felloes," is an 
 interesting illustrated paper about human 
 locomotion with special reference to the 
 wooden leg invented by B. F. Palmer, and to 
 the shoe-lasts of Dr. J. C. Plumer. Palmer's 
 wooden leg seems to be as great a wonder in 
 its way as that wonderful golden limb of Miss 
 Kilmansegg. The following sentences of Dr. 
 Holmes explain the title of his article : " Man," 
 he says, " is a wheel with two spokes, his legs, 
 and two fragments of a tire, his feet. He 
 rolls successively on each of these fragments 
 from the heel to the toe. If he had spokes 
 enough, he would go round and round as the 
 boys do when they * make a wheel ' with 
 their four limbs for its spokes." 
 
 " The Great Instrument " is a paper de- 
 scribing Walcker's organ in Music Hall, Bos- 
 ton. The organ is a choir of nearly six 
 
NOVELS AND E 88 ATS. 1 95 
 
 thousand vocal throats, four key-boards, two 
 pedals, and twelve pairs of bellows. The 
 facade was designed by the Herter Brothers 
 and Hammatt Billings. 
 
 Two or three articles put forth in 1864 
 call for notice. " The Minister Plenipo- 
 tentiary " is an eulogium of Henry Ward 
 Beecher for his valuable services to the 
 Union in Great Britain. Dr. Holmes calls 
 his visit "a more remarkable embassy than 
 that of any envoy who has represented 
 us in Europe since Franklin pleaded the 
 cause of the young Republic at the Court of 
 Versailles." The essayist gives a lively and 
 complete account of Mr. Beecher's impas- 
 sioned speeches in the great centres of Britain, 
 and tells how the populace covered the walls 
 in London with blood-red, threatening pla- 
 cards and hired their ''Chokers," their " Hust- 
 lers," and their burglars to waylay him. 
 
 "Our Progressive Independence" is along 
 and thoughtful paper on the relation of Great 
 Britain to our own country, and was suggested 
 by the blind and selfish policy of the mother- 
 country in respect of our Civil War. Alluding 
 to the stimulus to invention which constitu- 
 
196 OLIVE B wi:ndell holmes. 
 
 tional freedom from Great Britain necessarily 
 produced among us, the essayist says that the 
 Yankee whittling a shingle with his jack- 
 knife has been regarded as a caricature, but 
 that it is in fact an unconscious symbolization 
 of the plastic or inventive instinct which rises 
 by gradations from the shingle to the clothes- 
 pin, the apple-parer, the mowing-machine, 
 the wooden truss-bridge, the clipper-ship, 
 the carved figure-head, the Cleopatra of the 
 World's Exhibition. 
 
 One invention especially, the discovery 
 of anaesthesia, or the administering of ether 
 for the alleviation of pain, goes far in itself 
 alone toward paying back the debt we owe to 
 the Old World. One evening in October, 
 1846, says the Doctor, .a professional brother 
 called upon him ; shutting the door carefully, 
 he looked nervously around, and then told of 
 the wonderful discovery in the operating- 
 room whereby a patient could be made pleas- 
 antly and safely insensible to pain for a 
 limited period. He produced a communica- 
 tion which he had just written out for a 
 learned society in Boston, the first ever drawn 
 up on the subject. *' In one fortnight's time," 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 1 97 
 
 he said, "all Europe will be ablaze with this 
 discovery " ; and so it proved ; in a few 
 weeks every surgeon in the world knew the 
 miraculous process. So much for one dis- 
 covery, and one step in our progressive in- 
 dependence. 
 
 As for our early political literature, it is no 
 wonder that the British did not understand 
 its power and beauty. They did not under- 
 .stand their own constitution until De Lolme, 
 a Swiss exile, explained it to them. " One 
 British tourist after another visited this coun- 
 try, with his eye-glass at his eye, and his 
 small vocabulary of ' Very odd ! ' for all that 
 was new to him ; his * Quite so ! ' for what- 
 ever was noblest in thought and deed ; his 
 * Very clever ! ' for the encouragement of 
 genius ; and his ' All that sort of thing, you 
 know ! ' for the less marketable virtues and 
 heroisms not to be found in the Cockney 
 price-current. They came, they saw, they 
 made their books, but no man got from them 
 any correct idea of what the Great Republic 
 meant in the history of civilization. For this 
 the British people had to wait until De 
 Tocqueville, a Frenchman, made it in some 
 
198 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 degree palpable to English comprehension.'* 
 The odious sneers of Dr. Samuel Johnson, in 
 his " Taxation no Tyranny," Holmes whim- 
 sically calls " The coprolites of a literary 
 megatherium." Johnson was succeeded by 
 Carlyle — a man whom his elephantine pre- 
 decessor in London would have hated for his 
 nationality, and knocked down with his dic- 
 tionary for his assaults on the English 
 language. Dr. Holmes thinks Prescott did 
 more than any other to establish the inde- 
 pendence of American literature. He was 
 the first who worked with an adequate literary 
 apparatus, and at the same time cast his 
 costly and learned researches in a pictorial 
 and popular form. It was not however from 
 England, but from the Continent of Europe, 
 that the recognition of his genius first came. 
 The essay closes with a reference to the fact 
 that the attitude of England toward us in the 
 Civil War, the dense ignorance of us and 
 our affairs that it betrayed, and the blind 
 contempt which always accompanies igno- 
 rance, served completely to destroy in the 
 minds of our people that implicit and unques- 
 tioning deference to English standards and 
 
NOVELS AND ESSAYS. 199 
 
 models which had so long characterized us as 
 a nation. 
 
 Professor Holmes was one of the illustrious 
 company that followed the remains of the 
 author of ^ The Scarlet Letter " to their 
 final resting-place in Sleepy Hollow. With 
 the closing paragraph of the unfinished 
 *'Dolliver Romance," says Dr. Holmes, "the 
 mystic music of the poet's voice is suddenly 
 hushed, and we seem to hear instead the 
 tolling of a bell in the far distance. The pro- 
 cession of shadowy characters which was 
 gathering in our imaginations about the 
 ancient man and the little child who come so 
 clearly before our sight seems to fade away, 
 and in its place a slow-pacing train winds 
 through the village-road and up the wooded 
 hillside until it stops at a little opening 
 among the tall trees. There the bed is made 
 in which he whose dreams had peopled our 
 common life with shapes and thoughts of 
 beauty and wonder is to take his rest. . . . 
 
 " The day of his burial was the bridal day of 
 the season, perfect in light as if heaven were 
 looking on, perfect in air as if Nature herself 
 
200 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 were sighing for our loss. The orchards were 
 ail in. fresh flower, 
 
 ' One boundless blush, one white-empurpled shower 
 Of mingled blossoms ' ; 
 
 the banks were literally blue with violets ; the 
 elms were putting out their tender leaves, 
 just in that passing aspect which Raphael 
 loved to pencil in the backgrounds of his holy 
 pictures, not as yet printing deep shadows, 
 but only mottling the sunshine at their feet. 
 The birds were in full song ; the pines were 
 musical with the soft winds they sweetened. 
 All was in faultless accord, and every heart 
 was filled with the beauty that flooded the 
 landscape." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 BEACON STREET. 
 
 Down the hill crowned by the State House, 
 Beacon Street stretches straight away west- 
 ward for a mile or more. For the first half 
 of that distance it skirts the Common and 
 the beautiful, flower-filled Public Garden, and 
 has at its side a great elm-arched tunnel of 
 leaves, ■ — the Beacon Street mall, most de- 
 lightful of walks. It is a fine sight to stand 
 at night at the head of the street and see the 
 long fairy-like perspective of golden lamp- 
 globes winking and gleaming as if to rival the 
 stars above them. On pleasant afternoons, 
 too, you will see the wealth and blood (equine 
 and human) of the city on this street. The 
 people in the carriages are mostly free 
 from the melancholy, corpse-like appearance 
 of their Fifth Avenue brethren ; and the 
 equestrians and the pedestrians — where will 
 you see ruddier and manlier physiques, or 
 happier, healthier children ? Yet to one 
 
 20I 
 
202 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 coming suddenly into Beacon Street from 
 thoughtful Cambridge, from the aristocracy of 
 mind to the aristocracy of wealth, a slight 
 lowering of the intellectual temperature is 
 perceptible. As for the people, they are 
 either a community of happy drones in the 
 national hive, or they are engaged in severe 
 mental toil for the benefit of the republic. 
 Which is it .'' But however it may be with 
 others, the reproach of idleness cannot be 
 visited upon one inhabitant, at least, of this 
 street ; for in the brick house numbered 296, 
 situated on that extension of Beacon Street 
 which formerly went by the name of the Mill 
 Dam, lives the laureate of Boston, the white- 
 haired poet of a hundred civic banquets, pro- 
 lific author, honored ex-professor, the sun- 
 niest-hearted man in the city, and one of the 
 most popular. Professor Holmes removed^ 
 from 164 Charles Street to his Beacon Street 
 residence in 1871. There is a tiny grass-plot 
 in front of the house, and in small letters over 
 the door-bell is the familiar name. Entering 
 by a spacious hall, the visitor, if on terms of 
 intimacy, is ushered into the study in the rear 
 of the house. The room is light and cheer- 
 
BEACON STREET. 203 
 
 ful, its bay-window giving directly upon the 
 River Charles, with Memorial Tower in Cam- 
 bridge looming up in the distance ; — the old 
 view, you see, and one which the poet has 
 enjoyed now for twenty-three years. Let 
 him describe one phase of it as seen from the 
 Beacon Street study : — 
 
 "Through my north window, in the wintry 
 weather, — 
 My airy oriel on the river shore, — 
 I watch the sea-fowl as they flock together 
 
 Where late the boatman flashed his dripping 
 oar. 
 
 " The gull, high floating, like a sloop unladen, 
 Lets the loose water waft him as it will ; 
 The duck, round-breasted as a rustic maiden, 
 Paddles and plunges, busy, busy still. 
 
 " I see the solemn gulls in council sitting 
 
 On some broad ice-floe, pondering long and 
 late, 
 While overhead the home-bound ducks are flit- 
 ting, 
 And leave the tardy conclave in debate, 
 
204 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 " Those weighty questions in their breasts revolv- 
 ing 
 Whose deeper meaning science never learns, 
 Till at some reverend elder's look dissolving, 
 The speechless senate silently adjourns." 
 
 Besides the bay-window the study has two 
 circular windows which throw light upon the 
 alcoves between the bookcases, as w-ell as 
 upon the microscopical apparatus which 
 stands ready for its owner's use. Three 
 sides of the apartment are completely lined 
 with books, — 
 
 " A mingled race, the wreck of chance and time. 
 That talk all tongues and breathe of every clime. 
 Each knows his place, and each may claim his 
 
 part. 
 In some quaint corner of his master's heart." 
 
 The Study. 
 
 Dr. Holmes' private library is rich in rare 
 medical treatises and in literary treasures : 
 his readers will find references to these books 
 scattered all through his works. The writing- 
 desk is in the centre of the room, and over it 
 hangs a. drop-light. There are easy chairs, arid 
 
BEACON STREET. 20$ 
 
 lambrequins, and a large mirror over the fire- 
 place, while near the door hangs the original 
 portrait of "Dorothy Q." Another portrait 
 in the room is by Copley, and represents the 
 Rev. Dr. Samuel Cooper, who was a friend 
 of Benjamin Franklin, and preached in the 
 Brattle Street Church to some of the ancestors 
 of Dr. Holmes. In the drawing-room just 
 across the hall from the library are to be seen 
 some fine reproductions of paintings of the 
 old masters, made by a peculiar process. 
 
 " The Poet at the Breakfast-Table " (1873) 
 was first published, like its predecessors, in 
 periodical instalments. It is the weakest 
 work of the Breakfast-Table Series, and 
 much of it had better have been left un- 
 written. The vein has been worked so long 
 that it "pans out" — nothing, or next to 
 nothing. We manage to work up a trifle of 
 sympathy for the Little Gentleman, and take 
 an interest in a few brilliant parts of the 
 work : the poem called " Epilogue to the 
 Breakfast-Table Series " is capital ; but these 
 are redeeming features in an intolerably dull 
 book, in which the continual straining after 
 effect wearies us, and the homilies and dull 
 
206 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 commonplaces of experience make us yawn, 
 and anxiously measure, from time to time, 
 with thumb and finger, the amount still left 
 to be read. Dr. Holmes has written many 
 fine and valuable papers since 1873, but cer- 
 tainly about that time people would have 
 been justified in quoting against him two 
 lines of his own : — 
 
 " ' Why won't he stop writing ? ' Humanity cries ; 
 The answer is briefly, ' He can't if he tries.' " 
 
 But the reader shall have one or two fine 
 extracts from the " Poet at the Breakfast- 
 Table." First, a description of the piano- 
 player : — 
 
 " I have been to hear some music-pounding. 
 It was a young woman, with as many white 
 muslin flounces around her as the planet 
 Saturn has rings, that did it. She gave the 
 music-stool a twirl or two, and fluffed down 
 on to it like a whirl of soapsuds in a hand- 
 basin. Then she pushed up her cuffs as if 
 she was going to fight for the champion's 
 belt. Then she worked her wrists and her 
 hands, to limber 'em, I suppose, and spread 
 out her fingers till they looked as though 
 
BEACON STREET. 20/ 
 
 they would pretty much cover the key-board, 
 from the growHng end to the little squeaking 
 one. Then those two hands of hers made a 
 jump at the keys as if they were a couple of 
 tigers coming down on a flock of black and 
 white sheep, and the piano gave a great howl 
 as if its tail had been trod on. Dead stop, — 
 so still you could hear your hair growing. 
 Then another jump, and another howl, as if 
 the piano had two tails, and you had trod on 
 both of 'em at once, and then a grand clatter 
 and scramble and string of jumps, up and 
 down, back and forward, one hand over the 
 other, like a stampede of rats and mice more 
 than like anything I call music." 
 
 'Next, a whimsical account of a poor ghost 
 who visits a library some years after his de- 
 parture from the body, and discovers, to his 
 indignation, the stupid blunders that have 
 been made by his biographer : — 
 
 *' ' Born in July ^ ^77^ • ' And my honored 
 father killed at the battle of Bunker Hill ! 
 Atrocious libeller ! to slander one's family at 
 the start, after such a fashion ! 
 
 ** * The death of his parents left him in 
 charge of his Aunt Nancy ^ whose tender care 
 
208 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 took the place of those parental attentions 
 which should have guided and protected his 
 infant years, and consoled him for the severity 
 of another relative! 
 
 " — Aunt Nancy ! It was Aunt Betsey^ 
 you fool ! Aunt Nancy used to — she has 
 been dead these eighty years, so there is no 
 use in mincing matters — she used to keep a 
 bottle and a stick, and when she had been 
 tasting a drop out of the bottle the stick used 
 to come off of the shelf, and I had to taste that. 
 And here she is made a saint of, and poor 
 Aunt Betsey, that did everything for me, is 
 slandered by implication as a horrid tyrant ! 
 
 " ' The subject of this commemorative history 
 was remarkable for a precocious development 
 of intelligence. An old nurse, who saw him 
 at the very earliest period of his existence, is 
 said to have spoken of him as one of the most 
 promising infants she had seen in her long ex- 
 perience. At school he was equally remark- 
 able, and at a tejider age he received a paper 
 adorned with a cut, inscribed Reward of 
 Merit.' 
 
 — "I don't doubt the nurse said that, — 
 there were several promising children born 
 
BEACON STEEET. 209 
 
 about that time. As for mts, I got more 
 from the schoolmaster's rattan than in any- 
 other shape. Didn't one of 'em split a Gun- 
 ter's scale into three pieces over the palm of 
 my hand .? And didn't I grin when I saw the 
 pieces fly } No humbug, now, about my boy- 
 hood ! " 
 
 The only wonder is that the penning of 
 the foregoing lines did not bring down at 
 once upon the Autocrat an army of biogra- 
 phers, with assurances of sympathy, and with 
 the offer of immediate justice in the shape of 
 a hot-pressed, gilt-edged biography, to be writr 
 ten in the warm present, when there is little 
 chance of error respecting Aunt Nancy and 
 Aunt Betsey. 
 
 In an appreciative review of '' Exotics," a 
 little book of delicate poetical translations, 
 by James Freeman Clarke, and his daughter, 
 Miss L. Clarke, Dr. Holmes has embodied 
 (in the Atlantic for September, 1875) a de- 
 scription of the poet's state of mind and body 
 when writing, which will be recognized by all 
 who have indulged in poetical creation as 
 true in all its details. It is impossible to 
 condense or rewrite this bit of analysis. He 
 
210 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 says that, when composing, the poet is a 
 medium, a clairvoyant. *' The will is first 
 called in requisition to exclude interfering 
 outward impressions and alien trains of 
 thought. After a certain time the second 
 state or adjustment of the poet's double con- 
 sciousness (for he has two states, just as the 
 somnambulists have) sets up its own auto- 
 matic movement, with its special trains of 
 ideas and feelings in the thinking and emo- 
 tional centres. As soon as the fine frenzy, 
 or quasi trance-state, is fairly established, the 
 consciousness watches the torrent of thoughts 
 and arrests the ones wanted, singly with their 
 fitting expression, or in groups of fortunate 
 sequences which he cannot better by after 
 treatment. As the poetical vocabulary is 
 limited, and its plasticity lends itself only to 
 certain moulds, the mind works under great 
 difficulty, at least until it has acquired by 
 practice such handling of language that every 
 possibility of rhythm or rhyme offers itself 
 actually or potentially to the clairvoyant per- 
 ception simultaneously with the thought it is 
 to embody. Thus poetical composition is the 
 most intense, the most exciting, and there- 
 
BEACON STREET. 211 
 
 fore the most exhausting of mental exercises. 
 It is exciting because its mental states are a 
 series of revelations and surprises ; intense 
 on account of the double strain upon the at- 
 tention. The poet is not the same man who 
 seated himself an hour ago at his desk, with 
 the dust-cart and the gutter, or the duck-pond 
 and the hay-stack and the barnyard fowls be- 
 neath his window. He is -in the forest with 
 the song-birds ; he is on the mountain-top with 
 the eagles. He sat down in rusty broadcloth, 
 he is arrayed in the imperial purple of his 
 singing robes. Let him alone now if you are 
 wise, for you might as well have pushed the 
 arm that was finishing the smile of a Ma- 
 donna, or laid a rail before a train that had a 
 queen on board, as thrust your untimely ques- 
 tion on this half cataleptic child of the muse, 
 who hardly knows whether he is in the body 
 or out of the body. And do not wonder if, 
 when the fit is over, he is in some respects 
 like one who is recovering after an excess of 
 the baser stimulants. ... * Song intoxicates 
 the poet.' His brain rings with it for hours 
 or days or weeks after it has chimed itself 
 through his consciousness. The vibration 
 
212 OLIVER WENDELL EOLMES. 
 
 dies away gradually like the tremor of a bell 
 which has been struck, and the medium comes 
 to himself again. What a pity that the pas- 
 sion and the fever and the delirium are not a 
 measure of the excellence of the product of 
 the poetic trance ! " 
 
 A valuable and unique article by Dr. Holmes 
 on the " Physiology of Versification and the 
 Harmonies of Organic and Animal Life " 
 should be rescued from the pages of the Bos- 
 toji Medical a7td Surgical yottrnal (January 7, 
 1875). Following is an abstract of it: The 
 secret of our success or failure as social be- 
 ings depends far more largely on our bodily 
 health than Our friends suppose. 
 
 The rhythmical movements of the respira- 
 tion and the pulse are the time-keepers of the 
 body, with a constant ratio of one inspiration 
 to every four beats of the heart. 
 
 Respiration has an intimate relation to the 
 structure of metrical compositions. The rea- 
 son why octosyllabic verse is so easy to read 
 aloud is that it follows more exactly than any 
 other measure the natural rhythm of the res- 
 piration. In reading, for example, such eight- 
 syllable verse as that of " In Memoriam," or 
 
BE AC 01^ STREET. 213 
 
 "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," it is found 
 that about twenty lines can be uttered in a 
 minute ; now the average number of expira- 
 tions a minute is also twenty, showing that 
 one line is read for each expiration, with an 
 inspiration at the end of the line. The pecu- 
 liar majesty of the ten-syllable, or heroic line, 
 comes from the fact that its pronunciation 
 requires a longer respiration than ordinary ; 
 hence a sense of effort and slowness. The 
 caesura comes in at irregular intervals, to be 
 sure, and serves as a breathing-place, but 
 its management requires care in reading, 
 and entirely breaks up the natural rhythm 
 of breathing. The fourteen-syllable line of 
 Chapman's Homer and of our hymn-books 
 (** common metre ") is exceedingly easy read- 
 ing, because broken up into short, alter- 
 nate lines of six and eight syllables. The 
 twelve-syllable line — that of Drayton's Poly- 
 olbion — is the most irksome of all, owing 
 to its un physiological construction. The 
 fourteen-syllable line we easily divide in half 
 in reading, but the twelve-syllable one is 
 too much for one expiration and not enough 
 for two, and for this reason has been instinct- 
 
214 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 ively avoided by nearly all poets. Parts of 
 Tennyson's '* Maud " are written in fourteen 
 and seventeen-syllable verse, and are very 
 difficult to read aloud. 
 
 But then there is the personal equation to 
 be taken into the account. A person of 
 ample chest and quiet temperament may 
 breathe habitually only fourteen times in a 
 minute, and to him the heroic measure will 
 be very easy reading ; whereas a narrow- 
 chested, nervous person, breathing oftener 
 than twenty times a minute, may find such 
 seven-syllable verse as that of Dyer's ** Gron- 
 gar Hill " more agreeable to his respiration 
 than the heroic line ; and a quick-breathing 
 child will recite with pleasure Mother Goose 
 melodies when long metres would make it 
 catch its breath. Perhaps there may be 
 other organic rhythms ; perhaps accent is 
 suggested by or connected with the move- 
 ments of the pulse ; it is a fact that twenty 
 acts of respiration correspond to eighty arte- 
 rial pulsations, and that twenty eight-syllable 
 lines, corresponding to these eighty pulsations, 
 have exactly eighty accents. Finally, there is 
 the well-known coincidence between the aver- 
 
BEACON STREET. 215 
 
 age pulsations of the arteries and the number 
 of steps taken in a minute ; as we increase 
 the rapidity of our steps, the heart increases 
 the rapidity of its beats. 
 
 In 1879 the publishers of the Atlantic 
 Monthly, with which Dr. Holmes had been 
 associated as a contributor ever since its es- 
 tablishment, twenty-two years previously, re- 
 solved to give a breakfast in honor of the 
 Autocrat's seventieth birthday, and the third 
 day of December was chosen as a more con- 
 venient time than August the twenty-ninth for 
 the celebration of the event. The breakfast 
 was given at the Hotel Brunswick, in the 
 richly and massively furnished parlors of 
 which the reception took place, previous to 
 the adjournment to the dining-room. Dr. 
 Holmes and his daughter, Mrs. Sargent, 
 received the one hundred guests of the occa- 
 sion, and were assisted in that ceremony by 
 Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson, John G. Whittier, and Mrs. Julia 
 Ward Howe. The breakfast proper lasted 
 from one-and-a-half to four o'clock in the 
 afternoon. The six tables — four of them 
 lengthwise, and two crosswise — were well 
 
2l6 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 filled (the Autocrat at the head), and the 
 masculine black of the company was relieved 
 by a sprinkle here and there of bright fem- 
 inine colors. Mr. H. O. Houghton and Mr. 
 W. D. Howells presided, — Mr. Houghton 
 being seated between Dr. Holmes and Mrs. 
 Stowe, and Mr. Howells between Mr. Emer- 
 son and Mrs. Howe. Nearly every author of 
 eminence in America was either present in 
 person, or sent a letter of regret and con- 
 gratulation. The picture of this flowery ban- 
 quet, where sat the laureate of Boston, sur- 
 rounded by the most eminent authors of 
 America, many of them the cherished friends 
 of a lifetime, gives one a great sense of sat- 
 isfaction, as one thinks of it ; the idea 
 so happy, so fitting. The generous rivalry of 
 the tributes, the unusual excellence of the 
 poems and the speeches, and the sunshine 
 diffused over the whole by the genial presence 
 of him who had for a lifetime been the light 
 and soul of^a long series of similar happy occa- 
 sions, — all these things combined to make the 
 Holmes Breakfast the crowning event of the 
 kind in the literary history of the city. The 
 poem read by Dr. Holmes is (perhaps with 
 
BEACON street: 21/ 
 
 the exception of ''The Chambered Nautilus") 
 the finest creation of his genius. Where in 
 all literature will you find a more exquisite 
 poetical description of old age than in '' The 
 Iron Gate " ? Where finer imagery, melody, 
 pathos ? — 
 
 ,/^" Still as the silver cord gets worn and slender, 
 Its lightened task-work tugs with lessening 
 strain, 
 Hands get more helpful, voices, grown more 
 tender, 
 Soothe with their softened tones the slumberous 
 brain," 
 
 Youth longs and manhood strives, but age re- 
 members, 
 Sits by the raked-up ashes of the past, 
 Spreads its thin hands above the whitening em- 
 bers 
 That warm its creeping life-blood till the last. 
 
 • ' • • * • 
 
 But Nature lends her mirror of illusion 
 
 To win from saddening scenes our age-dimmed 
 eyes. 
 
 And misty day-dreams blend in sweet confusion 
 The wintry landscape and the summer skies. 
 
2l8 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 So when the iron portal shuts behind us, 
 And life forgets us in its noise and whirl, 
 
 Visions that shunned the glaring noonday find us, 
 And glimmering starlight shows the gates of 
 pearl. 
 
 And now with grateful smile and accents cheerful, 
 
 And warmer heart than look or word can tell, 
 In simplest phrase, — these traitorous eyes are 
 tearful, — 
 Thanks, Brothers, Sisters, — Children, — and 
 farewell ! '^ 
 
 One who was present has said that the in- 
 tonation of that word ''farewell" will never 
 cease to ring in the ears of those who felt the 
 throb of feeling with which it was spoken. 
 
 The other poems read were by Whittier, 
 Cranch, Stedman, J. T. Trowbridge, William 
 Winter, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Helen 
 Hunt, and others. Here are three stanzas of 
 Mr. Winter's beautiful poem : — 
 
 " At first we thought him but a jest, 
 A ray of laughter, quick to fade ; 
 We did not dream how richly blest 
 
 In his pure life, our lives were made ; 
 Till soon the aureole shone, confest. 
 Upon his crest. 
 
BEACON STREET. 219 
 
 " When violets fade the roses blow ; 
 
 When laughter dies the passions wake ; 
 His royal song, that slept below, 
 
 Like Arthur's sword beneath the lake, 
 Long since has flashed its fiery glow 
 O'er all we know. 
 
 " The silken tress, the mantling wine, 
 
 Red roses, summer's whispering leaves, 
 The lips that kiss, the hands that twine. 
 
 The heart that loves, the heart that grieves, 
 They all have found a deathless shrine 
 In his rich line ! " 
 
 Many interesting letters from those v^ho 
 were unable to be present were read. Among 
 them was this characteristic letter from John 
 Holmes, the brother of the poet : — 
 
 " Cambridge, Nov. 14, 1879. 
 " Gentlemen, — I cannot decline your 
 kind invitation without a word of preface. 
 Between my brother and myself there has 
 never been but one subject of rivalry, — that 
 of age ; and there I long since gained the day, 
 — having found myself generally considered 
 his superior on this point. This circumstance 
 
220 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 has placed me in a quasi paternal attitude 
 toward him, and gives me a double claim to 
 enjoy the pleasant evidence of his success 
 which you now offer. 
 
 "As intermediary between my brother and a 
 casual portion of society I have been made 
 the depositary of many favorable opinions in 
 his behalf, and can honestly say that I have 
 never accepted any commission for my 
 services, in the way of personal compliment. 
 Employed, as I so often have been, as an 
 opaque sentient medium to transmit rays of 
 appreciation without loss of heat by absorp- 
 tion, I am pleased to report to you the uni- 
 form success of the experiment. 
 
 '' I wish my brother all that he would him- 
 self select from the bouquets of good-will 
 that are made up for such occasions, and 
 freely tender him that title to seniority of 
 which I have so long deprived him. 
 
 " As on a former occasion, I feel unwilling 
 
 to seat myself among our litterateiLrs, on the 
 
 score of my scant authorship, — even with 
 
 the added plea of brotherhood to your guest. 
 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 "John Holmes." 
 
BEACON STREET. 221 
 
 Lowell has aptly called John Holmes ''one 
 of those choice poets who will not tarnish 
 their bright fancies by publication." And, 
 indeed, those of us here in Cambridge who 
 have had frequent tastes, in social circles, of 
 the " Lambish quintessence of John," feel 
 pretty confident, and dare maintain it, too, 
 that as for the rich sunshine and the pure 
 honey of artless humor, we are not poorer 
 than Boston ; that city possesses Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes, and Cambridge has his 
 fraternal counterpart. He has not published 
 much, but that little is choice. 
 
 But to return to the Autocrat. The 
 spring of 1882 saw the death of Longfellow, 
 Emerson, and Darwin, all of whom passed 
 away within a few weeks of each other. That 
 was a sad spring in Boston : there was a 
 troubled look in people's faces, and the mute 
 inquiry, *' Who next 1 " To the memory of 
 each of his brother-poets, Dr. Holmes dedi- 
 cated a masterly oration. The qualities of 
 Emerson he sums up in these words : — 
 
 " He was a man of excellent common- 
 sense, with a genius so uncommon that he 
 seemed like an exotic transplanted from some 
 
222 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 angelic nursery. His character was so blame- 
 less, so beautiful, that it was rather a standard 
 to judge others by than to find a place for on 
 the scale of comparison. Looking at life with 
 the profoundest sense of its infinite signifi- 
 cance, he was yet a cheerful optimist, almost 
 too hopeful, peeping into every cradle to see 
 if it did not hold a babe with the halo of a 
 new Messiah about it. He enriched the 
 treasure-house of literature, but what was far 
 more, he enlarged the boundaries of thought 
 for the few that followed him and the many 
 who never knew, and do not know to-day, 
 what hand it was which took down their 
 prison walls. He was a preacher who taught 
 that the religion of humanity included both 
 those of Palestine, nor those alone, and 
 taught it with such consecrated lips that the 
 narrowest bigot was ashamed to pray for him, 
 as from a footstool nearer to the throne." 
 
 The summers of our poet have been passed 
 .not only at Pittsfield, and at the old homestead 
 in Cambridge, but also, of late years, at the 
 home of his daughter, Mrs. Sargent, in 
 Beverly Farms. This is one of the most 
 fashionable suburban villages, or collection of 
 
BEACON STREET. 223 
 
 villas, near Boston. It is by the sea, and 
 north of Boston some eighteen miles. Part 
 of the way to Beverly, via the Eastern Rail- 
 way, lies through wide lagoons, covered with 
 the sea, at high tide. If it is autumn you 
 will see around you innumerable half-drowned 
 haycocks (the marsh-grass stacked on piles 
 out of reach of the water), and to the right 
 the Lynn Railroad, and Revere Beach with 
 its hotels, where 
 
 " His humid front the cive, anheling, wipes," 
 
 and wanders smiling on '' ventiferous ripes." 
 Neighbors of Holmes at Beverly Farms are 
 John T, Morse, Henry Lee, Robert Rantoul, 
 and others. His own residence is quite near 
 the depot, and is a plain, cream-colored house, 
 with green blinds and broad front verandah 
 and surrounding yard and apple orchard, — a 
 house conspicuous for its plainness, in contrast 
 with the magnificent villas that crown the 
 rocky, wooded crags, and peep castle-like 
 from the verdure. There is a good bathing- 
 beach, from which, on a breezy day, you may 
 see the far snow-spray tossing above the 
 rocks and islands that line the coast, — Eagle 
 
224 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Island, Misery Island, Marblehead Rock, etc. 
 Besides the owners of the villas, there is a small 
 " native " population. They have a collection 
 of books, with a cosey name painted on a 
 quaint little sign above the door : " The 
 Neighbors' Library." Mrs. Sargent's rooms 
 are very pleasantly and tastefully decorated 
 — old-fashioned fire-places, chintz-covered fur- 
 niture, Japanese wall hangings, etc. At 
 Beverly Dr. Holmes drives out frequently 
 with his wife, on pleasant days, and on such 
 occasions may often be heard composing his 
 poems al fresco, — testing them by the open 
 air, as Whitman advises. 
 
 In the autumn of 1882 Dr. Holmes re- 
 signed his position as Parkman Professor of 
 Anatomy in Harvard University, — a position 
 which he had held for thirty-five years. His 
 chief reason, as announced, was that he might 
 devote himself more particularly to literary 
 pursuits, — especially to writing for the At- 
 lantic Monthly magazine. Upon laying aside 
 the professor's gown to enjoy a little well- 
 earned leisure, he was immediately appointed 
 by the college Professor Emeritus, and his 
 vacant chair will be filled by Dr. Thomas' 
 
BEACON STREET. 225 
 
 Dwight, a fellow-teacher in the Medical 
 School. 
 
 On Tuesday, November 28, Dr. Holmes 
 delivered his last lecture before his students. 
 The amphitheatre of the anatomical lecture- 
 room was packed with students, and many 
 gray-haired practitioners were present, assem- 
 bled to hear their old teacher for the last time 
 in that capacity. As the Doctor entered the 
 room the audience rose to their feet with 
 acclamations, and when the applause ceased 
 one of the students presented him, in behalf 
 of his last class, with a beautiful " Loving- 
 Cup," inscribed with the follov/ing quotation 
 from one of his own poems : " Love bless 
 thee, joy crown thee, God speed thy career." 
 This proof of the esteem in which he was 
 held by his pupils was almost too much for 
 the Professor's quick emotional nature. As 
 soon as he had got control of the springs of 
 feeling he began his address, which was 
 naturally retrospective, passing in review his 
 long connection with the school, with refer- 
 ences to his early college days, and some 
 account of the teachers and associates of his 
 youth, of his studies at the Ecole de Mede- 
 
226 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 cine, La Charite, Hotel Dieu, and the Inva- 
 lides, in Paris, and of the noted physicians 
 whom he heard lecture in that city, — 
 Baron Boyer, Baron Larrey (Napoleon's fa- 
 vorite surgeon). Baron Dupuytren, Lisfranc, 
 Velpeau, Broussais, Gabriel Andral, and, 
 above all, Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis, by 
 whom Holmes and his fellow-students were 
 ready to swear at all times, and who exer- 
 cised more influence on them than any of the 
 other living masters in the science. There 
 are in this lecture of Dr. Holmes some strong, 
 nervous portraitures of those grim French 
 savajzs, — Larrey, the short, square, sub- 
 stantial man, with iron-gray hair, red face, 
 and white apron ; Dupuytren, oracular, Web- 
 sterian, dominating ; Lisfranc, who used occa- 
 sionally, when a phlebotomizing fit was on 
 him, to order a wholesale bleeding of his 
 patients, right and left, whatever was the 
 matter with them, and who was heard one 
 day lamenting the splendid guardsmen of the 
 old empire because they had such magnifi- 
 cent thighs to amputate ! Then there was 
 Velpeau, who walked to Paris in wooden shoes 
 and worked his way up to eminence ; Brous- 
 
BEACON STREET. 22/ 
 
 sais — (" the way in which that knotty-feat- 
 ured, savage old man would bring out the 
 word irritation — with rattling and rolling re- 
 duplication of the resonant letter r — might 
 have taught a lesson in articulation to Sal- 
 vini") ; and finally Louis, of whom his stu- 
 dents learned the great truth, — afterwards 
 enforced in this country by Dr. James Bige- 
 low and Dr, Holmes himself, — that a very 
 large proportion of diseases get well of them- 
 selves. 
 
 Having finished his " show of ghosts," as 
 he termed it, the lecturer made some practical 
 remarks on the way science was tending, and 
 some pleasantly sarcastic observations on 
 the old building where he had so long taught, 
 remarking that he had always thought it best 
 to abstain from anything like eloquence lest 
 a burst of too emphatic applause might land 
 himself and class in the cellar, alluding also 
 in a humorous way to the twilight region 
 under the amphitheatre, where he had for 
 years made preparations for his lectures. 
 
 In addition to the offering of the cup, a 
 beautiful basket of flowers was presented by 
 former pupils of the Doctor. In afterwards 
 
228 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 acknowledging the cup by letter, he said that 
 the unexpectedness of the tribute had made 
 him speechless, but that he was sure that 
 they did not mistake aphasia for acardia, and 
 that his heart was in its right place though 
 his tongue forgot its office. In the Boston 
 Medical and Surgical Journal for December 
 7, 1882, will be found a complete report of 
 this farewell lecture. It is also published in 
 separate form. 
 
 This seems an appropriate place to men- 
 tion that Dr. Holmes is a member of the 
 Massachusetts Medical Society, President of 
 the Boston Medical Library Association, and 
 Vice-President of the American Academy of 
 Arts and Sciences. 
 
 > In person Holmes is a little under the 
 medium height, though it does not strike you 
 so when you see him, especially on the street, 
 where he wears a tall silk hat and carries a 
 cane. As a young man he was, like Long- 
 fellow, a good deal of an exquisite in dress ; 
 and he has always been very neat and care- 
 ful in his attire. He is quick and nervous in 
 his movements, and conveys, in speaking, 
 the impression of energy and intense vitality ; 
 
BEACON STREET. 229 
 
 and yet he has a poet's sensitiveness to 
 noises, and a dread of persons of superabun- 
 dant vitality and aggressiveness. When the 
 fountain of laughter or smiles is stirred 
 within him his face lights up with a win- 
 ning expression and a laughing, kindly glance 
 of the eye. When he warms up to a subject 
 in conversation he is a very rapid, vivacious 
 speaker. Hawthorne recorded his observa- 
 tion of this quality as early as 1843. In his 
 " Hall of Fantasy " he describes certain poets 
 whom he saw *' talking in groups, with a liveli- 
 ness of expression, or ready smile, and a light 
 intellectual laughter, which showed how 
 rapidly the shafts of wit were glancing to and. 
 fro among them. In the most vivacious of 
 these," he says, '' I recognized Holmes." Per- 
 haps it is in his vers d' occasion and his after- 
 dinner speeches that he has shone most bril- 
 liantly in society. At the breakfast given to 
 him in New York city, in 1879, by the Rev. 
 Dr. Henry C. Potter, Mr. George William Cur- 
 tis, who, as all the world knows, is a very 
 prince among impromptu and graceful speak- 
 ers, aptly began his post-prandial remarks by 
 the following little prologue (the poetical quo- 
 
230 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 tation being from one of Dr. Holmes' early 
 poems) : — 
 
 " ' I know it is a sin 
 
 For one to sit and grin 
 At him here ' -^ — 
 
 But how can I help it ? How can any of us 
 help it ? We have all been grinning for a 
 generation, and my only comfort is that the 
 whole English-reading world are our fellow- 
 sinners. Indeed, for many a year, at happy 
 little feasts like this, the chief dish — what 
 the French with their incomparable and 
 incomprehensible felicity call the piece of 
 resistance, because, I suppose, nobody can 
 resist it — has been a poem of his own, read 
 by your distinguished guest." 
 
 Let us see also what impression he has 
 made upon foreign visitors. . Chatty Miss 
 Mitford said of him in 185 1 : " He is a small, 
 compact little man (says our mutual friend), 
 the delight and ornament of every society he 
 enters, buzzing about like a bee, or fluttering 
 like a humming-bird, exceedingly difficult to 
 catch, unless he be really wanted for some 
 kind act, and then you are sure of him.'\ 
 
BEACON STREET. 23 1 
 
 In 1875 Dr. Appleton, the Oxford scholar, 
 met Holmes at the Saturday Club in Bos- 
 ton : — 
 
 " Dr. Holmes was highly talkative and 
 agreeable ; he converses very much like the 
 Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, — wittily, 
 and in a literary way, but, perhaps, with too 
 great an infusion of physiological and medical 
 metaphor. He is a little deaf, and has a 
 mouth like the beak of a bird ; indeed he is, 
 with his small body and quick movements, 
 very like a bird in his general aspect. When 
 poor Kingsiey was in Boston he met Holmes, 
 who came in, frisked about, and talked inces- 
 santly, Kingsiey intervening with a few words 
 only occasionally. At last Holmes whisked 
 himself away, saying, 'And now I must go.' 
 *He is an insp-sp-sp-ired j-j-j-h-ack-daw,' said 
 Kingsiey." * 
 
 Mr. David Macrae, a Scotchman, in his 
 book called "The Americans at Home,"f 
 gives a lively picture of Holmes, the lecturer, 
 
 * Quoted bj Mr. Sanborn in " Homes and Haunts of 
 our Elder Poets." 
 
 t As quoted in William Shepard's "Pen Pictures of 
 Modern Authors," pp. 147, 149. 
 
232 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 as he saw him and heard him in 1863. The 
 occasion was an inaugural address before the 
 Medical School : — 
 
 "Holmes is a plain little dapper man, his 
 short hair brushed down like a boy's, but 
 turning gray now, a trifle of furzy hair under 
 his ears ; a powerful jaw, and a thick, strong 
 under-lip that gives decision to his look, with 
 a dash of pertness. In conversation he is 
 animated and cordial, — sharp, too, taking the 
 word out of one's mouth. When Mr. Fields 
 said, 'I sent the boy this — ' 'Yes; I got 
 them,' said Holmes. 
 
 " Dr. Holmes now gets up, steps forward 
 to the high desk amidst loud cheers, puts his 
 eye-glasses across his nose, arranges his 
 manuscript, and, without any prelude, begins. 
 The little man, in his dress-coat, stands very 
 straight, a little stiff about the neck, as if he 
 feels that he cannot afford to lose anything of 
 his stature. He reads with a sharp, percus- 
 sive articulation, is very deliberate and formal 
 at first, but becomes more animated as he 
 goes on. He would even gesticulate if the 
 desk were not so high, for you see the arm 
 that lies on the desk beside his manuscript 
 
BEACON STREET. 233 
 
 giving a nervous quiver at emphatic points. 
 The subject of this lecture is the spirit in 
 which medical students should go into their 
 work, — now as students, afterwards as prac- 
 tioners. He warns them against looking on 
 it as a mere lucrative employment. ' Don't 
 be like the man who said, " I suppose I must 
 go and earn that d — d guinea!"' He en- 
 livens his lecture with numerous jokes and 
 brilliant sallies of wit, and at every point 
 hitches up his head, looks through his glasses 
 at his audience as he finishes his sentence, 
 and then shuts his mouth pertly with his 
 under-lip, as if he said, 'There, laugh at 
 that ! ' " 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 The task of him who would, with however 
 light a touch, give some analysis and inter- 
 pretation of the writings of a loved and ven- 
 erated author, now full of years and honors, 
 and enshrined as a personal friend in the 
 affections of thousands who liave never even 
 seen him in person, is indeed a delicate one. 
 To avoid the error of the youthful newspaper 
 critic administering his masterly rebukes to 
 Homer, and Carlyle, and Emerson, and other 
 presumptuous writers of like calibre, — to 
 avoid this is not very difficult for one who 
 has been mellowed a little by time, and 
 taught caution by experience. But there is 
 a class of persons who, in the case of a 
 favorite author, take in a sort of dudgeon 
 analysis of any sort, however respectful and 
 delicate. These idolizers would fain persuade 
 themselves that their hero has had conferred 
 upon him a providential exemption from faults 
 234 
 
CEABAGTEBISTICS. 235 
 
 and deficiencies. Such persons had better 
 skip this chapter. Then the hero himself, 
 if he has been petted, is apt to take criticism 
 with a wry face. It is unnecessary to say 
 that this is not the case with Holmes, who 
 in almost all of his writings is himself purely 
 and distinctively a satirist, and for a lifetime 
 has been lashing others with the most sting- 
 ing and excoriating satire (tempered with 
 humor and good-nature). Of course such a 
 one would not stultify himself by asking ex- 
 emption from good-humored retaliation ; in- 
 deed, he distinctly states somewhere in one 
 of his Breakfast-Table talks that he welcomes 
 criticism, because then he himself feels free to 
 exercise his own gift in that direction. The 
 really great man always welcomes the truth, 
 if it is spoken in a generous and "kindly 
 spirit.* 
 
 * Compare the following from his paper entitled 
 " The Autocrat gives a Breakfast to the Public " {Atlan- 
 tic Montkly, December, 1858) : "Every man of sense 
 has two ways of looking at himself. The first is an 
 everyday working view, in which he makes the most 
 of his gifts and accomplishments. It is the superficial 
 stratum in which praise and blame find their sphere 
 ■of action, — the region of comparisons, — the habitat 
 where envy and jealousy are to be looked for. But 
 
236 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Broadly speaking, Holmes is Janus-faced, 
 that is, he has a dual nature : he laughs on 
 one side of his face, and is serious on the 
 other ; in one mood, fun, humor, laughing 
 satire predominate : he is a harlequin tum- 
 bling in mottled coat, a court fool bubbling 
 over with puns and saucy jests, a Yorick, a 
 Mercutio, and nimble-witted as they ; but 
 suddenly some hidden spring of feeling or 
 pathos is touched, the eyes brim with tears, 
 and the soul soars upward in a rapt passion 
 of tenderest sentiment. Presently the mood 
 changes again, and deep-eyed Sorrow glides 
 away veiled in tears and sable weeds, and Joy 
 peers in through trellis of perfumed roses, and 
 laughs to see her merry boy transformed to 
 a sober, spectacled, dry-as-dust professor and 
 scientist, delivering a learned lecture upon the 
 processes and sutures of Yorick's skull, or 
 
 underneath this surface-soil lies another stratum of 
 thought, where the tap-roots of the larger mental 
 growths peneti-ate and find their nourishment. Out 
 of this comes heroism in all its shapes ; here the enter- 
 prises that overshadow half the planet, when fuU grown, 
 lie, tender in their cotyledons. In this deeper region 
 a man calmly judges and weighs his nature, and knows 
 that the accident of applause is often but temporarj." 
 
CHABAGTEBISTIG8. 237 
 
 the simian tendencies in the facial angle of 
 Dick Turpin or Jack Newgate. Holmes is, on 
 the one hand, a humorous poet and satirico- 
 humorous essayist and novelist ; and, on the 
 other, a lay-preacher, an earnest thinker, a 
 cultured and accurate teacher, and an orig- 
 inal scientific investigator. And yet these 
 numerous endowments and traits are all 
 blended in one homogeneous personality, — 
 humor twining like a silver thread through 
 the whole nature and gleaming out for a 
 moment in the midst of the most serious 
 disquisition or address ; and science in turn 
 invading the poem, the novel, and the essay, 
 and giving to these the solid value of accu- 
 rate observation. 
 
 He. is greatest as a humorist. As a writer 
 of comic poetry he is excelled by no other 
 English author. Hood's verses are slovenly 
 in construction and not so gayly riant as 
 Holmes', do not shake the diaphragm so 
 deeply. In Holmes the essayist (when in his 
 best moods) we have Swift without his rabid 
 savagery, Sterne without his salaciousness, 
 Steele without his shuffling irresolution, and 
 Pope without his envenomed bitterness. 
 
238 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 When at its best his humor has the genial 
 and kindly character which marks that of all 
 the great humorists ; but too often it is only 
 an ironical smirk, a sardonical grin, a laugh- 
 ing at others instead of with them. The 
 comic in him is always saved from rodo- 
 montade and monstrosity by an equipoise of 
 shrewd practical sense : we tremble as his 
 glowing wheel grazes the brink of bombast 
 and folly, but with a cut of the lash, and a 
 short turn, away he flies again, laughing, and 
 we laughing with him. 
 
 As has been intimated, his finest humor 
 borders close upon pathos, and this is true 
 of Hood and Dickens ; it is true of Gough 
 and Beecher, and of all great orators and 
 humorists. There is no well-defined line of 
 separation between the comic and the pathetic, 
 or tragic ; the only difference being, as Scho- 
 penhauer points out, that the comic is purely 
 objective, and deals with the forms and sur- 
 faces of things, while the tragic is subjective, 
 dealing with the innermost nature and the 
 depths of life ; but things that seem comic to 
 some are tragic to others, and vice versa. 
 " Humor ! humor is the mistress of tears," 
 
CHARACTERISTICS. 239 
 
 says Thackeray : '' she knows the way to the 
 fons lachrymarumy strikes in dry and rugged 
 places with her enchanting wand, and bids the 
 fountain gush and sparkle. She has refreshed 
 myriads more from her natural springs than 
 ever tragedy has watered from her pompous 
 old urn." 
 
 * There is much in Holmes that reminds one 
 of dear foolish old Pepys. Like him he is 
 sweetly sentimental about himself ; he is 
 never done talking about himself, and espe- 
 cially about his childhood. The poetry of his 
 early life clings and twines about his heart in 
 perennial freshness and interest. All poets 
 feel a certain sweet sting and poignant joy 
 when recalling their childhood. The early 
 life of Holmes was exceptionally happy, and 
 with Chaucerian naivete "dsA delight the white- 
 haired boy babbles about it in a style so gay 
 and charming that you fairly hold your breath 
 with suspense of interest, and wish for the 
 thousand and one nights of Scheherezade 
 to listen to him. He has also Pepys' hearty, 
 sensuous enjoyment of life, — loves rowing, 
 racing, trees, women, flowers, perfumes, and a 
 well-furnished table. (Isn't it funny that Pepys 
 
240 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 could never make an entry in his diary with- 
 out recording what he had for dinner, — that 
 cut of beef at the Boar's Head, or that roast 
 duck eaten at my Lord so and so's ?) Holmes 
 has Pepys' rashness and impetuosity. He 
 says somewhere that a gentleman will say yes 
 to a great many things without stopping to 
 think, while a mean, shabby fellow will look 
 suspicious and cautious and hesitate a long 
 while for fear of some disadvantage to himself. 
 This observation is true if not pressed too 
 hard ; but it also seems to show in Holmes 
 the rashness of a quick, generous nature that 
 acts before it thinks, and is sorry for it after- 
 wards. That Dr. Holmes has said many 
 things in the heat and flush of manhood 
 which he would now like to unsay he himself 
 has admitted, both in private conversation 
 and in the 1882 preface to the new edition 
 of the "Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table." 
 It is to his honor that he has frankly con- 
 ceded this. In concluding this parallelism 
 between Pepys and Holmes, one may add that 
 between Sir Thomas Browne, also, and his 
 American fellow-physician there is a good 
 deal in common, — for example, their love of 
 antiquarian studies. 
 
CHARAGTEBISTICS. 24 1 
 
 Holmes is one of the last survivors of an 
 illustrious group of writers who lived in an 
 epoch of great intellectual brilliancy, — the 
 era of Transcendentalism.^ He belongs to 
 what may, perhaps, be known to posterity as 
 the Concord School, the writers belonging to 
 which have one and all based their intellect- 
 ual creations upon the moral, and whether 
 they have sung or lectured, or written fiction, 
 have never failed to reveal the fact of their 
 Puritan antecedents by deftly wreathing the 
 lustrous flowers of their thought around some 
 hidden sermon, some practical moralization, 
 or some useful lesson in life. Holmes was 
 brought up in a Calvinistic family, as many 
 of us have been ; and we know what a grip the 
 horrors and the fatalism of that theological 
 scheme get upon the nature. The one per- 
 sistent purpose running all through the prose 
 writings of our author has been to attack the 
 effete ecclesiasticism of the Calvinistic creed. 
 Like Emerson and Parker and Whittier, he has 
 been a knight-errant of the religious senti- 
 ment, taking a good deal of odium upon him- 
 self in times when it almost meant social 
 ostracism to inveigh against the colossal devil 
 
242 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 whom good people had mistakenly exalted 
 into the seat of their God. 
 
 We have said that Dr. Holmes is to be 
 classed with the Transcendentalists of the 
 Concord School in respect of the ethical char- 
 acter of his writings ; but he is to be sharply- 
 distinguished from them in one cardinal point : 
 they made little of conventional manners and 
 behavior, and much of individuality, and 
 they sternly challenged established customs : 
 Holmes conforms in all except religion. 
 
 Great men are necessarily egotistic ; but 
 there are different varieties of egotism. That 
 of Holmes has not, it must be admitted, any 
 element of grandeur in it. He says in "The 
 Poet at the Breakfast-Table " (at the close of 
 a series of works by him) : — 
 
 ** Liberavi animam meain (I have unbur- 
 dened my mind). That is the meaning of my 
 book and of my literary life." He has a feel- 
 ing of relief in having got rid of the thoughts 
 that were pressing for utterance, — that is all ! 
 There is in that statement the confession of 
 his great limitation, namely, that all his 
 thoughts revolve around himself, himself, 
 himself, — reminding one of that satirical 
 
CHARACTERISTICS. 243 
 
 piece of Poe's on Nosology, wherein the man 
 with the big nose continually talks of him- 
 self and his nose, his nose, his nose. With 
 the genius, it is, " Woe is me if I speak not ! " 
 He chisels, or paints, or writes to satisfy the 
 craving within him for ideal expression, and 
 to advance the interests of truth. A consid- 
 erable part of Holmes' poetry was written be- 
 yond doubt from the point of view of the 
 genius, and there are many of his poetical 
 creations which are the expression of purest 
 genius of the ideal sort ; and his humorous 
 verses have also the stamp of a kind of genius. 
 But looking at his nature as a whole, and 
 apart from exceptional flights of imagination 
 (as in " The Chambered Nautilus "), we must 
 pronounce him devoid of that sublimated 
 essence called genius, at least that kind of 
 genius which Poe, and Burns, and Keats pos- 
 sessed. In sooth he is at just the opposite 
 pole of their genius : he is shrewd practicality 
 incarnate ; he is purely a man of the world, 
 a man of dress-coats, and white neckties, 
 and drawing-rooms, which your genius never 
 is ; he advises conformity to the world, is 
 horrified at unconventional things, which a 
 
244 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 genius never is ; he abuses the great Richter,* 
 which no genius ever has done, or ever will 
 do ; he has little or no sympathy for down- 
 trodden and inferior races, | but the one dis- 
 tinguishing feature of genius is its volcanic, 
 undying hatred of oppression ; and, finally, 
 hear his own words : " You know twenty 
 men of talent who are making their way in 
 the world ; you may perhaps know one man 
 of genius, and very likely do not want to 
 know any more, ... It must have been a 
 terrible thing to have a friend like Chatterton 
 or Burns." Such is Holmes' opinion of 
 genius. But what then } Simply this, that 
 if he is not a genius of the Poe stamp so 
 much the better. We do not want our 
 authors all Poes. If the genius of Holmes is 
 not of the high transcendental sort, yet, after 
 all, it is a species of genius, and of the finest 
 carat in its kind. 
 
 * See his "After-Dinner Poem" (Phi Beta Kappa, 
 
 1843)- 
 
 t See " Autocrat," Chapter III. : "In the conflict of 
 
 two races our sympathies naturally go with the higher." 
 We will do Professor Holmes the credit to believe that 
 this is one of those paragraphs which he says he re- 
 grets having written. 
 
X 
 
 CHARAGTEBISTICS. 245 
 
 Holmes is fond of puns and fantastic con- 
 ceits, to the making of which considerable 
 preparation has evidently been given ; he 
 repeats himself a good deal ; he is well read, 
 but has not, like Emerson, made a professional 
 study of belles-lettres ; he has studied the 
 humanities at first hand in man himself. The 
 one most charming feature of his printed and 
 spoken conversation is that he establishes a 
 relation of sympathy between himself and his 
 readers, or listeners, by expressing for them 
 those common, everyday thoughts that we 
 all think, but rarely say. The central core of 
 him is bravery, honesty, kindliness. The sun- 
 shine of his soul gleams out upon you so often 
 that you forget the offensive egotism of the 
 cit in the charm of the artless humor and 
 tender sympathy of his nature. 
 
 He is indigenous ; throws up New England 
 subsoil as he ploughs ; his homespun charac- 
 ters speak the native patois, and the whole 
 tone of his writings is racily and unaffectedly 
 Yankee. Only his personal spirit and point 
 of view and his serious diction are British. 
 
 Dr. Storrs of Brooklyn once told how, when 
 living in a small German town across the 
 
246 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 seas, the reading of the various instalments 
 of the ** Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table " 
 as they appeared transported him as magi- 
 cally to New England scenes as the rubbing 
 of a little powder in his hands transferred the 
 magician of the " Arabian Nights " to distant 
 lands. 
 
 In spite of his city life he knows how to 
 observe nature closely and describe her poeti- 
 cally. Witness such passages as this : — 
 
 "The spendthrift crocus, bursting through the 
 mould 
 Naked and shivering with his cup of gold. 
 Swelled with new life, the darkening elm on 
 
 high 
 Prints her thick buds against the spotted sky." 
 
 Spring. 
 
 This prose description shows a sharp ear 
 and eye: "The woods at first convey the 
 impression of profound repose, and yet, if you 
 watch their ways with open ear, you find the 
 life which is in them is restless and nervous 
 as that of a woman ; the little twigs are 
 crossing and twining and separating like 
 slender fingers that cannot be still ; the stray 
 leaf is to be flattened into its place like a 
 
■ chabactjeeistics. 247 
 
 truant curl ; the limbs sway and twist, impa- 
 tient of their constrained attitude ; and the 
 rounded masses of foliage swell upward and 
 subside from time to time with long soft 
 sighs, and, it may be, the falling of a few rain- 
 drops which had lain hidden among the deeper 
 shadows." 
 
 Those who would enjoy a treat in the way 
 of nature-writing should read Dr. Holmes* 
 two or three articles in the '' Atlantic 
 Almanac," if they can obtain a copy of that 
 valuable annual. Here are two vignettes out 
 of it by the pencil of Holmes : — 
 
 "The Indian corn is ripe, beautiful from 
 the day it sprung out of the ground to the 
 time of husking. First a little fountain of 
 green blades, then a miniature sugar-cane, by 
 and by lifting its stately spikes at the summit, 
 alive with tremulous pendent anthers, then 
 throwing out its green silken threads, each 
 leading to the germ of a kernel, promise of 
 the milky ear, at last offering the perfect 
 product, so exquisitely enfolded by nature, 
 outwardly in a coarse wrapper, then in sub- 
 stantial paper-like series of layers, then in a 
 tissue as soft and delicate as a fairy's most 
 
248 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 intimate garment, and under this the white 
 even rows, which are to harden into pearly, 
 golden, or ruby grains. . . . 
 
 " But here comes winter, savage as when 
 he met the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Indian all 
 over, his staff a naked splintery-hemlock, his 
 robe torn from the backs of bears and bisons, 
 and fringed with wampum of rattling icicles, 
 turning the ground he treads to ringing iron, 
 and, like a mighty sower, casting his snow far 
 and wide, over all hills and valleys and 
 plains." 
 
 There is one prominent feature of Dr. 
 Holmes' writings over which one hardly 
 knows whether to be amused or satirical. The 
 vanity of it is so deliciously apparent that one 
 would simply allude to it and pass it over in 
 silence did it not occupy so very conspicuous 
 a place in his writings, and if it were not cer- 
 tain that a good deal of mischief has been 
 caused by it among silly people, and a good 
 deal of pain among many worthy people.* 
 
 * Harriet Preston, for example. The writer's atten- 
 tion was called to this author's novel of " Aspendale " 
 after his own strictures on this matter had been written, 
 and he finds that she is even more severe than he is on 
 
CHARACTERISTICS. 249 
 
 Reference is made to all that talk about " the 
 quality," " men of family," the *' Brahmin 
 caste," "the sifted few," ''we Boston folks" ; 
 and, per contra^ all those sneering allusions 
 to '' the rural districts," '' the unpaved dis- 
 tricts," the " large-handed bumpkins," '' the 
 deep-rutted villages lying along the unsalted 
 streams, *' the ungloved," "the folks who can't 
 pronounce view," " the red-handed, glove- 
 less undergraduate of bucolic antecedents 
 squirming in his corner," etc. What is to 
 be done with a man who will write such a 
 sentence as this : •' Even provincial human 
 nature sometimes has a touch of sublimity in 
 it"? Nothing — except to laugh at him. 
 When a man like Dr. Holmes can seriously 
 ask that we make out of various little sec- 
 tional peculiarities of pronunciation, dress, 
 and manners, capital distinctions that shall 
 decide the social worth and station of people, 
 we can only — smile. 
 
 The "Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table" 
 
 the "snobbishness," as she calls it, of Dr. Holmes, in 
 his treatment of "provincial" people, among whom 
 were her own ancestors. See " Aspendale," pp. 
 
 139-155- 
 
250 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 begins with " quality " talk, and ^' Elsie Ven- 
 ner" begins with it, and it crops out in all 
 his other writings. In this matter of family 
 and caste he is the most badly bitten man we 
 know. This is the kind of class feeling that 
 is dear to the British heart. Indeed, is it not 
 barely possible that this non-American trait 
 has unconsciously exercised its influence to a 
 slight extent in procuring for Holmes the ad- 
 miration of the English, so that in a recent 
 issue of one of the great London papers it 
 was editorially stated that no contemporary 
 American writer except Lowell had so amused 
 and instructed the insular mind as Holmes 
 had done } And no wonder they breathe a 
 sigh of gratification over his pages. For what 
 with communists, and nihilists, and radical 
 republicans in every country of Europe, in- 
 cluding their own, they must find it difficult 
 to discover an author of eminence who can 
 be modern and mediaeval in a breath. A man 
 who is so conservative in his sociaLphilgs_ophy 
 is a godsend to a nation surfeited with the too 
 refulgent democratic sunlight of Mirabeau, 
 Hugo, Gambetta, Garibaldi, and others. " I 
 go politically for e quality, and socially for the 
 
CHA BA G TURIS TICS. 2 5 I 
 
 quality," says Holmes. The quality ! why, 
 this sounds like high-life-below-stairs talk. 
 The reason why he goes for the quality he 
 explains in the introductory chapter to " Elsie 
 Venner." But it is almost wrong to take ad- 
 vantage of one who has unbosomed himself 
 so .naiVely to his own injury. But we must 
 probe the matter a little further. When 
 Holmes expresses profound commiseration 
 for poor geniuses like Poe, for poor old maids, 
 and for poor reformers ; and when Emerson 
 admits that he abhors a man with a good, 
 loud, hearty stomachic laugh, why is it that 
 we immediately take the ,part of the genius 
 and the reformer, think with admiration of 
 Theodore Parker's "glorious phalanx of old 
 maids," and feel deep in our natures a per- 
 verse hunger for something gross and strong, 
 — say a horse-laugh, or even an oath from a 
 fisherman or a teamster } And when Holmes 
 says : " It has happened hitherto, so far as 
 my limited knowledge goes, that the Presi- 
 dent of the United States has always been 
 what might be called in general terms a gen- 
 tleman. But what if at some future time the 
 choice of the people should fall upon one on 
 
252 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 whom that lofty title could not by any stretch 
 of authority be bestowed," — when we con- 
 template this appalling possibility, why do we 
 thank God that Abraham Lincoln was not a 
 *' gentleman " ? Or when the laureate of 
 Boston, in his " Rhymed Lesson," gives to 
 the young men of the Mercantile Library 
 minute furnishing-store rules for dress (boots, 
 cravats, breastpins, shirts, etc.), why, in dis- 
 gust at all this pettiness and artificiality, can 
 we think with complacency of an act of 
 Joaquin Miller, who (as the author was told by 
 a friend of that poet) got so nauseated with 
 artificiality one day in Boston that he went 
 down to the wharves, selected two of the 
 hungriest-looking men he could find, brought 
 them to the Parker House, and paid for their 
 dinners, solely for the pleasure of seeing a 
 genuine, unsophisticated act that should keep 
 him sane until he should get away from the 
 city ? Or when the Autocrat tells us of the 
 unparalleled heroism of the lady who, at a 
 social gathering, actually spoke to a " poor 
 social mendicant " who wore no shirt-collar, 
 had on black gloves, and flourished a red 
 ba.ndanna handkerchief, — why is it that 
 
CEABACTERI8TIGS. 253 
 
 (while admitting the possible heroism of the 
 act, though such things are sometimes done 
 for display) we still have a wayward feeling 
 of amusement at the trepidations and panics 
 of our good friends, the carpet-knights, 
 and think with pleasure of Thoreau and his 
 woodchuck cap; of Audubon in the great 
 hotel at Niagara, with his rifle and tattered 
 garb of skins, — Audubon, at that very mo- 
 ment honored by the crowned heads of Eu- 
 rope, and by the civilized world ; or of 
 Thomas De Quincey going to one of the 
 highest social gatherings in Edinburgh 
 dressed in ink-bespattered linen trousers, 
 and an old coat buttoned up to his chin, and 
 upon his feet shoes of felt over which the 
 snow had sifted ; or, finally, of that magnifi- 
 cent young Greek-faced sailor, with waving 
 hair, whom Dr. Holmes himself describes so 
 enthusiastically in the **Poet at the Break- 
 fast-Table " ? 
 
 But how about this chryso-aristocracy over 
 which such a to-do is made ? Why, they are 
 the most charming and inoffensive people in 
 the world, — most of them, — and we are 
 always disposed to hearty liking for their 
 
254 OLIVE E WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 sunny, urbane characters except when we are 
 reading such champions of them as Holmes. 
 To be sure there is one type of American 
 chryso-aristocrat that forms a not very agree- 
 able spectacle. Holmes aptly likens him to a 
 gull: — 
 
 " A gentleman of leisure, 
 Less fieshed than feathered ; bagged you'll find 
 him such ; 
 His virtue silence ; his employment pleasure ; 
 Not bad to look at, and not good for much." 
 
 In other words, a sort of negative, mollus- 
 cous creature who shuns the lion-hunts, ex- 
 ploring expeditions, and civil and military 
 employments of his more manly British 
 brother, — his only value to the world being 
 that he serves as a walking advertisement to 
 his tailor, and as a model of conventional 
 etiquette to the poor. It is not, indeed, to 
 such as these that we yield the homage of 
 our admiration, but to those industrious, 
 cheery-faced, scholarly men of wealth and 
 position (often men of " old family " stock) 
 who are free from bourgeois insolence of man- 
 ner, are courteous, urbane, public-spirited. 
 
CEARACTEBISTIGS 255 
 
 in short, the men to add the required ele- 
 ment of dignity to democratic life, the men 
 for your governors, mayors, bank-presidents, 
 or foreign ambassadors. 
 
 We may sum up an unpleasant subject by 
 saying that our genial author has expressed 
 a great deal of truth in a very offensive way. 
 He has said, has he not, things that had bet- 
 ter have been left unsaid .-* There can be no 
 doubt that certain portions of the writings of 
 Holmes have helped more or less to increase 
 that spirit of caste, and nervous, morbid con- 
 servatism and timidity which is paralyzing 
 the spontaneous creative and imaginative 
 genius of Boston. This is a hard thing to 
 say ; but, if true, it ought to be said. Every 
 foot of land in Boston, and every other piece 
 of property there, begins to decline in value 
 the moment great men cease to be produced. 
 Of what worth are your buildings and ships 
 and streets if not animated by a soul, if not 
 permeated by the glowing and untramelled 
 spirit of creative energy and a sympathetic 
 unitary life .'' The question is whether the 
 creative instinct in Boston literature is to be 
 crushed out by criticism and formalism, and 
 
256 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 robust manliness by morbid sestheticism. 
 We stand in the midst of dead systems of 
 thought. The freshness and glory and mys- 
 tery of the new will certainly never fill our 
 souls as long as we cherish a public senti- 
 ment which makes original character and 
 individuality subordinate to petty conven- 
 tional manners and the accident of birth. 
 We laugh at that Philadelphia editor who 
 printed in his magazine a translation of 
 Edward Everett Hale's " Man Without a 
 Country," under the impression that it had 
 never before appeared in an English dress.* 
 Yet upon Boston has fallen the infinitely 
 deeper disgrace of suppressing by law the 
 writings of the most powerful poetical genius 
 in America. But it is never too late to re- 
 form. The remedy for a stagnant literary 
 life is a fresh study of nature, and bravery in 
 standing out against the ridicule of critics 
 and conventional conformers. 
 
 If it were not that the theological battles 
 which Holmes was fighting a quarter of a 
 century ago are now, as he himself has re- 
 
 * See Potter's American Mo7ithly for December, 1881, 
 and January, 1882, p. 103. 
 
CHA EA C TERIS TIGS. 257 
 
 cently said, all won and passed wholly by, it 
 would be interesting to draw up a Religio 
 Medici, extracting from his books the doc- 
 trines which he believes as well as those he 
 has combated in so many places and on so 
 many occasions. The existence of a score 
 and more of Unitarian churches in Boston, 
 and the fact that the best intellect of the city 
 has for half a century been either Unitarian 
 or purely theistic, have combined to throw 
 what is usually called orthodoxy into the 
 shade there. A Cambridge lady told the 
 author that when she was a girl at school 
 she was ridiculed for belonging to an ortho- 
 dox church, — just as in the West a boy or 
 girl might be ridiculed by a schoolmate for 
 belonging to a Roman Catholic church. 
 
 In the University circles in which Dr. 
 Holmes has moved since he was a young man 
 at college, the absurdities of the prevalent 
 popular creeds have always been the subject 
 of quiet merriment. But Dr. Holmes' father 
 was an orthodox, that is, a Calvinistic, divine. 
 In this we have the key, have we not, to the 
 son's life-long warfare against Calvinism. It 
 was necessary for him to define himself in 
 
258 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 order to escape ridicule, in order to escape 
 the imputation to himself of his father's creed. 
 Then, too, those who have been brought up 
 in the Calvinistic creed know how tenaciously 
 it interweaves itself with the mental fabric ; 
 and perhaps, yes,- doubtless. Dr. Holmes had 
 for many years to wage verbal war against his 
 childhood's creed in order to get wholly free 
 from it himself. The Devil is one of the most 
 difficult things to get rid of (and no joke). 
 Young Oliver appears to have been haunted 
 by this old anthropomorphic phantom all 
 through boyhood. He was troubled not only 
 by the Devil, but by devils. He says that 
 there were two things that somewhat diabol- 
 ized his imagination when a boy, that is, two 
 things that induced belief in a formidable in- 
 carnate fiend prowling about the neighbor- 
 hood of his father's house seeking whom he 
 might devour. These were, first, certain 
 marks called the "Devil's Footsteps," con- 
 sisting of bare, sandy patches in the pastures 
 where no living thing would grow ; and, sec- 
 ond, a patched place on one of the college 
 dormitories said to have been made by the 
 Evil One when he burst violently through the 
 
CHARACTERISTICS. 259 
 
 side of the room where some gay, dare-devil 
 students were travestying one of the rites of 
 the church. Other circumstances fostered 
 the superstitious tendency developed by these 
 two facts (so striking to a child's mind). 
 There was a dark store-room, through the 
 key-hole of which the boy dimly saw great 
 heaps of furniture, which, to his vivid imagi- 
 nation and fearful gaze, seemed to have rushed 
 in pell-mell and climbed upon each other's 
 backs, and there remained in enchanted im- 
 mobility. Then there were wild stories told 
 by country servant-boys of dreams, appari- 
 tions, and death-signs, and of contracts writ- 
 ten in blood, left out over night, and taken 
 away by the arch-fiend to be filed away for 
 future use. When one remembers that these 
 stories were all ingrained in the nature, along 
 with what were to him actual and awful religi- 
 ous verities, one sees reason enough for re- 
 ligious controversy in after-life, and for resent- 
 ment against the creed that had stuffed his 
 head with such nonsense. 
 
 But there were counter-actions and counter- 
 irritants. He hints that the dogma of the 
 Immaculate Conception early received a severe 
 
260 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, 
 
 blow in his mind by a whispered story of a 
 too common event. And then there was the 
 clerical element to frighten and repulse himi. 
 The Doctor's readers are familiar with his 
 frequent home thrusts at the clergy. He 
 says in one place that when he was a child 
 some jolly, benignant clergymen used to pass 
 the Sunday at his father's house, and made 
 the day seem almost like Thanksgiving. But 
 occasionally one of the undertaker stamp 
 would come, and by his woebegone looks and 
 wailing pessimistic tones make religion utterly 
 distasteful to him. One, especially, so twitted 
 young Oliver with his blessings as a Christian 
 child, whining about the " naked, black chil- 
 dren, who, like the ' Little Vulgar Boy,' hadn't 
 got no supper, and hadn't got no ma, and 
 hadn't got no catechism (how I wished for 
 the moment I was a little black boy !), that he 
 did more in that one day to make me a hea- 
 then than he had ever done in a month to 
 make a Christian out of an infant Hottentot." 
 Evidently Oliver was not destined to die early 
 and pious ; and his career as a Harvard stu- 
 dent, and as a medical student in Boston and 
 Paris, did not directly stimulate' superstition. 
 
CffABAGTJEBISTICS. 26 1 
 
 But Dr. Holmes' admirers do not need to be 
 told of the fact that he has a deeply religious 
 nature, — he could not be a poet if he had not. 
 He owns a pew in King's Chapel (Unitarian), 
 and is a pretty regular attendant. His relig- 
 ion is, and has been, a liberal theism. Tran- 
 scendentalism in fact, as many prose and 
 poetical passages witness. In his seventieth 
 year he wrote the following stanza in his ex- 
 quisite poem "The Iron Gate": — 
 
 " If word of mine another's gloom has brightened, 
 Through my dumb lips the heaven-sent mes- 
 sage came ; 
 If hand of mine another's task has lightened, 
 It felt the guidance that it dares not claim." 
 
 Section fifth of " The Professor at the 
 Breakfast-Table" is almost wholly given up to 
 theological discussion. A curious instance of 
 the old anthropomorphic ways of studying 
 nature is furnished by the Doctor's explana- 
 tion of a certain little useless collar-bone 
 which is found floating about in the shoulder 
 of the cat. In 1857 I^r. Holmes held this 
 view about it : that it is there not as a survi- 
 val, but because " the Deity respects a normal 
 
262 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 type more than a practical fact," or utility. 
 (From a paper on "The Mechanism of the 
 Vital Actions," in the North Amefican Re- 
 view for July, 1857.) 
 
 As chairman of the Boston Unitarian Fes- 
 tival in 1877, Dr. Holmes summed up neatly 
 the various theological views which he always 
 has loved to combat : — 
 
 *' May I, without committing any one but 
 myself, enumerate a few of the stumbling- 
 blocks which still stand in the way of some 
 who have many sympathies with what is 
 called the liberal school of thinkers? 
 
 "The notion of sin as a transferable object. 
 As philanthrophy has ridded us of chattel 
 slavery, so philosophy must rid us of chattel 
 sin and all its logical consequences. 
 
 " The notion that what we call sin is any- 
 thing else than inevitable, unless the Deity 
 had seen fit to give every human being a per- 
 fect nature, and develop it by a perfect 
 education. 
 
 " The oversight of the fact that all moral 
 relations between man and his Maker are re- 
 ciprocal, and must meet the approval of man's 
 enlightened conscience before he can render 
 
GHABAGTEBI8TIGB. 263 
 
 true and heartfelt homage to the power that 
 called him into being. And is not the great- 
 est obligation to all eternity on the side of the 
 greatest wisdom and the greatest power ? 
 
 " The notion that the Father of mankind 
 is subject to the absolute control of a certain 
 malignant entity known under the false 
 name of justice, or subject to any law such as 
 would have made the father of the prodigal 
 son meet him with an account-book and pack 
 him off to jail, instead of welcoming him back 
 and treating him to the fatted calf. 
 
 "The notion that useless suffering is in 
 any sense a satisfaction for sin, and not simply 
 an evil added to a previous one." 
 
 One of the most frequently urged themes of 
 Holmes is the now commonly-accepted doc- 
 trine of the limited responsibility of the 
 human mind, owing to inherited tenden- 
 cies. This is the key-note of the brilliant 
 Phi Beta Kappa lecture of 1870, entitled 
 "Mechanism in Thought and Morals." In 
 his review of Mr. Prosper Despine's three 
 volumes on the psychology of crime {Atlantic 
 Monthly^ iS75j P- 4^6), he maintains that 
 moral responsibility is limited, that the worst 
 
264 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 criminals are virtually almost moral idiots, 
 and therefore the least responsible of all 
 for crimes committed. Despine believes that 
 such men should not be capitally punished, 
 but be confined. Holmes suggests that these 
 dangerous automata ought to be confined 
 before their crimes are committed. If there 
 is a tendency in Dr. Holmes to lean toward 
 the doctrine of complete criminal automatism, 
 it is never carried to the length of totally de- 
 nying that we must hold criminals responsible 
 for their deeds, but is cautiously kept within 
 known and proved scientific limits. He es- 
 pecially frowns upon the theological idea that 
 moral responsibility is transmissible, and says 
 that " the inherited tendencies belong to the 
 machinery for which the Sovereign Power 
 alone is responsible. The misfortune of per- 
 verse instincts, which adhere to us as con- 
 genital inheritances, should go to our side of 
 the account, if the books of heaven are kept, 
 as the great church of Christendom main- 
 tains they are, by double entry." 
 
 In his tilt against Jonathan Edwards (lec- 
 ture read at the Radical Club, and afterwards 
 published in the International Review for 
 
CEARAGTEEISTICS. 265 
 
 July, 1880), he says, that there is good rea- 
 son to believe that there are persons who 
 are born more or less completely blind to 
 moral distinctions, just as some are born color- 
 blind. Yet "we have a sense of difficulty 
 overcome by effort in many acts of choice."- ' 
 So that, if not free, we think that we are, and 
 this in itself constitutes a powerful motive. 
 " Our thinking ourselves free is the key to 
 our whole moral nature. ^ Possumiis quia 
 posse videiniir.^ " 
 
 In the article just quoted Dr. Holmes 
 draws a detailed parallelism between Edwards 
 and Pascal, finding them to have much in 
 common. He says of Edwards that his 
 ancestors had listened to sermons so long 
 that he must have been born with scriptural 
 texts lying latent in his embryonic thinking- 
 marrow, as undeveloped pictures lurk in a 
 film of collodion. He also suggests that the 
 Northampton divine must have read that text 
 that mothers love so well, " Suffer little vipers 
 to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of 
 such is the kingdom of God." 
 
 One should not forget to add that the few 
 hymns of Dr. Holmes are much admired, and 
 
266 OLIVE E WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 that there are beautiful fragments of religious 
 poetry scattered through his works. What 
 a sweet and trustful spirit breathes through 
 these lines, from "Wind-Clouds and Star- 
 Drifts"!— 
 
 " Thou wilt not hold in scorn the child who dares 
 Look up to Thee, the Father, — dares to ask 
 More than Thy wisdom answers. From Thy 
 
 hand 
 The worlds were cast ; yet every leaflet claims 
 From that same hand its little shining sphere 
 Of starlit dew ; thine image the great sun. 
 Girt with his mantle of tempestuous flame. 
 Glares in mid heaven ; but to his noontide blaze 
 The slender violet lifts its lidless eye. 
 And from its splendor steals its fairest hue, 
 Its sweetest perfume from his scorching fire.'* 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 POETRY. 
 
 " His the quaint trick to cram the pithy line 
 That cracks so crisply over bubblittg wi?ie." — 
 
 Holmes. 
 
 It is as a writer of humorous poetry that 
 Holmes excels. His non-humorous poems 
 are full of beautiful passages, as we shall 
 see ; but they are not, many of them, perfect 
 works of art like the others ; they have not 
 the same unique flavor of individuality. A 
 goodly proportion of his best comic and hu- 
 morous pieces are vers d' occasion^ written 
 to be read at banquets or before select com- 
 panies. From tim^e immemorial wit has sea- 
 soned table-talk. A company at table assigns 
 by instinct the chief role to the wit or hu- 
 morist. The three meals of a day are its 
 green oases, its sparkling poems. "The 
 Poet at the Breakfast-Table," — the title was 
 well chosen. In the freshness and buoyancy 
 of the morning hour the fancy plays most 
 
 267 
 
268 OLIVER WENDELL EOLMES. 
 
 delicately and spontaneously, and the poet of 
 Beacon Street has transferred to the pages of 
 his prose and his poetry the vitality and in- 
 tensity of spirits that the cup of coffee im- 
 parts. He also understands the soft illusory 
 enchantment of the chandelier, what time its 
 lustre mingles with the. faint waxy aroma 
 and flowery perfume of the banquet-room. ) 
 
 When the critic approaches the post-coenati- 
 cal and convivial poems of Holmes, he will 
 throw aside his quill, if he is not a fool, and 
 yield himself with others to the fun and riant 
 humor of the moment.* If he does anything, 
 he will long for an artist's brush to paint 
 some such scene as this : (no Deipnosophis- 
 tean Greek debauch, with wreaths and wine, 
 but) an ample breakfast-table in a high and 
 sunny room, the cheery crackle of blazing 
 wood in a spacious fireplace, the delicate 
 aroma of coffee gratefully inhaled (but you 
 can't paint that), a cultured and merry com- 
 
 * " I would go fifty miles on foot," says Yorick, " for I 
 have not a horse worth riding on, to kiss the hand of 
 that man whose generous heart will give up the reins 
 of his imagination into his author's hands, — be 
 pleased he knows not why, and cares not wherefore." 
 
POETRY. 269 
 
 pany seated at the table, and at its head the 
 genial face of one crowned 
 
 "With white roses in place of the red," 
 
 whose tender-glancing eye is now moist with 
 tears, and now gleaming with fun, and whose 
 lips at one moment utter subtle and senten- 
 tious truth, and at another bubble over with 
 puns and rippling laughter, and jests which 
 put the company into such a state of interior 
 titillation and stomachic exhilaration of mood 
 that the snowy table-cloth is momently in 
 danger of amber stains from shaking cups. 
 And upon the frieze of the room let there be 
 a motley procession of figures, — weird Elsie, 
 sweet Iris and the Little Gentleman hand 
 in hand, the poor Tutor, roguish Benjamin 
 Franklin, gaunt Silence Withers, wayward 
 Myrtle, and honest Gridley, — with gar- 
 goyles and grotesques at intervals, a whiz- 
 zing Comet, the immortal One-Hoss Shay at 
 the moment of its dissolution, the Spectre Pig, 
 and the pensive Oysterman, and for scroll- 
 work a chain of spiral, pearly shells with pur- 
 pled wings outspread. 
 
 After reading a dozen or more pages of the 
 
2/0 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 neat Augustan couplets of Holmes' best vers 
 d'occasion, packed and crammed with little 
 genre images and neat concretes, you have 
 the comfortable feeling of a man who has 
 just despatched a dish of hickory-nuts cracked 
 in halves, and intermingled with raisins, — 
 the whole washed down with a gldschen of 
 old sherry. Or you feel as if you had been 
 at Mr. Aldrich's " Lunch " :.— 
 
 " A melon cut in thin delicious slices, 
 A cake that seemed mosaic-work in pieces, 
 Two china cups with golden tulips sunny, 
 And rich inside with chocolate like honey." 
 
 But not all of Dr. Holmes' memorial and 
 anniversary productions, and verses kindly 
 written by request, are of equal merit. 
 Scores of them are nothing but rhymed 
 rhetoric and sentiment, and should never 
 have been printed at all except in newspa- 
 pers. Their author has said of late that he 
 would like to go over his poetry and cull 
 out the best for a final edition. It is to be 
 hoped that he may find time for this task. 
 He has told us of the origin of many of his 
 verses; — 
 
POETBY. 271 
 
 * I'm a florist in verse, and what w<?2/Z/ people say, 
 If I came to a banquet without my bouquet " ? 
 
 And in another place : — 
 
 " Here's the cousin of a king, — 
 Would I do the civil thing? 
 Here's the firstborn of a queen; 
 Here's a slant-eyed Mandarin. 
 
 Would I polish off Japan ? 
 Would I greet this famous man, 
 Prince or Prelate, Sheik or Shah ? 
 — Figaro gi and Figaro la ! " 
 
 What was a kind-hearted man to do ? Of 
 course he complied : the verses were ground 
 out somehow, — and what poet could ever 
 resist the temptation to publish ? It is almost 
 impossible to impart by quotations the spirit 
 and hilarity of the best of these vers d' occa- 
 sion : there is a whet and stimulant in every 
 line : the humor of them is interior, below the 
 midriff, and penetrates the thick integument 
 of care and gravity with a slow, delicious 
 feeling that finally breaks out into uncon- 
 trollable laughter. Read the "Modest Re- 
 quest " for an illustration ; or the '' Chanson 
 without Music," — a voluble polyglot medley 
 
2/2 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 that almost takes one's breath away, resem- 
 bling nothing so much as the tipsy music of 
 a bobolink, or the vocal pyrotechnics of tho 
 Southern mocking-bird : — 
 
 " You bid me sing, — can I forget 
 
 The classic ode of days gone by, — 
 How belle Fifine and Jeune Lisette 
 
 Exclaimed, ' Anacreon, geron ei ' ? 
 'Regardez done,' those ladies said, — 
 
 ' You're getting bald and wrinkled too : 
 When summer's roses all are shed, 
 
 Love's nullum ite, voyez-vous ! ' 
 
 In vain ce brave Anacreon's cry, 
 
 ' Of Love alone my banjo sings ' 
 (Erota mounon). ' Etiam si, — 
 
 Eh b'en ? ' replied the saucy things, — 
 ' Go find a maid whose hair is gray. 
 
 And strike your lyre, — we sha'n't com- 
 plain ; 
 But parce nobis, s'il vous plait, — . 
 
 Voila Adolphe ! Voila Eugene ! * 
 
 Ginosko. Scio. Yes, I'm told 
 Some ancients like my rusty lay, 
 
 As Grandpa Noah loved the old 
 
 Red-sandstone march of Jubal's day. 
 
POETRY. 273 
 
 I used to carol like the birds, 
 
 But time my wits has quite unfixed, 
 
 Et quoad verba, — for my words, — 
 
 Ciel ! Eheu ! Whe-ew ! — how they're mixed ! " 
 
 Some of Holmes' best anniversary poems 
 have been those for the Phi Beta Kappa. 
 *' Post-Prandial " is one of these, and its rare 
 fun will not be understood by those who are 
 ignorant of the circumstance that Wendell 
 Phillips, who is a distant "connection" of 
 Holmes, and Charles G. Leland (Hans Breit- 
 mann) both had public parts to perform on 
 the occasion that gave rise to the poem. 
 "Rip Van Winkle, M.D. — An after-dinner 
 prescription taken by the Massachusetts Med- 
 ical Society at their meeting, held May 25, 
 1870," is a capital piece of professional fun. 
 It is full of sly thrusts at antiquated doctors. 
 They are typified in the person of Rip Van 
 Winkle (a grandson of Irving's hero), who 
 goes to sleep with the request that he be 
 awakened once a year for the doctors' 
 meeting. Rip 
 
 "Had, in fact, an ancient, mildewed air, 
 A long gray beard, a plenteous lack of hair, — 
 
274 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 The musty look that always recommends 
 Your good old Doctor to his ailing friends. 
 — Talk of your science ! after all is said 
 There's nothing like a bare and shiny head ; 
 Age lends the graces that are sure to please ; 
 Folks want their Doctors mouldy, like their 
 cheese." 
 
 Holmes was class poet at college, and he 
 has remained class poet all his life. Thirty- 
 seven of his class anniversary poems appear 
 in his complete poetical works. Some of 
 them are in his finest vein and are of general 
 interest. For example, '' The Boys," written 
 in 1859 : — 
 
 " Has there any old fellow got mixed with the 
 
 boys ? 
 If there has, take him out without making a 
 
 noise. 
 Hang the Almanac's cheat, and the Catalogue's 
 
 spite ! 
 Old Time is a liar ! We're twenty to-night ! 
 
 We're twenty! We're twenty! Who says we 
 
 are more ? 
 He's tipsy, — young jackanapes ! — show him 
 
 the door ! 
 
POETRY. 275 
 
 * Gray temples at twenty ? ' — Yes ! white if we 
 
 please ; 
 Where the snowflakes fall thickest there's 
 
 nothing can freeze ! 
 
 Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its 
 
 gray! 
 The stars of its winter, the dews of its May ! 
 And when we have done with our life-lasting 
 
 toys, 
 Dear Father, take care of thy children, The 
 
 Boys ! " 
 
 "The Last Survivor" is one of those fine 
 pieces of imagined retrospect, or forecasting 
 of the future, which is so excellently done in 
 the " Epilogue to the Breakfast-Table Series." 
 " The Archbishop and Gil Bias " may serve 
 as the comic counterpart of " The Iron Gate," 
 and could, one thinks, scarcely have been 
 written except by an old physician who had 
 himself been a keen observer of old men : — 
 
 " Can yoii read as once you used to ? Well, the 
 printing is so bad, 
 No young folks' eyes can read it like the books 
 that once we had. 
 
2/6 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Are you quite as quick of hearing ? Please to 
 
 say that once again. 
 DonH I use plai?t words, your Reverence f Yes, 
 
 I often use a cane, 
 But it's not because I need it, — no, I always 
 
 liked a stick ; 
 And as one might lean upon it, 'tis as well it 
 
 should be thick. 
 Oh, I'm smart, I'm spry, I'm lively, — I can 
 
 walk, yes, that I can. 
 On the days I feel like walking, just as well as 
 
 you, young man ! " 
 
 The exquisite elegiac poem on his class- 
 mate, Prof. Benjamin Peirce — that grand old 
 mathematician of lion aspect, whose very pres- 
 ence seemed a proof of immortality, — is 
 pitched in a lofty key, as the subject, indeed, 
 could not but inspire. Two of the stanzas 
 may need a word of explanation : — 
 
 " To him the wandering stars revealed 
 The secrets in their cradle sealed : 
 The far-off, frozen sphere that swings 
 Through ether, zoned with lucid rings ; 
 
 The orb that rolls in dim eclipse 
 Wide wheeling round its long ellipse, — 
 His name Urania writes with these 
 And stamps it on her Pleiades." 
 
POETRY. 2^]^ 
 
 The reference here is to Prof. Peirce's cal- 
 culations of the perturbations of Uranus 
 about the time of the discovery of Neptune 
 by Leverrier and Adams. " Peirce " (says 
 Dr. Thomas Hill of Portland, ex-President of 
 Harvard University) " showed that the dis- 
 covery of Neptune was a happy accident ; not 
 that Leverrier's calculations had not been 
 exact and wonderfully laborious, and deserv- 
 ing of the highest honor, but because there 
 were, in fact, two very different solutions of 
 the perturbations of Uranus possible. Lever- 
 rier had correctly calculated one, but the 
 actual planet solved the other, and the actual 
 planet and Leverrier's ideal one lay in the 
 same direction from the earth only in 1846." 
 A writer in the New York Nation, October 
 14, 1880, says: ''When, in 1846, he [Peirce] 
 announced in the American Academy that 
 Galle's discovery of Neptune in the place pre- 
 dicted by Leverrier was a happy accident, the 
 President, Edward Everett, 'hoped the an- 
 nouncement would not be made public ; noth- 
 ing could be more improbable than such a 
 coincidence.' 'Yes,' replied Peirce, 'but it 
 would be still more strange if there were an 
 
278 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 error in my calculations ' ; a confident asser- 
 tion which the lapse of time has vindicated." 
 
 The reader of Dr. Holmes' class poems may 
 like to know the full names of certain class- 
 mates to whose memory poems are dedicated. 
 The initials J. D. R. stand for Jacob D. 
 Russell ; F. W. C. for Frederick William 
 Crocker ; J. A. for Joseph Angier ; and H. C. 
 M., H. S., J. K. W., respectively for Horatius 
 C. Merriam, Howard Sargent, and Josiah 
 Kendall Waite. 
 
 There are no very strongly marked epochs 
 in his poetical development ; still his poetical 
 activity may be roughly divided into four 
 periods, each with characteristics of its own. 
 During the first period — from 1830 to 1849 
 — the greater portion of the best humorous 
 poems were written. From 1849 to 1857 — 
 or from the fortieth to the forty-eighth year of 
 the poet — he seems, as he himself has inti- 
 mated, to have fallen into a sort of literary 
 lethargy, and there was scarcely a poem pro- 
 duced which takes rank with the work of other 
 periods in his life. There is scarcely a 
 humorous poem in this group ; and only three 
 satirical ones which stick in one's memory, — 
 
POETRY. 279 
 
 namely, ''The Moral Bully," "The Old Man 
 of the Sea," and " The Sweet Little Man." 
 It is a curious coincidence that this barren 
 period extends precisely over the period of his 
 summerings at Pittsfield, and over his career 
 as a lecturer. In 1857 came the Atlantic 
 Monthly; and the first contributions of 
 Holmes to its pages — prose and poetry — 
 form the finest literary work of his life. The 
 poems published in the " Autocrat " are of so 
 uniformly high an order that one may con- 
 sider them as forming a group by themselves 
 (185 7-1 85 8). They include such famous 
 pieces as ''The Chambered Nautilus," "Lat- 
 ter-Day Warnings," "Estivation," "The 
 One-Hoss Shay," and " Ode for a Social 
 Meeting." The period from 1858 to the 
 present time is distinguished by a very 
 much larger proportion than before of anni- 
 versary and memorial verses, and other vers 
 d' occasion, and for a decided preponderance of 
 serious over humorous poem-s. 
 
 His early humorous poetry (and his later 
 also) is idiomatic, pitched in a conversational 
 key, full of bright fancies, rippling laughter, 
 crisp and sparkling rhythm, and pleases most 
 
280 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 in virtue of the use of familiar and homely 
 objects placed in the most incongruous rela- 
 tions. But we are not going to be betrayed 
 into an analysis of Dr. Holmes' vers de societe. 
 Rash would be the man who should attempt 
 it; and he would get no thanks for his pains 
 either. Nor shall his early humorous poems 
 be quoted. There is but one way : you must 
 buy his poetical works and read them, — read 
 them and laugh, and find your moral atmos- 
 phere cleared, your breath freer, your diges- 
 tion better, and your whole nature sunnier 
 than before. 
 
 A feature of all his versification is its neat- 
 ness, — no slovenly rhymes, no slipshod 
 metres. And Pope himself never crammed 
 more meaning into single lines and stanzas, 
 which gleam with the polish and delicate 
 finish of fresh-minted coins of gold. Where 
 will you find greater condensation (outside of 
 the writings of Tacitus) than in such lines as 
 these : — 
 
 " The sexton, stooping to the quivering floor 
 
 Till the great caldron spills its brassy roar, 
 
 Whirls the hot axle," etc. 
 
 The Bells, 
 
POETRY. 281 
 
 " These are the scenes : a boy appears ; 
 Set life's round dial in the sun, 
 Count the swift arc of seventy years, 
 His frame is dust ; his work is done." 
 
 Birthday of Daniel Webster. 
 
 " True to all truth the world denies. 
 Not tongue-tied for its gilded sin ; 
 Not always right in all men's eyes, 
 But faithful to the light within." 
 
 A Birthday Tribute to James Freeman Clarke. 
 
 " Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed." 
 
 The Chambered Naictilus. 
 
 " For these the blossom-sprinkled turf 
 That floods the lonely graves 
 When Spring rolls i?i her sea-green surf 
 In flowery foaming waves.^^ 
 
 The Two Armies. 
 
 There is still another whole compartment 
 in the mind of this many-sided man v^hich we 
 have not explored, — his tender passion and 
 delicate feminine sensibility. Every person 
 of mature years who passed through the fiery 
 furnace of the American Civil War of 1861-65 
 came out chastened and purified and elevated 
 
282 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 in nature. Already in 1861 we seem to see 
 the influence of the opening war uponHolmes, 
 in the prelude to his '' Songs in Many Keys " 
 (1861). After this his mind seems sobered 
 and elevated to more earnest and impassioned 
 poetical thought. But perhaps it is only the 
 sobering influence of years that we notice. 
 The key-note of the change is struck in the 
 prelude just mentioned : — 
 
 " Song is thin air ; our hearts' exulting play 
 Beats time but to the tread of marching deeds, 
 Following the mighty van that Freedom leads, 
 Her glorious standard flaming to the day ! 
 The crimsoned pavement where a hero bleeds 
 Breathes nobler lessons than the poet's lay. 
 Strong arms, broad breasts, brave hearts, are 
 
 better worth 
 Than strains that sing the ravished echoes 
 
 dumb." 
 
 The poem " Musa" is full of a youthful, rich, 
 Oriental fire and passion that one had hardly 
 suspected in Holmes, — reminds you of some 
 of Bayard Taylor's poems of the East. So do 
 the following two stanzas (" Fantasia") : — 
 
POETRY. 283 
 
 " Kiss mine eyelids, beauteous Morn, 
 Blushing into life new-born ! 
 Lend me violets for my hair, 
 And thy russet robe to wear, 
 And thy ring of rosiest hue 
 Set in drops of diamond dew ! 
 
 Kiss my cheek, thou noontide ray, 
 
 From my Love so far away ! 
 
 Let thy splendor streaming down 
 
 Turn its pallid lilies brown. 
 
 Till its darkening shade reveal 
 
 Where his passion pressed its seal ! " 
 
 " Under the Violets " has the delicacy of 
 " Claribel," and all the artlessness of Her- 
 rick's pieces without their sensuality. " Iris, 
 her Book," is full of that subtle, tremulous 
 feeling, and sensitive psychical affinity which 
 unlocks for its author the inmost souls of 
 such young girls as Iris and Myrtle Hazard. 
 A poet never hung more breathlessly over an 
 opening lily, or gazed more reverently into 
 the innocent little face of the spring's first 
 violet, than the creator of Iris and Elsie has 
 watched the Psyche unfolding in a young 
 
284 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 -girl's nature, or new-born Eros trying his 
 wings in the rosy Hght of her fancy. 
 
 One topic still remains to be touched upon, 
 and we would not treat it in an ungracious or 
 complaining spirit, — namely, the Anglicism 
 of his poetical vehicle or metrical style. That 
 this is not original does not detract from the 
 merit of his poetry in the eyes of those who 
 were partially nourished by the poetry of the. 
 Queen Anne school. He is a man of the 
 world, a university man, and we should 
 hardly expect such a one to strike out a 
 new style in poetry, like the great lovers 
 of nature, - — Wordsworth, Burns, Emerson, 
 Whitman : still it remains to inquire how 
 the style of the Boileau and Pope school ac- 
 quired such a life-long hold upon him. The 
 answer is doubtless to be found in the cir- 
 cumstance that in his father's house, and in 
 the university town where he lived as a 
 youth, that species of poesy was exclusively 
 fashionable at the time when his poetical 
 style was forming. If there is a great deal 
 in Holmes that reminds one of William 
 Spencer, of Crabbe, Pope, Hood, and the 
 Prize Poets of the English universities, — 
 
POETRY, 285 
 
 it is because these were the popular poets 
 when he was a boy and when he was in col- 
 lege. He tells us in the " Atlantic Almanac " 
 that he and the other children of his father's 
 house were educated on such English books 
 as Miss Edgeworth's '^ Frank " and '^ Parent's 
 Assistant," "Original Poems," '* Evenings at 
 Home," and " Cheap Repository Tracts," 
 and says that he considers it to have been 
 a great misfortune that they should have been 
 fed on these English books instead of on 
 American ones, for the former were full of 
 words that had no meaning for them. They 
 found themselves in a strange world where 
 James was called "Jem," not Jim as they 
 always heard it ; where a young woman was 
 called " a stout wench " ; where the boys 
 played, not at marbles, but at "taw"; where 
 mischievous boys crawled through a gap in 
 a hawthorn hedge to steal Farmer Giles' 
 red-streaks, instead of shining over the fence 
 to hook Daddy Jones' Baldwins ; where 
 Hodge used to go to the ale-house to get his 
 mug of beer, whereas they used to see old 
 Joe steering for the grocery to get his glass 
 of rum ; where toffy and lollypop were eaten 
 
286 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 in place of molasses-candy and gibraltars ; 
 
 where poachers were pulled up before the 
 
 squire for knocking down hares with sticks, 
 
 while to their knowledge boys hunted rabbits 
 
 with guns, or set *' figgery-fours " for them 
 
 without fear of the constable ; " where birds 
 
 were taken with a wonderful substance they 
 
 called bird-lime ; where boys studied m forms ^ 
 
 and where there were fags, and ushers, and 
 
 • 
 barrings-out ; where there were shepherds, 
 
 and gypsies, and tinkers, and orange-women, 
 who sold China oranges out of barrows ; 
 where there were larks and nightingales in- 
 stead of yellow-birds and bobolinks." Upon 
 all this the Doctor remarks : *' What a mess, 
 — there is no better word for it, — what a 
 mess was made of it in our young minds in 
 the attempt to reconcile what we read about 
 with what we saw. It was like putting a 
 picture of Regent's Park on one side of a 
 stereoscope, and a picture of Boston Common 
 on the other, and trying to make one of them. 
 The end was that we all grew up with a 
 mental squint that we could never get rid 
 of." 
 
 How closely the heroics of Dr. Holmes 
 
POETRY. 287 
 
 resemble those of Goldsmith and Pope no 
 careful reader needs to be told. As for 
 Hood, there is a striking resemblance be- 
 tween his features and those of Holmes, and 
 there is a striking general resemblance be- 
 tween the style and literary methods of the 
 two in some of their humorous poems. 
 Holmes is unique and original in matter, 
 only his style shows the influence of Hood. 
 To show to what purpose Hood was read by 
 Boston and Cambridge people about the time 
 when Holmes was making his first poems, 
 read the following stanza selected by the 
 writer from many similar ones in the Boston 
 Daily Advertiser for 1830. The verses are 
 called "Fashionable Eclogues" : — 
 
 " Next year, papa ! next year, mamma ! 
 
 You know I'm thirty-two, 
 (I call myself but twenty-six, 
 
 So this is entre nous : ) 
 Next year I shall be thirty-three, 
 
 I've not a day to lose. 
 Oh, let us go to town at once, 
 
 I'm lost if you refuse." 
 
288 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Compare the metrical flow of this with 
 Hood's "Sally Simpkins' Lament" : — 
 
 " Oh Jones, my dear ! Oh dear ! my Jones, 
 What is become of you ? 
 
 " Oh ! Sally dear, it is too true, — 
 The half that you remark 
 Is come to say my other half 
 Is bit off by a shark ! 
 
 " Oh ! Sally, sharks do things by halves, 
 Yet most completely do ! 
 A bite in one place seems enough, 
 But I've been bit in two." 
 
 Hood's " Ode on a Distant Prospect of 
 Clapham Academy " contains just the touch 
 of Holmes in his '* Old Cambridge." Hood 
 says : — 
 
 " Ay, that's the very house ! I know 
 Its ugly windows, ten a-row ! 
 
 Its chimneys in the rear ! 
 And there's the iron rod so high. 
 That drew the thunder from the sky 
 
 And turned our table-beer ! 
 
POETRY. 289 
 
 And Mrs. S ? Doth she abet 
 
 (Like Pallas in the parlor) yet 
 
 Some favor'd two or three, — 
 
 The little Crichtons of the hour, 
 
 Her muffin-medals that devour, 
 
 And swill her prize — bohea ? " 
 
 And Holmes' metres run as follows : — 
 
 " The yellow meetin' house, — can you tell 
 Just where it stood before it fell, 
 
 Prey of the vandal foe, — 
 Our dear old temple, loved so well. 
 
 By ruthless hands laid low ? 
 Where, tell me, was the Deacon's pew ? 
 Whose hair was braided in a queue ? 
 (For there were pig-tails not a few), — 
 
 That's what I'd like to know." 
 
 So much for the metrical vehicle of Holmes, 
 and the models on which he formed his style. 
 A poet must choose some style or other, and 
 the Boston singer found that of the school of 
 Pope and Hood best fitted for his use. By 
 any other name the rose would smell as 
 sweet. In the case of humorous or comic 
 verse, we need not quarrel much with the 
 style, if the matter be but good. 
 
290 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Inasmuch as Dr. Holmes has not yet edited 
 a selection of his best poems, the- following an- 
 thology maybe an acceptable guide for hurried 
 readers ; and let it be premised that all the 
 preludes of the poet are exquisite pieces of 
 poetry and sentiment. The best poems, in 
 the judgment of the writer, are these : — * 
 
 Old Ironsides ; The Last Leaf ; The Cam- 
 bridge Churchyard ; My Aunt ; Evening by a 
 Tailor; The Dorchester Giant; The Comet; 
 The Music Grinders ; The September Gale ; 
 The Height of the Ridiculous ; On Lending a 
 Punch-Bowl ; Nux Postcoenatica ; A Modest 
 Request ; The Stethoscope Song ; The Meeting 
 of the Dryads ; The Mysterious Visitor ; The 
 Toadstool ; The Spectre Pig ; The Ballad of 
 the Oysterman ; The Hot Season ; The Moral 
 Bully ; The Old Man of the Sea ; The Sweet 
 Little Man ; The Chambered Nautilus ; The 
 Two Armies-; Musa; A Parting Health; Pro- 
 logue ; Latter-Day Warnings ; A Good Time 
 Going ; The Last Blossom ; Contentment ; ^s- 
 
 * The poems are given in the order in which they 
 occur in the latest edition (1882), and may therefore 
 be read consecutively and chronologically by referring 
 to the table of contents of the poems. 
 
POETRY. 291 
 
 tivation ; The Deacon's Masterpiece, or The 
 Wonderful ' One-Hoss Shay'; Ode for a So- 
 cial Meeting; Under the Violets ; Iris, her 
 Book ; Aunt Tabitha ; Epilogue to the Break- 
 fast-Table Series ; The Old Man dreams ; The 
 Boys ; The Last Survivor ; The Archbishop 
 and Gil Bias; Benjamin Peirce; Dorothy Q. 
 The Organ-Blower ; Rip Van Winkle, M. D. 
 Chanson without Music; A Sea Dialogue 
 Grandmother's Story of Bunker-Hill Battle 
 Old Cambridge ; How the Old Horse won the 
 Bet ; The Iron Gate ; My Aviary ; For Whit- 
 tier's Seventieth Birthday ; The Coming Era ; 
 Post-Prandial. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SCIENTIST. 
 
 An abler pen than that of the writer of 
 these pages will doubtless at some future time 
 treat of Dr. Holmes as physician, professor, 
 and scientific specialist. In the mean time 
 one may indicate the general features of his 
 scientific work, and give in epitome the gist 
 of his interesting studies and original re- 
 searches. 
 
 His first original work was his Boylston 
 prize dissertation on " Indigenous Intermit- 
 tent Fever," or malaria (1837), a paper still 
 valued by physicians. Following this was his 
 treatise on " The Contagiousness of Puerperal 
 Fever" (1843), concerning which he has 
 said : — 
 
 "When, by the permission of Providence, I 
 held up to the professional public the damna- 
 ble facts connected with the conveyance of 
 poison from one young mother's chamber to 
 another's, — for doing which humble office I 
 292 
 
THE SCIENTIST. 293 
 
 desire to be thankful that I have lived, though 
 nothing else good should ever come of my 
 life, — I had to bear the sneers of those whose 
 position I had assailed, and, as I believe, have 
 at last demolished, so that nothing but the 
 ghosts of dead women stir among the ruins." 
 
 Dr. Holmes has experimented considerably 
 in optics. The reader has already learned of 
 his stereoscopical researches and invention. 
 In Volume IV. of the Proceedings of the 
 American Academy will be found a paper by 
 Dr. Holmes on certain original optical experi- 
 ments, to which he gives the name " Reflex 
 Vision." 
 
 He has also done some original work in 
 microscopy. The first microscope owned by 
 him was one of Raspail's, purchased for him 
 by his father from the Rev. Dr. John Prince, 
 of Salem. After making many experiments 
 in the construction of microscopes. Professor 
 Holmes finally succeeded in inventing one 
 which suited his wants. It is not only useful 
 for class purposes, but is also good for ordi- 
 nary use by the addition of a simple hinged 
 platform and stage, also devised by him. Vol- 
 ume II. of the Proceedings of the American 
 
294 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Academy contains a communication from 
 him " On the Use of Direct Light in Micro- 
 scopical Researches," accompanied by a draw- 
 ing of a horizontal microscopical apparatus 
 invented by himself. As illustrating his 
 scientific accuracy in microscopical investi- 
 gations, one may quote his own words, as 
 published in his address before the Boston 
 Medical Library Association : — 
 
 "I do not pretend to hoist up the Bibliotheca 
 Anatomica of Mangetus and spread it on my 
 table every day. I do not get out my great 
 Albinus before every lecture on the muscles, 
 nor disturb the majestic repose of Vesalius 
 every time I speak of the bones he has so 
 admirably described and figured. But it does 
 please me to read the first descriptions of 
 parts to which the names of their discoverers, 
 or those who have first described them, have 
 become so joined that not even modern sci- 
 ence can part them ; to listen to the talk, of 
 my old volume, as Willis describes his circle, 
 and Fallopius his aqueduct, and Varolius his 
 bridge, and Eustachius his tube, and Monro his 
 foramen, — all so well known to us in the 
 human body ; it does please me to know the 
 
TEE SCIENTIST. 295 
 
 very words- in which Winslow described the 
 opening which bears his name, and Ghsson 
 his capsule and De Graaf his vesicle ; I am 
 not content until I know in what language 
 Harvey announced his discovery of the circu- 
 lation, and how Spigelius made the liver his 
 perpetual memorial, and Malpighi found a 
 monument more enduring than brass in the 
 corpuscles of the spleen and the kidney." 
 
 Homoeopathy Dr. Holmes believes to be 
 an arrant humbug. Now, if you put a hum- 
 bug and Dr. Holmes in juxtaposition you 
 are sure to have a lively fight. And whe-ew ! 
 (as he would say) haven't the homoeopathists 
 caught it though ! They have, and they have 
 writhed under the lash, as the numerous repli- 
 catory pamphlets prove. Read, and you shall 
 see. 
 
 In 1842 he published his two brilliant lec- 
 tures on " Homoeopathy and its Kindred De- 
 lusions." They were originally delivered be- 
 fore the Boston Society for the Diffusion of 
 Useful Knowledge. 
 
 The first lecture gives an account of four 
 famous delusions : (i.) The Royal Cure of 
 the King's Evil, or Scrofula; (2.) The Wea- 
 
296 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 pori Ointment, and the Sympathetic Powder ; 
 (3.) The Tar-water mania of Bishop Berkeley ; 
 (4.) The MetalUc Tractors, or Perkinsism. 
 
 The first of these, the King's Touch, is too 
 well known to need explanation. The Wea- 
 pon Ointment, or Unguentum Armarium, was 
 believed to cure wounds by being applied to 
 the weapon that produced the wound, and the 
 Sympathetic Powder performed the same" 
 office if applied to the blood-stained garments 
 of the injured person, although that person 
 might be at a great distance from the gar- 
 ments themselves. 
 
 Amiable Bishop Berkeley believed that his 
 tar-water, made by stirring a gallon of water 
 with a quart of tar, and then decanting the 
 clear water, was a specific for about all the 
 diseases under the sun. "He was an illus- 
 trious man," says Dr. Holmes, " but he held 
 two very odd opinions, — that tar-water was 
 everything, and that the whole material uni- 
 verse was nothing." The Metallic Tractors 
 (invented 1796) were two pieces of metal, 
 one apparently iron and the other brass, about 
 three inches long, blunt at one end and 
 pointed at the other. The tractors were ap- 
 
THE SCIENTIST. 297 
 
 plied for the cure of various ills by being 
 drawn lightly for about twenty minutes over 
 the affected parts. They were the invention 
 of Dr. Elisha Perkins, of Norwich, Connecti- 
 cut. The Tractor delusion swept over 
 America and Europe like wildfire, and as 
 quickly subsided. Of course those various 
 delusions are described and classed with 
 homoeopathy in order to show that in Dr. 
 Holmes' opinion one is as much a piece of 
 imposture as the others. 
 
 The second lecture treats of homoeopathy 
 directly. It is conceived and written in a 
 vein of noble scorn, and the thought is poured 
 out along the pages with a lucidity, pungency 
 of satire, and cogent understatement that 
 give to the performance the velocity and 
 penetrating force of a cannon-shot. Dr. 
 Holmes never wrote anything in clearer, purer 
 style than this. 
 
 The three great principles of Hahnemann, 
 the founder of homoeopathy, are these, as 
 Dr. Holmes puts them : — 
 
 (i.) Like cures like. That is, diseases are 
 cured by agents capable of producing symp- 
 toms in healthy persons resembling those 
 found in sick persons. 
 
298 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 (2.) The efficacy of medicinal substances 
 reduced to a wonderful degree of minuteness, 
 or dilution. 
 
 (3.) Seven-eighths at least of all chronic 
 diseases are produced by the existence in the 
 system of psora, or the itch. 
 
 As to the first of these principles. Dr. 
 Holmes says that there are a few cases in 
 which an ill is cured by remedies producing 
 similar symptoms ; but that it is absurd to 
 say, as Hahnemann did, that the homoeo- 
 pathic axiom is the sole law of nature in thera- 
 peutics. 
 
 As to the second principle : the ridiculous- 
 ness of the claim that the one-trillionth of a 
 drop of any drug can produce any effect what- 
 ever on the system he illustrates by suppos- 
 ing that the whole of a drop of chamomile 
 were diluted, or minimized, to the degree 
 which Hahnemann's disciples prescribe : the 
 calculation proves that the single drop of 
 chamomile would have to be diffused through 
 ten thousand seas of alcohol as large as the 
 Adriatic ! And yet a few pellets moistened 
 in such a dilution are said to cure the most 
 terrible and fatal diseases ! 
 
THE SCIENTIST. 299 
 
 The third principle of Hahnemann is dis- 
 missed as unworthy of consideration. Dr. 
 Holmes shows that many of Hahnemann's 
 quotations from ancient writers are garbled ; 
 that the cures asserted to be effected by 
 homoeopathic medicines are really cures of 
 nature, the unconscious, invisible physician 
 of life ; and, finally, that many eminent phy- 
 sicians of Europe have fairly and repeatedly 
 tested homoeopathy, and found it a complete 
 humbug. 
 
 He closes his lecture as follows : — 
 "Such is the pretended science of homoe- 
 opathy, to which you are asked to trust your 
 lives, and the lives of those dearest to you. 
 A mingled mass of perverse ingenuity, of 
 tinsel erudition, of imbecile credulity, and 
 of artful misrepresentation, too often mingled 
 in practice, if we may trust the authority of 
 its founder, with heartless and shameless im- 
 position. Because it is suffered so often to 
 appeal unanswered to the public, because it 
 has its journals, its patrons, its apostles, some 
 are weak enough to suppose it can escape the 
 inevitable doom of utter disgrace and oblivion. 
 Not many years can pass away before the 
 
300 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 same curiosity excited by one of Perkins' 
 tractors will be awakened at the sight of one 
 of the Infinitesmal Globules. If it should 
 claim a longer existence, it can only be by 
 falling into the hands of the sordid wretches 
 who wring their bread from the cold grasp of 
 disease and death in the hovels of ignorant 
 poverty. 
 
 ** As one humble member of a profession 
 that for more than two thousand years has 
 devoted itself to the best earthly interests of 
 mankind, always assailed and insulted from 
 without by such as are ignorant of its infinite 
 perplexities and labors, always striving in un- 
 equal contest with the hundred-armed giant 
 who walks in the noonday, and sleeps not in 
 the midnight, yet still toiling, not merely for 
 itself and the present moment, but for the 
 race and the future, I have lifted my voice 
 against this lifeless delusion, rolling its shape- 
 less bulk into the path of a noble science it 
 is too weak to strike or to injure." 
 
 These lectures naturally produced quite a 
 commotion in the enemy's camp, and there 
 were a number of pamphlet replies by Doc- 
 tors Charles Neidhard, A. H. Okie, Robert 
 
THE SCIENTIST. 30 1 
 
 Wesselhoeft, and others. But they must have 
 been rather uncertain and evasive, if we may- 
 judge all of them by that of Dr. Neidhard. 
 He, however, scores one good point against 
 our poet-doctor, when he says that he ought 
 to have satisfied himself of the truth or falsity 
 of homoeopathy by actual and irrefutable ex- 
 periments of his own. 
 
 To what has been quoted from Dr. Holmes' 
 utterances upon homoeopathy, we may add 
 this : In his " Currents and Counter Cur- 
 rents," he says : " There is in some persons a 
 singular inability to weigh the value of testi- 
 mony ; of which, I think, from a pretty care- 
 ful examination of his books, Hahnemann 
 affords the best specimen outside the walls 
 of Bedlam." And again : Homoeopathy means 
 '*that the sick are to be cured by poisons. 
 Similia similibus curantur means exactly 
 this. It is simply a theory of universal 
 poisoning, nullified in practice by the infini- 
 tesimal contrivance." And in the Atlaittic 
 Monthly for December, 1857, he sums up the 
 whole matter in such a compact and charac- 
 teristic style that it would be too bad to 
 abbreviate or rewrite his words : — 
 
302 OLIVER WENDELL HOLME 8. 
 
 " Of course it has had a certain success. 
 Its infinitesimal treatment being a nulHty ; 
 patients are never hurt by drugs, when it is 
 adhered to. It pleases the imagination. It 
 is image-worship, relic-wearing, holy-water 
 sprinkling, transferred from the spiritual 
 world to that of the body. Poets accept it ; 
 sensitive and spiritual women become sisters 
 of charity in its service. It does not offend 
 the palate, and so spares the nursery those 
 scenes of single combat in which infants 
 were wont to yield at length to the pressure 
 of the spoon and the imminence of asphyxia. 
 It gives the ignorant, who have such an in- 
 veterate itch for dabbling in physics, a book 
 and a doll's medicine-chest, and lets them 
 play doctors and doctresses without fear of 
 having to call in the coroner. And just so 
 long as unskilful and untaught people cannot 
 tell coincidences from cause and effect in 
 medical practice, — which to do, the wise 
 and experienced know how difificult ! — so 
 long it will have plenty of ' facts ' to fall 
 back upon. Who can blame a man for being 
 satisfied with the argument, ' I was ill, and 
 am well, — great is Hahnemann ! ' Only this 
 
THE SCIENTIST. 303 
 
 argument serves all impostors and imposi- 
 tions. It is not of much value, but it is 
 irresistible, and therefore quackery is im- 
 mortal." 
 
 Only three years after the foregoing lines 
 were penned by Dr. Holmes he startled the 
 physicians of Boston with almost as severe an 
 attack upon the allopathists, with whom he 
 had always classed himself, as had been his 
 attack upon the homoeopathists. It must have 
 caused a sensation indeed when one who had 
 always been sarcastic over almost all hygienic 
 and medical innovations, suddenly turned 
 squarely about and belabored his own coadju- 
 tors, the solemn conservators of the tradi- 
 tions of old-fashioned medical practice. His 
 address by no means gives countenance to 
 homoeopathy in any shape, and yet a fairly 
 deducible inference from it is that a modified 
 homoeopathic practice may not be much 
 worse after all than an unmitigated allo- 
 pathic practice. The address (styled " Cur- 
 rents and Counter Currents in Medical 
 Science") was delivered at the meeting in 
 Boston of the Massachusetts Medical Society, 
 May 30, i860, and afterwards published in 
 
304 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 book form. Its vigorous onslaught upon the 
 excessive use of drugs in medical practice 
 startled the learned members into a precipi- 
 tate resolution, *' That the society disclaim 
 all responsibility for the sentiments contained 
 in this annual address." Yet it is safe to 
 say that so much sound sense has rarely been 
 compacted between the covers of a medical 
 brochure as we find in this lecture of Dr. 
 Holmes. It ought to, and doubtless will, 
 mark a turning-point, an epoch, in the medi- 
 cal practice of Boston. We like the clear, 
 unequivocal ring of these pages. We like to 
 see the ripe wisdom of thirty years' medical 
 study and practice drawn upon so fearlessly 
 in the interests of truth. The following is 
 an abstract of the work : — 
 
 The community, says Dr. Holmes, is over- 
 dosed. The best proof of it is that no 
 families take so little medicine as the families 
 of doctors (except those of apothecaries), and 
 that old practitioners are more sparing in the 
 use of medicines than are younger ones. The 
 chief defect of the m.edical practice of the 
 day is that it neglects causes and quarrels 
 with effects. The popular belief is that sick 
 
THE SCIENTIST. 305 
 
 persons must feed on noxious and disagree- 
 able substances, and a physician who does 
 not prescribe these is thought to be worth 
 Httle. A Boston physician was called to see 
 a man with a terribly sore mouth. . On in- 
 quiry he found that he had been taking a box 
 of mercury pills that he had picked up in the 
 street, — his idea being that all pills were 
 good for people. It is one of the supersti- 
 tions of the medical practice that a coated 
 tongue invariably shows that the stomach 
 needs an evacuant. But the condition of the 
 tongue is no guide to that of the stomach, 
 which is covered with a different kind of 
 epithelium, and furnished with entirely dif- 
 ferent secretions. " A silversmith will for a 
 dollar make a small hoe^ of solid silver, which 
 will last for centuries, and will give a patient 
 more comfort used for the removal of the 
 accumulated epithelium and fungous growths 
 which constitute the ' fur,' than many a pre- 
 scription with a split-footed R before it, 
 addressed to the parts out of reach." The 
 Doctor says he thinks more of this little tool, 
 because the use of it, or something like it, 
 saved the Plymouth Colony in 1623, when 
 
306 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Edward Winslow, in attending the sick In- 
 dian, Massasoit, scraped his tongue and gave 
 him such other treatment as insured his re- 
 covery and procured his gratitude to the 
 extent of his revealing the Indian plot for 
 the annihilation of the colony. 
 
 Speaking of the too great trust of the em- 
 inent Dr. Benjamin Rush in powerful and 
 hasty remedies, our author says : " How 
 could a people which has a revolution once 
 in four years, which has contrived the bowie- 
 knife and the revolver, which has chewed the 
 juice out of all the superlatives in the lan- 
 guage in Fourth of July orations, and so used 
 up its epithets in the rhetoric of abuse, that 
 it takes two great quarto dictionaries to sup- 
 ply the demand ; which insists in sending 
 out yachts and horses and boys to out-sail, 
 out-fight, and checkmate all the rest of crea- 
 tion — how could such a people be content 
 with any but ' heroic ' practice t What won- 
 der that the stars and stripes wave over doses 
 of ninety grains of sulphate of quinine, and 
 that the American eagle screams with delight 
 to see three drachms of calomel given at a 
 single mouthful } " 
 
THE SCIENTIST. 30/ 
 
 All noxious medicines and appliances which 
 are not natural food or stimulants drain from 
 the patient, we will say, five per cent of his 
 vital force, and " in the game of life-or-death, 
 rotige et 7toir, as played between the doctor 
 and the sexton, this five per cent., this cer- 
 tain small injury entering into the chances, 
 is clearly the sexton's perquisite for keeping 
 the green table over which the game is 
 played, and where he hoards up his gains." 
 
 Throw out opium, says Dr. Holmes ; throw 
 out a few specifics which a physician is hardly 
 needed to apply ; throw out wine, which is a 
 food, and the vapors of ether producing an- 
 aesthesia, and then sink the whole materia 
 medica, as now tised, to the bottom of the 
 sea ; the result would be all the better for 
 mankind, and all the worse for the fishes. 
 In a note the Doctor adds that by this start- 
 ling assertion " no denunciation of drugs as 
 sparingly employed by a wise physician was 
 or is intended ; but reference was had to the 
 too abundant and injudicious use of such 
 drugs as antimony, strychnine, acetate of 
 lead, aloes, aconite, lobelia, lapis infernalis, 
 stercus diaboli, tormentilla, and other such 
 remedies. 
 
308 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Holmes has expressed decided opinions on 
 some other much-debated subjects besides 
 theories of medical practice. In the North 
 American Re,view for July, 1857, will be 
 found a review by him of certain physiological 
 works by Draper, Carpenter, Grove, and Met- 
 calfe, in which the then newly-emerging doc- 
 trines of evolution curiously jostle the old 
 anthropomorphisms. The reviewer lays his 
 hand on his heart, and makes many profound 
 salaams to God, but keeps slyly thrusting him 
 farther and farther back into the deeps of 
 space to let the secondary forces do the main 
 business of creation. 
 
 After disposing of the theological aspect 
 of his subject by expressing his belief in an 
 immanent deity, and quoting approvingly 
 Oken's dictum, "The Universe is God rotat- 
 ing," he enters upon a discussion of the ques- 
 tion of the existence or non-existence of a 
 special creative vital force. He takes the neg- 
 ative view, and in a cogent and solid review 
 of the correlation of forces, and of the whole 
 field of organic life, reaches the conclusion 
 that as pre-existing materials were employed 
 to form organic structures, so pre-existing 
 
TEE SCIENTIST. 309 
 
 force or forces must have been employed to 
 maintain organic actions, or unconscious life ; 
 that life is as necessary an attribute of a per- 
 fect organism as gravity is of metal, or hard- 
 ness of a diamond ; that, in short, there is 
 almost a complete parallelism between the 
 mechanism of vital phenomena and the mech- 
 anism of unvital phenomena. There is a 
 strong probability that all forces (including, 
 perhaps, matter as a force) are only different 
 manifestations of one infinite incomprehens- 
 ible force. Such a view simplifies our 
 thinking, and satisfies the generalizing in- 
 stinct. " Science is the art of packing knowl- 
 edge." 
 
 Through Holmes' brilliant Phi Beta Kappa 
 lecture on " Mechanism in Thought and 
 Morals " run two richly illustrated thoughts, 
 namely, that the brain contains a material, 
 hieroglyphic record of thought ; and, secondly, 
 that this material and transmissible record is 
 not incompatible with freedom of willing in 
 the sphere of morals, although for certain 
 great classes of actions men are not respons- 
 ible. 
 
 There are some charming reminiscences 
 
310 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 and antiquarian sketches by Holmes, to de- 
 prive the reader of some account of which 
 would be an injustice. Among the Win- 
 throp papers was discovered a manuscript 
 written about 1643, and labelled "Receipts 
 to cure Various Disorders." The receipts 
 are signed Edward Stafford. Here is one of 
 them as deciphered by Dr. Holmes, and given 
 by him in the Proceedings of the Massachu- 
 setts Historical Society for February, 1862 : — 
 ^^ My Black powder against y^ plague, small 
 pox: purples, all sorts of fe avers : Poyson ; 
 either by Way of prevention, or after Infection. 
 In the Moneth of March take Toades, as many 
 as you will, alive ; putt them into an Eaithen 
 pott, so y* it be halfe full ; Cover it with a 
 broad tyle or Iron plate ; then overwhelme the 
 pott, so y* y® bottome may be uppermost : putt 
 charcoales round about it and over it, and in 
 the open ayre, not in an house, sett it on fire 
 and lett it burne out and extinguish of it self : 
 When it is cold, take out the toades ; and in 
 an Iron-morter pound them very well, and 
 scarce them : then in a Crucible calcine them 
 so againe : pound and scarce them againe. 
 The first time, they will be a browne powder, 
 
THE SCIENTIST. 311 
 
 the next time black. Of this you may give 
 a dragme in a Vehiculum (or drinke) In- 
 wardly in any Infection taken ; and let them 
 sweat upon it in their bedds." 
 
 In illustration of this remarkable recipe, 
 and of the old and still-existing superstition 
 that the toad is poisonous, Dr. Holmes refers 
 to the story in Boccaccio of ** Pasquino and 
 Simona," lovers, who perish by rubbing their 
 teeth with the leaves of a sage bush. When 
 the bush is plucked up by the roots, lo ! a toad, 
 to the poisonous qualities of which the death 
 of the lovers is ascribed. That the toad has 
 some unpleasant bodily peculiarities, the Doc- 
 tor says he became convinced from an acci- 
 dent that happened once to a young puppy in 
 his presence. The puppy was amusing himself 
 by pushing a toad about with his nose, when 
 suddenly he withdrew with marks of the most 
 extreme disgust, and was at once attacked by 
 such salivation as the Doctor had never seen 
 before in man or beast. The dog never med- 
 dled with a toad again as long as he lived. 
 
 In giving some account of venerable Dr. 
 Edward Augustus Holyoke (i 728-1 829) in 
 the fourth volume of the Memorial His- 
 
312 OLIVE E WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 tory of Boston, Dr. Holmes tells a little in- 
 cident concerning him. He says that he one 
 day took a student just beginning his medical 
 education with him, — young James Jackson, 
 — into the room where he kept his medicines. 
 Pointing to the drawers and bottles ranged 
 around the room, he said to the young man : 
 *' I seem to have here a great number and 
 variety of medicines ; but I may name four 
 which are of more importance than all the 
 rest put together, namely, Mercury, Anti- 
 mony, Opium, and Peruvian Bark," This 
 worthy old centenarian had a great antipathy 
 to cigars, as the following verses of his wit- 
 ness : — 
 
 " And smoaked segars ! 
 Vile substitute for that white, slender tube 
 Our fathers erst enjoy'd, in winter's eve, 
 When the facetious jest, or funny pun, 
 Or tales of olden time, or Salem witch. 
 Or quaint conundrum round the genial fire 
 The social hour beguil'd." 
 
 Under the heading ** Personal Recollec- 
 tions of Noted Physicians," Dr. Holmes no- 
 tices, among Cambridge doctors^ picturesque 
 
THE SCIENTIST. 313 
 
 old Benjamin Waterhouse, with his "pyramid 
 of titles of great dimensions," and famous for 
 his introduction of vaccination in the West- 
 ern World. Dr. Waterhouse vaccinated a 
 great many persons, including the young 
 Holmes, who afterwards described hmi as a 
 brisk, dapper old gentleman, with hair tied 
 in a ribbon behind, marching smartly about 
 with his gold-headed cane, and upon his face 
 a look of sagacity and oracular gravity. 
 Lowell gives a delicious bit of description to 
 fill out the picture : — ^ 
 
 " His queue, slender and tapering, like the 
 tail of a violet crab, held out horizontally by 
 the high collar of his shepherd' s-gray over- 
 coat, whose style was of the latest when he 
 studied at Leyden in his hot youth. . . . He 
 wore amazing spectacles fit to transmit no 
 smaller image than the page of mightiest 
 folios of Dioscorides or Hercules de Saxonia, 
 and rising full-disked upon the beholder like 
 those prodigies of two moons at once, por- 
 tending change to monarchs. The great col- 
 lar disallowing any independent rotation of 
 the head, I remember he used to turn his 
 whole person in order to bring their foci to 
 
314 OLIVER WENDELL HOLME 8. 
 
 bear upon an object. One can fancy that 
 terrified Nature would have yielded up her 
 secrets at once without cross-examination, at 
 their first glare." 
 
 Dr. Waterhouse's granddaughters still oc- 
 cupy his quaint old cottage in Cambridge, and 
 the writer was told by them that half a cen- 
 tury ago he had a great botanical garden in 
 the rear of the cottage, where, like Dr. Rap- 
 paccini, he was wont to walk and hold con- 
 verse with his plants. It was he who was 
 instrumental in founding the Harvard College 
 Botanical Garden (remembering the fragrant 
 garden of this kind he had known at Leyden). 
 Mr John Owen once told the writer of these 
 pages an amusing anecdote of Dr. Water- 
 house. Mr. Owen, being then a publisher in 
 Cambridge, had provided a newspaper-room 
 in the rear of his book-shop for the con- 
 venience of himself and his customers. One 
 day Dr. Waterhouse came in, and Mr. Owen, 
 accosting him, politely informed him that he 
 would be happy to offer him the use of his 
 reading-room gratis. The fiery little doctor 
 looked at him a moment with his keen eyes, 
 and then said slowly and with a pause be- 
 
ims SCIENTIST. 315 
 
 tween each word : " Melasses — is good — 
 to ketch — flies ! " But this has nothing to 
 do with an account of the Ufe and writings of 
 Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, you say. True, 
 it is a digression. But "digressions," says 
 Yorick, " incontestably are the sunshine, 
 they are the life, the soul of reading. Take 
 them out of a book and one cold, eternal 
 winter would reign in every page of it." 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 AUTO C RATI AN A.* 
 THE INDIAN. 
 
 An Indian is a few instincts on legs, and 
 holding a tomahawk. 
 
 READ "DON QUIXOTE." 
 
 When Sydenham was asked by Sir Richard 
 Blackmore as to what medical books he should 
 read, the answer was, *' Read ' Don Quixote.' " 
 
 ILLUSION. 
 
 There is nothing as real in this world as 
 illusion. All other things may desert a man, 
 but this fair angel never leaves him. She 
 holds a star a billion miles over a baby's head, 
 and laughs to see him clawing and batting 
 himself as he tries to reach it. 
 
 * In this chapter are collected a number of brilliant 
 paragraphs and mots^ mostly gathered out of fugitive 
 or uncopjrighted publications of Holmes. 
 316 
 
AUTOGBATIANA. 317 
 
 THE ^OLIAN ATTACHMENT. 
 
 In a letter of Dr. Holmes', read at the Cen- 
 tennial Dinner of the Massachusetts Medical 
 Society, we find a Holmes mot : — 
 
 If a doctor has the luck to find out a new 
 malady, it is tied to his name like a tin kettle 
 to a dog's tail, and he goes clattering down 
 the highway of fame to posterity with his 
 seolian attachment following at his heels. 
 
 CRITICISM. 
 
 If anything pleasant should be said about 
 "the new edition," you may snip it out of the 
 papers and save it for me. If contrary opin- 
 ions are expressed, be so good as not to mark 
 with brackets, carefully envelop, and send to 
 me, as is the custom of many friends. — Pre- 
 face to 184.8 edition of Poems, 
 
 OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES. 
 
 As the wine of old vintages is gently, de- 
 canted out of its cobwebbed bottles with their 
 rotten corks, into clean new receptacles, so 
 the wealth of the New World is quietly empty- 
 ing many of the libraries and galleries of the 
 
3l8 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Old World into its newly-formed collections 
 and newly-raised edifices. 
 
 INVALIDISM. 
 
 Invalidism is the normal state of many 
 organizations. It can be changed to disease, 
 but never to absolute health by medicinal 
 appliances. There are many ladies, ancient 
 and recent, who are perpetually taking rem- 
 edies for irremediable pains and aches. They 
 ought to have headaches and back-aches and 
 stomach-aches ; they are not well if they 
 do not have them. To expect them to live 
 without frequent twinges is like expecting 
 a doctor's old chaise to go without creak- 
 ing ; if it did, we might be sure the springs 
 were broken. 
 
 EX NIHILO NIHIL FIT. 
 
 Ex nihilo nihil fit. Given a half-starved 
 dyspeptic and a bloodless negative blonde as 
 parents, Hercules or Apollo is an impos- 
 sibility in their progeny, yet people look 
 with infinite expectations of health, strength, 
 beauty, intellect, as the product of Ox— 1. 
 
AUTOCBATIANA, 319 
 
 OUR MORAL EXUVI^. 
 
 Is there no outlawry of an obsolete self- 
 determination ? If the president of the So- 
 ciety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 
 impaled a fly on a pin when he was ten years 
 old, is it to stand against him, crying for a 
 stake through his body, in saecula saeculorumf 
 In Swedenborg's heaven, " what we are will 
 determine the company we are to keep, and 
 not the avoirdupois weight of our moral ex- 
 uviae, strapped on our shoulders like a porter's 
 burden." 
 
 GUNPOWDER. 
 
 Chemistry seals up a few dark grains in 
 iron vases, and lo ! at the touch of a single 
 spark, rises in smoke and flame a mighty 
 Afrit with a voice like thunder and an arm 
 that shatters like an earthquake. 
 
 APPLIED SCIENCE. 
 
 Science and art have in our time so changed 
 the aspect of everyday life that one of a cer- 
 tain age might well believe himself on another 
 planet or in another stage of existence. The 
 wand of Prometheus is in our match-boxes ; 
 
320 OLIVE E WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 the rock of Horeb gushes forth its streams 
 in our dressing-rooms ; the carpet of Arabian 
 story is spread in our Pullman car ; our words 
 flash from continent to continent ; our very 
 accents are transmitted from city to city ; 
 the elements of forming worlds are analyzed 
 in our laboratories ; and, most wonderful and 
 significant of all, the despotic authority of 
 tradition is unsceptred since the angel of 
 anaesthesia has lifted from womanhood the 
 burden of the primal malediction. 
 
 EUTHANASIA. 
 
 That euthanasia, often accorded by nature, 
 sometimes prevented by want of harmony in 
 the hesitating and awkwardly delaying func- 
 tions, not rarely disturbed by intrusive influ- 
 ences, is a right of civilized humanity. The 
 anaesthetics mercifully granted to a world 
 grown sensitive in proportion to its culture 
 will never have fulfilled their beneficent pur- 
 pose until they have done for the scythe of 
 death what they have done for the knife of 
 the surgeon and the sharper trial hour of 
 woman. 
 
A UTOCBA TIANA . 3 2 1 
 
 THE SCHOLAR AND HIS BOOKS. 
 
 The scholar's mind is furnished with 
 shelves like his library. Each book knows 
 its place in the brain as well as against the 
 wall or in the alcove. His consciousness is 
 doubled by the books which encircle him, as 
 the trees that surround a lake repeat them- 
 selves in its unruffled waters. Men talk of 
 the nerve that runs to the pocket, but one 
 who loves his books, and has lived long with 
 them, has a nervous filament which runs 
 from his sensorium to every one of them. 
 
 TRANSLATION. 
 
 / 
 
 The translation of a poem from one lan- 
 guage to another is in one sense an impos- 
 sibility, — as much as it is to get a ripe peach 
 from New Jersey to Boston ; to carry a full- 
 blown rose from here to San Francisco ; to 
 waft the salt-sea odor of Nahant from here to 
 St. Louis. 
 
 THE UNKNOWN. 
 
 Science is the topography of ignorance. 
 From a few elevated points we triangulate 
 vast spaces, enclosing infinite unknown de- 
 
322 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 tails. We cast the lead, and draw up a little 
 sand from abysses we shall never reach with 
 our dredges. 
 
 THE POOH-POOHS. 
 
 The Pi-Utes and the Kickapoos of the 
 wilderness are hard to reason with. But 
 there is another tribe of irreclaimables, living 
 in much larger wigwams and having all the 
 look of civilized people, which is quite as in- 
 tractable to the teachings of a new philoso- 
 phy that upsets their ancestral totems. This 
 is the tribe of the Pooh-Poohs^ so called from 
 the leading expression of their vocabulary, 
 which furnishes them a short and easy method 
 of disposing of all novel doctrines, discoveries, 
 and inventions of a character to interfere with 
 their preconceived notions. 
 
 SLANG. 
 
 The use of slang, or cheap generic terms, 
 as a substitute for differentiated specific ex- 
 pressions, is at once a sign and a cause of 
 mental atrophy. It is the way in which a 
 lazy adult shifts the trouble of finding any 
 exact meaning in his (or her) conversation on 
 
A UTO CBA TIANA . 323 
 
 the other party. If both talkers are indolent, 
 all their talk lapses into the vague gener- 
 alities of early childhood, with the disadvan- 
 tage of a vulgar phraseology. It is a prevalent 
 social vice of the time, as it has been of 
 times that are past. 
 
 UNPREMEDITATED CRITICISM. 
 
 In Mrs. John T. Sargent's " Sketches and 
 Reminiscences of the Radical Club," Dr. 
 Holmes is recorded as saying that, when he 
 was invited to speak without preparation on 
 a carefully written essay, he always felt as he 
 should if, at a chemical lecture, somebody 
 should pass around a precipitate, and when 
 the mixture had become turbid, should re- 
 quest him to give his opinion on it ; besides, 
 he added, the fallacies constantly arising in 
 such a discussion from the lack of a proper 
 definition of terms, always made him feel as 
 if quicksilver had been substituted for the 
 ordinary silver of speech. He declared that 
 he preferred to take the essay home, slowly 
 assimilate it, and not talk about it until it 
 had become a part of himself. 
 
324 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 INDIAN SUMMER. ' 
 
 To those who know the '' Indian Summer " 
 of our Northern States it is needless to de- 
 scribe the influence it exerts on the senses 
 and the soul. The stillness of the landscape 
 in that beautiful time is as if the planet were 
 sleepmgy like a top, before it begins to rock 
 with the storms of autumn. All natures seem 
 to find themselves more truly in its light ; 
 love grows more tender, religion more spirit- 
 ual, memory sees farther back into the past, 
 grief revisits its mossy marbles, the poet har- 
 vests the ripe thoughts which he will tie in 
 sheaves of verse by his winter fireside. 
 
 THE SPIRAL COROLLA. 
 
 Look at the flower of a morning-glory the 
 evening before the dawn which is to see it 
 unfold. The delicate petals are twisted into 
 a spiral, which at the appointed hour, when 
 the sunlight touches the hidden springs of 
 its life, will uncoil itself and let the day into 
 the chamber of its virgin heart. But the 
 spiral must unwind by its own law, and the 
 hand that shall try to hasten the process will 
 
A UTOCRA TIARA. 325 
 
 only spoil the blossom which would have 
 expanded in symmetrical beauty under the 
 rosy fingers of morning, 
 
 THE TWENTY-SEVENTH LETTER OF THE 
 ALPHABET. 
 
 In 1879 th^ Indianapolis News published 
 the following amusing note of the Autocrat, 
 addressed to a young Quaker lady who had 
 inquired about the twenty-seventh letter of 
 the alphabet mentioned in " Elsie Venner " : 
 
 Boston, March'4, 1861. 
 My dear Miss Lavinia, — The twenty-seventh 
 letter of the alphabet is pronounced by applying 
 the lips of the person speaking it to the cheek of 
 a friend, and puckering and parting the same with 
 a peculiar explosive sound. " Cousin Edward " 
 will show you how to speak this labial consonant, 
 no doubt, and allow you to show your proficiency 
 by practising it with your lips against his cheek. . 
 For further information you had better consult 
 your gra'm'ma. Very truly yours, 
 
 O. W. Holmes. 
 
 P. S. — Are you any relation to " the lovely 
 young Lavinia " who " once had friends," men- 
 tioned by Thomson in his " Seasons " ? 
 
326 OLIVER WENDELL HOLME 8. 
 
 A STRONG SMELL OF TURPENTINE. 
 
 I once inhaled a pretty full dose of ether 
 with the determination to put on record, at 
 the earliest moment of regaining conscious- 
 ness, the thought I should find uppermost in 
 my mind. The mighty music of the tri- 
 umphal march into nothingness reverberated 
 through my brain, and filled me with a sense 
 of infinite possibilities, which made me an 
 archangel for the moment. The veil of eter- 
 nity was lifted. The one great truth which 
 underlies all human experience, and is the 
 key to all the mysteries that philosophy has 
 sought in vain to solve, flashed upon me in a 
 sudden revelation. Henceforth all was clear ; 
 a few words had lifted my intelligence to the 
 level of the knowledge of the cherubim. As 
 my natural condition returned, I remembered 
 my resolution ; and staggering to my desk, 
 I wrote, in ill-shaped, straggling characters, 
 the all-embracing truth still gleaming in my 
 consciousness. The words were these (chil- 
 dren may smile ; the wise will ponder) : " A 
 strong smell of turpentine prevails through- 
 
A UTOGBA TIANA . 327 
 
 outr [A narrow escape, Doctor! what if it 
 had been sulphur ? ] 
 
 MUTUAL UNDERVALUATION. 
 
 I was passing through a somewhat obscure 
 street at the west end of our city a year or 
 two since when my attention was attracted 
 to a narrow court by a sound of voices and a 
 small crowd of listeners. From two open 
 windows on the opposite sides of the court 
 projected the heads and a considerable por- 
 tion of the persons, of two of the female sex, 
 — natives, both of them, apparently, of the 
 green isle, famous for shamrocks and shilla- 
 lahs. They were engaged in argument, if 
 that is argument in which each of the two 
 parties develops his argument without the 
 least regard to what the other is at the same 
 time saying. The question involved was the 
 personal, social, moral, and, in short, total 
 standing and merit of the two controversial- 
 ists and their respective families. But the 
 strange phenomenon was this : The two wo- 
 men, as if by preconcerted agreement, like 
 two instruments playing a tune in unison, 
 were pouring forth simultaneously a calm, 
 
328 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 steady, smooth-flowing stream of mutua. un- 
 dervaluation, to apply a mild phrase to it ; 
 never stopping for punctuation, and barely 
 giving themselves time to get breath between 
 its long-drawn clauses. The dialogue included 
 every conceivable taunt which might rouse 
 the fury of a sensitive mother of a family, 
 whose allegiance to her lord, and pride in her 
 offspring, were points which it displeased her 
 to have lightly handled. I stood and listened 
 like the quiet groups in the more immediate 
 neighborhood. I looked for some explosion 
 of violence, for a screaming volley of oaths, 
 for an hysteric burst of tears, perhaps for a 
 missile of more questionable character than 
 an epithet aimed at the head and shoulders 
 projecting opposite. " At any rate," I thought, 
 " their tongues will soon run down ; for it is 
 not in human nature that such a flow of scald- 
 ing rhetoric can be kept up very long." But 
 I stood waiting until I was tired, . and with 
 labitur et labetur on my lips, I left them pur- 
 suing the even tenor, or treble of their way 
 in a duet which seemed as if it might go on 
 until nightfall. 
 
AUTOCBATIANA. 329 
 
 THE ONE-HOSS SHAY. 
 
 In 1880 or 1 88 1 Dr. Holmes was elected 
 a member of the National Association of 
 Carriage Builders, perhaps in reference to his 
 famous poem, " The One-Hoss Shay," or 
 " Parson Turell's Legacy." He wrote them 
 the following note : — 
 
 Gentlemen, — I am sorry that I cannot slip 
 over into the meeting at the Grand Pacific Hotel 
 in Chicago next Thursday evening ; but the stride 
 would be a long one, and the only vehicle I was 
 ever concerned in building went to pieces one day 
 very suddenly. Besides, I am just now working 
 in harness as a lecturer, and if I should bolt or 
 run away I do not know what would become of 
 the college vehicle to which I am attached. I 
 must therefore content myself with wishing the 
 company a good time, everybody happy, and not 
 one sulky. Yours ver}' truly, 
 
 O. W. Holmes. 
 
Appendix I. 
 
 THE CHORUS OF THE PALANQUIN BEARERS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 Dr. Palmer's Description of his Transit through 
 cossitollah street in calcutta. 
 
 "What is this? A close palkee, with a passen- 
 ger; the bearers, with elbows sharply crooked, 
 and calves all varicose, trotting to a monotonous, 
 jerking ditty, which the sirdar, or leader, is impu- 
 dently improvising, to the refrain of Putterum 
 (' Easy now ! ' ), at the expense of their fare's 
 amour-propre. 
 
 * Out of the way there ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 This is a Rajah ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Very small Rajah ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Sixpenny Rajah ! 
 
 Putterum.. 
 Holes in his elbows I 
 
 Putterum. 
 Capitan Slipshod ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Son of a sea-cook \ 
 
 Putterum. 
 Hush ! he will beat us ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 
APPENDIX I. 331 
 
 Hush ! he will kick us ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Kick us and curse us ! 
 
 Puttertim. 
 Not he, the greenhorn ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Don't understand us ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Don't know the lingo ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Let's shake the palkee ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Rattle the pig's bones ! 
 
 Putteriim,. 
 Set down the palkee ! 
 
 Putteruvz. 
 Call him a great lord ! 
 
 Ptittertim. 
 Ask him for buksheesh 
 
 Ptittertim,^ " 
 
 And so they do in this wise : — 
 
 '■^ ^ Buksheesh do, Sahib/ buksheesh do! O 
 favorite slave of the Lord ! O tender shepherd 
 of the poor ! O subUme and beautiful Being. . . . 
 Bestow upon thy abject and self-despising slave 
 wherewithal to commemorate the golden hour 
 when, by a blessed dispensation, he was permitted 
 to lay his trembling forehead against thy victori- 
 ous feet.' " 
 
 An explosion of wrath and threats bursting forth 
 from the palkee, they suddenly change their minds 
 and their tune, and as they go along chant in this 
 style : — 
 
332 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 " ' Jeldie j'ozi, jeldie ! 
 (Trot up smartly !) 
 
 Putterum. 
 Carry him softly ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Swiftly and smoothly I 
 
 Putterum. 
 He is a Rajah ! 
 
 Putterum, 
 Rich little Rajah ! 
 
 Putterum.. 
 Fierce little Rajah ! 
 
 Putterzim. 
 See how his eyes flash ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Hear how his voice roars I 
 
 Putterum. 
 He is a Tippoo ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Capitan Tippoo ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Tremble before him ! 
 
 Puttertim. 
 Serve him and please him ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Please him and serve him I 
 
 Putterum. 
 He will reward us ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 He will protect us ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 He will enrich us ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Charity, Lard Sa'b ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Out of the way there ! 
 
 Putterum. 
 Way for the great . . . 
 Putterum. 
 
APPENDIX I. 333 
 
 Rajah of ten crores ! 
 
 Putter ... 
 . . . Ten crores ! 
 
 Pzitter . . , 
 Rajah 
 
 Put ... 
 . . . Lard .... 
 
 Putter . . . 
 
 Sa'b! 
 
 .... rum? 
 
 "And SO they have turned down Flag Street." 
 
 Atla?itic Monthly^ January^ 18^8. 
 
Appendix II. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Published Works to Date, i?ichiding Contributions 
 to Periodical Literature. With Notes. 
 
 Poetical Illustrations of the Athenaeum Gallery of 
 Paintings. [Joint Author.] Boston : True & 
 Greene. 1827. 
 
 This little volume consists of poems, chiefly satirical, written by 
 John Osborne Sargent, Park Benjamin, and Holmes. 
 
 The Harbinger: A May Gift, dedicated to the 
 ladies who have so kindly aided the New Eng- 
 land Institution for the Blind. [Joint Editor.] 
 Boston: Carter, Hendee, & Co. 1833. i2mo, 
 pp. 96. 
 
 A collection of poems edited by Holmes and John Osborne 
 Sargent. 
 
 Poems. Boston : Otis, Broaders, & Co. 1836./ 
 
 The first collected edition. 
 
 Boylston Prize Dissertations for the years 1836 
 and 1837. Boston : Charles C. Little & James 
 Brown. 1838. 
 
 Dedicated to Pierre Cha. Alex. Louis, Doctor of Medicine of the 
 faculties of Paris and St. Petersburg. The dissertations are three 
 in number: (x) On Indigenous Intermittent Fever in New Eng- 
 land. (2) On Neuralgia. (3) On Direct Exploration. 
 
 334 
 
APPENDIX II. 335 
 
 Marshall Hall's Principles of the Theory and 
 Practice of Medicine. First American edition, 
 revised and enlarged by Jacob Bigelow and 
 O. W. Holmes. [Joint Editor.] Boston. 1839. 
 
 Homoeopathy and its Kindred Delusions : Two 
 Lectures delivered before the Boston Society for 
 the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Boston : 
 William D. Ticknor. 1842. 
 
 The Position and Prospects of the Medical Stu- 
 dent. An Address delivered before the Boyls- 
 ton Medical Society of Harvard University, 
 January 12, 1844. Boston : John Putnam, 
 Printer. 1844. 
 
 Urania : A Rhymed Lesson. Pronounced before 
 the Mercantile Library Association. Boston. 
 1846. 8vo. 
 
 Report of the Committee on Medical Literature. 
 Published in Transactions of the American 
 Medical Association, Volume I. 1847. 
 
 An Introductory Lecture, delivered at the Massa- 
 chusetts Medical College, November 3, 1847. 
 Boston : William D. Ticknor & Co. 1847. 
 
 See Bosfofz Medical and Surgical Journal^ xxxviii., 384 and 
 408. 
 
 Astraea : The Balance of Illusions. A Poem de- 
 livered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of 
 
336 OLIVE B WENDELL HOLMES 
 
 Yale College, August 14, 1850. Boston : Tick- 
 nor, Reed, & Fields. 1850. 
 
 A slender volume bound in boards and salmon-colored paper. 
 
 Poem, delivered at the dedication of the Pittsfield 
 Cemetery, September 9, 1850. 
 
 The Benefactors of the Medical School of Har- 
 vard University ; with a biographical sketch of 
 the late Dr. George Parkman. An Introduc- 
 tory Lecture delivered at the Massachusetts 
 Medical College, November 7, 1850. Boston : 
 
 ..^ Ticknor, Reed, & Fields. 1850. 
 
 The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever. Read 
 in 1843 before the Boston Society for Medical 
 Improvement. Reprinted from JVew England 
 Quarterly Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 
 Boston. 1855. 
 
 Oration delivered before the New England Society 
 in the city of New York, at their Semi-Centen- 
 nial Anniversary, December 22, 1855. New 
 York : Wm. C. Bryant & Co. 
 
 Published in the Society's Report of the Semi-Centennial Cele- 
 bration, New York, 1856. 
 
 The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. Every Man 
 his own Boswell. Boston : Ticknor & Fields. 
 1858. 
 
 The first octavo edition had illustrations. The second — pub- 
 lished in 1883 — is furnished with a new preface and notes by Dr. 
 Holmes. 
 
APPENDIX II. 337 
 
 Valedictory Address to the Medical Graduates 
 of Harvard University, March lo, 1858. Bos- 
 ton : David Clapp, 184 Washington Street. 
 1858. 
 
 Also published in the Boston Medical and Sitrgical yournal, 
 Iviii, 149-159. 
 
 The Professor at the Breakfast-Table ; with the 
 story of Iris. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1859. 
 
 Currents and Counter-Currents in Medical Sci- 
 ence : An Address delivered before the Massa- 
 chusetts Medical Society at the annual meeting, 
 May 30, i860. Boston : Ticknor & Fields. 
 i860. 
 
 Vive la France ! Poem read by Dr. Holmes at the 
 dinner given to H. I. H. the Prince Napoleon, 
 September 25, 1861. Cambridge : Privately 
 printed. 1861. 
 
 Printed along with the address of Edward Everett, given on the 
 same occasion, in a slender, cream-colored libret 
 
 Elsie Venner : A Romance of Destiny. Boston : 
 Ticknor &. Fields. 1861. 
 
 Songs in Many Keys. Boston : Ticknor & Fields. 
 1861. 
 
 Dedicated to the poet's mother. 
 
 Border Lines of Knowledge in some Provinces of 
 Medical Science. An Introductory Lecture 
 delivered before the Medical Class of Harvard 
 
338 OLIVER WENDELL EOLMES. 
 
 University, November 6, 1861. Boston: Tick- 
 nor & Fields. 1862. 
 
 A class lecture which treats of the work of Chemistry and the 
 Microscope in medicine and in physiology, accompanied by practical 
 remarks addressed to the students. 
 
 Edward Stafford's Medical Directions written for 
 Governor Winthrop in 1643, with Notes by 
 O. W. Holmes. [Annotator.] Boston. 1862. 
 
 Oration delivered before the City Authorities of 
 Boston, on the Fourth of July, 1863. Boston : 
 Ticknor & Fields. 1863. 
 
 Reprinted in Philadelphia in 1863 for gratuitous distribution. 
 Also republished in Holmes' " Soundings from the Atlantic." 
 
 Soundings from the Atlantic. Boston : Ticknor 
 & Fields. 1863. 
 
 Dedicated to Jacob Bigelow. 
 
 Teaching from the Chair and at the Bedside. An 
 Introductory Lecture delivered before the Medi- 
 cal Class of Harvard University, November 6, 
 1867. Boston : David Clapp & Son. 1867. 
 
 The Guardian Angel. Boston : Ticknor & Fields. 
 1867. 
 
 Dedicated to James T. Fields. 
 
 Atlantic Almanac for 1868. [Joint Editor with 
 Donald G. Mitchell] Boston: Ticknor & 
 Fields, Office of the Atlantic Monthly. 1868. 
 
 This annual contains by Holmes "The Seasons " ('1868, p. 2) ; 
 and "Talk concerning the Human Body and its Management " 
 (1869, p. 47). 
 
APPENDIX 11. 339 
 
 The Medical Profession in Massachusetts. A 
 Lecture read at the Lowell Institute, January 
 29, 1869. 
 
 Published by the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1869, in 
 a volume entitled " Lectures delivered in a Course before the Lowell 
 Institute, in Boston, by Members of the Massachusetts Historical 
 Society, on Subjects Relating to the Early History of Massachu- 
 setts." 
 
 Valedictory Address, delivered to the Graduating 
 Class of the Bellevue Hospital College, March 
 2, 1871. New York. 1871. 
 
 Reprinted from the iWw York Medical Jourjial, April, 1871. 
 
 Mechanism in Thought and Morals. An Address 
 delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of 
 Harvard University, June 29, 1870, with Notes 
 and Afterthoughts. Boston : Jas. R. Osgood & 
 Co. 1871. 
 
 The Claims of Dentistry. An Address delivered 
 at the Commencement Exercises of the Dental 
 Department in Harvard University, February 
 14, 1872. Boston : Printed by Rand, Avery, 
 & Co. 1872. 
 
 The Poet at the Breakfast-Table. Boston : James 
 R. Osgood & Co. 1873. 
 
 Professor Jeffries Wymau; A Memorial Out- 
 line reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly for 
 November, 1874. Boston and Cambridge. 
 1874. 
 
340 OLIVER WENDELL EOLMES. 
 
 Songs of Many Seasons. 1862-1874. Boston : 
 James R. Osgood & Co. 1874. 
 
 An Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of 
 the Boston Microscopical Society. Reprinted 
 from Boston Medical and Surgical Journal^ May 
 24, 1877. Cambridge: The Riverside Press. 
 1877. 
 
 Visions : A Study of False Sight (Pseudopia). 
 By Edward Hammond Clarke, M.D. With an 
 Introduction and Memorial Sketch by Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes, M.D. [Editor.] Boston : 
 Houghton, Osgood, & Co. 1878. 
 
 The School-Boy. Illustrated. Boston : Hough- 
 . ton, Osgood, & Co. 1878. 
 
 John Lothrop Motley. A Memoir. Boston : 
 Houghton, Osgood, & Co. 1878. . 
 
 The Iron Gate, and Other Poems. Boston : 
 Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. i88o. 
 
 Address delivered at the Dedication of the Hall 
 of the Boston Medical Library Association, 19 
 Boylston Place, on December 3, 1878. Cam- 
 bridge : The Riverside Press. 1881. 
 
 Address on Emerson. Published in the Massa- 
 chusetts Historical Society's " Tribute to Long- 
 fellow and Emerson," (Portraits.) Boston : 
 A. Williams & Co. 1882. 
 
APPENDIX II. 341 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO PERIODICAL LIT- 
 ERATURE. 
 
 THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. 
 
 Note. — Poems are marked with an *, ancf prose articles not else- 
 where reprinte(f,Mth a f. "* 
 
 The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,Vols. I. and 
 II. (1857) ; t Homoeopathic Domestic Physician, I. 
 250 (1857); f Agassiz's Natural History, I. 320 V" 
 (1858) ;l)t- Partlienia (Lee), I. 509 (1858); A Visit to 
 Autocrat's Landlady, II. 738 (1858) ; ^ The Last 
 Look, II. 749 (1858) ; t Brief Expositions of 
 Rational Medicine, II. 763 (1858) ; f The Auto- 
 crat gives a Breakfast to the Public, II. 889 
 (1858) ; t Mothers and Infants, Nurses and 
 Nursing, III. 645 (1858) ; The Professor at the 
 Breakfast-Table, III. and IV. (1859) ; The Ster- 
 eoscope and the Stereograph, III. 738 (1859) ; 
 tLove (Michelet), IV. 391 (1859); f The Under- 
 graduate, V. 382 (i860) ; The Professor's Story, 
 V. and VI. (i860); A Visit to the Asylum for 
 Aged and Decayed Punsters, VII. 113 (1861) ; 
 =* Brother Jonathan's Lament for Sister Caroline, 
 VII. 613 (1861) ; "^ Army Hymn, VII. 757 (1861) ; 
 Sun Painting and Sun Sculpture, VIII. 13 (1861); 
 =* Parting Hymn, VIIL 235 (1861); Bread and 
 the Newspaper, VIIL 346 (1861); fThe Worm- 
 wood Cordial of History, VIIL 507 (186 1) ; 
 * The Flower of Liberty, VIIL 550 (1861) ; 
 
342 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 * Union and Liberty, VIII. 756 (1861); * Voy- 
 age of the Good Ship Union, IX. 398 (1862) ; 
 *The Poet to his Readers, X. 118 (1862); My 
 Hunt after the Captain, X. 738 (1862) ; "^ " Choose 
 ye this Day whom ye will Serve," XI. 288 (1863) ; 
 The Human Wheel, its Spokes and Felloes, XI. 
 567 (1863) ; Doings of the Sunbeam, XII. i (1863) ; 
 The Great Instr-ument, XII. 637 (1863); t The 
 Minister Plenipotentiary, XIII. 106 (1864) ; "^ The 
 Last Charge, XIII. 244 (1864) ; ^ Our Classmate, 
 XIII. 329 (1864) ; t Our Progressive Independ- 
 ence, XIII. 497 (1864) ; * Shakespeare, XIII. 
 762 (1864) ; t Hawthorne, XIV. 98 (1864) ; ^ In 
 Memory of J. W. — R. W., XIV. 115 (1864); 
 ^ Bryant's Seventieth Birthday, XIV. 738 (1864) ; 
 =*God save the Flag, XV. 115 (1865); * Our 
 Oldest Friend, XV. 340 (1865) ; "^ Our First 
 Citizen, XV. 462 (1865) ; t Our Battle Laureate, 
 
 XV. 589 (1865) ; * No Time like the Old Time, 
 
 XVI. 398 (1865); *A Farewell to Agassiz, XVI. 
 584 (1865); =^My Annual, XVII. 395 (1866); 
 The Guardian Angel, XIX. and XX. (1867); 
 
 * AH Here, 1829-1867, XIX. 323 (1867); * Chan- 
 son without Music, XX. 543 (1867) ; ^ Once 
 More, XXI. 430 (1868); * Bill and Joe, XXIL 
 313 (1868; t Cinders from the Ashes, XXIII. 
 115 (1869); ^Bonaparte, XXIV. 637 (1869); 
 
 * Nearing the Snow-Line, XXV. 86 (1870) ; 
 
 * Even-Song, XXV. 349 (1870); * Dorothy Q., 
 XXVII. 120 (1871) ; t Life of Major John Andre, 
 
APPENDIX II. 343 
 
 XXVIII. 121 (1871); The Poet at the Breakfast- 
 Table, Vols. XXIX. and XXX. (1872) ; ^ After 
 the Fire, XXXI. 96 (1872) ; ^ The Fountain of 
 Youth, XXXII. 209 (1873); *A Poem served to 
 Order, XXXII. 296 (1873) ; f Sex in Education 
 (Dr. Clarke), XXXII. 737 (1873) ; * An Old Year 
 Song, XXXIII. loi (1874); *A Ballad of the 
 Boston Tea-Party, XXXIII. 219 (1874) ; Professor 
 Jeffries Wyman, XXXIV. 611 (1874); f The 
 Americanized European, XXXV. 75 (1875) ; 
 t Crime and Automatism, XXXV. 466 (1875); 
 ^ Old Cambridge, XXXVI. 237 (1876) ; t Exotics, 
 XXXVI. 356 (1876); *A Famihar Letter (to 
 several correspondents), XXXVII. 103 (1876) ; 
 *"Ad Amicos," 1829-1876, XXXVII. 314 
 (1876) ; ^ A Memorial Tribute (to Samuel G. 
 Howe), XXXVII. 464 (1876); =^How the Old 
 Horse won the Bet, XXXVIII. 44 (1876) ; 
 * The First Fan, XXXIX. 659 (1877) ; =^ How 
 Not to Settle It, XXXIX. 257 (1877) ; * My 
 Aviary, XLI. 122 (1878); *The Silent Melody, 
 XLII. 335 (1878) ; * Vestigia Quinque Retrorsum, 
 XLIV. 238 (1879) ; ^ The Coming Era, XLV. 84 
 (1880) ; * The Archbishop and Gil Bias, XLVI. 
 205 (1880) ; * Benjamin Peirce, XLVI. 824 
 
 (1880) ; ^ Boston to Florence, XLVII. 412 
 
 (1881) ; * Post-Prandial : Phi Beta Kappa, 1881, 
 XLVIII. 365 (188 1) ; * Our Dead Singer, XLIX. 
 721 (1882) ; * Before the Curfew, XLIX. 386 
 
 (1882) ; * At the Summit, L. 164 (1882) ; t An 
 
344 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 After-Breakfast Talk, LI. 65 (1883) ; * Loving- 
 Cup Song, LI. 349 (1883). 
 
 Buckingham's new England magazine. 
 The volumes for 1831, 1832, and 1833 contain 
 contributions by Holmes as follows : Vol. I. 
 (1831), "To an Insect"; "A Week of Frailty" 
 (describes a little street flirtation) ; " My Aunt " 
 (poem) ; " The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table 
 (!.).__ Vol. II. (1832) contains : " Old Books " (a 
 bit of sentimental bibliomania) ; " The Autocrat 
 of the Breakfast-Table " (11.) ; " The Destroyers " 
 (poem); "The Debut."— Vol. III. (1833) con- 
 tains, in a humorous paper by the editors which is 
 styled " Report of the Editorial Department," a 
 poetical production by Holmes, headed " A New 
 Year's Address." 
 
 THE north AMERICAN REVIEW. 
 
 The " Mechanism of Vital Actions " was pub- 
 lished in the North American Review for July, 
 1857; the "Allston Exhibition" of paintings in 
 the same for April, 1840; and "The Pulpit and 
 the Pew" in the same for February, 1881. 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW. 
 
 The essay on " Jonathan Edwards " appeared 
 in the International Review, Vol. IX. p. i (1880). 
 Edwin Arnold's " Light of Asia " is reviewed in 
 the same for October, 1879. 
 
APPENDIX II. 345 
 
 NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF MEDICINE 
 AND SURGERY. 
 
 Dr. Holmes' " Contagiousness of Puerperal 
 Fever " was first published in the JVew England 
 Quarterly Journal of Medicine a7td Surgery, 1843, 
 edited by Drs. Charles E. Ware and Samuel Park- 
 man : only one volume of the periodical was pub- 
 lished. 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 The Proceedings of the American Academy of 
 Arts and Sciences contains two communications 
 from Dr. Holmes. Vol. II., pp. 326-332, has a 
 paper " On the Use of Direct Light in Micro- 
 scopical Researches," and a model by him of a 
 newly-invented horizontal microscopical apparatus 
 is figured. In Vol. IV., pp. 373-375, the term 
 " Reflex Vision " is proposed as a phrase proper 
 to certain original optical experiments, an account 
 of which is given. 
 
 BOSTON MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL. 
 
 Microscopic Preparations, XLVIII. 337 ; Lines 
 written for the Eighth Anniversary of the Ameri- 
 can Medical Association, LII. 305 ; The Dental 
 Cosmos (review of), VIII. (new series), No. I. p. 
 99 ; Rip Van Winkle, M.D. : An After-Dinner 
 Prescription, taken by the Massachusetts Medical 
 Society at their meeting held May 25, 1870; 
 
346 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Address at Commencement Exercises of Dental 
 Department in Harvard University, February 14, 
 1877, IX. (new series), 9 ; The Physiology of Ver- 
 sification, XCII. 6-9 ; Poem on Joseph Warren, 
 XCII. 703 ; Letter on Dr. J. B. S. Jackson, 
 XCV. 393-395 ; Letter to Dr. George E. Ellis, 
 CIV. No. 25, p. 593 ; Poem written for the Cen- 
 tennial Anniversary Dinner of the Massachusetts 
 Medical Society, June 8, 188 1, CIV. No. 25, pp. 
 577-580; Speech on occasion of the Presenta- 
 tion of a Portrait of Dr. J. B, S. Jackson to the 
 Boston Medical Library Association, CIV. No. 
 24, pp. 560, 561. 
 
 THE KNICKERBOCKER MAGAZINE 
 
 Contains a few youthful articles by Holmes which 
 might perhaps be identified. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 
 
 The first edition of the poems was published in 
 1836, by Otis, Broaders & Co., Boston. The first 
 English edition was published in 1845. London: 
 O. Rich & Sons, 12 Red Lion Square. In 1852 
 Routledge published one edition, and another in 
 
 1853. 
 
 "Elsie Venner" has been translated and 
 abridged (with notes) by E. D. Forgues, in the 
 
APPENDIX 11. 347 
 
 Revue des Deux Mondes for June 15 and July i, 
 1861. The poem "There's no Time Uke the Old 
 Time " has been translated by Karl Knortz and 
 published in his " Amerikanische Gedichte der 
 Neuzeit." Leipsic. 1882. 
 
 A portion of the manuscript of " The Voyage 
 of the Good Ship Union " (poem) may be seen in 
 a glass case in the engraving-room of the Harvard 
 College Library. 
 
 The "Story of Iris" (from "The Professor at 
 the Breakfast-Table ") has been published in a 
 separate form in Vol. XXX. of the Vest-Pocket 
 Series of Modern Classics. 
 
 A volume of " Holmes Leaflets " has been 
 edited by Josephine E. Hodgson. 
 
 Holmes' "Army Hymn" was composed for 
 solo and chorus by Dresel, on the occasion of 
 the Beethoven Festival in Music Hall, March i, 
 1856. 
 
 For articles in " The Atlantic Almanac," see the 
 present Bibliography (1868). 
 
 The manuscript of the poem, " Bonaparte, Aug- 
 ust 15, 1769 — Humboldt, September 14, 1769," 
 may be seen in the Boston Public Library. 
 
 The poem entitled " Grandmother's Story of the 
 .Bunker Hill Battle as she saw it from the Belfry," 
 was originally printed in a volume entitled " Me- 
 morial. Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775-1875, with 
 illustrations by Harris M. Stevenson." Boston : 
 James R. Osgood & Co. 1875. A curiosity in 
 
348 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 the typographical art is a folio copy of the above 
 poem printed in mammoth type, — the lines being 
 a foot across the page, — and to be seen at the 
 Boston Public Library. It was privately printed, 
 and only six copies were struck off. The one in 
 the Public Library has written on it in pencil the 
 words, " For old eyes." In a remarkable volume 
 of autographic material on the battles of Lexing- 
 ton, Concord, and Bunker Hill, which has been 
 made by Judge Mellen Chamberlain, Librarian 
 of the Boston Public Library, may be seen an 
 entire manuscript copy of the just-mentioned 
 poem. 
 
 Dr. Holmes furnished an additional stanza (the 
 fifth) for Francis Scott Key's " Star-Spangled 
 Banner : Song and Chorus." 
 
 The "Visit to the Asylum for Aged and Decayed 
 Punsters " (from *' Soundings from the Atlantic ") 
 may be found in Vol, V. of Rossiter Johnson's 
 " Little Classics." 
 
 The Autocrat has two articles in " The Harvard 
 Book " (Cambridge : Welch, Bigelow, & Co. 
 1875), namely, " The Medical School," Vol. I., and 
 " The Holmes Estate," Vol. II. 
 
 As a member of the Massachusetts Historical 
 Society he has made various speeches and com- 
 municated various papers which are printed in the 
 Proceedings of the Society and may be sought in 
 the indexes to the same. 
 
 In Vol. IIL of "The Boston Book" (1841) 
 
APPENDIX 11. 349 
 
 was published Holmes' poem, " Departed Days," 
 and his " Morning Visit." 
 
 Dr. Holmes' Farewell Lecture before the stu- 
 dents of the Harvard Medical School is published 
 in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal for 
 December 7, 1882 ; also in separate form by A. 
 Williams & Co., Boston. 
 
 In 1852 he delivered a course of lectures on 
 " The English Poets of the Nineteenth Century " 
 (still unpublished). 
 
 In November, 1864, he gave a lecture in Cam- 
 bridge, Massachusetts, before the Dowse Institute, 
 entitled " Nev/ England's Master-Key." 
 
 In The Token and Atlantic Souvenir (edited by 
 S. G. Goodrich, Boston, 1838) will be found 
 Holmes' poem, " The Only Daughter." It accom- 
 panies an engraving by J. Andrews, from a paint- 
 ing by G. S. Newton. " The only daughter is rep- 
 resented as an old-fashioned-looking child, with 
 short hair and side-combs, enormous puffed sleeves 
 to her dress, which is cut low in the neck and over 
 which is tied a black silk apron with pockets, 
 while for ornament she wears a long string of 
 beads which goes twice around her neck, and is 
 tucked in her belt." 
 
 The following poems have been set to music : 
 Angel of Peace (Qt.), M. Keller; Army Hymn 
 (for Solo and Chorus), Dresel ; Evening Thought, 
 Y. Van Antwerp ; Hymn of Peace (Qt.), M. Kel- 
 ler ; Song of a Clerk, A. J. Goodrich ; There's no 
 
 ^ 
 
350 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Time like the Old Time (Song and Chorus), 
 A. B. Hutchinson ; Welcome to the Nations (Qt.), 
 M. Keller. 
 
 Dr. Holmes' medical lectures have occasionally 
 been reprinted in English journals, such as the 
 London Lancet. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Advertiser^ Boston Daily ^ loi, 
 
 287. 
 N.oX\2X). Attachment, the" 317. 
 Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 270. 
 Allen, Col. Ethan, 44. 
 Allopathy, 303-307. 
 Alphabet, twenty-seventh letter 
 
 of the, 325. 
 American Monthly Magazine^ 
 
 108. 
 Anaesthesia, discovery of, 196. 
 Andrew, Governor, 152. 
 Anglicism of Holmes' style, 
 
 284-289. 
 " Army Hymn," 347. 
 Art Gallery, 91. 
 " Artillery Election," 66. 
 Athenaeum Library, 91. 
 Atlantic Almanac, 338. 
 Atlantic Club, the, breakfast of, 
 
 135-139- 
 
 Atlantic Monthly, founded, 1 32- 
 136; Breakfast to Holmes, 
 215 sqq. 
 
 "Autocrat of the Breakfast- 
 Table/' 133, 140-149. 
 
 B. 
 
 Back Bay, 153. 
 
 Beecher, Henry Ward, 195. 
 
 Benjamin, Park, 106, 109, 113. 
 Berkeley, Bishop, 296. 
 Berkshire Region, 123-125. 
 Beverly Farms, 116, 222-224. 
 Biglow, William, 68. 
 Boccaccio, 311. 
 Books, 321. 
 Books read by Holmes when a 
 
 boy, 67. 
 Boston a half century ago, 112, 
 
 113- 
 Boston Book, the, 348. 
 
 Boylston prizes, 113, 114. 
 
 " Boys, The," 274. 
 
 Bradstreet, Mrs. Anne Dudley, 
 
 26-30. 
 Bradstreets, the, 26-30. 
 Breakfast, the Holmes, 215 sqq. 
 Breitmann, Hans, 273. 
 Bridgman, Thomas, 15. 
 British, criticism of the, i'97, 
 
 198. 
 Bugbee, E. Holmes, 31. 
 Bunker Hill, 348. 
 
 c. 
 
 Channing, Dr. William Ellery, 
 
 30- 
 Charles River, 152, 153, 203, 
 
 204. 
 Clarke, Dr. Edward Hammond, 
 
 39- 
 
352 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Clarke, James Freeman, loo, 
 209, 281. 
 
 Clarke, Miss L., 209. 
 
 Clarke, Rev, Pitt, 39. 
 
 Clarke, Sarah Freeman, 91. 
 
 Classmates, enumerated, 80, 278; 
 see also, 274-276. 
 
 Class poems, 274-27$. 
 
 Class poet, 80. 
 
 Collegian^ The, 97-100. 
 
 Commencement Day, 92-96. 
 
 Cooper, the Rev. Dr. Samuel, 
 205. 
 
 Corolla, the Spiral, 324. 
 
 Criticising, 317; Unpremedi- 
 tated, 323. 
 
 Curtis, Benjamin R., 80, 85. 
 
 Curtis, George T., 108. 
 
 Curtis, George William, 229, 
 230. 
 
 D. 
 
 Daly, Chief Justice, 22, 23 
 
 (note). 
 " Daughter, The Only," 349. 
 D'Estaing, Admiral, 22. 
 Dixwell, E. S., 116. 
 Dixwell, Miss Fanny, 116. 
 " Dorothy Q.," 20, 205. 
 
 E. 
 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 264, 265. 
 Eliot, President Charles W., 
 
 122, 123. 
 "Elsie Venner," 156, 163-175 
 
 346. 
 Emerson, Charles Chauncey, 82- 
 
 Emerson, poem " Brahma," 132 
 (note), 221. 
 
 "English Poets of the Nine- 
 teenth Century," 125. 
 
 Euthanasia, 320. 
 
 Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit, 318. 
 
 " Exotics," 209. 
 
 Exuviae, Our Moral, 319. 
 
 F. 
 
 Felton, C. C, 84. 
 Fields, James T., 152. 
 Folsom, the Hon. George, 146 
 
 (note). 
 Freewill, 166, 167. 
 Fuller, Margaret, 70. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gambrel-roofed House, 39, 41, 
 42, 46, 52-58, 102. 
 
 Gannet, Ezi'a Styles, 84. 
 
 Garden, the, 58-63. 
 
 Goodale sisters, 125. 
 
 " Grandmother's Story of Bun- 
 ker Hill Battle," 347, 348. 
 
 "Guardian Angel, The," 175- 
 180. 
 
 Gunpowder, 319. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hahnemann, 297, 298, 301. 
 Hancock, John, 19. 
 Harbinger, The, 106. 
 Harper'' s Monthly Magazine^ 
 
 16, 
 Harvard Book, articles in by 
 
 Holmes, 348. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 353 
 
 Harvard Register^ 83. 
 
 Harvard Register (the first), 
 100. 
 
 Hawthorne's burial, 199, 200. 
 
 Higginson, Col. T. W., 41. 
 
 Holmes, Abiel, 11, 19, 37-45, 
 49. 
 
 Holmes, Amelia Jackson, 116. 
 
 Holmes, Edward, 116. 
 
 Holmes family, 30-45. 
 
 Holmes John, 65, 93 ; letters of, 
 219, 220, 221. 
 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, stud- 
 ies law, 96 ; studies medicine, 
 96 ; in the pulpit, 97 ; con- 
 tributes to the Collegian^ 97 ; 
 first poem, 98 ; studies medi- 
 cine in Boston, 103, 104 ; bib- 
 liophilism, 104-106; sails for 
 Europe, 106; first volume of 
 poems, 109-111; practising 
 physician, iii, 112; wins 
 Boylston prizes, 114; pro- 
 fessor at Dartmouth, 114 ; 
 married, 115; at Montgom- 
 ery Place, 115, 116; accepts 
 chair in Harvard Medical 
 School, 119; summerings at 
 Pittsfield, 123 ; lectures on the 
 English poets, 125 ; as a lec- 
 turer, 126, 127 ; helps found 
 The Atlantic, 135 ; visits Ir- 
 ving, 150 ; removes to Charles 
 Street, 152; attitude toward 
 slavery, 1 81-184; his patriot- 
 ism, 184, 190; removes to 
 Beacon Street, 202 ; resigns 
 position as Harvard professor, 
 224 ; and delivers last lecture 
 
 at Medical School, 225-228 ; 
 humor, 237 ; egotism, 242, 
 243 ; genius, 243, 244 ; indige- 
 nous, 245, 246 ; love of natui e, 
 246-248 ; class feeling, or 
 caste, 248-256 ; theology, 256- 
 266; religious nature, 261, 
 266 ; class poems, 274-276 ; 
 epochs in his poetical life, 
 278, 279 ; condensation of 
 thought, 280, 281 ; Anglicism 
 of style, 284-289 ; as scien- 
 tific writer, 292-315. 
 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr., 
 116-118. 
 
 Holyoke, Dr. Edward Augustus, 
 3ii>3i2. 
 
 Homoeopathy, 295-303. 
 
 Howe, Dr. Samuel G., 106. 
 
 Hood, 287, 288. 
 
 " Human Wheel, The," 194. 
 
 Illusion, 316. 
 
 '' Independence, Our Progress- 
 ive," 195. 
 Indian summer, 324. 
 
 Indian, the, 316. 
 
 " In Memoriam " stanza, the, 
 
 40. 
 Invalidism, 318. 
 Iris, 154, 163, 283, 347. 
 Irving, Washington, visited by 
 
 Holmes, 150. 
 
 J- 
 
 Jackson, Dr. James, 103. 
 Jackson, Mary, 19. 
 
354 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 K. 
 
 Key, Francis Scott, 348. 
 Kirkland, President, 78. 
 Koeymans' man , 16. 
 
 L. 
 
 Leland, Ciiarles G., 273. 
 Lincoln, Abraham, no, in, 
 
 252. 
 Louis, Pierre Cha. Alex., 226, 
 
 334- 
 Lowell, 50. 
 
 M. 
 
 Massachusetts Historical So- 
 ciety, 348. 
 
 McKenzie^ Dr. Alex., 38 (note). 
 
 Mechanism in Thought and 
 Morals, 263, 309. 
 
 Medical lectures, 122, 350. 
 
 Medical School, 1 19-122 : re- 
 port of a recitation at, 120, 
 121 ; farewell lecture at, 225- 
 228, and 349. 
 
 Memorial Hall, 46, 
 
 Microscopical researches and 
 studies, 293, 294. 
 
 Miller, Joaquin, 252. 
 
 Montgomery Place, 115, 116. 
 
 Mother, The Poet's, 14, 19, 39, 
 
 ZV- 
 Motley, 81, 82, 113. 
 Music, poems set to, 349. 
 
 N. 
 
 Nancy, Aunt, 208. 
 Nation, The, criticises Holmes, 
 179, 180. 
 
 ''Negro Plot," 57. 
 
 " New England's Master-Key," 
 
 349- 
 New England Magazine, 104. 
 " Nigger 'lection," 66. 
 Novels, general remarks on Dr. 
 
 Holmes', 157-163. 
 
 o. 
 
 Oken's Dictum, 310. 
 
 Old Corner Bookstore, 113. 
 
 "Old Ironsides," 100, 102, 
 
 Old Wine in New Bottles, 317. 
 
 Oliver, Dr. James, 18, 24-26. 
 
 Oliver family, 23-26. 
 
 Oliver, General Henry K., 86, 
 
 89, 90. ^ 
 
 Oliver, Sarah, 18, 
 One-Hoss Shay, The, 329. 
 Optical Researches, 293. 
 Organ of Music Hall, 194. 
 Otis, Mrs. H. Gray, 106. 
 
 P. 
 
 Palfrey, Cazneau, 85. 
 
 Palmer, Dr. John Williamson, 
 
 138, 139 (see Appendix I). 
 Paris, Holmes in, 106, 107. 
 Parker House, 252. 
 Peabody, Dr. A. P., 87. 
 Peirce, Professor Benjamin, 276- 
 
 278. 
 Pepys, 239, 240. 
 Phi Beta Kappa, 107. 
 Philadelphia, Swedes' Church 
 
 in, 15. 
 Phillips family, 18. 
 Phillips, Wendell, 30. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 355 
 
 Piano-playing, 206. 
 
 Pittsfield, residence of Holmes 
 at, 123. 
 
 Poems, the best, 290, 291. 
 
 " Poet at the Breakfast-Table," 
 205, 209. 
 
 Poetical Composition, descrip- 
 tion of, 209-212. 
 
 Pooh-Poohs, The, 322. 
 
 Popkin, Professor, 90. 
 
 "Post-Prandial," 18, 273. 
 
 Potter, Dr. Henry C, 22 (note), 
 229. 
 
 Prentiss, Dane, 67. 
 
 Prescott, 198. 
 
 Preston, Harriet, 248, 249. 
 
 "Professor at the Breakfast- 
 Table," 154-156. 
 
 " Professor's Story," 163. 
 
 "Puerperal Fever, Contagious- 
 ness of," 292, 293. 
 
 Puns, 192-194. 
 
 Q. 
 
 Quincy, Dorothy (" Dorothy 
 
 Q."), 20, 205. 
 Quincy family, 20-23. 
 Quixote, Don, 316. 
 
 R. 
 
 " Rip," 273. 
 
 Rolfe, Benjamin, 75. 
 
 Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 306. 
 
 Sanborn, F. B., 16, 182. 
 Sargent, Epes, 98. 
 
 Sargent, Henry Winthrop, 84. 
 
 Sargent, John Osborne, 83, 91, 
 98, 106. 
 
 Sargent, Mrs. John Turner, 
 116. 
 
 Saturday Club, 139, 
 
 Science Applied, 319.* 
 
 Sewall family, 18. 
 
 Slang, 322. 
 
 Slavery, 181-184. 
 
 Smith, Sydney, 37. 
 
 " Soundings from the Atlantic," 
 190. 
 
 Sparks, Jared, 45. 
 
 Stackpole, J. L., 113. 
 
 Stafford, Edward, quaint re- 
 ceipt, 310. 
 
 Stearns, Dr. Oliver, 78. 
 
 Stearns, Rev. Samuel Horatio, 
 
 n- 
 
 Stiles, Ezra, 38, 43, 44. 
 Stuart, Professor Moses, 74. 
 Study of the Poet, 204, 205. 
 Sumner, Charles, 81. 
 
 T. 
 
 Taylor, Bayard, 282. 
 
 Thackeray, 239. 
 
 Theology of the Poet, 256- 
 
 266. 
 " There's no Time like the Old 
 
 Time," 347. 
 Tories of Beacon Street, 113. 
 Tractors, The Metallic, 296, 
 
 297. 
 Translation, 321. 
 Turpentine, 326. 
 
356 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 u. 
 
 Undervaluation, Mutual, 327, 
 
 328. 
 Underwood, Francis H., 133, 
 
 i35» 136. 
 
 " Uncle Samuel and the Grind- 
 ers," 187-190. 
 
 Unknown, The, 321. 
 
 V. 
 
 Verplancks, the, 16. 
 Versification, the Physiology 
 
 of, 212. 
 '* Visit to the Asylum for Aged 
 
 and Decayed Punsters," 192, 
 
 193) 348. 
 Vital Principle, 308, 309. 
 "Voyage of the Good Ship 
 
 Union," 347. 
 
 w 
 
 Washington Corps, The Har- 
 vard, 88. 
 Waterhouse, Benjamin, 312- 
 
 315- 
 
 Way land. Dr., 109. 
 
 Wendell, Jacob, 16, 18, 19, 
 125. 
 
 Wendell, Oliver, 19, 20. 
 
 "Wendell P.," 18. 
 
 Winslow, Edward, 306. 
 
 Woodstock, Town of, 30, 
 
 " Wormwood Cordial of His- 
 tory," 186. 
 
 Y. 
 
 Yorick, 268 (note), 315 
 
 ■ u