kaleidoscopic mind. The grave and the gay, the sober and the humorous, the scientific and the intensely human sides of his nature stand out so broadly that one needs no biography of him, except to fill in the comparatively unimportant matters of places and dates. He shows himself a man of wide reading, of an iron memory, of keen discrimination, of microscopic observation, of a sweet and genial spirit, of gracious sympathy and roystering joy. As it was said of Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, "If you seek his monument, look around you"; so, if it is asked, "What kind of a man was Dr. Holmes, what was the character of his mind?"- the answer is, "Read his works and you will know." S. F. Smith. His work was the sunlight of American literature. Frank L. Stanton. Until he reached the age of forty-eight Oliver Wendell Holmes was known in literature only as a clever versifier, a writer of witty occasional poems and metrical essays. At that period he surprised the world of letters with his "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," the appearance of which was an event of distinct importance in our literary history. From that time to the end of his life, Dr. Holmes, — wit, poet, and social philosopher,- was a notable and greatly beloved figure in the mental vision of the English-speaking race. As a writer his position was unique; he apparently followed no model; and he leaves neither successors nor imitators. Noah Brooks. CASTINE, Me., Oct. 20, 1894. He was to me the prince of our humorists, the gentlest of our satirists, the gladdest of our singers. It is only the clay that has returned to its own. He lives with us and our children and children's children so long as time shall last. Charles King (Capt. U. S. Army). Oliver Wendell Holmes illustrated, perhaps better than any of that remarkable circle of poets of whom he was the surviving member, the brightness and beauty of life in itself. To him there were no gloomy thoughts, no darkening shadows of coming or past woe. Sin and misery appealed most strongly to him, but he invariably saw Hope; and Despair, that stalks through life making a tragedy of the common event to break the universal heart, had no claim upon his pen. He put the grim monster gently aside with an imperative farewell, and then went on to sing a dying hope to life, in the common heart of man. O, gentle Autocrat! As one grows older in this sad world, one comes to see more and more thy wise teaching. And to say at last, He who leads us to the sunshine, and makes us to dwell in it, is a common benefactor. Margaret Sidney. O. W. H. (August 29, 1809.) "How shall I crown this child?" fair Summer cried. ་་ May wasted all her violets long ago; No longer on the hills June's roses glow, In the fair meadow-lands no daisies blow; Token of all my prescient soul foretells. " Julia C. R. Dorr. Oliver Wendell Holmes loved all the world, and all the world loved him. I am sure that I voice the sentiment of the South in saying that he appealed to its people with a personality more vivid than any other writer of New England. As a prose writer he possessed, like Charles Lamb, the greatest of literary charms, the charm of personal revealment. Who but Lamb could have written the 66 Essays of Elia"? Who but Dr. Holmes "The Autocrat"? I cannot think of one and not recall the other. As a poet the dead singer is even more lovable. "The Last Leaf" has fluttered to the heart of the world, and the wind of forgetfulness shall blow in vain. TUSKALOOSA, Ala. Samuel Minturn Peck. I love to recall my last two glimpses of Dr. Holmes - one as he read, in a tone that suggested apology and appreciation, certain of his best-known poems; the other as he sat laughing and applauding the bubbling good humor of Rosina Vokes. I especially treasure a brief note he wrote me in his "calmer age," as to the semi-spontaneous production of his "Old Ironsides " poem, in what he called his "fiery young days," and I remember, as characteristic of the man, the annual check sent by him in support of a certain well-intentioned, but scantily-supported, medical periodical-not because he had any use for the publication, but because he wanted to be "counted in" to help keep a good thing afloat, so he would write. Oliver Wendell Holmes may not have been great, in the sense of genius, nor immortal, as the world writes its narrowing record of fame; but the people will never let die his half-dozen masterpieces sung in mingling humor and pathos, nor forget the kindly autocratic ukases of America's laughing philosopher. Elbridge S. Brooks. The paragraph would be a long one which would take in all that could truly and heartily be said of the wit, the humor, the geniality, the rhetorical art (which seemed no art), the large knowledge, and the sweet humanities that belonged to Dr. Holmes. EDGEWOOD, Oct., 1894. Donald G. Mitchell. Holmes was the last of our great nineteenth century writers. He had the happiness, denied to many a writer, of being appreciated in his lifetime. His fame will not be lessened as time goes on and the historical perspective enables us to compare the great with the small and see how very great were some whom we knew and thought we fully understood. Fas. Jeffrey Roche. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes is sure of a fourfold immortality: As a physician, by his essay on the Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever, published in 1843, in the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery; whereby, like most reformers, he was exposed for a time to a storm of obloquy and abuse, though he lived to see the theory triumphantly vindicated. As a poet, by "The Chambered Nautilus," which stands on the same plane as Wordsworth's great Ode. As a humorist, by "The Last Leaf." As a wit, by "The Deacon's One Hoss Shay." The wit of one generation is not the wit of another, and, undoubtedly, much of Dr. Holmes' vers d'occasion will not be understood a hundred years from now. But whatever may perish, these things are sure to live. Those of us who knew the genial Autocrat still see him large: as a friend, as a man, as a poet, as a humorist, as a wit. He seemed one of the men who might live for ever. Hence the shock of his loss. Nathan Haskell Dole. Dr. Holmes is sure of a permanent place in American literature as a novelist and essayist, the "Autocrat" and "Elsie Venner being his greatest achievements. He is far and away the first of American wits; he has expressed Boston so consummately that his fame will endure as long as the State House stands on Beacon Hill (how ever changed); he will rank with Sir Thomas Browne and the two or three other doctors of medicine who have been also great physicians of the mind; and some twenty of his poems are too good to die from the memory of men while they continue to feel the beauty, the joy, and the sacredness of life. "The light he leaves behind him lies It would require greater condensation than I possess to gauge his power aright, or to weigh with critical precision the loss our literature has sustained. Too often we use the word genius without regard to its full meaning, but it seems to me an eminently appropriate word to apply to Dr. Holmes. The opulence and variety of his gifts were amazing, and he used them to the best advantage. He had greater versatility than any of his contemporaries, and in this respect he towered above them. was a poet, essayist, novelist, scientist, and wit; and, in these different branches, his success was merely a question of degree. For more than threescore years he assiduously cultivated "his broad mental acres, and reaped from them an abundant and beautiful harvest." He As an essayist and writer of humorous verse he has received, perhaps, his due meed of praise; but it seems to me that he has never been fully appreciated as a serious poet. Such pieces as "The Chambered Nautilus," "Old Ironsides," and "Dorothy Q." have had their share of recognition, but such a poem as "The Silent Melody" is seldom mentioned, even in literary circles. And yet, in my judgment, the pathos and melody of that lyric are imperishable. It is to be hoped that future critics will value aright the strength and sweetness of the poet who sang until the "curfew" bade him "cover up the fire." My admiration of Dr. Holmes' character and my reverence for his genius are fitly expressed by these words of Hamlet: "Take him all in all, we shall not look upon his like again.” William H. Hayne. SUMMERVILLE, NEAR AUGUSTA, Ga., October 20, 1894. were It is difficult to speak briefly of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes without omitting much one would like to say. He was not our greatest writer in the Boston group of authors, but he was versatile beyond any one of them. All of his faculties and they were manyawake constantly. He was not a Homer, for the proverb says that even Homer would sometimes nod, while the fact with Dr. Holmes was that he never did. But he was more than an author, poet, and wit; he had a unique personality. He was a Brahmin by birth and instinct, and yet he was not the prisoner of his environment. He might and did prefer Boston to any part of the universe, as its centre or "hub," but he could maintain very easy and genial relations with other people than Bostonians. One of his most notable books-" Mechanism in Morals "-I am sure not one in fifty of his admirers has ever read. It is a small, thin volume, full of the weightiest and wittiest discourse. I cannot think of any other American author who could have written it. His "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table " expresses him at his best and roundest. but he has left his fluent and lambent touch on all that he wrote. His poetry is poured into forms that Pope and his contemporaries used, but these forms fitted best his genius. Much of his occasional verse, of which there was a large quan tity, was written to be delivered; and Holmes lets us into his secret so far as to say that the human breath in elocution fits itself better to the octosyllabic verse and to forms related thereto than to any other. Though he wrote lyrics, to be sure, his muse was not lyrical in itself. One thing about his poems is that they gave us always the latest news and often the latest science. These things, too, colored his prose. He made conversation in literature, tending to monologue, an immense instrument and a perennial delight. His thought was broad and liberating. His spirit, jocund often, was like Ariel's. Some of his mots require culture to understand, as when he said of Bishop Berkeley that "he thought tar water everything and the universe nothing." But the point, and glow, and felicity were never absent from them. His was a most wholesome personal and literary influence one that was felt, too, across the It will be a long time before we have another such Admirable Crichton to charm and honor us, and whose loss could be so much lamented. Foel Benton. sea. After the death of one whom we love, we can only try to convey our sense of loss by expressing our sense of obligation. But what one owes to an author whom one has loved from childhood contains so much of personal record, that it seems to be matter rather for private confession and meditation than public acknowledgment. And thus I feel that my inability to express what I would about Dr. Holmes is in itself the most adequate expression of my gratitude and affection to him. Grace King. MANDEVILLE, La., October 22, 1894. In no writer of our time, if we except Bulwer, can we discern so great a change-as years passed on-as in Dr. Holmes. As a poet-at first-only a delicate fancy marked his work, or an equally delicate wit. Later he touched deeper chords with reverent sentiment and an extraordinary happiness of epithet. It was as "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" that he first won popular sympathy. The title was fortunately chosen-for "Autocrat " he was by nature. But with the use of the word a certain consciousness came to him, and from that hour his sympathies broadened-he took more inter a deep and keen thinker, and in every way sympathized with modern rationalistic movements. The full measure of his intellectualism was by no means expressed in his poetry; and yet his finer lyrics have a lark-like quality almost unique. Others are far below these, though some of his "occasional" poems are the best that any one in any known time has ever written. Nothing that he did in verse will entitle him to be called great; not a little that he did in prose will entitle him to be called masterly. As a personality, a life, he seems to me the sane and wholesome and joyous perfection of contemporary human aim and achievement. As a man of letters he takes rank among the highest. As a wit, a humorist, whom can we place above him? I value beyond words the memory of talks held with him, and the gift of precious letters received from his gracious and graceful pen. Edgar Fawcett. Dr. Holmes, as an essayist, will remain a permanent worthy of American literature. He was a natural Autocrat, in whom wit and wisdom were happily blended. As a poet, his work, while it possesses grace, humor, and charm, has not the highest imaginative quality. "The Chambered Nautilus" and "The One Hoss Shay" are his finest things in the lyric and homely-humorous veins respectively. But Holmes' serious verse, especially in its form, is of secondary importance, and was, in a sense, oldfashioned and restricted to the last. His work in fiction must not be overlooked in any just estimate. "Elsie Venner" was a remarkable novel when it appeared over thirty years ago: it is still a noteworthy performance, in spite of the great advance since in the technique of fiction in the United States. Critical judgments on Dr. Holmes are peculiarly difficult, because of the social magnetism of the man, his unique place in the hearts of his contemporaries. Richard Burton. Oliver Wendell Holmes was exceptionally fortunate in his life and in his death. As a literary artist, he was so singularly versatile that he has gained less fame, famous as he is, in any one branch of letters than he would have gained had his range been limited. As an author, speaking in the widest sense, he was spared, through his independent means, the trials and the hardships that so commonly beset his guild. Had he been compelled to live by his pen, he would probably have died before fifty, for he was the reverse of robust. Dr Holmes' cheerful, almost optimistic, spirit served him in place of vigorous health, and sustained his intellect and buoyancy to the very end. Although spoken of by British critics, with characteristic self-complacency, as having modelled himself on British writers, he was wholly American, and himself. Unquestionably a man of genius, he was at his highest as a humorist and social philosopher. His best work, I think, is the "Autocrat," as delightful as it is brilliant and original. But all his writings are a precious legacy to his Country and his epoch. Junius Henri Browne. NEW YORK, October 19th, 1894. The death of Dr. Holmes is striking and significant, not only from the heaviness of the loss in the man, but from the fact that with him ends the most brilliant period which American letters has known. We cannot forget that he was the last survivor of the group of writers which first gave to this country a national and individual literature worthy the name. The men who remain are different in temper and different in aim. Emerson, Motley, Whittier, Longfellow, Hawthorne, and Holmes, as compared with Aldrich, Howells, James, and still more, as compared with younger men, were lacking in cosmopolitanism. There is always evident in their work a disregard of any world outside of New England; and he who reads between the lines sees easily that for them the Saturday Club comes near to being the court of ultimate appeal. The thing which makes their writings of lasting value and raises their work to the dignity of literature is that they had fine reverence for literary tradition, and, above all, that they believed in imagination rather than in elaboration, holding that observation should be its servant and not its master. With the extinction of this group ends the continuity of literary tradition in America, and however good and great the new may be, to see the old vanish must bring to every lover of literature a deep sense of melancholy. Arlo Bates. He occupied a unique and distinctive place in American literature. Ella Wheeler Wilcox. HARTFORD, October 19, 1894. I paid my first tribute to Oliver Wendell Holmes by listening to our hired man (out in the cornfield) recite "How the Old Hoss Won the Bet." I sat on a pumpkin while the hired man rolled off those sounding lines, wherein the hoof-strokes throbbed and the sulky wheels flashed in the sun. That was poetry comprehensible to a boy of sixteen whose life was spent largely on horseback. A year or two later I made my schoolmates feel it in the chapel at "Friday exercises." It does not mean as much to me now, but "The Autocrat" means more. The essayist rises higher than the poet -witty, tender; wise in human frailty, but never bitter. CHICAGO, October 19. Hamlin Garland. New England has had no more genuine representative than Dr. Holmes on the intellectual side; he had its strength, and he had also its limitations. His quickness, keenness, pungency, lucidity, and wit were the characteristic qualities of his ancestry and his section brought to the highest point of development and touched with genius. His mind had a marvellous agility, accuracy, and versatility; it turned, like a gem, many ways, and light flashed from every facet which it presented. He was investigator, physician, novelist, poet, philosopher, critic, lecturer; and whatever he did was done with brilliancy, insight, and finish. He did not, like Lowell, voice the intense moral earnestness of New England; nor did he, like Whittier and Emerson, compass its highest reaches of spiritual elevation; but its moral health, its keen, swift movement of mind, and its untiring curiosity and energy were his in high degree. He was much more a man of the world than Emerson, Longfellow, Hawthorne, or Whittier, but it was the best world for which he cared - the world of thought, of wit, of contact with the best in life and art, of the highest breeding and the keenest sense of honor. Hamilton W. Mabie. It is impossible to sum up in only a few words impressions of a many-sided man like Oliver Wendell Holmes. I shall, therefore, touch upon only one phase of his extraordinary personality, and this I will illustrate with an anecdote. One afternoon, some years ago, I chanced to call upon Mr. Longfellow just after he had received a visit from the doctor. "What a delightful man he is!" said he. "But he has left me, as he generally does, with a headache." When I inquired how that came about, he replied, "The movement of his mind is so much more rapid than mine that I often find it difficult to follow him, and if I keep up the strain for any length of time, a headache is the usual penalty." I met the Autocrat on many and various occasions, and was always impressed - though never oppressed by the trait ascribed to him by Longfellow-the phenomenal rapidity of his mental processes. Not that he talked fast, but that his turns of thought were surprisingly bright and quick, and often made with a kind of scientific precision, charmingly in contrast with the looseness of statement which commonly characterizes the conversation of those who speak volubly and think fast. I never saw him when his genius did not seem to be thus alive and alert. In view of this habitual vivacity, how we must marvel at his length of life, measured not by years, but by the amount of thought and feeling and spiritual energy that animated I had almost said electrified him throughout his long and brilliant career. ARLINGTON, October 30, 1894. 7. T. Trowbridge. |