Copyright 1886, by
Elizabeth
L.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v13 - Her to Hux
7439 (#241) ###########################################
LUDVIG HOLBERG
7439
Lisbed [weeping]-O my love, can't you say for my sake that
it is flat?
Montanus-I cannot, my pet: nam contra naturam est.
Jeronimus- What do you mean by that, wife? Am I not her
father as you are her mother? Listen, Lisbed, am I not your
father?
Lisbed I think you must be, for my mother says so. I
think you are my father, but I know she is my mother.
Jeronimus- What do you think of all this nonsense, Mr.
Bailiff?
Jesper I can't say that ma'mselle is wrong, because
Jeronimus-That's enough. Come, let us go. Be quite sure,
my good Rasmus Berg, that you shall never get my daughter as
long as you persist in your errors.
Lisbed [weeping]-O my love, say that it is flat!
Jeronimus-Out, out of the door!
[The visitors all depart. ]
A DEFENSE OF THE DEVIL
From the Epistles'
―
UR last conversation was about apologetic or defensive writ-
ings, which I confessed I could not endure; partly because
an honest man and a good book need no apology, partly
because it is possible to write in defense of anything, even of the
Devil. You laughed at my words, and replied that the latter
task might prove somewhat difficult. I retorted that it would be
no more difficult than to frame the defense that is made for the
ass, wherein this beast is credited with various heroic qualities.
In order to show that the thing may be done, I will briefly set
forth what an apologist willing to trouble himself in such a cause
may find to say in defense of the Devil.
I will say nothing of his capacity and intelligence; for all,
including his greatest enemies, are agreed that a person who
bears six thousand years on his shoulders, and who has lived
twice as long as the Shoemaker of Jerusalem, must possess more
learning and wisdom than the seven wise men of Greece, perhaps
more than all the professors on earth if they were made into one.
Nor will it be urged that he is falling into the childishness of
age; a thing that cannot be asserted without médisance, since the
## p. 7440 (#242) ###########################################
LUDVIG HOLBERG
7440
most learned theologians, who have made a thorough study of
the man's character, and know him to a nicety, are quite sure
that he is in full vigor, so that age cannot have bitten him much
if at all. Similarly, the learned men of the last century who
had the honor of talking with the Shoemaker of Jerusalem bore
witness that this self-same shoemaker was still in full possession
of his five senses; so that neither understanding nor memory was
at fault, although he had wandered about the world for sixteen
hundred years. There can therefore be no dispute about the
understanding and knowledge of the Devil, which cannot be other
than vast, when we take his great age into consideration; and
this is the reason why the Norse peasants bestow upon him the
venerable title of Old Erik.
But let us examine the evil characteristics that are ascribed
to him. The Devil is frequently said to go about plunging men
into misfortune and leading souls astray. But since he has
plainly, and by manifesto, so to speak, declared war upon the
human race, he is more excusable than many men who under
the guise of friendship mislead their neighbors; who make peace-
ful compacts only to break them, and who call God to witness
the uprightness of their hearts, that are yet full of hatred, en-
mity, and predatory desire. Hence it is said that we can guard
ourselves against the Devil, but not against men. That he
should seek to lead souls astray is nothing more than that he
should be desirous of strengthening his power, and showing that
he is an alert politician, statesman, and economist. In the mat-
ter of pacts and contracts his dealings are far more honorable
than those of most men; for although the latter make agreements
straightway to break them, and have thus brought themselves
into so ill credit that none will contract with them save under the
protection of a guarantee, experience on the other hand teaches
us that the Devil fulfills his agreements to the letter, performs
exactly his promises to the contracting party, and seizes upon
no one before the stipulated time is out; as we may see from
the history of Dr. Faustus and other worthy men, whom by vir-
tue of executed contracts he has instructed in arts, learning, and
statesmanship, or aided with great cash subsidies, and demanded
no payment for the work until the time of expiry, the term, and
the hour, came to hand. Among all the harsh things that are
said of the Devil, we hear no one accuse him of failing to per-
form his contracts, or even of cheating anybody with false coin
## p. 7441 (#243) ###########################################
LUDVIG HOLBERG
7441
or false wares, as great numbers of our merchants and writers
do,― the former by giving false names to their wares, the latter
by attaching false titles to their writings, for which they ask
payment in advance; while the Devil, for his part, carries out
his agreements, neither giving nor exacting any advance pay-
ment. For that reason, we never hear of any one who has
contracted with the Devil exacting any guarantee, which is indis-
putable evidence that he keeps his agreements honestly.
It may be objected to this, that the uprightness shown by the
Devil in his pacts and contracts does not proceed from nesty
but from self-interest; since thereby he supports himself, and
entices many to contract with him. But do you suppose our so-
called upright merchants in all their dealings are honest merely
for the sake of being honest? May not the rectitude of their
conduct spring from the same source? It is said that when two
things are one, they are yet not one; for what we call a virtue in
the merchant is depicted as a vice in the Devil. Since then the
Devil has thus come into ill repute, we ascribe to his influence
adultery, murder, theft, and all evil doings. I do not go so far
in this matter as wholly to acquit him; but I venture to say that
the charges ordinarily brought against him have a bad effect, and
are not well based. Their effect is bad, because they persuade
sinners to put their guilt off their own shoulders and use the
Devil as a shield for their misdoings. They are ill based, because
the corrupt flesh and blood of men are sufficient, without any
co-operation, to drive them to sin.
Further, the Devil is said to prowl about at night for the dis-
turbance of mankind. The conception one is bound to have of
a cunning and evil spirit has prevented me from sharing the
opinion of the learned in this matter; partly because I find the
thing improbable,—unless people admit, as no one does, that he
is in his second childhood, and partly because such spooking
would oppose his own interests. But since I have been blamed
for this opinion, I have renounced it, and now confess with the
orthodox that it really is the Devil who spooks by night in
church-yards, houses, and nurseries. But in that case it follows
that people are made God-fearing, and that the Devil by this
practice of spooking shows himself a friend rather than an
enemy of mankind, so that he should be praised rather than
blamed for the habit. His function as the judge and executioner
of the lost should not be a blot upon his name and good report;
XIII-466
## p. 7442 (#244) ###########################################
LUDVIG HOLBERG
7442
for that is a necessity, and just as no city can dispense with
an executioner, so mankind in general cannot get along without
such a general officer to execute the judgments pronounced upon
the guilty. The office in itself is not only necessary, but even
honorable, as we may see from the ancient Greeks, who made
two men of importance, Minos and Rhadamanthus, the execu-
tioners in Pluto's realm. We see from all these considerations
that the Devil is not as black as he is painted; that on the con-
trary he has many good qualities, so that it is far less difficult
to defend him than many men upon whose record there is no
blot. It is quite to be believed, as many unpartisan men have
observed, that we go too far in such judgments; and that if the
learned and unpartisan theologian Gotfried Arnold, who was the
advocate for many despised persons, had lived longer, he would
have undertaken the defense of this notorious spirit, which we
see is not a task so difficult but that with the help of a good
rhetorica it may be given some color of success. That the Devil
tempts men cannot well be disputed; but since experience shows
that these alleged temptations may often be driven off by means
of powders and drops, we see that even this accusation is often
ill-founded, unless one is willing to contend that the Devil him-
self may be driven off by crabs' eyes and purgative pills; which
would be to hold the enemy too cheap.
See, here you have the Devil's defense, written in haste. You
may see from it what a skillful disputator might accomplish, who
should undertake to defend his case ex cathedra, or an advocate
who had won a reputation for turning evil to good. Logica and
rhetorica are two of the chief sciences. It was with the aid of
logica that Zeno Eleates proved that nothing in the world had
motion. It was by the same aid that Erasmus Montanus dis-
tinctly showed Peder Degn to be a cock, and that to beat one's
parents is a meritorious act. But to speak seriously, I beg that
you will not show this letter to anybody, and particularly not to
Herr Niels or Peder Degn; for they might take it all literally,
and find in it the text for a sermon, and it might fare with me
as with a certain man who was dubbed cardinal by the jovial
papal collegio organized in this town a few years ago: after his
death a number of letters were found giving him the title of
Cardinal Orsini, and this the authorities took literally, discussing
with their colleagues whether the deceased might be permitted
burial in Christian earth.
I remain, etc.
## p. 7443 (#245) ###########################################
LUDVIG HOLBERG
7443
THE SOCIETY OF WOMEN
From the Epistles'
Youn
express surprise that I, who am advanced in years, and
have always been devoted to study, should take more satis-
faction in the society of women than of men. But you will
be still more surprised when I say that it is precisely on account
of my studies that I seek such society. To make sense out of
this paradox, you must know that when at home I am usually
occupied with some sort of work that racks my brains, and go
out only for the purpose of giving my head a necessary rest.
Such rest may be comfortably enjoyed in the drawing-rooms of
women, where there is heard as a rule only commonplace talk
that calls for no meditation. And that is the reason why, when
I have given myself a headache with study, I would rather go to
see Madame N. N. than anybody else; for she will tell me noth-
ing except what she has eaten during the day, or how many eggs
her hens have laid that week, or other things of that sort, which
neither rack the brains nor strain the sinews of the head.
In men's company, on the other hand, there are discourses
that make the head swim. There is usually talk of judicial pro-
ceedings and affairs of State, which are useful enough matters,
and even agreeable at the proper time, but not when one seeks
society for the sole purpose of recreating the mind and giving
the brain a rest. People begin, as soon as the first greetings are
over, by explaining to me some matter that has that day been
decided in court or council chamber, in order to get my opinion
of it; or they entangle my wits in affairs of State, for which any
new regulation or bit of fresh news affords a pretext; which is
like proposing a game of chess to a man just out of his library,
thus setting him to the work of study again.
This is the reason why Englishmen, among other matters
that give evidence of their discernment, do not like games that
require meditation. Their Back Game [sic], for example, is not
nearly so tedious as our forkering. The same can be said of
their sports in the shape of cocks' and bull-dogs' fights, and
others of the sort. Le jeu déchec, the French say, n'est pas assez
jeu; that is, chess and other games of that sort are not amuse-
ment but study. Hence they are good for people who have
nothing serious to do, and whose brains are in danger of rusting
## p. 7444 (#246) ###########################################
LUDVIG HOLBERG
7444
from idleness; but not for busy folks, who seek for recreation in
games and society. We find in consequence that people of affairs
set apart certain hours of the day in which they wish to hear
nothing but innocent gossip; and it is related that for this reason
Richelieu spent one hour of each day in such company, for he
could not find his account in taking up metaphysical discussions
when he had just left his cabinet all tired out. It was also for
this reason that Socrates played with his children now and then.
Another reason why I prefer to seek the society of women is
this: when I come into men's society, I am offered either a glass
of wine or a pipe of tobacco, which is by no means to my taste.
In women's society, on the other hand, I get tea, coffee, and
nonsensical chatter, which best suits my idle hours.
Here you
have the reasons for my conduct in this matter.
I remain, etc.
## p. 7445 (#247) ###########################################
7445
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
(-? -1580 ? )
ONCERNING the personal history of Raphael Holinshed (or Hol-
lingshead), the Elizabethan chronicler, there are only vague
outlines. The day and the year of his birth are unknown; so
is his birthplace. It is believed that he was born in Sutton Downes,
Cheshire; but this is conjectural. Again, he is said to have been a
University man,-probably from Cambridge,- but of this there is no
documentary proof. Rumors, too, that he was a clergyman are quite
in the air. All that is really known of Holinshed is that early in
Elizabeth's reign he came to London, and procured work as a trans-
lator from Reginald Wolfe, King's Printer. That he liked said Wolfe
may be gathered from a dedication in which he describes himself as
"singularly beholden" to the former. He made his will October 1st,
1578 (the year of the publication of the 'Chronicles of England, Scot-
land, and Ireland'), and therein wrote himself down as a steward by
occupation. Wood states that he died in 1580,- another conjecture,
of which there is no reliable record.
-
The story of the preparing of the Chronicles' is this:- - Wolfe
inherited valuable notes from Leland (the King's Antiquary), planned
a sort of universal history and cosmography, with maps and illustra-
tions, and spent twenty-five years of labor upon the part relating to
Great Britain. He died in 1573; and his successors, frightened at the
vast extent of the work as sketched by him, drew in these ideas and
devoted their attention to the countries named in the title,- Eng-
land, Scotland, and Ireland. Holinshed carried this restricted plan
through to publication, being assisted therein by a number of schol-
ars, the best known of whom are William Harrison and John Stowe.
The three original publishers of the work were George Bishop, John
and Luke Harrison. The first edition (1578) was in two folio volumes,
which had portraits, battle-pieces, and other cuts in the highest style
of the art of that time. The work was dedicated to William Cecil,
Lord Burghley. The writing of it was apportioned to the several
chroniclers, Holinshed doing parts of the histories of all three coun-
tries. The freedom used in the treatment of events almost contem-
poraneous led to expurgations in the subsequent revised edition,
prepared and printed (1586-7) after Holinshed's death, by his fellow
workers; the result being that copies of the unexpurgated edition are
very rare, and much coveted by bibliophiles. The British Museum
## p. 7446 (#248) ###########################################
7446
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
possesses a copy made by inserting in the revised version the can-
celed pages of the first edition.
Holinshed's personality is impressed upon the 'Chronicles' which
bear his name, and of which he is the master spirit. His style is
clear rather than warm, and his diligence in collecting historical ma-
terial is attested by the copious references to authorities. Though
honestly striving to present the truth, his Protestant bias is marked,
and he is unreliable when dealing with earlier times. But as an in-
defatigable pioneer delver in historic lore-as one of the chroniclers
who paved the way for the modern historian - he is worthy of much
praise, especially as he wrote in a way to make enjoyable reading.
His relation to literature is both direct and indirect. In his own
work, using the rich, full-mouthed speech of his period, he gives an
example of Elizabethan English in many ways admirable: solid, har-
monious, dignified. He lacks the picturesque touch and the idiomatic
virility of William Harrison, whose famous descriptions in the same
work of the social aspects of England rise to a higher plane. But
Holinshed's 'Chronicles' also proved a rich mine for the Elizabethan
dramatists to quarry from: the master of them all, Shakespeare, drew
most of his historical plays from this source, as well as 'Macbeth,'
'King Lear,' and parts of Cymbeline'; in some dramas - both parts
of 'Henry IV. ,' for example-following the chronicler so closely as
to use his phrases.
Thus Holinshed forms a link in the chain of history writers, bears
a not unimportant relation to the great dramatic poetry of his day,
and is himself a writer of vigorous and felicitous English which can
still be read with pleasure.
MACBETH'S WITCHES
From the Chronicles >
SHO
HORTLY after happened a strange and uncouth wonder, which
afterward was the cause of much trouble in the realm of
Scotland, as ye shall after hear. It fortuned as Makbeth
and Banquho journeyed towards Fores, where the King then lay,
they went sporting by the way together without other company
save only themselves, passing through the woods and fields, when
suddenly in the middest of a laund there met them three women
in strange and wild apparel, resembling creatures of the elder
world, whom when they attentively beheld, wondering much at
the sight, the first of them spake and said:-
"All hail Makbeth, thane of Glammis! »
## p. 7447 (#249) ###########################################
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
7447
(For he had lately entered into that office by the death of his
father Sinell. ) The second of them said:-
"Hail Makbeth, thane of Cawder! "
-
But the third said:
"All hail Makbeth, that hereafter shall be King of Scotland! ”
Then Banquho: "What manner of women >>>
«<
(saith he) are
you that seem so little favourable unto me, whereas to my fellow
here, besides high offices, ye assign also the kingdom, appointing
forth nothing for me at all? " "Yes" (saith the first of them),
«< we promise greater benefits unto thee than unto him: for he
shall reign indeed, but with an unlucky end; neither shall he
leave any issue behind him to succeed in his place; when cer-
tainly thou indeed shalt not reign at all, but of thee those shall
be born which shall govern the Scottish kingdom by long order
of continual descent. " Herewith the fore said women vanished
immediately out of their sight. This was reputed at the first but
some vain fantastical illusion by Makbeth and Banquho, insomuch
that Banquho would call Makbeth in jest, King of Scotland,
and Makbeth again would call him in sport likewise, father of
many kings. But afterwards the common opinion was, that these
women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say)
the goddesses of destiny, or else some nymphs or fairies, indued
with knowledge of prophecie by their necromatical science, be-
cause everything came to pass as they had spoken.
THE MURDER OF THE YOUNG PRINCES
From the Chronicles'
Κ
ING RICHARD after his coronation, taking his way to Glouces-
ter to visit (in his new honour) the town of which he bare
the name of his old, devised (as he rode) to fulfil the
things which he before had intended. And forsomuch that his
mind gave him, that his nephews living, men would not reckon
that he could have right to the realm; he thought therefore
without delay to rid them, as though the killing of his kinsmen
could amend his cause and make him a kindly king. Whereupon
he sent one Sir John Greene (whom he specially trusted) to Sir
Robert Brackenbury, Constable of the Tower, with a letter and
## p. 7448 (#250) ###########################################
7448
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
credence also, that the same Sir Robert should in any wise put
the children to death.
Sir John Greene did his errand unto Brackenbury, kneeling
before our Lady in the Tower, who plainly answered that he
would never put them to death to die therefore. With which
answer John Greene returning, recounted the same to King Rich-
ard at Warwick yet in his way. Wherewith he took such dis-
pleasure and thought, that the same night he said unto a secret
page of his: "Ah, whom shall a man trust? Those that I have
brought up myself, those that I had weened would most surely
me-even those fail me, and at my commandment will
do nothing for me. "
serve
"Sir" (said his page), "there lieth one on your pallet without,
that I dare well say, to do your Grace pleasure, the thing were
right hard that he would refuse. " Meaning by this Sir James
Tirrell, which was a man of right goodly personage, and for
nature's gifts worthy to have served a much better prince, if he
had well served God, and by grace obtained as much truth and
good-will as he had strength and wit.
The man had a high heart, and sore longed upwards, not ris-
ing yet so fast as he had hoped; being hindered and kept under
by the means of Sir Richard Ratcliffe and Sir William Catesby,
which longing for no more partners of the prince's favour; and
namely, not for him whose pride they wist would bear no peer,
kept him by secret drifts out of all secret trust; which thing
this page well had marked and known. Wherefore this occasion
offered of very special friendship, he took his time to put him
forward, and by such wise to do him good that all the enemies
he had (except the Devil) could never have done him so much.
hurt. For upon this page's words King Richard arose (for this
communication had he sitting apart in his own chamber) and
came out into the pallet chamber, on which he found in bed Sir
James and Sir Thomas Tirrells, of person like, and brethren in
blood, but nothing akin in conditions.
Then said the King merrily to them: "What Sirs, be ye in
bed so soon? " and calling up Sir James, brake to him secretly
his mind in this mischievous matter. In which he found him
nothing strange. Wherefore on the morrow he sent him to
Brackenbury with a letter, by which he was commanded to de-
liver Sir James all the keys of the Tower for one night, to the
end he might there accomplish the king's pleasure in such things
## p. 7449 (#251) ###########################################
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
7449
as he had given him commandment. After which letter delivered,
and the keys received, Sir James appointed the night next ensu-
ing to destroy them, devising before and preparing the means.
The prince (as soon as the Protector left that name and took
himself as King) had it showed unto him that he should not
reign, but his uncle should have the crown. At which word the
prince, sore abashed, began to sigh, and said: "Alas, I would my
uncle would let me have my life yet, though I lose my kingdom. "
Then he that told him the tale used him with good words,
and put him in the best comfort he could. But forthwith was
the prince and his brother both shut up, and all other removed
from them, only one (called Black Will or William Slaughter)
excepted, set to serve them and see them sure. After which
time the prince never tied his points nor aught wrought of him-
self, but with that young babe his brother lingered with thought
and heaviness, until this traitorous death delivered them of that
wretchedness. For Sir James Tirrell devised that they should be
murdered in their beds. To the execution whereof he appointed
Miles Forrest, one of the four that kept them, a fellow fleshed in
murder before time. To him he joined one John Dighton, his
own horse-keeper, a big, broad, square, and strong knave.
Then all the other being removed from them, this Miles For-
rest and John Dighton, about midnight (the seely children lying
in their beds), came to the chamber, and suddenly lapping them
up among the clothes, so too bewrapped them and entangled
them, keeping down by force the feather bed and pillows hard
unto their mouths, that within a while, smothered and stifled,
their breath failing, they gave up to God their innocent souls
into the joys of Heaven, leaving to the tormentors their bodies
dead in the bed. Which after that the wretches perceived, first
by the struggling with the pains of death, and after long lying
still, to be thoroughly dead, they laid their bodies naked out upon
the bed, and fetched Sir James to see them; which upon the
sight of them caused those murderers to bury them at the stair-
foot, meetly deep in the ground, under a great heap of stones.
Then rode Sir James in great haste to King Richard, and
shewed him all the manner of the murder; who gave him great
thanks, and (as some say) there made him knight. But he allowed
not (as I have heard) the burying in so vile a corner, saying that
he would have them buried in a better place, because they were
a king's sons. Lo, the honorable courage of a king! Whereupon.
## p. 7450 (#252) ###########################################
7450
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
they say that a priest of Sir Robert Brackenbury's took up the
bodies again and secretly enterred them in such place as, by the
occasion of his death which only knew it, could never since come
to light. Very truth is it and well known, that at such time as
Sir James Tirrell was in the Tower for treason committed against
the most famous prince King Henry the Seventh, both Dighton
and he were examined and confessed the murder in manner
above written; but whither the bodies were removed they could
nothing tell.
And thus (as I have learned of them that must know and
little cause had to lie) were these two noble princes, these inno-
cent tender children, born of most royal blood, brought up in
great wealth, likely long to live, reign, and rule in the realm, by
traitorous tyranny taken, deprived of their estate, shortly shut
up in prison and privily slain and murdered, their bodies cast
God wot where, by the cruel ambition of their unnatural uncle
and his despiteous tormentors: which things on every part well
pondered, God never gave this world a more notable example,
neither in what unsurety standeth this worldly weal; or what
mischief worketh the proud enterprise of an high heart; or finally
what wretched end ensueth such despiteous cruelty.
For first, to begin with the ministers, Miles Forrest at St.
Martins piecemeal rotted away. Dighton indeed yet walketh on
alive, in good possibility to be hanged yet ere he die. But Sir
James Tirrell died at the Tower Hill, beheaded for treason. King
Richard himself, as ye shall hereafter hear, slain in the field,
hacked and hewed of his enemies' hands, harried on horseback
dead, his hair in despite torn and tugged like a cur dog; and the
mischief that he took within less than three years of the mischief
that he did; and yet all (in the meantime) spent in much pain.
and trouble outward, much fear, anguish, and sorrow within.
He never thought himself sure. Where he went abroad his
eyes whirled about, his body privily fenced, his hand ever upon
his dagger, his countenance and manner like one always ready
to strike again, he took ill rest o' nights, lay long waking and
musing, sore wearied with care and watch, rather slumbered than
slept, much troubled with fearful dreams, suddenly sometimes
start up, leapt out of his bed and ran about the chamber: so was
his restless heart continually tossed and tumbled with the tedious.
impression and stormy remembrance of his abominable deeds.
## p. 7451 (#253) ###########################################
7451
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
(1819-1881)
HEN Josiah Gilbert Holland, returning to Springfield, Massa-
chusetts, at the age of thirty, there met Mr. Samuel Bowles
and became his co-worker on the Springfield Republican, he
found at last a fitting opportunity for his talent. Up to that time
he had drearily struggled with poverty, and bravely tried in many
ways to earn his living. His father, the original of the well-known
poem 'Daniel Gray,' had inventive power but no practical ability,
and drifted with his family from town to town in search of work.
Josiah, born at Belchertown, Massachusetts,
in 1819, early learned the necessity of self-
support. He was eagerly ambitious of edu-
cation and a professional career; and in spite
of many obstacles he entered the North-
ampton High School, although ill health pre-
vented him from finishing the course. When
twenty-one he began the study of medicine,
and in 1844 was graduated with honor from
the Berkshire Medical College.
JOSIAH G. HOLLAND
The years that followed were discoura-
ging, for patients did not come to the young
doctor. With true Yankee versatility he
turned his hand to anything,-taught dis-
trict school, was a traveling writing-master,
and a daguerreotypist. Of his boyish mortification at being a mill
hand he has told us in 'Arthur Bonnicastle. ' For a year he was
superintendent of education at Vicksburg, Mississippi. He tried edi-
torial work, and started the Bay State Courier, which ran for six
months. All these varied experiences gave him the knowledge of
American life and appreciation of workaday struggles which later
made the value of his poems, essays, and novels. It was largely due
to his influence that the Springfield Republican became so widely
known and popular a journal. In it his 'Letters to Young People
Married and Single: By Timothy Titcomb' first attracted readers by
their vivacious style, moral sincerity, and good common-sense. Later.
in book form, they had a great and immediate success.
In 1870 Dr. Holland was one of the founders and became editor
of Scribner's Monthly, later the Century Magazine, and retained the
## p. 7452 (#254) ###########################################
7452
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
editorship until his death in 1881. Here, as in all his work, he
showed his conscious purpose to be a helpful moral influence to his
readers.
Dr. Holland's novels, Arthur Bonnicastle (1873), (Sevenoaks'
(1876), and Nicholas Minturn' (1877), although showing his quick
and sympathetic observation and containing fine passages, have been
far less popular than his poems. The latter, in their constant appeal
to moral sense, and in their accurate depiction of the homely and
picturesque in New England life, found many lovers. Several of the
short lyrics, with 'Bittersweet' (1858), 'Katrina' (1868), and 'The Mis-
tress of the Manse' (1871), came as messages from a true American
poet who understood and honored his own people.
CRADLE SONG
From 'Bittersweet: A Poem.
Copyright 1886, by Elizabeth L. Holland
HAT is the little one thinking about?
Very wonderful things, no doubt!
Unwritten history!
WHAT
Unfathomed mystery!
Yet he laughs and cries, and eats and drinks,
And chuckles and crows, and nods and winks,
As if his head were as full of kinks
And curious riddles as any sphinx!
Warped by colic, and wet by tears,
Punctured by pins, and tortured by fears,
Our little nephew will lose two years;
And he'll never know
Where the summers go;-
He need not laugh, for he'll find it so!
-
Who can tell what a baby thinks?
Who can follow the gossamer links
By which the mannikin feels his way
Out from the shore of the great unknown,
Blind, and wailing, and alone,
Into the light of day?
Out from the shore of the unknown sea,
Tossing in pitiful agony;
Of the unknown sea that reels and rolls,
Specked with the barks of little souls,-
Barks that were launched on the other side,
And slipped from heaven on an ebbing tide!
## p. 7453 (#255) ###########################################
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
7453
What does he think of his mother's eyes?
What does he think of his mother's hair?
What of the cradle-roof that flies
Forward and backward through the air?
What does he think of his mother's breast,
Bare and beautiful, smooth and white,—
Seeking it ever with fresh delight,
Cup of his life and couch of his rest?
What does he think when her quick embrace
Presses his hand and buries his face
Deep where the heart-throbs sink and swell
With a tenderness she can never tell,
Though she murmur the words
Of all the birds-
Words she has learned to murmur well?
Now he thinks he'll go to sleep!
I can see the shadow creep
Over his eyes, in soft eclipse,
Over his brow, and over his lips,
Out to his little finger-tips!
Softly sinking, down he goes!
Down he goes! Down he goes!
See! He is hushed in sweet repose!
THE SONG OF THE CIDER
From Bittersweet: A Poem. Copyright 1886, by Elizabeth L. Holland,
IXTEEN barrels of cider
SIXTE
Ripening all in a row!
Open the vent-channels wider!
See the froth, drifted like snow,
Blown by the tempest below!
Those delectable juices
Flowed through the sinuous sluices
Of sweet springs under the orchard;
Climbed into fountains that chained them,
Dripped into cups that retained them,
And swelled till they dropped, and we gained them.
Then they were gathered and tortured
By passage from hopper to vat,
And fell — every apple crushed flat.
Ah! how the bees gathered round them
And how delicious they found them!
## p. 7454 (#256) ###########################################
7454
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
Oat-straw, as fragrant as clover,
Was platted, and smoothly turned over,
Weaving a neatly ribbed basket;
And as they built up the casket,
In went the pulp by the scoop-full,
Till the juice flowed by the stoup-full,-
Filling the half of a puncheon
While the men swallowed their luncheon.
Pure grew the stream with the stress
Of the lever and screw,
Till the last drops from the press
Were as bright as the dew.
There were these juices spilled;
There were these barrels filled;
Sixteen barrels of cider-
Ripening all in a row!
Open the vent-channels wider!
See the froth, drifted like snow,
Blown by the tempest below!
-
WANTED
From The Complete Poetical Writings of Dr. J. G. Holland. ' Copyright
1879, by Charles Scribner's Sons
OD give us men! A time like this demands
G Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready
hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor, men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue,
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty and in private thinking:
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife,-lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps!
## p. 7455 (#257) ###########################################
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
7455
DANIEL GRAY
From The Complete Poetical Writings of Dr. J. G. Holland. Copyright
1879, by Charles Scribner's Sons
F I SHALL ever win the home in heaven
IT
For whose sweet rest I humbly hope and pray,
In the great company of the forgiven
I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray.
I knew him well: in truth, few knew him better;
For my young eyes oft read for him the Word,
And saw how meekly from the crystal letter
He drank the life of his beloved Lord.
Old Daniel Gray was not a man who lifted
On ready words his freight of gratitude;
Nor was he called as one among the gifted,
In the prayer-meetings of his neighborhood.
He had a few old-fashioned words and phrases,
Linked in with sacred texts and Sunday rhymes;
And I suppose that in his prayers and graces
I've heard them all at least a thousand times.
I see him now, his form, his face, his motions,
His homespun habit, and his silver hair,—
And hear the language of his trite devotions,
Rising behind the straight-backed kitchen chair.
-
I can remember how the sentence sounded.
"Help us, O Lord, to pray and not to faint! »
And how the "conquering-and-to-conquer" rounded
The loftier aspirations of the saint.
He had some notions that did not improve him:
He never kissed his children - so they say;
And finest scenes and fairest flowers would move him
Less than a horseshoe picked up in the way.
He had a hearty hatred of oppression,
And righteous words for sin of every kind:
Alas, that the transgressor and transgression
Were linked so closely in his honest mind!
He could see naught but vanity in beauty,
And naught but weakness in a fond caress,
## p. 7456 (#258) ###########################################
7456
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
And pitied men whose views of Christian duty
Allowed indulgence in such foolishness.
Yet there were love and tenderness within him;
And I am told that when his Charley died,
Nor nature's need nor gentle words could win him
From his fond vigils at the sleeper's side.
And when they came to bury little Charley,
They found fresh dew-drops sprinkled in his hair,
And on his breast a rosebud gathered early,—
And guessed, but did not know, who placed it there.
Honest and faithful, constant in his calling,
Strictly attendant on the means of grace,
Instant in prayer, and fearful most of falling,
Old Daniel Gray was always in his place.
A practical old man, and yet a dreamer,
He thought that in some strange, unlooked-for way
His mighty Friend in heaven, the great Redeemer,
Would honor him with wealth some golden day.
This dream he carried in a hopeful spirit
Until in death his patient eye grew dim,
And his Redeemer called him to inherit
The heaven of wealth long garnered up for him.
So, if I ever win the home in heaven
For whose sweet rest I humbly hope and pray,
In the great company of the forgiven
I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray.
## p. 7456 (#259) ###########################################
## p. 7456 (#260) ###########################################
DOOHOOOOOOOOOO
S
梭
B
O. W. HOLMES.
D
R
40
Gresah
OHOH!
30
16
P
## p. 7456 (#261) ###########################################
## p. 7456 (#262) ###########################################
## p. 7457 (#263) ###########################################
7457
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
(1809-1894).
BY MRS. JAMES T. FIELDS
Liver Wendell HOLMES was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
in the year 1809, under the shadow-or the sunshine, shall
we say? of Harvard University. "I remember that week
well," the doctor wrote in after years: "for something happened to
me once at that time; namely, I was born. " "Nature was active that
year," says his biographer, "like a stirred volcano; casting forth also
upon the world Gladstone, Tennyson, Darwin, and Abraham Lincoln. "
The discovery of a pile of old almanacs belonging to his father gave
Dr. Holmes, late in life, a whimsical view of his own birthday. "I
took up that for the year 1809: opposite a certain date was an aster-
isk, and a note below consisting of four letters, thus:-
August 27
«<
28
«<
29*
«<
30
* Son b.
My father thus recorded my advent; and after he wrote the four let-
ters, according to his wont, he threw black sand upon them to keep
them from blotting. I am looking at it now, and there the black
sand glistens still. "
Dr. Holmes even went so far as to have the page photographed,
and never failed to regard the brief memorandum with a kind of odd
pathos.
He came of the Brahmin caste of New England, to quote a phrase
of his own invention: his father being a minister of the old-fashioned
severe type of that period; while his mother was a lady, he once
wrote, bred in quite a different atmosphere from that of the strait-
laced Puritanism. She was a bright, vivacious woman, of small size,
sprightly manners, and good education. She lived to a great age,
a quaint figure, youthful and sympathetic to the end. "Like a faith-
ful wife as she was," her son says, "she sobered her pleasant coun-
tenance and sat down to hear us recite of justification,' 'adoption,'
XIII-467
## p. 7458 (#264) ###########################################
7458
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
I was
and 'sanctification,' and the rest of the programme.
given to questionings, and my mind early revolted. » Those who
knew Dr. Holmes's father and mother well, say there was more of
the intellectual character of the mother than of the father in him.
There was a human and humane side to his mother, something akin
to her neighbors because of their common humanity; a simple trait
of kindly interest in all who drew within the scope of their acquaint-
ance, which also belonged to her son and made him what he became.
The simplicity of the life of a minister's family in the Cambridge of
that period was very unlike anything we know to-day, when Cam-
bridge has become a large city; and it is difficult to believe so few
years have passed since boyish rambles were carried on in the very
heart of what is now a town.
Dr. Holmes's writings, of course, give something more than a hint
of these conditions: we are made to see them pretty clearly; but
there is nothing in the life of old England which is a match for
them,- nothing by which men nurtured under different conditions
can estimate the advantages and drawbacks of the New England of
that time. The men of his day were not nursed in letters; there
was no Eton, and no Bluecoat School to which the younger boys
were sent. They stayed at home and learned their first lessons, but
they frequently studied on the principle of some church-goers who
trust that an hour on Sunday will give them absolution for a week of
indulgence: studying served by the way, as it were; a kind of toll-
gate to be passed before the good things of life set in.
The boys
of those days chopped wood, made fires, ran errands, skated, birds'-
nested, or went nutting, according to the seasons. Their heads were
not burthened by breathing a scholastic atmosphere. But if the edu-
cation to a life of literature was wanting, the finer inciters to true
thought and life were not wanting. "My birth chamber," writes Dr.
Holmes, "and the places most familiar to my early years, looked out
to the west. My sunsets were as beautiful as any poet could ask
for. Between my chamber and the sunset were hills covered with
trees, from amid which peeped out here and there the walls of a
summer mansion, which my imagination turned into a palace. "
His scheme of life did not readily mature. At school in Andover,
and while in Harvard College, he was totally undecided what to
study. " "It will be law or physick," he wrote, "for I cannot say
that I think the trade of authorship quite adapted to this meridian. "
It is very curious to see how his mind wavered between these
three careers. Neither Lowell nor Longfellow appears to have been
detained for an instant from the pursuit of literature by "the merid-
ian"! But Dr. Holmes was not a great reader; he was not trained,
as we have said, in a home atmosphere of letters, and it was like
## p. 7459 (#265) ###########################################
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
7459
putting to sea in an untrimmed boat. On the whole, the law pre-
sented itself to his mind as possessing the largest advantages to a
man of gifts; and after leaving college in 1829 he decided to devote
a year to that study. He says of himself, in reverting to this period:
"I had been busy, more or less, with the pages of Blackstone and
Chitty and other text-books of legal study. More or less, I say, but
I am afraid it was less rather than more. For during that year I
first tasted the intoxicating pleasure of authorship. A college period-
ical conducted by friends of mine, still undergraduates, tempted me
into print; and there is no form of lead poisoning which more rap-
idly and thoroughly pervades the blood and bones and marrow than
that which reaches the young author through mental contact with
type-metal. . . What determined me to give up law and apply
myself to medicine I can hardly say; but I had from the first looked
upon that year's study as an experiment. "
It appears that his second choice of profession, although most con-
scientiously followed and always considered by him as final, was not
the career which was to make his name and fame nor his modest
fortune. One might say even more: a certain turn for or faith in
science was a substratum of his mind. He loved to see the proof of
what his imagination or that of other men had suggested. In this
we are reminded of Shelley, who said once that whatever the imagina-
tion of a man can see clearly, the man can reproduce in words. Dr.
Holmes looked askance at what could not be proved; and his study
of medicine enlarged his intellectual sphere. He was immediately
associated in Paris with the most distinguished scientists of his day,
who doubtless found their eager pupil very engaging. He had an
overwhelming distaste for many details of his profession; but as the
years went on, he found his place on the scientific rather than the
more immediately practical side of his profession. He was chosen
professor and lecturer to the Harvard Medical School, a position
which he filled for thirty-five years, only relinquishing it when age
gave him warning against over-fatigue.
Dr. Holmes did not wish in after years to recognize his first lit-
erary ventures, which were even earlier than the year of his law
studies. The Spectre Pig' and a few other juvenile verses had
actually found their way into print, but he never looked upon them
with favor. He understood himself well enough to recognize that
year in the law school as the moment of his first poetic inspiration.
The frigate Constitution was at that time lying in the Navy Yard
at Charlestown. Dr. Holmes saw a paragraph in a newspaper say-
ing that the ship was condemned by the Navy Department to be
destroyed. He was
on fire at the idea; with a pencil hurriedly
writing down his verses 'Old Ironsides' on a scrap of paper, he soon
## p. 7460 (#266) ###########################################
7460
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
wrought them into shape and sent them to a Boston newspaper.
They flew from end to end of the country; were reprinted on slips
and distributed in the streets of Washington. The old man-of-war
was saved, and the country learned the name of Oliver Wendell
Holmes, a young law student in Cambridge, for the first time.
Edward Everett Hale, a man who is an electric storage-battery of
thought to the men of his time, long ago said that "every man should
have his vocation and his avocation. » For many years Dr. Holmes
looked upon his profession as the vocation of his life and literature
as his avocation; but by degrees, and perhaps without acknowledg-
ment to himself, the tables were gradually turned, and the pen-point
became his weapon with which to front the world.
After returning from his studies in Paris and putting up his sign
as a physician in Boston, he found himself, while waiting "for the
smallest favors or fevers," again writing verses. There was some-
thing about his self-occupied yet gay boyishness which did not incline
the hypochondriac to face such strong sunshine. Whatever the reasons
may have been, his calls as a physician were few and his verses were
many. The Last Leaf' among others was written in this pause;
and at the end of a twelvemonth he was so unwise, from a profes-
sional point of view, as to publish a volume. In brief, his light
was one not to be concealed. His quickness of sympathy and readi-
ness of expression marked him immediately as the spokesman of
great occasions. He was invited to deliver the Phi Beta Kappa poem
of 1836, and from this date there was probably never a year of his
life without invitations to perform some such service, public or pri-
vate. What is still more important to record as a part of literary
history, his prose style was beginning to take form. He took prizes
for medical essays and dissertations. "It is somewhat pleasant," he
wrote this same year of 1836, "to have cut out a fifty-dollar prize
under the guns of two old blazers, who have each of them swamped
their competitors in preceding trials. " In 1834 his essay on 'The
Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever' marked him to the eyes of the
scientific world as a man of original thought and careful but deter-
mined expression of the truth. The qualities which distinguished
him afterward in the larger world of letters were then slowly acknowl-
edged for the first time by men of science. In after years he referred
to this experience in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table': -
"When, by the permission of Providence, I held up to the professional
public the damnable facts connected with the conveyance of poison
from one young mother's chamber to another's,- for doing which
humble office I desire to be thankful that I have lived, though noth-
ing else good should ever come of my life, I had to hear the sneers
of those whose position I had assailed, and as I believe, have at last
## p. 7461 (#267) ###########################################
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
7461
demolished, so that nothing but the ghosts of dead women stir among
the ruins. "
«<
Among Dr. Holmes's early writings were two prose essays pub-
lished in the New England Magazine, which lived briefly from 1831
to 1835. They bore the title of The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table';
but they appeared afterward to the author as early windfalls," and
he was not willing to incorporate them among his acknowledged
works, except as he acknowledges and quotes from them in one of
his prefaces to the 'Autocrat' of 1857. Whether Lowell had seen
these papers, or whether he judged what Dr. Holmes could do from
his scientific productions and his incomparable conversation, no one
can say; but when the Atlantic Monthly was launched, and a little
later Lowell was asked to become its editor, he made one condition:
"that Dr. Holmes should be the first contributor to be engaged. ”
"I looked at the old Portfolio," said Dr. Holmes, "and said to myself,
'Too late! too late! '" But Lowell insisted-otherwise there would
be no Atlantic; and Dr. Holmes yielded. "Lowell," he wrote after-
ward, "woke me from a kind of literary lethargy in which I was half
slumbering, to call me to active service. " Dr. Holmes's genius, as
seen in the 'Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,' will carry his name
down the tide of time. It was succeeded by nine volumes of prose,
interrupted only by what now amounts to three volumes of verse,
making thirteen volumes of his complete works. It is, even in quan-
tity, no small showing, when we recall in addition his thirty-five
years of medical professorship. Dr. Holmes was no idler: he loved
to work and to do his work well. He scorned no expenditure of time
in order to find the right word and to bring his verse into accurate
form.
In 1840 Dr. Holmes married Amelia Lee Jackson, a woman exqui-
sitely adapted to make him happy. She was not beautiful, nor in
common phrase a woman of society; but she possessed a refinement,
a wit, a charm, a power of self-forgetfulness, which were all her own.
She was known to a small circle only, but wherever she allowed her-
self the opportunity to know and be known, she was beloved.
There were three children; only one of whom, Judge Holmes, sur-
vives his father. Dr. Holmes suffered the pain of seeing his wife and
a son and daughter go before him. Nevertheless life was very sweet
to him, and he bore the trials of age cheerfully, dying October 7th,
1894. He wrote once to Lowell: "Life is never monotonous, abso-
lutely, to me. I am a series of surprises to myself in the changes
that years and ripening, and it may be a still further process which
I need not name, bring about. The movement onward is like chan-
ging place in a picture gallery,- the light fades from this picture
and falls on that; . . but what a strange thing life is, when you
.
## p. 7462 (#268) ###########################################
7462
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
have waded in up to your neck and remember the shelving sands you
have trodden! "
But all the writing in the world about Dr.
LUDVIG HOLBERG
7439
Lisbed [weeping]-O my love, can't you say for my sake that
it is flat?
Montanus-I cannot, my pet: nam contra naturam est.
Jeronimus- What do you mean by that, wife? Am I not her
father as you are her mother? Listen, Lisbed, am I not your
father?
Lisbed I think you must be, for my mother says so. I
think you are my father, but I know she is my mother.
Jeronimus- What do you think of all this nonsense, Mr.
Bailiff?
Jesper I can't say that ma'mselle is wrong, because
Jeronimus-That's enough. Come, let us go. Be quite sure,
my good Rasmus Berg, that you shall never get my daughter as
long as you persist in your errors.
Lisbed [weeping]-O my love, say that it is flat!
Jeronimus-Out, out of the door!
[The visitors all depart. ]
A DEFENSE OF THE DEVIL
From the Epistles'
―
UR last conversation was about apologetic or defensive writ-
ings, which I confessed I could not endure; partly because
an honest man and a good book need no apology, partly
because it is possible to write in defense of anything, even of the
Devil. You laughed at my words, and replied that the latter
task might prove somewhat difficult. I retorted that it would be
no more difficult than to frame the defense that is made for the
ass, wherein this beast is credited with various heroic qualities.
In order to show that the thing may be done, I will briefly set
forth what an apologist willing to trouble himself in such a cause
may find to say in defense of the Devil.
I will say nothing of his capacity and intelligence; for all,
including his greatest enemies, are agreed that a person who
bears six thousand years on his shoulders, and who has lived
twice as long as the Shoemaker of Jerusalem, must possess more
learning and wisdom than the seven wise men of Greece, perhaps
more than all the professors on earth if they were made into one.
Nor will it be urged that he is falling into the childishness of
age; a thing that cannot be asserted without médisance, since the
## p. 7440 (#242) ###########################################
LUDVIG HOLBERG
7440
most learned theologians, who have made a thorough study of
the man's character, and know him to a nicety, are quite sure
that he is in full vigor, so that age cannot have bitten him much
if at all. Similarly, the learned men of the last century who
had the honor of talking with the Shoemaker of Jerusalem bore
witness that this self-same shoemaker was still in full possession
of his five senses; so that neither understanding nor memory was
at fault, although he had wandered about the world for sixteen
hundred years. There can therefore be no dispute about the
understanding and knowledge of the Devil, which cannot be other
than vast, when we take his great age into consideration; and
this is the reason why the Norse peasants bestow upon him the
venerable title of Old Erik.
But let us examine the evil characteristics that are ascribed
to him. The Devil is frequently said to go about plunging men
into misfortune and leading souls astray. But since he has
plainly, and by manifesto, so to speak, declared war upon the
human race, he is more excusable than many men who under
the guise of friendship mislead their neighbors; who make peace-
ful compacts only to break them, and who call God to witness
the uprightness of their hearts, that are yet full of hatred, en-
mity, and predatory desire. Hence it is said that we can guard
ourselves against the Devil, but not against men. That he
should seek to lead souls astray is nothing more than that he
should be desirous of strengthening his power, and showing that
he is an alert politician, statesman, and economist. In the mat-
ter of pacts and contracts his dealings are far more honorable
than those of most men; for although the latter make agreements
straightway to break them, and have thus brought themselves
into so ill credit that none will contract with them save under the
protection of a guarantee, experience on the other hand teaches
us that the Devil fulfills his agreements to the letter, performs
exactly his promises to the contracting party, and seizes upon
no one before the stipulated time is out; as we may see from
the history of Dr. Faustus and other worthy men, whom by vir-
tue of executed contracts he has instructed in arts, learning, and
statesmanship, or aided with great cash subsidies, and demanded
no payment for the work until the time of expiry, the term, and
the hour, came to hand. Among all the harsh things that are
said of the Devil, we hear no one accuse him of failing to per-
form his contracts, or even of cheating anybody with false coin
## p. 7441 (#243) ###########################################
LUDVIG HOLBERG
7441
or false wares, as great numbers of our merchants and writers
do,― the former by giving false names to their wares, the latter
by attaching false titles to their writings, for which they ask
payment in advance; while the Devil, for his part, carries out
his agreements, neither giving nor exacting any advance pay-
ment. For that reason, we never hear of any one who has
contracted with the Devil exacting any guarantee, which is indis-
putable evidence that he keeps his agreements honestly.
It may be objected to this, that the uprightness shown by the
Devil in his pacts and contracts does not proceed from nesty
but from self-interest; since thereby he supports himself, and
entices many to contract with him. But do you suppose our so-
called upright merchants in all their dealings are honest merely
for the sake of being honest? May not the rectitude of their
conduct spring from the same source? It is said that when two
things are one, they are yet not one; for what we call a virtue in
the merchant is depicted as a vice in the Devil. Since then the
Devil has thus come into ill repute, we ascribe to his influence
adultery, murder, theft, and all evil doings. I do not go so far
in this matter as wholly to acquit him; but I venture to say that
the charges ordinarily brought against him have a bad effect, and
are not well based. Their effect is bad, because they persuade
sinners to put their guilt off their own shoulders and use the
Devil as a shield for their misdoings. They are ill based, because
the corrupt flesh and blood of men are sufficient, without any
co-operation, to drive them to sin.
Further, the Devil is said to prowl about at night for the dis-
turbance of mankind. The conception one is bound to have of
a cunning and evil spirit has prevented me from sharing the
opinion of the learned in this matter; partly because I find the
thing improbable,—unless people admit, as no one does, that he
is in his second childhood, and partly because such spooking
would oppose his own interests. But since I have been blamed
for this opinion, I have renounced it, and now confess with the
orthodox that it really is the Devil who spooks by night in
church-yards, houses, and nurseries. But in that case it follows
that people are made God-fearing, and that the Devil by this
practice of spooking shows himself a friend rather than an
enemy of mankind, so that he should be praised rather than
blamed for the habit. His function as the judge and executioner
of the lost should not be a blot upon his name and good report;
XIII-466
## p. 7442 (#244) ###########################################
LUDVIG HOLBERG
7442
for that is a necessity, and just as no city can dispense with
an executioner, so mankind in general cannot get along without
such a general officer to execute the judgments pronounced upon
the guilty. The office in itself is not only necessary, but even
honorable, as we may see from the ancient Greeks, who made
two men of importance, Minos and Rhadamanthus, the execu-
tioners in Pluto's realm. We see from all these considerations
that the Devil is not as black as he is painted; that on the con-
trary he has many good qualities, so that it is far less difficult
to defend him than many men upon whose record there is no
blot. It is quite to be believed, as many unpartisan men have
observed, that we go too far in such judgments; and that if the
learned and unpartisan theologian Gotfried Arnold, who was the
advocate for many despised persons, had lived longer, he would
have undertaken the defense of this notorious spirit, which we
see is not a task so difficult but that with the help of a good
rhetorica it may be given some color of success. That the Devil
tempts men cannot well be disputed; but since experience shows
that these alleged temptations may often be driven off by means
of powders and drops, we see that even this accusation is often
ill-founded, unless one is willing to contend that the Devil him-
self may be driven off by crabs' eyes and purgative pills; which
would be to hold the enemy too cheap.
See, here you have the Devil's defense, written in haste. You
may see from it what a skillful disputator might accomplish, who
should undertake to defend his case ex cathedra, or an advocate
who had won a reputation for turning evil to good. Logica and
rhetorica are two of the chief sciences. It was with the aid of
logica that Zeno Eleates proved that nothing in the world had
motion. It was by the same aid that Erasmus Montanus dis-
tinctly showed Peder Degn to be a cock, and that to beat one's
parents is a meritorious act. But to speak seriously, I beg that
you will not show this letter to anybody, and particularly not to
Herr Niels or Peder Degn; for they might take it all literally,
and find in it the text for a sermon, and it might fare with me
as with a certain man who was dubbed cardinal by the jovial
papal collegio organized in this town a few years ago: after his
death a number of letters were found giving him the title of
Cardinal Orsini, and this the authorities took literally, discussing
with their colleagues whether the deceased might be permitted
burial in Christian earth.
I remain, etc.
## p. 7443 (#245) ###########################################
LUDVIG HOLBERG
7443
THE SOCIETY OF WOMEN
From the Epistles'
Youn
express surprise that I, who am advanced in years, and
have always been devoted to study, should take more satis-
faction in the society of women than of men. But you will
be still more surprised when I say that it is precisely on account
of my studies that I seek such society. To make sense out of
this paradox, you must know that when at home I am usually
occupied with some sort of work that racks my brains, and go
out only for the purpose of giving my head a necessary rest.
Such rest may be comfortably enjoyed in the drawing-rooms of
women, where there is heard as a rule only commonplace talk
that calls for no meditation. And that is the reason why, when
I have given myself a headache with study, I would rather go to
see Madame N. N. than anybody else; for she will tell me noth-
ing except what she has eaten during the day, or how many eggs
her hens have laid that week, or other things of that sort, which
neither rack the brains nor strain the sinews of the head.
In men's company, on the other hand, there are discourses
that make the head swim. There is usually talk of judicial pro-
ceedings and affairs of State, which are useful enough matters,
and even agreeable at the proper time, but not when one seeks
society for the sole purpose of recreating the mind and giving
the brain a rest. People begin, as soon as the first greetings are
over, by explaining to me some matter that has that day been
decided in court or council chamber, in order to get my opinion
of it; or they entangle my wits in affairs of State, for which any
new regulation or bit of fresh news affords a pretext; which is
like proposing a game of chess to a man just out of his library,
thus setting him to the work of study again.
This is the reason why Englishmen, among other matters
that give evidence of their discernment, do not like games that
require meditation. Their Back Game [sic], for example, is not
nearly so tedious as our forkering. The same can be said of
their sports in the shape of cocks' and bull-dogs' fights, and
others of the sort. Le jeu déchec, the French say, n'est pas assez
jeu; that is, chess and other games of that sort are not amuse-
ment but study. Hence they are good for people who have
nothing serious to do, and whose brains are in danger of rusting
## p. 7444 (#246) ###########################################
LUDVIG HOLBERG
7444
from idleness; but not for busy folks, who seek for recreation in
games and society. We find in consequence that people of affairs
set apart certain hours of the day in which they wish to hear
nothing but innocent gossip; and it is related that for this reason
Richelieu spent one hour of each day in such company, for he
could not find his account in taking up metaphysical discussions
when he had just left his cabinet all tired out. It was also for
this reason that Socrates played with his children now and then.
Another reason why I prefer to seek the society of women is
this: when I come into men's society, I am offered either a glass
of wine or a pipe of tobacco, which is by no means to my taste.
In women's society, on the other hand, I get tea, coffee, and
nonsensical chatter, which best suits my idle hours.
Here you
have the reasons for my conduct in this matter.
I remain, etc.
## p. 7445 (#247) ###########################################
7445
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
(-? -1580 ? )
ONCERNING the personal history of Raphael Holinshed (or Hol-
lingshead), the Elizabethan chronicler, there are only vague
outlines. The day and the year of his birth are unknown; so
is his birthplace. It is believed that he was born in Sutton Downes,
Cheshire; but this is conjectural. Again, he is said to have been a
University man,-probably from Cambridge,- but of this there is no
documentary proof. Rumors, too, that he was a clergyman are quite
in the air. All that is really known of Holinshed is that early in
Elizabeth's reign he came to London, and procured work as a trans-
lator from Reginald Wolfe, King's Printer. That he liked said Wolfe
may be gathered from a dedication in which he describes himself as
"singularly beholden" to the former. He made his will October 1st,
1578 (the year of the publication of the 'Chronicles of England, Scot-
land, and Ireland'), and therein wrote himself down as a steward by
occupation. Wood states that he died in 1580,- another conjecture,
of which there is no reliable record.
-
The story of the preparing of the Chronicles' is this:- - Wolfe
inherited valuable notes from Leland (the King's Antiquary), planned
a sort of universal history and cosmography, with maps and illustra-
tions, and spent twenty-five years of labor upon the part relating to
Great Britain. He died in 1573; and his successors, frightened at the
vast extent of the work as sketched by him, drew in these ideas and
devoted their attention to the countries named in the title,- Eng-
land, Scotland, and Ireland. Holinshed carried this restricted plan
through to publication, being assisted therein by a number of schol-
ars, the best known of whom are William Harrison and John Stowe.
The three original publishers of the work were George Bishop, John
and Luke Harrison. The first edition (1578) was in two folio volumes,
which had portraits, battle-pieces, and other cuts in the highest style
of the art of that time. The work was dedicated to William Cecil,
Lord Burghley. The writing of it was apportioned to the several
chroniclers, Holinshed doing parts of the histories of all three coun-
tries. The freedom used in the treatment of events almost contem-
poraneous led to expurgations in the subsequent revised edition,
prepared and printed (1586-7) after Holinshed's death, by his fellow
workers; the result being that copies of the unexpurgated edition are
very rare, and much coveted by bibliophiles. The British Museum
## p. 7446 (#248) ###########################################
7446
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
possesses a copy made by inserting in the revised version the can-
celed pages of the first edition.
Holinshed's personality is impressed upon the 'Chronicles' which
bear his name, and of which he is the master spirit. His style is
clear rather than warm, and his diligence in collecting historical ma-
terial is attested by the copious references to authorities. Though
honestly striving to present the truth, his Protestant bias is marked,
and he is unreliable when dealing with earlier times. But as an in-
defatigable pioneer delver in historic lore-as one of the chroniclers
who paved the way for the modern historian - he is worthy of much
praise, especially as he wrote in a way to make enjoyable reading.
His relation to literature is both direct and indirect. In his own
work, using the rich, full-mouthed speech of his period, he gives an
example of Elizabethan English in many ways admirable: solid, har-
monious, dignified. He lacks the picturesque touch and the idiomatic
virility of William Harrison, whose famous descriptions in the same
work of the social aspects of England rise to a higher plane. But
Holinshed's 'Chronicles' also proved a rich mine for the Elizabethan
dramatists to quarry from: the master of them all, Shakespeare, drew
most of his historical plays from this source, as well as 'Macbeth,'
'King Lear,' and parts of Cymbeline'; in some dramas - both parts
of 'Henry IV. ,' for example-following the chronicler so closely as
to use his phrases.
Thus Holinshed forms a link in the chain of history writers, bears
a not unimportant relation to the great dramatic poetry of his day,
and is himself a writer of vigorous and felicitous English which can
still be read with pleasure.
MACBETH'S WITCHES
From the Chronicles >
SHO
HORTLY after happened a strange and uncouth wonder, which
afterward was the cause of much trouble in the realm of
Scotland, as ye shall after hear. It fortuned as Makbeth
and Banquho journeyed towards Fores, where the King then lay,
they went sporting by the way together without other company
save only themselves, passing through the woods and fields, when
suddenly in the middest of a laund there met them three women
in strange and wild apparel, resembling creatures of the elder
world, whom when they attentively beheld, wondering much at
the sight, the first of them spake and said:-
"All hail Makbeth, thane of Glammis! »
## p. 7447 (#249) ###########################################
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
7447
(For he had lately entered into that office by the death of his
father Sinell. ) The second of them said:-
"Hail Makbeth, thane of Cawder! "
-
But the third said:
"All hail Makbeth, that hereafter shall be King of Scotland! ”
Then Banquho: "What manner of women >>>
«<
(saith he) are
you that seem so little favourable unto me, whereas to my fellow
here, besides high offices, ye assign also the kingdom, appointing
forth nothing for me at all? " "Yes" (saith the first of them),
«< we promise greater benefits unto thee than unto him: for he
shall reign indeed, but with an unlucky end; neither shall he
leave any issue behind him to succeed in his place; when cer-
tainly thou indeed shalt not reign at all, but of thee those shall
be born which shall govern the Scottish kingdom by long order
of continual descent. " Herewith the fore said women vanished
immediately out of their sight. This was reputed at the first but
some vain fantastical illusion by Makbeth and Banquho, insomuch
that Banquho would call Makbeth in jest, King of Scotland,
and Makbeth again would call him in sport likewise, father of
many kings. But afterwards the common opinion was, that these
women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say)
the goddesses of destiny, or else some nymphs or fairies, indued
with knowledge of prophecie by their necromatical science, be-
cause everything came to pass as they had spoken.
THE MURDER OF THE YOUNG PRINCES
From the Chronicles'
Κ
ING RICHARD after his coronation, taking his way to Glouces-
ter to visit (in his new honour) the town of which he bare
the name of his old, devised (as he rode) to fulfil the
things which he before had intended. And forsomuch that his
mind gave him, that his nephews living, men would not reckon
that he could have right to the realm; he thought therefore
without delay to rid them, as though the killing of his kinsmen
could amend his cause and make him a kindly king. Whereupon
he sent one Sir John Greene (whom he specially trusted) to Sir
Robert Brackenbury, Constable of the Tower, with a letter and
## p. 7448 (#250) ###########################################
7448
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
credence also, that the same Sir Robert should in any wise put
the children to death.
Sir John Greene did his errand unto Brackenbury, kneeling
before our Lady in the Tower, who plainly answered that he
would never put them to death to die therefore. With which
answer John Greene returning, recounted the same to King Rich-
ard at Warwick yet in his way. Wherewith he took such dis-
pleasure and thought, that the same night he said unto a secret
page of his: "Ah, whom shall a man trust? Those that I have
brought up myself, those that I had weened would most surely
me-even those fail me, and at my commandment will
do nothing for me. "
serve
"Sir" (said his page), "there lieth one on your pallet without,
that I dare well say, to do your Grace pleasure, the thing were
right hard that he would refuse. " Meaning by this Sir James
Tirrell, which was a man of right goodly personage, and for
nature's gifts worthy to have served a much better prince, if he
had well served God, and by grace obtained as much truth and
good-will as he had strength and wit.
The man had a high heart, and sore longed upwards, not ris-
ing yet so fast as he had hoped; being hindered and kept under
by the means of Sir Richard Ratcliffe and Sir William Catesby,
which longing for no more partners of the prince's favour; and
namely, not for him whose pride they wist would bear no peer,
kept him by secret drifts out of all secret trust; which thing
this page well had marked and known. Wherefore this occasion
offered of very special friendship, he took his time to put him
forward, and by such wise to do him good that all the enemies
he had (except the Devil) could never have done him so much.
hurt. For upon this page's words King Richard arose (for this
communication had he sitting apart in his own chamber) and
came out into the pallet chamber, on which he found in bed Sir
James and Sir Thomas Tirrells, of person like, and brethren in
blood, but nothing akin in conditions.
Then said the King merrily to them: "What Sirs, be ye in
bed so soon? " and calling up Sir James, brake to him secretly
his mind in this mischievous matter. In which he found him
nothing strange. Wherefore on the morrow he sent him to
Brackenbury with a letter, by which he was commanded to de-
liver Sir James all the keys of the Tower for one night, to the
end he might there accomplish the king's pleasure in such things
## p. 7449 (#251) ###########################################
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
7449
as he had given him commandment. After which letter delivered,
and the keys received, Sir James appointed the night next ensu-
ing to destroy them, devising before and preparing the means.
The prince (as soon as the Protector left that name and took
himself as King) had it showed unto him that he should not
reign, but his uncle should have the crown. At which word the
prince, sore abashed, began to sigh, and said: "Alas, I would my
uncle would let me have my life yet, though I lose my kingdom. "
Then he that told him the tale used him with good words,
and put him in the best comfort he could. But forthwith was
the prince and his brother both shut up, and all other removed
from them, only one (called Black Will or William Slaughter)
excepted, set to serve them and see them sure. After which
time the prince never tied his points nor aught wrought of him-
self, but with that young babe his brother lingered with thought
and heaviness, until this traitorous death delivered them of that
wretchedness. For Sir James Tirrell devised that they should be
murdered in their beds. To the execution whereof he appointed
Miles Forrest, one of the four that kept them, a fellow fleshed in
murder before time. To him he joined one John Dighton, his
own horse-keeper, a big, broad, square, and strong knave.
Then all the other being removed from them, this Miles For-
rest and John Dighton, about midnight (the seely children lying
in their beds), came to the chamber, and suddenly lapping them
up among the clothes, so too bewrapped them and entangled
them, keeping down by force the feather bed and pillows hard
unto their mouths, that within a while, smothered and stifled,
their breath failing, they gave up to God their innocent souls
into the joys of Heaven, leaving to the tormentors their bodies
dead in the bed. Which after that the wretches perceived, first
by the struggling with the pains of death, and after long lying
still, to be thoroughly dead, they laid their bodies naked out upon
the bed, and fetched Sir James to see them; which upon the
sight of them caused those murderers to bury them at the stair-
foot, meetly deep in the ground, under a great heap of stones.
Then rode Sir James in great haste to King Richard, and
shewed him all the manner of the murder; who gave him great
thanks, and (as some say) there made him knight. But he allowed
not (as I have heard) the burying in so vile a corner, saying that
he would have them buried in a better place, because they were
a king's sons. Lo, the honorable courage of a king! Whereupon.
## p. 7450 (#252) ###########################################
7450
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
they say that a priest of Sir Robert Brackenbury's took up the
bodies again and secretly enterred them in such place as, by the
occasion of his death which only knew it, could never since come
to light. Very truth is it and well known, that at such time as
Sir James Tirrell was in the Tower for treason committed against
the most famous prince King Henry the Seventh, both Dighton
and he were examined and confessed the murder in manner
above written; but whither the bodies were removed they could
nothing tell.
And thus (as I have learned of them that must know and
little cause had to lie) were these two noble princes, these inno-
cent tender children, born of most royal blood, brought up in
great wealth, likely long to live, reign, and rule in the realm, by
traitorous tyranny taken, deprived of their estate, shortly shut
up in prison and privily slain and murdered, their bodies cast
God wot where, by the cruel ambition of their unnatural uncle
and his despiteous tormentors: which things on every part well
pondered, God never gave this world a more notable example,
neither in what unsurety standeth this worldly weal; or what
mischief worketh the proud enterprise of an high heart; or finally
what wretched end ensueth such despiteous cruelty.
For first, to begin with the ministers, Miles Forrest at St.
Martins piecemeal rotted away. Dighton indeed yet walketh on
alive, in good possibility to be hanged yet ere he die. But Sir
James Tirrell died at the Tower Hill, beheaded for treason. King
Richard himself, as ye shall hereafter hear, slain in the field,
hacked and hewed of his enemies' hands, harried on horseback
dead, his hair in despite torn and tugged like a cur dog; and the
mischief that he took within less than three years of the mischief
that he did; and yet all (in the meantime) spent in much pain.
and trouble outward, much fear, anguish, and sorrow within.
He never thought himself sure. Where he went abroad his
eyes whirled about, his body privily fenced, his hand ever upon
his dagger, his countenance and manner like one always ready
to strike again, he took ill rest o' nights, lay long waking and
musing, sore wearied with care and watch, rather slumbered than
slept, much troubled with fearful dreams, suddenly sometimes
start up, leapt out of his bed and ran about the chamber: so was
his restless heart continually tossed and tumbled with the tedious.
impression and stormy remembrance of his abominable deeds.
## p. 7451 (#253) ###########################################
7451
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
(1819-1881)
HEN Josiah Gilbert Holland, returning to Springfield, Massa-
chusetts, at the age of thirty, there met Mr. Samuel Bowles
and became his co-worker on the Springfield Republican, he
found at last a fitting opportunity for his talent. Up to that time
he had drearily struggled with poverty, and bravely tried in many
ways to earn his living. His father, the original of the well-known
poem 'Daniel Gray,' had inventive power but no practical ability,
and drifted with his family from town to town in search of work.
Josiah, born at Belchertown, Massachusetts,
in 1819, early learned the necessity of self-
support. He was eagerly ambitious of edu-
cation and a professional career; and in spite
of many obstacles he entered the North-
ampton High School, although ill health pre-
vented him from finishing the course. When
twenty-one he began the study of medicine,
and in 1844 was graduated with honor from
the Berkshire Medical College.
JOSIAH G. HOLLAND
The years that followed were discoura-
ging, for patients did not come to the young
doctor. With true Yankee versatility he
turned his hand to anything,-taught dis-
trict school, was a traveling writing-master,
and a daguerreotypist. Of his boyish mortification at being a mill
hand he has told us in 'Arthur Bonnicastle. ' For a year he was
superintendent of education at Vicksburg, Mississippi. He tried edi-
torial work, and started the Bay State Courier, which ran for six
months. All these varied experiences gave him the knowledge of
American life and appreciation of workaday struggles which later
made the value of his poems, essays, and novels. It was largely due
to his influence that the Springfield Republican became so widely
known and popular a journal. In it his 'Letters to Young People
Married and Single: By Timothy Titcomb' first attracted readers by
their vivacious style, moral sincerity, and good common-sense. Later.
in book form, they had a great and immediate success.
In 1870 Dr. Holland was one of the founders and became editor
of Scribner's Monthly, later the Century Magazine, and retained the
## p. 7452 (#254) ###########################################
7452
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
editorship until his death in 1881. Here, as in all his work, he
showed his conscious purpose to be a helpful moral influence to his
readers.
Dr. Holland's novels, Arthur Bonnicastle (1873), (Sevenoaks'
(1876), and Nicholas Minturn' (1877), although showing his quick
and sympathetic observation and containing fine passages, have been
far less popular than his poems. The latter, in their constant appeal
to moral sense, and in their accurate depiction of the homely and
picturesque in New England life, found many lovers. Several of the
short lyrics, with 'Bittersweet' (1858), 'Katrina' (1868), and 'The Mis-
tress of the Manse' (1871), came as messages from a true American
poet who understood and honored his own people.
CRADLE SONG
From 'Bittersweet: A Poem.
Copyright 1886, by Elizabeth L. Holland
HAT is the little one thinking about?
Very wonderful things, no doubt!
Unwritten history!
WHAT
Unfathomed mystery!
Yet he laughs and cries, and eats and drinks,
And chuckles and crows, and nods and winks,
As if his head were as full of kinks
And curious riddles as any sphinx!
Warped by colic, and wet by tears,
Punctured by pins, and tortured by fears,
Our little nephew will lose two years;
And he'll never know
Where the summers go;-
He need not laugh, for he'll find it so!
-
Who can tell what a baby thinks?
Who can follow the gossamer links
By which the mannikin feels his way
Out from the shore of the great unknown,
Blind, and wailing, and alone,
Into the light of day?
Out from the shore of the unknown sea,
Tossing in pitiful agony;
Of the unknown sea that reels and rolls,
Specked with the barks of little souls,-
Barks that were launched on the other side,
And slipped from heaven on an ebbing tide!
## p. 7453 (#255) ###########################################
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
7453
What does he think of his mother's eyes?
What does he think of his mother's hair?
What of the cradle-roof that flies
Forward and backward through the air?
What does he think of his mother's breast,
Bare and beautiful, smooth and white,—
Seeking it ever with fresh delight,
Cup of his life and couch of his rest?
What does he think when her quick embrace
Presses his hand and buries his face
Deep where the heart-throbs sink and swell
With a tenderness she can never tell,
Though she murmur the words
Of all the birds-
Words she has learned to murmur well?
Now he thinks he'll go to sleep!
I can see the shadow creep
Over his eyes, in soft eclipse,
Over his brow, and over his lips,
Out to his little finger-tips!
Softly sinking, down he goes!
Down he goes! Down he goes!
See! He is hushed in sweet repose!
THE SONG OF THE CIDER
From Bittersweet: A Poem. Copyright 1886, by Elizabeth L. Holland,
IXTEEN barrels of cider
SIXTE
Ripening all in a row!
Open the vent-channels wider!
See the froth, drifted like snow,
Blown by the tempest below!
Those delectable juices
Flowed through the sinuous sluices
Of sweet springs under the orchard;
Climbed into fountains that chained them,
Dripped into cups that retained them,
And swelled till they dropped, and we gained them.
Then they were gathered and tortured
By passage from hopper to vat,
And fell — every apple crushed flat.
Ah! how the bees gathered round them
And how delicious they found them!
## p. 7454 (#256) ###########################################
7454
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
Oat-straw, as fragrant as clover,
Was platted, and smoothly turned over,
Weaving a neatly ribbed basket;
And as they built up the casket,
In went the pulp by the scoop-full,
Till the juice flowed by the stoup-full,-
Filling the half of a puncheon
While the men swallowed their luncheon.
Pure grew the stream with the stress
Of the lever and screw,
Till the last drops from the press
Were as bright as the dew.
There were these juices spilled;
There were these barrels filled;
Sixteen barrels of cider-
Ripening all in a row!
Open the vent-channels wider!
See the froth, drifted like snow,
Blown by the tempest below!
-
WANTED
From The Complete Poetical Writings of Dr. J. G. Holland. ' Copyright
1879, by Charles Scribner's Sons
OD give us men! A time like this demands
G Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready
hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor, men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue,
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty and in private thinking:
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife,-lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps!
## p. 7455 (#257) ###########################################
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
7455
DANIEL GRAY
From The Complete Poetical Writings of Dr. J. G. Holland. Copyright
1879, by Charles Scribner's Sons
F I SHALL ever win the home in heaven
IT
For whose sweet rest I humbly hope and pray,
In the great company of the forgiven
I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray.
I knew him well: in truth, few knew him better;
For my young eyes oft read for him the Word,
And saw how meekly from the crystal letter
He drank the life of his beloved Lord.
Old Daniel Gray was not a man who lifted
On ready words his freight of gratitude;
Nor was he called as one among the gifted,
In the prayer-meetings of his neighborhood.
He had a few old-fashioned words and phrases,
Linked in with sacred texts and Sunday rhymes;
And I suppose that in his prayers and graces
I've heard them all at least a thousand times.
I see him now, his form, his face, his motions,
His homespun habit, and his silver hair,—
And hear the language of his trite devotions,
Rising behind the straight-backed kitchen chair.
-
I can remember how the sentence sounded.
"Help us, O Lord, to pray and not to faint! »
And how the "conquering-and-to-conquer" rounded
The loftier aspirations of the saint.
He had some notions that did not improve him:
He never kissed his children - so they say;
And finest scenes and fairest flowers would move him
Less than a horseshoe picked up in the way.
He had a hearty hatred of oppression,
And righteous words for sin of every kind:
Alas, that the transgressor and transgression
Were linked so closely in his honest mind!
He could see naught but vanity in beauty,
And naught but weakness in a fond caress,
## p. 7456 (#258) ###########################################
7456
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
And pitied men whose views of Christian duty
Allowed indulgence in such foolishness.
Yet there were love and tenderness within him;
And I am told that when his Charley died,
Nor nature's need nor gentle words could win him
From his fond vigils at the sleeper's side.
And when they came to bury little Charley,
They found fresh dew-drops sprinkled in his hair,
And on his breast a rosebud gathered early,—
And guessed, but did not know, who placed it there.
Honest and faithful, constant in his calling,
Strictly attendant on the means of grace,
Instant in prayer, and fearful most of falling,
Old Daniel Gray was always in his place.
A practical old man, and yet a dreamer,
He thought that in some strange, unlooked-for way
His mighty Friend in heaven, the great Redeemer,
Would honor him with wealth some golden day.
This dream he carried in a hopeful spirit
Until in death his patient eye grew dim,
And his Redeemer called him to inherit
The heaven of wealth long garnered up for him.
So, if I ever win the home in heaven
For whose sweet rest I humbly hope and pray,
In the great company of the forgiven
I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray.
## p. 7456 (#259) ###########################################
## p. 7456 (#260) ###########################################
DOOHOOOOOOOOOO
S
梭
B
O. W. HOLMES.
D
R
40
Gresah
OHOH!
30
16
P
## p. 7456 (#261) ###########################################
## p. 7456 (#262) ###########################################
## p. 7457 (#263) ###########################################
7457
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
(1809-1894).
BY MRS. JAMES T. FIELDS
Liver Wendell HOLMES was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
in the year 1809, under the shadow-or the sunshine, shall
we say? of Harvard University. "I remember that week
well," the doctor wrote in after years: "for something happened to
me once at that time; namely, I was born. " "Nature was active that
year," says his biographer, "like a stirred volcano; casting forth also
upon the world Gladstone, Tennyson, Darwin, and Abraham Lincoln. "
The discovery of a pile of old almanacs belonging to his father gave
Dr. Holmes, late in life, a whimsical view of his own birthday. "I
took up that for the year 1809: opposite a certain date was an aster-
isk, and a note below consisting of four letters, thus:-
August 27
«<
28
«<
29*
«<
30
* Son b.
My father thus recorded my advent; and after he wrote the four let-
ters, according to his wont, he threw black sand upon them to keep
them from blotting. I am looking at it now, and there the black
sand glistens still. "
Dr. Holmes even went so far as to have the page photographed,
and never failed to regard the brief memorandum with a kind of odd
pathos.
He came of the Brahmin caste of New England, to quote a phrase
of his own invention: his father being a minister of the old-fashioned
severe type of that period; while his mother was a lady, he once
wrote, bred in quite a different atmosphere from that of the strait-
laced Puritanism. She was a bright, vivacious woman, of small size,
sprightly manners, and good education. She lived to a great age,
a quaint figure, youthful and sympathetic to the end. "Like a faith-
ful wife as she was," her son says, "she sobered her pleasant coun-
tenance and sat down to hear us recite of justification,' 'adoption,'
XIII-467
## p. 7458 (#264) ###########################################
7458
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
I was
and 'sanctification,' and the rest of the programme.
given to questionings, and my mind early revolted. » Those who
knew Dr. Holmes's father and mother well, say there was more of
the intellectual character of the mother than of the father in him.
There was a human and humane side to his mother, something akin
to her neighbors because of their common humanity; a simple trait
of kindly interest in all who drew within the scope of their acquaint-
ance, which also belonged to her son and made him what he became.
The simplicity of the life of a minister's family in the Cambridge of
that period was very unlike anything we know to-day, when Cam-
bridge has become a large city; and it is difficult to believe so few
years have passed since boyish rambles were carried on in the very
heart of what is now a town.
Dr. Holmes's writings, of course, give something more than a hint
of these conditions: we are made to see them pretty clearly; but
there is nothing in the life of old England which is a match for
them,- nothing by which men nurtured under different conditions
can estimate the advantages and drawbacks of the New England of
that time. The men of his day were not nursed in letters; there
was no Eton, and no Bluecoat School to which the younger boys
were sent. They stayed at home and learned their first lessons, but
they frequently studied on the principle of some church-goers who
trust that an hour on Sunday will give them absolution for a week of
indulgence: studying served by the way, as it were; a kind of toll-
gate to be passed before the good things of life set in.
The boys
of those days chopped wood, made fires, ran errands, skated, birds'-
nested, or went nutting, according to the seasons. Their heads were
not burthened by breathing a scholastic atmosphere. But if the edu-
cation to a life of literature was wanting, the finer inciters to true
thought and life were not wanting. "My birth chamber," writes Dr.
Holmes, "and the places most familiar to my early years, looked out
to the west. My sunsets were as beautiful as any poet could ask
for. Between my chamber and the sunset were hills covered with
trees, from amid which peeped out here and there the walls of a
summer mansion, which my imagination turned into a palace. "
His scheme of life did not readily mature. At school in Andover,
and while in Harvard College, he was totally undecided what to
study. " "It will be law or physick," he wrote, "for I cannot say
that I think the trade of authorship quite adapted to this meridian. "
It is very curious to see how his mind wavered between these
three careers. Neither Lowell nor Longfellow appears to have been
detained for an instant from the pursuit of literature by "the merid-
ian"! But Dr. Holmes was not a great reader; he was not trained,
as we have said, in a home atmosphere of letters, and it was like
## p. 7459 (#265) ###########################################
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
7459
putting to sea in an untrimmed boat. On the whole, the law pre-
sented itself to his mind as possessing the largest advantages to a
man of gifts; and after leaving college in 1829 he decided to devote
a year to that study. He says of himself, in reverting to this period:
"I had been busy, more or less, with the pages of Blackstone and
Chitty and other text-books of legal study. More or less, I say, but
I am afraid it was less rather than more. For during that year I
first tasted the intoxicating pleasure of authorship. A college period-
ical conducted by friends of mine, still undergraduates, tempted me
into print; and there is no form of lead poisoning which more rap-
idly and thoroughly pervades the blood and bones and marrow than
that which reaches the young author through mental contact with
type-metal. . . What determined me to give up law and apply
myself to medicine I can hardly say; but I had from the first looked
upon that year's study as an experiment. "
It appears that his second choice of profession, although most con-
scientiously followed and always considered by him as final, was not
the career which was to make his name and fame nor his modest
fortune. One might say even more: a certain turn for or faith in
science was a substratum of his mind. He loved to see the proof of
what his imagination or that of other men had suggested. In this
we are reminded of Shelley, who said once that whatever the imagina-
tion of a man can see clearly, the man can reproduce in words. Dr.
Holmes looked askance at what could not be proved; and his study
of medicine enlarged his intellectual sphere. He was immediately
associated in Paris with the most distinguished scientists of his day,
who doubtless found their eager pupil very engaging. He had an
overwhelming distaste for many details of his profession; but as the
years went on, he found his place on the scientific rather than the
more immediately practical side of his profession. He was chosen
professor and lecturer to the Harvard Medical School, a position
which he filled for thirty-five years, only relinquishing it when age
gave him warning against over-fatigue.
Dr. Holmes did not wish in after years to recognize his first lit-
erary ventures, which were even earlier than the year of his law
studies. The Spectre Pig' and a few other juvenile verses had
actually found their way into print, but he never looked upon them
with favor. He understood himself well enough to recognize that
year in the law school as the moment of his first poetic inspiration.
The frigate Constitution was at that time lying in the Navy Yard
at Charlestown. Dr. Holmes saw a paragraph in a newspaper say-
ing that the ship was condemned by the Navy Department to be
destroyed. He was
on fire at the idea; with a pencil hurriedly
writing down his verses 'Old Ironsides' on a scrap of paper, he soon
## p. 7460 (#266) ###########################################
7460
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
wrought them into shape and sent them to a Boston newspaper.
They flew from end to end of the country; were reprinted on slips
and distributed in the streets of Washington. The old man-of-war
was saved, and the country learned the name of Oliver Wendell
Holmes, a young law student in Cambridge, for the first time.
Edward Everett Hale, a man who is an electric storage-battery of
thought to the men of his time, long ago said that "every man should
have his vocation and his avocation. » For many years Dr. Holmes
looked upon his profession as the vocation of his life and literature
as his avocation; but by degrees, and perhaps without acknowledg-
ment to himself, the tables were gradually turned, and the pen-point
became his weapon with which to front the world.
After returning from his studies in Paris and putting up his sign
as a physician in Boston, he found himself, while waiting "for the
smallest favors or fevers," again writing verses. There was some-
thing about his self-occupied yet gay boyishness which did not incline
the hypochondriac to face such strong sunshine. Whatever the reasons
may have been, his calls as a physician were few and his verses were
many. The Last Leaf' among others was written in this pause;
and at the end of a twelvemonth he was so unwise, from a profes-
sional point of view, as to publish a volume. In brief, his light
was one not to be concealed. His quickness of sympathy and readi-
ness of expression marked him immediately as the spokesman of
great occasions. He was invited to deliver the Phi Beta Kappa poem
of 1836, and from this date there was probably never a year of his
life without invitations to perform some such service, public or pri-
vate. What is still more important to record as a part of literary
history, his prose style was beginning to take form. He took prizes
for medical essays and dissertations. "It is somewhat pleasant," he
wrote this same year of 1836, "to have cut out a fifty-dollar prize
under the guns of two old blazers, who have each of them swamped
their competitors in preceding trials. " In 1834 his essay on 'The
Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever' marked him to the eyes of the
scientific world as a man of original thought and careful but deter-
mined expression of the truth. The qualities which distinguished
him afterward in the larger world of letters were then slowly acknowl-
edged for the first time by men of science. In after years he referred
to this experience in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table': -
"When, by the permission of Providence, I held up to the professional
public the damnable facts connected with the conveyance of poison
from one young mother's chamber to another's,- for doing which
humble office I desire to be thankful that I have lived, though noth-
ing else good should ever come of my life, I had to hear the sneers
of those whose position I had assailed, and as I believe, have at last
## p. 7461 (#267) ###########################################
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
7461
demolished, so that nothing but the ghosts of dead women stir among
the ruins. "
«<
Among Dr. Holmes's early writings were two prose essays pub-
lished in the New England Magazine, which lived briefly from 1831
to 1835. They bore the title of The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table';
but they appeared afterward to the author as early windfalls," and
he was not willing to incorporate them among his acknowledged
works, except as he acknowledges and quotes from them in one of
his prefaces to the 'Autocrat' of 1857. Whether Lowell had seen
these papers, or whether he judged what Dr. Holmes could do from
his scientific productions and his incomparable conversation, no one
can say; but when the Atlantic Monthly was launched, and a little
later Lowell was asked to become its editor, he made one condition:
"that Dr. Holmes should be the first contributor to be engaged. ”
"I looked at the old Portfolio," said Dr. Holmes, "and said to myself,
'Too late! too late! '" But Lowell insisted-otherwise there would
be no Atlantic; and Dr. Holmes yielded. "Lowell," he wrote after-
ward, "woke me from a kind of literary lethargy in which I was half
slumbering, to call me to active service. " Dr. Holmes's genius, as
seen in the 'Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,' will carry his name
down the tide of time. It was succeeded by nine volumes of prose,
interrupted only by what now amounts to three volumes of verse,
making thirteen volumes of his complete works. It is, even in quan-
tity, no small showing, when we recall in addition his thirty-five
years of medical professorship. Dr. Holmes was no idler: he loved
to work and to do his work well. He scorned no expenditure of time
in order to find the right word and to bring his verse into accurate
form.
In 1840 Dr. Holmes married Amelia Lee Jackson, a woman exqui-
sitely adapted to make him happy. She was not beautiful, nor in
common phrase a woman of society; but she possessed a refinement,
a wit, a charm, a power of self-forgetfulness, which were all her own.
She was known to a small circle only, but wherever she allowed her-
self the opportunity to know and be known, she was beloved.
There were three children; only one of whom, Judge Holmes, sur-
vives his father. Dr. Holmes suffered the pain of seeing his wife and
a son and daughter go before him. Nevertheless life was very sweet
to him, and he bore the trials of age cheerfully, dying October 7th,
1894. He wrote once to Lowell: "Life is never monotonous, abso-
lutely, to me. I am a series of surprises to myself in the changes
that years and ripening, and it may be a still further process which
I need not name, bring about. The movement onward is like chan-
ging place in a picture gallery,- the light fades from this picture
and falls on that; . . but what a strange thing life is, when you
.
## p. 7462 (#268) ###########################################
7462
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
have waded in up to your neck and remember the shelving sands you
have trodden! "
But all the writing in the world about Dr.
