The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-01-29
For the National Era.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

write the prefix, DR., without smile so impos-
sible seems it to picture him feeling the pulse
or administering an einetio with true profess
sional gravity.
wonder whether his studies were not pur-
sued under Momus rather than Esculapius
and whether, having discovered the sovereign
virtue of laughter as q remedy for all the ills
that flesh is heir 10, he does not prescribe for
his private patients rs he does for the public in
dose of the same by no means ho-
meopathici Indeed, he himself has more than
once limited ut such course of procedure, and
has found, ALSO, that the potion too strongly
prove n powerful poison if we may
credit his report of the Cease" since whose sad
conclusion he has never dared to write as
funny us he cam" Con you give us uninitiated
ones glimpse behind the curtain of the ina
terra medical and tell US whether this remedy
would be equally potent with laesfnerism or
electricity or wbefber the three are in s,,roo
"a. steroa .,,<.,.sl&.. = ~
Be this as it may, he has lately been admin
istering the panacea to eager crowds with the
most happy effect. One could not sit an hour
under the droppings of his tongue and eyes,
without gathering some spangles for memory
to bear away. ] am going to send you few
of these chance crystals, though they will be
sure to lose brilliancy under any handling but
the orators own.
If you have ever heard him lecture, you
know very well how he enters a Lyceum Hall
as no lecturer but himself would-tripping
with boyish agility through the living sea, and
up the steps of the stage, and tossing a comic
look of good-humored understanding to the au-
dience, as much rs to say, in school-boy Ian
guage, ave will have rare fun to-night!n
That we will; for thousand risibles begin to
vibrate already, in sympathy with the twinkle
of his eye His discourse here was on the
"Loye of Nature Ii was prefaced by an
apology for not throwing down the gauntlet in
behalf of any of the reforms" of the day
"The milk of human kindness, on his authori-
ty, "wll not bear too much shaking" and as
it had turned to bitterness under so many
tongues he thought "a man might be consd-
cred as eminently praiseworthy for even the
humbest attempt to write upon the loUc of
anythng"
lie began by giving us few "tabeaux Vi
wants" from city life, before leading us into
green pastures What leisure had the mer-
chant, "hurrying along the payements intent
upon the rise or fall of quarter of cent in
cotton or wheat" for quiet gossip with Dame
Nature! "Then there is the clerk haunted
by swarms of figures ~ thick as mosquitoes in
August or flies In October, which it is his
business to brush away with feather welded
by his right hand, or, at blssiul intervals,
tucked over his right ear" The lawyer, whose
brain is to be kept in constant readiness, etc
prove, at moments warning, that anybody
has been guilty of murder. arson treason, OF
,nJa L. l.
been thus guilty-in which case he is to be
equally ready to prove that the man never did
il, never would, nor could have done it--if in.
deed it had been done at all besides which,
somebody else did it "The physician here
he strained himself in professional conscious.
ness-"that martyr to mysterious rappings,
who sits down to his Thanksgiving turkey, and
at the twang of the door-bel is forced to start
up, leaving his fork, as Cincinnatus his plough
sticking in the furrow" with other serio-
comic touches from the roll of his own expert
cnce. "The clergyman, indeed, has a short
summer vacation, from which he returns with
an effective new sermon on Niagara or
Ocean, and enough of the odor of clover and
about him to last until Christmas
These preceding personages are hidden from
Nature, behind a thick veil OF brick, mortar.
and smoke. Proceeding into the country. 1--WE
might expect, on the strength of the syllogism
Who drives fat oxen must himself be fat that
Who live in green fields must themselves be
green that IL, fresh, unseared in heart alive
and awake to the beauties around them
We might expect this; but he gave us the
ludicrous contrast to this which country life
too often exhibits Follow the loafer about
the stage tavern to his home, and "you will find
the house thrust into the very dust of the road,
rs though there were smoom over the grassy
fields, and the inmates, like camels, must thrust
their noses into the sand, to breathe with i'm
punityD
He proposes hospital for the cure of this
blindness of sensiblity, on the plan of the Mas
'achusetts Asylum for Idiots, to be established
IN the slope Of Mt Holyoke where the eyes
If sturdy farmers and unitarian matrons
hould be opened to the beauty on which they
,ad looked all their lives in vain in a sup
posed report of one of these "cases,n hope
ul patient was described as shedding tears
1t the sight of two cows in pasture, because
ne had learned that il takes three to COWS form
perfect landscape"
But this, he granted, was cbimerical How,
hen, should the world be drawn to its uni
'ersal mother?" The Architect ranks first,
~ teacher of taste; he is the man who illus
rates practically his ideas; and next to him is
he man who talks about him.
At first sight, Nature would seem TO have
been less lavish of beauty TO our New World
han TO her sister the Old "Our dandelion,
Thite-weed, and buttercup are indeed poor
'ubsttutes for the primrose the cOwslip, and
he daisy, of English fields and English poets,
whose very names are rcdolent OF sweet iancies.
But have we not the laurel on the hillside, and
he orchis in the wood, and by the brook the
'egal cardinal flower" with host beside
We have not the birds Of old England" the
ark, soaring on the wings of Shelly's thought
Tor the "robin rcdbreast" that covered the
babes in the wood - nor the nightingale"
hat walls to the stars But we have our own
peculiar birds" the blue robin" ~ our poor
Pilgrim Fathers called him, trying to trace
ome resemblance 10 the dear household bird
,f their childhood the ori0le, or the fire
iang bird az some mute, inglorious Milton
las christened him the boboliDk-(that word
rad train of seven sparkling adjectiyes,
which your imagination must supply, for my
memory cannot j and sometimes, even in our
colder latitude, that prima donna Of the fcath-
red tribe, the inimitable mocking-bird.
He sketched rapidly three characters among
he lovers Of Nature First, the naturalist he
8 born as poet is. In childhood, he dstin-
cuisines himself by unwinging butterflies un-
egging spiders, aud unearthing bugs while his
mates are chasing the flying circle Of the hoop.
A. he grows older, four characteristics bud
perseverance,, in an inverse
alto to the UTILITY Of any project incspablity
# bodily or mental WEAKNESS in his pursuit
mild skepticism in relation to everything which
ais own fingers have not touched, and most
'eduloas devotion 10 scientific reports. Letnleh
) man down anywhere upon tho face Of the
,srth, and he 10 ready to 20 " work ct once,
,ither with or without tools hammerng, the
rocks, or unwilling the animsloules, 70 whom