Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-08-14
DIR. HOLMES AT DARTMOUTH.

DIR. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the "Autocrat
of the Breakfast Table," was called upon to de-
liver the address before the Literary Societies
at Dartmouth College Commencement and
stand in the gap made by the inability of Rufus
Choate to be present, as had been announced,
on account of his health. The Doctor deliver
ed very able address, he prepared, we believe,
for the American Academy of Arts and Scien-
ces, but which has never been repeated in pub
lie. We hear that it gave great satisfaction at
Dartmouth, and much gratitude was expressed
at the prompt and ready manner in which the
orator acceded to the pressing invitation of the
College officers. DIR. Holmes prcfaced his ad-
dress by some remarks which set the large as
sembly in roar, and elected more applause
than is usually bestowed upon an orator at the
Commencement. He has kindly responded to
our request for his manuscript notes, and we are
sure our readers viii be gratiGcd to peruse this
unique introduction to his scientific and learned
discourse. lie spoke as follows
"If party of travellers expecting to witness
an eruption of Nesuyius should be met BY dep
utation of magistrates and informed that, owing
not take place, but that instead of it they would
burn several Roman candles and a pn-wheel,
the reception of the gentlemen making such an
announcement might be respectful, but would
hardly be enthusiastic.
If n company of tourists had gathered from
many distant regions at the village of Niagara.
intending to inspect its illustrous waterfall and
should receive polite note regretting that the
cataract had met with an accident and would be
unable to perform, but happy to announce that
Engine Company Number five would crafty
them, in its place, by playing through two
inch hose with their unrivalled machine the en-
gine company might, perhaps, expect to be re-
ceived with temperate expressions of delight,
calm. If not cool, as contrasted with the recep-
tion which the body in question is in the habit
of anticipating.
Yet 1t would not be fair to reproach the mag
istrates or the fire company because thev could
not make the show of Nesuvius and Niagara If
the travellers had rather see the Roman candles
or the two-inch stream than nothing at all, it is
very proper and good natured thing on the
part of those worthy folk TO crafty them. The
more kindly among the disappointed visitors
would abstain from regrets and especially from
comparisons, and say with hearty goodwill,
Fire your pieces, most excellent Signorsl or,
Play away, number five!
If there is any possible moral or application
to be got from these supposed incidents, l shall
leave it to your ingenuity to discover it. Ifany
burst of volcanic flame for which YOU were look
ing has failed u meet your expecting eyes, and
in place of its coruscating column ofliquid fires,
its wre~ths of burning vapor shot up far into the
arching heavens, rising and spreading as it
scars until itwears the semblance of that mighty
pine tree to which Pliny the younger compared
the smoky column of Nesuvius; ii in the place
of that YOU must accept small display of pyro-
technics; If any great cataraos you had hoped
to look upon has failed to burst upon YOUR wait
ing Vision, and in place of its outspread glories,
first, the broad, calm, gentle flow coming from
deep reservoirs high up among the mountains,
then the swifter rush of the stream, and then
the flashes and the fierce eddies of the rapids,
and at last the long continuous overflow with all
the music of its almost interminable descent
and the rainbow painted on its mists if in the
place OF that you must be content with a small
show of artificial hydraulics, you know how to
be courteous and generous, and even thankful
for what must in the very face of it be as pure
and simple an act Of selt-immoaton as was ev-
er exhibited by the most unwilling candidate for
public office
Task your attention to an address written for
learned body, and not meant for general or
popular delivery. 1t is plain, prosaic discus
sion of an intellectual problem. These meetings
uIllS together, KNOW, many VINO would love
to be entertained, perhaps amused, and the
temptation is strong to sacrifice ones own iudg-
ment to secure their often demonstrative appro-
baton. They are right in asking for what plea
ses them, but the scholar must be pardonei if
on the rare occasions when he meets his fellows
1t is mainly to them that he addresses himself
The question l shall discuss belongs to the
primitive strata, SO to speak, of philosophy
The organic differences between man and man,
race and race-ditierences not merely external,
but running through the whole intellectual and
moral being-have hardly been studied at all,
except from.the most limited points Of view.
Yet on these probably depends great deal of
what is commonly attributed to circumstances,
OF to voluntary acts of the individual, in his in
tellectual, moral and eveh religious mode of BE-
ing. Men quarrel about their manner of re-
gardng truth, when it is mere impossibility,
from the structure of their minds, thar they can
in this improper state of development see the
truth under the same aspects. So venture to
hope that here lisa larger significance than might
at tirstSight seem in the discussion of one rela-
ton involving the difference between two class
es of minds"
Dr. Holmes then announced his subject as
embracing some of the Relations of Poetry and
Science, and the different organic tendencies of
the minds which find their natural element in
one or the other.