The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-11-28

Elsewhere we literary folk arc apt to be
such a common lot, with tendencies here
and there TO be a shabby lot; we arrive
from ell sorts of unexpected holes had
corners of the earth. remote. obscure;
and at the best we do 80 often come mp
out OF the ground; but at Boston We were
OF ascertained and noted origin, and good
part OF US dropped from the skies. In
stead Of holding horses before the doors
Of theaters; or Gaping verses at the
ploughtai or tramping over Europe with
nothing but 2 flute in the pocket; or
walking up to the Metropolis with no
luggage but the MS. Of a tragedy or Sleep
ing in doorwsys or under the arches OF
bridges; or serving as apotbecaries' prem
tices-we were good society from. the be-
ginning. 1 think this was none the worse
for us, and IL was vastly the better for
good society.
spectacle, and often Of so high lineage,
that to be a poet was not only. to be good
society, but almost TO be good family.
IL one names over the men who gave
Boston her supremacy in literature dur
ing that Unitarian barvest-time OF tie
old Puritanic seed -tiuie which was her
Augustan age, one names the people who
were and who had been socially first In
the city ever since the self-exile OF the
Tories at the time OF the Revolution. 40
say Prescott, Motley, Parkman, Lowell,
Norton, Higginson, Dana, Emerson,
Charming. was to say patriciau, in the
trusst and often the best sense, II not the
largest. Boston was small, bet these we're
OF her first citizens, and their primaey In
its way, was of the same quality as that
ssy of the chief families OF Venice. But
these name, can never have the effect for
the stranger that thew had for one 10
the manner born. say had, for / doubt
whether In Boston they still mean all
that they once meant, and that their
equivalents meant in science, in law, in
politics. The inost famous, II not the
greatest OF all the literary men Of
Boston, l have not mentioned with
them, for Longfsllow was not OF the
place, though by his sympathies
and relations he became of it.; and /
have not mentioned oliver Wendell
Holmes, because think his name would
come first into the resder's thought with
the suggestion of social quality In the
humanities. He was OF the brsminical
caste which his humorous recognition in
vited from its subjectivity In the New
England consciousness into the light
where all could know 1t and own IL, and
tlr. kA tAd ~ hA
patriciste OF Boston by all the most inti-
mate ties of life. For q long time for the
whole first period Of his work he stood
for that alone, its tastes, its prejudices,
Its foibles even, and when he came to
stand In his second period, for vastly, for
infinitely more and to make friends with
the whole race, as few men have ever done
1t was slways, / think, with q secret
shiver of doubt, q backward look OF long
ing and an eye askance. He was himself
perfectly aware OF this at times, and
would mark::his several misgivings with a
humorous sense of the situation. He
was essentially too kind to be OF mar
of less than. humanity, too gentle to be OF
the finest gentility. But such Limitations
as ne had we're In the direction l have
limited, or perhaps more than hinted; and
am by no means ready to make a mock
of them, a. it would be SO easy to to do
for some reasons that he has himself sug.
eested. 10 value Alright the affection
which the old BostonIsn had for Boston
one must conceive OF something like
| the patriotism of men in the times when
| a mans city was . mans country, some.
thing Athenian, something Florentine.
The war that nationalized us libearted
this love to the whole country, put Its
fret tenderness remained still for Boston,
and I suppose q Bostonian still thinks oi
himself first as Bostonisn and then az
| an American, in a way that no Ntw
Yorker could deal with himself. The
r.ch historical background digniHes and
sanobles the intense public spirit OF the
place, and gives II . kind of personality
From Oliver Wendell Holmes, by VIII
liam. Dean Howells, in Hsrpers' Magazine
| sor Decem Der.