The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1896-05-24

ehdh uoeS TIE uIlIOIlufldte WTltef VI thio
memoir. | know full well that readers
have been expecting to find the pages
of this volume sparkling with the hith-
erto unpublished gems of DR.. Holmes
famous talk; they have looked for
choice new bits of his shrewd wisdom,
for some of his marvellous SMILES which
they have never heard before for aneC-
dotes embalmig his exquisite wit They
nave expected a fish-nay, q miraculous
draught of many fishes-but the net
comes almost empty. All, disappointed
reader, your disappointment at not re-
ceiving these things is nothing in COM
parison with mine at not being able to
furnish them to you. But they do not
exlst-they have sunk away and disap-
peared like the raindrops which fall in
the ocean; they are recoverable. No!
save the letters contained. there is abso-
iutely nothing left of Dr. Holmes which
Is not formal print under the protection
OF the laws of copyright"
10 those who know DR.. Holmes even
tolerably we'll, or had heard of him ia
mil1arly and constantly, it does not seem
strange that there was in his case no
inner life, such as some famous men
nave lived. He was always an open
book, so much was he before the pub
lie, and so genial and generous in inter-
course with mankind. His writings, too,
nave been so largely personal and so
directly for the people that there was
not much that could have been held in
reserve. even If there had been a Bos-
well watching him in his private ways
and walks. 1t is given out also that he
disliked letter writing. and was a poor
correspondent in the sense that he was
neglectful. But more than all, he was
busy man. who had more pressing
calls than almost any other notable of
his time. ..
That he found the writing of poems
ana addresses exhausting is amply
proved. To write lyric he declared was
equivalent to having fit. Every note
that is liable to be printed means drop
of blood from my veins and a spark of
nervous force from my ganglions," he
wrote to a lady who begged something
from him twenty-five years ago. my
hand aches with answering all sorts of
invitations to do all sorts of things"
Al! this time he was regularly employed
IN lecturing, trying position. II am so
tired after my long winter course"
writes he to Charles Eliot Norton, that
would give more for a few weeks Of
lotus-eating than all the honors of the
world'-this in 1876. A little later he
writes from Beverly Farms of the happy
rest when he has the harness off and is
standing for month or two in the
STALL"
AS a rule the grace Of his putting off"
people and things was almost marvel
Gus In delicacy. He promised with real
purpose to perform. il performance
should be found possible. In letter to
". Hale, who claimed an article from
MIN, he wrote: Say that you have the
promise of an article and it will be like
a. signed check with the amount left
blank. Like an Easter egg it will bear
| any brilliant hue of promise Break if
and you have the usual albuminous con-
tents. Let us leave it then unwritten for
the present, and think how much more
precious Is an infinite series of unde-
nned expectations than any paltry
performance Of transient fruition."
could anything be more charming than
tnis: The genial glow of his natural
kindness and gentleness never wholly
went out upon his hearth
10 younger writer's, with or without
names in the world he was the most
gracious of all friends. To one who had
really bothered him he could NOT
prlng himself to write anything harsher
Imam this: Il will not criticise YOUR
IIhes' ana then adds in what is al
most tone of anguish: II do not see
why you should ask me to-"
ana right here is a fit place to speak
OF the"blind" side of Dr. Holmes. a side
mat every man of the world has. We
mean MS tendency to pleasantries, or in
pam words, Joking. OF necessity from
ment, he never could have been coarse of
speech any more than he could have been
ruue IN pehatvor. But he joked from his
earnest boyhood. His very outfit for
pr i3 medicine in the country, the
Uiu..d,shloned &C. spring chaise that
th in uounclng It's slight occupant along
the turnpike, was made, unconsciously
no oouDt. the basis of poem that
compelled the whole world to smile
1T. dwight says that he was constantly
making puns in the medical class. and
amons ms friends. He dubbed with
nuIIlor ana the oldest of all conceits
We're liable to come out in exnressi"n
at any moment. This tendency he him
sell perfectly well understood and was
IN genuine distrust of it, All through
LIS carrier writings it is plain that he
asaieu itS possible results and fought
against the spell that was upon him.
Inc declaration that he never dared to
write as funny as he could was a truth
Whlcn mad tremendous meaning to
MN. On many page in the Atlantic
we We're told, of old time, about the
nesu OF asylums for aged and decayed
PuhsterS. 1t ne wrote pages of puns he
always held them UP as horrible exam
PIES or fatal tendency In one place
ne points out that the audience cares
hothing for him with the cap and bells
wneh the sad and mysterious prince
w Mi.h the long black cloak comes upon
A., ~ PtSolOlt never laughs,
And upon another page he declares that
me Wit VIII always be found at the tail
oI the procession" Indeed F,pictetus
never gave sounder advice about never
moving to laughter than did DR.
holmes. Among his literary friends This
was often theme for discussion and
on one occasion Whittier declared that
Ihese occasional poems) would he
1atal to any man but Holiness -
But what could the man with infiinita
Eooo nature do but respond to such calls
When ne could meet every occasion with
spirlted poem in note of perfect sym
patny? There is something really pa
tnetlc, as well as very wise. in one of
Holmes letters to Lowell on this sub
lect written in 1865. After referring to
poem read at the dinner to Farra g,It
ne says 1T seems to me have done
almost enough of this sort OF work: too
much, many of my friends will saw. ner
maps. But 1t has been as much from
GOOD nature as from vanity that have
so often got up and tangled NV small
string OF bells. / hold it to be q. gift of a
certain value to be able to give that
slight passing spasm of pleasure which
few ringing couplets cause. read at
the right moment. Though thew are for
the most part to poetry what the beating
OF a drum or the tingling of triangIe
is to the harmony of band, vet il is NOT
everybody who can get their limited
significance out of these humble instru
ments. / think, however, that / have
made myself almost too common by NV
readiness to oblige people on all sorts Of
occasions At any rate, many of the
trifies. which served their turn with the