The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-05-24

MEN what is known as genial in lit
w erature can never get too much
Y u of Oliver Wendell Holmes
Whether it be something new
from his own pen or something new writ
ten about him by an observant friend o.
an sppreciative critic there is ALWAYS
welcome for it. For that reason the two
volumes of his Life and Letters" by Johr
T. Morse Jr. Will find wide circle of read
ers ready to receive them with an eager ex
pectancy of delight.
The author prefaces his work with al
expression of fear that the reader will fine
in them too much of memoir and too littI,
OF correspondence. To this he pleads il
confession and avoidance the fact that t.
Dr. Holmes letter writing was an irksom.
task and that except to Motley and tc
Lowell during their absences in Europe b,
very rarely wrote spontaneously in the way
OF friendship. As consequence there are
paratively few of his letters of genera
interest and he has left far less wheat fol
those who CLEAN after him than any other
eminent literary man of his time.
DR.. Holmes judgment OF the work OF
blographers was not encouraging to those
who have undertaken the task for him.
II should like to see any mans biography
with corrections and emendations by his
ghost. We don't know each Others
secrets quite so well as we hatter ourselves
We do.
This remark OF DR.. Holmes must not
prejudice the reader against Mr.. Morse S
work. While Of course it would be very
interesting TO have the work subjected to
the corrections of wit so subtle and so
penetrating as that OF the ghost of the
Autocrat must be, yet the author has done
his task so well and with such true sym-
pathy with the subject operated on,
nothing short of that ethereal wit can
undertake to amend it. The work in fact
is in every respect a most worthy addi-
ton to the literature of American
biography, and despite the author 8
modest disclaimer of having nothing new
to tell, gives us a much better conception
than we have had before of what manner
OF man DR.. Holmes was.
1t is a striking characteristic of DR..
Holmes that while both as medical and
as literary man he devoted much study
to the subject of heredity he paid little at
tention 20 his own genealogy. He was as
sured that he came of the best New Eng
land stock and to him that was so suffi-
Gent he cared not TO concern himself
about the matter any further. 1t appears
from the records, however, that the first
of his family to come to this country
settled in Connecticut in 1856, and that
from that time on they held such posi-
lions IN the community as to justify DR..
Holmes in regarding himself as one of
that aristocracy of blood. breeding and
culture which in the last generation COM
pletely dominated New England and still
gives the tone and color to its society.
That DR.. Holmes was an aristocrat in
his thought and feelings is known to every
reader of his writings. AS the Autocrat of
the Breakfast Table he says frankly: 81 60
for the man with family portraits against
the one with a 20-cent daguerreOtvpe
unless l find out that the latter is the bet
ter Of the two. [ go for the man who in
herits family traditions and the cumula-
tive traditions of at least four or five
generations" These feelings, however,
did not prevent him from recognizing the
better man with the 20-cent daguerreotype
when he found him. In a letter written in
1855, commenting on the changes in Bos-
ton society produced by the fall of old
families and the rise of new ones, he says
We have such cases here. some of them really
pleasant to look upon as illustrating the fair
chance everybody runs here. e., ~ who lived
with US seventeen years ago and whom you
have seen at Pittsfed, has a house on Pink
ney street hard by and is now at her country
seat few miles out of town. The sons of .
deceased citizen go to our fashionable assem-
blies whose father l remember "a boy thai
lived out" BIB is AA in point of wealth and
stylish residence. You remember how he be-
gan. like it. like to see worthless rich peo-
pie have to yield their places to deserving
poor ones who, beginning with sixpence OF
nothing come out at last in Beacon street and
have the sun come into their windows all the
year round.
Another feature of Dr. Holmes charac-
ter, which was manifest in his life and is
portrayed wildly in his letters, was his
single hearted devotion to Boston. In q
country where nearly half the people re-
move their residence from one State to
another and where nearly every one travels
more or less, he lived content where he
was brought up. He passed two years OF
his youth in Europe studying medicine,
and in his old age he went there again for
three months, but otherwise he lived all
his years and almost all his days in or
near Boston. It was no exaggeration to
him to speak of the State House as the
"Hub of the solar system" He was
doubtless proud of the great Republic that
ST. etched westward to the Pacific Ocean,
but he regarded all of it west ct Charles
River as being simply background to
Boston and never at any time paid much
attention to it.
The letters begin with some written by
Holmes while student at Harvard to a
friend, Phineas Barnes, whom he had
known at school at Andoyer. In one OF
these he declares that he has changed but
little in becoming a Harvard man, and
goes on to say: II wear my gllls erect and
30 not talk sentiment. l comb my hair
a little more carefully and button my
coat little tighter. l smoke most de-
youtly and sing most unmusically; have
written poetry for an annual. am totally
undecided what TO study-it will be law or
Ihveic. for / cannot say l think the trade
Of authorship quite adapted to this meri-
dian"
In another of these college letters, he
bitteriv laments the lack of female society
and draws no pleasant picture OF the Cam
bridge girls of those days. He writes TO
his friend:
If there was girl in this neigh borh m;