The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-07-03

III du ODll4ue anu tduSoutldl oOit VI
way, so as not to look like down right
fattery." And the Autocrat SAYS: II
purr very loud over good honest
letter that says pretty things to me-"
Again: Il have always been struck
with the fact that man bears super
latives about his own productions with
wonderful fortitude."
He sometimes INDUCED in these
superlatives in writing to others of
their books, and many of these let
ters are given. OF Sir Launfal he
writes to Lowell: "It is little book,
it is thin; there is not much more
thickness to it than to a consecrated
wafer, but one may get more out of it
than from many whole loaf. Many
parts are eminently poetical, and the
whole story is pure, beautiful, en-
tire conception"
OF the Essay on Dante he says on
receiving it: There is no need of my
praising such piece of criticism as
this, and I speak of this especially as
the most elaborate, the most pro-
found, the most learned, and the
most subtitle, where all are remark
able for these qualities in various de-
grees,-I say there is no need of my
praising masterpiece like this" To
Whittier he always writes warmly
OF the poem Garrison" he says: "It
has the strenuous tone, the grave
music of your highest mood, which
is, l believe, the truest and best ex-
preston of the New England inner
life which it has ever found, at least
in versifed utterance." To Mrs.
Stowe and Elizabeth Phelps Ward
he also writes with great affection
and admiration of their work.
DR.. Holmes is so much better
known as literary than as medical
man that his services to the profess
sion are sometimes overlooked. 1t is
true he did not practice medicine
many years, but he was professor
in Harvard Medical College for the
greater part of his active life, occupy
ing as he put it himself, not chair
only but a whole settee, SO varied
at first were his duties.
For thirty-five years he lectured
there, and always with great success.
He also wrote quite extensively on
medical subjects, and his essay on
"Puerperal Fever" was most inn
portant contribution to medical
knowledge, and doubtless saved
many lives. He was very proud of
this piece of life-saving labor as he
called it, and referred to it with great
satisfaction in his later life as one of
the things that it had been well
worth living to do. The volume
called "Medical Essays" contains
some of his most brilliant writing;
it is packed with the wit and wisdom
of his best years.
One of his pet aversions was
homeopathy, and he wasin the thick
est part of the fight during the early
years of what he called "the pseudo
science"
DIR. Holmes had his little quarrel
with the photographers, no one of
whom was able to make likeness
which suited him. In one of his
early poems he says:
Mature sometimes makes us up
OF such sad odds and ends,
1t really might be quite as well
flushed up among ones friends"
vet in his own case he was not quite
willing to have it so hushed up, but
continued to have pictures taken to
the end, and to deride them. He was
very like the average mortal in this,
as in many other things, the dear
genial doctor and poet.
These are some of his expressions
about the portraits: "The photo
graph is fair portrait enough, but
l do not think my face is fattering
likeness of myself"
81 am very glad you liked my
photograph; it is certainly less disa-
greeable than some l have seen-but
nature did not ask my advice about
my features, and l take what was
given me, and am glad it is no
worse"
81 have always considered my face
a convenience rather than an orna-
ment." SIT is only fair to say that l
do not pride myself particularly on
any show that my portraits make.
That is not my fault, however, and l
look the camera in the face as good
naturedly as if it were going to make
an Adonis of me-" Every ugly but
horribly true" he said of one of his
pictures, as Mrs. Lincoln is said to
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