THE STORM.

FROM "SNOW-BOUND."

Snow-bound is regarded as Whittier's master-piece, as a descriptive and reminiscent poem. It is a New England Fireside Idyl, which in its faithfulness recalls, "The Winter Evening," of Cowper, and Burns' "Cotter's Saturday Night"; but in sweetness and animation, it is superior to either of these. Snow-bound is a faithful description of a winter scene, familiar in the country surrounding Whittier's home in Connecticut. The complete poem is published in illustrated form by Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., by whose permisssion this extract is here inserted.

The following poem was written on hearing of Daniel Webster's course in supporting the "Compromise Measure," including the "Fugitive Slave Law". This speech was delivered in the United States Senate on the 7th of March, 1850, and greatly incensed the Abolitionists. Mr. Whittier, in common with many New Englanders, regarded it as the certain downfall of Mr. Webster. The lines are full of tender regret, deep grief and touching pathos.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

POET, ESSAYIST AND HUMORIST.

HIS distinguished author, known and admired throughout the English speaking world for the rich vein of philosophy, good fellowship and pungent humor that runs through his poetry and prose, was bor in Cambridge, Massachussetts, August 29th, 1809, and died in Boston, October 27th 1894, at the ripe old age of eighty-five-the "last leaf on the tree" of that famous group, Whittier, Longfellow, Lowell, Emerson, Bryant, Poe, Willis, Hawthorne, Richard Henry Dana, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller and others who laid the foundation of our national literature, and with all of whom he was on intimate terms as a co-laborer at one time or another.

Holmes graduated at Harvard College in 1829. His genial disposition made him a favorite with his fellows, to whom some of his best early poems are dedicated. One of his classmates said of him :-"He made you feel like you were the best fellow in the world and he was the next best." Benjamin Pierce, the astronomer, and Rev. Samuel F. Smith, the author of our National Hymn, were his class-mates and have been wittily described in his poem "The Boys." Dr. Holmes once humorously said that he supposed "the three people whose poems were best known were himself, one Smith and one Brown. As for himself, everybody knew who he was; the one Brown was author of 'I love to Steal a While Away,' and the one Smith was author of My Country 'Tis of Thee.""

After graduation Holmes studied medicine in the schools of Europe, but returned to finish his course and take his degree at Harvard. For nine years he was Professor of Physiology and Anatomy at Dartmouth College, and in 1847 he accepted a similar position in Harvard University, to which his subsequent professional labors were devoted. He also published several works on medicine, the last being a volume of medical essays, issued in 1883.

Holmes' first poetic publication was a small volume published in 1836, including three poems which still remain favorites, namely, "My Aunt," "The height of the Ridiculous" and "The Last Leaf on the Tree." Other volumes of his poems were issued in 1846, 1850, 1861, 1875 and 1880.

Dr. Holmes is popularly known as the poet of society, this title attaching because most of his productions were called forth by special occasions. About one hundred of them were prepared for his Harvard class re-unions and his fraternity (Phi Beta Kappa) social and anniversary entertainments. The poems which will preserve his fame, however, are those of a general interest, like "The Deacon's Masterpiece,'

in which the Yankee spirit speaks out, "The Voiceless," "The Living Temple," "The Chambered Nautilus," in which we find a truly exalted treatment of a lofty theme; "The Last Leaf on the Tree," which is a remarkable combination of pathos and humor; "The Spectre Pig" and "The Ballad of an Oysterman," showing to what extent he can play in real fun. In fact, Dr. Holmes was a many-sided man, and equally presentable on all sides. It has been truthfully said of him, "No other American versifier has rhymed so easily and so gracefully. We might further add, no other in his personality, has been more universally esteemed and beloved by those who knew him.

As a prose writer Holmes was equally famous. His "Autocrat at the Breakfast Table," "Professor at the Breakfast Table" and "Poet at the Breakfast Table," published respectively in 1858, 1859 and 1873, are everywhere known, and not to have read them is to have neglected something important in literature. The "Autocrat" is especially a masterpiece. An American boarding house with its typical characters forms the scene. The Autocrat is the hero, or rather leader, of the sparkling conversations which make up the threads of the book. Humor, satire and scholarship are skilfully mingled in its graceful literary formation. In this work will also be found "The Wonderful One Horse Shay" and "The Chambered Nautilus," two of the author's best poems..

Holmes wrote two novels, "Elsie Venner and "The Guardian Angel," which in their romance rival the weirdness of Hawthorne and show his genius in this line of literature. "Mechanism in Thought and Morals" (1871), is a scholarly essay on the function of the brain. As a biographer Dr. Holmes has also given us excellent memoirs of John Lothrop Motley, the historian, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Among his later products may be mentioned "A Mortal Antipathy," which appeared in 1885, and "One Hundred Days in Europe" (1887).

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Holmes was one of the projectors of "The Atlantic Monthly," which was started in 1857, in conjunction with Longfellow, Lowell and Emerson, Lowell being its editor. It was to this periodical that the "Autocrat" and "The Professor at the Breakfast Table" were contributed. These papers did much to secure the ent fame of this magazine. It is said that its name was suggested by Holmes, and he is also credited with first attributing to Boston the distinction of being the "Hub of the solar system," which he, with a mingling of humor and local pride, declared was "located exactly at the Boston State House."

Unlike other authors, the subject of this sketch was very much himself at all times and under all conditions. Holmes the man, Holmes the professor of physiology, the poet, philosopher, and essayist, were all one and the same genial soul. His was the most companionable of men, whose warm flow of fellowship and good cheer the winters of four score years and five could not chill,-"The last Leaf on the Tree," whose greenness the frost could not destroy. He passed away at the age of eighty-five still verdantly young in spirit, and the world will smile for many generations good naturedly because he lived. Such lives are a benediction to the race. Finally, to know Holmes' writings well, is to be made acquainted with a singularly lovable nature. The charms of his personality are irresistible. Among the poor, among the literary, and among the society notables, he was ever the most welcome of guests. His geniality, humor, frank, hearty manliness, generosity and readiness

to amuse and be amused, together with an endless store of anecdotes, his tact and union of sympathy and originality, make him the best of companions for an hour or for a lifetime. His friendship is generous and enduring. All of these qualities of mind and heart are felt as the reader runs through his poems or his prose writings. We feel that Holmes has lived widely and found life good. It is precisely for this reason that the reading of his writings is a good tonic. It sends the blood more courageously through the veins. After reading Holmes, we feel that life is easier and simpler and a finer affair altogether and more worth living for than we had been wont to regard it.

The following paragraph published in a current periodical shortly after the death of Mr. Holmes throws further light upon the personality of this distinguished

author:

"Holmes himself must have harked back to forgotten ancestors for his brightness. His father was a dry as dust Congregational preacher, of whom some one said that he fed his people sawdust out of a spoon. But from his childhood Holmes was bright and popular. One of his college friends said of him at Harvard, that "he made you think you were the best fellow in the world, and he was the next best."

Dr. Holmes was first and foremost a conversationalist. He talked even on paper. There was never the dullness of the written word. His sentences whether in prose or verse were so full of color that they bore the charm of speech.

One of his most quoted poems "Dorothy Q," is full of this sparkle, and carries a suggestion of his favorite theme: