the midst of a life singularly crowded with duties, he has always found time to hold out a hand to the man below him. It is safe to say that within the last twenty-five years no fewer than five thousand young American poets have handsomely availed themselves of Dr. Holmes' amiability, and sent him copies of their first book. And I honestly believe that Dr. Holmes has written to each of these immortals a note full of the keenest appreciation and the wisest counsel. I have seen a score of such letters from his busy pen, and shall I confess it? I have one in my own possession?"

On his seventy-fifth anniversary (1884), the "Critic," one of our ablest literary journals, gave pages to offerings both in prose and poetry to the popular author; Arnold, Gosse, Gilder, Hale, Whittier, Curtis, and many, many more sent contributions.

For almost ten years since that memorable "Breakfast," Dr. Holmes has worked on, publishing a volume of poems in 1880, Lives of Motley and of Emerson, his "Mortal Antipathy" in 1886, keeping all the time the kindness and bouyancy of youth.

Since 1870, he has lived on the north side of Beacon Street, his windows looking out upon the Charles River and toward the University with which he has been identified nearly all his life. His library, on the second floor of his brownstone house, with bocks on every side, is a place long to

be remembered. On the wall hangs a picture of her whom he has immortalized in "Dorothy Q."

As he sits by the open fire, and talks to the young Harvard student who has come with me to his home, talks so cheerfully and sensibly of poetry and authorship and daily living, I can but wish all the Harvard students were present to hear him.

Dr. Holmes spends each summer with his daughter, Mrs. Turner Sargent, at Beverly Farms, near the ocean. In 1882 he resigned his Harvard professorship, and now holds the position of Professor Emeritus. When he said good-by to his class, they presented him with a "Loving Cup," with these words engraved upon it: "Love bless thee, joy crown thee, God speed thy career." The following year, the medical profession of New York City gave him a complimentary dinner at Delmonico's, where addresses were made by Hon. Wm. M. Evarts, George William Curtis, and others.

Dr. Holmes is Vice-President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Honorary Member of the American Philosophical Society, and member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He has adorned every branch of literature which he has entered, by his scholarship, his genuineness, and his originality. May it be long before

"By life's decaying fire

His fingers sweep the stringless lyre."

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

IF you would have a beautiful code of morals in

fine setting of terse English, buy Emerson's works. If you would have a condensed library in polished, rich vocabulary, if you would have the learning of ages ready at your hand, buy Lowell's books.

It is not often that a poet, a critic, and a diplomat are found in the same person, and that person a man who dares to be in the front rank in an unpopular cause; who believes in human brotherhood:

66
"Who deems

That every hope which rises and grows broad
In the world's heart, by ordered impulse streams
From the great heart of God.

"God wills, man hopes: in common souls
Hope is but vague and undefined,

Till from the poet's tongue the message rolls
A blessing to his kind.

"It may be glorious to write

Thoughts that shall glad the two or three

High souls, like those far stars that come in sight
Once in a century; —