Dr. Holmes of getting himself
ready for the talk at the dinner as for a lecture. But I
soon found that was utterly unjust. He was always as good
if a new subject were brought up, which he could not have
expected and which was wholly out of the range of his experience.
His stream was abundant and sparkling and clear, whenever
you might tap the cask. "Take another glass of wine, Judge,"
he said to one of the members who was starting near midnight
to drive twenty miles in the cold rain of autumn, "Take another
glass of wine; it will shorten the distance and double the
prospect."

Dr. Holmes and I were born on the same day of the year, although
I was seventeen years behind him. I sent to the delightful
Autocrat the following note which reached him on the morning
of his eightieth birthday.

WORCESTER, Aug. 28th, 89.

_My dear Dr. Holmes:_ Let me add my salutation to those
of so many of your countrymen, and so many who are not your
countrymen, save in the republic of letters, on your birthday.
You may well be amused to think how many political reputations
have risen and set during your long and sunny reign. I was
led to think of this by the fact that my own birthday also
comes Aug. 29th. But alas!

Consules sunt quotannis et novi proconsules,
Solus aut Rex aut Poeta non quotannis nascitur.

Of Governors and Senators we have an annual crop. But Autocrats
and Poets come but once in eighty years. The asteroids must
not envy the Georgium Sides his orbit of fourscore years,
but rather rejoice in his beneficent and cheerful light,
and in the certainty that it will keep on shining so long
as there is a star in the sky.

I am
Faithfully yours
GEO. F. HOAR.

I got the following pleasant reply:

BEVERLY FARMS, MASS., August 30, 1889.

_My dear Mr. Hoar,_

Your note of felicitation upon my having reached that "length
of days" which Wisdom, if I remember correctly, holds in her
right hand, was the first I received and is the first I answer.
Briefly, of course, but with heartfelt sincerity, for I hardly
thought that you whose hand is on the wheel that governs the
course of the Nation, would find time to remember so small
an event as my birthday.

You cannot doubt that it was a great pleasure to me to read
your name at the bottom of a page containing so much that
it was kind in you to write and most agreeable for me to read.

Please accept my warmest and most grateful acknowledgments,
and believe