n Posey, a delicious creation in Dr. Holmes' best manner.
These two prove excellent foils for the stronger personages of the
story, and afford much amusement. "A Mortal Antipathy" is less of a
romance than the others. The reader will be interested in the
description of a boat race which is exquisitely done.

In biographical writing, we have two books from Dr. Holmes, one a
short life of Emerson, and the other a memoir of Motley. Though
capable of writing a great biography like Trevelyan's Macaulay or
Lockhart's Scott, the doctor has not yet done so. Of the two which he
has written, the Motley is the better one. In neither, however, has
the author arrived at his own standard of what a biography should be.

Mechanism in thought and morals,--a Phi-Beta-Kappa address, delivered
at Harvard in 1870,--is one of Dr. Holmes' most luminous contributions
to popular science. It is ample in the way of suggestion and the
presentation of facts, and though scientific in treatment, the
captivating style of the essayist relieves the paper of all heaviness.
A brief extract from this fine, thoughtful work may be given here:--

"We wish to remember something in the course of
conversation. No effort of the will can reach it; but we
say, 'wait a minute, and it will come to me,' and go on
talking. Presently, perhaps some minutes later, the idea we
are in search of comes all at once into the mind, delivered
like a prepaid bundle, laid at the door of consciousness
like a foundling in a basket. How it came there we know not.
The mind must have been at work groping and feeling for it
in the dark; it cannot have come of itself. Yet all the
while, our consciousness was busy with other thoughts."

The literary reputation of Dr. Holmes will rest on the three great
books which have made his name famous on two continents. Thackeray had
passed his fortieth year before he produced his magnificent novel.
Holmes, too, was more than forty when he began that unique and
original book, "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," one of the most
thoughtful, graceful, and able investigations into philosophy and
culture ever written. We have the author in every mood, playful and
pathetic, witty and wise. Who can ever forget the young fellow
called John, our Benjamin Franklin, the Divinity student, the
school-mistress, the landlady's daughter, and the poor relation? What
characterization is there here! The delightful