was printed for the first time, and sprang at a bound into
national esteem. And in this first book, there was included that
little poem, "The Last Leaf," better work than which Holmes has never
done. It is in a vein which he has developed much since then. Grace,
humor, pathos, and happiness of phrase and idea, are all to be found
in its delicious stanzas:--

I saw him once before,
As he passed by the door,
And again
The pavement stones resound,
As he totters o'er the ground
With his cane.

They say that in his prime,
Ere the pruning-knife of Time
Cut him down,
Not a better man was found
By the Crier on his round
Through the town.

But now he walks the streets,
And he looks at all he meets,
Sad and wan;
And he shakes his feeble head,
That it seems as if he said,
"They are gone!"

The mossy marbles rest
On the lips that he has prest
In their bloom,
And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb.

My grandmamma has said--
Poor old lady, she is dead
Long ago--
That he had a Roman nose,
And his cheek was like a rose
In the snow.

But now his nose is thin,
And it rests upon his chin
Like a staff;
And a crook is in his back,
And a melancholy crack
In his laugh.

I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
But the old three-cornered hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so queer!

And if I should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring,
Let them smile as I do now,
At the old forsaken bough
Where I cling.

In 1838, Doctor Holmes accepted his first professorial position, and
became professor of anatomy and physiology at Dartmouth. Two years
later, he married, and took up the practice of medicine in Boston. In
1847, he returned to his old love, accepting the Parkman professorship
of anatomy and physiology, in the Medical School at Harvard. While
engaged in teaching, he prepared for publication several important
books and reports relating to his profession, and his papers in the
various medical journals attracted great attention by their freshness,
clearness, and originality. But it is not as a medical man that Doctor
Holmes ma