the Quaker Whittier--minstrel and prophet at
once--into the thick of the strife. Then it could be seen that the
cause of eternal justice was not to be confounded with the vagaries of
half-crazed agitators who were bent on curing all human ills by moral
suasion and bran bread. The thunder of cannon cleared the atmosphere.
The querulous voices of sectaries were hushed. The hearts of the loyal
North throbbed as one heart. There was but one cry, and it was "Union
and Liberty."

In a high sense this was a decisive period in the life of Holmes. From
the outbreak of the war he took an enthusiastic part as a patriot for
the preservation of the Union. His eldest son, now a Justice of the
Supreme Court of Massachusetts, went out with the volunteers as a
captain, and the father's "Hunt" for him after a battle is well
remembered by readers of the _Atlantic_. At the time when the bravest
of all classes were going forward to form new regiments and to fill up
the shattered lines of the older ones, his lyrics came to the souls of
loyal men with thrills of exultation. No man in those gloomy days
could read them without tears, I have seen suppressed sobs and eyes
glistening in tear-mist when they were sung in public assemblies. The
people of this land have had no such time of heartache, of alternate
dread and solemn joy, since the Revolution. When the fate of a nation
was in suspense, when death had claimed a member from almost every
family, and when the bitter struggle was to be fought out man to man,
the phrases we might idly read in time of peace had a new and
startling meaning. The words flashed in all eyes and set all hearts on
fire. These songs of the war by Holmes will take their place with the
grand and touching ode of Lowell, and with the stately and triumphal
"Laus Deo!" of Whittier.

The most perfect of Holmes's smaller poems are probably those that
appeared in the "Autocrat." "The Chambered Nautilus" is a fortunate
conception, wrought with exquisite art. Equally striking is "Sun and
Shadow," a poem which brings me delightful associations, as I saw it
while the ink was still wet upon the page where it was written.

There is no need of dwelling upon his comic poems, such as the logical
catastrophe of the "One-Horse Shay," as they are fully appreciated, so
much so that they have doubtless led to the undervaluing of his more
serious efforts.

He who saw Dr. Holmes twenty years ago at leisure in his library will
not soon forg