Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works

Address on the Anniver

ritish West Indies.[1]-

ntents: The Poet.-Ex

ure.-Politics.-Nomin

blication of Poems.-S

o addresses are to be

pectively, of the las

ly, "Nature, Addresse

ellan

t of the universe. He believed in American institutions, he trusted the future of the American race. In the address first mentioned in the contents, of this chapter, delivered

f society, and which seem to impose the alternative to resist or to avoid it.... It is for Englishmen to consider, not for us; we only say, Let us live in America, too thankful for our want of feudal institutions.... If only the men are employed in cons

and more closely cemented from year to year, as the wealth of the new world burrows its way among the privileged classes of the old world. It is a poor ambition for the possessor of suddenly acquired wealth to have it appropriated as a feeder of the impaired fortunes of a deteriorated household, with a family record of which its representatives are unworthy. The plain and

groes in the British West India Islands. This discourse would not have satisfied the Abolitionists. It was too general in

*

are many sayings in the Essay called "The Poet," which are me

ttests that the birth of a poet is

bbles of the tribes with each other, or with their neighbors, compared to the birth of that poet to whom we ow

verywhere, as Emerson tells hi

ung by clouds, or sown with stars, wherever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets into celestial space, wherever is danger and awe and love,

marks of having been written in a less tranquil state of mind

unds, which I dearly love, and allow the most to the will of man; but I have set my heart on honesty in this chapte

, but is well worth the trouble of reading. A few se

or to contend with it. Somewhat is possible of resistance and of pers

minently endowed with insight and virtue, that they have been unanimously sal

youth who owed nothing to fortune, and who was hanged at the Tyburn of his nation, who, by the pure quality of his nature, shed an epic splendor around the

s," Emerson gives us hi

ll sorts of gentlemen knock at the door: but whenever used in strictness, and with any emphasis, the name will be found to point at original energy.-The famous gentlemen of Europe have been of this strong type: Saladin, Sapor, the Cid, Julius Caesar, Scipio, Alexander, Pericles, and the lordliest personages. They sat very carelessly in their chairs, and were to

peak of woman in language which seem

illustration of many of the qualities which go to the Emersonian ideal of good manners, a typical American, equal to his po

nice distinctions and some hints which ma

ngs his poem; the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, a gem; the sailor,

a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.-Fruits are acceptable gifts, becau

e who has had the ill-luck to be served by you. It is a very onerous busines

e does unquestionably love the tingl

in the previous Essay by the same name, and others which we have passed

f the formula with wh

ation of a thought, a

water and gas. The wor

ce is forever escaping

tho

entence with which we

sa

nner: it is a symbol of our modern aims and endeavors,-of our condensation and acceleration of objects; but nothi

erne would be the best authority to consult. Poets are fond of that branch of science

ime, or when the Essay on "Politics" was written, some years before the great war which changed the aspects of the country in so many respects,

the persons whom the so-called popular party propose to him as representatives of these liberties. They have not at heart the ends which give to the name of democracy what hope and virtue are in it. The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless; it is not loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends; but is destructive only out of hatred and selfishness. On the other side, the conservative party, composed of the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the population, is

rate satisfaction in the Essay entitled "Nominalism and Realism." But there are many discursive remarks in it worth gathering and considering. We

e any doubt on which side were all his prej

od deal of reason. General ideas are essences. They are our gods:

them as a rack of clouds, or a fleet of ripples which the wind drives over the surface of the water. But this is flat rebellion. Na

n sense, his delicate appreciation of the ridiculous, too deep for laughter, as Wordsworth's thoughts were too deep for tears, in the midst of a band of enthu

d a new temple, some would rebuild the old church, some would worship in the fields and woods, if at all; one was for a phalanstery, where all should live in common, and another was meditating the plan and place of the wigwam where he was to dwell apart in the proud independence of the woodchuck and the musquash. Emerson had the largest and kindliest sympathy with their ideal

that God made yeast as well as dough, and loves fermentation just as dearly as he does vegetation; that fermentation develops the saccharine element in the grain, and makes it more palatable and more digestible. No, they wish the pure wheat, and will die but it shall not ferment. Stop, dear nature, these innocent advances of thine; let us scotch these ever-rolling wheels! Others attacked the system of agriculture, the use of animal manures in farming; and the tyranny of man over brute nature; these abuses polluted his

ous Brook Farm experiment, which was a pr

imited confidence, this among others to which the idealizing impulse derived from h

lecture we ar

whether these who have energy will not prefer their choice of superiority and power in the world to the humble certainties of the association; whether such a retreat does not promise to become an asylum to

d him; he knew human nature too well to b

g courses of lectures in Boston and other cities, and

s in the business which interested his distant friend. He was not fond of figur

xacted much time and attention,-more than he could spare,-is made evident by his gentle complaint

en printed in "The Dial." It is only their being brought together for the first time which belongs especially to this period, and we can leave them f

a second visit to England, which will