. American lands and letters. de markings upon his mental camera whichnever left the young mans mind. They talkabout Henry VII. Chapel of Westminster, hesays in a letter of 1835 ; t would make a verypretty pigeon-house for Milan Cathedral. Suchcomparisons, which carry a tale in them, runthrough all those early letters. In the spring of 1838 he is at home — a doctor— with his sign out; quick, keen, observant ;perhaps too boy-like in aspect to impress elderlypeople, and loving a ^^ horse and chaise then —and always — better than a sick-room. In 1838 hewas made Professor at Dartmouth ; had gained
. American lands and letters. de markings upon his mental camera whichnever left the young mans mind. They talkabout Henry VII. Chapel of Westminster, hesays in a letter of 1835 ; t would make a verypretty pigeon-house for Milan Cathedral. Suchcomparisons, which carry a tale in them, runthrough all those early letters. In the spring of 1838 he is at home — a doctor— with his sign out; quick, keen, observant ;perhaps too boy-like in aspect to impress elderlypeople, and loving a ^^ horse and chaise then —and always — better than a sick-room. In 1838 hewas made Professor at Dartmouth ; had gainedpraise for medical essays; and at that time orthereabout had written upon the contagious char-acter of puerperal fever, in a way that gave him PROFESSOR HOLMES. 341 permanent and distinguished place among thedoctors who put brains into their work. In 1840he married ; and some six or seven years latercame to his appointment as Professor of Anatomyin Harvard University, which he held continu-ously for thirty-five -_. % The Old Harvard Medical School, Boston. It was a pit, in which he used to lecture at theold medical school in North Grove Street, andwhere he came to his tasks — like a veteran, so faras anatomical knowledge and precision of state-ment went; but like a boy, so far as play of wittyallusion and comparison went; never did a man 342 AMERICAN LANDS ^ LETTERS. of science so halve his honors between what wasdue to knowledge and what was due to coruscatingwit. A sight of him with his forceps over a ca-daver made one forget his poems; and a readingof his poems, such as the KautUus, or the LastLeaf, made one straightway forget—as they donow — all dead things. As Autocrat. If that seventy-year clock set a going by theAngel of Life — about which our Doctor-Poetspeaks with engaging piquancy in the eighthchapter of his first prose book — had been silencedat forty-five, the world in general would haveknown little of the reach and buoyancy of hismind; and
Size: 1977px × 1264px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishernewyorkcscribnerss
