OLIVERWENDELL HOLMES

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 86

OLIVERWENDELL HOLMES

' By Constant Reader.

Oliver Wendell Holmes had this in common wtih Samuel Richardson in that he published his first "novel when 51 years of age. Richardson, who was born in 1689, issued " Pamela " in two volumes in November 1740. Holmes, born in 1809, wrote " Elsie Venn»r " as a serial story for the Atlantic Monthly, under the title of "The Professor's Love Story," and it was published in volume form under its ■present title of "Elsie Venner: A Romance of Destiny," in 1860. An equally remarkable instance of deferred development at once occurs to my mind in the person of -Mr William de Morgan, whose new novel is to be the first subject of Mr Heinemann's experiment in fiction, and, as such, will be published in two volumes at 3« net per volume. To some extent Dr Holmes must be held responsible for the present flood of fiction, which has done so much to demoralise the novel market, for he it was who circulated the idea that every human being has in him the material for at least one novel. The passage, which is worth quoting, is to be found in the third chapter of the firel. volume of the "Autocrat": — Some of .you boarders aek me from time to time why I don't write.*, story, or a novel, or something of that kind. , Instead of answering each one of you separately, I will thank you to step up into the wholesale department for a few moments, where I deal in answers by the piece and by the bale. That every articulately .speaking human being has in him stuff for one novel, in three volumes duodecimo, has long been with me a cherished belief. It has been maintained, on the other hand, that many peareons cannot write more than one novel, — that all after that are likely to be failures. Life is so much more tremendous a thing in its heights and depths than any transcript of it can be that all records of human experience are as so many bound, herbaria to the innumerable glowing, glistening, rustling, breathing, fragranceladen, poison-sucking, life-giving, deathdistilling leaves and flowers of the forest and the prairies. All we can do with books of human experience is to make them alive again with something borrowed from our own lives. We can make a book alive for us just in proportion to its resemblance in essence or in for to our own experience. Now, an author's first novel is naturally drawn, to a great extent, from his personal experiences ; that is, is a literal oopy of Nature under various slight disguises. But the moment the author gets out of bis personality he must have the creative power, as well as the narrative art, and the sentiment, in order to tell a living story, aaid this is rare. Besides, there is a great danger that a man's first life story sEall clean him out, so to speak, of his Taest thoughts. Most lives, though their " stream is loaded with" « sand, and turbid with alluvial waste, drop a few golden grains of wisdom as they, flow along. Oftentimes a single cradling gets them all, and after that the poor man's labour is only rewarded by mud and worn pebbles. All which proves that 1, as an individual of the human family, could write one novel or two, at anyrate, if I would. It is Jerrold who reminds me that during the two years which preceded the first appearance of " Elsie Venner," Dr Holmes had been writing a kind of fiction in the first two thirds of the " Breakfast Table" series. "He had, however," continues Jerrold', " made no effort at a plot and the consecutive arraying of events round, certain individuals winch we have come to look upon as essential in the novel Therefore, despite the Professors and the Schoolmistress's romance we can scarcely classify the earlier works with the three volumes of fiction, although we find in the former many of the distinguishing qualities of the latter. It is, however, just tho^e qualities of the causeur which charm us in the ' Breakfast Table ' speaker that, on the whole, detract Jrom the value of the novel bQth as an example of the art, of "fiction and as a "mere stofy. . This method of telling a story — a perennial source of delight in the gossiping philosopher ami $he_ professor — borders utKjn the irritating when "foe are reading 'Elsie Vernier' 'The Guardian Angel,' and, most of all, ' A Mortal Antipathy.' " When I picked up a copy of " Elsie Venner " the other day — one of the handy shilling reprints in Routledge's Universal Libraiy — it was with a feeling of uncertainty a= to whether I had read it before.

Somehow the pages seemed fomfiia?, and ] presently doubt gave way to oertaiirey as | I came to the' place where Bernard Lwig- | don, master of the School District No. 1, Pigwacket Centre, expelled publicly from the school that dougnty disturber of the peace, Abner Briggs, junior, and his "yaU&h dog." I must have been a mere boy when I first read the book, but how clearly every detail of that incident came back to me, even fto Bernard's careful testing of his muscles in the privacy of his room prior to descending to the schoolhouee for the combat with bully Abner ! The purpose and problem of " Elsie Venner " is well summarised by Jerrold as follows : — The problem which is dealt with in the first of the three novels — " Elsie Veniier ' ' — is as to how far an individual suffering from hereditary or other pre-natal bias is a responsible being, and answerable to ordinary moral or human law, as a free agent. In a note too, in a late edition of the " Professor at the Breakfast Table," the author evidenced his lasting interest in such a problem.' A ddscussion had arisen at the "Breakfast Table" (vol. 1, chapter 2) over a line in one of Holmes 's own poems: — " Don't be consistent — but be simply true." " The more I have observed and reflected," lie went on to say, "the more limited seems to me the field of action of the human will. Every act of choice involves a epecia-1 relation between the ego and the conditions before it. But man knows what forces axe at work in the determination of his ego. The bias which decided his choice between two or more motives may come from some unsuspected ancestral sources of which be knows nothing at all. * He is automatic in virtue of that hidden spring of reflex action, all the tune having the feeling tha£ he is self-deter-mining. -The story of "Elsie Venner," written soon after this book was published, illiistrates the direction in which my thought was moving. The imaginary subject of the story obeyed her will, but her will obeyed the mysterious ante-natal poisoning influence. ' Although the author expressly declares that " my poor heroine found her origin, not in fable or romance, but in a physiological conception, fertilised by a theological dogma.," yet his reference, in the second preface to "Elsie' Venner," to Hawthorne's " Marble Faun," and also to Keats' s "Lamia," would seem to imply that he was under obligation to some old fable for the main motif of the > story. Keats took the idea of Lamia from a passage in Burton's " Anatomy of Melancholy," and Burfbn, in his turn, was indebted to the fourth book of Philostratus "De Vita Apollonii," so that the notion of an animal nature subtly blent with the human is an exceedingly old one ; but Di> Hdlmes was wishful rather of stating a definite problem than of inventing a tragedy, and even to readers who dislike problem stories, the very discursiveness^ of which Jerrold complains proves wonderfully attractive. One of the faults which I find with much of modern fiction is that it is too much like modern life — the same fctress and distress, the same hurry and worry, little that is restful and 1 much that is perplexing. And even if the story be simply a story with nothing in the- background, it is told at 'express speed, and with a breathless haste suggestive of 'motors and aeroplanes. The relief, therefore, of a leisurely perusal of a story like ' r Elsie Venner" is beyond compare. The book may be picked up and laid down at will without in any way detracting from its interest. And then the delicious asides — for instance, the Professor who tells the story, after duly introducing Bernard Langdon, and, prefacing the introduction with a most illuminating dissertation on "Caste" in general, and particularly in New England, comes to the ix)int where he bestows upon nis pupil a certificate stating that he is a fit and proper individual to teach persons of either sex. The two simple words " either sex " furnish the author with material for one of the best chapters in the whole book. Before quoting a portion of this chapter, to demonstrate its drift, I may mention a remark of the author's in a subsequent chapter, of the same purport — namely, that " nature makes every man We all women, and trusts the trivial matter of special choice to the commonest accident," So in Chapter 11, headed " The Student and His Certificate," Dr Holmes, following the exclamation, " I wish I had not said ' either sex' in my certificate," continues :—: — I brooded over the mischief which might come out of these two words, antil it seemed to me that they were charged with destiny. I could hardly sleep for thinking what a train I might have been laying, which might take a spark any day, and blow up nobody knows wh6se peace or prospects. What I dreaded was one of thise miserable matrimonial mesalliances, where a young fellow who does not know himself as yet flings his magnificent future into the checked apronlap of some fresh-faced half-bred country girl t»o moie fit to be mated with, him than her father's horse to go in double harness with Flora Temple. To think of the eagle's wings being clipped so that be shall never lift himself over the farmyard fence! Such things happen, and always must, because, as one of us said a while ago, a man always loves a woman, and a woman a man., unless some good leason exists to the contrary You think yourself a very fastidious young man, my friend, but there are probably at least 5000 young women in these United States any one of whom you would certainly marry if you were thrown much into her company and nobody more attractive were near and she had no objection. And you, my dear young lady, justly pride yourself upon your discerning delicacy, but if I should say that there are 20,000 j

young men, any one of whom, if he offered -his heart &pd band tinder lavotirable circumstances, you w«uld " First endtuce, then pity, th*n embrace." I should fts much m»re impriylent tLan I mean to be, and you would no doubt thirow down a story in which I hope to interest you. Both in "Elsie Venoier " and in the " Guardian Angel" Dr Holmes preached his favourite dectrine of the modification, of moral responsibility by reason of those transmitted tendisncues which limit the freedom of the will. Those stories have therefore a special interest for all students of the newly-nam£d science of Eugenics. "Elsie Venner" is supposed to unite a very fascinating human personality with the nature of a serpent, her mother haring been bitten by a rattlesnake a few months before the birth of her daughter, and only kept alive by the use of powerful antidotes. The heroine of " The Guardian Angel." is credited with inheriting lawless instincts from a vein of Indian blood in her ancestry. Maurice Kirkwood, the hero of "A Mortal Antipathy " was, when an" infant, taken from his nurse's arms by a grown girl cousin so suddenly as to startle him into throwing himself from hex arms over the parapet of the balcony on which they were standing. He was saved from death by falling Into a rose bush. The accident, however, so affected the nerves of the child that from that time he grew up with a " mortal j antipathy " towards all womenkind, and i especially towards women at that time of life when they should naturally prove most attractive to the opposite 6ex. I venture to predict that, in view of the ! growing interest now centreing round the problem of parenthood, an interest certain to be greatly stimulated by Dr Saleeby's new book on " Parenthood and Race Culture," there will shortly set in a popular demand for Dr Holmes's very much neglected trilogy of stories. The " preface" to the " Guardian -Angel" is to .the point in this connection :—: — If there are any among my readers who loved .^sop'e Fables chiefly on account of the "moral" appended, they will perhaps be pleased to turn backwards and learn what I have to say here. This tale forms a natural Bequenee to a former one, which some may remember, entitled " Elsie Venner." Like that, it is intended for two classes of readers,- of which the "smaller one includes the readers of the "Morals" in and of this preface. The first of the two stories based itself upon an experiment which somethought cruel, even on paper. It imagined an alien element introduced into the blood* of a human being before that being saw ihe light. It showed a human nature dSVe toping itself in conflict with the ophidi&n characteristics and instincts impressed upon it during the pre-natal period. Whether anything like this ever happened, or was possible, mattered little, it enabled me, at any rate, to suggest the limitations of human responsiblity in a simple and effective way. The story which follows comes more nearly within the range of common experience. The successive development of inherited- bodily aspects and habitudes is well known to all who have lived long enough to see families grow up under their eyes. The same thing happens, but less obviously to common observation in the mental and moral nature. There is something fearful in the way ;n; n which not only characteristic qualities but particular manifestations of them are repeated from generation to generation. . . If 1 called these two stories Studies of the Reflex Function in its higher sphere, I should frighten away all but the professors and the learned ladies. If I should proclaim that they were protests against the scholastic tendency to shift the total responsibility of ail human action from the infinite to the finite, I might alarm the jealousy of the cabinet keepers of our doctrinal museums. By saying nothing about it, tlie large majority of thc*e whom my book reaches, not being preface readers, will never suspect anything to harm them beyond the simple facts of the narrative. Should any professional alarmist choose to confound the doctrine of limited responsiblity with that which denies the existence of any self determining power, he may be presumed to belong to the class of intellectual halfbreeds of which we have many representatives ir our new country, wearing the garb of civilisation and even the gown of scholarship. If we cannot follow the automatic machinery of nature into the mental and moral world, where it plays he part as much as in the bodily functions, without being accused of leaving "all that we are evil in to a divine thrusting on" we had better return at once to our old demomology and reinstate the Leader of the Lower House in his timehonoured prerogative? For those who do not desire to evade the issue of an important and impending conflict, there is great significance in the celebration of the centenary of Oliver Wendell Holmes, following so closely upon the celebration of the quater-centenary of John Calvin. For it is impossible to renew acquaintance with Holmes without being continually reminded of his life-long campaign against Calvinism — a campaign of which the aboye-quoted preface is eloquently reminiscent. Dr Robertson Nicoll, in his "Introduction" to the World's Classics edition of the " Professor at the Breakfast-table," writes : — "The reader of to-day will hardly need Holmes's polemic against the inhumanity of C'alvini>m. It seems to belong to a past generation, and to be neaily as unreal as attacks on the burning o. c witches. But to Holmes tbis was a serious and deadly conflict. He had known the yoke of the .stcrne.-t Cal-

vimsm, and tne temper wmen accoyipauiew i*. He fea<l grown rtp to tear toman lif* spoken of as the antechamber of d&mna* tion. To smash up the impregnable logic of Calvinism and destroy its hold on the New England mind was one of the main objects of his life. In the present volume his feeluijg was at its highest. The Galvinists had been roused by his attacks and had done their best to retaliate. The whole bent of Holmes's mind was to a pitiful consideration of humanity — humanity that comes into the world?" so warped, that has to pass through such struggles and temptations, that has to bear the cruel weight of so many burdens'. It was as the champion of humanity that' he fought against the orthodoxy of his time, and I have no doubt that his poem, ' The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay,' is intended as a description of the end of Cal-> vinism. End of the Wonderful One-hose Shay, Logic is logic. That's all I say." Which reminds me that, despite expending the space of two Saturdays upon Oliver Wendell Holmes, I have not mentioned his poams, the geriuine fun of "The Ballad of the-Oyeterman," the pathos of " The Last Leaf" — a poem which so fascinated Abraham Lincoln that he learned! it by heart, — or the genuine merit of. " The Chambered Nautilus. ' I might with profit continue these " Browsings " over another week, but other topics claim attention. As closing eulogy, I will select a part of Professor H. A. Beer's notice of Holmes in his " Short History of American Litera-i ture." t For sheer cleverness and versatility Dr Holmes was perhaps unrivalled among American men of letters. He has been poet, wit, humourist, novelist, essayist, and a college lecturer and writer on medical topics. In all these departments he has produced work which ranks high, if not with the highest. Probably no poet ot any age or clime has written so much, and so well to order. He has been particularly happy in verses of a convivial kind. . . . And though he could write on occasion a " Song for a Tern. perance Dinner," he has preferred to chant the praise of the punch-bowl. . . . It would he impossible to enumerate the many good things which Holmes has written — full of wit .and wisdom, and of humour, lightly dashed with sentiment and sparkling with droll analogies, sudden puns, and unexpected turns of rhyme and phrase. It cannot be expected that verses manufactured to pop with the corks and fizz with the champagne at academic banquets - should much outlive the occasion, or that the habit of producing such verses should foster in the producer that " high seriousness " which Matthew Arnold ' asserts to be one mark of all great poetry.' Holmes's poetry is mostly on the colloquial level, excellent society verse, but even in its serious moments too smart and too pretty to be taken very gravely'; with a certain glitter, knowingness, and flippancy about it, and an absence of that self-forgetfulness and intense absorption in its theme which characterise the work of th« higher imagination. - . ' . • Age could not wither him, nor custom stale his infinite variety, and there was as much powder in his latest pyrotechnics as in the rockets which he sent up half a century ago. . . . Dr Holmes was nob of the, stuff of which idealists and enthusiasts are made. As a physician and a student of science the facts of the material universe counted for much with lim. His clear, positive, alert intellect was always impatient of mysticism. He had the sharp \eye of the satirist and the man of the world for oddities of dress, dialect, and manners. . . There was a good deal of Toryism or social Conservatism in Holmes. He acknowledged a preference for the man with a pedigree, the man who owned family portraits, ha<£ been brought up in familiarity -with, books,, and could pronounce "view" correctly. . . The individuality of Holmes's writings comes in part from their local and provincial bias. He has been the laureate of Harvard College, and the bard of Boston City, an urban poet, with a Cockneyish fondness for old Boston way? and things. It was Holmes who invented the playful saying that " Boston State-house is the hub of the solar system."