The Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, in Thirteen Volumes ...Printed at the Riverside Press, 1891 |
Common terms and phrases
animal believe blood body Boston boys brain breath called Camp Curtin Captain Chambersburg character church Cleveland County comes condition crime criminal Despine divine doctrine doubt Edwards Edwards's eyes F. B. Sanborn fact fair plain feel fighting flowers follow Fort Sumter furnish Hagerstown hand Harrisburg heart human hundred idea infinite instincts Jonathan Edwards Keedysville kind lady learned less living look Massachusetts ment mental mind minister moral morning movement nature never once organs Pascal perhaps persons Phi Beta Kappa Philadelphia physician poet Professor question reader reason remember round seems seen sense Sereno E snow soul story Street talk tell thing Thomas Boston thought tion told ture uncon virtue walk West Boston Bridge winter words wounded writing young
Popular passages
Page 181 - Is it well with thee ? is it well with thy husband ? is it well with the child ? And she answered, It is well.
Page 199 - I feel my muse beginning to jade, I retire to the solitary fireside of my study, and there commit my effusions to paper; swinging at intervals on the hind legs of my elbowchair, by way of calling forth my own critical strictures, as my pen goes on. Seriously, this, at home, is almost invariably my way.
Page 117 - I'd rather be A pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn, Have sight of Proteus coming from the sea, Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
Page 289 - It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an Opinion as is unworthy of him : for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely : and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Plutarch saith well to that purpose :
Page 75 - I should advise persisting in our struggle for liberty, though it were revealed from heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine were to perish, and only one of a thousand were to survive, and retain his liberty ! One such free man must possess more virtue, and enjoy more happiness, than a thousand slaves ; and let him propagate his like, and transmit to them what he hath so nobly preserved.
Page 199 - ... harmony with the cogitations of my fancy, and workings of my bosom; humming every now and then the air, with the verses I have framed.
Page 198 - I do not know the air; and until I am complete master of a tune in my own singing (such as it is), I never can compose for it. My way is: I consider the poetic sentiment correspondent to my idea of the musical expression, then choose my theme, begin one stanza; when that is composed, which is generally the most difficult part of the business, I walk out, sit down now and then, look out for objects in nature...
Page 137 - Every day's necessity calls for a reparation of that portion which death fed on all night, when we lay in his lap, and slept in his outer chambers. The very spirits of a man prey upon the daily portion of bread and flesh, and every meal is a rescue from one death, and lays up for another ; and while we think a...
Page 199 - And what if all of animated nature Be but organic harps diversely framed, That tremble into thought, as o'er them sweeps Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, At once the Soul of each, and God of all?
Page 247 - Nature ! Healest thy wandering and distempered child : Thou pourest on him thy soft influences, Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets ; Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters ! Till he relent, and can no more endure To be a jarring and a dissonant thing Amid this general dance and minstrelsy ; But, bursting into tears, wins back his way, His angry spirit healed and harmonized By the benignant touch of love and beauty.