Frank Preston Stearns, Cambridge Sketches

[158] speech at a public dinner. In this critique Holmes's poetry was summed up under the heading of “versified misfortunes” ; and Holmes himself wrote to Mrs. Stowe that the object of the writer was evidently “to injure at any rate, and to wound if possible.”

It was certainly contemptible to treat a man like Doctor Holmes in this manner,--one so universally kind to others, and whose work was always, at least, above mediocrity. He behaved in a dignified manner in regard to it, and he made no attempt at self-justification, although the wound was evidently long in healing. What recourse has a man who places himself before the public against the envenomed shafts of an invisible adversary? Of this at least we may be satisfied, that whatever is extravagant and overwrought always brings its own reaction in due course; and Doctor Holmes's reputation does not appear to have suffered permanently from this attack. The general public, especially the republic of womankind, forms its own opinion, and pays slight attention to literary criticisms of that description.

Holmes's poetry rarely rises to eloquence, but neither does it descend to sentimentality. It resembles the man's own life, in which there were no bold endeavors, great feats, or desperate struggles; but it was a life so judicious, healthful and highly intellectual that we cannot help