Froude was a dear friend of mine, related to my wife; so was Kingsley-dear soul. Renan used to fetch books for me when we first met at the Bibliothique Royale. Emerson stayed at my house on his last visit here. But the best of all my American friends was Wendell Holmes. When he left us he said, ‘I have talked to thousands of people-you are the only one with whom I have had a conversation.’ We had talked about Zzz-the world as the logos, as the thought of God. What a pure soul his was — a real Serene Highness.This is trancendentalism from the fountainhead; and here Doctor Holmes may fairly be said to have avenged himself on the Nation's excoriating critic.
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Holmes for his literary work, what reason could be assigned for it; and if he deserved it on that account, Emerson and Hawthorne certainly deserved it much more.
Let us be thankful that no such mischief was contemplated.
If honorary degrees are to be given in order to attract attention to a university, or worse still, for the purpose of obtaining legacies, they had better be abolished altogether.
During his last visit to England Doctor Holmes was the guest of F. Max Muller at Oxford, and years afterwards Professor Muller wrote to an American correspondent concerning him and others:
1905. E. P. DUtton and Co. Boston,.
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