Page:One of a thousand.djvu/333

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HOLMES. HOLMES. 3'9 was published his latest work, entitled "Realistic Idealism in Philosophy Itself," in two volumes. HOLMES, Oliver Wendell, was born in Cambridge, Middlesex county, August 29, 1809. He was the son of' the Rev. Abiel Holmes, D. D., and Sarah (Wendell) Holmes. His father was a native of Wood- stock, Conn., a graduate of Yale in the class of 17S3, and pastor of the First Con- gregational church, Cambridge, 1792 to 1832. His mother was the daughter of the Hon. Oliver Wendell of Boston, a graduate of Harvard, and the son of Hon. Jacob Wendell, an eminent Boston merchant. Dr. Holmes obtained his preparatory education under the tuition of various instructors, during the year 1824-5 at Phillips Academy, Andover, and matricu- lated at Harvard, graduating therefrom in the famous class of 1829. After graduation he devoted a year to the study of law, but not finding it quite congenial to his tastes, abandoned it for that of medicine. In 1S33 he visited Europe, previous to which he had chosen the medical profession, and for two years and six months had studied with Dr. James OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. Jackson and his associates. While in Europe he attended L ' Ecole de Medicine, Pans, and spent between two and three years in attendance on the hospitals in Europe. In 1835 he returned to Boston, rejoined the medical school of Harvard University, and in 1836 received his degree of M. D. In 1838 he became professor of anatomy and physiology in Dartmouth College, and on the resignation of Dr. John C. Warren, in 1847, was elected his successor to the chair of anatomy in the medical department of Harvard University. In 1S49 he retired from general practice, and although holding his professorship, he devoted himself now more especiallv to the pursuit of letters. He is still Profes- sor Emeritus, Harvard University. He is professionally distinguished as an accurate anatomist and skillful microscopist and auscultator. But the widest fame of Oliver Wendell Holmes is as a poet, wit, and man of let- ters. From boyhood the Muse has been his constant attendant, and while the sun of prosperity has wooed him to enjoy, the genius of his life, the love of the beauti- ful-, has led him on to accomplish. Many of his most charming effusions have never been embalmed save in the memory of his friends ; but his best known works are " Terpsichore," "Urania," "Astnea," " Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," " Professor at the Breakfast Table," " El- sie Venner," "The Guardian Angel," "Songs of Many Seasons," Memoirs of John I,. Motley, Ralph Waldo Emerson, etc. During the winter Dr. Holmes resides principally in Boston. He was married June 15, 1840, to Amelia Lee, daughter of Hon. Charles Jackson, of lloston. Of this union were "born three children : Oliver Wendell, jr. (associate justice of the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts), Amelia Jackson (widow of the late Turner Sargent), and Edward Jackson Holmes. HOLMES, Oliver Wendell, Jr., son of Oliver Wendell and Amelia Lee (Jack- son) Holmes, was born in Boston, March 8, 1841. His early educational training and prep- aration for college was obtained in E. S. Dixwell's private Latin school. He was graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1 86 1. At the breaking out of the civil war he entered the service of his country, and was commissioned first lieutenant in the 20th Massachusetts volunteer infantry ; was promoted to captain ; wounded in the breast at the battle of Ball's Bluff, Octo- ber 21, 1861 ; wounded in the neck at