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Show HOLMES TO WHITTIEK. IteautiTul Birthday Iottorfroiii tlio Furmotf 1'oet to th Latter. Boston, Mnss., Dw. 17. Thu following la tlie letter which Oliver Wendell Holmes h.M sent to John Urccnleuf Whiltior. coagratu. latiD him on the Hth anuiversary of hif birth, whirh occurs to-day: ".My Tbk Whiii'ikr- 1 cimnrrttnlat you art h;i iT!? climbed Hiiother n.n'".,'r nnd croswt'd au oUior TviSfP in your nccnt of tho wMtn stinv mit vrhkh already btxinf1 to eo the mortiim; tw i liht of tho com iu;; century. A lifo mo well lilhul ut yntirn has been can not b too lone: fu( your fnllow men and women. In their afT.-o-llons you arft secure, whether you urn with thorn h"re or ne.ir thm in eomw higher lift tlnn their. I hope your yearn have not beronien burden, no that ytni ar t i rti of living. At our age wo nm.4 lie chiefly in the past. JJ;ippy is ha who has a pfiPt lik yours to look upon. Jt is orm of th3 fclirit'ii incidents I will not say accidents of iny life that the lapto of time ha brought tt very near together, o that I frequently llnd tny-lef tny-lef honored by peeing my name meat toned ill near connection with yottrn. Wearo lonely, in thesis last frf. The imigH which 1 have used before thin in writing to yuu recur once more to my thought :J5'Wo wer onMeek together to-gether a we began tho voyage of lif two generations gener-ations ago The lifo of a whole ceuenirion panned, pann-ed, and found tin in the cabin with goodly comp any of coeval. Thou the raft which held us began be-gan to co to pieee, until a few of us were left on the rait, pieced together of its fragment. And now the rait han at last parted, aud you and I am left clinging to the solitary ppar, which is all that still remains afloat of the sunku twwL" "I have jut been looking over the hadntones in Mr. (rtbwoId"s cemetery, entitled Tho Poets aud Poetry of America.1 In thut venerable receptacle., re-ceptacle., junt completing its half century of ex stance, for the date of the edit ion beore me is ltvi,, 1 tin tl tlie name of John Oreenleaf Wk-itftep and Oliver endell Holmes next each other, in their dueoifr, as they should bo. All around are the names of tho u ad too often of forgotteu dead. Thret) names 1 Me there are hiill amon those of the living;, ilr John Osltorn .Sargent, who'inake-H Horace his own by faithful study and wcholarly translation; Isaac MeClellan, who wan writing in lo, and whose la-t work is dated JSNi, and Chrint'.'pher P. -Craneh, whoso pnetirAl Rift hitft too rarely found expression. Of these many deud, you are the most venerated, revered and beloved (survivor; of the$e few living, tin most honored representative, representa-tive, Long tuny it be before you leave- a world where your influence h;m been so beneih-em, where yourexample has been such inspiration, whrtro yon are so truly loved, and where your presence it h perpetual benefaction. . Always affectionately yours, "Ouvek Wknpei.l Holmes.1 |