THE SATURDAY CLUB. 547 



would have heard in answer the names of 

 Hawthorne, Motley, Dana, Lowell, Whipple, 

 Peirce, the distinguished mathematician, Judge 

 Hoar, eminent at the bar and in the cabinet, 

 Dwight, the leading musical critic of Boston 

 for a whole generation, Stunner, the academic 

 champion of freedom, Andrew, ' the great War 

 Governor' of Massachusetts, Dr. Howe, the 

 philanthropist, William Hunt, the painter, 

 with others not unworthy of such company." 

 We may complete the list and add the name 

 of Holmes himself, to whose presence the club 

 owed so much of its wit and wisdom. In such 

 company the guests were tempted to linger 

 long, and if Holmes has described the circle 

 around the table, Lowell has celebrated the 

 late walk at night across the bridge as he and 

 Agassiz returned to Cambridge on foot to- 

 gether. To break the verse by quotation 

 would mar the quiet scene and interrupt the 

 rambling pleasant talk it so graphically de- 

 scribes. But we may keep the parting words : 



" At last, arrived at where our paths divide, 

 ' Good night ! ' and, ere the distance grew too wide, 

 * Good night ! ' again ; and now with cheated ear 

 I half hear his who mine shall never hear." 1 



1 See Memorial poem, entitled Agassiz, by James Russell 

 Lowell. 



