HOLMES 



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HOLY FAMILY 



witty and philosophical, which make up the 

 Autocrat oj the Breakfast Table (which see). 

 Holmes' friends knew how brilliant a conver- 

 sationalist he was "the best talker in Boston" 

 and now the world had a chance to discover 

 it, too. The Professor at the Breakfast Table 

 and The Poet at the Breakfast Table followed, 

 and repeated the first success, though their 

 charm is hardly so great. Three novels, Elsie 

 Venner, The Guardian Angel and A Mortal 

 Antipathy introduced people to some of those 

 problems of psychology and of heredity which 

 so deeply interested the author. 



In 1886 Holmes visited England, where his 

 reception was in the nature of a triumph. 

 People could not pay honor enough to the 

 sprightly little old man whose acquaintance 

 they had made in the delightful Breakfast- 

 Table series. After his return home he wrote 

 Our Hundred Days in Europe and one more 

 set of autocrat papers, called Over the Tea- 

 cups. Regarding this series, one critic said, 

 "Sunset lights fall upon the tea table, where 

 a poem always waits, tucked into the silver 

 sugar-bowl, but there is no abatement of the 

 old-time mirth and kind sagacity." Death was 

 as kindly to Holmes as life had been, for 

 he died in his chair, without struggle or suffer- 

 ing, on October 8, 1894. 



Among Holmes' best poems may be men- 

 tioned the widely loved Chambered Nautilus, 

 which was his own favorite ; the half-humorous, 

 half-pathetic but wholly kindly Last Leaf ; the 

 much-declaimed Wonderful One-Hoss Shay, 

 and the charming Dorothy Q. Probably the 

 most quoted lines from all his works are the 

 last of the Chambered Nautilus: 



Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 

 As the swift seasons roll ! 

 Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 

 Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 

 Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 

 Till thou at length art free, 



Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting 

 sea ! C.W.K. 



Consult Higginson's Old Cambridge; Crothers' 

 O. W. Holmes. 



HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL, Jr. (1841- ), 

 an American jurist and Associate Justice of the 

 United States Supreme Court, was the son of 

 Oliver Wendell Holmes, the essayist and poet. 

 He was born in Boston, was graduated from 

 Harvard College in 1861 and from the Harvard 

 Law School in 1886. In the War of Secession 

 he entered the Twentieth Massachusetts Vol- 

 unteers and served three years, receiving brevets 

 as major and colonel. He was wounded at 



the battles of Ball's Bluff and at Antietam. 

 After the war he engaged in law practice in 

 Boston, and was editor of the American Law 

 Review. In 1882 he became professor of law 

 at Harvard, and in the same year was ap- 

 pointed to the Massachusetts supreme bench. 

 By appointment of President Roosevelt he 

 succeeded Justice Gray in the United States 

 Supreme Court in 1902. His published works 

 include a volume of Speeches and The Com- 

 mon Law, the latter a compilation of lectures 

 delivered at Lowell Institute. He also edited 

 the twelfth edition of Kent's Commentaries. 

 In March, 1918, on the occasion of his seventy- 

 seventh birthday, he was the oldest member of 

 the Supreme Court, and, excepting Chief Justice 

 White and Justice McKenna, the oldest in point 

 of membership in that court. See SUPREME 

 COURT, for portrait. 



HOLY ALLI'ANCE, a league formed in 

 September, 1815, at Paris after the fall of 

 Napoleon, between Alexander I of Russia, 

 Francis II of Austria and Frederick William III 

 of Prussia. The professed purpose of the 

 league was to unite the sovereigns in a holy 

 brotherhood of alliance. It issued a declaration 

 that, in accordance with the precepts of Christ, 

 the principles of charity, justice and peace 

 should be the basis of each sovereign's inter- 

 national relations, and that their great object 

 should be the welfare and happiness of their 

 subjects. The real purpose of the alliance, 

 however, was to resist republican tendencies 

 and to maintain the power and influence of 

 the reigning families. The agreement was 

 signed by all the European rulers, with the 

 exception of the Pope and the king of Great 

 Britain and Ireland. Metternich, the Austrian 

 minister, was its leading spirit; he gradually 

 obtained almost supreme authority and used 

 the Holy Alliance to favor his own policy. 

 After 1848 the Holy Alliance ceased to have 

 any importance. 



Related Subjects. The aims and the methods 

 of the Holy Alliance will be more fully under- 

 stood if the following articles are consulted : 

 Alexander (Russia) Frederick William 

 Austria, subhead (Prussia) 



History Metternich, Prince 



Francis (Holy Roman Prussia, subtitle 



Empire) History 



HOLY FAMILY, the name applied in art to 

 representations of the Virgin Mary, the Infant 

 Jesus and their attendants. The earliest of 

 these is found in the catacomb of Saint Calix-* 

 tus in Rome. In the sixth century the Byzan- 

 tine schools favored an arrangement in which 



