English Language. The language which, at the very beginning of its full organization, could produce the linked sweetness of Sidney and the "mighty line" of Marlowe, the voluptuous beauty of Spenser and the oceanic melody of Shakespere, and which, at a riper age, could show itself an adequate instrument for the organ-like harmonies of Milton and the matchless symphonies of Sir Thomas Browne; which could give full and fit expression to the fiery energy of Dryden and the epigrammatic point of Pope, to the forest-like gloom of Young and the passionate outpourings of Burns; which sustained and supported the tremulous elegance and husbanded strength of Campbell, the broad-winged sweep of Coleridge, the deep sentiment and allembracing humanities of Wordsworth and the gorgeous emblazonry of Moore; and which to-day, in the plenitude of its powers, responds to every call of Tennyson, Ruskin, Newman, and Froude,-is surely equal to the demands of any genius that may yet arise to tax its powers. Spoken in the time of Elizabeth by a million fewer persons than to-day speak it in London alone, it now girdles the earth with its electric chain of communication, and voices the thoughts of a hundred million of souls. It has crossed the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, and has invaded South America and the Sandwich Islands; it is advancing with giant strides through Africa and New Zealand, and on the scorching plains of India; it is penetrating the wild waste of Australia, making inroads upon China and Japan, and bids fair to become the dominant language of the civilized world. Let us jealously guard its purity, maintain its ancient idioms, and develop its inexhaustible resources, that it may be even more worthy than it now is to be the mother tongue, not only of the two great brother nations whose precious legacy it is, but of the whole family of man. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. Οι LIVER WENDELL HOLMES was born at Cambridge, Mass., August 29, 1809, and at this time (1882) he occupies the chair of Anatomy and Physiology in Harvard University. At the age of twenty, Holmes graduated at Harvard and commenced the study of law. Law was soon abandoned for medicine. He studied in Europe, and in 1836 graduated at Cambridge as Doctor of Medicine. In 1838 he became professor of Anatomy and Physiology in Dartmouth College, and in 1847 accepted the same position at Harvard. The following are among his literary works: Poetry, a Metrical Essay; Terpsichore; Urania; Astræa. The above poems were delivered before college and literary societies. He is also author of three excellent works, entitled: Autocrat of the Breakfast Table; The Professor at the Breakfast Table, and The Poet at the Breakfast Table. Three other well known works of his are Elsie Venner, published in 1861; The Guar dian Angel, in 1868; Mechanism in Thought and Morals, in 1872. Besides his excellent literary works already noted, he is author of valuable medical works. Although not a literary man by profession, yet he has written extensively, and has gained a high position in the literary world. His composition is always smooth and graceful, and many of his sayings are among the finest specimens of American humor. Holmes combines science and philosophy, wit and hu |