But the end was now near, not unheralded by gently failing faculties. His last days were made as happy as possible by the affectionate remembrance and tender consideration of a large circle of friends. He was spared the trial of protracted illness. He was able to take his usual walks up to a few days before his death. He passed away painlessly in his chair, Oct. 7, 1894. Numberless loving tributes were paid to his memory on both sides of the Atlantic.

Holmes was an interesting and lovable man, genial, brilliant, witty, and yet deeply earnest withal. His personality is reflected in his books in a rare degree. Whatever the presiding genius at the Breakfast Table may be called, Autocrat, Professor, Poet, - we know that it is Holmes himself that is speaking.

"For though he changes dress and name,

The man beneath is still the same,
Laughing or sad, by fits and starts,
One actor in a dozen parts,
And whatsoe'er the mask may be,

The voice assures us, This is he."

He might be called the most human of our men of letters. He delighted in touching life at many points. He had the gift of mechanical ingenuity, and always liked to have something to tinker at. He invented the stereoscope, out of which, had he sought to do so, he might have made a fortune. He was fond of boating; and the description he gives of his fleet in the "Autocrat" was not all fiction. He was fond of a good horse; as he said,

He felt a broad sympathy with his fellow-men; and, as he felt kindly towards them, he took it for granted that they would be interested in what he wrote. "I do not know," he said, "what special gifts have been granted or denied me; but

this I know, that I am like so many others of my fellow-creatures, that when I smile, I feel as if they must; when I cry, I think their eyes fill; and it always seems to me that when I am most truly myself, I come nearest to them, and am. surest being listened to by the brothers and sisters of the larger family into which I was born so long ago." This broad and tender sympathy will long give him an uncommon hold on the hearts of men.

SECOND NATIONAL PERIOD.

PROMINENT WRITERS.

THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH.

NEW ENGLAND.

Born in New Hampshire in 1836. A writer of interesting stories and polished lyric verse. Editor of various periodicals, including The Atlantic Monthly. Author of "The Ballad of Babie Bell and Other Poems," "Poems," "The Story of a Bad Boy," "Marjorie Daw, and Other People," "Prudence Palfrey," "The Stillwater Tragedy," etc. (See text.)

JOHN T. TROWBRIDGE. Born in New York in 1827. A popular writer of both prose and verse. His juvenile writings are interesting and wholesome. Among his numerous works are "Neighbor Jackwood," "Neighbors' Wives," "The Vagabonds, and Other Poems," "Laurence's Adventures," "The Young Surveyor," "A Home Idyl, and Other Poems," "Farnell's Folly," "The Lottery Ticket," etc.

CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER (1829-1900). An editor, novelist, and essayist of Hartford. To critical acumen he joined a delightful humor. Author of "My Summer in a Garden," "Backlog Studies," "In the Wilderness," "Life of Washington Irving,” “In the Levant," etc. (See text.)

E. P. WHIPPLE (1819-1886). An essayist and critic of Boston, who supported his sound judgment with a vigorous style. Among his writings are “Character and Characteristic Men," "Literature and Life," "Success and its Conditions," "Literature of the Age of Elizabeth," etc.

JOHN FISKE (1842-1901). A distinguished philosopher and historian of Cambridge. As a thinker he belonged to the school of Darwin and Spencer. He wrote "Myths and Myth-Makers," "Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy," "The Destiny of Man," "The American Revolution,” “Virginia and Her Neighbors," etc.

JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE (1810-1888). An able Unitarian clergyman of Boston. Among his numerous works are "Orthodoxy: its Truths and Errors,” "Ten Great Religions," "Self-Culture," and "Every-Day Religion,” the last two being especially helpful.

EDWARD EVERETT HALE. Born in Massachusetts in 1822. Unitarian clergyman, editor, historian, poet, and novelist; but as active in philanthropy as in literature. Among his many writings are to be noted "The Man without a Country," "In His Name," "Ten Times One is Ten," "Philip Nolan's Friends," "For Fifty Years," a collection of poems, etc. (See text.)

ROSE TERRY COOKE (1827-1892). Born in Connecticut. A writer both of prose and verse, her short stories being particularly excellent. Author of "Happy Dodd," "Somebody's Neighbors," "The Sphinx's Children and Other People's," "Poems," etc.

MARGARET WADE DELAND. Born in Pennsylvania in 1857, but has lived in Boston since 1880. A writer of novels and poems. Her novel, "John Ward, Preacher," had a wide circulation. Author also of "The Old Garden and Other Verses," "Philip and His Wife," "The Wisdom of Fools,"

etc.

SARAH ORNE JEWETT. Born in Maine in 1849. Her careful studies of rural New England life and character have justly made her popular. Author of "Old Friends and New," "A Country Doctor,” “The King of Folly Island and Other People," "The Country of the Pointed Firs,” etc. ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD. Born in Massachusetts in 1844. A writer of admirable gifts both in prose and poetry. Her "Gates Ajar,” which appeared in 1869, made her famous. The following are noteworthy in the long list of her writings: "Men, Women, and Ghosts," "Dr. Zay," "The Story of Avis," "A Singular Life," and "Songs of the Silent World." CHARLES FARRAR BROWNE, "Artemus Ward" (1834-1867). A humorist and lecturer, whose humor was grotesque and whose satire was good-natured. Author of "Artemus Ward: His Book," "Artemus Ward among the Mormons," "Artemus Ward in London," etc.

HORACE E. SCUDDER (1838-1903). Born in Boston. A littérateur of his native city; for some years editor of The Atlantic Monthly. Author of "Seven Little People and Their Friends," "Stories from My Attic," "Life of Noah Webster," "A History of the United States," "Life of Bayard Taylor," etc. ADELINE D. T. WHITNEY. Born in Boston in 1824. A popular writer for girls. Author of "Faith Gartney's Girlhood," "Leslie Goldthwaite," "The Other Girls," and in verse, of "Pansies," "Holy Tides," etc. LOUISA MAY ALCOTT (1832-1888). One of our best writers for young people. Author of "Little Women," "Little Men," "An Old-Fashioned Girl," "Eight Cousins," "Under the Lilies," etc.

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LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON. Born in Connecticut in 1835. A poet and prose writer of Boston. She was the literary executor of the English poet, Philip Bourke Marston, whose poems she edited. Her works include "This, That, and the Other," made up of stories, essays, and poems,

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'Juno Clifford," Poems," "Random Rambles," "In the Garden of Dreams, Lyrics, and Sonnets," etc.

MARY A. DODGE (“Gail Hamilton") (1838-1896). A native of Massachusetts, whose pungent style made her writings popular. Author of "A New Atmosphere," "Woman's Wrongs," "Sermons to the Clergy," " Woman's Worth and Worthlessness," "Biography of James G. Blaine," etc. LUCY LARCOM (1824-1893). A native of Massachusetts, who in early life worked in the Lowell mills. She afterwards became popular as a writer both of prose and verse. Among her works are "Childhood Songs," "An Idyl of Work," "Poetical Works," "Ships in the Mist, and Other Stories," "The Unseen Friend," "A New England Girlhood," which is autobiographic, etc.

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CELIA THAXTER (1835-1894). A native of New Hampshire, her father was keeper of the lighthouse on the Isle of Shoals, where much of her life was spent. "Among the Isles of Shoals" were papers published in The Atlantic Monthly. Among her volumes of verse are 'Drift-Weed," "The Cruise of the Mystery, and Other Poems," " Poems for Children," etc. WILLIAM T. HARRIS. Born in Connecticut in 1835. For thirteen years superintendent of the St. Louis public schools; afterwards lecturer at the Concord School of Philosophy; at present United States Commissioner of Education. Eminent as an educator and philosopher. Author of 66 Introduction to the Study of Philosophy," "The Spiritual Sense of Dante's Divina Commedia," " Psychologic Foundations of Education," etc.

THE MIDDLE STATES.

WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS. Born in Ohio in 1837. He began his literary career as a writer of verse. Consul to Venice, and later editor of The Atlantic Monthly. Among his many volumes of realistic fiction may be mentioned "The Undiscovered Country," "A Modern Instance,” “The Rise of Silas Lapham," "A Traveller from Altruria," to which may be added a series of delightful farces, "The Mouse Trap," "The Parlor Car," etc. (See text.)

HENRY JAMES. Born in New York in 1843; has resided in London since 1869. His numerous novels are written in a style of overdone refinement. Worthy of mention are "The Portrait of a Lady," "Daisy Miller," "The Bostonians," "A London Wife," "The Sacred Fount," etc.