pe
for the school. It did take time. It was a long walk from Divinity
Hall to the river nor was the exercise brief, I have found rarely more
rapturous pleasure than in the strenuous pulls I had on the Charles,
and I witnessed the development of much sturdy manliness among those
who, forsaking for a time their hermeneutics and homilies, gave
themselves to the outdoor sport. Our club included a number of
law-students and a young instructor or two; among the latter Charles
W. Eliot, then with his foot on the first round of the ladder which
he has climbed so high. Eliot pulled a capital stroke; my place was at
the bow oar where a rather light weight was required who at the
same time had head and strength enough to steer the boat among the
perplexing currents. Our excursions were sometimes long. Once we went
down the Back Bay, thence around Charlestown up the Mystic to Medford,
during which trip I steered the _Orion_ without a single rub,
going and coming under I think some forty draw-bridges. I have
scarcely ever received a compliment in which I took more pride
than when Eliot at the end, as we stood sweating and happy at the
boathouse, told me that I had proved myself a good pilot. One
evening, I remember, the sun had gone down and the surface of Back Bay
perfectly placid at full tide glowed with rich tints; the boats were
shooting numerously over the surface, cutting it sharply, the cut
presently closing behind in a faint cicatrice that extended far. I
thought of the beautiful simile in the _Autocrat of the Breakfast
Table_, just then appearing in the _Atlantic_. Holmes had seen
such things too, and said that they were like the wounds of the angels
during the wars in heaven as described in _Paradise Lost_, gashes
deep in the celestial bodies but closing instantly. In those years Dr.
Holmes was himself an enthusiastic oarsman and that night whom should
we encounter alone in his little skiff but the Autocrat himself, out
for his pleasure; he was plainly recognisable, though in most informal
athletic dress, and as we sped past him a few rods away, Eliot from
the stroke shouted a greeting over the water. "Why, Charlie," came
ringing back the Autocrat's voice, "I did not know you were old enough
to be out in a boat!" Charlie was old enough, in fact our best oar,
and took pleasure in demonstrating his maturity to the family friend
who had seen him grow up.

Dr. Holmes was one of the most versatile of men. We saw him here
at h