He is a great critic, and his
prose criticism in _Among My Books_ and the related volumes is stimulating
and interesting. His political prose, of which the best specimen is
_Democracy_, is remarkable for its high ideals. Holmes is especially
distinguished for his humor in such poems as _The Deacon's Masterpiece, or
the Wonderful One-Hoss Shay_ and for the pleasant philosophy and humor in
such artistic prose as _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_. He is the
only member of this group who often wrote merely to entertain, but his
_Chambered Nautilus_ shows that he also had a more serious aim.
When we come to the historians, we find that Prescott wrote of the romantic
achievements of Spain in the days of her glory; Motley, of the struggles of
the Dutch Republic to keep religious and civil liberty from disappearing
from this earth; Parkman, of the contest of the English against the French
and Indians to decide whether the institutions and literature of North
America should be French or English.
This New England literature is most remarkable for its moral quality, its
gospel of self-reliance, its high ideals, its call to the soul to build
itself more stately mansions.
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