[Speech of Samuel Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester Cathedral, at a
banquet given in his honor by the Lotos Club, New York City, October
27, 1894. Frank R. Lawrence, the President of the Club, in introducing
Dean Hole recalled the fact that the Club had had the honor of
receiving Dean Stanley and Charles Kingsley.]
GENTLEMEN:--I can assure you that when I received your
invitation, having heard so much of the literary, artistic and social
amenities of your famous Club, I resembled in feelings, not in feature,
the beautiful bride of Burleigh, when--
"A trouble weighed upon her,
And perplexed her, night and morn,
With the burthen of an honor
Unto which she was not born."
I could have quoted the words of the mate in Hood's "Up the Rhine," when
during a storm at sea a titled lady sent for him, and asked him if he
could swim. "Yes, my lady," says he, "like a duck." "That being the
case," says she, "I shall condescend to lay hold of your arm all night."
"Too great an honor for the likes of me," says the mate. [Laughter.]
Even when I came into this building--though I am not a shy man, having
been educated at Brazenose College, and preposterously flattered
throughout my life, most probably on account of my size,--I had not lost
this sense of unworthiness; but your gracious reception has not only
reassured me, but has induced the delicious hallucination that, at some
period forgotten, in some unconscious condition, I have said something
or done something, or written something, which really deserved your
approbation. [Applause.] To be serious, I am, of course, aware why this
great privilege has been conferred upon me. It is because you have
associated me with those great men with whom I was in happy intercourse,
that you have made my heart glad to-night.
It has ever been my ambition to blend my life, as the great painter does
his colors, "with brains, sir;" and I venture to think that such a
yearning is a magnificent proof that we are not wholly destitute of this
article, as when the poor wounded soldier exclaimed, on hearing the
doctor say that he could see his brains: "Oh, please write home and tell
father, for he has always said I never had any." [Laughter.] Be that as
it may, my appreciation of my superiors has evoked from them a
marvellous sympathy, has led to the formation of very precious
friendships, and has been my elevator unto the higher abodes of
brightness and freshness, as it is to-night.
Yes, my brothers, it is delightful to dwell "with brains, sir,"
condensed in books in that glorious world, a library--a world which we
can traverse without being sick at sea or footsore on land; in which we
can reach heights of science without leaving our easy-chair, hear the
nightingales, the poets, with no risk of catarrh, survey the great
battle-fields of the world unscathed; a world in which we are surrounded
by those who, whatever their temporal rank may have been, are its true
kings and real nobility, and which places within our reach a wealth more
precious than rubies, "for all things thou canst desire are not to be
compared with it." In this happy world I met Washington Irving, Fenimore
Cooper, Hawthorne, Willis, Longfellow, Whittier and all your great
American authors, historical, poetical, pathetic, humorous; and ever
since I have rejoiced to hold converse with them. Nevertheless, it is
with our living companions, with our fellow-men who love books as we do,
that this fruition is complete, and so it comes to pass in the words of
one whose name I speak with a full heart, Oliver Wendell Holmes, that "a
dinner-table made up of such material as this is the last triumph of
civilization over barbarism." [Applause.]
We feel as our witty Bishop (afterward Archbishop) Magee described
himself, when he said: "I am just now in such a sweet, genial
disposition, that even a curate might play with me." [Great laughter.]
We are bold to state with Artemus Ward, of his regiment composed
exclusively of major-generals, that "we will rest muskets with anybody."
"Linger, I cried, O radiant Time, thy pow'r
Hath nothing else to give; life is complete,
Let but the happy present, hour by hour.
Itself remember and itself repeat."
And yet one more quotation we are glad to make, wherewith to make some
amends for the stupidity of him who quotes lines most appropriate, by
Tennyson, from the "Lotos-Eaters," and repeated by one who has just
crossed the Atlantic:--
"We have had enough of action, and of motion we,
Rolled to starboard, rolled to larboard, when the surge was seething free
Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam-fountains in the sea.
Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind,
In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined
On the hills, like gods together, careless of mankind."
Now, gentlemen, let me give, "evermore thanks, the exchequer of the
poor." [Long applause.]
[Illustration]
_OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Photogravure after a photograph from life_