He delineates himself so perfectly in his various writings that the careful reader sees his nature just as it was in all its essentials, and has little more to learn than those human accidents which individualize him in time and space. This was even more true of Dr. Holmes than of his friend. His life was singularly devoid of struggle. It was all of a piece. There were no dramatic surprises. It is in his writings that me see the man. Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Auyst 29, 1809. His father, Rev. Abiel Holmes, minister of the First Church in Cambridge, was a man of distinction in his profession. A lover of the old ways, he took the conservative side in the controversy which divided his parish. In the old gambrel-roofed house the ministers son heard much argument about theology. Though he drifted away from the doctrines of his P I HOLMES father, he never lost interest in the discussions of matters of faith. It was a characteristic remark of the Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table - that we are all theological students and more of us are qualified as doctors of divinity than have received degrees at any of the universities. This was certainly true of those who breathed the atmosphere of Cambridge during the early years of the Unitarian controversy. It was natural that the orthodox ministers son should go to Phillips Academy, Andover, and then to Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1839... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.