[24] See “Theological Tea,” chap. iv.
[25] New York Tribune, June 13, 1859.
[26] This distinction is valid even though the Oldtown folks belonged to Mrs. Stowe’s childhood. The Andover of her later years was Oldtown in all essential respects.
[27] “Elsie Venner,” chap. i, “The Brahmin Caste of New England.”
[28] Meeting of the American Medical Association, May, 1853. The response was a poem.
[29] For a direct statement on the resumption of the old attempt, see “The Autocrat’s Autobiography” printed as a foreword to the volume. For an indirect account, see the passages on Byles Gridley and his “Thoughts on the Universe” in Holmes’s “The Guardian Angel.”
[30] For varying sentiments about “Bohemia” see the following passages: Ferris Greenslet, “Life of Thomas Bailey Aldrich,” pp. 37–47; W. D. Howells, “Literary Friends and Acquaintances,” pp. 68–76; Stedman and Gould, “Life of Edmund Clarence Stedman,” pp. 208, 209; William Winter, “Old Friends,” pp. 291–297.
[31] In reply to this and like passages William Winter wrote: “No literary circle comparable with the Bohemian group of that period, in ardor of genius, variety of character, and singularity of achievement, has since existed in New York, nor has any group of writers anywhere existent in our country been so ignorantly and grossly misrepresented and maligned” (“Old Friends,” p. 138).
[32] A corresponding danger on the other hand is that a people who abjure all such phrases will abjure also the things for which they stand, until they become irredeemably prosaic and matter of fact.
[33] This was the second time that President Gilman had placed a poet in the position of teacher, for he had already done this with Edward Rowland Sill at the University of California (see p. 397).