0 MECHANISM IN THOUGHT AND MORALS. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY OF WITH NOTES AND AFTERTHOUGHTS. BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. "Car il ne faut pas se méconnaître, nous sommes automates autant Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S71, By OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washingtc Boston: Stereotyped and Printed by Hand, Avery, & Frye. INTRODUCTION. It is fair to claim for this Essay the license which belongs to all spoken addresses. To hold the attention of an audience is the first requisite of every such composition; and for this a more highly colored rhetoric is admissible than might please the solitary reader. The cheek of a stage heroine will bear a touch of carmine which would hardly improve the sober comeliness of the mother of a family at her fireside. So too, on public occasions, a wide range of suggestive inquiry, meant to stimulate rather than satiate the interest of the listen s |