Many years ago, I read apoem that was comparing great men and their works. They referred to the men as 2-story men and 3-story men and the greatest men, they referred to as 10-stoy men. The memory of this poem is very vague so I'm hoping that this will jar someone's mind. I would appreciate the title and author of this poem ifpossible. Thank you so much.

This is not a poem, it's a quote from a short story by Oliver Wendell Holmes:


The Three Story House
--- Oliver Wendell Holmes

There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three-story intellects with skylights.

All fact collectors who have no aim beyond their facts are one-story men.

Two-story men compare, reason, generalize, using the labor of fact collectors as their own.

Three-story men idealize, imagine, predict -- their best illumination comes from above, through the skylight.


Les

Thanks so much Les. I really appreciate it.