* AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS * 
 
 SON 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 
jEcn of 
 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON 
 
" Tbou wert the morning star among the living, 
 
 Ere thy fair light bad fled: 
 Now, having died, thou art as Hesperus, giving 
 New splendor to the dead." 
 

American a?cn of aetterjf. 
 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 BY 
 
 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 
 f 
 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
Copyright, 1884, 
 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMKS. 
 
 Ml rights reserved- 
 

 NOTE. 
 
 MY thanks are due to the members of Mr. Emer 
 son s family, and the other friends who kindly as 
 sisted me hy lending interesting letters and furnish 
 ing valuable information. 
 
 The Index, carefully made by Mr. J. H. Wiggin, 
 was revised and somewhat abridged by myself. 
 
 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 BOSTON, November 25, 1884. 
 
 213361 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION . 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1803-1823. To JET. 20. 
 
 Birthplace. Boyhood. College Life 37 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1823-1828. JET. 20-25. 
 
 Extract from a Letter to a Classmate. School-Teach 
 ing. Study of Divinity. "Approbated " to Preach. 
 Visit to the South. Preaching in Various Places 48 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 1828-1833. MT. 25-30. 
 
 Settled as Colleague of Rev. Henry Ware. Married to 
 Ellen Louisa Tucker. Sermon at the Ordination of 
 Rev. H. B. Goodwin. His Pastoral and Other La 
 bors. Emerson and Father Taylor. Death of 
 Mrs. Emerson. Difference of Opinion with some of 
 his Parishioners. Sermon Explaining his Views. 
 Resignation of his Pastorate 55 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 1833-1838. JEr. 30-35. 
 
 1 . Visit to Europe. On his Return preaches in Differ 
 ent Places. Emerson in the Pulpit. At Newton. 
 
 Fixes his Residence at Concord. The Old Manse. 
 
 Lectures in Boston. Lectures on Michael An- ,/ 
 gelo and on Milton published in the " North Ameri 
 can Review." Beginning of the Correspondence 
 with Carlyle. Letters to the Rev. James Freeman 
 Clarke. Republication of " Sartor Resartus." 
 
 2. Emerson s Second Marriage. His New Residence 
 in Concord. Historical Address. Course of Ten 
 Lectures on English Literature delivered in Boston. 
 
 The Concord Battle Hymn. Preaching in Con 
 cord and East Lexington. Accounts of his Preach 
 ing by Several Hearers. A Course of Lectures on 
 the Nature and Ends of History. Address on War. 
 
 Death of Edward Bliss Emerson. Death of 
 Charles Chauncy Emerson. 
 
 3. Publication of " Nature." Outline of this Essay. 
 Its Reception. Address before the Phi Beta Kappa 
 Society 62 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 1838-1843. MT. 35-40. 
 
 1 . Divinity School Address. Correspondence. Lec 
 tures on Human Life. Letters to James Freeman 
 Clarke. Dartmouth College Address : Literary Eth 
 ics. Waterville College Address : The Method of 
 Nature. Other Addresses : Man the Reformer. 
 Lecture on the Times. The Conservative. The 
 Transcendentalist. Boston " Transcendentalism." 
 
 " The Dial." Brook Farm. 
 
 2. First Series of Essays published. Contents : His 
 tory, Self-Reliance, Compensation, Spiritual Laws, 
 
CONTENTS. V 
 
 Love, Friendship, Prudence, Heroism, The Over-Soul, 
 Circles, Intellect, Art. Emerson s Account of his 
 Mode of Life in a Letter to Carlyle. Death of 
 Emerson s Son. Threnody 116 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 1843-1848. JET. 40-45. 
 
 * The Young American." Address on the Anniversary 
 of the Emancipation of the Negroes in the British 
 West Indies. Publication of the Second Series of 
 Essays. Contents : The Poet. Experience. 
 Character. Manners. Gifts. Nature. Politics. 
 Nominalist and Eealist. New England Reform 
 ers. Publication of Poems. Second Visit to Eng 
 land 179 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 1848-1853. JET. 45-50. 
 
 The " Massachusetts Quarterly Review." Visit to Eu 
 rope. England. Scotland. France. " Repre 
 sentative Men " published. I. Uses of Great Men. 
 II. Plato ; or, the Philosopher ; Plato ; New Read 
 ings. III. Swedenborg ; or, the Mystic. IV. Mon 
 taigne ; or, the Skeptic. V. Shakespeare ; or, the 
 Poet. VI. Napoleon; or, the Man of the World. 
 VII. Goethe ; or, the Writer. Contribution to the 
 " Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli " 193 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 1853-1858. JET. 50-55. 
 
 Lectures in various Places. Anti-Slavery Addresses. 
 Woman. A Lecture read before the Woman s Rights 
 Convention. Samuel Hoar. Speech at Concord. 
 Publication of "English Traits." The "Atlantic 
 Monthly." The "Saturday Club" 210 
 
n CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 1858-1863. JEn. 55-60. 
 
 Essay on Persian Poetry. Speech at the Burns Centen 
 nial Festival. Letter from Emerson to a Lady. 
 Tributes to Theodore Parker and to Thoreau. Ad 
 dress on the Emancipation Proclamation. Publica 
 tion of " The Conduct of Life." Contents : Fate ; ^ 
 Power ; Wealth ; Culture ; Behavior ; Worship ; Con 
 siderations by the Way ; Beauty ; Illusions .... 224 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 1863-1868. JET. 60-65. 
 
 "Boston Hymn." " Voluntaries." Other Poems. 
 "May-Day and other Pieces." "Remarks at the 
 Funeral Services of President Lincoln." Essay on 
 Persian Poetry. Address at a Meeting of the Free 
 Religious Association. " Progress of Culture." Ad 
 dress before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard 
 University. Course of Lectures in Philadelphia. 
 The Degree of LL. D. conferred upon Emerson by 
 Harvard University. " Terminus " 240 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 1868-1873. JET. 65-70. 
 
 Lectures on the Natural History of the Intellect. Publi 
 cation of " Society and Solitude." Contents : Soci 
 ety and Solitude. Civilization. Art. Eloquence. 
 
 Domestic Life. Farming. Works and Days. 
 Books. Clubs. Courage. Success. Old Age. 
 
 Other Literary Labors. Visit to California. 
 Burning of his House, and the Story of its Rebuild 
 ing. Third Visit to Europe. His Reception at 
 Concord on his Return \. .249 
 
CONTENTS. VU 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 1873-1878. Mi. 70-75. 
 
 Publication of "Parnassus." Emerson Nominated as 
 Candidate for the Office of Lord Rector of Glasgow 
 University. Publication of " Letters and Social 
 Aims." Contents : Poetry and Imagination. Social 
 Aims. Eloquence. Resources. The Comic. 
 Quotation and Originality. Progress of Culture. 
 Persian Poetry. Inspiration. Greatness. Im 
 mortality. Address at the Unveiling of the Statue 
 of " The Minute-Man " at Concord. Publication of 
 Collected Poems ............. 280 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 1878-1882. ^ET. 75-79. 
 
 Last Literary Labors. Addresses and Essays. " Lec 
 tures and Biographical Sketches." " Miscellanies " 294 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Emerson s Poems .............. 310 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Recollections of Emerson s Last Years. Mr. Conway*s 
 Visits. Extracts from Mr. Whitman s Journal. 
 Dr. Le Baron Russell s Visit. Dr. Edward Emer 
 son s Account. Illness and Death. Funeral Ser 
 vices ................. 343 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 EMERSON. A RETROSPECT. 
 
 Personality and Habits of Life. His Commission and 
 Errand. As a Lecturer. His Use of Authorities. 
 Resemblance to Other Writers. As influenced 
 
riii CONTENTS. 
 
 by Others. His Place as a Thinker. Idealism and 
 Intuition. Mysticism. His Attitude respecting 
 Science. As an American. His Fondness for Sol 
 itary Study. His Patience and Amiability. Feel 
 ing with which he was regarded. Emerson and 
 Burns. His Religious Belief. His Relations with 
 Clergymen. Future of his Reputation. His Life 
 judged by the Ideal Standard 357 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " I HAVE the feeling that every man s biog 
 raphy is at his own expense. He furnishes not 
 only the facts, but the report. I mean that all 
 biography is autobiography. It is ooly what he 
 tells of himself that comes to be known and 
 believed." 
 
 So writes the man whose life we are to pass 
 in review, and it is certainly as true of him as 
 of any author we could name. 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 space and time. About all these acci 
 dents we have a natural and pardonable curios 
 ity. We wish to know of what race he came, 
 what were the conditions into which he was 
 born, what educational and social influences 
 helped to mould his character, and what new 
 elements Nature added to make him Ralph 
 Waldo Emerson. 
 
 He himself believes in the hereditary trans* 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mission of certain characteristics. Though Na 
 ture appears capricious, he says, " Some quali 
 ties she carefully fixes and transmits, but some, 
 and those the finer, she exhales with the breath 
 of the individual, as too costly to perpetuate. 
 But I notice also that they may become fixed 
 and permanent in any stock, by painting and 
 repainting them on every individual, until at 
 last Nature adopts them and bakes them in her 
 porcelain." 
 
 We have in New England a certain number 
 of families who constitute what may be called 
 thto Academic Races. Their names have been 
 on college catalogues for generation after gener 
 ation. They have filled the learned professions, 
 more especially the ministry, from the old colo 
 nial days to our own time. If aptitudes for the 
 acquisition of knowledge can be bred into a 
 family as the qualities the sportsman wants in 
 his dog are developed in pointers and setters, we 
 know what we may expect of a descendant of 
 one of the Academic Races. Other things be 
 ing equal, he will take more naturally, more 
 easily, to his books. His features will be more 
 pliable, his voice will be more flexible, his whole 
 nature more plastic than those of the youth with 
 less favoring antecedents. The gift of genius is 
 ttever to be reckoned upon beforehand, any more 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 than a choice new variety of pear or peach in a 
 seedling ; it is always a surprise, but it is born 
 with great advantages when the stock from 
 which it springs has been long under cultiva 
 tion. 
 
 These thoughts suggest themselves in looking 
 back at the striking record of the family made 
 historic by the birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 It was remarkable for the long succession of 
 clergymen in its genealogy, and for the large 
 number of college graduates it counted on its 
 rolls. 
 
 A genealogical table is very apt to illustrate 
 the " survival of the fittest," in the estimate 
 of the descendants. It is inclined to remember 
 and record those ancestors who do most honor 
 to the living heirs of the family name and tra 
 ditions. As every man may count two grand 
 fathers, four great-grandfathers, eight great- 
 great-grandfathers, and so on, a few generations 
 give him a good chance for selection. If he 
 adds his distinguished grandmothers, he may 
 double the number of personages to choose from. 
 The great-grandfathers of Mr. Emerson at the 
 sixth remove were thirty-two in number, unless 
 the list was shortened by intermarriage of rela 
 tives. One of these, from whom the name de- 
 cended, was Thomas Emerson of Ipswich, who 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 furnished the staff of life to the people of that 
 wonderfully interesting old town and its neigh 
 borhood. 
 
 His son, the Reverend Joseph Emerson, min 
 ister of the town of Mendon, Massachusetts, 
 married Elizabeth, daughter of the Reverend 
 Edward Bulkeley, who succeeded his father, the 
 Reverend Peter Bulkeley, as Minister of Con 
 cord, Massachusetts. 
 
 Peter Bulkeley was therefore one of Emer 
 son s sixty-four grandfathers at the seventh re 
 move. We know the tenacity of certain family 
 characteristics through long lines of descent, and 
 it is not impossible that any one of a hundred 
 and twenty-eight grandparents, if indeed the full 
 number existed in spite of family admixtures, 
 may have transmitted his or her distinguishing 
 traits through a series of lives that cover more 
 than two centuries, to our own contemporary. 
 Inherited qualities move along their several 
 paths not unlike the pieces in the game of chess. 
 Sometimes the character of the son can be 
 traced directly to that of the father or of the 
 mother, as the pawn s move carries him from 
 one square to the next. Sometimes a series of 
 distinguished fathers follows in a line, or a suc 
 cession of superior mothers, as the black or 
 white bishop sweeps the board on his own color. 
 Sometimes the distinguishing characters pass 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 from one sex to the other indifferently, as the 
 castle strides over the black and white squares. 
 Sometimes an uncle or aunt lives over again in 
 a nephew or niece, as if the knight s move were 
 repeated on the squares of human individuality. 
 It is not impossible, then, that some of the qual 
 ities we mark in Emerson may have come from 
 the remote ancestor whose name figures with 
 distinction in the early history of New Eng 
 land. 
 
 The Eeverend Peter Bulkeley is honorably 
 commemorated among the worthies consigned to 
 immortality in that precious and entertaining 
 medley of fact and fancy, enlivened by a wilder 
 ness of quotations at first or second hand, the 
 Magnolia, Christi Americana, of the Reverend 
 Cotton Mather. The old chronicler tells his story 
 so much better than any one can tell it for him 
 that he must be allowed to speak for himself in 
 a few extracts, transferred with all their typo 
 graphical idiosyncrasies from the London-printed 
 folio of 1702. 
 
 " He was descended of an Honourable Family in 
 Bedfordshire. He was born at WoodhU (or Odel) 
 in Bedfordshire, January 31st, 1582. 
 
 " His Education was answerable unto his Origi 
 nal ; it was Learned, it was Genteel, and, which was 
 the top of all, it was very Pious : At length it made 
 him a Batchellor of Divinity, and a Fellow of Saint 
 John s Colledge in Cambridge. 
 
6 INTR OD UC TION. 
 
 " When he came abroad into the World, a good 
 benefice befel him, added unto the estate of a Gen 
 tleman, left him by his Father ; whom he succeeded 
 in his Ministry, at the place of his Nativity : Which 
 one would imagine Temptations enough to keep him 
 out of a Wilderness." 
 
 But he could not conscientiously conform to 
 the ceremonies of the English Church, and so, 
 
 "When Sir Nathaniel Brent was Arch-Bishop 
 Laud s General, as Arch-Bishop Laud was another s, 
 Complaints were made against Mr. Bulkly, for his 
 Non-Conformity, and he was therefore Silenced. 
 
 " To New-England he therefore came, in the Year 
 1635 ; and there having been for a while, at Cam 
 bridge, he carried a good Number of Planters with 
 him, up further into the Woods, where they gathered 
 the Twelfth Church, then formed in the Colony, and 
 call d the Town by the Name of Concord. 
 
 " Here he buried a great Estate, while he raised 
 one still, for almost every Person whom he employed 
 in the Affairs of his Husbandry. 
 
 "He was a most excellent Scholar, a very-well 
 read Person, and one, who in his advice to young 
 Students, gave Demonstrations, that he knew what 
 would go to make a Scholar. But it being essential 
 unto a Scholar to love a Scholar, so did he ; and in 
 Token thereof, endowed the Library of Harvard- 
 Colledge with no small part of his own. 
 
 " And he was therewithal a most exalted Chri 
 \ian " In his Ministry he was another Farel, Qw 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 tonuit fortius And the observance which his 
 own People had for him, was also paid him from all 
 sorts of People throughout the Land ; but especially 
 from the Ministers of the Country, who would still 
 address him as a Father, a Prophet, a Counsellor, on 
 all occasions." 
 
 These extracts may not quite satisfy the ex 
 acting reader, who must be referred to the old 
 folio from which they were taken, where he will 
 receive the following counsel : 
 
 " If then any Person would know what Mr. 
 Peter Bulkly was, let him read his Judicious 
 and Savory Treatise of the Gospel Covenant, 
 which has passed through several Editions, with 
 much Acceptance among the People of God." It 
 must be added that " he had a competently good 
 Stroke at Latin Poetry ; and even in his Old 
 Age, affected sometimes to improve it. Many 
 of his Composure are yet in our Hands." 
 
 It is pleasant to believe that some of the qual 
 ities of this distinguished scholar and Christian 
 were reproduced in the descendant whose life we 
 are studying. At his death in 1659 he was suc 
 ceeded, as was mentioned, by his son Edward, 
 whose daughter became the wife of the Reverend 
 Joseph Emerson, the minister of Mendon who, 
 when that village was destroyed by the Indians, 
 removed to Concord, where he died in the year 
 1680. This is the first connection of the name 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of Emerson with Concord, with which it has 
 since been so long associated. 
 
 Edward Emerson, son of the first and father 
 of the second Reverend Joseph Emerson, though 
 not a minister, was the next thing to being one, 
 for on his gravestone he is thus recorded : " Mr. 
 Edward Emerson, sometime Deacon of the first 
 church in Newbury." He was noted for the 
 virtue of patience, and it is a family tradition 
 that he never complained but once, when he 
 said mildly to his daughter that her dumplings 
 were somewhat harder than needful, " but not 
 often" This same Edward was the only break 
 in the line of ministers who descended from 
 Thomas of Ipswich. He is remembered in the 
 family as having been " a merchant in Charles- 
 town." 
 
 Their son, the second Reverend Joseph Emer 
 son, Minister of Maiden for nearly half a cen 
 tury, married Mary, the daughter of the Rev 
 erend Samuel Moody, Father Moody, of 
 York, Maine. Three of his sons were ministers, 
 and one of these, William, was pastor of the 
 church at Concord at the period of the outbreak 
 of the Revolutionary War. 
 
 As the successive generations narrow down 
 towards the individual whose life we are recall 
 ing, the character of his progenitors becomes 
 more and more important and interesting to the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 biographer. The Reverend "William Emerson, 
 grandfather of Ralph Waldo, was an excellent 
 and popular preacher and an ardent and devoted 
 patriot. He preached resistance to tyrants from 
 the pulpit, he encouraged his townsmen and 
 their allies to make a stand against the soldiers 
 who had marched upon their peaceful village, 
 and would have taken a part in the Fight at the 
 Bridge, which he saw from his own house, had 
 not the friends around him prevented his quit 
 ting his doorstep. He left Concord in 1776 to 
 join the army at Ticonderoga, was taken with 
 fever, was advised to return to Concord and set 
 out on the journey, but died on his way. His 
 wife was the daughter of the Reverend Daniel 
 Bliss, his predecessor in the pulpit at Concord. 
 This was another very noticeable personage in 
 the line of Emerson s ancestors. His merits and 
 abilities are described at great length on his 
 tombstone in the Concord burial-ground. There 
 is no reason to doubt that his epitaph was com 
 posed by one who knew him well. But the 
 slabs which record the excellences of our New 
 England clergymen of the past generations are 
 so crowded with virtues that the reader can 
 hardly help inquiring whether a sharp bargain 
 was not driven with the stonecutter, like that 
 which the good Vicar of Wakefield arranged 
 with the portrait-painter. He was to represent 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Sophia as a shepherdess, it will be remembered, 
 with as many sheep as he could afford to put in 
 for nothing. 
 
 William Emerson left four children, a son 
 bearing the same name, and three daughters, one 
 of whom, Mary Moody Emerson, is well remem 
 bered as pictured for us by her nephew, Ealph 
 Waldo. His widow became the wife of the 
 Reverend Ezra Ripley, Doctor of Divinity, and 
 his successor as Minister at Concord. 
 
 The Reverend William Emerson, the second 
 of that name and profession, and the father of 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, was born in the year 
 1769, and graduated at Harvard College in 
 1789. He was settled as Minister in the town 
 of Harvard in the year 1792, and in 1799 be 
 came Minister of the First Church in Boston. 
 In 1796 he married Ruth Haskins of Boston. 
 He died in 1811, leaving five sons, of whom 
 Ralph Waldo was the second. 
 
 The interest which attaches itself to the im 
 mediate parentage of a man like Emerson leads 
 as to inquire particularly about the characteris 
 tics of the Reverend William Emerson so far as 
 we can learn them from his own writings and 
 from the record of his contemporaries. 
 
 The Reverend Dr. Sprague s valuable and 
 well-known work, "Annals of the American 
 Pulpit," contains three letters from which we 
 
INTRODUCTION". 11 
 
 learn some of his leading characteristics. Dr. 
 Pierce of Brookline, the faithful chronicler of 
 his time, speaks of his pulpit talents as extra 
 ordinary, but thinks there was not a perfect 
 sympathy between him and the people of the 
 quiet little town of Harvard, while he was 
 highly acceptable in the pulpits of the metrop 
 olis. In personal appearance he was attractive ; 
 his voice was melodious, his utterance distinct, 
 his manner agreeable. " He was a faithful and 
 generous friend and knew how to forgive an 
 enemy. In his theological views perhaps he 
 went farther on the liberal side than most of his 
 brethren with whom he was associated. He 
 was, however, perfectly tolerant towards those 
 who differed from him most widely." 
 
 Dr. Charles Lowell, another brother minister, 
 says of him, "Mr. Emerson was a handsome man, 
 rather tall, with a fair complexion, his cheeks 
 slightly tinted, his motions easy, graceful, and 
 gentlemanlike, his manners bland and pleasant. 
 He was an honest man, and expressed himself 
 decidedly and emphatically, but never bluntly or 
 vulgarly. Mr. Emerson was a man of good 
 sense. His conversation was edifying and use 
 ful ; never foolish or undignified. In his the 
 ological opinions he was, to say the least, far 
 from having any sympathy with Calvinism. I 
 have not supposed that he was, like Dr. Free- 
 
1 2 INT ROD UCTION. 
 
 man, a Humanitarian, though he may haye been 
 so." 
 
 There was no honester chronicler than our 
 clerical Pepys, good, hearty, sweet-souled, fact- 
 loving Dr. John Pierce of Brookline, who knew 
 the dates of birth and death of the graduates of 
 Harvard, starred and unstarred, better, one is 
 tempted to say (Hibernice), than they did them 
 selves. There was not a nobler gentleman in 
 charge of any Boston parish than Dr. Charles 
 Lowell. But after the pulpit has said what it 
 thinks of the pulpit, it is well to listen to what 
 the pews have to say about it. 
 
 This is what the late Mr. George Ticknor said 
 in an article in the " Christian Examiner " for 
 September, 1849. 
 
 " Mr. Emerson, transplanted to the First 
 Church in Boston six years before Mr. Buck- 
 minster s settlement, possessed, on the contrary, 
 a graceful and dignified style of speaking, which 
 was by no means without its attraction, but he 
 lacked the fervor that could rouse the masses, 
 and the original resources that could command 
 the few." 
 
 As to his religious beliefs, Emerson writes to 
 Dr. Sprague as follows : " I did not find in any 
 manuscript or printed sermons that I looked at, 
 any very explicit statement of opinion on the 
 question between Calvinists and Socinians. He 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 inclines obviously to what is ethical and uni 
 versal in Christianity ; very little to the personal 
 and historical. I think I observe in his writ 
 ings, as in the writings of Unitarians down to a 
 recent date, a studied reserve on the subject of 
 the nature and offices of Jesus. They had not 
 made up their own minds on it. It was a mys 
 tery to them, and they let it remain so." 
 
 Mr. William Emerson left, published, fifteen 
 Sermons and Discourses, an Oration pronounced 
 at Boston on the Fourth of July, 1802, a Col 
 lection of Psalms and Hymns, an Historical 
 Sketch of the First Church in Boston, besides 
 his contributions to the " Monthly Anthology," 
 of which he was the Editor. 
 
 Kuth Haskins, the wife of William and the 
 mother of Ealph Waldo Emerson, is spoken of 
 by the late Dr. Frothingham, in an article in the 
 " Christian Examiner," as a woman " of great 
 patience and fortitude, of the serenest trust in 
 God, of a discerning spirit, and a most courte 
 ous bearing, one who knew how to guide the 
 affairs of her own house, as long as she was re 
 sponsible for that, with the sweetest authority, 
 and knew how to give the least trouble and the 
 greatest happiness after that authority was re 
 signed. Both her mind and her character were 
 of a superior order, and they set their stamp 
 upon manners of peculiar softness and natural 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 grace and quiet dignity. Her sensible and 
 kindly speech was always as good as the best 
 instruction; her smile, though it was ever ready, 
 was a reward." 
 
 The Reverend Dr. Furness of Philadelphia, 
 who grew up with her son, says, " Waldo bore a 
 strong resemblance to his father ; the other chil 
 dren resembled their mother." 
 
 Such was the descent of Ralph Waldo Emer 
 son. If the ideas of parents survive as impres 
 sions or tendencies in their descendants, no man 
 had a better right to an inheritance of theologi 
 cal instincts than this representative of a long 
 line of ministers. The same trains of thought 
 and feeling might naturally gain in force from 
 another association of near family relationship, 
 though not of blood. After the death of the 
 first William Emerson, the Concord minister, 
 his widow, Mr. Emerson s grandmother, mar 
 ried, as has been mentioned, his successor, Dr. 
 Ezra Ripley. The grandson spent much time in 
 the family of Dr. Ripley, whose character he 
 has drawn with exquisite felicity in a sketch 
 read before The Social Circle of Concord, and 
 published in the " Atlantic Monthly " for No 
 vember, 1883. Mr. Emerson says of him : 
 " He was identified with the ideas and forms of 
 the New England Church, which expired about 
 the same time with him, so that he and his 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 coevals seemed the rear guard of the great camp 
 and army of the Puritans, which, however in 
 its last days declining into formalism, in the 
 heyday of its strength had planted and liber 
 ated America. . . . The same faith made what 
 was strong and what was weak in Dr. Ripley." 
 It would be hard to find a more perfect sketch 
 of character than Mr. Emerson s living picture 
 of Dr. Ripley. I myself remember him as a 
 comely little old gentleman, but he was not so 
 communicative in a strange household as his 
 clerical brethren, smiling John Foster of Brigh 
 ton and chatty Jonathan Homer of Newton. 
 Mr. Emerson says, " He was a natural gentle 
 man ; no dandy, but courtly, hospitable, manly, 
 and public-spirited ; his nature social, his house 
 open to all men. His brow was serene and 
 open to his visitor, for he loved men, and he had 
 no studies, no occupations, which company could 
 interrupt. His friends were his study, and to 
 see them loosened his talents and his tongue. 
 In his house dwelt order and prudence and 
 plenty. There was no waste and no stint. He 
 was open-handed and just and generous. In 
 gratitude and meanness in his beneficiaries did 
 not wear out his compassion ; he bore the insult, 
 and the next day his basket for the beggar, his 
 horse and chaise for the cripple, were at their 
 door." How like Goldsmith s good Dr. Prim* 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 rose ! I do not know any writing of Mr. Emer 
 son which brings out more fully his sense of 
 humor, of the picturesque in character, 
 and as a piece of composition, continuous, fluid, 
 transparent, with a playful ripple here and 
 there, it is admirable and delightful. 
 
 Another of his early companionships must 
 have exercised a still more powerful influence on 
 his character, that of his aunt, Mary Moody 
 Emerson. He gave an account of her in a paper 
 read before the Woman s Club several years ago, 
 and published in the " Atlantic Monthly " for 
 December, 1883. Far more of Mr. Emerson is 
 to be found in this aunt of his than in any other 
 of his relations in the ascending series, with 
 whose history we are acquainted. Her story is 
 an interesting one, but for that I must refer the 
 reader to the article mentioned. Her character 
 and intellectual traits are what we are most con 
 cerned with. " Her early reading was Milton, 
 Young, Akenside, Samuel Clarke, Jonathan 
 Edwards, and always the Bible. Later, Plato, 
 Plotinus, Marcus Antoninus, Stewart, Cole 
 ridge, Herder, Locke, Madam De Stael, Chan- 
 ning, Mackintosh, Byron. Nobody can read in 
 her manuscript, or recall the conversation of 
 old-school people, without seeing that Milton 
 and Young had a religious authority in their 
 minds, and nowise the slight merely entertain. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 ing quality of modern bards. And Plato, Aris 
 totle, Plotinus, how venerable and organic as 
 Nature they are in her mind ! " 
 
 There are many sentences cited by Mr. Emer 
 son which remind us very strongly of his own 
 writings. Such a passage as the following might 
 have come from his Essay, " Nature," but it was 
 written when her nephew was only four years 
 old. 
 
 " Maiden, 1807, September. The rapture of feel 
 ing I would part from for days devoted to higher 
 discipline. But when Nature beams with such excess 
 of beauty, when the heart thrills with hope in its Au 
 thor, feels it is related to Him more than by any 
 ties of creation, it exults, too fondly, perhaps, for 
 a state of trial. But in dead of night, nearer morn 
 ing, when the eastern stars glow, or appear to glow, 
 with more indescribable lustre, a lustre which pene 
 trates the spirits with wonder and curiosity, then, 
 however awed, who can fear ? " "A few pulsa 
 tions of created beings, a few successions of acts, a 
 few lamps held out in the firmament, enable us to talk 
 of Time, make epochs, write histories, to do more.. 
 to date the revelations of God to man. But these 
 lamps are held to measure out some of the moments: 
 of eternity, to divide the history of God s operations 
 in the birth and death of nations, of worlds. It is a 
 goodly name for our notions of breathing, suffering, 
 enjoying, acting. We personify it. We call it by 
 every name of fleeting, dreaming, vaporing imagery. 
 
18 INTRODUCTION: 
 
 Yet it is nothing. "We exist in eternity. Dissolve 
 the body and the night is gone ; the stars are extin 
 guished, and we measure duration by the number of 
 our thoughts, by the activity of reason, the discovery 
 of truths, the acquirement of virtue, the approval of 
 God." 
 
 Miss Mary Emerson showed something of the 
 same feeling towards natural science which may 
 be noted in her nephews Waldo and Charles. 
 After speaking of " the poor old earth s chaotic 
 state, brought so near in its long and gloomy 
 transmutings by the geologist," she says : 
 
 " Yet its youthful charms, as decked by the hand 
 of Moses Cosmogony, will linger about the heart, 
 while Poetry succumbs to science." " And the bare 
 bones of this poor embryo earth may give the idea 
 of the Infinite, far, far better than when dignified 
 with arts and industry ; its oceans, when beating the 
 symbols of countless ages, than when covered with 
 cargoes of war and oppression. How grand its prep 
 aration for souls, souls who were to feel the Divinity, 
 before Science had dissected the emotions and ap 
 plied its steely analysis to that state of being which 
 recognizes neither psychology nor element." Use 
 fulness, if it requires action, seems less like existence 
 than the desire of being absorbed in God, retaining 
 consciousness. . . . Scorn trifles, lift your aims ; do 
 what you are afraid to do. Sublimity of character 
 must come from sublimity of motive." 
 
IN TR OD UCTION. 1 9 
 
 So far as hereditary and family influences can 
 account for the character and intellect of Ralph 
 Waldo Emerson, we could hardly ask for a bet 
 ter inborn inheritance, or better counsels and 
 examples. 
 
 Having traced some of the distinguishing traits 
 which belong by descent to Mr. Emerson to those 
 who were before him, it is interesting to note how 
 far they showed themselves in those of his own 
 generation, his brothers. Of these I will men 
 tion two, one of whom I knew personally. 
 
 Edward Bliss Emerson, who graduated at 
 Harvard College in 1824, three years after 
 Ralph Waldo, held the first place in his class. 
 He began the study of the law with Daniel 
 Webster, but overworked himself and suffered 
 a temporary disturbance of his reason. After 
 this he made another attempt, but found his 
 health unequal to the task and exiled himself to 
 Porto Rico, where, in 1834, he died. Two 
 poems preserve his memory, one that of Ralph 
 Waldo, in which he addresses his memory, 
 
 " Ah, brother of the brief but blazing star," 
 
 the other his own " Last Farewell," written in 
 1832, whilst sailing out of Boston Harbor. The 
 lines are unaffected and very touching, full of 
 that deep affection which united the brothers in 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the closest intimacy, and of the tenderest love for 
 the mother whom he was leaving to see no more. 
 
 I had in my early youth a key furnished me 
 to some of the leading traits which were in due 
 time to develop themselves in Emerson s charac 
 ter and intelligence. As on the wall of some 
 great artist s studio one may find unfinished 
 sketches which he recognizes as the first growing 
 conceptions of pictures painted in after years, so 
 we see that Nature often sketches, as it were, a 
 living portrait, which she leaves in its rudiment 
 ary condition, perhaps for the reason that earth 
 has no colors which can worthily fill in an outline 
 too perfect for humanity. The sketch is left 
 in its consummate incompleteness because this 
 mortal life is not rich enough to carry out the 
 Divine idea. 
 
 Such an unfinished but unmatched outline is 
 that which I find in the long portrait - gallery 
 of memory, recalled by the name of Charles 
 Chauncy Emerson. Save for a few brief 
 glimpses of another, almost lost among my life s 
 early shadows, this youth was the most angelic 
 adolescent my eyes ever beheld. Remembering 
 what well-filtered blood it was that ran in the 
 veins of the race from which he was descended, 
 those who knew him in life might well say with 
 Dryden, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 " If by traduction came thy mind 
 Our wonder is the less to find 
 A soul so charming from a stock so good." 
 
 His image is with me in its immortal youth as 
 when, almost fifty years ago, I spoke of him in 
 these lines, which I may venture to quote from 
 myself, since others have quoted them before me. 
 
 Thou calm, chaste scholar ! I can see thee now, 
 
 The first young laurels on thy pallid brow, 
 
 O er thy slight figure floating lightly down 
 
 In graceful folds the academic gown, 
 
 On thy curled lip the classic lines that taught 
 
 How nice the mind that sculptured them with thought, 
 
 And triumph glistening in the clear blue eye, 
 
 Too bright to live, but O, too fair to die. 
 
 Being about seven years younger than Waldo, he 
 must have received much of his intellectual and 
 moral guidance at his elder brother s hands. I 
 told the story at a meeting of our Historical 
 Society of Charles Emerson s coming into my 
 study, this was probably in 1826 or 1827, 
 taking up Hazlitt s " British Poets " and turning 
 at once to a poem of Marvell s, which he read 
 with his entrancing voice and manner. The 
 influence of this poet is plain to every reader in 
 some of Emerson s poems, and Charles liking 
 for him was very probably caught from Waldo, 
 When Charles was nearly through college, a 
 periodical called "The Harvard Register" was 
 
22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 published by students and recent graduates. 
 Three articles were contributed by him to this 
 periodical. Two of them have the titles " Con 
 versation," " Friendship." His quotations are 
 from Horace and Juvenal, Plato, Plutarch, Ba 
 con, Jeremy Taylor, Shakespeare, and Scott. 
 There are passages in these Essays which remind 
 one strongly of his brother, the Lecturer of 
 twenty-five or thirty years later. Take this as 
 an example : 
 
 " Men and mind are my studies. I need no ob 
 servatory high in air to aid my perceptions or enlarge 
 my prospect. I do not want a costly apparatus to 
 give pomp to my pursuit or to disguise its inutility. I 
 do not desire to travel and see foreign lands and learn 
 all knowledge and speak with all tongues, before I 
 am prepared for my employment. I have merely to 
 go out of my door ; nay, I may stay at home at my 
 chambers, and I shall have enough to do and enjoy." 
 
 The feeling of this sentence shows itself con 
 stantly in Emerson s poems. He finds his in 
 spiration in the objects about him, the forest in 
 which he walks ; the sheet of water which the 
 hermit of a couple of seasons made famous ; the 
 lazy Musketaquid ; the titmouse that mocked his 
 weakness in the bitter cold winter s day ; the 
 mountain that rose in the horizon ; the lofty 
 pines ; the lowly flowers. AH talked with him 
 
INTR ODUC TION. 28 
 
 as brothers and sisters, and he with them as of 
 his own household. 
 
 The same lofty idea of friendship which we 
 find in the man in his maturity, we recognize in 
 one of the Essays of the youth. 
 
 " All men of gifted intellect and fine genius," says 
 Charles Emerson, " must entertain a noble idea of 
 friendship. Our reverence we are constrained to 
 yield where it is due, to rank, merit, talents. Bu* 
 our affections we give not thus easily. 
 
 The hand of Douglas is his own. " 
 "I am willing to lose an hour in gossip with per 
 sons whom good men hold cheap. All this I will do 
 out of regard to the decent conventions of polite life. 
 But my friends I must know, and, knowing, I must 
 love. There must be a daily beauty in their life that 
 shall secure my constant attachment. T cannot stand 
 upon the footing of ordinary acquaintance. Friend 
 ship is aristocratical the affections which are pros 
 tituted to every suitor I will not accept." 
 
 Here are glimpses of what the youth was 
 to be, of what the man who long outlived him 
 became. Here is the dignity which commands 
 reverence, a dignity which, with all Ralph 
 Waldo Emerson s sweetness of manner and ex 
 pression, rose almost to majesty in his serene 
 presence. There was something about Charles 
 Emerson which lifted those he was with into 
 a lofty and pure region of thought and feeling. 
 
24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A vulgar soul stood abashed in his presence. I 
 could never think of him in the presence of such, 
 listening to a paltry sentiment or witnessing a 
 mean action without recalling Milton s line, 
 
 " Back stepped those two fair angels half amazed," 
 
 and thinking how he might well have been 
 taken for a celestial messenger. 
 
 No doubt there is something of idealization 
 in all these reminiscences, and of that exaggera 
 tion which belongs to the laudator temporis acti. 
 But Charles Emerson was idolized in his own 
 time by many in college and out of college. 
 George Stillman Hillard was his rival. Neck 
 and neck they ran the race for the enviable posi 
 tion of first scholar in the class of 1828, and 
 when Hillard was announced as having the first 
 part assigned to him, the excitement within the 
 college walls, and to some extent outside of 
 them, was like that when the telegraph proclaims 
 the result of a Presidential election, or the 
 Winner of the Derby. But Hillard honestly 
 admired his brilliant rival. "Who has a part 
 with * * * * at this next exhibition ? " I asked 
 him one day, as I met him in the college yard. 
 * ***** the Post," answered Hillard. " Why 
 call him the Post ? " said I. " He is a wooden 
 creature," said Hillard. " Hear him and Charles 
 Emerson translating from the Latin Domus 
 
INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 iota inflammata erat. The Post will render the 
 words, The whole house was on fire. Charles 
 Emerson will translate the sentence The en 
 tire edifice was wrapped in flames. " It was 
 natural enough that a young admirer should 
 prefer the Bernini drapery of Charles Emerson s 
 version to the simple nudity of " the Post s " 
 rendering. 
 
 The nest is made ready long beforehand for 
 the bird which is to be bred in it and to fly 
 from it. The intellectual atmosphere into which 
 a scholar is born, and from which he draws the 
 breath of his early mental life, must be stud 
 ied if we would hope to understand him thor 
 oughly. 
 
 When the present century began, the ele 
 ments, thrown into confusion by the long strug 
 gle for Independence, had not had time to 
 arrange themselves in new combinations. The 
 active intellects of the country had found enough 
 to keep them busy in creating and organizing a 
 new order of political and social life. What 
 ever purely literary talent existed was as yet in 
 the nebular condition, a diffused luminous spot 
 here and there, waiting to form centres of con 
 densation. 
 
 Such a nebular spot had been brightening in 
 and about Boston for a number of years, when, 
 
26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in the year 1804, a small cluster of names be 
 came visible as representing a modest constella 
 tion of literary luminaries : John Thornton 
 Kirkland, afterwards President of Harvard Uni 
 versity ; Joseph Stevens Buckminster ; John 
 Sylvester John Gardiner ; William Tudor ; Sam 
 uel Cooper Thacher ; William Emerson. These 
 were the chief stars of the new cluster, and their 
 light reached the world, or a small part of it, 
 as reflected from the pages of "The Monthly 
 Anthology," which very soon came under the 
 editorship of the Reverend William Emerson. 
 
 The father of Ralph Waldo Emerson may 
 be judged of in good measure by the associates 
 with whom he was thus connected. A brief 
 sketch of these friends and fellow-workers of his 
 may not be out of place, for these men made the 
 local sphere of thought into which Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson was born. 
 
 John Thornton Kirkland should have been 
 seen and heard as he is remembered by old grad 
 uates of Harvard, sitting in the ancient Presi 
 dential Chair, on Commencement Day, and call 
 ing in his penetrating but musical accents : " Ex- 
 pectatur Oratio in Lingua Latina " or " Ver- 
 nacula" if the " First Scholar " was about 
 to deliver the English oration. It was a pres. 
 ence not to be forgotten. His " shining morn 
 ing face " was round as a baby s, and talked as 
 
INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 pleasantly as his voice did, with smiles for ac 
 cents and dimples for punctuation. Mr. Tick- 
 nor speaks of his sermons as " full of intellectual 
 wealth and practical wisdom, with sometimes a 
 quaintness that bordered on humor." It was 
 of him that the story was always told, it may 
 be as old as the invention of printing, that he 
 threw his sermons into a barrel, where they went 
 to pieces and got mixed up, and that when he 
 was going to preach he fished out what he 
 thought would be about enough for a sermon, and 
 patched the leaves together as he best might. 
 The Eeverend Dr. Lowell says : " He always 
 found the right piece, and that was better than 
 almost any of his brethren could have found in 
 what they had written with twice the labor." Mr. 
 Cabot, who knew all Emerson s literary habits, 
 says he used to fish out the number of leaves he 
 wanted for a lecture in somewhat the same way. 
 Emerson s father, however, was very methodical, 
 according to Dr. Lowell, and had " a place for 
 everything, and everything in its place." Dr. 
 Kirkland left little to be remembered by, and 
 like many of the most interesting personalities 
 we have met with, has become a very thin ghost 
 to the grandchildren of his contemporaries. 
 
 Joseph Stevens Buckminster was the pulpit 
 darling of his day, in Boston. The beauty of 
 his person, the perfection of his oratory, the 
 
28 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 finish, of his style, added to the sweetness of his 
 character, made him one of those living idols 
 which seem to be as necessary to Protestantism 
 as images and pictures are to Komanism. 
 
 John Sylvester John Gardiner, once a pupil 
 of the famous Dr. Parr, was then the leading 
 Episcopal clergyman of Boston. Him I recon 
 struct from scattered hints I have met with as a 
 scholarly, social man, with a sanguine tempera 
 ment and the cheerful ways of a wholesome 
 English parson, blest with a good constitution 
 and a comfortable benefice. Mild Orthodoxy, 
 ripened in Unitarian sunshine, is a very agree 
 able aspect of Christianity, and none was readier 
 than Dr. Gardiner, if the voice of tradition may 
 be trusted, to fraternize with his brothers of the 
 liberal persuasion, and to make common cause 
 with them in all that related to the interests of 
 learning. 
 
 William Tudor was a chief connecting link 
 between the period of the "Monthly Anthol 
 ogy" and that of the "North American Re 
 view," for he was a frequent contributor to the 
 first of these periodicals, and he was the founder 
 of the second. Edward Everett characterizes 
 him, in speaking of his " Letters on the Eastern 
 States," as a scholar and a gentleman, an impar 
 tial observer, a temperate champion, a liberal 
 opponent, and a correct writer. Daniel Web- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 ster bore similar testimony to his talents and 
 character. 
 
 Samuel Cooper Thacher was hardly twenty 
 years old when the " Anthology " was founded, 
 and died when he was only a little more than 
 thirty. He contributed largely to that period 
 ical, besides publishing various controversial ser 
 mons, and writing the " Memoir of Buckmin- 
 ster." 
 
 There was no more brilliant circle than this in 
 any of our cities. There was none where so 
 much freedom of thought was united to so much 
 scholarship. The "Anthology" was the liter 
 ary precursor of the " North American Review," 
 and the theological herald of the "Christian 
 Examiner." Like all first beginnings it showed 
 many marks of immaturity. It mingled extracts 
 and original contributions, theology and medi 
 cine, with all manner of literary chips and shav 
 ings. It had Magazine ways that smacked of 
 Sylvanus Urban ; leading articles with balanced 
 paragraphs which recalled the marching tramp 
 of Johnson ; translations that might have been 
 signed with the name of Creech, and Odes to 
 Sensibility, and the like, which recalled the 
 syrupy sweetness and languid trickle of Laura 
 Matilda s sentimentalities. It talked about " the 
 London Reviewers " with a kind of provincial 
 deference. It printed articles with quite too 
 
80 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 much of the license of Swift and Prior for 
 the Magazines of to-day. But it had opinions 
 of its own, and would compare well enough with 
 fche " Gentleman s Magazine," to say nothing 
 of " My Grandmother s Keview, the British." 
 A writer in the third volume (1806) says : " A 
 taste for the belles lettres is rapidly spreading 
 in our country. I believe that, fifty years ago, 
 England had never seen a Miscellany or a 
 Review so well conducted as our Anthology, 
 however superior such publications may now be 
 in that kingdom." 
 
 It is well worth one s while to look over the 
 volumes of the "Anthology" to see what our 
 fathers and grandfathers were thinking about, 
 and how they expressed themselves. The stiff 
 ness of Puritanism was pretty well relaxed when 
 a Magazine conducted by clergymen could say 
 that " The child," meaning the new periodical, 
 " shall not be destitute of the manners of a 
 gentleman, nor a stranger to genteel amusements. 
 He shall attend Theatres, Museums, Balls, and 
 whatever polite diversions the town shall fur 
 nish." The reader of the "Anthology" will 
 find for his reward an improving discourse on 
 "Ambition," and a commendable schoolboy s 
 "theme" on "Inebriation." He will learn 
 something which may be for his advantage about 
 the " Anjou Cabbage," and may profit by a 
 
INTRODUCTION. 31 
 
 Remedy for Asthma." A controversy respect 
 ing the merits of Sir Richard Blackmore may 
 prove too little exciting at the present time, and 
 he can turn for relief to the epistle " Studiosus " 
 addresses to " Alcander." If the lines of " The 
 Minstrel" who hails, like Longfellow in later 
 years, from "The District of Main," fail to 
 satisfy him, he cannot accuse " R. T. Paine, Jr., 
 Esq.," of tameness when he exclaims : 
 
 " Rise Columbia, brave and free, 
 Poise the globe and bound the sea ! " 
 
 But the writers did not confine themselves to 
 native or even to English literature, for there is 
 a distinct mention of " Mr. Goethe s new novel," 
 and an explicit reference to " Dante Aligheri, an 
 Italian bard." But let the smiling reader go a 
 little farther and he will find Mr. Buckminster s 
 most interesting account of the destruction of 
 Goldau. And in one of these same volumes 
 he will find the article, by Dr. Jacob Bigelow, 
 doubtless, which was the first hint of our rural 
 cemeteries, and foreshadowed that new era in 
 our underground civilization which is sweeten 
 ing our atmospheric existence. 
 
 The late President Josiah Quincy, in his 
 " History of the Boston Athenaeum," pays a 
 high tribute of respect to the memory and the 
 labors of the gentlemen who founded that insti 
 tution and conducted the "Anthology." A lit* 
 
6Z INTRODUCTION. 
 
 erary journal had already been published in Bos- 
 ton, but very soon failed for want of patronage. 
 An enterprising firm of publishers, " being desir 
 ous that the work should be continued, applied 
 to the Reverend William Emerson, a clergy 
 man of the place, distinguished for energy and 
 literary taste ; and by his exertions several gen 
 tlemen of Boston and its vicinity, conspicuous 
 for talent and zealous for literature, were in 
 duced to engage in conducting the work, and for 
 this purpose they formed themselves into a Soci 
 ety. This Society was not completely organized 
 until the year 1805, when Dr. Gardiner was 
 elected President, and William Emerson Vice- 
 President. The Society thus formed maintained 
 its existence with reputation for about six years, 
 and issued ten octavo volumes from the press, 
 constituting one of the most lasting and honor 
 able monuments of the literature of the period, 
 and may be considered as a true revival of po 
 lite learning in this country after that decay and 
 neglect which resulted from the distractions of 
 the Revolutionary War, and as forming an epoch 
 in the intellectual history of the United States. 
 Its records yet remain, an evidence that it was a 
 pleasant, active, high-principled association of 
 literary men, laboring harmoniously to elevate 
 the literary standard of the time, and with a 
 success which may well be regarded as remark- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 able, considering the little sympathy they re 
 ceived from the community, and the many diffi 
 culties with which they had to struggle." 
 
 The publication of the "Anthology" began 
 in 1804, when Mr. William Emerson was thirty- 
 four years of age, and it ceased to be published 
 in the year of his death, 1811. Kalph Waldo 
 Emerson was eight years old at that time. His 
 intellectual life began, we may say, while the 
 somewhat obscure afterglow of the "Anthol 
 ogy" was in the western horizon of the New 
 England sky. 
 
 The nebula which was to form a cluster about 
 the "North American Review" did not take 
 definite shape until 1815. There is no such 
 memorial of the growth of American literature 
 as is to be found in the first half century of that 
 periodical. It is easy to find fault with it for 
 uniform respectability and occasional dulness. 
 But take the names of its contributors during its 
 first fifty years from the literary record of that 
 period, and we should have but a meagre list of 
 mediocrities, saved from absolute poverty by the 
 genius of two or three writers like Irving and 
 Cooper. Strike out the names of Webster, Ev 
 erett, Story, Sumner, and Gushing ; of Bryant, 
 Dana, Longfellow, and Lowell ; of Prescott, 
 Ticknor, Motley, Sparks, and Bancroft ; of Ver- 
 pianck, Hillard, and Whipple ; of Stuart 
 3 
 
34 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Robinson ; of Norton, Palfrey, Peabody, and 
 Bowen ; and, lastly, that of Emerson himself, 
 and how much American classic literature would 
 be left for a new edition of "Miller s Retro 
 spect"? 
 
 These were the writers who helped to make 
 the " North American Review " what it was 
 during the period of Emerson s youth and early 
 manhood. These, and men like them, gave Bos* 
 ton its intellectual character. We may count 
 as symbols the three hills of " this darling town 
 of ours," as Emerson called it, and say that each 
 had its beacon. Civil liberty lighted the torch 
 on one summit, religious freedom caught the 
 flame and shone from the second, and the lamp 
 of the scholar has burned steadily on the third 
 from the days when John Cotton preached his 
 first sermon to those in which we are living. 
 
 The social religious influences of the first part 
 of the century must not be forgotten. The two 
 high -caste religions of that day were white- 
 handed Unitariani sm and ruffled-shirt Episco- 
 palianism. What called itself "society" was 
 chiefly distributed between them. Within less 
 than fifty years a social revolution has taken 
 place which has somewhat changed the relation 
 between these and other worshipping bodies. 
 This movement is the general withdrawal of 
 khe native New Englanders of both sexes from 
 
INTRODUCTION. 35 
 
 domestic service. A large part of the ll hired 
 help," for the word servant was commonly re 
 pudiated, worshipped, not with their employers, 
 but at churches where few or no well-appointed 
 carriages stood at the doors. The congregations 
 that went chiefly from the drawing-room and 
 those which were largely made up of dwellers in 
 the culinary studio were naturally separated by 
 a very distinct line of social cleavage. A cer 
 tain exclusiveness and fastidiousness, not remind 
 ing us exactly of primitive Christianity, was the 
 inevitable result. This must always be remem 
 bered in judging the men and women of that 
 day and their immediate descendants, as much 
 as the surviving prejudices of those whose par 
 ents were born subjects of King George in the 
 days when loyalty to the crown was a virtue. 
 The line of social separation was more marked, 
 probably, in Boston, the headquarters of Unita- 
 rianism, than in the other large cities ; and even 
 at the present day our Jerusalem and Samaria, 
 though they by no means refuse dealing with 
 each other, do not exchange so many cards as 
 they do checks and dollars. The exodus of those 
 children of Israel from the house of bondage, as 
 they chose to consider it, and their fusion with 
 the mass of independent citizens, got rid of a 
 class distinction which was felt even in the sanc 
 tuary. True religious equality is harder to es- 
 
 ^ 
 
36 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tablish than civil liberty. No man has done 
 more for spiritual republicanism than Emerson, 
 though he came from the daintiest sectarian cir- 
 -f cle of the time in the whole country. 
 
 Such were Emerson s intellectual and moral 
 parentage, nurture, and environment ; such was 
 the atmosphere in which he grew up from youth 
 to manhood. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Birthplace. Boyhood. College Life. 
 1803-1823. To ;ET. 20. 
 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON was born in Bos 
 ton, Massachusetts, on the 25th of May, 1803. 
 
 He was the second of five sons ; William, R. 
 W., Edward Bliss, Robert Bulkeley, and Charles 
 Chauncy. 
 
 His birthplace and that of our other illustri 
 ous Bostonian, Benjamin Franklin, were within 
 a kite-string s distance of each other. When the 
 baby philosopher of the last century was carried 
 from Milk Street through the narrow passage 
 long known as Bishop s Alley, now Hawley 
 Street, he came out in Summer Street, very 
 nearly opposite the spot where, at the beginning 
 of this century, stood the parsonage of the First 
 Church, the home of the Reverend William Em 
 erson, its pastor, and the birthplace of his son, 
 Ralph Waldo. The oblong quadrangle between 
 Newbury, now Washington Street, Pond, now 
 Bedford Street, Summer Street, and the open 
 space called Church Green, where the New 
 
38 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 South Church was afterwards erected, is repre 
 sented on Bonner s maps of 1722 and 1769 as 
 an almost blank area, not crossed or penetrated 
 by a single passageway. 
 
 Even so late as less than half a century ago 
 this region was still a most attractive little rus 
 in urbe. The sunny gardens of the late Judge 
 Charles Jackson and the late Mr. S. P. Gard 
 ner opened their flowers and ripened their fruits 
 in the places now occupied by great warehouses 
 and other massive edifices. The most aristo 
 cratic pears, the " Saint Michael," the u Brown 
 Bury,* found their natural homes in these shel 
 tered enclosures. The fine old mansion of Judge 
 William Prescott looked out upon these gardens. 
 Some of us can well remember the window of 
 his son s, the historian s, study, the light from 
 which used every evening to glimmer through 
 the leaves of the pear-trees while "The Con 
 quest of Mexico " was achieving itself under 
 difficulties hardly less formidable than those en 
 countered by Cortes. It was a charmed region 
 in which Emerson first drew his breath, and I 
 am fortunate in having a communication from 
 one who knew it and him longer than almost 
 any other living person. 
 
 Mr. John Lowell Gardner, a college classmate 
 and life-long friend of Mr. Emerson, has favored 
 me with a letter which contains matters of inter- 
 
BOYHOOD. 39 
 
 est concerning him never before given to the 
 public. With his kind permission I have made 
 some extracts and borrowed such facts as seemed 
 especially worthy of note from his letter. 
 
 " I may be said to have known Emerson from the 
 very beginning. A very low fence divided my fa 
 ther s estate in Summer Street from the field in which 
 I remember the old wooden parsonage to have ex 
 isted, but this field, when we were very young, was 
 to be covered by Chauncy Place Church and by the 
 brick houses on Summer Street. Where the family 
 removed to I do not remember, but I always knew 
 the boys, William, Ralph, and perhaps Edward, and 
 I again associated with Ralph at the Latin School, 
 where we were instructed by Master Gould from 
 1815 to 1817, entering College in the latter year. 
 
 ... I have no recollection of his relative rank as 
 a scholar, but it was undoubtedly high, though not the 
 highest. He never was idle or a lounger, nor did he 
 ever engage in frivolous pursuits. I should say that 
 his conduct was absolutely faultless. It was impos 
 sible that there should be any feeling about him but 
 of regard and affection. He had then the same man 
 ner and courtly hesitation in addressing you that you 
 have known in him since. Still, he was not prom 
 inent in the class, and, but for what all the world has 
 since known of him, his would not have been a con 
 spicuous figure to his classmates in recalling College 
 days. 
 
 " The fact that we were almost the only Latin 
 
40 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 School fellows in the class, and the circumstance that 
 he was slow during the Freshman year to form new 
 acquaintances, brought us much together, and an 
 intimacy arose which continued through our College 
 life. We were in the habit of taking long strolls to 
 gether, often stopping for repose at distant points, as 
 at Mount Auburn, etc. . . . Emerson was not talk 
 ative ; he never spoke for effect ; his utterances were 
 well weighed and very deliberately made, but there 
 was a certain flash when he uttered anything that 
 was more than usually worthy to be remembered. 
 He was so universally amiable and complying that 
 my evil spirit would sometimes instigate me to take 
 advantage of his gentleness and forbearance, but 
 nothing could disturb his equanimity. All that was 
 wanting to render him an almost perfect character 
 was a few harsher traits and perhaps more masculine 
 vigor. 
 
 " On leaving College our paths in life were so re 
 mote from each other that we met very infrequently. 
 He soon became, as it were, public property, and I was 
 engrossed for many years in my commercial under 
 takings. All his course of life is known to many sur 
 vivors. I am inclined to believe he had a most liberal 
 spirit. I remember that some years since, when it was 
 
 known that our classmate was reduced almost 
 
 to absolute want by the war, in which he lost his two 
 sons, Emerson exerted himself to raise a fund among 
 his classmates for his relief, and, there being very few 
 possible subscribers, made what I considered a noble 
 contribution, and this you may be sure was not from 
 
BOYHOOD. 41 
 
 any Southern sentiment on the part of Emerson. I 
 send you herewith the two youthful productions of 
 Emerson of which I spoke to you some time since." 
 
 The first of these is a prose Essay of four 
 pages, written for a discussion in which the Pro 
 fessions of Divinity, Medicine, and Law were to 
 be weighed against each other. Emerson had 
 the Lawyer s side to advocate. It is a fair and 
 sensible paper, not of special originality or bril 
 liancy. His opening paragraph is worth citing, 
 as showing the same instinct for truth which dis 
 played itself in all his after writings and the 
 conduct of his life. 
 
 " It is usual in advocating a favorite subject to 
 appropriate all possible excellence, and endeavor to 
 concentrate every doubtful auxiliary, that we may 
 fortify to the utmost the theme of our attention. 
 Such a design should be utterly disdained, except as 
 far as is consistent with fairness ; and the sophistry 
 of weak arguments being abandoned, a bold appeal 
 should be made to the heart, for the tribute of honest 
 conviction, with regard to the merits of the subject." 
 
 From many boys this might sound like well- 
 meaning commonplace, but in the history of Mr. 
 Emerson s life that " bold appeal to the heart," 
 that " tribute of honest conviction/ were made 
 eloquent and real. The boy meant it when he 
 said it. To carry out his law of sincerity and 
 
42 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 self -trust the man had to sacrifice much that was 
 dear to him, but he did not flinch from his early 
 principles. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the blameless 
 youth was an ascetic in his College days. The 
 other old manuscript Mr. Gardner sends me is 
 marked " Song for Knights of Square Table, 
 E. W. E." 
 
 There are twelve verses of this song, with a 
 chorus of two lines. The Muses and all the 
 deities, not forgetting Bacchus, were duly invited 
 to the festival. 
 
 " Let the doors of Olympus be open for all 
 To descend and make merry in Chivalry s hall." . 
 
 Mr. Sanborn has kindly related to me several 
 circumstances told him by Emerson about his 
 early years. 
 
 The parsonage was situated at the corner of 
 Summer and what is now Chauncy streets. It 
 had a yard, and an orchard which Emerson said 
 was as large as Dr. Ripley s, which might have 
 been some two or three acres. Afterwards there 
 was a brick house looking on Summer Street, in 
 which Emerson the father lived. It was sep 
 arated, Emerson said, by a brick wall from a 
 garden in which pears grew (a fact a boy is 
 likely to remember). Master Ralph Waldo used 
 V> sit on this wall, but we cannot believe he 
 
BOYHOOD. 43 
 
 ever got off it on the wrong side, unless politely 
 asked to do so. On the occasion of some alarm 
 the little boy was carried in his nightgown to a 
 neighboring house. 
 
 After Reverend William Emerson s death 
 Mrs. Emerson removed to a house in Beacon 
 Street, where the Athenaeum Building now 
 stands. She kept some boarders, among them 
 Lemuel Shaw, afterwards Chief Justice of the 
 State of Massachusetts. It was but a short dis 
 tance to the Common, and Waldo and Charles 
 used to drive their mother s cow there to pasture. 
 
 The Reverend Doctor Rufus Ellis, the much 
 respected living successor of William Emerson 
 as Minister of the First Church, says that R. W. 
 Emerson must have been born in the old par 
 sonage, as his father (who died when he was 
 eight years old) lived but a very short time in 
 " the new parsonage," which was, doubtless, the 
 " brick house " above referred to. 
 
 We get a few glimpses of the boy from other 
 sources. Mr. Cooke tells us that he entered the 
 public grammar school at the age of eight years, 
 and soon afterwards the Latin School. At the 
 age of eleven he was turning Virgil into very 
 readable English heroics. He loved the study of 
 
44 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Greek ; was fond of reading history and given 
 to the frequent writing of verses. But he thinks 
 " the idle books under the bench at the Latin 
 School " were as profitable to him as his regular 
 studies. 
 
 Another glimpse of him is that given us by 
 Mr. Ireland from the " Boyhood Memories " of 
 Rufus Dawes. His old schoolmate speaks of 
 him as " a spiritual-looking boy in blue nankeen, 
 who seems to be about ten years old, whose 
 image more than any other is still deeply stamped 
 upon my mind, as I then saw him and loved 
 him, I knew not why, and thought him so an 
 gelic and remarkable." That " blue nankeen ," 
 sounds strangely, it may be, to the readers of this 
 later generation, but in the first quarter of the 
 century blue and yellow or buff-colored cotton 
 from China were a common summer clothing of 
 children. The places where the factories and 
 streets of the cities of Lowell and Lawrence 
 were to rise were then open fields and farms. 
 My recollection is that we did not think very 
 highly of ourselves when we were in blue nan 
 keen, a dull-colored fabric, too nearly of the 
 complexion of the slates on which we did our 
 ciphering. 
 
 Emerson was not particularly distinguished 
 in College. Having a near connection in the 
 
COLLEGE LIFE. 45 
 
 same class as he, and being, as a Cambridge boy, 
 generally familiar with the names of the more 
 noted young men in College from the year when 
 George Bancroft, Caleb Cushing, and Francis 
 William Winthrop graduated until after I my 
 self left College, I might have expected to hear 
 something of a young man who afterwards be 
 came one of the great writers of his time. I do 
 not recollect hearing of him except as keeping 
 school for a short time in Cambridge, before he 
 settled as a minister. His classmate, Mr. Josiah 
 Quincy, writes thus of his college days : 
 
 " Two only of my classmates can be fairly said to 
 have got into history, although one of them, Charles 
 W. Upham [the connection of mine referred to above] 
 has written history very acceptably. Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson and Robert W. Barnwell, for widely different 
 reasons, have caused their names to be known to well- 
 informed Americans. Of Emerson, I regret to say, 
 there are few notices in my journals. Here is the 
 sort of way in which I speak of the man who was to 
 make so profound an impression upon the thought of 
 his time. I went to the chapel to hear Emerson s 
 dissertation : a very good one, but rather too long to 
 give much pleasure to the hearers. The fault, I sus 
 pect, was in the hearers ; and another fact which I 
 have mentioned goes to confirm this belief. It seems 
 that Emerson accepted the duty of delivering the 
 Poem on Class Day, after seven others had been 
 
46 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 asked who positively refused. So it appears that, in 
 the opinion of this critical class, the author of the 
 Woodnotes and the Humble Bee ranked about 
 eighth in poetical ability. It can only be because the 
 works of the other five [seven] have been heroically 
 unwritten that a different impression has come to 
 prevail hi the outside world. But if, according to the 
 measurement of undergraduates, Emerson s ability as 
 a poet was not conspicuous, it must also be admitted 
 that, in the judgment of persons old enough to know 
 better, he was not credited with that mastery of 
 weighty prose which the world has since accorded 
 him. In our senior year the higher classes competed 
 for the Boylston prizes for English composition. Em 
 erson and I sent in our essays with the rest and were 
 fortunate enough to take the two prizes ; but Alas 
 for the infallibility of academic decisions ! Emerson 
 received the second prize. I was of course much 
 pleased with the award of this intelligent committee, 
 and should have been still more gratified had they 
 mentioned that the man who was to be the most orig 
 inal and influential writer born in America was my un 
 successful competitor. But Emerson, incubating over 
 deeper matters than were dreamt of in the established 
 philosophy of elegant letters, seems to have given no 
 sign of the power that was fashioning itself for lead 
 ership in a new time. He was quiet, unobtrusive, and 
 only a fair scholar according to the standard of the 
 College authorities. And this is really all I have to 
 say about my most distinguished classmate." 
 
COLLEGE LIFE. 47 
 
 Barnwell, the first scholar in the class, deliv 
 ered the Valedictory Oration, and Emerson the 
 Poem. Neither of these performances was highly 
 spoken of by Mr. Quincy. 
 
 I was surprised to find by one of the old Cata 
 logues that Emerson roomed during a part of his 
 College course with a young man whom I well 
 remember, J. G. K. Gourdin. The two Gotir- 
 dins, Eobert and John Gaillard Keith, were 
 dashing young fellows as I recollect them, be 
 longing to Charleston, South Carolina. The 
 " Southerners " were the reigning College ele- 
 gans of that time, the merveilleux, the mirli- 
 flores, of their day. Their swallow-tail coats 
 tapered to an arrow-point angle, and the prints 
 of their little delicate calfskin boots in the snow 
 were objects of great admiration to the village 
 boys of the period. I cannot help wondering 
 what brought Emerson and the showy, fascinat 
 ing John Gourdin together as room-mates. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 1823-1828. JET. 20-25. 
 
 Extract from a Letter to a Classmate. School-Teaching. 
 Study of Divinity. " Approbated " to Preach. Visit to 
 the South. Preaching in Various Places. 
 
 WE get a few brief glimpses of Emerson 
 during the years following his graduation. He 
 writes in 1823 to a classmate who had gone from 
 Harvard to Andover : 
 
 " I am delighted to hear there is such a profound 
 studying of German and Hebrew, Parkhurst and 
 Jahn, and such other names as the memory aches to 
 think of, on foot at Andover. Meantime, Unitarian- 
 ism will not hide her honors ; as many hard names 
 are taken, and as much theological mischief is planned, 
 at Cambridge as at Andover. By the time this gen 
 eration gets upon the stage, if the controversy will 
 not have ceased, it will run such a tide that we shall 
 hardly be able to speak to one another, and there 
 will be a Guelf and Ghibelline quarrel, which cannot 
 tell where the differences lie." 
 
 " You can form no conception how much one grov 
 elling in the city needs the excitement and impulse of 
 literary example. The sight of broad vellum-bound 
 
SCHOOL KEEPING. 49 
 
 quartos, the very mention of Greek and German 
 names, the glimpse of a dusty, tugging scholar, will 
 wake you up to emulation for a month." 
 
 After leaving College, and while studying 
 Divinity, Emerson employed a part of his time 
 in giving instruction in several places succes 
 sively. 
 
 Emerson s older brother William was teaching 
 in Boston, and Ralph Waldo, after graduating, 
 joined him in that occupation. In the year 1825 
 or 1826, he taught school also in Chelmsford, 
 a town of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, a 
 part of which helped to constitute the city of 
 Lowell. One of his pupils in that school, the 
 Honorable Josiah Gardiner Abbott, has favored 
 me with the following account of his recollec 
 tions : 
 
 The school of which Mr. Emerson had the 
 charge was an old-fashioned country "Acad 
 emy." Mr. Emerson was probably studying for 
 the ministry while teaching there. Judge Ab 
 bott remembers the impression he made on the 
 boys. He was very grave, quiet, and very im 
 pressive in his appearance. There was some 
 thing engaging, almost fascinating, about him ; 
 he was never harsh or severe, always perfectly 
 self -controlled, never punished except with words, 
 but exercised complete command over the boys. 
 
 His old pupil recalls the stately, measured way 
 4 
 
50 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 in which, for some offence the little boy had 
 committed, he turned on him, saying only these 
 two words : " Oh, sad ! " That was enough, for 
 he had the faculty of making the boys love him. 
 One of his modes of instruction was to give the 
 boys a piece of reading to carry home with them, 
 from some book like Plutarch s Lives, and 
 the next day to examine them and find out how 
 much they retained from their reading. Judge 
 Abbott remembers a peculiar look in his eyes, 
 as if he saw something beyond what seemed to 
 be in the field of vision. The whole impression 
 left on this pupil s mind was such as no other 
 teacher had ever produced upon him. 
 
 Mr. Emerson also kept a school for a short 
 time at Cambridge, and among his pupils was 
 Mr. John Holmes. His impressions seem to be 
 very much like those of Judge Abbott. 
 
 My brother speaks of Mr. Emerson thus : 
 
 " Calm, as not doubting the virtue residing in his 
 sceptre. Rather stern in his very infrequent rebukes. 
 Not inclined to win boys by a surface amiability, but 
 kindly in explanation or advice. Every inch a king 
 in his dominion. Looking back, he seems to me 
 rather like a captive philosopher set to tending flocks ; 
 resigned to his destiny, but not amused with its incon 
 gruities. He once recommended the use of rhyme aa 
 a cohesive for historical items." 
 
 In 1823, two years after graduating, Emerson 
 
"OLD-FASHIONED UNITARIANISM.^ 51 
 
 began studying for the ministry. He studied 
 under the direction of Dr. Channing, attending 
 some of the lectures in the Divinity School at 
 Cambridge, though not enrolled as one of its 
 regular students. 
 
 The teachings of that day were such as would 
 now be called "old-fashioned Unitarianism." 
 But no creed can be held to be a finality. From 
 Edwards to Mayhew, from Mayhew to Channing, 
 from Channing to Emerson, the passage is like 
 that which leads from the highest lock of a canal 
 to the ocean level. It is impossible for human 
 nature to remain permanently shut up in the 
 highest lock of Calvinism. If the gates are not 
 opened, the mere leakage of belief or unbelief 
 will before long fill the next compartment, and 
 the freight of doctrine finds itself on the lower 
 level of Arminianism, or Pelagianism, or even 
 subsides to Arianism. From this level to that 
 of Unitarianism the outlet is freer, and the sub 
 sidence more rapid. And from Unitarianism to 
 Christian Theism, the passage is largely open 
 for such as cannot accept the evidence of the 
 supernatural in the history of the church. 
 
 There were many shades of belief in the lib 
 eral churches. If De Tocqueville s account of 
 Unitarian preaching in Boston at the time of 
 his visit is true, the Savoyard Vicar of Rousseau 
 ivould have preached acceptably in some of our 
 
62 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 pulpits. In fact, the good Vicar might have 
 been thought too conservative by some of our 
 unharnessed theologians. 
 
 At the period when Emerson reached man- 
 hood, Unitarianism was the dominating form of 
 belief in the more highly educated classes of both 
 of the two great New England centres, the town 
 of Boston and the University at Cambridge. 
 President Kirkland was at the head of the Col 
 lege, Henry Ware was Professor of Theology, 
 Andrews Norton of Sacred Literature, followed 
 in 1830 by John Gorham Palfrey in the same 
 office. James Freeman, Charles Lowell, and 
 William Ellery Channing were preaching in 
 Boston. I have mentioned already as a simple 
 fact of local history, that the more exclusive 
 social circles of Boston and Cambridge were 
 chiefly connected with the Unitarian or Episco* 
 palian churches. A Cambridge graduate of am 
 bition and ability found an opening far from 
 undesirable in a worldly point of view, in a pro 
 fession which he was led to choose by higher 
 motives. It was in the Unitarian pulpit that 
 the brilliant talents of Buckminster and Everett 
 had found a noble eminence from which their 
 light could shine before men. 
 
 Descended from a long line of ministers, a 
 man of spiritual nature, a reader of Plato, of 
 Augustine, of Jeremy Taylor, full of hope for 
 
"APPROBATED TO PREACH." 53 
 
 his fellow-men, and longing to be of use to them, 
 conscious, undoubtedly, of a growing power of 
 thought, it was natural that Emerson should 
 turn from the task of a school-master to the 
 higher office of a preacher. It is hard to con 
 ceive of Emerson in either of the other so-called 
 learned professions. His devotion to truth for 
 its own sake and his feeling about science would 
 have kept him out of both those dusty high 
 ways. His brother William had previously be 
 gun the study of Divinity, but found his mind 
 beset with doubts and difficulties, and had taken 
 to the profession of Law. It is not unlikely that 
 Mr. Emerson was more or less exercised with 
 the same questionings. He has said, speaking 
 of his instructors : " If they had examined me, 
 they probably would not have let me preach at 
 all." His eyes had given him trouble, so that 
 he had not taken notes of the lectures which he 
 heard in the Divinity School, which accounted for 
 his being excused from examination. In 1826, 
 after three years study, he was " approbated to 
 preach " by the Middlesex Association of Min 
 isters. His health obliging him to seek a south 
 ern climate, he went in the following winter to 
 South Carolina and Florida. During this ab 
 sence he preached several times in Charleston 
 and other places. On his return from the South 
 he preached in New Bedford, in Northampton, 
 
 
54 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 in Concord, and in Boston. His attractiveness 
 as a preacher, of which we shall have sufficient 
 evidence in a following chapter, led to his being 
 invited to share the duties of a much esteemed 
 and honored city clergyman, and the next posi 
 tion in which we find him is that of a settled 
 minister in Boston. 
 
CHAPTER in. 
 
 1828-1833. Mi. 25-30. 
 
 Settled as Colleague of Rev. Henry Ware. Married to Ellen 
 Louisa Tucker. Sermon at the Ordination of Rev. H. B. 
 Goodwin. His Pastoral and Other Labors. Emerson 
 and Father Taylor. Death of Mrs. Emerson. Differ 
 ence of Opinion with some of his Parishioners. Sermon 
 Explaining his Views. Resignation of his Pastorate. 
 
 ON the llth of March, 1829, Emerson was 
 ordained as colleague with the Reverend Henry 
 Ware, Minister of the Second Church in Boston. 
 In September of the same year he was married 
 to Miss Ellen Louisa Tucker. The resignation 
 of his colleague soon after his settlement threw 
 all the pastoral duties upon the young minister, 
 who seems to have performed them diligently 
 and acceptably. Mr. Conway gives the follow 
 ing brief account of his labors, and tells in the 
 same connection a story of Father Taylor too 
 good not to be repeated : 
 
 " Emerson took an active interest in the public 
 affairs of Boston. He was on its School Board, and 
 was chosen chaplain of the State Senate. He invited 
 the anti-slavery lecturers into his church, and helped 
 philanthropists of other denominations in their work. 
 
56 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Father Taylor [the Methodist preacher to the sail 
 ors], to whom Dickens gave an English fame, found 
 in him his most important supporter when establish 
 ing the Seaman s Mission in Boston. This was told 
 me by Father Taylor himself in his old age. I hap 
 pened to be in his company once, when he spoke 
 rather sternly about my leaving the Methodist Church ; 
 but when I spoke of the part Emerson had in it, he 
 softened at once, and spoke with emotion of his great 
 friend. I have no doubt that if the good Father of 
 Boston Seamen was proud of any personal thing, it 
 was of the excellent answer he is said to have given 
 to some Methodists who objected to his friendship for 
 Emerson. Being a Unitarian, they insisted that he 
 must go to " [the place which a divine of Charles the 
 Second s day said it was not good manners to mention 
 in church]. " It does look so/ said Father Taylor, 
 but I am sure of one thing : if Emerson goes to 
 [that place] " he will change the climate there, 
 and emigration will set that way. " 
 
 In 1830, Emerson took part in the services at 
 the ordination of the Reverend H. B. Goodwin 
 as Dr. Bipley s colleague. His address on giving 
 the right hand of fellowship was printed, but 
 is not included among his collected works. 
 
 The fair prospects with which Emerson began 
 his life as a settled minister were too soon dark 
 ened. In February, 1832, the wife of his youth, 
 who had been for some time in failing health, 
 died of consumption. 
 
SERMON ON THE COMMUNION. 57 
 
 He had become troubled with doubts respect 
 ing a portion of his duties, and it was not in his 
 nature to conceal these doubts from his people, 
 On the 9th of September, 1832, he preached a 
 sermon on the Lord s Supper, in which he an 
 nounced unreservedly his conscientious scruples 
 against administering that ordinance, and the 
 grounds upon which those scruples were founded. 
 This discourse, as his only printed sermon, and 
 as one which heralded a movement in New Eng 
 land theology which has never stopped from 
 that day to this, deserves some special notice. 
 The sermon is in no sense " Emersonian " except 
 in its directness, its sweet temper, and outspoken 
 honesty. He argues from his comparison of 
 texts in a perfectly sober, old-fashioned way, as 
 his ancestor Peter Bulkeley might have done. 
 It happened to that worthy forefather of Emer 
 son that upon his " pressing a piece of Charity 
 disagreeable to the will of the Ruling Elder, 
 there was occasioned an unhappy Discord in the 
 Church of Concord ; which yet was at last healed, 
 by their calling in the help of a Council and the 
 Ruling Elder s Abdication." So says Cotton 
 Mather. Whether zeal had grown cooler or 
 charity grown warmer in Emerson s days we need 
 not try to determine. The sermon was only a 
 more formal declaration of views respecting the 
 Lord s Supper, which he had previously made 
 
58 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 known in a conference with some of the most 
 active members of his church. As a commit 
 tee of the parish reported resolutions radically 
 differing from his opinion on the subject, he 
 preached this sermon and at the same time re 
 signed his office. There was no "discord," there 
 was no need of a " council." Nothing could be 
 more friendly, more truly Christian, than the 
 manner in which Mr. Emerson expressed himself 
 in this parting discourse. All the kindness of 
 his nature warms it throughout. He details the 
 differences of opinion which have existed in the 
 church with regard to the ordinance. He then 
 argues from the language of the Evangelists that 
 it was not intended to be a permanent institu 
 tion. He takes up the statement of Paul in the 
 Epistle to the Corinthians, which he thinks, all 
 things considered, ought not to alter our opinion 
 derived from the Evangelists. He does not 
 think that we are to rely upon the opinions and 
 practices of the primitive church. If that church 
 believed the institution to be permanent, their 
 belief does not settle the question for us. On 
 every other subject, succeeding times have 
 learned to form a judgment more in accordance 
 with the spirit of Christianity than was the prac 
 tice of the early ages. 
 
 " But, it is said, Admit that the rite was not de 
 signed to be perpetual. What harm doth it ? " 
 
SERMON ON THE COMMUNION. 59 
 
 He proceeds to give reasons which show it to 
 be inexpedient to continue the observance of the 
 rite. It was treating that as authoritative which, 
 as he believed that he had shown from Scrip 
 ture, was not so. It confused the idea of God 
 by transferring the worship of Him to Christ, 
 Christ is the Mediator only as the instructor of 
 man. In the least petition to God " the soul 
 stands alone with God, and Jesus is no more 
 present to your mind than your brother or child." 
 Again : 
 
 " The use of the elements, however suitable to the 
 people and the modes of thought in the East, where 
 it originated, is foreign and unsuited to affect us. 
 The day of formal religion is past, and we are to seek 
 our well-being in the formation of the soul. The 
 Jewish was a religion of forms ; it was all body, it 
 had no life, and the Almighty God was pleased to 
 qualify and send forth a man to teach men that they 
 must serve him with the heart ; that only that life 
 was religious which was thoroughly good ; that sacri 
 fice was smoke and forms were shadows. This man 
 lived and died true to that purpose ; and with his 
 blessed word and life before us, Christians must con 
 tend that it is a matter of vital importance, re 
 ally a duty to commemorate him by a certain form, 
 whether that form be acceptable to their understand 
 ing or not. Is not this to make vain the gift of God ? 
 Is not this to turn back the hand on the dial ? " 
 
60 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 To these objections he adds the practical con 
 sideration that it brings those who do not par 
 take of the communion service into an unfavor 
 able relation with those who do. 
 
 The beautiful spirit of the man shows itself in 
 all its noble sincerity in these words at the close 
 of his argument : 
 
 Having said this, I have said all. I have no hos 
 tility to this institution ; I am only stating my want 
 of sympathy with it. Neither should I ever have 
 obtruded this opinion upon other people, had I not 
 been called by my office to administer it. That is 
 the end of my opposition, that I am not interested 
 in it. I am content tfcjat it stand to the end of the 
 world if it please men and please Heaven, and I 
 shall rejoice in all the gotfd it produces." 
 
 He then announces t hat, as it is the prevailing 
 opinion and feeling in our religious community 
 that it is a part of a pas tor s duties to administer 
 this rite, he is about to resign the office which 
 had been confided to hiiii. 
 
 This is the only seihnon of Mr. Emerson s 
 ever published. It was) impossible to hear or to 
 read it without honoring the preacher for his 
 truthfulness, and recognizing the force of his 
 statement and reasonirag. It was equally impos 
 sible that he could continue his ministrations 
 over a congregation v.Vhich held to the ordinance 
 
RESIGNATION OF PASTORATE. 61 
 
 he wished to give up entirely. And thus it was, 
 that with the most friendly feelings on both 
 sides, Mr. Emerson left the pulpit of the Second 
 Church and found himself obliged to make a be 
 ginning in a new career. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1833-1838. &T. 30-35. 
 
 1. Visit to Europe. On his Return preaches in Different 
 Places. Emerson in the Pulpit. At Newton. Fixes 
 his Residence at Concord. The Old Manse. Lectures 
 in Boston. Lectures on Michael Angelo and on Milton 
 published in the " North American Review." Beginning 
 of the Correspondence with Carlyle. Letters to the Rev. 
 James Freeman Clarke. Republication of "Sartor Re- 
 sartus." 
 
 2. Emerson s Second Marriage. His New Residence in 
 Concord. Historical Address. Course of Ten Lectures 
 on English Literature delivered in Boston. The Concord 
 Battle Hymn. Preaching in Concord and East Lexington. 
 Accounts of his Preaching by Several Hearers. A 
 Course of Lectures on the Nature and Ends of History. 
 Address on War. Death of Edward Bliss Emerson. 
 Death of Charles Chauncy Emerson. 
 
 3. Publication of "Nature." Outline of this Essay. Its 
 Reception. Address before the Phi Beta Kappa Society. 
 
 1. IN the year 1833 Mr. Emerson visited 
 Europe for the first time. A great change had 
 come over his life, and he needed the relief 
 which a corresponding change of outward cir 
 cumstances might afford him. A brief account 
 of this visit is prefixed to the volume entitled 
 " English Traits." He took a short tour, in 
 which he visited Sicily, Italy, and France, and, 
 
FIRST VISIT TO EUROPE. 63 
 
 crossing from Boulogne, landed at the Tower 
 Stairs in London. He finds nothing in his Diary 
 to publish concerning visits to places. But he 
 saw a number of distinguished persons, of whom 
 he gives pleasant accounts, so singularly differ 
 ent in tone from the rough caricatures in which 
 Carlyle vented his spleen and caprice, that one 
 marvels how the two men could have talked ten 
 minutes together, or would wonder, had not one 
 been as imperturbable as the other was explosive. 
 Horatio Greenough and Walter Savage Landor 
 are the chief persons he speaks of as having met 
 upon the Continent. Of these he reports vari 
 ous opinions as delivered in conversation. He 
 mentions incidentally that he visited Professor 
 Amici, who showed him his microscopes " mag 
 nifying (it was said) two thousand diameters." 
 Emerson hardly knew his privilege ; he may 
 have been the first American to look through 
 an immersion lens with the famous Modena pro 
 fessor. Mr. Emerson says that his narrow and 
 desultory reading had inspired him with the 
 wish to see the faces of three or four writers, 
 Coleridge, Wordsworth, Landor, De Quincey, 
 Carlyle. His accounts of his interviews with 
 these distinguished persons are too condensed to 
 admit of further abbreviation. Goethe and 
 Scott, whom he would have liked to look upon, 
 were dead ; Wellington he saw at Westminster 
 
64 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Abbey, at the funeral of Wilberforce. His im 
 pressions of each of the distinguished persons 
 whom he visited should be looked at in the light 
 of the general remark which follows : 
 
 " The young scholar fancies it happiness enough to 
 live with people who can give an inside to the world ; 
 without reflecting that they are prisoners, too, of 
 their own thought, and cannot apply themselves to 
 yours. The conditions of literary success are almost 
 destructive of the best social power, as they do not 
 have that frolic liberty which only can encounter a 
 companion on the best terms. It is probable you left 
 some obscure comrade at a tavern, or in the farms, 
 with right mother-wit, and equality to life, when you 
 crossed sea and land to play bo-peep with celebrated 
 scribes. I have, however, found writers superior to 
 their books, and I cling to my first belief that a 
 strong head will dispose fast enough of these impedi 
 ments, and give one the satisfaction of reality, the 
 sense of having been met, and a larger horizon." 
 
 Emerson carried a letter of introduction to a 
 gentleman in Edinburgh, who, being unable to 
 pay him all the desired attention, handed him 
 over to Mr. Alexander Ireland, who has given a 
 most interesting account of him as he appeared 
 during that first visit to Europe. Mr. Ireland s 
 presentation of Emerson as he heard him in the 
 Scotch pulpit shows that he was not less im 
 pressive and attractive before an audience of 
 
EMERSON IN THE PULPIT. 65 
 
 strangers than among his own countrymen and 
 countrywomen : 
 
 " On Sunday, the 18th of August, 1833, I heard 
 him deliver a discourse in the Unitarian Chapel, Young 
 Street, Edinburgh, and I remember distinctly the 
 effect which it produced on his hearers. It is almost 
 needless to say that nothing like it had ever been 
 heard by them before, and many of them did not 
 know what to make of it. The originality of his 
 thoughts, the consummate beauty of the language in 
 which they were clothed, the calm dignity of his bear 
 ing, the absence of all oratorical effort, and the singu 
 lar directness and simplicity of his manner, free from 
 the least shadow of dogmatic assumption, made a 
 deep impression on me. Not long before this I had 
 listened to a wonderful sermon by Dr. Chalmers, 
 whose force, and energy, and vehement, but rather 
 turgid eloquence carried, for the moment, all before 
 them, his audience becoming like clay in the hands 
 of the potter. But I must confess that the pregnant 
 thoughts and serene self-possession of the young Bos 
 ton minister had a greater charm for me than all the 
 rhetorical splendors of Chalmers. His voice was the 
 sweetest, the most winning and penetrating of any 
 I ever heard ; nothing like it have I listened xo since. 
 That music in our hearts we bore 
 Long after it was heard no more. " 
 
 Mr. George Gilfillan speaks of " the solemnity 
 af his manner, and the earnest thought pervad 
 ing his discourse." 
 
 5 
 
66 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 As to the effect of his preaching on his Amer 
 ican audiences, I find the following evidence 
 in Mr. Cooke s diligently gathered collections. 
 Mr. Sanborn says : 
 
 " His pulpit eloquence was singularly attractive, 
 though by no means equally so to all persons. In 
 1829, before the two friends had met, Bronson Alcott 
 heard him preach in Dr. Channing s church on The 
 Universality of the Moral Sentiment, and was struck, 
 as he said, with the youth of the preacher, the beauty 
 of his elocution and the direct and sincere manner 
 in which he addressed his hearers." 
 
 Mr. Charles Congdon, of New Bedford, well 
 known as a popular writer, gives the following 
 account of Emerson s preaching in his " Rem 
 iniscences." I borrow the quotation from Mr. 
 Con way : 
 
 " One day there came into our pulpit the most 
 gracious of mortals, with a face all benignity, who 
 gave out the first hymn and made the first prayer as 
 an angel might have read and prayed. Our choir 
 was a pretty good one, but its best was coarse and 
 discordant after Emerson s voice. I remember of 
 the sermon only that it had an indefinite charm of 
 simplicity and wisdom, with occasional illustrations 
 from nature, which were about the most delicate and 
 dainty things of the kind which I had ever heard. I 
 eould understand them, if not the fresh philosophical 
 Dovelties of the discourse." 
 
EMERSON IN THE PULPIT. AT NEWTON. 67 
 
 Everywhere Emerson seems to have pleased 
 his audiences. The Reverend Dr. Morison, 
 formerly the much respected Unitarian minister 
 of New Bedford, writes to me as follows : 
 
 "After Dr. Dewey left New Bedford, Mr. Emer 
 son preached there several months, greatly to the sat 
 isfaction and delight of those who heard him. The 
 Society would have been glad to settle him as their 
 minister, and he would have accepted a call, had it 
 not been for some difference of opinion, I think, in 
 regard to the communion service. Judge Warren, 
 who was particularly his friend, and had at that time 
 a leading influence in the parish, with all his admira 
 tion for Mr. Emerson, did not think he could well be 
 the pastor of a Christian church, and so the matter 
 was settled between him and his friend, without any 
 action by the Society." 
 
 All this shows well enough that his preaching 
 was eminently acceptable. But every one who 
 has heard him lecture can form an idea of what 
 he must have been as a preacher. In fact, we 
 have all listened, probably, to many a passage 
 from old sermons of his, for he tells us he 
 borrowed from those old sermons for his lec 
 tures, without ever thinking of the pulpit 
 from which they were first heard. 
 
 Among the stray glimpses we get of Emerson 
 between the time when he quitted the pulpit of his 
 church and that when he came before the public 
 
68 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 as a lecturer is this, which I owe to the kindness 
 of Hon. Alexander H. Kice. In 1832 or 1833, 
 probably the latter year, he, then a boy, with 
 another boy, Thomas R. Gould, afterwards well 
 known as a sculptor, being at the Episcopal 
 church in Newton, found that Mr. Emerson was 
 sitting in the pew behind them. Gould knew 
 Mr. Emerson, and introduced young Rice to him, 
 and they walked down the street together. As 
 they went along, Emerson burst into a rhapsody 
 over the Psalms of David, the sublimity of 
 thought, and the poetic beauty of expression of 
 which they are full, and spoke also with enthu 
 siasm of the Te Deum as that grand old hymn 
 which had come down through the ages, voicing 
 the praises of generation after generation. 
 
 When they parted at the house of young 
 Rice s father, Emerson invited the boys to come 
 and see him at the Allen farm, in the afternoon. 
 They came to a piece of woods, and, as they en 
 tered it, took their hats off. " Boys," said Em 
 erson, " here we recognize the presence of the 
 Universal Spirit. The breeze says to us in its 
 own language, How d ye do ? How d ye do ? 
 and we have already taken our hats off and are 
 answering it with our own How d ye do ? How 
 d ye do ? And all the waving branches of the 
 trees, and all the flowers, and the field of corn 
 yonder, and the singing brook, and the insect 
 
REMOVAL TO CONCORD. 69 
 
 and the bird, every living thing and things 
 we call inanimate feel the same divine universal 
 impulse while they join with us, and we with 
 them, in the greeting which is the salutation of 
 the Universal Spirit." 
 
 We perceive the same feeling which pervades 
 many of Emerson s earlier Essays and much of 
 his verse, in these long-treasured reminiscences 
 of the poetical improvisation with which the two 
 boys were thus unexpectedly favored. Governor 
 Rice continues : 
 
 " You know what a captivating charm there always 
 was in Emerson s presence, but I can never tell you 
 how this line of thought then impressed a country 
 boy. I do not remember anything about the remain* 
 der of that walk, nor of the after-incidents of that 
 day, I only remember that I went home wondering 
 about that mystical dream of the Universal Spirit, 
 and about what manner of man he was under whose 
 influence I had for the first time come. . . . 
 
 " The interview left impressions that led me into 
 new channels of thought which have been a life-long 
 pleasure to me, and, I doubt not, taught me somewhat 
 how to distinguish between mere theological dogma 
 and genuine religion in the soul." 
 
 In the summer of 1834 Emerson became a 
 resident of Concord, Massachusetts, the town of 
 his forefathers, and the place destined to be his 
 home for life. He first lived with his venerable 
 
70 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 connection, Dr. Ripley, in the dwelling made 
 famous by Hawthorne as the " Old Manse." It 
 is an old-fashioned gambrel-roofed house, stand 
 ing close to the scene of the Fight on the banks 
 of the river. It was built for the Reverend Wil 
 liam Emerson, his grandfather. In one of the 
 rooms of this house Emerson wrote " Nature," 
 and in the same room, some years later, Haw 
 thorne wrote " Mosses from an Old Manse." 
 
 The place in which Emerson passed the 
 greater part of his life well deserves a special 
 notice. Concord might sit for its portrait as an 
 ideal New England town. If wanting in the 
 variety of surface which many other towns can 
 boast of, it has at least a vision of the distant 
 summits of Monadnock and Wachusett. It has 
 fine old woods, and noble elms to give dignity 
 to its open spaces. Beautiful ponds, as they 
 modestly call themselves, one of which, Wai- 
 den, is as well known in our literature as Win- 
 dermere in that of Old England, lie quietly 
 in their clean basins. And through the green 
 meadows runs, or rather lounges, a gentle, un- 
 salted stream, like an English river, licking its 
 grassy margin with a sort of bovine placidity 
 and contentment. This is the Musketaquid, or 
 Meadow River, which, after being joined by the 
 more restless Assabet, still keeps its temper and 
 flows peacefully along by and through other 
 
CONCORD. 71 
 
 towns, to lose itself in the broad Merrimac. The 
 names of these rivers tell us that Concord has an 
 Indian history, and there is evidence that it was 
 a favorite residence of the race which preceded 
 our own. The native tribes knew as well as the 
 white settlers where were pleasant streams and 
 sweet springs, where corn grew tall in the mead 
 ows and fish bred fast in the unpolluted waters. 
 
 The place thus favored by nature can show a 
 record worthy of its physical attractions. Its 
 settlement under the lead of Emerson s ancestor, 
 Peter Bulkeley, was effected in the midst of 
 many difficulties, which the enterprise and self- 
 sacrifice of that noble leader were successful in 
 overcoming. On the banks of the Musketaquid 
 was fired the first fatal shot of the " rebel " 
 farmers. Emerson appeals to the Records of the 
 town for two hundred years as illustrating the 
 working of our American institutions and the 
 character of the men of Concord : 
 
 " If the good counsel prevailed, the sneaking coun 
 sel did not fail to be suggested ; freedom and virtue, 
 if they triumphed, triumphed in a fair field. And 
 so be it an everlasting testimony for them, and so 
 much ground of assurance of man s capacity for self- 
 government." 
 
 What names that plain New England town 
 reckons in the roll of its inhabitants ! Stout 
 Major Buttrick and his fellow-soldiers in the war 
 
72 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 of Independence, and their worthy successors in 
 the war of Freedom ; lawyers and statesmen like 
 Samuel Hoar and his descendants ; ministers 
 like Peter Bulkeley, Daniel Bliss, and William 
 Emerson ; and men of genius such as the ideal 
 ist and poet whose inspiration has kindled so 
 many souls ; as the romancer who has given an 
 atmosphere to the hard outlines of our stern 
 New England; as that unique individual, half 
 college-graduate and half Algonquin, the Robin 
 son Crusoe of Walden Pond, who carried out a 
 school-boy whim to its full proportions, and told 
 the story of Nature in undress as only one who 
 had hidden in her bedroom could have told it. 
 I need not lengthen the catalogue by speaking 
 of the living, or mentioning the women whose 
 names have added to its distinction. It has long 
 been an intellectual centre such as no other 
 country town of our own land, if of any other, 
 could boast. Its groves, its streams, its houses, 
 are haunted by undying memories, and its hill 
 sides and hollows are made holy by the dust that 
 is covered by their turf. 
 
 Such was the place which the advent of Em 
 erson made the Delphi of New England and the 
 resort of many pilgrims from far-off regions. 
 
 On his return from Europe in the winter 
 of 1833-4, Mr. Emerson began to appear be 
 fore the public as a lecturer. His first sul> 
 
EMERSON AS A LECTURER. 73 
 
 jects, " Water," and the "Relation of Man to 
 the Globe," were hardly such as we should have 
 expected from a scholar who had but a limited 
 acquaintance with physical and physiological 
 science. They were probably chosen as of a 
 popular character, easily treated in such a way 
 as to be intelligible and entertaining, and thus 
 answering the purpose of introducing him pleas 
 antly to the new career he was contemplating. 
 These lectures are not included in his published 
 works, nor were they ever published, so far as I 
 know. He gave three lectures during the same 
 winter, relating the experiences of his recent tour 
 in Europe. Having made himself at home on the 
 platform, he ventured upon subjects more congen 
 ial to his taste and habits of thought than some 
 of those earlier topics. In 1834 he lectured on 
 Michael Angelo, Milton, Luther, George Fox, 
 and Edmund Burke. The first two of these lec 
 tures, though not included in his collected works, 
 may be found in the " North American Review " 
 for 1837 and 1838. The germ of many of the 
 thoughts which he has expanded in prose and 
 verse may be found in these Essays. 
 
 The Cosmos of the Ancient Greeks, the piu 
 neT uno, " The Many in One," appear in the 
 Essay on Michael Angelo as they also appear in 
 his " Nature." The last thought takes wings to 
 itself and rises in the little poem entitled " Each 
 
74 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 and All." The " Rhodora," another brief poem, 
 finds itself foreshadowed in the inquiry, " What 
 is Beauty ? " and its answer, " This great Whole 
 the understanding cannot embrace. Beauty 
 may be felt. It may be produced. But it can 
 not be defined." And throughout this Essay 
 the feeling that truth and beauty and virtue are 
 one, and that Nature is the symbol which typi 
 fies it to the soul, is the inspiring sentiment. 
 Noscitur a sociis applies as well to a man s 
 dead as to his living companions. A young 
 friend of mine in his college days wrote an es 
 say on Plato. When he mentioned his subject 
 to Mr. Emerson, he got the caution, long remem 
 bered, " When you strike at a King, you must 
 kill him." He himself knew well with what 
 kings of thought to measure his own intelligence. 
 What was grandest, loftiest, purest, in human 
 character chiefly interested him. He rarely 
 meddles with what is petty or ignoble. Like his 
 "Humble Bee," the " yellow - breeched philoso 
 pher," whom he speaks of as 
 
 " Wiser far than human seer," 
 and says of him, 
 
 " Aught unsavory or unclean 
 Hath my insect never seen," 
 
 he goes through the world where coarser minds 
 find so much that is repulsive to dwell upon, 
 
EARLY LECTURES. 75 
 
 " Seeing only what is fair, 
 Sipping only what is sweet." 
 
 Why Emerson selected Michael Angelo as the 
 subject of one of his earliest lectures is shown 
 clearly enough by the last sentence as printed in 
 the Essay. 
 
 " He was not a citizen of any country ; he be 
 longed to the human race ; he was a brother and a 
 friend to all who acknowledged the beauty that beams 
 in universal nature, and who seek by labor and self- 
 denial to approach its source in perfect goodness." 
 
 Consciously or unconsciously men describe 
 themselves in the characters they draw. One 
 must have the mordant in his own personality 
 or he will not take the color of his subject. He 
 may force himself to picture that which he dis 
 likes or even detests ; but when he loves the 
 character he delineates, it is his own, in some 
 measure, at least, or one of which he feels that 
 its possibilities and tendencies belong to himself. 
 Let us try Emerson by this test in his " Essay 
 on Milton : " 
 
 " It is the prerogative of this great man to stand 
 at this hour foremost of all men in literary history, 
 and so (shall we not say ?) of all men, in the power 
 to inspire. Virtue goes out of him into others." . . . 
 " He is identified in the mind with all select and holy 
 images, with the supreme interests of the human 
 race." " Better than any other he has discharged 
 
76 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 the office of every great man, namely, to raise the 
 idea of Man in the minds of his contemporaries and 
 of posterity, to draw after nature a life of man, 
 exhibiting such a composition of grace, of strength, 
 and of virtue as poet had not described nor hero 
 lived. Human nature in these ages is indebted to him 
 for its best portrait. Many philosophers in England, 
 France, and Germany, have formally dedicated their 
 study to this problem ; and we think it impossible to 
 recall one in those countries who communicates the 
 same vibration of hope, of self-reverence, of piety, of 
 delight in beauty, which the name of Milton awakes." 
 
 Emerson had the same lofty aim as Milton, 
 " To raise the idea of man ; " he had " the power 
 to inspire" in a preeminent degree. If ever a 
 man communicated those vibrations he speaks of 
 as characteristic of Milton, it was Emerson. In 
 elevation, purity, nobility of nature, he is worthy 
 to stand with the great poet and patriot, who 
 began like him as a school-master, and ended as 
 the teacher in a school-house which had for its 
 walls the horizons of every region where English 
 is spoken. The similarity of their characters 
 might be followed by the curious into their for 
 tunes. Both were turned away from the clerical 
 office by a revolt of conscience against the be 
 liefs required of them ; both lost very dear ob 
 jects of affection in early manhood, and mourned 
 for them in tender and mellifluous threnodies, 
 
EMERSON S ESSAY ON MILTON. 77 
 
 It would be easy to trace many parallelisms in 
 their prose and poetry, but to have dared to 
 name any man whom we have known in our 
 common life with the seraphic singer of the Na 
 tivity and of Paradise is a tribute which seems 
 to savor of audacity. It is hard to conceive of 
 Emerson as " an expert swordsman " like Mil 
 ton. It is impossible to think of him as an 
 abusive controversialist as Milton was in his 
 controversy with Salmasius. But though Emer 
 son never betrayed it to the offence of others, he 
 must have been conscious, like Milton, of " a 
 certain niceness of nature, an honest haughti 
 ness," which was as a shield about his inner na 
 ture. Charles Emerson, the younger brother, 
 who was of the same type, expresses the feeling 
 in his college essay on Friendship, where it is 
 all summed up in the line he quotes : 
 
 " The hand of Douglas is his own." 
 
 It must be that in writing this Essay on Milton 
 Emerson felt that he was listening in his own 
 soul to whispers that seemed like echoes from 
 that of the divine singer. 
 
 My friend, the Eev. James Freeman Clarke, 
 a life-long friend of Emerson, who understood 
 him from the first, and was himself a great part 
 in the movement of which Emerson, more than 
 
78 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 any other man, was the leader, has kindly al 
 lowed me to make use of the following letters : 
 
 TO REV. JAMES F. CLARKE, LOUISVILLE, KY. 
 
 PLYMOUTH, MASS., March 12, 1834. 
 MY DEAR SIB, As the day approaches when 
 
 Mr. Lewis should leave Boston, I seize a few mo 
 ments in a friendly house in the first of towns, to 
 thank you heartily for your kindness in lending me 
 the valued manuscripts which I return. The transla 
 tions excited me much, and who can estimate the value 
 of a good thought ? I trust I am to learn much more 
 from you hereafter of your German studies, and 
 much I hope of your own. You asked in your note 
 concerning Carlyle. My recollections of him are 
 most pleasant, and I feel great confidence in his char 
 acter. He understands and recognizes his mission. 
 He is perfectly simple and affectionate in his manner, 
 and frank, as he can well afford to be, in his com 
 munications. He expressed some impatience of his 
 total solitude, and talked of Paris as a residence. 
 I told him I hoped not ; for I should always remem 
 ber him with respect, meditating in the mountains 
 of Nithsdale. He was cheered, as he ought to be, by 
 learning that his papers were read with interest by 
 young men unknown to him in this continent ; and 
 when I specified a piece which had attracted warm 
 commendation from the New Jerusalem people here, 
 his wife said that is always the way ; whatever he has 
 writ that he thinks has fallen dead, he hears of two 
 
 r three years afterward. He has many, many to* 
 
EMERSON TO JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 79 
 
 kens of Goethe s regard, miniatures, medals, and many 
 letters. If you should go to Scotland one day, you 
 would gratify him, yourself, and me, by your visit to 
 Craigenputtock, in the parish of Dunscore, near Dum 
 fries. He told me he had a book which he thought 
 to publish, but was in the purpose of dividing into a 
 series of articles for " Fraser s Magazine." I there 
 fore subscribed for that book, which he calls the 
 " Mud Magazine," but have seen nothing of his work 
 manship in the two last numbers. The mail is going, 
 so I shall finish my letter another time. 
 
 Your obliged friend and servant, 
 
 R. WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 CONCORD, MASS., November 25, 1834. 
 MY DEAR SIR, Miss Peabody has kindly sent 
 me your manuscript piece on Goethe and Carlyle. I 
 have read it with great pleasure and a feeling of 
 gratitude, at the same time with a serious regret that 
 it was not published. I have forgotten what reason 
 you assigned for not printing it ; I cannot think of 
 any sufficient one. Is it too late now ? Why not 
 change its form a little and annex to it some account 
 of Carlyle s later pieces, to wit : " Diderot," and 
 " Sartor Resartus." The last is complete, and he 
 has sent it to me in a stitched pamphlet. Whilst 
 I see its vices (relatively to the reading public) of 
 style, I cannot but esteem it a noble philosophical 
 poem, reflecting the ideas, institutions, men of this 
 very hour. And it seems to me that it has so much 
 wit and other secondary graces as must strike a class 
 who would not care for its primary merit, that of 
 
80 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 being a sincere exhortation to seekers of truth. If 
 you still retain your interest in his genius (as I see 
 not how you can avoid, having understood it and co 
 operated with it so truly), you will be glad to know 
 that he values his American readers very highly ; that 
 he does not defend this offensive style of his, but 
 calls it questionable tentative ; that he is trying other 
 modes, and is about publishing a historical piece called 
 " The Diamond Necklace," as a part of a great work 
 which he meditates on the subject of the French Rev 
 olution. He says it is part of his creed that history 
 is poetry, could we tell it right. He adds, moreover, 
 in a letter I have recently received from him, that 
 it has been an odd dream that he might end in the 
 western woods. Shall we not bid him come, and be 
 Poet and Teacher of a most scattered flock wanting 
 a shepherd ? Or, as I sometimes think, would it not 
 be a new and worse chagrin to become acquainted 
 with the extreme deadness of our community to 
 spiritual influences of the higher kind ? Have you 
 read Sampson Reed s " Growth of the Mind " ? I 
 rejoice to be contemporary with that man, and can 
 not wholly despair of the society in which he lives ; 
 there must be some oxygen yet, and La Fayette is 
 only just dead. 
 
 Your friend, R. WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 It occurs to me that t is unfit to send any white 
 paper so far as to your house, so you shall have a 
 sentence from Carlyle s letter. 
 
 [This may be found in Carlyle s first letter, dated 12tl| 
 August, 1834.] 
 
" SARTOR RESARTUSS 81 
 
 Dr. Le Baron Russell, an intimate friend of 
 Emerson for the greater part of his life, gives 
 me some particulars with reference to the pub 
 lication of " Sartor Eesartus," which I will re 
 peat in his own words : 
 
 " It was just before the time of which I am speak 
 ing [that of Emerson s marriage] that the Sartor 
 Resartus appeared in Fraser. Emerson lent the 
 numbers, or the collected sheets of Fraser, to Miss 
 Jackson, and we all had the reading of them. The 
 excitement which the book caused among young per 
 sons interested in the literature of the day at that 
 time you probably remember. I was quite carried 
 away by it, and so anxious to own a copy, that I de 
 termined to publish an American edition. I con 
 sulted James Munroe & Co. on the subject. Munroe 
 advised me to obtain a subscription to a sufficient 
 number of copies to secure the cost of the publication. 
 This, with the aid of some friends, particularly of 
 my classmate, William Silsbee, I readily succeeded in 
 doing. When this was accomplished, I wrote to Em 
 erson, who up to this time had taken no part in the 
 enterprise, asking him to write a preface. (This is 
 the Preface which appears in the American edition, 
 James Munroe & Co., 1836. It was omitted in the 
 third American from the second London edition, 1 by 
 the same publishers, 1840.) Before the first edi 
 tion appeared, and after the subscription had been 
 secured, Munroe & Co. offered to assume the whole 
 responsibility of the publication, and to this I assented. 
 1 Revised and corrected bj the author. 
 
82 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " This American edition of 1836 was the first ap 
 pearance of the Sartor in either country, as a dis 
 tinct edition. Some copies of the sheets from Fra- 
 ser, it appears, were stitched together and sent to a 
 few persons, but Carlyle could find no English pub 
 lisher willing to take the responsibility of printing the 
 book. This shows, I think, how much more interest 
 was taken in Carlyle s writings in this country than 
 in England." 
 
 On the 14th of May, 1834, Emerson wrote to 
 Carlyle the first letter of that correspondence 
 which has since been given to the world under 
 the careful editorship of Mr. Charles Norton. 
 This correspondence lasted from the date men 
 tioned to the 2d of April, 1872, when Carlyle 
 wrote his last letter to Emerson. The two writ 
 ers reveal themselves as being in strong sympa 
 thy with each other, in spite of a radical differ 
 ence of temperament and entirely opposite views 
 of life. The hatred of unreality was uppermost 
 with Carlyle ; the love of what is real and gen 
 uine with Emerson. Those old moralists, the 
 weeping and the laughing philosophers, find their 
 counterparts in every thinking community. Car 
 lyle did not weep, but he scolded ; Emerson did 
 not laugh, but in his gravest moments there was 
 a smile waiting for the cloud to pass from his 
 forehead. The Duet they chanted was a Mise 
 rere with a Te Deum for its Antiphon ; a De 
 
EMERSON S SECOND MARRIAGE. 83 
 
 Profundis answered by a Sursum Cor da. " The 
 ground of my existence is black as death," says 
 Carlyle. " Come and live with me a year," says 
 Emerson, " and if you do not like New Eng. 
 land well enough to stay, one of these year* 
 (when the History has passed its ten editions, 
 and been translated into as many languages) 1 
 will come and dwell with you." 
 
 2. In September, 1835, Emerson was ma* 
 ried to Miss Lydia Jackson, of Plymouth, Mas 
 sachusetts. The wedding took place in the fim. 
 old mansion known as the Winslow House, Dr. 
 Le Baron Kussell and his sister standing up with 
 the bridegroom and his bride. After their mar 
 riage, Mr. and Mrs. Emerson went to reside in 
 the house in which he passed the rest of his life, 
 and in which Mrs. Emerson and their daughter 
 still reside. This is the " plain, square, wooden 
 house," with horse-chestnut trees in the front 
 yard, and evergreens around it, which has been 
 so often described and figured. It is without 
 pretensions, but not without an air of quiet dig 
 nity. A full and well-illustrated account of it 
 and its arrangements and surroundings is given 
 in "Poets Homes," by Arthur Oilman and 
 others, published by D. Lothrop & Company in 
 1879. 
 
 On the 12th of September, 1835, Emerson 
 
84 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 delivered an " Historical Discourse, at Concord, 
 on the Second Centennial Anniversary of the In 
 corporation of the Town." There is no "mys 
 ticism," no " transcendentalism " in this plain, 
 straightforward Address. The facts are collected 
 and related with the patience and sobriety which 
 became the writer as one of the Dryasdusts of 
 our very diligent, very useful, very matter-of-fact, 
 and for the most part judiciously unimaginative 
 Massachusetts Historical Society. It looks un 
 like anything else Emerson ever wrote, in being 
 provided with abundant foot-notes and an appen 
 dix. One would almost as soon have expected 
 to see Emerson equipped with a musket and a 
 knapsack as to find a discourse of his clogged 
 with annotations, and trailing a supplement after 
 it. Oracles are brief and final in their utter 
 ances. Delphi and Cumae are not expected to 
 explain what they say. 
 
 It is the habit of our New England towns to 
 celebrate their own worthies and their own deeds 
 on occasions like this, with more or less of rhe 
 torical gratitude and self-felicitation. The dis 
 courses delivered on these occasions are com 
 monly worth reading, for there was never a 
 clearing made in the forest that did not let in 
 the light on heroes and heroines. Concord is on 
 the whole the most interesting of all the inland 
 towns of New England. Emerson has told its 
 
CONCORD "HISTORICAL ADDRESS." 85 
 
 story in as painstaking, faithful a way as if he 
 had been by nature an annalist. But with this 
 fidelity, we find also those bold generalizations 
 and sharp picturesque touches which reveal the 
 poetic philosopher. 
 
 " I have read with care," he says, " the town rec 
 ords themselves. They exhibit a pleasing picture of 
 a community almost exclusively agricultural, where 
 no man has much time for words, in his search after 
 things ; of a community of great simplicity of man 
 ners, and of a manifest love of justice. I find our 
 annals marked with a uniform good sense. The 
 tone of the record rises with the dignity of the event. 
 These soiled and musty books are luminous and elec 
 tric within. The old town clerks did not spell very 
 correctly, but they contrive to make intelligible the 
 will of a free and just community." ..." The mat 
 ters there debated (in town meetings) are such as to 
 invite very small consideration. The ill-spelled pages 
 of the town records contain the result. I shall be 
 excused for confessing that I have set a value upon 
 any symptom of meanness and private pique which I 
 have met with in these antique books, as proof that 
 justice was done ; that if the results of our history 
 are approved as wise and good, it was yet a free 
 strife ; if the good counsel prevailed, the sneaking 
 counsel did not fail to be suggested ; freedom and 
 virtue, if they triumphed, triumphed in a fair field. 
 And so be it an everlasting testimony for them, and 
 so much ground of assurance of man s capacity for 
 self-government." 
 
86 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 There was nothing in this Address which the 
 plainest of Concord s citizens could not read un- 
 derstandingly and with pleasure. In fact Mr. 
 Emerson himself, besides being a poet and a phi 
 losopher, was also a plain Concord citizen. His 
 son tells me that he was a faithful attendant upon 
 town meetings, and, though he never spoke, was 
 an interested and careful listener to the debates 
 on town matters. That respect for "mother- 
 wit " and for all the wholesome human qualities 
 which reveals itself all through his writings was 
 bred from this kind of intercourse with men of 
 sense who had no pretensions to learning, and in 
 whom, for that very reason, the native qualities 
 came out with less disguise in their expression. 
 He was surrounded by men who ran to extremes 
 in their idiosyncrasies : Alcott in speculations, 
 which often led him into the fourth dimension 
 of mental space ; Hawthorne, who brooded him 
 self into a dream - peopled solitude ; Thoreau, 
 the nullifier of civilization, who insisted on nib 
 bling his asparagus at the wrong end, to say 
 nothing of idolaters and echoes. He kept his 
 balance among them all. It would be hard to 
 find a more candid and sober record of the result 
 of self-government in a small community than 
 is contained in this simple discourse, patient in 
 detail, large in treatment, more effective than 
 any unsupported generalities about the natural 
 
THE CONCORD HYMN. 87 
 
 rights of man, which amount to very little unless 
 men earn the right of asserting them by attend 
 ing fairly to their natural duties. So admirably 
 is the working of a town government, as it goes 
 on in a well-disposed community, displayed in 
 the history of Concord s two hundred years of 
 village life, that one of its wisest citizens had 
 portions of the address printed for distribution, 
 as an illustration of the American principle of 
 self-government. 
 
 After settling in Concord, Emerson delivered 
 courses of Lectures in Boston during several suc 
 cessive winters ; in 1835, ten Lectures on Eng 
 lish Literature ; in 1836, twelve Lectures on the 
 Philosophy of History; in 1837, ten Lectures 
 on Human Culture. Some of these lectures may 
 have appeared in print under their original 
 titles ; all of them probably contributed to the 
 Essays and Discourses which we find in his 
 published volumes. 
 
 On the 19th of April, 1836, a meeting was 
 held to celebrate the completion of the monu 
 ment raised in commemoration of the Concord 
 Fight. For this occasion Emerson wrote the 
 hymn made ever memorable by the lines : 
 
 Here once the embattled farmers stood, 
 And fired the shot heard round the world. 
 
 The last line of this hymn quickens the heart 
 beats of every American, and the whole hymn 
 is admirable in thought and expression. 
 
88 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Until the autumn of 1838, Emerson preached 
 twice on Sundays to the church at East Lexing 
 ton, which desired him to become its pastor. 
 Mr. Cooke says that when a lady of the society 
 was asked why they did not settle a friend of 
 Emerson s whom he had urged them to invite 
 to their pulpit, she replied: "We are a very 
 simple people, and can understand no one but 
 Mr. Emerson." He said of himself : " My pul 
 pit is the Lyceum platform." Knowing that he 
 made his Sermons contribute to his Lectures, 
 we need not mourn over their not being re 
 ported. 
 
 In March, 1837, Emerson delivered in Boston 
 a Lecture on War, afterwards published in Miss 
 Peabody s "Esthetic Papers." He recognizes 
 war as one of the temporary necessities of a de 
 veloping civilization, to disappear with the ad 
 vance of mankind : 
 
 " At a certain stage of his progress the man fights, 
 if he be of a sound body and mind. At a certain 
 high stage he makes no offensive demonstration, but 
 is alert to repel injury, and of an unconquerable 
 heart. At a still higher stage he comes into the re 
 gion of holiness ; passion has passed away from him ; 
 his warlike nature is all converted into an active me 
 dicinal principle ; he sacrifices himself, and accepts 
 with alacrity wearisome tasks of denial and charity; 
 but being attacked, he bears it, and turns the othei 
 
DEATH OF EMERSON S BROTHERS. 89 
 
 cheek, as one engaged, throughout his being, no longer 
 to the service of an individual, but to the common 
 good of all men." 
 
 In 1834 Emerson s brother Edward died, as 
 already mentioned, in the West India island 
 where he had gone for his health. In his letter 
 to Carlyle, of November 12th of the same year, 
 Emerson says : " Your letter, which I received 
 last week, made a bright light in a solitary and 
 saddened place. I had quite recently received 
 the news of the death of a brother in the island 
 of Porto Rico, whose loss to me will be a life 
 long sorrow." It was of him that Emerson 
 wrote the lines " In Memoriam," in which he 
 says, 
 
 " There is no record left on earth 
 Save on tablets of the heart, 
 Of the rich, inherent worth, 
 Of the grace that on him shone 
 Of eloquent lips, of joyful wit ; 
 He could not frame a word unfit, 
 An act unworthy to be done." 
 
 Another bereavement was too soon to be re 
 corded. On the 7th of October, 1835, he says 
 in a letter to Carlyle : 
 
 " I was very glad to hear of the brother you describe, 
 for I have one too, and know what it is to have pres 
 ence in two places. Charles Chauncy Emerson is a 
 lawyer now settled hi this town, and, as I believe, no 
 
90 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 better Lord Hamlet was ever. He is our Doctor on 
 all questions of taste, manners, or action. And one 
 of the pure pleasures I promise myself in the months 
 to come is to make you two gentlemen know each 
 other." 
 
 Alas for human hopes and prospects ! In 
 less than a year from the date of that letter, on 
 the 17th of September, 1836, he writes to Car- 
 lyle:- 
 
 "Your last letter, dated in April, found me a 
 mourner, as did your first. I have lost out of this 
 world my brother Charles, of whom I have spoken to 
 you, the friend and companion of many years, the 
 inmate of my house, a man of a beautiful genius, born 
 to speak well, and whose conversation for these last 
 years has treated every grave question of humanity, 
 and has been my daily bread. I have put so much 
 dependence on his gifts, that we made but one man 
 together ; for I needed never to do what he could do 
 by noble nature, much better than I. He was to have 
 been married in this month, and at the time of his 
 sickness and sudden death, I was adding apartments 
 to my house for his permanent accommodation. I 
 wish that you could have known him. At twenty- 
 seven years the best life is only preparation. He 
 built his foundation so large that it needed the full 
 age of man to make evident the plan and proportions 
 of his character. He postponed always a particular 
 to a final and absolute success, so that his life was a 
 silent appeal to the great and generous. But some 
 time I shall see you and speak of him." 
 
"NATURE." 91 
 
 3. In the year 1836 there was published in 
 Boston a little book of less than a hundred very 
 small pages, entitled " Nature." It bore no 
 name on its title-page, but was at once attrib 
 uted to its real author, Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 The Emersonian adept will pardon me for bur 
 dening this beautiful Essay with a commentary 
 which is worse than superfluous for him. For 
 it has proved for many, I will not say a pons 
 asinorum, but a very narrow bridge, which it 
 made their heads swim to attempt crossing, and 
 yet they must cross it, or one domain of Emer 
 son s intellect will not be reached. 
 
 It differed in some respects from anything he 
 had hitherto written. It talked a strange sort of 
 philosophy in the language of poetry. Begin- V 
 ning simply enough, it took more and more the 
 character of a rhapsody, until, as if lifted off his 
 feet by the deepened and stronger undercurrent 
 of his thought, the writer dropped his personality 
 and repeated the words which " a certain poet 
 sang" to him. 
 
 This little book met with a very unemotional 
 reception. Its style was peculiar, almost as 
 unlike that of his Essays as that of Carlyle s 
 " Sartor Resartus " was unlike the style of his 
 " Life of Schiller." It was vague, mystic, incom 
 prehensible, to most of those who call themselves 
 common-sense people. Some of its expressions 
 
 r-r -HE 
 UNIVCHSITY 
 
 OF 
 
92 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 lent themselves easily to travesty and ridicule. 
 But the laugh could not be very loud or yery 
 long, since it took twelve years, as Mr. Higgin- 
 son tells us, to sell five hundred copies. It was 
 a good deal like Keats s 
 
 " doubtful tale from fairy-land 
 Hard for the non-elect to understand." 
 
 The same experience had been gone through by 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 " Whatever is too original," says De Quincey, 
 " will be hated at the first. It must slowly mould 
 a public for itself ; and the resistance of the early 
 thoughtless judgments must be overcome by a coun 
 ter-resistance to itself, in a better audience slowly 
 mustering against the first. Forty and seven years 
 it is since William Wordsworth first appeared as 
 an author. Twenty of these years he was the scoff 
 of the world, and his poetry a by-word of scorn. 
 Since then, and more than once, senates have rung 
 with acclamations to the echo of his name." 
 
 No writer is more deeply imbued with the 
 spirit of Wordsworth than Emerson, as we can 
 not fail to see in turning the pages of "Nature," 
 his first thoroughly characteristic Essay. There 
 is the same thought in the Preface to " The Ex 
 cursion " that we find in the Introduction to 
 " Nature." 
 
 " The foregoing generations beheld God and nature 
 face to face; we through their eyes. Why should 
 
"NATURE." 93 
 
 not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe ? 
 Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of 
 insight and not* of tradition, and a religion by reve 
 lation to us, and not the history of theirs ? " 
 
 " Paradise and groves 
 
 Elysian, Fortunate Fields like those of old 
 Sought in the Atlantic Main, why should they be 
 A history only of departed things, 
 Or a mere fiction of what never was ? " 
 
 " Nature " is a 7 reflective prose poem. It is 
 divided into eight chapters, which might almost 
 as well have been called cantos. 
 
 Never before had Mr. Emerson given free ut 
 terance to the passion with which the aspects of 
 nature inspired him. . He had recently for the 
 first time been at once master of himself and in 
 free communion with all the planetary influences 
 above, beneath, around him. / The air of the 
 country intoxicated him. There are sentences in 
 " Nature " which are as exalted as the language 
 of one who is just coming to himself after hav 
 ing been etherized. Some of these expressions 
 sounded to a considerable part of his early read 
 ers like the vagaries of delirium. Yet underlying 
 these excited outbursts there was a general tone 
 of serenity which reassured the anxious. The 
 gust passed over, the ripples smoothed themselves, 
 and the stars shone again in quiet reflection. 
 
 After a passionate outbreak, in which he sees 
 
94 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 all, is nothing, loses himself in nature, in 
 versal Being, becomes " part or particle of God," 
 he considers briefly, in the chapter entitled 
 Commodity, the ministry of nature to the senses. 
 A few picturesque glimpses in pleasing and poet 
 ical phrases, with a touch of archaism, and remi 
 niscences of Hamlet and Jeremy Taylor, " the 
 Shakspeare of divines," as he has called him, 
 are what we find in this chapter on Commodity, 
 or natural conveniences. 
 
 But " a nobler want of man is served by Na 
 ture, namely, the love of Beauty" which is his 
 next subject. There are some touches of de 
 scription here, vivid, high-colored, not so much 
 pictures as hints and impressions for pictures. 
 
 Many of the thoughts which run through all 
 his prose and poetry may be found here. Anal 
 ogy is seen everywhere in the works of Nature. 
 " What is common to them all, that perfect- 
 ness and harmony, is beauty." " Nothing is 
 quite beautiful alone: nothing but is beautiful 
 in the whole." " No reason can be asked or 
 given why the soul seeks beauty." How easily 
 these same ideas took on the robe of verse may 
 be seen in the Poems, " Each and All," and 
 u The Rhodora." A good deal of his philoso 
 phy comes out in these concluding sentences of 
 the chapter : 
 / " Beauty in its largest and profoundest sense if 
 
"NATURE" 95 
 
 one expression for the universe ; God is the all-fair. 
 Truth and goodness and beauty are but different 
 faces of the same All. But beauty in Nature is 
 not ultimate. It is the herald of inward and eter 
 nal beauty, and is not alone a solid and satisfactory 
 good. It must therefore stand as a part and not as 
 yet the highest expression of the final cause of Na 
 ture." 
 
 In the " Rhodora " the flower is made to an 
 swer that 
 
 " Beauty is its own excuse for being." 
 
 In this Essay the beauty of the flower is not 
 enough, but it must excuse itself for being, 
 mainly as the symbol of something higher and 
 deeper than itself. 
 
 He passes next to a consideration of. Language. 
 Words are signs of natural facts, particular ma 
 terial facts are symbols of particular spiritual 
 facts, and Nature is the symbol of spirit. With 
 out going very profoundly into the subject, he 
 gives some hints as to the mode in which lan 
 guages are formed, whence words are derived, 
 how they become transformed and worn out. 
 But they come at first fresh from Nature. 
 
 "A man conversing in earnest, if he watch his 
 intellectual processes, will find that always a mate 
 rial image, more or less luminous, arises in his mind, 
 contemporaneous with every thought, which furnishes 
 
96 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 the vestment of the thought. Hence good writing 
 and brilliant discourse are perpetual allegories. " 
 
 From this he argues that country life is a 
 great advantage to a powerful mind, inasmuch as 
 it furnishes a greater number of these material 
 images. They cannot be summoned at will, but 
 they present themselves when great exigencies 
 call for them. 
 
 " The poet, the orator, bred in the woods, whose 
 senses have been nourished by their fair and appeas 
 ing changes, year after year, without design and with 
 out heed, shall not lose their lesson altogether, in 
 the roar of cities or the broil of politics. Long here 
 after, amidst agitations and terror in national coun 
 cils, in the hour of revolution, these solemn 
 images shall reappear in their morning lustre, as fit 
 symbols and words of the thought which the passing 
 events shall awaken. At the call of a noble senti 
 ment, again the woods wave, the pines murmur, the 
 river rolls and shines, and the cattle low upon the 
 mountains, as he saw and heard them in his infancy. 
 And with these forms the spells of persuasion, the 
 keys of power, are put into his hands." 
 
 It is doing no wrong to this very eloquent and 
 beautiful passage to say that it reminds us of 
 certain lines in one of the best known poems of 
 Wordsworth : 
 
 " These beauteous forms, 
 Through a long absence, have not been to me 
 
"NATURE." 97 
 
 As is a landscape to a blind man s eye ; 
 But oft, in lonely rooms, and mid the din 
 Of towns and cities, I have owed to them 
 In hours of weariness sensations sweet 
 Felt hi the blood and felt along the heart." 
 
 It is needless to quote the whole passage. The 
 poetry of Wordsworth may have suggested the 
 prose of Emerson, but the prose loses nothing 
 by the comparison. 
 
 In Discipline, which is his next subject, he "< 
 treats of the influence of Nature in educating the 
 intellect, the moral sense, and the will. Man is 
 enlarged and the universe .lessened and brought 
 within his grasp, because 
 
 " Time and space relations vanish as laws are 
 known." " The moral law lies at the centre of Na 
 ture and radiates to the circumference." " All things 
 with which we deal preach to us. What is a farm 
 but a mute gospel ? " " From the child s successive 
 possession of his several senses up to the hour when 
 he sayeth, Thy will be done ! he is learning the 
 secret that he can reduce under his will, not only par 
 ticular events, but great classes, nay, the whole series 
 of events, and so conform all facts to his character." 
 
 The unity in variety which meets us every 
 where is again referred to. He alludes to the 
 ministry of our friendships to our education. 
 When a friend has done for our education in 
 the way of filling our minds with sweet and solid 
 
98 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 wisdom "it is a sign to us that his office is 
 closing, and he is commonly withdrawn from 
 our sight in a short time." This thought was 
 probably suggested by the death of his brother 
 Charles, which occurred a few months before 
 "Nature" was published. He had already 
 spoken in the first chapter of this little book as 
 if from some recent experience of his own, doubt 
 less the same bereavement. " To a man labor 
 ing under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath 
 sadness in it. Then there is a kind of contempt 
 of the landscape felt by him who has just lost 
 by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand 
 as it shuts down over less worth in the popula 
 tion." This was the first effect of the loss ; but 
 after a time he recognizes a superintending 
 power which orders events for us in wisdom 
 which we could not see at first. 
 
 The chapter on Idealism must be read by 
 all who believe themselves capable of abstract 
 thought, if they would not fall under the judg 
 ment of Turgot, which Emerson quotes : " He 
 that has never doubted the existence of matter 
 may be assured he has no aptitude for meta 
 physical inquiries." The most essential state 
 ment is this : 
 
 " It is a sufficient account of that Appearance we 
 call the World, that God will teach a human mind, 
 and so makes it the receiver of a certain number of 
 
"NATUEE." 99 
 
 congruent sensations, which we call sun and moon, 
 man and woman, house and trade. In my utter im 
 potence to test the authenticity of the report of my 
 senses, to know whether the impressions they make 
 on me correspond with outlying objects, what dif 
 ference does it make, whether Orion is up there in 
 Heaven, or some god paints the image in the firma 
 ment of the Soul ? " 
 
 We need not follow the thought through the 
 argument from illusions, like that when we look 
 at the shore from a moving ship, and others 
 which cheat the senses by false appearances. 
 
 The poet animates Nature with his own 
 thoughts, perceives the affinities between Nature 
 and the soul, with Beauty as his main end. The 
 philosopher pursues Truth, but, " not less than 
 the poet, postpones the apparent order and rela 
 tion of things to the empire of thought." Re 
 ligion and ethics agree with all lower culture in 
 degrading Nature and suggesting its dependence 
 on Spirit. " The devotee flouts Nature." 
 " Plotinus was ashamed of his body." " Michael 
 Angelo said of external beauty, it is the frail 
 and weary weed, in which God dresses the soul, 
 which He has called into time/ " Emerson would 
 not undervalue Nature as looked at through the 
 senses and " the unrenewed understanding." " I 
 have no hostility to Nature," he says, "but a 
 child s love of it. I expand and live in the warm 
 
100 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 day like corn and melons." But, "seen in the 
 light of thought, the world always is phenom 
 enal ; and virtue subordinates it to the mind. 
 Idealism sees the world in God," as one vast 
 picture, which God paints on the instant eternity, 
 for the contemplation of the soul. 
 
 The unimaginative reader is likely to find 
 himself off soundings in the next chapter, which 
 has for its title Spirit. 
 
 Idealism only denies the existence of matter ; 
 it does not satisfy the demands of the spirit. 
 " It leaves God out of me." Of these three 
 questions, What is matter ? Whence is it ? 
 Where to ? The ideal theory answers the first 
 only. The reply is that matter is a phenome 
 non, not a substance. 
 
 " But when we come to inquire Whence is matter ? 
 and Whereto ? many truths arise to us out of the re 
 cesses of consciousness. We learn that the highest 
 is present to the soul of man, that the dread universal 
 essence, which is not wisdom, or love, or beauty, or 
 power, but all in one, and each entirely, is that for 
 which all things exist, and that by which they are ; 
 that spirit creates ; that behind nature, throughout 
 nature, spirit is present ; that spirit is one and not 
 compound ; that spirit does not act upon us from 
 without, that is, in space and time, but spiritually, or 
 through ourselves." "As a plant upon the earth, 
 BO a man rests upon the bosom of God ; he is nour- 
 
"NATURE." 101 
 
 ished by unfailing fountains, and draws, at his need, 
 inexhaustible power." 
 
 Man may have access to the entire mind of the 
 Creator, himself become a " creator in the fin 
 ite." 
 
 "As we degenerate, the contrast between us and 
 our house is more evident. We are as much stran 
 gers in nature as we are aliens from God. We do not 
 understand the notes of birds. The fox and the deer 
 run away from us; the bear and the tiger rend us." 
 
 All this has an Old Testament sound as of a 
 lost Paradise. In the next chapter he dreams 
 of Paradise regained. 
 
 This next and last chapter is entitled Pros 
 pects. He begins with a bold claim for the prov 
 ince of intuition as against induction, underval 
 uing the " half sight of science " as against the 
 " untaught sallies of the spirit," the surmises 
 and vaticinations of the mind, the " imperfect 
 theories, and sentences which contain glimpses 
 of truth." In a word, he would have us leave 
 the laboratory and its crucibles for the sibyl s 
 cave and its tripod. We can all or most of 
 us, certainly recognize something of truth, 
 much of imagination, and more of danger in 
 speculations of this sort. They belong to vis 
 ionaries and to poets. Emerson feels distinctly 
 enough that he is getting into the realm of 
 
102 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 poetry. He quotes five beautiful verses from 
 George Herbert s " Poem on Man." Presently 
 he is himself taken off his feet into the air of 
 song, and finishes his Essay with " some tradi 
 tions of man and nature which a certain poet 
 sang to me." "A man is a god in ruins." 
 " Man is the dwarf of himself. Once he was 
 permeated and dissolved by spirit. He filled 
 nature with his overflowing currents. Out from 
 him sprang the sun and moon ; from man the 
 sun, from woman the moon." But he no longer 
 fills the mere shell he had made for himself ; 
 " he is shrunk to a drop." Still something of ele 
 mental power remains to him. " It is instinct." 
 Such teachings he got from his " poet." It is 
 a kind of New England Genesis in place of the 
 Old Testament one. We read in the Sermon 
 on the Mount : " Be ye therefore perfect as your 
 Father in Heaven is perfect." The discourse 
 which comes to us from the Trimount oracle 
 commands us, " Build, therefore, your own world. 
 As fast as you conform your life to the pure 
 idea in your mind, that will unfold its great pro 
 portions." The seer of Patmos foretells a heav 
 enly Jerusalem, of which he says, " There shall 
 in no wise enter into it anything that defileth." 
 The sage of Concord foresees a new heaven on 
 earth. " A correspondent revolution in things 
 will attend the influx of the spirit. So fast wil] 
 
"NATURE." 103 
 
 disagreeable appearances, swine, spiders, snakes, 
 pests, mad-houses, prisons, enemies, vanish ; they 
 are temporary and shall be no more seen." 
 
 It may be remembered that Calvin, in his 
 Commentary on the New Testament, stopped 
 when he came to the book of the " Revelation." 
 He found it full of difficulties which he did not 
 care to encounter. Yet, considered only as a 
 poem, the vision of St. John is full of noble im 
 agery and wonderful beauty. " Nature " is the 
 Book of Revelation of our Saint Radulphus. It 
 has its obscurities, its extravagances, but as a 
 poem it is noble and inspiring. It was objected 
 to on the score of its pantheistic character, as 
 Wordsworth s " Lines composed near Tintern 
 Abbey " had been long before. But here and 
 there it found devout readers who were capti 
 vated by its spiritual elevation and great poet 
 ical beauty, among them one who wrote of it in 
 the " Democratic Review " in terms of enthusi 
 astic admiration. 
 
 Mr. Bowen, the Professor of Natural Theol 
 ogy and Moral Philosophy in Harvard Univer 
 sity, treated this singular semi - philosophical, 
 semi-poetical little book in a long article in the 
 "Christian Examiner," headed "Transcenden 
 talism," and published in the January number 
 for 1837. The acute and learned Professor 
 
104 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 meant to deal fairly with his subject. But if 
 one has ever seen a sagacious pointer making the 
 acquaintance of a box-tortoise, he will have an 
 idea of the relations between the reviewer and 
 the reviewed as they appear in this article. The 
 professor turns the book over and over, in 
 spects it from plastron to carapace, so to speak, 
 and looks for openings everywhere, sometimes 
 successfully, sometimes in vain. He finds good 
 writing and sound philosophy, passages of great 
 force and beauty of expression, marred by ob 
 scurity, under assumptions and faults of style. 
 He was not, any more than the rest of us, accli 
 mated to the Emersonian atmosphere, and after 
 some not unjust or unkind comments with which 
 many readers will heartily agree, confesses his 
 bewilderment, saying: 
 
 " On reviewing what we have already said of this 
 singular work, the criticism seems to be couched in 
 contradictory terms ; we can only allege in excuse the 
 fact that the book is a contradiction in itself." 
 
 Carlyle says in his letter of February 13, 
 1837: 
 
 " Your little azure-colored Nature gave me true 
 satisfaction. I read it, and then lent it about to all 
 my acquaintance that had a sense for such things ; 
 from whom a similar verdict always came back. You 
 say it is the first chapter of something greater. I 
 call it rather the Foundation and Ground-plan OD 
 
"NATURE." 105 
 
 which you may build whatsoever of great and true has 
 been given you to build. It is the true Apocalypse, 
 this when the * Open Secret becomes revealed to a 
 man. I rejoice much in the glad serenity of soul 
 with which you look out 011 this wondrous Dwelling- 
 place of yours and mine, with an ear for the 
 Ewigen Melodien, which pipe in the winds round us 9 
 and utter themselves forth in all sounds and sights 
 and things ; not to be written down by gamut-ma 
 chinery ; but which all right writing is a kind of at 
 tempt to write down." 
 
 The first edition of "Nature" had prefixed 
 to it the following words from Plotinus : " Na 
 ture is but an image or imitation of wisdom, the 
 last thing of the soul ; Nature being a thing 
 which doth only do, but not know." This is 
 omitted in after editions, and in its place we 
 read: 
 
 " A subtle chain of countless rings 
 The next unto the farthest brings ; 
 The eye reads omens where it goes, 
 And speaks all languages the rose ; 
 And striving to be man, the worm 
 Mounts through all the spires of form." 
 
 The copy of " Nature " from which I take these 
 lines, his own, of course, like so many others 
 which he prefixed to his different Essays, was 
 printed in the year 1849, ten years before the 
 publication of Darwin s " Origin of Species," 
 twenty years and more before the publication of 
 
106 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " The Descent of Man." But the " Vestiges of 
 Creation," published in 1844, had already pop 
 ularized the resuscitated theories of Lamarck. 
 It seems as if Emerson had a warning from the 
 poetic instinct which, when it does not precede 
 the movement of the scientific intellect, is the 
 first to catch the hint of its discoveries. There 
 is nothing more audacious in the poet s concep 
 tion of the worm looking up towards humanity, 
 than the naturalist s theory that the progenitor 
 of the human race was an acephalous mollusk. 
 "I will not be sworn," says Benedick, "but 
 love may transform me to an oyster." For 
 " love " read science. 
 
 Unity in variety, "il piunell uno" symbolism 
 of Nature and its teachings, generation of phe 
 nomena, appearances, from spirit, to which 
 they correspond and which they obey ; evolution 
 of the best and elimination of the worst as the 
 law of being ; all this and much more may be 
 found in the poetic utterances of this slender 
 Essay. It fell like an aerolite, unasked for, un 
 accounted for, unexpected, almost unwelcome, 
 a stumbling-block to be got out of the well-trod 
 den highway of New England scholastic intelli 
 gence. But here and there it found a reader to 
 whom it was, to borrow, with slight changes, its 
 
 own quotation, 
 
 " The golden key 
 Which opes the palace of eternity," 
 
"THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR." 107 
 
 inasmuch as it carried upon its face the highest 
 certificate of truth, because it animated them, 
 to create a new world for themselves through 
 the purification of their own souls. 
 
 Next to "Nature" in the series of his collected 
 publications comes " The American Scholar. An 
 Oration delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa 
 Society at Cambridge, August 31, 1837." 
 
 The Society known by these three letters, long 
 a mystery to the uninitiated, but which, filled out 
 and interpreted, signify that philosophy is the 
 guide of life, is one of long standing, the annual 
 meetings of which have called forth the best ef 
 forts of many distinguished scholars and think 
 ers. Rarely has any one of the annual addresses 
 been listened to with such profound attention 
 and interest. Mr. Lowell says of it, that its de 
 livery " was an event without any former par 
 allel in our literary annals, a scene to be always 
 treasured in the memory for its picturesqueness 
 and its inspiration. What crowded and breath 
 less aisles, what windows clustering with eager 
 heads, what enthusiasm of approval, what grim 
 silence of foregone dissent ! " 
 
 Mr. Cooke says truly of this oration, that 
 nearly all his leading ideas found expression in it. 
 This was to be expected in an address delivered 
 before such an audience. Every real thinker s 
 
108 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 world of thought has its centre in a few for 
 mulae, about which they revolve as the planets 
 circle round the sun which cast them off. But 
 those who lost themselves now and then in the 
 pages of " Nature " will find their way clearly 
 enough through those of " The American Schol 
 ar." It is a plea for generous culture ; for the 
 development of all the faculties, many of which 
 tend to become atrophied by the exclusive pur 
 suit of single objects of thought. It begins with 
 a note like a trumpet call. 
 
 " Thus far," he says, " our holiday has been simply 
 a friendly sign of the survival of the love of letters 
 amongst a people too busy to give to letters any more. 
 As such it is precious as the sign of an indestructible 
 instinct. Perhaps the time is already come when it 
 ought to be, and will be, something else ; when the 
 sluggard intellect of this continent will look from un 
 der its iron lids and fill the postponed expectations of 
 the world with something better than the exertions of 
 mechanical skill. Our day of dependence, our long 
 apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws 
 to a close. The millions that around us are rushing 
 into life cannot always be fed on the sere remains of 
 foreign harvests. Events, actions arise, that must be 
 sung, that will sing themselves. Who can doubt that 
 poetry will revive and lead in a new age, as the star 
 in the constellation Harp, which now flames in our 
 zenith, astronomers announce shall one day be the 
 pole-star for a thousand years ? " 
 
"TEE AMERICAN SCHOLAR." 109 
 
 Emerson finds his text in the old fable which 
 tells that Man, as he was in the beginning, was 
 divided into men, as the hand was divided into 
 fingers, the better to answer the end of his being. 
 The fable covers the doctrine that there is One 
 Man; present to individuals only in a partial 
 manner ; and that we must take the whole of so 
 ciety to find the whole man. Unfortunately the 
 unit has been too minutely subdivided, and many 
 faculties are practically lost for want of use. 
 " The state of society is one in which the mem 
 bers have suffered amputation from the trunk, 
 and strut about so many walking monsters, 
 a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but 
 never a man. . . . Man is thus metamorphosed 
 into a thing, into many things. . . . The priest 
 becomes a form ; the attorney a statute book ; 
 the mechanic a machine; the sailor a rope of 
 the ship." 
 
 This complaint is by no means a new one. 
 Scaliger says, as quoted by omnivorous old Bur 
 ton: " Nequaquam nos homines sumus sed par- 
 tes hominis." The old illustration of this used 
 to be found in pin-making. It took twenty dif 
 ferent workmen to make a pin, beginning with 
 drawing the wire and ending with sticking in the 
 paper. Each expert, skilled in one small per 
 formance only, was reduced to a minute fraction 
 of a fraction of humanity. If the complaint 
 
110 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 was legitimate in Scaliger s time, it was better 
 founded half a century ago when Mr. Emerson 
 found cause for it. It has still more serious 
 significance to-day, when in every profession, in 
 every branch of human knowledge, special ac 
 quirements, special skill have greatly tended to 
 limit the range of men s thoughts and working 
 faculties. 
 
 " In this distribution of functions the scholar is the 
 delegated intellect. In the right state he is Man 
 thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim 
 of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or still 
 worse, the parrot of other men s thinking. In this 
 view of him, as Man thinking, the theory of his office 
 is contained. Him Nature solicits with all her placid, 
 all her monitory pictures; him the past instructs; 
 him the future invites." 
 
 Emerson proceeds to describe and illustrate 
 the influences of nature upon the mind, return 
 ing to the strain of thought with which his pre 
 vious Essay has made us familiar. He next con 
 siders the influence of the past, and especially of 
 books as the best type of that influence. " Books 
 are the best of things well used ; abused among 
 the worst." It is hard to distil what is already 
 a quintessence without loss of what is just as 
 good as the product of our labor. A sentence 
 or two may serve to give an impression of the 
 epigrammatic wisdom of his counsel. 
 
" THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR." Ill 
 
 " Each age must write its own books, or, rather, 
 each generation for the next succeeding. The books 
 of an older period will not fit this." 
 
 When a book has gained a certain hold on 
 the mind, it is liable to become an object of idol 
 atrous regard. 
 
 " Instantly the book becomes noxious : the guide ia 
 a tyrant. The sluggish and perverted mind of the 
 multitude, slow to open to the incursions of reason, 
 having once so opened, having received this book, 
 stands upon it and makes an outcry if it is dispar 
 aged. Colleges are built on it. Books are written 
 on it by thinkers, not by Man thinking ; by men of 
 talent, that is, who start wrong, who set out from ac 
 cepted dogmas, not from their own sight of princi 
 ples. Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing 
 it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which 
 Locke, which Bacon have given ; forgetful that Cicero, 
 Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries 
 when they wrote these books. One must be an in 
 ventor to read well. As the proverb says, He that 
 would bring home the wealth of the Indies must 
 carry out the wealth of the Indies. When the mind 
 is braced by labor and invention, the page of what 
 ever book we read becomes luminous with manifold 
 allusion. Every sentence is doubly significant, and 
 the sense of our author is as broad as the world." 
 
 It is not enough that the scholar should be a 
 student of nature and of books. He must take 
 a part in the affairs of the world about him. 
 
112 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is 
 essential. Without it he is not yet man. Without 
 it thought can never ripen into truth. The true 
 scholar grudges every opportunity of action past by, 
 as a loss of power. It is the raw material out of 
 which the intellect moulds her splendid products. A 
 strange process, too, this by which experience is con 
 verted into thought as a mulberry leaf is converted 
 into satin. The manufacture goes forward at all 
 hours." 
 
 Emerson does not use the words " unconscious 
 cerebration," but these last words describe the 
 process in an unmistakable way. The beautiful 
 paragraph in which he pictures the transforma 
 tion, the transfiguration of experience, closes 
 with a sentence so thoroughly characteristic, so 
 Emersonially Emersonian, that I fear some read 
 ers who thought they were his disciples when 
 they came to it went back and walked no more 
 with him, at least through the pages of this dis 
 course. The reader shall have the preceding 
 sentence to prepare him for the one referred to. 
 
 " There is no fact, no event in our private history, 
 which shall not, sooner or later, lose its adhesive, inert 
 form, and astonish us by soaring from our body into 
 the empyrean. 
 
 " Cradle and infancy, school and playground, the 
 fear of boys, and dogs, and ferules, the love of little 
 maids and berries, and many another fact that once 
 
" TEE AMERICAN SCHOLAR." 113 
 
 Blled the whole sky, are gone already ; friend and 
 relative, profession and party, town and country, 
 nation and world must also soar and sing." 
 
 Having spoken of the education of the scholar 
 by nature, by books, by action, he speaks of the 
 scholar s duties. " They may all," he says, " be 
 comprised in self -trust." We have to remember 
 that the self he means is the highest self, that 
 consciousness which he looks upon as open to 
 the influx of the divine essence from which it 
 came, and towards which all its upward tenden 
 cies lead, always aspiring, never resting ; as he 
 sings in " The Sphinx " : 
 
 " The heavens that now draw him 
 
 With sweetness untold, 
 Once found, for new heavens 
 He spurneth the old." 
 
 " First one, then another, we drain all cisterns, and 
 waxing greater by all these supplies, we crave a bet 
 ter and more abundant food. The man has never 
 lived that can feed us ever. The human mind can 
 not be enshrined in a person who shall set a barrier 
 on any one side to this unbounded, unboundable em 
 pire. It is one central fire, which, flaming now out of 
 the lips of Etna, lightens the Capes of Sicily, and now 
 out of the throat of Vesuvius, illuminates the towers 
 and vineyards of Naples. It is one light which beams 
 out of a thousand stars. It is one soul which ani 
 mates all men." 
 a 
 
114 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 And so he comes to the special application of 
 the principles he has laid down to the American 
 scholar of to-day. He does not spare his cen 
 sure ; he is full of noble trust and manly cour 
 age. Very refreshing it is to remember in this 
 day of specialists, when the walking fraction of 
 humanity he speaks of would hardly include a 
 whole finger, but rather confine itself to the sin 
 gle joint of the finger, such words as these : 
 
 " The scholar is that man who must take up into 
 himself all the ability of the time, all the contributions 
 of the past, all the hopes of the future. He must be 
 a university of knowledges. . . . We have listened too 
 long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of 
 the American freeman is already suspected to be timid, 
 imitative, tame. The scholar is decent, indolent, com 
 plaisant. The mind of this country, taught to aim at 
 low objects, eats upon itself. There is no work for 
 any but the decorous and the complaisant." 
 
 The young men of promise are discouraged 
 and disgusted. 
 
 " What is the remedy ? They did not yet see, and 
 thousands of young men as hopeful now crowding to 
 the barriers for the career do not yet see, that if the 
 single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, 
 *nd there abide, the huge world will come round to 
 him." 
 
 Each man must be a unit, must yield that 
 peculiar fruit which he was created to bear. 
 
"THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR." 115 
 
 " "We will walk on our own feet ; we will work with 
 our own hands ; we will speak our own minds. A 
 nation of men will for the first time exist, because 
 each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul 
 which also inspires all men." 
 
 This grand Oration was our intellectual Dec 
 laration of Independence. Nothing like it had 
 been heard in the halls of Harvard since Sam 
 uel Adams supported the affirmative of the ques 
 tion, " Whether it be lawful to resist the chief 
 magistrate, if the commonwealth cannot other 
 wise be preserved." It was easy to find fault with 
 an expression here and there. The dignity, not 
 to say the formality of an Academic assembly 
 was startled by the realism that looked for the 
 infinite in " the meal in the firkin ; the milk 
 in the pan." They could understand the deep 
 thoughts suggested by " the meanest flower that 
 blows," but these domestic illustrations had a 
 kind of nursery homeliness about them which 
 the grave professors and sedate clergymen were 
 unused to expect on so stately an occasion. But 
 the young men went out from it as if a prophet 
 had been proclaiming to them " Thus saith the 
 Lord." No listener ever forgot that Address, 
 and among all the noble utterances of the speaker 
 it may be questioned if one ever contained more 
 truth in language more like that of immediate 
 jnspiration. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 1838-1843. ^ET. 35-40. 
 
 1. Divinity School Address. Correspondence. Lectures 
 on Human Life. Letters to James Freeman Clarke. 
 Dartmouth College Address : Literary Ethics. Waterville 
 College Address: The Method of Nature. Other Ad 
 dresses : Man the Reformer. Lecture on the Times. 
 The Conservative. The Transcendental ist. Boston 
 " Transcendentalism." " The Dial." Brook Farm. 
 
 2. First Series of Essays published. Contents : History, 
 Self-Reliance, Compensation, Spiritual Laws, Love, Friend 
 ship, Prudence, Heroism, The Oversoul, Circles, Intellect, 
 Art. Emerson s Account of his Mode of Life in a Letter 
 to Carlyle. Death of Emerson s Son. Threnody. 
 
 1. ON Sunday evening, July 15, 1838, Em 
 erson delivered an Address before the Senior 
 Class in Divinity College, Cambridge, which 
 caused a profound sensation in religious circles, 
 and led to a controversy, in which Emerson had 
 little more than the part of Patroclus when the 
 Greeks and Trojans fought over his body. In its 
 simplest and broadest statement this discourse 
 was a/plea for the individual consciousness as 
 against all historical creeds, bibles, churches ; 
 for the soul as the supreme judge in spiritual 
 matters. 
 
 He begins with a beautiful picture which must 
 
DIVINITY SCHOOL ADDRESS. 117 
 
 be transferred without the change of an expres 
 sion : 
 
 " In this refulgent Summer, it has been a luxury 
 to draw the breath of life. The grass grows, the buds 
 burst, the meadow is spotted with fire and gold in the 
 tint of flowers. The air is full of birds, and sweet 
 with the breath of the pine, the balm of Gilead, and 
 the new hay. Night brings no gloom to the heart 
 with its welcome shade. Through the transparent 
 darkness the stars pour their almost spiritual rays. 
 Man under them seems a young child, and his huge 
 globe a toy. The cool night bathes the world as with 
 a river, and prepares his eyes again for the crimson 
 dawn." 
 
 How softly the phrases of the gentle icono 
 clast steal upon the ear, and how they must have 
 hushed the questioning audience into pleased at 
 tention ! The " Song of Songs, which is Solo 
 mon s," could not have wooed the listener more 
 sweetly. " Thy lips drop as the honeycomb : 
 honey and milk are under thy tongue, and the 
 smell of thy garments is like the smell of Leb 
 anon." And this was the prelude of a discourse 
 which, when it came to be printed, fared at the 
 hands of many a theologian, who did not think 
 himself a bigot, as the roll which Baruch wrote 
 with ink from the words of Jeremiah fared at 
 the hands of Jehoiakim, the King of Judah. He 
 listened while Jehudi read the opening passages. 
 
118 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 But " when Jehudi had read three or four leaves 
 he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the 
 fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was 
 consumed in the fire that was on the hearth." 
 Such was probably the fate of many a copy of 
 this famous discourse. 
 
 It is reverential, but it is also revolutionary. 
 The file-leaders of Unitarianism drew back in 
 dismay, and the ill names which had often been 
 applied to them were now heard from their own 
 lips as befitting this new heresy ; if so mild a re 
 proach as that of heresy belonged to this alarm 
 ing manifesto. And yet, so changed is the whole 
 aspect of the theological world since the time 
 when that discourse was delivered that it is read 
 as calmly to-day as a common " Election Ser 
 mon," if such are ever read at all. A few ex 
 tracts, abstracts, and comments may give the 
 reader who has not the Address before him some 
 idea of its contents and its tendencies. 
 
 The material universe, which he has just pic 
 tured in its summer beauty, deserves our admi 
 ration. But when the mind opens and reveals 
 the laws which govern the world of phenomena, 
 it shrinks into a mere fable and illustration of 
 this mind. What am I ? What is ? are ques 
 tions always asked, never fully answered. We 
 would study and admire forever. 
 
 But above intellectual curiosity, there is the 
 
DIVINITY SCHOOL ADDRESS. 119 
 
 sentiment of virtue. Man is born for the good, 
 for the perfect, low as he now lies in evil and 
 weakness. " The sentiment of virtue is a rever 
 ence and delight in the presence of certain di 
 vine laws. These laws refuse to be adequately 
 stated. They elude our persevering thought; 
 yet we read them hourly in each other s faces, 
 in each other s actions, in our own remorse. 
 The intuition of the moral sentiment is an in 
 sight of the perfection of the laws of the soul. 
 These laws execute themselves. As we are, so 
 we associate. The good, by affinity, seek the 
 good; the vile, by affinity, the vile. Thus, of 
 their own volition, souls proceed into heaven, 
 into hell." 
 
 These facts, Emerson says, have always sug 
 gested to man that the world is the product not 
 of manifold power, but of one will, of one mind, 
 that one mind is everywhere active. " All 
 things proceed out of the same spirit, and all 
 things conspire with it." While a man seeks 
 good ends, nature helps him ; when he seeks 
 other ends, his being shrinks, " he becomes less 
 and less, a mote, a point, until absolute badness 
 is absolute death." " When he says I ought ; 
 when love warms him ; when he chooses, warned 
 from on high, the good and great deed ; then 
 deep melodies wander through his soul from Su 
 preme Wisdom." 
 
120 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " This sentiment lies at the foundation of society 
 and successively creates all forms of worship. This 
 thought dwelled always deepest in the minds of men 
 in the devout and contemplative East ; not alone in 
 Palestine, where it reached its purest expression, 
 but in Egypt, in Persia, in India, in China. Europe 
 has always owed to Oriental genius its divine im 
 pulses. What these holy bards said, all sane men 
 found agreeable and true. And the unique impres 
 sion of Jesus upon mankind, whose name is not so 
 much written as ploughed into the history of this 
 world, is proof of the subtle virtue of this infusion." 
 
 But this truth cannot be received at second 
 hand ; it is an intuition. What another an 
 nounces, I must find true in myself, or I must 
 reject it. If the word of another is taken in 
 stead of this primary faith, the church, the state, 
 art, letters, life, all suffer degradation, " the 
 doctrine of inspiration is lost ; the base doctrine 
 of the majority of voices usurps the place of the 
 doctrine of the soul." 
 
 The following extract will show the view that 
 he takes of Christianity and its Founder, and 
 sufficiently explain the antagonism called forth 
 by the discourse : 
 
 " Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of proph 
 ets. He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul 
 Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its 
 beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone 
 
DIVINITY SCHOOL ADDRESS. 121 
 
 in all history he estimated the greatness of man. One 
 man was true to what is in you and me. He saw 
 that God incarnates himself in man, and evermore 
 goes forth anew to take possession of his World. He 
 said, in this jubilee of sublime emotion, 4 1 am Di 
 vine. Through me God acts ; through me, speaks. 
 Would you see God, see me ; or see thee, when thou 
 also thinkest as I now think. But what a distortion 
 did his doctrine and memory suffer in the same, in the 
 next, and the following ages ! There is no doctrine 
 of the Reason which will bear to be taught by the 
 Understanding. The understanding caught this high 
 chant from the poet s lips, and said, in the next age, 
 4 This was Jehovah come down out of heaven. I will 
 kill you if you say he was a man. The idioms of 
 his language and the figures of his rhetoric have 
 usurped the place of his truth ; and churches are not 
 built on his principles, but on his tropes. Christianity 
 became a Mythus, as the poetic teaching of Greece 
 and of Egypt, before. He spoke of Miracles ; for he 
 felt that man s life was a miracle, and all that man 
 doth, and he knew that this miracle shines as the 
 character ascends. But the word Miracle, as pro 
 nounced by Christian churches, gives a false impres 
 sion j it is Monster. It is not one with the blowing 
 clover and the falling rain." 
 
 He proceeds to point out what he considers the 
 great defects of historical Christianity. It has 
 exaggerated the personal, the positive, the rik 
 ual. It has wronged mankind by monopolizing 
 
122 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 all virtues for the Christian name. It is only 
 by his holy thoughts that Jesus serves us. " To 
 aim to convert a man by miracles is a profana 
 tion of the soul." The preachers do a wrong to 
 Jesus by removing him from our human sympa 
 thies ; they should not degrade his life and dia 
 logues by insulation and peculiarity. 
 
 Another defect of the traditional and limited 
 way of using the mind of Christ is that the 
 Moral Nature the Law of Laws is not ex 
 plored as the fountain of the established teach 
 ing in society. "Men have come to speak of 
 the revelation as somewhat long ago given and 
 done, as if God were dead." " The soul is 
 not preached. The church seems to totter to 
 its fall, almost all life extinct. The stationari- 
 ness of religion; the assumption that the age 
 of inspiration is past ; that the Bible is closed ; 
 the fear of degrading the character of Jesus by 
 representing him as a man ; indicate with suffi 
 cient clearness the falsehood of our theology. It 
 is the office of a true teacher to show us that 
 God is, not was ; that he speaketh, not spake. 
 The true Christianity a faith like Christ s in 
 the infinitude of Man is lost." 
 
 When Emerson came to what his earlier an 
 cestors would have called the " practical appli 
 cation," some of his young hearers must have 
 been startled at the style of his address. 
 
DIVINITY SCHOOL ADDRESS. 123 
 
 "Yourself a new-born bard of the Holy 
 Ghost, cast behind you all conformity, and ac 
 quaint men at first hand with Deity. Look to 
 it first and only, that fashion, custom, authority, 
 pleasure, and money are nothing to you, are 
 not bandages over your eyes, that you cannot 
 see, but live with the privilege of the immeas 
 urable mind." 
 
 Emerson recognizes two inestimable advan 
 tages as the gift of Christianity ; first the Sab 
 bath, hardly a Christian institution, and 
 secondly the institution of preaching. He spoke 
 not only eloquently, but with every evidence of 
 deep sincerity and conviction. He had sacrificed 
 an enviable position to tha^ inner voice of duty 
 which he now proclaimed as the sovereign law 
 over all written or spoken words. But he was as 
 sailing the cherished beliefs of those before him, 
 and of Christendom generally ; not with hard or 
 bitter words, not with sarcasm or levity, rather 
 as one who felt himself charged with a message 
 from the same divinity who had inspired the 
 prophets and evangelists of old with whatever 
 truth was in their messages. He might be 
 wrong, but his words carried the evidence of his 
 own serene, unshaken confidence that the spirit 
 of all truth was with him. Some of his audi 
 ence, at least, must have felt the contrast be 
 tween his utterances and the formal discourses 
 
124 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 they had so long listened to, and said to them, 
 selves, " he speaks c as one having authority, and 
 not as the Scribes. " 
 
 Such teaching, however, could not be suffered 
 to go unchallenged. Its doctrines were repu 
 diated in the " Christian Examiner," the lead 
 ing organ of the Unitarian denomination. The 
 Rev. Henry Ware, greatly esteemed and hon 
 ored, whose colleague he had been, addressed a 
 letter to him, in which he expressed the feeling 
 that some of the statements of Emerson s dis 
 course would tend to overthrow the authority 
 and influence of Christianity. To this note Em 
 erson returned the following answer : 
 
 " What you say about the discourse at Divinity 
 College is just what I might expect from your truth 
 and charity, combined with your known opinions. I 
 am not a stick or a stone, as one said in the old time, 
 and could not but feel pain in saying some things in 
 that place and presence which I supposed would meet 
 with dissent, I may say, of dear friends and benefac 
 tors of mine. Yet, as my conviction is perfect in the 
 substantial truth of the doctrines of this discourse, 
 and is not very new, you will see at once that it must 
 appear very important that it be spoken ; and I 
 thought I could not pay the nobleness of my friends 
 so mean a compliment as to suppress my opposition 
 to their supposed views, out of fear of offence. I 
 would rather say to them, these things look thus to 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 125 
 
 me, to you otherwise. Let us say our uttermost 
 word, and let the all-pervading truth, as it surely will, 
 judge between us. Either of us would, I doubt not, 
 be willingly apprised of his error. Meantime, I shall 
 be admonished by this expression of your thought, 
 to revise with greater care the address, before it 
 is printed (for the use of the class) : and I heartily 
 thank you for this expression of your tried toleration 
 and love." 
 
 Dr. Ware followed up his note with a sermon, 
 preached on the 23d of September, in which he 
 dwells especially on the necessity of adding the 
 idea of personality to the abstractions of Emer 
 son s philosophy, and sent it to him with a letter, 
 the kindness and true Christian spirit of which 
 were only what were inseparable from all the 
 thoughts and feelings of that most excellent and 
 truly apostolic man. 
 
 To this letter Emerson sent the following re 
 ply: 
 
 CONCORD, October 8, 1838. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I ought sooner to have acknowl 
 edged your kind letter of last week, and the ser 
 mon it accompanied. The letter was right manly 
 and noble. The sermon, too, I have read with atten 
 tion. If it assails any doctrine of mine, perhaps 
 I am not so quick to see it as writers generally, 
 certainly I did not feel any disposition to depart 
 from my habitual contentment, that you should say 
 four thought, whilst I say mine. I believe I must 
 
126 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 tell you what I think of my new position. It strikes 
 me very oddly that good and wise men at Cambridge 
 and Boston should think of raising me into an ob 
 ject of criticism. I have always been from my 
 very incapacity of methodical writing a char 
 tered libertine, free to worship and free to rail, 
 lucky when I could make myself understood, but 
 never esteemed near enough to the institutions and 
 mind of society to deserve the notice of the masters 
 of literature and religion. I have appreciated fully 
 the advantages of my position, for I well know there 
 is no scholar less willing or less able than myself to 
 be a polemic. I could not give an account of myself, 
 if challenged. I could not possibly give you one of 
 the arguments you cruelly hint at, on which any 
 doctrine of mine stands; for I do not know what 
 arguments are in reference to any expression of a 
 thought. I delight in telling what I think ; but if 
 you ask me how I dare say so, or why it is so, I am 
 the most helpless of mortal men. I do not even see 
 that either of these questions admits of an answer. 
 So that in the present droll posture of my affairs, 
 when I see myself suddenly raised to the importance 
 of a heretic, I am very uneasy when I advert to the 
 supposed duties of such a personage, who is to make 
 good his thesis against all comers. I certainly shall 
 do no such thing. I shall read what you and other 
 good men write, as I have always done, glad when 
 you speak my thoughts, and skipping the page that 
 has nothing for me. I shall go on just as before, 
 seeing whatever I can, and telling what I see ; and, 
 
LECTURES ON HUMAN LIFE. 127 
 
 1 suppose, with the same fortune that has hitherto 
 attended me, the joy of finding that my abler and 
 better brothers, who work with the sympathy of so 
 ciety, loving and beloved, do now and then unex 
 pectedly confirm my conceptions, and find my non 
 sense is only their own thought in motley, and so 
 I am your affectionate servant," etc. 
 
 The controversy which followed is a thing of 
 the past ; Emerson took no part in it, and we 
 need not return to the discussion. He knew his 
 office and has defined it in the clearest manner 
 in the letter just given, " Seeing whatever I 
 can, and telling what I see." But among his 
 listeners and readers was a man of very dif 
 ferent mental constitution, not more indepen 
 dent or fearless, but louder and more combat 
 ive, whose voice soon became heard and whose 
 strength soon began to be felt in the long battle 
 between the traditional and immanent inspira 
 tion, Theodore Parker. If Emerson was the 
 moving spirit, he was the right arm in the con 
 flict, which in one form or another has been 
 waged up to the present day. 
 
 In the winter of 1838-39 Emerson delivered 
 his usual winter course of Lectures. He names 
 them in a letter to Carlyle as follows: "Ten 
 Lectures : I. The Doctrine of the Soul ; II. 
 Home ; III. The School ; IV. Love ; V. Gen 
 ius ; VI. The Protest , VII. Tragedy ; VIIL 
 
128 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Comedy; IX. Duty; X. Demonology. I de 
 signed to add two more, but my lungs played 
 me false with unseasonable inflammation, so I 
 discoursed no more on Human Life." Two or 
 three of these titles only are prefixed to his pub 
 lished Lectures or Essays; Love, in the first 
 volume of Essays ; Demonology in " Lectures 
 and Biographical Sketches ; " and " The Comic " 
 in " Letters and Social Aims." 
 
 I owe the privilege of making use of the two 
 following letters to my kind and honored friend, 
 James Freeman Clarke. 
 
 The first letter was accompanied by the Poem 
 "The Humble-bee," which was first published 
 by Mr. Clarke in the "Western Messenger," 
 from the autograph copy, which begins "Fine 
 humble-bee ! fine humble-bee ! " and has a num 
 ber of other variations from the poem as printed 
 in his collected works. 
 
 CONCORD, December 7, 1838. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, Here are the verses. They 
 have pleased some of my friends, and so may please 
 some of your readers, and you asked me in the spring 
 if I had n t somewhat to contribute to your journal. 
 I remember in your letter you mentioned the remark 
 of some friend of yours that the verses, " Take, O 
 take those lips away," were not Shakspeare s ; I think 
 they are. Beaumont, nor Fletcher, nor both together 
 frere ever, I think, visited by such a starry gleam a* 
 
LETTERS TO JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 129 
 
 that stanza. I know it is in " Hollo," but it is in 
 " Measure for Measure " also ; and I remember no 
 ticing that the Malones, and Stevens, and critical 
 gentry were about evenly divided, these for Shak- 
 speare, and those for Beaumont and Fletcher. But 
 the internal evidence is all for one, none for the 
 other. If he did not write it, they did not, and we 
 shall have some fourth unknown singer. What care 
 we who sung this or that. It is we at last who sing. 
 Your friend and servant, R. W. EMERSON. 
 
 TO JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 
 
 CONCORD, February 27, 1839. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I am very sorry to have made 
 you wait so long for an answer to your flattering re 
 quest for two such little poems. You are quite wel 
 come to the lines " To the Rhodora ; " but I think 
 they need the superscription [" Lines on being asked 
 Whence is the Flower ? "]. Of the other verses 
 ["Good-by proud world," etc.] I send you a cor 
 rected copy, but I wonder so much at your wishing 
 to print them that I think you must read them once 
 again with your critical spectacles before they go fur 
 ther. They were written sixteen years ago, when I 
 kept school in Boston, and lived in a corner of Rox- 
 bury called Canterbury. They have a slight misan 
 thropy, a shade deeper than belongs to me ; and as it 
 seems nowadays I am a philosopher and am grown 
 to have opinions, I think they must have an apolo 
 getic date, though I well know that poetry that needs 
 a date is no poetry, and so you will wiselier suppress 
 9 
 
130 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 them. I heartily wish I had any verses which with 
 a clear mind I could send you in lieu of these juve 
 nilities. It is strange, seeing the delight we take in 
 verses, that we can so seldom write them, and so are 
 not ashamed to lay up old ones, say sixteen years, in 
 stead of improvising them as freely as the wind 
 blows, whenever we and our brothers are attuned to 
 music. I have heard of a citizen who made an an 
 nual joke. I believe I have in April or May an an 
 nual poetic conatus rather than afflatus, experiment 
 ing to the length of thirty lines or so, if I may judge 
 from the dates of the rhythmical scraps I detect 
 among my MSS. I look upon this incontinence as 
 merely the redundancy of a susceptibility to poetry 
 which makes all the bards my daily treasures, and I 
 can well run the risk of being ridiculous once a year 
 for the benefit of happy reading all the other days. 
 In regard to the Providence Discourse, I have no 
 copy of it ; and as far as I remember its contents, I 
 have since used whatever is striking in it ; but I will 
 get the MS., if Margaret Fuller has it, and you shall 
 have it if it will pass muster. I shall certainly avail 
 myself of the good order you gave me for twelve 
 copies of the " Carlyle Miscellanies," so soon as they 
 appear. He, T. C., writes in excellent spirits of his 
 American friends and readers. ... A new book, he 
 writes, is growing in him, though not to begin until 
 his spring lectures are over (which begin in May). 
 Tour sister Sarah was kind enough to carry me the 
 other day to see some pencil sketches done by Stuart 
 Newton when in the Insane Hospital. They seemed 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE ADDRESS. 131 
 
 to me to betray the richest invention, so rich as al 
 most to say, why draw any line since you can draw 
 all ? Genius has given you the freedom of the uni 
 verse, why then come within any walls ? And this 
 seems to be the old moral which we draw from our 
 fable, read it how or where you will, that we cannot 
 make one good stroke until we can make every pos 
 sible stroke ; and when we can one, every one seems 
 superfluous. I heartily thank you for the good 
 wishes you send me to open the year, and I say them 
 back again to you. Your field is a world, and all 
 men are your spectators, and all men respect the 
 true and great-hearted service you render. And yet 
 it is not spectator nor spectacle that concerns either 
 you or me. The whole world is sick of that very ail, 
 of being seen, and of seemliness. It belongs to the 
 brave now to trust themselves infinitely, and to sit 
 and hearken alone. I am glad to see William Chan- 
 ning is one of your coadjutors. Mrs. Jameson s new 
 book, I should think, would bring a caravan of trav 
 ellers, jesthetic, artistic, and what not, up your mighty 
 stream, or along the lakes to Mackinaw. As I read 
 I almost vowed an exploration, but I doubt if I ever 
 get beyond the Hudson. 
 
 Your affectionate servant, K. W. EMERSON. 
 
 On the 24th of July, 1838, a little more than 
 a week after the delivery of the Address before 
 the Divinity School, Mr. Emerson delivered an 
 Oration before the Literary Societies of Dart 
 mouth College. If any rumor of the former 
 
132 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 discourse had reached Dartmouth, the audience 
 must have been prepared for a much more start 
 ling performance than that to which they lis 
 tened. The bold avowal which fluttered the 
 dovecotes of Cambridge would have sounded 
 like the crash of doom to the cautious old ten 
 ants of the Hanover aviary. If there were any 
 drops of false or questionable doctrine in the 
 silver shower of eloquence under which they had 
 been sitting, the plumage of orthodoxy glistened 
 with unctuous repellents, and a shake or two on 
 coming out of church left the sturdy old dog 
 matists as dry as ever. 
 
 Those who remember the Dartmouth College 
 of that day cannot help smiling at the thought 
 of the contrast in the way of thinking between 
 the speaker and the larger part, or at least the 
 older part, of his audience. President Lord was 
 well known as the scriptural defender of the in 
 stitution of slavery. Not long before a contro 
 versy had arisen, provoked by the setting up of 
 the Episcopal form of worship by one of the 
 Professors, the most estimable and scholarly Dr. 
 Daniel Oliver. Perhaps, however, the extreme 
 difference between the fundamental conceptions 
 of Mr. Emerson and the endemic orthodoxy of 
 that place and time was too great for any hostile 
 feeling to be awakened by the sweet-voiced and 
 peaceful-mannered speaker. There is a kind of 
 
LITERARY ETHICS. 133 
 
 harmony between boldly contrasted beliefs like 
 that between complementary colors. It is when 
 two shades of the same color are brought side 
 by side that comparison makes them odious to 
 each other. Mr. Emerson could go anywhere 
 and find willing listeners among those farthest 
 in their belief from the views he held. Such 
 was his simplicity of speech and manner, such 
 his transparent sincerity, that it was next to im 
 possible to quarrel with the gentle image-breaker. 
 
 The subject of Mr. Emerson s Address is Lit 
 erary JZthics. It is on the same lofty plane of 
 sentiment and in the same exalted tone of elo 
 quence as the Phi Beta Kappa Address. The 
 word impassioned would seem misplaced, if ap 
 plied to any of Mr. Emerson s orations. But 
 these discourses were both written and delivered 
 in the freshness of his complete manhood. They 
 were produced at a time when his mind had 
 learned its powers and the work to which it was 
 called, in the struggle which freed him from the 
 constraint of stereotyped confessions of faith 
 and all peremptory external authority. It is not 
 strange, therefore, to find some of his paragraphs 
 glowing with heat and sparkling with imagina 
 tive illustration. 
 
 "Neither years nor books," he says, "have 
 yet availed to extirpate a prejudice rooted in 
 me, that a scholar is the favorite of Heaven and 
 
134 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 earth, the excellency of his country, the happiest 
 of men." And yet, he confesses that the schol 
 ars of this country have not fulfilled the rea 
 sonable expectation of mankind. " Men here, 
 as elsewhere, are indisposed to innovation and 
 prefer any antiquity, any usage, any livery pro 
 ductive of ease or profit, to the unproductive 
 service of thought." For all this he offers those 
 correctives which in various forms underlie all 
 his teachings. " The resources of the scholar 
 are proportioned to his confidence in the attri 
 butes of the Intellect." New lessons of spirit 
 ual independence, fresh examples and illustra 
 tions, are drawn from history and biography. 
 There is a passage here so true to nature that it 
 permits a half page of quotation and a line or 
 two of comment : 
 
 " An intimation of these broad rights is familiar in 
 the sense of injury which men feel in the assumption 
 of any man to limit their possible progress. We re 
 sent all criticism which denies us anything that lies 
 in our line of advance. Say to the man of letters, 
 that he cannot paint a Transfiguration, or build a 
 steamboat, or be a grand-marshal, and he will not 
 seem to himself depreciated. But deny to him any 
 quality of literary or metaphysical power, and he is 
 piqued. Concede to him genius, which is a sort of 
 Btoical plenum annulling the comparative, and he is 
 content ; but concede him talents never so rare, de 
 nying him genius, and he is aggrieved." 
 
LITERARY ETHICS. 135 
 
 But it ought to be added that if the pleasure 
 of denying the genius of their betters were de 
 nied to the mediocrities, their happiness would 
 be forever blighted. 
 
 From the resources of the American Scholar 
 Mr. Emerson passes to his tasks. Nature, as it 
 seems to him, has never yet been truly studied. 
 " Poetry has scarce chanted its first song. The 
 perpetual admonition of Nature to us is, The 
 world is new, untried. Do not believe the past. 
 I give you the universe a virgin to-day. . And 
 in the same way he would have the scholar look 
 at history, at philosophy. The world belongs to 
 the student, but he must put himself into har 
 mony with the constitution of things. " He 
 must embrace solitude as a bride." Not super- 
 stitiously, but after having found out, as a little 
 experience will teach him, all that society can do 
 for him with its foolish routine. I have spoken 
 of the exalted strain into which Mr. Emerson 
 sometimes rises in the midst of his general se 
 renity. Here is an instance of it : 
 
 "You will hear every day the maxims of a low 
 prudence. You will hear that the first duty is to 
 get land and money, place and name. What is this 
 truth you seek ? What is this beauty ? men will 
 ask, with derision. If, nevertheless, God have called 
 any of you to explore truth and beauty, be bold, be 
 firm, be true. When you shall say, As others do, so 
 
136 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 will I : I renounce, I am sorry for it, my early vis 
 ions : I must eat the good of the land, and let learn 
 ing and romantic expectations go, until a more con 
 venient season ; then dies the man in you ; then 
 once more perish the buds of art, and poetry, and sci 
 ence, as they have died already in a thousand thou 
 sand men. - Bend to the persuasion which is flowing 
 to you from every object in nature, to be its tongue 
 to the heart of man, and to show the besotted world 
 how passing fair is wisdom. Why should you re 
 nounce your right to traverse the starlit deserts of 
 truth, for the premature comforts of an acre, house, 
 and barn ? Truth also has its roof and bed and 
 board. Make yourself necessary to the world, and 
 mankind will give you bread ; and if not store of it, 
 yet such as shall not take away your property in all 
 men s possessions, in all men s affections, in art, in 
 nature, and in hope." 
 
 The next Address Emerson delivered was 
 " The Method of Nature," before the Society 
 of the Adelphi, in Waterville College, Maine, 
 August 11, 1841. 
 
 In writing to Carlyle on the 31st of July, he 
 says : " As usual at this season of the year, I, 
 incorrigible spouting Yankee, am writing an ora 
 tion to deliver to the boys in one of our little 
 country colleges nine days hence. . . . My whole 
 philosophy which is very real teaches ac 
 quiescence and optimism. Only when I see how 
 much work is to be done, what room for a poet 
 
"THE METHOD OF NATURE." 137 
 
 for any spiritualist in this great, intelli 
 gent, sensual, and avaricious America, I lament 
 my fumbling fingers and stammering tongue." 
 It may be remembered that Mr. Matthew Ar 
 nold quoted the expression about America, which 
 sounded more harshly as pronounced in a public 
 lecture than as read in a private letter. 
 
 The Oration shows the same vein of thought 
 as the letter. Its title is " The Method of Na 
 ture." He begins with congratulations on the 
 enjoyments and promises of this literary Anni 
 versary. 
 
 " The scholars are the priests of that thought which 
 establishes the foundations of the earth. " " We 
 hear too much of the results of machinery, commerce, 
 and the useful arts. We are a puny and a fickle 
 folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our dis 
 eases. The rapid wealth which hundreds in the com 
 munity acquire in trade, or by the incessant expan 
 sions of our population and arts, enchants the eyes of 
 all the rest ; the luck of one is the hope of thousands, 
 and the bribe acts like the neighborhood of a gold 
 mine to impoverish the farm, the school, the church, 
 the house, and the very body and feature of man." 
 u Whilst the multitude of men degrade each other, 
 and give currency to desponding doctrines, the scholar 
 must be a bringer of hope, and must reinforce man 
 against himself." 
 
 I think we may detect more of the manner of 
 
138 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Carlyle in this Address than in any of those 
 which preceded it. 
 
 " Why then goest thou as some Boswell or literary 
 worshipper to this saint or to that ? That is the only 
 lese-majesty. Here art thou with whom so long the 
 universe travailed in labor ; darest thou think meanly 
 of thyself whom the stalwart Fate brought forth to 
 unite his ragged sides, to shoot the gulf, to reconcile 
 the irreconcilable ? " 
 
 That there is an " intimate divinity " which is 
 the source of all true wisdom, that the duty of 
 man is to listen to its voice and to follow it, that 
 " the sanity of man needs the poise of this im 
 manent force," that the rule is " Do what you 
 know, and perception is converted into char 
 acter," all this is strongly enforced and richly 
 illustrated in this Oration. Just how easily it 
 was followed by the audience, just how far they 
 were satisfied with its large principles wrought 
 into a few broad precepts, it would be easier at 
 this time to ask than to learn. We notice not so 
 much the novelty of the ideas to be found in this 
 discourse on " The Method of Nature," as the 
 pictorial beauty of their expression. The deep 
 reverence which underlies all Emerson s specu 
 lations is well shown in this paragraph : 
 
 " We ought to celebrate this hour by expressions 
 of manly joy. Not thanks, not prayer seem quite the 
 highest or truest name for our communication with 
 
"THE METHOD OF NATURE." 139 
 
 the infinite, but glad and conspiring reception, 
 reception that becomes giving in its turn as the re 
 ceiver is only the All-Giver in part and in infancy." 
 " It is God in us which checks the language of 
 petition by a grander thought. In the bottom of the 
 heart it is said : I am, and by me, O child ! this fair 
 body and world of thine stands and grows. I am, 
 all things are mine ; and all mine are thine. " 
 
 We must not quarrel with his peculiar ex 
 pressions. He says, in this same paragraph, " I 
 cannot, nor can any man, speak precisely 
 of things so sublime; but it seems to me the 
 wit of man, his strength, his grace, his tendency, 
 his art, is the grace and the presence of God. 
 It is beyond explanation." 
 
 " We can point nowhere to anything final ; but 
 tendency appears on all hands ; planet, system, con 
 stellation, total nature is growing like a field of maize 
 in July ; is becoming somewhat else ; is in rapid 
 metamorphosis. The embryo does not more strive to 
 be man, than yonder burr of light we call a nebula 
 tends to be a ring, a comet, a globe, and parent of 
 new stars." " In short, the spirit and peculiarity of 
 that impression nature makes on us is this, that it 
 does not exist to any one, or to any number of partic 
 ular ends, but to numberless and endless benefit ; that 
 there is in it no private will, no rebel leaf or limb, 
 but the whole is oppressed by one superincumbent 
 tendency, obeys that redundancy or excess of life 
 which in conscious beings we call ecstasy." 
 
140 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Here is another of those almost lyrical pas, 
 sages which seem too long for the music of 
 rhythm and the resonance of rhyme. 
 
 " The great Pan of old, who was clothed in a leop 
 ard skin to signify the beautiful variety of things, and 
 the firmament, his coat of stars, was but the repre 
 sentative of thee, rich and various Man ! thou pal 
 ace of sight and sound, carrying in thy senses the 
 morning and the night and the unfathomable galaxy ; 
 in thy brain the geometry of the City of God ; in thy 
 heart the bower of love and the realms of right and 
 wrong." 
 
 His feeling about the soul, which has shown 
 itself in many of the extracts already given, is 
 summed up in the following sentence : 
 
 "We cannot describe the natural history of the 
 soul, but we know that it is divine. I cannot tell if 
 these wonderful qualities which house to-day in this 
 mortal frame shall ever reassemble in equal activity 
 in a similar frame, or whether they have before had a 
 natural history like that of this body you see before 
 you ; but this one thing I know, that these qualities 
 did not now begin to exist, cannot be sick with my 
 sickness, nor buried in any grave ; but that they cir 
 culate through the Universe : before the world was, 
 they were." 
 
 It is hard to see the distinction between the 
 omnipresent Deity recognized in our formal con* 
 
OTHER ADDRESSES. 141 
 
 fessions of faith and the "pantheism" which is 
 the object of dread to many of the faithful. But 
 there are many expressions in this Address 
 which must have sounded strangely and vaguely 
 to his Christian audience. " Are there not mo* 
 ments in the history of heaven when the human 
 race was not counted by individuals, but was 
 only the Influenced ; was God in distribution, 
 God rushing into multiform benefit ? " It might 
 be feared that the practical philanthropists would 
 feel that they lost by his counsels. 
 
 " The reforms whose fame now fills the land with 
 Temperance, Anti-Slavery, Non-Resistance, No Gov 
 ernment, Equal Labor, fair and generous as each 
 appears, are poor bitter things when prosecuted for 
 themselves as an end." "I say to you plainly there 
 is no end to which your practical faculty can aim so 
 sacred or so large, that if pursued for itself, will not 
 at last become carrion and an offence to the nostril. 
 The imaginative faculty of the soul must be fed with 
 objects immense and eternal. Your end should be 
 one inapprehensible to the senses ; then it will be a 
 god, always approached, never touched ; always 
 giving health." 
 
 Nothing is plainer than that it was Emer 
 son s calling to supply impulses and not meth 
 ods. He was not an organizer, but a power be 
 hind many organizers, inspiring them with lofty 
 motive, giving breadth to their views, always 
 
142 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 tending to become narrow through concentration 
 on their special objects. The Oration we have 
 been examining was delivered in the interval be 
 tween the delivery of two Addresses, one called 
 " Man the Keformer," and another called " Lec 
 ture on the Times." In the first he preaches 
 the dignity and virtue of manual labor; that 
 " a man should have a farm, or a mechanical 
 craft for his culture." That he cannot give 
 up labor without suffering some loss of power. 
 " How can the man who has learned but one art 
 procure all the conveniences of life honestly ? 
 Shall we say all we think ? Perhaps with his 
 own hands. Let us learn the meaning of econ 
 omy. Parched corn eaten to-day that I may 
 have roast fowl to my dinner on Sunday is a 
 baseness; but parched corn and a house with 
 one apartment, that I may be free of all pertur 
 bations, that I may be serene and docile to what 
 the mind shall speak, and girt and road-ready 
 for the lowest mission of knowledge or good will, 
 is frugality for gods and heroes." 
 
 This was what Emerson wrote in January, 
 1841. This " house with one apartment " was 
 what Thoreau built with his own hands in 1845. 
 In April of the former year, he went to live 
 with Mr. Emerson, but had been on intimate 
 terms with him previously to that time. Whether 
 it was from him that Thoreau got the hint of 
 
"LECTURE ON THE TIMES." 143 
 
 the Walden cabin and the parched corn, or 
 whether this idea was working in Thoreau s mind 
 and was suggested to Emerson by him, is of no 
 great consequence. Emerson, to whom he owed 
 so much, may well have adopted some of those 
 fancies which Thoreau entertained, and after 
 wards worked out in practice. He was at the 
 philanthropic centre of a good many movements 
 which he watched others carrying out, as a calm 
 and kindly spectator, without losing his common 
 sense for a moment. It would never have oc 
 curred to him to leave all the conveniences and 
 comforts of life to go and dwell in a shanty, so 
 as to prove to himself that he could live like 
 a savage, or like his friends " Teague and his 
 jade," as he called the man and brother and 
 sister, more commonly known nowadays as Pat, 
 or Patrick, and his old woman. 
 
 " The Americans have many virtues," he says 
 in this Address, " but they have not Faith and 
 Hope." Faith and Hope, Enthusiasm and Love, 
 are the burden of this Address. But he would 
 regulate these qualities by " a great prospec 
 tive prudence," which shall mediate between the 
 spiritual and the actual world. 
 
 In the " Lecture on the Times " he shows very 
 clearly the effect which a nearer contact with 
 the class of men and women who called them- 
 ielves Reformers had upon him. 
 
144 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " The Reforms have their high origin in an ideal 
 justice, but they do not retain the purity of an idea. 
 They are quickly organized in some low, inadequate 
 form, and present no more poetic image to the mind 
 than the evil tradition which they reprobated. They 
 mix the fire of the moral sentiment with personal 
 and party heats, with measureless exaggerations, and 
 the blindness that prefers some darling measure to 
 justice and truth. Those who are urging with most 
 ardor what are called the greatest benefits of mankind 
 are narrow, self-pleasing, conceited men, and affect 
 us as the insane do. They bite us, and we run mad 
 also. I think the work of the reformer as innocent 
 as other work that is done around him ; but when 
 I have seen it near ! I do not like it better. It 
 is done in the same way ; it is done profanely, not 
 piously ; by management, by tactics and clamor." 
 
 All this, and much more like it, would hardly 
 have been listened to by the ardent advocates of 
 the various reforms, if anybody but Mr. Emer 
 son had said it. He undervalued no sincere ac 
 tion except to suggest a wiser and better one. 
 He attacked no motive which had a good aim, 
 except in view of some larger and loftier prin 
 ciple. The charm of his imagination and the 
 music of his words took away all the sting from 
 the thoughts that penetrated to the very marrow 
 of the entranced listeners. Sometimes it was a 
 splendid hyperbole that illuminated a statement 
 
"THE TRANSCENDENTALISM" 145 
 
 which by the dim light of common speech would 
 have offended or repelled those who sat before 
 him. He knew the force of felix audacia as 
 well as any rhetorician could have taught him. 
 He addresses the reformer with one of those 
 daring images which defy the critics. 
 
 " As the farmer casts into the ground the finest 
 ears of his grain, the time will come when we too 
 shall hold nothing back, but shall eagerly convert 
 more than we possess into means and powers, 
 when we shall be willing to sow the sun and the 
 moon for seeds." 
 
 He said hard things to the reformer, espe 
 cially to the Abolitionist, in his " Lecture on the 
 Times." It would have taken a long while to 
 get rid of slavery if some of Emerson s teach 
 ings in this lecture had been accepted as the 
 true gospel of liberty. But how much its last 
 sentence covers with its soothing tribute ! 
 
 "All the newspapers, all the tongues of to 
 day will of course at first defame what is noble ; 
 but you who hold not of to-day, not of the times, 
 but of the Everlasting, are to stand for it ; and 
 the highest compliment man ever receives from 
 Heaven is the sending to him its disguised and 
 discredited angels." 
 
 The Lecture called " The Transcendentalist " 
 will naturally be looked at with peculiar inter 
 est, inasmuch as this term has been very com* 
 10 
 
146 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 monly applied to Emerson, and to many who 
 were considered his disciples. It has a proper 
 philosophical meaning, and it has also a local 
 and accidental application to the individuals of 
 a group which came together very much as any 
 literary club might collect about a teacher. All 
 this comes out clearly enough in the Lecture. 
 In the first place, Emerson explains that the 
 " new views" as they are called, are the oldest 
 of thoughts cast in a new mould. 
 
 " What is popularly called Transcendentalism 
 among us is Idealism : Idealism as it appears in 
 1842. As thinkers, mankind have ever divided into 
 two sects, Materialists and Idealists; the first class 
 founding on experience, the second on consciousness ; 
 the first class beginning to think from the data of the 
 senses, the second class perceive that the senses are 
 not final, and say, the senses give us representations 
 of things, but what are the things themselves, they 
 cannot tell. The materialist insists on facts, on his 
 tory, on the force of circumstances and the animal 
 wants of man ; the idealist on the power of Thought 
 and of Will, on inspiration, on miracle, on individual 
 culture." 
 
 " The materialist takes his departure from the ex 
 ternal world, and esteems a man as one product of 
 that. The idealist takes his departure from his con 
 sciousness, and reckons the world an appearance. 
 His thought, that is the Universe." 
 
 The association of scholars and thinkers to 
 
"THE TRANSCENDENTALIST." 147 
 
 which the name of " Transcendentalists " was 
 applied, and which made itself an organ in the 
 periodical known as " The Dial," has been writ 
 ten about by many who were in the movement, 
 and others who looked on or got their knowl 
 edge of it at second hand. Emerson was closely 
 associated with these " same Transcendental 
 ists," and a leading contributor to "The Dial," 
 which was their organ. The movement bor 
 rowed its inspiration more from him than from 
 any other source, and the periodical owed more 
 to him than to any other writer. So far as his 
 own relation to the circle of illuminati and the 
 dial which they shone upon was concerned, he 
 himself is the best witness. 
 
 In his " Historic Notes of Life and Letters 
 in New England," he sketches in a rapid way 
 the series of intellectual movements which led 
 to the development of the u new views " above 
 mentioned. " There are always two parties," 
 he says, " the party of the Past and the party of 
 the Future; the Establishment and the Move 
 ment." 
 
 About 1820, and in the twenty years which 
 followed, an era of activity manifested itself 
 in the churches, in politics, in philanthropy, in 
 literature. In our own community the influence 
 of Swedenborg and of the genius and character 
 of Dr. Channing were among the more immedi 
 
148 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 ate early causes of the mental agitation. Emer. 
 son attributes a great importance to the schoL 
 arship, the rhetoric, the eloquence, of Edward 
 Everett, who returned to Boston in 1820, after 
 five years of study in Europe. Edward Everett 
 is already to a great extent a tradition, some 
 what as Eufus Choate is, a voice, a fading echo, 
 as must be the memory of every great orator. 
 These wondrous personalities have their truest 
 and warmest life in a few old men s memories. 
 It is therefore with delight that one who remem 
 bers Everett in his robes of rhetorical splendor, 
 who recalls his full-blown, high-colored, double- 
 flowered periods, the rich, resonant, grave, far- 
 reaching music of his speech, with just enough 
 of nasal vibration to give the vocal sounding- 
 board its proper value in the harmonies of ut 
 terance, it is with delight that such a one 
 reads the glowing words of Emerson whenever 
 he refers to Edward Everett. It is enough if 
 he himself caught inspiration from those elo 
 quent lips ; but many a listener has had his 
 youthful enthusiasm fired by that great master 
 of academic oratory. 
 
 Emerson follows out the train of influences 
 which added themselves to the impulse given by 
 Mr. Everett. German scholarship, the growth 
 of science, the generalizations of Goethe, the 
 idealism of Schelling, the influence of Words- 
 
"THE TRANSCENDENTALISM" 149 
 
 worth, of Coleridge, of Carlyle, and in our im 
 mediate community, the writings of Channing, 
 he left it to others to say of Emerson, all 
 had their part in this intellectual, or if we may 
 call it so, spiritual revival. He describes with 
 that exquisite sense of the ridiculous which was 
 a part of his mental ballast, the first attempt at 
 organizing an association of cultivated, thought 
 ful people. They came together, the cultivated, 
 thoughtful people, at Dr. John Collins War 
 ren s, Dr. Channing, the great Dr. Channing, 
 among the rest, full of the great thoughts he 
 wished to impart. The preliminaries went on 
 smoothly enough with the usual small talk, 
 
 " When a side-door opened, the whole company 
 streamed in to an oyster supper, crowned by excel 
 lent wines [this must have been before Dr. War 
 ren s temperance epoch], and so ended the first at 
 tempt to establish aesthetic society in Boston. 
 
 " Some time afterwards Dr. Channing opened his 
 mind to Mr. and Mrs. Ripley, and with some care 
 they invited a limited party of ladies and gentlemen. 
 I had the honor to be present. Margaret Fuller, 
 George Ripley, Dr. Convers Francis, Theodore 
 Parker, Dr. Hedge, Mr. Brownson, James Freeman 
 Clarke, William H. Channing, and many others grad 
 ually drew together, and from tune to time spent an 
 afternoon at each other s houses in a serious conver 
 sation." 
 
150 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 With them was another, " a pure Idealist, 
 who read Plato as an equal, and inspired his 
 companions only in proportion as they were in 
 tellectual." He refers, of course to Mr. Alcott. 
 Emerson goes on to say : 
 
 " I think there prevailed at that time a general be 
 lief in Boston that there was some concert of doctri 
 naires to establish certain opinions, and inaugurate 
 some movement in literature, philosophy, and relig 
 ion, of which design the supposed conspirators were 
 quite innocent ; for there was no concert, and only 
 here and there two or three men and women who read 
 and wrote, each alone, with unusual vivacity. Per 
 haps they only agreed in having fallen upon Coleridge 
 and Wordsworth and Goethe, then on Carlyle, with 
 pleasure and sympathy. Otherwise their education 
 and reading were not marked, but had the Ameri 
 can superficialness, and their studies were solitary. 
 I suppose all of them were surprised at this rumor of 
 a school or sect, and certainly at the name of Tran^ 
 scendentalism, given, nobody knows by whom, ol 
 when it was applied." 
 
 Emerson s picture of some of these friends of 
 his is so peculiar as to suggest certain obvious 
 and not too flattering comments. 
 
 "In like manner, if there is anything grand and 
 daring in human thought or virtue ; any reliance on 
 the vast, the unknown ; any presentiment, any ex 
 travagance of faith, the Spiritualist adopts it as most 
 in nature. The Oriental mind has always tended to 
 
"THE TRANSCENDENTALIST." 151 
 
 this largeness. Buddhism is an expression of it. The 
 Buddhist, who thanks no man, who says, * Do not 
 flatter your benefactors, but who in his conviction 
 that every good deed can by no possibility escape its 
 reward, will not deceive the benefactor by pretending 
 that he has done more than he should, is a Tran- 
 scendentalist. 
 
 " These exacting children advertise us of our wants. 
 There is no compliment, no smooth speech with them ; 
 they pay you only this one compliment, of insatia 
 ble expectation ; they aspire, they severely exact, and 
 if they only stand fast in this watch-tower, and per 
 sist in demanding unto the end, and without end, 
 then are they terrible friends, whereof poet and priest 
 cannot choose but stand in awe ; and what if they 
 eat clouds, and drink wind, they have not been with 
 out service to the race of man." 
 
 The person who adopts " any presentiment, 
 any extravagance as most in nature," is not com 
 monly called a Transcendentalist, but is known 
 colloquially as a " crank." The person who does 
 not thank, by word or look, the friend or stran 
 ger who has pulled him out of the fire or water, 
 is fortunate if he gets off with no harder name 
 than that of a churl. 
 
 Nothing was farther from Emerson himself 
 than whimsical eccentricity or churlish austerity. 
 But there was occasionally an air of bravado in 
 some of his followers as if they had taken out a 
 patent for some knowing machine which was to 
 
152 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 give them a monopoly of its products. They 
 claimed more for each other than was reason 
 able, so much occasionally that their preten 
 sions became ridiculous. One was tempted to 
 ask : " What forlorn hope have you led ? What 
 immortal book have you written ? What great 
 discovery have you made ? What heroic task of 
 any kind have you performed?" There was 
 too much talk about earnestness and too little 
 real work done. Aspiration too frequently got 
 as far as the alpenstock and the brandy flask, 
 but crossed no dangerous crevasse, and scaled 
 no arduous summit. In short, there was a kind 
 of " Transcendentalist " dilettanteism, which be 
 trayed itself by a phraseology as distinctive as 
 that of the Delia Cruscans of an earlier time. 
 
 In reading the following description of the 
 "intelligent and religious persons" who be 
 longed to the " Transcendentalist " communion, 
 the reader must remember that it is Emerson 
 who draws the portrait, a friend and not a 
 scoffer : 
 
 " They are not good citizens, not good members of 
 society : unwillingly they bear their part of the pub 
 lic and private burdens ; they do not willingly share 
 in the public charities, in the public religious rites, in 
 the enterprises of education, of missions, foreign and 
 domestic, in the abolition of the slave-trade, or in the 
 emperance society. They do not even like to vote." 
 
"THE TRANSCENDENTALISM" 153 
 
 After arraigning the representatives of Tran 
 scendental or spiritual beliefs in this way, he 
 summons them to plead for themselves, and this 
 is what they have to say : 
 
 " l New, we confess, and by no means happy, is our 
 condition : if you want the aid of our labor, we our 
 selves stand in greater want of the labor. We are 
 miserable with inaction. We perish of rest and rust : 
 but we do not like your work. 
 
 " Then/ says the world, show me your own/ 
 
 " l We have none. 
 
 " < What will you do, then ? cries the world. 
 
 " < We will wait. 
 
 " How long ? 
 
 " Until the Universe beckons and calls us to 
 work. 
 
 " But whilst you wait you grow old and useless. 
 
 " Be it so : I can sit in a corner and perish (as 
 you call it), but I will not move until I have the 
 highest command. " 
 
 And so the dissatisfied tenant of this unhappy 
 creation goes on with his reasons for doing noth 
 ing. 
 
 It is easy to stay away from church and from 
 town-meetings. It is easy to keep out of the 
 way of the contribution box and to let the sub 
 scription paper go by us to the next door. The 
 common duties of life and the good offices so* 
 
154 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 ciety asks of us may be left to take care of 
 themselves while we contemplate the infinite. 
 There is no safer fortress for indolence than 
 "the Everlasting No." The chimney-corner is 
 the true arena for this class of philosophers, and 
 the pipe and mug furnish their all-sufficient pan 
 oply. Emerson undoubtedly met with some of 
 them among his disciples. His wise counsel did 
 not always find listeners in a fitting condition to 
 receive it. He was a sower who went forth to 
 sow. Some of the good seed fell among the 
 thorns of criticism. Some fell on the rocks of 
 hardened conservatism. Some fell by the way 
 side and was picked up by the idlers who went 
 to the lecture-room to get rid of themselves. 
 But when it fell upon the right soil it bore a 
 growth of thought which ripened into a harvest 
 of large and noble lives. 
 
 Emerson shows up the weakness of his young 
 enthusiasts with that delicate wit which warns 
 its objects rather than wounds them. But he 
 makes it all up with the dreamers before he can 
 let them go. 
 
 " Society also has its duties in reference to this 
 class, and must behold them with what charity it can. 
 Possibly some benefit may yet accrue from them to 
 the state. Besides our coarse implements, there must 
 be some few finer instruments, rain-gauges, ther 
 mometers, and telescopes ; and in society, besides fai> 
 
BOSTON "TRANSCENDENTALISM" 155 
 
 mers, sailors, and weavers, there must be a few persons 
 of purer fire kept specially as gauges and meters of 
 character ; persons of a fine, detecting instinct, who 
 note the smallest accumulations of wit and feeling in 
 the by-stander. Perhaps too there might be room for 
 the exciters and monitors ; collectors of the heavenly 
 spark, with power to convey the electricity to others. 
 Or, as the storm-tossed vessel at sea speaks the frigate 
 or " line-packet " to learn its longitude, so it may not 
 be without its advantage that we should now and 
 then encounter rare and gifted men, to compare the 
 points of our spiritual compass, and verify our bear 
 ings from superior chronometers." 
 
 It must be confessed that it is not a very cap 
 tivating picture which Emerson draws of some 
 of his transcendental friends. Their faults were 
 naturally still more obvious to those outside of 
 their charmed circle, and some prejudice, very 
 possibly, mingled with their critical judgments. 
 On the other hand we have the evidence of a 
 visitor who knew a good deal of the world as to 
 the impression they produced upon him : 
 
 " There has sprung up in Boston," says Dickens, 
 in his u American Notes," " a sect of philosophers 
 known as Transcendentalists. On inquiring what this 
 appellation might be supposed to signify, I was given 
 to understand that whatever was unintelligible would 
 be certainly Transcendental. Not deriving much 
 comfort from this elucidation, I pursued the inquiry 
 
156 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 still further, and found that the Transcendentalists 
 are followers of my friend Mr. Carlyle, or, I should 
 rather say, of a follower of his, Mr. Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson. This gentleman has written a volume of 
 Essays, in which, among much that is dreamy and 
 fanciful (if he will pardon me for saying so), there 
 is much more that is true and manly, honest and 
 bold. Transcendentalism has its occasional vaga 
 ries (what school has not ?), but it has good health 
 ful qualities in spite of them ; not least among the 
 number a hearty disgust of Cant, and an aptitude to 
 detect her in all the million varieties of her everlast 
 ing wardrobe. And therefore, if I were a Boston- 
 ian, I think I would be a Transcendentalism" 
 
 In December, 1841, Emerson delivered a Lec 
 ture entitled "The Conservative." It was a 
 time of great excitement among the members of 
 that circle of which he was the spiritual leader. 
 Never did Emerson show the perfect sanity 
 which characterized his practical judgment more 
 beautifully than in this Lecture and in his whole 
 course with reference to the intellectual agita 
 tion of the period. He is as fair to the conser 
 vative as to the reformer. He sees the fanati 
 cism of the one as well as that of the other. 
 " Conservatism tends to universal seeming and 
 treachery ; believes in a negative fate ; believes 
 that men s temper governs them ; that for me 
 it avails not to trust in principles, they will fail 
 
A JOURNAL PROPOSED. 157 
 
 me, I must bend a little ; it distrusts Nature ; 
 it thinks there is a general law without a par 
 ticular application, law for all that does not 
 include any one. Keform in its antagonism in 
 clines to asinine resistance, to kick with hoofs ; 
 it runs to egotism and bloated self-conceit ; it 
 runs to a bodiless pretension, to unnatural refin 
 ing and elevation, which ends in hypocrisy and 
 sensual reaction. And so, whilst we do not 
 go beyond general statements, it may be safely 
 affirmed of these two metaphysical antagonists 
 that each is a good half, but an impossible 
 whole." 
 
 He has his beliefs, and, if you will, his preju 
 dices, but he loves fair play, and though he sides 
 with the party of the future, he will not be un 
 just to the present or the past. 
 
 We read in a letter from Emerson to Carlyle, 
 dated March 12, 1835, that Dr. Channing "lay 
 awake all night, he told my friend last week, 
 because he had learned in the evening that some 
 young men proposed to issue a journal, to be 
 called 4 The Transcendentalist, as the organ of 
 a spiritual philosophy." Again on the 30th of 
 April of the same year, in a letter in which he 
 lays out a plan for a visit of Carlyle to this 
 country, Emerson says : 
 
 " It was suggested that if Mr. C. would undertake 
 
158 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 a journal of which we have talked much, but which 
 we have never yet produced, he would do us great 
 service, and we feel some confidence that it could be 
 made to secure him a support. It is that project 
 which I mentioned to you in a letter by Mr. Bar 
 nard, a book to be called The Transcendentalist ; 
 or, The Spiritual Inquirer, or the like. . . . Those 
 who are most interested in it designed to make gra 
 tuitous contribution to its pages, until its success 
 could be assured." 
 
 The idea of the grim Scotchman as editor of 
 what we came in due time to know as "The 
 Dial ! " A concert of singing mice with a sav 
 age and hungry old grimalkin as leader of the 
 orchestra ! It was much safer to be content 
 with Carlyle s purring from his own side of the 
 water, as thus : 
 
 " The Boston Transcendentalist, whatever 
 the fate or merit of it may prove to be, is surely 
 an interesting symptom. There must be things 
 not dreamt of over in that Transoceanic par 
 ish ! I shall certainly wish well to this thing ; 
 and hail it as the sure forerunner of things 
 better." 
 
 There were two notable products of the intel 
 lectual ferment of the Transcendental period 
 which deserve an incidental notice here, from 
 the close connection which Emerson had with 
 
THE DIAL." 159 
 
 one of them and the interest which he took in 
 the other, in which many of his friends were 
 more deeply concerned. These were the peri 
 odical just spoken of as a possibility realized, 
 and the industrial community known as Brook 
 Farm. They were to a certain extent synchro 
 nous, the Magazine beginning in July, 1840, 
 and expiring in April, 1844 ; Brook Farm being 
 organized in 1841, and breaking up in 1847. 
 
 " The Dial " was edited at first by Margaret 
 Fuller, afterwards by Emerson, who contributed 
 more than forty articles in prose and verse, 
 among them " The Conservative," " The Tran- 
 scendentalist," " Chardon Street and Bible Con 
 vention," and some of his best and best known 
 poems, "The Problem," " Woodnotes," "The 
 Sphinx," " Fate." The other principal writers 
 were Margaret Fuller, A. Bronson Alcott, 
 George Eipley, James Freeman Clarke, Theo 
 dore Parker, William H. Channing, Henry 
 Thoreau, Eliot Cabot, John S. Dwight, C. P. 
 Cranch, William Ellery Channing, Mrs. Ellen 
 Hooper, and her sister Mrs. Caroline Tappan. 
 Unequal as the contributions are in merit, the 
 periodical is of singular interest. It was con 
 ceived and carried on in a spirit of boundless 
 hope and enthusiasm* Time and a narrowing 
 subscription list proved too hard a trial, and its 
 four volumes remain stranded, like some rare 
 
160 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 and curiously patterned shell which a storm of 
 yesterday has left beyond the reach of the reced 
 ing waves. Thoreau wrote for nearly every num 
 ber. Margaret Fuller, less attractive in print 
 than in conversation, did her part as a contribu 
 tor as well as editor. Theodore Parker came 
 down with his "trip-hammer" in its pages. 
 Mrs. Ellen Hooper published a few poems in 
 its columns which remain, always beautiful, in 
 many memories. Others, whose literary lives 
 have fulfilled their earlier promise, and who are 
 still with us, helped forward the new enterprise 
 with their frequent contributions. It is a pleas 
 ure to turn back to "The Dial," with all its 
 crudities. It should be looked through by the 
 side of the "Anthology." Both were April 
 buds, opening before the frosts were over, but 
 with the pledge of a better season. 
 
 We get various hints touching the new Mag 
 azine in the correspondence between Emerson 
 and Carlyle. Emerson tells Carlyle, a few 
 months before the first number appeared, that 
 it will give him a better knowledge of our young 
 people than any he has had. It is true that un 
 fledged writers found a place to try their wings 
 in it, and that makes it more interesting. This 
 was the time above all others when out of the 
 mouth of babes and sucklings was to come forth 
 strength. The feeling that intuition was discov 
 
 \ 
 
"THE DIAL: 1 161 
 
 ering a new heaven and a new earth was the 
 inspiration of these "young people" to whom 
 Emerson refers. He has to apologize for the 
 first number. " It is not yet much," he says ; 
 "indeed, though no copy has come to me, I 
 know it is far short of what it should be, for 
 they have suffered puffs and dulness to creep 
 in for the sake of the complement of pages, but 
 it is better than anything we had. The Ad 
 dress of the Editors to the Readers is all the 
 prose that is mine, and whether they have 
 printed a few verses for me I do not know." 
 They did print " The Problem." There were 
 also some fragments of criticism from the writ 
 ings of his brother Charles, and the poem called 
 " The Last Farewell," by his brother Edward, 
 which is to be found in Emerson s "May-day 
 and other Pieces." 
 
 On the 30th of August, after the periodical 
 had been published a couple of months, Emer 
 son writes : 
 
 " Our community begin to stand in some terror 
 of Transcendentalism ; and the Dial, poor little thing, 
 whose first number contains scarce anything consider 
 able or even visible, is just now honored by attacks 
 from almost every newspaper and magazine ; which 
 at least betrays the irritability and the instincts of the 
 good public." 
 
 Carlyle finds the second number of "The 
 11 
 
162 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Dial " better than the first, and tosses his chari 
 table recognition, as if into an alms-basket, with 
 his usual air of superiority. He distinguishes 
 what is Emerson s readily, the rest he speaks 
 of as the work of ot iro\\o[ for the most part. 
 " But it is all good and very good as a soul ; 
 wants only a body, which want means a great 
 deal." And again, " The Dial, too, it is all 
 spirit like, aeri-form, aurora-borealis like. Will 
 no Angel body himself out of that ; no stalwart 
 Yankee man, with color in the cheeks of him 
 and a coat on his back ? " 
 
 Emerson, writing to Carlyle in March, 1842, 
 speaks of the " dubious approbation on the part 
 of you and other men," notwithstanding which 
 he found it with "a certain class of men and 
 women, though few, an object of tenderness and 
 religion." So, when Margaret Fuller gave it 
 up, at the end of the second volume, Emerson 
 consented to become its editor. " I cannot bid 
 you quit The Dial, " says Carlyle, " though 
 it, too, alas, is Antinomian somewhat 1 Perge, 
 yerge, nevertheless." 
 
 In the next letter he says : 
 
 " I love your * Dial/ and yet it is with a kind of 
 shudder. You seem to me in danger of dividing 
 yourselves from the Fact of this present Universe, in 
 which alone, ugly as it is, can I find any anchorage, 
 find soaring away after Ideas, Beliefs, Revelations 
 
" THE DIAL." 163 
 
 End such like, into perilous altitudes, as I think ; 
 beyond the curve of perpetual frost, for one thing. 
 I know not how to utter what impression you give 
 me ; take the above as some stamping of the fore- 
 hoof." 
 
 A curious way of characterizing himself as a 
 critic, but he was not always as well-mannered 
 as the Houyhnhnms. 
 
 To all Carlyle s complaints of " The Dial s " 
 short-comings Emerson did not pretend to give 
 any satisfactory answer, but his plea of guilty, 
 with extenuating circumstances, is very honest 
 and definite. 
 
 " For the Dial and its sins, I have no defence to 
 set up. We write as we can, and we know very 
 little about it. If the direction of these speculations 
 is to be deplored, it is yet a fact for literary history 
 that all the bright boys and girls in New England, 
 quite ignorant of each other, take the world so, and 
 come and make confession to fathers and mothers, 
 the boys, that they do not wish to go into trade, the 
 girls, that they do not like morning calls and evening 
 parties. They are all religious, but hate the churches ; 
 they reject all the ways of living of other men, but 
 have none to offer in their stead. Perhaps one of 
 these days a great Yankee shall come, who will easily 
 do the unknown deed." 
 
 " All the bright boys and girls in New Eng 
 land," and " The Dial dying of inanition ! " 
 
164 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 In October, 1840, Emerson writes to Car- 
 iyle : 
 
 "We are all a little wild here with numberless 
 projects of social reform. Not a reading man but 
 has a draft of a new community in his waistcoat 
 pocket. I am gently mad myself, and am resolved 
 to live cleanly. George Ripley is talking up a colony 
 of agriculturists and scholars, with whom he threat 
 ens to take the field and the book. One man re* 
 nounces the use of animal food ; and another of coin ; 
 and another of domestic hired service ; and another 
 of the state ; and on the whole we have a commend 
 able share of reason and hope." 
 
 Mr. Ripley s project took shape in the West 
 Roxbury Association, better known under the 
 name of Brook Farm. Emerson was not in 
 volved in this undertaking. He looked upon it 
 with curiosity and interest, as he would have 
 looked at a chemical experiment, but he seems 
 to have had only a moderate degree of faith in its 
 practical working. " It was a noble and gener 
 ous movement in the projectors to try an exper 
 iment of better living. One would say that im 
 pulse was the rule in the society, without centri 
 petal balance ; perhaps it would not be severe 
 to say, intellectual sans-culottism, an impatience 
 of the formal routinary character of our educa 
 tional, religious, social, and economical life in 
 Massachusetts." 
 
BROOK FARM. 165 
 
 The reader will find a full detailed account 
 of the Brook Farm experiment in Mr. Frothing- 
 ham s "Life of George Ripley," its founder, 
 and the first President of the Association. Em 
 erson had only tangential relations with the ex 
 periment, and tells its story in his " Historic 
 Notes " very kindly and respectfully, but with 
 that sense of the ridiculous in the aspect of some 
 of its conditions which belongs to the sagacious 
 common-sense side of his nature. The married 
 women, he says, were against the community. 
 " It was to them like the brassy and lacquered 
 life in hotels. The common school was well 
 enough, but to the common nursery they had 
 grave objections. Eggs might be hatched in 
 ovens, but the hen on her own account much 
 preferred the old way. A hen without her 
 chickens was but half a hen." Is not the in 
 audible, inward laughter of Emerson more re 
 freshing than the explosions of our noisiest 
 humorists ? 
 
 This is his benevolent summing up : 
 
 "The founders of Brook Farm should have this 
 praise, that they made what all people try to make, 
 an agreeable place to live in. All comers, even the 
 most fastidious, found it the pleasantest of residences. 
 It is certain, that freedom from household routine, 
 variety of character and talent, variety of work, vari 
 ety of means of thought and instruction, art, music, 
 
166 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 poetry, reading, masquerade, did not permit slug 
 gishness or despondency ; broke up routine. There 
 is agreement in the testimony that it was, to most of 
 the associates, education ; to many, the most impor 
 tant period of their life, the birth of valued friend 
 ships, their first acquaintance with the riches of con 
 versation, their training in behavior. The art of let 
 ter-writing, it is said, was immensely cultivated. Let 
 ters were always flying, not only from house to house, 
 but from room to room. It was a perpetual picnic, 
 a French Revolution in small, an Age of Reason in a 
 patty-pan." 
 
 The public edifice called the " Phalanstery " 
 was destroyed by fire in 1846. The Association 
 never recovered from this blow, and soon after 
 wards it was dissolved. 
 
 2. Emerson s first volume of his collected 
 Essays was published in 1841. In the reprint 
 it contains the following Essays : History ; 
 Self -Reliance ; Compensation ; Spiritual Laws ; 
 Love ; Friendship ; Prudence ; Heroism ; The 
 Over - Soul ; Circles ; Intellect ; Art. " The 
 Young American," which is now included in the 
 volume, was not delivered until 1844. 
 
 Once accustomed to Emerson s larger for 
 mulae we can to a certain extent project from 
 our own minds his treatment of special sub 
 jects. But we cannot anticipate the daring im- 
 
"HISTORY." 167 
 
 agination, the subtle wit, the curious illustra 
 tions, the felicitous language, which make the 
 Lecture or the Essay captivating as read, and 
 almost entrancing as listened to by the teacha 
 ble disciple. The reader must be prepared for 
 occasional extravagances. Take the Essay on 
 History, in the first series of Essays, for in 
 stance. " Let it suffice that in the light of 
 these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, 
 and that nature is its correlative, history is to be 
 read and written." When we come to the ap 
 plication, in the same Essay, almost on the same 
 page, what can we make of such discourse as 
 this ? The sentences I quote do not follow im 
 mediately, one upon the other, but their sense 
 is continuous. 
 
 " I hold our actual knowledge very cheap. 
 Hear the rats in the wall, see the lizard on the 
 fence, the fungus under foot, the lichen on the 
 log. What do I know sympathetically, morally, 
 of either of these worlds of life ? How many 
 times we must say Rome and Paris, and Con 
 stantinople ! What does Rome know of rat and 
 lizard ? What are Olympiads and Consulates 
 to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, 
 what food or experience or succor have they for 
 the Esquimau seal-hunter, for the Kamchatcan 
 in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, 
 the porter ? " 
 
168 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 The connection of ideas is not obvious. One 
 can hardly help being reminded of a certain 
 great man s Kochester speech as commonly re 
 ported by the story-teller. " Rome in her proud 
 est days never had a waterfall a hundred and 
 fifty feet high ! Greece in her palmiest days 
 never had a waterfall a hundred and fifty feet 
 high ! Men of Rochester, go on ! No people 
 ever lost their liberty who had a waterfall a 
 hundred and fifty feet high ! " 
 
 We cannot help smiling, perhaps laughing, at 
 the odd mixture of Rome and rats, of Olym 
 piads and Esquimaux. But the underlying idea 
 of the interdependence of all that exists in na 
 ture is far from ridiculous. Emerson says, not 
 y absurdly or extravagantly, that " every history 
 should be written in a wisdom which divined 
 the range of our affinities and looked at facts as 
 symbols." 
 
 We have become familiar with his doctrine 
 of " Self -Reliance," which is the subject of the 
 second lecture of the series. We know that he 
 always and everywhere recognized that the di 
 vine voice which speaks authoritatively in the 
 soul of man is the source of all our wisdom. It 
 is a man s true self, so that it follows that abso 
 lute, supreme self-reliance is the law of his being. 
 But see how he guards his proclamation of self- 
 reliance as the guide of mankind. 
 
"COMPENSATION." "SPIRITUAL LAWS." 169 
 
 " Truly it demands something god-like in him who 
 has cast off the common motives of humanity and has 
 ventured to trust himself for a task-master. X High be 
 his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he 
 may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law, to him 
 self, that a/ simple purpose may be to him as strong 
 as iron necessity is to others ! " 
 
 " Compensation " might be preached in a 
 synagogue, and the Rabbi would be praised for 
 his performance. Emerson had been listening 
 to a sermon from a preacher esteemed for his 
 orthodoxy, in which it was assumed that judg 
 ment is not executed in this world, that the 
 wicked are successful, and the good are misera 
 ble. This last proposition agrees with John 
 Bunyan s view : 
 
 " A Christian man is never long at ease, 
 When one fright s gone, another doth him seize." 
 
 Emerson shows up the " success " of the bad 
 man and the failures and trials of the good man 
 in their true spiritual characters, with a noble 
 scorn of the preacher s low standard of happi 
 ness and misery, which would have made him 
 throw his sermon into the fire. 
 
 The Essay on " Spiritual Laws " is full of 
 pithy sayings : 
 
 " As much virtue as there is, so much appears ; as 
 much goodness as there is, so much reverence it com- 
 
170 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 mands. All the devils respect virtue. A man 
 passes for that he is worth. The ancestor of every 
 action is a thought. ^ To think is to act. ^ Let a 
 man believe in God, and not in names and places and 
 persons. Let the great soul incarnated in some wo 
 man s form, poor and sad and single, in some Dolly 
 or Joan, go out to service and sweep chambers and 
 scour floors, and its effulgent day-beams cannot be 
 hid, but to sweep and scour will instantly appear su 
 preme and beautiful actions, the top and radiance of 
 human life, and all people will get mops and brooms ; 
 until, lo ! suddenly the great soul has enshrined itself 
 in some other form and done some other deed, and 
 that is now the flower and head of all living nature." 
 
 This is not any the worse for being the flow 
 ering out of a poetical bud of George Herbert s. 
 The Essay on " Love " is poetical, but the three 
 poems, "Initial," "Daemonic," and "Celestial 
 Love " are more nearly equal to his subject than 
 his prose. 
 
 There is a passage in the Lecture on " Friend 
 ship " which suggests some personal relation of 
 Emerson s about which we cannot help being 
 inquisitive : 
 
 " It has seemed to me lately more possible than I 
 knew, to carry a friendship greatly, on one side, 
 without due correspondence on the other. Why 
 should I cumber myself with regrets that the receive! 
 is not capacious? It never troubles the sun that 
 
"PRUDENCE." 171 
 
 some of his rays fall wide and vain into ungrateful 
 space, and only a small part on the reflecting planet. 
 Let your greatness educate the crude and cold com 
 panion. . . . Yet these things may hardly be said 
 without a sort of treachery to the relation. The 
 essence of friendship is entireness, a total magnanim 
 ity and trust. It must not surmise or provide for in 
 firmity. It treats its object as a god that it may 
 deify both." 
 
 Was he thinking of his relations with Car- 
 lyle? It is a curious subject of speculation 
 what would have been the issue if Carlyle had 
 come to Concord and taken up his abode under 
 Emerson s most hospitable roof. " You shall 
 not come nearer a man by getting into his 
 house." How could they have got on together ? 
 Emerson was well-bred, and Carlyle was wanting 
 in the social graces. " Come rest in this bo 
 som " is a sweet air, heard in the distance, too 
 apt to be followed, after a protracted season of 
 close proximity, by that other strain, 
 
 " No, fly me, fly me, far as pole from pole / 
 Rise Alps between us and whole oceans roll ! " 
 
 But Emerson may have been thinking of 
 some very different person, perhaps some " crude 
 and cold companion" among his disciples, who 
 was not equal to the demands of friendly inter 
 course. 
 
 He discourses wisely on " Prudence," a virtue 
 
172 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 which he does not claim for himself, and nobly 
 on " Heroism," which was a shining part of his 
 own moral and intellectual being. 
 
 The points which will be most likely to draw 
 the reader s attention are the remarks on the 
 literature of heroism; the claim for our own 
 America, for Massachusetts and Connecticut 
 River and Boston Bay, in spite of our love for 
 the names of foreign and classic topography ; 
 and most of all one sentence which, coming from 
 an optimist like Emerson, has a sound of sad 
 sincerity painful to recognize. 
 
 " Who that sees the meanness of our politics but 
 inly congratulates Washington that he is long already 
 wrapped in his shroud, and forever safe ; that he was 
 laid sweet in his grave, the hope of humanity not yet 
 subjugated in him. Who does not sometimes envy 
 the good and brave who are no more to suffer from 
 the tumults of the natural world, and await with curi 
 ous complacency the speedy term of his own conver 
 sation with finite nature ? And yet the love that will 
 be annihilated sooner than treacherous has already 
 made death impossible, and affirms itself no mortal, 
 but a native of the deeps of absolute and inextinguish 
 able being." 
 
 In the following Essay, " The Over-Soul," Em 
 erson has attempted the impossible. He is as 
 fully conscious of this fact as the reader of his 
 rhapsody, nay, he is more profoundly pene- 
 
"THE OVER-SOUL." 173 
 
 trated with it than any of his readers. In 
 speaking of the exalted condition the soul is 
 capable of reaching, he says, 
 
 " Every man s words, who speaks from that life, 
 must sound vain to those who do not dwell in the 
 same thought on their own part. I dare not speak 
 for it. My words do not carry its august sense; 
 they fall short and cold. Only itself can inspire 
 whom it will, and behold ! their speech shall be lyrical 
 and sweet, and universal as the rising of the wind. 
 Yet I desire, even by profane words, if I may not 
 use sacred, to indicate the heaven of this deity, and to 
 report what hints I have collected of the transcendent 
 simplicity and energy of the Highest Law." 
 
 " The Over-Soul " might almost be called the 
 Over-flow of a spiritual imagination. We can 
 not help thinking of the " pious, virtuous, God- 
 intoxicated" Spinoza. When one talks of the 
 infinite in terms borrowed from the finite, when 
 one attempts to deal with the absolute in the 
 language of the relative, his words are not sym 
 bols, like those applied to the objects of expe 
 rience, but the shadows of symbols, varying with 
 the position and intensity of the light of the 
 individual intelligence. It is a curious amuse 
 ment to trace many of these thoughts and ex 
 pressions to Plato, or Plotinus, or Proclus, or 
 Porphyry, to Spinoza or Schelling, but the same 
 tune is a different thing according to the instru- 
 
174 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 ment on which it is played. There are songs 
 without words, and there are states in which, in 
 place of the trains of thought moving in endless 
 procession with ever-varying figures along the 
 highway of consciousness, the soul is possessed 
 by a single all-absorbing idea, which, in the 
 highest state of spiritual exaltation, becomes a 
 vision. Both Plotinus and Porphyry believed 
 they were privileged to look upon Him whom 
 " no man can see and live." 
 
 But Emerson states his own position so frankly 
 in his Essay entitled " Circles," that the reader 
 cannot take issue with him as against utterances 
 which he will not defend. There can be no doubt 
 that he would have confessed as much with ref 
 erence to "The Over-Soul" as he has confessed 
 with regard to " Circles," the Essay which fol 
 lows " The Over-Soul." 
 
 " I am not careful to justify myself. . . . But lest 
 I should mislead any when I have my own head and 
 obey my whims, let me remind the reader that I am 
 only an experimenter. Do not set the least value on 
 what I do, or the least discredit on what I do not, as 
 if I pretended to settle anything as true or false. I 
 unsettle all things. No facts are to me sacred ; none 
 are profane ; I simply experiment, an endless seeker, 
 with no Past at my back." 
 
 Perhaps, after reading these transcendental 
 essays of Emerson, we might borrow Goethe s 
 
" CIRCLES." " INTELLECT." " ART." 175 
 
 language about Spinoza, as expressing the feel 
 ing with which we are left. 
 
 " I am reading Spinoza with Frau von Stein. I 
 feel myself very near to him, though his soul is much 
 deeper and purer than mine. 
 
 " I cannot say that I ever read Spinoza straight 
 through, that at any time the complete architecture 
 of his intellectual system has stood clear in view be 
 fore me. But when I look into him I seem to under 
 stand him, that is, he always appears to me con 
 sistent with himself, and I can always gather from 
 him very salutary influences for my own way of 
 feeling and acting." 
 
 Emerson would not have pretended that he 
 was always " consistent with himself," but these 
 " salutary influences," restoring, enkindling, vivi 
 fying, are felt by many of his readers who would 
 have to confess, like Dr. Walter Channing, that 
 these thoughts, or thoughts like these, as he 
 listened to them in a lecture, " made his head 
 ache." 
 
 The three essays which follow "The Over- 
 Soul," "Circles," "Intellect," "Art," would fur 
 nish us a harvest of good sayings, some of which 
 we should recognize as parts of our own (bor 
 rowed) axiomatic wisdom. 
 
 " Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker 
 on this planet. Then all things are at risk." 
 
 " God enters by a private door into every indi 
 
176 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " God offers to every mind its choice between truth 
 and repose. Take which you please, you can never 
 have both." 
 
 "Though we travel the world over to find the 
 beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it 
 not." 
 
 But we cannot reconstruct the Hanging Gar 
 dens with a few bricks from Babylon. 
 
 Emerson describes his mode of life in these 
 years in a letter to Carlyle, dated May 10, 
 
 1838. 
 
 " I occupy, or improve, as we Yankees say, two 
 acres only of God s earth ; on which is my house, my 
 kitchen-garden, my orchard of thirty young trees, 
 my empty barn. My house is now a very good one 
 for comfort, and abounding in room. Besides my 
 house, I have, I believe, $22,000, whose income in 
 ordinary years is six per cent. I have no other tithe 
 or glebe except the income of my winter lectures, 
 which was last winter $800. Well, with this income, 
 here at home, I am a rich man. I stay at home and 
 go abroad at my own instance. I have food, warmth, 
 leisure, books, friends. Go away from home, I am 
 rich no longer. I never have a dollar to spend on a 
 fancy. As no wise man, I suppose, ever was rich in 
 the sense of freedom to spend, because of the inun 
 dation of claims, so neither am I, who am not wise. 
 But at home, I am rich, rich enough for ten 
 brothers. My wife Lidian is an incarnation of Chris 
 tianity, I call her Asia, and keeps my philosophy 
 
DEATH OF EMERSON 1 8 SON. 177 
 
 from Antinomianism ; my mother, whitest, mildest, 
 most conservative of ladies, whose only exception to 
 her universal preference for old things is her son ; 
 my boy, a piece of love and sunshine, well worth my 
 watching from morning to night ; these, and three 
 domestic women, who cook, and sew and run for us, 
 make all my household. Here I sit and read and 
 write, with very little system, and, as far as re 
 gards composition, with the most fragmentary result : 
 paragraphs incompressible, each sentence an infinitely 
 repellent particle." 
 
 A great sorrow visited Emerson and his house 
 hold at this period of his life. On the 30th 
 of October, 1841, he wrote to Carlyle : " My 
 little boy is five years old to-day, and almost old 
 enough to send you his love." 
 
 Four months later, on the 28th of February, 
 1842, he writes once more : 
 
 " My dear friend, you should have had this letter 
 and these messages by the last steamer ; but when it 
 sailed, my son, a perfect little boy of five years and 
 three months, had ended his earthly life. You can 
 never sympathize with me ; you can never know how 
 much of me such a young child can take away. A 
 few weeks ago I accounted myself a very rich man, 
 and now the poorest of all. What would it avail to 
 tell you anecdotes of a sweet and wonderful boy, such 
 as we solace and sadden ourselves with at home every 
 morning and evening? From a perfect health and 
 as happy a life and as happy influences as ever child 
 12 
 
178 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 enjoyed, he was hurried out of my arms in three short 
 days by scarlatina. We have two babes yet, one girl 
 of three years, and one girl of three months and 
 a week, but a promise like that Boy s I shall never 
 see. How often I have pleased myself that one day 
 I should send to you this Morning Star of mine, and 
 stay at home so gladly behind such a representative. 
 I dare not fathom the Invisible and Untold to inquire 
 what relations to my Departed ones I yet sustain." 
 
 This was the boy whose memory lives in the 
 tenderest and most pathetic of Emerson s poems, 
 the " Threnody," -- a lament not unworthy of 
 comparison with Lycidas for dignity, but full 
 of the simple pathos of Cowper s well-remem 
 bered lines on the receipt of his mother s pic 
 ture, in the place of Milton s sonorous 
 phrases. 
 
CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 1843-1848. Mi. 40-45. 
 
 u The Young American." Address on the Anniversary of 
 the Emancipation of the Negroes in the British West In 
 dies. 1 Publication of the Second Series of Essays. Con 
 tents : The Poet. Experience. Character. Manners. 
 Gifts. Nature. Politics. Nominalist and Realist. 
 New England Reformers. Publication of Poems. Second 
 Visit to England. 
 
 EMERSON was American in aspect, tempera 
 ment, way of thinking, and feeling; American, 
 with an atmosphere of Oriental idealism ; Amer 
 ican, so far as he belonged to any limited part 
 of the universe. He believed in American insti 
 tutions, he trusted the future of the American 
 race. In the address first mentioned in the 
 contents of this chapter, delivered February 7, 
 1844, he claims for this country all that the 
 most ardent patriot could ask. Not a few of his 
 fellow-countrymen will feel the significance of 
 the following contrast. 
 
 "The English have many virtues, many advan- 
 
 1 These two addresses are to be found in the first and eler- 
 enth volumes, respectively, of the last collective edition of 
 Emerson s works, namely, "Nature, Addresses, and Lectures," 
 and "Miscellanies." 
 
180 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 tages, and the proudest history in the world ; but 
 they need all and more than all the resources of the 
 past to indemnify a heroic gentleman in that coun 
 try for the mortifications prepared for him by the 
 system of society, and which seem to impose the al 
 ternative to resist or to avoid it. ... It is for Eng 
 lishmen to consider, not for us ; we only say, Let us 
 live in America, too thankful for our want of feudal 
 institutions. ... If only the men are employed in 
 conspiring with the designs of the Spirit who led us 
 hither, and is leading us still, we shall quickly enough 
 advance out of all hearing of others censures, out of 
 all regrets of our own, into a new and more excel 
 lent social state than history has recorded." 
 
 Thirty years have passed since the lecture 
 from which these passages are taken was de 
 livered. The " Young American " of that day 
 is the more than middle-aged American of the 
 present. The intellectual independence of our 
 country is far more solidly established than 
 when this lecture was written. But the social 
 alliance between certain classes of Americans 
 and English is more and more closely cemented 
 from year to year, as the wealth of the new world 
 burrows its way among the privileged classes of 
 the old world. It is a poor ambition for the 
 possessor of suddenly acquired wealth to have it 
 appropriated as a feeder of the impaired for 
 tunes of a deteriorated household, with a family 
 record of which its representatives are unworthy. 
 
"THE POET." 181 
 
 The plain and wholesome language of Emerson 
 is on the whole more needed now than it was 
 when spoken. His words have often been ex 
 tolled for their stimulating quality; following 
 the same analogy, they are, as in this address, in 
 a high degree tonic, bracing, strengthening to 
 the American, who requires to be reminded of 
 his privileges that he may know and find him 
 self equal to his duties. 
 
 On the first day of August, 1844, Emerson 
 delivered in Concord an address on the Anni 
 versary of the Emancipation of the Negroes in 
 the British West India Islands. This discourse 
 would not have satisfied the Abolitionists. It 
 was too general in its propositions, full of humane 
 and generous sentiments, but not looking to their 
 extreme and immediate method of action. 
 
 Emerson s second series of Essays was pub 
 lished in 1844. There are many sayings in the 
 Essay called " The Poet," which are meant for 
 the initiated, rather than for him who runs, to 
 read : 
 
 " All that we call sacred history attests that the V 
 birth of a poet is the principal event in chronology." 
 
 Does this sound wild and extravagant ? What 
 were the political ups and downs of the Hebrews, 
 
182 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 what were the squabbles of the tribes with 
 each other, or with their neighbors, compared 
 to the birth of that poet to whom we owe the 
 Psalms, the sweet singer whose voice is still 
 the dearest of all that ever sang to the heart 
 of mankind? 
 
 The poet finds his materials everywhere, as 
 Emerson tells him in this eloquent apostrophe : 
 
 " Thou true land-lord ! sea-lord ! air-lord ! Wher 
 ever snow falls, or water flows, or birds fly, wherever 
 day and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue 
 heaven is hung by clouds, or sown with stars, wher 
 ever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever 
 are outlets into celestial space, wherever is danger 
 and awe and love, there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, 
 shed for thee, and though thou shouldst walk the 
 world over, thou shalt not be able to find a condition 
 inopportune or ignoble." 
 
 "Experience" is, as he says himself, but a 
 fragment. It bears marks of having been writ 
 ten in a less tranquil state of mind than the 
 other essays. His most important confession is 
 this : 
 
 "All writing comes by the grace of God, and all 
 doing and having. I would gladly be moral and 
 keep due metes and bounds, which I dearly love, 
 and allow the most to the will of man ; but I have 
 set my heart on honesty in this chapter, and I can 
 see nothing at last, in success or failure, than more ol 
 less of vital force supplied from the Eternal." 
 
" CHARACTER." - "MANNERS." 183 
 
 The Essay on " Character " requires no diffi- 
 eult study, but is well worth the trouble of read 
 ing. A few sentences from it show the prevail 
 ing tone and doctrine. 
 
 " Character is Nature in the highest form. It is 
 of no use to ape it, or to contend with it. Somewhat 
 is possible of resistance and of persistence and of 
 creation to this power, which will foil all emulation." 
 
 " There is a class of men, individuals of which ap 
 pear at long intervals, so eminently endowed with in 
 sight and virtue, that they have been unanimously 
 saluted as divine, and who seem to be an accumula 
 tion of that power we consider. 
 
 " The history of those gods and saints which the 
 world has written, and then worshipped, are doc 
 uments of character. The ages have exulted in the 
 manners of a youth who owed nothing to fortune, and 
 who was hanged at the Tyburn of his nation, who, 
 by the pure quality of his nature, shed an epic splen 
 dor around the facts of his death which has trans 
 figured every particular into an universal symbol for 
 the eyes of mankind. This great defeat is hitherto 
 our highest fact." 
 
 In his Essay on " Manners," Emerson gives 
 us his ideas of a gentleman : 
 
 " The gentleman is a man of truth, lord of his own 
 actions and expressing that lordship in his behavior, 
 not in any manner dependent and servile either on 
 persons or opinions or possessions. Beyond this fact 
 
184 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 of truth and real force, the word denotes good-nature 
 or benevolence : manhood first, and then gentleness. 
 - Power first, or no leading class. God knows that 
 all sorts of gentlemen knock at the door : but when 
 ever used in strictness, and with any emphasis, the 
 name will be found to point at original energy. 
 The famous gentlemen of Asia and Europe have 
 been of this strong type: Saladin, Sapor, the Cid, 
 Julius Caesar, Scipio, Alexander, Pericles, and the 
 lordliest personages. They sat very carelessly in 
 their chairs, and were too excellent themselves to 
 value any condition at a high rate. I could better 
 eat with one who did not respect the truth or the 
 laws than with a sloven and unpresentable person. 
 The person who screams, or uses the superlative 
 degree, or converses with heat, puts whole drawing- 
 rooms to flight. I esteem it a chief felicity of this 
 country that it excels in women." 
 
 So writes Emerson, and proceeds to speak of 
 woman in language which seems almost to pant 
 for rhythm and rhyme. 
 
 This essay is plain enough for the least " tran 
 scendental" reader. Franklin would have ap 
 proved it, and was himself a happy illustration 
 of many of the qualities which go to the Emer 
 sonian ideal of good manners, a typical Amer 
 ican, equal to his position, always as much so in 
 the palaces and salons of Paris as in the Conti 
 nental Congress, or the society of Philadelphia. 
 
 "Gifts" is a dainty little Essay with some nice 
 
GIFTS." " NATURE." 185 
 
 distinctions and some hints which may help to 
 give form to a generous impulse : 
 
 " The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must 
 bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem ; 
 the shepherd, his lamb ; the farmer, corn ; the miner, 
 a gem ; the sailor, coral and shells ; the painter, his 
 picture ; the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing." 
 
 " Flowers and fruits are always fit presents ; flow 
 ers, because they are a proud assertion that a ray 
 of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. 
 Fruits are acceptable gifts, because they are the flower 
 of commodities, and admit of fantastic values being 
 attached to them." 
 
 " It is a great happiness to get off without injury 
 and heart-burning from one who has had the ill-luck 
 to be served by you. It is a very onerous business, 
 this of being served, and the debtor naturally wishes 
 to give you a slap." 
 
 Emerson hates the superlative, but he does 
 unquestionably love the tingling effect of a witty 
 over-statement. 
 
 We have recognized most of the thoughts in 
 the Essay entitled " Nature," in the previous 
 Essay by the same name, and others which we 
 have passed in review. But there are poetical 
 passages which will give new pleasure. 
 
 Here is a variation of the formula with which 
 we are familiar : 
 
186 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " Nature is the incarnation of a thought, and turns 
 to a thought again, as ice becomes water and gas. 
 The world is mind precipitated, and the volatile es 
 sence is forever escaping again into the state of free 
 thought." 
 
 And here is a quaint sentence with which we 
 may take leave of this Essay : 
 
 " They say that by electro-magnetism, your salad 
 shall be grown from the seed, whilst your fowl is 
 roasting for dinner : it is a symbol of our modern 
 aims and endeavors, of our condensation and ac 
 celeration of objects ; but nothing is gained : nature 
 cannot be cheated : man s life is but seventy salads 
 \ong, grow they swift or grow they slow." 
 
 This is pretty and pleasant, but as to the literal 
 value of the prediction, M. Jules Verne would be 
 the best authority to consult. Poets are fond of 
 that branch of science which, if the imaginative 
 Frenchman gave it a name, he would probably 
 call Onditologie. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that the most sanguine 
 optimist could be satisfied with the condition of 
 the American political world at the present time, 
 or when the Essay on " Politics " was written, 
 some years before the great war which changed 
 the aspects of the country in so many respects, still 
 leaving the same party names, and many of the 
 characters of the old parties unchanged. This 
 is Emerson s view of them as they theo were : 
 
"POLITICS." 187 
 
 " Of the two great parties, which, at this hour, al 
 most share the nation between them, I should say 
 that one has the best cause, and the other contains 
 the best men. The philosopher, the poet, or the 
 religious man, will, of course, wish to cast his vote 
 with the democrat, for free trade, for wide suffrage, 
 for the abolition of legal cruelties in the penal code, 
 and for facilitating in every manner the access of the 
 young and the poor to the sources of wealth and 
 power. But he can rarely accept the persons whom 
 the so-called popular party propose to him as rep 
 resentatives of these liberalities. They have not at 
 heart the ends which give to the name of democracy 
 what hope and virtue are in it. The spirit of our 
 American radicalism is destructive and aimless ; it is 
 not loving ; it has no ulterior and divine ends ; but 
 is destructive only out of hatred and selfishness. On 
 the other side, the conservative party, composed of 
 the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the 
 population, is timid, and merely defensive of property. 
 It vindicates no right, it aspires to no real good, it 
 brands no crime, it proposes no generous policy, it 
 does not build nor write, nor cherish the arts, nor 
 foster religion, nor establish schools, nor encourage 
 science, nor emancipate the slave, nor befriend the 
 poor, or the Indian, or the immigrant. From neither 
 party, when in power, has the world any benefit to 
 expect in science, art, or humanity, at all commen 
 surate with the resources of the nation." 
 
 The metaphysician who looks for a closely 
 
188 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 reasoned argument on the famous old question 
 which so divided the schoolmen of old will find 
 a very moderate satisfaction in the Essay enti 
 tled "Nominalist and Kealist." But there are 
 many discursive remarks in it worth gathering 
 and considering. We have the complaint of the 
 Cambridge "Phi Beta Kappa Oration," reit 
 erated, that there is no complete man, but only a 
 collection of fragmentary men. 
 
 As a Platonist and a poet there could not be 
 any doubt on which side were all his prejudices; 
 but he takes his ground cautiously. 
 
 " In the famous dispute with the Nominalists, the 
 Realists had a good deal of reason. General ideas are 
 essences. They are our gods : they round and enno 
 ble the most partial and sordid way of living. 
 
 " Though the uninspired man certainly finds per 
 sons a conveniency in household matters, the divine 
 man does not respect them : he sees them as a rack of 
 clouds, or a fleet of ripples which the wind drives over 
 the surface of the water. But this is flat rebellion. 
 Nature will not be Buddhist : she resents general 
 izing, and insults the philosopher in every moment 
 with a million of fresh particulars." 
 
 New England Reformers. Would any one 
 renture to guess how Emerson would treat this 
 subject? With his unsparing, though amiable 
 radicalism, his excellent common sense, his deli- 
 cate appreciation of the ridiculous, too deep for 
 
NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 189 
 
 laughter, as Wordsworth s thoughts were too 
 deep for tears, in the midst of a band of en 
 thusiasts and not very remote from a throng of 
 fanatics, what are we to look for from our philos 
 opher who unites many characteristics of Berke 
 ley and of Franklin ? 
 
 We must remember when this lecture was 
 written, for it was delivered on a Sunday in the 
 year 1844. The Brook Farm experiment was an 
 index of the state of mind among one section of 
 the Reformers of whom he was writing. To re 
 model society and the world into a "happy 
 family " was the aim of these enthusiasts. Some 
 attacked one part of the old system, some an 
 other ; some would build a new temple, some 
 would rebuild the old church, some would wor 
 ship in the fields and woods, if at all ; one was 
 for a phalanstery, where all should live in com 
 mon, and another was meditating the plan and 
 place of the wigwam where he was to dwell apart 
 in the proud independence of the woodchuck and 
 the musquash. Emerson had the largest and 
 kindliest sympathy with their ideals and aims, 
 but he was too clear-eyed not to see through 
 the whims and extravagances of the unpractical 
 experimenters who would construct a working 
 world with the lay figures they had put together, 
 instead of flesh and blood men and women and 
 thildren with all their congenital and acquired 
 
190 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 perversities. He describes these Eeformers in 
 his own good-naturedly half -satirical way : 
 
 " They defied each other like a congress of kings, 
 each of whom had a realm to rule, and a way of his 
 own that made concert unprofitable. What a fertility 
 of projects for the salvation of the world ! One 
 apostle thought all men should go to farming ; and 
 another that no man should buy or sell ; that the use 
 of money was the cardinal evil ; another that the 
 mischief was in our diet, that we eat and drink dam 
 nation. These made unleavened bread, and were 
 foes to the death to fermentation. It was in vain 
 urged by the housewife that God made yeast as well 
 as dough, and loves fermentation just as dearly as he 
 loves vegetation ; that fermentation develops the sac 
 charine element in the grain, and makes it more pal 
 atable and more digestible. No, they wish the pure 
 wheat, and will die but it shall not ferment. Stop, 
 dear nature, these incessant advances of thine ; let us 
 scotch these ever-rolling wheels ! Others attacked the 
 system of agriculture, the use of animal manures in 
 farming ; and the tyranny of man over brute nature ; 
 these abuses polluted his food. The ox must be 
 taken from the plough, and the horse from the cart, 
 the hundred acres of the farm must be spaded, and 
 the man must walk wherever boats and locomotives 
 will not carry him. Even the insect world was to be 
 defended, that had been too long neglected, and a 
 society for the protection of ground-worms, slugs, and 
 mosquitoes was to be incorporated without delay. With 
 these appeared the adepts of homeopathy, of hydrop 
 
NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 191 
 
 Rthy, of mesmerism, of phrenology, and their wonder 
 ful theories of the Christian miracles ! " 
 
 We have already seen the issue of the famous 
 Brook Farm experiment, which was a practical 
 outcome of the reforming agitation e 
 
 Emerson has had the name of being a leader 
 in many movements in which he had very limited 
 confidence, this among others to which the ideal 
 izing impulse derived from him lent its force, but 
 for the organization of which he was in no sense 
 responsible. 
 
 He says in the lecture we are considering : 
 
 " These new associations are composed of men and 
 women of superior talents and sentiments ; yet it may 
 easily be questioned whether such a community will 
 draw, except in its beginnings, the able and the good ; 
 whether those who have energy will not prefer their 
 chance of superiority and power in the world to the 
 humble certainties of the association ; whether such a 
 retreat does not promise to become an asylum to those 
 who have tried and failed rather than a field to the 
 strong ; and whether the members will not necessarily 
 be fractions of men, because each finds that he cannot 
 enter into it without some compromise." 
 
 His sympathies were not allowed to mislead 
 him ; he knew human nature too well to believe 
 in a Noah s ark full of idealists. 
 
 All this time he was lecturing for his support, 
 giving courses of lectures in Boston and other 
 
192 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 cities, and before the country lyceums in and 
 out of New England. 
 
 His letters to Carlyle show how painstaking, 
 how methodical, how punctual he was in the busi 
 ness which interested his distant friend. He was 
 not fond of figures, and it must have cost him a 
 great effort to play the part of an accountant. 
 
 He speaks also of receiving a good deal of 
 company in the summer, and that some of this 
 company exacted much time and attention, 
 more than he could spare, is made evident by 
 his gentle complaints, especially in his poems, 
 which sometimes let out a truth he would hardly 
 have uttered in prose. 
 
 In 1846 Emerson s first volume of poems was 
 published. Many of the poems had been long 
 before the public some of the best, as we have 
 seen, having been printed in " The Dial." It is 
 only their being brought together for the first 
 time which belongs especially to this period, and 
 we can leave them for the present, to be looked 
 over by and by in connection with a second 
 volume of poems published in 1867, under the 
 title, " May-Day and other Pieces." 
 
 In October, 1847, he left Concord on a second 
 risit to England, which will be spoken of in the 
 following chapter. 
 
CHAPTER VH. 
 
 1848-1853. ^ET. 45^50. 
 
 The " Massachusetts Quarterly Review ; " Visit to Europe. 
 England. Scotland. France. " Representative Men " 
 published. I. Uses of Great Men. II. Plato ; or, the Phi 
 losopher ; Plato ; New Readings. III. Swedenborg ; or, the 
 Mystic. IV. Montaigne; or, the Skeptic. V. Shake 
 speare ; or, the Poet. VI. Napoleon ; or, the Man of the 
 World. VII. Goethe ; or, the Writer. Contribution to 
 the " Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli." 
 
 A NEW periodical publication was begun in 
 Boston in 1847, under the name of the " Mas 
 sachusetts Quarterly Review." Emerson wrote 
 the " Editor s Address," but took no further ac 
 tive part in it, Theodore Parker being the real 
 editor. The last line of this address is charac 
 teristic : " We rely on the truth for aid against 
 ourselves." 
 
 On the 5th of October, 1847, Emerson sailed 
 for Europe on his second visit, reaching Liver 
 pool on the 22d of that month. Many of his 
 admirers were desirous that he should visit Eng 
 land and deliver some courses of lectures. Mr. 
 Alexander Ireland, who had paid him friendly 
 attentions during his earlier visit, and whose im 
 
 13 
 
194 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 pressions of him in the pulpit have been given 
 on a previous page, urged his coming. Mr. 
 Conway quotes passages from a letter of Emer 
 son s which show that he had some hesitation 
 in accepting the invitation, not unmingled with 
 a wish to be heard by the English audiences 
 favorably disposed towards him. 
 
 " I feel no call," he said, " to make a visit of 
 literary propagandism in England. All my im 
 pulses to work of that kind would rather employ 
 me at home." He does not like the idea of 
 " coaxing " or advertising to get him an audience. 
 He would like to read lectures before institutions 
 or friendly persons who sympathize with his 
 studies. He has had a good many decisive tokens 
 of interest from British men and women, but he 
 doubts whether he is much and favorably known 
 in any one city, except perhaps in London. It 
 proved, however, that there was a very wide 
 spread desire to hear him, and applications for 
 lectures flowed in from all parts of the king 
 dom. 
 
 From Liverpool he proceeded immediately to 
 Manchester, where Mr. Ireland received him at 
 the Victoria station. After spending a few hours 
 with him, he went to Chelsea to visit Carlyle, 
 and at the end of a week returned to Manches- 
 ter to begin the series of lecturing engagements 
 frhich had been arranged for him. Mr. Ireland s 
 
ENGLAND. SCOTLAND. 195 
 
 account of Emerson s visits and the interviews 
 between him and many distinguished persons is 
 full of interest, but the interest largely relates 
 to the persons visited by Emerson. He lectured 
 at Edinburgh, where his liberal way of thinking 
 and talking made a great sensation in orthodox 
 circles. But he did not fail to find enthusiastic 
 listeners. A young student, Mr. George Cupples, 
 wrote an article on these lectures from which, as 
 quoted by Mr. Ireland, I borrow a single sen 
 tence, one only, but what could a critic say 
 more ? 
 
 Speaking of his personal character, as revealed 
 through his writings, he says : " In this respect, 
 I take leave to think that Emerson is the most 
 mark-worthy, the loftiest, and most heroic mere 
 man that ever appeared." Emerson has a lec 
 ture on the superlative, to which he himself was 
 never addicted. But what would youth be with 
 out its extravagances, its preterpluperf ect in 
 the shape of adjectives, its unmeasured and un 
 stinted admiration ? 
 
 I need not enumerate the celebrated literary 
 personages and other notabilities whom Emerson 
 met in England and Scotland. He thought "the 
 two finest mannered literary men he met in 
 England were Leigh Hunt and De Quincey." 
 His diary might tell us more of the impressions 
 made upon him by the distinguished people he 
 
196 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 met, but it is impossible to believe that he ever 
 passed such inhuman judgments on the least 
 desirable of his new acquaintances as his friend 
 Carlyle has left as a bitter legacy behind him. 
 Carlyle s merciless discourse about Coleridge 
 and Charles Lamb, and Swinburne s carnivorous 
 lines, which take a barbarous vengeance on him 
 for his offence, are on the level of political rhet 
 oric rather than of scholarly criticism or charac 
 terization. Emerson never forgot that he was 
 dealing with human beings. He could not have 
 long endured the asperities of Carlyle, and that 
 " loud shout of laughter," which Mr. Ireland 
 speaks of as one of his customary explosions, 
 would have been discordant to Emerson s ears, 
 which were offended by such noisy manifesta 
 tions. 
 
 During this visit Emerson made an excursion 
 fco Paris, which furnished him materials for a 
 lecture on France delivered in Boston, in 1856, 
 but never printed. 
 
 From the lectures delivered in England he se 
 lected a certain number for publication. These 
 make up the volume entitled " Representative 
 Men," which was published in 1850. I will 
 give very briefly an account of its contents. The 
 title was a happy one, and has passed into liter 
 ature and conversation as an accepted and con- 
 Jrenient phrase. It would teach us a good dea] 
 
PLATO. 197 
 
 merely to consider the names he has selected as 
 typical, and the ground of their selection. We 
 get his classification of men considered as lead 
 ers in thought and in action. He shows his own 
 affinities and repulsions, and, as everywhere, 
 writes his own biography, no matter about whom 
 or what he is talking. There is hardly any book 
 of his better worth study by those who wish to 
 understand, not Plato, not Plutarch, not Napo 
 leon, but Emerson himself. All his great men 
 interest us for their own sake ; but we know a 
 good deal about most of them, and Emerson 
 holds the mirror up to them at just such an 
 angle that we see his own face as well as that 
 of his hero, unintentionally, unconsciously, no 
 doubt, but by a necessity which he would be the 
 first to recognize. 
 
 Emerson swears by no master. He admires, 
 but always with a reservation. Plato comes near 
 est to being his idol, Shakespeare next. But he 
 says of all great men : " The power which they /_ 
 communicate is not theirs. When we are exalted 
 by ideas, we do not owe this to Plato, but to the 
 idea, to which also Plato was debtor." 
 
 Emerson loves power as much as Carlyle 
 does; he likes "rough and smooth," "scourges 
 of God," and "darlings of the human race." 
 He likes Julius Caesar, Charles the Fifth, of 
 Spain, Charles the Twelfth, of Sweden, Richard 
 Piantagenet, and Bonaparte. 
 
198 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " I applaud," he says, " a sufficient man, an officer 
 equal to his office ; captains, ministers, senators. I 
 like a master standing firm on legs of iron, well born, 
 rich, handsome, eloquent, loaded with advantages, 
 drawing all men by fascination into tributaries and 
 supporters of his power. Sword and staff, or talents 
 sword-like or staff-like, carry on the work of the 
 world. But I find him greater when he can abolish 
 himself and all heroes by letting in this element of 
 reason, irrespective of persons, this subtilizer and 
 irresistible upward force, into our thought destroy 
 ing individualism ; the power so great that the po 
 tentate is nothing. 
 
 " The genius of humanity is the right point of view 
 of history. The qualities abide ; the men who exhibit 
 them have now more, now less, and pass away ; the 
 qualities remain on another brow. All that respects 
 the individual is temporary and prospective, like the 
 individual himself, who is ascending out of his limits 
 into a catholic existence." 
 
 No man can be an idol for one who looks in 
 this way at all men. But Plato takes the first 
 place in Emerson s gallery of six great person 
 ages whose portraits he has sketched. And of 
 him he says : 
 
 "Among secular books Plato only is entitled to 
 Omar s fanatical compliment to the Koran, when he 
 Raid, l Burn the libraries ; for their value is in this 
 book. Out of Plato come all things that are still 
 mitten and debated among men of thought" 
 
II 
 
 PLATO. 199 
 
 In proportion to the culture of men they become 
 his scholars." " How many great men Nature is 
 incessantly sending up out of night to be his men ! 
 His contemporaries tax him with plagiarism. But 
 the inventor only knows how to borrow. When we 
 are praising Plato, it seems we are praising quotations 
 from Solon and Sophron and Philolaus. Be it so. 
 Every book is a quotation ; and every house is a quo 
 tation out of all forests and mines and stone quarries ; 
 and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors." 
 
 The reader will, I hope, remember this last 
 general statement when he learns from what 
 wide fields of authorship Emerson filled his 
 storehouses. 
 
 A few sentences from Emerson will show 
 us the probable source of some of the deepest 
 thought of Plato and his disciples. 
 
 The conception of the fundamental Unity, he 
 says, finds its highest expression in the religious 
 writings of the East, especially in the Indian 
 Scriptures. " The whole world is but a man 
 ifestation of Vishnu, who is identical with all 
 things, and is to be regarded by the wise as not 
 differing from but as the same as themselves. I 
 neither am going nor coming; nor is my dwell 
 ing in any one place ; nor art thou, thou ; nor are 
 others, others ; nor am I, I. As if he had said, 
 4 All is for the soul, and the soul is Vishnu ; and 
 animals and stars are transient paintings; and 
 
200 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 light is whitewash ; and durations are deceptive ; 
 and form is imprisonment ; and heaven itself a 
 decoy. " All of which we see reproduced in 
 Emerson s poem "Brahma." "The country of 
 unity, of immovable institutions, the seat of a 
 philosophy delighting in abstractions, of men 
 faithful in doctrine and in practice to the idea 
 of a deaf, unimplorable, immense fate, is Asia ; 
 and it realizes this faith in the social institution 
 of caste. On the other side, the genius of Europe 
 is active and creative : it resists caste by culture ; 
 its philosophy was a discipline ; it is a land of 
 arts, inventions, trade, freedom." " Plato came 
 to join, and by contact to enhance, the energy of 
 each." 
 
 But Emerson says, and some will smile at 
 hearing him say it of another, " The acutest 
 German, the lovingest disciple, could never tell 
 what Platonism was; indeed, admirable texts can 
 be quoted on both sides of every great question 
 from him." 
 
 The transcendent intellectual and moral supe 
 riorities of this " Euclid of holiness," as Emerson 
 calls him, with his " soliform eye and his boni- 
 form soul," the two quaint adjectives being 
 from the mint of Cud worth, are fully dilated 
 upon in the addition to the original article called 
 " Plato : New Readings." 
 
SWEDENBORG. 201 
 
 Few readers will be satisfied with the Essay 
 entitled " Swedenborg ; or, the Mystic." The 
 believers in his special communion as a revealer 
 of divine truth will find him reduced to the level 
 of other seers. The believers of the different 
 creeds of Christianity will take offence at the 
 statement that " Swedenborg and Behmen both 
 failed by attaching themselves to the Christian 
 symbol, instead of to the moral sentiment, which 
 carries innumerable Christianities, humanities, di 
 vinities in its bosom." The men of science will 
 smile at the exorbitant claims put forward in 
 behalf of Swedenborg as a scientific discoverer. 
 " Philosophers " will not be pleased to be re 
 minded that Swedenborg called them " cocka 
 trices," " asps," or " flying serpents ; " " literary 
 men " will not agree that they are " conjurers 
 and charlatans," and will not listen with patience 
 to the praises of a man who so called them. As 
 for the poets, they can take their choice of 
 Emerson s poetical or prose estimate of the great 
 Mystic, but they cannot very well accept both. 
 In The Test," the Muse says : 
 
 " I hung my verses in the wind, 
 Time and tide their faults may find ; 
 All were winnowed through and through, 
 Five lines lasted sound and true . . . 
 Sunshine cannot bleach the snow, 
 Nor time unmake what poets know. 
 
202 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Have you eyes to find the five 
 Which five hundred did survive ? " 
 
 In the verses which follow we learn that the 
 five immortal poets referred to are Homer, Dante, 
 Shakespeare, Swedenborg, and Goethe. 
 
 And now, in the Essay we have just been look 
 ing at, I find that " his books have no melody, 
 no emotion, no humor, no relief to the dead pro 
 saic level. We wander forlorn in a lack-lustre 
 landscape. No bird ever sang in these gardens 
 of the dead. The entire want of poetry in so 
 transcendent a mind betokens the disease, and 
 like a hoarse voice in a beautiful person, is 
 a kind of warning." Yet Emerson says of him 
 that " He lived to purpose : he gave a verdict. 
 He elected goodness as the clue to which the soul 
 must cling in this labyrinth of nature." 
 
 Emerson seems to have admired Swedenborg 
 at a distance, but seen nearer, he liked Jacob 
 Behmen a great deal better. 
 
 " Montaigne ; or, the Skeptic," is easier read 
 ing than the last-mentioned Essay. Emerson ac 
 counts for the personal regard which he has for 
 Montaigne by the story of his first acquaintance 
 with him. But no other reason was needed 
 than that Montaigne was just what Emerson de 
 scribes him as being. 
 
 " There have been men with deeper insight ; but, 
 
MONTAIGNE. 203 
 
 one would say, never a man with such abundance of 
 thought : he is never dull, never insincere, and has the 
 genius to make the reader care for all that he cares 
 for. 
 
 " The sincerity and marrow of the man reaches to 
 his sentences. I know not anywhere the book that 
 seems less written. It is the language of conversation 
 transferred to a book. Cut these words and they 
 would bleed ; they are vascular and alive. 
 
 " Montaigne talks with shrewdness, knows the world 
 and books and himself, and uses the positive degree ; 
 never shrieks, or protests, or prays : no weakness, no 
 convulsion, no superlative : does not wish to jump out 
 of his skin, or play any antics, or annihilate space or 
 time, but is stout and solid ; tastes every moment of 
 the day ; likes pain because it makes him feel himself 
 and realize things ; as we pinch ourselves to know 
 that we are awake. He keeps the plain ; he rarely 
 mounts or sinks ; likes to feel solid ground and the 
 stones underneath. His writing has no enthusiasms, 
 no aspiration ; contented, self-respecting, and keeping 
 the middle of the road. There is but one exception, 
 in his love for Socrates. In speaking of him, for 
 once his cheek flushes and his style rises to passion." 
 
 The writer who draws this portrait must have 
 many of the same characteristics. Much as Em 
 erson loved his dreams and liis dreamers, he 
 must have found a great relief in getting into 
 "the middle of the road " with Montaigne, after 
 wandering in difficult by-paths which too often 
 
204 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 led him round to the point from which he 
 started. 
 
 As to his exposition of the true relations of 
 skepticism to affirmative and negative belief, the 
 philosophical reader must be referred to the 
 Essay itself. 
 
 In writing of " Shakespeare ; or, the Poet," 
 Emerson naturally gives expression to his lead 
 ing ideas about the office of the poet and of 
 poetry. 
 
 " Great men are more distinguished by range 
 and extent than by originality." A poet has 
 " a heart in unison with his time and country." 
 " There is nothing whimsical and fantastic* 
 in his production, but sweet and sad earnest, 
 freighted with the weightiest convictions, and 
 pointed with the most determined aim which 
 any man or class knows of in his times." 
 
 When Shakespeare was in his youth the drama 
 was the popular means of amusement. It was 
 " ballad, epic, newspaper, caucus, lecture, Punch, 
 and library, at the same time. The best proof 
 of its vitality is the crowd of writers which sud 
 denly broke into this field." Shakespeare found 
 a great mass of old plays existing in manuscript 
 and reproduced from time to time on the stage. 
 He borrowed in all directions : " A great poet 
 ftho appears in illiterate times absorbs into his 
 
SHAKESPEARE. 205 
 
 sphere all the light which is anywhere radiat 
 ing." Homer, Chaucer, Saadi, felt that all wit 
 was their wit. " Chaucer is a huge borrower." 
 Emerson gives a list of authors from whom he 
 drew. This list is in many particulars erroneous, 
 as I have learned from a letter of Professor 
 Lounsbury s which I have had the privilege of 
 reading, but this is a detail which need not de 
 lay us. 
 
 The reason why Emerson has so much to say 
 on this subject of borrowing, especially when 
 treating of Plato and of Shakespeare, is obvious 
 enough. He was arguing in his own cause, 
 not defending himself, as if there were some 
 charge of plagiarism to be met, but making the 
 proud claim of eminent domain in behalf of the 
 masters who knew how to use their acquisitions. 
 
 " Shakespeare is the only biographer of Shake 
 speare ; and even he can tell nothing except to the 
 Shakespeare in us." " Shakespeare is as much out 
 of the category of eminent authors as he is out of the 
 crowd. A good reader can in a sort nestle into 
 Plato s brain and think from thence; but not into 
 Shakespeare s. We are still out of doors." 
 
 After all the homage which Emerson pays to 
 the intellect of Shakespeare, he weighs him with 
 the rest of mankind, and finds that he shares 
 " the half ness and imperfection of humanity." 
 
 " He converted the elements which waited on his 
 
206 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 command into entertainment. He was master of the 
 revels to mankind." 
 
 And so, after this solemn verdict on Shake 
 speare, after looking at the forlorn conclusions of 
 our old and modern oracles, priest and prophet, 
 Israelite, German, and Swede, he says : " It must 
 be conceded that these are half views of half 
 men. The world still wants its poet-priest, who 
 shall not trifle with Shakespeare the player, nor 
 shall grope in graves with Swedenborg the 
 mourner ; but who shall see, speak, and act with 
 equal inspiration." 
 
 It is not to be expected that Emerson should 
 have much that is new to say about " Napoleon ; 
 or, the Man of the World." 
 
 The stepping-stones of this Essay are easy to 
 find : 
 
 " The instinct of brave, active, able men, through 
 out the middle class everywhere, has pointed out 
 Napoleon as the incarnate democrat. 
 
 " Napoleon is thoroughly modern, and at the high 
 est point of his fortunes, has the very spirit of the 
 newspapers." As Plato borrowed, as Shakespeare bor 
 rowed, as Mirabeau " plagiarized every good thought, 
 every good word that was spoken in France," so Napo 
 leon is not merely " representative, but a monopolizer 
 and usurper of other minds." 
 
 He was " a man of stone and iron," equipped 
 
NAPOLEON. 207 
 
 for his work by nature as Sallust describes Cati* 
 line as being. " He had a directness of action 
 never before combined with so much comprehen 
 sion. Here was a man who in each moment and 
 emergency knew what to do next. He saw only 
 the object; the obstacle must give way." 
 
 44 When a natural king becomes a titular king 
 everybody is pleased and satisfied." 
 
 " I call Napoleon the agent or attorney of the 
 middle class of modern society. He was the 
 agitator, the destroyer of prescription, the in 
 ternal improver, the liberal, the radical, the 
 inventor of means, the opener of doors and mar 
 kets, the subverter of monopoly and abuse." 
 
 But he was without generous sentiments, " a 
 boundless liar," and finishing in high colors the 
 outline of his moral deformities, Emerson gives 
 us a climax in two sentences which render fur 
 ther condemnation superfluous : 
 
 " In short, when you have penetrated through all 
 the circles of power and splendor, you were not deal 
 ing with a gentleman, at last, but with an impostor 
 and a rogue ; and he fully doserves the epithet of 
 Jupiter Scapin, or a sort of Scamp Jupiter. 
 
 "So this exorbitant egotist narrowed, impoverished, 
 and absorbed the power and existence of those who 
 served him ; and the universal cry of France and of 
 Europe in 1814 was, Enough of him; Assez de 
 
208 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 It was to this feeling that the French 
 Barbier, whose death we have but lately seen 
 announced, gave expression in the terrible satire 
 in which he pictured France as a fiery courser 
 bestridden by her spurred rider, who drove her 
 in a mad career over heaps of rocks and ruins. 
 
 But after all, Carlyle s " carriere ouverte aux 
 talens" is the expression for Napoleon s great 
 message to mankind. 
 
 " Goethe ; or, the Writer," is the last of the 
 Representative Men who are the subjects of this 
 book of Essays. Emerson says he had read the 
 fifty-five volumes of Goethe, but no other Ger 
 man writers, at least in the original. It must 
 have been in fulfilment of some pious vow that 
 he did this. After all that Carlyle had written 
 about Goethe, he could hardly help studying 
 him. But this Essay looks to me as if he had 
 found the reading of Goethe hard work. It 
 flows rather languidly, toys with side issues as 
 a stream loiters round a nook in its margin, and 
 finds an excuse for play in every pebble. Still, 
 he has praise enough for his author. " He has 
 clothed our modern existence with poetry." 
 " He has said the best things about nature that 
 ever were said. He flung into literature in his 
 Mephistopheles the first organic figure that has 
 been added for some ages, and which will remain 
 
MEMOIRS OF MARGARET FULLER OSSOLL 209 
 
 as long as the Prometheus. He is the type of 
 culture, the amateur of all arts and sciences and 
 events ; artistic, but not artist ; spiritual, but not 
 spiritualist. I join Napoleon with him, as be 
 ing both representatives of the impatience and 
 reaction of nature against the morgue of conven 
 tions, two stern realists, who, with their schol 
 ars, have severally set the axe at the root of the 
 tree of cant and seeming, for this time and for 
 all time." 
 
 This must serve as an ex pede guide to recon 
 struct the Essay which finishes the volume. 
 
 In 1852 there was published a Memoir of Mar 
 garet Fuller Ossoli, in which Emerson, James 
 Freeman Clarke, and William Henry Channing 
 each took a part. Emerson s account of her 
 conversation and extracts from her letters and 
 diaries, with his running commentaries and his 
 interpretation of her mind and character, are a 
 most faithful and vivid portraiture of a woman 
 who is likely to live longer by what is written 
 of her than by anything she ever wrote herself. 
 14 
 
CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 1853-1858. Mt. 50-55. 
 
 Lectures in various Places. Anti - Slavery Addresses. 
 Woman. A Lecture read before the Woman s Rights Con 
 vention. Samuel Hoar. Speech at Concord. Publica 
 tion of " English Traits." The " Atlantic Monthly." 
 The " Saturday Club." 
 
 AFTER Emerson s return from Europe he de 
 livered lectures to different audiences, one on 
 Poetry, afterwards published in " Letters and 
 Social Aims," a course of lectures in Freeman 
 Place Chapel, Boston, some of which have been 
 published, one on the Anglo-Saxon Race, and 
 many others. In January, 1855, he gave one 
 of the lectures in a course of Anti-Slavery Ad 
 dresses delivered in Tremont Temple, Boston. 
 In the same year he delivered an address before 
 the Anti-Slavery party of New York. His plan 
 for the extirpation of slavery was to buy the 
 slaves from the planters, not conceding their 
 right to ownership, but because " it is the only 
 practical course, and is innocent." It would 
 cost two thousand millions, he says, according 
 to the present estimate, but " was there ever any 
 
ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESSES. 211 
 
 contribution that was so enthusiastically paid as 
 this would be ? " 
 
 His optimism flowers out in all its innocent 
 luxuriance in the paragraph from which this is 
 quoted. Of course with notions like these he 
 could not be hand in hand with the Abolition 
 ists. He was classed with the Free Soilers, but 
 he seems to have formed a party by himself in 
 his project for buying up the negroes. He 
 looked at the matter somewhat otherwise in 
 1863, when the settlement was taking place in a 
 different currency, in steel and not in gold : 
 
 "Pay ransom to the owner, 
 
 And fill the bag to the brim. 
 Who is the owner ? The slave is owner, 
 And ever was. Pay him." 
 
 His sympathies were all and always with free 
 dom. He spoke with indignation of the out 
 rage on Sumner; he took part in the meeting 
 at Concord expressive of sympathy with John 
 Brown. But he was never in the front rank of 
 the aggressive Anti-Slavery men. In his singu 
 lar " Ode inscribed to W. H. Channing " there 
 is a hint of a possible solution of the slavery 
 problem which implies a doubt as to the per 
 manence of the cause of all the trouble. 
 
 " The over-god 
 Who marries Right to Might, 
 
212 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Who peoples, unpeoples, 
 He who exterminates 
 Races by stronger races, 
 Black by white faces, 
 Knows to bring honey 
 Out of the lion." 
 
 Some doubts of this kind helped Emerson to 
 justify himself when he refused to leave his 
 " honeyed thought " for the busy world where 
 " Things are of the snake." 
 
 The time came when he could no longer sit 
 quietly in his study, and, to borrow Mr. Cooke s 
 words, " As the agitation proceeded, and brave 
 men took part in it, and it rose to a spirit of 
 moral grandeur, he gave a heartier assent to the 
 outward methods adopted." 
 
 No woman could doubt the reverence of Em 
 erson for womanhood. In a lecture read to the 
 " Woman s Eights Convention " in 1855, he 
 takes bold, and what would then have been con 
 sidered somewhat advanced, ground in the con 
 troversy then and since dividing the community. 
 This is the way in which he expresses himself : 
 
 " I do not think it yet appears that women wish 
 this equal share in public affairs. But it is they and 
 not we that are to determine it. Let the laws be 
 purged of every barbarous remainder, every barba 
 rous impediment to women. Let the public dona? 
 
SAMUEL HOAR. 213 
 
 tions for education be equally shared by them, let 
 them enter a school as freely as a church, let them 
 have and hold and give their property as men do 
 theirs ; and in a few years it will easily appear 
 whether they wish a voice in making the laws that 
 are to govern them. If you do refuse them a vote, 
 you will also refuse to tax them, according to our 
 Teutonic principle, No representation, no tax. The 
 new movement is only a tide shared by the spirits of 
 man and woman ; and you may proceed in the faith 
 that whatever the woman s heart is prompted to de 
 sire, the man s mind is simultaneously prompted to 
 accomplish." 
 
 Emerson was fortunate enough to have had 
 for many years as a neighbor, that true New 
 England Roman, Samuel Hoar. He spoke of 
 him in Concord before his fellow-citizens, shortly 
 after his death, in 1856. He afterwards pre 
 pared a sketch of Mr. Hoar for " Putnam s Mag 
 azine," from which I take one prose sentence and 
 the verse with which the sketch concluded : 
 
 " He was a model of those formal but reverend 
 manners which make what is called a gentleman of 
 the old school, so called under an impression that the 
 style is passing away, but which, I suppose, is an op 
 tical illusion, as there are always a few more of the 
 class remaining, and always a few young men to 
 whom these manners are native." 
 
 The single verse I quote is compendious enough 
 
214 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 and descriptive enough for an Elizabethan mon 
 umental inscription. 
 
 " With beams December planets dart 
 His cold eye truth and conduct scanned ; 
 July was in his sunny heart, 
 October in his liberal hand." 
 
 Emerson s " English Traits," forming one vol 
 ume of his works, was published in 1856. It is 
 a thoroughly fresh and original book. It is not 
 a tourist s guide, not a detailed description of 
 sights which tired the traveller in staring at 
 them, and tire the reader who attacks the weary 
 ing pages in which they are recorded. Shrewd 
 observation there is indeed, but its strength is in 
 broad generalization and epigrammatic charac 
 terizations. They are not to be received as in any 
 sense final ; they are not like the verifiable facts 
 of science ; they are more or less sagacious, more 
 or less well founded opinions formed by a fair- 
 minded, sharp-witted, kind-hearted, open-souled 
 philosopher, whose presence made every one 
 well-disposed towards him, and consequently left 
 him well-disposed to all the world. 
 
 A glance at the table of contents will give 
 an idea of the objects which Emerson proposed 
 to himself in his tour, and which take up the 
 principal portion of his record. Only one place 
 is given as the heading of a chapter, Stone- 
 henge. The other eighteen chapters have gen 
 
"ENGLISH TRAITS." 215 
 
 eral titles, Land, Race, Ability, Manners, and 
 others of similar character. 
 
 He uses plain English in introducing us to the 
 Pilgrim fathers of the British Aristocracy : 
 
 " Twenty thousand thieves landed at Hastings. 
 These founders of the House of Lords were greedy 
 and ferocious dragoons, sons of greedy and ferocious 
 pirates. They were all alike, they took everything 
 they could carry ; they burned, harried, violated, 
 tortured, and killed, until everything English was 
 brought to the verge of ruin. Such, however, is the 
 illusion of antiquity and wealth, that decent and dig- 
 nified men now existing boast their descent from 
 these filthy thieves, who showed a far juster convic 
 tion of their own merits by assuming for their types 
 the swine, goat, jackal, leopard, wolf, and snake, 
 which they severally resembled." 
 
 The race preserves some of its better charao 
 teristics. 
 
 " They have a vigorous health and last well into 
 middle and old age. The old men are as red as 
 roses, and still handsome. A clear skin, a peach- 
 bloom complexion, and good teeth are found all over 
 the island." 
 
 English " Manners " are characterized, accord 
 ing to Emerson, by pluck, vigor, independence. 
 " Every one of these islanders is an island him 
 self, safe, tranquil, incommunicable." They are 
 positive, methodical, cleanly, and formal, loving 
 
216 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 routine and conventional ways ; loving truth and 
 religion, to be sure, but inexorable on points of 
 form. 
 
 " They keep their old customs, costumes, and pomps, 
 their wig and mace, sceptre and crown. A severe 
 decorum rules the court and the cottage. Pretension 
 and vaporing are once for all distasteful. They hate 
 nonsense, sentimentalism, and high-flown expressions ; 
 they use a studied plainness." 
 
 "In an aristocratical country like England, not 
 the Trial by Jury, but the dinner is the capital in 
 stitution." 
 
 " They confide in each other, English believes 
 in English." " They require the same adherence, 
 thorough conviction, and reality in public men." 
 
 " As compared with the Americans, I think them 
 cheerful and contented. Young people in this coun 
 try are much more prone to melancholy." 
 
 Emerson s observation is in accordance with 
 that of Cotton Mather nearly two hundred years 
 ago. 
 
 "New England, a country where splenetic Mala 
 dies are prevailing and pernicious, perhaps above any 
 other, hath afforded numberless instances, of even 
 pious people, who have contracted those Melancholy 
 Indispositions, which have unhinged them from all 
 service or comfort ; yea, not a few persons have been 
 hurried thereby to lay Violent Hands upon them 
 selves at the last. These are among the unsearcfa 
 able Judgments of God." 
 
"ENGLISH TRAITS." 217 
 
 If there is a little exaggeration about the fol 
 lowing portrait of the Englishman, it has truth 
 enough to excuse its high coloring, and the like 
 ness will be smilingly recognized by every stout 
 Briton. 
 
 "They drink brandy like water, cannot expend 
 their quantities of waste strength on riding, hunting, 
 swimming, and fencing, and run into absurd frolics 
 with the gravity of the Eumenides. They stoutly 
 carry into every nook and corner of the earth their 
 turbulent sense ; leaving no lie uncontradicted ; no 
 pretension unexamined. They chew hasheesh ; cut 
 themselves with poisoned creases, swing their ham 
 mock in the boughs of the Bohon Upas, taste every 
 poison, buy every secret ; at Naples, they put St. 
 Januarius s blood in an alembic ; they saw a hole into 
 the head of the winking Virgin to know why she 
 winks ; measure with an English foot-rule every cell 
 of the Inquisition, every Turkish Caaba, every Holy of 
 Holies ; translate and send to Bentley the arcanum, 
 bribed and bullied away from shuddering Bramins ; 
 and measure their own strength by the terror they 
 cause." 
 
 This last audacious picture might be hung up 
 as a prose pendant to MarvelTs poetical descrip 
 tion of Holland and the Dutch. 
 
 " A saving stupidity marks and protects their per 
 ception as the curtain of the eagle s eye. Our swifter 
 Ajnericans, when they first deal with English, pro- 
 
218 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 nounce them stupid; but, later, do them justice as 
 people who wear well, or hide their strength. High 
 and low, they are of an unctuous texture. Their 
 daily feasts argue a savage vigor of body. Half 
 their strength they put not forth. The stability of 
 England is the security of the modern world." 
 
 Perhaps nothing in any of his vigorous para 
 graphs is more striking than the suggestion that 
 " if hereafter the war of races often predicted, 
 and making itself a war of opinions also (a 
 question of despotism and liberty coming from 
 Eastern Europe), should menace the English 
 civilization, these sea-kings may take once again 
 to their floating castles and find a new home and 
 a second millennium of power in their colonies." 
 
 In reading some of Emerson s pages it seems 
 as if another Arcadia, or the new Atlantis, had 
 emerged as the fortunate island of Great Britain, 
 or that he had reached a heaven on earth where 
 neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where 
 thieves do not break through nor steal, or if 
 they do, never think of denying that they have 
 done it. But this was a generation ago, when 
 the noun " shoddy," and the verb " to scamp," 
 had not grown such familiar terms to English 
 ears as they are to-day. Emerson saw the 
 country on its best side. Each traveller makes 
 his own England. A Quaker sees chiefly broad 
 brims, and the island looks to him like a field of 
 mushrooms. 
 
"ENGLISH TRAITS." 219 
 
 The transplanted Church of England is rich 
 and prosperous and fashionable enough not to 
 be disturbed by Emerson s flashes of light that 
 have not come through its stained windows. 
 
 " The religion of England is part of good-breed 
 ing. When you see on the continent the well-dressed 
 Englishman come into his ambassador s chapel, and 
 put his face for silent prayer into his smooth-brushed 
 hat, one cannot help feeling how much national pride 
 prays with him, and the religion of a gentleman. 
 
 " The church at this moment is much to be pitied. 
 She has nothing left but possession. If a bishop 
 meets an intelligent gentleman, and reads fatal inter 
 rogations in his eyes, he has no resource but to take 
 wine with him." 
 
 Sydney Smith had a great reverence for a 
 bishop, so great that he told a young lady that 
 he used to roll a crumb of bread in his hand, 
 from nervousness, when he sat next one at a 
 dinner-table, and if next an archbishop, used 
 to roll crumbs with both hands, but Sydney 
 Smith would have enjoyed the tingling felicity 
 of this last stinging touch of wit, left as lightly 
 and gracefully as a banderillero leaves his little 
 gayly ribboned dart in the shoulders of the bull 
 with whose unwieldy bulk he is playing. 
 
 Emerson handles the formalism and the half 
 belief of the Established Church very freely, 
 but he closes his chapter on Religion with soft- 
 spoken words. 
 
220 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " Yet if religion be the doing of all good, and for 
 its sake the suffering of all evil, souffrir de tout le 
 monde, et ne faire souffrir personne, that divine se 
 cret has existed in England from the days of Alfred 
 to those of Romilly, of Clarkson, and of Florence 
 Nightingale, and in thousands who have no fame." 
 
 " English Traits" closes with Emerson s speech 
 at Manchester, at the annual banquet of the 
 " Free Trade Athenaeum." This was merely an 
 occasional after-dinner reply to a toast which 
 called him up, but it had sentences in it which, 
 if we can imagine Milton to have been called up 
 in the same way, he might well have spoken and 
 done himself credit in their utterance. 
 
 The total impression left by the book is that 
 Emerson was fascinated by the charm of English 
 society, filled with admiration of the people, 
 tempted to contrast his New Englanders in 
 many respects unfavorably with Old England- 
 ers, mainly in their material and vital stamina ; 
 but with all this not blinded for a moment to the 
 thoroughly insular limitations of the phlegmatic 
 islander. He alternates between a turn of gen 
 uine admiration and a smile as at a people that 
 has not outgrown its playthings. This is in 
 truth the natural and genuine feeling of a self- 
 governing citizen of a commonwealth where 
 thrones and wigs and mitres seem like so 
 
"THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY." 221 
 
 pieces of stage property. An American need 
 not be a philosopher to hold these things cheap. 
 He cannot help it. Madame Tussaud s exhibi 
 tion, the Lord-Mayor s gilt coach, and a corona 
 tion, if one happens to be in season, are all 
 sights to be seen by an American traveller, but 
 the reverence which is born with the British 
 subject went up with the smoke of the gun that 
 fired the long echoing shot at the little bridge 
 over the sleepy river which works its way along 
 through the wide-awake town of Concord. 
 
 In November, 1857, a new magazine was estab 
 lished in Boston, bearing the name of " The 
 Atlantic Monthly." Professor James Russell 
 Lowell was editor-in-chief, and Messrs. Phillips 
 and Sampson, who were the originators of the 
 enterprise, were the publishers. Many of the old 
 contributors to " The Dial " wrote for the new 
 magazine, among them Emerson. He contrib 
 uted twenty-eight articles in all, more than half 
 of them verse, to different numbers, from the first 
 to the thirty-seventh volume. Among them are 
 several of his best known poems, such as " The 
 Romany Girl," "Days," "Brahma," "Waldein- 
 samkeit," "The Titmouse," "Boston Hymn," 
 " Saadi," and " Terminus." 
 
 At about the same time there grew up in Bos 
 ton a literary association, which became at last 
 Well known as the " Saturday Club," the mem- 
 
j>22 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 bers dining together on the last Saturday of 
 every month. 
 
 The Magazine and the Club have existed and 
 flourished to the present day. They have often 
 been erroneously thought to have some organic 
 connection, and the " Atlantic Club " has been 
 spoken of as if there was or had been such an 
 institution, but it never existed. 
 
 Emerson was a member of the Saturday Club 
 from the first ; in reality before it existed as an 
 empirical fact, and when it was only a Platonic 
 idea. The Club seems to have shaped itself 
 around him as a nucleus of crystallization, two or 
 three friends of his having first formed the habit 
 of meeting him at dinner at "Parker s," the 
 "Will s Coffee-House" of Boston. This little 
 group gathered others to itself and grew into 
 a club as Eome grew into a city, almost with 
 out knowing how. During its first decade the 
 Saturday Club brought together, as members 
 or as visitors, many distinguished persons. At 
 one end of the table sat Longfellow, florid, 
 quiet, benignant, soft-voiced, a most agreeable 
 rather than a brilliant talker, but a man upon 
 whom it was always pleasant to look, whose 
 silence was better than many another man s con 
 versation. At the other end of the table sat 
 Agassiz, robust, sanguine, animated, full of talk, 
 boy-like in his laughter. The stranger who 
 
TEE "SATURDAY CLUB." 223 
 
 should have asked who were the men ranged 
 along the sides of the table would have heard in 
 answer the names of Hawthorne, Motley, Dana, 
 Lowell, Whipple, Peirce, the distinguished math 
 ematician, Judge Hoar, eminent at the bar and 
 in the cabinet, Dwight, the leading musical critic 
 of Boston for a whole generation, Sumner, the 
 academic champion of freedom, Andrew, " the 
 great War Governor" of Massachusetts, Dr. 
 Howe, the philanthropist, William Hunt, the 
 painter, with others not unworthy of such com 
 pany. And with these, generally near the Long 
 fellow end of the table, sat Emerson, talking in 
 low tones and carefully measured utterances to 
 his neighbor, or listening, and recording on his 
 mental phonograph any stray word worth re 
 membering. Emerson was a very regular at 
 tendant at the meetings of the Saturday Club, 
 and continued to dine at its table, until within 
 a year or two of his death. 
 
 Unfortunately the Club had no Boswell, and 
 Us golden hours passed unrecorded. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1858-1863. ^Ex. 55-60. 
 
 Essay on Persian Poetry. Speech at the Burns Centennial 
 Festival. Letter from Emerson to a Lady. Tributes to 
 Theodore Parker and to Thoreau. Address on the Eman 
 cipation Proclamation. Publication of " The Conduct of 
 Life." Contents : Fate ; Power ; Wealth ; Culture ; Be 
 havior ; Worship ; Considerations by the Way ; Beauty ; II- 
 lusions. 
 
 THE Essay on Persian Poetry, published in the 
 " Atlantic Monthly " in 1858, should be studied 
 by all readers who are curious in tracing the in 
 fluence of Oriental poetry on Emerson s verse. 
 In many of the shorter poems and fragments 
 published since " May-Day," as well as in the 
 " Quatrains " and others of the later poems in 
 that volume, it is sometimes hard to tell what is 
 from the Persian from what is original. 
 
 On the 25th of January, 1859, Emerson at 
 tended the Burns Festival, held at the Parker 
 House in Boston, on the Centennial Anniversary 
 of the poet s birth. He spoke after the dinner 
 to the great audience with such beauty and 
 eloquence that all who listened to him have re 
 membered it as one of the most delightful ad 
 dresses they ever heard. Among his hearers was 
 
LETTER TO A LADY. 225 
 
 Mr. Lowell, who says of it that " every word 
 seemed to have just dropped down to him from 
 the clouds." Judge Hoar, who was another of 
 his hearers, says, that though he has heard many 
 of the chief orators of his time, he never wit 
 nessed such an effect of speech upon men. I 
 was myself present on that occasion, and under 
 went the same fascination that these gentlemen 
 and the varied audience before the speaker ex 
 perienced. His words had a passion in them 
 not usual in the calm, pure flow most natural 
 to his uttered thoughts ; white-hot iron we are 
 familiar with, but white-hot silver is what we do 
 not often look upon, and his inspiring address 
 glowed like silver fresh from the cupel. 
 
 I am allowed the privilege of printing the 
 following letter addressed to a lady of high 
 intellectual gifts, who was one of the earliest, 
 most devoted, and most faithful of his intimate 
 friends : 
 
 CONCORD, May 13, 1859. 
 
 Please, dear C., not to embark for home until 
 I have despatched these lines, which I will hasten to 
 finish. Louis Napoleon will not bayonet you the 
 while, keep him at the door. So long I have prom 
 ised to write ! so long I have thanked your long 
 suffering ! I have let pass the unreturning opportu 
 nity your visit to Germany gave to acquaint you with 
 Gisela von Arnim (Bettina s daughter), and Joachim 
 15 
 
226 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 the violinist, and Hermann Grimm the scholar, her 
 friends. Neither has E., wandering in Europe 
 with hope of meeting you, yet met. This con 
 tumacy of mine I shall regret as long as I live. How 
 palsy creeps over us, with gossamer first, and ropes 
 afterwards ! and the witch has the prisoner when 
 once she has put her eye on him, as securely as after 
 the bolts are drawn. Yet I and all my little com 
 pany watch every token from you, and coax Mrs. H. 
 to read us letters. I learned with satisfaction that 
 you did not like Germany. Where then did Goethe 
 find his lovers ? Do all the women have bad noses 
 and bad mouths ? And will you stop in England, and 
 bring home the author of " Counterparts " with you? 
 Or did write the novels and send them to Lon 
 don, as I fancied when I read them? How strange 
 that you and I alone to this day should have his 
 secret ! I think our people will never allow genius, 
 
 without it is alloyed by talent. But is paralyzed 
 
 by his whims, that I have ceased to hope from him. 
 I could wish your experience of your friends were 
 more animating than mine, and that there were any 
 horoscope you could not cast from the first day. The 
 faults of youth are never shed, no, nor the merits, 
 and creeping time convinces ever the more of our im 
 potence, and of the irresistibility of our bias. Still 
 this is only science, and must remain science. Our 
 praxis is never altered for that. We must forever 
 hold our companions responsible, or they are not 
 tompanions but stall-fed. 
 
 I think, as we grow older, we decrease as indi 
 
LETTER TO A LADY. 227 
 
 riduals, and as if in an immense audience who hear 
 Btirring music, none essays to offer a new stave, but 
 we only join emphatically in the chorus. We volun 
 teer no opinion, we despair of guiding people, but are 
 confirmed in our perception that Nature is all right, 
 and that we have a good understanding with it. We 
 must shine to a few brothers, as palms or pines or 
 roses among common weeds, not from greater absolute 
 value, but from a more convenient nature. But t is 
 almost chemistry at last, though a meta-chemistry. 
 I remember you were such an impatient blasphemer, 
 however musically, against the adamantine identities, 
 in your youth, that you should take your turn of resig 
 nation now, and be a preacher of peace. But there 
 is a little raising of the eyebrow, now and then, in 
 the most passive acceptance, if of an intellectual 
 turn. Here comes out around me at this moment tht. 
 new June, the leaves say June, though the calendar 
 says May, and we must needs hail our young rela 
 tives again, though with something of the gravity of 
 adult sons and daughters receiving a late-born brother 
 or sister. Nature herself seems a little ashamed of a 
 law so monstrous, billions of summers, and now the 
 old game again without a new bract or sepal. But 
 you will think me incorrigible with my generalities, 
 and you so near, and will be here again this sum- 
 pier ; perhaps with A. W. and the other travellers. 
 My children scan curiously your E. s drawings, as 
 they have seen them. 
 
 The happiest winds fill the sails of you and yours I 
 
 R. W. EMERSON. 
 
228 RALPH WALDO EMER80NT. 
 
 In the year 1860, Theodore Parker died, and 
 Emerson spoke of his life and labors at the 
 meeting held at the Music Hall to do honor to 
 his memory. Emerson delivered discourses on 
 Sundays and week-days in the Music Hall to 
 Mr. Parker s society after his death. In 1862, 
 he lost his friend Thoreau, at whose funeral 
 he delivered an address which was published in 
 the "Atlantic Monthly" for August of the same 
 year. Thoreau had many rare and admirable 
 qualities, and Thoreau pictured by Emerson is a 
 more living personage than White of Selborne 
 would have been on the canvas of Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds. 
 
 The Address on the Emancipation Proclama 
 tion was delivered in Boston in September, 1862. 
 The feeling that inspired it may be judged by 
 the following extract : 
 
 "Happy are the young, who find the pestilence 
 cleansed out of the earth, leaving open to them an 
 honest career. Happy the old, who see Nature puri 
 fied before they depart. Do not let the dying die ; 
 hold them back to this world, until you have charged 
 their ear and heart with this message to other spiritual 
 societies, announcing the melioration of our planet : > 
 " Incertainties now crown themselves assured, 
 And Peace proclaims olives of endless age. " 
 
 The "Conduct of Life" was published in 
 1860. The chapter on " Fate " might leave the 
 
"CONDUCT OF LIFE" 229 
 
 reader with a feeling that what he is to do, as 
 well as what he is to be and to suffer, is so 
 largely predetermined for him, that his will, 
 though formally asserted, has but a questionable 
 fraction in adjusting him to his conditions as a 
 portion of the universe. But let him hold fast 
 to this reassuring statement : 
 
 " If we must accept Fate, we are not less compelled 
 to affirm liberty, the significance of the individual, the 
 grandeur of duty, the power of character. We are 
 sure, that, though we know not how, necessity does 
 comport with liberty, the individual with the world, 
 my polarity with the spirit of the times." 
 
 But the value of the Essay is not so much in 
 any light it throws on the mystery of volition, as 
 in the striking and brilliant way in which the 
 limitations of the individual and the inexplicable 
 rule of law are illustrated. 
 
 " Nature is no sentimentalist, does not cosset or 
 pamper us. We must see that the world is rough 
 and surly, and will not mind drowning a man or a 
 woman ; but swallows your ship like a grain of dust. 
 The way of Providence is a little rude. The habit 
 of snake and spider, the snap of the tiger and other 
 leapers and bloody jumpers, the crackle of the bones 
 of his prey in the coil of the anaconda, these are in 
 the system, and our habits are like theirs. You have 
 just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughter 
 house is concealed in the graceful distance of miles. 
 
230 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 there is complicity, expensive races, race living 
 at the expense of race. Let us not deny it up and 
 down. Providence has a wild, rough, incalculable 
 road to its end, and it is of no use to try to whitewash 
 its huge, mixed instrumentalities, or to dress up that 
 terrific benefactor in a clean shirt and white neckcloth 
 of a student in divinity." 
 
 Emerson cautions his reader against the dan 
 ger of the doctrines which he believed in so 
 fully: 
 
 " They who talk much of destiny, their birth-star, 
 etc., are in a lower dangerous plane, and invite the 
 evils they fear." 
 
 But certainly no physiologist, no cattle-breeder, 
 no Calvinistic predestinarian could put his view 
 more vigorously than Emerson, who dearly loves 
 a picturesque statement, has given it in these 
 words, which have a dash of science, a flash of 
 imagination, and a hint of the delicate wit that 
 is one of his characteristics : 
 
 " People are born with the moral or with the 
 material bias ; uterine brothers with this diverging 
 destination : and I suppose, with high magnifiers, 
 Mr. Fraunhofer or Dr. Carpenter might come to dis 
 tinguish in the embryo at the fourth day, this is a 
 whig and that a free-soiler." 
 
 Let us see what Emerson has to say of 
 " Power : " 
 
 " All successful men have agreed in one thing 
 
"POWER." 231 
 
 they were causationists. They believed that things 
 went not by luck, but by law ; that there was not a 
 weak or a cracked link in the chain that joins the 
 first and the last of things. 
 
 " The key to the age may be this, or that, or the 
 other, as the young orators describe ; the key to all 
 ages is, Imbecility ; imbecility in the vast major 
 ity of men at all times, and, even in heroes, in all 
 but certain eminent moments; victims of gravity, 
 custom, and fear. This gives force to the strong, 
 that the multitude have no habit of self-reliance or 
 original action. 
 
 "We say that success is constitutional; depends on 
 a plus condition of mind and body, on power of work, 
 on courage ; that it is of main efficacy in carrying on 
 the world, and though rarely found in the right state 
 for an article of commerce, but oftener in the super 
 saturate or excess, which makes it dangerous and de 
 structive, yet it cannot be spared, and must be had 
 in that form, and absorbents provided to take off its 
 edge." 
 
 The " two economies which are the best sue- 
 cedanea " for deficiency of temperament are con 
 centration and drill. This he illustrates by ex 
 ample, and he also lays down some good, plain, 
 practical rules which " Poor Kichard " would 
 have cheerfully approved. He might have ac 
 cepted also the Essay on " Wealth " as having 
 a good sense so like his own that he could 
 hardly tell the difference between them. 
 
232 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " Wealth begins in a tight roof that keeps the rain 
 and wind out ; in a good pump that yields you plenty 
 of sweet water; in two suits of clothes, so as to 
 change your dress when you are wet ; in dry sticks 
 to burn ; in a good double-wick lamp, and three 
 meals ; in a horse or locomotive to cross the land; 
 in a boat to cross the sea ; in tools to work with ; in 
 books to read ; and so, in giving, on all sides, by 
 tools and auxiliaries, the greatest possible extension 
 to our powers, as if it added feet, and hands, and 
 eyes, and blood, length to the day, and knowledge 
 and good will. Wealth begins with these articles of 
 necessity. 
 
 " To be rich is to have a ticket of admission to the 
 masterworks and chief men of each race. 
 
 " The pulpit and the press have many common 
 places denouncing the thirst for wealth ; but if men 
 should take these moralists at their word, and leave 
 off aiming to be rich, the moralists would rush to re 
 kindle at all hazards this love of power in the people, 
 lest civilization should be undone." 
 
 Who can give better counsels on " Culture " 
 than Emerson ? But we must borrow only a few 
 sentences from his essay on that subject. All 
 kinds of secrets come out as we read these 
 Essays of Emerson s. We know something of 
 his friends and disciples who gathered round 
 him and sat at his feet. It is not hard to be 
 lieve that he was drawing one of those composite 
 portraits Mr. Galton has given us specimens of 
 when lie wrote as follows : 
 
"CULTURE" 283 
 
 " The pest of society is egotists. This goitre of 
 egotism is so frequent among notable persons that we 
 must infer some strong necessity in nature which it 
 subserves ; such as we see in the sexual attraction. 
 The preservation of the species was a point of such 
 necessity that Nature has secured it at all hazards by 
 immensely overloading the passion, at the risk of per 
 petual crime and disorder. So egotism has its root 
 in the cardinal necessity by which each individual 
 persists to be what he is. 
 
 " The antidotes against this organic egotism are, 
 the range and variety of attractions, as gained by ac 
 quaintance with the world, with men of merit, with 
 classes of society, with travel, with eminent persons, 
 and with the high resources of philosophy, art, and 
 religion : books, travel, society, solitude." 
 
 " We can ill spare the commanding social benefits 
 of cities ; they must be used ; yet cautiously and 
 haughtily, and will yield their best values to him 
 who can best do without them. Keep the town for 
 occasions, but the habits should be formed to retire 
 ment. Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to 
 genius the stern friend, the cold, obscure shelter, 
 where moult the wings which will bear it farther than 
 suns and stars." 
 
 We must remember, too, that " the calamities 
 are our friends. Try the rough water as well 
 as the smooth. Rough water can teach lessons 
 worth knowing. Don t be so tender at making 
 an enemy now and then. He who aims high, 
 
234 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 must dread an easy home and popular man, 
 ners." 
 
 Emerson cannot have had many enemies, if 
 any, in his calm and noble career. He can have 
 cherished no enmity, on personal grounds at 
 least. But he refused his hand to one who had 
 spoken ill of a friend whom he respected. It 
 was " the hand of Douglas " again, the same 
 feeling that Charles Emerson expressed in the 
 youthful essay mentioned in the introduction to 
 this volume. 
 
 Here are a few good sayings about " Be 
 havior." 
 
 " There is always a best way of doing everything, 
 if it be to boil an egg. Manners are the happy ways 
 of doing things ; each once a stroke of genius or of 
 love, now repeated and hardened into usage." 
 
 Thus it is that Mr. Emerson speaks of " Man 
 ners " in his Essay under the above title. 
 
 " The basis of good manners is self-reliance. 
 Manners require time, as nothing is more vulgar than 
 haste. 
 
 " Men take each other s measure, when they meet 
 for the first time, and every time they meet. 
 
 " It is not what talents or genius a man has, but 
 how he is to his talents, that constitutes friendship 
 and character. The man that stands by himself, th 
 universe stands by him also." 
 
"WORSHIP." 235 
 
 In his Essay on " Worship," Emerson ventures 
 the following prediction : 
 
 "The religion which is to guide and fulfil the 
 present and coming ages, whatever else it be, must be 
 intellectual. The scientific mind must have a faith 
 which is science. There will be a new church 
 founded on moral science, at first cold and naked, a 
 babe in a manger again, the algebra and mathematics 
 of ethical law, the church of men to come, without 
 shawms or psaltery or sackbut ; but it will have heaven 
 and earth for its beams and rafters ; science for sym 
 bol and illustration ; it will fast enough gather beauty, 
 music, picture, poetry." 
 
 It is a bold prophecy, but who can doubt that 
 all improbable and un verifiable traditional knowl 
 edge of all kinds will make way for the estab 
 lished facts of science and history when these 
 last reach it in their onward movement ? It may 
 be remarked that he now speaks of science more 
 respectfully than of old. I suppose this Essay 
 was of later date than "Beauty," or "Illusions." 
 But accidental circumstances made such con 
 fusion in the strata of Emerson s published 
 thought that one is often at a loss to know 
 whether a sentence came from the older or the 
 newer layer. 
 
 We come to " Considerations by the Way." 
 The common-sense side of Emerson s mind has 
 so much in common with the plain practical in- 
 
236 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 telligence of Franklin that it is a pleasure to find 
 the philosopher of the nineteenth century quoting 
 the philosopher of the eighteenth. 
 
 " Franklin said, Mankind are very superficial and 
 dastardly : they begin upon a thing, but, meeting with 
 a difficulty, they fly from it discouraged: but they 
 have the means if they would employ them. " 
 
 " Shall we judge a country by the majority, or 
 by the minority ? By the minority, surely." Here 
 we have the doctrine of the " saving remnant," 
 which we have since recognized in Mr. Matthew 
 Arnold s well-remembered lecture. Our repub 
 lican philosopher is clearly enough outspoken on 
 this matter of the vox populi. " Leave this hypo 
 critical prating about the masses. Masses are 
 rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands, 
 and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled. 
 I wish not to concede anything to them, but to 
 tame, drill, divide, and break them up, and draw 
 individuals out of them." 
 
 Pere Bouhours asked a question about the 
 Germans which found its answer in due time. 
 After reading what Emerson says about "the 
 masses," one is tempted to ask whether a philos 
 opher can ever have " a constituency " and be 
 elected to Congress ? Certainly the essay just 
 quoted from would not make a very promising 
 ampaign document. 
 
"BEAUTY." 237 
 
 Perhaps there was no great necessity for Emer- 
 Bon s returning to the subject of "Beauty," to 
 which he had devoted a chapter of " Nature," 
 and of which he had so often discoursed inciden 
 tally. But he says so many things worth read 
 ing in the Essay thus entitled in the " Conduct of 
 Life " that we need not trouble ourselves about 
 repetitions. The Essay is satirical and poetical 
 rather than philosophical. Satirical when he 
 speaks of science with something of that old feel 
 ing betrayed by his brother Charles when he was 
 writing in 1828; poetical in the flight of imag 
 ination with which he enlivens, entertains, stim 
 ulates, inspires, or as some may prefer to say, 
 amuses his listeners and readers. 
 
 The reader must decide which of these effects 
 is produced by the following passage : 
 
 " The feat of the imagination is in showing the 
 convertibility of everything into every other thing. 
 Facts which had never before left their stark com 
 mon sense suddenly figure as Eleusinian mysteries. 
 My boots and chair and candlestick are fairies in 
 disguise, meteors, and constellations. All the facts in 
 Nature are nouns of the intellect, and make the 
 grammar of the eternal language. Every word has a 
 double, treble, or centuple use and meaning. What ! 
 has my stove and pepper-pot a false bottom ? I cry 
 you mercy, good shoe-box ! I did not know you were 
 ft jewel-case. Chaff and dust begin to sparkle, and 
 
238 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 are clothed about with immortality. And there is a 
 joy in perceiving the representative or symbolic char 
 acter of a fact, which no bare fact or event can ever 
 give. There are no days so memorable as those which 
 vibrated to some stroke of the imagination." 
 
 One is reminded of various things in reading 
 this sentence. An ounce of alcohol, or a few 
 whiffs from an opium-pipe, may easily make a 
 day memorable by bringing on this imaginative 
 delirium, which is apt, if often repeated, to run 
 into visions of rodents and reptiles. A coarser 
 6atirist than Emerson indulged his fancy in 
 44 Meditations on a Broomstick," which My Lady 
 Berkeley heard seriously and to edification. 
 Meditations on a " Shoe-box " are less promis 
 ing, but no doubt something could be made of 
 it. A poet must select, and if he stoops too low 
 he cannot lift the object he would fain idealize. 
 
 The habitual readers of Emerson do not mind 
 an occasional over-statement, extravagance, par 
 adox, eccentricity ; they find them amusing and 
 not misleading. But the accountants, for whom 
 two and two always make four, come upon one 
 of these passages and shut the book up as want 
 ing in sanity. Without a certain sensibility to 
 the humorous, no one should venture upon Em 
 erson. If he had seen the lecturer s smile as he 
 delivered one of his playful statements of a run* 
 ft-way truth, fact unhorsed by imagination, some* 
 
"ILLUSIONS." 239 
 
 times by wit, or humor, he would have found a 
 meaning in his words which the featureless 
 printed page could never show him. 
 
 The Essay on " Illusions " has little which we 
 have not met with, or shall not find repeating 
 itself in the Poems. 
 
 During this period Emerson contributed many 
 articles in prose and verse to the "Atlantic 
 Monthly," and several to " The Dial," a second 
 periodical of that name published in Cincinnati. 
 Some of these have been, or will be, elsewhere 
 referred to. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 1863-1868. ^T. 60-65. 
 
 " Boston Hymn." " Voluntaries." Other Poems. " May- 
 Day and other Pieces." " Remarks at the Funeral Ser 
 vices of Abraham Lincoln." Essay on Persian Poetry. 
 Address at a Meeting of the Free Religious Association. 
 "Progress of Culture." Address before the Phi Beta 
 Kappa Society of Harvard University. Course of Lec 
 tures in Philadelphia. The Degree of LL. D. conferred 
 upon Emerson by Harvard University. " Terminus." 
 
 THE " Boston Hymn " was read by Emerson 
 in the Music Hall, on the first day of January, 
 1863. It is a rough piece of verse, but noble 
 from beginning to end. One verse of it, begin 
 ning " Pay ransom to the owner," has been al 
 ready quoted ; these are the three that precede 
 
 it: 
 
 " I cause from every creature 
 His proper good to flow: 
 As much as he is and doeth 
 So much shall he bestow. 
 
 u But laying hands on another 
 
 To coin his labor and sweat, 
 He goes in pawn to his victim 
 For eternal years in debt. 
 
1 VOL UNT ARIES." 241 
 
 " To-day unbind the captive, 
 So only are ye unbound : 
 Lift up a people from the dust, 
 Trump of their rescue, sound ! " 
 
 " Voluntaries," published in the same year in 
 the " Atlantic Monthly," is more dithyrambic in 
 its measure and of a more Pindaric elevation than 
 the plain song of the " Boston Hymn." 
 
 But best befriended of the God 
 He who, in evil times, 
 Warned by an inward voice, 
 Heeds not the darkness and the dread, 
 Biding by his rule and choice, 
 Feeling only the fiery thread 
 Leading over heroic ground, 
 Walled with mortal terror round, 
 To the aim which him allures, 
 And the sweet heaven his deed secures. 
 Peril around, all else appalling, 
 Cannon in front and leaden rain, 
 Him Duty through the clarion calling 
 To the van called not in vain." 
 
 It is in this poem that we find the lines which, 
 a moment after they were written, seemed as if 
 they had been carved on marble for a thousand 
 years : 
 
 " So nigh is grandeur to our dust, 
 So near is God to man, 
 When Duty whispers low, Thou must, 
 The youth replies, / can" 
 16 
 
24:2 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " Saadi " was published in the " Atlantic 
 Monthly" in 1864, "My Garden" in 1866, 
 " Terminus " in 1867. In the same year these 
 last poems with many others were collected in a 
 small volume, entitled " May-Day, and Other 
 Pieces." The general headings of these poems 
 are as follows : May-Day. The Adirondacs. 
 Occasional and Miscellaneous Pieces. Nature 
 and Life. Elements. Quatrains. Transla 
 tions. Some of these poems, which were writ 
 ten at long intervals, have been referred to in 
 previous pages. " The Adirondacs " is a pleas 
 ant narrative, but not to be compared for its 
 poetical character with " May-Day," one passage 
 from which, beginning, 
 
 " I saw the bud-crowned Spring go forth," 
 
 is surpassingly imaginative and beautiful. In 
 this volume will be found " Brahma," " Days," 
 and others which are well known to all readers 
 of poetry. 
 
 Emerson s delineations of character are re 
 markable for high-relief and sharp-cut lines. In 
 his Remarks at the Funeral Services for Abra 
 ham Lincoln, held in Concord, April 19, 1865, 
 he drew the portrait of the homespun - robed 
 chief of the Republic with equal breadth and 
 delicacy : 
 
"FREE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION." 243 
 
 " Here was place for no holiday magistrate, no 
 fair weather sailor ; the new pilot was hurried to the 
 helm in a tornado. In four years, four years of 
 battle-days, his endurance, his fertility of resources, 
 his magnanimity, were sorely tried and never found 
 wanting. There, by his courage, his justice, his even 
 temper, his fertile counsel, his humanity, he stood a 
 heroic figure in the centre of a heroic epoch. He is 
 the true history of the American people in his time. 
 Step by step he walked before them ; slow with their 
 slowness, quickening his march by theirs, the true 
 representative of this continent ; an entirely public 
 man ; father of his country ; the pulse of twenty 
 millions throbbing in his heart, the thought of their 
 minds articulated by his tongue." 
 
 In his " Remarks at the Organization of the 
 Free Religious Association," Emerson stated his 
 leading thought about religion in a very succinct 
 and sufficiently "transcendental* way: intelli 
 gibly for those who wish to understand him ; 
 mystically to those who do not accept or wish to 
 accept the doctrine shadowed forth in his poem, 
 " The Sphinx." 
 
 "As soon as every man is apprised of the 
 Divine Presence within his own mind, is apprised 
 that the perfect law of duty corresponds with the 
 laws of chemistry, of vegetation, of astronomy, as 
 face to face in a glass ; that the basis of duty, the 
 order of society, the power of character, the wealth 
 
244 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 of culture, the perfection of taste, all draw their 
 essence from this moral sentiment ; then we have a 
 religion that exalts, that commands all the social and 
 all the private action." 
 
 Nothing could be more wholesome in a 
 meeting of creed-killers than the suggestive re 
 mark, 
 
 " What I expected to find here was, some prac 
 tical suggestions by which we were to reanimate and 
 reorganize for ourselves the true Church, the pure 
 worship. Pure doctrine always bears fruit in pure 
 benefits. It is only by good works, it is only on the 
 basis of active duty, that worship finds expression. 
 The interests that grow out of a meeting like this, 
 should bind us with new strength to the old eternal 
 duties." 
 
 In a later address before the same association, 
 Emerson says : 
 
 " I object, of course, to the claim of miraculous 
 dispensation, certainly not to the doctrine of Chris 
 tianity. If you are childish and exhibit your saint 
 as a worker of wonders, a thaumaturgist, I am re 
 pelled. That claim takes his teachings out of nature, 
 and permits official and arbitrary senses to be grafted 
 on the teachings." 
 
 The " Progress of Culture " was delivered as 
 a Phi Beta Kappa oration just thirty years after 
 his first address before the same society. It is 
 Very instructive to compare the two orations 
 
"PROGRESS OF CULTURE." 245 
 
 written at the interval of a whole generation: 
 one in 1837, at the age of thirty-four ; the other 
 in 1867, at the age of sixty-four. Both are 
 hopeful, but the second is more sanguine than 
 the first. He recounts what he considers the 
 recent gains of the reforming movement : 
 
 " Observe the marked ethical quality of the inno 
 vations urged or adopted. The new claim of woman 
 to a political status is itself an honorable testimony to 
 the civilization which has given her a civil status new 
 in history. Now that by the increased humanity of 
 law she controls her property, she inevitably takes the 
 next step to her share in power." 
 
 He enumerates many other gains, from the 
 war or from the growth of intelligence, " All, 
 one may say, in a high degree revolutionary, 
 teaching nations the taking of governments into 
 their own hands, and superseding kings." 
 
 He repeats some of his fundamental formulae. 
 
 "The foundation of culture, as of character, is at 
 last the moral sentiment. 
 
 " Great men are they who see that spiritual is 
 stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule 
 the world. 
 
 " Periodicity, reaction, are laws of mind as well as 
 of matter." 
 
 And most encouraging it is to read in 1884 
 Krhat was written in 1867, especially in the 
 View of future possibilities. 
 
246 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 "Bad kings and governors help us, if only 
 they are bad enough." Non tali auxilio^ we 
 exclaim, with a shudder of remembrance, and 
 are very glad to read these concluding words : 
 " I read the promise of better times and of 
 greater men." 
 
 In the year 1866, Emerson reached the age 
 which used to be spoken of as the " grand cli 
 macteric." In that year Harvard University 
 conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of 
 Laws, the highest honor in its gift. 
 
 In that same year, having left home on one of 
 his last lecturing trips, he met his son, Dr. 
 Edward Waldo Emerson, at the Brevoort House, 
 in New York. Then, and in that place, he read 
 to his son the poem afterwards published in the 
 " Atlantic Monthly," and in his second volume, 
 under the title " Terminus." This was the first 
 time that Dr. Emerson recognized the fact that 
 his father felt himself growing old. The thought, 
 which must have been long shaping itself in the 
 father s mind, had been so far from betraying 
 itself that it was a shock to the son to hear it 
 plainly avowed. The poem is one of his noblest ; 
 he could not fold his robes about him with more 
 of serene dignity than in these solemn lines. The 
 reader may remember that one passage from it 
 has been quoted for a particular purpose, but here 
 is the whole poem : 
 
TERMINUS. 247 
 
 TERMINUS. 
 
 It is time to be old, 
 
 To take in sail : 
 
 The god of bounds, 
 
 Who sets to seas a shore, 
 
 Came to me in his fatal rounda, 
 
 And said : " No more ! 
 
 No farther shoot 
 
 Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy roofc 
 
 Fancy departs : no more invent ; 
 
 Contract thy firmament 
 
 To compass of a tent. 
 
 There s not enough for this and that, 
 
 Make thy option which of two ; 
 
 Economize the failing river, 
 
 Not the less revere the Giver, 
 
 Leave the many and hold the few, 
 
 Timely wise accept the terms, 
 
 Soften the fall with wary foot ; 
 
 A little while 
 
 Still plan and smile, 
 
 And, fault of novel germs, 
 
 Mature the unfallen fruit. 
 
 Curse, if thou wilt, thy sires, 
 
 Bad husbands of their fires, 
 
 Who, when they gave thee breath, 
 
 Failed to bequeath 
 
 The needful sinew stark as once, 
 
 The baresark marrow to thy bones, 
 
 But left a legacy of ebbing veins, 
 
 Inconstant heat and nerveless reins, 
 
 Amid the Muses, left thee deaf and dumb, 
 
 Amid the gladiators, halt and numb." 
 
248 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 As the bird trims her to the gale 
 I trim myself to the storm of time, 
 I man the rudder, reef the sail, 
 Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime : 
 " Lowly faithful, banish fear, 
 Right onward drive unharmed ; 
 The port, well worth the cruise, is lear, 
 And every wave is charmed." 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 1868-1873. JEt. 65-70. 
 
 Lectures on the Natural History of the Intellect.- Publication 
 of " Society and Solitude." Contents: Society and Solitude. 
 Civilization. Art. Eloquence. Domestic Life. 
 Farming. Works and Days. Books. Clubs. Cour 
 age. Success. Old Age. Other Literary Labors. 
 Visit to California. Burning of his House, and the Story 
 of its Rebuilding. Third Visit to Europe. His Reception 
 at Concord on his Return. 
 
 DURING three successive years, 1868, 1869, 
 1870, Emerson delivered a series of Lectures at 
 Harvard University on the " Natural History of 
 the Intellect." These Lectures, as I am told by 
 Dr. Emerson, cost him a great deal of labor, but 
 I am not aware that they have been collected or 
 reported. They will be referred to in the course 
 of this chapter, in an extract from Prof. Thay- 
 er s " Western Journey with Mr. Emerson." 
 He is there reported as saying that he cared 
 very little for metaphysics. It is very certain 
 that he makes hardly any use of the ordinary 
 terms employed by metaphysicians. If he does 
 not hold the words " subject and object " with 
 their adjectives, in the same contempt that Mr. 
 
250 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Ruskin shows for them, he very rarely employs 
 either of these expressions. Once he ventures 
 on the not me, but in the main he uses plain 
 English handles for the few metaphysical tools 
 he has occasion to employ. 
 
 " Society and Solitude " was published in 
 1870. The first Essay in the volume bears the 
 same name as the volume itself. 
 
 In this first Essay Emerson is very fair to the 
 antagonistic claims of solitary and social life. 
 He recognizes the organic necessity of solitude. 
 We are driven " as with whips into the desert." 
 But there is danger in this seclusion. " Now 
 and then a man exquisitely made can live alone 
 and must ; but coop up most men and you undo 
 them. Here again, as so often, Nature delights 
 to put us between extreme antagonisms, and our 
 safety is in the skill with which we keep the 
 diagonal line. The conditions are met, if we 
 keep our independence yet do not lose our sym 
 pathy." 
 
 The Essay on " Civilization " is pleasing, put 
 ting familiar facts in a very agreeable way. 
 The framed or stone-house in place of the cave 
 or the camp, the building of roads, the change 
 from war, hunting, and pasturage to agriculture, 
 the division of labor, the skilful combinations 
 of civil government, the diffusion of knowledge 
 
" CIVILIZATION." 251 
 
 through the press, are well worn subjects which 
 he treats agreeably, if not with special bril 
 liancy : 
 
 " Right position of woman in the State is another 
 index. Place the sexes in right relations of mutual 
 respect, and a severe morality gives that essential 
 charm to woman which educates all that is delicate, 
 poetic, and self-sacrificing ; breeds courtesy and learn 
 ing, conversation and wit, in her rough mate, so that 
 I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is 
 the influence of good women." 
 
 My attention was drawn to one paragraph for 
 a reason which my reader will readily understand, 
 and I trust look upon good-naturedly : 
 
 " The ship, in its latest complete equipment, is an 
 abridgment and compend of a nation s arts : the ship 
 steered by compass and chart, longitude reckoned by 
 lunar observation and by chronometer, driven by 
 steam ; and in wildest sea-mountains, at vast distances 
 from home, 
 
 " The pulses of her iron heart 
 
 Go beating through the storm. " 
 
 I cannot be wrong, it seems to me, in supposing 
 those two lines to be an incorrect version of 
 these two from a poem of my own called " The 
 Steamboat : " 
 
 " The beating of her restless heart 
 Still sounding through the storm." 
 
 It is never safe to quote poetry from memory, 
 
252 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 at least while the writer lives, for he is ready to 
 " cavil on the ninth part of a hair " where his 
 verses are concerned. But extreme accuracy was 
 not one of Emerson s special gifts, and vanity 
 whispers to the misrepresented versifier that 
 
 t is better to be quoted wrong 
 Than to be quoted not at all. 
 
 This Essay of Emerson s is irradiated by a 
 single precept that is worthy to stand by the side 
 of that which Juvenal says came from heaven. 
 How could the man in whose thought such a 
 meteoric expression suddenly announced itself 
 fail to recognize it as divine ? It is not strange 
 that he repeats it on the page next the one 
 where we first see it. Not having any golden 
 letters to print it in, I will underscore it for 
 italics, and doubly underscore it in the second 
 extract for small capitals : 
 
 " Now that is the wisdom of a man, in every in 
 stance of his labor, to hitch his wagon to a star, and 
 see his chore done by the gods themselves." 
 
 " It was a great instruction, said a saint in Crom 
 well s war, that the best courages are but beams of 
 the Almighty. HITCH YOUR WAGON TO A STAB. 
 Let us not fag in paltry works which serve our pot 
 and bag alone. Let us not lie and steal. No god 
 will help. We shall find all their teams going the 
 other way, Charles s Wain, Great Bear, Orion, 
 Leo, Hercules : every god will leave us. Work rather 
 
"ART" 253 
 
 for those interests which the divinities honor and 
 promote, justice, love, freedom, knowledge, util- 
 ity." - 
 
 Charles s Wain and the Great Bear, he should 
 have been reminded, are the same constellation ; 
 the Dipper is what our people often call it, and 
 the country folk all know " the plnters," which 
 guide their eyes to the North Star. 
 
 I find in the Essay on " Art " many of the 
 thoughts with which we are familiar in Emer 
 son s poem, " The Problem." It will be enough 
 to cite these passages : 
 
 " We feel in seeing a noble building which rhymes 
 well, as we do in hearing a perfect song, that it is 
 spiritually organic ; that is, had a necessity in nature 
 for being ; was one of the possible forms in the 
 Divine mind, and is now only discovered and exe 
 cuted by the artist, not arbitrarily composed by him. 
 And so every genuine work of art has as much reason 
 for being as the earth and the sun. 
 
 " The Iliad of Homer, the songs of David, the 
 odes of Pindar, the tragedies of ^Eschylus, the Doric 
 temples, the Gothic cathedrals, the plays of Shak- 
 speare, all and each were made not for sport, but 
 in grave earnest, in tears and smiles of suffering and 
 loving men. 
 
 " The Gothic cathedrals were built when the 
 builder and the priest and the people were over 
 powered by their faith. Love and fear laid every 
 Itone. 
 
254 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " Our arts are happy hits. We are like the musi 
 cian on the lake, whose melody is sweeter than he 
 knows." 
 
 The discourse on " Eloquence " is more sys 
 tematic, more professorial, than many of the 
 others. A few brief extracts will give the key 
 to its general purport : 
 
 " Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest 
 narrative. Afterwards, it may warm itself until it 
 exhales symbols of every kind and color, speaks only 
 through the most poetic forms ; but, first and last, it 
 must still be at bottom a biblical statement of fact. 
 
 " He who will train himself to mastery in this 
 science of persuasion must lay the emphasis of educa 
 tion, not on popular arts, but on character and in 
 sight. 
 
 " The highest platform of eloquence is the moral 
 sentiment. 
 
 " Its great masters . . . were grave men, who 
 preferred their integrity to their talent, and esteemed 
 that object for which they toiled, whether the pros 
 perity of their country, or the laws, or a reformation, 
 or liberty of speech, or of the press, or letters, or 
 morals, as above the whole world and themselves 
 also." 
 
 " Domestic Life " begins with a picture of 
 childhood so charming that it sweetens all the 
 good counsel which follows like honey round 
 the rim of the goblet which holds some tonio 
 draught : 
 
"FARMING" 255 
 
 " Welcome to the parents the puny straggler, 
 Strong in his weakness, his little arms more irresistible 
 than the soldier s, his lips touched with persuasion 
 which Chatham and Pericles in manhood had not. 
 His unaffected lamentations when he lifts up his 
 voice on high, or, more beautiful, the sobbing child, 
 the face all liquid grief, as he tries to swallow his 
 vexation, soften all hearts to pity, and to mirthful 
 and clamorous compassion. The small despot asks so 
 little that all reason and all nature are on his side. 
 His ignorance is more charming than all knowledge, 
 and his little sins more bewitching than any virtue. 
 His flesh is angels flesh, all alive. All day, be 
 tween his three or four sleeps, he coos like a pigeon- 
 house, sputters and spurs and puts on his faces of 
 importance ; and when he fasts, the little Pharisee 
 fails not to sound his trumpet before him." 
 
 Emerson has favored his audiences and read 
 ers with what he knew about " Farming." Dr. 
 Emerson tells me that this discourse was read 
 as an address before the " Middlesex Agri 
 cultural Society," and printed in the " Transac 
 tions " of that association. He soon found out 
 that the hoe and the spade were not the tools he 
 was meant to work with, but he had some gen 
 eral ideas about farming which he expressed 
 very happily : 
 
 " The farmer s office is precise and important, but 
 you must not try to paint him in rose-color ; you can? 
 
256 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 not make pretty compliments to fate and gravitation, 
 whose minister he is. This hard work will always 
 be done by one kind of man ; not by scheming specu 
 lators, nor by soldiers, nor professors, nor readers of 
 Tennyson ; but by men of endurance, deep-chested, 
 long-winded, tough, slow and sure, and timely." 
 
 Emerson s chemistry and physiology are not 
 profound, but they are correct enough to make 
 a fine richly colored poetical picture in his im 
 aginative presentation. He tells the common 
 est facts so as to make them almost a sur. 
 prise : 
 
 " By drainage we went down to a subsoil we did 
 not know, and have found there is a Concord under 
 old Concord, which we are now getting the best crops 
 from ; a Middlesex under Middlesex ; and, in fine, 
 that Massachusetts has a basement story more valu 
 able and that promises to pay a better rent than all 
 the superstructure. * 
 
 In " Works and Days " there is much good 
 reading, but I will call attention to one or two 
 points only, as having a slight special interest of 
 their own. The first is the boldness of Emer 
 son s assertions and predictions in matters be 
 longing to science and art. Thus, he speaks of 
 " the transfusion of the blood, which, in Paris, 
 it was claimed, enables a man to change his blood 
 as often as his linen ! " And once more, 
 
"BOOKS." 257 
 
 " We are to have the balloon yet, and the next war 
 will be fought in the air." 
 
 Possibly ; but it is perhaps as safe to predict 
 that it will be fought on wheels ; the soldiers on 
 bicycles, the officers on tricycles. 
 
 The other point I have marked is that we find 
 in this Essay a prose version of the fine poem 
 printed in " May-Day " under the title " Days." 
 I shall refer to this more particularly hereafter. 
 
 It is wronging the Essay on "Books " to make 
 extracts from it. It is all an extract, taken from 
 years of thought in the lonely study and the pub 
 lic libraries. If I commit the wrong I have 
 spoken of, it is under protest against myself. 
 Every word of this Essay deserves careful read 
 ing. But here are a few sentences I have 
 selected for the reader s consideration : 
 
 " There are books ; and it is practicable to read 
 them because they are so few. 
 
 " I visit occasionally the Cambridge Library, and 
 I can seldom go there without renewing the convic 
 tion that the best of it all is already within the four 
 walls of my study at home. 
 
 " The three practical rules which I have to offer 
 are, 1. Never read any book that is not a year old. 
 2. Never read any but famed books. 3. Never 
 read any but what you like, or, in Shakspeare s 
 phrase, 
 
 17 
 
 VYBIU 
 
 OF "" 
 01 
 
258 RALPH WALDO EMERSON 1 . 
 
 " No profit goes where is no pleasure ta en : 
 In brief, Sir, study what you most affect. " 
 
 Emerson has a good deal to say about conver 
 sation in his Essay on " Clubs," but nothing very 
 notable on the special subject of the Essay. 
 Perhaps his diary would have something of in 
 terest with reference to the " Saturday Club," of 
 which he was a member, which, in fact, formed 
 itself around him as a nucleus, and which he at 
 tended very regularly. But he was not given to 
 personalities, and among the men of genius and 
 of talent whom he met there no one was quieter, 
 but none saw and heard and remembered more. 
 He was hardly what Dr. Johnson would have 
 called a " clubable " man, yet he enjoyed the 
 meetings in his still way, or he would never have 
 come from Concord so regularly to attend them. 
 He gives two good reasons for the existence of a 
 club like that of which I have been speaking : 
 
 " I need only hint the value of the club for bring 
 ing masters in their several arts to compare and 
 expand their views, to come to an understanding on 
 these points, and so that their united opinion shall 
 have its just influence on public questions of educa 
 tion and politics." 
 
 " A principal purpose also is the hospitality of the 
 club, as a means of receiving a worthy foreigner with 
 mutual advantage." 
 
 I do not think " public questions of education 
 
"COURAGE" 259 
 
 and politics " were very prominent at the social 
 meetings of the " Saturday Club," but " worthy 
 foreigners," and now and then one not so wor 
 thy, added variety to the meetings of the com 
 pany, which included a wide range of talents 
 and callings. 
 
 All that Emerson has to say about " Courage " 
 is worth listening to, for he was a truly brave 
 man in that sphere of action where there are 
 more cowards than are found in the battle-field. 
 He spoke his convictions fearlessly ; he carried 
 the spear of Ithuriel, but he wore no breastplate 
 save that which protects him 
 
 " Whose armor is his honest thought, 
 And simple truth his utmost skill." 
 
 He mentions three qualities as attracting the 
 wonder and reverence of mankind: 1. Disin 
 terestedness ; 2. Practical Power ; 3. Courage. 
 " I need not show how much it is esteemed, for 
 the people give it the first rank. They forgive 
 everything to it. And any man who puts his 
 life in peril in a cause which is esteemed be 
 comes the darling of all men." There are 
 good and inspiriting lessons for young and 
 old in this Essay or Lecture, which closes with 
 the spirited ballad of " George Nidiver," writ 
 ten " by a lady to whom all the particulars of 
 the fact are exactly known." 
 
260 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Men will read any essay or listen to any lec 
 ture which has for its subject, like the one 
 now before me, " Success." Emerson complains 
 of the same things in America which Carlyle 
 groaned over in England : 
 
 " We countenance each other in this life of show, 
 puffing, advertisement, and manufacture of public 
 opinion ; and excellence is lost sight of in the hunger 
 for sudden performance and praise. 
 
 "Now, though I am by no means sure that the 
 reader will assent to all my propositions, yet I think 
 we shall agree in my first rule for success, that we 
 shall drop the brag and the advertisement and take 
 Michael Angelo s course, * to confide in one s self and 
 be something of worth and value. " 
 
 Reading about "Success" is after all very 
 much like reading in old books of alchemy. 
 "How not to do it," is the lesson of all the 
 books and treatises. Geber and Albertus Mag 
 nus, Roger Bacon and Raymond Lully, and the 
 whole crew of "pauperes alcumistae," all give the 
 most elaborate directions showing their student 
 how to fail in transmuting Saturn into Luna 
 and Sol and making a billionaire of himself. 
 " Success " in its vulgar sense, the gaining of 
 money and position, is not to be reached by 
 following the rules of an instructor. Our " self- 
 made men," who govern the country by their 
 wealth and influence, have found their place by 
 
"OLD AGE." 261 
 
 adapting themselves to the particular circum 
 stances in which they were placed, and not by 
 studying the broad maxims of " Poor Richard," 
 or any other moralist or economist. For such 
 as these is meant the cheap cynical saying quoted 
 by Emerson, " Hien ne reussit mieux que le 
 succes." 
 
 But this is not the aim and end of Emerson s 
 teaching : 
 
 "I fear the popular notion of success stands in 
 direct opposition in all points to the real and whole 
 some success. One adores public opinion, the other 
 private opinion ; one fame, the other desert ; one 
 feats, the other humility ; one lucre, the other love ; 
 one monopoly, and the other hospitality of mind." 
 
 And so, though there is no alchemy in this 
 Lecture, it is profitable reading, assigning its 
 true value to the sterling gold of character, thw 
 gaining of which is true success, as against the 
 brazen idol of the market-place. 
 
 The Essay on " Old Age " has a special value 
 from its containing two personal reminiscences : 
 one of the venerable Josiah Quincy, a brief 
 mention ; the other the detailed record of a visit 
 in the year 1825, Emerson being then twenty- 
 two years old, to ex-President John Adams, soon 
 after the election of his son to the Presidency. 
 It is enough to allude to these, which every 
 reader will naturally turn to first of alL 
 
262 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 But many thoughts worth gathering are 
 dropped along these pages. He recounts the 
 benefits of age ; the perilous capes and shoals it 
 has weathered ; the fact that a success more or 
 less signifies little, so that the old man may go 
 below his own mark with impunity ; the feeling 
 that he has found expression, that his con 
 dition, in particular and in general, allows the 
 utterance of his mind ; the pleasure of complet 
 ing his secular affairs, leaving all in the best 
 posture for the future : 
 
 " When life has been well spent, age is a loss of 
 what it can well spare, muscular strength, organic 
 instincts, gross bulk, and works that belong to these. 
 But the central wisdom which was old in infancy is 
 young in fourscore years, and dropping off obstruc 
 tions, leaves in happy subjects the mind purified and 
 wise. I have heard that whoever loves is in no con 
 dition old. I have heard that whenever the name of 
 man is spoken, the doctrine of immortality is an 
 nounced ; it cleaves to his constitution. The mode 
 of it baffles our wit, and no whisper comes to us from 
 the other side. But the inference from the working 
 of intellect, hiving knowledge, hiving skill, at the 
 end of life just ready to be born, affirms the in 
 spirations of affection and of the moral sentiment." 
 
 Other literary labors of Emerson during this 
 period were the Introduction to " Plutarch s 
 Morals " in 1870, and a Preface to William El 
 
VISIT TO CALIFORNIA. 263 
 
 lery Channing s Poem, " The Wanderer," in 
 1871. He made a speech at Howard University, 
 \Yashington, in 1872. 
 
 In the year 1871 Emerson made a visit to 
 California with a very pleasant company, con 
 cerning which Mr. John M. Forbes, one of whose 
 sons married Emerson s daughter Edith, writes 
 to me as follows. Professor James B. Thayer, to 
 whom he refers, has more recently written and 
 published an account of this trip, from which 
 some extracts will follow Mr. Forbes s letter : 
 
 BOSTON, February 6, 1884. 
 
 MY DEAR DR., What little I can give will be 
 of a very rambling character. 
 
 One of the first memories of Emerson which comes 
 up is my meeting him on the steamboat at returning 
 from Detroit East. I persuaded him to stop over at 
 Niagara, which he had never seen. We took a car 
 riage and drove around the circuit. It was in early 
 summer, perhaps in 1848 or 1849. When we came 
 to Table Rock on the British side, our driver took us 
 down on the outer part of the rock in the carriage. 
 We passed on by rail, and the next day s papers 
 brought us the telegraphic news that Table Rock had 
 fallen over ; perhaps we were among the last persons 
 on it! 
 
 About 1871 I made up a party for California, in 
 cluding Mr. Emerson, his daughter Edith, and a 
 
 number of gay young people. We drove with B , 
 
 the famous Vermont coachman, up to the Geysers, 
 
264 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 and then made the journey to the Yosemite Valley 
 by wagon and on horseback. I wish I could give 
 you more than a mere outline picture of the sage at 
 this time. With the thermometer at 100 he would 
 sometimes drive with the buffalo robes drawn up over 
 his knees, apparently indifferent to the weather, gaz 
 ing on the new and grand scenes of mountain and 
 valley through which we journeyed. I especially 
 remember once, when riding down the steep side of a 
 mountain, his reins hanging loose, the bit entirely 
 out of the horse s mouth, without his being aware 
 that this was an unusual method of riding Pegasus, 
 so fixed was his gaze into space, and so unconscious 
 was he, at the moment, of his surroundings. 
 
 In San Francisco he visited with us the dens of the 
 opium smokers, in damp cellars, with rows of shelves 
 around, on which were deposited the stupefied Mon 
 golians ; perhaps the lowest haunts of humanity to 
 be found in the world. The contrast between them 
 and the serene eye and undisturbed brow of the sage 
 was a sight for all beholders. 
 
 When we reached Salt Lake City on our way 
 home he made a point of calling on Brigham Young, 
 then at the summit of his power. The Prophet, or 
 whatever he was called, was a burly, bull-necked man 
 of hard sense, really leading a great industrial army. 
 He did not seem to appreciate who his visitor was, at 
 any rate gave no sign of so doing, and the chief in 
 terest of the scene was the wide contrast between 
 these leaders of spiritual and of material forces. 
 
 I regret not having kept any notes of what wat 
 
VISIT TO CALIFORNIA. 265 
 
 said on this and other occasions, but if by chance you 
 could get hold of Professor J. B. Thayer, who was 
 one of our party, he could no doubt give you some 
 notes that would be valuable. 
 
 Perhaps the latest picture that remains in my mind 
 of our friend is his wandering along the beaches and 
 under the trees at Naushon, no doubt carrying home 
 large stealings from my domain there, which lost 
 none of their value from being transferred to his 
 pages. Next to his private readings which he gave 
 us there, the most notable recollection is that of his 
 intense amusement at some comical songs which our 
 young people used to sing, developing a sense of 
 humor which a superficial observer would hardly 
 have discovered, but which you and I know he pos 
 sessed in a marked degree. 
 
 Yours always, 
 
 J. M. FORBES. 
 
 Professor James B. Thayer s little book, " A 
 Western Journey with Mr. Emerson," is a very 
 entertaining account of the same trip concerning 
 which Mr. Forbes wrote the letter just given. 
 Professor Thayer kindly read many of his notes 
 to me before his account was published, and al 
 lows me to make such use of the book as I see 
 fit. Such liberty must not be abused, and I will 
 content myself with a few passages in which 
 Emerson has a part. No extract will interest 
 the reader more than the following : 
 
 " * How can Mr. Emerson, said one of the younger 
 
266 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 members of the party to me that day, * be so agree 
 able, all the time, without getting tired ! It was 
 the naive expression of what we all had felt. There 
 was never a more agreeable travelling companion ; 
 he was always accessible, cheerful, sympathetic, con 
 siderate, tolerant ; and there was always that same 
 respectful interest in those with whom he talked, even 
 the humblest, which raised them in their own estima 
 tion. One thing particularly impressed me, the 
 sense that he seemed to have of a certain great am 
 plitude of time and leisure. It was the behavior of 
 one who really believed in an immortal life, and had 
 adjusted his conduct accordingly ; so that, beautiful 
 and grand as the natural objects were, among which 
 our journey lay, they were matched by the sweet ele 
 vation of character, and the spiritual charm of our 
 gracious friend. Years afterwards, on that memo 
 rable day of his funeral at Concord, I found that a 
 sentence from his own Essay on Immortality haunted 
 my mind, and kept repeating itself all the day long ; 
 it seemed to point to the sources of his power: Mean 
 time the true disciples saw through the letter the doc 
 trine of eternity, which dissolved the poor corpse, 
 and Nature also, and gave grandeur to the passing 
 hour. " 
 
 This extract will be appropriately followed by 
 another alluding to the same subject. 
 
 " The next evening, Sunday, the twenty-third, Mr. 
 Emerson read his address on Immortality, at Dr. 
 Btebbins s church. It was the first time that he had 
 
VISIT TO CALIFORNIA. 267 
 
 spoken on the Western coast; never did he speak 
 better. It was, in the main, the same noble Essay 
 that has since been printed. 
 
 " At breakfast the next morning we had the news 
 paper, the Alta California. It gave a meagre out 
 line of the address, but praised it warmly, and closed 
 with the following observations : All left the church 
 feeling that an elegant tribute had been paid to the 
 creative genius of the Great First Cause, and that a 
 masterly use of the English language had contributed 
 to that end. " 
 
 The story used to be told that after the Rev 
 erend Horace Holley had delivered a prayer on 
 some public occasion, Major Ben. Russell, of 
 ruddy face and ruffled shirt memory, Editor of 
 " The Columbian Centinel," spoke of it in his 
 paper the next day as " the most eloquent prayer 
 ever addressed to a Boston audience." 
 
 The "Alta California s" " elegant tribute" 
 is not quite up to this rhetorical altitude. 
 
 " * The minister, said he, is in no danger of losing 
 his position ; he represents the moral sense and the 
 humanities. He spoke of his own reasons for leaving 
 the pulpit, and added that some one had lately come 
 to him whose conscience troubled him about retaining 
 the name of Christian ; he had replied that he him 
 self had no difficulty about it. When he was called 
 a Platonist, or a Christian, or a Republican, he wel 
 comed it. It did not bind him to what he did not 
 like. What is the use of going about and setting up 
 a flag of negation ? 
 
268 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " I made bold to ask him what he had in mind in 
 naming his recent course of lectures at Cambridge, 
 < The Natural History of the Intellect. This opened 
 a very interesting conversation ; but, alas ! I could 
 recall but little of it, little more than the mere 
 hintings of what he said. He cared very little for 
 metaphysics. But he thought that as a man grows 
 he observes certain facts about his own mind, 
 about memory, for example. These he had set down 
 from time to time. As for making any methodical 
 history, he did not undertake it." 
 
 Emerson met Brigham Young at Salt Lake 
 City, as has been mentioned, but neither seems 
 to have made much impression upon the other. 
 Emerson spoke of the Mormons. Some one had 
 said, " They impress the common people, through 
 their imagination, by Bible-names and imagery." 
 "Yes," he said, "it is an after-clap of Puritan 
 ism. But one would think that after this Father 
 Abraham could go no further." 
 
 The charm of Boswell s Life of Johnson is that 
 it not merely records his admirable conversation, 
 but also gives us many of those lesser peculiari 
 ties which are as necessary to a true biography 
 as lights and shades to a portrait on canvas. 
 We are much obliged to Professor Thayer there 
 fore for the two following pleasant recollections 
 which he has been good-natured enough to pro* 
 
VISIT TO CALIFORNIA. 269 
 
 serve for us, and with which we will take leave 
 of his agreeable little volume : 
 
 "At breakfast we had, among other things, pie. 
 This article at breakfast was one of Mr. Emerson s 
 weaknesses. A pie stood before him now. He 
 offered to help somebody from it, who declined ; 
 and then one or two others, who also declined ; and 
 
 then Mr. ; he too declined. But Mr. ! 
 
 Mr. Emerson remonstrated, with humorous empha 
 sis, thrusting the knife under a piece of the pie, and 
 putting the entire weight of his character into his 
 manner, but Mr. , what is pie for ? : 
 
 A near friend of mine, a lady, was once in the 
 cars with Emerson, and when they stopped for 
 the refreshment of the passengers he was very 
 desirous of procuring something at the station 
 for her solace. Presently he advanced upon her 
 with a cup of tea in one hand and a wedge of 
 pie in the other, such a wedge ! She could 
 hardly have been more dismayed if one of CaB- 
 sar s cunei, or wedges of soldiers, had made a 
 charge against her. 
 
 Yet let me say here that pie, often foolishly 
 abused, is a good creature, at the right time and 
 in angles of thirty or forty degrees. In semi 
 circles and quadrants it may sometimes prove 
 too much for delicate stomachs. But here was 
 Emerson, a hopelessly confirmed pie-eater, never, 
 so far as I remember, complaining of dyspepsia; 
 
270 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 and there, on the other side, was Carlyle, feeding 
 largely on wholesome oatmeal, groaning with in 
 digestion all his days, and living with half his 
 self -consciousness habitually centred beneath his 
 diaphragm. 
 
 Like his friend Carlyle and like Tennyson, 
 Emerson had a liking for a whiff of tobacco- 
 smoke : 
 
 " When alone," he said, " he rarely cared to finish 
 a whole cigar. But in company it was singular to 
 see how different it was. To one who found it 
 difficult to meet people, as he did, the effect of a 
 cigar was agreeable ; one who is smoking may be as 
 silent as he likes, and yet be good company. And so 
 Hawthorne used to say that he found it. On this 
 journey Mr. Emerson generally smoked a single ci 
 gar after our mid-day dinner, or after tea, and occa 
 sionally after both. This was multiplying, several 
 times over, anything that was usual with him at 
 home/ 
 
 Professor Thayer adds in a note : 
 
 " Like Milton, Mr. Emerson i was extraordinary 
 temperate in his Diet, and he used even less tobacco. 
 Milton s quiet day seems to have closed regularly 
 with a pipe ; he supped, we are told, l upon . . . 
 some light thing ; and after a pipe of tobacco and a 
 glass of water went to bed/ " 
 
 As Emerson s name has been connected with 
 that of Milton in its nobler aspects, it can do no 
 
BURNING OF HIS HOUSE. 271 
 
 harm to contemplate him, like Milton, indulging 
 in this semi-philosophical luxury. 
 
 One morning in July, 1872, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Emerson woke to find their room filled with 
 smoke and fire coming through the floor of a 
 closet in the room over them. The alarm was 
 given, and the neighbors gathered and did their 
 best to put out the flames, but the upper part of 
 the house was destroyed, and with it were burned 
 many papers of value to Emerson, including his 
 father s sermons. Emerson got wet and chilled, 
 and it seems too probable that the shock hast 
 ened that gradual loss of memory which came 
 over his declining years. 
 
 His kind neighbors did all they could to save 
 his property and relieve his temporary needs. 
 A study was made ready for him in the old 
 Court House, and the " Old Manse," which had 
 sheltered his grandfather, and others nearest to 
 him, received him once more as its tenant. 
 
 On the 15th of October he spoke at a dinner 
 given in New York in honor of James Anthony 
 Froude, the historian, and in the course of this 
 same month he set out on his third visit to 
 Europe, accompanied by his daughter Ellen. 
 We have little to record of this visit, which was 
 suggested as a relief and recreation while his 
 home was being refitted for him. He went to 
 Egypt, but so far as I have learned the Sphinx 
 
272 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 had no message for him, and in the state of 
 mind in which he found himself upon the mys 
 terious and dream-compelling Nile it may be 
 suspected that the landscape with its palms and 
 pyramids was an unreal vision, that, as to his 
 Humble-bee, 
 
 "All was picture as he passed." 
 
 But while he was voyaging his friends had not 
 forgotten him. The sympathy with him in his 
 misfortune was general and profound. It did 
 not confine itself to expressions of feeling, but 
 a spontaneous movement organized itself almost 
 without effort. If any such had been needed, 
 the attached friend whose name is appended to 
 the Address to the Subscribers to the Fund for 
 rebuilding Mr. Emerson s house would have 
 been as energetic in this new cause as he had 
 been in the matter of procuring the reprint of 
 " Sartor Eesartus." I have his kind permission 
 to publish the whole correspondence relating to 
 the friendly project so happily carried out. 
 
 To the Subscribers to the Fund for the Rebuilding of Mr. 
 Emerson s House, after the Fire of July 24, 1872 : 
 
 The death of Mr. Emerson has removed any objec 
 tion which may have before existed to the printing 
 of the following correspondence. I have now caused 
 this to be done, that each subscriber may have the 
 satisfaction of possessing a copy of the touching and 
 
STORY OF ITS REBUILDING. 273 
 
 affectionate letters in which he expressed his delight 
 in this, to him, most unexpected demonstration of 
 personal regard and attachment, in the offer to restore 
 for him his ruined home. 
 
 No enterprise of the kind was ever more fortunate 
 and successful in its purpose and in its results. The 
 prompt and cordial response to the proposed sub 
 scription was most gratifying. No contribution was 
 solicited from any one. The simple suggestion to 
 a few friends of Mr. Emerson that an opportunity 
 was now offered to be of service to him was all that 
 was needed. From the first day on which it was 
 made, the day after the fire, letters began to come in, 
 with cheques for large and small amounts, so that 
 in less than three weeks I was enabled to send to 
 Judge Hoar the sum named in his letter as received 
 by him on the 13th of August, and presented by him 
 to Mr. Emerson the next morning, at the Old Manse, 
 with fitting words. 
 
 Other subscriptions were afterwards received, in 
 creasing the amount on my book to eleven thousand 
 six hundred and twenty dollars. A part of this was 
 handed directly to the builder at Concord. The bal 
 ance was sent to Mr. Emerson October 7, and ac 
 knowledged by him in his letter of October 8, 1872. 
 
 All the friends of Mr. Emerson who knew of the 
 plan which was proposed to rebuild his house, seemed 
 to feel that it was a privilege to be allowed to express 
 in this way the love and veneration with which he 
 was regarded, and the deep debt of gratitude which 
 they owed to him, and there is no doubt that a much 
 38 
 
274 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 larger amount would have been readily and gladly 
 offered, if it had been required, for the object in 
 view. 
 
 Those who have had the happiness to join in this 
 friendly " conspiracy " may well take pleasure in the 
 thought that what they have done has had the effect 
 to lighten the load of care and anxiety which the 
 calamity of the fire brought with it to Mr. Emerson, 
 and thus perhaps to prolong for some precious years 
 the serene and noble life that was so dear to all 
 of us. 
 
 My thanks are due to the friends who have made 
 me the bearer of this message of good-will. 
 
 LE BARON RUSSELL. 
 
 BOSTON, May 8, 1882. 
 
 BOSTON, August 13, 1872. 
 
 DEAR MR. EMERSON : 
 
 It seems to have been the spontaneous desire of 
 your friends, on hearing of the burning of your house, 
 to be allowed the pleasure of rebuilding it. 
 
 A few of them have united for this object, and 
 now request your acceptance of the amount which 
 I have to-day deposited to your order at the Concord 
 Bank, through the kindness of our friend, Judge 
 Hoar. They trust that you will receive it as an ex 
 pression of sincere regard and affection from friends, 
 who will, one and all, esteem it a great privilege to 
 be permitted to assist in the restoration of your 
 home. 
 
 And if, in their eagerness to participate in so grate 
 ful a work, they may have exceeded the estimate of 
 
8TORT OF ITS REBUILDING. 275 
 
 your architect as to what is required for that purpose, 
 they beg that you will devote the remainder to such 
 other objects as may be most convenient to you. 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 LE BARON RUSSELL. 
 
 CONCORD, August 14, 1872. 
 DR. LE B. RUSSELL: 
 
 Dear Sir, I received your letters, with the check 
 for ten thousand dollars inclosed, from Mr. Barrett 
 last evening. This morning I deposited it to Mr. 
 Emerson s credit in the Concord National Bank, and 
 took a bank book for him, with his little balance 
 entered at the top, and this following, and carried it 
 to him with your letter. I told him, by way of pre 
 lude, that some of his friends had made him treasurer 
 of an association who wished him to go to England 
 and examine Warwick Castle and other noted houses 
 that had been recently injured by fire, in order to get 
 the best ideas possible for restoration, and then to 
 apply them to a house which the association was 
 formed to restore in this neighborhood. 
 
 When he understood the thing and had read your 
 letter, he seemed very deeply moved. He said that 
 he had been allowed so far in life to stand on his 
 own feet, and that he hardly knew what to say, 
 that the kindness of his friends was very great. I 
 said what I thought was best in reply, and told him 
 that this was the spontaneous act of friends, who 
 wished the privilege of expressing in this way their 
 espect and affection, and was done only by those 
 
276 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 who thought it a privilege to do so. I mentioned 
 Hillard as you desired, and also Mrs. Tappan, who, it 
 seems, had written to him and offered any assistance 
 he might need, to the extent of five thousand dollars, 
 personally. 
 
 I think it is all right, but he said he must see the 
 list of contributors, and would then say what he had 
 to say about it. He told me that Mr. F. C. Lowell, 
 who was his classmate and old friend, Mr. Bangs, 
 Mrs. Gurney, and a few other friends, had already 
 sent him five thousand dollars, which he seemed to 
 think was as much as he could bear. This makes 
 the whole a very gratifying result, and perhaps ex 
 plains the absence of some names on your book. 
 
 I am glad that Mr. Emerson, who is feeble and ill, 
 can learn what a debt of obligation his friends feel to 
 him, and thank you heartily for what you have done 
 about it. Very truly yours, 
 
 E. R. HOAR. 
 
 CONCORD, August 16, 1872. 
 
 MY DEAR LE BARON: 
 
 I have wondered and melted over your letter and 
 its accompaniments till it is high time that I should 
 reply to it, if I can. My misfortunes, as I have lived 
 along so far in this world, have been so few that I 
 have never needed to ask direct aid of the host of 
 good men and women who have cheered my life, 
 though many a gift has come to me. And this late 
 calamity, however rude and devastating, soon began 
 to look more wonderful in its salvages than in its 
 ruins, so that I can hardly feel any right to this 
 
8 TORT OF ITS REBUILDING. 277 
 
 munificent endowment with which you, and my other 
 friends through you, have astonished me. But I 
 cannot read your letter or think of its message with 
 out delight, that my companions and friends bear me 
 so noble a good-will, nor without some new aspirations 
 in the old heart toward a better deserving. Judge 
 Hoar has, up to this time, withheld from me the 
 names of my benefactors, but you may be sure that I 
 shall not rest till I have learned them, every one, to 
 repeat to myself at night and at morning. 
 
 Your affectionate friend and debtor, 
 
 E. W. EMERSON. 
 DR. LE BARON RUSSELL 
 
 CONCORD, October 8, 1872. 
 MY DEAR DOCTOR LE BARON : 
 
 I received last night your two notes, and the 
 cheque, enclosed in one of them, for one thousand 
 and twenty dollars. 
 
 Are my friends bent on killing me with kindness ? 
 No, you will say, but to make me live longer. I 
 thought myself sufficiently loaded with benefits al 
 ready, and you add more and more. It appears that 
 you all will rebuild my house and rejuvenate me by 
 sending me in my old days abroad on a young man s 
 excursion. 
 
 I am a lover of men, but this recent wonderful 
 experience of their tenderness surprises and occupies 
 my thoughts day by day. Now that I have all or 
 almost all the names of the men and women who 
 have conspired in this kindness to me (some of whom 
 I have never personally known), I please myself with 
 
278 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 the thought of meeting each and asking, Why have 
 we not met before ? Why have you not told me that 
 we thought alike ? Life is not so long, nor sympathy 
 of thought so common, that we can spare the so 
 ciety of those with whom we best agree. Well, t is 
 probably my own fault by sticking ever to my soli 
 tude. Perhaps it is not too late to learn of these 
 friends a better lesson. 
 
 Thank them for me whenever you meet them, and 
 say to them that I am not wood or stone, if I have 
 not yet trusted myself so far as to go to each one of 
 them directly. 
 
 My wife insists that I shall also send her acknowl 
 edgments to them and you. 
 
 Yours and theirs affectionately, 
 
 R. W. EMERSON. 
 DR. LE BARON RUSSELL. 
 
 The following are the names of the subscrib 
 ers to the fund for rebuilding Mr. Emerson s 
 house : 
 
 Mrs. Anne S. Hooper. Friends in New York and 
 
 Miss Alice S. Hooper. Philadelphia, through Mr. 
 
 Mrs. Caroline Tappan. Williams. 
 
 Miss Ellen S. Tappan. Mr. William Whiting. 
 
 Miss Mary A. Tappan. Mr. Frederick Beck. 
 
 Mr. T. G. Appleton. Mr. H. P. Kidder. 
 
 Mrs. Henry Edwards. Mrs. Abel Adams. 
 
 Miss Susan E. Dorr. Mrs. George Faulkner. 
 
 Misses Wigglesworth. Hon. E. K. Hoar. 
 Mr. Edward Wigglesworth. Mr. James B. Thayer. 
 
 Mr. J. Elliot Cabot. Mr. John M. Forbes. 
 
 Mrs. Sarah S. Russell. Mr. James H. Beal. 
 
RECEPTION AT CONCORD. 279 
 
 Mrs. Anna C. Lodge. Mr. T. Jefferson Coolidge. 
 
 Mr. H. H. Hunnewell. Mrs. S. Cabot. 
 
 Mr. James A. Dupee. Mrs. Anna C. Lowell. 
 
 Mrs. M. F. Sayles. Miss Helen L. Appleton. 
 
 J. R. Osgood & Co. Mr. Richard Soule. 
 
 Mr. Francis Geo. Shaw. Dr. R. W. Hooper. 
 
 Mr. William P. Mason. Mr. William Gray. 
 
 Mr. Sam l G. Ward. Mr. J. I. Bowditch. 
 
 Mr. Geo. C. Ward. Mrs. Lucia J. Briggs. 
 
 Mr. John E. Williams. Dr. Le Baron Russell. 
 
 In May, 1873, Emerson returned to Concord. 
 His friends and fellow-citizens received him with 
 every token of affection and reverence. A set 
 of signals was arranged to announce his arrival. 
 Carriages were in readiness for him and his fam 
 ily, a band greeted him with music, and passing 
 under a triumphal arch, he was driven to his 
 renewed old home amidst the welcomes and the 
 blessings of his loving and admiring friends and 
 neighbors. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1873-1878. 2Erc. 70-75. 
 
 Publication of "Parnassus." Emerson Nominated as Candi. 
 date for the Office of Lord Rector of Glasgow University. 
 Publication of " Letters and Social Aims." Contents : 
 Poetry and Imagination. Social Aims. Eloquence. 
 Resources. The Comic. Quotation and Originality. 
 Progress of Culture. Persian Poetry. Inspiration. 
 Greatness. Immortality. Address at the Unveiling of 
 the Statue of " The Minute- Man " at Concord. Publication 
 of CoUected Poems. 
 
 IN December, 1874, Emerson published " Par 
 nassus," a Collection of Poems by British and 
 American authors. Many readers may like to see 
 his subdivisions and arrangement of the pieces 
 he has brought together. They are as follows : 
 " Nature." " Human Life." " Intellectual." 
 
 " Contemplation." " Moral and Religious." 
 
 " Heroic." " Personal." " Pictures." 
 " Narrative Poems and Ballads." " Songs." 
 " Dirges and Pathetic Poems." " Comic and 
 Humorous." " Poetry of Terror." " Oracles 
 and Counsels." 
 
 I have borrowed so sparingly from the rich 
 mine of Mr. George Willis Cooke s " Ralph 
 
"PARNASSUS." 281 
 
 Waldo Emerson, His Life, Writings, and Philos 
 ophy," that I am pleased to pay him the respect 
 ful tribute of taking a leaf from his excellent 
 work. 
 
 " This collection, he says, 
 
 " was the result of his habit, pursued for many years, 
 of copying into his commonplace book any poem 
 which specially pleased him. Many of these favorites 
 had been read to illustrate his lectures on the English 
 poets. The book has no worthless selections, almost 
 everything it contains bearing the stamp of genius 
 and worth. Yet Emerson s personality is seen in its 
 many intellectual and serious poems, and in the small 
 number of its purely religious selections. With two 
 or three exceptions he copies none of those devotional 
 poems which have attracted devout souls. His poet 
 ical sympathies are shown in the fact that one third 
 of the selections are from the seventeenth century. 
 Shakespeare is drawn on more largely than any other, 
 no less than eighty-eight selections being made from 
 him. The names of George Herbert, Herrick, Ben 
 Jonson, and Milton frequently appear. Wordsworth 
 appears forty-three times, and stands next to Shake 
 speare ; while Burns, Byron, Scott, Tennyson, and 
 Chaucer make up the list of favorites. Many little 
 known pieces are included, and some whose merit is 
 other than poetical. This selection of poems is emi 
 nently that of a poet of keen intellectual tastes. It 
 is not popular in character, omitting many public 
 favorites, and introducing very much which can never 
 
282 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 be acceptable to the general reader. The Preface is 
 full of interest for its comments on many of the 
 poems and poets appearing in these selections." 
 
 I will only add to Mr. Cooke s criticism these 
 two remarks : First, that I have found it impos 
 sible to know under which of his divisions to 
 look for many of the poems I was in search of ; 
 and as, in the earlier copies at least, there was 
 no paged index where each author s pieces were 
 collected together, one had to hunt up his frag 
 ments with no little loss of time and patience, 
 under various heads, " imitating the careful 
 search that Isis made for the mangled body of 
 Osiris." The other remark is that each one of 
 Emerson s American fellow-poets from whom he 
 has quoted would gladly have spared almost any 
 of the extracts from the poems of his brother- 
 bards, if the editor would only have favored us 
 with some specimens of his own poetry, with a sin 
 gle line of which he has not seen fit to indulge us. 
 
 In 1874 Emerson received the nomination 
 by the independent party among the students of 
 Glasgow University for the office of Lord Kector. 
 He received five hundred votes against seven 
 hundred for Disraeli, who was elected. He saya 
 in a letter to Dr. J. Hutchinson Sterling : 
 
 " I count that vote as quite the fairest laurel that 
 has ever fallen on me ; and I cannot but feel deeply 
 
"LETTERS AND SOCIAL AIMS." 283 
 
 grateful to my young friends in the University, and 
 to yourself, who have been my counsellor and my too 
 partial advocate." 
 
 Mr. Cabot informs us in his Prefatory Note 
 to " Letters and Social Aims," that the proof 
 sheets of this volume, now forming the eighth 
 of the collected works, showed even before the 
 burning of his house and the illness which fol 
 lowed from the shock, that his loss of memory 
 and of mental grasp was such as to make it 
 unlikely that he would in any case have been 
 able to accomplish what he had undertaken. 
 Sentences, even whole pages, were repeated, and 
 there was a want of order beyond what even he 
 would have tolerated : 
 
 " There is nothing here that he did not write, and 
 he gave his full approval to whatever was done in 
 the way of selection and arrangement; but I cannot 
 say that he applied his mind very closely to the 
 matter." 
 
 This volume contains eleven Essays, the sub 
 jects of which, as just enumerated, are very va 
 rious. The longest and most elaborate paper 
 is that entitled "Poetry and Imagination." I 
 have room for little more than the enumeration 
 of the different headings of this long Essay. By 
 these it will be seen how wide a ground it covers. 
 They are "Introductory;" "Poetry;" "Imag- 
 
284 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 ination ; " " Veracity ; " " Creation ; " " Melody, 
 Rhyme, Form ; " " Bards and Trouveurs ; " 
 " Morals ; " " Transcendency." Many thoughts 
 with which we are familiar are reproduced, 
 expanded, and illustrated in this Essay. Unity 
 in multiplicity, the symbolism of nature, and 
 others of his leading ideas appear in new phrases, 
 not unwelcome, for they look fresh in every re 
 statement. It would be easy to select a score 
 of pointed sayings, striking images, large gener 
 alizations. Some of these we find repeated in 
 his verse. Thus : 
 
 " Michael Angelo is largely filled with the Creator 
 that made and makes men. How much of the original 
 craft remains in him, and he a mortal man ! " 
 
 And so in the well remembered lines of " The 
 Problem": 
 
 "Himself from God he could not free." 
 
 " He knows that he did not make his thought, 
 no, his thought made him, and made the sun and 
 stars." 
 
 " Art might obey but not surpass. 
 The passive Master lent his hand 
 To the vast soul that o er him planned. * 
 
 Hope is at the bottom of every Essay of 
 Emerson s as it was at the bottom of Pandora s 
 box: 
 
 " I doubt never the riches of nature, the gifts of 
 
"ELOQUENCE" 285 
 
 the future, the immense wealth of the mind. O yes, 
 poets we shall have, mythology, symbols, religion of 
 our own. 
 
 " Sooner or later that which is now life shall be 
 poetry, and every fair and manly trait shall add a 
 richer strain to the song." 
 
 Under the title " Social Aims " he gives some 
 wise counsel concerning manners and conversa 
 tion. One of these precepts will serve as a 
 specimen if we have met with it before it is 
 none the worse for wear : 
 
 " Shun the negative side. Never worry people with 
 your contritions, nor with dismal views of politics or 
 society. Never name sickness; even if you could 
 trust yourself on that perilous topic, beware of un 
 muzzling a valetudinarian, who will soon give you 
 your fill of it." 
 
 We have had one Essay on " Eloquence " aL 
 ready. One extract from this new discourse on 
 the same subject must serve our turn : 
 
 " These are ascending stairs, a good voice, win 
 ning manners, plain speech, chastened, however, by 
 the schools into correctness ; but we must come to the 
 main matter, of power of statement, know your 
 fact ; hug your fact. For the essential thing is heat, 
 and heat comes of sincerity. Speak what you do 
 know and believe ; and are personally in it ; and are 
 answerable for every word. Eloquence is the power 
 
286 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligi 
 ble to the person to whom you speak" 
 
 The italics are Emerson s. 
 
 If our learned and excellent John Cotton used 
 to sweeten his mouth before going to bed with 
 a bit of Calvin, we may as wisely sweeten and 
 strengthen our sense of existence with a morsel or 
 two from Emerson s Essay on " Resources " : 
 
 " A Schopenhauer, with logic and learning and wit, 
 teaching pessimism, teaching that this is the worst 
 of all possible worlds, and inferring that sleep is bet 
 ter than waking, and death than sleep, all the tal 
 ent in the world cannot save him from being odious. 
 But if instead of these negatives you give me affirma 
 tives ; if you tell me that there is always life for the 
 jiving ; that what man has done man can do ; that 
 this world belongs to the energetic ; that there is al 
 ways a way to everything desirable ; that every man 
 is provided, in the new bias of his faculty, with a key 
 to nature, and that man only rightly knows himself 
 as far as he has experimented on things, I am in 
 vigorated, put into genial and working temper ; the 
 horizon opens, and we are full of good-will and grati 
 tude to the Cause of Causes." 
 
 The Essay or Lecture on " The Comic " may 
 have formed a part of a series he had contem 
 plated on the intellectual processes. Two or three 
 Bayings in it will show his view sufficiently : 
 
 " The essence of all jokes, of all comedy, seems to 
 
" QUOTATION AND ORIGINALITY." 287 
 
 be an honest or well-intended halfness ; a non-per 
 formance of what is pretended to be performed, at 
 the same time that one is giving loud pledges o 
 performance. 
 
 " If the essence of the Comic be the contrast in the 
 intellect between the idea and the false performance, 
 there is good reason why we should be affected by the 
 exposure. We have no deeper interest than our in 
 tegrity, and that we should be made aware by joke 
 and by stroke of any lie we entertain. Besides, a 
 perception of the comic seems to be a balance-wheel 
 in our metaphysical structure. It appears to be an 
 essential element in a fine character. A rogue alive 
 to the ludicrous is still convertible. If that sense is 
 lost, his fellow-men can do little for him." 
 
 These and other sayings of like purport are 
 illustrated by well-preserved stories and anec 
 dotes not for the most part of very recent date. 
 
 "Quotation and Originality" furnishes the 
 key to Emerson s workshop. He believed in 
 quotation, and borrowed from everybody and 
 every book. Not in any stealthy or shame-faced 
 way, but proudly, royally, as a king borrows from 
 one of his attendants the coin that bears his own 
 image and superscription. 
 
 " All minds quote. Old and new make the warp 
 and woof of every moment. There is no thread that 
 is not a twist of these two strands. We quote not 
 
288 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 only books and proverbs, but arts, sciences, religion, 
 customs, and laws ; nay, we quote temples and houses, 
 tables and chairs by imitation. 
 
 " The borrowing is often honest enough and conies 
 of magnanimity and stoutness. A great man quotes 
 bravely, and will not draw on his invention when his 
 memory serves him with a word as good. 
 
 " Next to the originator of a good sentence is the 
 first quoter of it." 
 
 " The Progress of Culture," his second Phi 
 Beta Kappa oration, has already been men 
 tioned. 
 
 The lesson of self - reliance, which he is 
 never tired of inculcating, is repeated and en 
 forced in the Essay on " Greatness." 
 
 "There are certain points of identity in which 
 these masters agree. Self-respect is the early form in 
 which greatness appears. Stick to your own ; don t 
 inculpate yourself in the local, social, or national 
 crime, but follow the path your genius traces like the 
 galaxy of heaven for you to walk in. 
 
 " Every mind has a new compass, a new direction 
 of its own, differencing its genius and aim from every 
 other mind. We call this specialty the bias of each 
 individual. And none of us will ever accomplish any 
 thing excellent or commanding except when he listens 
 to this whisper which is heard by him alone." 
 
 If to follow this native bias is the first rule, 
 the second is concentration. To the bias of the 
 
" INSPIRATION." 289 
 
 individual mind must be added the most catholic 
 receptivity for the genius of others. 
 
 " Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar ? 
 It is this : Every man I meet is my master in some 
 point, and in that I learn of him." 
 
 " The man whom we have not seen, in whom no 
 regard of self degraded the adorer of the laws, 
 who by governing himself governed others ; sportive 
 in manner, but inexorable in act ; who sees longevity 
 in his cause ; whose aim is always distinct to him ; 
 who is suffered to be himself in society ; who carries 
 fate in his eye ; ho it is whom we seek, encouraged 
 in every good hour that here or hereafter he shall be 
 found." 
 
 What has Emerson to tell us of "Inspira 
 tion? 
 
 " I believe that nothing great and lasting can be 
 done except by inspiration, by leaning on the secret 
 augury. 
 
 " How many sources of inspiration can we count ? 
 As many as our affinities. But to a practical purpose 
 we may reckon a few of these." 
 
 I will enumerate them briefly as he gives 
 them, but not attempting to reproduce his com 
 ments on each : 
 
 1. Health. 2. The experience of writing let 
 ters. 3. The renewed sensibility which comes 
 after seasons of decay or eclipse of the faculties. 
 
 19 
 
290 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 4. The power of the will. 5. Atmospheric 
 causes, especially the influence of morning. 6. 
 Solitary converse with nature. 7. Solitude of 
 itself, like that of a country inn in summer, and 
 of a city hotel in winter. 8. Conversation. 9. 
 New poetry ; by which, he says, he means chiefly 
 old poetry that is new to the reader. 
 
 " Every book is good to read which sets the reader 
 in a working mood." 
 
 What can promise more than an Essay by 
 Emerson on " Immortality " ? It is to be feared 
 that many readers will transfer this note of in 
 terrogation to the Essay itself. What is the 
 definite belief of Emerson as expressed in this 
 discourse, what does it mean? We must tack 
 together such sentences as we can find that will 
 stand for an answer : 
 
 " I think all sound minds rest on a certain prelimi 
 nary conviction, namely, that if it be best that con 
 scious personal life shall continue, it will continue ; 
 if not best, then it will not ; and we, if we saw the 
 whole, should of course see that it was better so." 
 
 This is laying the table for a Barmecide feast 
 of nonentity, with the possibility of a real ban 
 quet to be provided for us. But he continues : 
 
 " Schiller said, * What is so universal as death 
 must be benefit. " 
 
 He tells us what Michael Angelo said, how 
 
"IMMORTALITY." 291 
 
 Plutarch felt, how Montesquieu thought about 
 the question, and then glances off from it to the 
 terror of the child at the thought of life without 
 end, to the story of the two skeptical statesmen 
 whose unsatisfied inquiry through a long course 
 of years he holds to be a better affirmative evi 
 dence than their failure to find a confirmation 
 was negative. He argues from our delight in 
 permanence, from the delicate contrivances and 
 adjustments of created things, that the contriver 
 cannot be forever hidden, and says at last 
 plainly : 
 
 " Everything is prospective, and man is to live 
 hereafter. That the world is for his education is the 
 only sane solution of the enigma." 
 
 But turn over a few pages and we may 
 read : 
 
 " I confess that everything connected with our 
 personality fails. Nature never spares the individual ; 
 we are always balked of a complete success ; no pros 
 perity is promised to our self-esteem. We have our 
 indemnity only in the moral and intellectual reality 
 to which we aspire. That is immortal, and we only 
 through that. The soul stipulates for no private good. 
 That which is private I see not to be good. If truth 
 live, I live ; if justice live, I live, said one of the old 
 saints, * and these by any man s suffering are enlarged 
 and enthroned. " 
 
 Once more we get a dissolving view of Emer* 
 
292 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 son s creed, if such a word applies to a state, 
 ment like the following : 
 
 "I mean that I am a better believer, and all 
 serious souls are better believers in the immortality 
 than we can give grounds for. The real evidence is 
 too subtle, or is higher than we can write down in 
 propositions, and therefore Wordsworth s Ode is the 
 best modern essay on the subject." 
 
 Wordsworth s " Ode " is a noble and beauti 
 ful dream ; is it anything more ? The reader 
 who would finish this Essay, which I suspect to 
 belong to an early period of Emerson s develop 
 ment, must be prepared to plunge into mysticism 
 and lose himself at last in an Oriental apologue. 
 The eschatology which rests upon an English 
 poem and an Indian fable belongs to the realm 
 of reverie and of imagination rather than the 
 domain of reason. 
 
 On the 19th of April, 1875, the hundredth 
 anniversary of the " Fight at the Bridge," Em 
 erson delivered a short Address at the unveiling 
 of the statue of " The Minute-Man," erected at 
 the place of the conflict, to commemorate the 
 event. This is the last Address he ever wrote, 
 though he delivered one or more after this date. 
 From the manuscript which lies before me I 
 Extract a single passage : 
 
 " In the year 1775 we had many enemies and 
 
"POEMS." 293 
 
 many friends in England, but our one benefactor was 
 King George the Third. The time had arrived for 
 the political severance of America, that it might play 
 its part in the history of this globe, and the inscru 
 table divine Providence gave an insane king to Eng 
 land. In the resistance of the Colonies, he alone 
 was immovable on the question of force. England 
 was so dear to us that the Colonies could only be 
 absolutely disunited by violence from England, and 
 only one man could compel the resort to violence. 
 Parliament wavered, Lord North wavered, all the 
 ministers wavered, but the king had the insanity of 
 one idea ; he was immovable, he insisted on the im 
 possible, so the army was sent, America was instantly 
 united, and the Nation born." 
 
 There is certainly no mark of mental failure 
 in this paragraph, written at a period when he 
 had long ceased almost entirely from his literary 
 labors. 
 
 Emerson s collected " Poems " constitute the 
 ninth volume of the recent collected edition of 
 his works. They will be considered in a fol 
 lowing chapter. 
 
CHAPTER Xin. 
 
 1878-1882. ^ET. 75-79. 
 
 Cast Literary Labors. Addresses and Essays. " Lectures 
 and Biographical Sketches." " Miscellanies." 
 
 THE decline of Emerson s working faculties 
 went on gently and gradually, but he was not 
 condemned to entire inactivity. His faithful 
 daughter, Ellen, followed him with assiduous, 
 quiet, ever watchful care, aiding his failing mem 
 ory, bringing order into the chaos of his manu 
 script, an echo before the voice whose words it 
 was to shape for him when his mind faltered 
 and needed a momentary impulse. 
 
 With her helpful presence and support he 
 ventured from time to time to read a paper be 
 fore a select audience. Thus, March 30, 1878, 
 he delivered a Lecture in the Old South Church, 
 " Fortune of the Republic." On the 5th of 
 May, 1879, he read a Lecture in the Chapel of 
 Divinity College, Harvard University, " The 
 Preacher." In 1881 he read a paper on Carlyle 
 before the Massachusetts Historical Society. 
 He also published a paper in the "North Amer- 
 
LAST LITERARY LABORS. 295 
 
 fcan Review," in 1878, " The Sovereignty of 
 Ethics," and one on " Superlatives," in " The 
 Century" for February, 1882. 
 
 But in these years he was writing little or 
 nothing. All these papers were taken from 
 among his manuscripts of different dates. The 
 same thing is true of the volumes published 
 since his death 5. they were only compilations 
 from his stores of unpublished matter, and their 
 arrangement was the work of Mr. Emerson s 
 friend and literary executor, Mr. Cabot. These 
 volumes cannot be considered as belonging to 
 any single period of his literary life. 
 
 Mr. Cabot prefixes to the tenth volume of 
 Emerson s collected works, which bears the title, 
 " Lectures and Biographical Sketches," the fol 
 lowing : 
 
 "NOTE. 
 
 " Of the pieces included in this volume the fol 
 lowing, namely, those from * The Dial, Character/ 
 Plutarch, and the biographical sketches of Dr. 
 Ripley, of Mr. Hoar, and of Henry Thoreau, were 
 printed by Mr. Emerson before I took any part in 
 the arrangement of his papers. The rest, except the 
 sketch of Miss Mary Emerson, I got ready for his 
 use in readings to his friends, or to a limited public. 
 He had given up the regular practice of lecturing, 
 but would sometimes, upon special request, read a 
 paper that had been prepared for him from his manu 
 scripts, in the manner described in the Preface to 
 
296 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 * Letters and Social Aims/ some former lecture 
 serving as a nucleus for the new. Some of these 
 papers he afterwards allowed to be printed ; others, 
 namely, * Aristocracy, Education, The Man of Let 
 ters, The Scholar/ Historic Notes of Life and 
 Letters in New England, Mary Moody Emerson/ 
 are now published for the first time." 
 
 Some of these papers I have already had oc 
 casion to refer to. From several of the others 
 I will make one or two extracts, a difficult 
 task, so closely are the thoughts packed together. 
 
 From " Demonology " : 
 
 " I say to the table-rappers 
 
 1 1 well believe 
 
 Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know, 
 And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate ! 
 
 " Meantime far be from me the impatience which 
 cannot brook the supernatural, the vast ; far be from 
 me the lust of explaining away all which appeals to 
 the imagination, and the great presentiments which 
 haunt us. Willingly I too say Hail ! to the unknown, 
 awful powers which transcend the ken of the under 
 standing." 
 
 I will not quote anything from the Essay 
 called " Aristocracy." But let him who wishes 
 to know what the word means to an American 
 whose life has come from New England soil, 
 whose ancestors have breathed New England 
 
LAST LITERARY LABORS. 297 
 
 air for many generations, read it, and he will 
 find a new interpretation of a very old and often 
 greatly wronged appellation. 
 
 "Perpetual Forces" is one of those prose 
 poems, of his earlier epoch, I have no doubt, 
 in which he plays with the facts of science 
 with singular grace and freedom. 
 
 What man could speak more fitly, with more 
 authority of " Character," than Emerson ? When 
 he says, " If all things are taken away, I have 
 still all things in my relation to the Eternal," 
 we feel that such an utterance is as natural to 
 his pure spirit as breathing to the frame in which 
 it was imprisoned. 
 
 We have had a glimpse of Emerson as a 
 school-master, but behind and far above the 
 teaching drill-master s desk is the chair from 
 which he speaks to us of " Education." Com 
 pare the short and easy method of the wise man 
 of old, " He that spareth his rod hateth his 
 son," with this other, " Be the companion of his 
 thought, the friend of his friendship, the lover 
 of his virtue, but no kinsman of his sin." 
 
 " The Superlative " will prove light and pleas 
 ant reading after these graver essays. M^Scv 
 ayav, ne quid nimis, nothing in excess, was 
 his precept as to adjectives. 
 
 Two sentences from " The Sovereignty of 
 Ethics " will go far towards reconciling elderly 
 
298 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 readers who have not forgotten the Westmin< 
 ster Assembly s Catechism with this sweet-souled 
 dealer in spiritual dynamite : 
 
 " Luther would cut his hand off sooner than write 
 theses against the pope if he suspected that he was 
 bringing on with all his might the pale negations of 
 Boston Unitarianism. 
 
 " If I miss the inspiration of the saints of Calvinism, 
 or of Platonism, or of Buddhism, our times are not 
 up to theirs, or, more truly, have not yet their own 
 legitimate force." 
 
 So, too, this from " The Preacher " : 
 
 " All civil mankind have agreed in leaving one day 
 for contemplation against six for practice. I hope 
 that day will keep its honor and its use. The Sab 
 bath changes its forms from age to age, but the 
 substantial benefit endures." 
 
 The special interest of the Address called 
 " The Man of Letters " is, that it was delivered 
 during the war. He was no advocate for peace 
 where great principles were at the bottom of the 
 conflict : 
 
 " War, seeking for the roots of strength, comes 
 upon the moral aspects at once. War ennobles the 
 age. Battle, with the sword, has cut many a Gor- 
 dian knot in twain which all the wit of East and 
 West, of Northern and Border statesmen could not 
 \intie." 
 
ESSAYS. 299 
 
 u The Scholar " was delivered before two 
 Societies at the University of Virginia so late as 
 the year 1876. If I must select any of its wise 
 words, I will choose the questions which he has 
 himself italicized to show his sense of their im 
 portance : 
 
 "For all men, all women, Time, your country, your 
 condition, the invisible world are the interrogators : 
 Who are you ? What do you ? Can you obtain 
 what you wish ? Is there method in your conscious 
 ness ? Can you see tendency in your life ? Can 
 you help any soul ? 
 
 " Can he answer these questions ? Can he dispose 
 of them ? Happy if you can answer them mutely in 
 the order and disposition of your life ! Happy for 
 more than yourself, a benefactor of men, if you can 
 answer them in works of wisdom, art, or poetry ; 
 bestowing on the general mind of men organic cre 
 ations, to be the guidance and delight of all who know 
 them." 
 
 The Essay on " Plutarch " has a peculiar value 
 from the fact that Emerson owes more to him 
 than to any other author except Plato, who is 
 one of the only two writers quoted oftener than 
 Plutarch. Mutato nomine, the portrait which 
 Emerson draws of the Greek moralist might 
 stand for his own : 
 
 " Whatever is eminent in fact or in fiction, in 
 opinion, in character, in institutions, in science 
 
300 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 natural, moral, or metaphysical, or in memorable 
 sayings drew his attention and came to his pen with 
 more or less fulness of record. 
 
 " A poet in verse or prose must have a sensuous 
 eye, but an intellectual co - perception. Plutarch s 
 memory is full and his horizon wide. Nothing touches 
 man but he feels to be his. 
 
 " Plutarch had a religion which Montaigne wanted, 
 and which defends him from wantonness ; and though 
 Plutarch is as plain spoken, his moral sentiment is al 
 ways pure. 
 
 " I do not know where to find a book to borrow 
 a phrase of Ben Jonson s t so rammed with life/ 
 and this in chapters chiefly ethical, which are so 
 prone to be heavy and sentimental. His vivacity 
 and abundance never leave him to loiter or pound on 
 an incident. 
 
 "In his immense quotation and allusion we quickly 
 cease to discriminate between what he quotes and what 
 he invents. T is all Plutarch, by right of eminent 
 domain, and all property vests in this emperor. 
 
 "It is a consequence of this poetic trait in his 
 mind, that I confess that, in reading him, I embrace 
 the particulars, and carry a faint memory of the argu 
 ment or general design of the chapter ; but he is not 
 less welcome, and he leaves the reader with a relish 
 and a necessity for completing his studies. 
 
 " He is a pronounced idealist, who does not hesi 
 tate to say, like another Berkeley, * Matter is itself 
 privation/ 
 
 " Of philosophy he is more interested in the results 
 
ESSAYS. 301 
 
 than in the method. He has a just instinct of the 
 presence of a master, and prefers to sit as a scholar 
 with Plato than as a disputant. 
 
 " His natural history is that of a lover and poet, 
 and not of a physicist. 
 
 " But though curious in the questions of the schools 
 on the nature and genesis of things, his extreme in 
 terest in every trait of character, and his hroad hu 
 manity, lead him constantly to Morals, to the study 
 of the Beautiful and Good. Hence his love of heroes, 
 his rule of life, and his clear convictions of the high 
 destiny of the soul. La Harpe said that Plutarch 
 is the genius the most naturally moral that ever ex 
 isted/ 
 
 " Plutarch thought truth to be the greatest good 
 that man can receive, and the goodliest blessing that 
 God can give. 
 
 " All his judgments are noble. He thought with 
 Epicurus that it is more delightful to do than to re 
 ceive a kindness. 
 
 " Plutarch was well-born, well-conditioned emi 
 nently social, he was a king in his own house, sur 
 rounded himself with select friends, and knew the 
 high value of good conversation. 
 
 "He had that universal sympathy with genius 
 which makes all its victories his own ; though he never 
 used verse, he had many qualities of the poet in the 
 power of his imagination, the speed of his mental 
 associations, and his sharp, objective eyes. But what 
 Bpecially marks him, he is a chief example of the 
 illumination of the intellect by the force of morals." 
 
802 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 How much of all this would have been recog 
 nized as just and true if it had been set down in 
 an obituary notice of Emerson ! 
 
 I have already made use of several of the other 
 papers contained in this volume, and will merely 
 enumerate all that follow the " Plutarch." Some 
 of the titles will be sure to attract the reader. 
 They are " Historic Notes of Life and Letters in 
 New England ; " " The Chardon Street Conven 
 tion ; " " Ezra Eipley, D. D. ; " " Mary Moody 
 Emerson;" "Samuel Hoar;" " Thoreau ; " 
 " Carlyle." 
 
 Mr. Cabot prefaces the eleventh and last 
 volume of Emerson s writings with the follow 
 ing " Note " : 
 
 " The first five pieces in this volume, and the 
 Editorial Address from the Massachusetts Quar 
 terly Review, were published by Mr. Emerson long 
 ago. The speeches at the John Brown, the Walter 
 Scott, and the Free Religious Association meetings 
 were published at the time, no doubt with his consent, 
 but without any active co-operation on his part. The 
 Fortune of the Republic appeared separately in 
 1879 ; the rest have never been published. In none 
 was any change from the original form made by me. 
 except in the Fortune of the Republic/ which was 
 made up from several lectures for the occasion upon 
 which it was read." 
 
"MISCELLANIES." 303 
 
 The volume of "Miscellanies" contains no 
 less than twenty -three pieces of very various 
 lengths and relating to many different subjects. 
 The five referred to as having been previously 
 published are, " The Lord s Supper," the " His 
 torical Discourse in Concord," the " Address at 
 the Dedication of the Soldiers Monument in 
 Concord," the "Address on Emancipation in the 
 British West Indies," and the Lecture or Essay 
 on " War," all of which have been already 
 spoken of. 
 
 Next in order comes a Lecture on the " Fu 
 gitive Slave Law." Emerson says, "I do not 
 often speak on public questions. My own 
 habitual view is to the well-being of scholars." 
 But he leaves his studies to attack the institu 
 tion of slavery, from which he says he himself 
 has never suffered any inconvenience, and the 
 " Law," which the abolitionists would always 
 call the " Fugitive Slave Bill" Emerson had 
 a great admiration for Mr. Webster, but he did 
 not spare him as he recalled his speech of the 
 seventh of March, just four years before the 
 delivery of this Lecture. He warns against 
 false leadership : 
 
 " To make good the cause of Freedom, you musi 
 draw off from all foolish trust in others. He only 
 frho is able to stand alone is qualified for society. 
 And that I understand to be the end for which a 
 
304 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 soul exists in this world, to be himself the counter 
 balance of all falsehood and all wrong. The Anglo- 
 Saxon race is proud and strong and selfish. Eng 
 land maintains trade, not liberty." 
 
 Cowper had said long before this : 
 
 " doing good, 
 Disinterested good, is not our trade." 
 
 And America found that England had not 
 learned that trade when, fifteen years after this 
 discourse was delivered, the conflict between 
 the free and slave states threatened the ruin of 
 the great Republic, and England forgot her 
 Anti-slavery in the prospect of the downfall of 
 " a great empire which threatens to overshadow 
 the whole earth." 
 
 It must be remembered that Emerson had 
 never been identified with the abolitionists. But 
 an individual act of wrong sometimes gives a 
 sharp point to a blunt dagger which has been 
 kept in its sheath too long : 
 
 " The events of the last few years and months and 
 days have taught us the lessons of centuries. I do 
 not see how a barbarous community and a civilized 
 community can constitute one State. I think we must 
 get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom." 
 
 These were his words on the 26th of May, 
 1856, in his speech on " The Assault upon MR 
 Sumner." 
 
" MISCELLANIES." 305 
 
 A few months later, in his " Speech on Af 
 fairs in Kansas," delivered almost five years 
 before the first gun was fired at Fort Sumter, 
 he spoke the following fatally prophetic and 
 commanding words : 
 
 "The hour is coming when the strongest will 
 not be strong enough. A harder task will the new 
 revolution of the nineteenth century be than was the 
 revolution of the eighteenth century. I think the 
 American Revolution bought its glory cheap. If 
 the problem was new, it was simple. If there were 
 few people, they were united, and the enemy three 
 thousand miles off. But now, vast property, gigantic 
 interests, family connections, webs of party, cover the 
 land with a net-work that immensely multiplies the 
 dangers of war. 
 
 " Fellow-citizens, in these times full of the fate of 
 the Republic, I think the towns should hold town 
 meetings, and resolve themselves into Gommittees of 
 Safety, go into permanent sessions, adjourning from 
 week to week, from month to month. I wish we 
 could send the sergeant-at-arms to stop every Ameri 
 can who is about to leave the country. Send home 
 every one who is abroad, lest they should find no 
 country to return to. Come home and stay at home 
 while there is a country to save. When it is lost it 
 will be time enough then for any who are luckless 
 enough to remain alive to gather up their clothes and 
 depart to some land where freedom exists." 
 
 Two short speeches follow, one delivered at a 
 20 
 
306 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 meeting for the relief of the family of John 
 Brown, on the 18th of November, 1859, the 
 other after his execution : 
 
 " Our blind statesmen," he says, " go up and down, 
 with committees of vigilance and safety, hunting for 
 the origin of this new heresy. They will need a 
 very vigilant committee indeed to find its birthplace, 
 and a very strong force to root it out. For the arch- 
 Abolitionist, older than Brown, and older than the 
 Shenandoah Mountains, is Love, whose other name 
 is Justice, which was before Alfred, before Lycurgus, 
 before Slavery, and will be after it." 
 
 From his " Discourse on Theodore Parker " I 
 take the following vigorous sentence : 
 
 "His commanding merit as a reformer is this, 
 that he insisted beyond all men in pulpits, I cannot 
 think of one rival, that the essence of Christianity 
 is its practical morals ; it is there for use, or it is 
 nothing ; and if you combine it with sharp trading, 
 or with ordinary city ambitions to gloze over munic 
 ipal corruptions, or private intemperance, or success 
 ful fraud, or immoral politics, or unjust wars, or the 
 cheating of Indians, or the robbery of frontier nations, 
 or leaving your principles at home to follow on the 
 high seas or in Europe a supple complaisance to ty 
 rants, it is hypocrisy, and the truth is not in you ; 
 and no love of religious music, or of dreams of 
 Swedenborg, or praise of John Wesley, or of Jeremy 
 Taylor, can save you from the Satan which you 
 
"MISCELLANIES" 307 
 
 The Lecture on " American Civilization," 
 made up from two Addresses, one of which was 
 delivered at Washington on the 31st of January, 
 1862, is, as might be expected, full of anti- 
 slavery. That on the " Emancipation Proclama 
 tion," delivered in Boston in September, 1862, is 
 as full of " silent joy " at the advent of " a day 
 which most of us dared not hope to see, an 
 event worth the dreadful war, worth its costs 
 and uncertainties." 
 
 From the " Remarks " at the funeral services 
 for Abraham Lincoln, held in Concord on the 
 19th of April, 1865, I extract this admirably 
 drawn character of the man : 
 
 " He is the true history of the American people in 
 his time. Step by step he walked before them ; slow 
 with their slowness, quickening his march by theirs, 
 the true representative of this continent ; an entirely 
 public man ; father of his country, the pulse of twenty 
 millions throbbing in his heart, the thought of their 
 minds articulated by his tongue." 
 
 The following are the titles of the remaining 
 contents of this volume : " Harvard Commemo 
 ration Speech;" "Editor s Address: Massa 
 chusetts Quarterly Review ; " " Woman ; " " Ad 
 dress to Kossuth ; " " Robert Burns ;" " Walter 
 Scott ; " " Remarks at the Organization of the 
 Free Religious Association ; " " Speech at the 
 Annual Meeting of the Free Religious Associa 
 tion ; " " The Fortune of the Republic." 
 
808 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 In treating of the " Woman Question," Emer 
 son speaks temperately, delicately, with perfect 
 fairness, but leaves it in the hands of the women 
 themselves to determine whether they shall have 
 an equal part in public affairs. "The new 
 movement," he says, " is only a tide shared by 
 the spirits of man and woman; and you may 
 proceed in the faith that whatever the woman s 
 heart is prompted to desire, the man s mind is 
 simultaneously prompted to accomplish." 
 
 It is hard to turn a leaf in any book of Emer 
 son s writing without finding some pithy remark 
 or some striking image or witty comment which 
 illuminates the page where we find it and tempts 
 us to seize upon it for an extract. But I must 
 content myself with these few sentences from 
 "The Fortune of the Republic," the last ad 
 dress he ever delivered, in which his belief in 
 America and her institutions, and his trust in 
 the Providence which overrules all nations and 
 all worlds, have found fitting utterance : 
 
 " Let the passion for America cast out the passion 
 for Europe. Here let there be what the earth waits 
 for, exalted manhood. What this country longs for 
 is personalities, grand persons, to counteract its mate 
 rialities. For it is the rule of the universe that corn 
 shall serve man, and not man corn. 
 
 " They who find America insipid, they for whom 
 London and Paris have spoiled their own homes, can 
 
"MISCELLANIES" 309 
 
 be spared to return to those cities. I not only see a 
 career at home for more genius than we have, but for 
 more than there is in the world. 
 
 " Our helm is given up to a better guidance than 
 our own ; the course of events is quite too strong for 
 any helmsman, and our little wherry is taken in tow 
 by the ship of the great Admiral which knows the 
 way, and has the force to draw men and states and 
 planets to their good." 
 
 With this expression of love and respect for 
 his country and trust in his country s God, we 
 may take leave of Emerson s prose writings. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 EMERSON S POEMS. 
 
 THE following " Prefatory Note " by Mr. 
 Cabot introduces the ninth volume of the series 
 of Emerson s collected works : 
 
 "This volume contains nearly all the pieces in 
 cluded in the POEMS and MAY-DAY of former edi 
 tions. In 1876 Mr. Emerson published a selection 
 from his poems, adding six new ones, and omitting 
 many. Of those omitted, several are now restored, 
 in accordance with the expressed wishes of many 
 readers and lovers of them. Also some pieces never 
 before pubh shed are here given in an Appendix, on 
 various grounds. Some of them appear to have had 
 Mr. Emerson s approval, hut to have been withheld 
 because they were unfinished. These it seemed best 
 not to suppress, now that they can never receive their 
 completion. Others, mostly of an early date, re 
 mained unpublished doubtless because of their per 
 sonal and private nature. Some of these seem to 
 have an autobiographic interest sufficient to justify 
 their publication. Others again, often mere frag 
 ments, have been admitted as characteristic, or as ex 
 pressing in poetic form thoughts found in the Essays, 
 
EMERSOWS POEMS. 811 
 
 " In coining to a decision in these cases, it Deemed 
 on the whole preferable to take the risk of including 
 too much rather than the opposite, and to leave the 
 task of further winnowing to the hands of time. 
 
 " As was stated in the Preface to the first volume 
 of this edition of Mr. Emerson s writings, the readings 
 adopted by him in the " Selected Poems " have not 
 always been followed here, but in some cases prefer 
 ence has been given to corrections made by him when 
 he was in fuller strength than at the time of the last 
 revision. 
 
 " A change in the arrangement of the stanzas of 
 " May-Day," in the part representative of the march 
 of Spring, received his sanction as bringing them more 
 nearly in accordance with the events in Nature." 
 
 Emerson s verse has been a fertile source of 
 discussion. Some have called him a poet and 
 nothing but a poet, and some have made so 
 much of the palpable defects of his verse that 
 they have forgotten to recognize its true claims. 
 His prose is often highly poetical, but his verse 
 is something more than the most imaginative 
 and rhetorical passages of kis prose. An illus 
 tration presently to be given will make this point 
 clear. 
 
 Poetry is to prose what the so-called full dress 
 of the ball-room is to the plainer garments of 
 the household and the street. Full dress, as we 
 call it, is so full of beauty that it cannot hold it 
 
312 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 all, and the redundancy of nature overflows the 
 narrowed margin of satin or velvet. 
 
 It reconciles us to its approach to nudity by 
 the richness of its drapery and ornaments. A 
 pearl or diamond necklace or a blushing bouquet 
 excuses the liberal allowance of undisguised na 
 ture. We expect from the fine lady in her 
 brocades and laces a generosity of display which 
 we should reprimand with the virtuous severity 
 of Tartuffe if ventured upon by the waiting- 
 maid in her calicoes. So the poet reveals him 
 self under the protection of his imaginative and 
 melodious phrases, the flowers and jewels of 
 his vocabulary. 
 
 Here is a prose sentence from Emerson s 
 " Works and Days : " 
 
 " The days are ever divine as to the first Aryans. 
 They come and go like muffled and veiled figures, 
 sent from a distant friendly party ; but they say 
 nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, 
 they carry them as silently away." 
 
 Now see this thought in full dress, and then 
 ask what is the difference between prose and 
 
 poetry : 
 
 "DAYS. 
 
 " Daughters of Time, the hypocritic Days, 
 Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes, 
 And marching single in an endless file, 
 Bring diadems and fagots in their hands. 
 To each they offer gifts after his will, 
 
EMERSOWS POEMS. 313 
 
 Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all. 
 
 I in my pleached garden watched the pomp, 
 
 Forgot my morning wishes, hastily 
 
 Took a few herbs and apples, and the Day 
 
 Turned and departed silent. I too late 
 
 Under her solemn fillet saw the scorn." 
 
 Cinderella at the fireside, and Cinderella 
 at the prince s ball ! The full dress version of 
 the thought is glittering with new images like 
 bracelets and brooches and ear-rings, and fringed 
 with fresh adjectives like edges of embroidery. 
 That one word pleached, an heir-loom from 
 Queen Elizabeth s day, gives to the noble sonnet 
 an antique dignity and charm like the effect of 
 an ancestral jewel. But mark that now the poet 
 reveals himself as he could not in the prosaic 
 form of the first extract. It is his own neglect 
 of his great opportunity of which he now speaks, 
 and not merely the indolent indifference of 
 others. It is himself who is the object of scorn. 
 Self-revelation of beauty embellished by orna 
 ments is the privilege of full dress ; self -reve 
 lation in the florid costume of verse is the divine 
 right of the poet. Passion that must express 
 itself longs always for the freedom of rhythmic 
 utterance. And in spite of the exaggeration and 
 extravagance which shield themselves under the 
 claim of poetic license, I venture to affirm that 
 u In vino veritas " is not truer than In carmine 
 veritas. 
 
314 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 As a further illustration of what has just 
 been said of the self-revelations to be looked for 
 in verse, and in Emerson s verse more especially, 
 let the reader observe how freely he talks about 
 his bodily presence and infirmities in his poetry, 
 subjects he never referred to in prose, except 
 incidentally, in private letters. 
 
 Emerson is so essentially a poet that whole 
 pages of his are like so many litanies of alter 
 nating chants and recitations. His thoughts slip 
 on and off their light rhythmic robes just as the 
 mood takes him, as was shown in the passage I 
 have quoted in prose and in verse. Many of 
 the metrical preludes to his lectures are a versi 
 fied and condensed abstract of the leading doc 
 trine of the discourse. They are a curious in 
 stance of survival ; the lecturer, once a preach 
 er, still wants his text ; and finds his scriptural 
 motto in his own rhythmic inspiration. 
 
 Shall we rank Emerson among the great poets 
 or not ? 
 
 " The great poets are judged by the frame of mind 
 they induce ; and to them, of all men, the severest 
 eriticism is due." 
 
 These are Emerson s words in the Preface to 
 u Parnassus." 
 His own poems will stand this test as well as 
 
EMERSON S POEMS. 315 
 
 any in the language. They lift the reader into 
 a higher region of thought and feeling. This 
 seems to me a better test to apply to them 
 than the one which Mr. Arnold cited from 
 Milton. The passage containing this must be 
 taken, not alone, but with the context. Milton 
 had been speaking of " Logic " and of " Kheto- 
 ric," and spoke of poetry " as being less subtile 
 and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passion 
 ate." This relative statement, it must not be 
 forgotten, is conditioned by what went before. 
 If the terms are used absolutely, and not com 
 paratively, as Milton used them, they must be 
 very elastic if they would stretch widely enough 
 to include all the poems which the world recog 
 nizes as masterpieces, nay, to include some of 
 the best of Milton s own. 
 
 In spite of what he said about himself in his 
 letter to Carlyle, Emerson was not only a poet, 
 but a very remarkable one. Whether a great 
 poet or not will depend on the scale we use and 
 the meaning we affix to the term. The heat at 
 eighty degrees of Fahrenheit is one thing and the 
 heat at eighty degrees of Re aumur is a very 
 different matter. The rank of poets is a point 
 of very unstable equilibrium. From the days 
 of Homer to our own, critics have been dis 
 puting about the place to be assigned to this or 
 that member of the poetic hierarchy. It is not 
 
316 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 the most popular poet who is necessarily the 
 greatest ; Wordsworth never had half the pop 
 ularity of Scott or Moore. It is not the mul 
 titude of remembered passages which settles 
 the rank of a metrical composition as poetry. 
 Gray s " Elegy," it is true, is full of lines we all 
 remember, and is a great poem, if that term can 
 be applied to any piece of verse of that length. 
 But what shall we say to the " Ars Poetica " 
 of Horace? It is crowded with lines worn 
 smooth as old sesterces by constant quotation. 
 And yet we should rather call it a versified criti 
 cism than a poem in the full sense of that word. 
 And what shall we do with Pope s "Essay 
 on Man," which has furnished more familiar 
 lines than " Paradise Lost " and " Paradise Re 
 gained " both together ? For all that, we know 
 there is a school of writers who will not allow 
 that Pope deserves the name of poet. 
 
 It takes a generation or two to find out what 
 are the passages in a great writer which are to 
 become commonplaces in literature and conver 
 sation. It is to be remembered that Emer 
 son is one of those authors whose popularity 
 must diffuse itself from above downwards. And 
 after all, few will dare assert that " The Van 
 ity of Human Wishes" is greater as a poem 
 than Shelley s " Ode to the West Wind," or 
 Keats s "Ode to a Nightingale," because no 
 
EMERSON S POEMS. 311 
 
 line in either of these poems is half so often 
 quoted as 
 
 " To point a moral or adorn a tale." 
 
 We cannot do better than begin our consid 
 eration of Emerson s poetry with Emerson s 
 own self-estimate. He says in a fit of humility, 
 writing to Carlyle : 
 
 " I do not belong to the poets, but only to a low 
 department of literature, the reporters, suburban 
 men." 
 
 But Miss Peabody writes to Mr. Ireland : 
 " He once said to me, * I am not a great poet 
 but whatever is of me is a poet. 1 " 
 
 These opposite feelings were the offspring of 
 different moods and different periods. 
 
 Here is a fragment, written at the age of 
 twenty-eight, in which his self-distrust and his 
 consciousness of the " vision," if not " the faculty, 
 divine," are revealed with the brave nudity of 
 the rhythmic confessional : 
 " A dull uncertain brain, 
 
 But gifted yet to know 
 
 That God has cherubim who go 
 
 Singing an immortal strain, 
 
 Immortal here below. 
 
 I know the mighty bards, 
 
 I listen when they sing, 
 
 And now I know 
 
 The secret store 
 
818 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Which these explore 
 
 When they with torch of genius pierce 
 
 The tenfold clouds that cover 
 
 The riches of the universe 
 
 From God s adoring lover. 
 
 And if to me it is not given 
 
 To fetch one ingot thence 
 
 Of that unfading gold of Heaven 
 
 His merchants may dispense, 
 
 Yet well I know the royal mine 
 
 And know the sparkle of its ore, 
 Know Heaven s truth from lies that shine, 
 
 Explored, they teach us to explore." 
 
 These lines are from " The Poet," a series 
 of fragments given in the " Appendix," which, 
 with his first volume, " Poems," his second, 
 " May-Day, and other Pieces," form the complete 
 ninth volume of the new series. These frag 
 ments contain some of the loftiest and noblest 
 passages to be found in his poetical works, and 
 if the reader should doubt which of Emerson s 
 self-estimates in his two different moods spoken 
 of above had most truth in it, he could question 
 no longer after reading " The Poet." 
 
 Emerson has the most exalted ideas of the 
 true poetic function, as this passage from " Mer 
 lin " sufficiently shows : 
 
 " Thy trivial harp will never please 
 Or fill my craving ear ; 
 Its chords should ring as blows the breeze, 
 Free, peremptory, clear. 
 
EMERSON S POEMS. 319 
 
 No jingling serenader s art 
 
 Nor tinkling of piano-strings 
 
 Can make the wild blood start 
 
 In its mystic springs ; 
 
 The kingly bard 
 
 Must smite the chords rudely and hard, 
 
 As with hammer or with mace ; 
 
 That they may render back 
 
 Artful thunder, which conveys 
 
 Secrets of the solar track, 
 
 Sparks of the supersolar blaze. 
 
 Great is the art, 
 
 Great be the manners of the bard. 
 
 He shall not his brain encumber 
 
 With the coil of rhythm and number ; 
 
 But leaving rule and pale forethought 
 
 He shall aye climb 
 
 For his rhyme. 
 
 Pass in, pass in, the angels say, 
 * In to the upper doors, 
 
 Nor count compartments of the floors, 
 
 But mount to paradise 
 
 By the stairway of surprise. " 
 
 And here is another passage from " The Poet," 
 mentioned in the quotation before the last, in 
 which the bard is spoken of as performing greater 
 miracles than those ascribed to Orpheus : 
 " A Brother of the world, his song 
 
 Sounded like a tempest strong 
 
 Which tore from oaks their branches broad, 
 
 And stars from the ecliptic road. 
 
 Time wore he as his clothing-weeds, 
 
820 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 He sowed the sun and moon for seeds. 
 
 As melts the iceberg in the seas, 
 
 As clouds give rain to the eastern breeze, 
 
 As snow-banks thaw in April s beam, 
 
 The solid kingdoms like a dream 
 
 Resist in vain his motive strain, 
 
 They totter now and float amain. 
 
 For the Muse gave special charge 
 
 His learning should be deep and large, 
 
 And his training should not scant 
 
 The deepest lore of wealth or want : 
 
 His flesh should feel, his eyes should read 
 
 Every maxim of dreadful Need ; 
 
 In its fulness he should taste 
 
 Life s honeycomb, but not too fast ; 
 
 Full fed, but not intoxicated ; 
 
 He should be loved ; he should be hated ; 
 
 A blooming child to children dear, 
 
 His heart should palpitate with fear." 
 
 We look naturally to see what poets were 
 Emerson s chief favorites. In his poems " The 
 Test" and "The Solution," we find that the 
 five whom he recognizes as defying the powers 
 of destruction are Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, 
 Swedenborg, Goethe. 
 
 Here are a few of his poetical characterizationa 
 from " The Harp : " 
 
 " And this at least I dare affirm, 
 Since genius too has bound and term, 
 There is no bard in all the choir, 
 Not Homer s self, the poet-sire, 
 Wise Milton s odes of pensive pleasure, 
 
EMERSON S POEMS. 321 
 
 Or Shakespeare whom no mind can measure, 
 
 Nor Collins verse of tender pain, 
 
 Nor Byron s clarion of disdain, 
 
 Scott, the delight of generous boys, 
 
 Or Wordsworth, Pan s recording voice, 
 
 Not one of all can put in verse, 
 
 Or to this presence could rehearse 
 
 The sights and voices ravishing 
 
 The boy knew on the hills in spring." 
 
 In the notice of " Parnassus " some of his 
 preferences have been already mentioned. 
 
 Comparisons between men of genius for the 
 sake of aggrandizing the one at the expense of 
 the other are the staple of the meaner kinds of 
 criticism. No lover of art will clash a Venetian 
 goblet against a Roman amphora to see which 
 is stronger ; no lover of nature undervalues a 
 violet because it is not a rose. But comparisons 
 used in the way of description are not odious. 
 
 The difference between Emerson s poetry and 
 that of the contemporaries with whom he would 
 naturally be compared is that of algebra and 
 arithmetic. He deals largely in general sym 
 bols, abstractions, and infinite series. He is al 
 ways seeing the universal in the particular. The 
 great multitude of mankind care more for two 
 and two, something definite, a fixed quantity, 
 than for a -j- 5 8 and cc 2 8 , symbols used for 
 undetermined amounts and indefinite possibili- 
 
 21 
 
322 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 ties. Emerson is a citizen of the universe who 
 has taken up his residence for a few days and 
 nights in this travelling caravansary between 
 the two inns that hang out the signs of Venus 
 and Mars. This little planet could not provin- 
 cialize such a man. The multiplication-table is 
 for the every day use of every day earth-people, 
 but the symbols he deals with are too vast, some 
 times, we must own, too vague, for the unillumi- 
 nated terrestrial and arithmetical intelligence. 
 One cannot help feeling that he might have 
 dropped in upon us from some remote centre of 
 spiritual life, where, instead of addition and sub 
 traction, children were taught quaternions, and 
 where the fourth dimension of space was as famil 
 iarly known to everybody as a foot-measure or a 
 yard-stick is to us. Not that he himself dealt 
 in the higher or the lower mathematics, but he 
 saw the hidden spiritual meaning of things as 
 Professor Cayley or Professor Sylvester see the 
 meaning of their mysterious formulae. Without 
 using the Rosetta-stone of Swedenborg, Emer 
 son finds in every phenomenon of nature a hiero 
 glyphic. Others measure and describe the monu 
 ments, he reads the sacred inscriptions. How 
 alive he makes Monadnoc! Dinocrates under 
 took to "hew Mount Athos to the shape of 
 man" in the likeness of Alexander the Great. 
 Without the help of tools or workmen, Emerson 
 
EMERSON S POEMS. 323 
 
 tuakes "Cheshire s haughty hill" stand before 
 us an impersonation of kingly humanity, and 
 talk with us as a god from Olympus might have 
 talked. 
 
 This is the fascination of Emerson s poetry ; 
 it moves in a world of universal symbolism. The 
 sense of the infinite fills it with its majestic 
 presence. It shows, also, that he has a keen 
 delight in the every-day aspects of nature. But 
 he looks always with the eye of a poet, never 
 with that of the man of science. The law of 
 association of ideas is wholly different in the two. 
 The scientific man connects objects in sequences 
 and series, and in so doing is guided by their 
 collective resemblances. His aim is to classify 
 and index all that he sees and contemplates so 
 as to show the relations which unite, and learn 
 the laws that govern, the subjects of his study. 
 The poet links the most remote objects together 
 by the slender filament of wit, the flowery chain 
 of fancy, or the living, pulsating cord of imagina 
 tion, always guided by his instinct for the beauti 
 ful. The man of science clings to his object, as 
 the marsupial embryo to its teat, until he has 
 filled himself as full as he can hold ; the poet 
 takes a sip of his dew-drop, throws his head up 
 like a chick, rolls his eyes around in contempla 
 tion of the heavens above him and the universe in 
 general, and never thinks of asking a Linna3an 
 
324 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 question as to the flower that furnished him 
 his dew-drop. The poetical and scientific natures 
 rarely coexist; Haller and Goethe are examples 
 which show that such a union may occur, but as 
 a rule the poet is contented with the colors of 
 the rainbow and leaves the study of Fraunhof er s 
 lines to the man of science. 
 
 Though far from being a man of science, 
 Emerson was a realist in the best sense of that 
 word. But his realities reached to the highest 
 heavens : like Milton, 
 
 " He passed the flaming bounds of place and time ; 
 The living throne, the sapphire blaze 
 Where angels tremble while they gaze, 
 HE SAW" 
 
 Everywhere his poetry abounds in celestial im 
 agery. If Galileo had been a poet as well as an 
 astronomer, he would hardly have sowed his 
 verse thicker with stars than we find them in the 
 poems of Emerson. 
 
 Not less did Emerson clothe the common as 
 pects of life with the colors of his imagination. 
 He was ready to see beauty everywhere : 
 
 " Thou can st not wave thy staff in air, 
 Or dip thy paddle in the lake, 
 But it carves the bow of beauty there, 
 And the ripples in rhyme the oar forsake." 
 
 He called upon the poet to 
 
 " Tell men what they knew before ; 
 Paint the prospect from their door." 
 
EMERSON S POEMS. 325 
 
 And his practice was like his counsel. He saw 
 our plain New England life with as honest New 
 England eyes as ever looked at a huckleberry- 
 bush or into a milking-pail. 
 
 This noble quality of his had its dangerous 
 side. In one of his exalted moods he would 
 have us 
 
 "Give to barrows, trays and pans 
 Grace and glimmer of romance." 
 
 But in his Lecture on " Poetry and Imagina 
 tion," he says: 
 
 " What we once admired as poetry has long since 
 come to he a sound of tin pans ; and many of our 
 later books we have outgrown. Perhaps Homer and 
 Milton will be tin pans yet." 
 
 The " grace and glimmer of romance " which 
 were to invest the tin pan are forgotten, and he 
 uses it as a belittling object for comparison. 
 He himself was not often betrayed into the mis 
 take of confounding the prosaic with the poetical, 
 but his followers, so far as the " realists " have 
 taken their hint from him, have done it most 
 thoroughly. Mr. Whitman enumerates all the 
 objects he happens to be looking at as if they 
 were equally suggestive to the poetical mind, fur 
 nishing his reader a large assortment on which 
 he may exercise the fullest freedom of selec 
 tion. It is only giving him the same liberty 
 that Lord Timothy Dexter allowed his readers 
 
326 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 in the matter of punctuation, by leaving all 
 stops out of his sentences, and printing at the 
 end of his book a page of commas, semicolons, 
 colons, periods, notes of interrogation and ex 
 clamation, with which the reader was expected 
 to "pepper" the pages as he might see fit. 
 
 French realism does not stop at the tin pan, 
 but must deal with the slop-pail and the wash- 
 tub as if it were literally true that 
 " In the mud and scum of things 
 There alway, alway something sings." 
 
 Happy were it for the world if M. Zola and his 
 tribe would stop even there ; but when they cross 
 the borders of science into its infected districts, 
 leaving behind them the reserve and delicacy 
 which the genuine scientific observer never for 
 gets to carry with him, they disgust even those 
 to whom the worst scenes they describe are too 
 wretchedly familiar. The true realist is such a 
 man as Parent du Chatelet ; exploring all that 
 most tries the senses and the sentiments, and 
 reporting all truthfully, but soberly, chastely, 
 without needless circumstance, or picturesque 
 embellishment, for a useful end, and not for a 
 mere sensational effect. 
 
 What a range of subjects from " The Prob 
 lem " and " Uriel " and "Forerunners " to " The 
 Humble-Bee" and "The Titmouse!" Nor let 
 the reader who thinks the poet must go far to 
 
EMERSON S POEMS. 327 
 
 find a fitting theme fail to read the singularly 
 impressive home-poem, " Hamatreya," beginning 
 with the names of the successive owners of a 
 piece of land in Concord, probably the same 
 he owned after the last of them : 
 
 "Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint," 
 
 and ending with the austere and solemn " Earth- 
 Song." 
 
 Full of poetical feeling, and with a strong 
 desire for poetical expression, Emerson experi 
 enced a difficulty in the mechanical part of met 
 rical composition. His muse picked her way as 
 his speech did in conversation and in lecturing. 
 He made desperate work now and then with 
 rhyme and rhythm, showing that though a born 
 poet he was not a born singer. Think of mak 
 ing " feeble " rhyme with " people," " abroad " 
 with "Lord," and contemplate the following 
 couplet which one cannot make rhyme without 
 actual verbicide : 
 
 " Where feeds the moose, and walks the surly bear, 
 And up the tall mast runs the woodpeck "- are ! 
 
 And how could prose go on all-fours more ui>- 
 metrically than this ? 
 
 " In Adirondac lakes 
 At morn or noon the guide rows bare-headed." 
 
 It was surely not difficult to say 
 
 " At morn or noon bare-headed rows the guide." 
 
328 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 And yet while we note these blemishes, many of 
 us will confess that we like his uncombed verse 
 better, oftentimes, than if it were trimmed more 
 neatly and disposed more nicely. When he is 
 at his best, his lines flow with careless ease, as a 
 mountain stream tumbles, sometimes rough and 
 sometimes smooth, but all the more interesting 
 for the rocks it runs against and the grating of 
 the pebbles it rolls over. 
 
 There is one trick of verse which Emerson 
 occasionally, not very often, indulges in. This 
 is the crowding of a redundant syllable into a 
 line. It is a liberty which is not to be abused by 
 the poet. Shakespeare, the supreme artist, and 
 Milton, the " mighty-mouth d inventor of harmo 
 nies," knew how to use it effectively. Shelley 
 employed it freely. Bryant indulged in it oc 
 casionally, and wrote an article in an early num 
 ber of the "North American Review " in defence 
 of its use. Willis was fond of it. As a relief 
 to monotony it may be now and then allowed, 
 may even have an agreeable effect in breaking 
 the monotony of too formal verse. But it may 
 easily become a deformity and a cause of aver 
 sion. A humpback may add picturesqueness to 
 a procession, but if there are too many hump 
 backs in line we turn away from the sight of 
 them. Can any ear reconcile itself to the last 
 of these three lines of Emerson s ? 
 
EMERSON S POEMS. 329 
 
 " Oh, what is Heaven but the fellowship 
 Of minds that each can stand against the world 
 By its own meek and incorruptible will ? " 
 
 These lines that lift their backs up in the mid 
 dle span-worm lines, we may call them are 
 not to be commended for common use because 
 some great poets have now and then admitted 
 them. They have invaded some of our recent 
 poetry as the canker-worms gather on our elms 
 in June. Emerson has one or two of them here 
 and there, but they never swarm on his leaves 
 so as to frighten us away from their neighbor 
 hood. 
 
 As for the violently artificial rhythms and 
 rhymes which have reappeared of late in English 
 and American literature, Emerson would as soon 
 have tried to ride three horses at once in a cir 
 cus as to shut himself up in triolets, or attempt 
 any cat s -cradle tricks of rhyming sleight of 
 hand. 
 
 If we allow that Emerson is not a born singer, 
 that he is a careless versifier and rhymer, we 
 must still recognize that there is something in 
 his verse which belongs, indissolubly, sacredly, 
 to his thought. Who would decant the wine 
 of his poetry from its quaint and antique-look 
 ing lagena ? Read his poem to the ^Eolian 
 harp (" The Harp ") and his model betrays it 
 self: 
 
830 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " These syllables that Nature spoke, 
 And the thoughts that in him woke 
 Can adequately utter none 
 Save to his ear the wind-harp lone. 
 Therein I hear the Parcse reel 
 The threads of man at their humming wheel, 
 The threads of life and power and pain, 
 So sweet and mournful falls the strain. 
 And best can teach its Delphian chord 
 How Nature to the soul is moored, 
 If once again that silent string, 
 As erst it wont, would thrill and ring." 
 
 There is no need of quoting any of the poema 
 which have become familiar to most true lov 
 ers of poetry. Emerson saw fit to imitate the 
 Egyptians by placing " The Sphinx " at the 
 entrance of his temple of song. This poem was 
 not fitted to attract worshippers. It is not easy 
 of comprehension, not pleasing in movement. 
 As at first written it had one verse in it which 
 sounded so much like a nursery rhyme that 
 Emerson was prevailed upon to omit it in the 
 later versions. There are noble passages in it, 
 but they are for the adept and not for the begin 
 ner. A commonplace young person taking up 
 the volume and puzzling his or her way along 
 come by and by to the verse : 
 
 " Have I a lover 
 
 Who is noble and free ? 
 I would he were nobler 
 Than to love me." 
 
EMERSON S POEMS. 331 
 
 The commonplace young person will be apt to 
 say or think c est magnifique, mais ce n est pas 
 V amour. 
 
 The third poem in the volume, " The Prob 
 lem," should have stood first in order. This 
 ranks among the finest of Emerson s poems. 
 All his earlier verse has a certain freshness 
 which belongs to the first outburst of song in a 
 poetic nature. " Each and All," " The Humble- 
 Bee," " The Snow-Storm," should be read before 
 "Uriel," "The World-Soul," or " Mithridates." 
 " Monadnoc " will be a good test of the read 
 er s taste for Emerson s poetry, and after this 
 " Woodnotes." 
 
 In studying his poems we must not overlook 
 the delicacy of many of their descriptive por 
 tions. If in the flights of his imagination he 
 is like the strong-winged bird of passage, in his 
 exquisite choice of descriptive epithets he re 
 minds me of the temii-rostrals. His subtle selec 
 tive instinct penetrates the vocabulary for the 
 one word he wants, as the long, slender bill of 
 those birds dives deep into the flower for its 
 drop of honey. Here is a passage showing admi 
 rably the two different conditions : wings closed 
 and the selective instinct picking out its de 
 scriptive expressions ; then suddenly wings flash 
 ing open and the imagination in the firmament, 
 where it is always at home. Follow the pitiful 
 
332 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 inventory of insignificances of the forlorn being 
 he describes with a pathetic humor more likely 
 to bring a sigh than a smile, and then mark the 
 grand hyperbole of the last two lines. The pas 
 sage is from the poem called " Destiny " : 
 
 " Alas ! that one is born in blight, 
 Victim of perpetual slight : 
 When thou lookest on his face, 
 Thy heart saith Brother, go thy ways ! 
 None shall ask thee what thou doest, 
 Or care a rush for what thou knowest, 
 Or listen when thou repliest, 
 Or remember where thou liest, 
 Or how thy supper is sodden ; * 
 And another is born 
 To make the sun forgotten." 
 
 Of all Emerson s poems the " Concord Hymn " 
 is the most nearly complete and faultless, but 
 it is not distinctively Emersonian. It is such 
 a poem as Collins might have written, it has 
 the very movement and melody of the "Ode 
 on the Death of Mr. Thomson," and of the 
 " Dirge in Cymbeline," with the same sweetness 
 and tenderness of feeling. Its one conspicuous 
 
 line, 
 
 " And fired the shot heard round the world," 
 
 must not take to itself all the praise deserved 
 by this perfect little poem, a model for all of 
 its kind. Compact, expressive, serene, solemn, 
 musical, in four brief stanzas it tells the story of 
 
EMERSOWS POEMS. 333 
 
 the past, records the commemorative act of the 
 passing day, and invokes the higher Power that 
 governs the future to protect the Memorial-stone 
 sacred to Freedom and her martyrs. 
 
 These poems of Emerson s find the readers 
 that must listen to them and delight in them, as 
 the " Ancient Mariner " fastened upon the man 
 who must hear him. If any doubter wishes to 
 test his fitness for reading them, and if the 
 poems already mentioned are not enough to 
 settle the question, let him read the paragraph 
 of " May-Day," beginning, 
 
 " I saw the bud-crowned Spring go forth," 
 
 " Sea-shore," the fine fragments in the " Ap 
 pendix" to his published works, called, collec 
 tively, " The Poet," blocks bearing the mark 
 of . poetic genius, but left lying round for want 
 of the structural instinct, and last of all, that 
 which is, in many respects, first of all, the 
 "Threnody," a lament over the death of his 
 first-born son. This poem has the dignity of 
 " Lycidas " without its refrigerating classicism, 
 and with all the tenderness of Cowper s lines 
 on the receipt of his mother s picture. It may 
 well compare with others of the finest memorial 
 poems in the language, with Shelley s " Ado- 
 nais," and Matthew Arnold s " Thyrsis," leaving 
 out of view Tennyson s " In Memoriam " as of 
 K ider scope and larger pattern. 
 
334 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Many critics will concede that there is much 
 truth in Mr. Arnold s remark on the want of 
 " evolution " in Emerson s poems. One is struck 
 with the fact that a great number of fragments 
 lie about his poetical workshop: poems begun 
 and never finished ; scraps of poems, chips of 
 poems, paving the floor with intentions never 
 carried out. One cannot help remembering Cole 
 ridge with his incomplete " Christabel, and his 
 " Abyssinian Maid," and her dulcimer which 
 she never got a tune out of. We all know there 
 was good reason why Coleridge should have been 
 infirm of purpose. But when we look at that 
 great unfinished picture over which Allston la 
 bored with the hopeless ineffectiveness of Sisy 
 phus ; when we go through a whole gallery of 
 pictures by an American artist in which the 
 backgrounds are slighted as if our midsummer 
 heats had taken away half the artist s life and 
 vigor ; when we walk round whole rooms full of 
 sketches, impressions, effects, symphonies, invisi 
 bilities, and other apologies for honest work, it 
 would not be strange if it should suggest a pain 
 ful course of reflections as to the possibility that 
 there may be something in our climatic or 
 other conditions which tends to scholastic and 
 artistic anaemia and insufficiency, the opposite 
 of what we find showing itself in the full-blooded 
 verse of poets like Browning and on the flaming 
 
EMERSOWS POEMS. 335 
 
 canvas of painters like Henri Regnault. Life 
 seemed lustier in Old England than in New 
 England to Emerson, to Hawthorne, and to that 
 admirable observer, Mr. John Burroughs. Per 
 haps we require another century or two of accli 
 mation. 
 
 Emerson never grappled with any considerable 
 metrical difficulties. He wrote by preference in 
 what I have ventured to call the normal respir 
 atory measure, octosyllabic verse, in which 
 one common expiration is enough and not too 
 much for the articulation of each line. The 
 " fatal facility " for which this verse is noted 
 belongs to it as recited and also as written, and 
 it implies the need of only a minimum of skill 
 and labor. I doubt if Emerson would have writ 
 ten a verse of poetry if he had been obliged to 
 use the Spenserian stanza. In the simple meas 
 ures he habitually employed he found least 
 hindrance to his thought. 
 
 Every true poet has an atmosphere as much 
 as every great painter. The golden sunshine of 
 Claude and the pearly mist of Corot belonged 
 to their way of looking at nature as much as the 
 color of their eyes and hair belonged to their 
 personalities. So with the poets ; for Words 
 worth the air is always serene and clear, for 
 Byron the sky is uncertain between storm and 
 sunshine. Emerson sees all nature in the same 
 
336 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 pearly mist that wraps the willows and the 
 streams of Corot. Without its own character, 
 istic atmosphere, illuminated by 
 
 " The light that never was on sea or land," 
 
 we may have good verse but no true poem. In 
 his poetry there is not merely this atmosphere, 
 but there is always a mirage in the horizon. 
 
 Emerson s poetry is eminently subjective, 
 if Mr. Kuskin, who hates the word, will pardon 
 me for using it in connection with a reference 
 to two of his own chapters in his "Modern 
 Painters." These are the chapter on " The 
 Pathetic Fallacy," and the one which follows it 
 " On Classical Landscape." In these he treats 
 of the transfer of a writer s mental or emotional 
 conditions to the external nature which he con 
 templates. He asks his readers to follow him in 
 a long examination of what he calls by the sin 
 gular name mentioned, " the pathetic fallacy," 
 because, he says, " he will find it eminently 
 characteristic of the modern mind ; and in the 
 landscape, whether of literature or art, he will 
 also find the modern painter endeavoring to 
 express something which he, as a living creature, 
 imagines in the lifeless object, while the classical 
 and mediaeval painters were content with ex 
 pressing the unimaginary and actual qualities of 
 the object itself." 
 
EMERSON 1 8 POEMS. 337 
 
 Illustrations of Mr. Ruskin s "pathetic fal 
 lacy " may be found almost anywhere in Emer- 
 Bon s poems. Here is one which offers itself 
 without search : 
 
 " Daily the bending- skies solicit man, 
 The seasons chariot him from this exile, 
 The rainbow hours bedeck his glowing wheels, 
 The storm-winds urge the heavy weeks along, 
 Suns haste to set, that so remoter lights 
 Beckon the wanderer to his vaster home." 
 
 The expression employed by Ruskin gives the 
 idea that he is dealing with a defect. If he 
 had called the state of mind to which he refers 
 the sympathetic illusion, his readers might have 
 looked upon it more justly. 
 
 It would be a pleasant and not a difficult task 
 to trace the resemblances between Emerson s 
 poetry and that of other poets. Two or three 
 such resemblances have been incidentally re 
 ferred to, a few others may be mentioned. 
 
 In his contemplative study of Nature he re 
 minds us of Wordsworth, at least in certain 
 brief passages, but he has not the staying power 
 of that long-breathed, not to say long-winded, 
 lover of landscapes. Both are on the most in 
 timate terms with Nature, but Emerson contem 
 plates himself as belonging to her, while Words- 
 Worth feels as if she belonged to him. 
 
838 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " Good-by, proud world," 
 
 recalls Spenser and Kaleigh. " Tfye Humble- 
 Bee " is strongly marked by the manner and 
 thought of Marvell. Marvell s 
 
 " Annihilating all that s made 
 To a green thought in a green shade," 
 
 may well have suggested Emerson s 
 
 " The green silence dost displace 
 With thy mellow, breezy bass." 
 
 " The Snow-Storm " naturally enough brings 
 to mind the descriptions of Thomson and of 
 Cowper, and fragment as it is, it will not suffer 
 by comparison with either. 
 
 " Woodnotes," one of his best poems, has 
 passages that might have been found in Milton s 
 " Comus ; " this, for instance : 
 
 " All constellations of the sky 
 Shed their virtue through his eye. 
 Him Nature giveth for defence 
 His formidable innocence." 
 
 Of course his Persian and Indian models be 
 tray themselves in many of his poems, some of 
 which, called translations, sound as if they were 
 original. 
 
 So we follow him from page to page and find 
 him passing through many moods, but with one 
 pervading spirit : 
 
EMERSOW S POEMS. 339 
 
 " Melting matter into dreams, 
 Panoramas which I saw, 
 And whatever glows or seems 
 Into substance, into Law." 
 
 We think in reading his " Poems " of these 
 words of Sainte-Beuve : 
 
 " The greatest poet is not he who has done the 
 best ; it is he who suggests the most ; he, not all of 
 whose meaning is at first obvious, and who leaves 
 you much to desire, to explain, to study ; much to 
 complete in your turn." 
 
 Just what he shows himself in his prose, 
 Emerson shows himself in his verse. Only 
 when he gets into rhythm and rhyme he lets 
 us see more of his personality, he ventures upon 
 more audacious imagery, his flight is higher and 
 swifter, his brief crystalline sentences have dis 
 solved and pour in continuous streams. Where 
 they came from, or whither they flow to empty 
 themselves, we cannot always say, it is enough 
 to enjoy them as they flow by us. 
 
 Incompleteness want of beginning, middle, 
 and end, is their too common fault. His pages 
 are too much like those artists studios all hung 
 vound with sketches and " bits " of scenery. 
 The Snow-Storm " and " Sea-Shore " are " bits " 
 out of a landscape that was never painted, ad 
 mirable, so far as they go, but forcing us to ask, 
 " Where is the painting for which these scraps 
 
340 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 are studies ? " or " Out of what great picture have 
 these pieces been cut ? " 
 
 We do not want his fragments to be made 
 wholes, if we did, what hand could be found 
 equal to the task ? We do not want his rhythms 
 and rhymes smoothed and made more melodious. 
 They are as honest as Chaucer s, and we like 
 them as they are, not modernized or manipulated 
 by any versifying drill-sergeant, if we wanted 
 them reshaped whom could we trust to meddle 
 with them ? 
 
 His poetry is elemental ; it has the rock be 
 neath it in the eternal laws on which it rests ; 
 the roll of deep waters in its grander harmonies ; 
 its air is full of ^Eolian strains that waken and 
 die away as the breeze wanders over them ; and 
 through it shines the white starlight, and from 
 time to time flashes a meteor that startles us 
 with its sudden brilliancy. 
 
 After all our criticisms, our selections, our 
 analyses, our comparisons, we have to recognize 
 that there is a charm in Emerson s poems which 
 cannot be defined any more than the fragrance 
 of a rose or a hyacinth, any more than the j 
 tone of a voice which we should know from all 
 others if all mankind were to pass before us, and 
 each of its articulating representatives should 
 call us by name. 
 
EMERSON S POEMS. 341 
 
 All our crucibles and alembics leave unac 
 counted for the great mystery of style. " The 
 style is of [a part of] the man himself," said 
 Buffon, and this saying has passed into the 
 stronger phrase, " The style is the man." 
 
 The " personal equation " which differentiates 
 two observers is not confined to the tower of 
 the astronomer. Every human being is individ 
 ualized by a new arrangement of elements. His 
 mind is a safe with a lock to which only certain 
 letters are the key. His ideas follow in an order 
 of their own. His words group themselves to 
 gether in special sequences, in peculiar rhythms, 
 in unlooked-for combinations, the total effect of 
 which is to stamp all that he says or writes with 
 his individuality. We may not be able to assign 
 the reason of the fascination the poet we have 
 been considering exercises over us. But this we 
 can say, that he lives in the highest atmosphere 
 of thought ; that he is always in the presence 
 of the infinite, and ennobles the accidents of hu 
 man existence so that they partake of the ab 
 solute and eternal while he is looking at them ; 
 that he unites a royal dignity of manner with 
 the simplicity of primitive nature ; that his 
 words and phrases arrange themselves, as if by 
 an elective affinity of their own, with a curi- 
 vsa felicitas which captivates and enthrals the 
 reader who comes fully under its influence, and 
 
342 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 that through all he sings as in all he says for 
 us we recognize the same serene, high, pure in 
 telligence and moral nature, infinitely precious 
 to us, not only in themselves, but as a promise of 
 what the transplanted life, the air and soil and 
 breeding of this western world may yet educe 
 from their potential virtues, shaping themselves, 
 at length, in a literature as much its own as the 
 Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Recollections of Emerson s Last Years. Mr. Conway s 
 Visits. Extracts from Mr. Whitman s Journal. Dr. Le 
 Baron Russell s Visit. Dr. Edward Emerson s Account. 
 Illness and Death. Funeral Services. 
 
 ME. CONWAY gives the following account of 
 two visits to Emerson after the decline of his 
 faculties had begun to make itself obvious : 
 
 " In 1875, when I stayed at his house in Concord for 
 a little time, it was sad enough to find him sitting as a 
 listener before those who used to sit at his feet in 
 silence. But when alone with him he conversed in the 
 old way, and his faults of memory seemed at times to 
 disappear. There was something striking in the kind 
 of forgetfulness by which he suffered. He remem 
 bered the realities and uses of things when he could 
 not recall their names. He would describe what he 
 wanted or thought of; when he could not recall 
 4 chair he could speak of that which supports the 
 human frame, and the implement that cultivates the 
 soil must do for plough. 
 
 " In 1880, when I was last in Concord, the trou 
 ble had made heavy strides. The intensity of his 
 silent attention to every word that was said was 
 painful, suggesting a concentration of his powers 
 
344 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 to break through the invisible walls closing around 
 them. Yet his face was serene ; he was even cheer- 
 ful, and joined in our laughter at some letters his 
 eldest daughter had preserved, from young girls, 
 trying to coax autograph letters, and in one case 
 asking for what price he would write a valedictory 
 address she had to deliver at college. He was still 
 able to joke about his naughty memory ; and no 
 complaint came from him when he once rallied him 
 self on living too long. Emerson appeared to me 
 strangely beautiful at this time, and the sweetness of 
 his voice, when he spoke of the love and providence 
 at his side, is quite indescribable." 
 
 One of the later glimpses we have of Emerson 
 is that preserved in the journal of Mr. Whitman, 
 who visited Concord in the autumn of 1881. 
 Mr. Ireland gives a long extract from this jour 
 nal, from which I take the following : 
 
 "On entering he had spoken very briefly, easily 
 and politely to several of the company, then settled 
 himself in his chair, a trifle pushed back, and, 
 though a listener and apparently an alert one, re 
 mained silent through the whole talk and discussion. 
 And so, there Emerson sat, and I looking at him. 
 A good color in his face, eyes clear, with the well- 
 known expression of sweetness, and the old clear- 
 peering aspect quite the same." 
 
 Mr. Whitman met him again the next day, 
 Sunday, September 18th, and records : 
 
 "As just said, a healthy color in the cheeks, and 
 
DR. LE BARON RUSSELL S VISIT. 345 
 
 good light in the eyes, cheery expression, and just the 
 amount of talking that best suited, namely, a word or 
 short phrase only where needed, and almost always 
 with a smile." 
 
 Dr. Le Baron Russell writes to me of Emer 
 son at a still later period : 
 
 "One incident I will mention which occurred at 
 my last visit to Emerson, only a few months before 
 his death. I went by Mrs. Emerson s request to pass 
 a Sunday at their house at Concord towards the end 
 of June. His memory had been failing for some 
 time, and his mind as you know was clouded, but the 
 old charm of his voice and manner had never left 
 him. On the morning after my arrival Mrs. Emer 
 son took us into the garden to see the beautiful roses 
 in which she took great delight. One red rose of 
 most brilliant color she called our attention to espe 
 cially ; its hue was so truly angry and brave that 
 I involuntarily repeated Herbert s line, 
 
 Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye, 
 
 from the verses which Emerson had first repeated to 
 me so long ago. Emerson looked at the rose admir 
 ingly, and then as if by a sudden impulse lifted his 
 hat gently, and said with a low bow, I take off my 
 hat to it. " 
 
 Once a poet, always a poet. It was the same 
 reverence for the beautiful that he had shown in 
 the same way in his younger days on entering 
 
346 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 the wood, as Governor Rice has told us the story, 
 given in an earlier chapter. 
 
 I do not remember Emerson s last time of at 
 tendance at the " Saturday Club," but I recollect 
 that he came after the trouble in finding words 
 had become well marked. " My memory hides 
 itself," he said. The last time I saw him, living, 
 was at Longfellow s funeral. I was sitting op 
 posite to him when he rose, and going to the side 
 of the coffin, looked intently upon the face of the 
 dead poet. A few minutes later he rose again 
 and looked once more on the familiar features, 
 not apparently remembering that he had just 
 done so. Mr. Conway reports that he said to a 
 friend near him, " That gentleman was a sweet, 
 beautiful soul, but I have entirely forgotten his 
 name." 
 
 Dr. Edward Emerson has very kindly fur 
 nished me, in reply to my request, with informa 
 tion regarding his father s last years which will 
 interest every one who has followed his life 
 through its morning and midday to the hour of 
 evening shadows. 
 
 " May-Day," which was published in 1867, 
 was made up of the poems written since his first 
 volume appeared. After this he wrote no poems, 
 but with some difficulty fitted the refrain to the 
 poem " Boston," which had remained unfinished 
 since the old Anti-slavery days. " Greatness, 
 
DR. EDWARD EMERSON S ACCOUNT. 347 
 
 and the " Phi Beta Kappa Oration " of 1867, 
 were among his last pieces of work. His Col 
 lege Lectures, " The Natural History of the In 
 tellect," were merely notes recorded years before, 
 and now gathered and welded together. In 
 1876 he revised his poems, and made the selec 
 tions from them for the " Little Classic " edition 
 of his works, then called " Selected Poems." 
 In that year he gave his "Address to the 
 Students of the University of Virginia." This 
 was a paper written long before, and its revision, 
 with the aid of his daughter Ellen, was accom 
 plished with much difficulty. 
 
 The year 1867 was about the limit of hin 
 working life. During the last five years ht 
 hardly answered a letter. Before this time it 
 had become increasingly hard for him to do so, 
 and he always postponed and thought he should 
 feel more able the next day, until his daughter 
 Ellen was compelled to assume the correspond-* 
 ence. He did, however, write some letters in 
 1876, as, for instance, the answer to the invita 
 tion of the Virginia students. 
 
 Emerson left off going regularly to the " Sat 
 urday Club" probably in 1875. He used to de 
 pend on meeting Mr. Cabot there, but after Mr- 
 Cabot began to come regularly to work on " Let 
 ters and Social Aims," Emerson, who relied 
 on his friendly assistance, ceased attending the 
 
348 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 meetings. The trouble he had in finding the 
 word he wanted was a reason for his staying 
 away from all gatherings where he was called 
 upon to take a part in conversation, though 
 he the more willingly went to lectures and 
 readings and to church. His hearing was very 
 slightly impaired, and his sight remained pretty 
 good, though he sometimes said letters doubled, 
 and that "M s" and "N s" troubled him to 
 read. He recognized the members of his own 
 family and his old friends ; but, as I infer from 
 this statement, he found a difficulty in remem 
 bering the faces of new acquaintances, as is com 
 mon with old persons. 
 
 He continued the habit of reading, read 
 through all his printed works with much interest 
 and surprise, went through all his manuscripts, 
 and endeavored, unsuccessfully, to index them. 
 In these Dr. Emerson found written " Examined 
 1877 or 1878," but he found no later date. 
 
 In the last year or two he read anything which 
 he picked up on his table, but he read the same 
 things over, and whispered the words like a 
 child. He liked to look over the " Advertiser," 
 and was interested in the " Nation." He enjoyed 
 pictures in books and showed them with delight 
 to guests. 
 
 All this with slight changes and omissions ia 
 from the letter of Dr. Emerson in answer to m 
 
DR. EDWARD EMERSON S ACCOUNT. 349 
 
 questions. The twilight of a long, bright day 
 of life may be saddening, but when the shadow 
 falls so gently and gradually, with so little that 
 is painful and so much that is soothing and 
 comforting, we do not shrink from following the 
 imprisoned spirit to the very verge of its earthly 
 existence. 
 
 But darker hours were in the order of nature 
 very near at hand. From these he was saved by 
 his not untimely release from the imprisonment 
 of the worn-out bodily frame. 
 
 In April, 1882, Emerson took a severe cold, 
 and became so hoarse that he could hardly speak. 
 When his son, Dr. Edward Emerson, called to 
 see him, he found him on the sofa, feverish, with 
 more difficulty of expression than usual, dull, 
 but not uncomfortable. As he lay on his couch 
 he pointed out various objects, among others a 
 portrait of Carlyle "the good man, my friend." 
 His son told him that he had seen Carlyle, which 
 seemed to please him much. On the following 
 day the unequivocal signs of pneumonia showed 
 themselves, and he failed rapidly. He still rec 
 ognized those around him, among the rest Judge 
 Hoar, to whom he held out his arms for a last 
 embrace. A sharp pain coming on, ether was 
 administered with relief. And in a little time, 
 surrounded by those who loved him and whom 
 he loved, he passed quietly away. He lived very 
 
350 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 nearly to the completion of his seventy-ninth 
 year, having been born May 25, 1803, and his 
 death occurring on the 27th of April, 1882. 
 
 Mr. Ireland has given a full account of the 
 funeral, from which are, for the most part, taken 
 the following extracts : 
 
 " The last rites over the remains of Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson took place at Concord on the 30th of April. 
 A special train from Boston carried a large number 
 of people. Many persons were on the street, attracted 
 by the services, but were unable to gain admission to 
 the church where the public ceremonies were held. 
 Almost every building in town bore over its entrance- 
 door a large black and white rosette with other 
 sombre draperies. The public buildings were heavily 
 draped, and even the homes of the very poor bore 
 outward marks of grief at the loss of their friend and 
 fellow-townsman. 
 
 "The services at the house, which were strictly 
 private, occurred at 2.30, and were conducted by 
 Eev. W. H. Furness of Philadelphia, a kindred spirit 
 and an almost life-long friend. They were simple in 
 character, and only Dr. Furness took part in them. 
 The body lay in the front northeast room, in which 
 were gathered the family and close friends of the de 
 ceased. The only flowers were contained in three 
 vases on the mantel, and were lilies of the valley, red 
 and white roses, and arbutus. The adjoining roem 
 and hall were filled with friends and neighbors. 
 
FUNERAL SERVICES. 351 
 
 " At the church many hundreds of persons were 
 awaiting the arrival of the procession, and all the 
 space, except the reserved pews, was packed. In front 
 of the pulpit were simple decorations, boughs of pine 
 covered the desk, and in their centre was a harp of 
 yellow jonquils, the gift of Miss Louisa M. Alcott. 
 Among the floral tributes was one from the teachers 
 and scholars in the Emerson school. By the sides of 
 the pulpit were white and scarlet geraniums and pine 
 boughs, and high upon the wall a laurel wreath. 
 
 " Before 3.30 the pall-bearers brought in the plain 
 black walnut coffin, which was placed before the pul 
 pit. The lid was turned back, and upon it was put 
 a cluster of richly colored pansies and a small bouquet 
 of roses. While the coffin was being carried in, 
 * Pleyel s Hymn was rendered on the organ by re 
 quest of the family of the deceased. Dr. James 
 Freeman Clarke then entered the pulpit. Judge E. 
 Rockwood Hoar remained by the coffin below, and 
 when the congregation became quiet, made a brief 
 and pathetic address, his voice many times trembling 
 with emotion." 
 
 I subjoin this most impressive " Address " 
 entire, from the manuscript with which Judge 
 Hoar has kindly favored me : 
 
 " The beauty of Israel is fallen in its high place ! 
 Mr. Emerson has died; and we, his friends and 
 neighbors, with this sorrowing company, have turned 
 aside the procession from his home to his grave, to 
 this temple of his fathers, that we may here unite in 
 our parting tribute of memory and love. 
 
352 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " There is nothing to mourn for him. That brave 
 and manly life was rounded out to the full length 
 of days. That dying pillow was softened by the 
 sweetest domestic affection ; and as he lay down to 
 the sleep which the Lord giveth his beloved, his face 
 was as the face of an angel, and his smile seemed to 
 give a glimpse of the opening heavens. 
 
 " Wherever the English language is spoken through 
 out the world his fame is established and secure. 
 Throughout this great land and from beyond the sea 
 will come innumerable voices of sorrow for this great 
 public loss. But we, his neighbors and townsmen, 
 feel that he was ours. He was descended from the 
 founders of the town. He chose our village as the 
 place where his lifelong work was to be done. It 
 was to our fields and orchards that his presence gave 
 such value ; it was our streets in which the children 
 looked up to him with love, and the elders with rev 
 erence. He was our ornament and pride. 
 
 " He is gone is dust, 
 He the more fortunate ! Yea, he hath finished I 
 For him there is no longer any future. 
 His life is bright bright without spot it was 
 And cannot cease to be. No ominous hour 
 Knocks at his door with tidings of mishap. 
 Far off is he, above desire and fear ; 
 No more submitted to the change and chance 
 Of the uncertain planets. 
 
 " * The bloom is vanished from my life, 
 
 For, oh ! he stood beside me like my youth ; 
 Transformed for me the real to a dream, 
 
FUNERAL SERVICES. 353 
 
 Clothing 1 the palpable and the familiar 
 With golden exhalations of the dawn. 
 Whatever fortunes wait my future toils, 
 The beautiful is vanished and returns not. 
 
 " That lofty brow, the home of all wise thoughts 
 and high aspirations, those lips of eloquent music, 
 
 that great soul, which trusted in God and never 
 let go its hope of immortality, that large heart, to 
 which everything that belonged to man was welcome, 
 
 that hospitable nature, loving and tender and gen 
 erous, having no repulsion or scorn for anything but 
 meanness and baseness, oh, friend, brother, father, 
 lover, teacher, inspirer, guide ! is there no more that 
 we can do now than to give thee this our hail and 
 farewell ! " 
 
 Judge Hoar s remarks were followed by the 
 congregation singing the hymns, " Thy will be 
 done," "I will not fear the fate provided by 
 Thy love." The Rev. Dr. Furness then read 
 selections from the Scriptures. 
 
 The Rev. James Freeman Clarke then deliv 
 ered an " Address," from which I extract two 
 eloquent and inspiring passages, regretting to 
 omit any that fell from lips so used to noble 
 utterances and warmed by their subject, for 
 there is hardly a living person more competent 
 to speak or write of Emerson than this high- 
 minded and brave-souled man, who did not 
 wait until he was famous to be his admirer and 
 
 champion. 
 
 23 
 
854 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " The saying of the Liturgy is true and wise, that 
 * in the midst of life we are in death. But it is still 
 more true that in the midst of death we are in life, 
 Do we ever believe so much in immortality as when 
 we look on such a dear and noble face, now so still, 
 which a few hours ago was radiant with thought and 
 love ? He is not here : he is risen. That power 
 which we knew, that soaring intelligence, that soul 
 of fire, that ever-advancing spirit, that cannot have 
 been suddenly annihilated with the decay of these 
 earthly organs. It has left its darkened dust behind. 
 It has outsoared the shadow of our night. God does 
 not trifle with his creatures by bringing to nothing the 
 ripe fruit of the ages by the lesion of a cerebral cell, or 
 some bodily tissue. Life does not die, but matter dies 
 off from it. The highest energy we know, the soul of 
 man, the unit in which meet intelligence, imagination, 
 memory, hope, love, purpose, insight, this agent of 
 immense resource and boundless power, this has 
 not been subdued by its instrument. When we think 
 of such an one as he, we can only think of life, never 
 of death. 
 
 " Such was his own faith, as expressed in his paper 
 on Immortality. But he himself was the best argu 
 ment for immortality. Like the greatest thinkers, he 
 did not rely on logical proof, but on the higher 
 evidence of universal instincts, the vast streams of 
 belief which flow through human thought like cur 
 rents in the ocean ; those shoreless rivers which for 
 ever roll along their paths in the Atlantic and Pacific, 
 not restrained by banks, but guided by the revolutiong 
 of the globe and the attractions of the sun." 
 
FUNERAL SERVICES. 355 
 
 tt Let us then ponder his words : ! 
 
 " Wilt thou not ope thy heart to know 
 What rainbows teach and sunsets show ? 
 Voice of earth to earth returned, 
 Prayers of saints that inly burned, 
 Saying, What is excellent 
 As God lives, is permanent; 
 Hearts are dust, hearts loves remain ; 
 Hearts love will meet thee again. 
 
 House and tenant go to ground 
 Lost in God, in Godhead found. " 
 
 After the above address a feeling prayer was 
 offered by Rev. Howard N. Brown, of Brook- 
 line, and the benediction closed the exercises in 
 the church. Immediately before the benediction, 
 Mr. Alcott recited the following sonnet, which he 
 had written for the occasion : 
 
 " His harp is silent : shall successors rise, 
 Touching with venturous hand the trembling string, 
 Kindle glad raptures, visions of surprise, 
 And wake to ecstasy each slumbering thing ? 
 Shall life and thought flash new hi wondering eyes, 
 As when the seer transcendent, sweet, and wise, 
 World-wide his native melodies did sing, 
 Flushed with fair hopes and ancient memories ? 
 Ah, no ! That matchless lyre shall silent lie : 
 None hath the vanished minstrel s wondrous skill 
 To touch that instrument with art and will. 
 With him, winged poesy doth droop and die ; 
 While our dull age, left voiceless, must lament 
 The bard high heaven had for its service sent." 
 
856 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " Over an hour was occupied by the passing files 
 of neighbors, friends, and visitors looking for the last 
 time upon the face of the dead poet. The body was 
 robed completely in white, and the face bore a natural 
 and peaceful expression. From the church the pro 
 cession took its way to the cemetery. The grav^e was 
 made beneath a tall pine-tree upon the hill-top of 
 Sleepy Hollow, where lie the bodies of his friends 
 Thoreau and Hawthorne, the upturned sod being 
 concealed by strewings of pine boughs. A border of 
 hemlock spray surrounded the grave and completely 
 lined its sides. The services here were very brief, 
 and the casket was soon lowered to its final resting- 
 place. 
 
 " The Rev. Dr. Haskins, a cousin of the family, an 
 Episcopal clergyman, read the Episcopal Burial Ser 
 vice, and closed with the Lord s Prayer, ending at the 
 words, and deliver us from evil. In this all the 
 people joined. Dr. Haskins then pronounced the ben 
 ediction. After it was over the grandchildren passed 
 the open grave and threw flowers into it." 
 
 So vanished from human eyes the bodily pres 
 ence of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and his finished 
 record belongs henceforth to memory. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 EMERSON. A RETROSPECT. 
 
 Personality and Habits of Life. His Commission and Er 
 rand. As a Lecturer. His Use of Authorities. Resem 
 blance to Other Writers. As influenced by Others. His 
 Place as a Thinker. Idealism and Intuition. Mysticism. 
 His Attitude respecting Science. As an American. 
 His Fondness for Solitary Study. His Patience and 
 Amiability. Feeling with which he was regarded. Emer 
 son and Burns. His Religious Belief. His Relations 
 with Clergymen. Future of his Reputation. His Life 
 judged by the Ideal Standard. 
 
 EMERSON S earthly existence was in the esti 
 mate of his own philosophy so slight an occur 
 rence in his career of being that his relations to 
 the accidents of time and space seem quite sec 
 ondary matters to one who has been long living 
 in the companionship of his thought. Still, he 
 had to be born, to take in his share of the at 
 mosphere in which we are all immersed, to have 
 dealings with the world of phenomena, and at 
 length to let them all " soar and sing " as he left 
 his earthly half-way house. It is natural and 
 pardonable that we should like to know the de 
 tails of the daily life which the men whom we 
 
358 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 admire have shared with common mortals, our 
 selves among the rest. But Emerson has said 
 truly " Great geniuses have the shortest biogra 
 phies. Their cousins can tell you nothing about 
 them. They lived in their writings, and so their 
 home and street life was trivial and common 
 place." 
 
 The reader has had many extracts from Emer 
 son s writings laid before him. It was no easy 
 task to choose them, for his paragraphs are so 
 condensed, so much in the nature of abstracts, 
 that it is like distilling absolute alcohol to at 
 tempt separating the spirit of what he says from 
 his undiluted thought. His books are all so full 
 of his life to their last syllable that we might 
 letter every volume Emersoniana, by Ralph 
 Waldo Emerson. 
 
 From the numerous extracts I have given 
 from Emerson s writings it may be hoped that 
 the reader will have formed an idea for himself 
 of the man and of the life which have been the 
 subjects of these pages. But he may probably 
 expect something like a portrait of the poet and 
 moralist from the hand of his biographer, if the 
 author of this Memoir may borrow the name 
 which will belong to a future and better equipped 
 laborer in the same field. He may not unreason 
 ably look for some general estimate of the life- 
 work of the scholar and thinker of whom he has 
 
PERSONALITY AND HABITS OF LIFE. 359 
 
 been reading. He will not be disposed to find 
 fault with the writer of the Memoir if he men 
 tions many things which would seem very trivial 
 but for the interest they borrow from the indi 
 vidual to whom they relate. 
 
 Emerson s personal appearance was that of a 
 scholar, the descendant of scholars. He was tall 
 and slender, with the complexion which is bred 
 in the alcove and not in the open air. He used 
 to tell his son Edward that he measured six feet 
 in his shoes, but his son thinks he could hardly 
 have straightened himself to that height in his 
 later years. He was very light for a man of 
 his stature. He got on the scales at Cheyenne, 
 on his trip to California, comparing his weight 
 with that of a lady of the party. A little while 
 afterwards he asked of his fellow-traveller, Pro 
 fessor Thayer, "How much did I weigh? A 
 hundred and forty ? " "A hundred and forty 
 and a half," was the answer. " Yes, yes, a hun 
 dred and forty and a half ! That half I prize ; 
 it is an index of better things ! " 
 
 Emerson s head was not such as Schopen 
 hauer insists upon for a philosopher. He wore 
 a hat measuring six and seven eighths on the 
 cephalometer used by hatters, which is equiva 
 lent to twenty-one inches and a quarter of cir 
 cumference. The average size is from seven to 
 seven and an eighth, so that his head was quite 
 
360 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 small in that dimension. It was long and nar 
 row, but lofty, almost symmetrical, and of more 
 nearly equal breadth in its anterior and poste 
 rior regions than many or most heads. 
 
 His shoulders sloped so much as to be com 
 mented upon for this peculiarity by Mr. Gilfil- 
 lan, and like " Ammon s great son," he carried 
 one shoulder a little higher than the other. His 
 face was thin, his nose somewhat accipitrine, 
 casting a broad shadow ; his mouth rather wide, 
 well formed and well closed, carrying a question 
 and an assertion in its finely finished curves ; the 
 lower lip a little prominent, the chin shapely and 
 firm, as becomes the corner-stone of the counte 
 nance. His expression was calm, sedate, kindly, 
 with that look of refinement, centring about the 
 lips, which is rarely found in the male New Eng- 
 lander, unless the family features have been for 
 two or three cultivated generations the battle 
 field and the playground of varied thoughts and 
 complex emotions as well as the sensuous and 
 nutritive port of entry. His whole look was ir 
 radiated by an ever active inquiring intelligence. 
 His manner was noble and gracious. Few of our 
 fellow-countrymen have had larger opportunities 
 of seeing distinguished personages than our pres 
 ent minister at the Court of St. James. In a 
 recent letter to myself, which I trust Mr. Lowell 
 will pardon my quoting, he says of Emerson : 
 
PERSONALITY AND HABITS OF LIFE. 361 
 
 " There was a majesty about hiin beyond all 
 other men I have known, and he habitually 
 dwelt in that ampler and diviner air to which 
 most of us, if ever, only rise in spurts." 
 
 From members of his own immediate family 
 I have derived some particulars relating to his 
 personality and habits which are deserving of 
 record. 
 
 His hair was brown, quite fine, and, till he 
 was fifty, very thick. His eyes were of the 
 " strongest and brightest blue." The member 
 of the family who tells me this says : 
 
 " My sister and I have looked for many years 
 to see whether any one else had such absolutely 
 blue eyes, and have never found them except in 
 sea-captains. I have seen three sea-captains who 
 had them." 
 
 He was not insensible to music, but his gift 
 in that direction was very limited, if we may 
 judge from this family story. When he was in 
 College, and the singing-master was gathering 
 his pupils, Emerson presented himself, intending 
 to learn to sing. The master received him, and 
 when his turn came, said to him, " Chord ! " 
 "What?" said Emerson. "Chord! Chord ! I 
 tell you," repeated the master. " I don t know 
 what you mean," said Emerson. " Why, sing ! 
 Sing a note." " So I made some kind of a noise, 
 and the singing-master said, That will do, sir, 
 You need not come again. " 
 
862 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Emerson s mode of living was very simple : 
 coffee in the morning, tea in the evening, animal 
 food by choice only once a day, wine only when 
 with others using it, but always pie at breakfast. 
 " It stood before him and was the first thing 
 eaten." Ten o clock was his bed-time, six his 
 hour of rising until the last ten years of his life, 
 when he rose at seven. Work or company some 
 times led him to sit up late, and this he could 
 do night after night. He never was hungry, 
 could go any time from breakfast to tea without 
 food and not know it, but was always ready for 
 food when it was set before him. 
 
 He always walked from about four in the 
 afternoon till tea-time, and often longer when 
 the day was fine, or he felt that he should work 
 the better. 
 
 It is plain from his writings that Emerson 
 was possessed all his life long with the idea of 
 his constitutional infirmity and insufficiency. He 
 hated invalidism, and had little patience with 
 complaints about ill-health, but in his poems, 
 and once or twice in his letters to Carlyle, he 
 expresses himself with freedom about his own 
 bodily inheritance. In 1827, being then but 
 twenty-four years old, he writes : 
 
 " I bear in youth the sad infirmities 
 That use to undo the limb and sense of age." 
 
PERSONALITY AND HABITS OF LIFE. 36& 
 
 Four years later : 
 
 " Has God on thee conferred 
 
 A bodily presence mean as Paul s, 
 Yet made thee bearer of a word 
 
 Which sleepy nations as with trumpet calls ? " 
 
 and again, in the same year : 
 
 " Leave me, Fear, thy throbs are base, 
 Trembling for the body s sake." 
 
 Almost forty years from the first of these dates 
 we find him bewailing in " Terminus " his inher 
 ited weakness of organization. 
 
 And in writing to Carlyle, he says : 
 
 " You are of the Anakim and know nothing 
 of the debility and postponement of the blonde 
 constitution." 
 
 Again, " I am the victim of miscellany mis 
 cellany of designs, vast debility and procrasti 
 nation." 
 
 He thought too much of his bodily insufficien 
 cies, which, it will be observed, he refers to only 
 in his private correspondence, and in that semi- 
 nudity of self -revelation which is the privilege of 
 poetry. His presence was fine and impressive, 
 and his muscular strength was enough to make 
 him a rapid and enduring walker. 
 
 Emerson s voice had a great charm in conver 
 sation, as in the lecture-room. It was never 
 loud, never shrill, but singularly penetrating. 
 He was apt to hesitate in the course of a sen- 
 
364 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 tence, so as to be sure of the exact word he 
 wanted ; picking his way through his vocabulary, 
 to get at the best expression of his thought, as a 
 well-dressed woman crosses the muddy pavement 
 to reach the opposite sidewalk. It was this nat 
 ural slight and not unpleasant semicolon paus 
 ing of the memory which grew upon him in his 
 years of decline, until it rendered conversation 
 laborious and painful to him. 
 
 He never laughed loudly. When he laughed 
 it was under protest, as it were, with closed 
 doors, his mouth shut, so that the explosion had 
 to seek another respiratory channel, and found 
 its way out quietly, while his eyebrows and nos 
 trils and all his features betrayed the " ground 
 swell," as Professor Thayer happily called it, of 
 the half-suppressed convulsion. He was averse 
 to loud laughter in others, and objected to Mar 
 garet Fuller that she made him laugh too much. 
 
 Emerson was not rich in some of those nat 
 ural gifts which are considered the birthright of 
 the New Englander. He had not the mechanical 
 turn of the whittling Yankee. I once questioned 
 him about his manual dexterity, and he told me 
 he could split a shingle four ways with one nail, 
 which, as the intention is not to split it at all 
 in fastening it to the roof of a house or else 
 where, I took to be a confession of inaptitude 
 for mechanical works. He does not seem to have 
 
PERSONALITY AND HABITS OF LIFE. 365 
 
 been very accomplished in the handling of agri 
 cultural implements either, for it is told in the 
 family that his little son, Waldo, seeing him at 
 work with a spade, cried out, " Take care, papa, 
 you will dig your leg." 
 
 He used to regret that he had no ear for music. 
 I have said enough about his verse, which often 
 jars on a sensitive ear, showing a want of the 
 nicest perception of harmonies and discords in 
 the arrangement of the words. 
 
 There are stories which show that Emerson 
 had a retentive memory in the earlier part of his 
 life. It is hard to say from his books whether 
 he had or not, for he jotted down such a multi 
 tude of things in his diary that this was a kind 
 of mechanical memory which supplied him with 
 endless materials of thought and subjects for his 
 pen. 
 
 Lover and admirer of Plato as Emerson was, 
 the doors of the academy, over which was the 
 
 inscription ^Sets dyew/xer/a^ros ICTCITOO, Let no 
 
 one unacquainted with geometry enter here, 
 would have been closed to him. All the exact 
 sciences found him an unwilling learner. He 
 says of himself that he cannot multiply seven 
 by twelve with impunity. 
 
 In an unpublished manuscript kindly sub 
 mitted to me by Mr. Frothingham, Emerson is 
 reported as saying, " God has given me the 
 
366 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 seeing eye, but not the working hand." His gift 
 was insight: he saw the germ through its en 
 velop ; the particular in the light of the univer 
 sal ; the fact in connection with the principle ; 
 the phenomenon as related to the law ; all this 
 not by the slow and sure process of science, but 
 by the sudden and searching flashes of imagina 
 tive double vision. He had neither the patience 
 nor the method of the inductive reasoner ; he 
 passed from one thought to another not by log 
 ical steps but by airy flights, which left no foot 
 prints. This mode of intellectual action when 
 found united with natural sagacity becomes poe 
 try, philosophy, wisdom, or prophecy in its various 
 forms of manifestation. Without that gift of 
 natural sagacity (pdoratio qucedam venatica*), 
 a good scent for truth and beauty, it appears 
 as extravagance, whimsicality, eccentricity, or 
 insanity, according to its degree of aberration. 
 Emerson was eminently sane for an idealist. He 
 carried the same sagacity into the ideal world 
 that Franklin showed in the affairs of common 
 life. 
 
 He was constitutionally fastidious, and had 
 to school himself to become able to put up with 
 the terrible inflictions of uncongenial fellow 
 ships. We must go to his poems to get at his 
 weaknesses. The clown of the first edition of 
 u Monadnoc " " with heart of cat and eyes of 
 
PERSONALITY AND HABITS OF LIFE. 367 
 
 bug," disappears in the after- thought of the later 
 version of the poem, but the eye that recognized 
 him and the nature that recoiled from him were 
 there still. What must he not have endured 
 from the persecutions of small-minded worship, 
 pers who fastened upon him for the interminable 
 period between the incoming and the outgoing 
 railroad train ! He was a model of patience and 
 good temper. We might have feared that he 
 lacked the sensibility to make such intrusions and 
 offences an annoyance. But when Mr. Froth- 
 in gham gratifies the public with those most in 
 teresting personal recollections which I have had 
 the privilege of looking over, it will be seen that 
 his equanimity, admirable as it was, was not in 
 capable of being disturbed, and that on rare 
 occasions he could give way to the feeling which 
 showed itself of old in the doom pronounced on 
 the barren fig-tree. 
 
 Of Emerson s affections his home-life, and 
 those tender poems in memory of his brothers 
 and his son, give all the evidence that could be 
 asked or wished for. His friends were all who 
 knew him, for none could be his enemy ; and his 
 simple graciousness of manner, with the sincerity 
 apparent in every look and tone, hardly admitted 
 indifference on the part of any who met him, 
 were it but for a single hour. Even the little 
 children knew and loved him, and babes in arms 
 
368 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 returned his angelic smile. Of the friends wUo 
 were longest and most intimately associated with 
 him, it is needless to say much in this place. 
 Of those who are living, it is hardly time to 
 speak ; of those who are dead, much has already 
 been written. Margaret Fuller, I must call 
 my early schoolmate as I best remember her, 
 leaves her life pictured in the mosaic of five 
 artists, Emerson himself among the number ; 
 Thoreau is faithfully commemorated in the lov 
 ing memoir by Mr. Sanborn j Theodore Parker 
 lives in the story of his life told by the eloquent 
 Mr. Weiss ; Hawthorne awaits his portrait from 
 the master-hand of Mr. Lowell. 
 
 How nearly any friend, other than his broth 
 ers Edward and Charles, came to him, I cannot 
 say, indeed I can hardly guess. That " majesty " 
 Mr. Lowell speaks of always seemed to hedge 
 him round like the divinity that doth hedge 
 a king. What man was he who would lay his 
 hand familiarly upon his shoulder and call him 
 Waldo ? No disciple of Father Mathew would 
 be likely to do such a thing. There may have 
 been such irreverent persons, but if any one 
 had so ventured at the " Saturday Club," it 
 would have produced a sensation like Bruminel s 
 " George, ring the bell," to the Prince Regent. 
 His ideas of friendship, as of love, seem almost 
 too exalted for our earthly conditions, and sug- 
 
HIS COMMISSION AND ERRAND. 369 
 
 gest the thought as do many others of his char 
 acteristics, that the spirit which animated his 
 mortal frame had missed its way on the shin 
 ing path to some brighter and better sphere of 
 being. 
 
 Not so did Emerson appear among the plain 
 working farmers of the village in which he lived. 
 He was a good, unpretending fellow-citizen who 
 put on no airs, who attended town-meetings, took 
 his part in useful measures, was no great hand 
 at farming, but was esteemed and respected, and 
 felt to be a principal source of attraction to Con 
 cord, for strangers came flocking to the place as 
 if it held the tomb of Washington. 
 
 What was the errand on which he visited our 
 earth, the message with which he came com 
 missioned from the Infinite source of all life ? 
 
 Every human soul leaves its port with sealed 
 orders. These may be opened earlier or later 
 on its voyage, but until they are opened no one 
 can tell what is to be his course or to what har 
 bor he is bound. 
 
 Emerson inherited the traditions of the Bos 
 ton pulpit, such as they were, damaged, in the 
 view of the prevailing sects of the country, 
 perhaps by too long contact with the " Sons of 
 Liberty," and their revolutionary notions. But 
 the most " liberal " Boston pulpit still held to 
 
 24 
 
370 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 many doctrines, forms, and phrases open to the 
 challenge of any independent thinker. 
 
 In the year 1832 this young priest, then a 
 settled minister, "began," as was said of an 
 other, " to be about thirty years of age." He 
 had opened his sealed orders and had read 
 therein : 
 
 Thou shalt not profess that which thou dost 
 not believe. 
 
 Thou shalt not heed the voice of man when it 
 agrees not with the voice of God in thine own 
 soul. 
 
 Thou shalt study and obey the laws of the 
 Universe and they will be thy fellow-servants. 
 
 Thou shalt speak the truth as thou seest it, 
 without fear, in the spirit of kindness to all thy 
 fellow-creatures, dealing with the manifold in 
 terests of life and the typical characters of his 
 tory. 
 
 Nature shall be to thee as a symbol. The life 
 of the soul, in conscious union with the Infinite, 
 shall be for thee the only real existence. 
 
 This pleasing show of an external world 
 through which thou art passing is given thee to 
 interpret by the light which is in thee. Its least 
 appearance is not unworthy of thy study. Let 
 thy soul be open and thine eyes will reveal to 
 thee beauty everywhere. 
 
 Go forth with thy message among thy fellow- 
 
HIS COMMISSION AND ERRAND. 371 
 
 creatures ; teach them they must trust them 
 selves as guided by that inner light which dwells 
 with the pure in heart, to whom it was promised 
 of old that they shall see God. 
 
 Teach them that each generation begins the 
 world afresh, in perfect freedom ; that the pres 
 ent is not the prisoner of the past, but that to 
 day holds captive all yesterdays, to compare, to 
 judge, to accept, to reject their teachings, as 
 these are shown by its own morning s sun. 
 
 To thy fellow-countrymen thou shalt preach 
 the gospel of the New World, that here, here in 
 our America, is the home of man ; that here is 
 the promise of a new and more excellent social 
 state than history has recorded. 
 
 Thy life shall be as thy teachings, brave, 
 pure, truthful, beneficent, hopeful, cheerful, hos 
 pitable to all honest belief, all sincere thinkers, 
 and active according to thy gifts and opportu 
 nities. 
 
 He was true to the orders he had received. 
 Through doubts, troubles, privations, opposition, 
 
 he would not 
 
 " bate a jot 
 
 Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer 
 Right onward." 
 
 All through the writings of Emerson the spirit 
 of these orders manifests itself. His range of 
 
372 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 subjects is very wide, ascending to the highest 
 sphere of spiritual contemplation, bordering on 
 that " intense inane " where thought loses itself 
 in breathless ecstasy, and stooping to the home 
 liest maxims of prudence and the every-day les 
 sons of good manners. And all his work was 
 done, not so much 
 
 "As ever in his great Taskmaster s eye," 
 
 as in the ever-present sense of divine companion 
 ship. 
 
 He was called to sacrifice his living, his posi 
 tion, his intimacies, to a doubt, and he gave them 
 all up without a murmur. He might have been 
 an idol, and he broke his own pedestal to attack 
 the idolatry which he saw all about him. He 
 gave up a comparatively easy life for a toilsome 
 and trying one; he accepted a precarious em 
 ployment, which hardly kept him above poverty, 
 rather than wear the golden padlock on his lips 
 which has held fast the conscience of so many 
 pulpit Chrysostoms. Instead of a volume or 
 two of sermons, bridled with a text and har 
 nessed with a confession of faith, he bequeathed 
 us a long series of Discourses and Essays in 
 which we know we have his honest thoughts, 
 free from that professional bias which tends to 
 make the pulpit teaching of the fairest-minded 
 preacher follow a diagonal of two forces, the 
 
HIS COMMISSION AND ERRAND. 373 
 
 promptings of his personal and his ecclesiastical 
 opinions. 
 
 Without a church or a pulpit, he soon had a 
 congregation. It was largely made up of young 
 persons of both sexes, young by nature, if not 
 in years, who, tired of routine and formulae, and 
 full of vague aspirations, found in his utterances 
 the oracles they sought. To them, in the words 
 of his friend and neighbor Mr. Alcott, he 
 " Sang his full song of hope and lofty cheer." 
 
 Nor was it only for a few seasons that he drew 
 his audiences of devout listeners around him. 
 Another poet, his Concord neighbor, Mr. San- 
 born, who listened to him many years after the 
 first flush of novelty was over, felt the same en 
 chantment, and recognized the same inspiring 
 life in his words, which had thrilled the souls of 
 those earlier listeners. 
 
 " His was the task and his the lordly gift 
 Our eyes, our hearts, bent earthward, to uplift." 
 
 This was his power, to inspire others, to make 
 life purer, loftier, calmer, brighter. Optimism 
 is what the young want, and he could no more 
 help taking the hopeful view of the universe and 
 its future than Claude could help flooding his 
 landscapes with sunshine. 
 
 "Nature," published in 1836, "the first clear 
 manifestation of his genius," as Mr. Norton calls 
 
874 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 it, revealed him as an idealist and a poet, with 
 a tendency to mysticism. If he had been inde 
 pendent in circumstances, he would doubtless 
 have developed more freely in these directions. 
 But he had his living to get and a family to 
 support, and he must look about him for some 
 paying occupation. The lecture-room naturally 
 presented itself to a scholar accustomed to speak 
 ing from the pulpit. This medium of communi 
 cating thought was not as yet very popular, and 
 the rewards it offered were but moderate. Emer 
 son was of a very hopeful nature, however, and 
 believed in its possibilities. 
 
 "I am always haunted with brave dreams 
 of what might be accomplished in the lecture- 
 room, so free and so unpretending a platform, 
 - a Delos not yet made fast. I imagine an 
 eloquence of infinite variety, rich as conversation 
 can be, with anecdote, joke, tragedy, epics and 
 pindarics, argument and confession." So writes 
 Emerson to Carlyle in 1841. 
 
 It would be as unfair to overlook the special 
 form in which Emerson gave most of his thoughts 
 to the world, as it would be to leave out of view 
 the calling of Shakespeare in judging his liter 
 ary character. Emerson was an essayist and a 
 lecturer, as Shakespeare was a dramatist and a 
 play-actor. 
 
 The exigencies of the theatre account fo* 
 
A3 A LECTURER. 375 
 
 much that is, as it were, accidental in the writ 
 ings of Shakespeare. The demands of the lec 
 ture-room account for many peculiarities which 
 are characteristic of Emerson as an author. 
 The play must be in five acts, each of a given 
 length. The lecture must fill an hour and not 
 overrun it. Both play and lecture must be 
 vivid, varied, picturesque, stimulating, or the 
 audience would tire before the allotted time was 
 over. 
 
 Both writers had this in common : they were 
 poets and moralists. They reproduced the con 
 ditions of life in the light of penetrative observa 
 tion and ideal contemplation ; they illustrated 
 its duties in their breach and in their observ 
 ance, by precepts and well-chosen portraits of 
 character. The particular form in which they 
 wrote makes little difference when we come upon 
 the utterance of a noble truth or an elevated 
 sentiment. 
 
 It was not a simple matter of choice with the 
 dramatist or the lecturer in what direction they 
 should turn their special gifts. The actor had 
 learned his business on the stage ; the lecturer 
 had gone through his apprenticeship in the pul 
 pit. Each had his bread to earn, and he must 
 work, and work hard, in the way open before 
 him. For twenty years the playwright wrote 
 dramas, and retired before middle age with a 
 
376 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 good estate to his native town. For forty years 
 Emerson lectured and published lectures, and 
 established himself at length in competence in 
 the village where his ancestors had lived and 
 died before him. He never became rich, as 
 Shakespeare did. He was never in easy circum 
 stances until he was nearly seventy years old. 
 Lecturing was hard work, but he was under the 
 " base necessity," as he called it, of constant 
 labor, writing in summer, speaking everywhere 
 east and west in the trying and dangerous win 
 ter season. 
 
 He spoke in great cities to such cultivated 
 audiences as no other man could gather about 
 him, and in remote villages where he addressed 
 plain people whose classics were the Bible and 
 the " Farmer s Almanac." Wherever he ap 
 peared in the lecture -room, he fascinated his 
 listeners by his voice and manner ; the music of 
 his speech pleased those who found his thought 
 too subtle for their dull wits to follow. 
 
 When the Lecture had served its purpose, it 
 came before the public in the shape of an Essay. 
 But the Essay never lost the character it bor 
 rowed from the conditions under which it was 
 delivered ; it was a lay sermon, concio ad pop- 
 ulum. We must always remember what we are 
 dealing with. " Expect nothing more of my 
 power of construction, no ship - building, no 
 
AS A LECTURER. 377 
 
 clipper, smack, nor skiff even, only boards and 
 logs tied together." " Here I sit and read and 
 write, with very little system, and, as far as re 
 gards composition, with the most fragmentary 
 result : paragraphs incompressible, each sentence 
 an infinitely repellent particle." We have then 
 a moralist and a poet appearing as a Lecturer 
 and an Essayist, and now and then writing in 
 verse. He liked the freedom of the platform. 
 " I preach in the Lecture-room," he says, " and 
 there it tells, for there is no prescription. You 
 may laugh, weep, reason, sing, sneer, or pray, 
 according to your genius." In England, he 
 says, " I find this lecturing a key which opens 
 all doors." But he did not tend to overvalue 
 the calling which from " base necessity " he fol 
 lowed so diligently. " Incorrigible spouting Yan. 
 kee," he calls himself ; and again, " I peddle 
 out all the wit I can gather from Time or from 
 Nature, and am pained at heart to see how 
 thankfully that little is received." Lecture- 
 peddling was a hard business and a poorly paid 
 one in the earlier part of the time when Emerson 
 was carrying his precious wares about the country 
 and offering them in competition with the cheap 
 est itinerants, with shilling concerts and negro- 
 minstrel entertainments. But one could get a 
 kind of living out of it if he had invitations 
 enough. I remember Emerson s coming to my 
 
78 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 house to know if I could fill his place at a 
 certain Lyceum so that he might accept a very 
 advantageous invitation in another direction. I 
 told him that I was unfortunately engaged for 
 the evening mentioned. He smiled serenely, say 
 ing that then he supposed he must give up the 
 new stove for that season. 
 
 No man would accuse Emerson of parsimony 
 of ideas. He crams his pages with the very 
 marrow of his thought. But in weighing out a 
 lecture he was as punctilious as Portia about the 
 pound of flesh. His utterance was deliberate 
 and spaced with not infrequent slight delays. 
 Exactly at the end of the hour the lecture 
 stopped. Suddenly, abruptly, but quietly, with 
 out peroration of any sort, always with " a gentle 
 shock of mild surprise " to the unprepared lis 
 tener. He had weighed out the full measure to 
 his audience with perfect fairness. 
 
 rd\avra yvv^i 
 a Ka ^ etpwv, a 
 , Iva. iraialv cUucea (j.i<r6bv 
 
 or, in Bryant s version, 
 
 " as the scales 
 
 Are held by some just woman, who maintains 
 .By spinning wool her household, carefully 
 She poises both the wool and weights, to make 
 The balance even, that she may provide 
 A pittance for her babes." 
 
AS A LECTURER. 379 
 
 As to the charm of his lectures all are agreed. 
 It is needless to handle this subject, for Mr. 
 Lowell has written upon it. Of their effect on 
 his younger listeners he says," " To some of us 
 that long past experience remains the most mar 
 vellous and fruitful we have ever had. Emer 
 son awakened us, saved us from the body of this 
 death. It is the sound of the trumpet that the 
 young soul longs for, careless of what breath 
 may fill it. Sidney heard it in the ballad of 
 Chevy Chase, and we in Emerson. Nor did it 
 blow retreat, but called us with assurance of 
 victory." 
 
 There was, besides these stirring notes, a sweet 
 seriousness in Emerson s voice that was infinitely 
 soothing. So might "Peace, be still," have 
 sounded from the lips that silenced the storm. 
 I remember that in the dreadful war-time, on 
 one of the days of anguish and terror, I fell in 
 with Governor Andrew, on his way to a lecture 
 of Emerson s, where he was going, he said, to 
 relieve the strain upon his mind. An hour 
 passed in listening to that flow of thought, calm 
 and clear as the diamond drops that distil from 
 a mountain rock, was a true nepenthe for a care 
 worn soul. 
 
 An author whose writings are like mosaics 
 must have borrowed from many quarries. Em- 
 
380 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 erson had read more or less thoroughly through 
 a very wide range of authors. I shall presently 
 show how extensive was his reading. No doubt 
 he had studied certain authors diligently, a few, 
 it would seem, thoroughly. But let no one be 
 frightened away from his pages by the terrible 
 names of Plotinus and Proclus and Porphyry, 
 of Behmen or Spinoza, or of those modern Ger 
 man philosophers with whom it is not pretended 
 that he had any intimate acquaintance. Mr. 
 George Ripley, a man of erudition, a keen critic, 
 a lover and admirer of Emerson, speaks very 
 plainly of his limitations as a scholar. 
 
 " As he confesses in the Essay on Books, 
 his learning is second hand ; but everything 
 sticks which his mind can appropriate. He de 
 fends the use of translations, and I doubt whether 
 he has ever read ten pages of his great authori 
 ties, Plato, Plutarch, Montaigne, or Goethe, in 
 the original. He is certainly no friend of pro 
 found study any more than of philosophical 
 speculation. Give him a few brilliant and sug 
 gestive glimpses, and he is content." 
 
 One correction I must make to this statement. 
 Emerson says he has " contrived to read " al 
 most every volume of Goethe, and that he has 
 fifty-five of them, but that he has read nothing 
 else in German, and has not looked into him for 
 a long time. This was in 1840, in a letter to 
 
HIS USE OF AUTHORITIES. 381 
 
 Carlyle. It was up-hill work, it may be sus 
 pected, but he could not well be ignorant of his 
 friend s great idol, and his references to Goethe 
 are very frequent. 
 
 Emerson s quotations are like the miraculous 
 draught of fishes. I hardly know his rivals 
 except Burton and Cotton Mather. But no one 
 would accuse him of pedantry. Burton quotes 
 to amuse himself and his reader ; Mather quotes 
 to show his learning, of which he had a vast 
 conceit ; Emerson quotes to illustrate some orig 
 inal thought of his own, or because another wri 
 ter s way of thinking falls in with his own, 
 never with a trivial purpose. Keading as he 
 did, he must have unconsciously appropriated a 
 great number of thoughts from others. But he 
 was profuse in his references to those from 
 whom he borrowed, more profuse than many 
 of his readers would believe without taking the 
 pains to count his authorities. This I thought 
 it worth while to have done, once for all, and 
 I will briefly present the results of the examina 
 tion. The named references, chiefly to authors, 
 as given in the table before me, are three thou 
 sand three hundred and ninety-three, relating to 
 eight hundred and sixty-eight different individ 
 uals. Of these, four hundred and eleven are 
 mentioned more than once ; one hundred and 
 fifty-five, five times or more ; sixty-nine, ten 
 
382 
 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 times or more ; thirty-eight, fifteen times or 
 more ; and twenty-seven, twenty times or more. 
 These twenty-seven names alone, the list of 
 which is here given, furnish no less than one 
 thousand and sixty-five references. 
 
 A, rt, ?*/<, Number of times 
 Authorities. men tioned. 
 
 Shakespeare. . . . 112 
 
 Napoleon 84 
 
 Plato 81 
 
 Plutarch 70 
 
 Goethe 62 
 
 Swift 49 
 
 Bacon ...... 47 
 
 Milton 46 
 
 Newton 43 
 
 Homer ..... 42 
 
 Socrates 42 
 
 Swedenborg .... 40 
 
 Montaigne .... 30 
 
 Saadi 30 
 
 Luther , 30 
 
 Authorities. 
 
 Number of times 
 mentioned. 
 
 Webster 27 
 
 Aristotle 25 
 
 Hafiz 25 
 
 Wordsworth ... 25 
 
 Burke 24 
 
 Saint Paul .... 24 
 
 Dante 22 
 
 Shattuck (Hist, of Con 
 cord) 21 
 
 Chaucer 20 
 
 Coleridge .... 20 
 
 Michael Angelo . . 20 
 The name of Jesus 
 occurs fifty - four 
 times. 
 
 It is interesting to observe that Montaigne, 
 Franklin, and Emerson all show the same fond 
 ness for Plutarch. 
 
 Montaigne says, " I never settled myself to 
 the reading of any book of solid learning but 
 PJutarch and Seneca." 
 
 ^Franklin says, speaking of the books in his 
 father s library, " There was among them Plu 
 tarch s Lives, which I read abundantly, and I 
 still think that time spent to great advantage." 
 Emerson says, "I must think we are mors 
 
HIS USE OF AUTHORITIES. 383 
 
 deeply indebted to him than to all the ancient 
 writers." 
 
 Studies of life and character were the delight 
 of all these four moralis^^ As a judge of char 
 acter, Dr. Hedge, who knew Emerson well, has 
 spoken to me of his extraordinary gift, and no 
 reader of " English Traits " can have failed to 
 mark the formidable penetration of the intellect 
 which looked through those calm cerulean eyes. 
 
 Noscitur a sociis is applicable to the books 
 a man most affects as well as to the companions 
 he chooses. It is with the kings of thought that 
 Emerson most associates. As to borrowing from 
 his royal acquaintances his ideas are very simple 
 and expressed without reserve. 
 
 "All minds quote. Old and new make the 
 warp and woof of every moment. There is no 
 thread that is not a twist of these two strands. 
 By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we 
 all quote." 
 
 What Emerson says of Plutarch applies very 
 nearly to himself. 
 
 " In his immense quotation and allusion we 
 quickly cease to discriminate between what he 
 quotes and what he invents. We sail on his 
 memory into the ports of every nation, enter 
 into every private property, and do not stop to 
 discriminate owners, but give him the praise of 
 all." 
 
384 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Mr. Euskin and Lord Tennyson have thought 
 it worth their while to defend themselves from 
 the charge of plagiarism. Emerson would never 
 have taken the troubl# v to do such a thing. His 
 mind was overflowing with thought as a river in 
 the season of flood, and was full of floating frag 
 ments from an endless variety of sources. He 
 drew ashore whatever he wanted that would serve 
 his purpose. He makes no secret of his mode of 
 writing. " I dot evermore in my endless jour 
 nal, a line on every knowable in nature ; but the 
 arrangement loiters long, and I get a brick-kiln 
 instead of a house." His journal is " full of dis 
 jointed dreams and audacities." Writing by the 
 aid of this, it is natural enough that he should 
 speak of his " lapidary style " and say " I build 
 my house of boulders." 
 
 " It is to be remembered," says Mr. Ruskin, 
 " that all men who have sense and feeling are 
 continually helped : they are taught by every 
 person they meet, and enriched by everything 
 that falls in their way. The greatest is he who 
 has been of tenest aided ; and if the attainments 
 of all human minds could be traced to their real 
 sources, it would be found that the world had 
 been laid most under contribution by the men 
 of most original powers, and that every day of 
 their existence deepened their debt to their race, 
 while it enlarged their gifts to it." 
 
HIS USE OF AUTHORITIES. 385 
 
 The reader may like to see a few coincidences 
 between Emerson s words and thoughts and 
 those of others. 
 
 Some sayings seem to be a kind of family 
 property. "Scorn trifles" comes from Aunt 
 Mary Moody Emerson, and reappears in her 
 nephew, Kalph Waldo. " What right have 
 you, Sir, to your virtue ? Is virtue piecemeal ? 
 This is a jewel among the rags of a beggar." 
 So writes Ralph Waldo Emerson in his Lec 
 ture "New England Reformers." "Hiding the 
 badges of royalty beneath the gown of the men 
 dicant, and ever on the watch lest their rank be 
 betrayed by the sparkle of a gem from under 
 their rags." Thus wrote Charles Chauncy Em 
 erson in the " Harvard Register " nearly twenty 
 years before. 
 
 " The hero is not fed on sweets, 
 Daily his own heart he eats." 
 
 The image comes from Pythagoras via Plutarch. 
 
 Now and then, but not with any questionable 
 frequency, we find a sentence which recalls Car- 
 iyle. 
 
 " The national temper, in the civil history, is 
 not flashy or whiffling. The slow, deep English 
 mass smoulders with fire, which at last sets all 
 its borders in flame. The wrath of London is 
 not French wrath, but has a long memory, and 
 in hottest heat a register and rule." 
 
RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Compare this passage from " English Traits " 
 with the following one from Carlyle s " French 
 Revolution " : 
 
 " So long this Gallic fire, through its succes 
 sive changes of color and character, will blaze 
 over the face of Europe, and afflict and scorch 
 all men : till it provoke all men, till it kindle 
 another kind of fire, the Teutonic kind, namely ; 
 and be swallowed up, so to speak, in a day ! 
 For there is a fire comparable to the burning of 
 dry jungle and grass ; most sudden, high-blaz 
 ing : and another fire which we liken to the 
 burning of coal, or even of anthracite coal, but 
 which no known thing will put out." 
 
 " what are heroes, prophets, men 
 But pipes through which the breath of man doth blow 
 A momentary music." 
 
 The reader will find a similar image in one of 
 Burns s letters, again in one of Coleridge s poet 
 ical fragments, and long before any of them, in 
 a letter of Leibnitz. 
 
 " He builded better than he knew " 
 
 is the most frequently quoted line of Emerson. 
 The thought is constantly recurring in our liter 
 ature. It helps out the minister s sermon ; and a 
 Fourth of July Oration which does not borrow it 
 is like the " Address without a Phoenix " among 
 
EIS USE OF AUTHORITIES. 387 
 
 the Drury Lane mock poems. Can we find any 
 trace of this idea elsewhere ? 
 
 In a little poem of Coleridge s, "William 
 Tell," are these two lines : 
 
 " On wave and wind the boy would toss, 
 Was great, nor knew how great he was." 
 
 The thought is fully worked out in the cele 
 brated Essay of Carlyle called " Characteris 
 tics." It reappears in Emerson s poem " Fate." 
 
 " Unknown to Cromwell as to me 
 Was Cromwell s measure or degree ; 
 Unknown to him as to his horse, 
 If he than his groom be better or worse." 
 
 It is unnecessary to illustrate this point any 
 further in this connection. In dealing with his 
 poetry other resemblances will suggest them 
 selves. All the best poetry the world has 
 known is full of such resemblances. If we find 
 Emerson s wonderful picture, " Initial Love," 
 prefigured in the " Symposium " of Plato, we 
 have only to look in the " Phgedrus " and shall 
 find an earlier sketch of Shakespeare s famous 
 group, - 
 
 "The lunatic, the lover, and the poet." 
 
 Sometimes these resemblances are nothing more 
 than accidental coincidences ; sometimes the sim 
 ilar passages are unconsciously borrowed from 
 another ; sometimes they are paraphrases, varia- 
 
388 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 tions, embellished copies, Editions de luxe of 
 sayings that all the world knows are old, but 
 which it seems to the writer worth his while to 
 say over again. The more improved versions of 
 the world s great thoughts we have, the better, 
 and we look to the great minds for them. The 
 larger the river the more streams flow into it. 
 The wide flood of Emerson s discourse has a 
 hundred rivers and thousands of streamlets for 
 its tributaries. 
 
 It was not from books only that he gathered 
 food for thought and for his lectures and essays. 
 He was always on the lookout in conversation 
 for things to be remembered. He picked up 
 facts one would not have expected him to care 
 for. He once corrected me in giving Flora 
 Temple s time at Kalamazoo. I made a mistake 
 of a quarter of a second, and he set me right. 
 He was not always so exact in his memory, as 
 I have already shown in several instances. An 
 other example is where he speaks of Quintus 
 Curtius,the historian,when he is thinking of Met- 
 tus Curtius, the self-sacrificing equestrian. Lit 
 tle inaccuracies of this kind did not concern 
 him much ; he was a wholesale dealer in illus 
 trations, and could not trouble himself about a 
 trifling defect in this or that particular article. 
 
 Emerson was a man who influenced others 
 more than others influenced him. Outside of 
 
INFLUENCE OF OTHERS UPON HIM. 389 
 
 his family connections, the personalities which 
 can be most easily traced in his own are those 
 of Carlyle, Mr. Alcott, and Thoreau. Carlyle s 
 harsh virility could not be without its effect on 
 his valid, but sensitive nature. Alcott s psycho 
 logical and physiological speculations interested 
 him as an idealist. Thoreau lent him a new set 
 of organs of sense of wonderful delicacy. Em 
 erson looked at nature as a poet, and his natural 
 history, if left to himself, would have been as 
 vague as that of Polonius. But Thoreau had 
 a pair of eyes which, like those of the Indian 
 deity, could see the smallest emmet on the black 
 est stone in the darkest night, or come nearer 
 to seeing it than those of most mortals. Emer 
 son s long intimacy with him taught him to give 
 an outline to many natural objects which would 
 have been poetic nebulae to him but for this com 
 panionship. A nicer analysis would detect many 
 alien elements mixed with his individuality, but 
 the family traits predominated over all the ex 
 ternal influences, and the personality stood out 
 distinct from the common family qualities. Mr. 
 Whipple has well said: "Some traits of his 
 mind and character may be traced back to his 
 ancestors, but what doctrine of heredity can give 
 us the genesis of his genius ? Indeed the safest 
 course to pursue is to quote his own words, and 
 despairingly confess that it is the nature of gen. 
 
390 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 itis to Spring, like the rainbow daughter of 
 Wonder, from the invisible, to abolish the past 
 and refuse all history. " 
 
 Emerson s place as a thinker is somewhat dif 
 ficult to fix. He cannot properly be called a 
 psychologist. He made notes and even deliv* 
 ered lectures on the natural history of the in* 
 tellect; but they seem to have been made up, 
 according to his own statement, of hints and 
 fragments rather than of the results of system 
 atic study. He was a man of intuition, of in 
 sight, a seer, a poet, with a tendency to mysti 
 cism. This tendency renders him sometimes 
 obscure, and once in a while almost, if not quite, 
 unintelligible. We can, for this reason, under 
 stand why the great lawyer turned him over to 
 his daughters, and Dr. Walter Channing com 
 plained that his lecture made his head ache. 
 But it is not always a writer s fault that he is 
 not understood. Many persons have poor heads 
 for abstractions; and as for mystics, if they 
 understand themselves it is quite as much as can 
 be expected. But that which is mysticism to a 
 dull listener may be the highest and most inspir 
 ing imaginative clairvoyance to a brighter one. 
 It is to be hoped that no reader will take offence 
 at the following anecdote, which may be found 
 under the title " Diogenes," in the work of his 
 
EIS PLACE AS A THINKER. 391 
 
 namesake, Diogenes Laertius. I translate from 
 the Latin version. 
 
 " Plato was talking about ideas, and spoke of 
 mensality and cyatldty [tableity, and gobletity ]. 
 I can see a table and a goblet, said the cynic, 
 but I can see no such things as tableity and 
 gobletity. Quite so, answered Plato, because 
 you have the eyes to see a goblet and a table 
 with, but you have not the brains to understand 
 tableity and gobletity. 
 
 This anecdote may be profitably borne in 
 mind in following Emerson into the spheres of 
 intuition and mystical contemplation. 
 
 Emerson was an idealist in the Platonic sense 
 of the word, a spiritualist as opposed to a mate 
 rialist. He believes, he says, "as the wise 
 Spenser teaches," that the soul makes its own 
 body. This, of course, involves the doctrine of 
 preexistence ; a doctrine older than Spenser, 
 older than Plato or Pythagoras, having its cra 
 dle in India, fighting its way down through 
 Greek philosophers and Christian fathers and 
 German professors, to our own time, when it 
 has found Pierre Leroux, Edward Beecher, and 
 Brigham Young among its numerous advocates. 
 Each has his fancies on the subject. The geog 
 raphy of an undiscovered country and the sound 
 ings of an ocean that has never been sailed over 
 5iay belong to romance and poetry, but they do 
 not belong to the realm of knowledge. 
 
392 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 That the organ of the mind brings with it in 
 herited aptitudes is a simple matter of observa 
 tion. That it inherits truths is a different prop 
 osition. The eye does not bring landscapes into 
 the world on its retina, why should the brain 
 bring thoughts? Poetry settles such questions 
 very simply by saying it is so. 
 
 The poet in Emerson never accurately differ 
 entiated itself from the philosopher. He speaks 
 of Wordsworth s Ode on the Intimations of Im 
 mortality as the high-water mark of the poetry 
 of this century. It sometimes seems as if he 
 had accepted the lofty rhapsodies of this noble 
 Ode as working truths. 
 
 " Not in entire forgetfulness, 
 And not in utter nakedness, 
 But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
 From God, who is our home." 
 
 In accordance with this statement of a divine 
 inheritance from a preexisting state, the poet 
 addresses the infant : 
 
 Mighty prophet ! Seer blest ! 
 On whom those truths do rest 
 Which we are toiling all our lives to find." 
 
 These are beautiful fancies, but the philoso 
 pher will naturally ask the poet what are the 
 truths which the child has lost between its cradle 
 and the age of eight years, at which Words* 
 worth finds the little girl of whom he speaks in 
 the lines, 
 
HIS PLACE AS A THINKER. 393 
 
 " A simple child 
 That lightly draws its breath 
 And feels its life in every limb, 
 What should it know of death ? " 
 
 What should it, sure enough, or of any other of 
 those great truths which Time with its lessons, 
 and the hardening of the pulpy brain can alone 
 render appreciable to the consciousness? Un 
 doubtedly every brain has its own set of moulds 
 ready to shape all material of thought into its 
 own individual set of patterns. If the mind 
 comes into consciousness with a good set of 
 moulds derived by " traduction," as Dryden 
 called it, from a good ancestry, it may be all 
 very well to give the counsel to the youth to 
 plant himself on his instincts. But the in 
 dividual to whom this counsel is given prob 
 ably has dangerous as well as wholesome in 
 stincts. He has also a great deal besides the 
 instincts to be considered. His instincts are 
 mixed up with innumerable acquired prejudices, 
 erroneous conclusions, deceptive experiences, par 
 tial truths, one-sided tendencies. The clearest 
 insight will often find it hard to decide what is 
 the real instinct, and whether the instinct itself 
 is, in theological language, from God or the devil. 
 That which was a safe guide for Emerson might 
 not work well with Lacenaire or Jesse Pomeroy. 
 The cloud of glory which the babe brings with 
 
394 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 it into the world is a good set of instincts, which 
 dispose it to accept moral and intellectual truths, 
 not the truths themselves. And too many 
 children come into life trailing after them clouds 
 which are anything but clouds of glory. 
 
 It may well be imagined that when Emerson 
 proclaimed the new doctrine, new to his young 
 disciples, of planting themselves on their in 
 stincts, consulting their own spiritual light for 
 guidance, trusting to intuition, without ref 
 erence to any other authority^ he opened the 
 door to extravagances in any unbalanced minds, 
 if such there were, which listened to his teach 
 ings. Too much was expected out of the mouths 
 of babes and sucklings. The children shut up 
 by Psammetichus got as far as one word in their 
 evolution of an original language, but bekkos 
 was a very small contribution towards a com 
 plete vocabulary. " The Dial " was well charged 
 with intuitions, but there was too much vague 
 ness, incoherence, aspiration without energy, ef 
 fort without inspiration, to satisfy those who 
 were looking for a new revelation. 
 
 The gospel of intuition proved to be practi 
 cally nothing more or less than this : a new 
 manifesto of intellectual and spiritual indepen 
 dence. It was no great discovery that we see 
 many things as truths which we cannot prove. 
 But it was a great impulse to thought, a great 
 
EFFECTS OF HIS TEACHINGS. 395 
 
 advance in the attitude of our thinking commu 
 nity, when the profoundly devout religious free 
 thinker took the ground of the undevout and 
 irreligious free-thinker, and calmly asserted and 
 peaceably established the right and the duty of 
 the individual to weigh the universe, its laws 
 and its legends, in his own balance, without fear 
 of authority, or names, or institutions. 
 
 All this brought its dangers with it, like other 
 movements of emancipation. For the Fay ce 
 que voudras of the revellers of Medmenham 
 Abbey, was substituted the new motto, Pense ce 
 que voudras. There was an intoxication in this 
 newly proclaimed evangel which took hold of 
 some susceptible natures and betrayed itself in 
 prose and rhyme, occasionally of the Bedlam 
 sort. Emerson s disciples were never accused 
 of falling into the more perilous snares of anti- 
 nomianism, but he himself distinctly recognizes 
 the danger of it, and the counterbalancing effect 
 of household life, with its curtain lectures and 
 other benign influences. Extravagances of opin 
 ion cure themselves. Time wore off the effects 
 of the harmless debauch, and restored the giddy 
 revellers to the regimen of sober thought, as re 
 formed spiritual inebriates. 
 
 Such were some of the incidental effects of 
 the Emersonian declaration of independence. 
 
396 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 It was followed by a revolutionary war of opin 
 ion not yet ended or at present like to be. A 
 local outbreak, if you will, but so was throwing 
 the tea overboard. A provincial affair, if the 
 Bohemian press likes that term better, but so 
 was the skirmish where ti?e gun was fired the 
 echo of which is heard in every battle for free 
 dom all over the world. 
 
 Too much has been made of Emerson s mys 
 ticism. He was an intellectual rather than an 
 emotional mystic, and withal a cautious one. 
 He never let go the string of his balloon. He 
 never threw over all his ballast of common sense 
 so as to rise above an atmosphere in which a 
 rational being could breathe. I found in his 
 library William Law s edition of Jacob Behmen. 
 There were all those wonderful diagrams over 
 which the reader may have grown dizzy, just 
 such as one finds on the walls of lunatic asy 
 lums, evidences to all sane minds of cerebral 
 strabismus in the contrivers of them. Emerson 
 liked to lose himself for a little while in the 
 vagaries of this class of minds, the dangerous 
 proximity of which to insanity he knew and has 
 spoken of. He played with the incommunicable, 
 the inconceivable, the absolute, the antinomies, 
 as he would have played with a bundle of jack* 
 straws. " Brahma," the poem which so mysti 
 
HIS MYSTICISM. 397 
 
 fied the readers of the " Atlantic Monthly," was 
 one of his spiritual divertisements. To the aver 
 age Western mind it is the nearest approach to 
 a Torricellian vacuum of intelligibility that lan 
 guage can pump out of itself. If "Rejected 
 Addresses " had not been written half a century 
 before Emerson s poem, one would think these 
 lines were certainly meant to ridicule and par 
 ody it. 
 
 "The song of Braham is an Irish howl; 
 
 Thinking is but an idle waste of thought, 
 And nought is everything and everything is nought." 
 
 Braham, Hazlitt might have said, is so obviously 
 the anagram of Brahma that dulness itself could 
 not mistake the object intended. 
 
 Of course no one can hold Emerson respon 
 sible for the " Yoga " doctrine of Brahmanism, 
 which he has amused himself with putting in 
 verse. The oriental side of Emerson s nature 
 delighted itself in these narcotic dreams, born 
 in the land of the poppy and of hashish. They 
 lend a peculiar charm to his poems, but it is not 
 worth while to try to construct a philosophy out 
 of them. The knowledge, if knowledge it be, 
 of the mystic is not transmissible. It is not 
 cumulative ; it begins and ends with the solitary 
 dreamer, and the next who follows him has to 
 build his own cloud-castle as if it were the first 
 aerial edifice that a human soul had ever con 
 structed. 
 
398 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Some passages of "Nature," "The Over-Soul," 
 "The Sphinx," "Uriel," iUustrate sufficiently 
 this mood of spiritual exaltation. Emerson s 
 calm temperament never allowed it to reach 
 the condition he sometimes refers to, that of 
 ecstasy. The passage in " Nature " where he says 
 " I become a transparent eyeball " is about as 
 near it as he ever came. This was almost too 
 much for some of his admirers and worshippers. 
 One of his most ardent and faithful followers, 
 whose gifts as an artist are well known, mounted 
 the eyeball on legs, and with its cornea in front 
 for a countenance and its optic nerve project 
 ing behind as a queue, the spiritual cyclops was 
 shown setting forth on his travels. 
 
 Emerson s reflections in the " transcendental " 
 mood do beyond question sometimes irresistibly 
 suggest the close neighborhood of the sublime 
 to the ridiculous. But very near that precipitous 
 border line there is a charmed region where, if 
 the statelier growths of philosophy die out and 
 disappear, the flowers of poetry next the very 
 edge of the chasm have a peculiar and mysteri 
 ous beauty. "Uriel" is a poem which finds 
 itself perilously near to the gulf of unsounded 
 obscurity, and has, I doubt not, provoked the 
 mirth of profane readers; but read in a lucid 
 moment, it is just obscure enough and just sig 
 nificant enough to give the voltaic thrill which 
 
ms MYSTICISM. 399 
 
 comes from the sudden contacts of the highest 
 imaginative conceptions. 
 
 Human personality presented itself to Emer 
 son as a passing phase of universal being. Born 
 of the Infinite, to the Infinite it was to return. 
 Sometimes he treats his own personality as inter 
 changeable with objects in nature, he would 
 put it off like a garment and clothe himself in 
 the landscape. Here is a curious extract from 
 " The Adirondacs," in which the reader need not 
 stop to notice the parallelism with Byron s 
 
 " The sky is changed, and such a change ! O night 
 And storm and darkness, ye are wondrous strong." 
 
 Now Emerson : 
 
 " And presently the sky is changed ; O world ! 
 What pictures and what harmonies are thine ! 
 The clouds are rich and dark, the air serene, 
 So like the soul of me, what if t were me ? " 
 
 We find this idea of confused personal identity 
 also in a brief poem printed among the " Trans 
 lations" in the second part of Emerson s Poems. 
 These are the last two lines of "The Flute, from 
 Hilali": 
 
 Saying, Sweetheart ! the old mystery remains, 
 If I am I ; thou, thou, or thou art I ? " 
 
 The same transfer of personality is hinted in 
 the line of Shelley s " Ode to the West Wind " : 
 
 " Be thou, Spirit fierce, 
 My spirit ! Be thou me, impetuous one ! " 
 
400 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Once more, how fearfully near the abyss of the 
 ridiculous ! A few drops of alcohol bring about 
 a confusion of mind not unlike this poetical 
 metempsychosis. 
 
 The laird of Balnamoon had been at a dinner 
 where they gave him cherry-brandy instead of 
 port wine. In driving home over a wild tract 
 of land called Munrimmon Moor his hat and 
 wig blew off, and his servant got out of the gig 
 and brought them to him. The hat he recog 
 nized, but not the wig. " It s no my wig, Hairy 
 [Harry], lad; it s no my wig," and he would 
 not touch it. At last Harry lost his patience : 
 " Ye d better tak it, sir, for there s nae waile 
 [choice] o wigs on Munrimmon Moor." And 
 in our earlier days we used to read of the be 
 wildered market-woman, whose Ego was so ob 
 scured when she awoke from her slumbers that 
 she had to leave the question of her personal 
 identity to the instinct of her four-footed com 
 panion : 
 
 " If it be I, he 11 wag his little tail ; 
 And if it be not I, he 11 loudly bark and wail." 
 
 I have not lost my reverence for Emerson in 
 showing one of his fancies for a moment in the 
 distorting mirror of the ridiculous. He would 
 doubtless have smiled with me at the reflection, 
 for he had a keen sense of humor. But I take 
 the opportunity to disclaim a jesting remark 
 
BIS ATTITUDE RESPECTING SCIENCE. 401 
 
 about " a foresmell of the Infinite " which Mr. 
 Con way has attributed to me, who am innocent 
 of all connection with it. 
 
 The mystic appeals to those only who have an 
 ear for the celestial concords, as the musician 
 only appeals to those who have the special en 
 dowment which enables them to understand his 
 compositions. It is not for organizations un 
 tuned to earthly music to criticise the great 
 composers, or for those who are deaf to spiritual 
 harmonies to criticise the higher natures which 
 lose themselves in the strains of divine contem 
 plation. The bewildered reader must not forget 
 that passage of arms, previously mentioned, be 
 tween Plato and Diogenes. 
 
 Emerson looked rather askance at Science in 
 his early days. I remember that his brother 
 Charles had something to say in the " Harvard 
 Register " (1828) about its disenchantments. 
 I suspect the prejudice may have come partly 
 from Wordsworth. Compare this verse of his 
 with the lines of Emerson s which follow it. 
 
 " Physician art thou, one all eyes ; 
 Philosopher, a fingering slave, 
 One that would peep and botanize 
 Upon his mother s grave ? " 
 
 Emerson s lines are to be found near the end 
 of the Appendix in the new edition of his works. 
 
402 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 " Philosophers are lined with eyes within, 
 And, being so, the sage unmakes the man. 
 In love he cannot therefore cease his trade ; 
 Scarce the first blush has overspread his cheek, 
 He feels it, introverts his learned eye 
 To catch the unconscious heart in the very act. 
 His mother died, the only friend he had, 
 Some tears escaped, but his philosophy 
 Couched like a cat, sat watching close behind 
 And throttled all his passion. Is t not like 
 That devil-spider that devours her mate 
 Scarce freed from her embraces ? " 
 
 The same feeling comes out in the Poem 
 "Blight," where he says the "young scholars 
 who invade our hills " 
 
 " Love not the flower they pluck, and know it not, 
 And all their botany is Latin names ; " 
 
 and in " The Walk," where the " learned men " 
 with their glasses are contrasted with the sons 
 of Nature, the poets are no doubt meant, 
 much to the disadvantage of the microscopic 
 observers. Emerson s mind was very far from 
 being of the scientific pattern. Science is quan 
 titative, loves the foot-rule and the balance, 
 methodical, exhaustive, indifferent to the beau 
 tiful as such. The poet is curious, asks all man 
 ner of questions, and never thinks of waiting for 
 the answer, still less of torturing Nature to get 
 at it. Emerson wonders, for instance, 
 
 " Why Nature loves the number five," 
 
HIS STYLE. 403 
 
 but leaves his note of interrogation without 
 troubling himself any farther. He must have 
 picked up some wood-craft and a little botany 
 from Thoreau, and a few chemical notions from 
 *us brother-in-law, Dr. Jackson, whose name is 
 associated with the discovery of artificial anaes 
 thesia. It seems probable that the genial com 
 panionship of Agassiz, who united with his scien 
 tific genius, learning, and renown, most delightful 
 social qualities, gave him a kinder feeling to men 
 of science and their pursuits than he had enter 
 tained before that great master came among us. 
 At any rate he avails himself of the facts drawn 
 from their specialties without scruple when they 
 will serve his turn. But he loves the poet al 
 ways better than the scientific student of nature. 
 In his Preface to the Poems of Mr. W. E. Chan- 
 ning, he says : 
 
 " Here is a naturalist who sees the flower and 
 the bud with a poet s curiosity and awe, and 
 does not count the stamens in the aster, nor the 
 feathers in the wood-thrush, but rests in the sur 
 prise and affection they awake." 
 
 This was Emerson s own instinctive attitude 
 to all the phenomena of nature. 
 
 Emerson s style is epigrammatic, incisive, au 
 thoritative, sometimes quaint, never obscure, ex 
 cept when he is handling nebulous subjects. 
 
4:04 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 His paragraphs are full of brittle sentences that 
 break apart and are independent units, like the 
 fragments of a coral colony. His imagery is 
 frequently daring, leaping from the concrete to 
 the abstract, from the special to the general and 
 universal, and vice versa, with a bound that is 
 like a flight. Here are a few specimens of his 
 pleasing audacities : 
 
 " There is plenty of wild azote and carbon un 
 appropriated, but it is naught till we have made 
 it up into loaves and soup." 
 
 " He arrives at the sea-shore and a sumptuous 
 ship has floored and carpeted for him the stormy 
 Atlantic." 
 
 " If we weave a yard of tape in all humility 
 and as well as we can, long hereafter we shall 
 see it was no cotton tape at all but some galaxy 
 which we braided, and that the threads were 
 Time and Nature." 
 
 "Tapping the tempest for a little side 
 wind." 
 
 "The locomotive and the steamboat, like 
 enormous shuttles, shoot every day across the 
 thousand various threads of national descent 
 and employment and bind them fast in one 
 web." 
 
 He is fond of certain archaisms and unusual 
 phrases. He likes the expression " mother-wit," 
 which he finds in Spenser, Marlowe, Shake* 
 
HIS STYLE. 405 
 
 speare, and other old writers. He often uses 
 the word " husband " in its earlier sense of econ 
 omist. His use of the word " haughty " is so 
 fitting, and it sounds so nobly from his lips, that 
 we could wish its employment were forbidden 
 henceforth to voices which vulgarize it. But his 
 special, constitutional, word is "fine," meaning 
 something like dainty, as Shakespeare uses it, 
 " my dainty Ariel," " fine Ariel. " It belongs 
 to his habit of mind and body as " faint " and 
 44 swoon " belong to Keats. This word is one of 
 the ear-marks by which Emerson s imitators are 
 easily recognized. " Melioration " is another fa 
 vorite word of Emerson s. A clairvoyant could 
 spell out some of his most characteristic traits 
 by the aid of his use of these three words ; his 
 inborn fastidiousness, subdued and kept out of 
 sight by his large charity and his good breed 
 ing, showed itself in his liking for the word 
 44 haughty ; " his exquisite delicacy by his fond 
 ness for the word " fine," with a certain shade 
 of meaning ; his optimism in the frequent recur 
 rence of the word 44 melioration." 
 
 We must not find fault with his semi-detached 
 sentences until we quarrel with Solomon and 
 criticise the Sermon on the Mount. The 44 point 
 and surprise " which he speaks of as character 
 izing the style of Plutarch belong eminently to 
 bis own. His fertility of illustrative imagery is 
 
406 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 very great. His images are noble, or, if bor 
 rowed from humble objects, ennobled by hig 
 handling. He throws his royal robe over a 
 milking - stool and it becomes a throne. But 
 chiefly he chooses objects of comparison grand 
 in themselves. He deals with the elements at 
 first hand. Such delicacy of treatment, with 
 .such breadth and force of effect, is hard to 
 match anywhere, and we know him by his style 
 at sight. It is as when the slight fingers of a 
 girl touch the keys of some mighty and many- 
 voiced organ, and send its thunders rolling along 
 the aisles and startling the stained windows of a 
 great cathedral. We have seen him as an un 
 pretending lecturer. We follow him round as 
 he " peddles out all the wit he can gather from 
 Time or from Nature," and we find that " he has 
 changed his market cart into a chariot of the 
 sun," and is carrying about the morning light as 
 merchandise. 
 
 Emerson was as loyal an American, as thor 
 ough a New Englander, as home-loving a citizen, 
 as ever lived. He arraigned his countrymen 
 sharply for their faults. Mr. Arnold made one 
 string of his epithets familiar to all of us, 
 " This great, intelligent, sensual, and avaricious 
 America." This was from a private letter to 
 Carlyle. In his Essay, " Works and Days," he 
 
AS AN AMERICAN. 407 
 
 is quite as outspoken : " This mendicant America, 
 this curious, peering, itinerant, imitative Amer 
 ica." " I see plainly," he says, " that our society 
 is as bigoted to the respectabilities^ of religion 
 and education as yours." " The war," he says, 
 " gave back integrity to this erring and immoral 
 nation." All his life long he recognized the 
 faults and errors of the new civilization. All 
 his life long he labored diligently and lovingly 
 to correct them. To the dark prophecies of 
 Carlyle, which came wailing to him across the 
 ocean, he answered with ever hopeful and 
 cheerful anticipations. "Here," he said, in 
 words I have already borrowed, "is the home 
 of man here is the promise of a new and 
 more excellent social state than history has re 
 corded." 
 
 Such a man as Emerson belongs to no one 
 town or province or continent ; he is the common 
 property of mankind ; and yet we love to think 
 of him as breathing the same air and treading 
 the same soil that we and our fathers and our 
 children have breathed and trodden. So it 
 pleases us to think how fondly he remembered 
 his birthplace ; and by the side of Franklin s 
 bequest to his native city we treasure that golden 
 verse of Emerson s : 
 
 " A blessing through the ages thus 
 Shield all thy -roofs and towers, 
 
108 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 GOD WITH THE FATHERS, so WITH us, 
 Thou darling town of ours ! " 
 
 Emerson sympathized with all generous public 
 movements, but he was not fond of working in 
 associations, though he liked well enough to at 
 tend their meetings as a listener and looker-on. 
 His study was his workshop, and he preferred to 
 labor in solitude. When he became famous he 
 paid the penalty of celebrity in frequent inter 
 ruptions by those " devastators of the day " who 
 sought him in his quiet retreat. His courtesy 
 and kindness to his visitors were uniform and re 
 markable. Poets who come to recite their verses 
 and reformers who come to explain their projects 
 are among the most formidable of earthly visi 
 tations. Emerson accepted his martyrdom with 
 meek submission ; it was a martyrdom in detail, 
 but collectively its petty tortures might have 
 satisfied a reasonable inquisitor as the punish 
 ment of a moderate heresy. Except in that 
 one phrase above quoted he never complained 
 of his social oppressors, so far as I remember, 
 in his writings. His perfect amiability was one 
 of his most striking characteristics, and in a na 
 ture fastidious as was his in its whole organiza 
 tion, it implied a self-command worthy of ad 
 miration. 
 
 The natural purity and elevation of Emer 
 
EMERSON AND BURNS. 409 
 
 Bon s character show themselves in all that he 
 writes. His life corresponded to the ideal we 
 form of him from his writings. This it was 
 which made him invulnerable amidst all the 
 fierce conflicts his gentle words excited. His 
 white shield was so spotless that the least scru 
 pulous combatants did not like to leave their de 
 facing marks upon it. One would think he was 
 protected by some superstition like that which 
 Voltaire refers to as existing about Boileau, 
 
 " Ne disons pas mal de Nicolas, cela porte malheur." 
 
 (Don t let us abuse Nicolas, it brings ill luck.) 
 The cooped-up dogmatists whose very citadel of 
 belief he was attacking, and who had their 
 hot water and boiling pitch and flaming brim 
 stone ready for the assailants of their outer de* 
 fences, withheld their missiles from him, and even 
 sometimes, in a movement of involuntary human 
 sympathy, sprinkled him with rose-water. His 
 position in our Puritan New England was in 
 some respects like that of Burns in Presbyterian 
 Scotland. The dour Scotch ministers and elders 
 could not cage their minstrel, and they could not 
 clip his wings ; and so they let this morning lark 
 rise above their theological mists, and sing to 
 them at heaven s gate, until he had softened all 
 their hearts and might nestle in their bosoms 
 and find his perch on " the big ha bible," if he 
 
10 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 would, and as he did. So did the music of 
 Emerson s words and life steal into the hearts 
 of our stern New England theologians, and soften 
 them to a temper which would have seemed trea 
 sonable weakness to their stiff-kneed forefathers. 
 When a man lives a life commended by all the 
 Christian virtues, enlightened persons are not so 
 apt to cavil at his particular beliefs or unbeliefs 
 as in former generations. We do, however, wish 
 to know what are the convictions of any such 
 persons in matters of highest interest about 
 which there is so much honest difference of 
 opinion in this age of deep and anxious and de 
 vout religious scepticism. 
 
 It was a very wise and a very prudent course 
 which was taken by Simonides, when he was 
 asked by his imperial master to give him his 
 ideas about the Deity. He begged for a day to 
 consider the question, but when the time came 
 for his answer he wanted two days more, and at 
 the end of these, four days. In short, the more 
 he thought about it, the more he found himself 
 perplexed. 
 
 The name most frequently applied to Emer 
 son s form of belief is Pantheism. How many 
 persons who shudder at the sound of this word 
 can tell the difference between that doctrine and 
 their own professed belief in the omnipresence 
 of the Deity? 
 
HIS RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 411 
 
 Theodore Parker explained Emerson s posi 
 tion, as he understood it, in an article in the 
 " Massachusetts Quarterly Beview." I borrow 
 this quotation from Mr. Cooke : 
 
 " He has an absolute confidence in God. He 
 has been foolishly accused of Pantheism, which 
 sinks God in nature, but no man is further from 
 it. He never sinks God in man ; he does not 
 stop with the law, in matter or morals, but goes 
 to the Law-giver ; yet probably it would not be 
 so easy for him to give his definition of God, as 
 it would be for most graduates at Andover or 
 Cambridge." 
 
 We read in his Essay, " Self-Reliance " : " This 
 is the ultimate fact which we so quickly reach on 
 this, as on every topic, the resolution of all into 
 the ever-blessed ONE. Self-existence is the at 
 tribute of the Supreme Cause, and it constitutes 
 the measure of good by the degree in which it 
 enters into all lower forms." 
 
 The " ever-blessed ONE " of Emerson corre 
 sponds to the Father in the doctrine of the 
 Trinity. The " Over-Soul " of Emerson is that 
 aspect of Deity which is known to theology as 
 the Holy Spirit. Jesus was for him a divine 
 manifestation, but only as other great human 
 souls have been in all ages and are to-day. He 
 was willing to be called a Christian just as he 
 was willing to be called a Platonist. 
 
RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 Explanations are apt not to explain much in 
 dealing with subjects like this. "Canst thou 
 by searching find out God ? Canst thou find out 
 the Almighty unto perfection? " But on certain 
 great points nothing could be clearer than the 
 teaching of Emerson. He believed in the doc 
 trine of spiritual influx as sincerely as any Cal- 
 vinist or Swedenborgian. His views as to fate, 
 or the determining conditions of the character, 
 brought him near enough to the doctrine of 
 predestination to make him afraid of its con 
 sequences, and led him to enter a caveat against 
 any denial of the self-governing power of the 
 will. 
 
 His creed was a brief one, but he carried it 
 everywhere with him. In all he did, in all he 
 said, and so far as all outward signs could show, 
 in all his thoughts, the indwelling Spirit was his 
 light and guide ; through all nature he looked 
 up to nature s God ; and if he did not worship 
 the " man Christ Jesus " as the churches of 
 Christendom have done, he followed his foot 
 steps so nearly that our good Methodist, Father 
 Taylor, spoke of him as more like Christ than 
 any man he had known. 
 
 Emerson was in friendly relations with many 
 clergymen of the church from which he had 
 parted. Since he left the pulpit, the lesson, not 
 of tolerance, for that word is an insult as ap 
 
HIS RELATIONS WITH CLERGYMEN. 413 
 
 plied by one set of well-behaved people to an 
 other, not of charity, for that implies an im 
 pertinent assumption, but of good feeling on the 
 part of divergent sects and their ministers has 
 been taught and learned as never before. Their 
 official Confessions of Faith make far less differ 
 ence in their human sentiments and relations 
 than they did even half a century ago. These 
 ancient creeds are handed along down, to be 
 kept in their phials with their stoppers fast, as 
 attar of rose is kept in its little bottles ; they 
 are not to be opened and exposed to the atmos 
 phere so long as their perfume, the odor of 
 sanctity, is diffused from the carefully treas 
 ured receptacles, perhaps even longer than 
 that. 
 
 Out of the endless opinions as to the signifi 
 cance and final outcome of Emerson s religious 
 teachings I will select two as typical. 
 
 Dr. William Hague, long the honored min 
 ister of a Baptist church in Boston, where I had 
 the pleasure of friendly acquaintance with him, 
 has written a thoughtful, amiable paper on Em 
 erson, which he read before the New York Gene 
 alogical and Biographical Society. This Essay 
 closes with the following sentence : 
 
 " Thus, to-day, while musing, as at the begin- 
 fcing, over the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 
 We recognize now as ever his imperial genius as 
 
414 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 one of the greatest of writers ; at the same time, 
 his life work, as a whole, tested by its supreme 
 ideal, its method and its fruitage, shows also a 
 great waste of power, verifying the saying of 
 Jesus touching the harvest of human life : 4 HE 
 
 THAT GATHERETH NOT WITH ME SCATTERETH 
 ABROAD. 
 
 " But when Dean Stanley returned from 
 America, it was to report," says Mr. Conway 
 " MacmiUan, June, 1879), that religion had 
 there passed through an evolution from Edwards 
 to Emerson, and that the genial atmosphere 
 which Emerson has done so much to promote is 
 shared by all the churches equally. " 
 
 What is this "genial atmosphere" but the 
 very spirit of Christianity? The good Baptist 
 minister s Essay is full of it. He comes asking 
 what has become of Emerson s " wasted power " 
 and lamenting his lack of "fruitage," and lo! 
 he himself has so ripened and mellowed in that 
 same Emersonian air that the tree to which he 
 belongs would hardly know him. The close- 
 communion clergyman handles the arch-heretic 
 as tenderly as if he were the nursing mother of 
 a new infant Messiah. A few generations ago 
 this preacher of a new gospel would have been 
 burned ; a little later he would have been tried 
 and imprisoned ; less than fifty years ago he was 
 called infidel and atheist ; names which are fast 
 
HIS RELATIONS WITH CLERGYMEN. 415 
 
 becoming relinquished to the intellectual half- 
 breeds who sometimes find their way into pul 
 pits and the so-called religious periodicals. 
 
 It is not within our best-fenced churches and 
 creeds that the self-governing American is like 
 to find the religious freedom which the Concord 
 prophet asserted with the strength of Luther 
 and the sweetness of Melancthon, and which the 
 sovereign in his shirt-sleeves will surely claim. 
 Milton was only the precursor of Emerson when 
 he wrote : 
 
 " Neither is God appointed and confined, where 
 and out of what place these his chosen shall be 
 first heard to speak ; for he sees not as man sees, 
 chooses not as man chooses, lest we should devote 
 ourselves again to set places and assemblies, and 
 outward callings of men, planting our faith one 
 while in the old convocation house, and another 
 while in the Chapel at Westminster, when all 
 the faith and religion that shall be there canon 
 ized is not sufficient without plain convincement, 
 and the charity of patient instruction, to supple 
 the least bruise of conscience, to edify the mean 
 est Christian who desires to walk in the spirit 
 and not in the letter of human trust, for all the 
 number of voices that can be there made ; no, 
 though Harry the Seventh himself there, with 
 all his liege tombs about him, should lend their 
 voices from the dead, to swell their number." 
 
416 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 The best evidence of the effect produced by 
 Emerson s writings and life is to be found in the 
 attention he has received from biographers and 
 critics. The ground upon which I have ventured 
 was already occupied by three considerable 
 Memoirs. Mr. George Willis Cooke s elaborate 
 work is remarkable for its careful and thorough 
 analysis of Emerson s teachings. Mr. Moncure 
 Daniel Conway s "Emerson at Home and 
 Abroad " is a lively picture of its subject by one 
 long and well acquainted with him. Mr. Alex 
 ander Ireland s " Biographical Sketch " brings 
 together, from a great variety of sources, as well 
 as from his own recollections, the facts of Em 
 erson s history and the comments of those whose 
 opinions were best worth reproducing. I must 
 refer to this volume for a bibliography of the 
 various works and Essays of which Emerson 
 furnished the subject. 
 
 From the days when Mr. Whipple attracted 
 the attention of our intelligent, but unawakened 
 reading community, by his discriminating and 
 appreciative criticisms of Emerson s Lectures, 
 and Mr. Lowell drew the portrait of the New 
 England " Plotinus-Montaigne " in his brilliant 
 " Fable for Critics," to the recent essays of Mr. 
 Matthew Arnold, Mr. John Morley, Mr. Henry 
 Norman, and Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman, 
 Emerson s writings have furnished one of the 
 
EMERSON AS JUDGED BY HIS TOWNSMEN. 417 
 
 most enduring pieces de resistance at the critical 
 tables of the old and the new world. 
 
 He early won the admiration of distinguished 
 European thinkers and writers : Carlyle accepted 
 his friendship and his disinterested services ; 
 Miss Martineau fully recognized his genius and 
 sounded his praises ; Miss Bremer fixed her 
 sharp eyes on him and pronounced him " a noble 
 man." Professor Tyndall found the inspiration 
 of his life in Emerson s fresh thought ; and Mr. 
 Arnold, who clipped his medals reverently but 
 unsparingly, confessed them to be of pure gold, 
 even while he questioned whether they would 
 pass current with posterity. He found discern 
 ing critics in France, Germany, and Holland. 
 Better than all is the testimony of those who 
 knew him best. They who repeat the saying 
 that " a prophet is not without honor save in his 
 own country," will find an exception to its truth 
 in the case of Emerson. Head the impressive 
 words spoken at his funeral by his fellow-towns 
 man, Judge Hoar ; read the glowing tributes of 
 three of Concord s poets, Mr. Alcott, Mr. 
 Channing, and Mr. Sanborn, and it will ap 
 pear plainly enough that he, whose fame had 
 gone out into all the earth, was most of all 
 believed in, honored, beloved, lamented, in the 
 little village circle that centred about his own 
 fireside. 
 
418 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 It is a not uninteresting question whether 
 Emerson has bequeathed to the language any 
 essay or poem which will resist the flow of time 
 like " the adamant of Shakespeare," and remain 
 a classic like the Essays of Addison or Gray s 
 Elegy. It is a far more important question 
 whether his thought entered into the spirit of 
 his day and generation, so that it modified the 
 higher intellectual, moral, and religious life of 
 his time, and, as a necessary consequence, those 
 of succeeding ages. Corpora non agunt nisi 
 solute and ideas must be dissolved and taken 
 up as well as material substances before they can 
 act. " That which thou sowest is not quickened 
 except it die," or rather lose the form with which 
 it was sown. Eight stanzas of four lines each 
 have made the author of " The Burial of Sir 
 John Moore " an immortal, and endowed the 
 language with a classic, perfect as the most fin 
 ished cameo. But what is the gift of a mourn 
 ing ring to the bequest of a perpetual annuity ? 
 How many lives have melted into the history of 
 their time, as the gold was lost in Corinthian 
 brass, leaving no separate monumental trace of 
 their influence, but adding weight and color and 
 worth to the age of which they formed a part 
 and the generations that came after them! We 
 can dare to predict of Emerson, in the words of 
 bis old friend and disciple, Mr. Cranch : 
 
EMERSON AS JUDGED BY HIS LIFE. 419 
 
 " The wise will know thee and the good will love, 
 
 The age to come will feel thy impress given 
 In all that lifts the race a step above 
 
 Itself, and stamps it with the seal of heaven." 
 
 It seems to us, to-day, that Emerson s best liter 
 ary work in prose and verse must live as long 
 as the language lasts ; but whether it live or fade 
 from memory, the influence of his great and 
 noble life and the spoken and written words 
 which were its exponents, blends, indestructible, 
 with the enduring elements of civilization. 
 
 It is not irreverent, but eminently fitting, to 
 compare any singularly pure and virtuous life 
 with that of the great exemplar in whose foot 
 steps Christendom professes to follow. The time 
 was when the divine authority of his gospel 
 rested chiefly upon the miracles he is reported 
 to have wrought. As the faith in these excep 
 tions to the general laws of the universe dimin 
 ished, the teachings of the Master, of whom it 
 was said that he spoke as never man spoke r ^ 
 were more largely relied upon as evidence of hi? 
 divine mission. Now, when a comparison of 
 these teachings with those of other religious 
 leaders is thought by many to have somewhat 
 lessened the force of this argument, the life of 
 the sinless and self-devoted servant of God and 
 friend of man is appealed to as the last and con- 
 
420 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 vincing proof that he was an immediate mani 
 festation of the Divinity. 
 
 Judged by his life Emerson comes very near 
 our best ideal of humanity. He was born too 
 late for the trial of the cross or the stake, or 
 even the jail. But the penalty of having an 
 opinion of his own and expressing it was a seri 
 ous one, and he accepted it as cheerfully as any 
 of Queen Mary s martyrs accepted his fiery 
 baptism. His faith was too large and too deep 
 for the formula he found built into the pulpit, 
 and he was too honest to cover up his doubts 
 under the flowing vestments of a sacred calling. 
 His writings, whether in prose or verse, are 
 worthy of admiration, but his manhood was the 
 underlying quality which gave them their true 
 value. It was in virtue of this that his rare 
 genius acted on so many minds as a trumpet 
 call to awaken them to the meaning and the 
 privileges of this earthly existence with all its 
 infinite promise. No matter of what he wrote 
 for spoke, his words, his tones, his looks, carried 
 the evidence of a sincerity which pervaded them 
 all and was to his eloquence and poetry like the 
 water of crystallization ; without which they 
 would effloresce into mere rhetoric. He shaped 
 an ideal for the commonest life, he proposed an 
 object to the humblest seeker after truth. Look 
 for beauty in the world around you, he said, and 
 
LIFE JUDGED BY TEE IDEAL STANDARD. 421 
 
 you shall see it everywhere. Look within, with 
 pure eyes and simple trust, and you shall find 
 the Deity mirrored in your own soul. Trust 
 yourself because you trust the voice of God in 
 your inmost consciousness. 
 
 There are living organisms so transparent that 
 we can see their hearts beating and their blood 
 flowing through their glassy tissues. So trans 
 parent was the life of Emerson ; so clearly did 
 the true nature of the man show through it. 
 What he taught others to be, he was himself. 
 His deep and sweet humanity won him love and 
 reverence everywhere among those whose natures 
 were capable of responding to the highest mani 
 festations of character. Here and there a nar 
 row-eyed sectary may have avoided or spoken ill 
 of him ; but if He who knew what was in man 
 had wandered from door to door in New England 
 as of old in Palestine, we can well believe that 
 one of the thresholds which " those blessed feet " 
 would have crossed, to hallow and receive its 
 welcome, would have been that of the lovely 
 and quiet home of Emerson. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 [For many references, not found elsewhere, see under the general 
 headings of Emerson s Books, Essays, Poems. ] 
 
 ABBOTT, JOSIAH GARDINER, a pupil of 
 Emerson, 49, 50. 
 
 Academic Races, 2, 3. (See Hered 
 ity.) 
 
 Action, subordinate, 112. 
 
 Adams, John, old age, 261. . 
 
 Adams, Samuel, Harvard debate, 
 115. 
 
 Addison, Joseph, classic, 416. 
 
 Advertiser, The, Emerson s interest 
 in, 348. 
 
 ^olian Harp, his model, 329, 340. 
 (See Emerson s Poems, Harp. ) 
 
 ^Eschylus, tragedies, 253. (See 
 Greek.) 
 
 Agassiz, Louis : Saturday Club, 222 ; 
 companionship, 403. 
 
 Agriculture : in Anthology, 30 ; at 
 tacked, 190 ; not Emerson s field, 
 255, 256, 365. 
 
 Akenside, Mark, allusion, 16. 
 
 Alchemy, adepts, 260, 261. 
 
 Alcott, A. Bronson : hearing Emer 
 son, 66 ; speculations, 86 ; an ideal 
 ist, 150 ; The Dial, 159 ; sonnet, 
 355 ; quoted, 373 ; personality 
 traceable, 389. 
 
 Alcott, Louisa JVL, funeral bouquet, 
 351. 
 
 Alexander the Great : allusion, 184 ; 
 mountain likeness, 322. 
 
 Alfred the Great, 220, 306. 
 
 Allston, Washington, unfinished pic 
 ture . 334. (See Pictures . ) 
 
 Ambition, treated in Anthology, 30. 
 
 America : room for a poet, 136, 137 ; 
 virtues and defects, 143 ; faith in, 
 179 ; people compared with Eng : 
 lish, 216 ; things awry, 260 ; aris 
 tocracy, 296 ; in the Civil War, 304 ; 
 Revolution, 305 ; Lincoln, the true 
 history of his tune, 307 ; passion 
 for, 308, 309 ; artificial rhythm, 
 
 329 ; its own literary style, 342 ; 
 home of man, 371 ; loyalty to, 406 ; 
 epithets, 406, 407. (See England, 
 New England, etc.) 
 
 Amici, meeting Emerson, 63. (See 
 Italy. ) 
 
 Amusements, in New England, 30. 
 
 Anaemia, artistic, 334. 
 
 Ancestry: in general, 1-3; Emer 
 son s, 3 et seq. (See Heredity. ) 
 
 Andover,Mass.: Theological School, 
 48 ; graduates, 411. 
 
 Andrew, John Albion : War Gov 
 ernor, 223 ; hearing Emerson, 379. 
 (See South.) 
 
 Angelo. (See Michael Angela.) 
 
 Antinomiauism : in The Dial, 162 ; 
 kept from, 177. (See God, Reli 
 gion, etc.) 
 
 Anti-Slavery: in Emerson s pulpit, 
 55 ; the reform, 141, 145, 152 ; 
 Emancipation address, 181 ; Bos 
 ton and New York addresses, 210- 
 212 ; Emancipation Proclamation, 
 228 ; Fugitive Slave Law, and other 
 matters, 303-307. (See South. ) 
 
 Antoninus, Marcus, allusion, 16. 
 
 Architecture, illustrations, 253. 
 
 Arianism, 51. (See Unitarianism.) 
 
 Aristotle : influence over Marj 
 Emerson, 17 ; tunes mentioned, 
 382. 
 
 Arminianism, 51. (See Methodism^ 
 Religion, etc.) 
 
 Arnim, Gisela von, 225. 
 
 Arnold, Matthew : quotation about 
 America, 137 : lecture, 236 ; on 
 Milton, 315; his Thyrsis, 333; 
 criticism, 334 ; string of Emerson * 
 epithets, 406. 
 
 Aryans, comparison, 312. 
 
 Asia : a pt name, 176 ; immovabU 
 200. 
 
424 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Assabet River, 70, 71. 
 
 Astronomy : Harp illustration, 108 ; 
 stars against wrong, 252, 253. (See 
 Galileo, Stars, Venus, etc.) 
 
 Atlantic Monthly: sketch of Dr. 
 Bipley, 14, 15 ; of Mary Moody 
 Emerson, 16 ; established, 221 ; 
 supposititious club, 222 ; on Per 
 sian Poetry, 224 ; on Thoreau, 228 ; 
 Emerson s contributions, 239, 241 ; 
 Brahma, 396. 
 
 Atmosphere : effect on inspiration, 
 290 ; spiritual, 413, 414. 
 
 Augustine, Emerson s study of, 
 52. 
 
 Authors, quoted by Emerson, 381- 
 383. (See Plutarch, etc.) 
 
 BACON, FRANCIS : allusion, 22, 111 : 
 times quoted, 382. 
 
 Bancroft, George : literary rank, 33 ; 
 in college, 45. 
 
 Barbier, Henri Auguste, on Napo 
 leon, 208. 
 
 Barnwell, Robert W. : in history, 
 45 ; in college, 47. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, disputed, 
 line, 128, 129. 
 
 Beauty : its nature, 74, 94, 95 ; an 
 end, 99, 135, 182 ; study, 301. 
 
 Beecher, Edward, on preexistence, 
 391. (See Preexistence.) 
 
 Behmen, Jacob : mysticism, 201, 
 202, 396 ; citation, 380. 
 
 Berkeley, Bishop : characteristics, 
 189 ; matter, 300. 
 
 Bible : Mary Emerson s study, 16 ; 
 Mosaic cosmogony, 18 ; the Exo 
 dus, 35 ; the Lord s Supper, 58 ; 
 Psalms, 68, 181, 182, 253 ; lost Par 
 adise, 101 ; Genesis, Sermon on 
 the Mount, 102 ; Seer of Patmos, 
 102, 103; Apocalypse, 105; Song 
 of Songs, 117 ; Baruch s roll, 117, 
 118 ; not closed, 122 ; the Sower, 
 154 ; Noah s Ark, 191 ; Pharisee s 
 trumpets, 255 ; names and imag 
 ery, 268 ; sparing the rod, 297 ; 
 rhythmic mottoes, 314 ; beauty of 
 Israel, 351 ; face of an angel, 352 ; 
 barren fig-tree, 367 ; a classic, 376 ; 
 body of death, " Peace be still ! " 
 379; draught of fishes, 381; its 
 Bemi - detached sentences, 405 ; 
 Job quoted, 411 ; " the man 
 Christ Jesus," 412; scattering 
 abroad, 414. (See Christ, God, 
 Religion, etc.) 
 
 Bigelow, Jacob, on rural cemeteries, 
 31. 
 
 Biography, every man writes his 
 own, 1. 
 
 Blackmore, Sir Richard, contro 
 versy, 31. 
 
 Bliss Family, 9. 
 
 Bliss, Daniel, patriotism, 72. 
 
 Blood, transfusion of, 256. 
 
 Books, use and abuse, 110, 111. (See 
 Emerson s Essays.} 
 
 Boston, Mass. : First Church, 10, 12, 
 13; Woman s Club, 16; Harbor, 
 19 ; nebular spot, 25, 26 ; its pul 
 pit darling, 27 ; Episcopacy, 28 ; 
 Athenaeum, 31 ; magazines, 28-34 ; 
 intellectual character, lights on its 
 three hills, high caste religion, 34 ; 
 Samaria and Jerusalem, 35 ; streets 
 and squares, 37-39 ; Latin School, 
 39, 40, 43 ; new buildings, 42 ; Mrs. 
 Emerson s boarding- house, the 
 Common as a pasture, 43 ; Unita 
 rian preaching, 51; a New England 
 centre, 52 ; Emerson s settlement, 
 54 ; Second Church, 55-61 ; lec 
 tures, 87, 88, 191 ; Trhnount Ora 
 cle, 102 ; stirred by the Divinity- 
 School address, 126; school-keep 
 ing, Roxbury, 129 ; aesthetic soci 
 ety, 149 ; Transcendentalists, 155, 
 156 ; Bay, 172 ; Freeman Place 
 Chapel, 210 : Saturday Club, 221- 
 223 ; Burns Centennial, 224, 225 ; 
 Parker meeting, 228 ; letters, 263, 
 274, 275 ; Old South lecture, 294 ; 
 Unitarianism, 298 ; Emancipation 
 Proclamation, 307 ; special train, 
 350 ; Sons of Liberty, 369 ; birth 
 place, 407 ; Baptists, 413. 
 
 Boswell, James : allusion, 138 ; one 
 lacking, 223 ; Life of Johnson, 268. 
 
 Botany, 403. ( See Science. ) 
 
 Bowen, Francis : literary rank, 34 ; 
 on Nature, 103, 104. 
 
 Brook Farm, 159, 164-166, 189, 191. 
 (See Transcendentalism, etc.) 
 
 Brown, Howard N., prayer, 355. 
 
 Brown, John, sympathy with, 211. 
 (See Anti-Slavery, South.) 
 
 Brownson, Orestes A., at a party, 
 149. 
 
 Bryant, William Cullen : his literary 
 rank, 33 ; redundant syllable, 328 ; 
 his translation of Homer quoted, 
 378. 
 
 Buckminster, Joseph Stevens : min 
 ister in Boston, 12, 26, 27, 52; 
 Memoir, 29; destruction of Got 
 dau, 31. 
 
 Buddhism : like Transcendentalism, 
 151 ; Buddhist nature, 188 ; saiutg 
 
INDEX. 
 
 425 
 
 298. (See Emerson s Poems, 
 Brahma, India, etc. ) 
 
 Buffon, on style, 341. 
 
 Bulkeley Family, 4-7. 
 
 Bulkeley, Peter: minister of Con 
 cord, 4-7, 71 ; comparison of ser 
 mons, 57 ; patriotism, 72 ; land 
 owner, 327. 
 
 Bunyan, John, quoted, 169. 
 
 Burke, Edmund: essay, 73; times 
 mentioned, 382. 
 
 Burns, Robert : festival, 224, 225 ; 
 rank, 281 ; image referred to, 386 ; 
 religious position, 409. (See Scot 
 land.) 
 
 Burroughs, John, view of English 
 life, 335. 
 
 Burton, Robert, quotations, 109, 
 381. 
 
 Buttrick, Major, in the Revolution, 
 71, 72. 
 
 Byron, Lord : allusion, 16 ; rank, 
 281 ; disdain, 321 ; uncertain sky, 
 335 ; parallelism, 399. 
 
 CABOT, J. ELLIOT : on Emerson s lit 
 erary habits, 27 ; The Dial, 159 ; 
 prefaces, 283, 302 ; Note, 295, 296 ; 
 Prefatory Note, 310, 311 ; the last 
 meetings, 347, 348. 
 
 Csesar, Julius, 184, 197. 
 
 California, trip, 263-271, 359. (See 
 Thayer.) 
 
 Calvin, John : his Commentary, 
 103 ; used by Cotton, 286. 
 
 Calvinism : William Emerson s want 
 of sympathy with, 11, 12 ; out 
 grown, 51 ; predestination, 230 ; 
 saints, 298 ; spiritual influx, 412. 
 (See God, Puritanism, Religion, 
 Unitarianism.) 
 
 Cambridge, Mass. : Emerson teach 
 ing there, 50 ; exclusive circles, 
 52. (See Harvard University.) 
 
 Cant, disgust with, 156. 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas : meeting Emerson, 
 63 ; recollections of their rela 
 tions, 78-80, 83 ; Sartor Resartus, 
 81, 82, 91 ; correspondence, 82, 83, 
 89, 90, 127, 176, 177, 192, 315, 317, 
 374, 380, 381, 406, 407 : Life of 
 Schiller, 91 ; on Nature, 104, 105 ; 
 Miscellanies, 130 ; the Waterville 
 Address, 136-138 ; influence, 149, 
 150 ; on Transcendentalism, 156- 
 158; The Dial, 160-163; Brook 
 Farm, 164 ; friendship, 171 ; Chel 
 sea visit, 194 ; bitter legacy, 196 ; 
 love of power, 197 ; on Napoleon 
 md Goethe, 208 ; grumblings, 260 ; 
 
 tobacco, 270; Sartor reprinted, 
 272 ; paper on, 294 ; Emerson s 
 dying friendship, 349 ; physique, 
 363 ; Gallic fire, 386 ; on Charac 
 teristics, 387 ; personality trace- 
 able, 389. 
 
 Carper *r, William B., 230. 
 
 Century, The, essay in, 295. 
 
 Cerebration, unconscious, 112, 113. 
 
 Chalmers, Thomas, preaching, 65. 
 
 Channing, Walter, headache, 175, 
 390. 
 
 Channing, William Ellery : allusion, 
 16 ; directing Emerson s studies, 
 51 ; preaching, 52 ; Emerson in hia 
 pulpit, 66; influence, 147, 149; 
 kept awake, 157. 
 
 Channing, William Ellery, the poet : 
 his Wanderer, 263 ; Poems, 403. 
 
 Channing, William Henry : allu 
 sions, 131, 149 ; in The Dial, 159 ; 
 the Fuller Memoir, 209 ; Ode in 
 scribed to, 211, 212. 
 
 Charleston, S. C., Emerson s preach 
 ing, 53. (See South. ) 
 
 Charlestown, Mass., Edward Emer 
 son s residence, 8. 
 
 Charles V., 197. 
 
 Charles XII., 197. 
 
 Chatelet, Parent du, a realist, 326. 
 
 Chatham, Lord, 255. 
 
 Chaucer, Geoffrey : borrowings, 205 ; 
 rank, 281 ; honest rhymes, 340 ; 
 times mentioned, 382. 
 
 Chelmsford, Mass., Emerson teach 
 ing there, 49, 50. 
 
 Chemistry, 403. (See Science.) 
 
 Cheshire, its "haughty hill," 323. 
 
 Choate, Rufus, oratory, 148. 
 
 Christ : reserved expressions about, 
 13 ; mediatorship, 59 ; true office, 
 120-122; worship, 412. (SeeJesrts, 
 Religion, etc.) 
 
 Christianity : its essentials, 13 ; 
 primitive, 35 ; a mythus, defects, 
 121 ; the true, 122 ; two benefits, 
 123 ; authority, 124 ; incarnation 
 of, 176 ; the essence, 306 : Fathers, 
 391. 
 
 Christian, Emerson a, 267. 
 
 Christian Examiner, The : on Wil 
 liam Emerson, 12 ; its literary 
 predecessor, 29 ; on Nature, 103, 
 104 ; repudiates Divinity School 
 Address, 124. 
 
 Church : activity in 1820, 147 ; avoid, 
 ance of, 153 ; the true, 244 ; music, 
 306. (See God, Jesus, Religion, 
 etc.) 
 
 Cicero, allusion, 111. 
 
426 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cid, the, 184. 
 Clarke, James Freeman : letters, 77- 
 80, 128-131 ; transcendentalism, 
 149; The Dial, 159; Fuller Me 
 moir, 209 ; Emerson s funeral, 351, 
 353-355. 
 
 Clarke, Samuel, allusion, 16. 
 Clarke, Sarah, sketches, 130. 
 Clarkson, Thomas, 220. 
 Clergy : among Emerson s ancestry, 
 3-8 ; gravestones, 9. (See Cotton, 
 Heredity, etc.) 
 
 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor : allusion, 
 16 ; Emerson s account, 63 ; influ 
 ence, 149, 150 ; Carlyle s criti 
 cism, 196 ; Ancient Mariner, 333 ; 
 Christabel, Abyssinian Maid, 334 ; 
 times mentioned, 382 ; an image 
 quoted, 386 ; William Tell, 387. 
 Collins, William : poetry, 321 ; Ode 
 
 and Dirge, 332. 
 Commodity, essay, 94. 
 Concentration, 288. 
 Concord, Mass. : Bulkeley s minis 
 try, 4-7 ; first association with the 
 Emerson name, 7 ; Joseph s de 
 scendants, 8 ; the Fight, 9 ; Dr. 
 Ripley, 10 ; Social Club, 14 ; Emer 
 son s preaching, 54 ; Goodwin s 
 settlement, 56 ; discord, 57 ; Em 
 erson s residence begun, 69, 70 ; 
 a typical town, 70; settlement, 
 71 ; a Delphi, 72 ; Emerson home, 
 83; Second Centennial, 84, 85, 
 303 ; noted citizens, 86 ; town 
 government, the, monument, 87 ; 
 the Sage, 102; letters, 125-131 , 
 225; supposition of Caiiyle s life 
 there, 171 ; Emancipation Ad 
 dress, 181 ; leaving, 192 ; John 
 Brown meeting, 211 ; Samuel 
 Hoar, 213 ; wide-awake, 221 ; Lin 
 coln obsequies, 243, 307; an un- 
 der-Concord, 256; fire, 271-279; 
 letters, 275-279 ; return, 279; Min 
 ute Man unveiled, 292 ; Soldiers 
 Monument, 303; land-owners, 327; 
 memorial stone, 333 ; Con way s 
 visits, 343, 344 ; Whitman s, 344, 
 345 ; Russell s, 345 ; funeral, 350- 
 356 ; founders, 352 ; Sleepy Hol 
 low, 356 ; a strong attraction, 369 ; 
 neighbors, 373 ; Prophet, 415. 
 Bongdon, Charles, his Reminis 
 cences, 66. 
 
 Conservatism, fairly treated, 156, 
 157. (See Reformers, Religion, 
 Transcendentalism, etc.) 
 Conversation : C. C. Emerson s es 
 say, 22, 258 ; inspiration, 290. 
 
 Conway, Moncure D. : account of 
 Emerson, 55, 56, 66, 194; two 
 visits, 343, 344; anecdote, 346; 
 error, 401 ; on Stanley, 414. 
 
 Cooke, George Willis : biography of 
 Emerson, 43, 44, 66, 88 ; on Amer 
 ican Scholar, 107, 108 ; on anti- 
 slavery, 212; on Parnassus, 280- 
 282 ; on pantheism, 411. 
 
 Cooper, James Fenimore, 33. 
 
 Corot, pearly mist, 835, 336. (See 
 Pictures, etc.) 
 
 Cotton, John : service to scholar 
 ship, 34 ; reading Calvin, 286. 
 
 Counterparts, the story, 226. 
 
 Cowper, William : Mother s Picture 
 178 ; disinterested good, 304 ; ten 
 derness, 333 ; verse, 338. 
 
 Cranch, Christopher P.: The Dial, 
 159 ; poetic prediction, 416, 417. 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver : saying by a war 
 saint, 252 ; in poetry, 387. 
 
 Cudworth, Ralph, epithets, 200. 
 
 Cupples, George, on Emerson s lec 
 tures, 195. 
 
 Curtius, Quintus for Mettus, 388. 
 
 Cushing, Caleb: rank, 33; in col 
 lege, 45. 
 
 DANA, RICHARD HENRY, his literary 
 
 place, 33, 223. 
 Dante : allusion in Anthology, 31 ; 
 
 rank, 202, 320 ; times mentioned, 
 
 382. 
 Dartmouth College, oration, 131- 
 
 135. 
 Darwin, Charles, Origin of Species, 
 
 105. 
 Dawes, Rufus, Boyhood Memories, 
 
 Declaration of Independence, in 
 tellectual, 115. (See American, 
 etc.) 
 
 Delirium, imaginative, easily pro 
 duced, 238. ( See Intuition. ) 
 
 Delia Cruscans, allusion, 152. (See 
 Transcendentalism.) 
 
 Delos, allusion, 374. 
 Delphic Oracle : of New England, 
 72 ; illustration, 84. 
 
 democratic Review, The, on Nature, 
 103. 
 
 )e Profundis, illustrating Carlyle s 
 spirit, 83. 
 
 )e Quincey, Thomas : Emerson s 
 interview with, 63, 195 ; on origi 
 nality, 92. 
 
 De Stael, Mme., allusion, 16. 
 De Tocquevillle, account of Unite- 
 nanism, 51. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 427 
 
 Dewey, Orville, New Bedford minis 
 try, 67. 
 
 Dexter, Lord Timothy, punctuation, 
 325, 326. 
 
 Dial, The : established, 147, 158 ; 
 editors, 159; influence, 160-163; 
 death, 164 ; poems, 192 ; old con 
 tributors, 221 ; papers, 295 ; intui 
 tions, 394. 
 
 Dial, The (second), in Cincinnati, 
 239. 
 
 Dickens, Charles : on Father Taylor, 
 56 ; American Notes, 155. 
 
 Diderot, Denis, essay, 79. 
 
 Diogenes, atory, 401. (See Laertius.) 
 
 Disinterestedness, 259. 
 
 Disraeli, Benjamin, the rectorship, 
 282. 
 
 Dramas, their limitations, 375. (See 
 Shakespeare.) 
 
 Dress, illustration of poetry, 311, 
 312. 
 
 Dryden, John, quotation, 20, 21. 
 
 Dwight, John S. : in The Dial, 159 ; 
 musical critic, 223. 
 
 EAST LEXINGTON, Mass., the Unita 
 rian pulpit, 88. 
 
 Economy, its meaning, 142. 
 
 Edinburgh, Scotland : Emerson s 
 visit and preaching, 64, 65; lec 
 ture, 195. 
 
 Education : through friendship, 97, 
 98 ; public questions, 258, 259. 
 
 Edwards, Jonathan : allusions, 16, 
 51 ; the atmosphere changed, 414. 
 (See Calvinism, Puritanism, 
 Unitarianism, etc.) 
 
 Egotism, a pest, 233. 
 
 Egypt : poetic teaching, 121 ; trip, 
 271, 272 ; Sphinx, 330. (See Emer 
 son s Poems, Sphinx.) 
 
 Election Sermon, illustration, 118. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, verbal heir-loom, 
 313. (See Raleigh, etc.) 
 
 Ellis, Rufus, minister of the First 
 Church, Boston, 43. 
 
 Eloquence, defined, 285, 286. 
 
 Emerson Family, 3 et seq. 
 
 Emerson, Charles Chauncy, brother 
 of Ralph Waldo : feeling towards 
 natural science, 18, 237 ; memo 
 ries, 19-25, 37, 43 ; character, 77 ; 
 death, 89, 90 ; influence, 98 ; The 
 Dial, 161 ; " the hand of Doug 
 las," 234 ; nearness, 368 ; poetry, 
 385 ; Harvard Register, 401. 
 
 Emerson, Edith, daughter of Ralph 
 Waldo, 263. 
 
 Bnaersou, Edward, of Newbury, 8. 
 
 Emerson, Edward Bliss, brother of 
 Ralph Waldo: allusions, 19, 20, 
 37, 38 ; death, 89 ; Last Farewell, 
 poem, 161 ; nearness, 368. 
 
 Emerson, Edward Waldo, son of 
 Ralph Waldo : in New York, 246 ; 
 on the Farming essay, 255 ; father s 
 last days, 346-349 ; reminiscences, 
 359. 
 
 Emerson, Ellen, daughter of Ralph 
 Waldo : residence, 83; trip to Eu 
 rope, 271 ; care of her father, 294 ; 
 correspondence, 347. 
 
 Emerson, Mrs. Ellen Louisa Tucker t 
 first wife of Ralph Waldo, 55. 
 
 Emerson, Joseph, minister of Men. 
 don, 4, 7, 8. 
 
 Emerson, Joseph, the second, min. 
 ister of Maiden, 8. 
 
 Emerson, Mrs. Lydia Jackson, sec 
 ond wife of Ralph Waldo : mar 
 riage, 83 ; Asia, 176. 
 
 Emerson, Mary Moody: influence 
 over her nephew, 16-18 ; quoted, 
 
 Emerson, Robert Bulkeley, brother of 
 Ralph Waldo, 37. 
 
 EMERSON, RALPH WALDO, HIS LIFE: 
 moulding influences, 1 ; New Eng 
 land heredity, 2 ; ancestry, 3-10 ; 
 parents, 10-16 ; Aunt Mary, 16-19 ; 
 brothers, 19-25 ; the nest, 25 ; 
 noted scholars, 26-36 ; birthplace, 
 37, 38 ; boyhood, 39, 40 ; early 
 efforts, 41, 42 ; parsonages, 42 ; 
 father s death, 43 ; boyish appear 
 ance, 44 ; college days, 45-47 ; let 
 ter, 48 ; teaching, 49, 50 ; study 
 ing theology, and preaching, 51- 
 54 ; ordination, marriage, 55 ; be 
 nevolent efforts, wife s death, 56 ; 
 withdrawal from his church, 57- 
 61 ; first trip to Europe, 62-65 ; 
 preaching in America, 66, 67 ; re 
 membered conversations, 68, 69; 
 residence in the Old Manse, 69-72 ; 
 lecturing, essays in The North 
 American, 73 ; poems, 74 ; portray 
 ing himself, 75 ; comparison with 
 Milton, 76, 77 ; letters to Clarke, 
 78-80, 128-131 ; interest in Sartor 
 Resartus, 81 ; first letter to Car- 
 lyle, 82 ; second marriage and 
 Concord home, 83 ; Second Cen 
 tennial, 84-87: Boston lectures, 
 Concord Fight, 87 ; East Lexing 
 ton church, War, 88 ; death of 
 brothers, 89, 90 ; Nature published, 
 91 ; parallel with Wordsworth, 92; 
 free utterance, 93 j Beauty, 
 
428 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 94 ; Language, 95-97 ; Discipline, 
 97, 98 ; Idealism, 98, 99 ; Illusions, 
 99, 100 ; Spirit and Matter, 100 ; 
 Paradise regained, 101 ; the Bible 
 spirit, 102 ; Revelations, 103 ; Bow- 
 en s criticism, 104 ; Evolution, 
 105, 106 ; Phi Beta Kappa oration, 
 107, 108; fable of the One Man, 
 109 ; man thinking, 110 ; Books, 
 111 ; unconscious cerebration, 112 ; 
 a scholar s duties, 113 ; specialists, 
 114; a declaration of intellectual 
 independence, 115 ; address at the 
 Theological School, 116, 117 ; ef 
 fect on Unitarians, 118 ; sentiment 
 of duty, 119 ; Intuition, 120 ; Rea 
 son, 121 ; the Traditional Jesus, 
 122 ; Sabbath and Preaching, 123 ; 
 correspondence with Ware, 124- 
 127 ; ensuing controversy, 127 ; 
 Ten Lectures, 128 ; Dartmouth 
 Address, 131-136 ; Waterville Ad 
 dress, 136-140 ; reforms, 141-145 ; 
 new views, 146 ; Past and Future, 
 147 ; on Everett, 148 ; assembly 
 at Dr. Warren s, 149 ; Boston doc 
 trinaires, 150; unwise followers, 
 151-156 ; Conservatives, 156, 157 ; 
 two Transcendental products, 157- 
 166 ; first volume of Essays, 166 ; 
 History, 167, 168; Self-reliance, 
 168, 169 ; Compensation, 169 ; other 
 essays, 170 ; Friendship, 170, 171 ; 
 Heroism, 172 ; Over-Soul, 172-175 ; 
 house and income, 176 ; son s 
 death, 177, 178 ; American and 
 Oriental qualities, 179 ; English 
 virtues, 180 ; Emancipation ad 
 dresses in 1844, 181 ; second series 
 of Essays, 181-188 ; Reformers, 
 188-191 ; Carlyle s business, Poems 
 published, 192 ; a second trip to 
 Europe, 193-196; Representative 
 Men, 196-209 ; lectures again, 210 ; 
 Abolitionism, 211, 212; Woman s 
 Rights, 212, 213 ; a New England 
 Roman, 213, 214 ; English Traits, 
 214-221 ; a new magazine, 221 ; 
 clubs, 222, 223 ; more poetry, 224 ; 
 Burns Festival, 224 ; letter about 
 various literary matters, 225-227 ; 
 Parker s death, Lincoln s Procla 
 mation, 228 ; Conduct of Life, 228- 
 239 ; Boston Hymn, 240 ; " So nigh 
 is grandeur to our dust," 241 ; At 
 lantic contributions, 242 ; Lincoln 
 obsequies, 243 ; Free Religion, 243, 
 244 ; second Phi Beta Kappa ora 
 tion, 244-246; poem read to his 
 on, 246-248 ; Harvard Lectures, 
 
 249-255 ; agriculture and science. 
 255, 256 ; predictions, 257 ; Books, 
 258 ; Conversation, 258 ; elements 
 of Courage, 259 ; Success, 260, 261 ; 
 on old men, 261, 262 ; California 
 trip, 263-268 ; eating, 269 ; smok 
 ing, 270 ; conflagration, loss of 
 memory, Froude banquet, third 
 trip abroad, 272; friendly gifts, 
 272-279; editing Parnassus, 280- 
 282 ; failing powers, 283 ; Hope 
 everywhere, 284 ; negations, 285 ; 
 Eloquence, Pessimism, 286 ; Com 
 edy, Plagiarism, 287; lessons le- 
 peated, 288; Sources of Inspira 
 tion, 289, 290; Future Life, 290- 
 292; dissolving creed, 292; Con 
 cord Bridge, 292, 293 ; decline of 
 faculties, Old South lecture, 294 ; 
 papers, 294, 295 ; quiet pen, 295 ; 
 posthumous works, 295 et seq. ; 
 the pedagogue, 297 ; University of 
 Virginia, 299 ; indebtedness to 
 Plutarch, 299-302 ; slavery ques 
 tions, 303-308 ; Woman Question, 
 308 ; patriotism, 308, 309 ; nothing 
 but a poet, 311 ; antique words, 
 313 ; self -revelation, 313, 314 ; a 
 great poet? 314-316; humility, 
 317-319 ; poetic favorites, 320, 
 321 ; comparison with contempora 
 ries, 321 ; citizen of the universe, 
 322 ; fascination of symbolism, 
 323 ; realism, science, imaginative 
 coloring, 324 ; dangers of realistic 
 poetry, 325 ; range of subjects, 
 326 ; bad rhymes, 327 ; a trick of 
 verse, 328 ; one faultless poem, 
 332; spell -bound readers, 333; 
 workshop, 334 ; octosyllabic verse, 
 atmosphere, 335, 336 ; compar 
 ison with Wordsworth, 337 ; and 
 others, 338 ; dissolving sentences, 
 339 ; incompleteness, 339, 340 ; 
 personality, 341, 342; last visits 
 received, 343-345; the red rose, 
 345 ; forgetfulness, 346 ; literary 
 work of last years, 346, 347 ; let 
 ters unanswered, 347 ; hearing and 
 sight, subjects that interested him, 
 348 ; later hours, death, 349 ; last 
 rites, 350-356; portrayal, 357- 
 419 ; atmosphere, 357 ; books, dis 
 tilled alcohol, 358 ; physique, 359 ; 
 demeanor, 360 ; hair and eyes, in 
 sensibility to music, 361 ; daily 
 habits, 362 ; bodily infirmities, 
 362, 363 ; voice, 363 ; quiet laugh 
 ter, want of manual dexterity, 
 364; apade anecdote, memory, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 429 
 
 ignorance of exact science, 365 ; 
 intuition and natural sagacity 
 united, fastidiousness, 366 ; impa 
 tience with small-minded worship 
 pers, Frothingham s Biography, 
 367 ; intimates, familiarity not in 
 vited, 368; among fellow-towns 
 men, errand to earth, inherited 
 traditions, 369; sealed orders, 
 370, 371 ; conscientious work, sac 
 rifices for truth, essays instead 
 of sermons, 372; congregation 
 at large, charm, optimism, 373 ; 
 financially straitened, 374 ; lec 
 ture room limitations, 374, 375 ; 
 a Shakespeare parallel, 375, 376 ; 
 platform fascination, 376; con 
 structive power, 376, 377 ; English 
 experiences, lecture-peddling, 377; 
 a stove relinquished, utterance, 
 an hour s weight, 378; trumpet- 
 sound, sweet seriousness, diamond 
 drops, effect on Governor Andrew, 
 379 ; learning at second hand, 380 ; 
 the study of Goethe, 380 ; a great 
 quoter, no pedantry, 381 ; list of 
 authors referred to, 381, 382 ; spe 
 cial indebtedness, 382 ; penetra 
 tion, borrowing, 383 ; method of 
 writing and its results, aided by 
 others, 384 ; sayings that seem 
 family property, 385 ; passages 
 compared, 385-387 ; the tributary 
 streams, 388 ; accuracy as to facts, 
 388; personalities traceable in 
 him, 389 ; place as a thinker, 390 ; 
 Platonic anecdote, 391 ; preexist- 
 ence, 391, 392 ; mind-moulds, 393 ; 
 relying on instinct, 394 ; dangers 
 of intuition, 395 ; mysticism, 396 ; 
 Oriental side, 397 ; transcendental 
 mood, 398 ; personal identity con 
 fused, 399; a distorting mirror, 
 400 ; distrust of science, 401-403 ; 
 style illustrated, 403, 404 ; favor 
 ite words, 405; royal imagery, 
 406; comments on America, 406, 
 407 ; common property of man 
 kind, 407 ; public spirit, solitary 
 workshop, martyrdom from visit 
 ors, 408 ; white shield invulnerable, 
 409 ; religious attitude, 409-411 ; 
 spiritual influx, creed, 412 ; cler 
 ical relations, 413 ; Dr. Hague s 
 criticism, 413, 414 ; ameliorating 
 religious influence, 414 ; freedom, 
 415 ; enduring verse and thought, 
 416, 417 ; comparison with Jesus, 
 417 ; sincere manhood, 418 ; trans 
 parency, 419. 
 
 EMERSON S BOOKS: 
 Conduct of Life, 229, 237. 
 English Traits : the first European 
 trip, 62 ; published, 214 ; analy 
 sis, 214-220; penetration, 383; 
 Teutonic fire, 386. 
 Essays : Dickens s allusion, 156 ; 
 
 collected, 166. 
 Essays, second series, 183. 
 Lectures and Biographical Sketch 
 es, 128, 295, 296. 
 Letters and Social Aims, 210, 283, 
 
 284, 296, 347. 
 
 May-day and Other Pieces, 161, 
 192, 224, 242, 257, 310, 318, 346. 
 Memoir of Margaret Fuller, 209. 
 Miscellanies, 302, 303. 
 Nature, Addresses, and Lectures, 
 
 179. 
 
 Nature : resemblance of extracts 
 from Mary Moody Emerson, 17 ; 
 where written, 70 ; the Many in 
 One, 73 ; first published, 91, 92, 
 373 ; analysis, 93-107 ; obscure, 
 108; Beauty, 237. 
 Parnassus : collected, 280 ; Pref 
 ace, 314 ; allusion, 321. 
 Poems, 293, 310, 318, 339. 
 Representative Men, 196-209. 
 Selected Poems, 311, 347. 
 Society and Solitude, 250. 
 EMERSON S ESSAYS, LECTURES, SER 
 MONS, SPEECHES, etc. : 
 In general : essays, 73, 88, 91, 
 92, 310 ; income from lectures, 
 176, 191, 192 ; lectures in Eng 
 land, 194-196 ; long series, 372 ; 
 lecture-room, 374 ; plays and 
 lectures, 375 ; double duty, 376, 
 377 ; charm, 379. (See Emer 
 son s Life, Lyceum, etc. ) 
 American Civilization, 307. 
 American Scholar, The, 107-115, 
 
 133, 188. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon Race, The, 210. 
 Anti-Slavery Address, New York, 
 
 210-212. 
 Anti-Slavery Lecture, Boston, 21(\ 
 
 211. 
 
 Aristocracy, 296. 
 Art, 166, 175, 253, 254. 
 Beauty, 235-237. 
 Behavior, 234. 
 Books, 257, 380. 
 Brown, John, 302, 305, 306. 
 Burke, Edmund, 73. 
 Burns, Robert, 224, 225, 307. 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 294, 302. 
 Channing s Poem, preface, 26$ 
 263,403. 
 
130 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Character, 183, 295, 297. 
 
 Chardon Street and Bible Conven 
 tion, 159, 302. 
 
 Circles, 166, 174, 175. 
 
 Civilization, 250-253. 
 
 Clubs, 258. 
 
 Comedy, 128. 
 
 Comic, The, 286, 287. 
 
 Commodity, 94. 
 
 Compensation, 166, 169. 
 
 Concord Fight, the anniversary 
 speech, 292, 293. 
 
 Concord, Second Centennial Dis 
 course, 84-86. 
 
 Conservative, The, 156, 157, 
 
 Considerations by the Way, 235. 
 
 Courage, 259. 
 
 Culture, 232, 233. 
 
 Demonology, 128, 296. 
 
 Discipline, 97, 98. 
 
 Divinity School Address, 116-127, 
 131. 
 
 Doctrine of the Soul, 127. 
 
 Domestic Life, 254, 255. 
 
 Duty, 128. 
 
 Editorial Address, Mass. Quar 
 terly Review, 193, 302, 307. 
 
 Education, 296, 297. 
 
 Eloquence, 254; second essay, 
 285, 286. 
 
 Emancipation in the British West 
 Indies, 181, 303. 
 
 Emancipation Proclamation, 228. 
 307. 
 
 Emerson, Mary Moody, 295, 296, 
 
 English Literature, 87. 
 
 Experience, 182. 
 
 Farming, 255, 256. 
 
 Fate, 228-230. 
 
 Fortune of the Republic, 294, 302, 
 307-309. 
 
 Fox, George, 73. 
 
 France, 196. 
 
 Free Religious Association, 243, 
 302, 307. 
 
 Friendship, 166, 170. 
 
 Froude, James Anthony, after- 
 dinner speech, 271. 
 
 Fugitive Slave Law, 303, 304. 
 
 Genius, 127. 
 
 Gifts, 184, 185. 
 
 Goethe, or the Writer, 208, 209. 
 
 Greatness, 288, 346. 
 
 Harvard Commemoration, 307. 
 
 Heroism, 166, 172. 
 
 Historical Discourse, at Concord, 
 303. 
 
 Historic Notes of Life and Letters 
 
 in New England, 147, 165, 29^ 
 302. 
 
 History, 166, 167. 
 
 Hoar, Samuel, 213, 214, 295, 302. 
 
 Home, 127. 
 
 Hope, 284, 285. 
 
 Howard University, speech, 263. 
 
 Human Culture, 87. 
 
 Idealism, 98-100. 
 
 Illusions, 235, 239. 
 
 Immortality, 266, 290-292, 354. 
 
 Inspiration, 289. 
 
 Intellect, 166, 175. 
 
 Kansas Affairs, 305. 
 
 Kossuth, 307. 
 
 Language, 95-97. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, funeral re- 
 marks, 242, 243, 307. 
 
 Literary Ethics, 131-136. 
 
 Lord s Supper, 57-60, 303. 
 
 Love, 127, 128, 166, 170. (See Em 
 erson 1 s Poems.} 
 
 Luther, 73. 
 
 Manners, 183, 234. 
 
 Man of Letters, The, 296, 298. 
 
 Man the Reformer, 142, 143. 
 
 Method of Nature, The, 136-14L 
 
 Michael Angelo, 73, 75. 
 
 Milton, 73, 75. 
 
 Montaigne, or the Skeptic, 202- 
 204. 
 
 Napoleon, or the Man of the 
 World, 206-209. 
 
 Natural History of the Intellect, 
 249, 268, 347. 
 
 Nature (the essay), 185, 186, 398. 
 
 New England Reformers, 188-191, 
 385. 
 
 Nominalist and Realist, 188. 
 
 Old Age, 261, 262. 
 
 Over-Soul, The, 166, 172-175, 398, 
 411. 
 
 Parker, Theodore, 228, 306. 
 
 Perpetual Forces, 297. 
 
 Persian Poetry, 224. 
 
 Phi Beta Kappa oration, 347. 
 
 Philosophy of History, 87. 
 
 Plato, 198-200; New Readings, 
 200. 
 
 Plutarch, 295, 299-302. 
 
 Plutarch s Morals, introduction, 
 262. 
 
 Poet, The, 181, 182. 
 
 Poetry, 210. 
 
 Poetry and Imagination, 283 ; sub 
 divisions : Bards and Trouveurs, 
 Creation, Form, Imagination, 
 Melody, Morals, Rhyme, Po 
 etry, Transcendency, Veracity, 
 283, 284 ; quoted, 325. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 431 
 
 Politics, 186, 187. 
 Power, 230, 231. 
 Preacher, The, 294, 298. 
 Professions of Divinity, Law, and 
 
 Medicine, 41. 
 Progress of Culture, The, 244, 
 
 288. 
 
 Prospects, 101-103. 
 Protest, The, 127. 
 Providence Sermon, 130. 
 Prudence, 166, 171, 172. 
 Quotation and Originality, 287, 
 
 288. 
 
 Relation of Man to the Globe, 73. 
 Resources, 286. 
 Right Hand|of Fellowship, The, 
 
 at Concord, 56. 
 Ripley, Dr. Ezra, 295, 302. 
 Scholar, The, 296, 299. 
 School, The, 127. 
 Scott, speech, 302, 307. 
 Self-Reliance, 166, 168, 411. 
 Shakespeare, or the Poet, 204- 
 ; 206. 
 
 Social Aims, 285. 
 
 Soldiers Monument, at Concord, 
 303. 
 
 Sovereignty of Ethics, The, 295, 
 297, 298. 
 
 Spirit, 100, 101. 
 
 Spiritual Laws, 166, 168. 
 
 Success, 260, 261. 
 
 Sumner Assault, 304. 
 
 Superlatives, 295, 297. 
 
 Swedenborg, or the Mystic, 201, 
 202. 
 
 Thoreau, Henry D., 228, 295, 302. 
 
 Times, The, 142-145. 
 
 Tragedy, 127. 
 
 Transcendentalist, The, 145-155, 
 159. 
 
 Universality of the Moral Senti 
 ment, 66. 
 
 University of Virginia, address, 
 
 War, 88, 303. 
 
 Water, 73. 
 
 Wealth, 231, 232. 
 
 What is Beauty ? 74, 94, 95. 
 
 Woman, 307, 308. 
 
 Woman s Rights, 212, 213. 
 
 Work and Days, 256, 312, 406, 
 407. 
 
 Worship, 235. 
 
 Young American, The, 180, 181. 
 EMERSON S POEMS : 
 
 In general : inspiration from na 
 ture, 22, 9G ; poetic rank in col 
 lege, 45, 46 ; prose-poetry and 
 philosophy, 91, 93 ; annual qffla, 
 
 tus, in America, 136, 137 ; first 
 volume, 192 ; five immortal po 
 ets, 202 ; ideas repeated, 239 ; 
 true position, 311 et seq. ; in 
 carmine veritas, 313; litanies, 
 314 ; arithmetic, 321, 322 ; fas 
 cination, 323 ; celestial imagery, 
 324 ; tin pans, 325 ; realism, 
 326; metrical difficulties, 327, 
 335 ; blemishes, 328 ; careless 
 rhymes, 329; delicate descrip 
 tions, 331 ; pathos, 332 ; fasci 
 nation, 333 ; unfinished, 334, 
 339, 340 ; atmosphere, 335 ; sub 
 jectivity, 336; sympathetic il 
 lusion, 337 ; resemblances, 337, 
 338 ; rhythms, 340 ; own order, 
 341, 342; always a poet, 346. 
 (See Emerson 1 5 Life, Milton, 
 Poets, etc.) 
 
 Adirondacs, The, 242, 327. 
 
 Blight, 402. 
 
 Boston, 346, 407, 408. 
 
 Boston Hymn, 211, 221, 241, 242. 
 
 Brahma, 221, 242, 396, 397. 
 
 Celestial Love, 170. (Three 
 Loves.) 
 
 Class Day Poem, 45-47. 
 
 Concord Hymn, 87, 332. 
 
 Daemonic Love, 170. (Three 
 Loves.) 
 
 Days, 221, 242, 257, 312 ; pleached, 
 313. 
 
 Destiny, 332. 
 
 Each and All, 73, 74, 94, 331. 
 
 Earth-Song, 327. 
 
 Elements, 242. 
 
 Fate, 159, 387. 
 
 Flute, The, 399. 
 
 Good-by, Proud World, 129, 130, 
 338. 
 
 Hamatreya, 327, 
 
 Harp, The, 320, 321, 329, 330. (See 
 jEolian Harp.) 
 
 Hoar, Samuel, 213, 214. 
 
 Humble Bee, 46, 74, 75, 128, 272, 
 326, 331, 338. 
 
 Initial Love, 170, 387. (Three 
 Loves. ) 
 
 In Meinoriam, 19, 89. 
 
 Latin Translations, 43. 
 
 May Day, 242 ; changes, 311, 335 
 
 Merlin, 318, 319. (Merlin s Song.) 
 
 Mithridates, 331. 
 
 Monadnoc, 322, 331 ; alterations, 
 366. 
 
 My Garden, 242. 
 
 Nature and Life, 242. 
 
 Occasional and Miscellaneous 
 Pieces, 242. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Ode inscribed to W. H. Charming, 
 
 211, 212. 
 
 Poet, The, 317-320, 333. 
 Preface to Nature, 105. 
 Problem, The, 159, 161, 253, 284, 
 
 326, 337. 
 
 Quatrains, 223. 242. 
 Rhodora, The, 74, 94, 95, 129. 
 Romany Girl, The, 221. 
 Saadi, 221, 242. 
 Sea-Shore, 333, 339. 
 Snow-Storm, 331, 338, 339. 
 Solution, 320. 
 Song for Knights of Square Table, 
 
 Sphinx, The, 113, 159, 243, 330, 
 
 398. 
 Terminus, 221, 242; read to his 
 
 son, 246-248, 363. 
 Test, The, 201, 202, 320. 
 Threnody, 178, 333. 
 Titmouse, The, 221, 326. 
 Translations, 242, 399. 
 Uriel, 326, 331, 398. 
 Voluntaries, 241. 
 Waldeinsamkeit, 221. 
 Walk, The, 402. 
 Woodnotes, 46, 159, 331, 338. 
 World-Soul, The, 331. 
 
 Emersoniana, 358. 
 
 Emerson, Thomas, of Ipswich, 3, 8. 
 
 Emerson, Waldo, child of Ralph 
 Waldo: death, 177, 178; anec 
 dote, 365. 
 
 Emerson, William, grandfather of 
 Ralph Waldo : minister of Con 
 cord, 8-10, 14 ; building the Manse, 
 70 ; patriotism, 72. 
 
 Emerson, William, father of Ralph 
 Waldo : minister, in Harvard and 
 Boston, 10-14 ; editorship, 26, 32, 
 33 ; the parsonage, 37, 42 ; death, 
 43. 
 
 Emerson, William, brother of Ralph 
 Waldo, 37, 39, 49, 53. 
 
 England: first visit, 62-65; Lake 
 Windermere, 70 ; philosophers, 
 76 ; the virtues of the people, 179, 
 180 ; a second visit, 192 et seq. ; 
 notabilities 195 ; the lectures, 196 ; 
 Stonehenge, 215 ; the aristocracy, 
 215; matters wrong, 260; Anglo- 
 Saxon race, trade and liberty, 304 ; 
 lustier lif e, 335 ; language, 352 ; 
 lecturing, a key, 377 ; smouldering 
 fire, 385. (See America, Europe, 
 etc.) 
 
 Enthusiasm : need of, 143 ; weak 
 ness, 154. 
 
 Epicurus, agreement with, 301. 
 
 Episcopacy: in Boston, 28, 34, 52; 
 church in Newton, 68 ; at Hano 
 ver, 132 ; quotation from liturgy, 
 354 ; burial service, 356. ( See Cal 
 vinism^ Church, Religion, etc. ) 
 
 Esquimau, allusion, 167. 
 
 Establishment, party of the, 147. 
 (See Puritanism, Religion, Uni- 
 tarianism, etc.) 
 
 Eternal, relations to the, 297. (See 
 God, Jesus, Religion, etc. ) 
 
 Europe : Emerson s first visit, 62- 
 65; return, 72; the Muses, 114; 
 debt to the East, 120; famous 
 gentlemen, 184 : second visit, 193- 
 196 ; weary of Napoleon, 207 ; re 
 turn, 210: conflict possible, 218; 
 third-visit, 271-279 ; cast-out pas 
 sion for, 308. (See America, Eng 
 land, France, etc.) 
 
 Everett, Edward: on Tudor, 28; 
 literary rank, 33 ; preaching, 52 ; 
 influence, 148. 
 
 Evolution, taught in " Nature," 105, 
 106. 
 
 Eyeball, transparent, 398. 
 
 FAITH: lacking in America, 143, 
 building cathedrals, 253. (See 
 God, Religion, etc.) 
 
 Fine, a characteristic expression, 
 405. 
 
 Fire, illustration, 386. (See Eng 
 land, France, etc.) 
 
 Forbes, John M., connected with the 
 Emerson family, 263-265 ; his 
 letter, 263. 
 
 Foster, John, minister of Brighton, 
 15. 
 
 Fourth-of-July, orations, 386. (See 
 America, etc.) 
 
 Fox, George, essay on, 73. 
 
 France : Emerson s first visit, G2, 
 63 ; philosophers, 76 : Revolution, 
 80; tired of Napoleon, 207, 208; 
 realism, 326 ; wrath, 385, 386. (See 
 Carlyle, England, Europe, etc.) 
 
 Francis, Convers, at a party, 149. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin : birthplace, 37 ; 
 allusion, 184 ; characteristics, 189 ; 
 Poor Richard, 231 ; quoted, 236 ; 
 maxims, 261 ; fondness for Plu 
 tarch, 382 ; bequest, 407. 
 
 Fraunhofer, Joseph, optician, 230, 
 324. 
 
 Eraser s Magazine : " The Mud," 
 79; Sartor Resartus, 81. (Se 
 Carlyle.) 
 
 Freeman, James, minister of King * 
 Chapel, 11, 12, 52. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 433 
 
 Free Trade, Athenaeum banquet, 
 220. 
 
 Friendship, C. C. Emerson s essay, 
 22, 23, 77. 
 
 Frothingham, Nathaniel L., account 
 of Emerson s mother, 13. 
 
 Frothingham, Octavius Brooks : Life 
 of Ripley, 165 ; an unpublished 
 manuscript, 365-367. 
 
 Fuller, Margaret : borrowed sermon, 
 130 ; at a party, 149 ; The Dial, 
 159, 160, 162 ; Memoir, 209 ; caus 
 ing laughter, 364 ; mosaic Biogra 
 phy, 368. 
 
 Furness, William Henry: on the 
 Emerson family, 14; Emerson s 
 funeral, 350, 353. 
 
 Future, party of the, 147. 
 
 GALTON, FRANCIS, composite por 
 traits, 232. 
 
 Gardiner, John Sylvester John : al 
 lusion, 26; leadership in Boston, 
 28; Anthology Society, 32. (See 
 Episcopacy. ) 
 
 Gardner, John Lowell, recollections 
 of Emerson s boyhood, 38^42. 
 
 Gardner, S. P., garden, 38. 
 
 Genealogy, survival of the fittest, 3. 
 (See Heredity.) 
 
 Gentleman s Magazine, 30. 
 
 Gentleman, the, 183. 
 
 Geography, illustration, 391. 
 
 German : study of, 48, 49, 78, 380 ; 
 philosophers, 76 ; scholarship, 148 ; 
 oracles, 206 ; writers unread, 208 ; 
 philosophers, 380 ; professors, 391. 
 
 Germany, a visit, 225, 226. (See 
 Europe, France, Goethe, etc.) 
 
 Gifts, 185. 
 
 Gilfillan, George : on Emerson s 
 preaching, 65; Emerson s phy 
 sique, 360. 
 
 Gilman, Arthur, on the Concord 
 home, 83. 
 
 Glasgow, the rectorship, 280. 
 
 God : the universal spirit, 68, 69, 
 94 ; face to face, 92, 93 ; teaching 
 the human mind, 98, 99 ; aliens 
 from, 101 ; in us, 139-141 ; his 
 thought, 146 ; belief, 170 ; seen by 
 man, 174 ; divine offer, 176 ; writ 
 ing by grace, 182 ; presence, 243 ; 
 tribute to Great First Cause, 267 ; 
 perplexity about, 410 ; ever-blessed 
 One, 411; mirrored, 412. (See 
 Christianity. Religion, etc. ) 
 
 Boethe: called Mr., 31; dead, 63; 
 Clarke s essay, 79; generalizations, 
 148; influence, 150; on Spinoza, 
 28 
 
 174, 175 ; rank as a poet, 202, 320 , 
 lovers, 226; rare union, 324; his 
 books read, 380, 381; tunes quoted, 
 382. (See German, etc.) 
 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, his Vicar of 
 Wakefield, 9, 10, 15. 
 
 Good, the study of, 301. 
 
 Goodwin, H. B., Concord minister, 
 56. 
 
 Gould, Master of Latin School, 39. 
 
 Gould, Thomas R., sculptor, 68. 
 
 Gourdin, John GaiUard Keith and 
 Robert, in college, 47. 
 
 Government, abolition of, 141. 
 
 Grandmother s Review, 30. 
 
 Gray, Thomas, Elegy often quoted, 
 316, 317, 416. 
 
 Greece : poetic teaching, 121 ; allu 
 sion, 168. 
 
 Greek : Emerson s love for, 43, 44 ; 
 in Harvard, 49 ; poets, 253 ; moral 
 ist, 299; Bryant s translation, 
 378 ; philosophers, 391. (See Ho 
 mer, etc. ) 
 
 Greenough, Horatio, meeting Emer 
 son, 63. 
 
 Grimin, Hermann, 226. 
 
 Guelf s and Ghibellines, illustration, 
 
 HAFIZ, times mentioned, 382. (See 
 Persia.) 
 
 Hague, William, essay, 413. 
 
 Hafler, Albert von, rare union, 324. 
 
 Harvard, Mass., William Emerson s 
 settlement, 10, 11. 
 
 Harvard University: the Bulkeley 
 gift, 6 ; William Emerson s gradu 
 ation, 10; list of graduates, 12; 
 Emerson s brothers, 19, 21 ; Reg 
 ister, 21, 24, 385, 401 ; Hillard, 24, 
 25 ; Kirkland s presidency, 26, 
 27 ; Gardner, 39-41 ; Emerson s 
 connection, 44-49 ; the Boylston 
 prizes, 46 ; Southern students, 
 47 ; graduates at Andover, 48 ; 
 Divinity School, 51, 53; a New 
 England centre, 52 ; Bowen s pro 
 fessorship, 103 ; Phi Beta Kappa 
 oration, 107, 115, 133, 188, 244; 
 Divinity School address, 116-132 ; 
 degree conferred, 246; lectures, 
 249 ; library, 257 ; last Divinity 
 address, 294 ; Commemoration, 
 307 ; singing class, 361 ; graduates, 
 411. (See Cambridge.) 
 
 Haskins, David Green, at Emerson s 
 funeral, 356. 
 
 Haskins, Ruth (Emerson s mother! 
 10, 13, 14. 
 
434 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Haughty, a characteristic expres 
 sion, 405. 
 
 Hawthorne, Nathaniel : his Mosses, 
 70; "dream -peopled solitude," 
 86 ; at the club, 223 ; view of Eng 
 lish life, 335 ; grave, 356 ; biogra 
 phy, 368. 
 
 Hazlitt, William : British Poets, 21. 
 
 Health, inspiration, 289. 
 
 Hebrew Language, study, 48. (See 
 Bible.) 
 
 Hedge, Frederic Henry : at a party, 
 149 ; quoted, 883. 
 
 Henry VII., tombs, 415. 
 
 Herbert, George : Poem on Man, 
 102 ; parallel, 170 ; poetry, 281 ; a 
 line quoted, 345. 
 
 Herder, Johann Gottfried, allusion, 
 16. 
 
 Heredity: Emerson s belief, 1, 2; 
 in Emerson family, 4, 19 ; Whip- 
 pie on, 389 ; Dryden, 393. 
 
 Herrick, Robert, poetry, 281. 
 
 Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. 
 (See Emerson s Books, Nature.) 
 
 Hilali, The Flute, 399. 
 
 Hillard, George Stillman : in college, 
 24, 25 ; his literary place, 33 ; aid, 
 276. 
 
 Hindoo Scriptures, 199, 200. (See 
 Bible, India, etc.) 
 
 History, how it should be written, 
 168. 
 
 Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood : refer 
 ence to, 223 ; on the Burns speech, 
 225 ; kindness, 273, 274, 276-279 ; 
 at Emerson s death-bed, 349 ; fu 
 neral address, 351-353. 
 
 Hoar, Samuel : statesman, 72 ; trib 
 ute, 213, 214. 
 
 Holland, description of the Dutch, 
 217. 
 
 Holley, Horace, prayer, 267. 
 
 Holmes, John, a pupil of Emerson, 
 50. 
 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell : memories 
 of Dr. Ripley, 15 ; of C. C. Emer 
 son, 20, 21 ; familiarity with Cam 
 bridge and its college, 45 ; errone 
 ous quotation from, 251, 252 ; jest 
 erroneously attributed to, 400, 401. 
 
 Holy Ghost, ; a new born bard of 
 the," 123. (See Christ, God, Re 
 ligion, etc.) 
 
 Homer : poetic rank, 202, 320 ; pla 
 giarism, 205 ; Iliad, 253 ; allusion, 
 315 ; tin pans, 325 ; times quoted, 
 382. (See Greek, etc.) 
 
 Homer, Jonathan, minister of New 
 ton, 15. 
 
 Hooper, Mrs. Ellen, The Dial, 159, 
 160. 
 
 Hope : lacking in America, 143 ; in 
 every essay, 284. 
 
 Horace : allusion. 22 ; Ars Poetica, 
 316. 
 
 Horses, Flora Temple s time, 388. 
 
 Howard University, speech, 263. 
 
 Howe, Samuel Gridley, the philan 
 thropist, 223. 
 
 Hunt, Leigh, meeting Emerson, 195. 
 
 Hunt, William, the painter, 223. 
 
 IDEALISM, 98-100, 146, 150. 
 
 Idealists: Ark full, 191; Platonic 
 sense, 391. 
 
 Imagination : the faculty, 141 ; de 
 fined, 237, 238 ; essay, 283 ; color 
 ing life, 324. 
 
 Imbecility, 231. 
 
 Immortality, 262. (See God, Re 
 ligion, etc.) 
 
 Incompleteness, in poetry, 339. 
 
 India : poetic models, 338 ; idea of 
 preexistence, 391 ; Brahmanism, 
 397. (See Emerson s Poems, 
 Brahma.) 
 
 Indians : in history of Concord, 71 ; 
 Algonquins, 72. 
 
 Inebriation, subject in Monthly An 
 thology, 30. 
 
 Insects, defended, 190. 
 
 Inspiration: of Nature, 22, 96, 141 ,- 
 urged, 146. 
 
 Instinct, from God or Devil, 393. 
 
 Intellect, confidence in, 134. 
 
 Intuition, 394. 
 
 Ipswich, Mass., 3, 4, 8. 
 
 Ireland, Alexander : glimpses of 
 Emerson, 44, 64, 65; reception, 
 193, 194 ; on Carlyle, 196 ; letter 
 from Miss Peabody, 317 ; quoting 
 Whitman, 344 ; quoted, 350. 
 
 Irving, Washington, 33. 
 
 Italy : Emerson s first visit, 62, 63 : 
 Naples, 113. 
 
 JACKSON, CHARLES, garden, 38. 
 
 Jackson, Dr. Charles Thomas, anaes 
 thesia, 403. 
 
 Jackson, Miss Lydia, reading Car 
 lyle, 81. ( See Mrs. Emerson. ) 
 
 Jahn, Johann, studied at Andover, 
 48. 
 
 Jameson, Anna, new book, 131. 
 
 Jesus : times mentioned, 382 ; a 
 divine manifestation, 411 ; fol 
 lowers, 417 ; and Emerson, 419. 
 (See Bible, Christ, Church, Re 
 ligion, etc.) 
 
INDEX. 
 
 435 
 
 Joachim, the violinist, 225, 226. 
 Johnson, Samuel, literary style, 
 
 29. 
 Jonson, Ben : poetic rank, 281 ; a 
 
 phrase, 300. 
 
 Journals, as a method of work, 384. 
 Jupiter Scapin, 207. 
 Jury Trial, and dinners, 216. 
 Justice, the Arch Abolitionist, 306. 
 Juvenal : allusion, 22 ; precept from 
 
 heaven, 252. 
 
 KALAMAZOO, Mich., allusion, 388. 
 
 Kanaka, allusion, 167. 
 
 Keats, John : quoted, 92 ; Ode to a 
 
 Nightingale, 316 ; faint, swoon, 
 
 405. 
 
 King, the, illustration, 74. 
 Kirkland, John Thornton : Harvard 
 
 presidency, 26, 52 ; memories, 27. 
 Koran, allusion, 198. (See Bible, 
 
 God, Religion, etc.) 
 
 LABOR : reform, 141 ; dignity, 142. 
 
 Lacenaire, evil instinct, 392. 
 
 Laertius, Diogenes, 390, 391. 
 
 La Harpe, Jean Francois, on Plu 
 tarch, 301. 
 
 Lamarck, theories, 166. 
 
 Lamb, Charles, Carlyle s criticism, 
 196. 
 
 Landor, "Walter Savage, meeting 
 Emerson, 63. 
 
 Landscape, never painted, 339, 340. 
 (See Pictures, etc.) 
 
 Language : its symbolism, 95-97 ; an 
 original, 394. 
 
 .Latin : Peter Bulkeley s scholarship, 
 7 ; translation, 24, 25 ; Emerson s 
 Translations, 43, 44. 
 
 Laud, Archbishop, 6. 
 
 Law, William, mysticism, 396. 
 
 Lawrence, Mass., allusion, 44. 
 
 Lecturing, given up, 295. (See Em 
 erson s Essays, Lectures, etc. ) 
 
 Leibnitz, 386. 
 
 Leroux, Pierre, preexistonce, 391. 
 
 Letters, inspiration, 289. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, character, 307. 
 (See Emerson s Essays. ) 
 
 Linnaeus, illustration, 323, 324. 
 
 Litanies, in Emerson, 314. (See 
 Episcopacy.) 
 
 Literature : aptitude for, 2, 3 ; ac 
 tivity in 1820, 147. 
 
 Little Classics, edition, 347. 
 
 Liverpool, Eng., a visit, 193, 194. 
 (See England, Europe, Scotland, 
 etc.) 
 
 Locke, John, allusion, 16, 111. 
 
 London, England. : Tower Stairs, 
 63 ; readers, 194 ; sights, 221 ; 
 travellers, 308 ; wrath, 385. (See 
 England, etc.) 
 
 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth : 
 allusions, 31, 33 ; Saturday Club, 
 222, 223 ; burial, 346. 
 
 Lord, Nathan, President of Dart, 
 mouth College, 132. 
 
 Lord s Supper, Emerson s doubts, 
 57-61. 
 
 Lothrop & Co., publishers, 83. 
 
 Louisville, Ky., Dr. Clarke s res! 
 dence, 78-80. 
 
 Lounsbury, Professor, Chaucer let 
 ter, 205. 
 
 Love : in America, 143 ; the Arch 
 Abolitionist, 306. (See Emersotfs 
 Poems.) 
 
 Lowell, Charles : minister of the 
 West Church, 11, 12, 52 ; on Kirk- 
 land, 27. 
 
 Lowell, F. C., generosity, 276. 
 
 Lowell, James Russell : an allusion, 
 33 ; on The American Scholar, 107 ; 
 editorship, 221 ; club, 223 ; on the 
 Burns speech, 225 ; on Emerson s 
 bearing, 360, 361 ; Hawthorne 
 biography, 368 ; on lectures, 379. 
 
 Lowell, Mass. , factories, 44. 
 
 Luther, Martin : lecture, 73 ; his con 
 servatism, 298 ; times mentioned, 
 382. 
 
 Lyceum, the : a pulpit, 88 ; New 
 England, 192; a sacrifice, 378. 
 (See Lecturing, Emerson s Lec~ 
 tures, etc. 
 
 Lycurgus, 306. (See Greece.) 
 
 MACKINTOSH, SIR JAMES, an allusion, 
 
 16. 
 
 Macmillan s Magazine, 414. 
 Maiden, Mass. : Joseph Einerson a 
 
 ministry, 8 ; diary, 17. 
 Man : a fable about, 109, 110 ; faith 
 
 in, 122 ; apostrophe, 140. 
 Manchester, Eng. : visit, 194, 195 ; 
 
 banquet, 220. (See England, etc. ) 
 Marlowe, Christopher, expressions, 
 
 404. 
 Marvell, Andrew : reading by C. C. 
 
 Emerson, 21 ; on the Dutch, 217 ; 
 
 verse, 338. 
 
 Mary, Queen, her martyrs, 418. 
 Massachusetts Historical Society : 
 
 tribute to C. C. Emerson, 21 ; quat 
 
 ity of its literature, 84 ; on Car* 
 
 lyle, 294. 
 Massachusetts Quarterly 
 
 193, 302, 307, 411. 
 
436 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Materialism, 146, 391. (See Reli 
 gion.) 
 
 Mather, Cotton : his Magnolia, 5-7 ; 
 on Concord discord, 57; on New 
 England Melancholy, 216 ; a bor 
 rower, 381. 
 
 Mathew, Father, disciples, 368. 
 
 Mayhew, Jonathan, Boston minister, 
 51. 
 
 Melioration, a characteristic expres 
 sion, 405. 
 
 Mendon, Mass. t Joseph Emerson s 
 ministry, 4. 
 
 Mephistopheles, Goethe s creation, 
 208. 
 
 Merrimac River, 71. 
 
 Metaphysics, indifference to, 249. 
 
 Methodism, in Boston, 56. (See 
 Father Taylor.) 
 
 Michael Angelo : allusions, 73, 75 ; 
 on external beauty, 99 ; course. 
 260 ; filled with God, 284 ; on im 
 mortality, 290 ; times mentioned, 
 382. 
 
 Middlesex Agricultural Society, 
 255. ( See Agriculture, Emerson 1 s 
 Essays. ) 
 
 Middlesex Association, Emerson ad 
 mitted, 53. 
 
 Miller s Retrospect, 34. 
 
 Milton, John : influence in New Eng 
 land, 16; quotation, 24; essay, 73, 
 75 ; compared with Emerson, 76, 
 77 ; Lycidas, 178 ; supposed speech, 
 220; diet, 270, 271; poetic rank, 
 281; Arnold s citation, Logic, Rhet 
 oric, 315 ; popularity, 316 ; quoted, 
 324; tin pans, 325 ; inventor of har 
 monies, 328; Lycidas, 333; Comus, 
 338 ; times mentioned, 382 ; pre 
 cursor, quotation, 415. 
 
 Miracles : false impression, 121, 122 ; 
 and idealism, 146 ; theories, 191 ; 
 St. Januarius, 217; objections, 
 244. {See Bible. Christ. Religion. 
 etc.) 
 
 Modena, Italy, Emerson s visit, 63. 
 
 Monadnoc, Mount, 70. 
 
 Montaigne : want of religion, 300 ; 
 great authority, 380 ; tunes quoted, 
 382. 
 
 Montesquieu, on immortality, 291. 
 
 Monthly Anthology : Wm. Emerson s 
 connection, 13, 26; precursor of 
 North American Review, 28, 29 ; 
 character, 30, 31 ; Quincy s trib 
 ute, 31 ; Society formed, 32 ; 
 career, 33; compared with The 
 Dial, 160. 
 
 Hoody Family, of York, Me., 8, 10. 
 
 Morals, in Plutarch, 301. 
 
 Morison, John Hopkins, on Einec 
 son s preaching, 67. 
 
 Mormons, 264, 268. 
 
 Mother-wit, a favorite expression, 
 404,405. 
 
 Motley, John Lothrop, 33, 223. 
 
 Mount Auburn, strolls, 40. 
 
 Movement, party of the, 147. 
 
 Munroe & Co., publishers, 81. 
 
 Music : church, 306 ; inaptitude for, 
 361 ; great composers, 401. 
 
 Musketaquid River, 22, 70, 71. 
 
 Mysticism : unintelligible, 390 ; Em 
 erson s, 396. 
 
 NAPOLEON : allusion, 197 ; times 
 mentioned, 382. 
 
 Napoleon III., 225. 
 
 Nation, The, Emerson s interest in, 
 348. 
 
 Native Bias, 288. 
 
 Nature : in undress, 72 ; solicita 
 tions, 110 ; not truly studied, 135 ; 
 great men, 199; tortured, 402. 
 (See Emerson s Books, Emerson s 
 Essays, etc.) 
 
 Negations, to be shunned, 285. 
 
 New Bedford, Mass., Emerson s 
 preaching, 52, 67. 
 
 Newbury, Mass. , Edward Emerson s 
 deaconship, 8. 
 
 New England : families, 2, 3, 5 ; Pe 
 ter Bulkeley s coming, 6 ; clerical 
 virtues, 9 ; Church, 14 ; literary 
 sky, 33 ; domestic service, 34, 35 ; 
 two centres, 52 ; an ideal town, 
 70, 71 ; the Delphi, 72 ; Carlyla 
 invited, 83 ; anniversaries, 84 ; 
 town records, 85 ; Genesis, 102 ; 
 effect of Nature, 106 ; boys and 
 girls, 163; Massachusetts, Con 
 necticut River, 172 ; lyceums, 
 192 ; melancholy, 216 ; New Eng- 
 landers and Old, 220; meaning 
 of a word, 296, 297 ; eyes, 325 ; 
 life, 325, 335; birthright, 364; a 
 thorough New Englander, 406 ; 
 Puritan, 409 ; theologians, 410 ; 
 Jesus wandering in, 419. (Sea 
 America, England, etc.) 
 
 Newspapers : defaming the noble, 
 145 ; in Shakespeare s day, 204. 
 
 Newton, Mass. : its minister, 15 ; 
 Episcopal Church, 68. (See Rice. ) 
 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, times quoted, 
 382. 
 
 Newton, Stuart, sketches, 130. 
 
 New World, gospel, 371. (See Amen 
 ica.) 
 
INDEX. 
 
 437 
 
 New York: Brevoort House, 246; 
 Genealogical Society, 413. 
 
 Niagara, visit, 263. 
 
 Nidiver, George, ballad, 259. 
 
 Nightingale, Florence, 220. 
 
 Nithsdale, Eng., mountains, 78. 
 
 Non-Resistance, 141. 
 
 North American Review : its prede 
 cessor, 28, 29, 33 ; the writers, 
 34 ; Emerson s contributions, 73 ; 
 Ethics, 294, 295 ; Bryant s article, 
 328. 
 
 Northampton, Mass., Emerson s 
 preaching, 53. 
 
 Norton, Andrews: literary rank, 
 34 ; professorship, 52. 
 
 Norton, Charles Eliot: editor of 
 Correspondence, 82 ; on Emer 
 son s genius, 373. 
 
 OLD MANSE, THE: allusion, 70; fire, 
 271-279. (See Concord.) 
 
 Oliver, Daniel, in Dartmouth Col 
 lege, 132. 
 
 Optimism : in philosophy, 136 ; " in 
 nocent luxuriance," 211 ; wanted 
 by the young, 373. 
 
 Oriental : genius, 120 ; spirit in Em 
 erson, 179. 
 
 Orpheus, allusion, 319. 
 
 PAINE, R. T., JE., quoted, 31. 
 
 Palfrey, John Gorham: literary 
 rank, 34 ; professorship, 52. 
 
 Pan, the deity, 140. 
 
 Pantheism : in Wordsworth and Na 
 ture, 103; dreaded, 141; Emer 
 son s, 410, 411. 
 
 Paris, France : as a residence, 78 ; 
 allusion, 167 ; salons, 184 ; visit, 
 196, 308. 
 
 Parker, Theodore : a right arm of 
 freedom, 127 ; at a party, 149 ; 
 The Dial, 159, 160; editorship, 
 193 ; death, 228 ; essence of Chris 
 tianity, 306 ; biography, 368 ; on 
 Emerson s position, 411. 
 
 Parkhurst, John, studied at Ando- 
 ver, 48. 
 
 Parr, Samuel, allusion, 28. 
 
 Past, party of the, 147. 
 
 Peabody, Andrew Preston, literary 
 rank, 34. 
 
 Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer : her ^Es 
 thetic Papers, 88; letter to Mr. 
 Ireland, 317. 
 
 Peirce, Benjamin,; mathematician, 
 223. 
 
 Pelagianism, 51. (See Religion. ) 
 
 Pepys, Samuel, allusion, 12. 
 
 Pericles, 184, 255. 
 
 Persia, poetic models, 338. (Sea 
 Emerson s Poems, Saadi.) 
 
 Pessimism, 286. (See Optimism.) 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa., society, 184. 
 
 Philanthropy, activity in 1820, 147. 
 
 Philolaus, 199. 
 
 Pie, fondness for, 269. 
 
 Pierce, John : the minister of Brook- 
 line, 11 ; " our clerical Pepys," 12. 
 
 Pindar, odes, 253. (See Greek, Ho 
 mer, etc.) 
 
 Plagiarism, 205, 206, 287, 288, 384. 
 (Sse Quotations, Mather, etc.) 
 
 Plato : influence on Mary Emerson, 
 16, 17 ; over Emerson, 22, 52, 173, 
 188, 299, 301 ; youthful essay, 74 ; 
 Alcott s study, 150 ; reading, 197 ; 
 borrowed thought, 205, 206 ; Pla 
 tonic idea, 222 ; a Platonist, 267 ; 
 saints of Platonism, 298; acad 
 emy inscription, 3G5; great au 
 thority, 38Q-;-timfes quoted, 382 ; 
 Symposium ad Phsedrus quoted, 
 387 ; tableity, preexistence, 391 ; 
 Diogenes dialogue, 401 ; a Plato 
 nist, 411. (See Emerson-s Books, 
 and Essays, Greek, etc.) 
 
 Plotinus : influence over Mary Em 
 erson, 16, 17 ; ashamed of hia 
 body, 99 ; motto, 105 ; opinions, 
 173, 174 ; studied, 380. 
 
 Plutarch : allusion, 22 ; his Lives, 
 50; study, 197; on immortality, 
 291 ; influence over Emerson, 299 
 et seq. ; his great authority, 380 ; 
 times mentioned, 382; Emerson 
 on, 383 ; imagery quoted, 385 ; 
 style, 405. 
 
 Plymouth, Mass. : letters written, 
 78, 79 ; marriage, 83. 
 
 Poetry : as an inspirer, 290 ; Milton 
 on, 315. (See Shakespeare, etc.) 
 
 Poets : list in Parnassus, 281 ; com 
 parative popularity, 316, 317 : con 
 sulting Emerson, 408. (See jE;n- 
 erson s Poems.) 
 
 Politics: activity in 1820, 147; in 
 Saturday Club, 259. 
 
 Pomeroy, Jesse, allusion, 393. 
 
 Pope, Alexander, familiar lines, 316 
 Porphyry : opinions, 173, 174 ; stud 
 ied, 380. 
 Porto Rico, E. B. Emerson s death, 
 
 19. 
 
 Power, practical, 259. 
 Prayer : not enough, 138, 139 ; an 
 ecdotes, 267. (See God, Religion, 
 etc.) 
 Preaching, a Christian blessing, 123. 
 
438 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Preexistence, 391. 
 
 Presbyterianism, in Scotland, 409. 
 
 Prescott, William, the Judge s man 
 sion, 38. 
 
 Prescott, William Hickling: rank, 
 33 ; Conquest of Mexico, 38. 
 
 Prior, Matthew, 30. 
 
 Proclus, influence, 173, 380. 
 
 Prometheus, 209. 
 
 Prospects, for man, 101-103. (See 
 Emerson s Essays.) 
 
 Protestantism, its idols, 28. (See 
 Cfianning, Religion, Unitarian- 
 ism, etc.) 
 
 Psammetichus, an original language, 
 394. (See Heredity, Language, 
 etc.) 
 
 Punch, London, 204. 
 
 Puritans, rear guard, 15. (See Cal 
 vinism, etc.) 
 
 Puritanism : relaxation from, 30 ; 
 after-clap, 268 ; in New England, 
 409. (See Unitarianism.) 
 
 Putnam s Magazine, on Samuel 
 Hear, 213, 214. 
 
 Pythagoras : imagery quoted, 385 ; 
 preexistence, 391. 
 
 QUAKERS, seeing only broad-brims, 
 218. 
 
 Quincy, Josiah : History of Boston 
 Athenaeum, 31 ; tribute to the An 
 thology, 32, 33 ; memories of Em 
 erson, 45-47 ; old age, 261. 
 
 Quotations, 381-383. (See Plagia 
 rism, etc.) 
 
 RALEIGH, SIR WALTER, verse, 338. 
 
 Raphael, his Transfiguration, 134. 
 (See Allston, Painters, etc.) 
 
 Rats, illustration, 167, 168. 
 
 Reed, Sampson, his Growth of the 
 Mind, 80. 
 
 Reforms, in America, 141-145. 
 
 Reformers, fairness towards, 156, 
 157, 188-192. (See Anti-Slavery, 
 John Brown.) 
 
 Religion : opinions of Wm. Emerson 
 and others, 11-13; nature the 
 symbol of spirit, 95 ; pleas for in 
 dependence, 117 ; universal senti 
 ment, 118-120 ; public rites, 152 ; 
 Church of England, 219; of the 
 future, 235 ; relative positions to 
 wards, 409, 410 ; Trinity, 411 ; 
 Emerson s belief, 412-415 ; bigotry 
 modified, 414. (See Calvinism, 
 Chnnning, Christ, Emerson s Life, 
 Essays, and Poems, Episcopacy, 
 God, UnUarianism, etc.) 
 
 Republicanism, spiritual, 36. 
 
 Revolutionary War : Wm. Emerson s 
 service, 8, 9; subsequent confu 
 sion, 25, 32; Concord s part, 71, 
 72, 292, 293. (See America, New 
 England, etc.) 
 
 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 228. 
 
 Rhythm, 328, 329, 340. (See Emer 
 son s Poems, etc.) 
 
 Rice, Alexander H., anecdote, 68. 
 69,346. (See Newton.) 
 
 Richard Plantagenet, 197. 
 
 Ripley, Ezra : minister of Concord, 
 10 ; Emerson s sketch, 14-16 ; 
 garden, 42; colleague, 56; resi 
 dence, 70. 
 
 Ripley, George : a party, 149 ; The 
 Dial, 159 ; Brook Farm, 164-166 ; 
 on Emerson s limitations, 380. 
 
 Robinson, Edward, literary rank, 
 
 Rochester, N. Y., speech, 168. 
 
 Rome : allusions, 167, 168 ; growth, 
 222 ; amphora, 321. (See Latin.) 
 
 ROmilly, Samuel, allusion, 220. 
 
 Rose, anecdote, 345. (See Flowers. ) 
 
 Rousseau, Jean Jacques, his Savoy 
 ard Vicar, 51, 52. 
 
 Ruskin, John : on metaphysics, 250 ; 
 certain chapters, 336 ; pathetic 
 fallacy, 337 ; plagiarism, 384. 
 
 Russell, Ben., quoted, 267. 
 
 Russell, Le Baron : on Sartor Resar- 
 tus, 81, 82 ; groomsman, 83 ; aid 
 in rebuilding the Old Manse, 272- 
 279 ; Concord visit, 345. 
 
 SAADI : a borrower, 205 ; times men 
 tioned, 382. (See Persia.) 
 
 Sabbath : a blessing of Christianity, 
 123, 298. 
 
 Sainte-Beuve, Charles Augustin, on 
 poetry, 339. 
 
 Saint Paul, times mentioned, 382. 
 (See-Bz We.) 
 
 Saladin, 184. 
 
 Sallust, on Catiline, 207. 
 
 Sanborn, Frank B. : facts about Em 
 erson, 42, 43, 66 ; Thoreau memoir, 
 368 ; old neighbor, 373. 
 
 Sapor, 184. 
 
 Satan, safety from, 306. (See Meph- 
 istopheles, Religion, etc. ) 
 
 Saturday Club : establishment, 221- 
 223, 258 ; last visits, 346, 347 ; 
 familiarity at, 368. 
 
 Scaliger, quotation, 109, 110. 
 
 Schelling, idealism, 148 ; influence* 
 173. 
 
 Schiller, on immortality, 290. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 439 
 
 Scholarship : a priesthood, 137 ; do 
 cility of, 289. 
 
 School-teaching, 297. (See Chelms- 
 ford.) 
 
 Schopenhauer, Arthur: his pessi 
 mism, 286; idea of a philosopher, 
 359. 
 
 Science : growth of, 148 ; Emerson 
 inaccurate in, 256; attitude to 
 ward, 401, 402. (See C. C. Emer 
 son.) 
 
 Scipio, 184. 
 
 Scotland : Carlyle s haunts, 79 ; no 
 tabilities, 195, 196 ; Presbyterian, 
 409. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter : allusion, 22 ; quo 
 tations, 23, 77; dead, 63; "the 
 hand of Douglas," 234 ; as a poet, 
 281 ; popularity, 316 ; poetic rank, 
 321. 
 
 Self : the highest, 113 ; respect for. 
 288,289. 
 
 Seneca, Montaigne s study, 382. 
 
 Shakespeare : allusion, 22 ; Hamlet, 
 90, 94 ; Benedick and love, 106 ; 
 disputed line, 128, 129; an idol, 
 197; poetic rank, 202, 281, 320, 
 321 ; plagiarism, 204-206 ; on 
 studies, 257, 258 ; supremacy, 328 ; 
 a comparison, 374 ; a playwright, 
 375, 376 ; punctiliousness of Por 
 tia, 378 ; times mentioned, 382 ; 
 lunatic, lover, poet, 387 ; Polo- 
 nius, 389; mother-wit, 404; fine 
 Ariel, 405 ; adamant, 418. 
 
 Shattuck, Lemuel, History of Con 
 cord, 382. 
 
 Shaw, Lemuel, boarding-place, 43. 
 
 Shelley, Percy Bysshe : Ode to the 
 West Wind, 316, 399 ; redundant 
 syllable, 328 ; Adonais, 333. 
 
 Shenandoah Mountains, 306. 
 
 Shingle, Emerson s jest, 364. 
 
 Ships : illustration of longitude, 154 ; 
 erroneous quotation, 251, 252 ; 
 building illustration, 376, 377. 
 
 Sicily : Emerson s visit, 62 ; Etna, 
 113. 
 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, Chevy Chace, 379. 
 
 Silabee, William, aid in publishing 
 Carlyle, 81. 
 
 Simonides, prudence, 410. 
 
 Sisyphus, illustration, 334. 
 
 Sleight-of-hand, illustration, 332. 
 
 Smith, James and Horace, Rejected 
 Addresses, 387, 397. 
 
 Smith, Sydney, on bishops, 219. 
 
 Socrates : allusion, 203 ; times men 
 tioned, 382. 
 
 Solitude, sought, 135. 
 
 Solomon, epigrammatic, 405. (See 
 
 Bible.) 
 Solon, 199. 
 Sophron, 199. 
 South, the : Emerson s preaching 
 
 tour, 53 ; Rebellion, 305,407. (See 
 
 America, Anti-Slavery, etc.) 
 Southerners, in college, 47. 
 Sparks, Jared, literary rank, 33. 
 Spenser, Edmund : stanza, 335, 338 ; 
 
 soul making body, 391 ; mother- 
 
 wit, 404. 
 
 Spinoza, influence, 173, 380. 
 Spirit and matter, 100, 101. (See 
 
 God, Religion, Spenser, etc.) 
 Spiritualism, 296. 
 Sprague, William Buel, Annals of 
 
 the American Pulpit, 10-12. 
 Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, on Amer 
 ican religion, 414. 
 Star: "hitch your wagon to a 
 
 star," 252, 253; stars in poetry, 
 
 324. 
 Sterling, J. Hutchinson, letter to, 
 
 282, 283. 
 
 Stewart, Dugald, allusion, 16. 
 Story, Joseph, literary rank, 33. 
 Stuart, Moses, literary rank, 33. 
 Studio, illustration, 20. 
 Summer, description, 117. 
 Simmer, Charles : literary rank, 33 ; 
 
 the outrage on, 211 : Saturday 
 
 Club, 223. 
 Swedenborg, Emanuel : poetic rank, 
 
 202,320; dreams, 306; Rosetta- 
 
 Stone, 322 ; times mentioned, 
 
 382. 
 Swedenborgians : liking for a paper 
 
 of Carlyle s, 78 ; Reed s essay, 80 ; 
 
 spiritual influx, 412. 
 Swift, Jonathan: allusion, 30; the 
 
 Houyhnhnms, 163; times men 
 tioned, 382. 
 Synagogue, illustration, 169. 
 
 TAPPAN, MRS. GASOLINE, The Dial, 
 159. 
 
 Tartuffe, allusion, 312. 
 
 Taylor, Father, relation to Emer 
 son, 55, 56, 413. 
 
 Taylor, Jeremy: allusion, 22; Emer 
 son s study, 52 ; " the Shakespeare 
 of divines," 94; praise for, 306. 
 
 Teague, Irish name, 143. 
 
 Te Deum: the hymn, 68; illustra 
 tion, 82. 
 
 Temperance, the reform, 141, 152. 
 (See Reforms.) 
 
 Tennyson, Alfred : readers, 256 ; to 
 bacco, 270 ; poetic rank, 281 ; la 
 
440 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Memoriam, 333; on plagiarism, 
 384. 
 
 Thacher, Samuel Cooper: allusion, 
 26 ; death, 29. 
 
 Thayer, James B. : Western Journey 
 with Emerson, 249, 263, 265-271, 
 359 ; ground swell, 364. (See Cal 
 ifornia. ) 
 
 Thinkers, let loose, 175. 
 
 Thomson, James, descriptions, 338. 
 
 Thoreau, Henrj D. : allusion, 22 ; a 
 Crusoe, 72; "nullifier of civiliza 
 tion," 86; one-apartment house, 
 142, 143; The Dial, 159, 160; 
 death, 228 ; Emerson s burial- 
 place, 356 ; biography, 368 ; person 
 ality traceable, 389 ; woodcraft, 
 403. 
 
 Ticknor, George : on William Emer 
 son, 12 ; on Kirkland. 27 ; literary 
 rank, 33. 
 
 Traduction, 393. (See Heredity, 
 Dryden, etc.) 
 
 Transcendentalism : Bowen s paper. 
 103, 104 ; idealism, 146 ; adher 
 ents, 150-152 ; dilettanteism, 152- 
 155 ; a terror, 161. 
 
 Transcendentalist, The, 157-159. 
 
 Truth : as an end, 99 ; sought, 135. 
 
 Tudor, William : allusion, 26 ; con 
 necting literary link, 28, 29. 
 
 Turgot, quoted, 98, 99. 
 
 Tyburn, allusion, 183. 
 
 UNTTABIANISM : Dr. Freeman s, 11, 
 12 ; nature of Jesus, 13 ; its sun 
 shine, 28 ; white-handed, 34 ; head 
 quarters, 35 ; lingual studies, 48, 
 49 ; transition, 51 ; domination, 
 52 ; pulpits, 53, 54 ; chapel in Ed 
 inburgh, 65; file-leaders, 118; its 
 organ, 124 ; " pale negations," 298. 
 (See Religion, Trinity, etc.) 
 
 United States, intellectual history, 
 32 . ( See America, New England. 
 etc.) 
 
 Unity, in diversity, 73, 106, 284. 
 
 Upham, Charles W., his History, 45. 
 
 Verne, Jules, onditologie, 186. 
 Terplanck, Gulian Crommelin, lit 
 erary rank, 33. 
 Virginia, University of .299. 
 Volcano, illustration, 113. 
 Voltaire, 409 
 Voting, done reluctantly, 152, 153. 
 
 WACHUSETT, MOUNT, 70. 
 Walden Pond : allusion, 22, 70, 72 ; 
 cabin, 142, 143. (See Concord.) 
 
 War : outgrown, 88, 89 ; ennobling, 
 298 
 
 Ware, Henry, professorship, 52. (Se 
 Harvard University. ) 
 
 Ware, Henry, Jr. : Boston ministry, 
 55; correspondence, 124-127. (See 
 Unitarianism, etc.) 
 
 Warren, John Collins, Transcenden 
 talism and Temperance, 149. 
 
 Warren, Judge, of New Bedford, 
 
 Warwick Castle, fire, 275. 
 Washington City, addresses, 307, 
 
 (See Anti-Slavery, etc.) 
 Waterville College, Adelphi Society, 
 
 135142. 
 
 Webster, Daniel: E B. Emerson s 
 association with, 19 ; on Tudor, 28, 
 29 ; literary rank, 33 ; Seventh-of- 
 March Speech, 303; times men- 
 Weiss, John, Parker biography, 
 
 368. 
 Wellington, Lord, seen by Emerson, 
 
 Wesley, John, praise of, 306. (See 
 Methodism.) 
 
 Western Messenger, poems in, 128. 
 
 West India Islands, Edward B. Em 
 erson s death, 89. 
 
 Westminster Abbey, Emerson s 
 visit, 63, 64. (See Emerson s 
 Books, English Traits, Eng 
 land, etc.) 
 
 Westminster Catechism, 298.- (See 
 Calvinism, Religion, etc. ) 
 
 Whipple, Edwin Percy: literary 
 rank, 33 ; club, 223 ; on heredity, 
 389. 
 
 White of Selborne, 228. 
 
 Whitman, Walt: his enumerations, 
 325, 326 ; journal, 344, 346. 
 
 Wilberforce, William, funeral, 64. 
 
 Will : inspiration of, 289 ; power of, 
 290. 
 
 Windermere, Lake, 70. (See Eng 
 land.) 
 
 Winthrop, Francis William, in col 
 lege, 45. 
 
 Wolfe, Charles, Burial of Moore, 
 416. 
 
 Woman : her position, 212, 213, 251 ; 
 crossing a street, 364. 
 
 Woman s Club, 16. 
 
 Words, Emerson s favorite, 404, 405. 
 (See Emerson s Poems, Days.) 
 
 Wordsworth, William : Emerson s 
 account, 63 ; early reception, Ex- 
 cursion, 92, 93; quoted, 96, 97; 
 Tiutern Abbey, 103; influence 
 
INDEX. 
 
 441 
 
 148, 150 ; poetic rank, 281, 321 ; 
 on Immortality, 293, 392; popu 
 larity, 316; serenity, 335; study 
 of nature, 337 ; times mentioned, 
 382 ; We are Seven, 393 ; prejudice 
 against science, 401. 
 Wotton, Sir Henry, quoted, 259. 
 
 f AJfEEE : a spouting, 136 ; improve^ 
 
 176 ; whittling, 364. (See Amer 
 ica, New England, etc.) 
 
 Yoga, Hindoo idea, 397. 
 
 Young, Brigham: Utah, 264, 268; 
 on preexistence, 391. 
 
 Young, Edward, influence in New 
 England, 16, 17. 
 
 ZOLA, EJIILE, offensive realism, 326. 
 
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