Charles J. Woodbury - Talks with Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1890

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TALKS WITH

RALPH WALDO EMERSON







TALKS WITH

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

BY

CHARLES

J.

WOODBURY

NEW YORK THE BAKER & TAYLOR

CO.


COPYRIGHT, 1890, BY

CHARLES

,

J.

WOODBURY.


TO THE YOUTH OF THE LAND

WHO I

BELIEVE you

ASPIRE.

will find herein the

him whom you have never

may have been

to

his

seen, but

who

you already a good genius,

and iaken an unshared

Take

person of

words to

place.

me

as what he would

have said to you.

CHARLES Oakland, Califoknia

J.

WOODBURY.



CONTENTS. PAGE

Meeting Counsel Criticism

•••

...

.-•

...

I

•••

•••

...

105

Transcendentalism ...

•.•

•"•

*"

119 >35

Method

Manhood

37

69

Concord

Presence

'9 ••

...

163



MEETING.



TALKS WITH RALPH WALDO EMERSON. MEETING. WiLLiAMSTOWN, Massachusetts, the home of Williams College, is an ideal village. Here one afternoon in the early autumn of 1865 arrived Ralph Waldo Emerson, unheralded by even so much as a paragraph in the county newspaper.,

As Mr. Emerson was

to lecture the

evening, the situation was awkward.

same

But he

soon was made aware that the group of students, to whose importunity he had listened in

coming, possessed enthusiasm, even

if

they

once there was a Within two hours, our most spacious stir. assembly-room, the Methodist meeting-house,

lacked experience

;

for at

was procured. Placards overflowed the regular student bulletin boards, and blistered every available place, even trespassing upon


TALKS^ WITH

4

preserves

respected

such

library doors

as

the

chapel,

and the fence about the

resi-

dence of Dr. Hopkins, president. Numbers of us ran from house to house notifywhile others rang ing their inhabitants ;

the college and church bells, unconsciously imitating Henry D. Thoreau on an occa-

somewhat similar, years before, in That night all seats were filled. The next morning we waited upon Mr. Emerson with a proposition to give us some more lectures. He consented; and so the sion

Concord.

acquaintance of a day was lengthened into

a week.

Afterward, lectures were under-

taken in North Adams,

When

nigh places.

Pittsfield,

and other

arranging for these, I

had been manner of our atoning for it was too declarative ; for the employment of either learned that, while our offence venial, the

a local agent or preliminary printer's ink was

not permitted. audiences at sions

;

for

all

Nor did

it

appear that his

suffered through these omis-

rumour of

to penetrate these

his nearness was quick neighbourhoods, and his

advent was like the avatar of a master to communion.

My

association

necessarily

threw

with

me

these

with

his

appearances

Mr. Emerson.


;

Ralph Waldo Emerson. From

the

first

5

he had encouraged me, and

his

instruction substituted for the time that of

the College.

Nor

manner and

interest

did he abate his fatherly-

after I had achieved a beard, but was unalterably kind for the five years after that I occasionally

Thus much

for these external matters that

are but of interest to

From

met him.

show

my right

him, I have no right.

to speak.

Mr. Emerson

had never a thought of, and, a fortiori, gave no permission for this publication. And yet certain that I betray nothing

and violate Every intercourse carries experience and words that are not renewable. A few of Mr. Emerson's by their own weight and personality sought depths whence they could not emerge. These would it is

no

spirit

of confidence.

only gratify the inquisition of the curious, and

belong to the domain of silence.

It is

the

broad and human tone which makes the

uncommon man by

us.

interesting to us

Conspicuously was

Mr. Emerson, because habitually employed.

it

and desired

this the case with

was the tone he he was aware,

It is true

especially during our earlier association, that I was in the habit of preserving and once when I remarked that

his it

speech

ought

to


Talks with

6

have a larger public, he answered that there should be among all who would " ascend, a helpful companionship; and that which is really

This

a good for one will be so for more."

is illustrative

my

of his attitude which con-

I have written for and that of gratitude; and I believe he would have me give to others that which was most generous and helpful to me. The fact is, he had nothing to withhold, and generally addressed me as if I were stitutes

love's

sanction.

sake,

wholly impersonal, a sort of invisible audience (an absence from the spectrum wholly desirable

now)

exclusive,

;

and

it

provided

was not his

like

him

to

be

reproduction pre-

served accuracy and faithfulness.

About this, happily, there is little doubt. At one and twenty, the emotions are not encysted and so little was containment possible, that I found myself in the intervals of :

our meetings

reviving

their

transports.

I

was delighted to discover that his language came back to me without loss or change. It

seemed as if my pen was a reed, through which breathed upon the paper his monologue, with the

physical impression

accent, dress, gait, and manner.

And

of his so the

boy's journals are themselves a curiosity to


Ralph Waldo Emerson. the

unreceptive

man

Emerson always talked

hamhe

trick

of

forty-five.

and

Mr.

words of impressing themsel^'es which slowly,

his

belongs to happy s^elejÂąioiix,butit was mainly

because his speech was so wise and sincere,

and came from the depths of that

own

his

heart,

has sunken so dqepinJxuiiijie;___From

it

and from some such habit may it not have been that the two contemporary gospel writers were able to reproduce the words of Jesus ? It has been impossible, of course, to print

some such

cause,

of immediate revival,

and the subsequent records as they To do so would create confusion, for

these stand.

conversations are not methodical

;

and, in so

long a period and to an uninformed youth,

many

would be discoursed upon

subjects

more than

The reader, come upon the

once.

not expect to

therefore, will

statements in

their succession.

Moreover, I have attempted a slight arrangement of the subjects, which has neces-

and associations. But and no transposition has been permitted when to do so would affect the Someprimitive meaning and intention. times these are obscure, and once or twice sitated

this

the

is

separations

all

;

speaker

has

anticipated

or

quoted

-


Talks with

8

But even here, the words being

himself.

invariably authentic, I have refrained from let them would be his way. The address is to an audience which will come to just comparisons and conclu-

the annotating pencil, preferring to stand, bethinking myself that

and recognize

sions,

it

that the object

is less

give a bundle of reminiscences than a

view of the I

man

is

himself.

hope no reader will

transgress the

fore,

I

and not bring,

to

in

feel that the

Much

title.

unspoken, and yet

course,

to

new

is

that a

says

essentially his inter-

be suppressed.

the

contents

man

Where-

concluding chapters,

and manner such suggesaccompanied Mr. Emerson's words ; and the effects of his fine contagion on one who had neither theories or prepossessions. These immediate and memories

of. air

;

of personality as

tions

inevitable impressions, illustrated still

by

his

own

his breath in the

made by

his contact,

words, are they not lute,

still

his

silent

talks ?

It remains, perhaps, to explain the

date for these loitering memories.

they ushered so late or at will tell their

own

story

all ?

and

I

man-

Why

are

hope they

furnish adequate


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

g

But some word of apology seems

reason.

appropriate, especially

when

Edward Emerson has

delighted us with his

so recently Mr.

no other, and what be regarded the official and authentic life of Emerson (Cabot's) has been published a work beyond comparison, genuine, copious, satisfying, and which justifies the wise choice,of its subject. Conceived in his own society, it has been gift

obtainable from

must

ever

—

executed with marvellous

fidelity to his

wish

and reproduces with exactness his firm and sincere accent, impressive by contrast with the vague and extreme language of too many of his followers and interpreters and

spirit,

when speaking of him. One feels that the book would have his endorsement, and it could have no higher. The portrait is gladly and thankfully accepted as the most faithful of those which have been painted by

of

all

so

many

loving hands.

It

is,

portrait than a photograph.

perhaps, less a

The high

stature

and the lineaments, but are there not absent a colour and warmth ? Somehow it seems as if we miss the light that

is

present, the figure

drew us to him (but than ours that

it is

it

is

supplied)

less for his

—as

son we knew has been foreign

if

the

sake

Emer

to his bio-


Talks with

lo

and could not be gathered from posthumous papers. Though he was inapt to distinguish between

grapher, his

(being concerned mainly with

his hearers

own thought), yet it was not possible for him to be the same to his equals in age and

his

experience that he would be to a young of limited knowledge of

—

have given what they got education, example. But his still

He

stores, nurture,

gift to us,

while

embracing these, was something deeper. did not so

periences

much

bring facts and ex-

he became himself

as

experience to life,

man

His memoirists

life.

us,

and

fact

entering into the source of

and penetrating

at

once the region of

motive.

From

his

neighbourhood, one always with

turned reinvigorated,

and sometimes even

ecstacies,

re-

moods,

choice

which carried

those of extreme aesthetic sympathies and deficient ratiocinative feet.

He knew

prostrating

moments

destroy intellectual

powers quite off

well

the

that assault

life

their

and and often

wearying

at its very birth, the

haunting longing and aspirations, the vague unrest

and

insurrections which characterize

the passage forth from immaturity

;

condensed the vapour into

His pre-

rain.

and he


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

ii

sence broke the shards of the will and con-

Nothing came afterwards had come before and our

centrated the man. precisely as

new

it

;

eyes saw that things are not entitled to

It may be became obsolete, but With his coming, this could be corrected. He adolescence ended and virility began.

respect simply because they are. that too often the old

aroused the best elements of the soul, agitated it

to

its

depth, and precipitated

He

intellectual principle.

first

all

had of

it

taught us to

think, and_ who_can_.fQrget--th&-

openeF of

—

The dawn- of life to the mind is a greatgr„boon one human being can

that door ?

there

receixfeJioift another?

unto

it,

there one like

Is

dawn,of love to thp hpart

excepit the

?

Acquisitions, knowledge, training, even, can

only assume a place after

it.

Liberty radiated

Then every

his presence.

from

interview

was'an' emancipation. Especially, can any personality be imagined more irritating and urging to the young and arable mind

So

it is

son that that I

would give

I

am

?

a youth's experience of Mr. Emertoo

much

early associations

experiences ticularly to

may

them

;

to youth.

It

may be

tethered by these strong

and maturer he came par-

that foreign insist that

(as

each of Vishnu's sixteen


— Talks with

12

thousand wives believed the god was peculiarly hers alone)

plainer

but to

;

me

it

has grown

these years that there was a divine

all

appointment in the recording of these

talks

to a youth, that he belonged to the,:SBung

They were

men. spirit

;

the natural vehicle of his

largely made up _Jiis and replenished them when they^

they always

audiences,

were. low; they were ever ready to second him, soonest to greet and warinest to praise his

latest

they opened the him when elders would

deliverance

Divinity Schools for

;

held them closed ; they supported The Dial most eagerly, and gladly followed

have

further the brilliant heresiarch, his

not yet gray.

How many

own

hair

of his addresses

were delivered before colleges to which he was constantly summoned from New England

and Virginia

to the farther West, during the

years 1837 to 1879

Amusing

?

yet illustrative are the words of

the Worcester, Massachusetts, youth " We ought to go and hear such a that, just to

And

I

man

as

encourage him."

remember those winter

night rides

of the Harvard students to his open evenings.

So

all

young men heard him

greedily, insti-

gated and supported his Apprentices', Uni-


Ralph Waldo Emerson. versity, theological

at

home and

and

13

literary lecturing

both

abroad, finally culminating in

the invitation of the Independents of Glasgow-

him to accept the candidature for the Lord Rectorship, and polling for him five hundred votes. His spirit of kinship to all young manhood breathed from his person in public and

inviting

And he

recognized

vitalized his

page.

His

were invariably clear and just

feelings

"brave young men,"

to his

his

it.

"nigh starving

and "heroic boys," as he called " I cannot easily say no to them," he them. said and so he wrote from England to Miss youth,"

;

Hoar " I have, however,

spondents

young

—you

some youthful

know my

gentlemen,

in

failing

corre-

— friendly

different

parts

of

Britain."

And "

to

Miss Peabody parish is young

My special

their

men

inquiring

way of life."

And "As

to Carlyle usual, at this season of the year, I,

incorrigible spouting

Yankee,

am

writing

an

oration to deliver to the boys in one of the little

country colleges,

["The Method of

nine

days

hence.

Nature," before the Society


Talks with

14

of the Adelphi, Waterville College, Maine, August II, 1 84 1. J You will say I do not

Oh,

deserve the help of any Muse.

knew how places

!

natural

it

Besides, I

the hope of saying

you

if

me to run to these always am lured on by is

to

something which

shall

by the good boys." Even up to the confines of age, when he receded into the shadow of its eclipse, and when an increased desire to economize the time as it grew short, and to mint some of stick

the metal so slowly hoarded, interrupted the tranquillity with

tomed was

which he had been accus-

to give himself to all comers,

compelled

to

refuse

philosophers and savants,

and he

admittance

to

some of whom

had journeyed a long way to see him, he did not deny himself to young men. Then, as always,

he was

to

them,

uniformly open and kindly.

it

is

admitted,

He may

declined exhausting interviews with

have

manhood

and age coming to compare, to judge, or to criticize ; and with lotophagi whose dream he had no longer the energy to awaken. But to youth there was due this larger loyalty He knew what he was tc of sympathy. them. They held one another. So has he not come to all who have Life to seek, spirits


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

15

of the morning sort everywhere, and carried

them whither they would not have found the way? Well do

I

remember

his tender, shrewd,

saw it in that summer now so long ago that one might grow from child to manhood, which was not like any wise face, as I

other, because

it

first

brought

penury, and to translate

me to face my own my own enigmas.

Almost before we were alone he had made me forget in whose presence I stood. He was merely an old, quiet, modest gentleman, pressing me to a seat near him, and all at once talking about college matters, the new gymnasium, the Quarterly ; and from these about books and reading and writing ; and all as if he continually expected as much as I, wonted to the distance dehe gave. manded by the College Faculty, found it difficult to

a it

trait

of

understand

first

this.

I regarded

to disappear.

ways.

hills,

the

and comradry inspired so it was ever after no

cir-

heartiness

And

as

But the next day, on our

walk to Greylock and the Berkshire

same

it

meeting, and was prepared for

—

his

cumstances so varying, but, whether I saw bim- alone or in the presence of others, there was the ever ready welcome shining in


6

Talks with

1

his eyes, the

same manifest gentleness^and^

preference

persistent

of others,

s^xSQ.

hired

strangers.

remember one

I

day, visiting the Natural

Bridge near North Adams, Massachusetts, we

employed an old man who lived in the vicinity and I could not but notice how kind and gracious and ready to serve Mr. Emerson was the same flavour of look, accent, and phrase which I noticed in his as a guide,

—

conversation with the College Professors.

came from

were under the peculiar formation

"The Causeway,"

It

While we

the heart of the man.

called

I remarked, as indicative

my companion, how examined the quality and

of the radical nature of indefatigably he strata of the

age,

rock to determine

its

comparative

and the thoroughness with which he

studied every fissure, even

down

to the beryl

and emerald pools at the base of the cliff; as if, indeed, he were soon to be called upon to

make

a report about

it.

He

could not

But while he simple secrets, he

take even a walk superficially.

was mastering the bridge's

listened to the old guide's garrulous talk about his

own

needs, and was soon telling

person living two miles away

him of a

who probably

could furnish the desired occupation.


Ralph Waldo Emerson. "You must know said

him," Mr.

17

Emerson

and, taking a slip of paper, he wrote a

;

note to his friend, and gave acquaintance,

who then

it

to our

new

expressed a desire

to see his benefactor after the presentation

of the note, fearful that the call might not

prove successful. " Very well," was the reply

you

;

"

my day is

for

one o'clock any time next week." so from others whom I have met, who

after

And

knew him,

have learned how many

I

piloted

thus

lives

to gift-bringing natures

;

he

how

constantly he_ followed this practice of ac-

quainting himself with the needs (not desires) -_of -persons, and then bringing them together for

mutual advantage.

my own

In heart

first.

case his kindly craft

The encouraging

won

the

eyes must have

seen during our earlier days together so many but he seemed unconscious of ill weeds ;

them. ing,

How

and

it was after our first greetwhat personal effluence in

long

after

gradual talk and delightful reminiscence that one day he fell to it ; and, beginning with a lecture

on composition, which was a clean instructions which the

departure from the

haibeen giving us for two years,-ended with -wÂŤds -which showed Professors oÂŁRhetoric

me

the hght of his

life

!



COUNSEL.



COUNSEL. [Although given here as one interview, the reader will understand that

it

was

not.

The

conversation

dealt with Counsel, but I have gathered here every-

thing

\!s\3X

Mr. Emerson said of that nature.]

It was in ray own room that, glancing up at some "Laws of Writing" * on the wall, he

began abruptly "

A sensibility

sion for

its

some men

to the beautiful and a pasforms cause such a stirring in

that they seek to reproduce

they have seen. It has various

This

is

modes of

expression.

art.

Paint-

statuary, music, translate readily.

ing,

what

the attitude of

The

• It these

may not be amiss to reproduce here' such of " Laws " as received Mr. Emerson's approval :

Write not at all unless you have something new. II. Write it, and not before, behind, and about it. I.

III.

Have nothing

secondly, or thirdly.

of plan visible

Show

^no firstly,

or

the body, not the liga-

ments. IV.

Do no

mologically.

violence to words.

Use them

ety-


Talks with

22 song

the

is

Composition arbitrary

and

and poem combined.

music is less

natural.

Its

symbols are

This makes

artificial

it

exact-

Composition should stand at the apex a pyramid of mental gymnastics.

ing.

in

"

The most interesting writing is

that which

does not quite satisfy the reader. leave a better writers

little

for is,

thinking for

The

both.

him ;

trouble

they spread too thin.

is

as quick as they

is

ready and waiting.

;

Try and

that will be

with

The

most reader

has got there before, and

A little

guessing does

him no harm, so I would assist him with no connections. If you can see how the harness fits, he can. But make sure that you see

it.

"

Then you should start with no skeleton The natural one will grow as you Knock away all scaffolding. Neither work. have exordium or peroration. What is it you are vreiting for, any way ? Because you have something new to say ? It is the test of the universities, and I am glad you have made it or plan.

yours.

We

don't want pulse with

no legumes.

To make anew and not from others is a grand thing. You can always tell when the thing is new it speaks for itself. And even ;

among

the unlettered,

it

declares well enough


Ralph Waldo Emerson. From

and strong enough.

23

this is the pro-

true, and make Without such sanction, no one

But add

jection of idioms.

sure of this.

should write. "

Then what

place.

Say

is it ?

Don't lead up to hearer down from

it

That

it.

&rjLitjwith

it

all

tiy to let

to

is

gooJ expressions. Speak

it

1

your

be common-

the grace

Be

you can, and stop.

Out with

!

Don't

!

and

force

familiar only with in your

own natural

Then, and_Jhen only, can you be Let your treatise be yourself, so Interesting. way.

your friends

will say,

" Expression

is

wrote

'

the

main

unweariedly for that which

You

be dissuaded. logically.

Yes, pull

is

that.'

fight.

Search

Do

exact.

not

know words etymothem apart; see how

say,

made; and use them only where Avoid adjectives^ J^ettiie noun they fit. da—iljework. The adj ectivemtroduces they are

sound,

gives

an unexpected

turn,

and so

often mars with an unintentional false note.

Most

fallacies

are

fallacies

of

language.

Definitions save a deal of debate. " Neit her concern yourself about sistency.

The moment you

con-

putty and plaster

hang together, y pur expresmcmaJQjnakethem you have begun a weakening process. Takq


Talks with

24 it

for granted the truths will

as for the falsities

and

harmonize ; and

mistakes, they will

\i you must be be clean and sharp as

speedily die of themselves. contradictory, let

it

'

the two blades _of scissors meetT^ " Are your theses given, oFSo you select ?

enough rarely for practice to treat on a suggested subject. But such writing is at its origin derived and a peril. Ou^_of_ It is well

your-owH-selfL.sheuld

come your theme

;

and

only thus can your genius be"yfflr friend. Eloquence, by which I mean a statement so

luminous as to render is

all

~

others unnecessary,

only possible on a self-originated subject.

"Don't run -aftei-ideas. them, and you

will

have

all

Save and nourish you should enter-

tain. They will come fast enough, and keep you busy. " Reading is closely related tj) writing. While the mind is plastic there shauld—be

care as to

should

its

inspiring, exact. less

impressions.

come from

nature,

Later in

The new fresh,

facts

buoyant,

lifiST-witeH-tiiere. is

danger of imitating those traits_o£_ex-

pression through which information has been

may be gleaned from^a^wjHer But now you shall not read these

received, facts field.

books "

—pointing—" Prescott~or Bancroft or

_


;

Ralph Waldo Motley.

Prescott

croft reads

is

Emerson^.

25

a thorough man.

Ban-

enormously, always understands

Motley

his subject.

is

painstaking, but too

So are they all. Their style Neither of them lifts himself off his They have no lilt in them. You

mechanical. slays. feet.

noticed the marble

remember

we have

that marble

lized limestone?

You

just seen ?

nothing but crystal-

is

some

Well,

never

writers

ge airy. from you. Walk

get out of the limestone condition,

Let your characters breathe

upon the ground,J)ut,aot_tQ fine

power,

nently the French. in

sink.

Some men have

this.

How

it

a

It is it,

promi-

manifests itself

Montaigne, especially Cotton's translation,

and in Urquhart's Rabelais '

alone of the Germans has

Thoreau had

it;

'

it ;

!

Grimm almost Borrow had

and James Wilson

it

— some-

times.

"Keep close

torealitieSi^JDietiLyou accus-

tom yourself to getting facts at first hand. If we could get all our facts so, there would,bs but they give us no necessity ior books facta, if we know how to use them; they ;

are the granaries of thought as well.

"

Read those men who

are not lazy

;

who

putJhemselves into contact with the realities.. So you learn to look with your eyes too. ^^-i.


;

Talks with

26

And do

not forget the Persian, Parsee, and Hindoo religious books the Avesta, Vendidad, and the rest books of travel, too. And when you travel, describe what you see. That will teach you what to see. Read those who wrote about facts from a new point of

—

;

view.

The atmosphere

you, even

if

of such authors helps

the reasoning has been a mistake

such a book as 'Vestiges of Creation,' for instance.

"

For

later philosophical studies, I

would

recommend writers like Bacon and Berkeley. They have been friends to me. I see you have Sharon Turner. going man, and you

He may

is

a thorough-

trust

him, even

no authority save his own. Plutarch, of course, you know. And I am glad to see him here. there is Darwin And you must read George Borrow's book think he meant [I about the gypsies. " Lavengro."] He went among them, lived among them, and was a gypsy himself.

when he

talks with

!

There is nothing from second sources, nor any empiricism in his book. You can rely upon everything, and it is quaintly told. From such as he you learn not to stop until you encounter the fact with your own hand j to search by all shows, and learn just how it


—

Ralph Waldo Emerson. Though

stands.

27

the reward of the market

in the thing done, the true

reward

is

is

in the

doing.

" Avoid '

all

second-hand borrowing books

Collections of

,'

'

Beauties of

,'

etc.

you have some on your shelves. I would burn them. No one can select the

I see

beautiful passages of another for beautiful for

him

wedding your

—well

aspirations, will

of beauty to you.

"

Do

Do

yoa

It is

Another thought,

!

be the thing

your own quarrying.

not attempt to be a great reader, and

read for facts and not by the bookful.

You

must know about ownership in facts. What another sees and tells you is not yours, but his. If you had seen it, you would not have seen what he did, and, even less, what he tells.

Your only

can about lights.

ran

it,

Ke gp

relief is to find out all

and look

at

it

you

in all possible

your eyss_open_jaiid-see-all you

whpn

the right man, que^So learn to divine books, to feel those that you want-wit-hottt-wasting-muah time over them. Remember you must know only the excellent of all that has been presented. But often a chapter is enough. The glance reveals when the gaze obscures. Someti

;

pTiH

on him

ynii get

close.

where the author has hidden

his message.


— Talks with

28

Find-Jtj-and-skiy-the-paragrag hs that do jiot talk to you."

Upon my particular rarely

pressing

and

successful

avoided them

him

— he

for directions

hated

"Well, learn how to

and

details,

a moment's

he, after

continued as follows

tion,

more

a process which was

practical,

hesita-

:

from the begin-

tell

nings of the chapters and from glimpses of

need

sentences whether you

the

them

entirely through.

page,

keepi^

but not

read

to

So turn page a fter

the writer !s-thniight befoie-you,

tarrying

with him,

untiL-

he

^ha^

brought you to the thing you_axe_in_jear6h''' of; then^weliwith him,

you want. start

if so be heha^jvliat;;;^-' BuTTfeCOltecrjoi-eftly-Tead^ '

your own "teamT^

" Newspapers- have done breviate expression,

and so

much

to

to

improve

ab-

style.

They

are to occupy during your generation a

large

share

of attention.

[This was

if

said

It

was as

he saw ahead the blanket editions.]

And

nearly a quarter of a century ago.

most studious and engaged men can only neglect them at his cost. But have little to do with them. Learn how to get the

their best too, without their getting yours.

Do

not read them when the

mind

is

creative.


Ralph Waldo Emerson. And do

29

not read them thoroughly, column

by column.

RememBer

they are

made

everybodj;jjiid don't try to get what

meant for you. The miscellany,

for

isn't

for instance,

should not receive your attention.

There

is

a great secret in knowing what to keep out of the mind as well as what to put in. And

even

if

you find yourself interested in the you cannot use them, because the

selections,

original source

is

not of reference.

You

from a newspaper. Like some The insects, it died the day it was b'om. genuine news is what you want, and practice can't quote

quick searches for so

many minutes

it.

will learn to avoid the

anticipations,

Give yourself only

for the paper.

and the

who have nothing

Then you

premature reports and stuff

put in for people

to think.

" Readiiig_iong_at one time anything, no matter how.it. fascinates, destroys thought as completely as the- inflections forced by .

external causes.

Do

not permit

this.

Stop

you find yourself^ becoming absorbed, at even the first paragraph. Keep yourselLout and_watcil,^. your own impresaioJiS.. This if

one of the norms of thought. And you accumulate facts in proportion as you become a fact. Otherwise you will accumuis

will


Talks with

30

Information

late dreams.

man

is

nothing, but the ~

behind

"

it.

"So you cannot make too much of yourself.

How many do you made up mainly of fragments But follow your own star, and it

It is all there is of you.

know who of others

are

?

you to that which nonc-athet-ean is suicide. .You-ÂŤÂŤst4ake yourself for better or for worse as ^^aur-porwill lead

attaS tion.

Imitation

A man

.

can only

get,

an extemporized

half-possession of another's gift

came wholly

natural from

of the best grace and air

from the borrower.

him

;

and what

has, in spite

skill,

an impertinent

The

elder sentiment

not thus keep the elder fire. " I commiserate any one who is subject to

will

the misery of being overplaced.

stands over

what he

says.

Assist this tendency

nothing can defeat. all

What he

is

him and thunders, and denies which

Yield not one inch to

make you an That is the sin of dogmatism and Avoid them ; they build a fence

the forces which conspire to

echo. creeds.

about the intellect

"You know

are anxious about your career.

without

college boy

is.

yourself what

your

telling

me.

I

Every

You think you can study out you are best fitted for ? No.


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

31

But you remember our stance with Professor over in the chemical laboratory yester-

,

day; how he took a substance and

tried

it

with others, one after another, until he dis-

So a man finds by what he can do best Each man and woman is born with an aptitude to do some-

covered the affinity? trying

Here on your

thing impossible to any other.

Who

shelf is Fdnflon.

can make his pale

Fenelonism but he ? " By working, doing

others

for

you make the greatest

gain.

simul-

own work,

taneously with the doing of your

That

generous giving or losing of your

life

is

the

which

Don't put

this^ aside until you are That is slow death. Have something practical on your hands, it makes

saves

more

it.

'

at liberty.

small matter what, at once. position to the it.

is

first

It is

of doing

right

you

thing that

all

dis-

Turn hand and do

comes

to

things thoroughly__JBy=and^by that_

he has_ done one thing

and soon it is plain one thing which he alone can do.

better tHan his mates

And

your

a great thing to get into the habit

one discovers that there

If

will sele t well.

is

;

actfoii is the natural

sion of thought, to be preferred.

its

and noble expres-

chef cTceuvre ;

Make

it is

certain that

always

you have


Talks with

32 yours

—not something, but your own.

remember the

Do you

among the legends of witch who was brewing

story

Arthur about the

the liquid which should open the eyes of the people

all

How some drops spattered into

?

the eyes of the serving-boy,

who thereupon

incontinently fled, divining that he was to be

Were

slain?

eyes anointed,

all

how many

would be kept on one's own pot ? So live in a clean and clear loyal ty to your own affair.

Do^ot

how ~ Then true and come_ to..ygUj andr-

anqther'Sj,jiojnatter

let

tempt you away.

attractive,

surprising

revelations, _

experiences resembling the manifestations.of

genius; the

first-

charaeteristie -of ~w-lMch-.is„„

veracity; the. ..second, -S,urpris£.;_the. -third,

spontaneity i„the_faujd;h,—sensibility— to—the

laws of the universe.— Xjeniuscan see the ..

event as well in front as behind_;,_it Jells

where the as after

city ought. to stand.aajKell_before built.

it is

"And

to

build

the

city

is

accomplishment, not to possess are so

many who

being

anything.

the it.

great

There

are content to be without

Opportunities

who use them.

approach

Even" thougKls cease "by^and-by to; visitrthe idle and "—after a pause " the perverse. But sudden and unonly those


— Ralph Waldo Emerson.

33

foreseen helps and continued encouragement are vouchsafed to the devout worker.

For

God

He

is

everywhere, having His

cannot be

His

as did

Him

baffled.

son.

will,

and

Make His business yours, The man who works with

constantly assured of achievement

is

and the

melioration

of

the

race.

Such

equipment the scholar needs.

"Be

choice in your friendships.

You can

have but few, and the number will dwindle Select minds who are as^_yoS-^rQW older. too strong and large to pretend to knowledge

and resources they do not really possess. They address you sincerely." As he rose to go, we saw from the little door of the Hermitage* the spire of the chapel in the gathering dark. " How many faiths are there

in

this

village?" he asked, as he descended the steps.

Before the

I

could reply, trying to

number of

call to

mind

churches, I heard his quiet

voice again * There was near the rear of Professor Albert Hopkins' garden an isolated, octagon-shaped, brick structure formerly used as n. magnetic observatory, but in my time known as the "Hermitage," and rented by the college to any student who would

occupy

it.

n


—

"

;;

Talks with

34

"Three thousand,

of Williamstown

village

hundred people;

five

hundred

three thousand, five

in the

faiths

yours

Let

!

not

come from tradition. Life is awry at best. The effort should be evermore to widen the circle,

so as to admit ventilation.

spirit,

and second

and

spirit,

third

Seek first and ever-

!

more spirit About poetry he uttered the following suggestions, occasioned by the criticism of some Class-day rhymes :

" I suppose you read your verses over after

they are written ÂŤ Generally."

?

"

" I suppose, then, after a

they grow

little

"

old to you ? " Indeed, they do."

"And

you continue to

If after a

write.

long time you look any of your lines over,

and you come to one, or a succession, and say to yourself, That is good,' it is good '

from which this must be withheld. The me is the judge, after all; and if a thing seems good I can symto me, it shall to my fellows. pathize with the desire for outward confirmabut

destroy

everything

verdict

tion

he

;

'

still,

shall

the poet

is

his

own

'

assurance

be conscious of himself.

If

you


— Ralph Waldo Emerson.

35

have a sensitive and poetic soul, thank God for it -It -is- not yours,, save as. a gift. The highest and truest utterances of the poet are

not

Po gtryT^TJihd here he

his.

lapsed into

manner of reverie as if all hearers were far away, "whether it comes in dreams or in gleams, is noble. It must serve no sordid that

uses

;

it is

Then,

of the above."

after

a pause

" Did I not see Montaigne

among your

books the other day? You shall not read Montaigne and be a poet. "You must keep some fact-books for poetry. I think that they are

Greek

much more nearly related

than rhyme or rhythm.

to poetry

Study

for expression; but the poetic /a<r^

half the battle.

is

Nature, gathered in by the

sensitive soul, forms the furniture of the poet.

Look out at this Indian summer. There something hygienic in the blue of it ; it the mountains' its

air.

From

own the

is is

EySQLEIJcs has

colour. locality

of Rome, for

instance, emanates such an air that the finest

men grow

inspired

by

it,

and want

to live

there always.

" Did you ever think about the logic of stimulus?

Nature supplies her own.

astonishing what she will do,

if

It is

you give her


—

"

—

Talks with Emerson.

36

a chance.

how

In

a time will she

short

revive the over-tired brain

A breath under

!

the apple-tree, a siesta on the grass, a whiff

of wind, an interval of retirement, and the

balance and serenity are restored. creature

needs so

readily

There

!

is

A clean

and responds so

little

something as miraculous as

the gospels in it

Later in

comes a

Occasionally, the gentle

stimulus.

excitation of a

cup of

own

tea

is

life,

society be-

A mind

needed.

by which, without permanent injury, it makes rapid rallies and Conversation is an enjoys good moods. excitant, and the series of intoxications it But tobacco, tobacco creates is healthful. what rude crowbar is that with which to pry invents

its

tonics,

into the delicate tissues of the brain

!

met Mr. Emerson in the West, and mentioned in the conversation a bit of exciting experience among the Tennessee mountains, which drew from him the Years

after,

I

following

" What tonic can be more inspiriting and healthful than

an adventure ?

to the blood all

its

youth."

It gives

back


CRITICISM



CRITICISM.

A

GROUP of Students were in the habit of assembling in one of the larger college-rooms for

purposes of practice in debate

afternoon Mr. Emerson

came

and one

;

quietly in (but

not without having been solicited time and again).

He

refused to permit the discussion

on a sofa, he gave straight attention to the speakers. It was our custom to appoint at the beginning to stop, but, seating himself

of each session a

critic to

perform at

the duties indicated by the name.

abbreviated exercises intercession,

its

close

After the

were ended,

at

Mr. Emerson, from his

our seat,

some comment, ending in the announcement of certain laws of criticism which undoubtedly prescribed his own attitude and offered

method. I well his

remember the shrewd

opening words disclosed.

we were

to hear

listening that

How

surprised

him even repeat the names

of two or three (of previous acquaintance


—

!

Talks with

40

with him, however)

who had spoken

after

his arrival

"

Why

should not," he asked, "advantages like

commodities?

sufficient for all

your speeches

be bartered

little

B

fluency from

earnestness from

A

Let

rightly distributed.

,

If this

and B

and

the one a energy,

some

bit of

A

's

could be accom-

accuracy.

plished,

C

who might make a

good investment by securing a spare

they are

purchase a

and

,

X

You have if

C

exchange,

abundant you would have a most excellent little

logic for the other's

debate." After a few words more in the same humorous and good-natured strain, he continued more gravely "I was interested in your critic's report. But there are nine of you here ; then there

should be nine

critics.

It

is

possible that

you associate a wrong meaning with this word. I observed that your critic noted such minutiae as that a certain word was pronounced wrong ; that a plural verb followed a single

made

nominative

;

that a

gesture

was

with the index finger instead of the

open hand;

that a speaker stood with his

feet six inches apart instead

of two.

So you


Ralph Waldo Emerson. regard the speeches as so

many

You

ing these things

mensely more. to

and

targets,

listen to pick flaws, to find faults

inaccuracies.

41

and

little

gain something in mark-

but you lose

alone,

im-

Criticism should not imply

you such a watching

hostility of thought,

out, for that begets

a closing of the mind to

the natural impulsions of the speech,

lest it

be influenced by them; and indulgence

in

the silent rehearsing of premature rejoinders.

You

are chiefly here, I take

of method, manner, style

;

it,

for the study

then you should

project yourselves into sympathy

speaker

;

make

certain that

with the

you receive

his

and receive it well ; put yourself in his place ; try and see why he sees as he does ; and then proceed outward to investigate his sentiments and their expreseffort

;

receive

it all,

Remember,

sion.

isolated points

is

all

criticism dealing with

superficial.

The

prevailing

thought and disposition are your main care. " Then seek what is characteristicaL Get the method of the man ; the way in which he tries to develop and impress his idea. Attend closely to the quality of the matter presented. It is

an index of the speaker's originality and and therefore of his ability to impress

culture,

others.


"-

Talks with

42

"When

your attention is held without from yourself; when you are conscious of thoughtfulness, achange of opinion working effort

within

— then

all

fault,

The genuine

are the thoughts

it

intonation,

Lay hold of

emphasis, pronunciation. secret.

Your speaker

attend, attend.

Overlook

has power.

his

impressions of a speech

immediately arouses, and

these are the sources of true critical activity

!

do not think of Mr. Emerson as primarily His was not generally the posture a critic. indicated by the word. He was familiar with I

the laws that determine excellence of form,

but sincerity and the satisfaction of the moral '~

sense constituted his criterion.

and main attention of men to one another is to listen and be taught," he said ; " and we are continually surprised at

"The

first

the riches of our fellows."

For

this satisfaction,

of criticism,

and not

he accorded

full

as

a condition

reception,

and

and

so,

gave himself without reservation;

when he chose

to exercise

it

—and perhaps

there were few varieties of intellectual play

he enjoyed better— he had a large advantage in the feat of mere criticism ; for he contained he felt their limit and atmoshis subjects ;

phere, and

all

that he said

showed with a


Ralph Waldo Emerson. fine clarity that

he

and de-

fully interpreted

He had

fined them.

43

the habit of justice

;

was never the least equivocal, self-interested, or dictated to. His high moral intelligence enabled him to point out the real significance of prominent events. Of consequence, his criticism was of that rarest and order, creative rather than judicial his historical and biographical judgments have only been affected by the discovery of facts and perspective unknown to him. He always saw the good a rare trait it ;

—

is

;

easy to point out defects.

He

was not capable of cynicism, nor was Even when provocation was great,

he acerb.

his satire

was so gentle and genial that

it

warmed even its object. He did not correct When he was slips made in his presence. less abstinent, the occasion plainly demanded it,

as when, with pleasant emphasis, he re-

minded a student who spoke of his to the

reference

/ÂŤÂŤseum that he accented the second

syllable instead of the

first.

Mr. Emerson talked apparently without reservation to

and

me

about his contemporaries

historical personages.

succeeding delightful

chapter I

comment

as

In

select

this

such

and the of

his

seems distinguished


— Talks with

44

of "his noble young

for the consideration

men."

remember one afternoon we were among the hills of Williamstown in the locality known as Bryant's Glen. At every little space, some new aspect of scenery I

walking

invited pause.

The landscape was one

to suggest to such a

eighteen the " Thanatopsis." little

apt

youth as Bryant was at

We

saw

at

a

distance across the sward the ravine

creeping out of the swath of sunshine between the ragged hills into

fragment of

forest.

its

own dark and tangled

In the immediate nook

where he wrote his poem the scattered trees are of shrunken shaft, like a life which ends without accomplishment.

"Yonder

is

a serious -jnaimta*ft^ said Mr.

Emerson, pointing to Greylock.

" I should

think this would be just the place to read

'The Excursion.'

The

hills

are very like

Here one can see the poet, standing on the shore and looking off on the wide sea-light, and backward on the glows of the mountains, and then recognizing those of Westmoreland.

the inner supernal light, the subjective, as he

framed that most_celebrated combination "

'

The The

light

which never was on sea or land, and the poet's dream.'

inspiration


;

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

45

"Wordsworth," he continued, pronouncing name as if it were spelled Waurdsworth, "is the poet of England. I see the Reader

the

acknowledges

lately

who comes up mannerism

in

him

He

it

is

the only one

high-water mark.

to

Other poets

!

start

No out

with a theory which dwarfs or distorts them

he was careful to have none.

have to

affect

Other writers

what to him, thus,

is

natural.

So they have what Arnold called simplism, His attorney wished him to he, simplicity. to recover his estate go to law with Lord of which that peer had defrauded him. Wordsworth refused, saying, No ; I must not ,

'

forget

And

it

my

is

profession to write poetry.'

so he went into the forest,

bread, and

—wrote

When

poetry.

and

He

lived

lived

on

very

came to see him he had him or wine, and so the novelist was wont to go to the village inn And one day as, in for his daily glass of ale. company with his host, he was walking by the inn, the landlord appeared and asked Sir Walter if he had come for his cracker and

plainly.

no

ale

mug

to

of ale

Scott

offer

!

Afterwards, I believe, the son

who had his gentleman, compounded

of the peer

estate,

with

who was the

a

Words-

worths, and restored to them their property.


Talks wii'h

4-6

" are

The

three books of

first

The

the best.

'

The Excursion' wonder-

teresting, but the adventures of the

always charm

Pedlar

ful

unin-

are

discussions

There

me.

is

sometimes an extreme even in Wordsworth.

What

that

is

horrible

'

in

line

'

Peter

'

Beir? " ' The long dry see-saw of this horrible " Fell

The is

ass

is

unpoetical

too childish, a

good.

They

transparent

are,

as

;

little.

bray.'

and perhaps Alice His sonnets are

indeed, as pure, chaste,

They

Milton's,

witchery of language.

He

is

are

the

the greatest

poet since Milton,"

What

is it

Bulwer says of Wordsworth ?

" Wordsworth's poetry

the

world

etherealize,

spondent

is

of

all

existing in

most calculated to to exalt j to offer most

the

refine,

—

counterpoise

to

the

scale

corre-

that

inclines to earth."

Emerson could quote almost " Prelude

entirely the

and " Excursion," so much had he pondered them. I remember he was abundant in reminiscences of Wordsworth and Scott, and told me many anecdotes of them, one or two of which are identical with ''

those narrated in " English Traits," only

some


Ralph Waldo Emerson. way they seemed to be much

47

better told than

they are there.

" There are no books," he concluded, "

foi

poems of Sir Walter Scott. Every boy loves them if they are not put into his hands too late. 'Marmion,' 'The Lay of the Last Minstrel,' 'The Lady of the boys, like the

Lake;' they surpass reading

we

As an amusing tion,

everything for

boy-

have."

he referred

musical lines in

countryman of

instance of literary repetiin this

some

Scott's

connection to the elder

verses

of

a

:

" Make me thy wrack When I come back. But spare me when I go,"

by comparison with fifth

epigram

lines in Martial's twenty-

:

" Parcete dum propero^ Mergite

dum

redeo."

was uncommon to hear Mr. Emerson speak with such emphasis of any one as he At our first railroad restaurant, did of Plato. where, although there was plenty of time, everybody was eating as they do generally at travel-tables, Mr. Emerson leaned over ^t

toward me, and smile

said

humorously,

with a


— Talks with

48 " Wasn't architects

as

if

who

Plato

it

they,

'

and

they were immortal,

were to die instantly "

said of the citizens

you know, were colossal and eaters 'These people build

of Agrigentum

Read

Plato's

'

'

?

eat as

Republic

RepublieJj;_Read Plato's

!

Read_ Plato'a

'

J..R£.pubiic

toward .the divine, and- 1

hear that a

man

!

'" he

".He_

repeated, on anoffiS' occasion.

man

they

if

"

lifts,

]ike.it.,w]ieii I

reads Plato.

I

want to

meet thatjoan^ For_no man-xif -aeff-conceit can go through Plato." Carl yle, I believe^ confesses that he cannot read Plato. " I am glad you have so

many

of the

Greek Tragedies," continued Mr. Emerson. " Read them largely and swiftly in translation, to get their movement and flow; and then a

little

in the original every day.

FoLJhe The

Greek^_is_Jlie--ibuntain~Qf,JL£Uiguage.

Latin__h^__a-—definite_shQre-line, but _lhe Greek is without., bqutjds." Then, after a pause7~he~ added, half to himself, " Dead languages,

called

dead

because

they can

never die."

Of Gibbon he spoke "

He

is

strikingly, as follows

one of the best readers that ever

lived in England.

You know

his

custom of


— Ralph Waldo Emerson. examining himself both before and

49

after his

reading a book, to see what had been added to his mental experience?

contemporary footed

He

friars

in

All previous

historians

British

are

and

bare-

comparison with Gibbon.

was an admirable student, a tremendous

He

worker.

banished himself to a lonely

chAteau, just to

work harder; but he thought

He had — as also did whom I never could read

Aristo-

uncleanly.

on that account an imagination degraded and never assoiled, a low wit like that which defaces outbuildings. He was a disordered and coarse phanes,

spirit,

a mind without a shrine, but a great

example of diligence and antidote

"Locke was a

stalwart

to laziness.

He

thinker.

erected a school of philosophy which limited

everything to

utility.

But the

own .£yespiv4ii€h. are made Spirit of

soul,

has

illuminating

its

bylhe

God."

"With the same lofty accent he spoke of

Harriet Martineau, and compared her attitude with that of her brother " It was a grief to me

:

she had

become

pause he added, is all

"

when

materialist." lifting his

I

learned that After a long

head, "

God ?

It

God."

Read Chaucer," he

said

;

" in a day you

£


—

; ;; ;;

"

!

Talks with

50

will get into his

him.

like

language, and then you will

Humour

the lines a

little,

and

they are full of music. " I think I will recite a strain from his

'Good

Counsel,' and, were I you, I would

copy

and have

it

it

always with me.

It is a

scripture."

He

then delivered, without hesitation, but

very slowly and thoughtfully,

sinking

his

voice at the end of every line

" Flee from the

press

and dwell with soothfastness though it be small

Suffice thee thy good,

For hoard hath hate and climbing tickelness. Press hath envy and weal is blent over all, Savour no more than thee behove shall Rule well thyself that other folk canst rede, And truth thee shall deliver, it is no dread.

" Pain

thee not each crooked to redress

In trust of her that turneth as a ball.

Great rest stands in little business Beware also to spurn against an awl, Strive not as doth a croke with a wall ;

Daunte

And

thyself that dauntest others deed.

truth thee shall deliver,

" That thee

The Here

is

it is

no dread.

sent receive in buxomness.

wrestling of this world asketh a

is

no home, here

Forth, pilgrim

!

is

fall

but wilderness.

forth, beast, out

of thy

stall

Look up on high and thanke God of all Waive thy lust and let thy ghost thee lead.

And

truth thee shall deliver,

it is

no dread

I

;


Ralph Waldo Emerson. He repeated the last two lines, word so

the last

pronouncing

rhyme with the and then

as to

the penultimate line,

51

last of

"I have seen an expurgated edition of Chaucer ; shun it Shun expurgated editions of any one, even Aphra Bene or Fran5ois !

They will be expurgating the Bible and Shakspeare next." Of Shakspeare he talked much, and always without a word of subtraction. Of no one else did he speak in a similar strain of encomium, excepting that imperial man, Villon.

Walter Savage

Emerson had

Landor

this

and of him Mr.

;

abatement, referring to his

conversation "

He

does not aspirate

a cockney.

He

I

;

drops his

cannot understand

h's like

it."

did not think that Shakspeare wrote

Wolsey's follows

it,

and the scene that on the ground that Shakspeare

soliloquy

always wrote so that the thought should publish

its

own rhythm, a

characteristic not

observable, he contended, in these passages.

"So

far as

we know," he

said,

"'The

Essays flL JV£oHtaigng_' is the only book Shakspeare owned. Like Aristophanes, Shakspeare had the care of the presentation of his plays, so they

were kept

practical.

It

has


"

Talks with

52

had much

do with

to

ever either got into

'

Whendown

their surviving.

the clouds,' he got

out of them as fast as he could. " But Shakspeare was a wonder. struck twelve every time

"We

pause,

America."

;

"

and

have not such

Somehow

He a

then, after

creatures

the words

and

in

his half

sad manner in uttering them, brought back to me old Nestor's lament, " For not at any

time have I seen such men, nor shall

I,

as

Perithous and Gyas, etc."

He

spoke of the songs of Ben Jonson as

" the finest in the English language.

They

and succulent and metery. Few men have that ^7onderful power of rhyming, especially double-rhyming, that he has ;" and he instanced " The Mask of Daedalus," and are rich

recited four stanzas of Jonson's

ode to him-

self in illustration.

I

was much interested in his words on and Blake. While he seemed hesi-

Shelley

tatingly

to

recognize and allow

the wide

gleams of truth the disciples of these mystics claim for them, he yet insisted that their visions were rather a curiosity than a dis-

covery, trait

and rebuked them strongly

of " obliteration

by natural

objects.

for their

of the imagination


—

—

Ralph Waldo Emerson. "

I

said.

cannot read Shelley with comfort," he " His visions are not in accord with

the facts to

53

;

they are not accurate.

He

soars

From Blake he quoted """ The

sink."

Tiget"^ "Tiger,

tiger,

burning bright,"

over and over, almost the only thing

I ever

heard him quote that he put into the " Parnassus."

He criticized Tennyson as "factitious'' and a "posture-master,"'said that his inspiration is "scanty, and does not arrive at ex,

When I reminded him that in "English Traits" he says of Tennyson, " The colour of the dawn flows over the

tremities."

horizon from his pencil," he answered after a

moment "

And

that

He many and advised

is

true, too."

times referred to Leigh Hunt,

me

gentle friend to

to read him,

all

Of Matthew Arnold he stored with

"a

true

all critical faculties

said,

"

"

Have you

He

is

except humour,

but so far he shows little of that." Brownijig, " He is always a teacher.''

On my

and

men."

And

of

read any of Goethe?" he asked.

replying affirmatively as to " Wil-

helm Meister," he said


— Talks with

54

"Ah

yes, that is good.

read well

wants to be

It

contains the analysis of

it

;

life.

Wasson, in the Atlantic, some time ago had some excellent words upon it, more a panehave

But Wasson must

than a criticism.

gyric

come

just

to

We have

it.

loved Meister

He could not read nor endure Faust, but of Fichte he said, " He would use

a long time."

any weapon to convert a hearer. I think he if so he could pass

would trepan a person, his

own edacious conceptions In

brain."

into the bared

commended German professor who head when his audience thinned. connection he

this

the example of the

stood on his

I once asked his opinion of the novels of George Sand, and he answered as follows :

"

It

written

is

— everything But her

world.

them

;

wonderful the amount

I

;

do not read

turn a dozen

she seems to

stories

I

Dickens -withQUta yawn. to tell a

little

;

too

much

has

know

the

do not know about

stories.

pages _in

she

I jieyer

'Don

He

could

Quixote.' or

takes too long

of a reporter

who

must fill a column. Why read novels ? We meet stranger creatures than their heroes. What writer of stories would not be derided if he gave us creatures as impossible as Nero " or Alva or Joan of Arc ?


Ralph Waldo Emerson. He

55

frequently drew comparisons between

the authors

who ought

to write for the

who ought own good. As an

good

of the world and those

to write

merely for their

instance

of the

latter,

the fashion,

he mentioned a poet then rather

who had

recently appeared in

England. " I was surprised," he Review.

of the

said,

"

at the praise

The man had no sun—

light like a star's. He had read and the Life Drama leaked out. must have been inspired by a headache,

a derived '

Festus,'

It

'

'

the delirium of the tripod without cination

;

its

vati-

the verses are not of the kind that

the people like

—nothing hearty or happy

in

them."

he expected in all good in one of our earliest interviews how he spoke of a manuscript volume of poetical studies that had then This

writing.

just

last trait

I

remember

been sent him by

my

friend

Edward

King, " They are wonderful for a boy of seventeen,

but

they are

too

melancholy

He

seems to see nothing but the horrible. Now, the world is joyous. He paints everything in black, and yet he is a rosy-cheeked We cannot have the I wonder at it. boy.

Rembrandt

colour.

Melancholy

is

unen-


— Talks with

56 durable; grief

is

it

Hugo

Victor

abnormal.

has written such a book.

have not read

I

I do not read the sad in literature." These w6r3s~wereTlie first seismic tremors my new heavens and new earth. They

;

in

my

set

wits a-swimming, troubled

me

with

apprehension of possible limitation in him,

and I

finally

coerced

me

into a collision which

regard as ridiculous enough now, but which

my

conscience

ceal,

object-lesson to the

me

not permit

will

because the experience

is

young men,

narrative primarily speaks

to

to con-

a valuable

whom

this

and because

;

it

Mr._ Emerson's peculiar and wholesome ways with his_ lo,vers, emancipating them byjaying theni even from himillustrates

self.

^Uthefreaders

will not

"these juvenile hysterics. in I

my

be interested in

After setting

down

journal his conversation for the day,

could not restrain the expression of my As they are necessary to a full un-

doubts.

derstanding of the situation, I will venture to transcribe the passage as follows " Mr. Emerson said to-day that

:

no one

I did ought to write as Hawthorne has. not ask him what he meant. This is of no

use with him.

He

talks

in

riddles,

or,

I

should say, rebuses, so perspicuous and pic-


;'

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

57

turesque are words, and one has to guess his

This

meaning.

and to-day

I

am

not

is

difficult

was

pretty sure he

to the nether side of

often

referring

human experience com-

memorated by Hawthorne, for he spoke in connection of King's meLmcholy verse, and said he would not read Les Miserables because the subjects and treatment are not '

It-ÂŁannat_be thathe, a guide in

cheerful.

morals, persistently shuts his eyes to of_facts

class

-the-

only

which makes morals neces-

sary?

"He logical

tells

me

long and starving

them them? ;

tomb.

is

calls thera

Ramadan have

Their inspiration

language of the grave there

Eastern theo-

to read the

— bibles, he

—

and a had with but how can he have read and endorse

books

of

it, is

;

is

I

of the pall, their

their message,

what

covered with vapours of the

In Saadi, Hafiz, and the

he so warmly approves, what but the same tragic

story,

whom

rest,

else is there

lightened, per-

The whole know it, is an

haps, with sentiment and fancy ? oriental literature, so far as I elegy.

" In our Bible,

'

darkness broods

'

from

A bleak wind Genesis to Revelation. blows through all the History, the Kings,


Talks with

$8

Solomon and

the Judges, the dithyramb of lyrics of

David, Job's story of doubt and

Then

despair.

Their very word

there

the

are

prophets.

their thunburden derbolts echo from skies heavy and black, and the lofty Ideal their lightnings mois

mentarily disclose

a

is

'

;

a

'

Man

'

of sorrows,

and acquainted with grief.' When he comes Oh, the breath of Calvary How can a morality one shall to use Mr. Emerson's own word trust be built up and blink these facts of the dawn of !

'

'

—

religion

?

" Martyrs

manliest

and

—

have given

life

;

so only did

Church its become brave

the it

saintly.

"If ever a literature respired 'the surely

Greek does

the

There Destiny fane

is

is

and

omnipresent.

the Its

sad,'

Latin.

misty

the only one in the countless tem-

whose crowd of unsacred divinities and gods makes a godless materialism that presents no obscure glimmer of hope, and

ples

is

the mantle of their followers' philosophy.

Lucretius,

thought as

and even Plato, trace their on sable shrouds. Where is

if

the classic tragedy that does not labour

under the

stress

and dirge of the unlifted


Ralph Waldo Emerson. cloud of Fate

makes even the com-

It

?

59

Anacreon knows well of shudder. " "Death, with his head wrapped in gloom

edies

;

Lesbia's and Sulpicia's kisses are

with sad

tears,' their

'

mingled

foreheads are

bowed

earthward with chaplets of cypress, and

even their laughter of

again after

the

all

From

Keats.

ephemeral, like that

is

Daphne, caught

Lalage and

Virgil's

years by the lips of

Tom

Tibullus to

Moore, the

jocund chansons are twined with the blossoms of the tomb. The worm of the grave He spoke trails over the page of Horace. approvingly of my portrait of Dante yonder

on the with

But what

wall.

features

is

They are born

?

He

it.

(Why did

I

the story of those of night

has brought

me

and

filled

to Chaucer.

not find him earlier?)

But

all

the pictures of this the father and mother spirit are

there

is

Then shaded with dark colours. Master, what has been

Shakspeare.

thy coined gold of speech, so chary with its But too faithful is he to hulargess, of him !

manity

how

conceal

transparent

sonnets " I

to

is

its

myriad miseries, and

his

own sorrow

in the

?

wonder

if

he would forbid the sights ? But what poems are

blind Milton saw


— 6o

Talks with

these

—

nistes/

"Ah

Paradise

'

Lost,'

'

Samson

Ago-

'

and

Penseroso no, Brother Moschus, you '

II

!

may

not

escape this cadence of the minor chord. vibration

" this

;

There must be something deeper than the

the

May it not be that the

unintelligible universe.

mystery of expression, elusive,

haunts with

itself

its

impenetrable and

tantalizing irony the

pursuit of the unutterable secret, necessarily in

The

in all

mind of man in inproblems of his being and tlie

effort of

vestigating the

Its

in all our literature.

is felt

and

wounded endeavour ?

next day,

full

of these

trist

results

Allans''

thoughts,

a struggle, but with a youth's told Mr. Emerson of my inability

at the cost of

temerity, I

to accept his statements

understood them.

watched then said

my

He

on

this

heard

matter as I

me

patiently,

quivering lips a moment, and

briefly,

but with beaming glance

'Ufery__weU;__JL_dQ_jiot^wish_disciples.''

And now I

see that the occurrence coricealed

a crisis in our affairs.

disappeared

in

his

For from

pupil

acquiescence, and

the

this

boyish

time

and

doubt not in the master the feeling of nausea it could not servile

but cause.

The

and made of

his friendship

I

release saved

me my

friend,

a greater blessing


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

*

6i

even as the vision came again and tarried

monk

with the

be worthy of

he had shown himself to

after

it.

This was a long step toward manhood the remarkable reply held for

but

;

me a still deeper

and one yet more psychologically

teaching,

formative,

in that

foolish habit I

it

had

my friend's And afterwards

myself with himself.

me

exhibited to

fallen into of

the

concerning

wares rather than

found myself

I

less

drawn by Mr. Emerson's opinions, advice, literary judgments, etc. Not that they did not interest me. One would have to be

and

less

more than human not

less or

to respond to

these unique and wise overflowings of insight

But now

and experience.

far richer gift aloof

I

saw there was a

from these and in reserve,

man

namely, the personality of the

And

would

to all youth I

in every great soul with

contact

—

wh^t he

the power that

is.

esoteric facts

you

more

and

ideas.

;

in his laches

his greatest gift that

to

survive

the

and

you come

his that

to

what he sayS,'and

ill

to say

It is

whom is

himself.

say, recognize this

you than

He in

in

made him his

all

conveys

it

to

what he omits

lapses

he has such

;

life

and

it

is

adequate

deadening and mechanical

processes through which he has been com-


— !

62

Talks with

pelled to

come

to you in his books and give

you himself.

Of American

contemporaries Mr. Emerson

spoke as follows

:

"The connecting link between England and America

is

Oliver Wendell Holmes.

acute-minded

man had been born in

If that

England,

they would never have tired of making

He

of him.

much

has the finest sensibility, and

which no and generous nature can be developed.

catholicity of taste without

that large

Everything interests him.

He

has phases

which make him welcome as well to Bacchus Minerva.

as

and

Open

to

Euphrosyne?

Yes,

to Eresicthon

M

is a man sot..; a man, of good inspirations, who can write^oems of wit and something better. It does one good to read him. He ,ias a good deal of self-consciousness, and never forgave Margaret Fuller and Thoreau for wounding it. " ' Leaves of Grass,' by Walt Whitman, is a „

"Jaijies Russell Lowell

genial

It is wonhad great hopes of Whitman until he became Bohemian. He contrasts with Foe, who had an uncommon facility for Poe might have rhyme, a happy jingle. become much had he been capable of self-

''book you must certainly read. ^Srful.

I


— Ralph Waldo Emerson. direction.

York

to see

Thoreau was attracted Whitman."

to

63

New

Mr. Emerson said this as if it were at once a compHment and endorsement, and re-

marked upon the

attraction as being " psycho-

logical."

He spoke of Daniel Webster as " deformed. Every drop of his blood had eyes that looked He knew

downward.

the heroes of '76 well

he did not know the heroes of his own day when he met them on the streets.

enough

He

;

became

to

me

the type of decay.

gain his ambition, he gave

To

ease, pleasure,

and then added honour had a wonderful intellect;

happiness, wealth;

and

He

truth.

but of what importance

man

gone? consequences, and " of the

is

that

He

is

after

when

the rest

was oblivious of a pause " con-

sequently oblivion."

Of Forceythe regret

Willson he spoke with great

:

" There

we

were,''

said, " Lorigfellow,

he

Whittier, Channing, all of us, writing letters to our friends in Michigan, Indiana, every-

where, to find

who and where was

that was delighting us so lived in his

own

;

and

all

hermit-hut, not a

throw from Mr. Lowell's house

in

the poet

the time he stone's

Cambridge.


—

;

Talks with

64

You remember passes

Poe

his parting

in his

he quoted slowly

song ?

It far sur-

most peculiar vein ; " and

:

" This is the burden of the heart, The burden that it always bore We live to love, we meet to part.

And

We

part to meet on earth no

more

;

clasp each other to the heart,

And

part to meet

on earth no more.

Of Hawthorne, Mr. Emerson spoke tatingly, as

if

He

of that tenebrous mind.

the account of Brook dale

he

hesi-

not fully aware of the quality

Farm

Romance " as "untrue."

said, " lived afar

from

us.

characterized

in the " Blithes-

"

Hawthorne,"

He was always

haunted by his ancestry, who spelt the name Hathorne. His gait and moods were of the

He had kinship to pirates and sailors. was it Channing wrote by inspiration What from him ? sea.

"

'

Unceasing

And

roll the

deep green waves,

crash their cannon

down

the sand.'

But his writings are of the terrible, the grotesque, and sombre.

joyous in them.

He

There resisted

is

nothing

the

light.

His genius was for the unhappy and nether side.

It is the

man ought

same way with Hugo.

to write so.

No


;

Ralph Waldo Emerson. " Abbott wrote a leon

book about Napoman enough The best memoirs of

pitiful

but he was a wonderful

;

always

fell

British

well of

;

on

his feet.

those of Leuzier.

are

hira

65

Scott

too

is

O'Meara, the Irish surgeon, writes

him

—a

little

low, untutored, rough

but he had personal access, and Napoleon breathed through

What was

all

the

men

about him.

he said about making his His meanness, which generals out of mud ? could speak no chivalric word, spoke there, but

it

that

spoke fact"

Of Agassiz he quoted "Nature

:

some man, who

is

im-

pressionable, thoughtful, simple-hearted,

and

selects

conducts him softly to some one of her closets,

little

and bids him enter; and when he

comes back, the world stands still to know When a created what he learned there. thing gets an interpreter, it crowns him.'' And of Everett and Ticknor "Edward Everett and George Ticknor :

men

modern The golden time of Everett's was when he was Professor of Greek at

were

especially excellent in the

languages. life

Cambridge.

He

did more real good there

than as senator or governor.

He

had a

fine

conception of Greece, and a genius for the


66

Talks with Emerson.

Greek language. He returned from Europe, and was professor to the class above me when I was a student. As a college president he was not successful. He noticed little things too much, as whether an undergraduate touched his hat to him or not, and the students hated him. Therefore he resigned."




CONCORD.



;

CONCORD. Sacred

village,,

whose every bush burns with

iminortak have Jeft! Whither shall the devout pilgrim who would breathe

the

fire

its

the noblest inspirations with which the

World has

yet

And

thither?

been blessed

it

battlefield with tion,

—the

that

like

not

ambitions and

with rare associations,

atmosphere

New

if

who would

the youth

for

nourish his soul with high electrify

turn,

of the

is

there any

revolutionary

Emerson's historic inscrip-

classic river that lisps as

it

flows

the hermit lake Walden; the eloquent cairn; " wood-lots,"

the

thorne all

toils

the scenes

domestic

Haw-

—and

made

life

precious by the victories ?

Thoreau's faith was in :

is

in

Concord.

His

" Ne quid quasiveris extra

te

But Concord in a spiritual William EUery Channing's " Wan-

Concordiamgue.''

sense

shadowy,

through Sisyphean days,

they have witnessed

motto was

but

celebrated by

where the minute


:

Talks with

72

and those who cannot know directly inspirations will find them as nearly as

derer,'' its

such gracious influences can survive the bookmaking ordeal in that little volume. Mr. Channing erwandert Concord. The " old Virginia road " was familiar with his person.

He knew even better than Thoreautheuplands' every precinct and meadows, penetrated in all

woods and groves and ponds, and swam the With bright humour he alludes to his

directions

the

marshes, rowed the rivers.

experiences

:

"Fatigue, blazing sun, face par-

boiled, the pint

cup never scoured, shaving

unutterable, stockings dreary having taken to

His descriptions were made realistic by these daily exposures year after year, saturated, so to say, with the sunshine and the humidity of the Middlesex woods. As a friend said, " We saw his dripping hair and exhausted body, but he had found the laboratory of the gods, the earthly Alhambra." Mr. Emerson quoted to me from the " Sea Scene " (not a portion of " The Wanderer") peat."

" The purple kelp waves to and fro. The white gulls, curving, scream along They fear not thy funereal song. Nor the long surf that combs to snow."

Of Margaret

Fuller

he spoke much

at

;

one


——

"

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

73

time and another, but nothing that teaches, unless it is the following " I was amused with what :

Bettine Brentano— something

she

Only when

has not pride enough.

sure of myself would I pour out

'

:

I

She

am

soul at

In the assured soul

the feet of another. is

my

of

said

like this

it

kingly prodigality; in one which cannot

forbear,

He

it is

babyhood.'

repeated the word "kingly" with a

musing circumflex, as have used a

if

another

different gender,

woman would

and added

" But she would need be certain of her

which Bettine could There is something, too, in the lover. Margaret never met Goethe. " We all had to regret a single trait in Dr. Channing characteristically Margaret. referred to it once when she was a guest in his own house, somewhat in this wise " Miss Fuller, when I consider that you has so long are and have all that Miss wished for, and that you scorn her, and that

lover as well as herself

not be.

'

she

still

heaven

admires you,

will

be very

I

think her place in

high.'

" Margaret," Mr. Emerson concluded, " was a strange woman. Her eyes in some moods were visible at night, and her hair


"

Talks with

74

She had and could Vead the fortune in the human face. She What she Tyas most inspired when in pain. apparently lightened and darkened.

/unconscious clairvoyant

w^ote

me

is

instincts,

expressive of her deepest nature

'*

With the intellect I always have, always shall, overcome; but that is not the half The life, the life Oh, my of the work. God shall the life never be sweet ? '

!

'

!

The

flame was

in the heart of this dazzling

woman. If Emerson was the brain of the Concord circle, Margaret Fuller was its blood. Of this group the most conspicuous in its domain that has ever existed in America And Mr. Emerson was easily chief.

during his strongest years, perhaps he was

There was something "catching" No one could exactly explain or even understand it, but every one was sensible of it; so that his friends in England and America felt called upon to warn admirers that they must be on their guard, and if they sought a familiarity closer than more.

about him.

his

pocket edition, not be carried too

far,

he could not encourage an imitator. Amusing stories have been told of charac-

for

teristic

from

too

in the neighbourhood.

In-

exaggerations

much Emerson

resulting


Ralph Waldo Emerson. one

deed,

to remain

had to be more than human in

the presence of a nature so

orgasmic and not betray the not a

man

was

well to be loved

it

ThoTeau

mode

75

to be

felt

He

w^s

closely,

nor

fact.

approached

by him too

dearly.

the perilous singling until his

of speaking and tones caught the trick

men

of Emerson's so nearly that the two

could hardly be separated in conversation.

What wonder

that Channing, Bartol, Alcott,

and the

strong

than

rest,

that,

material

among

and

stately

men

—more

the heavenliest bodies our

New World

has seen

—

felt

to

some

deflection of their orbit the uninten-

slight tional,

if

not unconscious attraction of the

mild Jupiter so near them! Margaret Fuller fled and saved herself. Hawthorne's rare

and

solitary genius

sought and held

own, and he tarried in

The

fact

is,

no

his

own

its

twilight.

one, meeting^ JEmerson

was

ever the-sam'e again;-- His-.natural force was so

resistless,

and so imperceptible that

commanded -men

before

they were

it

aware.

Leaders, scholars of high cultivation, theorists,

and men of thought de vieille

roche,

who visited

the lonely eminence where he dwelt apart,

noticed the contagion. others,

Then

there were

a curious throng, themselves often


Talks with

76 curiosities,

who came.

during Emerson's

light-house, shining far

ing

many

Concord contained years a great

solstitial

and wide, and show-

ships their goal, but covered with

the shreds of wrecked barks and birds of

imaginable shapes

—which

all

— and some unimaginable

had been attracted by its clear, How many, just saved from the fire, but the wax of their wings for ever melted, went hopping about the country with a bit of Emerson in their mouths, disseminating ordinariness and indistinctness, offering the mime for the Miracle Play Bo-tof ThflEeau, that hypethral and separated "man,- I cannot say enough. Of no. one did Mr. Emerson talk so often and tenderly. The relation between the two needs a clearer understarrdifig. Emerson made Thoreau he was'the-ehild of Emerson, as if of his own flesh. The elder took- the^ounger fresh from cpUege (rgther drowsy and he dozed after his return, but the woods and rivers of Concord were his college). Emerson woke him, gave him his start, and immediately and astonishingly nourished him. He lived cold, solitary flame.

!

;

I

j

;

much

at Emerson's house, kept the garden * and the home while their master * Mr, Emenson was a man of meditation for whom


:

Ralph Waldo Emerson. was absent

in

jj

Europe, and instructed him in

the mysteries of grafting and parsley.

Emerson called him "My Spartan-Buddhist, "My Henry Thoreau." With no one was he so intimate, until the disciple became as his master, adopting his accent and form, realizing his attractions and antipathies, and knowing his good and eviL The development of this sturdy bud into its Henry,"

sturdier flower

philosopher.

was a perpetual delight to the In Thoreau, he lived himself

over again. ,_ He said he liked Thoreau because " he had the courage of his convictions,"

but I think he meant his own convic-

tions.*

In both we mark the same features

as a severe and outre way of looking at events,

and a searching

for lessons in

them ; avoid-

ance of association; determination toward the expression of their ideals in their

life;

choice of straitened ways over broad ones, action

was too severe

;

and

his success at

garden

tending is suggested by the expostulation of his son, who, alarmed at certain gestures with the spade, cautioned as follows: "Look out, papal you'll dig

your leg." *

"I

told

H. T.

that his freedom

was in the form,

but he does not disclose new matter. I am familiar with all his thoughts ; they are mine, quite originally dressed " (Cabotl.


— Talks with

78

and refusal to turn aside for livings, rewards, and comforts ; jealousy of domestic and local intellectual restraints, even to discontent with the pressure of the average public senti-

ment; intolerance of make-shifts; keeping away from court rooms, newspapers, and presidents' messages " reading, not the Times, ;

but the Eternities," as one said every

man

other said

alone on his

But the

much beyond Emerson was

these larger,

own

" Standing

;

peak," as the

similarity does not

go

Though Thoreau was the more limitations.

concentrated and sinewy of the two

;

and,

once beginning to carry out the parent's discipline and thought into his own life, he

was uncompromising ; and the end was not He ceased to seen, nor to be anticipated. be illustrator and personifier, or in any sense His movements, which had been derived. projectile,

a

recognition

of

the

elder's

thorough and wholesome methods, now went

beyond them ; and, thenceforward, this man advanced his own kinetic principles, and went his own way to his own As of himself he said life.

far

resolute

" But

after

And,

manned him

thereafter,

for his

own

stronghold."

though dwelling in Con-


— Ralph Waldo Emerson. cord, he

a

in

lived

far country,

^g

and was

differentiated to almost a distinct species.

The

variations began soon,

him

plunged situations.

gusto Mr.

I

occasionally

his loyalty

into

dramatic

never forget with what

shall

Emerson

and

related to

me

the story

of Thoreau's constancy to his political reso-

by John Brown's execution, amusing week of incarceration was served with the writ of arrest on

lutions created

and

his

"

He

his

his

way

:

but he kept on,

to the shoe-shop;

shoe in his

to

pail,

have them both

mended." "

Henry was," continued Mr. Emerson, "homelyTn appearance, a rugged stone hewn from the all

men

cliff.

I believe

to be moderately

He

surpassed sex.

and an earnest look.

me -of~Massillon. thing~offhim.

is accorded to homely; but he

it

had a

beautiful- smile

His character reminds

One could jeopard

A limpid

man, a

realist

caustic eyes that looked through

all

any-

with

words

and shows and bearing with terrible percepHe.was a greater Stoic jthan Zenq or tion Scsevola or Xenophanes greater, because nothing of ijnpiirity clungJo_him, a man whosfe core and- whose breath was conscience ; !

—

and not one of those

giants,

not one of


Talks with

8o

Europe's best, not Pitt or Burke or Grattan,

come to him and say, Peccavi. was that he brought nothing near heart ; he kept all influences toward

but could

His

fault

to his

Exaggerated moods we

his extremities.

have to suppress at least

;

for

some

all

amiability, or

reciprocity, are necessary to

make

But he thought and said that society is always diseased, and the best Men of note would come to talk mosj, so. society possible.

with him. "

'

I don't know,'

he would say ;

*

perhaps

a minute would be enough for both of us.' " But I come to walk with you when you '

take your exercise.'

" Ah, walking '

"

And

man.

—that

is

my

holy .tiineJ-

yet he was not a grave or austere

I

remember he made

us

all

laugh

with his accounts of what he sometimes saw in his walks.

What was

the young Irishman

that

whom he

he told

me

of

found kneeling

before his mother in the attitude of prayer

?

But, drawing nearer, he discovered that the

posture of the worshipper was merely in

order that his mother might remove a dust

from his eye with her tongue " His energy was exhausted in projecting a

particle

new

path.

!

He

could not follow an old one,


—

Ralph Waldo Emerson. even when

it

was

believed "things are

"

He

was

would stand

better

lies

an out

of

doors

for

which caused

suffered with a stoicism

and died

He

man.

These

excesses brought on an

similar

affection of the throat

He

are.

hours measuring

the increments in the growth of trees.

and other

He

him.

because words

snow

in the

for

8i

his end.

beyond the

race,

in great pain, nobly, refusing opiates,

yielding himself to

death during sleepless

nights and days.

" His ideas of living have been condemned,

A us remember he lived them out. gentleman English an Cholmondeley,* Mr. and graduate of Oxford, boarded while here but

let

with

his

mother

and,

;

much

becoming

attached to him, wished him to accompany himself to the mountains of the Yellowstone,

and afterwards to South America, engaging But not only to to defray all expenses. •

Some

indication

as to the antecedents of this

gentleman may be gleaned from the following extracts from Horace Walpole's correspondence "My nephew, Lord Cholmondeley, the banker h " (Horace Walpole to la mode, has been demolished the Earl of Stafford, August 5, 1771). " I am very sensible of your lordship's kindness to my nephew, Mr. Cholmondeley " (The same to the :

same, October

3, 1788).

G


—

"

Talks with

82

those invitations, but also to another of a trip across

the States, Thoreau returned the

unvarying response " I think I had better stay in Concord.' " On one of these occasions, Cholmondeley '

Hamadryads among the about New Orleans, and

enlarged fancifully upon

would

that

be found

Druidical forests

the

lurking

the gorgeousness of the flora they would find

on the Amazon River, mentioning particularly the Victoria Regia.

" 'And

am

I

expecting to find some day

the Victoria Regia on Concord River,' he said."

The Victoria Regia for every man, he may have meant, is to be found in the duty at his own doorway a habit of thought

—

characteristically Emerson's.*

"He

refused on graduating from Harvard

take

to

dollars, *

his

he

When

degree

;

'

It

isn't

worth

five

said.

in

Naples (the

first

time) he wrote in his

diary longing for

" the

Of close, low pine-woods

in a river

fogs

town

;

and he informed his brother from Paris that his own study was the place for him ; and there was always more of fine society in his own little town than he could command.


— Ralph Waldo Emerson. "

I

83

have always tliought that he did not do

justice

to

college in

the influence of his

forming him. "

Though

living in_ci3dlizaiionj-

he was the

keenest observer of external .nature. evgi^^een.

He had

I

hare

the trained sense of the

Indian, eyes that saw in the night, his

own

way of threading the woods and fields, so that he felt his path through them in the densest night, without delay or interruption.

He

would hear a partridge fly into a bush dawn, and guide you to the

in the dark of

spot after tiay unerringly. trail

by

The

and

tread

of wild creatures were apparent to him

sight, hearing, and, I believe, smell

;

for

he said that the mud-turtle obtained peculiar odour after spring has come,

like

its

other flowers''

Turtles were an object of contemplation to

Thoreau. Of them he wrote " I am affected by the thought that the

earth nurses their eggs.

:

They

are planted

and the earth takes care of them ; she is genial to them, and does not kill thera. This mother is not merely inanimate and inorganic. Though the immediate mother turtle abandons her offspring, The the earth and sun are kind to them. in the earth,


—

"

Talks with

84 old turtle

on which the earth

rests takes

care of them, while the other waddles off."

He

"

was wont to assert that even in the woods one could see foreign phenomena, if always on the watch with direct eyes and the right perception. And so he insisted that he found revolutionary army cans and the red Polar snow near the ponds of oldest

Haven ; and the Labrador Lediiim, Kalmia Glauca, Canadian Lynx, a stormy Fair

and the

petrel,

little

meadow

the

in

of

auk with the tanager, Sudbury.

Perhaps he

idealized his vision, for he confessed

:

" There '

Itself,

is no power to see in the eye any more than in any other jelly we ;

we

cannot see anything

till

with the idea of

First,

it.

image of the plant occupies at length I surely see

it,

are possessed

the idea or the

my thoughts,

though

it

and

may seem

as foreign to this locality as Hudson's

Bay

is.'

I

As confirming Mr. Emerson's impression, might quote from Thoreau himself: " Fair

Haven pond, seen from

the moonlight,

boundless

man

;

is

the

cliffs

in

a sheeny lake, apparently a

primitive

forest,

untrodden

by

the windy surf sounding freshly and

wildly in the single

pine behind you, the


Ralph Waldo Emerson. hushed wolves

silence of

85

in the wilderness,

and, as you fancy, moose looking off from the shores of the lake

and

the stars of poetry

;

and unexplored nature looking down on the scene. This light and this history

hour take the

He

scape."

out of the land-

civilization all

was especially happy

He

casting spring.

noted

in fore-

of

earliest

all

the disappearance of that lover of winter, the prince's pine, and recognized

young

and vetches

grasses

the utricularia

and

the

as well

;

the

spirit-like

mayflower

the

autumn

ensigns,

broom and golden-rod

the

;

her

houstonia,

He knew

epigsea.

of the trailing arbutus;

first

the coming of

;

the yellow

red berries

the purplish-white

flowers of the Mikania scandens and polygonum, biding by stream-sides. He heard

the hyla in the marsh, the swamp-frog

first

and veery. Some years he was fortunate enough to detect in the morning twilights a peculiar roseate tongue or halo, the snood

of

Spring herself,

and

in the

peculiar

flected

from the higher

He

always

heat

even

of the hills

felt (insensible to

fluent

branches.

light

between

the

her

moon

outline as

re-

and mountains. us) the coming earth-crust

aiÂťd


Talks with

86 "

The

joints

her

fibre of nature was all through his and marrow, and through life he wore

livery.

away in

I don't

know how long

ago, far

he was descended from the Northman, Thorer the dog-footed), she planned him, measured him for his suit. "

his ancestry (he said

He will be blamed for his shortcomings in

natural science, of which he

made a profession;

but his early death should be remembered.

"

He understood the

not the rocks.

flora and the birds, but Out of doors he used instead

of a gun a spy-glass. '

gives

'A

gun,'

you the body, not the

he

said,

He

bird.'

would trace a fish-hawk to her nest; and then, examining the debris at the bottom, he would find out more about the nature of the fish-hawk than the veriest sportsman of them

He was a naturalist, but also a poet, and would have penetrated from all external all.

aspects of nature to the secrets of her heart.

She always gave him a quick home and shelter

—always

just the tree at hand, with

low sloping branches ready roof,

for

and the boughs and

for the poles

foliage of spruce

a bed on which to cast his blanket.

sweeter sleeps than

those

its

and

!

He

himself with the growing wheat until he himself to be a bearded blade.

No

saturated

came


Ralph Waldo Emerson. "

His out of doors

within

life

made him

87

sensitive

he could endure the atmosphere of few houses. He used to say, by night every dweUing gives out bad air like doors, so that

a slaughter-house.

" Things happened

to him,

came

to

they will to lovers of the woods and

"I remember once a

him

as

fields.

friend accosted

him

while they were walking with a request for

an arrow-head,

if

how

lamenting

he should ever find one,

fruitlessly

he had searched

for one.

" '

They

are

rare,'

said Thoreau, stooping

and picking up a fragment of earth-covered substance he saw in the sod ; and now that you have an opportunity, you had better examine this And he presented a fine specimen from which he finished disengaging '

!

'

An accident ? I do not Sometimes I have thought the entire woods were a cache for him he had such secrets of hiding things and finding them again. His invention of a new^ lead pencil was quite characteristical. He could buy the earth-rust.

know.

;

none to

that

would

make some.

periment, he

suit

him, so he determined

After

close study

and

ex-

produced the most excellent

pencil I have ever seen, and manuYactured


Talks with

88

some hundreds of them, which he

among

A

his friends.

to a neighbouring city,

distributed

few found their way

and he was approached

by capitalists with hberal offers to manufacture them in quantities for commercial purposes. But he refused, with the remark that he merely wished to make a good pencil for his

own use; and

He

the

secret

died with him.

overflowed with ridicule for household

utensils, etc.,

such as the store-keepers

offer,

and the few such things he used he provided for himself, and they were much superior and more convenient. Did he want a portmanteau or box? Forthwith he produced it, stripping the bark off a tree, joining by dovetail without tack or nail, and chamfering and bottom. was a close student of a few books. Cholmonliked the ethnic scriptures.

the edges

"

He

He

deley had given him some rare and costly copies of the Bhagavad-Gita

His

style

and other

has been sometimes

bibles.

criticized as

opaque, but that

is

a quality frequently found

in the reader.

It

was a style that refused If the spirit man. chooses to descend upon

compromise

as did the

of poetry,' he said,

me

as I stand

'

still, it

not go in search of her.

'

is

well

;

if

Here, on

not, I will this

rugged


—

;

;

Ralph Waldo Emerson. soil

of

take

Massachusetts, I

my brow

baring

89

my stand, my own of my own

to the breeze of

country and invoking the genius words.'

"

It is better to translate

inward

at the soul

earnest,

looked inward,

of things.

Conscientious,

he talked

superstitious,

him than Epictetus

He

or Marcus Antoninus.

in

plain words

and commanded

not to change a

Thus

line.

the

to

his publishers his

pages seem

He

profane and sometimes blasphemous.

did not hesitate at shocking any weather-

worn creed or sceptic

;

church.

to

belief.

Men

It

was curious how much

opinion was sought, considering

was derided.

it

him

called

but he was too conscientious to go

No

his

how much

sooner did any extra-

ordinary news arrive than every one must

know what Thoreau thought about the last happening. His poetry is of a new order. The poem on Smoke is instinct with the spirit

'

of Simonides

:

Light-winged Smoke Icarian bird, Melting thy pinions in thy upward flight Lark without song, and messenger of dawn. Circling above the hamlets as thy nest Or else, departing dream and shadowy form Of midnight vision, gathering up thy skirts !

;


'

Talks with

90 By

night star- veiling, and by day

Darkening the

light,

and blotting out the sun.

Go thou, my incense, upward from this hearth. And ask the gods to pardon this clear flame.' "

He was penetrated with the elder classical

; he breathed the antique. Yet it was impossible for him to copy words or

influence

anything. " There was during his literary himself and

life

between

Mr. Ticknor an inequality of

temperament and taste, by which the publishmg house of that gentleman was always prevented from doing Thoreau justice. Consequently,

the

Atlantic

has published for

Thoreau, but not his best work.

was his most

influential

Mr. Greeley

publishing friend.

Thoreau has an always increasing number of readers, and the selectest class of any American in all Christendom. The 'Week on the Concord River is his noblest work, pervaded with dehghtful ideas. And you must have the Letters and Select Poems of his I have lately edited. I will give them '

'

to you.

"

He had

made no

a great

effort to

contempt

for those

who

gauge accurately their own

powers and weaknesses, and by no means spared himself, of

whom

he said that a

man


—

"

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

91

gathers materials to erect a palace, and finally

concludes to build a shantee with them.

'"You have

heard from a great many,' he

wrote to a friend in

Springfield.

'

How

long since you had a letter from yourself?' " '

You pay

yourself for your riches,' he

what becomes oA you 1 ; Others of Thoreau's ion mots, approved by '

wrote again

'

Mr. Emerson, I treasured " Occasion wears front hair.'' :

"A

poor man's cow, a rich man's child

dies.''

"Sleep

is

"

heart,

" •'

its

half a dinner."

weak head."

Good What men

do, not what they promise.

People are

less careful to

avoid

evil

than

appearance."

"No

animal

is

so patient as the fretful

porcupine."

"Let the muse lead the muse. If the muse accompany, she is no muse, but an amusement." "

It is

the art of

world, and every one in

mankind

to polish the

who works

is

scrubbing

some part." " Could there be an accident so sad

as to

respected for something better than

be are?"

we


— Talks with

92

" If we made the true distinction, we should almost

house "

of us be seen to be in the alms-

all

for souls."

Who

is

whom

—a

most dead

monument you

hero by whose

stand, or his descendants of

you never heard

?

"

" The farmer is an enchanted labourer.'' " Never, except in the case of women and children, act

on the supposition

that people's

regard for you can be higher than yours for

them." " Sometimes

who

we

are inclined to class those

are once-and-a-half witted with the half-

witted, because

we

appreciate only a third of

their wit."

And " I

from Saadi

Ketp

cannot

tell

small ware." " The cat herself a

:

the door to your

mouth

shut,

and

whether you deal in jewels or is

mouse

a tiger to the mouse, but

is

to the tiger."

"When you

determine to fight, be sure you are stronger than your adversary, or that you have a swifter pair of heels." that

"

Of a

truth

every one

tendency to Islamism, and

is it

is

born with a

owing to

his

parents his becoming a Jew, a Christian, or a

Majoosie."


— —

"

-

"

Ralph Waldo Emerson. "To

the

93

nymphs of paradise purgatory

would be hell, and ask the inhabitants of hell whether purgatory is not paradise." " O Lord of the World Those who are Zihids will not accept of money ; and they !

who have money

are not Zahids."

Emerson quoted not Thoreau the figure —

seldom

as

from

" When Autumn bleeds In

all

the maples

;

and said the following from Ennius was often on Thoreau's lips ' '

Ego deum genus did Sed

eos

et

dicam

ccelitum,

non curare^ opinor^ quid agat humanum

genus ;

Nam,

si curenf^ bene bonis sit,

male malis quod nunc

abesl."

And

this

from Shelley

" The day that dawns in fire will die Even though the noon be calm." It

in storms,

was Thoreau's theory that the universe

grows by destruction of

The

itself.

process

of development from the nebulous completes its

decay.

" And thefts from satellites and rings And broken stars I drew And out of spent and aged things ;

I

framed the world anew.


—

— Talks wirtr

94 His belief

is

epitomized in Pindar's eighth

Olympic "

A man doing fit things Forgets Hades."

Nec quid hymen quid amor quid sint connubia curat.

The bark foundered it

sails

another sea

was not

It

too early, but surely

?

easy for

human

nature to

honour one who honoured not it, and so he lived in antagonism outward or inward with most of those he met traveller

on a

solitary

He was a forsaken roadway through the

Noman, and few there be that find it. Emerson referred to him the words " I can see no one who is able to fill the place he has left here, no causes at work to produce one who even has a tendency to fill land of

it."

To

Parker Pillsbury, who approached him

on the subject of his death,

religion the winter before

he replied gently, " One world at

a time," It

was a grim day that he was borne from

the village meeting-house to his grave near

Hawthorne in Sleepy Hollow. Only a little company of friends were present Mr.


Ralfh Waldo Emerson. Emerson spoke a few words

95

after the coffin

was lowered.

As Thoreau

Amos Bronson

so

Emerson the

exhibited

Alcott, a

recluse,

most benign,

and unworldly man when I knew him, was a joyous and buoyant embodiment of Mr. Emerson socially. For Emerson was not ; what one would, term " talkative " indeed, it is seldom one, meets a man more held in When he was duress by his own thought. saintly,

was mostly a which seemed and thoughtread widely addressed to a to be ful audience, and which always exacted much It is somewhat remarkable of the listener. surprised

into

monologue of

that a

utterance

it

oral reflections

man who

has given more movement

to thought than almost

any other since Plato, little sympathy

should have shown in habit so with this law by which receive ideas

!

But

I

men most

naturally

think he secretly found

the simplest conditions under which people

meef irksome. " Parties of pleasure, yes, parties 01

he once remarked.

And

again, "

entiut,

When one

;

meets his mate, society begins " expressions of a man who, although among us, is not of us.

And

yet I recall

no words about conversa-


"

Talks with

g6 tion

tions

than

better

rightly ;

;

" "

The

He

his.

he called

A

"

it,

apprehended

it

series of intoxica-

right metaphysical professor

;

"

The

"

We must be warmed by the fire of sympathy,

true school of philosophy

and be brought into the

;

"

and

right conditions

said,

and

angles of vision."

"When

you answer,"

it

was

his

maxim,

" address the meaning, not the words.'' his tenth beatitude was, " Blessed is

And

he who

giveth the answer that cannot be answered."

But he did not commonly exemplify this. The conspicuous illustration of it was Mr. Alcott, who had a much more extended adaptiveness. To him the meeting of human beings in converse was what the table

is

to

He

Christians.

communionfounded the

drawing-room conversation as a means of culture,

a more valuable

of the Lyceum. leader discourses

gift

than Emerson's

method, by which a

Its

upon some theme

at leisure,

answering questions which are farther

dis-

cussed in the freedom of informal exchange, is

more natural and probably more rewarding

than either lecturing or preaching, especially

among people where receptivity

prevail.

similar conditions of

Mr. Alcott's

limited, because his philosophy

field

was

was not often


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

97

vascular, so that, as Fichte said of himself,

he could only succeed with " brave good people." But who that met him in the con-

made

versazioni which he

get the experience

so popular can for-

— the master's " solar

face,''

framed in that wealth of hair in which the white breath of his soul had been caught and kept

;

his pleasant fervours

hyperboles

;

his

irresistible

his colours, dilatations, magni-

;

loquence, glorious soarings to the great might

have been

sublime and ideal chimeras

;

;

the

winning wilfulness with which he presented a

sometimes

philosophy

erroneous

pictures, delicate

rather

somewhat bleached, as etiolated conditions

;

if

distinct,

his fugitive answerings,

orphic, subtle, like quicksilver, and, even

merely amoebsean, the

dropped

out,

his

;

and conceived amid

than

participants

when

having

and the ground beneath sound-

ing hollow to every ear but his, so surpassingly

complete and master-like, always satisfying the questioner,

who enjoyed

if

he could not

acquiesce.

Though

often

philosophical,

philodoxical rather

than

he was always in sympathy

with the highest motives that can elevate the

human

soul,

and received from God the

gift

of lofty inspirationSj singularly incommensur-

H


Talks with

98 able, from

which Emerson with others grate-

fully drank.

His sacred enthusiasms, which

penetrated his hearers as

if

they had drunken

sunbeams, buoyed his step to the

last, sounded an angelus, and dwelt in his they had lost their speech and

in his voice like

eyes long after feeling, vault.

and became otherwise rayless like a He had a soul of candour ; whatever

other expression his face wore, that never it,

and

his smile

melancholy a

had such

He

sin.

faith that

it

left

made

cherished a sweet

sense of the loyalty of friendship, and believed devoutly in the

Concord

No

saviours.

one circulated with more enthusiastic perversity west and east, with now and then a conscientious obolus from Emerson, the coin

of mutual gratulation, acceptable possibly to numismatists, but hardly current on Olympus.

He

possessed

never for a

groups

before

moment

manner

a

He knew

fatiguing.

the

by talk, and his demeanour at gatherings was always illuminated by a gentle politeness and interpretation of others. secret of teaching

He

understood

how

to

open the eyes of Children

people without contradicting them. especially

were susceptible to

the

What Landor makes the Greek child, say of Epicurus, reminds

me

charm.

Ternissa,

closely of

what


'

Ralph Waldo Emerson. the

99

an acquaintance said of Mr.

child of

Alcott " I love to hear :

him talk. He is so plain. and tel ls me so much I didn't know, fastening it on to^yrat-t-dtd-Ehow and~he-Jw,s-so ;

much

patience^ and-loQks-.aoJdBdlyrasTfTie' '"^ were waiting forTnore-questieas."— —

Of Mr.

Alcott Emerson said " Bronson Alcott is a man supremely

conscious.

Socrates

him and Commonwealth ought

to support

it

ought

;

His

!

life

Alcott thinks Boston to support ht7n is

full

of

Wordsworth should have come

He

origin of the Pedlar.

Once an admirer

wealth.

to

— and

beatitudes.

him

for the

has no regard for sent

him a twentyAbout a

gold piece from Boston.

dollar

week

self-

thought Athens ought

after,

a mendicant, passing his door,

asked alms. "

'

I

have nothing,' said Alcott, answering

from habit a minute

'

or yes, stay

;

I

have, too

wait

;

!

" And, running into his house, he returned

with the gold coin, which he handed to the beggar.

He

took

it

and vanished.

I

be-

a week or so afterwards he returned it to Mr. Alcott, with the remark that he found lieve

he was not able to

either

keep or spend

it.


Talks with

100 " Alcott

is

the best reader of Plato living.

He talks exquisitely. A reporter offered, goodnaturedly, to report his conversations, but he

reproduce the delicate inflections

failed to

and

He

tints

of thought which form their charm.

has a passion for writing, but he cannot

write,

he has no

anchylozed.

I

gift

He

anything to read to me. that Jesus spiritually

His pages are

that way.

always feel sad when he brings

used to say

was intensely feminine; always apprehensive and respondent to

the thought rather than

its

expression.

" His ways of teaching were new and unpopular.

He

was exposed to persecution on But they are sure to be

account of them.

adopted, because they are based on

human

nature.

"

He came

to

Concord from Germantown,

Pa., about forty years ago.

family was Alcox.

He

The name

changed

it

of the

to Alcott.

His wife was from one of the most excellent in Boston. There will never be

families

enough he and

credit given to that his daughters

woman

for

what

have done.

" Louisa was born about thirty-four years after her father, is

and on the same

a natural source of stories.

day.

When

She

she was

seven years old she was the delight of the com-


;

Ralph Waldo Emerson,

ioi

munity, writing dramas and buildin^ theatres

and the neighbours' houses. She composed a hymn while yet a girl ; wrote a book (which has been printed under the at her father's

name

Moods ') when

she was sixteen book of fables, before she was twenty. At nineteen the papers began buying her stories. She did not want to grow to womanhood. She went out as a governess, and wrote a story of her experiences for the of

'

another, a

Atlantic ; but they could not understand

and told her she had

better continue

as

it,

a

teacher.

" She never was sick until she went into the army as nurse, and has never been well since. She took a trip to Europe, which was an un-

doubted

benefit.

She produced her hospital

sketches in 1865, and lieve, '

now

is

(1868), I be-

bringing out what will be her best yet,

Little

Women.'

We

her publishing friend,

all

think this

who

write a girl's book, while

could not.

It is often

is

due to

told her she

she insisted

must she

the case that publishers

understand authors better than they do themselves.

children.

" ful

She

is, and She knows

May won

is

to be,

the

poet uf

their angels.

Ruskin's praise for her wonder-

copies of Turner, which were sold at great


—

Talks with

102

But Mr. Alcott respected Louisa's it was original. May's pleasant room at home was much admired by our Concord folk. She had Thoreau's profit.

because

genius

The

genius with materials.

and

cover of the

and adornment of the furniture, were the work of her own hands. The mirror formed the farthest, inner walls

the finish

floor,

centre of successive frames of different woods, so that in

one's face was like a picture

it

perspective,

in

reached by courteous ap-

'

proaches,' as her father said."

Of Transcendentalism, the

Mr.

"It means that there

marked,

mind than

He was

enters

it

Alcott is

a great believer in heredity.

are

is

he

insisted,

"implies apostacy. is

in

When

What we

the result of our ancestors.

unsuUied soul

re-

through the senses."

the children did wrong, he said " It is the fault of the old folks.

And

more

Choice,"

The

pure,

above choice."

again, "

are taught from

Those who the

learn

heart,

by heart

a spontaneous

teacher."

His

conscientiousness,

like

Thoreau's,

him once to the inside of a jail, from which he was released by Mr. Hoar. He was a living rebuke to gross animal brought


Ralph Waldo Emerson. feeding.

Like

an eater of

all

103

Pythagoreans, he was not

flesh.

he or Mr. Emerson Charles Kingsley "Cousin Cramchild"? It would have been neither if Mr. Kingsley had known of Is

it

called

whom

he was speaking. Mr. Alcott's "St. John the Evangelist " is an utterance wholly after the heart of the great

Englishman.



TRANSCENDENTALISM.



—

'

;

;

TRANSCENDENTALISM. " The Puritans came here," said Mr. Emerson one day, "in a revolt against forms. Why should they have kept any, then ? Why accept baptism and the bread and wine of the Supper, and refuse the foot-washing, which was at least as strongly emphasized? They were right, nobly; but they stopped short. Is any form necessary ? Do we need any gift or foreign force ? Can we not be self-sustaining ?

See

this divinity

Can we not be

of daisies

them ? That Jesus lived purely was his strong argument " Virgil said to Dante

around

us.

What need

'

there of miracles ?

is

" Let

level to

us not talk of these things

Let us look and pass on.

"But

must be an effort to merge and realize theology The for man's highest good is concerned. elimination of scholasticism and subtleties there

religion into literature,


——

;

Talks with

io8

; and divine lives would become common." paused a moment, and I felt en-

would be healthful the

more hasten

He

to

couraged to ask

"What

is

Transcendentalism, Mr. Emer-

son?"

He was silent, and then said, with a humorous emphasis " Well, why do you ask me 1 It isn't, I suppose, a commodity or 'Plan of Salvation,' or anything concrete; not, surely, an '

established church

not

even

;

rather, unestablished

'

perhaps,

bread,

but

leaven

a

hidden.''

He

continued more seriously-^

" If us,

we

we

any of us

human

only see that which

will

shall see also above.

spirit to

is

God

but confront

always bear natural

itself

y-y

The

And

seen, are

the

down

soul

to

should

thus in the presence of the

suggest and express

revelations.

Transcendentalist sees everything

as Idealist.

is

it.

objects which

God, are His

from

is

look neither up to the universe nor it,

about

far

an equality of the the world's phenomena. We

There

?

Is

That

is, all

events, objects, etc.,

images to the consciousness.

the thought of them only one sees.

It

You


Ralph Waldo Emerson. shall find

the

God

universe,

and

in

the the

nature,

unchanged essence of

in the

the

the river, the

air,

unfolding

subjective

determination

name, no one knows who name."

private

As

for

and the

;

the

applied the

first

Once he mentioned Kant

leaf;

of your

the

of

everything of rehgion.

spirit,

109

Critik

of Pure Reason was, perhaps, a remote ancestor of Transcendentalism.

receive then the son's

could not

I

content of Mr. Emer-

full

words on Idealism.

Now, with the

commentaries of the years, they are plain; but it is not necessary to present the subject here,

it

having become

The

familiar.

impres-

sion of Transcendantalisra which his speech

conveyed was that he esteemed

less as

it

a

gospel or even revelation than as a rebuke of the temper which accepts mediators, incarnations,

and go-betweens

a protest, appeal,

;

aspiration for direct relations between

God

and man, unencroached upon by any " word." The Bible is a sacred book of all nations, of value as the record of a religion.

of nature (by which

is

intended

that have retained simplicity)

of God."

The Kingdom

of

comes with observation.

is

The book all

objects

the " word

Heaven As all

certainly

material


no

Talks with

forms necessarily lived before in Him, so we find

Him

in

them now. beyond

Literally, a passing

all

media

in

the approach to the Deity, Transcendentalism

contained an

mainly by a

effort to establish,

discipline of the intuitive faculty, direct inter-

" I am course between the soul and God. the door," said Jesus ; " no one cometh unto " Yet," pleaded the

the Father but by me."

Evangel, " are

new us come

we not

brothers

?

as thou earnest, to thy Father

Let

and

to our Father." It is often the fate

carried

farther

than

of a

new

doctrine to be

founder intended.

its

That the conservatives hastened

to

demand

the establishment of a chair of Apologetics in

the viewless Theological Seminary of Con-

cord was natural enough the philosopher

and

;

but the surprise of

his friends

was awakened

whose had been hurt by Apollo's quoits thrown wild. They announced theories, as they said, beyond Emerson, and yet called them his ; they even deified him as a being of mist and fire far in advance, and leading Though he did not deny that in the path.

by the

eccentricities of sundry fanatics

heads

he could not make

it

straight,

how

straight

were those of the accepted faith-bringers

i*


Ralph Waldo Emerson, And

hi

so they clambered their Emersonian

up the mountain

until

it

disappeared

atmospheres that would not support

trail

among

spiritual

There was much heroic even in these eccentrics. What though their inspiration

life.

of rarified air did create some excesses, before

which

it is an effort to keep the countenance and the sacred fire of their fane proved to be a spurious phlogiston, causing inflammation rather than flame, it is to be remembered ;

—

that these were brave

something;

men

men who

stood for

not "to be killed

the bats as a bird, an.ong

the

among

birds as a

"

and a heart unstirred by their decold indeed. But the glory of the sunrise was in the eyes of those already in the immediate religious and intellectual neighbourhood and the number included some of the purest men and women and bat

;

votion

is

;

profoundest thinkers in the country. cared less for the

name than

They

for the ideas

around it. To them it was enough that the faith vindicated the freedom of the soul against all forms of fatalism, and pronounced man a being of eternity instead clustered

of a worm of the dust. From such a faith they would drink as from a stream of cold

refreshment, and be satisfied without inquiry


Talks with

112 as to whether

mountain doctrine

What

Omniscience. so

said

way? and

flowed from or toward the

it

of

many

true

other

words by the

no matter whither the way

so

led.

Their old

lilac

turn the pages within

covers

atmosphere nobility

was

concrete expression was the

first

To

Dial.

and

the

catholicity,

of

now those

creative

too

and

editor,

large

faded

days,

although

permit

to

their

Margaret Fuller

their heroisms.

first

its

to bring again the

is

her

a waste-

basket, admitted uninspired witnesses to the

uselessness

the

of Saviours and discussions of

universality

of the

Holy

Spirit

in

a

soprano key, yet so high was the motive and so strenuous the impulse of

its

founders, that

number contained expressions invaluable and quite equivalent to the propagaevery

tion

of themselves, despite stupidities and

delusions.

Mr. Emerson did manfully his

share, assuming

the

editorship, but

finally

work so unnatural to him. William Ellery Channing was perhaps its most delightful writer, with such opulent companions as Theodore Parker, J. Freeman Clarke, C. A. Dana, James Russell Lowell, Frederic Hedge, C. A. Bariol, J. C. Cabot, relinquishing a


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

113

C. P. Cranch, and others. The Dial was a horologe of the dawn, and should have marked the hours longer. All this was fifty years ago ; and the Dial's shadow now is only seen in Alcott's garden. One can hardly wander of an afternoon after summer is flown, here where the Concord

School of Philosophy holds festivals,

Plato,

in

the presence

of

its

intellectual

statuettes

of

Emerson, Harris, Howison, Thoreau,

and and grace

Voltaire, Pestalozzi, Mulford, Dr. Jones,

others which haunt the arbours

the walks of the parterres and grove of appletrees,

even to Hillside Chapel, where Web-

ster's

Dictionary

the only book in sight,

is

without feeling that he

in a hygienic

is

and sane

sphere, friendly to a larger

atmo-

liberty of

religious meditation.

There are those who believe that the ghost of Transcendentalism will rise again, and are

even waiting from this will

its

the stone rolled away

to see

sepulchre

;

but

may we

not accept

emancipation as inheritance, as

come out from

it

all

that

for the healing of the

nations?

Did he from whose

loins

pect more, a present faith I think not.

As he

it

was drawn ex-

?

desired to construct I


Talks with

114

no system of theology or moral

science,

never giving us a system nor completing his " Natural History of the Spirit or Intellect"

(sometimes called one and sometimes the so his Transcendentalism

other),

is

be

to

regarded as a fragment, existing less as a

much

religious idiosyncracy,

than as a

fashion,

force

general

in

lifting

religious

a passing

less

and

permanent

As a

culture.

modifying influence in thought, as an impulse toward a finer subtle

Its

which

stood

it

life, it

suggestions,

its

and

for

exultant, soaring spirit

its

it

symbolized

— these gave

ing to every elevated

Where

became a power. aspirations; that

it

drawn

soul

into

it

made

so far as literal fulfilment

made by Jehovah to the nn -

n

n.

life,

The

to the believer never insult

the purity of religious motive,

fiiiti

it.

touched the practical duties of

touch was recognized as honest.

promises

its

;

mean-

rnndllil; fff

is

and resemble,

concerned, those

fathers. tli

As-tailieJifc_

" r ipiritf ii n

ii

i

i

mil)

Mtt&nereogJiad-jieKerj, -flfmllt.. He trusted Vii s rnmple^f^l y and p.ven gajia— thtaw - a ,

.

feminine _credence in his relations with"f)ersons.

If

he had-aar

iiU'Ueisti1ae»-ifr

was Ais.

In"Siuaker-talk. he^said

" I do not pretend to any

commandment


Ralph Waldo Emerson. But

or Jarge_revelation.

if

115

at^n}r_time

I

conduct, I fin d, perhaps, a silentobstad«-in-

Very

my-TTiTTn4-<4wht—l^.<?a.n.nnt- ^rrnnnt- fnr.

well

;

I let it lie,

think

does not pass away, ask It

me is

it

may pass away

I yield to

to describe

I

it.

it,

obey

it

;

if it

You

cannot describe

it.

not an oracle, not an angel, not a

dream, not a law ; described

;

it is

But such as

it

is,

the contradiction of shakew'-'

is

it

too simple to be

but a grain of mustard-seed.^

He was

it

is— sometbing which

all

mankind could not

a pilgrim of the invisible,

and, both by heritage and growth, without the capacity of

phy was not a

sin.

Doubt by

his philoso-

positive exertion of the will,

but a suspense of the judgment, a negative Transcendentalism t o him fact merely. was, to be faithful to the revelations that _

comgTS' thejoul^_and^ are xecQgnizeii,by it Ohcein later years, and in his own asjrue. " Mr. Emerstudy, I ventured to ask him son, what of personal immortality ? " He turned gently some pages, and handed me one which read somewhat as follows :

:

"The youth puts off the illusions of the The man puts off the ignorance and child. tumultuous

fancies

of

youth;

thence, puts off the egotism of

proceeding

manhood, and


— Talks with

Lt& becomes hence

a public and universal

at last

rising to great heights,

to realities, until the last falls

and he

is

garment of egotism

with God, shares the will and

immensity of the ''

soul,

but also rising

cause."

first

immediately as a declara-

I received this

tion of belief in the final absorption of all

which

entity

perhaps this

is

saw

in the

and active

original

continually

is

And

creative.

a form of immortality familiar

to his meditation. I

an

into

individualities

'

But afterwards

I

thought

statement not necessarily a pro-

jection of his

own

faith,

but (such was his

and moods of

habit of answering habits

thought rather than forms of expression) a

mild censure of the question deed, he had replied

:

Do

itself,

as

if,

not question

character and destiny are the same,

in-

;

for

and

ex-

cessive canvassing about being prolonged be-

weakness of self-conceit which de-

trays a

stroys the possibility.

To

such an attitude

the answer must be that the teleology of so far as

we can

follow

it,

is

life,

that of the type,

not the individual.

For

at

another time he wrote, and the

passage was inspired

"

I

have a house, a closet which holds

books, a stable, a garden, a field

;

my

are these,


Ralph Waldo Emerson. any or

117

a reason for refusing the angel

all,

who beckons me

away, as

if

there were

no

room

or skylight elsewhere that could repro-

duce

for

He

me

my

as

wants require ? "

spoke of Ciq^ varyingly; sometimes

almost

personally as

perfect

manliness,

spirit,

ofte n

synonymous with as an immanent

if

again

a s a pervasive

held faith rigidly to " It

so

fact,

(^^ He we can

?a'r "as

he

said- ta me, " to believe in opposition to the guidepost. We can only remember that it does

see

fact.

is.

not

force,

not travel the road

permitted-,-"

it

travel. it, -but that road,

We

can

In order

necessary to read the literature

it is

are

common

His evangel was

faith in

of his day, for his

property now.

man and man's of God.

!

Mr. Emerson's newness and

appreciate

to

revolution,

points out. "*

no other

doctrines

final victory, the incarnation

Almost

The_futiire-was serene.

thfiJastJ^ords-I

was^ver

-to

hear him utter

were with- a snulft and-, cheer regarding 4oubt (not his) he could not dispel. ,

'

So Carlyle

:

not go with you faith

go never so

worse

than

February

.a~

" A course wherein clear faith canmay be worse than none ; if clear slightly against

none"

3, 1835).

(Carlyle,

it,

then

letter

it is

to

certainly

Emerson,


Talks with Emerson.

ii8 " For

that,"

he

said, "

to-morrow morning."

" That great and grave

Which may

And

we must

wait until

By transition

not king or priest or conqueror spare, yet a babe can bear."

The morrow's morning

has

come

to him.


PRESENCE.



PRESENCE.

When

I recall Mr.

recognize that a

Emerson

man more

personally, J.

impersonal one

There was nothing proseldom meets. nounced about him. Presence (in one meaning)r-he 4mdr"BÂŽÂťe, because he was without the consciousness, self-esteem, and self-asserBut tion which go so far to constitute it there was that behind the withdrawn manner which took possession with an exclusiveness fascinations or magnetism could

no personal

equal or explain.

To

every comer he was

a fact and experience, undissuadable, pene-

and source of and from the first moment, his was the " morning light which shines more and more unto the perfect day.'' At the time of our first meeting, Mr. Emerson was sixty-two. His tall, slender figure had made slight obeisance to age ; but the earlier portraits of him I had been familiar with ill-prepared me for his changed trating to the region of motive volition

;


Talks with

122

The

expression.

aggressive physiognomy was

the^ delicate^severe^_Jips^_jrid

there;

still

But they rarely flashed now, and ;

p iercing ey es.

wearing instead an introspective grey the

were rather those of a seer than a

lips

The

poet.

hair

alone had kept

colour, like dark wine.

its

native

Both Rowse's and

Wyatt Eaton's rather than Griswold's portraits revive him faithfully as he was at this time, and during the few later years that I saw him.

Rowse

large

featuring of his face, with that wise,

especially has reproduced the

determined nose (called

the

like

straight,

Damascus road) which other Emersons have, and the tender, shrewd eyes, that until the very end kept so

much

sunshine in them.

And what

eyes they were

lookea

they looked into, and that

^lessly.

at,

!

Whatever they

Such^arenot^ ordinary eyes

divining rods.

I

effort-

they are

have noticed that most

successful in values, business order, have the

;

same

men

of the

inquisitive peer.

men first

Under

excitement his look was illuminated, and betrayed by turns the sagacity of the

man

of

and the " vision " of the clairvoyant. His more tranquil regard continually revealed

affairs

yourself to clear

pool

yourself like the limpidity of a


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

123

But the regnant feature of Mr. Emerson's personal contact was his voice agreeable, kindly, incisive,

it

:

in converse

was only to be

heard when everything was congruous and still.

But who that ever listened to

it

in

public has forgotten the healthful experience

Not resonant

like PhilUps',

fewer contrasts with

than Beecher's,

itself

seemed as neither of these rivers

carry gold, the

?

and presenting

speaker's soul

it

some

to carry, as

in

it.

Ajs^ the voice, like the soul, knew no falling

Palm

inflections.

anrt

thg J*"""-,

ffUlflblfii

logist

went on, the voice always

pense

aft er_gyspense, still inconclusive

.jaised,

the ^ij^itfltiflOkeilfor rest,.tbe.ib>£aie clear until

.thfi.

final jgause,

^SKJng

postponed empJiasiS-joLj^lg^

and that

the lesson of which

ponder, and

still

ail-.ppward pitch ;Jj

made me

puzzle

that

on all subjects we

discourse inadequately, and can never

As

if

and

appeared to be ethical

finally

rather than rhetorical

to a period.

sus—

wiiea

he should say

to stop, but not to finish.

There

come

It is

:

is

time

more

to

be added to complete the presentation, but it cannot be spoken now on account of something else which must follow.

So he always stood on the rostrum, having away all the tricks that orators hold

cast


;

Talks with

124

dear, gestureless, save

movement of

now and then a

slight

the hand, repelling as from the

cold pole of a magnet;

his eyes searching

his manuscript, or raised over all of us

and

gazing forward into space, sometimes in the

presence of a luminous expression, glowing like the lenses

uttering

accent of a

come

after

man who

statement, but

here

of some great light-gatherer

sentence

who

sentence, with the

on

insists

this present

believes that

we cannot

to the whole truth of the thing,

and shall never quite find the end of it. For the rest, so lifted and extraordinary was the elevation from which he approached the

subjects

he

discussed

so

;

clear

his

medium, and removed from lower currents and "occasions"; such was his insight, mastery,

and

moderation,

— that

he

soon

created in his audience a fine surprise, and,

without delay, his

own nerve and

spirit. Then, and solicitation, so liberated was the manner of his address from dogmatism and self-assertiveness, that his

such

was

his fairness

audience was fain to project him free of the local circumstance, and to identify his presence as

representative

material age of that

in

busy and and timeless

this

solitary

group of natures, the choice of

all

ages.


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

125

But the completed benediction was

after

he descended from the enforced dignity of the platform, and apart from the exacting restraints of the study.

His bearing and

contact had the exquisite power of a moral

nature which has never been impaired by a Nobility character-

wilful transgression.

ized his deportment.

Elevating describe

to

serenity

is

the

a weak word with which influence

upon men

;

of

his

gentle

for even quite above

themselves were they lifted by his presence,

and found

their highest

common ones. The cause of this was and

life

that

moments

all his

were abreast of the Holy

his

thoughts

Spirit

and

by it, so that every phenomenon assumed its natural place, demanding attention, but at no moment throwing the soul out of its relation with the Unseen. Even in those days when he was disturbing the movement of all the intelligent forces around tried

and the entire atmosphere was in commotion because of him, there was one him,

point of absolute calm, the centre of the cyclone.

As has been and yet not

with less truth said of another,

entirely appropriately of him,

"He


;

Talks with

126 was beautifully other

men

although

;

unfit to

walk in the ways of

" not entirely appropriately, for,

solitary,

he was a welcoming man,

tendered a noble regard, meeting, every one with.8Ut.sli3:n«ss;.or.stiiaess, interesting

to

make

himself

the most of the occasion, so that his

presence was a continual

sohcitation

and

Although qu iet almost to reserve. (I

reward.

neverh£a£d_Jum

social bearing

l.^ugE)7"h'i's

wasjlistinguished. by^^anold-scHooTpoliteness,

with just enough polish to divert the suspicion retirement had

that his

and

made him

his slight, ha^^J'oreign e tiquette

rustic

was so

uphfted. by jthe_pres£nceu)Q£e moral sense,

thayus.Hjanners jatfitfi

f^elestiaL.

His conversation was always in the low tone of one accustomed to being listened to,

and presupposed a

philologist's

knowledge of

words, so that the language was followed doubtingly at and, anon,

zons

and

it

first, but soon companionably, was plain that he opened hori-

left

on

touched a remnant of

almost

everything

originality.

he

Moreover,

one had with him the perpetual delight of hearing a thing said in listened

now

and now to an touched

its

best way.

You

to a quaint anecdote or satire, epithet, comparison, or excerpt,

gently

or

sharply with

his

own


Ralph Waldo Emerson. criticism, until

127

you breathed the high atmo-

sphere where your companion dwelt, not as a spectator but as familiar

;

and, after parting,

you remembered, more even than talk, his

and the

diffused,

forgetfulness that

was an intent

One was

listener.

quite sure of his""appreciation

you were

American.

in the presence of our foremost

He

his vivid

simple ways, the home-like feeling he

if

deserved.

Bu| there was always in his personality a " certain resistance, "a familiar reropteness and even when his companionship was most gentle and encouraging, it was searching and pungent like the odour and flavour of certain His books are aromal flowers and herbs. with the same quality. He disliked odd people, and during his most useful yearFTie was compelled to meet a great many. Sometimes it seemed as if they would overrun him, even drawing from ;

him, apropos of introductions, the droll demur,

"WJiom God

man

join

patient,

and

? "

tried to free

peccant humours and

what was

why should But he was always

hagi^ puj^asuftder,

together

each one from his

triteness,

his advantage.

How

peripatetic philosopher without

own land

and discover often did the

honour

in his

find here the right royal arch for


— Talks with

128

his Spanish castle, the unappreciated poet

wings and a farriery for his limping palfrey,

and the reformer, too often one-sided, a

lar-

ger horizon with a yet stronger enthusiasm. Anything that excited remark in dress

and de«a«aBourrE£2^2[e21^iiistinct. I remember he returned fromTTew Yoit, and told me that Mr. Walt Whitman, by invitation dining with him at the Astor House,

The extremes had come without his coat met then, though undoubtedly he enjoyed the unrestrained man and democratic poet, despite the odour his verses perspire. Long enough after the occurrence to divert any !

suspicion of

a connection, JtIr._jEmerson

said

" Dress should reveal the are

men™sa JjruiaUy

ci.Yilization that

the .dhow.,

spirit.

There

•yyuIuTahd indilerentto

they remind one of the veldt,

and ,the

They ought. -to go

kraal.

about, their faces smeared with woad, in skins

of vwild- animals, - with, a booeiclub.. pjuiheK ,

shoulders and a sword of siaik tooth, beating

drums

offish skin."

And

again " Manners should hespeaL-liie. man, inde-

peudfiat-Qf-firrc-'dothiflg.

not need a

brilliant coatv"

The

general does


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

129

He

was a most salutary companion. His was an abstersion. To him, there was but one foundation of genuine rery nearness

courtesy as of genuine character, and that

was the moral sense, so that though he never preached against bad physical habits and morals, his presence did not permit them.

The

sobriety, directness, honesty,

and con-

scientiousness which he infused into a

man

were antiseptic, and eliminated slovenly and unfortunate habits of It

was taken

mind and body.*

for granted as a basis of

com-

panionship with him that one was living in constant obedience to the nature.

He

demands of his highest

believed that the intellect and

the moral sentiment should not be separated.

Crass instincts he could forgive, and he had

an almost divine patience with weakness and * Mr. Emerson said he smoked very (and we all spared that overworn word) rarely, and never until he was fifty. He was a punctual man. I remember one afternoon we were going to drive. As I came into his room, prompt to the moment, I saw that he was already waiting. Every book and manuscript were put out of reach, not even the newspaper before him ; but there he sat on the edge of the lounge, his coat on his arm, his hat in his hand. I never knew him a minute late at any appointment. The example of course caught me at

know how he

—

a cost,

I suppose, of years.

K


Talks with

I30

even indolenge* but none.witkdislMjaesqr-

He

Remusat as he of Darwin, and despised

anticipated the disclosures of

did the discoveries the

Bonaparte because he cheated at

first

" It

is one of those acts," he said me, " which only men of a certain kind can commit. _rf cannot Tie extenuated-."' "^ So his bearing had a certain translucency, and begat it. "When two persons," he remarked once in my hearing, " are not happy with one another, fence and parry with one another, in-

cards. to

stead of meeting, are not

all

sions a little impertinent

?

"

We

plicity,

of their expres" (out of place).

drop everything and arrive at simwhich is the perfection of manners."

Incompetence^jwfiakcessof

will, yacilla t-

ing motives, nay, even stupidity-, -m-igh4;..be, OYfixlaokÂŁii.;^-bii--tKi*t9-of-hypuis*isy, nuvL'l.

Less endurable to him than even the flippant and fungoid folk who thought to entertain

him with

their

theological

cavilling,

was the approach of these persons of superficial etiquette and attired manners who were too polite for good breeding, donning courtesies for the sake of

ment

or

flections

experi-

But even the genuof these toy-shop gentry, and the occasion.


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

131

deeper disease of dissimulating natures pretending

to

the

possession

sympathies they did not

of

tastes

own and

and

did not

care to own, he would strive to antidote, often

by pointed questions which would

close

to

these confecting people

state of things, or

dis-

the real

by a severe simplicity of

demeanour which aiforded uneasy

contrast.

" He was a friend, a more than friend, austere To make one Icnow one's self and make him fear.

He

gave that touch too noble to be kind, to life the mind within the mind."

To wake

But when the

affectations

were too pro-

nounced, his phrases grew quiet and brief;

be

became

passage

him

reticent

or

of Wordsworth

disappeared.

reminds

me

A of

:

" Plain

his garb,

Such as might suit a rustic sire, prepared For Sabbath duties ; yet he was a man Whom no one could have passed without remark. Active and nervous was his gait ; his limbs

And

whole figure breathed intelligence. the freshness of his cheek Into a narrower circle of deep red. But had not tamed his eye that, under brows Shaggy and gray, had meanings which he brought From years of growth like a being made his

Time had compressed

O' many beings." Excursion, " The Wanderer."


Talks with

132

But words do not touch nerves ; I would you might find herein

that they could, that

himself as well as his utterances, so that this

record might be, as Mr. Walt Whitman hoped of his " Leaves of Grass," a man and not

But I forbear,

a book. as

knew him

I

failing to recall

anticipating, breathing

him

mild-mannered,

genial,

an enchanted youth,

though already beyond the years when men begin to think about dying or are half dead. A word about the nest and its good lares

1

Emersfln.._rare ly spoke of himself, but

!M r.

he Jjadthe

passion

characteristic of all •

for

manly

home which natures,

and

me

is

tpld

His that he beUeved in large famihes. mother had twelve brothers and sisters five sisters and one brother older than herself, three sisters and three brothers younger and

— —

his father I

and mother had eight

children.

asked him once about his boyhood, but

the brief answer gave small glimpse of boyish spirits

and joys

;

and reading

house was probably sins.

Perhaps he was a

a boyhood aged.

;

And

I think it

in the meeting-

his nearest to

man who

a boy's

never had

must have been always

so not least

among

the marvels

he awakened, was the pleasant query how one who never was a boy himself could cherish


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

133

so subtle a sympathy with a boy's weakness

and work and gladness and troubles. But, notably from the mother, there was an atmosphere of charm and peace in the

home

that

no

for

could substitute.

jollity

through the child

All

the sweetness of living

life,

one another was exemplified. Through it was still the gentle

youth into manhood, order of the family.

William taught school

Waldo through college Waldo taught school to help Edward and Edward taught to help

;

;

—

all graduating from Cambridge between 1818 and 1828. Simplicity and mutual deference and love were the law of the household

school to help Charles



METHOD.



;

METHOD. How exacting

is

aroused youth

without shame every sacrifice could,

would

lay

Out of

its

force.

What

man

twilight

and,

if

it

head by the face of God. some path it must find or

grace, then, in the inimitable

to shorten for a time to half-length the

arm by which and vouchsafe

how

the

its

It claims

!

;

his

neophyte has been held,

as to the what, the when,

precept, but simply by showing his

of course,

not,

and

wise disclosures, not by didactic

they

that

own ways

could

become

another's, but that so best could another get his

to

This

own.

these

last

rare

gift

I

seek in

two concluding chapters to pass on

the

new

generation,

trying

thereby to

render such return as the great giver would direct.

This

abstain

from

Such an

is

attitude

think of him.

my purpose, and to judgment and the like.

solely

all

is

foreign to

me when

I

Incompaiable^aQd- beyond

speech, incomniensurable ^_hg.;._

and .the


Talks with

138

greatest have been, his interpreters,.

They

have- spread the" profound and conspicuous

elements -Š£. his character, and taken up arid

Their decisions

carri_edj)n hiaJoity.message.

are of record familiar wherever his

name

is

known, and history has given him his own place. Of so exalted a man my opinions and encomium are of no worth ; but, especially to those young hearts to whom is this address, my experiences have value in proportion to their

nearness

— provided

are given with traits

always

which should always belong to

To omit

narrators.

a characteristic incident or

The

an unfortunate prejudgment.

when

ing fact only injures

they

that

and frankness;

faithfulness

mode

is

subtract-

suppressed.

It

would seem that a biographer literally takes a life when he takes from it that which alone

A

unites it with other lives. perfect hero with either his virtues or his vices " writ in

water,"

transhuman

is

;

and so valueless to

the world as an example, because

it

can find

no point d'appui in so much symmetry. I noticed Mr. Emerson invariably made these distinctions and expected them. No man ever lived observance. the

first

who

has

less

to

lose

by

their

Strangers_who_ sought Jiim for

time,

and found

his

contact

toi)


I

Ralph Waldo Emerson. arueiaicr-enflp.d

And may

b.y:-pmi-sing its

in his presence, the

give

way

.

139

spirituality.

most conscientious

to the natural

and honourable

impulse which compels us to praise without discrimination the great servers of mankind.

He -hdiexsd persistently

in thg,„practise of

expressing the thought with the pen. write," be-w-as

wont

to.

say tp.me

;

"Writer" "jhfiieisjB

no way to learn to write eaceftLbjimitJng/; His admiration was often too sanguine for the event. There was a young Rousseau knew him well who devoted years to the preparation of a psychological novel, which our Antinous had counselled writing out at length, though the result could not well be otherwise than it was a mass of worthless manuscript. Although he knew well how vast is the number of books brought to be

printed in comparison with the few that are, yet he never disgusted the would-be author

with such statistics or discouraged

..

effort,

but jj\yaj5„.jefliisiiiei£.4jthe_satisf action of expression a ""ffiiCAPTiJ; finaJ. rpgiilt. It is given to all men of letters to love the

Chermit vhabitj but Mr. Emerson's extreme solitariness was dictated from afar.

-

" I paths.

hope you

You

like

walks alone and in by-

find your best

muse

there," said

'


"

Talks with

I40

me and

the powers that conspired to

build him, the

manes of seven generations

he to

;

spoke in the expre ssion

He

avoide d

.

when

(^ies7 even

abroad,

seeking always, "WKen he could, some quiet

thorp wherein to disappear;

liked

not his

home, because it was a the statelarger village than Concord, and ment is veracious, not authentic was thankful wife's (Mrs. Lidian's)

when the inclemency of the weather assisted his own retirement Even thence he frequently He did some work on Monaddwelt apart nock, and in the Old

came from one of

Manse.

these

" Nature

remote,

hidden

studies.

"

Bu t

he "in some New York hotel or country inn, where no one knows or can find me. There one finds one's self" In his walks he was inquisitive, would interrupt the subject to remark upon anything I find_ _m^, best workiiig;„§plijude."

said to me,

uncommon;

especially objects

meretricious

or false rarely escaped his surveiUant eye. It

was a marvel that an attention so inward

could also be so outward. ing

made

blinds where were false

A

wooden

build-

to imitate brick or stone, painted

no

real ones, ashlar

facades, fences of

wood made

work, to re-


'

;

Ralph Waldo Emerson. semble

iron,

141

any object suggestively untrue

annoyed him.

One d ay was

still

upo n him

I called

co2;^ingj_^ It

.

\

q fa;^ jiim

was necessary

for

some

purpose, he explained, that he should possess

some I

sixty pages of manuscript in duplicate.

offetg^JcjsUeKeJlJBi

;

J3JuyjÂŁ.saidhejnust

do, this, as be jy-as-fbtced tp dfl.|a;gry thing, for himself.

7~f>*—

I like to recall such facts as these, because

continental critics have stated that he bor-

rowed Montaigne, imitated the Orientalists and Germans; and these are not the traits To me, Emerson's of a borrowing man. swift convictions, his sunniness and fidelity to the

homely

sincerities, are

not even of

like-

ness to Montaigne's pedantic and desultory earthliness,

and

unforsaken whims.

his

I

have

not seen any direct citations to substantiate They have never appeared in these charges. domestic latitudes, and could have been

I

do not think they

made by

persons acquainted

with Mr. Emerson, or familiar with his work for

he shrank from appropriating anything

not originally

his,

or that

assimilated by his

own mental

would rather be a

kitten

had

not been

character.

He

and cry " mew," and


Talks with

142 that

mew would

be Emerson's.

sought the Oriental the

Ramdyana

until

them here and

And who

he

did Carlyle

imported

for

it

Who among us knew of the Vedas

Americans. or

Emerson

German.

It is true

literature, as

he scattered the desire

for

there as a household treasure ?

has sought Saadi or Hafiz but has

encountered a disappointment of hopes based

on Emerson's richer page, to whom the imeven a moment's masquerade or carrying foreign colours for the most transient purposes was ancestral ? The same virility and rarity of organization which has made him so possibility of

eminent, has forced others of the same unreceptive blood into successes, as

marked

in

commercial and professional pursuits. His life and revealings were his own and explicit.

Openness

to

conversion

is,

perhaps,

as

admirable as firmness of conviction, but less of a severe individuality.

suggestive

Em£iSfln!§_methods were posi tive.

M^tr^

He did not _

den^z— That he never disclosed impatience positions were traversed led some to

when his

believe that he held his doctrines with a light

hand.

But once

statements

;

I

heard him defend assailed

and that occasion aiforded a

re-

markable instance of the tenacity with which lie

held his views, and the cogency with which


— Ralph Waldo Emerson. he could advocate them.

He

143

listened so well,

extended such appreciative consideration, and then there was such an apparent yielding in the fairness of his returns, that no one was pre-

pared for the discovery, until

it

was inevitable

from the larger view he presented, that confu-

He

sion must follow those who. withstood him.

did not compromise, nor did he proclaim

;

but

his quiet rejoinders concealed the dark fires of

volcanic regions which catch where they ace It was from his example a brief and gentle discussion a heated magnet loses and not abandoned until all saw its power that there was positively no hope of eliminat-

not^ seen.

ing from such pertinacity any position once

But the charm consisted in the

assumed.

quiet reappearance of the arraigned propositions

they

;

came

language, with

a new

force, I

identity.

clad

but

the

same

it

/

A

new

indestructible

much as to the Brahma lines

quite as

divinity of existence the old

/

in

gave them

can never remember the incident

without applying to

"

always

illustrations that

:

If the red slayer thinks he slays,

Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I

keep and pass and turn again," *

good instance

is

this

quatrain of Mr. Emer-


v

"

Talks with

144

But, marchom, dinate

I

touch a single subor long

too

feature

Eoleniicism was foreign

His opponents wove

for

_to^

his

faithfulness.

Mr. ..Emsrson.

sisal

into

fibres

when they were drawn tight he had escaped. All of him the attitude of ropes, but

hostility

could detain was the linen cloth

about the body. He woulinot-de-battle for hia_pi£cepts ; he did-'Horwish-follQffiers, nor

was he an

moved was

The images

iconoclast.

are re-

He

or burned after, not by him.

solicitous about the clay, but not

about

and womM^ conger e individ u even than the ]inowl«4ge"«)f— Moreover, he was deeply sensitive tiutbr to the many-sidedness of truth, and the the shape

ahsm

;

rather

impossibility of uttering in regard to

it

the

complete word.

How

and With what tempests of humour that, as Emerson said, " floated everything," the great Scotchman would sweep this

contrasts with the bold

stormy Carlyle

!

Compare Krishna's song Edwin Arnold's translation

son's resurrecting power. in the Bhagavad-Gita,

:

" He who shall say, 'Lo I have slain a He who shall think, Lo I am slain

man,'

!

'

Know

naught

slain

1

1

Life

!

cannot slay.

!

'

those both

Life

is

not


!

Ralph Waldo Emerson. away

pposition

;

quite as likely, with

or,

'hat electrical violence

They were

HS

he would destroy

it

always at war, their methods

ansversej,and-thdx_s£.paia]iaaa$i5iSeS«ced. 'arlyle!sL_adEantage. 1

And

arth.

was jn

force,

His^ feet were

insight.

Emerson|s

always on the

so he believed in the grandeur

f the masses and their self-originated adancement, while Carlyle's sympathies were ever democratic. "A great deep cliff," e said, " divides us, in our ways of praclooking

cally aid

me

this

at

world."

=z.

Both_

enccairaged—geftuine

know Goethe mch less for the American 5

cotchman.

Emerson

was impatient for him knowledge which did

that Carlyle

than for the

omers, but neither could tolerate insincerity,

hich they destroyedi~one™winr'lighJ.£ni^

nd the other with Jigbt. But I hasten to my vicissitudes with Mr. Emerson's literature

;

for they traversed mis-

nderstandings with his methods to which very

young and new reader is exposed, I saw him his pages

'or^many years before

semed 5

me

to

a Bible

;

immortal.

They-stirred

so completely (according to

me my

apacity) did I receive their revelation, so

eenly did I feel their bracing and severe


Talks with

146 climate

;

the fine exhilaration they create

iheir insight

;

their sententious

nobility of their character.

aspirations of

Then

my mind

;

wisdom ; the

So the highest

were met and

satis-

was disturbed by bruit of under-meanings and tones that I had not

fied.

caught. series

I

learned that I ought to find a

I

of sub-conscious, logical links, subtly

binding these inspirations into an integral

whole; and that they were inhabited by a double interior sense, like that attributed to

Swedenborg by his disciples. I had been for months passionately and patiently absorbed in the search when Mr. Emerson himself came upon the scene. "Now," I exclaimed, " that I can see the master, I shall be taught." Well do I remember the charmed afternoon that he put into my hands one of his personal collections, I do not know their

—

name; Emeisoniana, I _called..iljem,-^-atherings which had grovtn from -year to year _

until they

would

raake-a.,.vÂŁiluHÂťe-;r

brrgmal

and

pencil,

reflestians," extracts

with

pen

and even a gallery of words and brilliant and studious expressions; like Bacon's "Promus," anything and everything that had formed a mental experience for him. Here and there were isolated scraps, personal draughts,


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

147

quantities of manuscript, evidently denoting

what he had meditated, and studies of particular subjects with his

own commentaries.

He

obviously had sipped from books rather than read; and these repertories witnessed

he had obeyed his own maxim-to " shut book when your own thought comeg." seemed as if he had preserved everything,

that t he

It

whether in good form or not ; but this was a mistake; for he destroyed much that should

Many

have been spared.

of the passages I

once recognized as friends of the rostrum. In a moment it flashed upon me that I was at

in the presence of

sources yea, the

one of the manuscript

of the addresses, essays, treatises,

books themselves.

could realize

this, I

So soon

as

I

sought to pursue through

a few of the pages the theme on which they advertised to discourse.

became unable

But

I

very soon

to trace connections.

was the subject, looked looked into; but here, as

at,

well,

were others

remotely relevant or not relevant at

paragraphed adages,

bits

all,

and

of print, pen-illustrations,

criticisms,

ingenious

and

reflections obviously just as they

on anything

Here

looked about,

— and

delicate

came, and

then the subject again

appearing, like the uncalculated return of a


Talks with

148

The

comet. I

orbit

was long, and an

ellipse,

went back and over the ground again and with

again

but

scrutinizing eyes,

not be mistaken,

and

finally

I

gave

convinced that the wigwam was

lost,

could it

up,

not the

Indian.

Studying

closer into the construction

still

it became Emerson considered the him the limit of logical ex-

of the propositions themselves, plain

that

Mr.

paragraph for

He tried to crowd everything into an attempt which the following one exposed. These fragmentary and unrelated statements produced upon me an impression of isolation, and gave an air of incompleteWith their drastic quality and weight, ness. pression. it

;

they overpowered the narrative.

So since

have our gigantic Californian sequoias made

me

indifferent as to the trend or extent of

the forest

seemed

they constitute.

islanded,

he

as

The

said,

incompressible, each sentence an repellent

tion

:

particle.''

And

thoughts

"paragraphs infinitely

Carlyle's

descrip-

" By-the-by, I ought to say the sen-

tences are very brief,

and did

not,

in

my

sheet reading, always entirely cohere for me.

Pure genuine Saxon; strong and simple; of a clearness, of a beauty, but they did not

—


Ralph Waldo Emerson. sometimes rightly

stick to their foregoers

their

the

followers

;

149

and

paragraphs not as a

beaten ingot, but as a beautiful bag of duck shot held together by canvas " (Carlyle Letter :

to Emerson,

November

3,

1844).

And one

remembers Theodore Parker's comparison of Mr. Emerson's sentences to an army all officers but they are advancing on a long

—

march.

And now

I thought I understood better

about the frequent lapse and hiatus in the

Lyceum appearances and which

published,

young

;

as

lectures

bewilder

the

Mr. Emerson sought not and determined not to write for

student.

occasions,

them

the

frequently

but in his position he could not avoid

bodily into them the work without some concession to time and place; and Bronson Alcott has drawn a picture of Mr. Emerson on his knees in his study, trying to piece

them, nor could he

lift

original fabric of his

together for such exigency sheets of written

matter with which the floor was carpeted.

But art is inflexible, and there were audacious chasms which even his carpentry could not join, and which had been abandoned in despair. fear,

This

must

be

physiological

accepted

connection,

rather

than

I

the


Talks with

I50 psychological

but^anjii Jogical-eomRtlction

;

whieh God never no longer wondered turning of leaves which had

wniild sever those-teadong j

oined together

So

.

at the hesitant

-

I

What trying lecturing. moments some of those pages must have

characterized the

occasioned

;

what temporary embarrassment,

incident upon extracting anything consecutive

from them

knew now why no lo, the theme and we got only one.

Well, I

!

lecture was twice alike; for,

occupied

many

hours,

Here before me was the out form, though I

original body, with-

almost see the

could

hand moving on the manuscript's As for a hidden sense, I said (and

creator's

face

!

conclusion

this

readers

who

Emerson; but they was found

in

one

the

unchanged),

remains

find

Faust

in

will find

it

may

in

cup

as the

Benjamin's sack, and by a

similar process.

The next

my

step toward possession of

author was a most important one, namely,

my

introduction to Plato

and Coleridge.

I

found myself returned by them to the same posture of attention excited.

while

The

Emerson had

originally

Socratic dialogues, especially,

apparently

lawless,

exhibited

that

nothing important was omitted in the ground


Ralph Waldo Emerson. gone over

151

and I discovered that there was same progress as if the manikin process had been pursued, and the argument ;

really the

These imaginary conversations, and Coleridge's discursive discussions, became anatomized.

me

to

object-lessons

Emerson's

disclosing

secret of advancing

by a natural instead oi the artificial order I had been trained in. Then I recalled what he _ba.d. J;a ught me ,

("

Counsel

to

appear^Mnd

"),

to permit fiototiocmative steps

saw how

I

foolisli it

had been

-iirme to suppose that he would permit them to apjjear himself "

Why

could

" that

he

which

is

it

not be,"

dispenses

a form

rather

I

asked myself, the

with

than proving, and performs his in

quiet, acquainting the reader

the epigrammatic results

syllogism,

of stating

;

and

proof

reasoning only with that

these

limited diversions, given with such excess

candor that they cause

by them,

me to

oi

be over-solicited

really exhibit the author's truth

by

the exhaustion of exits from it ? " Applying this dialectic to the " Essays," I was delighted to find that they were responsive to

displayed under

it

it,

and

the same intelligent plan

as that unquestioningly acknowledged in his

more concrete work,

like

"Nature," " English


;

Talks with

153

and his campaign march like a phalanx. From this point of view, there is one axis through the main portion of his writings and I regard them also as an exhibition of what, in the best sense, natural methods of composition can accomplish in the way of Traits,"

orations,

his

which

addresses,

the construction of which he never gave a thought, and so produced one entirely style, to

new and

fascinating, characterized

rather than

argument;

presenting them without the

common, of showing

by insight

seizing truths effort,

relations

and

hitherto

and connec-

tions.

That Mr. Emerson's friends have genernot been content with this accomplishment, and have sought to conform him to the old rules and ways, I regard as unfortunate. No new vogue gains permanent admiration ally

unless

it

necessity creator.

appears to his

is congenial to an unrecognized and the natural vehicle of its That adopted by Mr. Emerson

me

sagacity

to

and

be a vindication alike of his

conscientiousness.

~

It

was peculiarly adapted to the time of its man whose first work was to break the heavy equilibrium amid which he found himself; to agitate into life appearance, and to the


Ralph Waldo Emerson. New

the settled

England

torpor,

i53

and with

the intellectual activity to attain higher moral

There remained one

processes. in

determination

this

of

step farther

method.

The

reader of Mr. Emerson encounters (often

introduced by the formula, " I have heard," or,

" as a certain poet sang ") utterances that

are fragments of a sjiritual

pjulosnphy or which we have not the entire subThe altitude from which these stance. verities come is beyond that sought by the

vision of

thinker or poet the seer.

God

is

The

quite as

;

it is

in the region of that of

genesis of these thoughts of

much

the experiences of his

sinless life as the intuitions of his highest

and

tpiyatif

and prophetic moments, when

the univeraeJagcame self -revelatory.

The

themes forbids their approach by the methods of empirical spiritual character of these

logic

;

but in their presence there

is

a pro-

A found and central self-containment. large unity and integrity resembling that of Nature (within whose content are surprises and contrasts) is in all expressions of the Over-Soul or Supreme Reality, and they are in it " as the ocean is in the bucket and the bucket in the ocean." I submit this elementary record to the


Talks with

154

young and new reader of Emerson, in the hope that it may be of some help in determining the question whether his presentation is

wiihin scientific form.

An

organic philosophy he did not

His claunj&-that-there

The clement

is

offer.

nQthing_coinp1 Ptp.

Parcae in his study,

who were

ever spinning a fairer thread, presided over his mental attitude,

which always

objects are unknowable

Nothing

relativity.

is

be.

I utter the final

How

different this

instance,

said.

on account of

All

their

concluded here or can

word on no

subject.

from Beecher's study,

for

where the great circular work-wheel

and chair

in the centre

somehow always

pre-

sented positive and final declaration.

But Emerson would weave no completed fabric. Far be it from him to dogmatize or insist upon any pronouncement as complete or final. He said what he saw, and as far as he saw, without reasoning and without logical unfolding.

Fgf^ts, yes_^

hut p t-th fi yeoAex^n I

h is o wn ^ dreafping, and~.make-Jiia^\vii, completions.

solidarity

" it

Do

His reward does not depend on which

is

often

artificial.

not put hinges to your work to

make

cohere," he once said in substance to me.

And we must remember

that through such


;

Ralph Waldo Emerson. much

joints

world.

sophistry

has crept into

155 the

was Mr. Emerson's soul

Sincerity

and he unhesitatingly preferred

laclT ofTron-

tinuity to the least ambiguity regarding inten-

Classification for the sake of external

tion.

order and system was unnatural to him.

Nor

was he sensitive to their absence in Carlyle, whose writings are a congeries of magnificent contradictions.

ment

in

It

may be

that this tempera-

Mr. Emerson asserted

itself at

times

too strongly for his wish or his work, as certainly did his reluctance

from severe thought.

had once attained form and been passed upon, it must remain. If After his proposition

the next could be

made

to harmonize with

it,

must look out for itself; it, too, must be true, or it would not be here. These omissions and silences in Emerson's literature reward, and it is well to master its cipher. It is the way a poet writes. Emerson was essentially a poet, and the essays are

well

if

;

lyric

not, the next

and a solvent

discuss society

No one reads poetry,

"

and

A

by

it

force. is

When

even they

with a poet's insight.

them, any more than he would

quantity.

poet does not say to mankind. This,

this only, is true,

and you

will find

it

consistent with every other truth I proclaim.

He

says,

I feel this, at this

moment,

to

be


;

Talks with

iS6 true

;

much of the Kving world I can You ask sincerity of utterance

so

portray you.

from

the

poet,

Here and there

not

systematic

thinking.

mind unmis-

flash across the

takable truths or generous sentiments, which, surely,

it is

well to utter, though in a partial

and disjointed manner. There is a certain freedom of utterance allowed to the poet which is denied to the prose writer, for this very reason— that he is not expected to follow out to

its

last

logical result

every opinion

and sentiment he expresses."

As regards

the poetic form, what fetter

Mr. Emerson's genius felt from the rules of art, or within what limits his temperament confined his inspirations,

but

we have from a most

we cannot know

conscientious

himself a poet, in regard of Mr.

critic,

Emerson the

judgment: "If he had been frequently sustained at heights he was capable of reaching, he would unquestionably have been one of the sovereign poets of the world."

But what

poet has inhabited such heights long ? To me the graces that transcend in Mr.

Emerson's

poetry

are,

with

this

spiritual

and infectious individualism that quality which constrained Carlyle to write him that his anonymous elevation,

its

—

allusiveness


Ralph Waldo Emerson. work was

at

once distinguishable in a mis-

cellaneous gathering of writings. as

poetry,

157

in

the

But

in the

the laissez faire

prose,

atmosphere, necessa.'ily noticeable, was found exasperating; and his critics crowded the columns of the Boston and New England press at times with attack, but

word

of

literary

answer.

found in them no

Even

the

Archons

of

opinion raised their deep and seldom

voices in vain.

He

was out and away from

the cry of the hounds.

One fronted

other of the deep lessons that con-

me

from those precious manuscript

pages of the master belongs here

;

and that

was the evidences of painstaking and labour, of careful reconsideration and retouching of the form which were everywhere.

of these

memoranda were pasted

together, the language until the

Countless or pinned

changed and rechanged

paper resembled palimpsist, and the

thoughts like sheet metal rolled and ham-

mered

to the smallest possible compass.

severer judge of himself never wrote.

A

What

who "throw off" Nothing that he on the spur of the moment Immense was the did was " thrown off." tributary study, deep and long the meditation, well brooded were all statements; but, more a rebuke to those writers

!


Talks with

158 than

all,

patience, especially

how

firmly,

with

what

infinite

was the expression manipulated, his fine use of the

in

common

which find

everyday words

on his page their apotheosis, and approve him a great Here and there on intermaster of English !

jected leaves

I

could even trace the history

of a sentence from the enunciation

through

first free

and mordant

modifications,

abate-

ments, and restrictions to narrower outline,

then tempered to the exact

and clear "River

fact,

and the clean

distinctions, the

to streamlet reducing,

and mountain

to slope

subduing."

Drop by drop the enchantment was distilled which changed the water into wine. It is this fine

and

full

control of his instrument

which confers such a subtle charm on

his

books, gives them their lucidity and surprise,

and makes of them English classics. Truly a sayer was Emerson. 'Sometimes the pemmican process has been too rigid, and one regrets the parsimony of words. But always, if you repeat what he says, it must be in his own language, even when he uses "reliable,"' "loan," as a verb, "isolate" as an adjective, " party " for individual," the three first," etc.

Indeed,

such

preferences

as

these

— the


'

KAl.r^i

WALDO

JiMERSON.

59

1

purposed adoption of abbreviations even

in

his poetry, frequent disregard of precision

in the use of words, a certain intentional

raggedness of expression, the employment of colloquialisms,

and the

like

exclamatory sentences,

— distinguish

subtract from the

ary accomplishment. to

Emerson from

and in so far permanency of his liter-

the strictly literary writer

;

He

gives

thought by saying things in

startling

haps,

and was not always, per-

ways,

patient

impetus

new and

trust

to

his

unsurpassed

knowledge of words and form. He was subject to flow and departure of tide. There are passages in Emerson, many, many of them, where he is a veritable Adonais, beautiful and strong and luminous, where the thought has been apparelled in a way not to be surpassed for translucence and delicacy, and these are literature. There are other passages

been an

where,

as

intelligent

obviously,

there

and unhesitating

has

sacri-

seems to me, who is never for a moment other than purely literary. Mr. Emerson claimed that the best statement fice to

the dynamic.

Emerson

Here,

it

contrasts with Plato,

scanned and

cited, "

therej^as light."

L et there be liahtrand^-

And we know of the lines—


—" — Talks with

i&o "

I heard, or

Say,

seemed

Pilgrim,

'

why

to hear, the chiding sea

so late and slow to

come ?

'

that they were substantially originally written

Expression to him was a sensuous

as prose.

and so

delight,

his words.

Who

and

He

refreshing.

tasted

has said as perfectly those

things which are difficult to say at

f

keen of

his sentences are

flavour, delicious,

all ?

He

told me that he^^as notjgelL-ghen Jip rwiJd ' not write] and—rrr the^ study ha lud THImite

He

^palierrce;

and

it

even suspected

his fervours,

took him a long time to secure in his

spirited

paragraphs their wide, and at the

same time

their carefully distinctive

meaning.

This needful elaboration perhaps explains his epistolary defect

Any necessitated

taneity embarrassed him,

spon-

and he was forced

and search apparent ease in my room he said (jyi see you have many gathered volumes of correspondence of distinguished men and

to copy his letters

of/t^iposition.

Once

women. It. is,A.fortiH>e-to write goad-leltejs^ do not havejl„. I do not love—l€.tteii

I

^nling,

^d jdojjfit

So

few

his

addresses

JKiitfiuJetters readily.!!.-.

apparently

did not

come

occasions at least within

offhand

public

on two knowledge

pat, but

my

there was manuscript foundation.

He was


— Ralph Waldo Emerson.

i6i

not ^ equal to the exigent jistwaird, the im-

And

the~~genesrs~of thought in the presence

of an audience, revealing to them that they

were in some wise made Beecher and

the parent of

it,

which

Phillips, for instances, so

popular, was a perpetual surprise to him. ._!

cannot think of Emerson as envying anybut this extempore -i-naek—tempted So a friend relates of him that one day, coming out of a crowded audience which he had disappointed in the middle of his address by mislaying some pages of his manuscript (so distressing him that he took his seat), and which Phillips had immediately thing;

him.

delighted with his oration, Mr.

Emerson

said

" I would give a thousand shekels for that

man's secret."

So he said of Beecher, apropos of

his

oratory in England during the war

you do with an eloquent man? you laugh, and you cannot throw your egg." These statements disclose an estimate of eloquence coincident with the ordinary one, rather than with his definition given in " Counsel." Accepting that definition which was perhaps temperamental, he was almost incomparably eloquent.

"What

He makes

will


— 1

is

62

Talks with Emerson.

His conveyance in regard to the fine arts so excellent but slight that perhaps

they did not fully address him.

Neither

are the exact sciences represented as hav-

ing received attention. matics,

Indeed, of mathe-

Mr. EmerSSftk said to

me

,'

was long before thing"^ wrcjig

thein."

my

in

home "Some riiathematjcal works here, What hours of anelancholy mine cost ji

I learned that there is

with

X man's

brai u

""-

"""

\yli

o

too. !

It

some1oyi^~'

Such remarks as these emphasize that Mr.

Emerson hoped to help less by demonstration and reasoning than by breaking up apathy and imparting impulse and who that has brooded over Emerson's writings and felt ;

their fascination,

spontaneous as

improvisatore, salient with

all

if

from an

the qualities of

suggestiveness and motive-power, with imagi-

nation and intuition instead of syllogisms,

and words of a fine vitality coercing into new, strange, and eruptive moods, but has felt that he has before him an illustration of what

—

the English language, unaided by action, can

achieve in moving the souls of

men ?

M


MANHOOD.



MANHOOD. This is the story of an enthusiasm. One who comes to the long leisure of youth in its arid but most auspicious days, concentrates its vague and restless aspirations and nourishes its

heart, takes possession with

an exclusive-

Not learnwisdom or personal appearance and fascinations create these profound and permanent impressions. When they are asked ness proportioned to the service. ing or

for,

the inquisition

is

deeper.

difiÂŁientiating_ substance,

and

the central

who

touch.

shadows

We

iÂŤ

the

the__inner quality,

essential character of the

man himself7^fox that we angel

What

conjure the invisible

has conquered us by his audacious

No

observations and calculations of

to

determine

can only know the

altitude

man by

will

avail.

the affections,

which, as Wordsworth says in a noble passage, are their

own

justification.


1

Talks with

66

So I knew him, and yet knew him not For that is the nobility of every great man, that he cannot be divined, but sends the seeker farther and farther into his own unsurveyed heavens. So he was incommensurable, and might have been taken for the pneuma Plato celebrated, who can see two sides of a thing ; only, so far from being simple, he was many-sided. His resemblances were of Socrates, Buddha, and Ben Franklin; but he continually surprised and eluded.

How

often as

ever seen him,

young men, before we had

we used

to gather about the

study table in those earlier days before his

coming, and create him mechanically from his

books

!

How

little

were our verbatim

imaginations prepared for the propensities

we encountered! We went out to see one who had forsworn all luxuries, a man of abstemious and austere habit and severest standard.

We

never found him.

remember now the anxious consultation and miserable misgivings over our Long we hesitated little banquet to him Well

I

!

over the items of the simple order to the village

caterer

1

afforded ice-cream

His

country

and comfits

!

resources

But had

not our guest in his published writings

for-


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

167

bidden them, except for those who dare not trust the

And

entertainment of their

own minds ?

I venture the guess that neither of us

have since experienced that pecuHar creep of surprise

us as

and rehef that gradually

we saw

stole over

(though, ignorantly, our repast

was offered at an hour when the stomach should be sacred of intrusion, three p.m.) our dainties disappear with an appetite we had supposed characteristic only of undergraduates.

on the road, when he would and inquire about the proprietors of certain estates, and praise their thrift and enterprise, remembering how I had kindled reading his eloquent advocacy of a So, again,

stop wayfarers

renunciation " of the premature comforts of

and barn

an

acre, house,

lit

deserts of truth " I

!

understand him

—

to traverse the starfelt

that I did not

that, in boy's parlance, his

words meant one thing and he another. Of course this was the boy's stupidity.

Our

eyes,

myopic and

plinth, could

represented.

level

not take in what But,

after

all,

only to the it

upheld or

has not

the

blunder been shared by older and harder When the master's presence was heads? missed from the company of Pythagoreans


1

Talks with

68

and herb-eaters at Brook Farm and Fruitand when advocates of special reform, attracted by the encouraging hospitality of

lands,

his

writings, sought his espousal of their

schemes

was must take

in vain,

it

not apparent that

words as parole, and for themselves discover at the last that he was not a reformer, but a creator of rethey, too,

formers

his

?

Then

there are in his literature intuitions

which logic seems to continually overcome, positions which are easily shown to be apparently unreconcilable.

And

one

reminded of what he says of thinks he meant this, and another that. He said one thing in one place and the reverse of it in another place. He argues on this side and on that." (Emerson on Plato, but on himself as well.) Farthermore, he advertises of himself: " But lest I would mislead any, when I have my own head and obey my own whims, let Plato.

"

is

One man

me remind

the

experimenter.

reader that I

Do

am

only an

not set the least value on

what I do, or the least discredit on what I do not do, as if I pretended to settle anything as true or false. facts are to

me

I unsettle all things.

No '

sacred,

none are profane.

I


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

169

simply experiment, an endless seeker, with

no past

Now

my

at

back

" (" Circles ").

such words as these, and such ex-

periences as those just narrated, have served to puzzle

and deter new

But

seekers.

to the

true Emersonian, the facts indicated by these

words occasion no unrest. So

things,

He

them.

from having

He would unsettle That we should pursue have no sacred facts. Why ?

the master's inner all

far

they are recognized as being from

this effect,

self.

why ? will

That we should look all facts And this is the open secret of

in the face. his

Others give us themselves.

day.

power

He

to-

gives

and maintains to us ourselves, our best selves. do not seek him for knowledge, but for wisdom, and the best wisdom a new life.

We

—

And

it is

that

this universal search that indicates

seminal,

germinal,

which

is

self.

He comes

developing quality

the central essence of the

man

him-

immediately into the mind,

a revolutionary force, questioning, suggesting, destroying composure, provoking doubt

the order that

is,

destroying

of

gods whether

Penates or Empyrean, not with blows, but with

frost

and

fire,

emancipating thought,

sowing a sane discontent and elation stimulator, inspirer, liberator of power.

;

then

And


:

Talks with

170

with what other service

To

is

such serv'ce com-

temper he was ever conEven in his old age, which is not stant. seldom the obscuration of genius, when h s days became almost merely loitering and literary, he still kept this native bravery, parable

?

and I believe obeyed " The

And

He

this

refers to it

when he

says he

voice at eve obeyed at prime."

so to the heart of youth I would say

comes

especially to you.

You

will find

these days everybody quoting him, and not a

While he was too wise to seek

few praising.

the inculcation of an harmonized system of truth, yet no one has given us so many and such rare truths. No one in these congested days will yet guide you so well to those heights where are the jodel and the all

But not

edelweiss.

you.

It

him

that

is

you must meet.

in search of his

for this

does he come to

the invigorating, elevating soul of

it

;

You,

too, will

go

you, too, will be impelled by

words ; and you,

too, are called

forepoint at your peril

when they

upon

to

are born

of his imagination, his mood, his uplifting genius, his intuition, as well as

source

is

pects of you that

when

their

commonsense. He exyou will obey the placard,

his valid


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

171

"Private way, no thoroughfare," hung by verger over the turns of the quadrangle.

this

He,

himself, the

"

Musketaquit, goblin strong, Of shard and flint makes jewels gay. They lose their grief who hear his song, And where he winds is day of day."

His are the

loftiest

do the most

to

conceptions, those which

make

us discontented with the

ordinary and commonplace, and by that token are

essentially

incapable of being

literally

translated into speech or personified in action.

So you true.

^

will find his

words always

logically

from the

first

manifestation of his

yet come to the gosCj^ sity

wise, always

Follow Emerson's utterances chronoobscure but stimulative

when he had not knowledge of his pur-

spirit,

full

but was conscious mainly of the neces-

of-thawtng out the climate, through to

his later lifetime,

when

an unbroken fringe

his philosophy forms

falling in separate

of beauty and use that touch at

all

threads points

and sanely our humanity. I read a portion of the essays to an old farmer. He clapped his hands, and exclaimed that whoever wrote that book knew how to "farm it" Yet the characteristic admired wisely

was merely that of practically a holding to


Talks with

172

the fact by prehensility of trait

that

the

even it

would not gospel

first

is

tail

—a

valuable

so

common

but one

simial,

if

distinguish.

The

necessary to

lift

soar of

the

last.

Those primal pages are to be reverently treasured by the Emersonian because they first drew us to him. Indeed, the earlier idealism, the era of the doctrine of Trans-

cendentalism and tions, finds

accompanying intima-

its

interpretation

its

warmer, and riper work; traveller's

will

earlier

own time became

How much

audible

to us has

been be ever the high sentences of that

after-days.

and

later,

the Arctic

mythus, the speech congealed to

the hearers of his in

the

in

as, in

manhood, and

form, which was

to

his

inability to con-

the Jews a stumbling-

block and to the Greeks foolishness We would not miss the records of him in the !

matter of the Lord's Supper, Public Prayer, Christening, etc., even though later in

may be

life it

he would not have called these forms sensualizing, nor have failed to find some hands other than Channing's pure enough to touch the f^r^head of t hft "hyathat

cinthin,e.,bo4ÂŁÂŤI!.,

The moral less

its

quality of his genius

unfailing

characteristic.

was not

The man


;

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

173

stood behind or abreast of his every state-

ment, and

it

his sincerity.

At

came clothed with dignity from Great events moved him deeply. and

their approach, his other worldliness

pure speculations were put one side; and all

low motives, considerations of mere ex-

if

the

vanished in his strong presence

question, as

been mixed with

had

pediency that

themselves purely speculative.

his earliest

advocacy of

expostulations

political

President van

with

Witness

reform

;

his

Burenj

and in the Bell-Everett matter his voice, which was the conscience of New England his and his foremo^f^ abolition pulpit ; William Lloyd Garrison's anti-slavery apostleship

;

his

noble address at Concord on the

death of Lincoln with

;

his

t1iÂŁJj )f)va-fij.g^

of the over-soul, his

emancipation speeches,

In these was the voice

God

through him.

We

have no more mgnientous_ manifestation of the national spirit

more

free

from the ferocity

of his colleague's, more timely and weighty. befitted an epoch-originating man, he was above the atmospheric envelope, and not affected by its disturbances, but spoke

As

from the calm heights where gathered and for ever will gather with him the noble and victorious of all eras.

The

tone of loyalty to


"

Talks with

174

commonwealth always commanded his Once, and forbade his criticism. friend was which a when an audience at into an listen compelled to was present, dividual who persisted in reading some screed on national politics, Mr. Emerson broke the the

respect

silence that followed the infliction with the

—

!

one word of praise " Patriotic But this recognizing the best possible was a quality always transparent in him. His preference was persistent for only the good

human life around him, and he would have nothing to do with its lemurs. MelanHe choly- was a, chimpanzee traij^toJu^. rejoiced in Fuller's- maxisr,"" An ounce of

in the

cheerfulness

serve

God

is

worth a pound of sadness to

with."

He

had not the capacity

to form even a recognizing acquaintance with

the darker facts in

doubtedly,

his

He

extreme.

faith

human in

character.

its

reactions

perhaps gifted

it

Unwas

with some

did not possess ; and it may be some chasms he walked over with buoyant step because with bandaged eyes;

qualities

it

there were

or was

it

that they were too intently fixed

on the zenith

He

to see the nadir?

fought with the bright battalions.

And


Ralph Waldo Emerson. their allies of the graver faiths

175

have proclaimed

that his serenityof_ogtiimsm invalidated his

authority aS-ajjjagtiQaUnQr4ÂŁxp.on

;

while

even many of his friends have feared that the natural enamel was too protective which

kept him so stainless.

His Greek absorption

of the beautiful and the organization

spiritual

delicacy of

toward a sanction which with sought in his

and

processes

own

his

may go some way difficulty is

instructor, Nature,

whose

penalties are darkly luminous

with the presence of a principle very like that

of

on

Whether here the linden

evil.

Siegfried

answer.

I

is

leaf

fell

a question which time will

believe that his changeless dis-

regard of the vast

power of the

the ideal nature in

man

has

will to

destroy

source in the

its

great hope which inspired that noble question,

"Who

can

set limits to the

of the Spirit ? "

What

voice,

remedial force

even to an age

so facilely incurious of its own dark problems and so unconscious of sin as this, has a stronger moral imperative and from a higher

plane of religious motive than that of him

who beyond

question was the greatest vindi-

cator and exalter of the soul the

has seen

new world

?

There are those who believe

that

he saw


— Talks with

176

clearly because he did not feel keenly that

within he was emotion]ess,_his_sympathies

But

bei ng rather wijix-abstr-act-humanity. that is noble in the

by,

and

in the

greets him.

man

;

human

heart

His love was

is

for the

man

an44hatlave,jsdtkjiis.instinetive--

knpjs4eage^rEhe-eentraJ.,aecrets of being,

From

the source of his power. fi

all

accosted

was

his in-

it

:ence~"exhared as perfume from a flower.

But the inner tenderness

is

disclosed in such

expression as the following to Carlyle

"I

write to implore

your health.

whom you

You

you to be

are

:

careful of

the property of

all

and soul, and you must not deal with your body as your own. O my friend, if you would come here, and let me nurse you and pasture you in my nook rejoice in heart

of this long continent, I will thank

^

God and

you therefor morning and evening, and doubt not to give you, in a quarter of a year, sound eyes, round cheeks, and joyful spirits."

And how Mrs. who us,

Carlyle wrote

him

:

" Friend,

years ago, in the Desert, descended

out of the clouds as

it

were, and

on

made

one day there look like enchantment for us, and left me weeping that it was only one day." It

is

because these memories and such


Ralph Waldo Emerson.

177

unpermitted memories as these are so near the heart, because his volitions were so pure

and

demeanour so lowly, that we return and, remembering him less as a man of unmatched originality, an unhis

to these things

;

failing fountain

of delightful ideas, a moral

genius of extraordinary insight and mastery,

an architect of new horizons, a generative

and elemental power even, than as

anjj in-

heritance of the divine presence, think of lastingly

and

lovingly

with

"Soine,shall-notÂŤleep,_but be changed."

THK END.

him

the Scripture,



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