,,critical ,,miscellanies  ,,by  ,,john 
,,morley  ,,vol4 ,i4  ,essay #e3        
,emerson  ,london ,,macmillan ,,and     
,,co41 ,,limited ,,new ,,york3 ,,the    
,,macmillan ,,company #aijd             
,introductory                           
#bic  ,i4  ,early days                  
#bif  ,takes charge of an ,unitarian    
,church in ,boston 7#ahbi7              
#big  ,resigns the charge in #ahcb      
#bih  ,goes to ,europe 7#ahcc7          
#bii  ,coleridge1 ,wordsworth1 and      
,carlyle                                
#cjj  ,settles in ,concord 7#ahcd7      
#cja  ,description of ,concord by       
,clough                                 
#cja  ,death of his first wife          
#cjb  ,income                           
#cjc  ,hawthorne                        
#cje  ,thoreau                          
#cje  ,views on ,solitude               
#cjf  ,effect of his address in the     
,divinity ,school of ,harvard 7#ahch7   
#cjg  ,contributes to the ,dial 7#ahdj7 
#cji  ,first series of his ,essays      

published in #ahda                      
#caj  ,second series three years later  
#caj  ,second visit to ,england 7#ahdg71
 and delivers lectures on               
',representative ,men1' collected and   
published in #ahej              #caj    
,poems first collected in #ahdg2 final  
version made in #ahgf          #caj     
,essays and ,lectures published in      
#ahfj1 under general title of ,the      
,conduct of ,life                       
#caj  ,and the ,civil ,war              
#caj  ,general retrospect of his life   
#cab  ,died ,april #bg1 #ahhb           
#cab   ,,ii4  ,style of his writings    
#cac  ,manner as a lecturer             
#cad  ,dr4 ,holmes                      
#cad  ,his use of words                 
#cad  ,sincerity                        
#caf  ,and ,landor                      
#caf  ,mr4 ,lowell                      
#caf  ,description of his library       
#cag  ,a word or two about his verses   
#cai   ,,iii4  ,hawthorne               
#cbb  ,and ,carlyle                     

#cbc  ,the friends of ,universal        
,progress in #ahdj                      
#cbc  ,bossuet                          
#cbd  ,remarks on ,new ,england         
#cbe  ,one of the few moral reformers   
#cbg  ,essays on ',domestic ,life1' on  
',behaviour1' and on ',manners'         
#cbi  ,compared to ,franklin and        
,chesterfield                           
#ccj  ,is for faith before works        
#ccc  ,a systematic reasoner            
#cce  ,the ,emersonian faith abundantly 
justified                          #ccg 
,carlyle's letter to 7,june #d1 #ahga7  
#ccg  ,one remarkable result of his     
idealism                                
#cda  ,on ,death and ,sin               
#cdb1 #cdd  ,conclusion                 
#cdf     ,,emerson4   ,a great          
interpreter of life ought not himself to
 need interpretation1 least of all can  
he need it for contemporaries4 ,when    
time has wrought changes of fashion1    
mental and social1 the critic serves a  
useful turn in giving to a poet or a    

teacher his true place1 and in          
recovering ideas and points of view that
 are worth preserving4 ,interpretation  
of this kind ,emerson cannot require4   
,his books are no palimpsest1 'the      
prophet's holograph1 defiled1 erased1   
and covered by a monk's4' ,what he has  
written is fresh1 legible1 and in full  
conformity with the manners and the     
diction of the day1 and those who are   
unable to understand him without gloss  
and comment are in fact not prepared to 
understand what it is that the original 
has to say4 ,scarcely any literature is 
so entirely unprofitable as the         
so-called criticism that overlays a     
pithy text with a windy sermon4 ,for our
 time at least ,emerson may best be left
 to be his own expositor4  ,nor is      
,emerson1 either1 in the case of those  
whom the world has failed to recognise1 
and whom therefore it is the business of
 the critic to make known and to define4
 ,it is too soon to say in what         
particular niche among the teachers of  

the race posterity will place him2      
enough that in our own generation he has
 already been accepted as one of the    
wise masters1 who1 being called to high 
thinking for generous ends1 did not fall
 below his vocation1 but1 steadfastly   
pursuing the pure search for truth1     
without propounding a system or founding
 a school or cumbering himself overmuch 
about applications1 lived the life of   
the spirit1 and breathed into other men 
a strong desire after the right         
governance of the soul4 ,all this is    
generally realised and understood1 and  
men may now be left to find their way to
 the ,emersonian doctrine without the   
critic's prompting4 ,though it is only  
the other day that ,emerson walked the  
earth and was alive and among us1 he is 
already one of the privileged few whom  
the reader approaches in the mood of    
settled respect1 and whose names have   
surrounded themselves with an atmosphere
 of religion4  ,it is not particularly  
profitable1 again1 to seek for ,emerson 

one of the labels out of the philosophic
 handbooks4 ,was he the prince of       
,transcendentalists1 or the prince of   
,idealists8 ,are we to look for the     
sources of his thought in ,kant or      
,jacobi1 in ,fichte or ,schelling8 ,how 
does he stand towards ,parmenides and   
,zeno1 the ,egotheism of the ,sufis1 or 
the position of the ,megareans8 ,shall  
we put him on the shelf with the ,stoics
 or the ,mystics1 with ,quietist1       
,pantheist1 ,determinist8 ,if life were 
long1 it might be worth while to trace  
,emerson's affinities with the          
philosophic schools2 to collect and     
infer his answers to the everlasting    
problems of psychology and metaphysics2 
to extract a set of coherent and        
reasoned opinions about knowledge and   
faculty1 experience and consciousness1  
truth and necessity1 the absolute and   
the relative4 ,but such inquiries would 
only take us the further away from the  
essence and vitality of ,emerson's mind 
and teaching4 ,in philosophy proper     

,emerson made no contribution of his    
own1 but accepted1 apparently without   
much examination of the other side1 from
 ,coleridge after ,kant1 the intuitive1 
priori and realist theory respecting the
 sources of human knowledge1 and the    
objects that are within the cognisance  
of the human faculties4 ,this was his   
starting-point1 and within its own      
sphere of thought he cannot be said to  
have carried it any further4 ,what he   
did was to light up these doctrines with
 the rays of ethical and poetic         
imagination4 ,as it has been justly put1
 though ,emersonian transcendentalism is
 usually spoken of as a philosophy1 it  
is more justly regarded as a gospel4#a  
,but before dwelling more on this1 let  
us look into the record of his life1 of 
which we may say in all truth that no   
purer1 simpler1 and more harmonious     
story can be found in the annals of     
far-shining men4  ,footnote #a3         
,frothingham's ,transcendentalism in    
,new ,england3 a ,history--a judicious1 

acute1 and highly interesting piece of  
criticism4     ,i4   ,ralph ,waldo      
,emerson was born at ,boston1 ,may #be1 
#ahjc4 ,he was of an ancient and        
honourable ,english stock1 who had      
transplanted themselves1 on one side    
from ,cheshire and ,bedfordshire1 and on
 the other from ,durham and ,york1 a    
hundred and seventy years before4 ,for  
seven or eight generations in a direct  
and unbroken line his forefathers had   
been preachers and divines1 not without 
eminence in the ,puritan tradition of   
,new ,england4 ,his second name came    
into the family with ,rebecca ,waldo1   
with whom at the end of the seventeenth 
century one ,edward ,emerson had        
intermarried1 and whose family had fled 
from the ,waldensian valleys and that   
slaughter of the saints which ,milton   
called on ,heaven to avenge4 ,every     
tributary1 then1 that made ,emerson what
 he was1 flowed not only from           
,protestantism1 but from 'the           
,protestantism of the ,protestant       

religion4' ,when we are told that       
,puritanism inexorably locked up the    
intelligence of its votaries in a dark  
and straitened chamber1 it is worthy to 
be remembered that the genial1 open1    
lucid1 and most comprehensive mind of   
,emerson was the ripened product of a   
genealogical tree that at every stage of
 its growth had been vivified by        
,puritan sap4  ,not many years after his
 birth1 ,emerson's mother was left a    
widow with narrow means1 and he         
underwent the wholesome training of     
frugality in youth4 ,when the time came1
 he was sent to ,harvard4 ,when ,clough 
visited ,america a generation later1 the
 collegiate training does not appear to 
have struck him very favourably4 ',they 
learn ,french and history and ,german1  
and a great many more things than in    
,england1 but only imperfectly4' ,this  
was said from the standard of ,rugby and
 ,balliol1 and the method that ,clough  
calls imperfect had merits of its own4  
,the pupil lost much in a curriculum    

that had a certain rawness about it1    
compared with the traditional culture   
that was at that moment 7#ahbj7 just    
beginning to acquire a fresh hold within
 the old gray quadrangles of ,oxford4   
,on the other hand1 the training at     
,harvard struck fewer of those          
superfluous roots in the mind1 which are
 only planted that they may be presently
 cast out again with infinite           
distraction and waste4  ,when his       
schooling was over1 ,emerson began to   
prepare himself for the ministrations of
 the pulpit1 and in #ahbf and #ahbg he  
preached in divers places4 ,two years   
later he was ordained1 and undertook the
 charge of an important ,unitarian      
,church in ,boston4 ,it was not very    
long before the strain of forms1        
comparatively moderate as it was in the 
,unitarian body1 became too heavy to be 
borne4 ,emerson found that he could no  
longer accept the usual view of the     
,communion ,service1 even in its least  
sacramental interpretation4 ,to him the 

rite was purely spiritual in origin and 
intent1 and at the best only to be      
retained as a commemoration4 ,the whole 
world1 he said1 had been full of idols  
and ordinances and forms1 when 'the     
,almighty ,god was pleased to qualify   
and send forth a man to teach men that  
they must serve him with the heart2 that
 only that life was religious which was 
thoroughly good2 that sacrifice was     
smoke and forms were shadows4 ,this man 
lived and died true to that purpose2 and
 now with his blessed word and life     
before us1 ,christians must contend that
 it is a matter of vital importance1    
really a duty1 to commemorate him by a  
certain form1 whether that form be      
agreeable to their understandings or    
not4 ,is not this to make vain the gift 
of ,god8 ,is not this to make men forget
 that not forms but duties--not names   
but righteousness and love--are         
enjoined8'  ,he was willing to continue 
the service with that explanation1 and  
on condition that he should not himself 

partake of the bread and wine4 ,the     
congregation would fain have kept one   
whose transparent purity of soul had    
attached more than his heresy had       
alienated4 ,but the innovation was too  
great1 and ,emerson resigned his charge 
7#ahcb74 ,for some five or six years    
longer he continued occasionally to     
preach1 and more than one congregation  
would have accepted him4 ,but doubts on 
the subject of public prayer began to   
weigh upon his mind4 ,he suspected the  
practice by which one man offered up    
prayer vicariously and collectively for 
the assembled congregation4 ,was not    
that too1 like the ,communion ,service1 
a form that tended to deaden the spirit8
 ,under the influence of this and other 
scruples he finally ceased to preach    
7#ahch71 and told his friends that      
henceforth he must find his pulpit in   
the platform of the lecturer4 ',i see   
not1' he said1 'why this is not the most
 flexible of all organs of opinion1 from
 its popularity and from its newness1   

permitting you to say what you think1   
without any shackles of proscription4   
,the pulpit in our age certainly gives  
forth an obstructed and uncertain sound2
 and the faith of those in it1 if men of
 genius1 may differ so much from that of
 those under it as to embarrass the     
conscience of the speaker1 because so   
much is attributed to him from the fact 
of standing there4' ,the lecture was an 
important discovery1 and it has had many
 consequences in ,american culture4     
,among the more undesirable of them has 
been 7certainly not in ,emerson's own   
case7 the importation of the pulpit     
accent into subjects where one would be 
happier with out it4  ,earlier in the   
same year in which he retired from his  
church at ,boston1 ,emerson had lost his
 young wife4 ,though we may well believe
 that he bore these agitations with     
self-control1 his health suffered1 and  
in the spring of #ahcc he started for   
,europe4 ,he came to be accused of      
saying captious things about travelling4

 ,there are three wants1 he said1 that  
can never be satisfied3 that of the rich
 who want something more2 that of the   
sick who want something different2 and  
that of the traveller who says1         
,anywhere but here4 ,their restlessness1
 he told his countrymen1 argued want of 
character4 ,they were infatuated with   
'the rococo toy of ,italy4' ,as if what 
was true anywhere were not true         
everywhere2 and as if a man1 go where he
 will1 can find more beauty or worth    
than he carries4 ,all this was said1 as 
we shall see that much else was said by 
,emerson1 by way of reaction and protest
 against instability of soul in the     
people around him4 ',here or nowhere1'  
said ,goethe inversely to unstable      
,europeans yearning vaguely westwards1  
'here or nowhere is thine ,america4' ,to
 the use of travel for its own ends1    
,emerson was of course as much alive as 
other people4 ',there is in every       
constitution a certain solstice when the
 stars stand still in our inward        

firmament1 and when there is required   
some foreign force1 some diversion or   
alteration1 to prevent stagnation4 ,and 
as a medical remedy1 travel seems one of
 the best4' ,he found it so in #ahcc4   
,but this and his two other voyages to  
,europe make no ,odyssey4 ,when         
,voltaire was pressed to visit ,rome1 he
 declared that he would be better       
pleased with some new and free ,english 
book than with all the glories of       
amphitheatre and of arch4 ,emerson in   
like manner seems to have thought more  
of the great writers whom he saw in     
,europe than of buildings or of         
landscapes4 ',am ,i1' he said1 'who have
 hung over their works in my chamber at 
home1 not to see these men in the flesh1
 and thank them1 and interchange some   
thoughts with them8' ,the two           
,englishmen to whom he owed most were   
,coleridge and ,wordsworth2 and the     
younger writer1 some eight years older  
than himself1 in whom his liveliest     
interest had been kindled1 was ,carlyle4

 ,he was fortunate enough to have       
converse with all three1 and he has told
 the world how these illustrious men in 
their several fashions and degrees      
impressed him4#b ,it was ,carlyle who   
struck him most4 ',many a time upon the 
sea1 in my homeward voyage1 ,i          
remembered with joy the favoured        
condition of my lonely philosopher1'    
cherishing visions more than divine 'in 
his stern and blessed solitude4' ,so    
,carlyle1 with no less cordiality1      
declares that among the figures that he 
could recollect as visiting his         
,nithsdale hermitage--'all like         
,apparitions now1 bringing with them    
airs from ,heaven1 or the blasts from   
the other region1 there is not one of a 
more undoubtedly supernal character than
 yourself2 so pure and still1 with      
intents so charitable2 and then         
vanishing too so soon into the azure    
,inane1 as an ,apparition should4'      
,footnote #b3 ,english ,traits1 #g-ah4  
,ireland1 #adc-aeb4 ,froude's ,carlyle1 

ii4 #cee-cei4         99       99       
99       99       99  ,in external      
incident ,emerson's life was uneventful4
 ,nothing could be simpler1 of more     
perfect unity1 or more free from        
disturbing episodes that leaves scars on
 men4 ,in #ahcd he settled in old       
,concord1 the home of his ancestors1    
then in its third century4 ',concord is 
very bare1' wrote ,clough1 who made some
 sojourn there in #aheb1 'and so is the 
country in general2 it is a small sort  
of village1 almost entirely of wood     
houses1 painted white1 with ,venetian   
blinds1 green outside1 with two white   
wooden churches4 ,there are some        
,american elms of a weeping kind1 and   
sycamores1 i4e4 planes2 but the wood is 
mostly pine--white pine and yellow      
pine--somewhat scrubby1 occupying the   
tops of the low banks1 and marshy       
hay-land between1 very brown now4 ,a    
little brook runs through to the        
,concord ,river4'#c ,the brook flowed   
across the few acres that were          

,emerson's first modest homestead4 ',the
 whole external appearance of the       
place1' says one who visited him1       
'suggests old-fashioned comfort and     
hospitality4 ,within the house the      
flavour of antiquity is still more      
noticeable4 ,old pictures look down from
 the walls2 quaint blue-and-white china 
holds the simple dinner2 old furniture  
brings to mind the generations of the   
past4 ,at the right as you enter is ,mr4
 ,emerson's library1 a large square     
room1 plainly furnished1 but made       
pleasant by pictures and sunshine4 ,the 
homely shelves that line the walls are  
well filled with books4 ,there is a lack
 of showy covers or rich bindings1 and  
each volume seems to have soberly grown 
old in constant service4 ,mr4 ,emerson's
 study is a quiet room upstairs4'       
,footnote #c3 ,clough's ,life and       
,letters1 i4 #ahe4  ,fate did not spare 
him the strokes of the common lot4 ,his 
first wife died after three short years 
of wedded happiness4 ,he lost a little  

son1 who was the light of his eyes4 ,but
 others were born to him1 and in all the
 relations and circumstances of domestic
 life he was one of the best and most   
beloved of men4 ,he long carried in his 
mind the picture of ,carlyle's life at  
,craigenputtock as the ideal for the    
sage1 but his own choice was far wiser  
and happier1 'not wholly in the busy    
world1 nor quite beyond it4'  ',besides 
my house1' he told ,carlyle in #ahch1   
',i have1 ,i believe1 #bb1jjj dollars1  
whose income in ordinary years is six   
per cent4 ,i have no other tithe or     
glebe except the income of my winter    
lectures1 which was last winter #hjj    
dollars4 ,well1 with this income1 here  
at home1 ,i am a rich man4 ,i stay at   
home and go abroad at my own instance1  
,i have food1 warmth1 leisure1 books1   
friends4 ,go away from home1 ,i am rich 
no longer4 ,i never have a dollar to    
spend on a fancy4 ,as no wise man1 ,i   
suppose1 ever was rich in the sense of  
freedom to spend1 because of the        

inundation of claims1 so neither am ,i1 
who am not wise4 ,but at home ,i am     
rich--rich enough for ten brothers4 ,my 
wife ,lidian is an incarnation of       
,christianity1--,i call her ,asia1--and 
keeps my philosophy from ,antinomianism2
 my mother1 whitest1 mildest1 most      
conservative of ladies1 whose only      
exception to her universal preference   
for old things is her son2 my boy1 a    
piece of love and sunshine1 well worth  
my watching from morning to             
night2--these1 and three domestic women1
 who cook and sew and run for us1 make  
all my household4 ,here ,i sit and read 
and write1 with very little system1 and1
 as far as regards composition1 with the
 most fragmentary result3 paragraphs    
incompressible1 each sentence an        
infinitely repellent particle4  ',in    
summer1 with the aid of a neighbour1 ,i 
manage my garden2 and a week ago ,i set 
out on the west side of my house forty  
young pine trees to protect me or my son
 from the wind of ,january4 ,the        

ornament of the place is the occasional 
presence of some ten or twelve persons1 
good and wise1 who visit us in the      
course of the year4'  ,as time went on  
he was able to buy himself 'a new       
plaything'--a piece of woodland1 of more
 than forty acres1 on the border of a   
little lake half a mile wide or more1   
called ,walden ,pond4 ',in these ,may   
days1' he told ,carlyle1 then           
passionately struggling with his        
,cromwell1 with the slums of ,chelsea at
 his back1 'when maples1 poplars1 oaks1 
birches1 walnut1 and pine1 are in their 
spring glory1 ,i go thither every       
afternoon1 and cut with my hatchet an   
,indian path through the thicket1 all   
along the bold shore1 and open the      
finest pictures' 7#ahde74  ,he loved to 
write at 'large leisure in noble        
mornings1 opened by prayer or by        
readings of ,plato1 or whatsoever else  
is dearest to the ,morning ,muse4' ,yet 
he could not wholly escape the recluse's
 malady4 ,he confesses that he sometimes

 craves 'that stimulation which every   
capricious1 languid1 and languescent    
study needs4' ,carlyle's potent         
concentration stirs his envy4 ,the work 
of the garden and the orchard he found  
very fascinating1 eating up days and    
weeks2 'nay1 a brave scholar should shun
 it like gambling1 and take refuge in   
cities and hotels from these pernicious 
enchantments4'  ,in the doings of his   
neighbourhood he bore his part2 he took 
a manly interest in civil affairs1 and  
was sensible1 shrewd1 and helpful in    
matters of practical judgment4          
,pilgrims1 sane and insane1 the         
beardless and the gray-headed1 flocked  
to his door1 far beyond the dozen       
persons good and wise whom he had       
mentioned to ,carlyle4 ',uncertain1     
troubled1 earnest wanderers through the 
midnight of the moral world beheld his  
intellectual fire as a beacon burning on
 a hill-top1 and climbing the difficult 
ascent1 looked forth into the           
surrounding obscurity more hopefully    

than hitherto' 7,hawthorne74 ,to the    
most intractable of ,transcendental     
bores1 worst species of the genus1 he   
was never impatient1 nor denied himself2
 nor did he ever refuse counsel where   
the case was not yet beyond hope4       
,hawthorne was for a time his neighbour 
7#ahdb-de74 ',it was good1' says        
,hawthorne1 'to meet him in the         
wood-paths1 or sometimes in our avenue1 
with that pure intellectual gleam       
diffused about his presence like the    
garment of a shining one2 and he so     
quiet1 so simple1 so without pretension1
 encountering each man alive as if      
expecting to receive more than he could 
impart4'  ,the most remarkable of all   
his neighbours was ,thoreau1 who for a  
couple of years lived in a hut which he 
had built for himself on the shore of   
,walden ,pond4 ,if he had not written   
some things with a considerable charm of
 style1 ,thoreau might have been wisely 
neglected as one of the crazy4 ,but     
,emerson was struck by the originality  

of his life1 and thought it well in time
 to edit the writings of one 'who was   
bred to no profession2 never married2   
lived alone2 never went to ,church2     
never voted2 refused to pay a tax to the
 ,state2 ate no flesh1 drank no wine1   
never knew the use of tobacco2 had no   
temptations to fight against1 no        
appetites1 no passions1 refused all     
invitations1 preferred a good ,indian to
 highly cultivated people1 and said he  
would rather go to ,oregon than to      
,london4' ,the world has room for every 
type1 so that it be not actively        
noxious1 and this whimsical egotist may 
well have his place in the catalogue4   
,he was1 after all1 in his life only a  
compendium1 on a scale large enough to  
show their absurdity1 of all those      
unsocial notions which ,emerson in other
 manifestations found it needful to     
rebuke4 ,yet we may agree that many of  
his paradoxes strike home with ,socratic
 force to the heart of a civilisation   
that wise men know to be too purely     

material1 too artificial1 and too       
capriciously diffused4  ,emerson himself
 was too sane ever to fall into the     
hermit's trap of banishment to the rocks
 and echoes4 ',solitude1' he said1 'is  
impracticable1 and society fatal4' ,he  
steered his way as best he could between
 these two irreconcilable necessities4  
,he had1 as we have seen1 the good sense
 to make for himself a calling which    
brought him into healthy contact with   
bodies of men1 and made it essential    
that he should have his listeners in    
some degree in his mind1 even when they 
were not actually present to the eye4   
,as a preacher ,emerson has been        
described as making a deep impression on
 susceptible hearers of a quiet mind1 by
 'the calm dignity of his bearing1 the  
absence of all oratorical effort1 and   
the singular simplicity and directness  
of a manner free from the least trace of
 dogmatic assumption4' ',not long       
before1' says this witness1 ',i had     
listened to a wonderful sermon by       

,chalmers1 whose force and energy1 and  
vehement but rather turgid eloquence1   
carried for the moment all before       
him--his audience becoming like clay in 
the hands of the potter4 ,but ,i must   
confess that the pregnant thoughts and  
serene self-possession of the young     
,boston minister had a greater charm for
 me than all the rhetorical splendours  
of ,chalmers' 7,ireland1 #ada74  ,at the
 lecturer's desk the same attraction    
made itself still more effectually felt4
 ',i have heard some great speakers and 
some accomplished orators1' ,mr4 ,lowell
 says1 'but never any that so moved and 
persuaded men as he4 ,there is a kind of
 undertone in that rich barytone of his 
that sweeps our minds from their        
foothold into deep waters with a drift  
that we cannot and would not resist4    
,search for his eloquence in his books  
and you will perchance miss it1 but     
meanwhile you will find that it has     
kindled all your thoughts4' ,the same   
effect was felt in its degree wherever  

he went1 and he took pains not to miss  
it4 ,he had made a study of his art1 and
 was so skilful in his mastery of it    
that it seemed as if anybody might do   
all that he did and do it as well--if   
only a hundred failures had not proved  
the mistake4  ,in #ahch ,emerson        
delivered an address in the ,divinity   
,school of ,harvard1 which produced a   
gusty shower of articles1 sermons1 and  
pamphlets1 and raised him without will  
or further act of his to the high place 
of the heresiarch4 ,with admirable      
singleness of mind1 he held modestly    
aloof4 ',there is no scholar1' he wrote 
to a friend1 'less willing or less able 
to be a polemic4 ,i could not give      
account of myself if challenged4 ,i     
delight in telling what ,i think1 but if
 you ask me how ,i dare say so1 or why  
it is so1 ,i am the most helpless of    
men1' ,the year before1 his oration on  
the ,american ,scholar had filled       
,carlyle with delight4 ,it was the first
 clear utterance1 after long decades of 

years1 in which he had 'heard nothing   
but infinite jangling and jabbering1 and
 inarticulate twittering and            
screeching4' ,then ,carlyle enjoined on 
his ,american friend for rule of life1  
',give no ear to any man's praise or    
censure2 know that that is not it2 on   
the one side is as ,heaven1 if you have 
strength to keep silent and climb       
unseen2 yet on the other side1 yawning  
always at one's right hand and one's    
left1 is the frightfullest ,abyss and   
,pandemonium' 7,dec4 #h1 #ahcg74        
,emerson's temperament and his whole    
method made the warning needless1 and1  
as before1 while 'vociferous platitude  
was dinning his ears on all sides1' a   
whole world of thought was 'silently    
building itself in these calm depths4'  
,but what would those two divinities of 
his1 ,plato and ,socrates1 have said of 
a man who 'could not give an account of 
himself if challenged'8 ,assuredly not  
every one who saith ,plato1 ,plato1 is  
admitted to that ideal kingdom4  ,it was

 soon after this that the ,dial was     
projected4 ,it had its origin in the    
,transcendental ,club1 a little knot of 
speculative students at ,boston1 who met
 four or five times a year at one       
another's houses to discuss questions   
mainly theological1 from more liberal   
points of view than was at that time    
common1 'the air then in ,america       
getting a little too close and          
stagnant4' ,the ,club was first formed  
in #ahcf4 ,the ,dial appeared in #ahdj1 
and went on for four years at quarterly 
intervals4 ,emerson was a constant      
contributor1 and for the last half of   
its existence he acted as editor4 ',i   
submitted1' he told ,carlyle1 'to what  
seemed a necessity of petty literary    
patriotism--,i know not what else to    
call it--and took charge of our         
thankless little ,dial here1 without    
subscribers enough to pay even a        
publisher1 much less any labourer2 it   
has no penny for editor or contributor1 
nothing but abuse in the newspapers1 or1

 at best1 silence2 but it serves as a   
sort of portfolio1 to carry about a few 
poems or sentences which would otherwise
 be transcribed or circulated1 and we   
always are waiting until somebody shall 
come and make it good4 ,but ,i took it1 
and it took me and a great deal of good 
time to a small purpose' 7,july #a1     
#ahdb74 ,on the whole one must agree    
that it was to small purpose4 ,emerson's
 name has reflected lustre on the ,dial1
 but when his contributions are taken   
out1 and1 say1 half a dozen besides1 the
 residuum is in the main very poor      
stuff1 and some of it has a droll       
resemblance to the talk between ,mrs4   
,hominy and the ,literary ,ladies and   
the ,honourable ,elijah ,pogram4        
,margaret ,fuller--the ,miranda1        
,zenobia1 ,hypatia1 ,minerva of her     
time1 and a truly remarkable figure in  
the gallery of wonderful women--edited  
it for two years1 and contributed many a
 vivid1 dashing1 exuberant1 ebullient   
page4 ,her criticism of ,goethe1 for    

example1 contains no final or valid     
word1 but it is fresh1 cordial1 and     
frank1 and no other prose contributor1  
again saving the one great name1 has    
anything to say that is so readable4    
,nearly all the rest is extinct1 and the
 ,dial now finds itself far away from   
the sunshine of human interest4  ,in    
#ahda the first series of ,emerson's    
,essays was published1 and three years  
later the second4 ,the ,poems were first
 collected in #ahdg1 but the final      
version was not made until #ahgf4 ,in   
#ahdg ,emerson paid his second visit to 
,england1 and delivered his lectures on 
,representative ,men1 collected and     
published in #ahej4 ,the books are said 
to have had a very slow sale1 but the   
essays and lectures published in #ahfj1 
with the general title of ,the ,conduct 
of ,life1 started with a sale of #b1ejj 
copies1 though that volume has never    
been considered by the ,emersonian adept
 to contain most of the pure milk of the
 ,word4  ,then came that great event in 

the history of men and institutions1 the
 ,civil ,war4 ,we look with anxiety for 
the part played by the serene thinker   
when the hour had struck for violent and
 heroic action4 ,emerson had hitherto   
been a ,free ,soiler2 he had opposed the
 extension of slavery2 and he favoured  
its compulsory extinction1 with         
compensation on the plan of our own     
policy in the ,west ,indies4 ,he had    
never joined the active ,abolitionists1 
nor did he see 'that there was any      
particular thing for him to do in it    
then4' ',though ,i sometimes accept a   
popular call1 and preach on ,temperance 
or the ,abolition of ,slavery1 ,i am    
sure to feel1 before ,i have done with  
it1 what an intrusion it is into another
 sphere1 and so much loss of virtue in  
my own' 7,to ,carlyle1 #ahdd74 ,but he  
missed no occasion of showing that in   
conviction and aim he was with good men4
 ,the infirmities of fanatics never hid 
from him either the transcendent purity 
of their motives or the grandeur of     

their cause4 ,this is ever the test of  
the scholar3 whether he allows          
intellectual fastidiousness to stand    
between him and the great issues of his 
time4 ',cannot the ,english1' he cried  
out to ,carlyle1 'leave cavilling at    
petty failures and bad manners and at   
the dunce part1 and leap to the         
suggestions and finger-pointings of the 
gods1 which1 above the understanding1   
feed the hopes and guide the wills of   
men8' ,these finger-pointings ,emerson  
did not mistake4 ,he spoke up for       
,garrison4 ,john ,brown was several     
times in ,concord1 and found a hearty   
welcome in ,emerson's house4 ,when      
,brown made his raid at ,harper's       
,ferry1 and the crisis became gradually 
sharper1 ,emerson felt that the time had
 come1 and his voice was raised in clear
 tones4 ,after the sword is drawn1 it is
 deeds not words that interest and      
decide2 but whenever the word of the    
student was needed ,emerson was ready to
 give the highest expression to all that

 was best in his countrymen's mood      
during that greatest ordeal of our time4
 ,the inward regeneration of the        
individual had ever been the key to his 
teaching1 and this teaching had been one
 of the forces that1 like central fire  
in men's minds1 nourished the heroism of
 the ,north in its immortal battle4     
,the exaltation of national character   
produced by the ,civil ,war opened new  
and wider acceptance for a great moral  
and spiritual teacher1 and from the     
close of the war until his death in     
#ahhb1 ,emerson's ascendency within his 
own sphere of action was complete1 and  
the public recognition of him universal4
 ,of story1 there is no more to tell4   
,he pursued his old way of reading1     
meditating1 conversing1 and public      
lecturing1 almost to the end4 ,the      
afternoon of his life was cloudless as  
the earlier day1 and the shades of      
twilight fell in unbroken serenity4 ,in 
his last years there was a partial      
failure of his memory1 and more than one

 pathetic story is told of this tranquil
 and gradual eclipse4 ,but 'to the last1
 even when the events of yesterday were 
occasionally obscured1 his memory of the
 remote past was unclouded2 he would    
tell about the friends of his early and 
middle life with unbroken vigour4' ,so1 
tended in his home by warm filial       
devotion1 and surrounded by the reverent
 kindness of his village neighbours1    
this wise and benign man slowly passed  
away 7,april #bg1 #ahhb74d  ,footnote   
#d3 ,the reader who seeks full          
information about ,emerson's life will  
find it scattered in various volumes3   
among them are--  ,ralph ,waldo         
,emerson2 by ,george ,willis ,cooke     
7,sampson ,low  ,co41 #ahhb7--;a very   
diligent and instructive work4          
,r4,w4,e42 by ,alexander ,ireland       
7,simpkin1 ,marshall1  ,co4 #ahhb71     
described by ,carlyle1 and known by     
others1 as 'full of energy and broad    
sagacity and practicality2 infinitely   
well affected to the man ,emerson       

too1'--and full moreover of that        
intellectual enthusiasm which in his    
,scotch countrymen goes so often with   
their practicalities4  ,emerson1 at     
,home and ,abroad2 by ,moncure ,d4      
,conway 7,trbner  ,co41 #ahhc73 the work
 of a faithful disciple1 who knew       
,emerson well1 and has here recorded    
many interesting anecdotes and traits4  
,,ii4   ,it cannot be truly said that   
,emerson is one of the writers who make 
their way more easily into our minds by 
virtue of style4 ,that his writing has  
quality and flavour none but a pure     
pedant would deny4 ,his more fervent    
votaries1 however1 provoke us with a    
challenge that goes far beyond this4    
,they declare that the finish1 charm1   
and beauty of the writing are as worthy 
of remark as the truth and depth of the 
thought4 ,it is even 'unmatchable and   
radiant1' says one4 ,such exaggerations 
can have no reference to any accepted   
standard4 ,it would in truth1 have been 
a marvel if ,emerson had excelled in the

 virtues of the written page1 for most  
of his published work was originally    
composed and used for the platform4     
,everybody knows how different are the  
speaker's devices for gaining possession
 of his audience1 from the writer's     
means of winning1 persuading1 and       
impressing the attention of his reader4 
,the key to the difference may be that  
in the speech the personality of the    
orator before our eyes gives of itself  
that oneness and continuity of          
communication1 which the writer has to  
seek in the orderly sequence and array  
of marshalled sentence and              
well-sustained period4 ,one of the      
traits that every critic notes in       
,emerson's writing1 is that it is so    
abrupt1 so sudden in its transitions1 so
 discontinuous1 so inconsecutive4       
,dislike of a sentence that drags made  
him unconscious of the quality1 that    
,french critics name coulant4           
,everything is thrown in just as it     
comes1 and sometimes the pell-mell is   

enough to persuade us that ,pope did not
 exaggerate when he said that no one    
qualification is so likely to make a    
good writer1 as the power of rejecting  
his own thoughts4  ,his manner as a     
lecturer1 says ,dr4 ,holmes1 was an     
illustration of his way of thinking4    
',he would lose his place just as his   
mind would drop its thought and pick up 
another1 twentieth cousin or no relation
 at all to it4' ,the same manner1       
whether we liken it to mosaic or to     
kaleidoscope1 marks his writing4 ,it    
makes him hard to follow1 oracular1 and 
enigmatical4 ',can you tell me1' asked  
one of his neighbour1 while ,emerson was
 lecturing1 'what connection there is   
between that last sentence and the one  
that went before1 and what connection it
 all has with ,plato8' ',none1 my       
friend1 save in ,god6' ,this is         
excellent in a seer1 but less so in the 
writer4  ,apart from his difficult      
staccato1 ,emerson is not free from     
secondary faults4 ,he uses words that   

are not only odd1 but vicious in        
construction2 he is not always          
grammatically correct2 he is sometimes  
oblique1 and he is often clumsy2 and    
there is a visible feeling after        
epigrams that do not always come4 ,when 
people say that ,emerson's style must be
 good and admirable because it fits his 
thought1 they forget that though it is  
well that a robe should fit1 there is   
still something to be said about its cut
 and fashion4  ,no doubt1 to borrow     
,carlyle's expression1 'the talent is   
not the chief question here3 the        
idea--that is the chief question4' ,we  
do not profess to be of those to whom   
mere style is as dear as it was to      
,plutarch2 of him it was said that he   
would have made ,pompey win the battle  
of ,pharsalia1 if it could have given a 
better turn to a phrase4 ,it would not  
be worth while to speak of form in a    
thinker to whom our debt is so large for
 his matter1 if there were not so much  
bad literary imitation of ,emerson4 ,dr4

 ,holmes mournfully admits that 'one who
 talks like ,emerson or like ,carlyle   
soon finds himself surrounded by a crowd
 of walking phonographs1 who            
mechanically reproduce his mental and   
oral accents4 ,emerson was before long  
talking in the midst of a babbling      
,simonetta of echoes4' ,inferior writers
 have copied the tones of the oracle    
without first making sure of the        
inspiration4 ,they forget that a        
platitude is not turned into a          
profundity by being dressed up as a     
conundrum4 ,pithiness in him dwindles   
into tenuity in them2 honest            
discontinuity in the master is made an  
excuse for finical incoherencies in the 
disciples2 the quaint1 ingenious1 and   
unexpected collocations of the original 
degenerate in the imitators into a trick
 of unmeaning surprise and vapid        
antithesis2 and his pregnant            
sententiousness set the fashion of a    
sententiousness that is not fertility   
but only hydropsy4 ,this curious        

infection1 which has spread into divers 
forms of ,american literature that are  
far removed from philosophy1 would have 
been impossible if the teacher had been 
as perfect in expression as he was pure1
 diligent1 and harmonious in his        
thinking4  ,yet1 as happens to all fine 
minds1 there came to ,emerson ways of   
expression deeply marked with character4
 ,on every page there is set the strong 
stamp of sincerity1 and the attraction  
of a certain artlessness2 the most      
awkward sentence rings true2 and there  
is often a pure and simple note that    
touches us more than if it were the     
perfection of elaborated melody4 ,the   
uncouth procession of the periods       
discloses the travail of the thought1   
and that too is a kind of eloquence4 ,an
 honest reader easily forgives the rude 
jolt or unexpected start1 when it shows 
a thinker faithfully working his way    
along arduous and unworn tracks4 ,even  
at the roughest1 ,emerson often         
interjects a delightful cadence4 ,as he 

says of ,landor1 his sentences are cubes
 which will stand firm1 place them how  
or where you will4 ,he criticised       
,swedenborg for being superfluously     
explanatory1 and having an exaggerated  
feeling of the ignorance of men4 ',men  
take truths of this nature1' said       
,emerson1 'very fast2' and his own style
 does no doubt very boldly take this    
capacity for granted in us4 ,in 'choice 
and pith of diction1' again1 of which   
,mr4 ,lowell speaks1 he hits the mark   
with a felicity that is almost his own  
in this generation4 ,he is terse1       
concentrated1 and free from the         
important blunder of mistaking          
intellectual dawdling for meditation4   
,nor in fine does his abruptness ever   
impede a true urbanity4 ,the accent is  
homely and the apparel plain1 but his   
bearing has a friendliness1 a courtesy1 
a hospitable humanity1 which goes nearer
 to our hearts than either literary     
decoration or rhetorical unction4 ,that 
modest and lenient fellow-feeling which 

gave such charm to his companionship    
breathes in his gravest writing1 and    
prevents us from finding any page of it 
cold or hard or dry4  ,though ,emerson  
was always urgent for 'the soul of the  
world1 clean from all vestige of        
tradition1' yet his work is full of     
literature4 ,he at least lends no       
support to the comforting fallacy of the
 indolent1 that originating power does  
not go with assimilating power4 ,few    
thinkers on his level display such      
breadth of literary reference4 ,unlike  
,wordsworth1 who was content with a few 
tattered volumes on a kitchen shelf1    
,emerson worked among books4 ,when he   
was a boy he found a volume of          
,montaigne1 and he never forgot the     
delight and wonder in which he lived    
with it4 ,his library is described as   
filled with well-selected authors1 with 
curious works from the eastern world1   
with many editions in both ,greek and   
,english of his favourite ,plato2 while 
portraits of ,shakespeare1 ,montaigne1  

,goethe1 ,dante1 looked down upon him   
from the walls4 ,produce a volume of    
,plato or of ,shakespeare1 he says      
somewhere1 or 'only remind us of their  
names1' and instantly we come into a    
feeling of longevity4 ,that is the      
scholar's speech4 ,opening a single     
essay at random1 we find in it citations
 from ,montesquieu1 ,schiller1 ,milton1 
,herodotus1 ,shelley1 ,plutarch1        
,franklin1 ,bacon1 ,van ,helmont1       
,goethe4 ,so little does ,emerson lend  
himself to the idle vanity of seeking   
all the treasures of wisdom in his own  
head1 or neglecting the hoarded         
authority of the ages4 ,it is true that 
he held the unholy opinion that a       
translation is as good as the original1 
or better4 ,nor need we suppose that he 
knew that pious sensation of the        
book-lover1 the feel of a library2 that 
he had any of the collector's amiable   
foolishness about rare editions2 or that
 he nourished festive thoughts of 'that 
company of honest old fellows in their  

leathern jackets in his study1' as      
comrades in a sober old-world           
conviviality4 ,his books were for       
spiritual use1 like maps and charts of  
the mind of man1 and not much for       
'excellence of divertisement4' ,he had  
the gift of bringing his reading to bear
 easily upon the tenor of his musings1  
and knew how to use books as an aid to  
thinking1 instead of letting them take  
the edge off thought4 ,there was        
assuredly nothing of the compiler or the
 erudite collegian in him4 ,it is a     
graver defect that he introduces the    
great names of literature without regard
 for true historical perspective in     
their place1 either in relation to one  
another1 or to the special phases of    
social change and shifting time4 ,still 
let his admirers not forget that        
,emerson was in his own way ,scholar no 
less than ,sage4  ,a word or two must be
 said of ,emerson's verses4 ,he         
disclaimed1 for his own part1 any belief
 that they were poems4 ,enthusiasts1    

however1 have been found to declare that
 ,emerson 'moves more constantly than   
any recent poet in the atmosphere of    
poesy4 ,since ,milton and ,spenser no   
man--not even ,goethe--has equalled     
,emerson in this trait4' ,the ,problem1 
according to another1 'is wholly unique1
 and transcends all contemporary verse  
in grandeur of style4' ,such poetry1    
they say1 is like ,westminster ,abbey1  
'though the ,abbey is inferior in       
boldness4' ,yet1 strangely enough1 while
 ,emerson's poetic form is symbolised by
 the flowing lines of ,gothic           
architecture1 it is also 'akin to ,doric
 severity4' ,with all the good will in  
the world1 ,i do not find myself able to
 rise to these heights2 in fact1 they   
rather seem to deserve ,wordsworth's    
description1 as mere obliquities of     
admiration4  ,taken as a whole1         
,emerson's poetry is of that kind which 
springs1 not from excitement of passion 
or feeling1 but from an intellectual    
demand for intense and sublimated       

expression4 ,we see the step that lifts 
him straight from prose to verse1 and   
that step is the shortest possible4 ,the
 flight is awkward and even uncouth1 as 
if nature had intended feet rather than 
wings4 ,it is hard to feel of ,emerson1 
any more than ,wordsworth could feel of 
,goethe1 that his poetry is inevitable4 
,the measure1 the colour1 the           
imaginative figures1 are the product of 
search1 not of spontaneous movements of 
sensation and reflection combining in a 
harmony that is delightful to the ear4  
,they are the outcome of a discontent   
with prose1 not of that high-strung     
sensibility which compels the true poet 
into verse4 ,this must not be said      
without exception4 ,the ,threnody1      
written after the death of a deeply     
loved child1 is a beautiful and         
impressive lament4 ,pieces like         
,musquetaquid1 the ,adirondacs1 the     
,snowstorm1 ,the ,humble-,bee1 are      
pretty and pleasant bits of pastoral4   
,in all we feel the pure breath of      

nature1 and                       ,the  
primal mind1    ,that flows in streams1 
that breathes in wind4  ,there is a     
certain charm of naivet1 that recalls   
the unvarnished simplicity of the       
,italian painters before ,raphael4 ,but 
who shall say that he discovers that    
'spontaneous overflow of powerful       
feeling1' which a great poet has made   
the fundamental element of poetry8      
,there are too few melodious            
progressions2 the melting of the thought
 with natural images and with human     
feeling is incomplete2 we miss the charm
 of perfect assimilation1 fusion1 and   
incorporation2 and in the midst of all  
the vigour and courage of his work1     
,emerson has almost forgotten that it is
 part of the poet's business to give    
pleasure4 ,it is true that pleasure is  
sometimes undoubtedly to be had from    
verse that is not above mediocrity1 and 
,wordsworth once designed to write an   
essay examining why bad poetry pleases4 
,poetry that pleases may be bad1 but it 

is equally true that no poetry which    
fails to please can be really good4     
,some one says that gems of expression  
make ,emerson's essays oracular and his 
verse prophetic4 ,but1 to borrow        
,horace's well-known phrase1 'tis not   
enough that poems should be sublime2    
dulcia sunto1--they must be touching and
 sympathetic4 ,only a bold critic will  
say that this is a mark of ,emerson's   
poems4 ,they are too naked1 unrelated1  
and cosmic2 too little clad with the    
vesture of human associations4 ,light   
and shade do not alternate in winning   
and rich relief1 and as ,carlyle found  
it1 the radiance is 'thin piercing1'    
leaving none of the sweet and dim       
recesses so dear to the lover of nature4
 ,we may1 however1 well be content to   
leave a man of ,emerson's calibre to    
choose his own exercises4 ,it is best to
 suppose that he knew what he was about 
when he wandered into the fairyland of  
verse1 and that in such moments he found
 nothing better to his hand4 ,yet if we 

are bidden to place him among the poets1
 it is enough to open ,keats at the ,ode
 to a ,nightingale1 or ,shelley at ,the 
,cloud1 the ,skylark1 or the ,sensitive 
,plant1 or ,wordsworth at ,tintern      
,abbey1 or ,goethe at ,das ,gttliche1 or
 ,victor ,hugo in the ,contemplations4  
,then in spite of occasional formality  
of rhythm and artifice in ornament1 we  
cannot choose but perceive how tuneful  
is their music1 how opulent the         
resources of their imagination1 how     
various1 subtle1 and penetrating their  
affinity for the fortunes and sympathies
 of men1 and next how modest a portion  
of all these rare and exquisite         
qualifications reveals itself in the    
verse of ,emerson4     ,,iii4   ,few    
minds of the first order that have      
busied themselves in contemplating the  
march of human fortunes1 have marched   
forward in a straight line of           
philosophic speculation unbroken to the 
end4 ,like ,burke1 like ,coleridge1 like
 ,wordsworth1 at a given point they have

 a return upon themselves4 ,having      
mastered the truths of one side1 their  
eyes open to what is true on the other2 
the work of revolution finished or      
begun1 they experience fatigue and      
reaction4 ,in ,hawthorne's romance1     
after ,miles ,coverdale had passed his  
spring and summer among the ,utopians of
 ,blithedale1 he felt that the time had 
come when he must for sheer sanity's    
sake go and hold a little talk with the 
,conservatives1 the merchants1 the      
politicians1 'and all those respectable 
old blockheads1 who still in this       
intangibility and mistiness of affairs  
kept a death-grip on one or two ideas   
which had not come into vogue since     
yesterday morning4' ',no sagacious man1'
 says ,hawthorne1 'will long retain his 
sagacity if he lives exclusively among  
reformers and progressive people1       
without periodically returning into the 
settled system of things1 to correct    
himself by a new observation from that  
old stand-point4' ,yet good men rightly 

hoped that 'out of the very thoughts    
that were wildest and most destructive  
might grow a wisdom1 holy1 calm1 and    
pure1 and that should incarnate itself  
with the substance of a noble and happy 
life4' ,now that we are able to look    
back on the crisis of the times that    
,hawthorne describes1 we perceive that  
it was as he expected1 and that in the  
person of ,emerson the ferment and      
dissolvency of thought worked itself out
 in a strain of wisdom of the highest   
and purest4  ,in #ahdb ,emerson told    
,carlyle1 in vindication of the ,dial   
and its transcendentalisms1 that if the 
direction of their speculations was as  
deplorable as ,carlyle declared1 it was 
yet a remarkable fact for history that  
all the bright young men and young women
 in ,new ,england1 'quite ignorant of   
each other1 take the world so1 and come 
and make confession to fathers and      
mothers--the boys1 that they do not wish
 to go into trade2 the girls1 that they 
do not like morning calls and evening   

parties4 ,they are all religious1 but   
hate the churches2 they reject all the  
ways of living of other men1 but have   
none to offer in their stead4'  ,it is  
worth while to transcribe from the ,dial
 itself the scene at one of the many    
,bostonian ,conventions of that         
date--the ,friends of ,universal        
,progress1 in #ahdj3--',the composition 
of the ,assembly was rich and various4  
,the singularity and latitude of the    
summons drew together1 from all parts of
 ,new ,england1 and also from the       
,middle ,states1 men of every shade of  
opinion1 from the straightest orthodoxy 
to the wildest heresy1 and many persons 
whose church was a church of one member 
only4 ,a great variety of dialect and of
 costume was noticed2 a great deal of   
confusion1 eccentricity1 and freak      
appeared1 as well as of zeal and        
enthusiasm4 ,if the ,assembly was       
disorderly1 it was picturesque4 ,madmen1
 madwomen1 men with beards1 ,dunkers1   
,muggletonians1 ,come-outers1 ,groaners1

 ,agrarians1 ,seventh-day ,baptists1    
,quakers1 ,abolitionists1 ,calvinists1  
,unitarians1 and philosophers1 all came 
successively to the top1 and seized     
their moment1 if not their hour1 wherein
 to chide or pray or preach or protest4 
,the faces were a study4 ,the most      
daring innovators1 and the              
champions-until-death of the old cause1 
sat side by side4 ,the still living     
merit of the oldest ,new ,england       
families1 glowing yet after several     
generations1 encountered the founders of
 families1 fresh merit emerging and     
expanding the brows to a new breadth1   
and lighting a clownish face with sacred
 fire4 ,the ,assembly was characterised 
by the predominance of a certain plain  
sylvan strength and earnestness' 7,dial1
 iii4 #aja74  ,if the shade of ,bossuet 
could have looked down upon the scene1  
he would have found fresh material for  
the sarcasms which a hundred and fifty  
years before he had lavished on the     
,variations of the ,protestant          

,churches4 ,yet this curious movement1  
bleak and squalid as it may seem to men 
nurtured in the venerable decorum of    
ecclesiastical tradition1 was at bottom 
identical with the yearning for stronger
 spiritual emotions1 and the cravings of
 religious zeal1 that had in older times
 filled monasteries1 manned the great   
orders1 and sent wave upon wave of      
pilgrims and crusaders to holy places4  
',it is really amazing1' as was said by 
,franklin or somebody else of his       
fashion of utilitarianism1 'that one of 
the passions which it is hardest to     
develop in man is the passion for his   
own material comfort and temporal       
well-being4'  ,emerson has put on record
 this mental intoxication of the        
progressive people around him1 with a   
pungency that might satisfy the         
,philistines themselves4#e ,from #ahbj  
to #ahdd1 he said1 ,new ,england        
witnessed a general criticism and attack
 on institutions1 and in all practical  
activities a gradual withdrawal of      

tender consciences from the social      
organisations4 ,calvinists and ,quakers 
began to split into old school and new  
school4 ,goethe and the ,germans became 
known4 ,swedenborg1 in spite of his     
taint of craziness1 by the mere prodigy 
of his speculations1 began 'to spread   
himself into the minds of               
thousands'--including in no unimportant 
degree the mind of ,emerson himself4#f  
,literary criticism counted for         
something in the universal thaw1 and    
even the genial humanity of ,dickens    
helped to break up the indurations of   
old theology4 ,most powerful of all was 
the indirect influence of science4      
,geology disclosed law in an unsuspected
 region1 and astronomy caused men to    
apprehend that 'as the earth is not the 
centre of the ,universe1 so it is not   
the special scene or stage on which the 
drama of divine justice is played before
 the assembled angels of heaven4'       
,footnote #e3 ,new ,england ,reformers3 
,essays1 ii4 #eaa-eai4  ,footnote #f3   

,the ,swedenborgians--'a sect which1 ,i 
think1 must contribute more than all    
other sects to the new faith1 which must
 come out of all4'--,to ,carlyle1 #ahcd4
  ,a temper of scrutiny and dissent     
broke out in every direction4 ,in almost
 every relation men and women asked     
themselves by what right ,conformity    
levied its tax1 and whether they were   
not false to their own consciences in   
paying it4 ',what a fertility of        
projects for the salvation of the world6
 ,one apostle thought that all men      
should go to farming2 and another       
thought that no man should buy or       
sell--that use of money was the cardinal
 evil2 another thought the mischief was 
in our diet--that we eat and drink      
damnation4 ,these made unleavened bread1
 and were foes to the death to          
fermentation4 ,others attacked the      
system of agriculture1 the use of animal
 manures in farming1 and the tyranny of 
man over brute instinct4 ,these abuses  
polluted his food4 ,the ox must be taken

 from the plough1 and the horse from the
 cart2 the hundred acres of the farm    
must be spaded1 and the man must walk   
wherever boats and locomotives will not 
carry him4444 ,others assailed          
particular vocations4444 ,others        
attacked the institution of marriage as 
the fountain of social evils4444 ,who   
gave me the money with which ,i bought  
my coat8 ,why should professional labour
 and that of the counting-house be paid 
so disproportionately to the labour of  
the porter and the woodsawer8 ,am ,i not
 too protected a person8 ,is there not a
 wide disparity between the lot of me   
and the lot of thee1 my poor brother1 my
 poor sister8'  ,one of ,emerson's      
glories is1 that while wise enough to   
discern the peril and folly of these    
excesses1 he was under no temptation to 
fall back4 ,it was giddy work1 but he   
kept his eye on the fixed stars4        
,certainly ,emerson was not assailed by 
the stress of mighty and violent events1
 as ,burke and ,wordsworth were in some 

sense turned into reactionaries by the  
calamities of revolution in ,france4    
,the 'distemper of enthusiasm1' as      
,shaftesbury would have called it1 took 
a mild and harmless form in ,new        
,england3 there the work in hand was not
 the break-up of a social system1 but   
only the mental evolution of new ideals1
 the struggle of an ethical revival1 and
 the satisfaction of a livelier spirit  
of scruple4 ,in face of all delirations1
 ,emerson kept on his way of radiant    
sanity and perfect poise4 ,do not1 he   
warned his enthusiasts1 expend all      
energy on some accidental evil1 and so  
lose sanity and power of benefit4 ',it  
is of little moment that one or two or  
twenty errors of our social system be   
corrected1 but of much that the man be  
in his senses4 ,society gains nothing   
whilst a man1 not himself renovated1    
attempts to renovate things around him2 
he has become tediously good in some    
particular1 but negligent or narrow in  
the rest1 and hypocrisy and vanity are  

often the disgusting result4 ,it is     
handsomer to remain in the              
establishment1 better than the          
establishment1 and conduct that in the  
best manner1 than to make a sally       
against evil by some single improvement1
 without supporting it by a total       
regeneration4'  ,emerson1 then1 is one  
of the few moral reformers whose mission
 lay in calming men rather than in      
rousing them1 and in the inculcation of 
serenity rather than in the spread of   
excitement4 ,though he had been ardent  
in protest against the life             
conventional1 as soon as the protest ran
 off into extravagance1 instead of      
either following or withstanding it with
 rueful petulancies1 he delicately and  
successfully turned a passing agitation 
into an enduring revival4 ,the last     
password given by the dying ,antonine to
 the officer of the watch was           
quanimitas4 ,in a brighter1 wider1 and  
more living sense than was possible even
 to the noblest in the middle of the    

second century1 this1 too1 was the      
watchword of the ,emersonian teaching4  
,instead of cultivating the tormenting  
and enfeebling spirit of scruple1       
instead of multiplying precepts1 he bade
 men not to crush their souls out under 
the burden of ,duty2 they are to        
remember that a wise life is not wholly 
filled up by commandments to do and to  
abstain from doing4 ,hence1 we have in  
,emerson the teaching of a vigorous     
morality without the formality of dogma 
and the deadly tedium of didactics4 ,if 
not laughter1 of which only ,shakespeare
 among the immortals has a copious and  
unfailing spring1 there is at least     
gaiety in every piece1 and a cordial    
injunction to men to find joy in their  
existence to the full4 ,happiness is    
with him an aim that we are at liberty  
to seek directly and without            
periphrasis4 ,provided men do not lose  
their balance by immersing themselves in
 their pleasures1 they are right1       
according to ,emerson1 in pursuing them4

 ,but joy is no neighbour to artificial 
ecstasy4 ,what ,emerson counsels the    
poet1 he intended in its own way and    
degree for all men4 ,the poet's habit of
 living1 he says beautifully1 should be 
set on a key so low that the commonest  
influences should delight him4 ',that   
spirit which suffices quiet hearts1     
which seems to come forth to such from  
every dry knoll of sere grass1 from     
every pine-stump and half-embedded stone
 on which the dull ,march sun shines1   
comes forth to the poor and hungry1 and 
such as are of simple taste4 ,if thou   
fill thy brain with ,boston and ,new    
,york1 with fashion and covetousness1   
and wilt stimulate thy jaded senses with
 wine and ,french coffee1 thou shalt    
find no radiance of wisdom in the lonely
 waste of the pinewoods' 7ii4 #cbh74    
,it was perhaps the same necessity of   
having to guide men away from the danger
 of transcendental aberrations1 while   
yet holding up lofty ideals of conduct1 
that made ,emerson say something about  

many traits of conduct to which the     
ordinary high-flying moralist of the    
treatise or the pulpit seldom deigns to 
stoop4 ,the essays on ,domestic ,life1  
on ,behaviour1 on ,manners1 are examples
 of the attention that ,emerson paid to 
the right handling of the outer         
conditions of a wise and brave life4    
,with him small circumstances are the   
occasions of great qualities4 ,the      
parlour and the counting-house are as   
fit scenes for fortitude1 self-control1 
considerateness1 and vision1 as the     
senate or the battlefield4 ,he          
re-classifies the virtues4 ,no modern1  
for example1 has given so remarkable a  
place to ,friendship among the sacred   
necessities of well-endowed character4  
,neither ,plato nor ,cicero1 least of   
all ,bacon1 has risen to so noble and   
profound a conception of this most      
strangely commingled of all human       
affections4 ,there is no modern thinker1
 again1 who makes ,beauty--all that is  
gracious1 seemly1 and becoming--so      

conspicuous and essential a part of     
life4 ,it would be inexact to say that  
,emerson blended the beautiful with the 
precepts of duty or of prudence into one
 complex sentiment1 as the ,greeks did1 
but his theory of excellence might be   
better described than any other of      
modern times by the ,greek3             
kalokagathia1 the virtue of the true    
gentleman1 as set down in ,plato and    
,aristotle4  ,so untrue is it that in   
his quality of ,sage ,emerson always    
haunted the perilous altitudes of       
,transcendentalism1 'seeing nothing     
under him but the everlasting snows of  
,himalaya1 the ,earth shrinking to a    
,planet1 and the indigo ,firmament      
sowing itself with daylight stars4' ,he 
never thinks it beneath his dignity to  
touch a point of minor morals1 or to say
 a good word for what he somewhere calls
 subterranean prudence4 ,emerson values 
mundane circumspection as highly as     
,franklin1 and gives to manners and     
rules of daily behaviour an importance  

that might have satisfied ,chesterfield4
 ,in fact1 the worldly and the selfish  
are mistaken when they assume that      
,common ,sense is their special and     
exclusive portion4 ,the small           
,transcendentalist goes in search of    
truth with the meshes of his net so     
large that he takes no fish4 ,his       
landscapes are all horizon4 ,it is only 
the great idealists1 like ,emerson1 who 
take care not to miss the real4  ,the   
remedy for the break-down of the old    
churches would1 in the mind of the      
egotist1 have been to found a new one4  
,but ,emerson knew well before ,carlyle 
told him1 that 'no truly great man1 from
 ,jesus ,christ downwards1 ever founded 
a sect--,i mean wilfully intended       
founding one4' ,not only did he         
establish no sect1 but he preached a    
doctrine that was positively            
incompatible with the erection of any   
sect upon its base4 ,his whole hope for 
the world lies in the internal and      
independent resources of the individual4

 ,if mankind is to be raised to a higher
 plane of happiness and worth1 it can   
only be by the resolution of each to    
live his own life with fidelity and     
courage4 ,the spectacle of one liberated
 from the malign obstructions to free   
human character1 is a stronger incentive
 to others than exhortation1 admonition1
 or any sum of philanthropical          
association4 ,if ,i1 in my own person   
and daily walk1 quietly resist heaviness
 of custom1 coldness of hope1 timidity  
of faith1 then without wishing1         
contriving1 or even knowing it1 ,i am a 
light silently drawing as many as have  
vision and are fit to walk in the same  
path4 ,whether ,i do that or not1 ,i am 
at least obeying the highest law of my  
own being4  ,in the appeal to the       
individual to be true to himself1       
,emerson does not stand apart from other
 great moral reformers4 ,his distinction
 lies in the peculiar direction that he 
gives to his appeal4 ,all those         
regenerators of the individual1 from    

,rousseau down to ,j4,s4 ,mill1 who     
derived their first principles1 whether 
directly or indirectly1 from ,locke and 
the philosophy of sensation1 experience1
 and acquisition1 began operations with 
the will4 ,they laid all their stress on
 the shaping of motives by education1   
institutions1 and action1 and placed    
virtue in deliberateness and in         
exercise4 ,emerson1 on the contrary1    
coming from the intuitional camp1 holds 
that our moral nature is vitiated by any
 interference of our will4 ,translated  
into the language of theology1 his      
doctrine makes regeneration to be a     
result of grace1 and the guide of       
conscience to be the indwelling light2  
though1 unlike the theologians1 he does 
not trace either of these mysterious    
gifts to the special choice and         
intervention of a personal ,deity4      
,impulsive and spontaneous innocence is 
higher than the strength to conquer     
temptation4 ,the natural motions of the 
soul are so much better than the        

voluntary ones4 ',there is no such thing
 as manufacturing a strong will1' for   
all great force is real and elemental4  
,in all this ,emerson suffers from the  
limitations that are inseparable from   
pure spiritualism in all its forms4 ,as 
if the spiritual constitution were ever 
independent of the material organisation
 bestowed upon the individual at the    
moment when he is conceived1 or of the  
social conditions that close about him  
from the instant of his birth4 ,the     
reaction1 however1 against what was     
superficial in the school of the        
eighteenth century went to its extreme  
length in ,emerson1 and blinded his eyes
 to the wisdom1 the profundity1 and the 
fruitfulness of their leading           
speculations4 ,it is enough for us to   
note the fact in passing1 without       
plunging into contention on the merits4 
,all thoughts are always ready1         
potentially if not actually4 ,each age  
selects and assimilates the philosophy  
that is most apt for its wants4         

,institutions needed regeneration in    
,france1 and so those thinkers came into
 vogue and power who laid most stress on
 the efficacy of good institutions4 ,in 
,emerson's ,america1 the fortunes of the
 country made external circumstances    
safe for a man1 and his chance was      
assured2 so a philosophy was welcomed   
which turned the individual inwards upon
 himself1 and taught him to consider his
 own character and spiritual faculty as 
something higher than anything external 
could ever be4  ,again to make a use    
which is not uninstructive of the old   
tongue1 ,emerson is for faith before    
works4 ,nature1 he says1 will not have  
us fret and fume4 ,she does not like our
 benevolences1 our churches1 our        
pauper-societies1 much better than she  
likes our frauds and wars4 ,they are but
 so many yokes to the neck4 ,our painful
 labours are unnecessary and fruitless4 
,a higher law than that of our will     
regulates events4 ,if we look wider1    
things are all alike3 laws and creeds   

and modes of living are a travesty of   
truth4 ,only in our easy1 simple1       
spontaneous action are we strong1 and by
 contenting ourselves with obedience we 
become strong4 ,our real action is in   
our silent moments4 ,why should we be   
awed by the name of ,action8 ',tis a    
trick of the senses4#g  ,footnote #g3   
,essays3 ,spiritual ,laws1 etc4         
,justification by faith has had a savour
 of antinomianism and indifferency ever 
since the day when ,saint ,paul so      
emphatically denied that he made void   
the law through faith1 and said of      
certain calumniators that their         
damnation was just4 ,emerson was open to
 the same charge1 and he knew it4 ,in a 
passage already quoted1 ,emerson says   
good-humouredly that his wife keeps his 
philosophy from running to antinomianism
 ,he could not mistake the tendency of  
saying that1 if you look wider1 things  
are all alike1 and that we are in the   
grasp of a higher law than our own will4
 ,on that side he only paints over in   

rainbow colours the grim doctrine which 
the ,high ,calvinist and the            
,materialistic ,necessarian hold in     
common4  ,all great minds perceive all  
things2 the only difference lies in the 
order in which they shall choose to     
place them4 ,emerson1 for good reason of
 his own1 dwelt most on fate1 character1
 and the unconscious and hidden sources1
 but he writes many a page of vigorous  
corrective4 ,it is wholesome1 he says1  
to man to look not at ,fate1 but the    
other way2 the practical view is the    
other4 ,as ,mill says of his wish to    
disbelieve the doctrine of the formation
 of character by                        
circumstances--',remembering the wish of
 ,fox respecting the doctrine of        
resistance to governments1 that it might
 never be forgotten by ,kings nor       
remembered by subjects1 ,i said that it 
would be a blessing if the doctrine of  
necessity could be believed by all quoad
 the characters of others1 and          
disbelieved in regard to their own4' ,so

 ,emerson knew well enough that man's   
consciousness of freedom1 action1 and   
power over outer circumstances might be 
left to take care of itself1 as the     
practical view generally can4 ,the world
 did not need him to tell it that a     
man's fortunes are a part of his        
character4 ,his task was the more       
far-reaching one of drawing them to     
recognise that love is the important    
thing1 not benevolent works2 that only  
impure men consider life as it is       
reflected in events1 opinions1 and      
persons2 that they fail to see the      
action until it is done1 whereas what is
 far better worth considering is that   
its moral element pr-existed in the     
actor4  ,it would be easy to show that  
,emerson has not worked out his answers 
to these eternal enigmas1 for ever      
reproducing themselves in all ages1 in  
such a form as to defy the logician's   
challenge4 ,he never shrinks from       
inconsistent propositions4 ,he was      
unsystematic on principle4 ',he thought 

that truth has so many facets that the  
best we can do is to notice each in     
turn1 without troubling ourselves       
whether they agree4' ,when we remember  
the inadequateness of human language1   
the infirmities of our vision1 and all  
the imperfections of mental apparatus1  
the wise men will not disdain even      
partial glimpses of a scene too vast and
 intricate to be comprehended in a      
single map4 ,to complain that ,emerson  
is no systematic reasoner is to miss the
 secret of most of those who have given 
powerful impulses to the spiritual      
ethics of an age4 ,it is not a syllogism
 that turns the heart towards           
purification of life and aim2 it is not 
the logically enchained propositions of 
a sorites1 but the flash of             
illumination1 the indefinable accent1   
that attracts masses of men to a new    
teacher and a high doctrine4 ,the       
teasing ergoteur is always right1 but he
 never leads nor improves nor inspires4 
,any one can see how this side of the   

,emersonian gospel harmonised with the  
prepossessions of a new democracy4      
,trust1 he said1 to leading instincts1  
not to traditional institutions1 nor    
social ordering1 nor the formul of books
 and schools for the formation of       
character2 the great force is real and  
elemental4 ,in art1 ,mr4 ,ruskin has    
explained the palpable truth that       
semi-civilised nations can colour better
 than we do1 and that an ,indian shawl  
and ,china vase are inimitable by us4   
',it is their glorious ignorance of all 
rules that does it2 the pure and true   
instincts have play1 and do their work2 
and the moment we begin teaching people 
any rules about colour1 and make them do
 this or that1 we crush the instinct1   
generally for ever' 7,modern ,painters1 
iii4 #ia74 ,emerson said what comes to  
the same thing about morals4 ,the       
philosophy of democracy1 or the         
government of a great mixed community by
 itself1 rests on a similar assumption  
in politics4 ,the foundations of a      

self-governed society on a great scale  
are laid in leading instincts4 ,emerson 
was never tired of saying that we are   
wiser than we know4 ,the path of science
 and of letters is not the way to       
nature4 ,what was done in a remote age  
by men whose names have resounded far1  
has no deeper sense than what you and ,i
 do to-day4 ,what food1 or experience1  
or succour have ,olympiads and          
,consulates for the ,esquimaux          
seal-hunter1 for the ,kanka in his      
canoe1 for the fisherman1 the stevedore1
 the porter8 ,when he is in this vein   
,emerson often approaches curiously near
 to ,rousseau's memorable and most      
potent paradox of #agej1 that the       
sciences corrupt manners4#h  ,footnote  
#h3 ,what so good1 asks ,rousseau1 'as a
 sweet and precious ignorance1 the      
treasure of a pure soul at peace with   
itself1 which finds all its blessedness 
in inward retreat1 in testifying to     
itself its own innocence1 and which     
feels no need of seeking a warped and   

hollow happiness in the opinion of other
 people as to its enlightenment8'  ,most
 men will now agree that when the great 
fiery trial came1 the ,emersonian faith 
and the democratic assumption abundantly
 justified themselves4 ,even ,carlyle   
wrote to ,emerson at last 7,june #d1    
#ahga73 ',in my occasional explosions   
against ,anarchy1 and my                
inextinguishable hatred of it1 ,i       
privately whisper to myself1 ,could any 
,friedrich ,wilhelm now1 or ,friedrich1 
or most perfect ,governor you could hope
 to realise1 guide forward what is      
,america's essential task at present1   
faster or more completely than          
',anarchic ,america' is now doing8 ,such
 ,anarchy has a great deal to say for   
itself4'  ,the traits of comparison     
between ,carlyle and ,emerson may be    
regarded as having been pretty nearly   
exhausted for the present1 until time   
has changed the point of view4 ,in wit1 
humour1 pathos1 penetration1 poetic     
grandeur1 and fervid sublimity of       

imagination1 ,carlyle is the superior   
beyond measure4 ,but ,emerson is as much
 his superior in that high and          
transparent sanity1 which is not further
 removed from midsummer madness than it 
is from a terrene and grovelling        
mediocrity4 ,this sanity1 among other   
things1 kept ,emerson in line with the  
ruling tendencies of his age1 and his   
teaching brings all the aid that        
abstract teaching can1 towards the      
solution of the moral problems of modern
 societies4 ,carlyle chose to fling     
himself headlong and blindfold athwart  
the great currents of things1 against   
all the forces and elements that are    
pushing modern societies forward4       
,beginning in his earlier work with the 
same faith as ,emerson in leading       
instincts1 he came to dream that the    
only leading instinct worth thinking    
about is that of self-will1 mastery1    
force1 and violent strength4 ,emerson   
was for basing the health of a modern   
commonwealth on the only real strength1 

and the only kind of force that can be  
relied upon1 namely1 the honest1 manly1 
simple1 and emancipated character of the
 citizen4 ,this gives to his doctrine a 
hold and a prize on the work of the day1
 and makes him our helper4 ,carlyle's   
perverse reaction had wrecked and       
stranded him when the world came to ask 
him for direction4 ,in spite of his     
resplendent genius1 he had no direction 
to give1 and was only able in vague and 
turbid torrents of words to hide a      
shallow and obsolete lesson4 ,his       
confession to ,emerson1 quoted above1   
looks as if at last he had found this   
out for himself4  ,if ,emerson stood    
thus well towards the social and        
political drift of events1 his teaching 
was no less harmoniously related to the 
new and most memorable drift of science 
which set in by his side4 ,it is a      
misconception to pretend that he was a  
precursor of the ,darwinian theory4     
,evolution1 as a possible explanation of
 the ordering of the universe1 is a     

great deal older than either ,emerson or
 ,darwin4 ,what ,darwin did was to work 
out in detail and with masses of minute 
evidence a definite hypothesis of the   
specific conditions under which new     
forms are evolved4 ,emerson1 of course1 
had no definite hypothesis of this sort1
 nor did he possess any of the knowledge
 necessary to give it value4 ,but it was
 his good fortune that some of his      
strongest propositions harmonise with   
the scientific theory of the survival of
 the fittest in the struggle for        
material existence4 ,he connects his    
exhortation to self-reliance with the   
law working in nature for conservation  
and growth1--to wit1 that ',power is in 
nature the essential measure of right1' 
and that ',nature suffers nothing to    
remain in her kingdom which cannot help 
itself4' ,the same strain is constantly 
audible4 ,nature on every side1 within  
us and without1 is for ever throwing out
 new forms and fresh varieties of living
 and thinking4 ,to her experiments in   

every region there is no end4 ,those    
succeed which prove to have the best    
adaptation to the conditions4 ,let1     
therefore1 neither society nor the      
individual check experiment1            
originality1 and infinite variation4    
,such language1 we may see1 fits in     
equally well with democracy in politics 
and with evolution in science4 ,if1     
moreover1 modern science gives more     
prominence to one conception than       
another1 it is to that of the natural   
universe of force and energy1 as ,one   
and a ,whole4 ,this too is the great    
central idea with ,emerson1 repeated a  
thousand times in prose and in verse1   
and lying at the very heart of his      
philosophy4 ,newton's saying that 'the  
world was made at one cast' delights    
him4 ',the secret of the world is that  
its energies are solidaires4' ,nature   
'publishes itself in creatures1 reaching
 from particles and spicula1 through    
transformation on transformation to the 
highest symmetries4 ,a little heat1 that

 is1 a little motion1 is all that       
differences the bald dazzling white and 
deadly cold poles of the earth from the 
prolific tropical climates4' ,not only1 
as ,professor ,tyndall says1 is         
,emerson's religious sense entirely     
undaunted by the discoveries of science2
 all such discoveries he comprehends and
 assimilates4 ',by ,emerson scientific  
conceptions are continually transmuted  
into the finer forms and warmer lines of
 an ideal world4'  ,that these          
transmutations are often carried by     
,emerson to the extent of vain and empty
 self-mystifications is hard to deny1   
even for those who have most sympathy   
with the general scope of his teaching4 
,there are pages that to the present    
writer1 at least1 after reasonably      
diligent meditation1 remain mere        
abracadabra1 incomprehensible and       
worthless4 ,for much of this in         
,emerson1 the influence of ,plato is    
mainly responsible1 and it may be noted 
in passing that his account of ,plato   

7,representative ,men7 is one of his    
most unsatisfactory performances4 ',the 
title of ,platonist1' says ,mill1       
'belongs by far better right to those   
who have been nourished in1 and have    
endeavoured to practise ,plato's mode of
 investigation1 than to those who are   
distinguished only by the adoption of   
certain dogmatical conclusions1 drawn   
mostly from the least intelligible of   
his works4' ,nothing is gained by       
concealing that not every part of       
,emerson's work will stand the test of  
the ,elenchus1 nor bear reduction into  
honest and intelligible ,english4  ,one 
remarkable result of ,emerson's idealism
 ought not to be passed over4 ',the     
visible becomes the ,bestial1' said     
,carlyle1 'when it rests not on the     
invisible4' ,to ,emerson all rested on  
the invisible1 and was summed up in     
terms of the invisible1 and hence the   
,bestial was almost unknown in his      
philosophic scheme4 ,nay1 we may say    
that some mighty phenomena in our       

universe were kept studiously absent    
from his mind4 ,here is one of the      
profoundest differences between ,emerson
 and most of those who1 on as high an   
altitude1 have pondered the same great  
themes4 ,a small trait will serve for   
illustration4 ,it was well known in his 
household that he could not bear to hear
 of ailments4 ',there is one topic1' he 
writes1 'peremptorily forbidden to all  
well-bred1 to all rational mortals1     
namely1 their distempers4 ,if you have  
not slept1 or if you have slept1 or if  
you have headache1 sciatica1 or leprosy1
 or thunder-stroke1 ,i beseech you by   
all angels to hold your peace1 and not  
pollute the morning1 to which all the   
housemates bring serene and pleasant    
thoughts1 by corruption and groans4     
,come out of the azure4 ,love the       
day'--7,conduct of ,life1 #aei74  ,if he
 could not endure these minor           
perturbations of the fair and smiling   
face of daily life1 far less did he     
willingly think of ,death4 ,of nothing  

in all the wide range of universal      
topics does ,emerson say so little as of
 that which has lain in sombre mystery  
at the very core of most meditations on 
life1 from ,job and ,solon down to      
,bacon and ,montaigne4 ,except in two   
beautiful poems1 already mentioned1     
,death is almost banished from his page4
 ,it is not the title or the subject of 
one of his essays1 only secondarily even
 of that on ,immortality4 ,love1        
,friendship1 ,prudence1 ,heroism1       
,experience1 ,manners1 ,nature1         
,greatness1 and a score of other        
matters--but none to show that he ever  
sat down to gather into separate and    
concentrated shape his reflections on   
the terrifying phantom that has haunted 
the mind of man from the very birth of  
time4  ,pascal bade us imagine a number 
of men in chains and doomed to death2   
some of them each day butchered in sight
 of the others2 those who remained      
watching their own lot in that of their 
fellows1 and awaiting their turn in     

anguish and helplessness4 ,such1 he     
cried1 is the pitiful and desperate     
condition of man4 ,but nature has other 
cruelties more stinging than death4     
,mill1 himself an optimist1 yet declares
 the course of natural phenomena to be  
replete with everything which1 when     
committed by human beings is most worthy
 of abhorrence1 so that 'one who        
endeavoured in his actions to imitate   
the natural course of things would be   
universally seen and acknowledged to be 
the wickedest of men4' ,to man himself1 
moreover1 'the most criminal actions are
 not more unnatural than most of the    
virtues4' ,we need not multiply from    
poets and divines1 from moralists and   
sages1 these grim pictures4 ,the sombre 
melancholy1 the savage moral            
indignation1 the passionate intellectual
 scorn1 with which life and the universe
 have filled strong souls1 some with one
 emotion and some with another1 were all
 to ,emerson in his habitual thinking   
unintelligible and remote4 ,he admits1  

indeed1 that 'the disease and deformity 
around us certify that infraction of    
natural1 intellectual1 and moral laws1  
and often violation on violation to     
breed such compound misery4' ,the way of
 ,providence1 he says in another place1 
is a little rude1 through earthquakes1  
fever1 the sword of climate1 and a      
thousand other hints of ferocity in the 
interiors of nature4 ,providence has a  
wild rough incalculable road to its end1
 and 'it is of no use to try to         
white-wash its huge mixed               
instrumentalities1 or to dress up that  
terrific benefactor in a clean shirt and
 white neckcloth of a student of        
divinity4' ,but he only drew from the   
thought of these cruelties of the       
universe the practical moral that 'our  
culture must not omit the arming of the 
man4' ,he is born into the state of war1
 and will therefore do well to acquire a
 military attitude of soul4 ,there is   
perhaps no better moral than this of the
 ,stoic1 but greater impressiveness     

might have marked the lesson1 if our    
teacher had been more indulgent to the  
man's sense of tragedy in that vast     
drama in which he plays his piteous     
part4  ,in like manner1 ,emerson has    
little to say of that horrid burden and 
impediment on the soul1 which the       
churches call ,sin1 and which1 by       
whatever name we call it1 is a very real
 catastrophe in the moral nature of man4
 ,he had no eye1 like ,dante's1 for the 
vileness1 the cruelty1 the utter        
despicableness to which humanity may be 
moulded4 ,if he saw them at all1 it was 
through the softening and illusive      
medium of generalised phrases4 ,nor was 
he ever shocked and driven into himself 
by 'the immoral thoughtlessness' of men4
 ,the courses of nature1 and the        
prodigious injustices of man in society1
 affect him with neither horror nor awe4
 ,he will see no monster if he can help 
it4 ,for the fatal ,nemesis or terrible 
,erinnyes1 daughters of ,erebus and     
,night1 ,emerson substitutes a          

fair-weather abstraction named          
,compensation4 ,one radical tragedy in  
nature he admits--'the distinction of   
,more and ,less4' ,if ,i am poor in     
faculty1 dim in vision1 shut out from   
opportunity1 in every sense an outcast  
from the inheritance of the earth1 that 
seems indeed to be a tragedy4 ',but see 
the facts clearly and these mountainous 
inequalities vanish4 ,love reduces them1
 as the sun melts the iceberg in the    
sea4 ,the heart and soul of all men     
being one1 this bitterness of ,his and  
,mine ceases4 ,his is mine4' ,surely    
words1 words1 words6 ,what can be more  
idle1 when one of the world's bitter    
puzzles is pressed on the teacher1 than 
that he should betake himself to an     
altitude whence it is not visible1 and  
then assure us that it is not only      
invisible1 but non-existent8 ,this is   
not to see the facts clearly1 but to    
pour the fumes of obscuration round     
them4 ,when he comforts us by saying    
',love1 and you shall be loved1' who    

does not recall cases which make the    
,jean ,valjean of ,victor ,hugo's noble 
romance not a figment of the theatre1   
but an all too actual type8 ,the        
believer who looks to another world to  
redress the wrongs and horrors of this2 
the sage who warns us that the law of   
life is resignation1 renunciation1 and  
doing-without 7entbehren sollst         
du7--each of these has a foothold in    
common language4 ,but to say that all   
infractions of love and equity are      
speedily punished--punished by fear--and
 then to talk of the perfect            
compensation of the universe1 is mere   
playing with words1 for it does not     
solve the problem in the terms in which 
men propound it4 ,emerson1 as we have   
said1 held the spirit of ,system in     
aversion as fettering the liberal play  
of thought1 just as in morals1 with     
greater boldness1 he rebelled against a 
minute and cramping interpretation of   
,duty4 ,we are not sure that his own    
optimistic doctrine did not play him the

 same tyrannical trick1 by sealing his  
eyes to at least one half of the        
actualities of nature and the gruesome  
possibilities of things4 ,it had no     
unimportant effect on ,emerson's thought
 that he was born in a new world that   
had cut itself loose from old history4  
,the black and devious ways through     
which the race has marched are not real 
in ,north ,america1 as they are to us in
 old ,europe1 who live on the very site 
of secular iniquities1 are surrounded by
 monuments of historic crime1 and find  
present and future entangled1           
embittered1 inextricably loaded both in 
blood and in institutions with desperate
 inheritances from the past4  ,there are
 many topics1 and those no mean topics1 
on which the best authority is not the  
moralist by profession1 as ,emerson was1
 but the man of the world4 ,the world   
hardens1 narrows1 desiccates common     
natures1 but nothing so enriches        
generous ones4 ,for knowledge of the    
heart of man1 we must go to those who   

were closer to the passions and         
interests of actual and varied life than
 ,emerson ever could have been--to      
,horace1 ,montaigne1 ,la ,bruyre1       
,swift1 ,molire1 even to ,pope4 ,if a   
hostile critic were to say that ,emerson
 looked at life too much from the       
outside1 as the clergyman is apt to do1 
we should condemn such a remark as a    
disparagement1 but we should understand 
what it is in ,emerson that the critic  
means4 ,he has not the temperament of   
the great humorists1 under whatever     
planet they may have been born1 jovial1 
mercurial1 or saturnine4 ,even his      
revolt against formalism is only a new  
fashion of composure1 and sometimes     
comes dangerously near to moral         
dilettantism4 ,the persistent           
identification of everything in nature  
with everything else sometimes          
bewilders1 fatigues1 and almost afflicts
 us4 ,though he warns us that our       
civilisation is not near its meridian1  
but as yet only in the cock-crowing and 

the morning star1 still all ages are    
much alike with him3 man is always man1 
'society never advances1' and he does   
almost as little as ,carlyle himself to 
fire men with faith in social progress  
as the crown of wise endeavour4 ,but    
when all these deductions have been made
 and amply allowed for1 ,emerson remains
 among the most persuasive and inspiring
 of those who by word and example rebuke
 our despondency1 purify our sight1     
awaken us from the deadening slumbers of
 convention and conformity1 exorcise the
 pestering imps of vanity1 and lift men 
up from low thoughts and sullen moods of
 helplessness and impiety4     ,,end    
,,of ,,vol4 ,i4  ,printed by ,r4  ,r4   
,,clark1 ,,limited1 ,edinburgh4