cipitated.” He believed in the Over-Soul as a light guiding man, the light of intuitive perception, in God as the soul of the world, and in the human soul as one with that Over-Soul. He was not able to formulate these or other beliefs of his logically. Writing to his former colleague, Henry Ware, he said: “I could not give an account of myself if challenged. . . . I do not know what arguments are in reference to any expression of a thought. I delight in telling what I think; but if you ask me how I dare say so, or why it is so, I am the most helpless of mortal men.” This continued to be his position to the end. He relied upon intuition, and thought that every one might bring himself into accord with God on that basis. He expressed what he felt at the moment, and some of his sayings, even in a single essay, seem to be mutually opposed. But, if the whole of his works be taken together, a type of thought may be discerned in the conflicting expressions, coherent and suggestive, like that presented by the photographs of several generations of a family superimposed on one plate. In the beginning he seems to have looked somewhat askance at science; but in the 1849 edition of “Nature” he prefixed some verses that said:
| “ | And, striving to be man, the worm Mounts through all the spires of form.” |
This came out ten years before Darwin's “Origin
of Species,” and twenty years sooner than “The
Descent of Man.” Lamarck's theories, however,
had been popularized in 1844. But Emerson here
showed how quick he was to seize upon the newest
thought in science or elsewhere if it seemed to be
true. Eleven years passed, and he declared in the
essay on “Worship,” in “Conduct of Life”: “The
religion which is to guide and fulfil the present and
coming ages must be intellectual. The scientific
mind must have a faith which is science. . . . There
will be a new church founded on moral science, at
first cold and naked . . . but it will have heaven
and earth for its beams and rafters, science for
symbol and illustration. It will fast enough gather
beauty, music, picture, poetry.” While he thus
advanced in viewing science, he advanced also in
viewing all other subjects; but it was from the
point of view of intuition and oneness with what
he called the Over-Soul. Everything that he said
must be looked at in the light of his own remark,
“Life is a train of moods.” But his moods rest
upon the certainty, to him, of his own intuition.
Emerson's presentation of his views is generally in
a large degree poetic. His poems sum up and also
expand his prose. The seeming want of technical
skill in his verse is frequently due to a more
subtile art of natural melody which defied
conventional rules of versification. The irregular lines,
the flaws of metre and rhyme, remind us of the
intermittent breathings of an Æolian harp.
Emerson's poetic instrument may have been a rustic
contrivance, but it answered to every impulse of
the winds and the sighs of human feeling, from
“Monadnoc” to the “Threnody” upon the death
of his child-son. Sometimes he unconsciously so
perfected his poetic lines that, as Dr. Holmes says,
a moment after they were written they “seemed
as if they had been carved on marble for a thousand
years,” as this in “Voluntaries”:
| “ | So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can.” |
Matthew Arnold has pronounced his essays “the
most important work done in prose” in this century;
but Prof. C. C. Everett, discussing the qualities
of Emerson in the “Andover Review” for
March, 1887, describes his philosophy as that of a
poet, and adds, “so his ethics is the ethics of a
poet.” He regards the poems as the most
complete and worthy expression of Emerson's genius.
But Dr. Everett's discovery of passion in
Emerson's poetry is not generally accepted by other
critics. As has been well remarked by another
writer, the verse, in general abstractly and
intellectually beautiful, kindles to passion only when
the chosen theme is distinctly American or
patriotic. Emerson constantly preached by life and pen
a new revelation, a new teacher of religion and
morals, putting himself always in the place of a
harbinger, a John crying in the wilderness. Julian
Hawthorne has written of him: “He is our future
living in our present, and showing the world, by
anticipation, what sort of excellence we are
capable of.” His own life conformed perfectly to the
idealism that he taught; but he regarded himself
as a modest link in the chain of progress. He
made his generation turn their eyes forward instead
of backward. He enforced upon them courage,
self-reliance, patriotism, hope. People flocked to
him from all quarters, finally, for advice and guidance.
The influence that he exercised not only
upon persons since grown eminent, such as Prof.
Tyndall, who found a life's inspiration in his
thought, but also upon thousands unknown, is one
of his claims to recognition. Another is that, at
a time when, it is conceded, the people of the
United States were largely materialistic in their
aims, he came forward as the most idealistic writer
of the age, and also as a plain American citizen.
He was greatly indebted to preceding authors. It
has been ascertained that he named in his writings
3,393 quotations from 808 individuals, mostly
writers. “The inventor only knows how to quote,”
said Emerson; and, notwithstanding his drafts
upon the treasury of the past, he is the most original
writer as a poet, seer, and thinker that America
possesses. The doctrine of the “many in one,”
which he incessantly taught, is exemplified in
himself and his works. The best extant accounts of
Emerson are “Ralph Waldo Emerson, his Life,
Writings, and Philosophy,” by George Willis Cooke
(Boston, 1881); “Ralph Waldo Emerson,” by Oliver
Wendell Holmes (Boston, 1884); “Emerson at
Home and Abroad,” by Moncure D. Conway;
“Biographical Sketch,” by Alexander Ireland; “The
Genius and Character of Emerson, Lectures at the
Concord School of Philosophy,” edited by F. B.
Sanborn (Boston, 1885). See, also, F. B. Sanborn's
“Homes and Haunts of Emerson.” J. E. Cabot,
of Boston, has in charge a life authorized by
Emerson's family, which may include extracts from
his diaries and other unpublished matter.
EMERSON, William, clergyman, b. in
Concord, Mass., 6 May, 1769; d. in Boston, Mass., 12
May, 1811. He was the father of Ralph Waldo
Emerson. William was graduated at Harvard in
1789, and after teaching for two years returned to
Cambridge as a student of divinity. He had been
there but a few months when he began preaching,
and on 23 May, 1792, was ordained pastor of
the Unitarian church at Harvard, Mass. In 1799
he received a call from the 1st church in Boston,
and remained there until his death. Of his abilities
as a pulpit orator, Mr. George Ticknor wrote
in 1849: “Mr. Emerson possessed a graceful and
dignified style of speaking, which was by no means
without its attraction, but he lacked the fervor
that could rouse the masses, and the original
resources that could command the few.” He was
the founder and active promoter of the “Christian
Monitor” society, whose publications were issued
