Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1850-03-07

REPRESENTATIVE Men: SEVEN LECTURES. BY R.
w. Emerson. Boston: Phillips, Sampson g. Co.
| PIP. 2S5.
The subject of these Lectures ore-I. Uses of
Great Men, III. Plato, the Philosopher. Ill. Swe
denborg, or the Mystic. Nv. Montague, or the
Skeptic ". Shakespeare. the Poet. vi. Napo-
Icon, the Man of the World. VII. Goethe, or the
| Writer.
This volume is given to the public without preface
or introductory remark; much TO say, all is
herein said that needs to be recorded either regards
the author or his sublects-and there Is no need of
delay flourish. before entering upon the work it.
self Of million writers, there is but one EMERSON;
yet he is not writer for the millions, because TO
them he will be measureably obscure, if not unnter
esIng, on account of his diomatic pecuaries.
However, by a large class Of our race he will be
gratefully appreciated, enthusiastically praised. al
mos, idollzed; aud the SURFACES of this class are
worth obtaining II is difficult to crtlcse him. He
is quaint without afectotion; sharp without fppancy;
independent without waywardness; positive without
egutsm or insolence. His genius is strongly poeii-
chi, and marked by unmisakeable originality. or
jacob Behmen. the celebrated religious mystic, he
remarks When he says that, in some sort, love is
greater Than Coda psradoxcal saving. truly
has heart beats high that the humping against his
ieathern coal is audible The CENTURIES or Swe-
denborg he Says colossal soul, he lies vast
abroad on his times uncomprehended by them, and
requires a long focal distance To be One of the
mssouriums and masierdons of literature, lie is not
to be measured by whole colleges of ordinary schol-
ars. His stalwsrt presence would fuuer the gowns
of university OF Shakspeare-inimitableS hak-
speare-he says He is strong as nature is strong,
who lifts the land into mountain slopes without effort
and by the rule he floats bubble in the air,
and likes as well to d. the une as the other. For
executive faculty. for creation, Shakespeare is unique.
=. He carried his powerful execution into minute
details, to hair point; finishes eyeash or dimple
firmly as he draws mountain; and yet these, like
natures will bear the scrutiny Of the solar micro
scope Of Napoleon he says. His victories were
like so many doors, and he never for moment lost
his way onward, in the dazzle and uproar of the pre-
sent circumstance He knew what to do, and he
few to his mark. He icould shorten a straight line
to to has object OF Goethe he says In the
menstruum Of this mans wit, the past and the pre-
sent ages, aud their religions, politics. and modes u
thinking, dissolved into archetypes and ideas
What new my,hoogies sail through his head! The
Greeks said that Alexander went far chaos
Goethe went only the other day, far; and one step
farther he hazarded, and brought himself safe back
OF Plato (whom he venerates excessively he says
Out of Plato all things that still written
and debated among men of thought. Great havoc
makes he among originalities. We have reached
the mountain from which all these drift boulders
detached. Plato is philosophy, and philosophy il
Plato,-at once the glory and the shame of mankind
since neither Saxon nor Roman have availed TO ado
any idea to his categories.' Of Montague he says
The sincerity and marrow of the man reach to hi
sentences. know not any where the book that SEEM
less written. 1t is the language of conversation
ro nsferred to book. Cut these words, and they
would bleed; they vascular and alive And s.
we might go on, copying passages equally graphi
and pOelical. embracing nearly the whole volume
But we have quoted quite enough TO infame curiosI
and sharpen appetite for the remainder.