New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-11-20
Emerson.

Emerson.
TIE following criticism on the most origi-
nal of our poets differs widely from any
that has before been offered to the public.
We take it without permission from prl-
yate letter, but its excellence Is excuse
enough. 1t is of that sort which goes ire
sistibIy into print without asking leave OF
any body:
~ have lust been reading Emersons Represen.
tatire Men. The work is so manifestlyf fall Of gen
inc tbe good part SO sgnalizes itself the flashes
are so much before the eye, and the sub,lety Of
the truth and remark SO penetrating, that feel
no manner Of ability to praise the book, or to
sneak well of it. When anything rises to GER
tain excellence the best service you can do IS to
abuse it. 1 feel it great pity that abusing has
fallen SO entirely into the hands Of enemies that
it has become diabolic, when it ought 70 be
rescued and to be put into the hands OF friends.
1t is as though the surgeon should be chosen
for hating you instead OF for loving, and should
put spice of cruelty into his slashes, when
all YOU want is clean cutting. And therefore
i
should vindcate to myself the night of finding
nothing bat fault II he were one Of those thick,
phlegmatic geniuses whose souls are deep though
their ewes are eaden, and who are diamonds only
in their white-h hot moments, it would be wrong to
throw any dscredt upon greatness which the
public already discredits; but on the contrary he
is mere light, electricity, sunset, north shine, and
uncomfortable essence; and the best way to re-
ceive him, and the only way to exhibit him, IS ON
dark ground of criticism and heavy remark. The
worst of it is, | know OF nothing black enough to
set him properly of. | have tried by putting
Atheist behind him, to see how his Cometship
would show but alas he Illuminated the term,
and lightened it away, and found that l saw
through him into the profound. So, unfortunately
/ fell through.
ellis lecture on swedenborg is, however, the
only one on which l could say word. ma
Ralph w aldo guilty OF great tlmidlty and Snos'-
fearing in Sinking the whole problem OF his splf-
tual experience as he does, in annihilatlng the
eniritual world by mere dislike and noh tangere.
The thing is too hard for that, and baunts the man
in spite of his rapid revolutions of his back a
murdered world will be avenged, and though
Emerson wishes to face every thing and TO nave
no back, vet let him stand ever pianely with his
dorsum up against the wall the ghost will lntrude
between wall and dorsum, and establish haunt.
1t is useless to turn the back upon things to which
every thing is interstitial, and every lnterstlce
roomy So my friends first fault is TIMIDITY,
which is only not recognized as such on account
OF its vast proportions. | grant, then, that the
funk is sublime, which is a true and friendly ad-
mission.
1.-THE next fault to be signalized is Emersons
excessive ORTHODOXY. His objections to Swe-
denborg are the most advanced objections OF Or
thodoxy, carried out to an Emersonic length All
the ordinary heterodoxy is nothing but the other
extreme of plain and current views Orthodoxy
is the stake to which it is painfully tethered Inc
Heterodox man excaims that he is far from that
center Yes, says the Orthodox, but what go"
call distance, cali string. Now Emerson ana
the Bishop of London are but positive and mega
tive of one thing, but inward fruit and outward
rind, which by their very opposition copulate INTO
one form, and carry forward one force hereas
Swedenborg belongs to a new order, which stahdS
with its feet equally upon both The negative
patronizes him for the time as good against the
positive but he is really poised and supported
with one leg upon either And the positive has
as much right to him as the negative. The Sc
cond accusation then is, that Emerson terribly
tied IN Orthodoxy. cannot suspect for a moment
that here is n phenomenon outlying 1t and com
me ncing to supersede it and hence ne Judges
Swedenborg from the normal and orthodox point,
Ms child accustomed to the sight OF cheeses VIII
have the moon to be green specimen OF that
genus.
:. Nv third accusation is, his exaggerated sEcTh
RIAS1sM Unitarianism carried out to its last con-
SEQUENCES, furnishes his guide to possibility and
his inmost point of view. | know that ne re-
nugDs Unitarianism But when a man knocks
down his own papa, he does not thereby cease to
belong to the family nay, if his father has done
the like to his grandfather, he is only the more
chip Of the old block for knocking down his father
1t is not by going from thick to thin that you alter,
but BY becoming new mind through both thick
! and thin But all this is too short to be readily
ineligible have only succeeded in limiting at
back ground for this Elm sword glea1n-this
brother of the lightning but whether the canvas
will stand his luminous carnations, | cannot
saw"
q MINNESOTA has total white population lac.
cording to the new Census) of 6,l93 This is less
than we had supposed, but it must be remember
ed that this was the population the lst Of June
last, and that nearly all this years emigration ar
rived subsequent to that date.
Indiana State Convention.
The question of Womans Rights, which was
the special order yesterday, having been laid
over till tomorrow, the Convention resumed the
consideration OF the pending question of the taking