Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-02-14
EMERSON.

1t is great relief to ordinary mortals to discover
that Il philosopher has anything in common with
themselves. Mr.. Emerson once hoat,d before our
fancy as a cloud hali.luminous. half.dark, now
%skimming the earth, now sailing above the noun
taiDs, now flashing inexpressible light. then sud.
denly turning upon us a cold sharp mass of dark
n%ess-with perchanco a glimmer of stars from its
impenetrable depths. Whether in some great cy.
clio Of transmigration Plato had taken shape again
but only such dreamy shape AZ becomes a dis
embodied s%pirit-or whether Plato himself was II
Hcbula Of antiquity now floating within the sphere
eff our atmosphere, ard assuming IL more consoli-
dated fnrm-we never could quite determine from
anything we heard or saw of 1.-The sage of CON.
cord"
But it fell to US once after listening for an hour
Mr.. Emerson always closes with tho hour, even
if he breaks off in the middle of an aphorism- to
one of those rare illusions OF the poet-philosopher,
that leave one hewillered as 20 his persona. iden-
titv. floating upon golden clouds of sung-it fell
to us to speak the oracle lace to face, to DO justled
with him for miles in the same carriage. to clam
her with him over rocks and fences to the hill top,
to sit Gown with him n. the same huspitable
board, to hear him in the chitcbat of the parlor,
and again to have a carriage talk in the still night
through the woods. This near view Of Mr., Emer-
son surprised us almost as much as the sight of
1.-THE immortal Ceesar," under the common cundi-
tons OF humanitv, amazed the sturdy Cassius
but on quite other grounds. We found him not n
man OF lebDlc temper, UHlDuucu Dy IlIDllltlT
ihings-but that tongue of his, that just now
"bade men mark him, and write his speeches in
their books discoursed with the plainest common
sense, the largest practical wisdom, an she kind
Hest sffection, upon TIE things of common life
Not a trace of pedantry or mysticism. not the
least air of conscious superiority, could now be
detected in him who had just discoursed so loftily
of the exclusive caste Of the scholar. Indeed, il
called upon to make confession of the sins thp
most beset him in society, like the austere and lof
ty Damiani, he must have written "a contempt OF
pom pous follies, and a disposition to laughter"
He had spoken in his address of the uniforms
ty with which all the disclosures of Spiritualists,
from whatever spirit and through whatever medi
um, come to US by way of Emanuel Swedenborg
Recalling this admirable hit, we provoked him tc
an eloquent period upon the grandeur of an at
tested revelation and then, will. that emphatic
hesitancy that precedes ONE apt expression, he
added of spirit rappings. "This r.r-rat-hoie revela
ton, | have no patience with" No philosoph,
could more effectually anhilate the whole system
We passed = golden orchard. Il love to SCI
the crop of apples looking well. The apple is thu
and the fire side" There was a poem of kindl,
feeling in that of-hand remark.
4 goud fvc.mile walker, none of the party coulC
excel him in climbing: not even the enthusiast
and accomplished ,ord of the manor-whose guest
we we're could point out with a more apprecia
tive eye the beauties of the landscape, its geologi
cal features, or its capabilities of production, iron
the we.l-eared corn of the interval to the thick
set cranberry bed in the marsh. In fine, we mad
up our minds that our new-found friend might b
; erratic, and mystic, and transcendental and a
) that, but that he was still "a man for o. that
The Independent.