, 1861-01-18

pr sort Of classical position amongst Amert-
cau authore, should gTavcly read to nu audi
cncc taken from the most fntelligcnt part OF
the most Intelligent city in the Union. non
,nttted in tie pages Of q fourth rate magazine,
edited and written by the lowest kind Of lite
rary hacks, dfagulsng their identity under
names looking as if they had been given py
the Founding Hospital Much nonsense Is
still talked here, but hardly m Enslishmnn
who had anything like q reputation to 1ose,
would write euch sentence us this in dcscrb-
iug ,hc ranthefsm Of the future: :-"He'' (man)
"kl,a expect no cooperation, he spall Walk
With no CONF ran1on. The nnmcless Ihonsht the
shall rcpoac alone on that" Swearing no
doubt, IS wrong, but If expletiyes were ever
iustifallc. they would be justified By such
proyoc:.tion as this. The energy Of cSpres,
zion with which certain gentleman Is said
to have silc.ncd the "barbarian ba:pipcs" Of
Scotch regiment which drowned The word
Of command, would almost be czcusable in
reference to this sort Of 1apguagc. The cant
Of religion is bad, the cant Of philanthropy IS
worse, but the cant Of sentimental 1uhthtism
| Heart ar;l nancless Thousht arc Infinitely
| less than 3Iunlbo Jumbo. Tic fetish Worship
r.r does believe in his lit Of wood, but it is
almost uncomfortable that an5 Eanc man should
| u,ake q rod Of bad English, except for puF-
poses OF atIeclatlon. The whole book, from
|
| twaldlc, relieved by nonsense. There Is,
| here and there, sort Of cleyerness about 1t;
hut generally spc1ting it is pcrraded W an
| Impotence and inaccuracy OF mind when Is
only matched by the ostentat3on IN wniea
from statistics to falalism: and amongst other
| rrn,nrks about them says &c murc fagot
Of these adamantlne bautlagcs Is tue new sci
encr Of statistics. It Is . rulathat the most
casual and extraordinary events of the basis Of
Population ,o,; is bread enough t. eeesmc matter
DouLtlcss, in every million there will be I'll
astronomer, 4 mathcnati clau, comic poet, q
1nystIc," In an earlier Ect Of essays (which
We quote from memory he says that II t. one
man in every forty thousand eats shoes, there
will be in every forty thousand mcn enc who
cats shoes. He is obviously Ignorant Of the
principles Of, the science which hc thus illus
trntcs. If the millionth part Of mankind are
lna.hcmaticiaus, 1t does not follow that in ey.
ery million there will be I mathematician. II
there were six balls, two Of which were
black, it would not follow tiiat every set ol
three taken out Of them would maintain one
blacIS bali. The odds that any given set of
three such balls would contain at least one
i black one would be four to one. The odds thlf
il would contain one white and two black
woull be three to two. This m-y be trivial
criticism, but It IS one whicl. goes far to ex
pose the real character Of 3tr. Emcrsonfs whole
mind. He has i vague sort OF notion that sta
IfSlIC4 plOtE lAla A ASsNA VI
. taking the pains toEec what they really prove
but aiter asserting something altogether con
trary to the fact, flies off about ''torrents o.
tendency" "pebbles from The mountains, >
xru.,t, n.- '-~or:ls, and Enipodes. ,
). ..3starehus, PFInee~- ~"-ucst de.
:: ;. Ely: '14jngs Of names give one al v-~- :,
s1ea M Ave the right d cross e&atnihatl9.t.
: elret? & Infinitely deli "htfal 70 sac Mr: EmeE'
!, @ woula aate to show what he really know y! :;
l syn stU,,a ~ Is Enipodcs? Where and When olo
,,aMnIst wv Give an account Of hls principal op'h
;. n,. sn,3 llow IN what particulars they asfeee
+ .on5' ana 1 Uttered from, those Gt AnH1mens.s
odna;a, wv, ahu and lrisiarchus 2" This IS ~
IN ~ C,s tions which it would &c reail!
!, nieasent 4n;ec MIN set to answer n tne Prs
. . ml rnce 1,f snns examiner who set their p59pel
r value c3 sttllfents Of tcndencJ,
; antagonists, y niia ELL ::,,';,,.
!, Probably Mr,Emcrson never knew anyInin;
= Of tic Rigorous discipline which takes the non m
. . s,usc ont OF: your Englishmen, and teacne e
~ them to talk OF words that have meanlns, IL IL
,rr stcad Of "supcr personal Hearts" and " 70! O
- - rents Of tendency" The whole tone Of u
!. writings is that Of classical, phnosopnieo
- educational institution, where theyoanS ~
s tlcmcn arc instructed, without corpora paa
ishmcnt, on physiological principles, ana cu
"a neither write, cop=truc, nor kno" nuinpu
l. yrnrn firy ste hin: