Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-01-17
VOL. XVII.
Ralph waldo Emerson.

f whose name stands at the head Of this g,
]. ticle. An opportunity never embrace
= before, concluded to embrace now; an,
thus partially indebtedtO you forit, I 1e1
! ture to offer you somewhat of my imprel
t siOns Of that evenings performance.
That found the lecture pure and ters
! in diction, and in other ways attractiv
/ and fOrcible, indicative of clear and in
: dependent thinker, it is needless to say
The few first utterances of such speake
sufficiently assure the hearer that some
thing is coming worth his notice. An
the notice was amply given that evening
Every word went rOtund into every ear
and every thought lodged itself in ever.
mind. Emerson's lectures can never b
winds that blow over the hOusetOps. !
glittering Mosaic was spread before us
OF, if you please, it was rich kalaides
cope, turned by patient hand.
PerhaPsI however, the lecturer, in hi
extemporaneous introduction of his topic
did not exactly hitstbe meaninghe intend
ed, when he spolOgized for it as one rather
more intellectual than the ordinary onei
occurring in popular lectures. 1t wat
| rigidly literary, being q discourse upon
books, language modes of speech, sc, but
how more than usually intellectual, failed
to discover. The tongue, when not under
the bit and bride Of the pen, will, with
the most skilful of men, sometimes slip.
Also, it was little dubious what was
meant by the q Third Estate of Literature -
whether literature in a third degree of
remove from its normal standard of per-
feetiOn, as when Luther spoke to the
people HoOarsely,P ? or when the street-bOys
use double negatives; ;''-Or, literature
as at last having reached the third est4ts
Of nlaHkiHd, i. E., the humblest classes.
Perhaps both. At least, concluded the
latter sense was embraced, as the lecturer
proceeded to give US variety of speei-
mems Of wrong styles of speech, as well as
some rules for writing. Most Of the ex-
ceptionable instances Of popular errors in
speech were genuine; while a few others
seemed to me nOtsO. For example, in his
"gazetting" the phrase, Il shall hare to
60" Under the word Have Webster
gives one point Of definition as follows:
To be urged by necessity or obligation;
to be under necessity, or impelled by duty
I tTr1a ~ rTfu N
have to strive against temptation. The
nation has to pay the interest Of our i'm
mense debit
Stripped Of our convenient and patri-
archal haze, we are shut up to the one word
mast or else are driven out into the wide
cireumlocutOry flourish Of telling our FAM
ily or friends that We are under the neees
sityi or inpsitsd By cireumstdnees to 20 to
the Post Office. And If hare be proper in
the present tense, why not in the future
" II L do not find my letter at the Post
Office, then shall have to 60 to the Depot
for it."
But perhaps the most questionable Of
All these verbal criticisms was upon the
familiar expression, 4" lvas Uery much NOR
tgfed." As mortified means put to death,
Mr.. Emerson thought it highly redundant
for one 10 say that he was geTy much put
to death. But how strange that Mr.. En-
erson should think that q young lady
means that she was put to death when she
says that she was mortified. Ne. Mortif-
cation has fgUratips sense, tantamount
to humiliation or ehGgFiR. The young lady
means to say, that she was hlfmiliated or
ehdgriled, And may she not say that she
was much chagrined, or UeTy much cha
grined 7? Yes, out West she may, what
ever more stringent rules bind at the East.
But, Mr.. Editor, all these little pebbles
which the lecturer threw at us common
folks, were as nothing to the huge boul-
ders which he threw down from his intel
lectual heights upon our received reli-
gious faith. 1t seemed to me that he might
have served up his dish Of the "Third Es- |
tate of Literature without poisoning it |
with his frst-proOf Infdelity. But the |
opportunity seemed too good to be lost, and |
he sifted itin. He told US that all went |
well with Christian orthodoxy, until the |
invention Of the telescope; whose first |
sweep around the arch and horizon Of the /
heavens carried away with it the ecele-
siastieal cob-Webs Of all ages, and espe-
cially exploded the leng-held dogma, that
80 pigmy q world as ours could be the 4
theeter Of such drama as the alleged |
APOstscy and Redemption of Man. As
though man would be Of more importance,
on bigger world! Or, Of IeSs Importance
on q smaller world Suppose the planet
Jupiter to be IAN hundred times larger than
the Earth; then our race, located there,
would be an hundred times more import
ant, and an hundred times more worthy
Of Gods notice and Intervention than it is
now, located here. Or, suppose our Solar
system is only one among a million Of sim
liar systems; then our race stands only
one chance to a million that God will mo-
tioe or heed them Is this the philosophy
Of the Usage Of Concord ~ Is he SO car !
nal, or physical as to measure man by his
exterior bulk, OF value him by the magni-
tude or splendor Of his dwelling? Has
man no SOUL capable, bye-and-bye, per-
adventure, Of visiting any, some, or all, of
ihese other worlds around?
Besides, in mentioning the telescope, why
did not the lecturer mention the 6a aReing
the microscope. As the tele-
scope took US Up, the microscope took us
fot7n, showing US wonders Of Ged's crea-
ton and providence as far 6elov us, as the
showed them above us. God
brought the two instruments into the world
still leaving man on the old lev
81 Of being that he had SO long occupied.
I always thought that MITcHELL, the
Cincinnati astronomer, and the late heroic
General Of one Of our Southern armies
and who offered himself an holocaust upon
MS country's altar, was something Of q
elese0piGR, and yet he seems by no means
% have lost his Christian orthodoxy among
he stars. His dying words were, Show
gaiuable is the Christians hope in an hour
ike this"
. In short, in listening to these il-timed
.hrusts at our popular faith, wondered to
nYsalf if amonp the immensa varietr Of