The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1867-03-02
KEoRUk. iowa


SATURDAY MOhNlNd, MAhCd z.
RALPH WALDO EMERsON..
We we're called away from the city and did
not hear his Lecture At the breakfast table
in the hotel yesterday morning, We noticed
tall, slightly built man, with hair changing to
gray; head very small for his body, with
Tow forehead. and depressed in the region
where chronological charts are marked "Ven-
erssicn,v Besevelsuce; lths experisnced
phrenologist may convict Us Of error herein.
1t may be we read amiss the location OF the
organs; we only 60 BY the books y an eye soft
and mild in expression, we would say the eye
is light blue; an enormous nose, /" hooked
but beyond that underlined and falling Within
none of the generic classes Of noses,-4hst
man was RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Americas
sbles. essayist and most original thinker.
A public persensl description Of any man is
On impertinence. We wiifnlly commit it.
Perhaps the reader would like to hear more
Of him. Cleaning the body Of eur talk from
published sketches of him, we say thus
much:
Mr.. Emerson was born in Boston, Masss-
chusetts, in May, 1903. He came Of . race
Of theologians. His ancestors for genera
tons had been preachers. Young Emerson,
like other Yankee boys, went TO school.
When he got older he wrote and read original
poems for his school boy compositions. Folks
discovered Tiers was "something in him. y
Then be went to Harvard College and gradu.
ated at eighteen. He did not rank high in
his class for scholarship. He lived in the
College Library: if when be graduated he
did not know as much Of the text books as
of general literature than all of them. be
was the poet Of the class at college COM
movements and got the college prizes for his
essays. For Eve years after graduating be
taught school. In 1926 he became Congre.
gstionsi minister in 1929 pastor of the See.
ond Unitarian church 10 Boston. He differed
from his church In his views of the Lord
Supper, and in 1892 be asked and was granted
q dismissal from his pastorate. Then be
spurned all tremmels Of faith or authority
and became erstic even in tbs estimation o.
Orthodox Heterodoxy Then he visited Eu.
rope. Here il was doubtless that his specu
lstions became SO largely marked by the char
acteristics Of German TranscendentAIkm
Returning to this country be commenced ii
the winter Of 1884 the career Of a lecturer
in which he has become so distinguished. II
is4l he published his first series Of Essays.
These we're original. He drew the matter oil
them from bis own consciousness. Of this
the psychological method as the process Il
attain philosophy-we will say one wore
further on. But these Essays" we're no
only original; they we're startling. Th.
American public discovered that his view
were naughty. 30 it read and scolded, bu
wouldn't become his disciple. He did no
establish any "School" He did not desr,
70. If there be one thing more than another
that Mr.. Emerson does not like il is schools
and systems. He deems them charlatanism
So he wrote on and got more readers, and il
time admirers, and all the time increasing
reputation. In 1884 he was editor of the
Dial"--the organ of New England Tran,
scendentalism. Then he published more
Essays" He visited Europe again II,
was received into the highest literary circle.
and his talents were much admired. HI
wrote g English Traits showing that he haC
the eyes of Yankee as well as philoso
pher, and could keep them on the earth al
well as in the clouds We shall not nam,
the remainder of bis writings. His "Repre
sentative Men " and "Poems " are the bes
known Of these.
Mr.. Emerson is Transcendentalist, bu
he is also sagacious and practical. He ha,
written as forcibly and clearly as any Ameri-
can upon Slavery and Universal Suffrage, ant
kindred topics Of popular interest. He hal
wit; il is delicate, and we're il more nearl,
allied TO humor Americans would better ap-
preciate it. His poetry is too metaphysics
for most folk. With him sentiment is al
intellection. The critics say his most marked
mental trait is his admiration of the besuti
full. We apprchend they cannot mean b,
that more than refined taste, made up OF non,
other than the abstrsctest rational elements
he writes without conjunctions. His sen.
fences and his entire essays, like hi
philosophy, are fragments. His philosophy
has been called "a generalization of e1is
tence.n he studies this in his own con
seriousness. Doing this, with his intellectus
scuteness he cannot be other than original
profound, and entertaining. Victor Cousin
thought that the growth of the ultimate avs
tenn Of philosophy-hence the true system
Of philosophy-would be American. Fl,
may have been right in this: be was deludet
when be thought it would be Eclecticism
Mr.. Emerson is our profoundest metaphysi
clan; be cannot give Americaits philosophy
BY the phrase the psychological method,
We understand the inductive study Of con
sciousness. 1t is with unfeigned difidencr
we give our firm conviction that by tina
method alone true philosophy will never b
attained; else would Plato and Aristotle
Descartes and Locke, Reid, Kant. Cousin
Sir William Hamilton and John Stuart Mil
have reached it. The hope of Philosophy j
in Positivism. If that fails, it will then reac
Faith through Science and find Philosoph
there. But this subject is too abstruss for
daily newspaper. Our people will be gla
that they have heard Mr.. Emerson, an
bearing him, doubtless many, who have no
before done so, will turn to the study 9
those high subjects which in his writings Mi
Emerson has so ably discussed.
"BUr We have no hes;tancx ahor, d..,..;.r
10 be our deliberate conviction that IL the h;
which the Journal ccmmends is attempted to h
imposed on the people Of the Southern States, a
the point Of Federal bsyonets, while they are i