The Portland daily press., 1876-01-22

oi trope Is tnat the hearer is one; and
indeed Nature itself is a vast trope, and all
particular natures are tropes. As the bird
alights on the bough, then plunges into the
air again, so the thoughts of God pause but a
moment in any form. All thinking is analo-
gizing, and tits the use of life to learn meton-
omy Poetry is the perpetual endeayor to ex-
press the spirit of the thing, to pass the brute
body, to search the life and reason which causes
1t to exis.;-to see that the object is always
flowing away, whilst the spirit or necessity
which causes it subssts. 1t is a miraculous
command of all means of uttering the thought
and feeling of the moment. Whilst common
sense looks at things or visible nature as real
and final facts, poetry is second sight, looking
through these, and using them as types or
words for thoughts which they signify. The
pest definition of poetry is the Oldest, that of
Aoroaster: Poets are standing transporters,
whose employment consists in speaking to the
rather and to matter; in producing apparent
limitations of unapparent natures, and in
scribing things unapparent in the apprsent
fabrication of the world" Bacon has said:
Poetry accommodates the show of things to
the desires os the mind"
All this may be Delphic to many. but the
earnest seeker will admit that the oracle has
spoken truly, and all of us feel what Mr. EN-
erson further says, that Poetry is faith. To the
poet the world is virgin soil all is practicable;
the men are ready for virtue; it is always time
to do right He afirms the applicability of the
ideal law to this moment and the present knot
OF affairs. Parties, lawyers and men of the
world VII invariably dispute such an applica-
tion as romantic and dangerous; they admit
the general truth, but they and their affair
always constitute a case in bar of the statute.
The thought Of the essay on Poetry and I'm
agination is so compact that no review can do
the essay justice or wholly convey its theme.
The same trouble meets the reviewer in the
other chapters. If he discards all attempt at
analysis, and contents himself with dipping
here and there in search of happy thoughts or
striking phrases he is confronted with an en-
barrassment of riches The second chapter,
for example, Social Aims" is mine of quota
tle sentences. Mr.. Emerson opens it with the
opinion that the i'll .natHred criticism of Amer
ican manners is not to be resented. We should
listen and men1. The subject of manners has
a constant interest to thoughtful persons 1t Is
music and sculpture and picture to many who
do not pretend to appreciation Of those arts.
The criticism he passes upon youth in America
is that it is wont to be poor and hurried not at
| ease and he reminds us that life is not so short
| but that there is always time enough for cour-
/ tesy. Self-command is the main elegance.
/ Why have you statues in yoar halls, he char
acteristically asks, but to teach you that when
| the door bell rings, you shall sit like them?
Self-control is rule. You have in you noisy,
sensual savage which you are to keep down,
l and turn all his strength to beauty For ex-
ample, what seneschal and detective is laugh
ter! 1t seems to require several generations Of
education to train a squeaking or q shouting
habit out of a man. Sometimes, when in
almost all expressions the Chocktaw and the
slave have been worked out of him, coarse
nature lstill betrays itself in his contemplate
squeals of joy. 1t is necessary, for the purifi-
cation of drawing rooms, that these entertain
ing explosions should be under strict control.
Lord Chesterfield had early made this discov-
cry, for he says 81 am sure that, since had
the use of my reason, no human being has ever
heard me laugh" On an allied topic, dress, he
remarks that some people need it and others
need it not. With some with an improvement
in dress silently and steadily the behavior
mends. But if man have manners and tai
ent he may dress roughly and carelessly; If.
| however, q man has not firm nerves, and has
keen sensibility, it is, perhaps, wise economy
to go to good shop and dress himself ire
proachably. 1 am not ignorant. 1
have heard with admiring submission the ex-
perience of the lady who declared that "the
'ense of being perfectly well dressed gives
feeling of inward tranquility which religion Is
| powerless to bestow." The sum of his teach
ings is self-reliance, and his advice, "to con-
duct life in a calm and affirmative manner"
The essay on"Quotation and Originality is
full of good things. Next to the originator of .
good sentence, he says, is the first quotator of it.
Many viii read the book before one thinks of
quoting passage. AS soon as he has done
this, that line will be quoted east aud west.
We quote not only books and proverbs but arts,
Sciences religion, customs, and laws; nay, we
| quote temples and houses, tables and chairs by
imitation. Our debt to tradition through read
ing and conversation is so massive, our protest
| or private addition so rare and Insignificant,
that in large sense, one would say there is no
| pure originality. All minds quote. Old and
new make the warp aud woof of every
| moment. There is no thread that is not a
| twist of these two strands. Is all literature
| then eavesdropping, and all art Chinese imita
ton? Our life a custom, and our body Dor
| rowed, like beggar's dinner from hundred
l charities? he asks. No. The borrowing is often
| honest enough, and comes of magnanimity and
| stoutness. A great man quotes bravely and
| will not draw on his invention when his men,
| ory serves him with a word as good. Original
l power is usually accompanied with assimilating
| power. Truth is the property of no individual,
but is the treasure of all men. But the moment
there is the purpose of display the theft begins.
Many examples are given of thoughts handed
down through different minds. Columbus
egg is claimed for Bruneleschi. Rabelais's 8
dying words, 81 am going to see the great
Perhaps" only repeats the "If" inscribed on
the portal of the temple of Delphi. Words
| worths hero acting "on the plan which pleased
his childish thought" is Schiller's "Tell him to
reverence the dreams of his youth" and earlier,
Bacon's "ConsaliG jIUentutis plus diUinitdtis
hGbent''. The frozen tune that thawed from
Munchausen's horn is found in Greece in Plato's
time. The pleasantly which ran the rounds a
few years since in regard to New England
family is taken from Lady Mary Worthy Mon
tague's "The world is made up of men and
women and Herveys." Even our nursery
tales come from India, and have been warbled
and babbled between nurse and children fol
unknown thousands of years.
The closing essay that on Immortality, -
will be to many of greater interest than any
other in the volume, and yet it contains little
that is definite in belief. Mr.. Emerson says
81 am better believer and all serious souls
are better believers in the Immortality
than we can give grounds for. The real evi
dence is too subtle, or is higher than we car
write down in propositions. We cannot prove
our faith by syllogisms The argument re-
fuses to form in the mind. A conclusion, an
inference, a grand augury, is ever hover.
ing; but attempt to ground it, and the
reasons are all vanishing and inadequate" +"
This indicates profound belief in immortality
but again he says 81 confess that everything
connected with our personality fails. Nature
never spares the individual. = "
1t is curious to find the self same feeling, thai
| it is not Immortality but eternity-pot dura