Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1876-02-05
Ralph Waldo Emerson.

EmersOn's peculier sphere was psychology.
BY a certain felicity OF his nature he was a
non com Blatant; Indifferent to logic, he sup
pressed all the processes of his thinking. and
announced Its results in atfirmatiops; an 1
none OF the asperities which commonly
sfflict the apostles of dissent ever ruffled tue
serene spirit of this universal dissenter. tie
could never be seduced into controversy. He
was assailed both as an atheist and as PAN
tjeist; as a writer so OBSCURE that NOBODY
could understand what he meant, and lso
as q mere verbal trlckster, whose only tale lt
consisted in vivtfying commonplace, or in
converting, by inversion, stale truisms into
brilliant paradoxes; and all these varying
charges mad only the effect OF lighting up hi =
lace with that queer, quizzical, inscrutab.e
ceptions of the people who attacked Elm
which is noticeable In all portraits and pho
tosraphs OF his somewhat enigmatical c0ua-
tenance. His method was very simple and
very bard. 1t consisted in growing .Ip To a
level with with the spiritual ohjeots ne per
celVed, and his elevation of thought was tuRS
the sign and accompaniment OF a cores pond
lrg elevation of character. In his case, as in
the case of Claiming, there was an uncOu-
scOus return TO Jonathan Edwards, and to
all TIE great divines whose souls had sight
OF eternal verities. What the orthodox saints
called the Holy Ghost, he, without endowiug
IL with personality, called the Over Soul.
he believed with them that in God We live
and move and have our being; that only by
communicating with this Being can we nave
any vital individuality; and that the record
OF communication with Him or Ii was the
AZURE, whether theological or human. The
noblest passages in his writings are those in
which he celebrates this august and gracious
communion of the Spirit of God with the
soul OF man; and they are the most serious,
solemn, and uplifting passages which can
perhaps be found in our literature. Here
waSNi man who had earned the right TO utter
these noble truths by patient meditation and
clear insight. Carlyle exclaimed, in a pre-
face TO an English edition of one of Erler-
sons later volumes: Here comes our brave
Emerson, with fiejCS from the empyrean -
Chat phrase exactly hits Emerson as a trans
occidental thinker. His inslghts were, In
some sense. revelations; he could .sggsSiD on
The eternal politics. and Just at The time
when science, relieved from the pxeSsrre of
lheolcgy, announced materialistic hypoth-
eses with more than the confidence with
whlch The bigots OF theological creeds had
heretofore announced their dogmas. this Sc
rene American thinker had won his way
INTO all the centres of European intelligence,
and delivered his quiet protest against every
hypothesis which put in peril the spiritual
IN H0per's Magazine for February.
How TO BECOME LAwYER.-A dav or
two ago, when young man entered De-
toner sat down beside him and said:
Now, see here, / have no time to fool
away, and IL you don't pan out well WON'T
keep you here thirty days. Do you want TO
make good lawyer"
eyes, sir"
"Well, now, listen. Be polite to old peo-
pie, because they have cash. Be good To the
boys, because they are growing up TO a cash
Go TO church for the sake of example, Don't
fool any time away on poetry, and don't
even look at girl until you can plead a
case. Ifyou can follow these INSTRUCTIONS
learn tn be q doctor and kill your best
friends."-Detron Fl &c Press.