Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-07-18
Emerson at Home.

scended from that old Northum brian
family which, at the beginning of the
last century, gave England the learned
and eccentric mathematician of Dur.
ham, William Emerson, who used to
walk to London, publish his book, and
then walk back to Durham.
Destiny rather than temperament
carried Emerson, in early life, into the
thick of the struggle which attended the
downfall of Calvinism under the siege
of Socinianism. For several genera
tions his immediate ancestors have been
ministers, but always in their several
times of the kind called advanced"
In New England such antecedepts rep.
resented an accumulated literary and
metaphysical culture, and indeed the
history of the Emersons might give
Mr.. Francis Cation chapt for his
next work on " Heredity." In Ralph
Waldo the stream which had flowed in
hidden ways beneath Puritanism, Ar
minianism, and the like, sprang into
the air as a sparkling fountain. 1t was
singing fountain, too, at first and
though the critics of the period sat in
high and dry state to condemn the meter
and music of his "Poems," these are
cherished among the more refined
scholars of our time. Mr.. Ruskin has
more than once quoted with homage
the verses of Emerson and Professor
| Tyndall lin his " Fragments of Science
speaks Of some of his lines as outweigh
ing by their veracity and insight all the
formal learning of his ablest critic.
| M, d., IN
"of my small contributions to the lit
erature which deals with the overlap
ping margins of science and theology
will have noticed how frequently l
quote Mr.. Emerson. I do so mainly
because i'll him we have poet and
profoundly religious man who is really
and entirely undaunted by the discov-
cries Of science, past, present or pro-
spective. In his case Poetry, with the
| Joy of bacchanal, takes her gruver
brother Science by the hand and cheers
him with immortal laughter. BY EN-
erson scientific conce lions are continu-
ally transmitted into the finer forms
and warmer lines Of an ideal world"
AS the visitor, respecting the sanctity
Of the philosopher mornings, APP
breaches the embowered home of En-
erson its quiet seems that of "the
land where it is always afternoon" AS
he passes through the snapely fir trees
on the lawn it can hardly be without
recalling the poets goodby" to the
proud world" when he smilingly
said to the offended theologians, DO
you really mean to raise me to the dig
nifty of martyr?"
Fortunate especially is that friendly
meets the author coming out for his
afternoon walk, and stupid were that
prig who should countenance the gen
| tlemanly invitation to return into the
house. Whether it he in summer amid
the unexceptionally rich wild flowers
whiyh make the fora of Concord and
the deep pines friuging crystal Walden
lakelet, or in the Indian summer when,
according to the aboriginal myth, "the
smile of the Great Spirit" is answered
| by the earth in autumal colcrs, that
walk will be ever more memorable to
him who has shared it. The venerable
scholar still walks the fields and woods
where in childhood he rOamed gather
| ing flowers and berries, or weaving
wreaths of lustrous October leaves tit
to crown him in the autumn of his life !;
where in boyhood he sauntered with
his father listening to his quaint and
wise talk /; where in youth, in early
manhood, he has pondered in solitude
the meanings Of life or conversed with
the ablest of his contemporaries, to-
many of whose graves he must now
pass. The pathways are haunted, but
even more are they enchanted, and
many delightful anecdote will be
awakened by some old rough hewn
wayside seat or overgrown nook, where
gentle faces and memories still hover.
Though Mr.. Emerson-now in his sew
enty-sixth year-complains OF failing
memory, he has good recollection of
his early days, and loves to live them
over again in thought. Recently he
met with the Alumni of the old Latin
School in Boston where he had been pu-
pill, and told them much they did not
know or had forgotten. Among other
things he related that their teacher, Mr..
Gould ,one day informed the school that
there was rumor that the British Gov
eminent were going to send hostile
fleet to Boston Harbor, and that a gentle
man had desired that the boys of the
school should give one day to assist in
throwing up defenses on Noodle Island,
and that all who were ready and will
ing to go should be at the bottom Of
Hanover street next day at nine o'clock,
when boat would be in waiting to
carry them to the island. "The whole
school went" added Mr.. Emerson Il
went, but confess that 1 cannot re-
member stroke of work which or my
school-fellows accomplished. Whether
news of this action on the part of the
Latin school reached England aud de-
cided the Government to sue for peace,
1 have never lea ned" 1t is curious
enough that there should be reminis-
cence of that kind in the memory ct
man who has done so much to make
such incidents seem medieval.
Mr.. Emerson is fortunate in being
surrounded with sympathetic house
hold. His only son is already prom
inent physician in Concord, one vi his
daughters is married, his grant chill
dren are around him, his wife and an