New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-02-03

adumlraton Of a Encouragement of that difficult bus
ness known the relations of the sexes TIC reiaiO
usually in American life. excellent; ana IN SUI
particulars the scheme was Thoroughly @ hst
and iIreprOachable. Its main characteristic was
each individual concerned in II shoud 90 part " to
work necessary for keeping the whole aoh ne fSe5
1t hoped: but was by no means n itaS
would make himself agreeable Ike gentleman lhN,.eu
to dinner-pary. Allowing. however. for everything
that q concession TO worldly traditions ana 10 to
laxity OF mans nature, there must nave beei III ,u
enterprise good deal of a certain freshness and purify
OF spirit, of certain noble creduitY and ialta III Tug
periectibity of man, which woud have been easier
10 find ~ Boston in the year 1910 than In London nye
and-thiry years later II that was the era OF ii'ns
npontnd in the soil peculiar to tho general locality Of
which speak-the soil OF the old NewEnglaDd morality
gently rskcd and refreshed Ivy an imported GU, @
The Transceudentasts read great deal OF Frencn ana
German. made themselves intimate WIN GeSrse , Sana
and Goethe, and many other WRITER'S; out tn t hn
and deep Ncw-England conscience accompanied lhein
all their intellectual excursions ana mere never Tss
sooalled movement" that embodied lsei', on , sne
WHOLE IN fewer ecceDtricites or conduct or tha Dor
Thoreau, delightful writer, went 70 live 10 the woods
Henry ThOreau ntally sylvan parsonage
time might have turned, a man about town. The
brothers aud sisters at Brook Farm plOughed the fields
from another cline and society would have been much
more struck with their spirit OF conformity tnan viii Wiz
their dtrfglcmeHts Their ardor was moral ardor ana
the gntest breath of scandal never rested upon heH
or upon any phase of characterization.
In connection with the TTanscendental move
ment, Mr.. James presents some apt personal criti-
brief intellectual drama OF New-England in the new
lights of fifty years ago. OF Emerson he remarks:
"The situation was summed up and TRANSPORTED in
tie admirable and exquisite Emerson. He expressed
all that it contained, and coed deal more, doubt
less beside; he was the man Of genius of the mo-
men; he was the Transcenden talist par Grcelience
Emerson expressed, before all things, as was ex-
tremely natural at the hour and in the place, the
value and importance Of the individual the duty Of
making the most of ones SELF of living by ones
own personal light and carrying out ones own dis
position. He reflected with beautiful irony upon
the exquisite impudence Of those institutions which
claim TO have appropriated the truth and to dole 1t
out, in prOpCTtionate morsels. IN exchange for
subscription He talked about the beauty and dig
nIty of life and about every one who is born into
the world being born to the whole, having an inter
est and stake in the whole. He sald all that is
clearly due to-day is not to lie and aNgreat many
other things which 1t would be still easier to pre-
sent in a ridiculous light He insisted upon sincerity
and independence and spontaneity, upon acting in
harmony with ones nature and not conforming and
compromising for the sake of being more comfort
able. He urged that a man should await his call,
his finding the thing to do which he should really
believe in doing, and not be urged by the worlds
opinion to do simply the worlds work. If no call
should come for years. for centuries then | know
that the want of the Universe is the attes-
tation of faith by my abstinence. If
cannot work, at least | need not le.' The
doctrine of the supremacy of the indi-
vidnal to himself. OF his originality, and as re-
CARDS bis own character, unique quality, must have
had great charm for people living in society in
which Observation-Disclosures to the want of other
entertanment-played almost the part of a social
resource" OF Emerson's fellow townsman
,,+;p Ar he
most conspicuous traits in passing sketch:
whatever question there may be of his talent,
there can be none, think, of his genius. 1t was
slim and crooked one. but it emnently per-
sOnal. He was imperfect. unfinished, inartstic; lie
was worse than prOvincal-he was par0chal; II Is
only his best that he is readable. But at his best
he has an extreme natural charm, and he must 81
ways be mentioned after those Americans-EmersOn,
Hawthorne, Longfellow. Lowell, Motley-who have
written originally. He was EmeIson's independent
moral man made fiesh-lving for the ages, and not
for Saturday and Sunday; for the Universe and not
for Concord. In fact, however. Thoreau lived for
Concord very eifectually; and by his remarkable
genius for the observation of the phenomena Of
woods and streams, of plants and trees. and beasts
and Gshes, and for finging kind of spiritual IN
terest over these things. he did more than he per-
haps intended toward consolidating the fame Of his
accidental human sojourn. lie was shy and I'M
gregarious as Hawthorne; but he and the latter
appear to have been socially disposed toward each
other, and there are some charming touches in the
preface TO the Moses in regard to the hours they
spent in boating together on the large, quiet Con-
cord River. Thoreau was great vOyager In a canoe
which he had constructed himself, and which he
eventually made over to Hawthorne. and as expert
in the use of the paddle as the red men who had
once haunted the same silent stream"
A large space in the Volume is devoted to a crti-
cal survey of Iawthone's writings, which for
depth and thoroughness literary sagacity and ana
lytic power has not been matched by any previous
estimate of the gifted novelist. Mr.. Jamess
perence as an original writer has not impaired the
keenness of his penetration or the rectitude of his
judgment in weighing the merits Of an elder master
in the same kind in which he has already won such
conspicuous success. He employs an even balance
and an impartial hand. The blind idolaters of
Hawthorne in some cases, may be shocked at the
novelty and the bodness Of Mr.. James, verdict
but calmer insight will not fail to recognize the
business of the decision. His critical faculty will
be found no less remarkable than his inventive and
combining power showing an exquisite sense of
proportion with no trace of dilettanteism, and
rigid severity of judgment without pedantic formal
ism or cynical hardness.