New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-05-21
oLIEER WENDELL HOLMES on EMERSON
From his address before The Massachusetts Historical
SOcietH

| ming in it: "Ihere are twenty thousand Ralph
| Waldo EmersOns in China"
| What could we do with this unexpected, unpro-
yided for unclassitied, hafunwelcofne new comcr,
who had been for while p9tted as 1t were, in our
Unitarian cold greenhouse. but had taken TO grow
ing fast that he was lifting of It's glass roof and
letting in the hailsorm 7 Here was protest that
outhanked the extreme left of liberalism. yet so
calm and that its radicalism had the accents
of the gospel OF peace. Here was an iconOclast
without hammer, who took down our idols ltom
their pedestals tenderly that 1t seemed ike an act
The scrbes and Pharisees made light of his oracu-
lar savings Tue lawyers could not find the wit
nesses to subpoena and the documents to refer to
when his case came befo.e them. and turned him
over to their wives and daughters The ministers
denounced his heresies and handled his Writings
if they were packages OF dynamite, aud the grand
mothers were as much afraid of his new teachings
as old Mrs Piozzi was of geology. We had had
revolutionary orators Tei0rmers, martyrs; IL was
but few years since Abner hneeland had teen sent
to Jail for expressing an opinion about the great
First Cause bat we had had nothing ike this man,
with his seraphic voice and countenance. his choice
vocabulary, his refined uterance, his gentle cour-
age. which, with different manner, might have
been called audacity, his temperate statement or
opinions which threatened to shake the existing
order of thought like an earthquake;
His pecularlties Of style and of thinking became
fertile parents of mannerlsms, which were falr
game for rdcule as they appeared In his lmltatOrs
For one VINO talks like Emerson or like Carlyle
soon finds himself surrounded by q crowd OF walk
ing monographs, who mechanically reproduce MS
rnenta and vocal accents. Emerson was before
long talking in the midst of babbling Smonetta
echoes
himself a mark for the small shot of criticism He
had soon reached that height in the cold thin at
mosphere of thought where
"vainly the fowlers eye
Might mark his distant flight to do him wrong"
He dealt with life and life with him was not
merely this particular ar-breathing phase OF being,
but the spiritual existence which included It like
parenthesls between the two inhnltles. lie wanted
his daily draughts of oxygen like his neghbors and
was as thoroughly human as the PLAIN people he
mentions who had successfully owned or thought
they owned the house lot on which he planted his
hearthstone. But he at home no less IN the IN
terstellar spaces outside of all the atmospheres.
The nmaterialistIc idealism OF Milton was a
gross and clumsy medium compared to The lmpon-
able vacuum of " Brahma" He followed in the
shining and daring track of the Graius homo OF
Lucretlus-
"vida Wis anmi pervict, ct extra
Processit lOnge uanmantia monia mundi."
II ALWAYS seemed to me as if he looked upon
this earth very much d visitor from another
planet would look Oh it, tie was Interested. and to
some extent curious about it, but was not the first
means | have amused myself with comparing his
descriptions of natural objects with those OF the
Angel Rar hael in the seventh book OF Paradise
Lost Emerson talks OF his tltmouse as Kapnaei
talks OF his emmett. Angels aud poets never deal
with nature after the manner of those whom We call
naturallSts. "
heen heard as a lecturer, for his manner was an
illustration of his way of thinking lie would lose
his place lust his nina WOulu uroP us lnouBnC
and pick up another, twentieth cousin or no rela-
tiou at all it, This went SO far at times that one
could hardly tell whether he was putting together
| 4 mosaic of cOOrcd fragments OF only turning y
| Kaleidoscope where the pieces tunbled about as
they best might. 1t was As If he had been looking
| in nj n cosInic peepshOw and turning from 1t at
| brief intervals To tell Us what he saw. But what
| frormene those colorc1 sentences WERE and what
pictures they often placed before US, as Ii we TO
! saw them. Never has this city known slcD auul-
| ences as he gathered never was such an Olymplan
entertainment as that which he gave them:
| IL is very hard to speak OF Mr.. EmeTsons poetry;
not to do il injustice, still more to dol Justice.
! IL seems 80 like the robe OF monarch, patched
| by a New-tngland housewife. The royal tint and
stui are unmistakable but here and there the gray
! wOrsted from the datnlnS needle crosses ana eHeS
out the Tyrian purple. Few poets who nave
written so little in verse have dropped SO many OF
| those Jewels five words long which tall tiOn
their setting only to be more choicely treasures.
Z pturijus anum is hardly more familiar to our
ears than Tie bullded better than he Knew" anu
| Kcats's " thing of beauty is lttlo better known
| than EmeIs0n's beauty ~ It's own excuse iOr
being One may net like To read Emers0ns poetry
because it Is sometimes careless almost as II care
| fully So though never undgnlhed even when
slipshod; spotted with quaint archasms ana
strange expressions that sound like the afectation
| of negligence, or with plain, hOnely phrases, such
as the self made scholar is always afraid OF. but IL
| one likes EmcrsOns poetry he will he sure to loVo
it, if he loves 1t, its phrases VIII cling TO nun -
hardly any Others do. lt may not De ior Tue uI..
udc but finds its place like pollen dust anu Pche-
rates to tie CONSCIOUSNESS 1t 10 ferthe ana Dns
| to flower and tult. .r -. . .,,
| NOT nearly 20 much as many others VINO can speak
and write OF him. It Is unsafe 10 tei now u grSao
tInlcr t1lks for perhaps. like city dealer Win
;iio'ro customer he has not shown ms best goOCs
~ ~ innocept reporter of his sayings however
~ may he i'm this case let me contrast IN spglo
lance tle monentary effect IN conversation OF tho
,~o neghbors Hawthorne and Emerson. Speech
seemed like a kind of travail to Hawthorne. one
mist barpoon him like u cetacean with questions 10
make him talk ut all. Then the words came from
him nj last with bashfu manifestations. like thoso
Of a Young girl, almost--words that gasped them
selves forth seeming TO leave great deal more be-
hind them than they told, and died out. dlScon..
tented with themselves, like the monologue OK
thunder in the sky, which always goes OH mum.
bling and grumbllng ~ II II had not saiu ""'i 1"
wanted TO- ana meant TO, and ought 70 say 49,,
Emerson was sparing Of words, out uSoN 'n0n.
with great precision and nicely. III u' La I'll
followed about by shorthandwrluuf nVS"v.,
every sentence he ever uttered mlSet uaNo INeu
preserved. 70 hear HIM talk was nae WateuIns
one crossing brook on stepping-StoneS- t,ts noun
had 10 wait tor its verb It's adjective untl ne was
ready. then his speech would come down upon lho
word he wanted; aud not Worcester nor webster
could better il from all the wealth. OF thei' ""so
vocabularies. ,,.. $3.50. la ,,,or,b re-
One glimpse of him listener may De worth &c,
calling. He was always courteous anu oi,nu W :"
remarkable degree his smile was tno wen, ILL.,. I'm,
bercd line OF Terence written ont III nvhs oa; , no
Rnt when ANYTHING said specially nere' ed MN no
ovld iean toward the speaker with look never 10
me- forgotten his head stretched forward nus snoua,
ders raised ike the wings Of an eagle ana nls eye
watchino the flight of the thought when hau AZ
trncted his attention as II IL were nus proy !" w
s.i1ed in midair and carried up to his eyry.