The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-05-24
An Estimate Of Ralph Waldo Emerson
rs Poet and Philosopher.

The great thinkers of the world are
rapidly passing away. The remains of
Darwin have hardly been deposited in
Westminster Abbey, and England has
not ceased to mourn her ablest repre-
sentative In science, before the death of
our own profoundest thinker Is an
nounced.
In an address In 1888 Emerson first
gave expression to those ideas Of trans
cendentalism that made him so famous
and formed q school of enthusiastic fol-
lowers. The system soon found an
organ in the Dial, q quarterly, in which
he expressed his views, assisted by Mar
garet Fuller, Alcott, Charming, Ripley,
Theodore Parker, and others. 1t was
published four years, and during the
last two years of the time Mr.. Emerson
was its editor. In lS41 and in 1874 two
volumes of his Assays" were published.
In 1916 his first vo' aue Of poems was
issued. In 1S47 he listed England and
delivered O series of lectures, which
were very suceessf,,l, and q part of this
success was unique .,ionably due to the
fact that he was the lirst one who clearly
recognized the greet genius of Carlyle,
either in England OF in this country.
Commencing with 1860, Emerson
made frequent contributions to the At
ldntic Monthly, especially of poems, one
of which, "Brahma" (s'H the red siay-
er," etc.), was an enigma to all readers
until the key to it was given. As
prose writer Emerson was especially
characterized by his acute sense of
beauty, joined to an equally acute sense
of truth. His broad, sweeping intellect
embraced the realm of the ideal rs well
as that of the real, even to the plainest
and homeliest details of every -dsy. life.
He not only SCARED beyond most of his
contemporaries in the range of his
thought-so far beyond, indeed, that he
was many times mystical-but he stated
facts more practically than any of them.
He was not logician in any sense,
nor did he use the processes OF reason
in q philosophical manner. His bent Of
mind was intuitive- He saw what 9TH
ers reasoned up to, and he stated what
he saw, leaving others to climb up in q
slower manner, and, as he never gave
any steps or connections in his enuncia-
tons Of truths, his style is singularly
terse and epigrammatic. His books
may be called collections OF aphorisms,
sometimes stated with bare emphasis,
but more frequently clothed with the
ElCn N0SbuNO ia AA&o <hs oNSh
times, however, his sense of beauty does
not allow him to multiply words or
dwell upon the ideal. His sense of
beauty dominated everything he wrote,
but even the beautiful was only an
nounced, not elaborated. Its principal
Office was to eliminate from his mind
everything that was unhealthy or mon
strous. In this respect he was in 3 GER
tain sense an aesthetic, not in the man
ner of the understandable school, but
in q healthy, strong, and masterful way.
Naturally, his active perceptions and
epigrammatic style of enunciation, COM
bined with the absence of fluent smooth
ness of style, made his poems rough
and strong, rather than musical and
flowing, Notwithstanding his ideal ten
denotes, and sometimes mystical and
obscure. The s'Brahma," for instance,
when it appeared, wss as obscure to the
average reader as the riddle of the
sphinx. 1t weighs also against his
poetry that he rarely indulged in senti-
ment or followed any guide but the die
tate of the intellect. He is to poetry
what Wagner is to music. Both seek
to express the actual life of the world
dominated by the intellecnal. The
melody of verse to the one like the
melody of music to the other Is not a
succession of pleasant sounds, but the
essence of life itself controlled by the
head instead of gushing exuberantly
from the heart.
Religiously he had no system. He has
been called atheist, pantheist, or deist,
according as people understood hi:
writings, but he had no creed or system
in religion, for it was not in his nature
to classify anything in details. Religpr
came to him like everything else in greai
truths, which he tersely enunciated,
leaving others to group them together
and try to find out what manner OF man
he was in religion. And yet his idea
nature kept him true to q first gres'
cause, which in one of his essays he
beautifully states: 'Unlovely, nay
frightful, is the solitude of the soul
which is without God in the world. '
And again: "This chill, houseless,
fstherless, aimless Cain, the man who
hears only the sound of his own footstep:
in Gods resplendent creation"
The great thinkers of our time art
rapidly passing away. Its no common
loss that our own country has suffered
within few weeks in the death of Long
fellow, who has 80 beautifully sung the
| bOu2o VI IuC hCdA " 1u0 LIZ" IL 1AAO oC1tA
OF Emerson, the great apostle of truth
clothed with beauty. Who are to weal
their manifest
Mr.. Whipple says the style of Emer.
son ssis in the incest harmony with tn,
character of his thought. 1t is condensed
almost to abruptness. Occasionally h,
purchases comprehension at the expens'
of clearness, and his merits as q writel
1 lot rof thar in q ahninn nf runrdz thar
| in the connection of sentences, though
his diction is vitalized by the presence o
a powerful creative element. The sin
gular beauty and intense significance O
his language demonstrate that he no
only has something to say, but know
exactly how to say it Fluency, how
ever, is out of the question in styl
which combines such austere econom,
of words with the determination to LOAF
every word with vital meaning" Mr.
rockingham says: "His thoughts ar
few and pregnant; capable of infinit
expansion, illustration and application
They crop out on almost every page o
his Characteristic writings; are itcrate'
and reiterated in every form of speech
and put into gems of expression tina
may be worn on any part OF the person
His prose and poetry are aglow witt
them; they mako his essays oracula
and his verse prophetic. By virtue o
them his best books belong to the sacre
literature of the race; by virtue of them
but for the lack of artistic finish @
rythm and rhyme, he would be the chic
Of American poets."-Chicdgo Tribune
|
Carlyle's Horses.