Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1882-05-25
EMERSON.

emphatlcally to the Brahman stock of
New England, being the ninth of a
line of ministers counting ancestors on
both sides His mothers maiden name
was Haskins. His father, the Rev.
William Emerson. was born at Concord
in 1863, and died pastor Of the First
Congregational church at Boston in
1911. He was an accomplished writer.
the author Of the history Of the First
Church, and the editor of a selection
OF psalms and hymns Ralph, like his
father, was graduate Of Harvard
college. He was not among the high
est scholars of his class, that OF 1921,
but his abilities were proved and re-
cognized. He gained a Bowdoin prize
for an essay on the character Of Soc
rates and next year for an essay on
the Present State Of Ethical Philosophy
His popularity was attested by his elec-
tion to the Office OF class poet. For
five years after graduation he assisted
his brother William in school kept
by the latter at Boston. In 1926 he
was licensed to preach as a Unitarian
minister, and in 1929 he was ordained
colleague of the Rev. Henry Ware, jr,
pastor of the Second Unitarian church
of Boston. He held this place only
three years, for he had come to doubt
the propriety Of administering the
Lords supper, doubling that it was
intended to be permanent ordinance.
He was getting misty also regarding
other tenets of his denomination. His
people could not see things as he did,
and accepted his resignation, but with
regret.
From this time his clerical career
was ended. He went to Europe for a
year, and on his return delivered his
first lecture. The subject was "Water." !"
During the same season he delivered
three other lectures, one on The Rela-
ton of Man to the Globe" the other
two on Italy. A series Of biographical
lectures on distinguished men soon
followed. He was eminently favorite
On the platform, and during the palmy
days of the lyceum no lecturer was in
more constant request. In 1885 he
removed to Concord, Mass, which has
since been his home. He was a
hard student, and his labOrs bore
fruit in numerous contributions to
reviews and in addresses. He had
been the orator Of The Phi Beta Kappa
society of Cambridge in 1884, and in
1887 he delivered before this Organiza-
tion his famous american Scholar
1t was enthusiastically received, but
did not create half the stir that his
address before the Divinity school
produced next year. 1t was the first
public declaration of transcendentalism
to which Unitarian institution had
listened. The learned Andrew Norton
dry Socinian of the old school,
attacked it as "the latest form OF
in6delity," and a spirited controversy
followed. Emerson let others fight his
battles, and quietly smiled at his OPP
pOnents. He lived to find all but real.
ly conservative Unitarans looking tC
him with reverence. In 1886 he pub
lished n little volume called Nature
1t did not attract much notice at the
time, but as he grew famous attention
was recalled to it. In 1910 he joined
Margaret Fuller, A. Bronson AlcOtt
Theodore Parker, George Ripley anC
others in the publication of the Dial, q
transcendental quarterly, the sublimi-
ties of which seemed mOonshine to the
matter of fact public, but to its admir-
ers it appeared the perfection of wis
dom and originality. Looking back al
it from the brighter light of to-day, we
can better appreciate its real merits
and discriminate between profundity
and its counterfeit than could its con
temporaries. Every generation has its