The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1882-04-30
EnERSDN.

Emerson has been taken from Us gradu-
ally, as if the Powers which gaye us that
great gift wished to reconcile us to its loss.
1t has not been without its premonitions, in
the rapidly occurring deaths of his great
friends, Carlyle and Longfellow, and though
his own came suddenly at the last, it was as
If he grew impatient and no longer wished to
linser in the circle OF fading lights which
now holds SO tew-Whittier, Holmes, with
Lowell OF younger generation, and perhaps
some others. The ungentle New England
climate, which managed to nurture these
keen intellects, marred the serenity of his
ending, as that of Longfelow with physical
pain which gives us the only matter to de-
plore i'll it. In the fullness of years he has
been gathered to his fathers, his life-w work
done, and his name written high on that
scroll Of fame where in our country's history
it finds but two equals, Washington, the
perfect patriot, and Franklin, the great philos-
opher. With these We now write, Emerson,
the Seer, GOr no other word so well sums UP
his gifts of prophetic vision,) as America S
contributions to the stored riches of time,
which would suffice 10 Justify her were she
herself now blOtted out of existence. II
would be difficult to convey to those to whom
the Concord Sage is still sealed book
Qargely under the influence of the strange
delusion that he is obscure " when he is
one OF the simplest and homelest of writers)
an idea of the keen delight and consolation
that are TO be found in his pages by the ini-
tiated. His admirers are no. born, but
made. The German writer, Herman Grimm,
after conieasing his first struggles with En-.
erson's highly idiomatic English, continues
with burst of fine admiration:
Emerson fills one with courage aud confidence.
lie has read and Observed but he etrays no signs of
toll. lie presents familiar facts but he presents
them In new lights and combinations From every
oDcet the lines of light run straight out connecting
1t with The central point OF lie. What had IhardIy
dared to tRink-it was so bOld--he brings forth AS
quietly as II II was the most familiar COMMONPLACE
lie Is perfect swimmer on the ocean of modern ev
lstehce. lie breads no tempest, for he Is sure that
calm VIII follow 1t. lie does not hate contradict or
disputes Tor lie understands men and loves them
look on with wonder to see how the hurry of
modern life subsidies, and the elements gently betako
themselves to their allotted places. Had found but
a single passage In his writings that was an eyeep
lion TO this rule, should begin to suspect NV iudg
ment and should say no further word Eut lon,
acquaintance confirms my opinion. As think of
this man. have understood the devotion OF his uupIs
who would share any fate with their MASTER because
his genius banished doubt, and impaired life to an
things.
And Alfred IL. Guernsey, one Of the recent
commentators on his life and writings, sub
joins to the above:
Something like this has been the experience Of
nearly all Of that slowly expanding but now wide circle
who look up TO Emerson as a master and guide Few
OF them have come so to regard him from their own
Immediate Intuition or perception Most Of them
have read aud studied lin, because some one In whose
judgment they had learned to cOnfde had assured
them that he was worth the reading or study. They
have gradually grown up TO Emerson, but have not
outgrOwn him any more than they have outgrown the
Dards and prophets Of the Ola Testament or the Cos
pels aud Epistes Of the New Testament, Homer, aud
-Eschylus, and Plato; Dante, ana Shakespeare and
Milton II Is not well TO speak with perfect cont.
dence Ol the place which any man Of our own are
viii hold Ia the Judgment of after-ages Yet We
think It VIII be long before the works Of Emerson viii
die out from the record Of human thought Books Of
Ills, thousand years hence, VIII stand on the same
'' ''f'' F''N'N - ANkNn hhAH kNhNkN tue English
language, like the Greek, should have become what We
ioolishly call dead tongue.
There is no space for analysis of his work
even were that necessary, where his literary
monument speaks SO loudly for itself. The
facts Of his life are few and simple, as if con-
yeying rebuke to that constant fever, the
mean and fretful ambitions and lack Of re-
pose that mark our American society. The
25th Of next month would have been his
birthday, when he would have completed
his seyenty-ninth year, For eight genera
tions, we are told, there had been no time
when one or more Of his forelathers was not
minister of the Gospel, as were his father,
grandfather, "a chaplain in the army of tho
Regolution,) and great grandfather, Joseph
Emerson, pastor at Maiden. Sothat he came
rghtfully by that peerless intellect, that
deep religious feeling, and that raciness Of
the soil that peryade his writings. He was
graduated from Harvard al the age of seven
teen, gaining, like many brilliant men, more
honors outside Of the regular course than in