Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-04-28
OBITUARY.


BOSTON, April 27.-Ralph Waldo Emer-
son died at his home in Concord, Mass, at 9
O'Clock this evening.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Concord phil
osopher has for many years held, and will in
future occupy a unique place 10 literature
and in the world of thought. In a certain
sense he has always been a man apart. He
wrote and spoke for the few, and it may we'll
be doubted whether that few half under
stood his orscular utterancss. If man WIG
professed to despise creeds can be said to
have an inspiration, he gave out the results
of feeling quite as much as of what is ordi-
narily called reason. One required to culti-
vate relish for him, as for bitter beer or a
Chinese dish. Yet to those who learned to
enjoy him, Mr.. Emerson has been food and
drink. His biography is short, as his life,
although long, has been uueventful. Ralph
Waldo Emerson was born at Boston-where
DIR. Holiness LiaIs Gentleman said all men
should be born if possible-on May 26, 1903,
entered Harvard University in 1917, gradu-
ated in 1921, and became pastor of Uni-
tartan congregation in Boston in 1929. This
Office, however, he resigned in 1882, ON ac-
count of the gradually growing differences
between his own modes of thought and those
of his hearers. Among the earliest notice
able productions of his pen were two lee
lures, or orations, entitled Mature ard
"Man Thinking" delivered before the Phi
Beta Kappa Society, at Cambridge, in 1887.
In the following year appeared his Literary
Ethics an Grafton, and in lS41, the Method
of NdtarS, Han the R.former, the first series of
his Essays" and several lectures. In lS49
he revisited England to deliver a series Of
lectures on Representative Men," and in
1852. in conjunction with W. III. Claiming
and J. F. Clarke, he published the Memoirs
Of Margaret Fuller, to which he contributed
some admirable criticism. In 1856 he pub
lished Eaglish Ifaits, a work in which he an
alyzsd tue leading peculiarities of the Eng
lish mind and people, and in 1860 was
Issued Tae Conduct # Life. Although es-
sentially a philosopher rather than a
thinker on practical and timely topics,
Mr.. Emerson was deeply interested in a GER
tain class of politico-moral subjects, which
were naturally included in his angle of
vision. Following this bent he delivered
many addresses on slavery, woman's rights
and kindred themes, and for q time he
figured prominently on the lyceum platforms
throughout the country. In his writings he
was inclined to view the most practical
affairs of life from the standpoint of poc:,
yet not without homely, common sense
He saw the reasons for things intuitively
and stated them as a man having authority,
and without quoting the law. He was
equally conspicuous for his tendency to
emoody Ideas IN the forms OF Imagination,
and to crystalizs into realities the most
etervescent abstraction. To common readers
Mr.. Enerson's style is vexatious beyond ex-
preston. His sentences are often discon-
nected, and his economy OF words-eyery one
loaded with meaning-renderS him almost as
wearisome as Herbert Spencer, although in
a different way. He loved and appreciated
the element OF beauty to the highest degree,
except so far as beauty is dissociated
from passion, OF which he seemed TO
have little conception Ga theological
subjects his notions Wer7 vague ami
uuformulated. His God was the God of