Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-05-04
THE SILENT SAGE.
Death Of Ralph Waldo Emerson the Prophet Of
Transcendentalism.

Death Of Ralph Waldo Emerson the Prophet o.
characterization.
BosToN, April 28.--The celebrated
| philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
died at his home in Concord at 8: Sc
last evening. surrounded by his weep
ing family, few attached friends and
neighbors. He expired peacefully and
| still in the lethargy which nearly al.
day had wrapped his senses in oblivion.
Not word of recognition for those
about him; Inconsistencies to the last.
| The bells of the Unitarian Church.
where the sage had long attended, were
tolled, and SO the sad tidings were car
ricd to the country. Five minutes later.
the news was on the wires to all parts of
the civilized world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in
Boston, May %. 1903. He belonged to
the Brahmin 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 churh
of Boston, in 1911. He was an accom-
plished writer. the author of the First
church, and the editor of selection of
psalms and hymns. Ralph, like his
father, was a graduate of Harvard col
lege. He was not among the highest
scholars in his class. that of 1921, but
his abilities were proved and recognized
He gained a Bowdoin prize for an essay
on the Character of Socrates and
next year for an essay on the present
State of Ethical Philosophy His pop
ularity was attested by his election TO
the office of class poet For five wears
after graduation he assisted his elder
brother William in school kept by the
latter at Boston. In 1929 he was L.
censed to preach as a Unitarian minister,
and in 1929 he was ordained colleague
of the Rev. Henry Wade, 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, and
the congregation accepted his resigna-
ton but with regret.
From this time his clerical career was
ended. He went to Europe for year,
and on his return delivered his first lee
ture. The subject was Water" Dur
ing the same season he delivered three
other lectures, one on the Relation of
Man to the Globe;;' the other two on
Italy. A series of biographical lectures
on distinguished men soon followed.
In 1885 he removed to Concord, Mass,
which has since been his home He
was hard student, and his labors bore
fruit in numerous contributions to re-
views and in addresses. He had been
the orator of the Phi Beta Kappa socie-
ty, of Cambridge, in 1884, and in 1887
he delivered before this organization his
famous address on 1.-The American
Scholar" 1t was enthusiastically re-
ceived. but did not create half the stir
that his address before the Divinity
school produced next year. 1t was the
first public declaration of transcendent-
alism to which Unitarian institution
had listened
The learned Andrew Norton, a dry
Socinian of the old school, attacked it
as ''the latest form of infidelity," and n
spirited controversy followed. Emer-
son let others fight his battles, and
quietly smiled at his opponents. He
q.
Unitarians looking to him with rever-
ence. In 1886 he had published a little
volume called Mature" 1t did not
attract much nctics at the time, but as
he grew famous attention was recalled
to it. In 1S40he joined Margaret Fuller
b. Bronson Alcott, Theodore Parker,
George Ripley, and others in the publ
cation of The Dial, trancendental
quarterly.
In 1S41-44 were published Emerson
"Nature," the clearest expression of his
principles, and two volumes of Essays
In 1916 he published his Poems In
lS47 he visited England a second time.
lie was now famous, was warmly re-
received, and lectured to general adj
miration. His 'Miscellanies, 1S49;
and Essays on Representative Men,
1850, were his next publications. They
were both highly successful. His Eng
lish Traits 1856, and his Conduct of
Life 1860, rank among his best pro-
auctions. His poem of Brahma con-
tributed to an early number of The At
lantic Monthly, and beginning:
IF the Red Slayer thinks he Stays
was the subject of innumerable parodies
In the meantime he had written n
part of the memoirs of Margaret Full
Ter" "May-Day and other POEMS and
Society and Solitude appeared in
1869, and Letters and Social Aims in
1876. In 1873 he contributed paper
on The Sovereignty of Ethics" to the
North American Review. His last APP
pearance before the public as an author
was in The Century Magazine of Decem-
Der or January last, which contained =
characteristic essay from his pen, but
probably written some years ago. II is
understood that he leaves some import
ant papers to be published after his
death.
Religiously, Emerson was thought to
incline to pantheism in his early literary
life. In his closing years, according to
his friend Alcott, he wanted to be called
"a Christian theist," adding, You must
not leave out the word Christian, for to
leave that out is to leave out every
thing"