The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1882-1884, 1883-02-01

has made priest of her mysteries !;
and to understand them the reader
must put himself in the altitude to-
ward the author that the author holds
towards nature. Let him obey the
law which guides Emerson himself
as uttered in his verse:
''Throb thine which Natures throbbing
breast,
And all is clear from east to west.''
Another objects. that as a philoso.
pher he has no system. What Elm.
erson said of Plato applies as we'll to
himself: "He has not system.
The dearest defenders and deciples
are at fault. He attempted theory
of the universe and his theory is not
complete or self-evidel t. One man
thinks he means this, another that
he has said one thing in one place
and the reverse Of it in another"
True, he is another Of no creed; he
uttered no dogmas; he formulated
no theories. but this takes not from
his virtue. Th. material he gave us
Is good, even if he has not become
architect and constructed the temple.
His wolk is crystalline in structure,
when taken part by part. and is to
be priced no less If it should seem
conglonerate as whole. His genius
was more creative than constructive,
and what We loose in symmetry OF
form we gaiu in richness of substance.
To build is the part Of ordinary man /;
it's godlike TO create. He was a
poet in the Greek sense of the word,
and was more maker than builder.
Substance mot form, is what we want.
No new stock is added to the sum of
human knowledge by formulating
the old. Nothing new is put into
the treasury of human wisdom by
classifying and arranging what is
already there.
With the ken of a philosopher
Emerson looks on the universe as a
celestial poem whose essence and
rythm are attributes of Supreme
Mind and if he gives us only frag-
ments thereof, they are among the
best that come from finite conception.
One is baffled who seeks to trace the
lines in which his geniushas wrought.
He has no rationale, and utters the
revelations of nature without telling
US how or where he found them. He
is a sharp-sighted reasoner, who
leaves out the ''since," the "because."
the therefore" by which his propo-
sitions march along one after another
in coy disguise. He does not give
US the logical processes by which he
gets his conclusions. Leaving ham,
mer and chisel in the shop, he pre-.
sents only the finished statue. In a
word, if he is enigmatical, it is be-
cause nature, his guide. is so.
Emerson is a poet who sees the
spiritual essence of things and cares
little for the form. He despised
mere jingle; and, carrying this to
extreme, was thus led to undervalue
Shelley. the great master of rythm
and metrical harmony. He was un-
willing that any artifice should ever
| -''his brain cucumber
With the coil of rythm and NUMBER
Emerson's Muse vas sprung from
the forest of Arcadia, or nourished
in some grove of Dodona. She loved
mountain dales where pine trees
waved, or shaded rill whose mnsi e
was accompanied bv notes of thru sh
or sparrow, and she taught him that
mo jlngling serenader's art,
! Nor tlnkle of pious strings,
Can make the wild blood start
! In It's mystic springs
If the office of the poet be to trans
late the language of nature into
human speech. then this man is en-
titled to place among the highest
order of poetic minds. But the
speech into which his translation is
made is rot the common dialect. 1t
is the classical style, freighted with
high thought after the manner of
|Olympian gois,-it is that of ssthe
thrilling Delphic oracle; - and as
subtle, evasive, and sometimes OBJ
scure. Lowell, to be sure, has already
leveled his playful humor at those
who want version of Emerson sin
words of one syllable, for infant
minds.'' w. II. OSBORNE.