Morning journal and courier., 1883-08-11
Emerson and Carlyle.
An Extreme OptImist and q Mad Pessi-
 mist.
[From the spectator.l


 From the Spectator.l
 MT. Henry James, jr., in his very interest ing paper on t-The Correspondence between Carlyle and Emersou," published in the June number of the Century, remarks that Elmer son was by nature an optimist, with high and noble conception of good, but without any definite conception of evil; while Carlyle was pessimist of pessimists, with 8 vivid conception of evil, but no correspond ing perception of good. Further, he remarks that Emerson's genius, like the genius of the whole of the New England literature of hi5i day, had "a singular thinness, an almos touching lghtness, sparseness, transparency about it, y while Carlyle's was full of the dense, warm life of his London atmosphere. Emerson's mind was full of ghostly hopeful ness, Csrlyle's of passionate and wrathful de- spondency. No one," says MT. Henry James, maintained 8 more hospitable atti- tude than Emerson toward anything that any one might have to say. There was no pre- sumption against even the humblest, and the ear of the universe was open to any artlculate voice. In this respect the opposition to Carlyle was complete. The great Scotchman thought all talk jabbering of apes, whereas Emerson, who was the perfection of a listen CT, stood always in position of hopeful ex- pectancy. and regarded each delivery of a personal view as new fact to be estimated on it's merits" Mir. Henry James regards both the eminent correspondents as eccentric to the verge of madness, Emerson in n. gen tie fashion, with mild and moonlight mad ness of his own; Carlyle with moody mad ness as exemplifisd in the fereeaand violent eesticulations with which he made his mock at the universe, and 6outed the as'Dead Sea apes" of whom he conceived the human race to consist. MT. Henry James himself evi- dently stands between the two men. He Is struck by the whimsical spectacle of Elmer son's transcendental hopefulness and opti- mism It amuses him to think that so clear minded and painstaking man should have been SO sanguine and so deferential to the fellow-creatures with whom he lived. On the other hand. Carlyle's convulsive agony under the spectacle of human folly and misdoing seems to him profoundly irrational If all the world is out of joint, what is the good of trying to set the innumerable dislocations of limb :? ''Pessimism, cynicism," says Mir. Henry James. usually imply g certain amount of indifference and resignation, but in Carlyle these forces were nothing if not sons have enjoyed life as little as Carlyle i; other men have been rioted so in their disen- chantments, or thumped so perpetually on the hollowIess of things, with the view of making 1t resound.' Mir. Henry James hard ly knows which of the two makes him smile most, Emerson's mild and urbane infatuation of hope, or CarlyIe's fury of despair. One can we'll understand his embarrassment All his works breathe, not Emerson's thin op- timism nor Carlyle's murky and chaotic pess- imism, but; on the contrary a thin pessimism of his own, as mild, quiet and observant as Emersons optimism, but as free from any thing like satisfaction in what he observes as Carlyle's pessimism. He does not toss his arms about, and fret or fume, like the i'm prisoned Scotch Titan under his pile of nountains-that would only be consistent; he thinks, with some substantial hope of making the world the better for these gigan- tic struggles-but he combines the twilight calm of Emerson's infpassibility with the 'scurrent contempt" as he calls it. of Car Iyle's attitude toward the universe in which he lived.