New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-02-23

the Essays" as only he could The Times reviewer,
as IL expecting and desiring that all literature
should be 80 written in the true newspaper manner
that he who runs may read, complain, that
Emerson IS too difficult too vague and too ques-
tonable. But already Carlyle had confessed as
much, and bis comment upon that matter Is sui
worth reading and re-reading:
What Emerson's talent is we will not altogetne.r
estimate by this Book. The utterance is abrupt
ftful; the great idea not vet embodied strugges W
ward an embodiment. Yet everywhere there Is th ne
true heart of a man; which if the parent oi az
talent without which much talent canno1 cAIsv
breath as of the green cOuntry-al tne We,Svmoi,
that IL is New-England country. not sec0hu-naniu
bat first hand CONTINGENCIES us wnoieso,ucly
everywhere In these &" Essays" the authentic green
Earth Is there, with her mou ntalns, MYERS WIN no
mills and farms. Sharp CLEANS OF insight arrest US
by their pure intellectually; here ana there, III
heroic rusticism q love OF modest manluIhess Vi
mild inyincibilIty low voiced but hon-strong
makes 10 thrill with noble pride
The passage bears Carlvle's hallmark in every
line in none more will his disciples think than IN
the emphatic announcement that the true heart oil
man is the parent of all Talent. Yet the sentence
is an all but literal translation from writer 700
little read in these days. 1t was Vauvenargues WI
said Les grandes pens6es riennent du c@ar ana IL
might not be difficult to find it much further BACK
than that hlgh-souled French moralst OF the elgh-
tee nth century The most enthusiastic of Emer-
sons ADMIRERS reeO ndTuly bbTlNe W say hi'iN W.
him or of his Essays" than Carlyle when he said :
" Let me in plain English recommend this little
Book as the Book of an original verdical man y;
and again: 1--WE will call it the soliloquy of true
soul, alone under the stars in this day." Carlyle
guards himself none the less against being supposed
to accept his friends views OF teachings;
In n very eniematic way, we hear much of the
universal soul" OF the etc, etc: flckcrng Ike
bright bodiess Northern Streainers, notions anu
halfnotlOns of metaphysc. theosOpmc. tne99I Id
kind are seldom long wanting in these Essays rug t
not advise the British Public to trouble itself much
with all that still less to take offence at 1t.
That anybody should have dreamed of describing
Emerson as a pupil of his own obviously never oc-
CURED to Carlyle; could hardly have occurred to
any reasonable or reasoning human being.
Certain it is. however that there did at one time
prevail in England land also in Amerca) the most
curious notions about the relations between Emer-
son and Carlyle Persons not otherwise Eemarka-
bic for duness of mind used TO speak of Emerson as
disciple of the author OF "SartOr Resartus." The
American Carlyle" is a phrase that has been ap-
piled to Emerson. 1t might just as well be applied
TO Andrew Jackson. Less of that nonsense is talked
now but even now it can do no harm to repeat that
the sympathy between these two friends was IN
very slight degree intellectual, even moral, in
the common sense of the latter word. Hardly
subject could be named in which their teachings
look to the same end except with reference to char
acer and conduct. Both valued sincerity, veracity.
and the kindred virtues. But the problems OF his
tory of politics. of society. got for the most part
quite contradictory solutions from these two stu
dents. Their ideas differed their styles differed;
and You cannot say much more than that.
The work recalls to mind early talk with En-
erson, think the first / had, somewhere about
1854. Save among the elect, twas then the fashion
in Boston for even IN Boston they not all elect
to disparage the great Scotchman as n writer of
English Emerson asked me if had read much of
Carlyle. / said no. But you should" rejoined he.
Notwithstanding his stylcp Tqueried. Above
all for his style" was the decisive retort. G. W. s.