New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-02-23
NOTES ON EMERSON.
Mr.. IRELANDs BooK-THE TIMEs-cARLYLE


some time ago in a second edition IL is tne sof'
a. hook which should have thought nkeiy 10 10
republished In whole or in part in America "ne'hoi
nv p;ratical or other processes For what Is IL you
all Seem to care 90 much for II not detalIs aoou'
famous menf WELL here is volume containing moro
details about Emerson in England than III o'hei
volumes together, and Emerson in England was In
some of his most interesting moods But 90 hot
hear that any American publisher has thought IL
worth his while to buy, or even 10 steai
Mr. Irelaud's entertaining miscellany. The
author was the intimate friend, the
host. and to some extent the Boswell OF Emer-
son. He has collected much information about him
md produced il in a readable and sometimes ad-
mirable form. Portions of it, no doubt. hayo APP
peared already America. Mr.. Ireland writes prl-
marily for an English audience. his chlef desre Is
TO make Emerson, whom in the good ana rght
.ense he worshipped better known to England.
But there is a great deal here which is new TO
Americans also. The portrait preixed to the vol
ume taken when Emerson was seventy-one' is
signed. "In great haste but greater love, yours, r.
W. Emerson ~ of itself quite enough to denote the
affection in which Mr. Ireland held by the great
man to whom he has raised this memorial. The
acquaintance between them dated back to 1888,
the wear when Emerson was first in Europe. then an
unknown man, so wholly unknown that the Edln-
bureh citizen to whom he had letters did not think
1t worth while to interrupt his professional duues
in order to show the young American the ola Town
he had come to see. Emerson was "handed over
10 Mr. Ireland, and in this chance way their rela-
tions began. Mr.. Ireland had the good sense TO
write ont some recollections of this first talk En-
srson's advice helping him. Here, therefore, are
recorded some of the very first opinions and I'M
pressions of Emerson; and very profitable 1t Is
to ,ompare them with those wmch
became known later, and with the accounts which
Emerson himself committed to print There IS
sentence NJ the outset which shows how carly ana
how strong was Emersons odd preference Tor trans
lations OF great books to ;hc genuine books them
selves. AFTER reading CottOn's racy English" he
said 'Montaigne seems to lose if you look into him
IL the original old French" The notes here gwen
IN Carlyle Wordsworth aud Others are partly from
MI Irelands m Nmory, partly from Emerson'S own
letiers-cnd ,ntan passages which did not appear
in the eyer-famous English Traits" There is one
on CARLYLE: my own feeling that had met
with men of far less power who had greater insight
into religious truth; which brings wildly before
us the Young Emerson still minister of Unitarian
Church IN Boston.
notice appears in to-day's Times of Mr. Ire
lands book and Mr.. COnway's emerson at Home
and Abroad0 together correctly describing the lat
ter as the work of a disciple aiming rather at
expopnding his masters doctrines and at at
tracing fresh worshppers to the shrine than at any
coldly critical estimate of his work. its sources and
its limitations. This reviewer by way of readjust-
Ing the balance proves that he can be both critical
and cold. His comment on the high pitch OF the
language often used about Emerson is just enough,
and Emerson himself would have been the first to
protest against the superlatves hesped upon him.
But the Judgment of the writer is not altogether
wrong as regards Emersons influence on the
thought and life of his own countrymen:
Emerson certainly had genius and message for
his genera ion. What he had to say was exactly
suited to the needs of society in which the oid
ponds of Puritan doctrine and discipline were be-
ginning to be found too rigid for the changed CIR
cumstanees dndeI wnlcn huer,ca was 3uS' are
over, his clearness of vision, the unQnes'lonea
stamp Of original and pnborrowed thought when
his utterances bore, and the pure II somewhat cold
grace of his stvle had as great an attraction Ior
European readers as for American.
Whether as our critic proceeds to say, Emerson's
influence on Europe is but small, Is question not
TO be answered off-ha1f Mr.. John Morley once re-
marked of Mill that every rising journalist quoted
him and some even read him. EmersOns relation
to the rising journalist England may be less Close
for the topics he deals with not always of the
unitarian character which comInends Mill to the
practical Briton. But to say that his writings are
not largely read is to say too much So long ago as
1S47 Mr.. Ireland tells
No sooner was it announced that he bad decided
applications from every part of the kingdom began
10 flow in, and in many il was found impossl
BILE to comply with the wishes Of tue requsitionists
from fear of committing him to engagements
which might have become burdt nsome to him.
The people who were eager to hear Emerson
lecture presumably people who had read his
books. If there be such thing as an Emerson
legend that very different thing which the Times
calls cutie it can hardly have swollen to great
proportions six and thirty years ago. His books it
It'd horo haap anto ia in
England Some have never been reprinted
separately. The Essays" first seres) published
in 1871 has long been scarce But Bohns edition of
the Works in two very closely printed volumes was
published loss than ten years ago. / wrote you
some months since that Messrs. Macmillan would
shortly bring out edition In six volumes, under
Mr.. John Morley's editorship. The other day met
III Scotland man born in the year of EmersOn's
second visit TO England. who from his position in
the country ard in politics might be supposed to
have interests i'll life too and too far
moved from speculative literature to allow" him to
care much for Emerson. He cared for
him, 1 found than for many things ap-
psrently much nearer to him. or
Emersons writings he knew little. He had been
able TO lay hands on but one book. What riveted
his attention on this remote American WIGS his
character; the purity the loftiness of aim, the
nobility of which he had heard. He declared he
knew not where TO get n copy Of his works, the
whole of which he was eager 10 read. and was de-
lighted to hear that they would ere long be pub
lshed in England An incident of that sort consd-
erably cnargcs ones conception Of the hold Emer-
son has on the present generation, the best
part of it.
Taking down the English edition of the Essays"
to verify its date am struck with the way in which
the publisher has thought fit to introduce it to the
English public. II Is a duodecimo volume, bound
10 green cloth. lettered on the back "Emersons Es
says-Preface by Carlyle; and the titlc-page Is
Essays By K. w. Emerson. of Concord, Massaohu-
setts With Preface by Thomas CARLYLE. London