St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-12-26

old romance the poet could not have made
a more fascinating book OF II. The intro
duction DIR. Holmes saws is supplied to trace
Mr.. Emerson's ancestral types, as his CEmer-
son - predecessors narrow down from in
Vulnerable grandfathers and grandmOthers,
10 four, and then 10 two immediate pre-
decessors. We cannot refrain from suspi-
cion, however, that il was written to give DR..
Holmes irrepressible humor a chance TO
bubble over quietly without impeach-
ing his historical verisimilitude. DR..
Holmes is a human pathologist and
be may try forever TO repress
himself. But wherever he gOes-poet, patho-
logist, historian or whatever his role, there
goes his fun and his little joke--and obody
would have 1t otherwise; sometimes n series
OF distinguished fathers follows in line, or
a succession Of superior mothers as the
black or white bishop in = game of chess,
sweeps the board on his own color. Some
times the distinguishing characters pass from
one sex 10 another indiferently as the castle
strides over the black and white squares.
Sometimes an uHele or an aunt lives over
again in 4 nephew or a niece, as if the
knights move were repeated on the squares
Of human individuality.
DR.. Holmes shows US that most OF all this
ancestrT-as to the males-Was OF the clergy
clerical. How his eyes must have twink
led as be wrote this sentence, Edward En-
erson, son Of the first and father of the
second Rev. Joseph Emerson, though not
minister, was the next thing to being one,
~ ss
was noted for the virtue of patience, and It
is a family tradition that he never com
planned but once, when he said mildly to
his daughter that her dumplings were some
what harder than ueedful-b,a not otIear'
When we remember that Emerson him
self was went to say that his
Ancestors we're so good that when they
went berrying they had to hold on to the
whortleberry bushes for fear of being trans
lated" We can believe, perhaps, that DIR.
Holmes is the mere transcriber and not iu-
ventor Of the above tradition. In another
place lin no less place in fact, than Math-
er's Magnolia CbristD DIR. Holmes finds the
following note as TO one of these godly En-
ersonian ancestors: IF any person would
know what Mr.. Peter Bulky was, let him
read bis Judieious and Savory Treatise of
The Gospel Covenant which has passed
through several Editions with much Accept
ance among the People of God" or still
another DR.. Holmes says: ''His virtues are
described to such great length on his tomb
stone on the Concord burial ground that the
reader can hardly help inquiring whether
sharp bargain was not driven with the stone
cutter; like that which the good Vicar OF
Wakefield arranged with the portrait painter
who was to represent Sophia as ashcpherdess,
with as many sheep as he could afford to put
in for nothing"
But when DR.. Holmes leaves his introduce
ton, he ceases to bubble over. The life and
record OF Ralph Waldo Emerson need not be
reviewed again in this notice. However, It
will not be redundant to notice few touches
that have escaped Us in DR.. Holmes prede-
cessor. II seems that even young Jagged
eight, Ralph Waldo Emerson loved certai n
large and juicy pears that grew in neighbor
Rpley's garden, and eat thrreof-once in his
night gown-witbout invitation. That he
was not so transcendental as not To get more
good in the latin school out of certain sur
reptiuous volumes under the lid OF his desk
than out of the classical text books on its
surface, we are also assured; as well as that,
when be first began to preach, he was called
by a con gregation who declined more brilliant
advances because they we're ''plain people
who couldn't understand anybody but Mr.
Emerson" But be was always terse. Here
is sentence from his earliest historical ad-
4 81 fr.1
with uniform good sense. The old town
clerks did not spell very correctly, but they
cOutrive TO make ineligible the will of a
free ana just community" And he always
had too strong kedge anchor Of common
horse sense-that New England heritage-to
be going without his lupcheon or mis- hat for
sake of any eternal verify whatever; or TO
bite his asparagus at the wrong end like Tho
resu, or to covet the wild independence Of
the woOdchuck and the musquash, like some
of the Brook farmers. Readers will turn
With interest to see what is DR.. Holmes esti-
mate Of Emerson as a poet, as to which so
much has been said Emerson's own state
ment was that he was ''not poet only re-
porter; but whatever Is Of me Is a poet. -
SAYS DR.. Holmes however:
''Emerson's poetry is elemental. It has the
rock beneath it in tie eternal laws on which
it rests; the roll of deep waters in Its grander
harmonies; Its air is full of eolian strains
that waken and die away as the breeze wan
ders over them; and through it shines the
white starlight, aud from time 10 time flashes
a meteor that startles US with sudden bril-
lianey."
DR.. Holmes passes simply through the
pathetic tale OF Emersoni Last year, when
memory bad failed him, and when only at
odd moments did the once massive intellect
give throbs Of its presence 10 the date when
the merciful relief came. The last chapter
in this book is the one upon which the
authors greatest care has evidently been
bestowed. It is an estimate OF Emersou's
Grand An attempt to answer the question,
''What was the errand on which Emerson
visited our earthf' The question itself
seems TO poise q nimbus around his head.
This little planet could not proviucialize
such man," says his biographer. In short
this is a most delightful, a most admirable,
must EXQUISITE book Nor from its perusal
] can the reader rise without, If possible, q