St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-12-26
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B. Peterson s Bro. IS cents.
NEW PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED.
DIR HOLMES STORY OF EMERSON.
Biographies. estimates. eritques and
studies OF the great American Sage and
Seer very thiekly followed his funeral. There
was not, indeed much 10 add, for the CON-
pieted and rounded life had called halt to it.
self. It had found it's ''time to be old, to
take in SAIL" and for many years it was only
the mortal frame of Ralph Waldo Emerson
that awaited = peace-parted summons.
But, familiar as the story was, the lover aud
learned Emerson will find a new charm in
Dr. Holmes re-rehearsal of It in pages. Il is
like having some favorite old manuscript H.
Illuminated in gold and gules and orange, and
all warm eolors. DR.. Holmes pen 1--WE had
almost said penciD has touched in very vivid
hues until one hardly knows which to admire
most, the hero or his delineator. Certainly,
had Emerson been a paladin instead of a
philosopher, and rode 'fn argent revelry
with plume, train and all the rich array Of
old romance" the poet could not have made
a more fascinating book of it. The intro
duction DIR. Holmes saws is supplied to trace
Mr.. Emerson's ancestral types, as his Elmer
son 81 predecessors narrow down from in-
Vulnerable grandfathers and grandmothers,
70 four, and then to two immediate pre-
decessors. We cannot refrain from suspi-
cion, however, that it was written to give d.
Holmes irrepressible humOr a chance TO
bubble over quietly without impeach-
ing his historical verisimilitude. DIR.
Holmes is a human pathologist and
he 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 u obody
would have it otherwise; sometimes 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 TO another indiferenlly as the castle
strides over the black aud white squares
Sometimes an uncle OF an aunt lives over
again in nephew or a niece, as II the
knights move were repeated on the squares
Of human individuality.
DIR. Holmes shows Us that most Of all this
ancestry-as 10 the males-was of the clergy
clerical. How his eyes must have twink
led as he wrote this sentence, Edward En-
erson, son of the first and father of the
second Rev. Joseph Emerson, though not a
minister, was the next thing to being one,
for on his gravestone il is recorded that be
was noted for the virtue of patience, and 1t
is family tradition that he never CON-
planned but once, when he said mildly to
his daughter that her dumplings we're some
what harder than needful-5uf not otrea!"
When we remember that Emerson him
self was went to say that his
Ancestors were 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 DR..
Holmes is the mere transcriber and not in
ventor Of the above tradition. In another
place lin no less place in fact, than Math-
er's Magnolia ChristD 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 his Judicious and Sayory Treatise Of
The Gospel Covenant which has passed
through several Editions with much Accept
arce among the People of God" OF 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 q
sharp bargain was not driven with the stone
cutter; like that which the good Vicar of
Wakefield arranged with the portrait painter
who was 10 represent Sophia as ashepherdess,
with as many sheep as be could afford to put
in for nothing"
But when DR.. Holmes leaves his introduc-
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
Ripiey's garden, and eat thereof-Once in his
night gown-witbout invitation. That he
was not SO trlnscendental as not 10 gel more
good in the latin school out OF certain sur
reptitious 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 he first began to preach, he was called
by a con gregation who declined more brilliant
advances because they were ''plain people
who couldn't understand anybody but Mr.
Emerson" But be was always tcrse. Here
is sentence from his earliest historical ad-
dress: Il find our town records luminous
with uniform good sense. The old town
clerks did not spell very correctly, but they
contrive to make ineligible the will Of Il
free ana just community" And be always
bad too strong kedge anchor of common
horse sense-that New England heritage-to
be going without his luncheon OF his hat for
sake OF any eternal verify whatever; or to
bite his asparagus at the wrong end like Tho
reau, or to coTet the wild Independence of
the woodehuck aud the musquash, like some
of the Brook farmers. Readers will turn
with interest to see what Is DR.. Hol mes esti-
mate of Emerson as a poet, as to which so
much has been said Emerson's own state
ment was that be was ''not poet only a re-
porter; but whatever is of me Is a poet-n
Says DR.. Holmes however:
"Emerson's poetry is elemental. It has the
rock beneath it in the 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 SIS the breeze wan
ders over them; and through it shines the
white starlight, and from time TO time flashes
meteor that startles US with sudden bril-
liancy."
DIR. Holmes passes simply through the
pathetic tale of Emersonl Last year, when
memory had failed him and when only ak