Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1884-12-12
The Cencord school OF Philosophy

SSHoOt VI phhSsopsss W " SSs-ssSs>Si a
upon the academic method. The first
wears sessions were held in the house
Of A. Bronson Alcoit, in Concord.
Mass Since then Mrs, Elizabeth
Thompson, of New YORK, has given
sufficient means to erect plain but
tasteful structure upon ground imme-
diately adjoining the old homestead,
where two daily sessions are held dur
ing four consecutive weeks in the
heirt ofthe summer.
Naturally attractive emily to those in.
clined TO abstract and ethical studies.
the attendance is always limited to a |
few score earnest. thoughtful persons.
Greeted by the neglect or sneers of the
many, II nee Is the strenuous needs of
the few.
The obiecl of the school seems 10
be, primarily. the interchange ui
thought among its originators They
seek truth by questioning the attrac.
tions and in,ui,ions of the soul, as well
as by experience and revelation among
all races. These thinkers endeavor TO
reach fundamental ideas, and find the
bases of universal religious philoso-
ply. They desire TO help their fellows
from losing themselves upon the
barren deserts of agnosticism, from
falling into the slough OF materiali5m
ORION starving upon the husks offor-
NAL theology. They aim 10 quicken
the germ sof innate spiritual conscious
ness, to peheua,e through conventi"n-
al forms and terms to those realities
forever old, forever new which exis:
at the heart Of all expressions of true
religion. They RECOGNIZES the Divinity
within all souls, the freternits of human
i.y, and seek to find the relation be-
tween the spirit OF man and the Deny
The subjects of their lectures ant
discussi ms, therefore, are not facts
but mpersonal principles. Nor ar
they dry with abstruse lore; they hav
generally that vitality which come
from belief founded on revelations c
innate, immHtable and eternal ideas
The faculty OF the school, while seem
lngly reluctant to put forth any schem
OF theology, have, evidently, a stfon
bias toward Christian theisn in it
broadest sense.
The visitor to the Hillside Chape
in Concord, wends his way from til
station through an avenue OF staiel
elms, whose roots striking deep an
branches soaring high, seems fit type
of the slow, substantial, permaner
race which resists the extremes of Ct
mate as it resisted British oppression
Less than mile to the left is that ba
lie ground where was "tred the she
heard round the world" which SOUND
cd the glad note of American freedom
Soon we reach the plain house
which Emerson was recently an Inmate
Here, for half century, away fro
the fiet and clangor OF the restle
world, he enunciated truths in sue
forms as his genius has already MAD
classical. Through those pelluc
depths which reveal his thoughts, he
so little subject to distortion or pa
sion, so pure and fawless, that
seems distant as Plato. Already v
see the harmony of his proportions
though ages had evolved that atmc
phere which tones the sage into syi
metrv as statuesque as the grandest
the Greeks. To the busy bitterness
common minds he is as lofty and u
approachable as Mont Blanc to t
loiterer in the streets of Geneva. Al
yet such was the charm of his simI
manliness that to his fellow-townspe
pie all things connected with him a
set apart as something sacred.
Up the village street mile or S
where the elms grow still more state
We come to the brown cottage at t
lef., where the veteran Alcott, t
dean of the faculty, the most transce
dent OF all transcendentalists, has liv
for Thirty years. The philosophy
this brooding mystic is eminen
Pythagorean. One looks vainly
three volumes from his pen for I
secret Of his leadership among his cir,
of admirers. That is to be found
the perfect sincerity Of lie viii
seeks to find and obey spir tual lay
and to make practical ideal truth.
is eminently teacher. buth,s instr
lions have been given through par
conversation in Eastern and Wests
towns. He aims to unite noble 81
2licity and true culture. Mr.. Alcot
majestic mein and benignant featu
indicate an easily.worklng and harm
NOUS nature, rather than one varl
and profound.
In the corner room Of the quaint
house, which for year has been
cupIed by Professor Harris, his daul
ter Louisa wrote her little Wome
and many another delightful book, a
behind it is the studio of her SIS
May, "Our Madonna" with Ter girl
sketches still on the walls As We
Il 81