The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-01-04


Il answer without hesitation, to me he
was simply stimulator, awakener. It is
my conviction that, like Pascal and Cur
nall and Rousseau and Herder and Leasing
and Carlyle, lie will always be read by the
young rather than the old, forcing his way,
not by reasoning and ~syllogisms, but by
feeling, imagination and intuition, and SO
driving one to new and strange attitudes
Of thought and action. Sometimes, think,
this was the most common il not the only
way in which he looked upon himself.
Certainly, | am not prepared to say it was
in joke that he said of himself: sDo not
count on me as standing anywhere, I I'M
settle everything This | do know, ]
wouldn't let him look even into a cup of
coffee for which had any respect, for to
me he was a born iconoclast. He brought
the whole existing order with which ] had
been familiar into doubt. He taught me
to have no respect for the old simply be-
cause it was old. And to me ever after
meeting him the old became far too often
the obsolete. Nothing that is, | came to
learn, is entitled to respect simply because
it is. He smote me thus as in the fore
head at cur very first interview. The oc-
casion was the return of an article I had
brought him with his suggestions in pencil
on the margin. He fell to it and gave me
a lecture on composition which was a clear
departure from everything the professor
Of rhetoric had been teaching us for two
years.
lyon shall have no firstly or secondly
or thirdly, " he said. you shall make no
skeleton or plan. You shall have no pero-
ration or exordium. What is it you are
writing for, anyway? What do you want
to say? Say it. Out with it.! Don't lead
up to it. Don't try to let your nearer down
from it. That is to be commonplace. Say
it with all the force and grace you can and
stop.
81 see you write verses sometimes. /
suppose you read your verses over after
you have written them? ?
Certainly
81 suppose, then, after a little they
grow old to you?'
Indeed they do
land you continue to write. II, after
a long time, you look any Of your lines
over, and you come to one or a succession
aud say to yourself. THAT is good"
it is good, no matter what any one says
to the contrary, but destroy without de-
lay everything else. Poetry, whether it
comes in dreams or in CLEANS, is always
noble and holy. 1t must serve no sordid
use. 1t is of the above. You must keep
some fact books for poetry. I think that
they are much more nearly related to
poetry than rhyme or rhythm. Study
Greek for expression. but the poetic fact
is half the battle. For your fact books
gather and search everything but you
shall o read Prescott or Bancroft or
Motley or Montague. Prescott is thor
ough man. Bancroft reads enormously,
always understands his subject. Motley
was was paiustaking and practical, but
their style Stays. Neither of them lifts
himself off his feet. They have ne lift in
them
Il think now, without betraying pub
fishers confidence, | can venture to give
you a few of Mr.. Emerson's expressions
to me which are in the line of the direct
purpose of these memories. They are
just as fresh as when they were uttered
over half a generation ago, although they,
like everything else he said, are more
easily understood when read than when
listened to.
"'Shut your book when your own
thought comes. 1t is of more value than
that of the angel Gabriel
"There is no strong performance with
out a little fanaticism on the part of the
performer. When you meet son of Ken
lucky his very presence seems to say: "If
you like me, well; if you don't, look out
for YOURSELF
81 eommiserate any one who is subject
to the misery of being overplaced. What
you are stands over you and thunders and
denies what you say
:" Did you ever think about the logic of
brain stimulus? Nature supplies her
own. 1t is astonishing what she will do if
you will give her a chance. Ever tie most
tired brain will get relief under the apple
tree on the grass. Later in life a cup Of
tea perhaps, but tobacco-what rude crow
bar is this with which to pry into the deli
cate tissues Of the brain?'
SIN study do not stop until you ncoun
ter the fact with your own hand. Search
by all shows and learn lust how it now
stands. Though the reward of the market
is in the thing done, the true reward is in
the doing. "'-OakIand (Cal.) Enquirer.
Thus am l doubly arned-my death and life,
Ny bane and antidote are both before me-
Whether to sit alone suffering with neuralgia,
orbuy one bottle of Salvation Oil.