The Forrest City times., 1893-06-23
RALPH WALDO EMMETSoN

RALPH WALDO EMMEESoN
 In the great galaxy of American Stages. Philosophers and Poets, there are none more conspicuous than the subject oi my address tonight. namely. Ralph W aldo Fminerson, recognized as the Sage or Coil- cord.
 It is generally accepted that If you wish to reform person you must cohlmence one hundred years before his birth. Inc auteceden,s of MT. EDlinerson recvgnizeq this truth, and commenced his reformation two hundred years prior to his birth. Ills an cestry for eight generations. on the part or putiI his parents, were ministers who sue eessiyely inculcateds principles of charity. honor, love, yirt ue. hope and truth. ID their progeny and Emmerson is the result of their talents and scholarship. He had genial face, face that was III itself benedction; he was serene. calm, sell poised. subtle, often reticent, courageous, honest and honorable,
 Born at Concord, Massachusetts. in 1905. he soon gave evidence of an active and poetic mind. He graduated at Harvard III 1922 at the age of nineteen, having been class poet. He then taught school m BoS- ton five years. When 25 years of age he wa. ordained minister. Three years later he announced d change iD his theo- logical opinions, resigned his charge anu began his liiewprk as d lecturer. essayist. philosopher and poet. As preacher he was plain, earnest and effective. his love of truth aud justice and the radical indepen- dence of his nature asserted itself and he as- sailed rather than followed the traditions of the church.
 He was teacher, master, whose at tributes and acquisitions qualified him for the task of instructing teachers. He recognized the present as part of the eternity of his happiness. His philoso- ply was blended with poetry. He did not pin his faith to the dogmas of the church. nor to the diplomas of colleges. but as serted his own observations and deduc- tions. assailng cherished theories and philosophies regardless of consequences. He did not stop to deny what others as serted. nor to prove what he asserted him self: he lett that entirely to the future. He was as self-assured as if he had a com mission signed and sealed by the Almighty to enlighten the universe of humanity. He never wrote to please a particular au- dience; he never withheld nything he had written, for fear ot the critics; he was a OOIu lidNttl anu dbu otoOt up't c starry pedestal, swaying his baton and bringing out the brightest and sweetest music of the spheres.
 He drew his inspiration from the scrip lure, from nature. from humanity, from history. and he lived up to his own ideal of manhood He was original. natural attractive and direct; his philosophy en- deavors to meet our daily wants; he nl,a.t hnn pf nut, wh the hills are his pulpts and the lilies are his lighted candles. He has the world of thought for his appreciative audience.
 He confronted human assumptions hon estly, looked them squarely in the face. while he questioned them, and revealed what new beauty, as yet unappropriated, he could discover in the world. To him the world was pet full of possibilities it's present was greater than its past; its future grand beyond conception. The past may have led back to tue divine be- ginning of things. but that was elementary. The future looked to the glorious cOnsum- ation; it had in it the more solid growth, the flower the fruit The soil of human nature was still rich, the roots of life were strong the mighty and we'll proportiOned trunk needed no propping.
  studied the laws that govern the earth be- low and the heavens above. His courage was without limit. In every social and pO- litical controversy he threw his weight in- to the scale of justice on the side of . rational and progressive liberty. He knew that almost all the great truths re- latng to society are not the results of scholarly meditation. hiving dp wisdom with each succeeding year. but the result of deductions of common sense. He knew that liberty and civilization are only frag- ments of rights wrung from the strong hands of wealth. He believed that the m-asureless capacity of mankind was the lever of all progress; that the most en- Iightened should be the servants of the less enlightened. or ignorant, and lift oth- CTS to the same high level; that power, ability. influence, character. virtue. are the only trusts with which to serve our time and generation. By assaling the dominant and keenly cherished dogmas of the church he incurred the displeasure and had marshaled against himself the bigotry of the priesthood. He declared that for one class to prescribe the law, the religion. morals. or trade of another, is harmful and unjust that each mans re- latons to God are exclusively his own con cern, and he should be the best judge oi those relations. He believed in wearing away the worlds restraints and lift off its burdens.
 He was a dreamer. pantheist. trans cendentalist, optimst, poet and philoso pher, whose mission was to write essays and verse, and put wise sayings into pal. pitating sentences. As an artist in the use of letters in prose. he never had sCpe- rior in this country. Some of his verse are rough as granite, but never without mug gets of gold His writings seldom meet