New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-10-31

nevertheless barring something OF the fragrance
Of an interesting period in American and Eng
lish letters The correspondence began IN
1e:;a: ended in 1914. Within those few years
there was hardly time for two men who never
saw each other face to face to get well enough
acquainted and intimately enough associated
in any cooperative undertaking to produce some
striking result bur both sides there was
from the start a great deal OF feeling. great
deal Of the transcendcntalism which in It's day
was potent. Perhaps it would be potent silil II
II we're to manifest itself in ways unlike the
ways of these writers As revealed IN these let
ters Unfortunately the pendulum was swung
too far when the reaction against materialism
was begun by Emerson in America and Carlyle
in England. Both prophets were apt to lose
contact in some ways with the bases OF human
nature upon which their philosophy was ram 10
repose itself When Carlyle uttered a truth ne
was disposed TO utter 1t in fury. Emerson
speech was ciouded 10y the strangely turbd
fires Of his Imagination. Neither of the two
therefore. could DO good without doing some
harm. and it is not surprising that John
Sterling. who was the friend and devotee oil
both found il impossible to escape the cloSSins
and even hiehfalutin elements Of their nysti-
csm
Mr.. Edward Emerson. in a brief preface
Horribly,
St,rlina, cnphasizing the idcalis,ic charm Of his
character showing him in fact. for the brave
and almost sanity man that he was. This por-
trait clarifies the ensuing correspondence niue
But the Unbiased reader. for whom the philo-
sophical nisis Of Emerson and his group have
nothing sarrosanct ahou, them. will feel. we re-
peat a curious hicrophantc note In almost
every one Of the letters 1t does not vitiatc their
nobility The high level on which both writers
lived makes one hunger for Il revival OF the
enthusiasm which urged them both on through
the materialism OF their time But there Is
something over-elaboraic. something hyper
philosophical in their styles. and with the best
Will in the world 10 take this volume seriously IL
is hard to avoid pathetic smile over the
solemn talk about the soul and It's misadvent-
ures \ shade more solcmnity and YOU would
call the letters inflated. Fortunately that shade
IS r,.issinr. and beneath IN flowers ~ speech
fine beautiful sincerity of tn, mcn is dlscernlolc
More than once. also fragment Is "ncpun-
tered which countcrhalanccs with Iis Wholesome
vigor the metaphysical hroodings reelected else
where Sterling as he nears tho nakcdhcsS or
death comes back uuconsclousiy perhaps, TO
IN. nakedness Of thought which should have
been natural 10 him through all his life. 1T
Wa strany. To- see the thick crimson blood pour
fore his death. while feeling hardly any pain;
expecting to Ice dead in five minutes. and motto
Ing Tho PATTERN Of the rOom-papcr and OF the
Doctors waistcoat as cDmposcdly ~ if the
whole had been a dream That has the vivid
ness and directness Of man who has forgot 10
sIlit philosophical hairs and there Is Il touching
ncgation Of all his old speculative worries in
the conclusion to which he comes when Death
approaches to brush away the cobwebs OF mortal
thought Then he says: But after all regrets. |
Life is good-to see the face of Truth. and en-
JOY the beauty Of tears and smiles. and know
one $ self a man. and love what belongs to man |
hood-all this is "A blessing that may console us
for all wants and that sickness and sorrow and. |
one may rust. Death. cannot take away
When Emerson replied to this letter some |
how the irnmnen,e OF his friends departure |
seems to have moved him in the same way, |
making his thought more vigorously humane.
making his ideas to now through more natural
channels T." he says. who value nothing so
much as character in literary works. have be-
Hevcd that you would live to enjoy the slow. |
homage Of your contemporaries to the |
valor and permanent merits OF your Muse.
The whole sentence Is instinct with the spiritual
sanity which would have made Emerson even a
greater power than ne became If only he had |
spoken always with such transparent simplicity |
The opinion of both Sterling and Emerson was |
THAI. the people Of their day were sunk in ma
tcrialisfn Emerson writes. with his epigram-
matte touch. of Englands stark conservatism !
ian inartiI passing that Of Orienaism.' and his |
pcssimism found a ready sympathizer in Stcr-
ing Perhaps they thought the sleeping millions /
needed apocayptic trump 10 awaken them |
And. holding this view. Emerson could say OF |
Bronson Alcott that 'since Plato and Plotinus