The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-02-15
LECTURE ON
EMERSON
Pleased Audience
Listens to Mrs.
Frear.

| Man in relation to nature was the
| substance of the second serial lecture
of Mrs. Walter F. Frear on Emerson,
which was given yesterday afternoon
at the Young Women's Christian Asso-
citation. The lecture was listened to
attentively by large number of Ia
dies of the association. Throughout it
was filled with Mrs. Frears own inter
esting criticisms, as we'll as those of
prominent writers, showing her thor
ough acquaintanceship with the au-
thor's ideas and moods. The Emerson
course of lectures, as we'll as other
series, given under the auspices of the
Young Women's Christian Association,
are growing steadily in popularity and
Indictment weather does not now inter-
fere with the gathering of large audi
ences. Among those present yesterday
were Mrs. Harry Won Holt, Mrs. Chas.
Dyke, Mrs. r. D. Mead, Mrs. Joseph
Richards, Mrs. A. B. Hill, Miss Grace
Barrett, Mrs. Selma Kinney, Mrs. AK
tell, Miss Ella Snow, Mrs. ]. NJ. Bell,
Miss lola Barber, Mrs. Albert Raas,
Hammerschlag, Mrs. Edgar Wood, Mrs.
Guy Gere Miss Harriet Austin, Mrs
Green Miss Jennie Carlson, Miss Alex
ander, Mrs B. F. Dillingham;, Miss
Harriet Needham.
Mrs. Frear prefaced her discussion of
Emerson and his relation to man by
Analysing the rhetorical measure for the
value of a subject and its treatment
by an author. Emerson had been Sc
verely criticised for his lack of order !
and form. He wrote on the moment |
airy revelation which came to his point
of view He sought no order or har- /
mony of continuity, leaving his
thoughts to obey their own magnetism
as far as the reader was concerned. At
times he sighed for results which he
never gained or even attempted to
gain. He obeyed as a usual thing, only
the impulse of inspirations. For the
most part his work is given without
form, but he stinted no labor in his Ii
brary in eschewing words which ap
in plain, unqualified words, Saxon
words also being his preference. In
this respect he was like TennysOn, but
the latter had a proper respect for the
relation of the parts to the whole of his
subject, as a builder would fit the sec
tions to the whole building.
Mrs. Frear Hkened Emerson's ex-
pressions to the opening of a cage from
which came forth carrier pigeons which
winged their separate ways, each seek
ing it's own destination. She spoke of
Matthew Arnold's keen, cruel criticisms
Of Emerson, in which he gave credit
for his brilliant mind, acknowledging
that he had passages of shrewd wit
and touches of a close observation of
but that he did not have the
requisite binding of the tissues. Mrs.
Frear called attention to the rugged in
dividuaiity of the great essayist, say
ing that he was a constant observer of
nature and man, and, not the least, a
close observer of facts. His own rela-
ton to man was perhaps the basis of
his ideas of the relation of all men to
men. At first he did not enjoy the
study of nature and thought it a snare
and a delusion, and at that time en-
1eavored to measure nature by books,
but in his later life this was entirely
changed and he became a priest of ma
ture. His own view was poetic rather
than scientific. 1t was Emersons rea- {
soning that nature is mans teacher.
influence nature had upon
him one great value was that Emerson
himself became a teacher of moral law.