The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-05-18

Ing systematic philosophy easily. But
Emerson's philosophy is not systematic,
and their power of apprehension often
fails them in trying to read 1t. They
come upon some startling overstatement,
some of the extravagances, paradoxes.
or eccentricities with which his writings
are thickly sprinkled, and in mingled de-
spair and disgust they throw the book
aside as wanting In sanity. But, says
DR. Holmes, who probably heard most OF
Emersons thought as 1t fell from the
thinkers own lips, If such a person had
seen the lecturers smile as he delivered
one OF his playful statements of a runa-
way truth, fact endorsed by imagination
sometimes by wit or humor, he would
have found a meaning in his words
which the featureless printed page could
never show him." The passage would
then be amusing, not misleading
TO read Emerson with entire satisfac-
tion and with full measure of profit a
considerable sensiblllty to humor is indis-
pensable and there are some persons
especially in the classes that are like
ly to be attracted to him at all who
though not incapable of appreciating hui
NOR, yet need some ntimaton-a twinkle
of the eye, an infection of the voice
when the transition Is suddenly made
from entire seriousness. The necessary
absence OF such warnings from the print
ed page has led many worthy sober
sides to let the dust fall undisturbed
on the Emerson books in his library
But greater reason for the neglect of
the Concord philosopher by the world
OF today Is the read difficulty and toll
someness of reading him. even for those
who are well equipped for understanding
him. The hurrying, bustling spirit of the
times, with the growing habit of taking
1 mental food in easily dgested tabloids,
is wholly alien to the spirit of Emerson's
writings. Most persons now do their read
Ing while, as 1t We're, clinging to straps
IN Tying electric cars; they lack what
carlyle said Emerson pre-eminently pos
sessed the Invaluable talent of sitting
still" That talent Is needed to read
him, as 1t was needed to produce his
work II one is not acclimated to his
calm and reflective atmosphere he is
quickly bewildered and abandons the task
before he has tested the soundness of the
philosophy or discovered the force and
beauty of the writing that lie below the
obscurities, eccentricities and faults of
style. An Emerson essay cannot be read
in a half hour, snatched hurriedly be-
tween the close of office hours and ~
social engagement and then tossed aside
for the sunday papers and the latest
batch of l0-cent magazines; hence the
lutellectudt COHultlOnS OF the present
times here In America are much against
his being read at all.
Even II one Is prepared to approach
! him In leisure of mind and with full pow
er of comprehension, there is still the OBJ
stacle of lack of system In his thought
| and want of flow in his rhetoric Reading
him is like a locomotive bunting It's way
| through snow drifts; one is not smoothly
carried along, but must go back every
| few minutes and take a fresh start His
thought leaps from peak to peak: his
calculation of it is rather succession of
| clipped-off bits of briliancy than a con-
| tinuous ribbon. OF the excellence of his
writing, In its way and as whole, there
can be no question. But his power of
continuous effort In composition ended
with the sentence; context and connection
were often not made apparent. I'm writ
ing my thoughts, he once said, II seek
no order or harmony or result I am not
careful to see how they comport with
other thoughts and other moods l trust
them for that" And again. in letter
to CARLYLE, half comically criticising him
| self Here | sit and read and write,
/ with very little system. and as far as re-
CARDS composition, with the most frag-
mentary RESULTS paragraphs .incompressi-
BILE. each sentence an infinitely repellent
| particle"
This self-criticism is not too severe
| though. as DIR. Holmes has remarked
we cannot very well find fault with EN-
erson's semi-detached sentences without
quarrelling with the Song of Solomon and
| the Sermon on the Mount. Nevertheless,
such writing does certainly make very