The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-05-24

surely no more tolerant, unique and beau
tiful comment has ever been voiced than
this from a clergyman of iron-bound Pres.
byterian Scotland: What Mr.. Emerson's
creed is we honestly say do not know;
that all we can confidently assert concern
ing 1t Is that you cannot gather il like
apples into baskets, grind it like corn
into provender, nor wind and unwind it
like a hank of yarn, nor even collect 1t
like sunlight into a focus, and analyze it
into prismatic points, whether five or seven;
nor inclose it within all the vocabularies
of all the vernacular tongues; and yet that
it is not so bad and unholy but that in
his mind Beauty pitches her tent around its
borders and Wonder looks UP toward it
with rapt eye. and Song tunes sweet melo-
dies in its praise, and Love, like the arms
seeks to draw into her embrace its un-
man might form and subscribe in a dream,
and when he awoke receive a gentle shrift
from wise and gentle confessors.''
Too visionary altogether, George Gilfillan
deemed Emerson "testifying with rapt look
and surging eloquence his belief in the
shadows of his own thoughts Yet. the
worship. his pursuit of ideal man, for whom
''he runs up the midnight winds of the for
est and questions every star of the sky"
For Emerson, of all Nature. asks the great
enigma, "What is man?' and If he could
but unlock his own heart the key of the uni
verse were found" With fine and endearing
insight, Gilfilan says of Emerson: He
seems an inspired tree. his veins full of sap
instead of blood. and you take up his
volume of poems, clad as it is in green,
and sm ell to it as to a fresh leaf"
"A man of contrasts" the Portrait
continues, lat once the clearest and the
most obscure of writer's his SEN
fences cast, like glow-worms. a far and
fairy light; or lie, like elf-knots, insulated
and insoluble.'
AS prcse-writer, apart altogether from
his verses" notes Gilillan, Emerson is
certainly the truest poet America has pro-
duced." Independent of foreign medium,
he used the poetic element he found around
him: and on the rugged soil of Massachu-
sets took his stand, barring his brow in
the breeze of his own country and invoking
the genius of his own words" His wonder
full prose style followed it's own method
not upon occasion dyed with poetic hues,
but wearing them ever on its own way-'a
winged way, not along the earth, but
through the high and LIQUID air. Why
should a man like this write verse?'
Beyond the simplicity and force of EN-
erson's poetic spirit, however, George Gill
fillan recognized In him great, practical,
spiritual and moral leader, whose words
''are careering over the world;' 'fervent
motion, perpetual kindling progress" being
preached to all by quiet wrapt mystic,
standing with folded arms
Emerson. he found. taught his countrymen
unweariedly faith, in life; hope, in prog
ress; love, as the mother of the better day:
and self-reliance, as the girdle of men and
of nations
Near the conclusion of Gilhllan's sketch
of Emerson, he describes having heard
Emerson the lecturer" and having met
Emerson the man. Few finer words
have been written of Emersons personal
bearing than these: His manners are
those of one who has studied the graces
in the woods. unwittingly learned his bow
from the bend of the pines. Plain and
homely he may be as wooden BOWL but
not the less rich and ethereal is the nectar
of thought by which he is filled" Emersons
matchless oratory, too, is reflected from
Gilfllan's observation in valued phrase
"A lecturer. in the common sense of the
term, he is not: call him rather a public
monologist. talking rather to himself than
to his audience-a quiet, calm, command
ing conversation of the highest eloquence,
no emphasis but the eye. still and strong as
gravitation, to fix, subdue and turn us
round. On Emerson, reading from the
odyssey" he comments, in passage tru-
ly worthy of Emerson: ut was read with
a calm, classical power and dignity, which
priety A request that the executive dis