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

Moved 10 Concord 20 i've In the Old
manse, 1914.
Returned 10 Boston. 1915.
Entered Harvard College, August, 1871
Graduated, ISL.
Taught in a school for young ladies in
Returned to Cambridge to study divinity.
1926.
Licensed to preach, Oct. 10. 1926
Went South for his health, Nov. ., leZo-
Returned, June. 1871.
Spent a year in Cambridge. preaching
often, lS27-2s.
Ordained as colleague Of Rev. Henry
Boston, March IL, 1929.
Married to Ellen Louisa Tucker, Septem-
Der, 1923.
Death of his wife. 1881.
Resigned his pastorate, Dec. p, lsS2.
Sailed for Europe, Dec. ., 49,.
Returned, September, 1893.
Began to lecture, November, 1875.
Went to Concord TO live, October, 1884.
Married to Lydia Jackson, September,
1885.
Secured the publication of Carlyles "Sar-
published Nature" September, 1896
Delivered his Phi Beta Kappa address on
The The American I'M lea Scholar o Aug a. i
Declaration of Independence.
Took part in the founding or THE Dial,
1910.
Published his first volume of poems, 1916.
Made a second visit to England, 1871.
Returned to Concord, 1913.
Published Representative Men,, 1871.
Published English Traits 1856.
Received from Harvard the degree OF LIZ
D., 1866.
Elected an overseer of Harvard College,
1867
Visited California, 1871.
His house burned and rebuilt by friends,
A third journey to Europe, October, 1872
Died at Concord, April y. 1Ss2.
Emerson's father. his grandfather. and
his great-grandfather were all ministers.
Indeed, on both his fathers and mothers
side. he belonged to an unbroken line OF
ministerial descent from the earliest set
tiers in New England. His ancestral home
was in Concord, Mass, but at the time of
his birth his father, the Rev. William En-
erson, was minister of the First Church
congregation in Boston. In Boston, then,
he was born. May Is, 1903. His father died
when he was seven years old. but his
mother continued to live in the parish
house and to care for her family of five
boys and girl, all under ten years of age.
Her one desire was to give these children
an education, and for this she bore priva-
tons and endured hardships, which they
shared bravely. During one year in the
war of 1872, when the stoppage of COM
merce had made provisions high, Mrs. En-
erson took her children to Concord and
lived with them in the old manse which
Hawthorne has described delightfully."- in
Manse.'' In that manse Emerson's grand
father was living when the Concord light
occurred.
Emerson was graduated at Harvard Col
lege in 1871, and after teaching a year or
two gave himself to the study of divinity.
He was not robust, there was a faint of
consumption in the family, and he inter-
rupted his study 10 travel in the South.
he was restless, and hard to be restrained
within the bounds of the ministerial pro-
fession as II was then regarded in New
England He preached, however, from 1927
TO 1882, and was for four years colleague
pastor over the Second Church in Boston.
His wife, whom he married in 1929. died in
1881, and his own health was precarious.
The work of preacher was not distasteful,
but he had no aptitude for pastoral work,
and he was out of sympathy with much
that seemed TO his associates essential in
church order. The profession, which he
had entered almost from necessity, since
there was no other at that time in Amer
lea which invited student of Emerson 8
gifts and tastes, no longer seemed to him
adjusted to his needs; ii slipped from him,
he resigned his pastorate; and though he
preached occasionally afterward, he be-
came thereafter distinctly a writer, main
tanning himself mainly by lecturing, and
living in plain manner at Concord.
There was an intellectual ferment in New
England when Emerson was in his early
manhood. and he was himself one of the
special and active agents in stirring the
minds of men. Changes were taking place
in the way which people looked at educa-
ton, religion, politics and society. A great
many subjects We're discussed for which
there seemed to be no place either in the
pulpit or in legislatures, and those who had
something to say were in great demand as
lecturers. Public entertainments were not
so varied then as now. nor so common. and
people hocked TO halls and meeting houses
to hear lectures. Emerson, though not the
most popular was the most celebrated of
these lecturers, and frequently gave courses
of lectures in Boston and elsewhere. He
was called upon also to speak at college
commencements and on other special occa-
sions, and II was rather through these lee
lures and addresses than through his print
ed books that. for long time. he made
himself known TO men.
He made q voyage to Europe in 1893 on
| account Of ill-health, and during mis- jour-
ney visited Thomas Carlyle, then scarcely
more known than Emerson himself, who
had, however, discovered his genius in his
writings. From this beginning there grew
one OF the notable friendships which some
times mark the association of intellectual
men Emerson went to Europe again in 1S4I
with special reference to courses of lectures
which he had been invited to give in Eng
land. He made a third visit in 1872. and on
these two occasions made and renewed ac-
| quaintances with leading thinkers and
poets Except for his lecturing tours and
THESE journeys, and for one made across
| the continent in 1871 which has been agree
ably recorded by James Bradley Thayer in
| his little volume. "a Western Journey with
Mr.. Emerson" he spent his life quietly in
Concord. He was married second time In
| 1895, and died at Concord, April "a 1882
His first published prose work was ma
ture, In 1882 He wrote poems when in
college, but his first publication of verse
was in 1.-The DIAL" magazine established
| in 1910, and the representative of a knot OF
men and women of whom Emerson was the
acknowledged or unacknowledged leader
! The first volume of his poems was publish
| ed in 1877, and the second twenty wears
| later. Meanwhile he put forth successive
| Edition of his writings there is one volume
| of verse and ten of prose.
In form the prose Is either the grafton o,
| the essay, with one exception. English
Traits records the observations of the
writer after his first two Journeys TO Eng.
| land: and while it may loosely be classec
among essays. it has certain distinctive fea.
| lures which separate ii from the essays OF
| the same writer: there is i'm Ii narrative
/ "reminiscences and description, which make
i 1T more properly the notebook of a philo.
| sophie traveller
Mr.. Cabot tells US that Emerson's practice
was when sentence had taken shape, te
| write ii out in his journal, and leave IL tC
| find its fellows afterwards. These journals
| PACED and indexed. were the quarry from
| which he built his lectures and ESSAYS
| When he had paper to get ready he took
| the material collected under the particular
heading and added whatever suggested it.
EXECUTIVE WILL OR LAW.