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

EmEhSON Nv
In all the wide domain of Emerson crit
icism it is highly probable that no more
discerning and sympathetic appreciation of
Emerson has ever been written than that
which was penned on the occasion OF his
visit to Scotland, in 1913, by George Gilillan,
the young pastor of large Presbyterian
congregation in Dundee. As Gilhllan pro-
nounced Emerson himself and no other,
so the Scottish clergyman must have been
himself and no other"-a man of striking
and picturesque eccentricities, current
comment tells us, yet faithful in his sacred
functions, and at the same time making
valuable contributions to English litera-
ture." A brilliant volume of Literary Por-
traits" including sketches of Shelley, Car
lyle, Charles Lamb, Ebenezer Elliott, God
win, Keats, Macauley, Hazlitt and other
men of the age, introduced Gilfillan to fame.
The portrait of Carlyle influenced that
testy genius TO write its author letter of
cordial thanksgiving" while the sketch
of Charles Lamb. it was said. might have
been Lambs own account OF himself" All
the Portraits" it was admitted, had
beauty and power. and, although of eccen-
trio frankness, were earnest and notable.
Gilfillan discoursed upon two Americans
''high-minded Henry Wadsworth Longfel-
low and earnest Ralph Waldo Emerson"
When the book was republished in this
country it was not received with unmixed
admiration. The Literary World of March,
1850, acknowledged the Emerson paper to
be Every readable, with the light shifted
to both sides of the statue" but character
lied Gilfillan of the world of "foppery
in literature" besides being IAN acute,
canny Scotchman, with stout bare leg
and a plain plaid misunderstanding a
dagger, too" He was further declared ''im-
pertinent in style, full of exaggerations,
purveyor of wearisome tinsel and
shining trash" At that epoch, it is EVIL
dent, the American literary dagger was
not rusting in it's sheath.
Half a century later, however, the Gil
fillan portrait of Emerson seems much more
than tinsel or shining trash. Curious
enough the literary Obligations of this
brilliant Scot: he opens his paper on Ma
caulay with a soul-stirring eulogy of
Charles Dickens, and into the sketch of
Leigh Hunt thrusts a glowing tribute to
Longfellow, with sharp dsapproval of En-
erson's poems, as melancholy gospel"
measured extravagances," "the emana-
tons of an unhappy man." The full length
study of Emerson, though mixed with
quaint and singular phrase, abounds in
points of fine justice and sincere .admira-
ton. Prior to Emerson's appearance in
Scotland, Gilfillan writes:
Mr.. Emerson is at present to Scotland
the coming man. Gla sgow Dundee, Perth
and Edinburgh are expecting his arrival
with much interest. He is sure of
kindly reception in Aud Caledonia, with
er he comes, we understand. in February.
Somewhere about the year 1926 or
'26, he visited Edinburgh and preached,
without any remarkable impression. in one
of its chapels. Now, he comes, let Amer
leans say what they please. as their truest
and strongest spirit, and we blend our fee
BILE voice with that of a large section of our
intellectual community, in bidding him well
come"
Though a national writer" says Gilhl-
Ian, who owned the second volume of En-
erson's Essays which had reached Scot
land, Ito American literature Emerson does
not belong. He is among them but not of
them, a separate state which no Texan
negotiation will be able to annex to their
territory. To him Britain is begin
ming to requite the justice which America,
to her honor, first accorded to Carlyle. Sim
cere spirits in every part of the country,
who have many of them no sympathy with
Emersons surmised opinions, delight, new
ertheless, to do him honor as an earnest
and gifted man, struggling in a most alien
element, almost alone in a mechanical coun-
try, teaching spiritual truth, and faithful
to the mission with which he deems him
self to be fraught."
OF Emerson's poems. with an altered
view, the Scottish critic, thus charmingly
muses.:
They are, as Emerson truly calls some
of them, 'Wood-notes,' as beautiful change
full. and capricious. and unfathomable often
as the songs of the birds. Some
of Emerson's verses float us away listen
ing and lost on their stream of sound, and
of dim suggestive meaning. Led himself. as
he says, far as the uncommunicable,
he leads us into the same mystic region,
and feel that even in nature there
are things unutterable, which it is not pos
sible for the tongue of man to utter, and
which yet real the earth and
the heavens" In somewhat amusing con-
trast this honest Scottish "aside:" what
We understand is excellent, what we do not
| understand is likely TO be excellent, too"
Concerning Emerson.s religious opinions,
-