The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-05-27
TN MEMORY
OF EMERSON
Concord Celebrates Its Great PhilOsO-
piers Centennial.
ADDRESS BY SENATOR H0AR
Aged Massachusetts Statesman De-
livers the chief speech-schooI
Children Play an Important
Part In the Services.

Concord, Mass. May 26. = Concord
has given itself up to general cele-
bration Of the one hundredth anDiver-
sary of the birth Of Ralph Waldo En-
erson.
There were two parts to the days
programme. The forenoon exercises
were planned exclusively for the
school children and were held in the
town hall Those OF the afternoon
were of a more public nature, although
the capacity Of the First Parish meet
ing house, in which they were held.
made it necessary to have admission
by ticket only, and the application for
tickets had far exceeded the utmost
limit early last week. The principal
speaker of the morning was lie Baron
Russell Briggs Of Harvard, and fea-
ture of the programme was the reei-
tation by some of the pupils Of Sc
lected poems of Emerson. Other Sc
lections from Emerson, set to music,
were sung by the school children.
In the afternoon Charles Eliot Nor
ton Of Harvard, Colonel Thomas Went
worth Higginson of Cambridge, Pro-
lessor William James Of Harvard and
United States senator George Frisbie
Hoar Of Worcester were among the
speakers.
Senator Hoar said in part:
I do not undertake TO speak Of Mr.. EN-
erson's services to the youth Of his coun-
try as a guide to the best literature or as
a counselor and inspirsr TO that noble
and brave behavior Of which he was him
self so admirable an example. | will not
speak of him as q critic, to whose almost
infallible touchstone every man brought
his metal to see If il were gold. ] will
not undertake to speak Of him as a poet
or as an orator, rising, on fit occasion, 20
the loftiest eloquence.
Contribution to Spiritual Knowledge
have time TO speak Of him in but one
aspect-that Isl the contribution he made
to the knowledge BY mankind Of spiritual
laws
/ think he had the farthest and clearest
spiritual discernment Of any man who has
lived III modern times His vision was not
only keen and farsghted. but he was sim
gularly free from the things that distort
or disturb, There was no local attrac-
ton or temptation or heat or blur, So we
may take him as the best witness we
know Of to the spiritual facts which are
all around us and close to us, but yet so
many Of which we cannot know or know
but inT erfeotly BY any seeing or hearing
of our own,
Every man who is seeking a spiritual
life finds in Emerson his own faith if he
have faith as the Christian sects find
theirs in the Saviour. Now. what are the
things in which our confidence is strength
ened and deepened BY the fact that he
tells us they are true2 Some Of them
and We may thank God for tive may see
also for ourselves. Some Of them he re-
veals to us and makes clear to us. But
we can take the courage that they gave
us from the fact that the clearest ewes
and the best intelligence and the most
dispassionate Judgment that have appear
ed among men for many day add to the
imperfect evidence Of our intelligence the
more perfect evidence Of his
Justified the ways Of God.
He has taught lis the virtue Of COM
pieteness and courage and sincerity of ut
terance In dealing with the things that
pertain to the soul he utters no half
truths 10 pious frauds. He gives us no
milk for babes. The purpose Of Emerson.
like that Of Milton is to Justify the ways
Of God to man, and they do not need to
be clothed IN 4 veil, God Is not to be seen,
as Moses saw hin, from Behind.
He afiirms that inspiration and the
process Of revelation did not end with the
apostles and the Scriptures. IL is going
on today and al the time to him that
hath ears to hear. The bush Is burning
still
The spiritual message comes to each
man for himself, which he can trust and
which he must act upon. Trust myself
Every nerve vibrates to that iron string. 2
The universe Is for the building up OF I'M
dividual character Each soul Is to be a
star and dwell apart Mon should greet
each other every morning as coming from
far countries, Ike the gods who SIT around
and talk from peak to peak all around
Olympus.
His Belief In Immortality.
He has made the best statement III all
secular literature Of the doctrine Of inn
mortality He shows us that the world
and the human soul are not only unrea-
sonable, but inexplicable without it. Yet
he makes no absolute affirmation except
that we shall be immortal II that be best
Whether we shall know each other again
is a Sunday school question. He will not
spend his time about it. Perhaps. ais he
says Of Carlyle, this nimble and active
splitA uuts MOI care 70 pstt ltSetI against
walls. But he IS not like Carlyle a de-
stroyeF or scorner. He worships no
demon of mere force. If he do not know
what we long to know Of another world.
he pays due homage to the loving and
wise Spirit that sitteth as sovereign on
the throne Of this. Rather, he believes
that the world is but one world and that
the Sovereign who reigns over IT, never
to be dethroned. knows very well that
every road leads to the gates Of his king
dom. He sees no God Of force or OF dis
dain looking down on mankind as on a
race Of groveling swine or chattering apes.
----------------