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

The Emerson centenary celebration which
takes place tomorrow has brought the
opinions of various persons more or less
qualified to estimate the value of the life
and work of the Concord sage. No maya
zine Of the month has been without some
expression on the subject, and in each of
number Of periodicals are contributions
from several writer's. These estimates are
very interesting because, although almost
uniformly eulogistic.' scarcely two are
found to agree as TO the exact place in
the worlds temple of fame to which
Emerson belongs. One classes him as a
philosopher first of all, another holds that
he is not in the proper sense philosopher
because he formulated no system OF thought
other dismisses it as Of minor consequence;
one rates him as a leader of religious
thought. another is disposed to think that
his views were of too lofty an intellectual
character to reach the religious conscious
ness of the average man. One writer, more
severe than these, makes bold to say that
Emerson scorns logic and cohesion, and
that ''his sentences are heap of glitter
ing particles that run through ones fin
gers" This changeful quality OF Emer-
sons thought and his occasional transition
from the spiritual to the commonplace are
explained by another writer on the ground
that he was not afraid to record a new
opinion even though 1t confiicted with one
previously expressed, and that he followed
nature, which plants the weed beside the
| rose, I'm considering every development of
life of Importance.
Out of all the opinions it is not easy to
get the common estimation of this great
man. Each reader is left as before with
his own impressions, and these impressions
are naturally based on what he has himself
consciously gained from Emerson's writings.
But this conscious result is. perhaps, the
| least part Of the influence exerted by this
| American writer the anniversary of whose
| birth Is being celebrated. In spite Of pres
ent differences of opinion the verdict Of
| the future will undoubtedly be that he
was both a poet and a spiritual teacher.
| That he had not the instinct for the form
of verse does not alter the fact that his
prose is full of the soul of poetry. And
bis spirituality is Of the highest. But
| perhaps 1t is neither of these elements
| through which his greatest influence comes.
| In this commercial age neither the poet
nor the seer as such has an appreciable in
| fluence, though both are undoubtedly a
stronger element than most persons realize.
| 1t is rather the Importance that Emerson
gave to the individual, together with the ex-
ample he set In freedom Of religious
| thought, that mark his greatest effect upon
his age. He gave expression to his liberal
views at time when American religious
| thought was for the most part yet bound
and hampered by narrow creeds and puri-
| tanic traditions. He taught that entire free
| dom of belief is not incompatible with the
purest religion and the loftiest spirituali-
| ty He impressed the fact, too, that the
individual may think and stand for him.
self and his own convictions without regard
to what has been taught by others as the
only truth, and yet remain in harmony
with the eternal verities. Men and women
| of this late time who have perhaps never
read Emerson have felt in the unquestioned
| liberty of religious thought and action ac-
| corded them the effect of the stand taken
| by this leading American thinker.
Merely as a man, too. Emerson has his
| influence His purity of life, his detach-
ment from the sordid things of the world
| his simplicity and sweetness of soul afford
a beautiful example to Americans OF the
life that may exist in a world that seems
too much taken up with low concerns. AL
together, II is well that the birtnoay ann