The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-05-26
A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF
RALPH WALDO EMEkoON
His Career as Preacher, Traveller Author anu roe'
His Loyalty to Idealism. his
Keen Insight.

1875. and died at Concord. April =. 1882.
His first published prose work was Ma
lure" IN 1899. He wrote poems When IN
college. but his first publication oil verse
was I'M The DIAL a magazine estab-
li>hed IN 1910. and the representative OF 4
knot OF men and women OF whom Ener-
son was the acknowledged or unacknoWi-
edged leader. The first volume o. his
poems was published in 1877. and the
second twenty years later. Meanwhile he
nut forth successive volumes OF prose.
and in the Riverside Edition" OF his
writings there is one volume OF verse and
ten OF prose.
In form the prose is either the grafton
or tho essay, with one exception. Eng
liSh Traits records the observations OF the
writer after his first two journeys TO Eng
land; and while it may loosely be classed
among essays, it has certain distinctive
features which separate 1t from the essays
OF the same writer; there l. in 1t MARIA
tive, reminiscence, and description. which
make it more properly the notebook of u
pEilosophic traveller.
Mr.. Cabot tells Us that Emerson's prac-
tice was, when a sentence had taken
shape. to write it out in his journal. and
leave it to find its fellows afterwards.
These journals, PACED and indexed. We're
the quarry FROM which he built his lee
lures and essays. When he had a paper
to get ready, he took the material col
lected under the particular heading, and
added whatever suggested itself at the mo-
ment. The proportion thus added seems
TO have varied considerably; it was large
III the early time, say 10 about 1916, and
sometimes very small in the later essays"
AS one reads Emerson steadily. he Is
likely to note certain mental character
istics in the writer which mark all his
work. An important and pervading one
is his loyalty to idealism, and his belief
in the power of the soul to work out a
noble place for itself. The cpenness OF
his mind TO new thought, his loyalty TO
high ideals. his eager advocacy OF the
real. and his insight into the nature of
things, have separated him. and made his
words sometimes uninteIligible; but the
serenity of his life and the courage of his
speech have endeared him to men, even
when they nave thought him oblivious to
some aspects of human life.
The fullest. as it is the authoritative
Life of Emerson IS that by his literary
executor Mr.. j. Elliot Cabot: but there
is a shorter one in the American Men
of Letters series by DR.. Oliver Wendell
Holmes. and a personal sketch. Emerson
in Concord" by DR.. Edward w. Erer-
son, a son of the poet. Mr.. George WINS
Cooke. in his "Ralnh Waldo Emerson. MS
Life, Writings, and Philosophy" supplies
many interesting facts. and helps the stu
dent to an understanding Of the rhiloso-
nher. There has also been published
Emerson's Correspondence with Thomas
Carlyle. with John Sterling. with "a
Friend" and with Herman Grimm.
EMERSON CENTENNIAL OBSERV-
ANCES.
Extensive plans are on foot for the OBJ
scrvance OF Emerson's one hundredth
birthday anniversary this month. The
Free Religious Association, of which En-
ersOn was one of the founders and Off
GERS, will commemorate the centennial by