The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-24
A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
His Career as Preacher Traveller Author and Poet
His Loyalty to IdeaIism. His
Keen Insight.

rope again in 1S47, with special reference
to courses OF lectures which he had been
invited to give in England. He made a
third visit IN 1872, and on these two occa-
sions made and renewed acquaintance
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 agreeably recorded
BY James Bradley Thayer in his little
volume "A Western Journey with Mr..
Emerson" he spent his life quietly in Con-
cord. He was married a second time in
1895. and died at Concord April o. 1882.
His first published prose work was Ma
ture, in 1889 He wrote poems when in
college. but his first publication of verse
was in THE Dial" magazine estab-
hshed in 1840 and the representative of a
knot of men and women of whom Emer
son was the acknowledged or unacknowl-
edged leader. The first volume of his
poems was published in 1S47, and the
second twenty years later. Meanwhile he
put forth successive volumes of prose,
and in the Riverside Edition" of his
writings there is one volume OF verse ana
ten of prose.
I'm 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 it from the essays
OF the same writer; there is in it nara,
tive, Renaissance, and description, which
make it more properly the notebook of a
philosophic traveller
Mr. Cabot tells US that Emerson's prac
tice was, when a sentence had taken
shape, to write ii out in his journal, and
leave it to find its fellows afterwards.
These journals, PACED and indexed, were
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, an5
added whatever suggested itself at the mo
ment. The proportion thus added SEEM
TO have varied considerably; il was large
in the early time say to 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 Che writer which mark all hi
work An important and pervading one
is his loyalty to idealism, and his belle
in the power of the soul to work out q
noble place for itself. The openness OF
his mind to new thought his loyalty tc
high ideals. his eager advocacy of the
real and his insight into the nature OF
things. have separated him, and made hi
words sometimes unintelligible: but the
serenity Of his life and the courage Of ms
speech hatye endeared him to men. ever
when they have thought him oblivious t.
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 ono in the American Mer
of Letters" series by DR.. Oliver Wendell
Holmes, and a personal sketch. Emerson
in Concord. by Dr. Edward w. Emer-
son, son Of The poet Mr.. George WINS
Cooke. in his Ralph Waldo Emerson. his
Life, Writings. and Philosophy" supplies
many interesting facts. and helps the stu
dent to an understanding of the philoso-