The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1905-09-28

Paper Read Before the ChaaItauqua Circle.
HORN in the city of Boston on
X the 25th of May, 1903, Ralph
Waldo Emerson was the culmi-
mated flower of more than two
centuries of an academic atmosphere
and lineal descendant of the ethics,
poetry, and sentiment, of a region
whose best product has been its men
and women.
He inherited all the lofty ideals gen.
Grated in homes which, in the dawning
period of the nineteenth century, bad
not ceased to be the dominant factor
in the formation of character, ,.and, as a
result, he was loved for his gracious
personality, and departing this life on
tie 9th of April, 1882, hel left behind
him an indelible record of bright,
clean, wholesome living, and memories
fragrant with the incense of unselfsh-
ness.
His admirers have claimed for him,
gift, intellectually speaking. (which
man can possess, from mere cleverness
to inspired genius, and some of the
more ardent have held that not to be
instructed by Emerson means to be
ignorant of many of the essential: facts
of life.
His range in literary effort was as
unbounded as his personal: popularity,
and his biographers tell us that his
published writings bear but small pro-
portion to tho unpublished. While
there was hardly any species of COM
position which he did not, more or less
successfully, attempt, let it be remem-
bered that, at this particular juncture,
it is our purpose to consider some of
the results of his work as an essayist
It is no more than fair to state at
the outset that my knowledge of
Emerson's essays until recently was of
the scantiest. Gladly, therefore, en-
braced the occasion afforded by an out
lined course of reading to enlarge my
acquaintance with this Puritan Plato
and new world Socrates who, we are
told, late pie for breakfast and never
had Indigestion" Nor did it seem
right to trust to hasty impression.
AS result the several obtainable
volumes of his essays-which, to every
lover of Emerson, rank with Holy
Writ-have for several months lain on
my commode, the companions of many
lonely hour and the relish thrown in
between other readings of pleasure and
pastime.
Some one-Elbert Hubbard 1 think
it was, or possibly William Marion
Reedy-has said that in passing judg.
ment on literature, or any work of art
most of us "know what we like" and
that, as rule, our opinion rests upon
some such basis.
The obvious faults of Emerson's
style were of kind to warn me away
and it might be equally as true that
was not sufficiently open to his pc
culiar excellences; in any event an
led to acknowledge something alieI
to me in the man and his methods
Whether it be case of "knowing wha
like" due solely to an obstinate per
severance In error, or to religious ad
herence to what appears to me trutl
and reason, it is wholly in your equit!
to judge. I8
Sir Thos. Carlyle-who was nothing
if not an authority-once said tina
clear writing was the result of clea
thinking, and that an obscure or tedi
Gus style was q clear indication of q dul
or confused brain. If it be true tina
what we see clearly, and feel strongly
we naturally express with clearnes
and strength, then the impartial crlti
that will take the trouble to examin
any of Emerson's essays at all CAREFUL
will be rewarded with the convictio
that Emerson has seen everything b
has ever made the subject Of his essay
very much as q distant landmark |
seen through g hazy atmosphere.
10 my thinking Emerson was er
dowed with an abnormally active min
which seldom, il ever, presented an
thing clearly. He was handieappe