The Washington times., 1920-01-26
Today
Emerson's Quotations.
Better Than Emerson.
Wagon and Star.
Jack Horner Reading.
BY ARTHUR BRISBANE.
(Copxri.hN IsIO1

Read some writers Tor what they
say, others to pick I. tNar
books well chosen quotations as
little Jack Horner picked plums
from his Christmas pie.
The statement would enrage Mar
garet Fuller, nevertheless Ralph
Waldo Emerson is one whose writ
ings are more valuable for quo,
tations than for original thought
Like msny others, Emerson is
not strong enough TO go through
times furnace. But he read earn
estly for you. Go through his es-
says in Jack Horner fashion, pick
ing out the quotation plums.
Emerson, born in Boston, lit
years ago, was a clergyman, as
were his ancestors; he graduated
from Harvard and the Divinity
School of Harvard, preached from
a Unitarian pulpit In 1882 he
resigned, after a quarrel about
the Lords Supper.
That a Unitarian should quarrel
about the Lords Supper, while
denying the deity of Christ, is
queer. Emerson did quarrel and
devoted the rest of his life to lee
lures and writing. He greatly
admired Carlyle, a real genius.
Carlyle tired of him; SO will you,
but read him.
His best five words advising
young men to follow their highest
intellectual ambition were:
Hitch your wagon to a star"
1t is good advice for intellectual
wagon that has wheels with ball
bearings and strong chassis.
Emerson was a valuable opti-
mist, had a high opinion of the
human being, did not believe that
we are poor miserable worms put
on this earth to spend short lives
lodging eternal damnation that is
waiting to get us later on. His
opinion of himself is thus:
81 am owner of the sphere, of
the seven stars and the solar year,
of Caesars hand, and Plato's
brain, of Lord Christ's heart, and
Shakespeare's strain"
There is a lesson for some en-
ployers who say men are willing
to take salaries now, but won't
work, in a short story quoted by
Emerson in his essay "Heroism."
after the army had crossed the
River Teleboas, in Armenia, there
fell much snow, and the troops lay
miserably on the ground covered
with it. But Xenophon rose naked
and, taking an AK, began to split
wood; whereupon others rose and
did the like" .s....
Had Xenophon stayed in bed,
the wood would not have been
split. Let employers set the ex-
ample.
Martin Luther threw his ink
stand at the Devil, actually be-
lieved he missed him by half an
inch, and he had long argument
with Satan. Men once were credu-
lous. 49,,
Luther's life is one with which
every reader should be familiar.
Emerson puts this interesting quo
tation in his essay on History"
Doctor" said his wife to Mar
tin Luther one day, "how is 1t that
whilst subject to papacy, we pray
ed so often and with such fervor,
whilst now we pray with the ut
most coldness and very seldom 7"
The essay on "Self-reliance" be-
gins with six lines from Beaumont
and Fletcher that can be cut down
to two:
Our acts our angels are, or good
or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by US
STILL"
Every man knows that he is
made up of things done in the
past. and these things" include
especially Thought" the real IA
tai shadows that walk by US STILL"
In the essays this quotation
from .Zoroaster: "To the persever-
ing mortal the blessed immortals
are swift" You may seem to pc.
going slowly, Dut II you are
persevering mortal" you have
working for you some Of the
blessed immortals, including your
own perseverance and determina-
ton, which are immortal.
Read about Zoroaster, another
of the worlds great men with
whom you should be acquainted In
order to understand the life and
thought of today. He was a great
teacher, but his followers dwindled
down, as followers usually do, and
became mere ignorant fire worship
ers. Many followers Of a higher
teacher have dwindled' into mere
money worshipers, and own some
of the most respectable religious
edifices today.
In his essay on Spiritual Laws"
YOU find this quotation from one
Of the FIVE greatest geniuses,
Michael Angelo:
DO not trouble yourself too
much about the light on your
A n.