to the ordinary eye, but to the spiritual eye of Yoga it is transparent. Hence the Rishi (devotee) saw through the diversified forms of gross matter the presence of a resplendent person." Such God-vision is possible only to the favored eye of the Yogi. Western intellect has disenchanted, hardened, vulgarized Nature; driven all soul, all poetry, all religion and supersensible meaning out of it. Emerson has rehabilitated the deepest revelations in this outward frame of the universe. He has re-established the priestly functions of man in the mysterious temples of Nature. You will have to admit now that the great fathers of our people in going to discover the secrets of all things in the animated symbols of this vast creation, read Truth at its very source. Emerson read from that same mysterious volume, and scattered beauty, wisdom, and spiritual plenty over all his land.

The evolution of Hindoo spirituality shows in its second stage the wonderful development of insight. The Vedas are the religious interpretation of Nature, the Upanishads or Vedantas are the concentrated religion of the soul. All the varied powers of Nature, all names, and all forms resolve into Atman, or self. The Vedic poet asks: "Who saw him [the soul] when he was first born; when he who has no bones bore him who has? Where was the breath, the blood, the self of the world? Who went to ask this from any that knew it? Though solitary, still he [the soul] walks far; though lying down, he goes everywhere.

Who save myself is able to know that God who rejoices and rejoices not?" All at once, in this stage of Vedic theology, the solid universe vanishes as an illuon, and religion soars sublime in the azure infinitude of soul. Who but Emerson, in the West, represents this illumined, spiritual introspection? True, his intercourse with Nature was part of his daily food; but it did not shut out, it unsealed his insight into, that grander heaven and earth within himself. Nature was but the outer halo of the deep, inner fire; the soul overshadowed everything; the universe became pale before its grandeur. "Go out of the house," says he, "to see the moon, and it is mere tinsel." Who discovered so well as he that Nature teaches us nothing but what we ourselves contribute to it? The spirit is the centre and archetype of all things, and beauty, beneficence, law, and wisdom only lead us to ourselves. Emerson laid the foundation of the true philosophy of man by tracing phenomena to their real source in reflective humanity. He laid the foundations of the true philosophy of the world by viewing matter, not as a soulless succession of appearances, nor yet a creation of the brain of man, but as a mysterious, marvellous putting forth in outward form of beauty that which he inwardly realizes in the spirit. His writings, too, often recall to mind the utterances of Hindoo philosophy, that all the universe is a divine dream, passing away; but in passing it reminds us of the meaning, glory, presence, and life, which it reveals and conceals at the

same time.

Creation rests on the bosom of man, and man rests on the bosom of the Infinite. "No mortal," says the Vedanta," lives by the breath that goes up or by the breath that goes down. We live in another, in whom both repose."

Amidst all this soul-absorbing philosophy of things, it is a true happiness to find that Emerson so deeply felt the reality and earnestness of life,

the reality of the inner and outer world as well. There are two orders of devotees in India, those who renounce their homes and retire into the forests, and those who live in their houses, but, with everything that pertains to them, devote themselves to the culture and the perfection of virtue. Shiva himself, the prince of Yogis, belongs to the latter order. "All the fetters of the heart here on earth are broken, all that binds us to this life is undone; the mortal becomes immortal." This is the lofty idea of emancipated humanity which Krishna inculcates in the Bhagavat Gita. And to Emerson surely belonged that beatified humanity. I do not know why, but as often as I study his features in the imperfect photograph which I possess, the idea of Nirvana as taught by the great Sakya Muni suffuses my soul. There is that hushed, ineffable, self-contained calmness over his countenance so familiar to us who have studied the expression of Gotama's image in every posture. In Japau, China, Burmah, Ceylon, Nepaul, Thibet, - Buddha has the same mysterious calmness. The Egyptians prefigure it in the awful face of the Sphinx. It is

Nirvana made flesh and visible. It is the "peace past understanding" which lights up the face of every true child of God. Emerson had it in a wonderful measure. It did me good to hear of his broad, warm, many-sided humanity. Did he not welcome work, spirituality, aspiration, obscure excellence, from every quarter of the globe into his house? Did he not identify himself with every good movement, however unpopular, which had for its object the amelioration of his race?

Long, long had we heard of his name and reputation. We wondered what manner of man he was. When at last I landed on your continent, how glad I should have been to sit at his feet and unfold before him the tale of our woe and degradation! But he had gone to his rest; and instead of touching his warm hand, which had blessed so many pilgrims, I could but kiss the cold dust of his nameless grave at the Concord cemetery.

Yes, Emerson had all the wisdom and spirituality of the Brahmans. Brahmanism is an acquirement, a state of being rather than a creed. In whomsoever the eternal Brahma breathed his unquenchable fire, he was the Brahman. And in that sense Emerson was the best of Brahmans.

PEACE COTTAGE, CALCUTTA, July, 1884.

XIV.

EMERSON'S ORIENTALISM.

By W. T. HARRIS.

IN his "Representative Men" Emerson describes Plato as visiting Asia and Egypt, and imbibing "the idea of one Deity in which all things are absorbed." Asia, according to him, is "the country of unity, of immovable institutions; the seat of a philosophy delighting in abstractions, of men faithful in doctrine and in practice to the idea of a deaf, unimplorable fate, which it realizes in the social institution of caste." Europe, on the other hand, is active and creative in its genius; "it resists caste by culture; its philosophy was a discipline; it is a land of arts, inventions, trade, freedom. If the East loved infinity, the West delighted in boundaries." Plato, according to him, is the balanced soul who sees the two elements and does justice to each. What Emerson says of Plato we may easily and properly apply to himself. But he goes farther than Plato towards the Orient, and his pendulum swings farther West into the Occident. He delights in the all-absorbing unity of the Brahman, in the all-renouncing ethics of the Chinese and Persian, in the measureless images of