finest minds of the time. The impression he made may be seen in what Harriet Martineau wrote of him in her Retrospect of Western Travel. She saw much of him during her visit to the United States in 1835–36, and gained a fine insight into his character.

"There is a remarkable man in the United States, she said, without knowing whom it is not too much to say that the United States can not be fully known. I mean by this, not only that he has powers and worth which constitute him an element in the estimate to be formed of his country, but that his intellect and his character are the opposite of those which the influences of his country and his time are supposed almost necessarily to form. I speak of Mr. Emerson. Ile is yet in the prime of life. Great things are expected from him; and great things, it seems, he can not but do if he have life and health to prosecute his course. is a thinker and scholar.

He

"He has modestly and silently withdrawn himself from the perturbations and conflicts of the crowd of men, without declining any of the business of life, or repressing any of his human sympathies. He is a thinker, without being solitary, abstracted, and unfitted for the time. He is a scholar, without being narrow, bookish, and prone to occupy himself only with other men's thoughts. He is remarkable for the steadiness and fortitude with which he makes those objects which are frequently considered the highest in their own department subordinate to something higher still, whose connection with their department he has clearly discovered. There are not a few men, I hope, in America who decline the pursuit of wealth; not a few who refrain from ambition; and some few who devote themselves to thought and study from a pure love of an intellectual life. But the case before us is a higher one than this. The intellectual life is nourished from a love of the diviner life, of which it is an clement. Consequently the thinker is ever present to the duty, and the scholar to the active business, of the hour; and his home is the scene of his greatest acts. Ile is ready at every call of action. He lectures to the factory people at Lowell when they ask. He preaches when the opportunity is presented. He is known at every house along the road he travels to and from home by the words he has dropped and the deeds he has done. The little boy who carries wood for his household has been enlightened by him, and his most transient guests owe to him their experience of what the highest grace of domestic manners may be. He neglects no political duty, and is unmindful of nothing in the march of events which can affect the virtue and peace of men. While he is far above fretting himself because of evil-doers, he has ever ready his verdict for the right and his right hand for its champions. While apart from the passions of all controversies, he is ever present with their principles, declaring himself, and taking his stand,

while appearing to be incapable of contempt of persons, however uncompromising may be his indignation against what is dishonest and harsh. Earnest as is the tone of his mind, and placidly strenuous as is his life, an exquisite spirit of humor pervades his intercourse. A quiet gayety breathes out of his conversation; and his observation, as keen as it is benevolent, furnishes him with perpetual material for the exercise of his humor. In such a man it is difficult to point out any one characteristic; but if, out of such a harmony, one leading quality is to be distinguished, it is in him modest independence. A more entire and modest independence I am not aware of having ever witnessed, though in America I saw two or three approaches to it. It is an independence equally of thought, of speech, of demeanor, of occupation, and of objects in life, yet without a trace of contempt in its temper, or of encroachment in its action."

This noble picture by one who was as ready to set forth faults as to see them is a fine testimonial to the pure and rich impression which Emerson has made upon all who have come into personal contact with him, or into a sympathetic appreciation of his books. The pure humanity of the man stands out everywhere, full, rich, penetrating, infused through all his words and conduct. It has made him a permanent and inspiring power in the life of his time. What Harriet Martineau saw in him was amply fulfilled. Still later Frederika Bremer felt the magic charm of his influence, and wrote of it in her Homes of the New World, describing her visit to the United States in 1849.

"He is in a high degree pure, noble, and severe, demanding as much from himself as he demands from others. His words are severe, his judgments often keen and merciless; but his demeanor is alike noble and pleasing, and his voice beautiful. One may quarrel with Emerson's thoughts, with his judgment, but not with himself. That which struck me most, as distinguishing him from most other human beings, is nobility. He is a born gentleman.'

"The writings of this scorner of imperfection, of the mean and the paltry, this bold exacter of perfection in man, have for me a fascination which amounts almost to magic! I often object to him, quarrel with him. I see that his stoicism is one-sidedness, his pantheism an imperfection; and I know that which is greater and more perfect; but I am under the influence of his magical power. I believe myself to have become greater through his greatness, stronger through his strength; and I breathe the air of a higher sphere in this world, which is indescribably refreshing to me."

He had much the same influence on Margaret Fuller, at first appearing cold and intellectually distant, to have faith "in the universal but not in the individual man.' As she knew him better, his influence upon her life became greater; and at last she could say,

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'My inmost heart blesses the fate that gave me birth in the same clime and time, and that has drawn me into such a close bond with him as, it is my hopeful faith, will never be broken, but from sphere to sphere ever be hallowed."

"When I look forward to eternal growth, I am always aware that I am far larger and deeper for him. His influence has been to me that of lofty assurance and sweet serenity. I present to him the many forms of nature, and solicit with music; he melts them all into spirit, and reproves performance with prayer. With most men I bring words of now past life, and do actions suggested by the wants of these natures rather than my own. But he stops me from doing any thing, and makes me think."

In 1852 Clough found Emerson "the only profound man in the country," and came into very close relations of sympathy with him. Other minds were affected by his power, and saw in him as much. Hawthorne said his mind acted upon other minds "with wonderful magnetism."

"It was good, said his neighbor at the Old Manse,' to meet him in the wood-paths, or sometimes in our avenue, with that pure intellectual gleam diffusing about his presence like the garment of a shining one; and he, so quiet, so simple, so without pretension, encountering each man alive as if expecting to receive more than he would impart. And, in truth, the heart of many an ordinary man had, perchance, inscriptions which he could not read. But it was impossible to dwell in his vicinity without inhaling more or less the mountain atmosphere of his lofty thought."1

Emerson's personal influence was wide-reaching, very great, through the charm of his character, the depth and purity of his moral convictions, and the sublime strength of his personal faith. This influence has been described by Alcott: 2

"Fortunate the visitor who is admitted of a morning for the high discourse, or permitted to join the poet in his afternoon walks to Walden, the Cliffs, or elsewhere, - hours to be remembered as 2 Concord Days.

1 Mosses from an Old Manse.

unlike any others in the calendar of experiences. Shall I describe them as sallies oftenest into cloudlands, into scenes and intimacies ever new, none the less novel nor remote than when first experierced? interviews, however, bringing their own trail of perplexing thoughts, costing some days', several nights', sleep, oftentimes, to restore one to his place and poise. Certainly safer not to venture without the sure credentials, unless one will have his pretensions pricked, his conceits reduced in their vague dimensions. But to the modest, the ingenuous, the gifted, welcome! Nor can any bearing be more poetic and polite to all such, to youth and accomplished women especially. His is a faith approaching to superstition concerning admirable persons; the rumor of excellence of any sort being like the arrival of a new gift to mankind, and he the first to proffer his recognition and hope. He, if any, must have taken the census of the admirable people of his time, numbering as many among his friends as most living Americans; while he is already recognized as the representative mind of his country, to whom distinguished foreigners are especially commended when visiting America."

Among his associates, Emerson was the leader, the most highly honored of a company of brilliant men and women. Margaret Fuller spent weeks and months in his home. Thoreau found a home with him for a long time, and was an intimate companion always. When Alcott moved to Concord, in 1839, their friendship became most intimate; while Elizabeth Peabody was another of those with whose generous humanity and wide philanthropic aims he strongly sympathized. Parker was wont to visit him often, and always returned to his work quickened and inspired. A brilliant company of these minds often gathered in his study; and the conversations held there were of a remarkable character for their high thought, their lofty aims, and their inspiration. He knew, and often met, all the best minds in Massachusetts, in all professions; and his influence among them was great. His purity, the nobility of his life, his powers of conversation, carried weight everywhere; and he became one of the most marked of all the influences of the times. It was thus he did his work of reform, quickening other minds, giving a higher sense of the value of life, and inspiring a profounder faith in the soul and its possibilities.

WE

IX.

LECTURES AND ESSAYS.

HEN Emerson settled down at Concord, he continued in his own way to be a conscientious student. He read with diligence and care, not widely, but with profit. The poets were thoroughly studied, as were the great imaginative and moral writers of all times and lands. The early English idealists received his studious attention; and he continued to read Coleridge, Wordsworth, Landor, and Carlyle, with Goethe, Schiller, and others among the Germans. With Kant, Fichte, and Schelling he became somewhat familiar, but not largely. What he owes to these men, he owes to them at second-hand mostly, through their admirers and interpreters. Swedenborg he read diligently, as he did the profoundest religious writers of the Christian ages. Cudworth held his attention, as well as the modern interpreters of the old idealists. Plato, Plotinus, Pythagoras, and the ancient thinkers were thoroughly studied. He was early interested in the oriental religions, and secured the works then published concerning them. Boehme and the other German mystics were read with the keenest interest. His readings in these directions gave color to his poetry. Much of it can be understood only by reference to his enthusiastic studies in the field of oriental mystic thought. In science and social economy he also found much to interest, and his essays bear testimony to the fact that his studies in these directions were profitable.

He has been so much the student and the poet, that his outward life gives few events to record. The growth of his ideas, and of his influence, furnish nearly all the facts there are to his biography. By no extraneous