Ralph Waldo Emerson. Oliver Wendell Holmes
X.
1863–1868. AET. 60–65.
"Boston Hymn."—"Voluntaries."—Other Poems.—"May-Day and other
Pieces."—"Remarks at the Funeral Services of President Lincoln."—Essay
on Persian Poetry.—Address at a Meeting of the Free Religious
Association.—"Progress of Culture." Address before the Phi Beta
Kappa Society of Harvard University.—Course of Lectures in
Philadelphia.—The Degree of LL.D. conferred upon Emerson by Harvard
University.—"Terminus".
CHAPTER XI.
1868–1873. AET. 65–70.
Lectures on the Natural History of the Intellect.—Publication of
"Society and Solitude." Contents: Society and Solitude.
—Civilization.—Art.—Eloquence.—Domestic Life.—Farming.
—Works and Days.—Books.—Clubs.—Courage.—Success.—Old Age.—Other
Literary Labors.—Visit to California.—Burning of his House, and the
Story of its Rebuilding.—Third Visit to Europe.—His Reception at
Concord on his Return
CHAPTER XII
1873–1878. AET. 70–75.
Publication of "Parnassus."—Emerson Nominated as Candidate for the
Office of Lord Rector of Glasgow University.—Publication of
"Letters and Social Aims." Contents: Poetry and Imagination.—Social
Aims.—Eloquence.—Resources.—The Comic.—Quotation and Originality.
—Progress of Culture.—Persian Poetry.—Inspiration.—Greatness.
—Immortality.—Address at the Unveiling of the Statue of "The
Minute-Man" at Concord.—Publication of Collected Poems
CHAPTER XIII.
1878–1882. AET. 75–79.
Last Literary Labors.—Addresses and Essays.—"Lectures and Biographical
Sketches."—"Miscellanies"
CHAPTER XIV.
Emerson's Poems
CHAPTER XV.
Recollections of Emerson's Last Years.—Mr. Conway's Visits.—Extracts from Mr. Whitman's Journal.—Dr. Le Baron Russell's Visit.—Dr. Edward Emerson's Account.—Illness and Death.—Funeral Services
CHAPTER XVI.
EMERSON.—A RETROSPECT.
Personality and Habits of Life.—His Commission and Errand.—As a
Lecturer.—His Use of Authorities.—Resemblance to Other Writers.—As
influenced by Others.—His Place as a Thinker.—Idealism and
Intuition.—Mysticism.—His Attitude respecting Science.—As an
American.—His Fondness for Solitary Study.—His Patience and
Amiability.—Feeling with which he was regarded.—Emerson and
Burns.—His Religious Belief.—His Relations with Clergymen.—Future of
his Reputation.—His Life judged by the Ideal Standard
INTRODUCTION.
"I have the feeling that every man's biography is at his own expense. He furnishes not only the facts, but the report. I mean that all biography is autobiography. It is only what he tells of himself that comes to be known and believed."
So writes the man whose life we are to pass in review, and it is certainly as true of him as of any author we could name. He delineates himself so perfectly in his various writings that the careful reader sees his nature just as it was in all its essentials, and has little more to learn than those human accidents which individualize him in space and time. About all these accidents we have a natural and pardonable curiosity. We wish to know of what race he came, what were the conditions into which he was born, what educational and social influences helped to mould his character, and what new elements Nature added to make him Ralph Waldo Emerson.
He himself believes in the hereditary transmission of certain characteristics. Though Nature appears capricious, he says, "Some qualities she carefully fixes and transmits, but some, and those the finer, she exhales with the breath of the individual, as too costly to perpetuate. But I notice also that they may become fixed and permanent in any stock, by painting and repainting them on every individual, until at last Nature adopts them and bakes them in her porcelain."
* * * * *
We have in New England a certain number of families who constitute what may be called the Academic Races. Their names have been on college catalogues for generation after generation. They have filled the learned professions, more especially the ministry, from the old colonial days to our own time. If aptitudes for the acquisition of knowledge can be bred into a family as the qualities the sportsman wants in his dog are developed in pointers and setters, we know what we may expect of a descendant of one of the Academic Races. Other things being equal, he will take more naturally, more easily, to his books. His features will be more pliable, his voice will be more flexible, his whole nature more plastic than those of the youth with less favoring antecedents. The gift of genius is never to be reckoned upon beforehand, any more than a choice new variety of pear or peach in a seedling; it is always a surprise, but it is born with great advantages when the stock from which it springs has been long under cultivation.
These thoughts suggest themselves in looking back at the striking record of the family made historic by the birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was remarkable for the long succession of clergymen in its genealogy, and for the large number of college graduates it counted on its rolls.
A genealogical table is very apt to illustrate the "survival of the fittest,"—in the estimate of the descendants. It is inclined to remember and record those ancestors who do most honor to the living heirs of the family name and traditions. As every man may count two grandfathers, four great-grandfathers, eight great-great-grandfathers, and so on, a few generations give him a good chance for selection. If he adds his distinguished grandmothers, he may double the number of personages to choose from. The great-grandfathers of Mr. Emerson at the sixth remove were thirty-two in number, unless the list was shortened by intermarriage of relatives. One of these, from whom the name descended, was Thomas Emerson of Ipswich, who furnished the staff of life to the people of that wonderfully interesting old town and its neighborhood.
His son, the Reverend Joseph Emerson, minister of the town of Mendon,
Massachusetts, married Elizabeth, daughter of the Reverend Edward
Bulkeley, who succeeded his father, the Reverend Peter Bulkeley, as
Minister of Concord, Massachusetts.
Peter Bulkeley was therefore one of Emerson's sixty-four grandfathers at the seventh remove. We know the tenacity of certain family characteristics through long lines of descent, and it is not impossible that any one of a hundred and twenty-eight grandparents, if indeed the full number existed in spite of family admixtures, may have transmitted his or her distinguishing traits through a series of lives that cover more than two centuries, to our own contemporary. Inherited