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MRSON'S CRITICISM OF AMERICAN LITERATURE.

Thesis for degree of M. A.

Mary Elizabeth Deane
win-'.'”

1937

r H [-2515

 

T A B I.E O F C O N T E N T S

CHAPTER I. EIERSCN'S LIFE, HIS PHIOSOFHY OF LIFE,

AHD HIS RELATION TO HIS TIEES . . . . . . . . . 1
CHAPTER II. ELERSON'S THEORY OF LITERATURE AND

CRITICISE . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 57

CHAPTER III.EEBRS£N'S CRITICISK OF ALERICAN

LITERATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ' 50
l. Emerson's Criticism of American Literature
as a Khole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
II. Emerson's Criticism of Periodical
Literature................ 65

III. Emersonfls Criticism of'Tilliam Ellery

Clunfiiiig............... 78
IV. <nerson's Criticism of the Historians and

Scholars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
V. Emerson's Criticism of Daniel Kebster . . . 97
VI. Emerson's Criticism of Sampson Reed . . . . 110
III. Emerson's Criticism of Bronson.&lcott . . . 117
VIII. Emerson's Criticism of the Transccnicntelists 128
IE. Emerson's Criticism of Yorgaret Fuller . . . 1&5
K. Emersan's_Criticism of'fiilliam Ellery

Channing (toe younger) . e e . . . . . 155
XI. Emerson's Criticism of Thoreau ._. . . . . . 162

XII. Emerson's Criticism of the KeV'England

hriters outside the Transcendental Group 17h
XIII. Emersonis fiiscellaneous Criticism . . . . . . 191

CHAPTER IV. CONCLUSION . e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

CHAPTER I .

EMERSON'S LIFE, HIS PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, AND HIS RELATION TO HIS TIMES.

Since hereon's criticism of American literature is so closely
interwoven with his philosOphy of life, and since, in turn, his
philosophy of life depends to a great extent on the times in which
he lived and on the external events of his own life, any real under-
standing of this criticism demands a brief biographical, historical,
philosophical introduction.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston in 1803. Although there
had been several ministers among his forebears, the common idea
(originated by Oliver Wendell Holmes) that the Emerson family had
produced only ministers for seven generations is erroneous, as Holmes
himself admitted. 1. However, even if Emerson's ancestors were not
all Puritan ministers, at least they all were Americans - pioneers
and patriots. Emerson's heritage by birth was almost purely Americas. .
His father was one of the new liberal ministers who helped to discard

Calvinism by ignoring it. William Emerson edited The Monthly mtholog

 

for over a; year and through that magazine became associated with
Buchninster, Kirkland, Charming, Andrews Norton, John Quincy Adams, and
Richard H. Dana. . This same interest in new literature and in a more
liberal theology was continued in his son. William Emerson died in 1811
and whatever influence he might have had if he had lived died with him.
At the time William Ellery Charming, the great Unitarian minister,

became the"demiurge of Boston and the counsellor of the people," and

 

1. F. I. Carpenter, Emerson, Introduction, p.xii.

2. George W. Cooke, Ralf}! Waldo Finerson, p.114.

2.

his influence lasted for three decades. 3. There was a definite
shift in religion at this time, and the America of the Mathers began
to evolve into the America of Emerson. I The old New England Calvinism
was being replaced by a more optimistic and less harsh religion.
Channing was arousing Boston from her long and unproductive sleep under
the reign of Puritanism. By 1821 Channing was one of the foremost men
in the country, and his influence on Emerson was tremendous. Without
Channing, Unitariemism would never have swept over New England as it did.
Also, Channing's Unitarianism spread beyond the narrow limits of religion
to embrace politics, literature, education, ethics. As Blankenship says:
"But Charming more than sunmarises the Unitarian movement. In his in-
sistence on the divine right of the individual to live his own life ac-
cording to the dictates of his own conscience, the preacher was the fore-
runner of such later romntics as hereon, Thoreau, Parker, Garrison,
and Margaret Fuller. Without the emphasis on individualism and the doc-
trine of the possibility of human perfectibility, the romntic movement
in New England would have been a thing of appearance and not of substance." LL.

Charming not only created a more liberal, more Optimistic atmosphere
in Boston, but his belief in human Reason encouraged education. Chenning
influenced America (and Emerson) not only in his insistence on individual-
ism, but in his continuous plea for an indigenous literature. This cry
was taken up years later by mnerson in his Phi. Beta Kappa address on '
"The American Scholar.” Charming believed that America should proclaim

her literary independence and free herself from the bonds of conformity

 

3. Van Wye]: Brooks, Life of Emerson, pp.3b,,56.
14. Russell Blankenship, American Literature, p. 2814..

3.

to English standards. He believed that America had greater intellectual
freedom than any European country and therefore should be capable of
producing a great and original literature. This new literature should
be based on a new religious principle, because man's relation to God

is the most important truth in the world and it is only fitting that this
great truth should be the foundation of our national literature. 5.

Although marson was still a boy when Charming began his esnncipation
of Boston, Channing's importance cannot be overestimated, because if he
had not broken the ground and planted the seed, there would have been no
audience for hereon two decades later. While Channing was preaching in-
dividualism, Emerson was still attending school. He was a pupil at the
Boston Latin School from 1813 to 1817 in spite of great poverty at home,
for, as his aunt, Mary Moody Emerson, said, "The Emersons are born to be
educated.” Pattee says that this poverty was an important influence in
Mersans life because it emphasised his New England frugality and made
both his living and his philosOphy a little too narrow. 6.

This same aunt, Miss Mary Moody hereon, was another important
influence in Moreon's life. Her influence on Dnerson, like that of
Chauning, began early and continued over a long period of years. Their
correspondence is remarkable, particularly the exchange of their religious
views. Her religion was intense, Calvinistic, almost too exalted. Although
Emerson grew up into Unitarianism as opposed to his aunt's Calvinism, he
did believe that what Unitarianism lacked was some great motivating force

like that which lay behind Calvinism. From their earliest years the

 

5. William Ellery Channing, Works, I, 21414., 280.

6. Fred Lewis Pattee, First Century of American Literature, p.151.

 

Emerson boys received a great mental stimulus from this aunt. Waldo once
said that her influence on his education was as great as that of Greece
or Rome, and he described her as a great genius and a remarkable writer. 7.
She held up to the boys the ideals of honesty, courage, and self-reliance.
This belief in self-reliance is one of the foundation stones of Emerson's
whole philosOphy, and Miss Ehnerson would be important for this if for no
other reason. finerson's belief and delight in solitude also seem. to
come from her teachings.

In spite of the fact that Miss thereon regarded Harvard as a
hot-bed of atheism, Emerson began his college career there at the age
of fourteen and he graduated four years later, in 1821. Fanerson's
Journals begin in 183) when he was still in college and are very im-
portant biographically because, although they do not reveal to any great
extent what he did, they do show the beginning of the developmmt of his
thought and style. Emerson's actual college life was somewhat of a dis-
appointment to him. His poverty kept him out of mch of the social life
of the college, and, for another thing, he was not at all well - he was a
victim of consumption, the same disease that later caused the ceath of his
two brothers. There is frequent criticism of American education, stated
either implicitly or explicitly, in Emerson's Journals throughout his
entire life. maroon did, however, admire Professor Everett and, toga
lesser extent, Professor Ticknor, but on the whole he did not have such
, respect for the Harvard faculty or the Harvard curriculum. Later on,

hereon became one of the first man to object to compulsory education

 

7. Cooke, op. cit., pé’l7.‘

5.

8.
in the dead languages. “mat he learned he learned from his own'

individual point of view - that is, he selected from the books he read
only those thoughts which were of some value to him. And even that
early his life Enerson said that writing was his greatest pleasure; already
he was tryung his hand at poetry while his journalsvwere giving him his
start in prose writing. In many respects, these four years at Harvard
were the most important, mott formative years of Emerson's life even
if the college itself did not have much influence on him. During his
college career Emerson came in contact with many of the books, ideas,
and influences on which the whole structure of his own philosophy rests.

One of the most important of these new influences in Emerson's
America was the introduction and spread of Eermn thought and philosophy.
This movement began about 1819 with the return from Germany of Ticknor,
Bancroft, and Everett, and it was of evolutionary, not revolutionary,
growth. From this time on some direct knowledge of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, ‘
Goethe, and Schiller began to seep slowly but directly into New England;
this same influence came in even more rapidly through the indirect but in-
creasing force of deSta.el, Coleridge, Wordsworth, ad, later, Carlyle. 9.
The greatest importance of this dissemination of German thought lay in the
fact that it led ultimtely to the development of New England Transcendentalism.
Emerson encountered the first germs of this thought at Harvard under Everett
and Ticknor, both of whom he admired greatly. Most of these ideas linerson
discovered for himself, however, through his own reading. From his
matriculation at Harvard in 1817 until the publication of m in 1836

we can trace Emerson's intellectual deve10pment almost step by step.

 

 

8. Essays, Second Series, Works, 111,258. All references are to the Centenary

edition, unless otherwise stated.

9. Cambridge Histo_ry of American Literature, 1, 332.

 

By 1836 hereon's philosophy was mature, rounded, complete. The changes
which occur in his philosophy after 1836 are changes in degree only,
not changes in principles.

Enerson was well-read even before he entered college, however.
He himself said: " The regular course of studies, the years of
academical and professional education, have not yielded no better facts
that some idle books under the bench of the Latin school. What we do
not call education is more precious than that which we do call so." 10.
Three of herscn's early favorites were Montaigne, Shakespeare, and,most
important of all, Plato. At this time he was also reading histories,
memoirs, English Reviews, Tillotson, Pascal, Augustine, and Jeremy Taylor. 11.
Thus far E‘merscn liked Byron and Moore, but he was doubtful of the ex-
periments of Wordwworth and Coleridge. 12. Not long after this he almost
exactly reversed these opinions. Bliss Perry believes that Emerson first
became acquainted with Iamblichus and Plotinus through his aunt, Miss Mary
Moody Emerson. Perry also believes that it was Miss Enerson who first sent

her nephew to De Ggrando's’ Histoire Camper‘s des_Systems de Philosophie,

 

an outline of Oriental and Greek philosophy, and he says that Gerando's

1
influence on Emerson's vocabulary and mode of thought can easily be seen. 3
Emerson seems to have become interested in Plato through Cudworth's True

Intellectual System of the Universe. However, Emerson acquired most of

 

his Plato through the translations of Thomas Taylor, who gave a Neo-

Platonic coloring even to Plato himself. Emerson first began to see, on

 

10. Essays, First Series, Works, 11, 133.
11. COOkO. 22. Cite, P022.
12. James Elliot Cabot, A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1,58

13. Bliss Perry, Emerson Today, p.614.

 

7.

reading Plato, glimpses of the contrasting forces of matter and spirit,
each and all, change and absolute.

Although Shakespeare's poetry, Montaigne's wit, and Plato's
philosophy were undoubtedly the most important influences at this time
on Emerson's thought and style, the list of the rest of Enerson's read-
ing is not inconsequential and reveals how his mind worked and in what
direction his interests lay. These other books included Homer, Aeschylus,
Sophfecles, Arist0phanes, Lucretius, Virgil, Horace, Jonson, Milton,
Messinger, Dryden, Cowper, Corneille, Racine, Scott, Byron, Campbell,
Bryant, Hobbs, Descartes, Locke, Hume, Gibbon, Burke, Sismcndi, Montesquieu,
Chateaubriand, Swift, Sterne, Addison, and any others. In.

Although hereon's reading and thought continued to develop in much
the same way as before, his life did change externally after his graduation
in 1821. At this point Emerson entered the most discouraging period of his
life. In order to earn a living, he was forced to teach in his brother
William's school for girls in Boston; he thoroughly hated this teaching
position and the remembrance of it was repugnant to him for many years
afterwards. it this time he was also attending lectures at the Divinity
School at Harvard, but his eyes gave out and his lungs were worse, so his
uncle sent him South (to Florida) for the winter of 1826 - 1827. He considered
this trip as a waste of time for the most part, but at least his health im-
proved and he was soon able to go on with his theological studies. On his
return home he established himself at Divinity Hall and began his preaching,
substituting for a while at the First Church in Boston, and later in the

Northampton and new Bedford churches. However, his health was so bad that

 

114.. Journals, 1, 8h - 91.

he even thought of going back to school teaching because it would be _
less of a strain on his lungs.

it this point Enersonreceived another terrible blew; his brother
Edward, who had been suffering from consumption for a long time, went
and. Although he recovered sufficiently to go to the West Indies and
get a position there, it was the beginning of the end, as Emerson well
knew.

‘ Emerson was called to the Second Church of Boston and was ordained
there in March, 1829. Six months later ,he married Ellen Tucker, of New
Concord, New Hampshire. But Emerson himself felt that things were too
good to last. In 1831, only a year and a half after their marriage,
his wife died; and in 1832, just three years after his ordination,
Enerson broke with the Unitarian Church, supposedly because he could
not consider the Lord's Supper as a sacrament. Since the church refused
to dr0p the sacrament, he decided to resign rather than participate in
something in which he did not believe. If Emerson had not broken with
the church on this point, he probably would have found some other reason
for leaving the ministry. He had never been enthusiastic about the
ministry - although he did not believe in his atmt's feverish Calvin-
ism, neither did he believe that Unitarianism could continue without
having some spirituality injected into it. So in 1832, at the agercf
29, Enerson seemed to have made little progress in his life. His pro-
fession was gone, his wife was gone, his two brothers were dying of con--
sumption, and his future lay ahead of him, blank and plahless.

it this critical moment in his life, Enerson sailed for Europe,
where he spent the next year. The trip to Europe was a turning point

for him in many ways. His meetings with Landor, Wordsworth, Coleridge,

9.

and Carlyle were important because they showed Emerson that while he
could accept some things from all these men, yet in the last analysis

he could depend only on himself and on what he himself believed.

Another vital point about this trip is the fact that on the way home
Emerson wrote "I like my book about Nature,“ 15 and this remark shows
that Emerson had his book already well in mihd, that his philosophy was
now almost settled. It was with renewed energy, with new ambition, with
new ideas that Emerson returned to America. His health was also very much
improved.

Emerson soon decided to live in Concord because he felt that Concord
was the only place where he could live and think, where he could be a writer
and a poet. Concord had always been an important influence in Enerson's
life; all of his early summers and many of his later vacations had been
spent in Concord at the old names of Dr. Ripley. It was here that he began
to feel himself a part of the force of Nature. In thus identifying himself
as part of Nature Emerson had planted early the seed for his doctrine of the
Over-Soul, and it was this doctrine which later flowered into one of the main
tenets of his philosophy. For these reasons it is no wonder that Enerson
desired to live in Concord. In 1835 he married Miss Lidian Jackson, and the
same year they moved into their new home in Concord, The following year
Emerson published m, his first book. In many ways the publication of
this little volume was the most important event in his :entire life. £93259.
is an almost pure expression of Emerson's philosophy; the material in this

first book is the foundation for all that Emerson wrote and said and did

from this time forth. Fgr this reason, it is of the utmost importance to

 

l5. Journals, III, 196.

10.

trace the develOpment of this philoSOphy from 1821, when he graduated
from Harvard, until 1836, when his fully developed philosophy emerges.
The external events of his life during this period - the death of his
first wife, and his brothers, his renunciation of his pulpit, his own
ill health, his trip to Europe, his return to Concord - are important,
but they cannot explain entirely how and why Emerson developed the
philosoPhy he did. Parrington gives a good brief summary of what this
L‘mersonian philosophy really is. He says:"Stripped of its idealistic
phraseology, of its beauty and fervor, the master idea of the Emersonian
philosophy is the divine sufficiency of the individual. In accepting
himself, he accepts his fellows, and he accepted God. The Universe he
conceived of as a. divine whole, whereof each man is his own center from
whom flows the life that has flowed in upon him, perennially fresh, per—
ennially a new creation. The law for things is not the law for mind; man
is unkinged in acknowledging any lesser. sovereignty than the sovereignty
of self. Statutes, constitutions, governments, schools, churches, banks,
trade - the coercing sum of institutions and customs - these things do not
signify; they are only idols with clay feet that blind men worship, The true
divinity dwells elsewhere, in the souls of man, and that divinity must rule
the world and not be ruled by it." 16. This is the definite philosophy of
Emcrson in 1836 and it is a far cry from the desultory, tentative thinking
of Emerson in 1821. In 1821 he had begun to feel himself as part of nature
and he had begun to read Plato, but he had not progressed much farther.
During these years there was developing in America a strong current

of which Emerson was at once both a generating force and a product. This

great current was New England Transcendentalism. The movement toward

 

l6. Vernon Louis Parrington, Main Currents in American Thought, 11, 390.

11.

Transcendentalism had begun in Emerson's youth through two factors. -

The first of these was the introduction of German thought and literature

in 1819 through Everett, Ticknor, and Bancroft: the second factor was the ’
decline of Unitarianism. According to Gray, New England Transcendentalism
was the result of superimposing some imperfectly understood elements of
German idealistic philosophy on American Unitarianism. 17. Unitarianism
gave encouragement to Transcendentalism, and in many individuals the two
movements are closely interwoven. Although it is really impossible to
define Transcendentalism (even the leading Transcendentalists could not
express their own beliefs clearly and logically on paper), some idea of
that it meant can be obtained from the following definition. "Trans-
cendentalism was a distinct philosophical system. Practically, it was an
assertion of the inalienable worth of man; theoretically, it was an
assertion of the immanence of divinity in instinct, the transferance

of supernatural attributes to the natural constitution of mankind ....

It would present in turn all the phases of idealism but running through

all was the belief in the living God in the $0311, faith in immediate in-
spitation, in boundless possibility, in unimaginable good." 18. Whatever
transcends the experience of the senses in transcendental, Gray says that the
period of New England Transcendentalism does not begin until the publication
of Emerson's £559.12. in 1836, but he admits that the ”stir" was felt much
earlier and that these fornes were all at work before 1836. These same forces
which were developing into Trqnscendentalism were the very forces which were

producing Emerson' s philosophy. The difference lies in the fact that Emerson,

 

17. Henry David Gray, Enerson, p. 1h.

18. Octavius Brooks Frcthingham, Transcendentalism in New England, pp. 136,137.

12.

although he was a Transcendentalist, was more than just a Trans-
cendentalist. hereon's superiority lies in the fact that he had
his head in the clouds of the spirit, but he also kept his feet
firmly planted on the Yankee ground of common sense. Both Trans-
cendentalism and Emersonianism really rest on the same foundations,
however, sokhat in tracing the development of Enerson's philosophy
we are also tracing the development of Transcendentalisis, and

vice versa.

After Emerson's graduation from Harvard and his experiment at
teaching, he mtered the Harvard Divinity School and here his ideas
began to undergo a change. He began to resent the quibbling pettiness
of technical theology; he began to put the concept of God a little
farther off. "His mind was rounding in to one centre, to the im-
mediacy of religion, to the individual sun and the present moment,
to intuitional life, " 9. Emerson's philosophy remined religious
Always, but notVthc’olegiéaL-z‘ All his thinking since his college
years had borne him irrestibiy in one direction - away from every kind
ofl traditional creed and belief. He borrowed only those ideas which
coincided with his own; he borrowed mainly to prove his own beliefs.
is Perry says, "If he had never been educated beyond the primry school,
had never read Plato and Plotinus, St. Augustine and George Fox and
Coleridge, he would still have been a wstic by nature, like countless
illiterate men and women in all ages and of every race .... The fact
that Emerson happened to be well-educated, and that all influences

surrounding his early life and his professional studies tended to

 

19. George E. Woodberry, Ralph Waldo Eknerscn, p.31.

l3.

emphasise the significance of philosophy and religion, are secondary
influences confirming, but not originating, the natural bent of his
mind." 20.

However that my be, in Emerson and the Transcendentalists
there are many different influences at work. Among the forces producing
this philosophy are Plato, Pdotinus, Kant, Boehme, Schelling, Goethe,
Coleridge, Channing, Wordsworth, Carlyle, and Swedenborg. Although
Emerson ranged widely in place and time for his materials, his thinking
was connected minly with the idealistic school.

Plato was one of the influences which began during Ehnerson's
college days. hereon, like Plato, believed that the material world
is only a crude reflection of the spiritual, ideal world. Both men
have dmoral interpretation of the universe; both are optiflstic about

evil, also. Ernerscn took over mny of Plato's ideas and in

Representative Men we see that to Enerson Plate is philosophy.

 

Much of Plato, however, comes to Emerson through Plotinus and his
school of Neo-Platcnists. Whereas Plato made the Good the highest idea,
Plotinus elivated the Good or the One above the world of ideas. This
idea appears later in Sohelling, in Swedenborg, and, last but not least,
in Emerson. Through Plotinus comes 1l'merson's theory of the identity of
mind and matter, and the theory of intuition. 22. Since Emerson came in
contact with Plato and Plotinus so early in his life, he was almost from the
beginning an idealist, and his idealism was tinged with mysticism. Perry

says that "on the more purely mystical side of his nature, he owed more to

 

20. Perry, 0 . cit., pp. 594- 60.

21. Cooke, op. cit., p.273 .
22. ma... pp. 273 - 27h.

Plotinus than to Plate. " 23. It was through Plotinus, also, that
Emerson first came in contact with Orientalism. . However, this
Oriental philosOphy did.not affect Emerson.until much later in.his
life, and it never becane a strong influence. Plotinus and the Neo-
Platonists would be of the utmost importance if they had given
Enerson nothing but the idea of the Over-Soul, but he did gain more from
them than that.

The Germ philosophers were the next to influence Emerson and the
Transcendentalists, although much of the German thought in turnuwas
based on.the Platonists and lec-Platcnists. Emerson.agrees with the
general but not the specific beliefs of Jacob Bcehme and Eckhart, The
doctrine of emnation was exchanged for that of immanence, and all these
previous philosophies were sumned up in Sohelling. Even if Schelling did
not influence Emerson directly, much Of‘liha‘b Emerson believed is found
almost exactly in Sehelling. 25. Schelling teaches that nature and mind,
subject and object, are one and the same in the Absolute, and that this
identity is perceived by intuition. In many other respects, also, Emerson
is very like Schelling. Perhpps Grey best expresses this relation when he says,
"But while Emerson was no doubt stimulated either directly by Schelling or
indirectly through Coleridge, there can be no doubt that he was an.original
thinker, and arrived at his conclusions by very much the same methods as all
other philosophers have done, however much he may have attributed a religious

26.
connotation to any new truth which he felt he has acquired." .‘

 

23.13””1'» £255" P0660

2h. Frederic Ives Carpenter, Emerson and Asig, p.143.
25. Cooke, op.cit., p.278.

26. Gray, op.cit., p.31

Ennrmn was not a great student of Kant, but living in the period
he did, he could not help showing Kent's influence. It was to a great
extent the Kantean philosoPhy which was superimposed on New England
Unitarianism to produce the Transcendentalism of this country. 27.

Like Kant, Bnerson does not distinguish between morality and religion
but makes them one and the some. Kant is of the utmost importance not
only for his direct influence, but also for his influence as it came
through Coleridge, Carlyle, and others. The very word "transcendental"

really goes back to Kant and his Critique of Pure Reason, although in New

 

England even Kant's ideas underwent somewhat of a change. Kant believed
that the transcendentalwas what was beyond experience, and he made a dis-
tinction between Reason and Understanding. Reason perceives absolute
truth; it is really intuition. Understanding is what we use to perceive
ordinary every—day life and experience. This distinction is of the greatest
importance in Emerson's philosoPhy, even in his theory of literature and

_ criticism. thereon may have borrowed this distinction from Coleridge or
Carlyle instead of directly from Kant, but nevertheless it did come from
Kent originally.

Important as this Germ thought was to Emerson and the Transdendentalists,
most of its influence came through the intermediary sources of the English
Romanticists - Coleridge, Wordsworth, Carlyle, Lander. Coleridge is of” the
utmost importance and it is through him that New England Transcendentalism.

28.
is akin to Schclling in so many respects.

 

27. Gray. OEOOitO' P313.
28. Cambridge History of American Literature, 1,352.

 

16.

In Coleridge we have the distinction'between.Reason.and Understanding,
and a universal participation.of all in this Reason. In Coleridge,'we
again see the germ of Emerson's Over-Soul, for Emerson's Over-Soul is
almost a counterpart of Coleridge's Universal Reason..Already in 1829
Emerson was writing the following passage to his aunt, Miss Mary Moody
Emerson: " I ammreading Coleridge's 'Friend' with great interest ....
He has a tons a little lower than greatness, but what a living soul,
‘what a universal.knowledge .... I love him that he is no utilitarian,
nor necessarian, not scoffer, non hoe genus cums, tucked away in the
corner of a sentence of Plato." 29. Coleridge was one of the men
when Emerson was most desirous of seeing when he made his trip to Europe
in 1832.

Emerson's increasing interest in'wordwworth iscalso'signifioante
Emerson started to read Wordsworth much earlier than he started to like
and appreciate him. Since 1‘Jmerson liked, for the most part, only those
books which confirmed his own'beliefs, his own.attitude toward Nature
had to ripen.a little more before he could be in.sympathy'with'wordwh
worth. Emerson's first reference to‘Wordwworth is in 1828 when he says,
9L.fault onMr. Wbrdwworth is the direct prggmatical analysis of objects,
in their nature pectic, but which all other poets touch incidentally eeee
‘Mr.‘Wbrdsworth is trying to distil the essenoe of poetry'frcm.poetic~
things, instead of being satisfied to adorn common scenes with such
lights from the;; sources of poetry as nature will always furnish to her

true lovers. "

 

29. Journals, II, 277,279.

30. Hourmls, II, 232,233.

17.

Yet only three years later Eknerson's attitude has so greatly changed
that he is writing, "Wordsworth has writ lines that are like outward
nature, so fresh, so simple, so durable." 31. And again, "His noble
distinction is that he seeks the truth and shuns with brave self-
denial every image and word that is from the purpose, means to stick
close to his own thought and give it in naked simplicity and so mks

it God' s affair, not hidpwn whether it shall succeed." 52. From the
comparison of these passages of Emerson about Wordsworth, we can see

in Exnersen from 1828 to 1831 a growing admiration and appreciation of
plain language. He is beginning to renounce the rhetoric of Everett,

he is beginning to give up the oratory which appealed to him in his 7
youth. If it is true that Emerson was a pantheist, as Gray asserts, 39.
it follows almost of necessity that Eknersen was influenced by Wordsworth
in this pantheism. . From Wordsworth, or rather, like Wordsworth, Emerson
conceived of nature as alive with the Universal Spirit, as being the
Universal Reason anbodied in law and order.

The influence of Channing again becomes significant here. Channing
is responsible to a great extent for the spread of the ideas of Words-
worth and Coleridge. Channing liked and appreciated both Wordsworth and
Coleridge, and by trying to get America to like and appreciate them he
introduced English Romanticism into America. The seeds of Transoendentalism
came in along with this Romanticism. In the following passage Charming

shows himself related to Coleridge on one hand and to Emrson on the other:

 

31. Journals, II, I402.
52. Journals, II, L50.

330 Gray, OBecite, Peb7‘

18

"No man can be just to himself till he has risen to communion with the
Supreme Mind; till he regards himself as the recipient and minister of
the Infinite Spirit.“ 314. Frederick Henry Hedge, like Channing, helped
to popularize the English Romanticists and the German philosophers.
According to Gray, Hedge's reviews of Coleridge “brought the contribution
of Coleridge to a focus." 55. The introduction of the writings of Words-
worth and Coleridge into America is important, also, because they broke the
ground and prepared an audience for Emerson.

Lander is another European writer who affected Emerson, though to

a much lesser extent. Emerson read Lander '3 Imaginary Conversations

 

before he went to Europe, and Lender was another of the men he desired

to see over there. Lander, like Emerson, had some perception of the moral
power of character. Lander also seems to have influenced Emerson's style
in some respects. Convey says: "From the time Emerson met with the writings
of 1Halter Savage Lander his toms became less fervid and prophetic, and more
secular. Whatever eccentricity threatened him was dismissed tn the presence
of the clear and classic style of Lander. " 36.

Last, and in many respects the most important, of 6.1 the English
writers who influenced Emerson is Thomas Carlyle. Emerson became ac-
quainted with Carlyle's writings in 1832, and he wrote in his Journal:

"I- am cheered and instructed by this paper on Corn Law Rhymes in the
Edinburg by my Germanick new-light writer, whoever he may be. He gives
us confidence in our principles. He assures the truth-lover everywhere

37.
of sympathy. Emerson liked Carlyle because Carlyle, too, subscribed

 

314.. William Ellery Channing, Works, I, 271),.

35. er. OEQCitQ' P023.
36. It. D. Conway, Emerson at Home and Abroad, p.112.

37. Journals, II, 515.

19

to a Transcendental philosophy. Although Emerson was not an imitate:-
of Carlyle by any means, Gay points out that the section on Language
in Emerson's Nature is much like Carlyle's Sartor Resartus in spirit,

38.
because both develop the idea of nature as the symbol of the divine. although

 

Ehnerson was very anxious to meet Carlyle, their meeting was somewhat of a dis-
appointment to Emerson and only served as the final affirmation of his own
theory of self-reliance. Nevertheless, in spite of the great difference in
their thought and style, Carlyle and Emerson were good friends and carried

on a very interesting correspondence from 18311, to 1872. Their points of
divergence are brought out very clearly in these letters. Both men believed
in sincerity, independence, and a transcending spiritual truth, but their
approach was very different. Carlyle not only thought but told Ernersen that

39.
he was too abstract. What Carlyle failed to realize was that abstractions

were realities to Emerson. Carlyle also objected to Emerson's Optimism. 110.
Carlyle saw much evil, while Emerson, if he saw,it at all, ignored it. Emerson,
on the other hand, could not understand Carlyle’s wild strength, both in sub-
ject nutter and style. Emerson believed that Carlyle should be "more simple
less Gethicallly efferescent." . In spite of these differences, however,
Emerson does owe a debt to Carlyle, not only for the affirmation of his own
transcendentalism and his own self reliance, but also for the Germanic thought
which cam through Carlyle. Carlyle is especially important for introducing

Emerson to the works of Goethe.

 

38. Robert M. Gay, Ralph Waldo Emerson, p.123.

 

39. The Correspondence of Cagyle and Emerson, 1,216.
14-00 IbidO'II! 52L} - 325.
14.1. Ibide, 131.

20.
o

Emerson's Journals show that he had begun to read Goethe by 1830
or possibly earlier, but he could not appreciate him until Carlyle
helped to ehpw him the way. In 1831;. Emerson was writing in his
Journals that Goethe seemed to him "to be ohly another peer menad,
after the fashion of his little race bestirring himself immensely to
hide his nothingness, spinning his surface directly before the eye
to conceal the univwrse of his ignorance." 142. Later the same year
he wrote to Carlyle about Goethe, saying, "With him I am becoming
better acquainted, but mine must be a qualified admiration .... I cannot
but regard it as his misfortune, with conspicuous bad influence on his
genius, - that velvet life he led. What incongruity for genius to repose
fifty years on chairs of state .... Then the Puritan in me accepts no
apology for bad morals in such as he." L6. Emerson's longest adverse
criticism of Goethe appears in a paper, "Thoughts on Modern Literature,"
which he wrote for the Rial. In this we see distinctly the gulf between
Emerson and Goethe. Emerson criticizes Goethe for being the poet of the
Actual, of limitation, instead of the poet of the Ideal, of possibility.
Then too, Goethe was weak in moral perception and in some respects he let

his genius slip into more talent. But at the same time Emerson says:
’ h5c

"His love of Nature has seemed to give a new meaning to that word."

Cooke believed that Goethe taught Emerson the love of Nature more“ than

,_.A‘

142. Journals, IV, 309-
14.3. The Correspondence of Carler and Emerson, I, 29 - 30.

Mi. Natural History of Intellect, Works, XII, 329 - 332.

1+5. Ibidfi’p. 323.

 

21.
he.
Wordsworth did. Also, in spite of Goethe's lack of "moral
perception" Emerson was much more in sympathy with Goethe's
optimism than he was with Carlyle 's bitter despair. That Emerson
later came to value Goethe highly is shown by the fact that he

chose Goethe as "The Writer" in his Representative 1.133 and wrote a

 

very high Opinion of him. Emerson realized and admitted Goethe's

great influence, not only on himself, but on the whole generation.
Emerson himself says, "It is very plain to me that no recent genius

can work with equal effect upon mankind as Goethe, for no intelligent
young man canread him without finding that his own compositions are
immediately modified by his new knowledge." 0 And again he says,
"He [Goethe] teaches us to treat all subjects with greater freedom, and

to skip over all obstruction, time, place, name, usage, and come full and

strong on the emphasis of the fact. Emerson sums this up twelve years
later then he writes, “Goethe is the pivotal man of the old and new times
with us. He shuts up the old, he opens the new. No matter that you were
born since Goethe died, - if you have not read Goethe, or the Goetheans,
you are an old fogy and belong with the antediluvians.“ 149 Goethe is

an important infiuence, therefore, on nineteenth century America as well as
on morson. Emerson is indebted to Goethe for the development of his love
of nature, his love of culture, and, most important of all, his love of

beauty. He needed Goethe's influence to release his aesthetic sense from

its hitherto Puritanical background. Goethe's influence started during

 

L6. George W. Cooke, Ralph Waldo Emerson, p.53.

 

14.7. Jounrals, IV, 218.

13.8. Journals, V, 222.

149. Journals, VIII, 2L9.

22.

this critical period in Emerson's life, but it lasted throughout his
lifetime.

Tm other men whose thought affected Emerson during this stage
of his life were Emanuel Suedenborg and George Fox. Emerson was always
in sympathy with the Quakers, because like them, he believed in intuition,
in the "inner light." 50. The Quakers in some respects are like the
Swedenborginns, as Emerson himself admitted. 51. The Swedenborgians,
too, believed in the inner light, at least to a certain extent. The .
Swedenborgian influence and Emerson's interest in Swedenborg really
came through an intermediary, however, This intermediary Was the

American Sampson Reed, who published his Observations on the Growth of

 

the Mind in 1826. Hotson believes not only that Emerson's interest in
Swedenborg came fromraading this book but also that it was Sampson Reedrz-{Iho
gave the first definite impulse leading to Emerson's literary cgreer. 5%
Reed had influence in forming Emerson's modes of expression and his ideas

of style. To Emerson, Reed represented Swedenborg and all that Sweden-
borgianism stodd for. 53. Enerson did get his Swedenbogianism from Reed,
but he interpreted it in his on way. Emerson believed Swedenborg wrote

in parables; Reed believed be wrote matter-of-factly. Swedenborg affected
Emerson mainly because he, like Emerson, saw nature as symbol and revelation
of spiritual realities. Also, Emerson's sci-reliance is like the still,

small voice or "proprium" of Swedenborg. Nature shows Reed's influence

 

50. Jourmls, II, 521.

51. Journals, II, 318.

52. Clarence Paul Hotson, "Sampton Read, a Teacher of Emerson," Egg
England Quarterly, April 1929, p.229.

53. Ibid,,p. 277.

 

5h. Cooke, op. cit., 331 - 352.

23.

especially in the doctrine of correspondence, the idea that nature
symbolizes the soul. Reed in his paper "0n Animals“ and morscn in his
W both use facts as symbols. 55. Although Emerson received his
Swedenborgianism through Reed, and although he often read into both of
these authors more than they had written, nevertheless Swedenborg and Reed
did influence Emerson considerably and over a long period of years (forty

five to be enact). Emerson makes Swedenborg "The Mystic" in his Representative

 

5319' and in that essay he intimates the influence on himself of Swedenborg's
idea "that the physical world was purely symbolical of the spiritual world." 56.
All of these forces and influences had been at work on Enerson in ‘he
years between his graduation from college in 1821 and his trip to Europe at
the end of 1832. However, Emerson's European trip was of the utmost im-
portance in many respects. These ideas that he had been absorbing over this
period of years now began to crystallize in his mind, and during his travels
Emerson was evidently already writing, at least mentally, his little book
m. Of course, some of the most important events of his trip to Europe
were his long-anticipated meetings with Landor, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and
Carlyle. These meetings were a disappointment to him in many ways and yet
in the final analysis it was all for the best because it meant the final
affirmation of Dnerson's independence and self-reliance. After meeting
these men he could return to America with a certain belief in his own
powers. Emerson admitted this in his Journals when he wrote, "I thank the
Great God who had led me through this EurOpean scene, this last schoolroom

in which he has pleased to instruct me .... He has shown me the men I wished

 

55. Clarence Paul Hotson, "Sampson Reed, a Teacher of Emerson," New England

quarterl-I: April, 1929: P021490

56. Works, IV, 1160

to see, - Lander, Coleridge, Carlyle, werdsworth; he has thereby -
comforted and confirmed me in.my convictions. many things I owe to
the sight of these men. I shall judge more justly, less timidly,
of wise:men.forevermore. To be sure not one of these is a mind of the
very first class .... Especially are they all deficient, all these
four, - in different degrees, but all deficient, - in insight into
religious truth. They have no idea of that species of moral truth which
I 061 the.first philosophy. " 57. Emerson's European.trip also made
himnealize that he could see life just as well in Concord as he could
in travelling. As he says himself, "And what if it is Naples, it is onhy
the sane world of cakes and ale, of men and truth and folly." .
.Another important landmark during Emerson's trip abroad was his
visit to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Science was a rapidly growing
force in the nineteenth century throughout the entire world. It is no
wonder, then, that Emerson came under the influence of science in
general, but it is of the utmost importance that he came finder the inp
fluence of evolution. Evolution became a very important tenet of
Emersonian philosoPhya At the time of his visit to the Jardin.des
Plantes in 1833 Emerson wrote the following passage in his Journals:
"Here we are impressed with the inexhaustible riches of nature. The
universe is a more amazing puzzle than ever, as you glance along this
bewildering series of animated forms, - the hazy butterflies, the carved
shells, the birds, beasts, fishes, insects, snakes, and the upheaving

principle of life everywhere incipient, in the very rack aping organized

 

57. Journals, III, 185 - 186.

58. Journals, III, 62.

 

25.

ovganized forms. Not a form so grotesque, so savage, nor so beautiful
but is an expression of some property inherent in manthe observer,-
an accult relation between the very scorpions and man. I feel the
centipede in me, - oayman, carp, eagle, and fox. I am moved by
strange sympathies; I say continually, 'I will be a naturalist.” 59'
Emerson's attitude toward science in rather unique. He did not
really like investigation and analysis, yet he read a great many books

on science, gave several lectures on science and natural history, and

shows throughout his Journals that he was interested in it. Science

 

was an important force in Emerson's day because it helped to break
down the old New England Puritanism, and in this way it prepared for
Emerson an audience which he wmld not have had otherwise. Emerson
himself says, "But I think the paramount source of the religious
revolution was Modern Science c...- astrononv taught us our insignificance
in Nature; showed that our sacred as our profane history had been written
in gross ignorance of the laws, which were far grander than we knew; and
compelled a certain extension and uplifting of our views of the Deity and
his Providence." 00. The nineteenth century conceptions of man and his
destiny were greatly enlarged when they became connected with a universal
scheme of being.

It is remarkable that Emerson accepted the theory of evolution
so early, long before the publication of Darwin's Origin of the §pecies
in 1859. Emerson's views do not seem advanced now, but it is interesting

to see how he arrived at these conclusions so long ago. Edward Waldo

Emerson attributes these beliefs to his open mind, his liking for

 

59. Journals, III, 163.

60.Lectures and Bioggphioal Sketches, 1.'Iorks, X, 335 - 336.

26.

astronom, his reading of Heracleitus and Xenophanes, his knowledge
of Leibnitz's scale of being, his acquaintance with the speculations
of Oken and Schelling through Coleridge, his visit to the Jardin des

Plantes, and his contact with Lanarck's theory through Lyell's book on
61. ‘
Geology. That Emerson's ideas were definitely prophetic of Darwin

\

is clearly shown in the following passage from an unpublished lecture
"On the Relation of Man to the Globe," delivered in 1833. Emerson said,
"Man's limbs are only a more exguisite organization - say rather the
finish of the rudimental forms that have been already sweeping the sea

and creeping on the mind; the brother of his hgnd is even now clearing
6
the Arctic Sea in the fin of the whale...." Emerson's interpretation

of the theory of evolution went beyond science, however, intp the spirit-
ual world. Evolution was important in Emerson's philosophy because he

believed that the difference between mind and matter was a difference of
degree only. Since this is so, Nature is continually growing, proceeding,

evolving toward spirit. Emerson expresses this himself when he says,

I

"How far off yet is the tri‘lobite .‘. how far the quadruped 1 how incon-
F‘

ceivably remote is man . A11 duly arrive, and then race after race of
men. It is a long way from granite to the oyster; farther yet to Plato

and the preaching of the immortality of the soul. Yet all must come,
05.

as surely as the first atom has two sides." Emerson's theory of

the evolutionary ascent from matter to mind is the basis of his idealism,

61+.
and on this theory, according to Conway, he rests his idea of "Poetry."

 

61. Nature, Addresses, Lectures, Works, X, 335 - 336.

 

 

62. Cabot, 02. 0117., I, 2214.. \

63. Essays, Second Series, Works, III, 180.

614.0 coma-y, OE. Oit.’ p. 159.

Gray believes that Emerson's belief inevolution influenced his
philosophy in two ways. He believes that the evolutionary point
6f view turned Enerson "from a purely idealistic interpretation
of the world as illusion to an attempt to account for the presence
of the individual by an evolution where the metamorphosis is entire." 65.
Gray alsoobelieves that evolution is the ethical basis for his cp-
tindsm. .

These, then, were the forces and influences which produced
Ehnerson's philosophy, especially as it was embodied in his little
book m, which came out in 1836, although it had been in his
mind for at least four years previous to that. The Emerson of 1836 had
almost reached his full stature; in fact, in some respects Emerson
reached heights in m which he never again attained. The external
events of Emerson's life are important - the death of his father, which
brought poverty to the family, his years at Harvard, his training in
the Harvard Divinity School, his marriage and the death of his wife,
the deaths of his brothers, his renunciation of his pulpit, his trip
to Europe, his return to America, and more particularly his establish-
ment'at Concord - but more important than these events are the subtler
influences which were at work within his mind during all these years.
Emerson's philosophy could not have been the same if he had not come
into contact with Plato and Plotinus, who helped him lay the foundation
of his philosophy. Nor would he have been the same if Boehme, Schelling,
Coleridge, Carlyle, the German and the English idealists, had not helped
him to erect a substantial edifice on this foundation laid by Plato and

Plotinus. A few necessary touches were added by his aunt, Miss Mary

 

65. Gray, op.cit., pgh5.
66. Ibid,,p.78

28.

hloody Emerson, by Channing, Hedge, Lander, and Wordsworth. And lastfbut
not least the structure was completed through the powerful forces of
Transoendentalism, Science, and Evolution. All of these forces and in-
fluences were at work on Emerson over a long period of years, some from
his earliest youth on, and most of these forces continued to operate on
Emerson after 1836 although the main part of their work was done.
Emerson's philosophy was very nearly completed by 1836; his main tenets,
such as his theory of the Over-Soul and his belief in Self-Reliance,
were so firmly imbedded that they could not be changed. Emerson's life,
his philosophy, and the times in which he lived unite logicdly to form
a perfect circle. If Emerson had lived anywhere else or at any other time,
he would not have been the Emerson we know. And yet Emerson was not the
product solely of nineteenth century America; he was also the product of
every country and every era since history began.

After Emerson settled in Concord and published m, his life did
not change much. In these years at Concord he set the pattern of his life,
and he never departed from it until his death in 1882. His routine was
broken somewhat by his lecture tours, by his travels and his friends, but
even these did not disturb his life to any great extent. His first book,
Nature, contains the quintessence of Emersonianism, and everything he
wrote after that is really only an addition to, a modification or re-
statement of what he said or intimated in that. Emerson first became a
figure of national importance with his Phi Beta Kappa oration at Harvard
in 1837. After this "American Scholar" address, Emerson became the
American prophet - and this position was even more strongly fortified
after the famous "Divinity School Address" of 1838. From then on there

is little of importance in Emerson's external life; he edited the Dial

from 18142 to 18ml, and he made two more visits to Europe, one in 18147 and
one in 1872. Between 181414. and 1870 he had been publishing his volumes of
essays and poems and had been educating all America from his lecture
platform. 67. After 1872 Emerson's powers failed visibly, and he ac-
complished very little of importance between 1872 and his death at
Concord in 1882.

In the last forty-five years of Emerson's life, in the period
between the publication of m in 1856 and his death in 1882, there
were, however, three forces which had a growing influence on him. The
first of these forces was the group of friends and writers who surrounded
him at Concord. The European forerunners of Transcendentalism were im-
portant, but almost equally important were the actual exponents of Trans-
cendentalism in New Egland. Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker, Orestes
Brownson, Bronson, Alcott, even Thoreau, were not only voices in America
at this time, but they were personal friends of Enerson and were there-
fore bound to have some influence on him, inasmuch as they were influencing
all the rest of America. Emerson was associated with these men and women,
he liked and admired them - but he also criticized them. This small group
probably helped to keep Emerson's thought on the path it had already
started to inks, but he came in contact with their minds after his own

' thought was already formed and set. '

 

67. Emerson was very fortunate in living in the period of the American
1yceum. Since Enerson was really a lay preacher, and since the lyceum
lecture platBorm was really a lay pulpit, it was the perfect medium

of expression for his type hof thought.

50.

.Another influence which affected Emerson in his later life was
that of oriental literature,including the Neo-Platoniets, the Hindus,
the Persians, and'the Chinese. Emerson's reading became more abstract
withthe years; the Chinese classics, the Vishnu Sarna, Plotinus, Iamblichus,
Calvin, Spinoza, and Berkeley all began to get more attention while the
references to poetry'becmne less frequent. 68. Oriental literature was
known to Emerson only indirectly until lahl, so that his philosOphy'was
entirely formed before he really became interested in it. . Frcm
1837 on Emerson began to read more Oriental books, and in 18h1.he first
made the acquaintance of the Persian poets. Emerson's other reading
had prepared his ndnd.for this Oriental literature which began to have
a noticeable effect on.him from 18L5 on. Emerson had begun reading the
Heeplatcnists very early in.his life, but his earlier Neoplatonismuwas
free from Orientalism. However, he found in the Hindu writings, as he
had already discovered in Neaplatonism, a strong support for the mystical
tendencies he already possessed. 70. Carpenter says that Emerson liked
this Oriental literature for its scholarly and cultural values, for its
ideas which served to affirm.his own, and for its poetic stimulation. 71.

The influence of this Oriental thought can be clearly seen in.the essay

on Plato in.Representative Men, in the essays. "Fate" and "Illusions"

 

72.
in The Conduct of Life, and in his famous poems "Brahma“ and "Hamstreys."

 

 

68. Gay, op.cit., p. 192.

69. Cappenter, op. cit.I pp.2, 12.
70. Perry, 0 . cit., p.77

71. Carpenter, op. cit., pp.l7 - 21.

72. Ibidggppe 19' 250

31.

Emerson's theory of poetry and literature he also owes in part to the Oriental
side of the‘Neoplatonists, 75. and his theory of poetry is necessarily
very important in his criticisms of literature. This Oriental Nedplatonism,
to quote Carpenter again, "furnished a background of vague transcendental
thought, which, superadded to the poetic thought of Coleridge and Words- J
worth and Goethe, formed the most distinctive element of Transcendentalism." 74.
Emerson's theory of the Over-Soul was probably strengthened to an extent
by the Oriental doctrine of spiritual emanation from an Absolute source
to individuals.

Goethe led Emsrson to read the Persian poets, and Emerson became
very fond of them in his later years. He particularly liked Hafiz and Saadi,
and their influence on him is shown by the fact he wrote two essays and two
poems dealing with Persian poetry - the essay "Persian Poetry" in Lttters_

and Souial Aims, the poem "Sandi," the prefact to the American edition of

 

Saadi's ”Gulistan': and "Fragments on the Poet and the Poetic Gift."
Emerson's poems "Bacchus" and "Days" also owe much to the Persians.
Enerson liked the Persian poets not only for their great joy in life but
because in them he found re-expressed his own love of nature, and his own
beliefs in self- reliance and compensation. 75. Enerson did get a great
deal from Oriental literature, but through it all he rennins an Occidental.
Carpenter believes that Emerson's native New England Yankee shrewdness kept
him from acc;p>ting too completely the mysticism of the Hindus and the other
.

Orientals. Perry suggests also that Enersinn's Oriental readings and

 

73. Ibid,,p. 86.
71-h Ibids: P0 990
750 Carpeiter, o . cit., pp. 162 - 181.

76. Ibid,,p. 155.

32.

quotations may be “ in part, at least, the old Lyceum device of ranging
far for fresh illustrations, of making large vague references to what
is distant and unknown, the charm of names and places that we cannot
quite identify." 77.

Emerson was not only influenced by this Oriental literature and
thought himself, but he has been a tremendous force in spreading it
throughout America. Carpenter thinks of Emerson as the founder of
comparative Religion and Comparative Literature in America, and he
believes it was the stimulus to Orientalism in America which Emerson
gave that is responsible, .in part at least, for the work of Whitman ,

Amy Lowell, Wheelock, and Eugene O'Neill. 78.

Carpenter says that Emerson's Yankee shrewdness saved him from
the extremes of Orientalism. This‘l'ankee shrewdness is the last of
the three influences which affected Emerson's later life. Emerson was
born with this innate Yankee shrewdness, but it did not have much chance
to operate on him until he had estalished himself permanently at Concord.
It was only when he had finally settled down that Emerson had the time and
the perspective to become an alert observer and critic of the more prac-
tical aspects of the country. 'He saw the opening of the West; he even had
first-hand'observation of it during his lecture tours in that part of the
. country. He saw the coming of the railroads, of the telegraph, and of the
.fiansatlantic cable, and he saw the cultural possibilities of all these
for America.

With his romanticism, he was naturally an advocate of democracy,

but he deplored the grossness of the Jacksonian democrats as well as the

 

770 Perry. 020 Cite, P081.
78. Carpenter, op. ci_t_._, pp. 2147 - 255.

33.

79.
materialism of the Whigs. During Emerstn's life-time we have the
growing antagonism of North and South, culminating in the Civil War.
The Abolition movement was the only event which actually drew Emerson
into active participation in public affaits. He Opposed Slavery on
moral and religious grounds, but he did not believe that all men were
born equal. His radical idealism was tempered by his common sense. 80.
For the most part Emerson was an acute observer only, but he did enter intp
the Abolition crusade to the extent of making speeches and even writing
a letter to the President. The influence of this movement is seen in his
later essays, addresses, and Journals, and it appears more than once in his
criticisms of America and American literature.

Although Enrson remained to a great extent on the side-line of Americai
Life, nevertheless, he did observe carefully and accurately all these things
that were going on around him, and what he saw he could not help criticiz-
ing, Parrington calls Enerson "the most searching critic of contemporary
America." 81. It is in these criticisms of the America of his day that
we find Emerson's criticism of American literature, of American literary
and historical personages.

Besides the abolition movement there was one other current of
American life which influenced Emerson.very s trongly - this was the
opening and rapid development of the West. The influence of the West
on Emerson has been noted by many of his biograhers. Cabot believed

that Emerson's essays were less absolute in their idealism because they

 

79. Raymer McQuiston, [Relation of Ralph Waldo Enerson to Public Affairs,“

 

University of E32533 Humanistic Studies, III, April, 1925, p. 21.

 

80. Ibid,,pp. 37, 59.

81. Parrington’ 02. 0113., II, 3860

31;.

82.
had to be adapted to his western audiences. Hoodberry said that
no other writer of Emerson's day had such an appreciation of the west,
and that this gave a more American strain to his writings. 85. Crothers
thinks that Emerson redeemed the New England men of letters from provincial-
isntby his attack on English things and by the injection into his con-
temporaries of a great admiration for the America that was growing up in the
'West. . Emerson was conscious of the social and economic changes that
were going oh around him.during the middle of the nineteenth century,
and he saw'the great possibilities of the west. One of his most pungent
comments on the'West appeared in his lecture "The Epungnflmerican," given
in lath; Emerson said, "Luckily'for us, now that steanxhas narrowed the
Atlantic to a Strait, the nervous, rocky west is intruding a new and
continental element into the national mind, and we shall yet have an
American.genius. “ 85. Emerson believed that, since the East was so
:mudh in.subjection to European culture, the west Iflmfld.be responsible
for producing an indigenous American culture. He believed that the
vastness of America, especially the vastness of the new West, wouldémake
Europe dwindle into a less significant place in the American .ye. 8 .
Narchand believes that the frontier produces democracy, individualisnn
and optimism, and that all these can be seen in Emerson. If Emerson
did not derive his Optimism.from the frontier, at least the frontier con-

87.

firmed it. Also, Emerson's doctrine of self - reliance is a natural

 

82. cabot, op. cit., II, 386.

83.‘Wbodberry, op. cit., p. 79.

8h. Crothers, o . cit., pp. 125 - 12h.

85. Nature, Addresses, Lectures,‘Worhs,_l, 369,-370.

86. Ernest marchand, "Emerson and the Frontier, " American Literature,
III, 1931;-1932, p. 156.

87. Ibid,,pp. 160 - 161.

35-

corollary of frontier individualism, though in Emerson it has been re-
fined,‘raticnalized, spiritualized. . This is true of Emerson's
entire attitude toward the West. His appreciation of the‘West was
symbolic and spiritual: he thoroughly detested the actual crudities

and excesses of the West, but he looked beyond these to its future
possibilities. He disliked the materialism of the Yxhigs in the East

as much as he disliked the extreme democracy and Jacksonian rabble

of the West. Finerson was far ahead of his time in many respects; he
attributed the same significance to the dand that Turner did eighty -
five years later. . Already in his lecture "The Young American"
Emerscnwas saying, "I think we must regard the land as a commanding
and increasing power on the citizen, the sanative and Americanizing
influence, which promises to disclose new virtues for ages to come." 90.
' The best summary of the influence of the West on Emerson also appears
in Marchand's article, where he says: "Of the two factors entering

into his (Emerson's) thought, foreign philosophy and native culture,
the former seems, by comparison, accidental. Ernerson was in revolt
against the harsh theology of Puritansim. Yet, he was unable to abandon
a teleological view of the 'world. He found the Platonic - Hegelian -
Coleridgian transcendental: scheme most ready to hand and most congenial
to his temperament .... The cardinal points of his teaching - optimism,
democracy, individualism, self-reliance -- derive their chief sanction

91.
and meaning from the psychologr bred by the frontier." Lucy Lockwood

 

88o 1135111., pp. 160 "' 161s

89.Ibic_1_,,p. 158.
90. Nature, Addresses, Lectures, Works, I, 370.

 

 

91. Ernest Marchand, "Emerson and the Frontier," American Literature , III

1931;- 1932. P. 17h-

,‘i

 

56.

Hazard even goes one step farther; she sees Transcendentalism as a product
of Germn idealism plus the frontier environment .—- The optimism and in-
dividualism pf the frontier she sees again in transcendentalism, and in C
Emerson she sees the fusion of both transcendental and pioneer ideals. )2.
However, it is impossible to read Emerson and not see the effect of the
West in his whole attitude toward America and toward American literattre.
All of these forces were at work on Emerson throughout his lifetime,
and all of them were operative for varying lengths of time and with vary-
ing intensity. Each of these numerous forces and influences is absolutely
essential to the molding of Emerson's thought. However, it is the inter-
action of all these currents of thought which really produced Emerson,

not only Emerson the writer and philosopher but also Emerson the critic.

 

92. Lucy lockwcod Hazard, The Frontier in American Literature, pp. 1118 -

153. 158-

 

CHAPTER I I

ELERSON'S THEORY OF LITERATURE AND CRITICISM.

Although Emerson's theory of literature and criticism is not
as clear or as concentrated as is Poe's, and although his literary
criticism is scattered rather indiscriminately throughout every volume
of his essays and his journals, nevertheless, as a critic of American
letters, Emerson is an outstanding figure. The whole field of American
criticism, especially early Amrican criticism, has been unduly neg-
lected, and Emerson's place in its development has never been established.
IxZuch of Emerson's literary criticism grew out of his observations of
American as a whole, with its newness, its cultural dependence, its lack
of spirituality, its materialism. It is not for nothing that Parrington
calls him "the most searching critic of contemporary America."

Emerson's works contain a great deal of criticism of individual
authors, but before one can understand his criticism of individuals,
one must be familiar with his theory of literature, although some of it
is too hbstract to be applicable. Emerson's theory of literature and
criticism is so inextricably interwoven with his philosophy of life that
, it is almost impossible to separate the two.
Emerson's theories fif literary expression and criticism cannot be
divorced from the transcendentalism which was the pivotal point of his
entire philosophy. Just as Emerson received much of his transcendentalism
from Coleridge so he also learned the art of literary criticism from

1.
Coleridge. In criticism as in philosophy, the distinction between

 

1. Frank Thompson, "Emerson's Theory and Practice of Poetry," P.M.L.A.

XLIII, 11814 (December, 1928)

55%

Reason and Understanding is of great importance to both Emerson and Cole-
ridge. Thomspon believed that Emerson'was still a classicist in his

attitude toward poetry in 1820, but that by 1859 his continued reading
a 2.
of Coleridge led him to romantic criticisms

Emerson believed that Reason parceived the Ideal, Understanding

the.Actua1. Also, since the material is necessary to express the ideal,

2
J.

the symbol becomes of the utmost importance in Emerson's literary theory.
Emerson himself says that words are signs of natural facts. . Sutcliffe
goes even farther in saying that, to Emerson, literature is completely
dependent on the symbol. Emerson himself says that"1brds are signs of
natural facts." 5 He believes that language is a symbol for spiritual
truths and that Nature is the intermediary for uniting the actual (language)
to the ideal (Spirit). Like Coleridge, Emerson believes that words should
have an external sense for the materialists and yet convey spiritual truth
to those who look beyond. 6. In his essay, "The Poet" Emerson himself Speaks
of the double meaning of every sensuous fact. 7. The truer expression is the
symbolic, however. Emerson also believes in the identity of words and object,

in the unity of thought and language. He himself says, " No man can

write well who thinks there is any choice

 

2. Ibi ’P. 1172.
5. Emerson Grant Suicliffe, "Emerson's Theories of Literary Expression,"

University of Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, VIII, no. 1, p.1L-,.

 

he Ibid.’ p. 250

5..Naturg, works, I, 25.

 

6. Sutcliffe, op. cit., p. 28

7. Essays, Second Series, works, III, h.

 

 

59-

of words for him .... In writing there is always a right word, and
every other than that is wrong .... In good writing, words become
one with things." 8. But to Emerson absolute identity of word and
object was only possible in.moments of comminion with the Over-Soul.
This tenet is the foundation for a great many of Emerson's literary
theories, and it is evident not only in his criticism.of others but
also in his own literary practices. To Emerson this communion with
the Over-Soul, this inner flash of light, is the really important
thing in literature. It is through these flashes of inspiration
that the ideal becomes real to the poet. 9. Emerson says more than
once that "there is nothing of vane in literature except the trans-
cendental." 10. Poetry is the only truth and it is a truth perceived,
not externally, but with the inward eye.

This trust in the "inner ligh " is responSbble for some of
Emerson's other conclusions inzegard to literary theory. It is this
which leads Emerson to carry his belief in self-reliance from his
generaLphilosophy into the field of writing as'well. .It is this
which also leads to Emerson's distinction between.mere talent and
genius. There can be good writing with more talent, but there can be
no great writing without genius, without this communion with the
Over-Soul. Only everlasting works have caught the universal thought
which descends from above not to but through the man of genius.

Emerson also believed that in art, as in life, the moral is

inseparable from the beautiful. Goethe has not true genius because

 

8. Journals, II, th.

9. Essays, Second Series, works, III, h2.

 

10. Journals, V,h963 Essays, Second Serie§,'Works, III, 32.

 

 

ll. Journals, III, 550.'

14,0.

12.
he lacks the moral aentiment. Emerson's ideal nan is a "Poet -

a

priest, a reconciler, who shall not trifle, with Shakespeare the

player, not shall grope in gra’ves with Swedenborg the mourner; but who
13.

shall see, speak, and act, with equal inspiration." Emerson's
standard for criticism was thus an ideal: hence it is no wonder that
sometimes his criticism seems a little harsh. Emerson believed in

books and education, but to him these were secondary things. The

spiritual flashes were the most important thing, for, as he said,

"Books are for the scho'lar's idle times," and "What is any book
15.
next to undiscoverable all?" Thus we see that Emerson's theory ,

of literature is based on his doctrines of self-reliance and the
Over-Soul. The ideal literary man should be a poet-priest, a "Man
Thinking,“ a man educated first by Nature, then by books, then by action.
Emerson's ideas of. Nature also enter into his literary theory.
Nature is the source from which the writer derives ability to express
himself figuratively, and figurative language is nearest to the divine
language." . Nature is the language of the spirit, and for this
reason all other language has limitations, since it falls far short
of Nature in representing the spirit. 17. Howevei; like Wdrdsmrth,

. 18.
Emerson believed in Nature as a great teacher. Emerson also seems

 

12. Representative Men, Works, IV, 281.

 

13. Representative Lien, Works, IV, 219.
114.. "The American. Scholar," m, I, 91.
15. JOunnals, IV, 66.

16. Sutcliffe, gp_.___<_:_i_t_._, p. 23.

17. want.

18. Norman Foerster, American Criticism, p. 107, note.

LL1-

to show that he has been influenced by'fibrdsworth's idea of describing -
familiar things in familiar words, for he says, "I embrace the common,

I explore and sit at the feet of the familiar, the low .... hhat would we
really the know the meaning of? The meal in the firkin; the milk in

the pan .... " 19. Thompson believes that hordsworth is responsible

for furnishing Emerson with a theory of poetry. do. At least Wordsworth
changed and modified the theory that Emerson would otherwise have had.
Although Emerson believed that language (such as Whitman used, for
example) could be too low, he did believe in the use of idiomatic
language because of its strength, vitality, and symbolic intensity.
Emerson.says, "Ought not the scholar to convey his meaning in ternm

as short and strong as the smith or drover use to convey theirs? ....
Speak with the vulgar, think with the wise." 21.

‘Emerson is also a firm believer in the virtue of ccmpression, to
which his own works bear witness. The superfluous should be omitted because
the whole truth resides in any part of the truth, in literatre, as in
Nature. 22.

Emerson defines literature as the "conversing of action into thought,
for the delight of the Intellect. It is the turning into thoughts of what
was done without thought. It aims at the ideal truth. " C5. He also ’
believes that "all literature is yet to be written, that the Infinite

0

Truth has not been and cannot be exhausted."

 

19. Nature, Addresses, Lectures,‘WOrks,_I, 111.

 

 

.20. Frank L. Thompson, "Emersonts Theory and Practice of Poetry," P.M.L.A.
ZCLIII (1928) 1185. m

21. Natural Histoqy of Intellect, Ecrks, XII, 285 - 286.

 

22. Essays, Second Series,_Wbrks, III, 17.
23. JournalsI III, 280.

214-. Journals, IV, LL75.

 

 

Emerson not only had an ideal.for his standard, but most of his readinngas
among the great authors such as Homer, Plato, Milton, and Shakespeare, and
this makes him.doub1y critical.

In.Emerson's theory of art, eloquence is an.inmortant part of poetry and
therefore craters are poets. 25. Judging by Emerson's standards, his criticism
of American literature would naturally include the American orators such as
'Webster and Everett. hith reference to his own career, it is interesting to ,
note that Emerson regarded the lyceum.lecture as a new type of literature. 20.

Emerson believed that poetry was the highest and greatest form.of lit-
erature, and he also believed that poetry preceded prose. 27. He regarded drama
as the most attractive art and one which had great possibilities, although it
had been misused and degraded. 28. One queer quirk in Emerson's theory of

. literature was his own personal aversion to novels (except Sir walter Scott's

novels, particularly The Bride of Lammermoor.) Since he never read hovels

 

himself, his attitude toward novelists and novel writing is a little severe.

He thinks that on the whole novels and romances are "intended for coxoombs
. 29.
and deficient persons;" and "The love of novels is the preference of
50.
sentiment to the senses." Although Emerson admits that a novel may teach

the value of action, he says, “How far off from life and manners and motives
‘ 310
the novel still is."

Of Style Emerson.says: "A.man's style is his intellectial voice. He

. can.mimic the voices of others, he can modulate it with occasion andthe

 

25. Letters and Social Aims,‘WOrks, VIII, 25, 26.

 

26. Journals, V, 233, 281, 298. 573.
27. Journals, III, h92.

28. Journals, 1, 127, lhB, 170, 289
29. Journals, II, 13

30. Journals, II, 572. 51. Society and Solitude, works, VII, 21h,

1+5-

52.

the passion, but it has its own individual nature. "

This, then, is Emerson's theory of literature - a belief in self-
reliance, in inspiration, in the moral sentiment, in the unity of word and
thought, in Nature both as a teacher and as agent of spirit, and in the
use of familiar idiomatic language to describe common every-day things.
'There is one flaw in this theory of literature, however; Emerson's belief
in the unity of thought and word is inconsistent with his acceptance of
translations.

Emerson's theory of criticism.is dependent on.his theory of literature
in every particular, just as his literary theory is in turn dependent on
his own philosophy of life. Before examining any opinions of Emerson as a
critic, it seems advisable to look first at Emerson's own ideas of criticism
and at his cwn.picture of himself as a critic.

Since the standard by which Emerson judged literature was the standard
of an ideal, an ideal of whicheaven Shakespeare fell far short, it is no

55.

wonder that he himself said, "I criticize with hardness." Emerson's
was
searchafor books which contaned a moral element and which.were written

through inspiration. He believed self-reliance was just as necessary

in judging a book as in writing it; his rule was "to confide in your own
ELL.

impressions of a book." Emerson also believed that "criticism must

55.

be transcendental," and here again.we find his theory of criticism

paralleling his ideas of literature and life.

 

52. Journals, II, 96.
55. Journals, I, 562.
5A. Journals, IV, 326.

55. JOurnals, V, 285,598.

mnerscn's criticism is consistent with .his optimism also.
Criticism is of a lower order than poetry because "the critic des-
troys, the poet says nothing but what helps somebody." 56. Although
Emerson's criticisms are far from being always favorable, nevertheless
it would appear that he preferred constructive to destructive criticism.
Emerson himself says, "Criticism should not be querulous and wasting,
all knife and root-pullerabut guiding, instructive, inspiring, a south
mind, not an east wind." 57. rain he says, "Every scripture is to be
interpreted by the same spirit which gave it forth - this is the fundamental
law of criticism." 58. What Emerson himself tried to do in cfiiticism
is best expressed in the followim passage. "Criticism is an art when it
cbes not stop at the words of the poet, but looks ahead at the order of
his thoughts and the essential quality of mind. Then the critic is poet.
'Tis a question not of talents but of tone; and not particular merits,
but the mood of mind into which one and another can bring us. " 39. In
criticism as in other writing the idea was more important to Emerson than
the mnner in which it was expressed; the moral is again inseparable from
the beautiful." no.

Foerster believes that Emerson is important as a critic because
he really does have a coherent theory of criticism, and because that
theory is backed up by a unified vision of nature and man which gives him

.

rare insight.“ It is interesting to note that, in most respects,

Emerson's theory of criticism is the exact antithesis of that of his

5g. Letters and Social Aims, Works, VIII, 57.

37. Journals, VII, 291.

58. gesture, Addresses, Lectures, Works, I, 55.
59. Natural History of Intelb ct, ’uforks, XII, 505.

140. Henry David Gray, Emerson, p. 101.
I41. Normn Foerster, American Criticism, p. 59.

h5-

contcmporary, Edgar Allen Poe, Poe believed in art for art's sake,
not in art for morality's sake. Nor did Poe believe in individualism
in criticism, in trusting to his own impressions of a book, as Emerson
did. Nevertheless, although Emerson and Poe had fundamentally different
concepts of the function of literature, there is a certain similarity,
superficial though it my be, between them. As Foerster says, both Poe
and Etnerson believe that "Post and critic are of the same genius: 'The
poet is the lover loving; the critic is the lover advisedg'consequently, the
specific difference between them lies in the poet's spontaneity and the
critic's consciousness - the one loving, the other advised. Unlike Poe,
Emerson 3 ate the two sharply apart. The poets cannot be served by the
critics, assuredly not if their criticism is querulous and destructive.
Fg‘ the poets do as they can, and cannot do otherwise “M- This fatalistic
conception of artistic creation is in striking contrast with Poe's belief
in the conscious adaptation of means to ends. Emerson is unlike Poe, again,
when he asserts that criticism is an art when it goes beyohd the poet's
words, his vehicle, to his thought, the thing conveyed. But the two are
once more in agreement in calling for an absolute criticism, a comparison,
of the particular work of art, not with inferior art, not even with superior
art, but with supreme art - art that excels the best that has ever been
produced. Using a term that Poe abhorred, Emerson demnds a 'transcendental"
criticism." 142

Emerson was, on the whole, a good critic, and he was consistent in the

application of his own theory. However, this theory of criticism led Emerson

into certain faults which appear when it is applied to actual literary works.

 

I42. Foerster, op. cit., p.5h.

14.60

One of the deficiencies of Emerson as a critic is that he is too remote
from the actiOns and passions of mankind. He deals tOo much with the
spirit and not enough with the emotions. This is what Walt I‘Jhitman meant
in his criticism of Emerson. Whitman says, "Emerson, in my opinion, is
not eminent as poet or artist or teacher, though valuable in all those.
He is best as critic or diagnoser .... cold and bloodless intellectuality
dominates him .... At times it has been doubtful to me if Emerson really
knows or feels what Poetry is at its highest, as in the Bible, for in-
stance, or Homer or Shakespeare ...." L6.

Although many of Emerson's criticisms are very keen and are still
valid today, his disbelief in Poe's theory of "art for art's sake"
occasionally led him to make some rather shallow criticisms, Perhaps
one of his greatest errors was his estimation, or rather underestimation ,
of Shelley. His criticisms were always honest and sincere, but his
perpetual search for thought and ideas in literature did lead him astray
in a ftw instances at least. Also, Ebperson is inclined to overpraise
a little those books which embody or substantiate his own ideas. One
last objection to Emerson as a critic is that, since he was not primarily
a critic, his criticisms are often too short and disconnected. This is
only natural because he was primarily a philosofiir, not a critic.

T he defects of Emerson's theory of criticism are very evident in

his own writings, both prose and poetry. There is a definite relationship

between Emerson's own theory and practice of poetry. As Gay says,

 

A3. Walt 'Whihnan, Complete Prose Works, II, 267, 269.

#7-

"His theory of poetry tanded to encourage and condone his technical
faults .... With his insistence upon the intellectual content of
poetry, it is small wonder if his own verse lacks both passion and
music." . Gray, also, recognizes the limitations imposed on
Emerson by his own aesthetic theory. "When there was a conflict
between art and thought, Emerson never hesitated to put down the
thing as he meant it and let the meter limp along as best it could.
For the idea was the inspiration, was it not? And the meter and rhyme
were no more than the Understandingifs method of decking out what the
Reason had perceived in one of its great silences. They should not be
abandoned, as Whitmn abandoned them, because they were the conventional
graces which establisheia community of feeling between the poet and the
reader 3 but the moment that they asserted arm claim of their own they
becme an offense and a hindrance.“ 145.
Thus we see that Emerson's philosophy of life produced a theory

of literature and criticism which kept him from becoming a really greqt
critic, just as it prevented him from being a truly great post. If Emerson
had not been an idealist, if he had not believed in intuition and self-
reliance, he would have been a better poet and a better critic, at least
from a technical standpoint. However, even if Emerson is not a great

critic, he is a good critic. His judgments on American literature are

remarkably keen, and it is interesting to note how many of his opinions

still hold good today. DeMille believes that Emarson did have many of the

 

1414.. Robert M. “my, Ralph Waldo Emarson, p. 19h.

LL50 Gray, 02. Cite, hp. 103 " 1014.0

L8.

qualities of a great critic - "enthusiasm for literature, wide-reading»,
catholicity of taste, a high standard and a sharp discrimination, in—
dependence." .

Another thing that kept Emerson from being a really great critic
was his high opinion of "Man Thinking" and of man as poet. Emerson did
not believe in giving criticism a high place among the arts. He himself
wanted to be a philosopher and a poet, not a critic, for, as he says,
"Life is too short to waste

147.
In critic peep or cynic bark."

Even though Emerson is not primarily a critic, even though his
criticism is scattered and incidental, nevertheless he is a real critic
and an important one. Do Mills recognizes this importance in the following
estimate of him: "However, if we cannot call Emerson a great critic, we
must at least recognize him as a great critical force. Lowell and the
North American school constitute the critical orthodoxy of the Nineteenth
Century in America. Poe leads one wing of the Opposition, what we might
call the artistic wing. Emerson is the leader of a second group pf heretics,
who agree not so much in specific doctrines as in general attitudes, in
fundamental philosophy. In his desire to be independent of traditional
judgment, in his occasional moods of almost arrogant disregard for the
past, in his call for a literature smacking of the soil, in his dislike
of the merely pretty, in his impatience with American literature, Emerson
is the teacher Bf Whitman, of Burroughs, and in part, I think, of the realistic

novelists and critics of the eighteen - nineties. And as I read the works

 

116. George E. De hlille, Literary Criticism in America, p. 127.

 

147. Poems, works, IX. 50.

 

1+9

of John.macy, Carl Van Doren,‘VanHyck Brooks, all of the men of the
modern iconoclastic school of critics, or even such far removed persOns
as V. E. Caiverton, I see everywhere traces of the germinating spirit
of Emerson. " LB.

Emerson is also a good critic because his criticism of American
letters does not confine itself solely to literature, but it relates
this literature to the times, to science, history, politics, economics,
culture. His criticism.is based on transcendentalism, on intuition,
on idealism, on individualism and self-reliance, and on.morality,
and these fundamental critical principles are, in every respect, a
direct outgrowth of his philosophy of life. The results obtained by
applying this theory of criticism to the entire field of American

letters are very interesting, both in themselves and for the light

they shed on Emerson.

 

LL80 D9 M1119, 02. 01%); PP. 127 - 128.

50.

0111me III .

EERSON'S CRITICISM OF ALLERICAN LITERATURE.
I.

ELIERSON'S CRITICISL'L OF AMERICAN LITERATURE AS A YIHOLE.

f

Emersin's criticism.of.kmerican.literature is of two kinds:
criticism of.American literature as a body, and criticism.of individual
men of letters. It is difficult to collect Emerson's criticisms of
.American literature into a body for two reasons. In the first place,
his criticismris scattered throughout and buried deeply in all of his
‘writings - in his journals, his essays, and his letters. Secondly,

'most of the contemporary authors of his time were friends of his, and
this makes it difficult to sort out what is really literary criticism
from what it merely a commentary on personalities.

Emerson criticizes American literature on.three main points: its
dependence on.Europe, its materialism, and its failure to use American
materials. 1. Long before his "American Scholar" address of 1837
Emerson was suggesting that America cease her servile imitation of
Europe. This is one of Emerson's strongest teachings, and it is really
just a corellary of his belief in self-reliance. Channing had begun
preaching this doctrine of literary independence long before, but Emerson

was the one who really sounded the clarion call to the youth of America.

Emnrson's attacks against America's cultural dependence on Europe continued

 

1. Journals, IV, 89 - 90; 108,-110.

51.

throughout his entire life. His earliest remark on this subject was written
at the age of nineteen'When he said, "Let the Young American withdraw his
eyes from.dll but his own country." 2. Years later he says, "Imitation
may be pretty, amusing, popular, but it never cmi be great." 5. While

he is in England, in 1833, he speaks disparagingly of the influence of

the English press on.America: "I have heard the proverb that no evil but
can speak .... Consider that every week EurOpe sends this voice of all its
opinions and interests by its periodical press or occasional works into
America." A“ One of Emerson's most severe criticisms during this early
period of his life was written in 183h, after his return.£o Americaf He
says, "Webster's speeches seem to be the utmost that the unpoetic test

has accomplished or can. we all lean on England; scarce a verse, a page,

a newspaper, but is writ in imitation of English forms; our very manners
and conversation are traditional, and sometimes the life seems dying out

of all literature, and this enormous paper currency of words is accepted
instead. I suppose the evil may be cured by this rank rabble party, the
Jasksonianismof the country, heedless of English, and of all literature, -
they may root out the hollow dilettantism of our cultivation in the coars-
est way, and the newborn may begin again to frame their own world with
greater advantage. Meantime hebster is no imitate: ...." 5.

Emerson's most important indictment of.American literature as a

whole occurs, of course, in his Phi Beta Kappa oration of 1857, "The

 

2. Journals, 1, 2hb.
5..£ournals, 11,522.
ha Journals,III,202.

5. Joana-13,111,308.

52.

‘American Scholar? The philosophy behind the oration has already been ~
discussed under Emerson's theory of literature, and criticism, but some

of his more specific remarks on.American literature are applicable here.
His trongest criticism_arises from the idea that our age is too re-
trospective, that we look backward to genius, instead of realizing that
everytge nmst produce its own literature and its own geniuses. This can

be done only through self-reliance, by relying on that spark of the divine
which is in us all. America, in particular, has always looked toward Europe
instead of relying on herself. I think Oliver'fiendcll Holmes is justified
in calling this "the American declaration of literary independence: because
this was no doubt very influential in arousing young American authors, like
Thoreau, to create and originate literature. Emerson was not alone in his
demand for an indigenous literature, but his cry was probably the strongest
and most insistent. Channing had begun this demand in his paper"0n National
Literature" in which he said: "A peOple into whose minds the thoughts of
foreigners are poured perpetually, needs an energy within itself to resist,
to modify this mighty influence .... It were better to have no literature,
than form ourselves unresistingly on a foreign one." 0. The periodicals,
too, were calling for an.American literature, although they continued to

7.

borroW'much of their material from.England. This cry was taken up by

 

some of Emerson's younger contemporaries also. Lowell's magazine The Pioneer

was founded as a protest against American's dependence on England, in the

 

6. Van.fiyck Brooks, She Flowering bf NewEngland, p. 110.

 

7. Ffank Luther Mott,.A History of.American Hagazingg,_thl - 1850,

pp. 183 - 186, 210, 39c - 591.

55-

hcpe of encouraging a native literature. Dellille says that "Lowell called
for a literature to reflect 'not only the mountain and the rock, but also
the steam-boat and the railcar, the cornfield and the factory.” 8.
Longfellow was another of these writers who made a plea for national
character in the work of American writers. He says: "In order to effect
this, they have only to write more naturally, to write from their own
feelings and impressions, from the influence of what they see arourd
them." 9. However, Emerson was a pioneer in this field, and his de-
mands for a national literature seem to have gained a wider audience

and had a deeper and more lasting influence than the demands of his con-.
te;.rporaries. ‘ "Emerson was optimistic about America ending her cultural
dependence on Europe, for, even in "The American Scholar" address, he
says: "Perhaps the time is already come when it,[our literature])ought
to be, and will be, something else; when the sluggard intellect of this
continent will look from under its iron lids and fill the postponed ex-
pectation of the world with something better than exertions of mechanical
skill. Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of
other lands, draws to a close." 10. This optimistic prophecy of 1857

was not fulfilled as soon as Emerson had expected, however, and in 1956

in his English Traits he was forced to admit that America was still not

 

entirely independent. He writ es: "The American is only the continuation

of the English genius into new conditions, more or less propitious. See

 

8. George E. De Mille, Literary Criticism in America, p. 50.

9. Mott, op. cit}, p. 390.

10.1Jature, Addresses, Lectures, l‘forl's, I, 82.

5L!»

what books fill ouxfilibraries. Every book we read, every biography, play,
romance, in whatever form, is still English history and manners, so that

a sensible Englislman once said to me, 'As long as you do not grant us
copyright, we shall have the teaching of you.”t ll. finerson was shrewd
enough to recognize that lack of cOpyright of mglish books was a definite
barrier to American literature; American publishers would not risk publish-
ing the works of an unknom American when they could reprint Dickens and
Scott even more cheaply. However, this is Emerson's only comment on the
subject. Emrson continues his attack on America's literary dependence

in his later Journals also. He says, "Can we never extract this maggot

of Europe from the brains of our countrymen?" 12. And "Our American
letters are, I confess, in the optative mood." 13. We have seen that,
through the influence of Worduworthfiknerson had come to place great walue
on simple, idiomatic language, and this leads him to make another criticism.
He says, "Our conventional style of writing is now so trite and poor, so
little idiomatic, that we have several foreigners who write in our journals
in a style not to be distinguished from their native colleagues." 11+-
E;.~;erson believed in a great future for American literature, but he knew that
it was still far inferior to thelgontemporary English literature of Words-

worth, Coleridge, Carlyle, etc. This, then, is Emerson's first plea -

that America cast off its European shackles.

 

11. English Traits, Works, v, 56.

 

12. Journals, V, 392.
13. Journals. V, 19%
111,. Journals, V,_'__gl§_._

l5. JournalsI VIII, 55h.

Emerson's second criticism of American literature is an Objection
to its materialism. He criticizes America for making literature and art
secondary in importance to trade and the material things of life. 16‘
It is this devotion to property added to America's dependence on Europe which
has resulted in such intellectual barrenness in this country. Emerson's
longest and fullest discussion of this problem appeated in his lecture
on "Poetry and Imagination" when he said, "The question is often asked,
Why no poet appears in.hmerica? Other nations in their early expanding
periods, in their war for existence, have shot forth the flowers of verse,
and created a mythology which continued to charmlthe imagination of after-
men. But we have all.manner of ability, except this: we are brave, victor-
ious, we legislate, trade, plant, build, sail, and combine as well as many
others, but we have no imagination, no constructive mind, no affirmative
books; we have plenty of criticism, elegant history; all the forms of
respectable imitation;‘but no poet, no affirmer, no grand guiding mind u...
The answer is, for the time, to be found in the preoccupation of all men.
The work of half the world to be done; and it is the hard condition of
Nature, that, where one faculty is excessive, it lames all the rest. We are
the men of practice, the men of our hand, and, for the time, our brain loses
in range what it gains in skill." 17. Emerson refers more than once to
this lack of any genius in a country which has so much of everything else.

In his essay, "Nominalist and Realist" he says: "It is worse in.America,

where,: from the intellectual quickness of the race, the genius of the

 

16. Journals, I, 262.

17. Letters and Social Aims, Works, XII, 205 - 20a.

 

country is more splendid in its promise and more slight in its perform-

ance. Webster cannot do the work of Webster." 18. Eknerson comments on

this again in his essay on "Boston": " I confess I do not find in our

peOple, with all their education, a fair share of originality of thought; -

not any‘ remarkable book of wisdom; - not any broad generalization, any

equal power of imagination. No Paradise Lost, no Hamlet, no Wealth of

Nations, no National Anthem have we yet contributed. " 19.
Emerson bases his third point of attack on the fai lu’Te of

American literature to use American materials. He was one of the first

men to admit that America did have incomparable materials for literature.

It was only natural that finerson, withlhis own great love to nature,

should put his hopes in the great beauty of Nature in America, particularly

the vast new Nature of the West. He says, "It is a pity that in this {Ditanic

continent, where nature is so grand, that genius should be so tame. Not one

unchallengeable reputation. Bryant .... Greenough .... Channing .... They

are all feminine or receptive, and not masculine or creative." 20. Again

we read: "We have yet had no genius in America, with tyrannous eye, which

knew the value of our incomparable materials, and saw, in the barbarism

and materialism of the time, anothgi carnival of the same gods whose picture

he admires so much in Homer ...." ' Ernerson objected to America's borrow-

ing of inferior materials when there were much greater things to be written

__h‘

18. Essays, Second Series, Works, III, 230.

 

19. Natural Histoxy of Intellect, Works, XII, 203 - 20h.

 

20. Journals, IV, 87.

21." Essays, Second Series, ‘.-’.'orks, III, 37.

 

 

57.

about at home. Emerson has some constructive ideas on this subject, too;
he points out that as yet no one has written about "the noonday darkness
of the American forest, the deep, echoing, aboriginal woods, where the
living columns of the oak and fir tower up from the ruins of the trees of
the last milennium; where, from year to year, the eagle and crew see no
intruder; the pines, bearded with savage moss, yet touched with grace by
the violets at their feet .... This beauty, - haggard and desert beauty,
which the sun and the moon, the snow and the rain, repaint and vary, has
0
never been recorded by art ...." 2“.
he have already seen that the West had great influence on Emerson,
and to him it had boundless possibilities in literature as in everything
else. In "'.L'he Young American" he says, "The nervous rocky West is intruding
a new and continued element into the national mind, and we shall yet have
7

an American gaiius." 2). Emerson believed that this new element injected
into American literature by the 1Jest would more than counteract the in-
fluence of Europe. In a paper written for the _1_)_i_a_l_ in 181.4} Emerson is speak-
ing <51" ‘ EurOpean : literary dominance when he says: "This powerful star,

it is thought, will soon culminate and descend, and the impending reduction
of the Transatlantic excess of influence .... is already a matter of easy
and frequent computation. Our eyes will be turned westward and a new and
stronger tone of literature will result. The Kentucky stump oratoryuthe

the exploits of Boone and Crockett, the journals of western pioneers,

agricultixrists, and socialists, and the letters of Jack Downing, are

__

22. Nature, Addresses, Lectures, Works, I, 169.

 

 

23. ‘.’Iorks, I, 370,

58.

genuine growths which are sought with avidity on Eur0pe, where our
European - like books are of no value." . This passage is of the
utmost importance for two reasons. First of all, it illustrates again
the importance of the Fest to Emerson and shows how he always looked
to the American frontier for an indigenous American literature. Second-
ly, this passage shows that Emerson was well-qualified to criticize
American literature because he was keenly aware of what was going on
around him, It shows that he must have been acquainted with this new
"Yankee" literature, even though he does not refer to it at any other
time, and his acute critical ability is revealed by his early recognition
of its importance. Emerson was correct in believing that this new American
humor was going to inject a new and indigenous element into.Americm1
literature. This Yankee humor began to emerge during the Jackson era, at the
time of the Westward movement of the frontier and the rise of the news-

Cl:
papers. L/. Seba Smith's "Jack Downing" books and David Crockett's

Autobiography: prepared the way for lowmll's Biglow Papers and for Mark

 

 

Twain and Bret Harte. Emerson proves himself to be a shrewd critic and
observer by forecasting the future importance of this new native frontier
element in the development of a real.American literature.

Although Emerson realized more clearly than anyone else in his time
the great scarcity of American literature, and the great defects in'what
American.1iterature there was, nevertheless he was almost always very

optimistic about the future of American literature. In spite of its de-

 

2h. NatureL.Addresses, Lectures,'Qorks, I, hie.

25. Cambridge History of American Literature, II, 150.

59

pendence on Eur0pe, its materialism, and its failure to use American
materialisms, the field of.American literature had great possibilities

in Emerson's mind. As early as 1822 he said, "I dedicate my books to

the ppirit of America .... With a spark of prephetic devotion, I hasten

to hail the Genius, who yet counts the tardy years of his childhood, but ’
who is increasing unawares in the twilight, and swelling into:3trength ...." 2b
HcQuiston says that Emerson kept this same youthful hope in.America through-
out his entire life; this patriotic faith appears not only in this Journal
extract of 1822 but in his "Young.American" address of labh.and in "The
Fortunes of the Republic" as late as 1878. 27. Emerson admitted that

America had no literature as yet, but he added, "what we have is better.

We have a government and a national spirit that is better than poems or
histories...." 28. Hewever, Emerson did not really believe that America

was sufficiently great without any literature, for shortly after this he

says, "It is only fit that something besides newspapers should be put

into the hands of the people." 29. And Emerson is indicting all America

when he says: "We are a puny and fickle folk .... Our books are tents,

not pyramids." 50. He is indioting early New England literature, par-
ticularly early Massachusetts literature, in the fellowing paragraph:

"To write a history of Massachusetts is not, I confess, inviting to an

expansive thinker, since, from.1790 to 1820, there was not a book, a

 

26. Jounnals, I, 160.
27 . Rayner McQui 813011: "39.19519?” Rf. 33.15%I-',i=‘~.1.d.°_frhe.r.s_°a .139. .133 $.19. ‘—.°. Alf £81133 ’ n

University of Kansas Humanistic Studies, ITT, no. l,(Apri1,1923),p.59.

 

280~J£rm133 I: 3980
29. demands. 11. 15-
30. Journals, V, 529.

 

speech, a conversation, or a thought, in the State. About 1820, the Chan,
ning, Webster, and Everett era began, and we have been bookish and poetical
and oogitative since." 51. Emerson does not think American literature
entirely barren, hpwever, for in nominating the faculty for his ideal col-
lege he says, " my college should have Allston, Greenough, Bryant, Irving,
hebster, Alcott, summoned for its domestic professors. " 32. Another favor-
able comment appears a few years later when he writes: "The English are
stupid because they reserve their strength. The Lowells ripen slowly.
Hurrying.America makes out of little varieties its great men, as now,

the three leading men in.America are of a small sort, who never saw a
grander arch than their own.eyebrow .... Yet hashingt0n,.Adams, Quincy,
Franklin, I would willingly adopn.my hall with, and I will have daguerres
of Alcott, Channing, Thoreau," 99‘

In another instance he says, "Look at literary New England, one would
think it was a national fast." 94. But he modifies this statement a few
months later by adding, "We have not had since ten years a pamphlet which
I saved to bind, and here at last is Bushnell's, 55. and now Henry Thoreau's
(Ascent of Katahdin.'" 56. kEmerson is also predicting a brighter future for

American literature when he says, "Let us be very mun: at present about

American literature. One of these ages, we, too, will set omr feet on AndeS'

 

31. JournalsI VIII, 339.

32. Journals, V, 203.

33. Journalp, VIII, 551.

3h~ Journals, VI, 268.

35. Horace Bushnell was an imports nt American theologian of the nineteenth
century. He wrote theological works, but he also contributed to several of
the periodicals of his day. His writings were original and tigorous and al—
ways aroused much discussion and interest among scholars and thinkers.

56. W m, 526.

o1.

37.
tops. " In his last volume of Journals, late in the year 1869,
Emerson gives a good summary of much of the important American literature
of that time. He writes, 'fi'u’hat a harness of buckram wealth and city life
put on our poets and literary men, even when men of great parts. Alcott
complained to me of want of sympathy in Lowell, Holmes, and Longfellow;
and Alcott is the right touchstone to. test them; true litmus to detect
the acid .... Henry James is not spoiled; Bryant is perfect; New York
has not hurt him. I should be glad if James Lowell were as simply noble
as his cousin Frank Lowell .... Charles Newcomb and Charming (Ellery)
are saved by genius. Thoreau was with difficulty sweet .... But in all
the living circl: of American wits and scholars is no enthusiasm. Alcott
alone has it." J8.

At another time he condemns Irving, Bryant, Everett, Charming, and
Webster because they "all lack nerve and dagger." 39. In his essay on
"Literary Ethics" in 1838 he says, "This country has not fulfilled what
seemed the reasonable expectation of mankind .... The mark of American
merit in painting, in sculpture, in poetry, in fiction, and in eloquence,
seems to be a certan grace without grandeur, and itself not new but de-
rivative, a vase of fair outline but empty ...." AD. Emerson's prophecies
are again more optimistic in his lectures on "The Young American" in
181414.. He says, "America is beginning to assert herself tothe senses and to
the imagination of her children, and Europe is receding in the same degree." ""1.

This, then, concludes Emerson's criticism of American literature

as a whole. Although he was not satisfied with American literature,

 

37. Journals, 3!. 51,.
38. Journals, X, 65.
590 Journals, V, 2050

2:0. Eature, Addresses, Lectures, Works, I, 156 - 157.

 

 

 

1;,1. Nature, Addresses, Lectures, Works, 1., 363.

62.

although he believed it should have produced something greater than

it has as yet produced, nevertheless he was, on the whole, optimistic
about the future of American literature. It is Emerson's transcendental-
ism which makes him so impatient with the materialism of American letters;
it is his belief in self 5 reliance and indiuidualismvwhich.makes him so
impatient with America's cultural dependence on Europe. And, with his own
underlying Optimism and his love of Nature, it is to the West that Emerson

turns to see America's rising star.

VII

"\

63 0

II.
EMReON'S CRITICISM OF ALERICi-‘dé PERIODICAL LITEEUxTURE.

The bharacter of the periodical in America at this time justifies
Emerson's criticism of American literature as a whole. These periodicals
clamored for an indigenous literature and yet they continued to borrow almost
all of their material from English and other sources. 1. However, begin—
ning in 1825, American periodical literature entered a new era, which has
been called the "Golden Age of Periodicals." 2. The new German thought,
English Romanticism, and the growth of the West were affecting this field
as well as every other aspect of American life. One of the most noticeable
results of all these forces was the tremendous increase in the number of
periodicals produced in America; from less than a hundred in 1825 the
number of these publications had jumped to about six hundred by 1850. 3.

Of course, many of these periodicals were very ephemeral, and their average

life was not over two years. The field was becoming more remunerative,

however, and the famous Graham's Magazine and the equally famous Knicker-

 

bocker were beginning to publish articles by America's leading authors,
such as Poe, Bryant, Cooper, Longfellow, Lowell, and Holmes. But there
were still many inferior publications, particularly in the field of the
literary weekly, and the competition from the Womens' Magazines such as

L}.
GodeyLs Lady's Booflalso tended to lower the standard of other periodicals.

 

 

1. Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1714.1 - 1850, p. 211

 

2. Ibid..p. 337.
30 IbiduPP- 3J4]- " 31-1-20

LL. Ibidg' PP. 314.8 " 3600

all.

The Quarterlyreviews were incres sing in number but they never became ,

very popular because as a rule they appealed only to that class which was
5.

especially interested in reviews and other literary topics. Some of

the most famous among these Quarterly reviews are the North American of

Bancroft, the Boston Quarterly of Brownson, the Dial of the Transcendentalists,

 

and the Massachusetts Quarterly of Parker. Emerson was of course most in-
terested in this phase of American periodical literautre, and his criticism
is limited entirely to these Quarterly reviews with the exception of his
comments on the newspapers. America was also producing numerous religious
periodicals, to which such men as Clarke and Hedge were frequent con-
tributors. Even after 1825, however, America had not really entered a
"golden age" of periodicals. There were too many of them, especially too
man},r of the weaker ones. Almost all of them were still demanding a national
literature,‘while at the same time they were still slavishly imitating the
English nagazines in both form and content. The American eclectics were
still borrowing the best of English periodical literature. 6. It is no
_wonder that Emerson found much to criticize in American periodical lit-
erature at this time - it was not only too dependent on England, but,

for the most part, its indigenous material was inferior and weak. Emerson
also believed that this rapidly increasing periodical literature was
retarding the growth of American literature as a whole. He says, "Our

era of exploits and civilization is ripe snow, and if it had not been dissipated
by the unfortunate rage for periodical productions, orb literature should
have grown are now to a Greek or Reman stature." 7.
5. {339599. 366 - 367.

6. 2313.39- 395 - 397.

7. Journals, 1, 306.

65.

If Emersonwas critical of American periodical literature, it is-
interesting to note that the periodicals were equally critical of him.
Until 18Lp'i both the religious and secular journals were strongly op-
posed to Emerson, partly bdcause of his transcendentalism but mainly in
protest against his famous "Divinity School Address" Of 1838. 8. However,
after the publication of his second volume of essays in 181.411,, Emerson
began to receive more favorable treatment from the periodicals of his
day.

Emerson's criticism of this American periodical literature is of
particular interest because of his own intimate connection with at least
one of these periodicals, the Dial. The Dial grew out of a desire for
expression on the part of the members of Transcendental Club, and the
establishment of a journal was first discussed in 1839 at a club meeting.
Emerson, i’arker, Fuller, Ripley, Alcott, Hedge were really the founders
of this new journal, and the first issue came out in July, 18h0, with
Margaret Fuller as editor. Ehnerson himself became editor in 181.2, and
he held this position until the journal became defunct in April, 181414.
Emerson not only edited the Dial for two years, but during the four
years of its existence be contributed some sixty or seventy articles,
ranging from essays and poems to editorials and book reviews. His interest
in this periodical is further shown by the many comments in his Journals
and letters.

At the time the Dial was being organized, Emerson writes, "If there
be need of a new Journal, that need is its introduction; it wants no

preface .... It will ignore all the old, long constituted public or

publics to which newspapers and mgazines address. It ignores all

 

8. MOtt, OE. Cit., p. LL10.

(DC).

newspapers and magazines .... If the projected Journal be what we
anticipate, - and if not, we should not care for it, - it does not

now know itself in the way of accustomed criticism; it cannot foretell
in orderly proportions what it shall do; its criticism is to be poetic,
not the peeping but the broad glance of the American man on the books

and things of the hour. Its brow is not wrinkled with circuzrspection,
n

70
but it serene cheerful adoring." Emerson also wrote about the
, 8 ’ L)

found-1m of tho _I_)_i_a_l_ to his friend Carlyle. In a letter dated liarch,
lSLLO, he says, "Did I tell you that we hepe shortly to send you some
z’mericanverse and prose of good content? lily vivacious friend, liargaret
Fuller is to edit a journal whose first number she promises for the lst
of July next, which I think will be written with a good will if written
at all. I saw some poetical fragments which charmed me, - if only the
writer consents to give them to the public." 10. And the following
month he writes the following to Carlyle: "I have very good hope that
my friend Llargaret Fuller's Journal - after many false baptisms now
saying it will be called the 2'13}; and which is to appear in July -
will give you a better knowdedge of our young people than any you

have had." 11. In June he wrote again to Carlyle, saying, "with this,
or presentaly after it, I shall send a copy of the Dial. It is not yet
much; indeed, though no copy has come to me, I know it is far short

of what it should be, for they have suffered puffs and dulness to creep

in for the sake of the complement of the pages; but it is better than

9. Journals, V, 386 - 387.

lO.The Correspondence OLSEILIZIG and Emerson, I, 270.

\-
—.

 

11 . Ibid. ,1, 285.

(>7 .

anything we had; and I have some poetry communicated to me for the ,.
2.
next mmber which I wish Sterling to see." 1 The first issue of
the _D_i_._s_z_l_._ was not very well received, and Emerson himself had many
dombts about it. He wrote to Carlyle again immediately after the
publication of the first is sue, saying, "Our community begin to
stand in some terror of Transcendentalism, and the _D_i_a_l_, poor little
thing, whose first number contains scarce amfthing considerable or
even visible, is just now honored by attacks from almost every news-
paper and magazine." 13. Since Emerson believed that poetry was the
highest form of literature, he criticized the first number, in a letter
to Liargaret Fuller, because be believed that the verse should occupy a
more conspicuous place in the journal. lb” However, l-e must have come to
the conclusion that the public did not agree with him in this respect,
for in another letter to Missb‘uller in July, 1810, he writes: "Nowhere
do I find readers‘of the Dial poetry, which is my one thing needful in
the enterprise .... I think Alcott's paper of great importance to the
journal, inasmuch as otherwise, as far as I have read, there is little
that might not appear on any other journal." 15. That Emerson was not
quite satisfied with the Dial after its first issue becomes more apparent
in a comment written in his Journal on July 31. At that time the says:

"And now I think our Dial ought to be a mere literary journal, but that

the times demand of us all a more earnest aim. It ought to contain the best

12. Ibid..I, 289 "' 2900
13. Ibid"I, $8.

1h. James Elliot Cabot, A Lenoir of Ralph waldo Emerson, II, bah.

 

15. Ibid,,II, hoB.

08.

advice on t he topics of Government, Temperance, Abolition, Trade, and
Domestic Life. It might well add to such compositions s"ch poetry and
sentiment as now constitute its best merit, Yet it ought to go straight
into life with the devoted wisdom of the best men and women in the land.
It should - should it not? - be a degree nearer to the hodiurnal facts
than my writings are." 10- Just five days later he wrotes a letter to

Kiss Fuller which contains the same idea as the above passage from his

jmrnal. He writes: " I' begin to wish to see a different Dial from that

 

which I first imagined. I would not have it too literary. I wish We

might make a journal so broad and great in the survey that it should lead

the opinion of this generation on every great interest, and read the law on
property, government, education, as well as on art, letters, and religion.

It does not seem worth our while to work with any other than sovereign aims ....
I am just now turnim my pen to scribble and com on the subject of Labor,
Farm, Reform, Domestic Life, etc., and I asked myself, why should not the

_I_)_i_a_l_ present this homely and grave subject to the men and women of the land? ....
I know the dangers of such latitude of plan in any but the best conducted
journal. It becomes friendly to special modes of reform; partisan, bigoted,
perhaps whimsical; hut universal and poetic. But our round-taile is not,

I fancy, in imminent peril of party, and bigotry, and we shall not bruise

17... .
each the other's whims by the cdllision." Emerson's standard for

periodical literature was evidently just as high as his standard for any
other type of literature. He criticizes the Dial again a little later in
his Journals, saying, "A newspaper in a grave and candid tone censors the

Dial as having disappointed the good expectation of our lovers of literature ... .

The Dial is poor and ‘low and all unequal to its promise: but that is not for

 

16. Journals, V, th.

I7. cabOt’ OE. Cito, II, hDE - hflb.

b9.

you to saw 0 Daily Advertiser, but for me. It is now better after your
.EEEEE? than anything else you have; and you do not yet see that it is,
and will soon see and extol it. I see with regret that it is still after
your manner, and not after mine, and that it is something which you can
praise." 18. A.few days later he adds, "I see in a moment, on looking
into our new Dial, which is the wild poetry and which the tame, and see
that one wild line out of a private heart Saves the whole book." 19.

When Emerson took over the editorship of the journal he wrote the
following passage in a letter to Carlyle: "I submitted to what seemed a
necessity of petty literary patriotism, - I know not what else to call it,
and took charge of our thankless little 223}! here, without subscribers
enough to pay even a publisher, much less any laborer .... but it serves
as a sort of portfolio, to carry about a few poems or sentences which
would otherwise be transcribed and circulated; and always we are waiting

0
when somebody should come and make it.good." go.

This is almost exactly what Emerson wrote to Dr. hedge, also. He says
in this letter, "Poor Dial - it has not pleased any mortal. No man cried,
God save it. And yet, though it contains a deal of matter I could gladly
spare, I yet value it as a portfolio which preserves and conveys to distant
pehsons precisely what I should send them if I could. It wants mainly and
and only some devotion on the part of its conductor to it, that it may not
be the herbarium.that is of dried flowers, but the vehicle of some living
and advancing mind. But nobody has yet conceived himself born for this end

21.
only."
18°.QEEEEElE! V, h71 - A72.

19. Journals, V, M76.

20. The Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson, II, 2.

 

210 Cabot, 02. 93-15,, ’40? - 14.080

311.
.r a.

70.

When the Dial finally died out Emerson wrote the following passage
to his friend W. H. Furhess: "I have just done with the Dial. Its last
number is printed; and having lived bur years, which is a Presidential
term in America, it may respectably end. I have continued it for some
time against my own judgment to please other people, and though it has
not some standing and increasins favour in England, it makes a very slow
gain at home, and it is for home that it is designed. It is time that each
of the principal contributors to it should write in their own names, and
go to their prOper readers. In New hngland its whole quadrennium will be
a pretty historiette in literary annals." 2c.

The Dial.- seems to have had a better reputation in England than in its
country, for in 18147 Emerson wrote to Thoreau from England, saying, "The
Dial is absurdly well-known here. We at home, I think, are always a little
ashamed of it, - I am, - and yet here 'it is spoken of with the utmost
gravity and I do not laugh." 23.

Emerson seems to have felt more kindly toward the Dial as he grew
older, and his last two comments on it show that it had become a mellow

memory to him. Emefison speaks of the Dial in the chapter he wrote for

"The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. In that book he says of the Dial:

 

"The workmen of sufficient culture for a poetical and philosOphical magazine
were too few, and, as the pages were filled by unpaid contrbbutors, each of
whom had some paying employment, the journal did not get his best but his

second-best. Its scattered writers had not digested their theories into a

 

22. Clarence Gohdes, The Periodicals of American Transcehdentalism,__~n‘. 1.53..

 

23. Charles Sanborn, "The Emerson - Thoreau Correspondence," Atlantic

Monthly, LXIX, (Hay, 1892) p. 7L2.

71.

distinct dogma, still less into a practical measure which the public

could grasp; and the magazine was so eclectic and miscellaneous, that

each of its readers and writers valued only a small portion of it ....

But the Big]; betrayed, through all its juvenility, timidity, and convention-
al rubbish, some sparks of the true love and hope, and of the piety to
spiritual law .... " . Emerson's last reference to the Dial appears in
his essay on "Life and Letters in New England." Speaking of the meetings

of the Transcendental Club, he says; "Nothing more serious came of it

than the modest quarterly journal called the Dial, which under the editor-

 

ship of Margaret Fuller, and later of some other, enjoyed its obscurity

for four years. All its papers were unpaid contributions, and it was rather
a work of friendship among the narrow circle of students than. the organ

of any party. Perhaps its writers were its chief readers; yet it contained
some noble papers by Margaret Fuller, and some numbers had an exhausting
sale, because of papers by Theodore Parker." 25. Thus we see that Emerson,
in spite of his intimate connection with the journal, was able to see its
defects very clearly, and that he was able to look beyond these defects and
recognize that it did have some value. To Emerson the main value of the Dial
was not so much in its good individual pieces as in its superior aim. Here

again we see Emerson as a "transcendental critic."

Emerson saw American periodical literature as a whole as"e. diffused

26. ‘
and weakened Athens," and he also said that it was a vice of journals
27.
that they contained only the second best. The Dial was probably origin-

ated partly as an attempt to remedy these defects, and, if it failed, it was
not for want of trying. If it fell short of the mark, at least the aim was

high and it was by no means an ignominious failute.

 

 

21+. knobs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 323.

25, Lectures and Biographical Sketches, Works, X, 5145 - 5141;.

0A .Tmnmals- V. hlLQ. 2'7. Journals. VI. 203.

72 .

Emersonias associated with another periodical after the Dial dis-
appeared, but he was never very intimately connected with it. This second

periodical was Theeredre Parker's “massachusetts Quarterly,‘ which came

 

into existence in 18h7, three years after the Dial ended. Emerson, Parker,

Alcott, Thoreau, Elliot Cabot, Clarke and others first started discussing
28.

the project of this new journal in may of 18h7. Eierson'was asked to

edit this new periodical but he refused, and finally Parker was forced to

undertake the task. Cabot says that Emerson did not like it when his name

appearéd as one of the editors. 29. but Gohdes says that Emerson must have

known about it and allowed his name to appear among the editors, ségce the
e

preliminary announcement came out before Emerson left for Europe.

Emerson wrote the "Editors' Address" for the first issue of the Massachusetts

 

Quarterly , and it is written in a very optimistic vein. Emerson seems to

have hadtthe same high hepes for the gassachusetts Quarterly Review that

 

he had seven years earlier for the 235i. He says, "A journal that would meet
the real wants of this time must have a courage and a power sufficient to
solve the problems which the great groping society around us, stupid with_
perplexity, is dumbly exploring .... we rely on the magnetism of truth." jl.
However, this periodical, too, fell short of Emersens' eXpectations, and,
after the first issue, he had his name withdrawn from the list of editors.
Emerson did not lose all his interest in the journal, as he later contributed

two review: (one on Coleridge, the other on Sterling) which he would not have

done if the periodical itself had been distasteful to him. In a letter to

 

28. Journals, VII, 268 - 269.
29. Gabot, OE. Cit.’ LL97 " LL98.

30. gehdes, op. cit., 160.

 

51. miscellaneous, Kerks, XI, 590, 593.

73.

his wife in January, 18148, shortly after the first issue of the

Massachusetts Quarterly Review had appeared, Emerson writes, "the

 

journal is of a good spirit, and has much good of Agassiz, but no
intellectual tone such as is imperatively wanted; no literary skill,
even, and, without a loftier note than any in this number, it will

52-
sink into a North American at once." A few months later, in

 

another letter to his wife, written this time from England, he says,
"I find Chapman very anxious to estalish a journal common to Old and

New England, as was long ago prOposed. Let the Massachusetts Quarterly

 

give place to this, and we should have two legs and bestride the sea.

But what do I, or what does any friend of mine in America, care for a

journal? Not enough, I fear, to secure any energetic work on that side ....
'Tis certain the Mass. Q.R. will fail unless Henry Thoreau and Alcott and 35

Channing and Charles Newcomb-the fourfold visaged four - fly to the rescue."

Although Emerson had a rather high Opinion of the North American

 

Review im his youth, he began to think that the Massachusetts Quarterly

 

 

Review may have been started partly as a protest against the conservation

31;.

of the North American Review. In 1822, at the .age of nineteen, Ernerson

 

wrote the following pagsagea in a letter to his classmate J. B. Hill: "The

North Amaricm Review grows better and travels farther, and though we are

 

35.
inundated with silly poetry, we improve." In another letter to Hill
written almost a year later we read, "The last N.A. Review is full of wit
56-
and literature ...." Emerson does not refer to this periodical again

32. Cabot, op. cit., p/ 515.
33. IbidegPO 537.
EL“ GOthS, OEQOit.’ P. 161.

35. Cabot, o . cit., p. 90.

74.

until 1858, fifteen years later, when he writes in his Journal, "Nhen

I read the North American Review or the London Quarterly, I seem to hear
37.

the snore of the muses, not their waking voice." Later he adds,

 

 

 

“And I confess to some pleasure from.the stinging rhetoric of a rattling

oath in the month of truckmen and teamsters. How laconic and brisk it is
38-
by the side of a page of the North American Review." He also says,

 

"A journalist in London or New York acquires a facility and Elan which

throws the slow elaborators for the Edinburgh and the North American into

 

'the shade. Thus this lively article 'Schopenhauer' in the New Yerk Commercial
39.

 

Advertiser eclipses Hedge's learned paper in the Examiner."

The Atlantic Monthly was founded in 1857 in an attempt to do what almost
all the other American periodicals to date had tried to do, but where the
others had failed this new periodical came very close to succeeding. Pattee
says that even when it was founded it was "an adequate magazine, one that
at the semiotime could be as profound as Emerson and yet as sparkling as

Helmes." . however, Emerson himself did not seem to have a very high

opinion of it, for, in 1857, he writes thus: "The Atlantic honthly. A

 

Journal is an assuming to guide the age - very pr0per and necessary to

be done and good news that it shall be so - But this journal, is this it?
Has Apollo spoken? In this, the sentiment of freedom is the sting which all
feel in common; a Northern sentiment, the only tie; and the manifost_conp
veniency of having a good vent for such wares as scholars have. There is a

discrepancy in the nature of the thing; each of the contributors is content

 

37. Journals, IV, L76.
38. Journals, V, hl9.
39. Journals, X, 55.

b0. Fred Lewis Pattee, The First Century of American Literature, p. 579.

that the thing be to the largest aims; but when he is asked for his con-
tributions, he considers where his strength lies; he has certain experiences
which have impressed him lately, and which he can combine, but no choice
or a very narrow choice among such, and the best the Editor can do is, to
see that nothing goes into the book but important pieces; every chapter
must recall real experiences. It suffices that it be weighty. It matters
not whether 'tis upon Religion, or Balloons, or Kneebuckles, so only that
there is nothing fantastic or fictitious in the subject and writing. Great
scope and illumination ought to be in the Editor, to draw from the best in
the land, and to defy the public, if he is only sure himself that the piece
141.
has worth, and is right...."

However, if Emerson did not have a very high opinion of American
periodicals, his Opinion ofl.our newspapers was even lower, for the most
part. In 1838 Emerson writes, "Bancroft talked of the foolish Elgbg
newspaper. It has a circulation of 50,000 and as he said, each copy is
read by ten persons, so that an editorial article is read by three hundred
thousand persons .... I only told him then I wished they would write better
if they wrote for so many. I ought to have said what utter nonsense to name
in.my ear this number as if that were anything. Three million such people
as canzead the filobe_with interest are as yet in too crude a state of nonage
to deserve any regard. I ought to have expressed a sincere contempt for the
Scramble newspaper." .

In the essays there are many more comments on newspapers in general,

although there are few more specific references to any one newspaper. In

his essay on Goethe, Emerson is criticizing both kinds of periodical

 

La. Journals, IX, 117 - 118.

14.2. (701.11.118.43, IV, LL10.

literature when he says, "Inthe learned journal, in the influential
newspaper, I discern no form; only some irresponsible shadow; oftener

some moneyed corporation, or. some dangler who hopes, in the mask and

robes of his paragraph, to pass for somebpdy." I45. lie is even more

bi ter in his essay "Works and Days" when he says, "hhat sickening de-

tails in the daily journals. I believe they have ceased to publish the
Newgate Calendar and the Pirates' Own Book since the family newspapers,
namely the New York Tribune and the London Times, have quite superseded

them in the freshness as well as the horrors of their records of crime." M4.
Later he says, "Shun the spawn of the press on the gossip of the hour." 145.
Emerson did realize, however, that there was also much good in the newspapers,
for he speaks of the "cheap press bringing the university, to every poor mans'
door in the newsboys basket." . And in his lecture on ”The Fugitive Slave
Law" he says: "hith the business men enters the nei-‘rsboy, that humble priest
of politics, finance, philosophy, and religion. he unfolds his negical sheets,-
twopence a head his bread of knowledge costs - and instantly the entire
assembly, fresh from their breakfast, are bending as one man to their second

breakfast. There is, no doubt, chaff enough in what he brings; but there

is fact, thought, and wisdom, in the crude mass, from all regions of the

LL? .

YIOI‘ 1d 0 n

Thus we see that Emerson was as just and keen a critic of American

periodical literature as he was of any other phase of American letters.

 

L13. Representative Ken, ”works, 282.

 

I

1.11. Sfieciety and Solitude, ‘.'.v‘orks, VII, 105.
115. Works, VII, 196.
146. T.’.‘orks, VII, 21.1.

L17. Miscellaneous, ‘..'orks, Lil, 218.

 

77.

He saW'the defects and weaknesses of the periodicals and newspapers
of the day, but he also saw their good points, especially in their

great possibilities for future good.

78.

III. ' ,,,

ELLBRBJ 14's CRITICISM OF WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING.

William Ellery Charming is an important figure in American letters
beflause he was the greatest of the Unitarians, especially from a literary
point of view, and because he did so much to liberate Boston from Calvin-
ism. His influence on Enerson has already been noted in respect to the
philosophy of the Over-Soul and the demand for an indigmous literature.
However, the scepe of Chaming's influence was much broader than that;
his importance to all New England cannot be overestimated. Van Wyok
Brooks says that Channing was "the great awakener" and "father of half
the reforms that characterized the Boston of his age." 1. Channing
helped to rid Boston of its outworn Calvinism by putting man and the
present life in the foreground, by putting God and immortality a little
farther away. Channing tried to elevate the lower classes, he tried
to promote a national literature, and, most important of all, he tried
to arouse the people of Boston to "think for themselves. As Brook‘s says,
"He harrowed the ground for literature, first by his harrowing of the
ground for life, and also by his intuitive understanding of the function
of art and letters. He knew his country and he knew the poets, and he knew
what his country and the poets heeded. Independence, he was well aware, -
the basis of all enduring greatness, -was something that had to be earned,

. ..

and that could be earned." - Without Channing's influence, Emerson might

not have become such an ardent advocate of the over-soul and of a national

 

1. Van Wyck Brooks, The Flowering of New England, pp. 109, 110.

2. Ibid..p. 110.

79.

literature. What is more certain, however, is that, without Channing,
there wouldhave been no audience for Emerson to proclaim these views
to. Channing is also important as a forerunner of Transcendentalism;
Frothingham says he was a Transcendentalist in feeling, even though he
was not a Transcendentalist in philosophy. 5. I think dmerson realized
the debt he owed to Channing, but I do not think he realized the extent
of this debt. From.Emerson's first journals we see that Channing was one
of his early idols, and after Channing's death Emerson again holds a very
high Opinion of himo There is also much adverse criticism of Channing,
however. Emerson's criticisms may not be unjust, but occasionally he does
seem to forget his own debt to Channing and the handicaps or illness and
an unsympathetic Boston, which Charming had to fight against. In the field
of American letters Channing's sermons are his most important works be-
cause they influenced all New England, but his secular essays, on milton,
Fenelon, and Napoleon, made him well-known throughout the world. .
Emerson's early comments on Channing are all.favorable. In 1823
he writes in his journal, "I heard Dr. Channing deliver a discourse upon
.Revelation as standing in comparison with Nature. I have heard no sermon
approaching in excellence to this, since the Dudleian Lecture. Thelanguage
was a transparent medium, conveying with the utmost distinctness the
pictures in his mind to the mind of his hearers." 5. The same year in a

letter to hiss hary hoody Emerson he says, "Dr. Channing is preaching

sublime sermons every Sunday morning in.Federal Street, one of which I

 

5. Octavius Broosk Frothingham, Transcendentalism in How England, pp. 111 - 113.

ha Brooks, op. cit., p. 107.
5. Journals, 1, 290.

80.

o .
heard last Sunday, and which surpassed Everett's eloquence." A year
later we read, "no change of manners leaves Heaven‘without a witness,
and Luitprand and St. Gregory and St., etc. are rppresented today by
Dr. Channing, Dr. Chalmers, etc." . Ten years later Emerson is still
commenting favorably on Channing, for he says: ”then I remember that the
very greatness of Homer, Shakespeare, of Hebstcr, and Channing, is the
truth with which they reflect the mind of all mankind, then I feel the
riches of my inheritance in being set down in this world, gifted with
organs of communication with this gifted company." 8. Shortly after-
wards he-adds, "Coleridge, Lordsworth, Schelling are conclusive when
Channing or Carlyle or Everett quotes them,'but if you take up their
own.books, then instantly they become not lawgivers, but modest, peccable
candidates for your approbation." 9. At least we see here that Emerson
was cognizant of Channing's importance in the spread of German thought
and English Romanticism in.America.

Channing seemed to find favor with Emerson because he, too, observed
the criterion of the necessity of the moral.Emerson writes, "If Daniel
hebster's or Dr. Channing's opinion is not frankly told, it is so much
deduction from the moral vane of that opinion, and I should say, moreover,
that their opinion_i§ known by the very concealment." 10. Later he says,
"I think Dr. Channing was intellectual by dint of his fine moral sen-

ll.
timent, and not primarily."

 

6. James Elliot Cabot, A Memoir of Ralph waldo Emerson, I, 105.

 

7. Journals, I, 375.

8. Journals, III, 383 - 38h.
9'.£92£EE£§’ III, nee.
10.Journals, III, she - 5m.

11. Journals, VI , 27 lo

81.

Emerson's adverse criticisms of Channing start about 1835. Emerson'
was beginning to realize that Channing was getting on in years, that his
powers were weakening a little. In a letter to Carlyle in Larch, 1835,
Emerson writes the following passage about Chann ng: "I know his genius
does not and cannot engage your attention.much. He possesses the mysterious
endowment of natural eloquence, whose effect, however, intense, is limited
of course, to personal communication. I can see myself that his writings,
without his voice, may be meagre and feeble. But please love his catholicism,
that at his age can relish the Sarter Resartus, born and inveterated as he
is in old books. Moreover, he lay awake all night, he told my friend last
week, because he had learned in the evening that some young men prepesed to
issue a journal, to be called The Transcendentalist, as the organ of a

12.
spiritual philosophy. " At another time he says of Channing, "He can

 

never he reported, for his eye and his voice cannot be printed, and his
13.
discourses lose what was best in wanting them." Emerson's criticisms

of the Unitarian.minister become more severe, and in 1836 he speaks of the
"Tameness of genius in America. Not one unchallengeable reputation ....

everything is uncharacterized, uncreative .... Eb of Dr. Channing's preach-,
ing. They are all feminine or receptive, and not masculine or creative." I.

The following year, 1837, Emerson tells us very distinctly how he feels

hbout Channing, for he says, "Lonzire continually separating, not nearing

by acquaintance. Once Dr. Channing filled our sky. Now we Ebecmme so conscious
of his limits and of the difficulty attending any effort to show him our

15.
point of viGW'that we doubt if it be worthwhile. Best Amputate."

 

12. The Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson, I, AB.

 

l3. Cabot, 0p. cit3,_p. 103.
114.. iournals, IV, 87.

15. Journals, IV, 239.

0)
r0
0

Emerson at this time seemed to see Channing as a representative of the old
school, while he himmelf was becoming a leader of the younger generation,
and he occasionally forgets that it was Channing who helped produce this
new generation. however, even during this period of adverse criticism,
Emerson was still on very friendly terms with Channing, and received at
least two visits from.him.in 1837. Of the first visit Dmerson.says, "Btt
Sages of the crowd are like kings, so environed with deference and ceremony
1e.
that a call like this gives no true word for the mind and heart."
The second visit was evidently more successful, for nmerson refers to
17.
Channing as "the bearer of the right Promethean fire." That Emerson
did still regard Channing as an important literary figure is revealed by
the group of men with whom.he places Channing. He says, ”It would give me
new scepe to write on topics preper to this age and read discourses on
Goethe, Carlyle, Lordsworth, Canova, Thorwaldsen, Tennyson, O'Connell,
18.
Baring, Channing, and Kebster. T9 these I must write up. " In ldhl
Emerson comments much less favorably, however. He says, "I cannot help seeing
that Dr. Channing would have been a much greater writer had he found a strict
tribunal of writers, a graduated intellectual empire established in the land,
and knew that bad logic would not pass, and that the most severe exaction.was
to be made an all who enter these lists .... It is very easy to reach the
degree of culture that prevails around us; very hard to pass it, and Doctor
Channing, had he found Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, and Lamb around him,
would as easily have been severe with himself and risen a degree higher as he

19.

has stood where he is."

 

16. Journals, IV, 236.

 

l7. Journals, IV, 356.

18. Journals, V, 17.

”-‘.—

19. Journals, V, 105 - 105.

85

Then Channing died, in lChB, Emerson seems to have forgiven.him.for
the weaknesses he had been criticizing for the last few years, and he
pays him a fine tribute in his Journal. He says, "A most respectable life;
and deserves the more praise that there is so much merely external, and a
sort of creature of society in it; - that sort of merit of which praise
is the legitimate fee. he seems sometimes as the sublime of calculation,
as the nearest that mechanism could get to the flowing of genius. His later
years -_perhaps his earlier - have been adorned by a series of sacrifices ....
He las been, whilst he lived, the Star of the American Church, and has left
no successor in the pulpit .... The sternest Judges of the Dead, who shall
consider our wwufis and his austere self — application to them, and his fidelity
to his lights, will absolve this Soul as it passes, and say, This man has
done well. Perhaps I think much better things of him.to . His 'Hilton' and
'lapoleon"were excellent for the time (the want of drill and thoroug
breeding as a writer from which he suffered being considered), and will be

20.

great ornaments of his biography." Almost ten years later, in 1851,

Emerson speaks of Tennyson's In.hemoriam and says,"The beak has the advantage
21.

 

that was Dr. Channing's fortune, that all the merit was appreciable."
22.
Emerson believed that, as a minister, Channing had no equal in his time,

and he admits Channing's great influence when he says, "Doctor Channing's

piety and wisdom.had such weight that, in Boston, the popular idea of
23. ‘
religion was whatever this eminent divine held." Emerson's last

"1'

reference to Channing is in his essay nife and Letters in New England,"

 

20. Journals, vm, 285.
21. Journals, VIII, 163.
22. Journals, X, 371.

23. Lectures and Biographical Sketches,_x, lee - 187.

 

84.0

when he says, " I attribute much importance to two papers of Dr. Chauning,
one on Milton and one on napoleon, which were the first specimens in this
country of that large criticism which in England had given power and fame
to the Edinburgh Review. They'were widely read, and of course, immediately
fruitful in provoking emulation Which lifted the style of Journalism ....
He could never be reported, for his eye and voice could not be printed,
and his discourses lose their best in losing them. He was made for the
public, his cold terperament made him the most unprofitable private com-
panion; but all.America would have been impoverished in wanting him.....

A poor little invalid all his life, he is yet one of those men who

21]..

vindicate the power of the Americanz~ace to produce greatness."

Thus we see that Emerson‘s criticism of Lilliam.Ellery Channing divides
itself into three periods. The first period, from 1822 until 1835, was a
stage of youthful, almost unreserved, praise on the part ofEmerson. From
1835 until Channing's death in 18h2 Emerson's criticism.becomes much more
severe. He realized that Channing lost much when his works were put into
writing. he also:failed to see why Channing, although he had done much to
liberate Boston and advance culture there, could not have accomplished

even.more than he did. After Channing's death, Emerson's criticism becomes less

harsh and he lohks back on his early idol with respect and appreciation.

 

2h. Lectures and Biographical Sketches, works, K, 339 - 3&0.

IV.

EMERSOH'S CRITICISL OF THE HISTORIABS AnD SCHOLARS.

In his criticism.of historians and scholars, Emerson comments on
four of America's most outstanding men - Edward Everett, George Bancroft,
George Ticknor, and.Andrews Norton. It is interesting to note that,
except for one incidental remark, there is no mention of T. H. Prescott,

author of Ferdinard and Isabella, who was the only other American historian

 

of importance at this time. Everett, Bancroft, and Ticknor,'were all very
different, and they all occupy much the same position in the history pf
American letters. These three young men were the first Americans to study
in Germans; on their return from Gattingen they all accepted professor-
ships at Harvard, and'with their return ( in 1819 ) began the dis-
semination of German thought. The knowledge of Kant, Fichte, Schelling,
Goethe, and Schiller came into America through these three men. 1.
Everett, Bancroft, and Ticknor, had a tremendous influence on the whole
field of American letters and.American thought; we have already seen that
without this new German.thought there would have been no Transcendental
movemflnt in New England. Also, without these men and the ideas they brought
bacerith them, it is doubtful if Emerson would have been the Emerson'we
know now. Emerson himself, although he does not exempt them from criticism,
recognized their importance in the service of American letters.

Edward Everett is really much more important as a vital literary

influence in New England than as a man of letters himself. Everett assumed

the chair of Greek literature at Harvard in 1819, and it was through this

 

1. Cambridge Histq§y_of American Literature, I, 332.

0/"
\J )0

position that he gained much of his great influence. Van.uyck Brooks says
that Everett stirred the imagination of the students and held them spellbound,
while his fame drew students from all over the countr'. 2. Everett was
really a thorough Greek schdlar, and it was too bad that he gave up his
ssholarship to become a "lesser Mobster," as he has often been called.
Although there is little valuable critical comment in Emerson‘s Harvard
Journals, nevertheless, it is not hard to gather that Everett was one of
Emerson's early idols. His position in Emerson's estimation was lowered
somewhat when.he turned to oratory and politics, particularly when he, like
hebster, came out in support of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Bill.
Although Emerson does not comment specifically on-Bverett in his
college journals, he realized that Everett (and Ticknor) were the most
valuable, to him the only valuable, men at harvard. One of his earliest
comments appears in 1825 after Everett's Plymouth Oration: "I have'heen
reading Everett's rich strains at Plymouth - gazing at the Sun till my
eyes are blurred." 5. .A year lter he says, "I have not forgiven Everett
one speculative doctrine of the Phi Beta Kappa oration, the more dis-
agreeable that I have found some reason to think it true, - to wit, that
geniuses are the organs, mouthpeices of their age .... " 4‘ Shortly after-
wands he adds, "For diligence, rectitude, fancy and sense'we reckon Edward
Everett chief among thn thousand." 5. As in his criticism.of Channing,

Emerson‘s early and extravagant admirationfor Everett turns into a more

adverse criticism.as the years pass. In 1835, almost ten years after the

 

2°.an:fiy9k Brooks, The Flowering o£;pBW'England, pp. 101 - 103.

‘.‘—-

 

5. Journals, II, h5.
h. Journals, II, 100 - 101.

5. Journals, II, 123.

87.

above comment, he writes, "Brougham, Everett, Canning, convert their
genius into a shep, and turn every faculty upside down that they may
6.

see well." Since Edward Everett was at one time editor of the

North.American Review, it is interesting to note that Emerson's

 

criticism.of the periodical parallels his criticism of Everett himself.
When Emerson was young he admired both the man and the journal tramp
endously, but his admiration for both declined with the years. By 1855
Emerson is not only criticicing the herth.American rather severely,

but he is saying of Everett, "He is not content to be Everett, but

would be Daniel Debster. This is his mortal distemper. H y should such

a genius waste itself? have we any to spare?.... Daniel nebster, Nature's
own child, sat there all day and drew all eyes. Poor Everett - for this
was it you deft your own work, your exceeding great and peculiar vocation,
the desire of all eyes, the gratitude of all ingenuous scholars - to

stray away hither and mimic this Ran, that .... you might still be mere
secondary and satellite to him, andrer him.hold a candle? 7. And a

few years later he says, "How can a great genius endure to make paste
jewels? It must always have the effect, compared with the great originals ....
of Everett's Burdens of the Natiogs compared with the comforting or alarm-

ing words of David and Isaiah." The same year, however, Emerson admdts

that "Everett has nut more stories sentences verses names in amber for
l ,0 9 a
9.

me than any other person. "

Emerson's longest entry oanverett in his Journals appears in

 

a Journals, 1:11, [456 — 157.

7. Journals, III, b7l.

 

8. Journals, IV, 5h - 35.

9. Journals, IV, b71.

 

18h2 but much of this is reproduced word for word in his essay "Life and
Letters in new England." In the Journals we read, "There was an influence
on the young peeple from.Bverett's genius which was almest comparable to
that of Pericles in Athens. That man had an inspiration which did not go
beyond his head, but which made him.the genius of elegance .... The word
that he spoke, in the manner which he spoke it, became current and classical
in New England .... He thus .raised the standard of taste in writing and
speaking in New England. Meantime all this was a pure triumph of Rhetoric.
This man had neither intellectual nor moral principles to teach. He had

no thoughts. t was early asked, when KassachusettS'was full of his fame,
what truths he had thrown into circulation, and how he had enriched the
generd mind, and agreed that only in graces of manner, only in a new
perception of Grecian beauty, had he opened our eyes .... Everett's fans
had the effect of giving a new lustre to the University - which is greatly
needed. Students flocked thither ...." 10. And a little later he says,
"Edward Everett did long ago for Boston what Carlyle is doing for England
and Europe, in rhetoricizing the conspicuous objects." 11.

In a conversation with Charles hoodbury he said somewhat the same
thing: "Edward Everett and George Ticknor were men especially excellent in
the modern languages. The golden time of Everett's life was when he was
Professor of Greek at Cambridge. He did more real good there than.as senator
or governor. He had a fine conception of Greece, and a genius for the Greek

language. He returned from Europe, and was professor to the class above me

when I was a student. As a college president he was not successful. He

10. Journals, VI, 255 - 257.

ll. Journals, VI, hOB.

He noticed little things too much, as whether an undergraduate touched —
his hat to him.or not, and the students hated him. Therefore he resigned." 12.
In 1851,when the Slavery question.was increasing in importance,
Emerson writes, "The fame of Everett is dear to me and to all his scholars.
And I have watched with alarm his derelictions.'flhenevcr his genius shone,
it of course was in the instinct of freedom, but one of his scholars cannot
but ask him.whether there was no sincerity in all those apostrophes to
freedom and adjurations of the dying Demosthenes; was it all claptrap?" 15.
However, in the same year he says, "Edward Everett had in.nw'youth an
immense advantage in being the first American scholar who sat in the German
universities and brought us home in.his head their whole cultural method
and results, - to us who did not so much as know the names of Heyn6,'WoIf,
H35, and Ruhnken. He dealt out his treasures too, with such admirable
prudence, so temperate and abstemious that our wonder and delight were still
new ...."l The yeanafter Emerson's graduation from.Harvard he wrote a
letter to John B. Hill, a classmate, in which he says, "I have been attending
Professor Everett's lectures, which he has begun to deliver in this city,
upon.Antiquities. I am as much enamoured as ever with the incomparable manner
of my old idol, though much of his matter is easily acquited from common
books, we think strong sense to be his distinguishing feature; he never
commits himself, never makes a mistake." 15.

In Emerson's lecture on "Life and Letters in New England" he expands

the remarks in the Journals with the following passages: "Germany'had

 

12. Charles J. Woodbury, Talks with Ralph'Waldo Emerson, p. 65.

 

13. Journals, VIII, 182.
Lh. Journals, VIII, 225, 226.

15. works, X, notes, p. 57h.

created criticism in vain for us until 1820, when Edward Everett returned
from his five years in EurOpe, and brought to Cambridge his rich results,
which no one was so fitted by natural grace and the splendor of his rhetoric
to introduce and recommend. He made us for the first time acquainted with
'Uolf's theory of the Heneric writings, with the criticism of Heyne. The
novelty of the learning lost nothing in theskill and genius of his relation,
and the rudest undergraduate found a new morning opened to him in the
lecture room of Harvard Hall c... He had a good deal of special learning,
and all his learning was available for purposes of the hour. It was all
new learning, that wonderfully took ¢nd stimulated the young men ....
this learning instantly took23he highest place to our imagination in our
unoccupied American Parnassus .... By a series of lectures largely and
fashionably attended for two winters in Boston, he made a beginning of
pepular literary and miscellaneous lecturing, which in that region at
least had important results. It is acquiring greater importance every day,
and becoming a national institution. I am quite certain that this purely
16.
literary influence was of the first importance to the American mind."
Emerson's criticism of Edward Everett went through almost exactly
the same stages as that of Dr. Channing. His early enthusiasm turned to
criticism and disappointment, but at the end of his life, looking back
retrospectively, he recognized and acknowledged Everett's importance,
especially his importance in introducing German thought into America.
Emerson realized Everett's greatest weakness, however, - Everett was a

"Pure triumph of Rhetoric," but he could not fulfill Emerson's demands

for intuition, truth, and spirituality in writing.

16. Lectures and Biogrghical Sketches, horks, X, 350, 335.

 

91.

Gebrge Bancroft, like Everett, is mainly impoftant for the impetus
he helped to give to German thought in.America, but he is of greater
importance as a man of letters than is Everett. Bancroft taught at
Harvard for a while (as tutor in Greek), and it was there that Emerson
first came in contact with him. Although he wrote a volume of verses,

published in 1823, and articles for the North American Review, his out-

 

standing achievement was, of course, his History of the United States, which

 

he wrote over a period of sixty years.-fhis great history is written from
a distinctly American.point of view, from an almost radically Democratic
point of view, for Bancroft was a staunch Democrat throughout his life.

In spite of the fact that the History of the United States is a little

 

out of data now, it still is a very valubble contribution to American
17.

letters, particularly for its point of view. Emerson must have known
Bancroft rather well, for in later years they were both members of the
Transcendental Club.

Emerson's first comment on Bancroft was written at harvard and he
says, "Bacon .... had more of the philosopher than the poet which is the

18.
reverse of Everett, Buchminster, Bancroft - and is superior to them."
His next comment appears in 1822 in a letter to hiss hary'hoody Emerson.
He writes, "There are two rising stars in cur horizon which we hepe shall
shed a benign influence from the sources of religion and genius. I mean
Upham.and Bancroft .... The second is an indefatigable scholar and an
19.

accomplished avator." A few months later, in a letter to his classmate

John B. Hill, he says, "I am happy to contradict the rumors about Bancroft.

 

17. Brooks, 0 . cit}, pp. 132 - 13h.
18. Jburnals, 1, 32h.

19. James Elliot Cabot, A Lenoir of Ralph Laldo Emerson, I, 83

 

I heard him preach at New South a few Sdabaths since, and was much delighted
with his eloquence. So were we all. Ea needs a great deal of cutting and
pruning, but we think him.an infant hercules. All who know him agree in
this, that he has improved his time thoroughly in dattingen. he has be-
come a perfect Greek scholar, and knows well all that he pretends to knowx..."

Fifteen years later, in 1857, he says; "I have read the second volume
of Bancroft's History of the United States. It is very pleasing. He does not,
I think, ever originate his views,but he does impart very good views into his
book, and parades his facts by the brave light of his principles. A very
pleasant book for here, lo, the huge world has at last come round to Roger
Williams, George Fox, and'flilliam Penn, and time-honored John Locke received
kicks..An objection to the book is the insertion of a boyish hurrah, every
new and then, for each State in turn ....“ 21. The same year, however,
EMerson adds, "I believe the man and the writer should be one, and not
diverse, as they say'Bancroft, as we know Bulwer, is." 22. These two
comments almost sum up Emerson's criticism of Bancroft; like Everett,
Pancroft tried to substitute rhetoric for the "inner light" which Emerson
demanded

In a conversation with Charles Icoflbury, Emerson makes a pungent
criticism not only of Bancroft but of the whole body of American histor-
ians. To fioodbury he said, "But nUW'you shall not read these books - ’

Prescott or Bancroft or Motley. Prescott is a thorough man. Bancroft reads

enormously, always understands his subject. hotley is painstaking, but too

.- . - .—

20. Ibid,,pp.9~5 - 91+.
21. Journals, IV, 50h.

22. Journals, IV, 556.

mechanical. So are they all. Their style slays. Neither of them lifts
himself off his feet. They have no lilt in them. You noticed the marble

we have just seen? You remember, that marble is nothing but crystallized
limestone? Well, some writers never get out of the limestone condition ....
Be airy .... It is a fine power this. Some men have it, prominently the
French .... Thoreau had it." 29.

Emerson's last comment en Bancroft appears in 18h2, when he writes,
"Bancroft and Bryant are historical democrats whozare interested in dead or
organized, but not in organizing, liberty. Bancroft would not know George 2)
Fox, whom he has so well eulcgized, if he should meet him in the street." 4.
Bancroft did not look forward to the promise of the future as Emerson did;
to Emerson Bancroft was an example of what he meant in his "American Scholar"
address when he said "Our age is too retrospective.”

George Ticknor, like his contemporaries Everett and Bancroft, studied
in Europe, and, like them, on his return to America he accepted a professor- '
ship (in.?reneh and Spanish) at Harvard. Ticknor was an educator and tried
to introduce some of his modern ideas of education at Harvard, but with no
success (except in his own department). Even if his educational reforms
failed, Ticknor was nevertheless an important influence at Harvard. As
Van'fiyck Bvcoks says, "In days to come, the young men at Karvard were to
reap the fruits of Ticknor's 'wanderjahre'. Here and there as they followed
his lectures, they were to catch a phrase or an allusion.that Opens up the

picture.'What patterns of the literary life the great professor, cold as he

'was, cold and distant, was able to place before them .... Never before, in

 

23. Elli-OOdbury, OE. Citg, Pp. 2Ll. " 25.

2h, Journals, VI, 515.

America, had anyone invested with such glamour the life of the poet and
the man of letters; and Harvafidwas ready for the new evangel.” £5.
Ticknor, with his German scholarship and training, did some really mem-
orable work in his books on Spanish history and Spanish letters. Although
Lhmrson.must have known Ticknor from his lectures and his books, there

are only two brief references to Tictmor in the Journals. hhen Emerson was

' I have listened this evening to an eloquent

at Harvard in 1820 he writes,‘
lecture of the elegant Professor of French and Spanish Literature on the
subject of the extent of the language, a subject which bears on the face
of it dulness and dread .... every soul present warmly acknowledged the
20.

force of delineation." Fifty years later we read, "Chivalry, I fancied,
this afternoon, would serve as a good title for many tepics, and some good
readings which I might offer to the Fraternity course of Lectures on
December 6. George Ticknor, Hallam, and Renan have each given me good

27.
texts."

Andrews Norton, who was for a time librarian and Professor of Sacred
Literature, was one of the outstanding scholars in.America, he was a great
Biblical scholar and wrote, besides poetry and hymns, two very scholarly
books on the genuineness of the Gospels. It is unfortunate that horton and
Emerson were so different that they were always on Opposing sides in any
question.'fihere Emerson.was a Transcendentalist, Andrews Lorton was a hard-
headed rationalist, and thus they came to verbal blows over Emerson's

”Divinity School.Address" of 1838. Norton accused Enerson of atheism and

heresy and his arguments were so logical that he really vanquished Ererson's

 

25. BrOOkS, 02. 93-311, P. 880
26. Journals, 1, 65.

27. Journals, K, 529.

95-

defenders, even though one of them was Theodore Parker. Also, Norton
was a reactionary and did not approve of the new German scholarship that
was entering Harvard; and on this point, too, he was at cross-points with
Emerson.

Emerson's first co;:ment on Norton appears in 1822, when he writes,
"Of Professor N., Shakespeare wrote long ago the good and bad characters:
'Oh, it is excellent to have a giant's strength but it is tyrannous to
use it like a giant." 28. In 1838, after Norton's criticism of his
"Divinity School Address," Emerson says, "How rare is the skill of

writing? I detected a certain unusual unity of purpose on the paragraph

levelled at me in the Baily Advertiser, and I now learn it is the old

 

tyrant of the Cambridge Parnassus himself, Mr. Norton, who wrote it. One
cannot compliment the power and culture of his coz'munity so much as to
think it holds a hundred writers 3 but no, if there is information and
tenacity of purpose} what Bacon calls longanimity, it must be instantly
traced home to some known hand." 29. And on the same subject he adds a

few days later, "The feminine vehemence with which the A.N. of the Daily

Advertiser beseeches the dear people to whip that naughty heretic is the
50.

 

natural feeling in the mind whose religion is external."

In his essay on "Courage" in Society and Solitude Ernerson goes back
again to the influence of Norton at Harvard. "But I remember the oldwpro-
fessor whose searching mind engraved every word he spoke on the memory

of the class, when we asked if he had read this or that shining novelty,

 

28. Journals, I, 195.
29. Journals, V, 92.

30. Sigurmls, V, 920

'No, I have never read that book;' instantly the book lost credit, and was
not to be heard of again." 31. Emerson's last comment on Norton is in
"Life and Letters in New England," where he says, "And Professor Norton
8. little later gave form and method to the like [theological] studies in the
then infant Divinity School." 32.

Emerson did not criticize Norton because the latter held different
Opinions from his own; he believed a man should form his own opinions.
However, Emerson did criticize Norton for his conservative and his re-
actionary tendencies, which were a barrier to American progress, especially
in the field of American letters. The controversial nature of the relation-
ship between Emerson and Norton is well shown in a letter from Emerson to
Carlyle. He writes,“I make no doubt you shall be sure of some Opposition.
Andrews Norton, one of our best heads, once a theological professor, and
a destroying critic, lives upon a rich estate at Cambridge, and frigidly
excludes the Diderot paper from a Select Journal edited him him, with the

» 55.
remark, 'Another paper of the Teufelsdr'békh school.” Emerwn was

 

broad—minded enough, however, to recognize and admit that Norton was one of

America's finest scholars.

 

31. Works, VII, 269 — 270.
32. Works, X, 3350

33. The Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson, I, 61.

97.

V
EMERSON'S CRITICISM OF DANIEL WEBSTER.
Although Webster's name has become dimmed in the last century,
in Emerson's day he was one of the most important figures in the country.
No doubt a great deal of his fame was due to his overpowering personality;
for this reason it is hard for us todayto get an accurate estimate of
Webster. Webster was a political scholar in his early life -- in his later
life he was not much more than a politician. Webster's 1min literary con-
tribitions are in the field of political science; in some ways it is hard
to judge him, as a writer, because it was Webster the orator who had such
a tremendous following a century ago. However, after 1851, Webster's popular-
ity as an orator, as statesman, as defender of the constitution declined -
all because he declared himself in favor of the Fugitive Slave Bill which
was anathema to the New England Transcendentalism. Webster represented the
new industrialism which was in Opposition to the romanticism and trans-
cendentalism in much of the rest of New England. Parrington gives a good
estimate of Webster in. the following paragraph: "No man more richly endowed
in mind and person has played a part on the stage of our public life, and
in spite of gross shortcomings in character and the betrayal of his own
promise, Webster retains an aura of the heroic about him. He was a great man,
built on a great pattern, who never quite achieved a great life. In Emerson
and Webster were completely embodied the diverse New England tendencies
that derived from the Puritan and the Yankee; the idealistic and the prac-
tical; the ethical and the nationalistic; the intellectual revolutionary,

ready to turn the world upside down in theory, planting at the base of the

established order the dynamite of ideas, and the sOberly consertative,

 

98.

understanding the economic springs of political action, inclined to
pessimism, neither wishing for UtOpian change nor expecting it." 1.
Nevertheless, although Webster and Eknerson are the antithesis of each
other, and although Emersonbas very bitter toward'webster after‘Webster's
support of the Fugitive Slave Bill, on the whole Emerson seems to have
great admiration for Webster,snd Webster's name appears almost more
frequently than anyone else's in Emersonfls‘ggggnals and E23213! Emerson's
first reference to Webster occurs in 1822 when.Webster has been elected

to Congress. He says, “A victory is achieved today for one [Nebster] whose
name perchance is written highest in the volume of futurity." . His next
comment oanebster does not appear for eight years: "Read with admiration
and delight Mr. Nebster's noble speech in.answer to Hayne.‘What consciousness
of political rectitude, and what confidence in his intellectual treasures
must he have to enable him to take this master's tone - The beauty and
dignity of the spectacle he exhibits should teach men the beauty and
dignity of principle. This is one that is not blown about by every wind

of Opinion, but has mind great enough to see the majesty of moral nature
and to apply himself in all his length and breadth to it and magnanimeusly
trust thereto." 5. In 183h.Emerson says, "Webster's speeches seem.to be
the utmost that the unpoetic'West has accomplished or can .... Meantime
Nebster is no imitator, but a true genius for his work, if that is not_the
highest. But every'true man stands on the top of the world." u, Another time

Emerson refers to lr'ebster as "Nature's own child," and on still another

1.‘Vernon Louis Parrington, main Currents of American Thought, II, 30h.

 

2. JOurnals, I, 175.
3. Jomals’ II, 295 - $60
14.. qurnals, 111,308.

50 Jowms' III, LL71.

occasion he says, "Webster is in a galvanized state when he makes the
Hayne Speech, and 'tis as easy to say gigantic things, to introduce
fromlGod on the world truths which arise but never set, as at another

hour to talk nonsense. He is caught up in the spirit and made to utter
things not his own. “ b. In this respect webster seems to fulfill Emerson's
idea of what genius should be. Emerson also appreciated'Webster's imagery
because it was first hand from.observetion of nature, not second hand

from books as Burke's was. 7.

Again, he says of Webster, "The newspapers say they might as well
publish a thunderstorm.as a report of webster's sppech in answer to
‘Wright. His toneS'were like those of a commander in battle. Times of
eloquence are times of terror." 8. Later he says, "Can'Webster in the

American Senate, for any conceivable public outrage, scream with real

passion? Nobody believes it was anything else than a fine,wise, craterical

9.
scream." A.more favorable comment is that "hr.‘Webster never loses
10.
sight of his relation to nature. The Day is always part of him."
11.

Emerson also included webster on the faculty of his ideal college.
However, his opinion of Nebster seems to decline shortly after this.

In 1839 he says, “Adams, Clay and‘Webster electioneer. And Nature does
not forgive them, for thus they compromise their proper majesty, and are

12.
farther than ever from obtaining the adventitious.“ And a year later

6. Journals, III, 565 - 506.
'71.Journals, VI, 507.
8. Journals, III, 255 - 250.
9. Journals, III, h55.

10. Journals, IV, 172.

 

 

ll. Journals! V, 203.

 

12. Journals, V, A20.

100 .

13.
he says that he can no longer read Webster's speeches. "It is a bad

fact that our editors fancy they have a right to cell on Daniel Webster to
resign his office, or much more, resign his opinion and accept theirs.
That is the madness of party.“ 11+. And in 18141, Emerson says, "I saw Webster
on the street - but he was changed since I saw him last - black as a
thundercloud, .and careworn, the anxiety that withers this generation
among the young and thinking class had crept up also into the great
lawyer's chair, and too plainly, too plainly, he was one of us. I did
not wonder that he depressed his eyes when he saw me, and would not meet
my face. The cankerworms have crawled to the tOpmost bough of the wild
elm and swing down from that. No wonder the elm is a little uneasy. " 15.
Again, speaking of Carlyle, Emerson says, "Yet I always feel his
limitation, and praise him as one who plays his part,well and according
to his light, as I praise the Clays and Websters." 1°. Eknerson's longest
and most complete estimate of Webster was written in 18143 while Webster
was still Secretary of State. Elnerson says, "Webster is very deaf to the
Yankees because he is a person of very commanding understanding with
every talent for its adequate expression. The American, foreigners say,
ilways reasons, and he is the most American of the Americans.... His
external advantages are very rare and admirable; his noble and majestic
frame, his breadth and projection of brows, his coal—black hair, his
great cinderous eyes, his perfect self possession; and the rich and well

modulated thunder of his voice (to which I used to listen, sometimes,

abstracting wself from the sense merely for the luxury of such noble

 

l3. Jourmls, V, 1420.
13. Journals, V1.79.

15. Journals, VI,9l - 92.

16. Journals, VI , 292.

lOlo

expressions of sound) distinguish him.above all other men. In a million.you
‘would single him out. In England, he made the same impression by his personal
advantages as at home, and was cal led the Great Western. 1n speech he has a
great good sense - is always pertinent to time and place, and has an eye to
the simple facts of nature - to the place where he is, to the hout of the
day, tb the étn in heaven, to his neighborhood, to the sea, or to the mount-
ains; - but very sparingly notices these things, and clings closely to the
business part of his speech with great gravity and faithfulness .... He
trusts to his simple strength of statement - in which he excels all men -
for the attention.tf the assembly. His statement is lucid throughout, and

of equal strength. He has great fairness and deserves all his success in
debate, for he always carries a point from.his adversary'by really taking
superior ground, as in the Hayne debate. There are no puerilities, no
tricks, no academical play in any of his speeches, - they are all majestic
men of business. Every one is first-rate Yankee .... The faults that shade
his character are not much as to hurt his popularity .... All is forgiven

to a man of such surpassing intellect, and such prodigious powers of business
which have so long been exerted. There is no malice in the man, but broad
good humor and much enjoyment of the hour, so that Stetson said of him, 'It
is true that he sometimes commits crimes, but without any guilt,'.... He has
misused the Opportunity of making himself the darling of the American_world
in all coming time by abstaining from putting himself at the head of the
Anti-Slavery interest, by standing for New England and for man against the
bullying and barbarism.of the South. 1 should say of him that he was not at
all majestic, but the purest intellect that was ever applied to business. He is

Intellect applied to affairs. He is the greatest of lawyers; but a very inn

 

102.

different statesman for carrying his points. He carries points with the
bench, but not with the caucus. NO following has he, no troop of friends,
but those whose intellect he fires. No sweaty mob will carry him.on their
shoulders. And yet all New England to the renetest farmhouse, or lumberers'
camp in the woods of Maine, delights to tell and hear of anecdotes of his
forensic eloquence." 17.

Later in the same year, Emerson adds: "Daniel Webster is a great
man with a smll ambition. Nature has built him and holds him forth as
a sample of the heroic mould to this puny generation. He was virtual
President of the United States, but this did not suffice; he wished to
-be an officer, also; wished to add a title to his name, and be a President.
That ruined him." 18. And again, "webster gave us his p1ain.statement like
good bread, yet the oration was feeble compared with his other efforts ....
webster is very good America himself." 19. At this time, August, 18h3,
'Webster came to Concord and this caused Emerson to:make several more comp
ments on him. "Mr. Webster loses nothing by comparison with brilliant men
in the legal profession; he is as much before them.as before the ordinary
lawyer .... His wonderful organization, the perfection of his elocution,
and all that thereto belongs, - voice, accent, intonation, attitude, manner,-
are such as one cannot hope to see again in a century; then he is so thoroughly
simple and wise in his rhetoric. Understanding language and the use 3f the
positive degree, all his words tell, and his rhetoric is perfect, so homely,

so fit, so strong. Then he manages his matter so well, he hugs his fact so

close, and will not let it go, and never indulges in a'weak flourish ....

 

17. JOfimls’ VI, 3’41 - 31-4-50
18. Journals, VI, 381.

19. Journals, VI, hlS.

,1

103.

and one feels that every moment he goes for the actual world, and never

one moment for the ideal. He is the triumph of the Understanding, and is
undermined and supplanted by the Reason for which yet he is so good a
witness, being all the time fed therefrom, and his whole nature and

famzlty presupposing that, that I feel as if the children of Reason night
gladly see his success as a homage to their law, and regard him as a/poor,
rude soldier lived for sixpence a day to fight their battles...." 20‘

In comparing Webster to Choate, Emerson speaks of Webster as "the man of
men" and says that he dwarfed Choate and all the rest, 21. and later he

he refers to him as the "Emperor of men," 2” At the same time Emerson
says, "It seems to me the Quixotism of Criticism to quarrel with Webster
because he has not this or that fine evangelical preperty. He is no saint,
but the wild Olive wood, ungrafted yet by grace, but according to his lights
a very true and admirable man .... Webster's force is part of nature and the
world, like any given amount of azpte or electricity .... After all his great
talents have been told there remains that perfect propriety which belongs to
every world-genius, which animtes all the details of action and speech
with the character of the whole so that his beauties of detail are endless." 23.
And again, '"HeD’febsterJ imparts all the experience of the Senate, and the
state, and the man of the world with the county court." 21+. Emerson's very
next entry is"Could Mr. Webster have given himself. to the cause of Abolition
of Slavery in Congress, he would have been the darling of this continent

of all the youth, all the genius, all the virtue in America -- the tears

 

20. Journals, v1, A29 - u51.

210 Journals, VI, [.1320

 

22. Journals, v1, A55.

 

23. Journals, VI, 143h - $435.

 

2h. Journals, VI, 5070

10h.

25.
of the love and joy and pride of the world would have been his."
26.
The following year he accuses Webster of having no morals. A few

days later he adds, "There was Webster, the great cannon loaded to the
lips .... Of, if God had given to this Demosthenes a heart to lead New

England, what a life and death and glory for him: Now he is a fine symbol
27.

and mantel ornament ... ." After all this criticism Emerson's next

reference to Webster is to commend him for speaking always from a higher
28.
ground; and he includes Webster as one of his four selections for

people who are "somebody" in America. 29Hmerson then goes back to criticiz-
ing Webster and says of him, "Webster is a man by himself of the great mould,
but he also underlies the American blight, and wants the power of the imitative,
the affirmative talent, and remains, like the literary class, only a comment-
ator, his great proportions only exposing his defect.a . Later he says,
"Viebster must have power and must truckle for it." 31. Emerson does not
mention Webster again for two years. In 1814.9 he said, "It is true that
Webster has never done anything up to the promise of his faculties. He is
unmistakably able, and might have ruled America, but he was cowardly, and
spent his life on specialties. When shall we see as rich a vase again?" 52.
Then at this point (1851) Ehnerson becomes very bitter about Webster 's sup-
port of the Fugitive Slave Bill, but his comments are more political than

criticism. The following is a brief sample. "Liberty 3 Hie : Let Mr. Webster,

 

25. Journals, VI, 508.
26. Journals, VII,50, 351.
27. Journdls, VII, 87 - 88.
28. Journals, VII, 152.
29. Journals, VII, 185.
30. Journals, VII, 218.

310 Journals, VII, 53).

105 .

for decency's sake, shut his lips once and forever on this word. The word
liberty in the mouth of Mr. Webster is like the word love in the mouth of
a courtezan." 33. And Emerson is criticizing not only Webster but America
when he says, "Webster truly represents the American people just as they
are, with their vast material interests, materialized intellect, and low
morals .... Webster's absence of moral faculty ifl degrading to the country.
Of this fatal defect, of course, Webster, himself, has no perception." 31+.
However, on Webster's death in 1852, Emerson seems to have relented and
forgiven Webster, for he says: "The sea, the rocks, the woods, gave no
sign that America and the world had lost the completest man. Nature had
not in our day, or not since Napoleon, cut out such a masterpiece. He
brought the strength of a savage unto the light of culture. He was a man in
equilibrio; a man within and without, the strong and perfect body of the
first ages, with the civilty and thought of the last. And what he brought
he kept. Cities had not hurt him: he held undiminished the power and
terror of his strength, the majesty of his demeanor. He had a counsel in
his breast. He was a statesman and not the semblance of one .... Webster
was there for cause; the reality, the final person, who had to answer the
questions of all the faingants, and who had an answer; but alas, he was the
victim of his ambition .... We are under great obligations to Webster for
raising the tone of popular addresses out of rant and out of declamation
to history and good sense." 55. After ‘.’;e‘oster's death, his name does not

appear so frequently in Emerson's Journals, though he occasionally does

refer rather sarcastically to Webster's "treason." Fiv$vears after Webster's

 

33. Journals, VIII, 182. Other passages on Webster's fall are found in Vol.
314.. Journals, VIII, 216,-

35. Journals, VIII, 355 - 366.

106.

death, Emerson goes back to him to say, "Webster impressed by his superb

animlity, and was strong as Nature, though weak in character .... What is

called his fame only marks the imbecility of those who invoke it." 36.

And after another five years,he says, "They drove Er. Webster out of the

world. All his mighty genius, which none had been so forward to acknowledge

and magnify as they, availed him nothing; for they knew that the spirit of

God and of humanity was with them, and he withered and died as by suicide." 37.
The last comment on Webster in Emerson's Journals occurs in 1871 just

before Emerson ceased keeping a diary. He is speaking of the great men America

has produced, and he says, "Webster was majestic in his best days." 50.

It was a fitting comment with which to close his criticism of Webster.
Emerson does make one or two rather Mportant references to

Webster in his essays, He is speaking of Webster in his essay on “Fate",

when he says, "But strong natures, backwoods-men, New Hampshire giants

are inevitable patriots, until their life ebbs and their defects and gout,

palsy and money, warp them." 39. And in his essay on "Greatness," he says,

“A great style of hero draws equally all classes, all the extremes of

society, till we say the very dogs believe in him. We have had such ex- _

amples in this country, in Daniel Webster." LL0- In his lecture on "Natural

History of Intellect" he says, " Webster naturally and always grasps, and -

0
therefore retains something from every company and circumstance."

 

36. Journals, IX, 136.
37. Journals, X, 1114..
38. Journals, X, 370.

39. _S_ociety and Solitude, Werks, VI, 13.

 

140. _I,etters and Social Aims, Works, VIII, 318.

141. Works, XII, 148 - 149.

107 .

Emerson's most severe attack on Webwter is in his "Speech on the
Fugitive Slave law" which is included in the volume of essays entitled

Eiseellanies, but this attack is really political and most of the min

 

ideas in the speech were written in his Journals in the first place.
There are a few other references to Webster which have already been cited
with reference to Charming or to Emerson's criticism of American literature
as a. whole. ’42.
Thus we see that linerson's attitude toward Webster underwent a great

change between 1822 and 1871, between his first and last comments on him
in his Journals. Webster was one of Emerson's early idols and he remained
so until about 1839. Emerson admired him so tremendously for various reasons.
He had heard Webster speak and few who heard him talk could resist falling
under the spell of his overpowering personality. Secondlyfi'lebster was extreme-
ly eloquent, and we have already seen that Emerson considered poetry the
highest art and that eloquence to him was a branch of poetry. Emerson's
early attitude toward Webster is well expressed in one of his poems, written
in 1831.

"Let Webster's lofty face

Ever on thousands shine,

A beacon set that Freedom's race

Might gather omens from that radiant sign.“ LLB.
Although Emerson did not believe that Webster's eloquence was all on the

same high level or that it was entirely sincere at all times, nevertheless

he did believe that Webster occasionally spoke from the "inner light." He

 

142. Journals. III. 383. 381;. 5146. 51.7. N. 112: v, 17. 205.

143. Poems) Works, IX, 398.

 

108.

intimates this in a letter to Carlyle in 1839 when he writes, "I cannot
tell you how glad I am that you have seen Irv brave senator, and seen
him as I see him .... He has his own sins, no doubt, is no saint, is a
prodigal. He has drunk this rum of Party too so long, that his strong
head is soaked, sometimes even like tl'n soft sponges, but the 'man's a
nun for a’ that' .... But you must hear him speak, not a show speech which
he never does well, but wltLgauie he can strike a stroke like a smith. I owe
him a hundred fine hours and two or three moments of Eloquence." Mk
thereon also admired Webster, until about 1839 at least, for his idealism,
especially the idealism of his trumpet call for freedom. Van Wyck Brooks
believes that Webster's demand for terrestrial freedom was paralleled by
the demands of Channing ( and Emerson) for intellectual and cultural free-
dom. 15. Webster fulfills Emerson's req‘irements for a true man of letters
in one or two other respects, also, First of all, Webster drew much of his
imagery from Nature, which is the most accurate symbol of the spirit. Second-
ly, Webster my be a triumph for the Understanding, but Emerson believes his
Understanding is fed by the higher spiritual faculty of Reason.

Eknerson wrote. a very laudatory poem on Webster in 18314, ’46. but from
1835 on his enthusiasm for Webster died gradually as he saw Webster's early
idealism disintegrating into more political ambition, his sincerity dimmed
by a desire for power. Emerson's disappointment in Webster increased steadily
from 1835 on, as the slavery question became more acute and as Eknerson him-

self became more active on the side of the Aboliticnists. Emerson's disgust

reached a climx in 1851 when Webster came out in favor of the Fugitive

 

1414. The Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson, I, 255 - 256.
115. Van Wyck Brooks, The Flowering of New Enghnd, p. 98.

146. PoemsJ Works, IX, 398 - 399.

 

109.

Slave Law, and he never really forgave him for this treason to his earlier
ideal of liberty. Emerson softened a little toward Webster in the years
after the latter's death, but his opinion of the great orator is really
summed up in the brief‘ poem he wrote in 18514..

"why did all manly gifts in Webster fail? 1,7

He wrote on Nature's grandest brow, For Sale."

 

147. Poems, Works, IX, 399.

110.

VI.

EMERSON'S CRITICIS]! 0F SAMPSON REED.

Sampson Reed is a very important figure in Emerson's life because,
as we have already seen, it was through Reed that Emerson came in contact
with Swedenborgianism. Sampson Reed graduated from Harvard in 1818 and
became very successful in the drug business. He was also very active in

public affairs, and he edited for a time both the New Jerusalem Magazine

 

and the New-Church Magazine for Children, both of which were organs of

 

Swedenborgianism. Sampson Reed is remembered today in the field of
American letters for two productions: his "Oration on Genius" (1821) and

his Observations on the Growth of the Mind (1826). These works are no

 

longer very important in themselves, but they are important for the im-
pulse they gave to Swedenborg's philosophy in America and for their
influence on Emerson's philosophy and writings. Emerson's interest in

Swedenborg came from reading Reed's Observations, and a great deal of

 

his knowledge about Swedenborgian philosophy came indirectly through
Reed. Swedenborg was the Swedish philosopher and religious writer who
claimed to have immediate contact with spiritual things, to see the
relation of natural to spiritual things; Reed took these ideas from
Swedenborg but he expressed them in much less technical language. That
Ihnerson was influenced by Swedenborgianism is revealed not only by the
mam comments in his Journals but also by the fact that Ennefson made
Swedenborg the "Mystic" of his Representative Men.

Enerson shows in a. letter to Carlyle in 1831.; how he was influenced
by Swedenborgianism and how Read and Swedenborgianism were really

synonymous in his own mind, He writes,“I am glad you like Sampson Reed,

 

111.

and that he has inspired some curiosity respecting his Church. Sweden-
bdrgianism, if you should be fortunate in your first meetings, has many
points of attractionfor you .... they esteem, in common with all the
Trismegistic, the Natural World as strictly the symbol or exponent of the
Spiritual, and part for part; the animals to be the incarnations of certain
affections; and scarce a popular expression esteemed figurative, but they
affirm to be the simplest statement of fact. Then is their whole theory

of social relations- both in and out of the body - most philosophical, and,
though at variance with the populab theology, self-evident. It is only when
they come to their descriptive theism, if I may say so, and then to their
drollest heaven, and to some autocratic not mural decrees of God, thtt the
mthus loses me .... They are to me, however, deeply interesting, as a sect
which I think must contribute more than all other sects to the new faith
which must arise out of all. " 1. From this passage we can see that Emerson
was influenced by Swedenborg, and two years later in his own _1\_l_a_tu_r_e he says,
"Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact." 2. The appearance
of this doctrine of correspondence in mature definitely reveals Reed's in-
fluence. Clarence Hotson also believes that Reed gave the first definite
impulse which led to Emerson's literary career. 3. Although Emrson never
reversed the high opinion he held of Reed, nevertheless the two men did

disagree in their interpretation of Swedenborg. Eknerson believed he wrote

h.“

in parables, Reed that he wrote literally. Emerson was influenced by

Reed over a period of forty-five years, and this influence came not only

 

1. The Correspondence of Emerson and Carlyle, I, 32 - 33.

 

2. Works, I, 2o.
3. Clarence Paul Hotson, "Sampson Reed, A Teacher of Emerson," New
England Quarterly, April, 1929, p. 2149.

h. Ibid,,p. 268.

112.

through Reed's "Genius" and Observations on the Growth of the Mind but.

 

also through his many articles on the NeW'Jerusalem.hagazine. Emerson's

 

Journals, essays, and letters show that he was familiar with these ar-
ticles; since Reed is almost unknown today, it is interesting to note
that his name appears in Emerson's writings no less than fifty-one
times altogether. .

Unlike his opinion of so many other writers, Emerson's attitude
toward Sampson Reed changed very little in the course of his life.
His early admiration lasted from 1826 until 1870. Emersonfis first
reference to Reed appears in his Journals for 1826, when he writes,
"Our American press does not often.issue such productions as Sampson
Reed's observations on the Growth of the Mind, a book of such character
as I am conscious betrays some pretension enen to praise. It has to my
mind the aspect of a revelation, such is the wealth and such is the
novelty of the truth unfolded in it. It is remarkable for the unity
into which it has resolved the various powers, feelings, and vocations
of men, suggesting to the mind that harmony, which it has always a
propensity to seek, of action and design in the order of Prodidence an
the world." . The following month, in a letter to Miss Mary Moody
Emerson, he asks "But what, in the name of all the fairies, is the
reason you don't like Sampson Reed? What swart star has looked sparely
on.himfi Can anything be more greatly, more wisely writ? Has any modern
hand touched the harp of great nature so rarely? Has any looked so

shrewdly into the subtile and concealed connexion of man and nature, of

 

5. Ibid, ,p. 276.

6. Journals, II, 116 - 117.

113.

earth.and heaven? Has any, in short, produced such curiosity'to see the
farther progress, the remoter results of the caste of intellect to which
he belongs?" .

At this same time, while he was still studying for the ministry,
Emersonstarted a poem about Sampson Reed. He never finished these verses,
but the few lines he did complete are a further illustration of the great

esteem.in which he held Sampson Reed from.the time he first encountered

his Observations in 1826. ”he peem.is entitled only "8.3." and begins as

 

follows:
"Demure apothecary,

Those early reverend genius my young eye

With wander followed and undoubting joy.

Believing in that cold and modest form

Brooded alway the everlasting mind,

And that thou, faithful, didst obey the soul." 8.

Emerson's next reference to Reed appears in 1830, and he says,
"It was said of Jesus that 'he taught as one having authority,‘ a
distinction most palpable. There are a few men in everyege, I suppose,
who teach thus .... If Sampson Reed were a talker, he were one." .

In 1832 Emerson.mentions a conversation he had with.Reed. He seemed
to find his ideas interesting but not really new, since they~went back

to the Stoics. Emerson's Swedenborgian tendencies are showncagain, for he

says that he and Reed agreed that "God was the communication between us

 

7. Journals, 11, 12h.

8. Representative Men,'W6rks, IV, notes, p. 295.

9. Journals, II, 296.

1111.

10.
and other spirits, departed or present." This Swedenborgian philosophy

of Reed served to emphasize Emerson's innate mysticism. Emerson admired
Reed tremendously because he felt that Reed wrote and tdked from.inspiration
and intuition, as the ideal poet should write and talk. He says, "The true
men are ever following an invisible Leader, and have left the responsible-
ness of their acts with God .... The true men stand by and letreason argue
for them. I tdk with Sampson and see it is not him, but a greater than him,
'My Father is greatir than I.‘ Truth speaks by him. (Can.my friend wish a

greater eulogy?)" Aqfew'weeks later we read, "It well deserves attention

what is said in_§eW’Jerusa1em Magazine concerning External Restraint. It is

 

awful to look into the mind of man and see how free we are .... Outside,
among your fellows, among strangers, you must preserve appearances, a hundred
things you canot do; but inside, the terrible freedom." 12.This passage
refers to Reed's paper "External Restraint," and Hotson points out this
article furnishes suggestions for Emerson's poem "Grace" and for his
"Demonology." 13. Emerson's nextxreference to Reed appears in 183h.when

he writes, "If I were cdled upon to charge a young minister, I would say
Beware of Tradition; Tradition which embarrasses life and falsifies all
teaching. The sermons that I hear are all dead of that ail .... Not so with

. 1h.
the Swedenborgians, if their puplit resembles their book." Hotson says

 

the phrase "their book" can only refer to Reed's Observations of the Growth

of the Mind. The same year, in a letter to James Freeman Clarke, Emerson

 

 

__ '—

10. Journals, II, h56.
11. Journals, II, 515.
12. Journals, II, 517.
lac Hetson, OE. Citog P0 2580

1h. Journals, III, A21.

115.

says, "Have you read Sampson Reedfs Growth of the Mind? I rejoice to be

 

contemporary'with that man, and cannot wholly despair of the society in
which he lives. There must be some oxygen yet." 10. In 1835 we read,
"Language itself is young and unformed. In.heaven it will be, as Sampson
Reed said, 'one with things.‘ “ 17. In this passage we can see that
Emerson's theory of the identity of subject and object, which is one of
the ideals of his theory of literary expression, must have been influenced,
at least to an.extent, by the Swedenborgian dnuggist. A few days later he
says, "The mystery of Humility is treated by Jesus, by Dante, by Chaucer
in his Griselda, by Milton, and by Sampson Reed ...." 18. The following
year, 1836, comes Emerson's first mention of Reed's "Oration.on Genius."
He says, "I have always distinguished Sampson Reed's oration on Genius, and
Collin's Ode on the Passions, and all of Shakespeare as being works of genius,
inasmuch as I read them with extreme pleasure and see no clue to guide me
to their origin .... But, as I becane acquainted with Sampson Reed's books
and lectures, the miracle is somewhat lessened in the same manner as I
once found that Burke's was. As we advance, shall every man.of genius turn
to us the axis of his mind, then shall be he transparent, retaining, however,
always the prerogative of an original mind, that is, the love of truth in
God, and not the love of truth for the market." 19.

Emerson.admired Sampson Reed because the latter had the "moral
sentiment" also necessary for true greatness and beauty which even Goethe

lacked. Emerson says, ".... In literature very few words are found touching

the best thought; Laodamia .... and Sampson Reed's oration; these are of the

 

lb. Journals, II, 116.
17. Journals, III, h92.
18. Journals, III, h96.

It

116.

20.
highest moral class." Two years later he writes, "A notice of modern

literature ought to include (ought it not?) a notice of Carlyle, of Tennyson,
9f Lander, of Bettina, of Sampson Reed. " 21. In 1814,? the following comment
appears in his Journals: '“Remrkable trait in the American character is the
union, not very infrequent, of Yankee cleverness with spiritualism. Thus,
0

my Wall Street cotton-broker .... and Sampson Reed, druggist ...." 2“
This passage is interesting because Emerson himself combined this same
Yankee shrewdness and spiritualism that he noticed in Reed. Emerson's
next notice of Sampson Reed appears almost twenty years later, in 1866,
when he lists Reed and his oration on "Genius" among his "Single speech

2
Poets." 2” His last comment on the Swedenborgian druggist appears in 1869
when he says, "Yesterday finished the Tenth Reading at Chickering Hall ....
I meant to show some inspired prose from Charles K. Iuewcomb, Sampson Reed,
iary Moody Emerson, et3., but did not." 214.

Emerson must have admired Sampson Reed tremendously, for in all his
comments on him there is not one word of adverse criticism. Emerson liked
Reed because there was moral truth and spirituality in his writings and
because he seemed to write from intuition. Reed was an important influence
on Emerson because he first aroused his interest in Swedenborg and gave
him his first definite literary impulse. Reed not only helped in forming
Emerson's modes of expression and ideas of style, but the knowledge of

Swedenborgian philosophy that Emerson gained from Reed's books and articles
25.
influenced the form and content of Nature.

20. Journals, V, 112.

2l.r'Journals,'a‘V.- 1425.
22. mg, VII, 533.
23. Journals, x, m.
2h. Journals, X, 283.

25c HOtson, O o Cite, Pp. 276 " 2770

117.

VII.

ELERSON'S CRITICISE 0F BRONSON ALCOTT.

Bronson glcott is known today chiefly as the father of Louisa Alcott,
but he was one of the outstanding persnmlities of Emerson's time. Alcott
was important then, because, until the late 1830's, it was Alcott, not
Emerson, who was the leader of New England Transcendentalism. 1. He was
also a leading figure in the establishment of the 2&5]: Bronson Alcott
was what Frothingham calls "The Mystic of Transcendentalism,';in Alcott
the mstical tendencies of Transcendentalism were carried to an extreme,
and his name soon stood for everything in that movement which seemed ec-
centric or unintelligible to the ordinary mind. Emerson's mystical tendency
was held in check by his Yankee shrewdness, but there was no such check on
Alcott. Eknerson believed that the greatest writing could come only in
moments of communion with the over-soul, but even he realized that there
were limits to this. Alcott was in perpetual communion with the Infinite;
everything he wrote or said or did came from intuition, from an inner inspiration.
This is one of the things that tunerson admired in Alcott, one of the things
that drew him to him, but Emerson was wise enough to see that this, when
carried to an extreme, was also a great weakness. Emerson's tendencies
toward mysticism were also held in check by his interests in science, but
Alcott had no relation it 9.11 to the new and growing science. C.

Alcott was an educator at heart, but his fundamental educational

concepts .were Platonic. He believed in pro-existence, in the inspiration

of childhood; he tried to put into practice what Wordsworth had expressed

 

l. Ocatvius Brooks Frothingham, Transcendentalism in New England, p. 257.

 

2. Honours Daniel Conway, Enerson at home and Abroad, p. ILIB.

 

118.

in his "Ode on the Intimations of Immortality." ‘ hany of Emerson's
comments on Alcott are really comments on.A1cott's famous Temple School,
and although these remarks are interesting they have little literary
significance. Emerson first encountered Alcott in 1855, but he did not
really come to know him.until.Alcott came to Concord in lBhO, after his
school failed. Emerson saw a great deal of Alcott at Concord, and at one
time he even suggested that the Alcott family come and live with his own
family. dmerson had ample opportunity to converse with Alcott, and he was

thus able to see clearly both Alcott's strength and weaknesses. Even in

"’1 Y

his own day Alcott was noted for his conversations,‘ which he held in
Bostoh every year, not for his writings. His works have not lived because
he could not express his mysticism in words,as Emerson'well knew. Harold
Clarke Goddard says, " It is singularly difficult to arrive at a just
estimate of Alcott. The whole affinity 6f his mind was mystical, Neo-
Platonio and Oriental writers being his favorite authors. The rarified
nature of his subject matter combined with a certain deficiency in power

of literary eXpression.makes his published works inadequately representative
of the man, and the critic pauses between the belief that admiring con-
texporaries grossly over-rated the ability of an active and elevated but
withal rather ordinary kind, and the Opposite view that Alcott had a touch
of real genius in him, a kinship in due degree with the inspired talkerswof
literary history." However, even if Alcott could not express his ideas

in writing, he is nevertheless an important force in American literature

because these ideas did have influence on the men with whom he associated -

“um,

 

“-‘-—.—- H

 

 

5. Van Wyck Brooks, The Flowering of New gngland, p. 252.

 

h. Cambridge History of_Amerioan Literatmne, I, 338 - 559.

 

Emerson, Parker, Thoreau, Hawthorne, That Alcott did have some effect_dn
Emerson cannot be denied. Gay says: "When we seek to discover just what it
was that Emerson got from|him we are a little puzzled. Certainly, not ideas.
I think that he admired Alcott ( and he was fully aware of his limits),because
he found in him.an example, almost unique, of faith in the ideal. In this man
was not the shadow of turning; he never thought even of defending the ideal
philosophy; he assumed it, and went ahead. And to a man of Emerson's darting,
searching, weighing, and selecting - in short, critical — mind, Alcott was

5
a priceless pole, steady as Polaris itself amid the vicissitudes of speculation."’
The significance of Alcott to Emerson is thus expressed by'Van‘Wyck Brooks:
"But Emerson, who knew his foibles well, loved him.for his copious peaceful-
ness and for the mountain landscape of his mind, with its darting lights
and shadows." 6.

Emerson met Alcott in 1855, and must have been impressed by him almost
immediately, because he comments on him in his Journals and his letters at least
a dozen times between then and 18h0, when.Alcttt came to Concord to live.
Emerson's first reference to Alcott occurs in his Journals for 1855, when he
writes of him,"A wise man, simple, superior to display, and drops the best
‘things as quietly as the least." 7. A year later, speaking of Alcott's
literary ability, he writes thus: ”I have read with interest Mr..Alcott's
Journals in Ms. for 1855. He has attained at least to a perfectly simple
and elegant utterance. There is no inflation and no'cramp in his writings.

I complained that therahid not seem.to be quite that facility of organization

which we expect in the man of genius and which is to interlace his work with

5. Robert M; Gay, Ralph'Waldo Emerson, p. 152.

 

6. BrOOkS, OE. Oito, P. 2730

7. Journals, III, 559.

120.

all nature by radiating upon all. But the sincerity of his speculation is a
better merit. This is no theory of a monthh’ standing, no peg to hang fine
things on; no sham enthusiasm; no cant; but his hearty faith and study by
night and day .... And whatever defects as fine writers such men may have,

it is because colossal foundations are not for summer-houses, but for temples
and cities. But come again a hundred years hence, and compare Alcott with his
little critics." 8. And in 1857 he writes of Alcott, "I could see plainly /
that I conversed with the most extraordinary man and the highest genius of

the time. He is a Man. He is erect, he sees .... wonderful is his vision;

the steadiness and scope of his eye at once rebukes all before it, and we

9.

little men creep about ashamed." /’Of‘Alcott's Recorded Conversations
10. '
Emerson says, nIt is an admirmale piece Bull of profound anticipations."

 

Shortly afterwards he writes,"They say of Alcott, and I have sometimes
assented, thht he is one-toned-and hearkens with no interest to books or
conversations out of the scope of his one commanding idea. Maybe so, but
very different is his eentralism from that of vulgar monomaniacs, for he

, J
looks with wise love at all real facts, at street faces, at the farmer ...." ll.
Emerson did not judge Alcott's writings very severely, because he believed that
"here was a new mind and it was welcome to a new style." ;2. This same year,
1857, Emerson also mentions.A1cott in letters to both Carlyle and Fuller.
To Carlyle he says only,VA mapgnamed Bronson.Alcott is great and one of the

. i

jewels'we have to show you." His letter to Margaret Fuller is much more

detailed. He'writes: "Hr. Alcott is the great man, and Miss Fuller has not

 

8. Journals, IV, 61 " b2.
9. Journals, IV, 257!
10.Journals, IV, 1149.

11. Journals, IV, h05./'

j

12. Journals, IV, hb2.1;

0'

15. The Correspondence of Agarlyle and_Emerson,_p. 122.

 

 

121.

seen him. His book does him no justice,and I do not like to see it. I- had

not fronted him for a good while, and was willing to revise my opinion.

But he has more of the godlike than any man I have ever seen, and his
presence rebukes, and threatens, and raises. He _i_s a teacher. I shall dismiss
for the future all anxiety about his success. If he cannot make intelligent
men feel the presence of superior nature, the worse for them; I can never
doubt him. His ideal is beheld with such unrivalled distinction that he is
not only justified but necessitated to condemn and to seek to upheave the

vast actual, and cleanse the world." 3714. By this time Ehnerson had come to
the conclusion that Alcott could not write, but he still clung to the high
opinion he held of Alcott as a speaker. In 1839, in a letter to Carlyle,

he says: "A man named Bronson Alcott is a majestic soul, with whom conversation
is possible. He is capable of truth, and gives me the same glad astonishment
that he shinuld exist that the world does." 15. The following year, in another
letter, we read, "Bronson Alcott, who is a great man if he cannot write well,
has come to Concord .... I see that some of the Education people in England
have a school called 'Alcott House' after my friend. At home here he is des-
pised and rejected of men as‘ much as was ever Pestalozzi. Eat the creature
thinks and talks, and I am glad and proud of my neighbor." 1 . Two years
later, in 181.2, Alcott was sent to England, by Emerson and some of his other

friends, to meet these "Education people,"

and Emerson was also very anxious
to have him meet Carlyle and Sterling. To Sterling he wrote, "About this time,
or perhaps a few weeks later, we shall send you a large piece of spiritual

New England, in the shape of A. Bronson Alcott, whom you must not fail to

‘

114.. James Elliot Cabot, A liemoir of Ralph Waldo E:..erson, p. 279.

 

15. The Correspondence of Emerson and Sterling, pp. 51 - 52.

16. Ibid,.pp. 285 e 286.

122.

see if you can compass it. A man who cannot write, but whose conversation
is unrivalled in its way; such insight, such pure intellectual play, and
such revolutionary impulses of thought .... Since Plate'and Plotinus we
have not had his like." 17. At the same time he wrote to Carlyle, saying,
"Bronson.Alcott will probably go to London in about a month, and him I
shall surely send to you, hoping to atone by his great nature for many
smaller ones that have craved to see you." 18. Unfortunately, Carlyle
could not really appreciate Alcott; Emerson was very sorry that this was
the case, and he wrote again to Q_arlyle, saying, "As for Alcott, you
have discharged your conscience of him manfully and knightly .... He is a
great man.and was made for what is greatest, but now I fear that he has
already touched what best he can, and through his more than a prophet's
egotism, and the absence of all useful reconciling talents, will bring
nothing to pass, and.he but a voice in the wilderness. As you do not seem
to have seen in him his pure and noble intellect, I fear that itpies under
some new and denser clouds." 19. Alcott returned from England in 18h2 with
his two English ffiends, wright and Lane, and they set up their great new
communistic farm. known as "Fruitiands."

Emerson's longest comment on.Alcott appears in his Journals in 18h2
while.Alcott's experiment at "Fruitlands" was at its height. He writes:
"He is a man of ideas, a man of faith .... His social nature and his taste
for beauty and magnificence will betray him.into tolerance and indulgence,
even, to men and to magnificence, but a statute or a practice he is con-

demned to measure by its essential wisdom or folly. He delights in speculation,

in nothing so much, and is very well endowed and weaponed for that work with

17. The Correspondence of Emerson andetsglisg, pp. 51 - 52.

 

18. The Correspondence of Carlyle and Hmersqs, I, 500.

 

l9. Ibid,,II, 1h.

123.

a copious, accurate and elegant vocabulary; I may say poetic; so that,I

know no man who speaks such good English as he, and is so inventive withal.
He speaks truth truly; orfihe expression is adequate. Yet he knows only this
one language. He hardly needs an antagonist, - he needs only an intelligent
ear. Where he is greeted by loving and intelligent persons, his discourse
soars to a wonderful height, so regular, so lucid, so playful, so new and

and disdainful of all boundaries of tradition and eXperience, that the
hearers seem no longer to have bodies or material gravity, but almost they
can:mount into the air at pleasure, or leap at one bound out of this.solar
system. I say this of his speech exclusively for when he atteipts to write,
he loses, in my judgment, all his power, and I derive more pain than pleasure
fram the perusal .... He seems to think all literature is gOOd or bad as it
approaches colloquy, which is its perfection .... He so swiftly and natural-
ly plants himself on the moral sentiment in any conversation, unless he be a
saint as Jones Very was .... It must be conceded that it is speculation which
he loves, and not action. Therefore he dissatisifes everybody and disgusts
many .... Another circumstance marks this extreme love of speculation. He
carries all his Opinions and all his condition and manner of life in.his hand,
and, whilst you talk with him, it is plain he has put out no roots, but is an
air - plant, which can readily and without any ill consequence be trans-
ported to any place .... If it is so with his way of living, much.more so is
it with his opinions. He never remembers. He never aflfirms anything today
because he has affirmed it before .... His vice, an intellectual vice, grew
out of this constitution, and was that to which almost all spiritualists

have been liable, - a certain brooding on the private thought which produces

monotony in the conversation, and egotism.in the character .... Alcott sees

 

12h.

the law of men truer and farther than any one ever did. Unhappily, his
conversation never loses sight of his own personality. He never quotes;
he never refers; his only illustration is his own biography. So will it
be alwaysi'he poet, rapt into future ties or into deeps of nature admired
for themselves, lost in their law, cheers us with a lively charm; but this
noble genius discredits genius to me. I do not want any more such persons
to exist." 20.

The next year, in 1815, thereon says of him, "Alcott came, the
magnificent dreamer, brooding as ever .... heedless that he had been
uniformly rejected by every class to whom he had addressed himself, and
yet just as sanguine and vast as ever;- the most cogent example of that
drop too much which Nature adds to each man's peculiarity. To himself,
he seems the only realist.“ 21. .

When Alcott's "Fruitlands." experiment failed and public Opinion
was so against him, Emerson writes,“7ery sad, indeed, to see this half-
god driven to the wall .... Very tedious and prosing and egotistical and
narrow he is, but a profound insight, a Power, a majestical man .... I feel
his statement to be partial and to have fatal omissions, but I think I shall
never attempt to set him right any more. It is not for me to answer him;
though I feel the limitations and exaggerations of his picture, and the
wearisome personalities. His statement proves too much one Alcott has been

‘

writing poetry, he says, all winter. I fear there is nothing in it for me.
22.

His overpowering personality destroys all poetic faoul ." A year later

he adds, "Alcott is unlimited and unballasted .... a pail of which the

 

20. Journals; VI, 170 - 178.
21. Journals, VI, LL72.

22. Journals, VI, 505 - 505.

125.
25.

botton is taken out,"

In 18h5, speaking again if Alcott's literary ability, he says,
"I know what I shall find if Alcott brings me manuscripts. I shall have
a Salisbury plain full of bases of pyramids, to each Of which I am.to
build an apex." 2A. A similar comment appears in lahe when he writes,
“He looks at everything in larger angles than any other, and, by good
right, should the the greatest man. But here comes in another trait:
it is found, though his angles are Of so generous contents, the lines
do not meet; the apex is not quite defined, We must allow for the re-
fraction of the lens, but it is the best instrument I have ever met
with." 25. Shortly afterwards he adds, “Alcott is a man Of unquestionable
genius, yet no doctrine Or sentence or word or action of his which is
excellent can be detached or quoted." 26.

The following passage on.Alcott seemed to me to be particularly
expressive: “Alcott is like a slate pencil which has a sponge tied to the
other end,and, as the point Of the pencil draws lines, the sponge follows as
fast and erases them. He talks high and wide, and expresses himself very
happily, and forgets all he has said. If a skillful operator could introduce
a lancet and never the sponge, Alcott would be the prince Of writers." 27.
Emerson is admitting his own obligation to Alcott when he says, "It were
too much to say that the Platonic world I ndght have learned to treat as a
cdoudpland, had I not known.Alcott, who is a native If that country, yet

28.
I will say that he makes it as solid as massachusetts to me...", and

 

23. Journals, VII, 50.
2’4. Journals, VII, 506. "
25. Cabot, Op. cit., I, 280.

20. Journals, VII, 525.

 

27. Journals, VIII, 70.

again when.he adds, "The comfort of Alcott's mind is the connection inn
which he sees whatever he sees .... I do not knoW'where to find in min
or books, a mind so valuable to faith. His own invariable faith inspires
faith in others." 29.

Emerson's comments on.Alcott cover a period of about forty years. In
one of his later comments, in 1881, he wrote the following; "And our Alcott
(what a fruit of Connecticut) has only just missed being a seraph. A little
English finish and articulation to his potencies, and he would have compared
with the greatest." 30. The next year, 1862, he says of Alcott as a writer,
"Of Alcott, the whim of writing is a false instinst, like Goethe's for
sculpture, over which both of them lost much good time." 31. Emerson's last
comment appears in 1865 when he wrotes, "When I go to talkxnith Alcott it is
not so mrch to get his thoughts a: to watch myself under his influence. He
excites me and I think freely." B. There are not many references to Alcott
in any of Emerson's essays, except in the few instances where he borrows
sentences from the.£22?§§l§3 However, there is a good estimate of Alcott
in his essay, "Life and Letters in New England." he is referring to.Aleott
when he says,"With them.[the Transcendentalists] was always one'well-known
form, a pure idealist, not at all a man of letters, nor of any practical
talent nor a writer of books; a man quite too cold and contenplative for the
alliances of friendship, with rare simplicity and grandeur of perception,

who read Plato as an equal, and inspired his companions only in proportion

as they were intellectual, whilst the man of talent complained of the want

 

29. Journals, IX, 55.
50. Journals, IX, Bub.
51. Journals, IX, h57.

320 Journals, X, 560

127.

53.
of point." .Another summary of his Opinion of Alcott was found in a

scrap marked "Influences? Emerson wrttes, "we have seen an intellectual
torso, without hands or feet, without any organ whereby to reproduce his
thought in any form of art whatever.... and only working by presence and
supreme intelligence, as a test and standard of other minds. Such I call
not so much men as Influences .... Perhaps the office offihese is highest
of all in the great society of souls." 5b~

On the whole, Emerson's criticism of Bronson.Alcott is very just and
is consistent with his theory of literature. He admired Alcott for his
spiritual insight and intuition, but he also realized that Alcott's extreme
mysticismlled him.into eccentricities and egotism. He knew that Alcott could
not write, but he had a very high Opinion of his powers of discourse, al-
though he could not believe, as Alcott did, that talking was a higher art
than writing. He admired.Alcott's insistence on truth and moral sentiment,
but at the same time he objected to his extreme impracticality, and to his
shifting Opinions which approached jesuitry. Emerson admitted that he owed

a debt to Alcott for exciting his own mental faculties and for helping him

to understand and appreciate Plato.

 

33. Lectures and Biographical Sketches, WOrks, X, 3A1 - 5&2.

3h. Cabot, Op. cit., 281.

128 .

VIII .

FEESRSON'S CRITICISM OF THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS.

Emerson was both a transcendental critic and a critic of trans-
cendentalism. Emerson was a Transcendentalist himself and for a time was
leader of the movement in New England. However, although he was at the
heart of the movement, he was also able to look at the whole movement
and at its exponents objectively and critically. The best expression of
Enerson's attitude toward Transcendentalism as a whole appears in his
lecture "The Transcendentalist", which he first read in 18142. He defines
Transcendentalism as "Idealism as it appears in 18142," 1. and he goes on
to say that "The Transcendentalist adOpts the whole connection of spirit-
ual doctrine. He believes in miracle, in the perpetual Openness of the
human mind to new influx of light and power; he believes in inSpiration
and in ecstasy." 2. Emerson was very Optimistic about the vdue and
significance Of Transcendentalism to America, for he says, "There is
ndpure Transcendentalist, yet the tendency to respect the intentions
and to give them, at least in our creed, all authority over our ex-
perience, has deeply colored the conversation and poetry of the present
day; and the history of genius and of religion in these times, though
impure, and as yet not incarnated in any powerful individual, will be the
history Of this tendency." 3. Emerson was broad-minded and just in his"

estimte Of the movement, however, because he saw and admitted the oc-

centricities and vagaries that the Transcendentalists were often led into.

 

1. Nature, Addresses, Lectures, Torks, I, 550.
2. Works, I, 3350

5. Works, I, BAD.

129.

He says, "I say tendency, not realization. Our virtue totters and trips,7
does not yet walk firmly. Its representations are austere; they preach and
denounce; their rectitude is not yet a grace. They are still liable to

that slight taint of burlesque which incur strange world attaches to the
zealot .... There is, no doubt, a great deal of well-founded Objection

to be spoken or felt against the sayings and doings of this class, some

of whose traits we have selected; no doubt they will lay themselves dpen

to criticismland lampOOns, and as ridiculous stories will be told of them

as of any. There will be cant and pretension; there will be subtility and
moonshine. These persons are of unequal strength, and do not all prosper." A.
Emerson's last estimate of the Transcendentalists as a group is very favor-
hble, because to him their high aim.and purpose was ample recompense for the
'weaknesses in the practice. He concludes, "But the thoughts which these few
hermdts strove to proclaim.by silence as well as by speech, not only by
what they did, but by what they forbore to do, shall abide in beauty and
strength ...." .

Emerson's Transcendentalists included Bronson Alcott, Charles Newcomb,
Frederic Henry Hedge, Orestes Brownson, Theodore Parker, Jones Very,
Elizabeth Peabody and Margaret Fuller. Miss Fuller's relations with Emerson
were so peculiar and his comments on her are so numerous that, like Alcott,
she requires a separate chapter. There were, of course, many other Taans-
cendentalists, some of whom were of more actual importance to the movement

than Emerson’s group. However, this select group of a half-dozen really

. represents almost all of the phases Of Transcendentalism; their interests

 

ht Werks, I, 555 - 556.

5. WOrks, I, 559.

150.

range from critical to theological to mystical. The Transcendentalists u
not included in this list are omitted either because they cannot rightly
be regarded as men of letters or because Emerson.himself failed to come

ment on them.

One Of the outstanding Transcendentalists in Emerson's Opinion
was Charles Newcomb, who is entirely unknown today. Although Newcomb is
a very minor figure in the field of American letters, Emerson was very fond
of him and devoted a great deal Of space to him in his Journals: Newcomb dad
a strange, secret life, and Van Wyck Brooks speaks Of him.as the "Providence
mystic.", 6. Newcomb was for a time a member of the Brook Farm community,
where he seems to have been rather influential. He wrote, "The Two Dolons"
for the Egg}: and Emerson liked Newcomb's private journal so well that he
transcribed a great deal of it in order that he would have a copy of it if
Newcomb ever destroyed the originals.

Emerson gives a brief sketch of Newcomb in his essay "Life and Letters
in New England." He writes the following about Newcomb in connection.with his
remdniscences of the Brook Farm experiment; "I recall one youth of the subtlest
mind, I believe I must say the subtlest Observer and diviner of character I
ever met, living, reading, writing, talking there, perhaps as long as the
colony held together; his mind fed and overflowed by whatever is exalted in
genius, whether in Poetry or Art, in Drama or Music ...." 7. Newcomb is
mentioned very frequently in Emerson's Jguspals, but the following few ex-
cerpts will be sufficient to shOW'Emerson's Opinion of him. Ezerson's
first reference to Newcomb appears in 18h2 when he writes, ”In Providence

I found Charles hewcomb, who made me happy by his conversation and his read-

 

6. Van l‘fyck Brooks, The Flowering of hexvpngilbandfl, 2&5.

 

7. Lectures and Biographical Sketches, Eorks, K, 582.

 

151.

3.
ing Of his tales." His best andpongest criticism was written seven ,7

years later, in 18h9. At this time he says: "Charles newcomb came, but

we greW'incapable of events and influences. He, too, turns the conversation,
if I try a general remark. His manuscripts which he brought me were six
years old, but full of subtle genius. Intense solitude appears in every
sentence. Theyzire soliloquies, with abridged stenographic wit and elo-
quence .... He is Brahmin existing to little use, if prayer and beauty

are not that .... But though CharleS's mind is unsounded, and the walls

taken out, so that he seems Open to Nature, yet he does not accumulate his

9.

wisdom into any amount of thought, rarely arrives at a result ...."

The following year he speaks of Newcomb as "the unique, inspired, wasted
genius." 10. Emerson's final.estimate of Newcomb is more favorable,
however, for he writes, "Cheering amidst all this trifle was the reading
of Charles newcomb's letters: the golden age came again, the true youth,
the true heroism, the future, the ideal .... Only of Charles I would give
much to know how it all lies in his mind; I would know his inmost sincerity;
know'what reverses he makes when he talks divinely." 11. Thus we see that
Emerson admired Newcomb for his inner genius and because be believed some of
Newcomb's writings had real merit. HOwever, like.Alcott and Very, Newcomb was
too much of a mystic for Emerson. Newcomb's genius was all inward; he could
not, much to Emerson's regret, produce anything outwardly constructive.

Theodore Parker was not only one of the most important of the Trans-

cendentalists, but he was also one of the greatest ministers that America

 

 

8. Journal§,'VII, 182.
9. Journal§,'VIII, OO - bl.
10.JOurnal§, VIII, 15h.

131.

’)

09
ing of his tales." His best andpongest criticism was written seven ,

years later, in 18h9. At this time he says: "Charles hewcomb came, but

we greW'incapable of events and influences. He, too, turns the conversation,
if I try a general remark. His manuscripts which he brought me were six
years old, but full of subtle genius. Intense solitude appears in every
sentence. Theyzire soliloquies, with abridged stenographic wit and elo-
quence .... He is Brahmin existing to little use, if prayer and beauty

are not that .... But though Charles's mind is unsounded, and the walls

taken out, so that he seems open to Nature, yet he does not accumulate his

9.

wisdom into any amount of thought, rarely arrives at a result ...."

The following year he speaks of Neweomb as "the unique, inspired, wasted
genius." 10. Emerson's final.estimate of Newcomb is more favorable,
however, for he writes, "Cheering amidst all this trifle was the reading
of Charles Neweomb's letters: the golden age came again, the true youth,
the true heroism, the future, the ideal .... Only of Charles I would give
much to knOW’hOW it all lies in his mind; I would know his inmost sincerity;
know'what reverses he makes when he talks divinely." 11. Thus we see that
Emerson admired Newcomb for his inner genius and because be believed some of
Newcomb's writings had real merit. However, like.Alcott and Very, Newcomb was
too much of a mystic for Emerson. Newcomb's genius was all inward; he could
not,:much to Emerson's regret, produce anything outwardly constructive.

Theodore Parker wasznot only one of the most important of the Trans-

cendentalists but he was also one of the -reatest ministers that America
9 8

 

 

 

”... p—Q» .‘..—

8. Journal§,'VII, 102.
9. Journal§,'VIII, 60 - 61.
lO.Journai§, VIII , 15h.

11.JournalsL‘VIII, 395.

132.

ever produced . Parker's own literary accomplishments are not very
significant, but he was an important influence on all New England.
Parrington gives a good estimate of him in the following passage:

"Theodore Parker became the embodiment and epitome of the how England
Renaissance. More completely perhaps than any other representative,

he gathered up and expressed the major revolutionary impulses of his time
and werld; the idealistic theism implicit in the Unitarian reaction from
Calvinism; the transcendental individualism latent in the doctrine of
divine immanence; and the passion for righteousness ...." 12. Parker was

an aggressive reformer, and his bitter attacks on contemporary conditions
made him feared and hated. His greatest pleas were for social justice and
for the abolition of slavery. Harold Clarke Goddard says that transcendental-
ism.tends to "pass from its early sentimental and romantic stage into a
phase of social or political activity." 10’ Parker represents the practical
side of transcendentalism as opposed to the mystical side embodied in Newt
comb, Alcott, and Very. Emerson and Parker were both members of the Trans-
cendental Club. Parker was a faithful contributor to the Qial,'both before

and during Emerson's editorship. Later, when Parker became editor of the

lassachusetts Quarterly Review, Emerson contributed a few articles to his

 

magazine. Emerson and Parker were thus rather closely associated over a long
period of years..A1though much of Parker's literary output was too polemic
to live long, he did write some very good papers for the Qialj_Emerson ad-
ndtted that some of the numbers of the Qial_had :ltremendous circulation

just because they contahnnlarticles by Parker."

Emerson's first comment on Parker appears in his JOurnals for 18h2

 

 

l2. Vernon_Leuis Parrington, Main Currents in.American Thought,_II, h15 - bio.
13. Cambridge History of American Literature, I, 5h5.

1h. Lectures and Biographical Sketches, works, X, Ebb,

—7-'
“1
/9°

when he says, "T.P. has beautiful fangs, and the whole amphitheatre

likes to see him worry and tear his victims." 15. In spite of the

great differences in their teaperaments, these two men admired each

other greatly. In 1852 Theodore Parker dedicated his EQEE’EEEEQREEf

Religion to Emerson with a very laudatory foreword, and in return Emerson

wrote a letter of appreciation to Parker. he said, "I read the largest

part of it with good heed. I find in it all the traits which are making

your discourses material to the history of Liassachusetts, the realism,

the power of local and homely illustration, the courage and vigor of

treatment, and the masterly sarcasm, - now naked, now veiled, - and I

think with a marked growth in power and coacervation - shall I say? - of

statement. To be sure, I am in the moment thinking of speeches out of

this book as well as in it. Well, you may give the timeéto come the

means of knowing how the lamp was fed, which they are to thank you that

they found burning .... we should all thank the rightkoldier, whom God

gave strength and will to fight for him the battle of the day." 16.

Enerson admitted the great gulf that lay between him and Parker, for in his

Journals for 1868 he says,"‘l‘heodore Parker has filled up all his years and

days and hours; a son of the energy of how England, restless, eager, manly,

I brave, early old, contuizacious, clever. I can well praise him at a distance
1

for our minds and methods were unlike -- few peeple more unlike." *7. In

his essay on "Eloquence" Emerson is referring to Parker when he says,

"His hard head went through, in childhood, the drill of Calvinism, so that

he stands in the New England assembly a purer bit of New England than any,

15. Journals, VI, 2L7.

16. John ‘.’Ieiss, Life and Correspondence of TheodoreflParker, II, 115.

 

l7. Journal‘s, IX, 271.

13h4

and flings his sarcasms right and left. He has not only the documents in
his pocket to answer all cavils and to prove all his positions, but he
has the eternal reason in his head." 18. Emerson‘s best estimate of
Parker occurs in his essay, "Life and Letters in New England." He writes:
"Theodore Parker was our Savanorola, an excellent scholar, in frank and
affectionate communication with the best minds of his day, yet the tribune
of the people, and the stout Reformer to urge and defend every cause of
humanity with and for humblest of mankind. He was no artist. Lhat he said
was mere fact, almost offended you , so bald and detached; little cared he.
0
He stood altogether for practical truth ...." 1}. One other comment of
,interest appears in 185b.in a letter to the English.poet Clough when.Emerson
writes, "Summer and Theodore Parker are our saints." 20.

On the whole, Bmerson.admired Parker tremendously. He valued Parker's
great learning, his reason, and his practicality. I think Parker's practical
transcendentalism found much more favor in Emerson's sight than the mysticism
of Alcott, Very, and Newcomb. Emerson was also in sympathy for the most
part with Parker's ideas of social reform, particularly on the Slavery
question. However, Emerson could not understand Parker's intensity and
zeal. Parker's fiery temperament was the antithesis of Emerson's cold
intellectuality, and Emerson with his melIOW'philosophy could not fer-
give Parker for his bitter vindictiveness.

Orestes Brownson is another Transcendentalist Whom fimerson criticizes

in his Journals. Brownson remained faithful to Transcendentalism although

 

..- .—.-_.- ....“

 

18. Society and Solitude, Eprks, VII, 96.

 

l9. Lectures and Biographical Sketches,‘Works, X, Ebb.

 

20. The Emerson — Clpugh Letters, no. 2h.

 

135-

his religious views underwent many changes. He started out as a Pres-
byterian minister in 1822, became a Universalist, and then a Unitarian.

In 1838, he established and edited the Boston_guarter1ypReview:_In lth,

 

when Browneon turned Catholic, this periodical became Brownson's Quarterly.

 

Brownson'was a staunch Democrat and a promoter of numerous socialialiStic
schemes designed to improve the conditions of the laboring class. After his
last conversion in lShh he became an ardent polemicist on the side of
Catholicism. Like Parker and Emerson, he belonged to the Transcendental
Club, and he was also a contributor to the Bial. This leads one to be-
lieve that Emerson knew Brownson better than his slight comments in his
Journals would indicate. Brownson also defended Emerson's ”Divinity School
Address" of 1838 after Andrews Norton's attack on it. Besides his articles

for the various periodicals, Brownson also wrote religious, political,

..
x

philosophical, and auto-biographical books. Van.hyck Brooks describes him

in the following words: "Something more than a journalist, something less
21.

than a sage, Brownson was a Catholic Theodore Parker."

Emerson himself makes only two remarks about Brownson, both of them

"Tn

Brownson never will stOp and listen, neither
he
C—o

in conversation, but what is more, not in solitude." His only other

in the year 18h2. He says,

reference to him is an incidental remark which includes Brownson in a

larger group. He says: "The young people, like Brownson, Channing, Greene,

—~

Elizabeth Peabody, and possibly Bancroft, think that the vice of the age
is to exaggerate individualism, and they adopt the word l'humanits from
LeRoux, and go for 'the race.‘ Hence the Phalanx, Owenism, Simonism, the

23.
Canmunities ."

21. BrOOkS, 02. 01h. F. 2490

22. Journals, VI, 297.

25. Journals, VI, 513:31b,

Like Parker, Brownson was too intense, too polemical, too uncompromising,
for Emerson. He was too much the social reformer, and Emerson was not as
much in sympathy with Brownson's Catholicism and socialism as he was with
Parker's abolition movement.

Elizabeth Peabody is a minor figure in American literature, but she is
worth mentioning not only because she herself was a Transcendentalist but
because of her relations with the more important Transcendentalists and
with other note-worthy writers of that period. Elizabeth Peabody v.5 first
secretary to Dr. Channing; then she became an assittant to Alcott in his
Temple School, and from the latter experience she wrote a journal called

U

the Record ofa.School. She also wrote many text-books and A Last Evening

 

with.alcott. Her main interests lay in the field of child education, and
she is sometimes called "the grandmother of the kindergarten." hiss Peabody
was very active in the Transcendental movement; she belonged to the Trans-
cendental Club, she contributed to the Bial and helped to edit and print it,
and in 1859 she started a transcendental periodical of her own, Aesthetic
.Pquis, which failed after one issue. She is important because she in-
troduced Hawthorne to her literary friends, and because her book Shep be-
came the Boston rendezvous for the rising young intellectuals, such as

9!.
Emerson, Alcott, and Hedge. Although Emerson.must have known Miss Peabody

rather well he makes onl two comments on her. In 1875 he writes "I read
9 J 9

with great delight the Reeordflof a School. It aims all the time to Show

 

the symbolical character of all things to the children, and it is alleged,
f)!“
6...).

and I doubt not truly, that the children take the thought with delight."

 

2h. Brooks, 0 . cit., pp.228 - 229.
.JL_.___i

25. Journals, III, 509.

137.

Later, in criticizing the poetry of Ellery Channing, he says, "He breaks
faith with the reader, wants integrity. Yet for Poets it will be a better
book thana whole volume of Bryant and Campbell. kiss Peabody has beautiful
colors to sell, but her Sh0p has no attraction for house-builders and

26.
merchants; fir. Allston and Er. Cheney will probably find the way to it."

Although Frederic Henry hedge is a very important figure in New
Ehgland Transcendentalism, and although Emerson mentions his name frequent-
ly, there is remarkably little criticism of him in Emerson's writings.

Hedge went to Germany'with Bancroft, and there he became acquainted with
German idealism. Greg believes that Hedge is responsible for domesticating
this German thought and thus bringing New England Transcendentalism into

27.
being. Hedge not only furnished the philospphio background for the move-
ment, but he gave it impetus by originating the Transcendental Club. He also
contributed to the £23}, although he is chiefly noted in the field of letters
for his German translations.

Emerson's first comment on Hedge appeabs in a letter to his brother
Edward, written at the end of 1833. He says, "Henry Hedge is an unfolding
man, who has just nOW'written the best pieces that have appeared in the

28.
‘Ekaminep; one especially was a living, leaping Logos, and he may help me."
In 839 there are tum comments on Hedge in Emerson's igurnalsl In the first
he says, "If, as Hedge thinks, I overlook great facts in stating the absolute
laws of the soul; if, as he seems to represent it, the world is not a dualism,

not a bipolar unity, but is two, is Me and It, then is there the alien, the

unknown and all we have believed and chanted out of our deep instinctive hOpe

 

.— '“—-~‘——

 

2o. Journs£5,'VI, 358.

27. Henry David Gray, Emerson, p. 17

138.

29.

is a pretty dream." Later in the same year he adds, "Margaret Fuller
and Frederic henry hedge must have talent in their associates.And so they
find that they forgive many defects. They do not require simplicity. I
require genius, and, if I find that, I do not need talent; and talent with-
out genius gives me no pleasure. George Bradford's verdict on a poem or a
man I should vane more than theirs, for hedge would like Loore, and George
30.
Bradford not." ' Emerson's last comment on Hedge appears in 18h? in a
letter to Carlyle. We read, "honry hedge is a recluse but catholic scholar
in our remote Bangor, who reads German, and smokes in his solitary study
through nearly eight months of sn'w in the year, and deals ou , every
Sunday, witty apothegems to the lumber-merchants and township-owners of
Penobscot River, who have actually grown intelligen interpreters of his
riddlesby long hearkening after them .... ledye has a true and mellow heart,
31.

and I hOpe you will like him." Emerson liked Hedge because his Trans-
cendentdism was neither mystical nor zealously reforming, but he did
criticize Hedge for not accepting his own belief in dualism.

James Freeman Clarke is another figure in American letters who cannot
be entirely ignored. Clarke was one of the first Transcendentalists, and he

0

is mportant'for his influence on Parker, Charming, Alcott, and Fuller.
Clarke remained a Unitarian minister throughout his lifetime, and he preached
in Boston, in Louisville, and in Pennsylvania, although these missionary

activities interfered with his relations with the New England Transcendentalists.

He was a prolific writer and turned out reliaious books, sermons, and magazine

29. Journals, V, 206.
30. Journals,‘v, 2h8.
31. The Correspondence of Carlylepand Emerson, I, 135 - 136.

32. Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Transcendentalism in New England, p. 3h3.

 

159.

articles, including contributions to the Dial. One of Clarke's greatest
contributions to Transcendentalism came through his founding of the

western messenger in Cincinnati in 1835. This periodical shifted from

 

Unitarianism to Transcendentalism and was important as a forerunner of
the 213;. 55. Although Emerson frequently'mentions seeing Clarke, he
makes only one comment on him that is at all interesting .He says, "A few
clergyman, like Hedge, and Clarke, retain tLe traditions, but they never
mention them to me, and, if they travelled in France, England, or Italy,
'would leave them locked up in the same closet with their sermons at home,
and if they did notxeturn would never think to send for them." 94.
One of the most interesting of the Transcendentalists is Jones Very,
the mystic. He was committed to the McLean Asylum for a time, although
Emerson and many of the other Transcendentalists did not believe he was
really insane. Very believed that everything he wrote was communicated to
him by the Holy Ghost, and he would therefore never change a word of it.
Van'Wyck Brooks says that he also believed that he had risen from the dead
and was beyond the physical world. 55. Very graduated from.Harvard with
distinction in 1836; for a while he tutored Thoreau in Greek and then he
entered the Divinity School where he became a mystic. Emerson met Very in
1833, and he at first believed he was one of the messengers of the new era.56.
After Emerson read Very's Bowdoin senior essay showing that Shakespeare’s
genius was all due to the Holy Ghost, he wrote a letter to his friend furness,

37.

saying, "Very might be insane but his critique certainly is not."

33. Clarence Gehdes, The Periodicals of.kmerican Transcendentalism, pp.lO — 18.

 

35. Brooks, op. cit., p. 201..

36. Carlos Baker, "Emerson and Jones Very,"_§ew'England Quarterl , march,l93h,p.91.

 

57. Ibid.;_Po 920

1140.

In the same year, 1838, he wrote in his Journals referring to him as a
"monotone" and saying, "Jones Very came hither, two days since, and gave
occasion to many thoughts on his peculiar state of mind and his relation
to society. His position accuses society as much as society names it false and
morbid; and much of his discourse concerning society, the church, and the
38.

college was perfectly just." A week later he writes the following pas-
sage to Hargaret Fuller: "Very has been here lately, and stayed a few days;
confounding us all with the question whether he was insane. At first sight
and speech you would certainly pronounce him so. Talk with him a few hours
and you will think all insane but he. Honomania or monosania, he is very a
remarkable person; and though his mind is not in a permanent state, he is

59.
a treasure of a companion and I had with him most memorable conversations."
.t this same time he comments in his Journal on Very's doctrine of will-less
submission. Very tried to convert Emerson to this belief and to warn him
against a life of self-direction and intellect. Emerson says,"The institutions,
the cities which men have built look to him like a huge blot of ink ....
He would obey, obey. he is not disposed to attack religious and charities,
though false .... He thinks me covetous in my hold of truth, of seeing truth
separate, and of receiving or taking it, instead of merely obeying. Will is
to him all, as to me, Truth, He is sensible in me of a little colder air
than be breathes .... He has nothing to do with time because he obeys ....
and he is gone into the multitude as solitary as Jesus. In dismissing him

I seem to have discharged an arrow into the heart of society. Whenever that

young enthusiast goes he will astonish and disconcert men by dividing for

—---

 

38. Journals, V, 98 " 990

39. Cabot. 32:313.. 319 - 550.

lhl.

MO.
them the cloud that covers the profound gulf that is in man." Again

he writes, "The great distinction between talkers like Reed and Very

and takers like walker and Ripley, is, that one class speaks ab intra,

and the other class, ab extra. It is of no use to preach to me ab extra." bl.
The following year,1839, Emerson edited a volume of Jones Very's

verses and had it published. Although Very believed his inspiration from the

Holy Ghost was infallible, Emerson did not agree with him.and he selected

and combined and revised Very's verses before publishing them. In the fore-

word to this little volunm Emerson speaks of Very as being "serene, intelligent,

and true" and he adds, "He gives me pleasure, and much relief after all I

had heard concerning him." . Although Emerson does not comment specifical-

ly on Very's poetry in his Jounnalg, his very high opinion of this volume of

verse is revealed in a review he wrote for the 233}! To us today who are not

acquainted with Veny's poetry Emerson's estimate may seem inordinately high.

However, Van.hyck Brooks gives a similar opinion, for he says, "Henotones

in silver-grey, sober as a dove's breast, they were true poems, none the less.

They had a sort of solemn incandesence. They were like frosted orbs of electric

light. One caught their dim glow of religious feeling three generations later,

partly thanks to Emerson's revisions; for no one knew better than he the imp

portance of skill." he. There, is, therefore, justification for Emerson's

very favorable review of Very's "Essays and Poems." Emerson says: "This

little volume would have received an<earlier notice, if we had been at all

careful to proclaim our favorite books. The genius of this book is religious,

and reaches an.extraordinary depth of sentiment. The author, plainly a man

‘.‘

ho. Journalsz V, 10b.- 106.
Al. Journals, V, 1A2.
h2. Baker, op. cit., p. 9h.

ha. BrOOkS’ 0209223! F. 205.

of a pure and kindly temper, casts himself into the state of a high and
transcendental obedience to the inward Spirit .... In this enthusiasm

he writes most of these verses, which rather flow through him than from

him. There is no composition, no elaboration, no artifice in the structure
of the rhyme, no.variety in the imagery; in short, no pretension to literary
merit, for this would be a departure from his singleness, and followed by
loss of insight. He is not at liberty even to correct these unpremeditated
poems for the press .... With the exception of the few first poems, which
appear to be of an earlier date, all these verses bear the unquestionable
stamp of grandeur. Theyware the breathings of an entranced devotion ....
They are as sincere a litany as the Hebrew songs of David or Isaiah, and
only less than they because indebted to the Hebrew muse for their tone and
genius. This makes the singularity of the book, namely, that so pure an
utterance of the most domestic and primitive of all sentiments should in
this age of revolt and experiment use once more the pepular religious
language, and so slow itself secondary and morbid. These sonnets have little
tange of tepics, no extent of observations, no playfulness; there is even

a certain torpidity in the concluding lines of some of them, which reminds
one of church hymns; but, whilst they flew with great sweetness, they have
the sublime unity of the Decalogue or the Code of Menu, and if as monotonous,
yet are they almost as pure as the sounds of surrounding Nature." .Emerson
sent Carlyle a copy of Very's poems, saying, "I believe I shall also make
Brown the bearer of a little book written by a young friend of mine in a
very peculiar frame of mind,- thought by most persons tp be Lad,- and of

the publication of ‘which I took charge .... When you see Sterling, show him

hh. Nature, Addresses, Dial Papers, werks, hational Library Edition, IV,

 

532 - 555.

1);}.
L15 0
these poems, and ask him if they have not a grandeur."
Carlos Baker believes that the friendship between Emerson and Very
came to an end shortly after the publication of these verses. Very's
psychical exultation was beginning to subside, and Emerson was able to

in").
look at him more objectively, more questioningly. Emerson writes,

"Here is Simeon the Stylite, or John of Patmos in the shape of Jones

Very, religion for religion'ssake, religion divorced, detached from man,
from the world, from science and art; grim, unmarried, insulated, accusing;
yet true in itself, and speaking things in every word. The lie is in the

LL?-

detachment." Another criticism of Very appears in the Journals for

 

18h5; "Jones Very had an illumination that enabled him to excel evetybody
in wit and to see farthest in every company and quite easily to bring
the proudest to confusion; and yet 'hc could never get out of his Hebraifi-
tic phraseology and mythology, and, when all was over, still remained in
the thin porridge or cold tea of Unitarianism." ha. Although Emerson drew
away from Very in later years, he evidently kept his high opinion of Very's
verso because he included two of Very's poems in his anthology "Parnassus."
Emerson liked Very's poetry, but he early recognized Very's great
weaknesses. For one thing, Very's theory of will-less submission was in
direct Opposition to Emerson's own theory of self-reliance. Emerson admired
Very because he vms an exponent of hiqbwn belief in intuition, in spiritual

communication, but he realized that Very carried this belief in genius but

he also believed in work. Baker says that Very represented much for which

 

M5. The Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson, I, 333 - 53h.
he). Baker, 02. Cite, Pp. 95 " 960
A7. Jouzglal‘s, V, 220.

AB. Jougnals, VII, 136 - 157.

Emerson stood, although Emerson recognized it as his weaker side. Emerson

1L9 .
was Opposed to the Hindu doctrine of passivity for wtich Very stood.
Eherscn's Yankee vigor, his desire for mental freedom and action made him
critical of Very's extreme mysticism.

Thus we see that Emerson, although a Transcendentalist himself, did
not hesitate to criticize Transcendentalism both as a general movement and
and as it was embodied in many of its exponents. Emerson was too much the
shrewd Yankee to believe in carrying Transcendentalism.into mysticism.as
Very,.Alcott, and hemeoxb did. On the other hand Emerson was too coldly
intellectual to appreciate the reforming ardor and intensity of Parker,
Peabody, and Brownson on the more utilitarian side of Transcendentalism.
Emerson believed a happy medium.between mysticism and practical action,
and he himself belongs on this middle ground. however, Emerson did re-

covnize the value of Transcendentalism in in'ectins a new and much-needed
b 0

element into American literature.

 

_ .— _—--—- ——-.-——.-— -.-

1+9. Baker, OE. Citfio, P. 90.

111.5.

ELERSLN'S CRITICISM OF LARGARET FULLER.

hargaret Fuller, like Theodore Parker, is a representative of the
nwre practical tendencies of Transcendentalism. Her father forced her
education and the result was ill health and mental and emotional ever-
stimulation. She was one of the first feministsg and her revolt made her,
like.Alcott, the victim of much ridicule. She taught for a “mile and held

"conversations" in Boston; from lBhO to 18h2 she edited the Dial and later

 

became literary critic for Greeley's Rew'YgEk;3r£Euge. If hargaret Fuller
Ossoli had not met such an earlycieath, her reputation today as a writer
might have been quite different, for her eXperiences in Italy must have had
considerable effect on her. She is usually referred to as the critic of
Transcendentalisng but her personality was more important than any thing
she trote and her literary reputation has dwindled awn to almost nothing in
the last century. That she was a great influence in her own day cannot be
denied. Parrington says: "The written record which hargaret Fuller left is
quite inadequate to explain her contemporary reputation. In no sense an
artist, scarcely a competent craftsman, she wrote nothing that bears the
rnrk of high distinction, either in thought or style ... Yet she was vast-
ly talked about, and common reptrt makes her out to have been an extra-

1.
ordinary woman who creatively influenced those with whom she canein.contact."
In her criticism, in her social service work, and in her movement for-women's
rights, she represents the enthusiasm and practicality of Transcendentalism
which was so lacking in Very and heweonb.

Margaret Fuller's position as a literary critic is of particular interest

2.
because Emersonvvas her teacher in this field. She was not as good a

 

 

.H—‘p —-——

 

1. Vernon Louis Parrington, Main Currents in American ghought, II, £26.

 

2. George E De Mille, Literary Criticism in American, p. 128.

 

critic as Emerson because she could not write, but, like Emerson, she,has been
3.
"a liberalizing force in.hmerican literary opinion." Like Emerson, she
judged from the inside, and her belief in her own power corresponded-¢ to her
"teacher's" belief in self-reliance. ler criticism of American letters was
much like Emerson's in that she, too, objected to the materialimm and
La
imitation in our literature, and looks hopefully to the new test. Unlike
Emerson, however, she made it one of her chief purposes in life to spread
continental literature and continental culture throughout the United States
in an attempt to counteract the barren condition of our own literature
and culture. Her criticism, aided by her enthusiasm and her overpowering
personality, must have been effective. She not only succeeded in dis-
seminating European culture and literature, but Goddard speaks of her as
"one of the best equipped, most sympathetic and genuinely phiIOSOphical
5.
critics produced in America prior to 1850." Emerson himself says, "She
was here, among our anxious citizens and frivolous fashionists, as if sent
6.
to refine and polish her countrymen and announce a better day."

Emerson and hargaret Fuller had a very interesting friendship. Because
of the great differences in their temperaments, their relations were rather
peculiar. Margaret was intense, enthusiastic; Emerson was cold, intellectual.
Theynat in 1836, when LLargaret was looking for an intellectual and spiritual
guide to show her how a woman could cast off the fetters of conventionality

7.
and make her own life rich and full. Emerson wrote later, "Her extreme

plainness, - a trick of incessantly opening and shutting her eyelids,- the

nasal tene of her voice, - all repelled .... I remember that she made me

 

-.e

3. Ibid,,p. 1.

h. Van'Wyck Brooks, Ehe Flowering of new;§ngland, pp. 377 - 578.

 

51 Cambridge history of American Literature, I, 5L3.

6. Hemoirs of_Nargaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 311

 

71 Harry R. lbrfel, "Larg-ret Fuller and Ralph Laldo Bxersoa,E,K.L.§£,L,1955,P-

n+7.

laugh more than I liked .... and I fouhd something profane in the hours of
B.

amusing gossip into which she drew me." In his Journals for 1826 he makes

the following comment: "How rarely can a female mind be impersenal ....
e

/.

Lbrggrit F. by no means free with all her superiority." Although Emerson
could not give to Eargaret Fuller the intimate, warm.friendship she desired,
nevertheless she admired him tremendously and judged everyone else by him. 100
In 1837 she joined the Transcendental Club, and in 1839 she even considered
moving to Concord. At this time he wrote to her saying, "hone knows bbtter
than I, more's the pity, the gloomy inhospitality of the man; the want of
power to meet and unite with even those whom he loves in his flinty way ....
Can one be glad of an affection which he knows not how'tozeturn3 I am ....
Therefore, my friend,treat me always as a mute, not ungrateful though now
incommunicable." 11. Largaret was a frequent visitor euzthe Emerson home
during these years, and she even gave him a feW'German lessons.12. However,
in spite of her friendly advances, she still could not get close to Emerson
and her continued attempts disturbed Emerson. Across one of her letters he
even wrote,”hhat shocking familiarity." 13. And in lBhD, he writes the
following in his Journals: "I rode with Fargaret Fuller to the plains. She
taxed me, as often before, so new more explicitly, with inhospitality of
soul. She and C. would gladly be my friends, yet our intercourse is not
frinndship but literary gossip .... Hewever,often we have net, we still meet

as strangers. They feel wronged in such relation and do not wish to be

catechized and criticised. I thought of my eXperience with several persons

8. memoirs of hargaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 202.

 

9. Journals, IV, 81.
lOJYorfel, op. cit. ,p. 584.

11. James Elliot Cabor, A Memoir of Ralph waldo Emerson, I, 277.

 

l2. Journals, IV, 22 .

15.'Wirfel, cp.cit.,p,L582.

lhB.

which resembled this, and confessed that I would not converse with the

dininest person more than one week.... L. insisted that it'was no

friendship which was thus soon exhausted, and that I ought to knOW'hOW'tO be

silent and companionable at the sane moment. She would surprise me, - she
1b,.

would have me say and do what surprised myself."

In this year, 18h0, Margaret Fuller became editor of the Qial, and her
correspondence with Emerson became much more frequent. Emerson was finally
forced to explain the difficulties of their relationship in a letter to
her later that same year. He says, "I was content and happy to meet an a
human footing. a woman of sense and sentiment, with.whom one could exchange
reasonable words .... That is to me a solid good; it is the foundation of
everlasting friendship .... But tell me that I am cold or unkind, and, in my
most flowing state, I become a cake of ice .... There is a difference in
our constitution. he use a different rhetoric. It seems as if we had been
born and bred in different nations. You say you understand me wholly. You
cannot communicate yourself to me. I hear the words sometimes, but remain a

. 15%
stranger to your state of mind." The following passage, written in lBhl,‘
explains,to a great extent, the unfortunate manner in which Emerson and
Fuller reacted on each other. he writes: "I would that I could, I knew afar
off that I cannot give the lights and shades, the hopes and the outlooks that
come to me in these strange, colddwarm, attractive-repelling conversations
with Eargaret, whom I always admire , most revere when I nearest see, and
sometimes love; yet whomlI freeze and who freezes me to silence when we

it.

seem to promise to come nearest." Emerson admits their great di ferences

in temperament again in the chapters which he wrote for her memoir. He says,

"She lived at a rate so much.faster than mine, and which was violent com-

 

--“ a.”

1h. Journals, V, LEI - h52.

150 CabO-t, 1?... Gig, I, 568 - 5090

'l A Inns-nu 1 a ITT R7 _

1&9-

pared with mine .... I had always an impression that her energy was too
much a force of blood, and therefore never felt the security for her peace
which belongs to more ptrely intellectual natures .... her strength was
not my strength." 17. Later he adds; "Our moods were very different; and
I remember, that, at the very moment when I, slow and cold, had come fully
to admire her genius, and was congratulating myself on the solid good
understanding which existed between us, I was surprised with hearing it
taxed by her with superfinality and halfness. She stigmatized our friendship
as comLercial." 18. Fortunately, after 18h2, her expectations grew more

0
moderate and she finally accepted friendship on his principles” 1/.

In spite of the differences in their temperaments and the clash of
their personalities, they admired each other tremendously. Largaret Fuller
owed a great deal to Exerson's influence, and I think that she, in turn,
must have had some effect on him. he speaks of her in one place as a
"Friendly influence." 300 His influence on her is much more moticeable,
however. Her literary criticism.is almost a direct outgrowth of his because
she judges from within and bases her objections to American literature on
Emerson's grounds. of cultural dependence and materialism. She admitted that
she owed her spiritual growth to Emerson. She said, "His influence has been
more beneficial to me than that of any'American, and from.him I first learned
what is meant by the inward life." 21. At another time she adds, "he steps

22.
me from doing anything and makes me think." However, if Emerson.made her

 

--- .‘-—a . .—

 

 

l7. henoirs of Larggret Fuller Ossoli, p. 228.

 

18. Ihid,,p. 288.
19. Warfel, _c_>_p. ci_t‘._, p. 595

20. Journals, V, 292.

 

21. honcure Daniel Conway, Emerson at home and Abroad, p. 89.

——-_.__..

 

22. George'fiillis Cooke, Ralph.T@g£EngmE§g§n, p. le5.

150.

think, she seems to have had much the same effect on him. In a letter-~

to his brother tilliam, written in 1856, we read, "An accomplished lady

is staying with Lidian now, Kiss l"bargaret Fuller. She is quite an extra-

ordinary person for her apprehensiveness, her acquisitions, and her power

of conversation. It is always a great refreshment to see a very intelligent

person. It is like being set in a large place. You stretch your limbs and
23.

dilate to your utmost size."

Emerson's criticisms of Kargaret Fuller's writings are particularly
interesting because he was her teacher in the field of criticism, because
of their peculiar personal relations, and because of their association
through the.Bi§LP One of his longest comments on hisafuller appears in
his Journals for 18h} when he writes: "hargaret. A pure and purifying
mind, self purifying also, full of faith in men, and inspiring it.

Unable to find any companion great enough to receive the rich effusions

of her thought,so that her riches are still unknown and seem unknowable ....
All natures seem poor beside one so rich, which pours a stream of amber
overall Objects, clean and unclean, that . be in its path; and makes that
comely and presentable which was meanirxitself; we are taught by her plenty
how lifeless and outward we were, what poor Laplanders biurowing under the
snows of prudence and pedantry .... She has great sincerity, force, and
fluency as a writer, yet her powers of speech throw her writing into the
shade. Lhat method, what exquisite judgment, as well as energy, in the
selection of her words; what character and wisdom they convey .... heantime,
all this pathos of sentiment and riches of literature, and of invention, and

this march of character threatening to arrive presently at the shores and

plunge into the sea of Buddhism and mystic trances, consists with a boundless

 

 

H - -.——

 

23. Cabot, op. °i§EJP5274' 275.

151.

fun and drollery, with light satire, and the most entertaining conversation
2mm
in America." A few days later he adds: "I read again the verses of
hargaret<Fuller) with the new comnentary of beautiful anecdotes she had
given freshly in my mind. Of course the poems grew golden, the twig blossomed
25.

in.my hands; but a poem should not need its relation to life to explain it."

Emerson pays a fine tribute to Margaret Fuller in his Journals for 1850,
after her tragic death by shipwreck. "To the last her country proves inhospitable
to her; brave, eloquent, subtle, accomplished, devoted, constant soul; if
Nature availed in America to pive birth to many such as she, freedom and honour
and letters and art too were safe in this New'VOrld .... Her heart, which few
knew, was as great as her mind, which all knew .... I have lost her in.my
audience .... She poured a stream of amber over the endless store of private
anecdotes, of bosom histories, which her wonderful persuasion dreW'out of all
to her.‘hhen I heard that a trunk of her correspondence had been found and
opened, I felt what a panic would strike all her friends, for it was as if
a clever reporter had got underneath a confessional and agreed to report all

\

that transpired, there in' 311 Street, Oh, yes, 'hargaret and her Frtends'
rust be written but not post-haste. It is an essential line of American

20.
history."

Emerson is referring to Kiss Fuller's letters to "3.8." when he writes,
"they are full of probity, talent and wit, full of friendship, ardent affections,
full of noble aspirations. Theyezre tainted with a female mysticism.which to

me appears merely an affair of constituticn .... In our noble Kargaret her

personal feeling colors all her judgment of persons, of books, of pictures,

 

...- o -- ..—

 

 

2h..gournal§,‘VI, 3e} - 50c.
25. Journals, VI, . 369.

26. Journals,'VIIT, 115 - 119.

and of the laws of the world. This is easily felt in common women - but
when the speaker has such brilliant talent and literature as Largaret,

she gives so many fine names to these merely sensuous and subjective
objects that the hearer is long imposed upon and so precise and glittering
~nomenclature cannot be of mere muscae'volitantes, but must be of some

27.

real ornithology hitherto unknown to him." There is also an interesting

 

O)

comment on Fuller in a letter to Carlyle, written in lone: "Kargaret Fuller's
work as critic of all new books, critic of the drama, of music, and good
arts in haw York, has been honorable to her. Still this employment is not
satisfactory to me. She is full of all nobleness, and with the generosity
native to her mind and character appears to me an exotic in N w Eng and, a
foreigner from some more sultry and expansive climate. She is, I spppose, the
earliest lover of Goethe in this Country, and nobody here knows him so well.
Her love too of whatever is good in French, and specially in Italian genius,
gives her the best title to travel. In short, she is our citizen ofthe world
28.
by quite Special diploma."
much of Emerson’s best criticism of hargaret Fuller appears in the
chapters he wrote for her lenoirs. He says, "Her satire was only the
pastime and necessity of her talent, the play of superabundant animal
29.
spirits.“ Again he writes: "In the Dia1,_in July, lGhl, she wrote

./

On the whole, however, he did not have a very high Opinion of wise Fuller

as a writer. In the Zemoi"s he again says, "In short, hargaret often loses

 

— ‘.‘- -— --.

27. Journals, VIII, 1h2 - 1h7.

28. Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson, II, 115 - 116.

 

29. Lemoirs_gf kargaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 205.

 

30. Ibi'dupp. 2J3 - 2th.

herself in sentimentalism.... here was a head so creative of new colors, of
venderful gleams, - so irridescent that it piqued curiosity, and stimulated

thought, and communicated mental activity, but she was too indulgent to

51. 32.
the meteors of her fancy." He adds, "her pen was a non-conductor,"
3; .
and "In book or journal she found a very imperfect expression of herself."
In another place .he writes: "In her writing she was prone to spin her
31%-

sentences without a sure guidance, and beyond the sympathy of her readers."
Fmerson also criticized Miss Fuller for her interpretation of Nature, be-

cause it was too shallow. To Amerson, hature was a means of communication

fl

with the Over-Soul; to buller Nature was beautiful but it had no deeper

J.

seiritual significance. Emerson says, "Margaret's love of beauty made her,
of course, a votary of nature, but rather for pleasurable excitement than
with a deep poetic feeling. Kargaret made many vain attempts to describe

landscape, and, to a lover of nature, who knows that every day has new and

inimitable lights and shades, one of these descriptions is as vapid as the

raptures of a citizen arrived at his first meadow; Of course, he is charmed,
' 5;.

but, of course, he cannot tell what he sees or what pleases him."

As a final estimate of Kargaret Fuller's position in the field of

American letters, Emerson's best judgment occurs in one of his latest

Fournals. He writes: "Now; unhappily, Eargaret's writing, does not jtstify
36.
azm'such research. All that can be said is that she represents an interest-

ing hour and group of American cultivation; then that she herself was a fine,

 

 

r.- .c.—. .-. H._

51. Ibid, p. 280.

 

52. _I_13_~3._c_1_.,p. 29h.

330 we, P0 521%

31+. Edam 537.

55._£§i§,,pp. 2b} - 2bh.‘

56. Emerson is here referring to some research work ofl Lise Fuller which

Miss Josephine Peabody, Elizabeth Ieabody's sister, was then doing.

generous, inspiring, vinous, eloquent, talker, who did not outlive her

influence; and a kind of justice requires of us a monwment, because

37.

crowds of vu gar peOple taunt her with want of position. " “with this

38.
estimate we leave Ek;1e...*son's "Cassandra."

Emersn and Fuller had the same standards of criticism, but I'iiss Fuller
could not write, as Emerson knew and admitted, He objected to her mystical
tendencies, and, as with Goethe, to her love of culturetfof its own sake.

Also, Bliss Fuller was concerned with the evils of society, while Emerson was

interested in the goodness of the individ.uals.IIe also objected to her spirit-

ual perception of Nature. Llargaret Fuller was too sentimental, too emotional,

and too intense for Emerson, in her temperament as well as in her writings.

37. Journals, VIII, 250.

58. Journals, IX, 201.

l-‘FILLIAH ELLERY CHAmIIHG ( the younger )

William Ellery Channing, the younger, was a nephew of Emerson's
earliest idol, Dr. Channing. He is usually referred to merely as Ellery
Channing to distinguish him from his famous uncle. Ellery Channing was a poet,
brilliant but incalculable. He left Harvard because it bored him and settled
down in Concord so that he could trite his poetry and be near Emerson.
Although he wrote and had published some half desen volumes of poetry in
his lifetime, he was almost unknown as‘a poet in his own day, and he

certainly is an obscure figure today. Poe, in "Graham's Kagazine, attacked

 

Channing's first verse so devastatingly that it was no wonder Channing was
unable to achieve any reputation afterwards. Lush to the disgust of Emerson
and Thoreau, he carried his Transcendentalism so far into his poetry that
after he had been inppired to write something he would not change a line

of it. Besides his poetry, he wrotraprose for the Dial. he also wrote a

 

Life of Thoreau and edited some of Thoreau's posthumous works. he was

 

really a closer friend of Thoreau than is was of "screen, but he was the
only person besides Thoreau whom Emerson enjoyed walking with. In his essay,

"Concord U lks," in the volume Natural History of the Intellect, Emerson,

 

 

speakin” of the value of a good and skillful companion on his walks, refers

to Channing when he says, "If one is so happy as to find the company of a

true artist, he is a ,erpetual holiday and benefactor, and ought only to be

used like an oriflamme or a garland, for feasts and hay-days, and parliaments
1.

of wit and love." But besides valuing Ellery Channing as a walking com-

panion, Emerson had a remarkably high opinion of at least some of Channing's

poetry.

 

1. Works, XII, 176; Journals, VIII, 130 - 131.

156.

Emerson's first criticism of Channing was written in lShO. He says,
"Channing's poetry and -—- ------ —'s have a certain merit which unfits
them for print. They are preper manuscript inspirations, honest, great,
but crude. They have never beem.filed or defiled for the eye that studies
surface ... This is the right poetry of hope, no French correctness, but

2.

Hans Sacks and Chaucer rather." A year later Emerson adds, "But Ellery,
though he has fine glances and a poetry that is like an exquisite nerve
communicating by thrills, yet is a very imperfect artist, and, as it now
seems, will never finish anything. He does not even like to distinguish
between what is good and what is not, in his verses, would fain have it
all pass for good, for the best, and claim inppiration for the worst

3.
lines."

Emerson's longest criticism of Channing appears in 18h5. "Elleny's
verses should be called poetry for poets, they touch the fine pulses of

thought and will be the cause of more poetry and of verses more finished

and better turned than themselves; but I cannot blame the yorth.fimerican

 

and Knickerbocker, if they should not suspect his genius .... and when

 

Ellery's muse finds an aim, whether some passion or some fast faith, any
kind of thing on.which all these wild and sometimes brilliant beads can

be strung, we shall have a poet. Now he fantasies merely, as dilettanti in
music. He breaks faith continually with the intellect. The sonnet has merits,
fine lines, gleams of deep thought, well worth sounding, worth studying, if
only I could confide that he had any steady'meaning before him, that he kept

faith with himself; but I fear that he changed his purpose with every verse,

2. Journals' V, 14-17.

5. Joumah’ VI, LL60

157 .

was led up and down, to this and that, with the exigencies of the rhyme, and
only wanted to trite and rhyme somewhat, careless how or what, and stOpped
h.
when he came to the end of the paper."
And again he says, "I hate this sudden crystallization in my poets.
A pleasing poem, but here is a rude expression, a feeble line, a wrong
5.
word. ’I am sorry' returns the poet, 'but it stands so written.'"

Several years later, in 18h7, we find Emerson remarking that "Ellery
Channing has written a lively book on Rome .... He has the reputution of
being a man of genius and this is some guarantee of it; he has approached

b.

sometimes the lightness and pungency of his talk, but not often." A

little earlier in this journal he writes, "A mood suffices Ellery Channing
for a poem. 'There, I have sketched more or less in that color and style,

You have a sample of it. What more would you get, if I should work on for-
ever?‘ He has no proposition to support or affirm. he scorns it. He has,
first of all Americans, a natural flow, and can say that he will. I say to

. 7.

him, 'If I could write as well as you, I would write a great deal better.'"

Eight years later, in 1855, we find Emerson commenting again that
"Ellery Channing's poetry has the merit of being genuine, and not the metrical
cannenplaces of the magazine, but it is painfully incomplete. he has not kept

faith with the reader; 'tis shamefully indolent and slovenly. He should have

lain awake all night to find the right rhyme for a verse, and he has availed

himself of the first one that came; so that it is all a babyish incompleteness.'

 

 

'.‘- .—

h. Journals, VI, 557 - 558.
5. iournalg, VI, 21:3.
6. Journals, VII, 503.

7. Journals, VII, 230.

8. Journals, VIII, 5h1.

_—-—-

(T

I
\u

158.

Emerson.also says that, "He has a more poetic temperament than any other
in.America, but the artistic executive power of completing a design, he

has not. His poetry is like the artless warbling of a vireo .... he must
have instruction also." 9.

Channing's poetry is indigenous to New England and I think Emerson

liked it for this reason. he writes, "Channing, who writes a poem for our
10.

fields, begins to help us. That is construction ...."

And again, he
says,"And Ellery makes a hazy, indefinite impression, as of miscellaneous
music, without any theme or tune. Still, it is an autumnal air and like the
smell of the herb, 'Life Everlasting' and syngenecious flowers. 'Near Home'
is a poem which would delight the heart of'R'rdwworth, though genuinely
original, and with a sympathy of plan that allows thohriter to leave out
all prose. 'Tis a series of sketches of natural objects, such as abound in-
New England, enwreathed by the thoughts they sgggest to a contemplative

ll. .
pilgrim."

Emerson's last criticism of Ellery Channing in his iguanalg does not
appear until 1871, when he writes, "Channing's poetry does not regard the
reader. t is wri ten to himself; it is his strict experience, the record of his
moods, of his fancies, of his observations and studies, and will interest good
readers as such .... He will write as he has ever written, whether he has
readers or not. But his poems have to me and to others an exceptional value

for this reason. We have not been considered in their composition, but either

defied or forgotten, and therefore read them securely, as original pictures

 

 

9. Journals, Ii, 5h.
10.Jburnal§, IX, 18h.

11.Journal§, IX, 180 - 181.

which add something to our knowledge, and with a fair chance to be surprised
and refreshed by a novel experience." 12.

Emerson's criticisms of Ellery Channing as they appear in the gppnggls
tend to be adverse, rather than favorable. Even when Emerson is praising
Channing's poetry in the Jgprpals, he always mentions Channing's limitations
and defects. His attitude as it appears in his reviews of Channing for the
_2§§L is quite different, however. In the Qigl papers there is no censure
but only unreserved praise. This is interesting because one would be in-
clined to accept the Journals as the more accurate expression of Emerson's
true opinion, However, the inconsistentcy is not as great as it would
appear, because the Qial_papers were written between 18h0 and .18h5 and
even his_comments in his Bournals are rather favorable then. In the years
after that Emerson seems to have acquired a better and more critical per-
spective on Channing's poetry; His reviews of Channing as they appeared in
the.21§i are interesting, however, not only for themselves but for the
glimpse they give us of that paper.

In his revieW'entitled,"hew Poetry" Emerson is speaking of Channing's
verses when he says,"0ur first feeling on reading them was alively joy.

So then the Muse is neither dead nor dumb, but has found a voice in these
cold Cisatlantic States. Here is poetry which asks no aid of magnitude or
number, of blood or crime, but finds theatre enough in the first field-or
brookside, breadth and depth enough in the flow of its own thought. Here
is self-repose, which to our mind is stabler than the Pyramids; here is
self-reSpect which leads a man to date from his heart more proudly than

from Rome. Here is love which sees through surface,:and adores the gentle

 

12. Journalg, X, 561 - 562.

160.

nature and not the costume. Here is religion, which is not of the Church
of England, nor of the Chutch of Boston. here is the good wise heart,
which sees that the end of culture is strength and cheerfulness. In an
age too which tends with so strong an inclination to the philosophical
I}

muse, here is poetry more purely intellectual than any American verses
we have yet seen, distinguished from all competition by two merits; the

u 15.
fineness of perception; and the poet's trust in his own genius ...."

Emerson follows this laudatory comnent with several examples of
Channing's poetry and he concludes the review by exclaiming,"hay the right
hand that has so written never lose its cunning: hay this voice of love and

11;.
harmony teach its songs to the too long silent echoes of the Hestern Forest."

In a later review (18h5) Emerson continues in much the same vein
although with less detail. He says, "he have already expressed our faith
in tr. Channing's genius, wiich in some of the finest and rarest traits
of the poet is without a rival in this country. This little volume has
already become a sign of a great hope and encouragement to the lovers of
the nmse. The refinement and sincerity of his mind. not less than the origin-
ality and delicacy of the diction are not merits to be suddenly apprehended,
but are sure to find a cordial appreciation. we would willingly invite any
lover of poetry to read "The Earth-Spirit? "Revorence," "The Lover's Son" "

b:
15.
"Death," and "The Poet's hope."

__ ——.—- ..-~‘

15. Nature, Addresses, Dial Papers, Ecrks, National Library Edition, IV,
512 - 515.
lb. Ibid,,p. 52h.

15o Ibiq.,Po 551

 

101.

Emerson's opinion of Ellery Channing appears again in his correspond-
lb.
ence. In a letter to John. Sterling Emerson.writes, "I love Ellery
so much as to have persuaded myself that he is a true poet, if these lines
. 17-
should not shOW'it. Read them with as much love in advance as you can."
A very similar passage occurs in a letter to Carlyle in 18h3 when Emerson
mentions Channing‘s poems and says, "....hhereof give me, I pray you, the
best Opinion you can. I am determined he shall be a poet, and you must
18.

find him such."

In a few instances, Emerson's opinion of Ellery Channing as a poet
seems to be influenced by his fondness for Channing as a person. On the
whole, hawever, he realized that he could never make a poet of Channing,
and he was perfectly cognizant of his weaknesses. Emerson believed in
writing from intuition as Channing wrote, but he also believed that what
was written by inSpiration could be revised carefully afterwards. Ellery
Channnng, like Jones Very, carried his belief in intuition. To ancaxtreme
thich Emerson could not accept. But he did ppprove_of Channing for his

artist's appreciation of Nature and because he saw in some of Channing's

verses the beginning of an indigenous American literature.

A

16. Emerson and Sterling never met but both men were influenced by
Werdsworth,Colerdige, and especially by Carlyle. Carlyle brought them
them into contact with one another by letter and they corresponded

rather frequently until Sterling's premature death.‘

17. Correspondence of Emerson and Sterling, p. 77.

 

18. Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson, II, p. 39.

‘ \

162.

XI. —~

EKERSON'S CRITICISK OF ”HOREAU.

Emerson's criticism.of Thoreau is important because Thoreau is one
of the few writers of Emerson's day whose reputation has been increasing
rather than declining and. because Emerson was one of the first critics
to appreciate Thoreau's c,enius. If Emerson influenced Thoreau, he was in
turn influended by Thoreau, and for this reason the relationship between
the tan men becomes most significant. Emerson heard of Thoreau while the
latter was still at harvard, and he wrote to President Quincy recommending
him for a scholarship. They met in 1857, after Thoreau's graduation.
Thoreau was twenty, Emerson was thirty-four. They became friends immediately
and this friendship lasted until Thorefiu's untimely death in 1862. Thoreau
came back to his family in Concord after he left Earvard, and his friendship
with Emerson ripened rapidly. The only two people whom Emerson enjoyed walke
ing uith.were Thoreau and Ellery Channing; Emerson and Channing were the
only two whom.Thwreau enjoyed. These walks were important in the deve10p-
ment of their friendship and in the exchange of their ideas. Their influence
on each other was mutual - Emerson owed as much to Thoreau idroSpect to the

1.

material world as Thoreau owed to him inrespect to the world of spirit.
Thoreau added a scientific, factual foundation to Emerson's poetic flights
of imagination about Nature. However, it was really Emerson's philosophy
of Sature which Thoreau adepted and'then carried to a point to which Emerson

2.
could not go. Thoreau carried Emerson's doctrine of self-reliance and

 

1. Norman Foerster, Nature in American Literature, p. 57.

 

2. Ibid "p. 14.1.

105.

individualism to its logical extreme. A though Thoreau taught Emerson how

to rea ly appreciate Nature, how to really see and hear and descri;e and interpret
her manifestations, nevertheless the two men did not accept nature in the same
way. Thoreau sought Truth in Eature; Emerson accepted hature as a symbol of

the Truth which lay beyond Nature. Both men were probably influenced by each
other's beliefs, and in spite of the difference in their temperaments as well
as in their beliefs their friendship continued to prosper.' In lchl Emerson
asked Thoreau to come and live with him.so that he could learn the art of
manual labor from Thoreau. To his brother'hilliam, Emerson wrote the following:
"He is to have his board for what labor he chooses to do, and he is thus far a
great benefactor and physiciarlto me, for he is an indefatigable and a very
akilful laborer, and I work with him as I should not without him, and expect

to he suddenly well and strong. Thoreau is a scholar and a poet, and as full

of buds of promise as a young apple-tree." 3. Thoreau lived at the Emersons
from.18hl to 18h5, and he was greatly loved by the whole family. In 18h5
Thoreau and Emerson were drawn even.more closely together by the 2131.

Thoreau had joined the Transcendental Club rather late, but he does unquestion-
ably represent one aspect of transcendentalism. His transcendentalism.mani-
fests itself " as a spiritualized feeling for nature, a fine dissolvent of
convention, a pervasive and contagious influence toward natural and simple

0
living." Thoreau aided Emerson in editing thc.Dial, and he exerted
a salutary effect on the magazine both in his own contributions and in the
5.
watchful eye he kept on the contributions of others. Thoreau, like

Emerson, was a pioneer of American Oriental studies, and together they made

 

5. James Elliot Cabot, A hemoir Bf Ralph Uhldo Emerson, II, hh7.

 

h. Cambridge history;of American Literature, I, 5h5.

 

 

5. Van‘Wyck Brooks, The Flowering of hew England, p. 291.

16h.

selections fromxshe great bibles of the world for the Dial. This was really
the first attempt in American to encourage apprec'ation for these etlinical
6.

scriptures. During this year, lEBh, Eherson and Thoreau carried on a
cepiuus correspondence. huch of it concennsthe Dial, but much of it also

7.
serves to reveal the warm, human values underlying their friendship.
In 18b5 Thoreau took up his abode at walden, but in.l8h7, while Emerson
was in England, he again took up his abodetas paterfamilias at the Emersons.
During this period their correspondence avain flourished, although after
Emerson's return home their friendship grew colder. They saw less of each
other because when they were together they argued almost incessantly.
Thoreau felt that Emerson patronized him, that Emerson belonged to the

8.

upper classes. However, Thoreau never really lost his great respect and
admiration for Emerson, while many of Emerson's most appreciative comments
on Thoreau were written during this period. Emerson also urote a fine tribute
to Thoreau after the latter's premature death in 1862, and, with Channing,
published Thoreau's posthumous books and collected his letters. Emerson's
criticism.of Thoreau is of the utmost importance for two reasons. The
intimate personal relationship of the twp men and Emerson's early recognition
of Thoreau's genius both give his criticism real significance. However, if
Eherson.saw a value in Thoreau which most of his contemporaries failed to see,
he was also perfectly aware of his defects at the same time. Emerson's

estimate of Thoreau, made almost a century ago, coincides to a remarkable

extent with the opinion.of most of our present-day’crities.

_____. —_
.s..

h“

6. George h llis Cooke, Ralph Laldo Emerson, p. 85.

 

7. F. B. Sanborn, "The Emerson - Thoreau Correspondence," Atlantic konthly

 

L '.'-{Ix (May, 1892), p. 577.

8. Brooks, Op. cit., p. 296.

Thoreau's name appears as frequently as any other in Emerson's
EEEEEEtEE’ for Emerson not only comments on Thoreau but quotes his sentiments
with deep approval. Emerson's first comment on Thoreau appears in his
Journal§_for 1853, when he writes: ”I delight much in my young friend who

.
seams to have as free and erect a mind as any I have ever met." A year

 

later, in 1839, Emerson says, "Last night, came to me a beautiful poem from
Henry Thpreau, 'Sympathy.' The purest strain, and the loftiest, I think,
that has yet psaled from this unpoetic American forest." 10. This same yeaf
he writes to Carlyle, saying, "I have a young poet in this village named
Thoreau, who writes the truest verses." 11. And a little later he compares
the poetry of Thpreau and Ellery Channing favorably with Lander, Beaumont
and Fletcher, and Aug stine. 19. Enerson is beginning to become a little
more critical of Thoreau, however, with the passing of the years. In 18hl,
after Thoreau had come to live with him, Emerson writes: "I am familiar
with all his thoughts - theyeare my own quite originally dressed. But if
:the question be, what new ideas has he thrown into circulation, he has not
yet told that which he was created to say." 15. .A year later we read, "Last
night Henry Thoremn read me verses which pleased, if not by beauty of particular
lines, yet by the honest truth, and by the length of flight and strength of
wing; for most of our poets are only writers of lines or of epigrams. These
of Henry's at least have rude strength, and we do not come to the bottom

of the mine. Their fault is, that the gold does not yet flow pure, but is

dressy and crude .... But it is a great pleasure to have poetry of the second

 

9. JOurnals, III, 395.
lOOJOurnal S, “VI, 2141.

11.The Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson, I, 2j6.

 

12o Journa1§, V, 2820

13. Journals, VI, 7h4

166.

degree also,and mass here, as in other instances, is some compensation.for
superior quality, for I find myself stimulated and rejoiced like one who should

see a cargo of seaeshells .... though there should be no pearl-oyster nor one

lb...
shell of great rarity and value among them." Emerson xalued Thoreau for
15.
his "simplicity and clear perception," but at the same time he and

Thoreau used to argue frequently. He accuses Thoreau of the "fault of un-

limited contradiction,‘ and says that a paper of Therea '8 makes him "nervous

l6.
and wretched to read it, with all its merits." And agan he says, "henry

1

will never be a writer; he is active as a shoemaker." 7. This same year,
in a letter to Carlyle, he writes, "henry Thpreau - a poet who; you may one

18.
day be proud of; a noble manly youth, full of melodies, and inventions."
One of Ems son's most interesting riticisms of Thoreau appears in a letter
to Thoreau himself, written in 18h} while bmerson, with Thoreau's assistance,
was editing the Rial. Speaking of Thoreau's poem "Hinter'Ualk" he writes:
"I mean to send the'hinter's halk to the printer tomorrow for the Dial. I had
some hesitation about it, notwithstanding its faithful observation and its fine
sketches of the pickerel-fisher and of the woodchOpper, onxtpeount of;manneri§§&'
an old charge of mine,- as if, byattention, one could get the tricks of rhet-
oric; for example, to call a cold place sultry, a solitude public, a wilderness
domestic (a favorite word), and in the woods to insult over cities, whilst the

19.
woods, again, are dignified by comparing them to cities and armies."

"‘

Emerson's next comment on Thoreau appears three years later, in 18h6, in a

 

 

-- .‘--.‘..- ” ..— -.— -

lh. J urnals, VI, 30h.- 505.

 

15. Journals, IV, 397.
16. JCurnals, VI, hLO - hhl.
l7. Journals,‘VI, he}.

18. The_gorrespondence of Carlyle and Emegson, I, 535.

 

 

l9.F. B. Sanborn, "The Emerson-Thoreau Correspondence,"htlautic monthly.

...-...

 

--

LJCL‘C (am-.1802). e. 80%.

\ 157.

letter to a friend. He says, "In a short time, if‘fiiley and Putnam smile,

you shall have Henry Thoreau's Excursion on the Concord and herrimack Rivers,

.' -..:

 

a seven days' voyage in as many chapters, pastoral as Isaac halton, spicy as
flag-root, broad and deep as Henu. He read me some of it under an oak on the
20.
rhver-bank the other afternoon, and invigorated me." Two years later, in
lahfi, we read, "henry Thoreau is like the wood-god who solicits the'wandering
poet and draws him.into antres vast and desarts idle, and bereaves him of his
21.
memory, and leaves him.naked, plaiting vines and with twigs in his hand."
A few months afterwards he writes: "Nothing so marks a man as bold imaginative
expressions. Henry Thoreau promises to make as good sentences of that kind as
22.
anybody." His next comment is less favorable, however, for he adds,
"Thoreau wants a little ambition in his mixture. Fault of this, instead of
25.
being the head of American engineers, he is captain of huckleberry party."
But Emerson must have known that Thoreau preferred the huckleberry party to
the engineers. Emerson admitted more than once the mental likeness between
himself and Thoreau. In 1352 he says: "Thoreau gives me, in flesh and blood
and pertinacious Saxon belief, my own ethics. He is far more real, and daily
practically obeying them, than I; and fortifies my memory at all times with
2h.
an affirmative experience which refuses to be set aside." His next

comment on Thoreau appears in 185b, after the publication of Walden. he

 

writes to a friend that "All American kind are delighted with ualden, as

far as they have dared say. The little pond sinks in these very days as

 

20. GEL-bet, OEOCitO’ p. 281*.

21. Journals, VII, L98.

22. Journals, VIII, 178.

25. Journals VIII, 228.

—- .... - -'--.—.—.Q.

2;. Journals, VIII, 505.

—"

168.

tremulous as its human frame. I do not know if the book has come to you yet,
but it is cheerful, sparkling, readable, with all kinds of merits, and rising

sometimes to very great Heights. we account Henry the undoubted king of all
23.

American lions.”

Hewever, at this time Emerson's conversations with Thoreau begin to
become less frequent,probably because of the arguments they had while they
were together. From 1856 until 1359 Emerson's remarks on Thoreau are almost
entirely critic'sms of Thoreau's argumentative nature. He says, "If I knew
only Thoreau, I should think cooperation of good men impossible ....
Centralitfihe has, strong understanding, and the higher gifts, - the insight
of the:~ea1, or from the real, and the nmral rectitude that belongs to it;
but all this and all his resources of wit and invention are lost to me, in
every experiment, year after year, that I make, to hold intercourse with
his mind,.Always some weary captions paradox to fight you with, and the time

26.
and temper wasted." In the last few years of Thoreau's life, Emerson
became less hostile again. In 1862 he writes: "A man must have his root
in Hature, draw his power directly from it, as a farmer, a miller .... or
27.
Thoreau, or Agassiz does." Again he says, ”Henry avoids commonplace,
and talks birch bark to all comers, reduces them all to the same significance.
Shortly after Thoreau's death Emerson writes: "If there is a little strut in
the style of Henry, it is only from a vigour in excess of the size of his
29. ~

body. I see many generals without a command, besides Henry." Emerson

was one of the first men to appreciate Thereau's journals, w1ich remained

 

”‘.‘-‘.- - u“..- .‘.-... ”0- -.—.—— ...—— —_

 

25. gabot, op.cit., p. 28h.

m

". _J_ourn&ls, IX, 15 - lb.
27. Journals, x, hoe.

28. Journals, IX, 117.

 

29. Journals, IX, h27.

169.

unpublished for so many years, but which today form a great part of the
foundation on which Thereau's reputation rests. imerson is speaking of his
memory of Thoreau then he says, "henry Thoreau remains erect, calm, self-
ubsistent, before me, and I read him.most truly in his Journal, but he is
30.
not long out of mind when I walk, and, as today, row upon the pond."
{hereon must have realized he cued much of his own appreciation of nature
to Thoreau, ut I do not thinh he realized the significance of his forecast
abo t Thoreau: "If we should ever print Henry's Journals, you may look for a
plentiful crop of naturalists. Young men of sensibility must fall an.easy
51.
frey to the charming of Pan's pipes.? .And in lCé_ Emerson writes:
“In reading Henry Thoreau's journal, I am very sensible of the vigour of
his constitution. That oaken strength which I noted whenever he walked or
worked .... Fenry shows in his literary task. He has muscle, and ventures
on and performs feats which I am forced to decline. In reading him, I find
the same thought, the same spirit that is in me, but he takes a step beyond,
and illustrates by excellent images that which I should have conveyed in a
sleepy generality. 'Tis as if I went into a gymnasium and saw youths leap,
climb, and swing with a force unapproachable, though their feats are enly
continuatiens of ny'initial grapplings and jumps." The last tuo re-
ferences to Thoreau in Emerson's Journals occur in 1870 and 1871 when he

53.

sfleaks of.Thoreau's "affirmative geniuS," and when he refers to Thor-nu

 

as helenging to the class of drastic men, the class of men uho can do
3.4+.

thillgSQ.

 

‘““»--- -————‘ 1-.

 

30. Journals, IX, hES.

— _.-_-.‘_ ..

31. Journals, IX, M50.

32. Journals, IX, 522.

- .. — ,

r 4
‘
\N

H

[‘3

o

33. Journals,

H

\N

’7'
1...
0

3h. Journals, X,

...—a

170.

hot only does Emel son mention Thoreau very frequently in his Journals,

 

 

but Charles'fioedbury, in his Talks with 3 lip ”L1 Emerson, says that
-‘.. ..— - .-- -...-- - -.‘a-‘IL‘
Emerson tal- ed most often (and most tenderly) of Thoreau.' Of There eeu

Emerson said, "His character reminds me of Kassillon. One could jeopard
anything on him..A limpid man, a realist with caustic eyes that looked

tHIrOJgh all words and sh ws and bearing “1th te-riele perceptions. He was

a gree.ter Stoio than Zeno or Scaevola or ZeHOphanes - greater, because nothing
of impurity clung to him, a man.whose core and 1i..ose areath was cpnscience ....
his fault an s that he broug.t nothing near to his heart, he kept all in-

71.
200
fluencos toward his extremities." At anotheitime Emerson said."His style

\l’

has b nsometimes criticized as Opaque, but that is a quality frequently
found in the reader. It was a style that refused compromise as did the man....

It is better to translate him than Epictetus or Kareus Antonius, He looked
inward, inward at the soul.of things. Conscientious, earnest, he talked in

plain words to the superstitious, and commanded his publishers not to change

a line. Thus his pages seem profane and sometimes blasphemous. He did not
hesitate at shocizing any weather worn creed or belief. His poetry is of a

new order .... he was penetrated with the elder classical influence; he

breathed the antique. Yet it was impossible for him to copy words or anything....
Thoreau has an always increa ing number of readers, and the selectest class of

any American in all Christendom. The heck on the Concord River is his noelest

“cu—-‘.— A—a— .'.... .4—.~.’

 

.
wwrk, pervaded with delightful ideas."

Thoreau is also one of the few'nriters whom Emerson mentions in his

"'f

essays. In "Greatness" he is speaking of Thoreau then he says, Lou say of

some new aerson, that man will go far - for you see in his manners that the

 

‘.‘-..- ... —-—- —.—-—.—.--¢- .—

 

55. Charles J. Loedbury, 31kg 31 h £ 1 h vialdo Emer°01’ p. 76

 

57o Eid.,ppo 83 " 9’00

171.

7
J¢o
recognition of him by others is not necessary to him." Emerson's longest

and most complete single criticism of Thoreau is in his essay "Thoreau" in

Lectures and Biographical Sketches. Thoreau was an individualist and an

 

iconoclast from his earliest years, and Emerson calls him, "the bachelor
59-
of thought and Nature." A few pages later Emerson says, "He truer
American existed than Thoreau. his preference of his country and condition
'was genuine, and his aversatien from English and Eurepean manners and tastes
LC.
almost reached contempt." Emerson continues, "he had a strong common
sense .... He had always a new resource .... He lived for the day, not
341.
cumbered and mortified by his memory. Emerson attributes Thereau's
genius to more than his common sense, however. He says, "I must add the
cardinal fact, that there was an excellent wisdom in him, preper to a rare

class of men, which showed him the material world as a means and symbol.

This discovery, wiich sometimes yields to poets a certain casual and in-

42.
terrupted light,'was in him an unsleeping insight." Emerson realized

that Thoreau was truly one of the first rea American men of letters, for

ays: "hr. Thoreau dedicated his genius with such entire love to the

31'
CD
(/1

fields, hills and waters of his native town that he made them known and

I
I
.
I
be.
0

1‘

interesting to all reading ane'ica-s, and to peeple ever the sea."

Of Thoreau as a poet Emerson writes: "His poetry might be bad or good; he

no doubt wanted a lyric quality and technical skill, but he had the source of
poetry in his spiritual perception .... His own verses are e ten rude an

defective. The gold does not yet run pure, is dressy and crude. The thyme

 

 

38. Society andngelitude, Kerks, VIII, 305.

 

 

39 . works , 1, L151;-
L}.O Q T50 r1: S , 1‘: , ’.'.59 0
LL]. . .'.‘ferI‘kS ’ :i ’ 24.62 0

LL20 ‘JOI‘kS, Ii, Lyn—1.4.0

MK- lorks. h. th.

4"

172.

and marjormm are npt yet honey. But if he want lyric fineness and technical
merits, if he have not the poetic temperament, he never lacks the casual
thought, showing that his genius was better than his talent .... his poem
entitled ”'Sympathy' reveals the tenderness under that triple steel of

stoicism, and the intellectual subtility it could animate. His classic
‘ l l

Lu;-

poem 'Smoke' suggests Simonides, but is better than any poem of Simonides."

In concluding this essay on Thoreau, Emerson says: "The country knows not
yet, or in the least part, how great a son it has lost. It seems an injury
that he should leave in the midst his broken task waich none else can.finish,
akind of indignity to so noble a soul that he should depart out of hature
before yet he has been really shown to his peers for what he is .... hherever
there is knowledge, wherever there is virtue, whenever there is beauty, he
15.
will find a home."
Emerson's last reference to Thoreau was rade in 1873 in his address
at the Opening of the Concord public li’rary. His criticism of Thoreau ends,
apprOpriately enough, on an optimistic and prephetic note. He says, "Henry
Thoreau we all remember as a man of genius, and of marked character, known
to our farmers as the most skillful of surveyors, and indeed better acquainted
with their forests and meadows and trees than themselves, but more widely
known as the writer of some of the best books which have been written in
this covntry, and which, I am persuaded, have not yet gathered half their
'46. '—
fame o o o o"

Emerson's prephecies about Thoreau's future reputation have proved

remarkably accurate, Thoreau has really begun to come into his can only since

‘— -‘- ...-n—W

bk, Ferks, X, h7h.- h76.

L5. works, X, 1481; - 1485.

 

he. fiiscellaniess,'hork§,_ll, 500.

the publication of his complete journal in 1906. Before that time Thoreau
was often charged with imitation of Emerson, and he was frequently judged
as a lesser Emerson. The two men did have much in common, and, to an extent,
they did influence each other, but both remained decided individualists.
Emerson liked Thoreau for his adherence to Truth, and to the moral
sentiment. He approved of Thoreau because Thoreau, like himself, had
spiritual insight and saw the material world as a symbol. Their results
were different, however, for Thpreau remained interested in the facts of
Nature for their own sake as well as for their tzanscendental connotation.
Emerson's love of Natureggrew deeper through his association with Thoreau,
but he could never approach Nature from the purely scientific point of view
as Thoreau could. There was also a difference in the temperaments of the
two men. Emerson was genial and kindly while Thoreau was sharp and bitter.
Emerson did not like society, but he tolerated it at least. Thoreau's
aversion to society was so strong that it often manifested itself in sheer
rudeness. This was Emerson's individualism and self-reliance carried to an
extreme that Emerson himself could not quite accept. Hcrever, in spite of
their differences, the two men were friends throughout Thoreau's lifetime,
and there is no doubt that each profited by the other: Emerson's criticisms
of Thoreau as a writer show his keen judgment, and are eSpecially interest-

5
(

ing in the liglt of Thoreau's present position in.hmerican -etters. He
approved of Thoreau’s use of American.materials, and he enjoyed a few of
Thoreau's poems, but, on the whole, he realized that the best of Thoreau's

'writi F, the best of his thoughts and ideas, the best of the man himself,

lay in his unpublished journals.

 

171+-

XII.
Eli lSON':3 CRITICISM tF Th3 NEH ENGLfllID IRITE RS OUTSIDE OF
THE TIAuSCE DLuTnI.flROJP.
The new England Renaissance of the mid-nineteenth century was not
a unified movement, at least not until the formation of the a turday

1.
Club in 1655. As Robertllorsa Lovett say 3, "If the center of A;:‘.erica's

literary solar system in the first half of the nine‘t ee enth century was
Massachusetts Bay, it Vts a binary sta 1r, with one nucleus at Cambridge

2.
and another at Concord." Since the Concord group was composed of
Transcendent alists, Concord became almost a synon er.for the transcendental
movement. The "Sage o- Concord"m ms the leader of Lew En"land Trans-
cendentalism; his neighbors vere Bronson.Alcott and Henry Thoreau and
Ellery Channing, while the lesser lights of Transcendentalism such as
Fuller, Very, and Newcomb were frequent visitors at Emerson's. The
other half of literary New Enslandm mde up the Boston and Ca 1bridge
group, the "Brahmin caste," as Helmes himself christened them. The
Brahmins, Lowell, Holmes, and Longfellow, were the exact antithesis of
the Transcendentalists, and the rise of this "genteel" literature par-
allels the Victorian period in England and represents the swing of the
pendulum from transcendental individualism oack to conventional con-
servatism. Parrington says: "‘here were other ideals than.those of trans-
cendent lism and social reform in the new-Ens land of the rem issa.nce -

ideals of culture, of scholarship, of belles lettres, to vmich the Brahmin

mind contributed, and which came to dominate genteel New England and for a

.-

1. Fred Lewis Pattee, The_§irst Century of American Literature, p. 578.

 

 

2. John Lacy, American Eriters on.American Literat #1re, p. 177.

 

generation largely influenced American letters .... Brahmin Boston might

turn Unitarian with Channing, but it was at heart neither French romantic

nor German idealist; it desired rather culture for its own sake, and

scholarship it regarded as the handmaid of culture .... The essence of the
5.

genteel tradition was a refined ethicism."

Of course, there are a few'Lew England authors, such as Bryant and
Lhittier, who do not really belong to either group, while one writer,
Hawthorne, touches both groups. Hewever, there is a line of demarcation
between the Transcendentalists and the flaw England writers of Brahmin or
rural Lew England classes, and it is this difference which makes Emerson's
criticism of the non-Transcendentalists of particular interest. His judgments,
.except in the case of Hawthorne, have proved to be unusually accurate, al-
though his conments on these Lew England u iters are remarkably scarce
considering the literary importance of these men and Emerson's relations
with them.

The Saturday Club, which was founded in 1855 in an attempt to concentrate
the literary forces of L w'England, was primarily a harvard affair, composed
of Harvard professors euch as Holmes, Longfellow, Horton, Agassiz, and
Pearce. A few harvard alumni (Emerson, Dana, Lotley, and :rescott) joined

the club and there were even fewer outsiders Lhittier and Hawthorne are the
.9

h.

most outstanding). Emerson was the only Concord representative of any
consequence, for Thoreau did not like social gatherings of any kind and

Hawthorne, though a member, never entered into the spirit of the club in
5.
any way.

M, _—

 

3. Vernon Louis Parrington, Iain Currents in.hmerican Thought, II, LES.

 

h¢ Pattee, op. cit.,p. 579.

5. Van wyck Brooks, The Flowering of New_§ngland, p. 50h,

 

176.

The Saturday Club is of the utmost importance not only because it gave.
Emerson a good basis on which to rest his criticism of this other how
England group of writers, but because out of this club, in 1857, came the

Atlantic Lonthl‘, This was the first Am rican.magazine that was at all
adequate; "one that at the sane time could be as profound as Pnerson

b.
and yet as sparkling as Holmes." Under Lowell's editorship. the

Atlantic honthly published much of the best work of the members of the

the
Saturday Club, although dew England Renaissance was already beginning to

 

Show traces of decadence.

William Cullen Bryant was born a decade before Emerson, but in spirit
he:resembles the later erou of Lew Bntlanders who did not acce t Trans-

b o
cendentalism. Bryant used American materials, but he was untouched by
Transcendentalism. Lite the Cambridge writers, Bryant is under the shadow
ta. '

and influence of the Old World rather than of the new. Bis faith in
God is more like Longfellow45 than Emerson's, and, unlike fimerson, he
perceived Nature through the senses only, not intuitively. It is Bryant's
orthodoxy which places him with the "Brahmins." Although Bryant moved to
how York in 1325, in spirit he is definitely a-Hew Englander, not a Knicker-

7.

bockor. Emerson himself says, "Bryant is perfect; New York has not

(D

‘0

hurt him. It
Emerson's first comnent on Bryant appears in 1855; "If Eilton, if
Burns, if Bryant, is in the world, we have more tolerance, and more love

for the changing sky, the mist, the rain, the bleak overcast day, the

 

”- — —- “ w. “W...- —

 

 

6. fattee, 0p. cit., p. 579.
6.6:. Ibid” p. 510.
70 Ibid"p. 2E9. ‘

8. Journals, X, 65.

177-

indescribable sunrise and the immortal stars. If we believed no poet survived

c
" The following year he writes:

on the planet, nature would be tedious.
"So of Bryant's poems, -- chaste, faultless, beau iful, but undercharacter-
izedt So of Greenough's sculpture -- of Dr. Channing's preaching. They are
10.
all femdnine or receptive, and not masculine,or creative." In 1858 we read
"I have been to Lew'York and seen Bryant and Dewey, and at home seen Jones
. 11.
Very .... and I begin to conceive hOpes of the Republic." Five years
later, in 13h5, he says, "Ellery Channing's verse with all its imperfections
12.
is a better book for Poets than a whole volume of Bryant." This same
year he mentions Bryant in a review of James Percival's poems written for
the Dial; "Bryant has a superb propriety of feeling, has plainly always
been in good society, but his sweet oaten pipe discourses onLy pastoral
13.
leSiCe"

In lfiéh, a Bryant Festival was held in New York. Emerson seems to have
taken part in the festival, and his longest and most favorable comments on
Bryant appear at this time. he writes: "Bryant has learned where to hang
his titles, namely, by tying his mind to autumn woods, winter mornings, rain,
brooks, mountains, evening winds, and wood-birds. Kho Speaks of these is forced
to remember Bri--t. Se is American. hever despaired of the Republic. ared
name a joy and a gentian, crows also. his poetry is sincere. I think of the
young poets that they have seen pictures of mountains and sea—shores, but

1h.‘

in his that he has seen mountains and has the staff in his hand."

A‘ ....»»

9. Juurnals, III, .Lg.

 

lO.Journals, IV, 87.
ll. (Io-alrnals, IV’ ’42}.

12. Journals, VI, 558.

 

13. Nature, Addresses, Dial Papers,'Uorks, Rational Library Edition,IV,55h.

 

 

1b. figurnals, X, 76 - 77.

178.

A feW'days later he adds: "Bryant. his sincere, balanced mind has the en-
thusiasm thich perception of Mature inspires, but it did not tear him;
only enabled him, gave him twice his pen r; he did not parade it, but hid

it in his verse ....‘True bard, but simple.‘ I fear he hes not escaped

the infirmity of fame, like the presidential malady, a virus once in,

not to be got out of the system; he has this, so cold.and. majestic as

he sits there, - has this to a heat which has brought to him the devotion

of all the young men and women who love poetry, and of all the old men

and w men who once were young. 'Tis a perfect tyranny. Talk of the shop-
men.who advertise their drugs or cosmetics on the walls and on the palisades
and huge rocks along the railways;- why, this man, more cunning by far,

has contrived to levy on all American Nature and subsidized every solitary
forest and monument Mountain in Berkshire or the Katsk'lls, every waterf wl,

every partridge,<avery "entian and golden red, the prairies, the gardens of

the desert, the song of the stars, the Bvening'lind, - has bribed every one
of these to Speak for him, so that tlere is scarcely a feature of day and
night in the country which does not - whether we will or not - recall the
name of Bryant. This high-handed usurpation I charge him with, and on top
of this, with persuading us and all rankind to hug our fetters and rejoice
15.

in our subjugation."

Emerson held a high opinion of Bryant's poetry for its sincerity and
for its use of American.naterials. In these respects Bryant was a forerunner

lb.
of Emerson,as ":tmerson well Imam-3

l5. Journals, X, 80 - 82.

m
r O
C0
0

16. Robert K. Gay, Ralph fielgp Emerson, p.

1 9.

.However, Emerson thought Bryant's poetry lacked force and chorac tar it-eas
too classical, and too conservative. Also, Elm rson a):>rec ia ted Bryant's
careful observation and love of nature, but Bijrant did not carry this far
eno1:gl¥o suit Emerson. Bryant saw the Ieauty of Ilature through the senses;
he saw this be mIty as God's hancHi: ork and as a soothing and healing virtue;
Efierson went beyond this to view the natural world as a symbol of the
spiritual world.

John Greenleaf Whittier was not a "Brahmin" but he is re a ted to that
group because his main interest was in ethicism and because he was not a

1?.

‘Transcendentalist. h0wever,'hhittier's heW'England was not the hew
England of Boston and Cambridge but the hassachusetts of the village and
farm. Emerson has surprisingly little comment on'Khittier; he seems to
have teen in sympathy with whittier mainly because .Shittier, like himself,
was an.Abolitionist.

In 1339 he writes, ”Abolition is poetic, has produced good verse,

18.
fihittier's, for example ...." hawever, it is almost twenty-five years
later before Emerson says anything more about hhittier's poetry. It is not
until 1363 that he says, ”He can easily tell, of Vhittier or Longfellow-or
Fatmore, what sugpestion they had, what styles of cont esporaries have of-
19.

footed their own. we know all their possible feeders." This is one
of Emerson's few criticisms of Longfellow also. The next year Emerson
writes, in Speaking of the bad influence of cities on literary nan, that

20.
ON 70

Thittier is t11l unspoiled. h1s only other convent on.hhittier is a

crit vicism not only of Whittier but of all the other literary figures of

A

17. Parrington, op. it., p. 502.
18. Journal§,'v, 301.
19. Jourra_ls, IX, 507 - 506.

20 . Jo u r3313 , K, 65 .

 

130.

the times. Emersonzaays, " .... and I should say, that a string of poems
prefixed to Ben Jonson's or Beaumont and Fletcher's plays, by their
friends, are more seriously thought than the pieces which.would now in
England or America be contributed to any call of literary friendship.
And yet, if Whittier, holmes, Lowell, Channing, Thoreau, Bryant, Sanborn,
hasson, Julia Howe, had each made their thoughtful contribution, there
21.

might be good reading." Emerson could not have been in sympathy with
hhittier's orthodox religion or with his conception of Nature, which,
like Bryant, saw mainly its healing power.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was neither a Brahmin nor a Transcendentalist,
and yet in some ways he touches both groups. Parrington says:"Cool,
detached, rationalistic, curiously inquisitive, he looked out upon the
ferment of the times, the clash of rival philosophies and rival interests,
only to bring them.into his study and turn upon them the light of his.
critical analysis. One after another he weighed the several faiths Bf Lew

\ 2.

England, conservative and radical and transcendental, and ended skeptic."
Although he was not a Transcendentalist; his association'with the Peabodys and
his venture into the Brook Farm experiment relate him to the Transcendentalists.
He is rdbyted to the other New England group through his romanticism and
his love of the Old'fiorld.
. Emerson and Hawthorne knew each other for many yea s, but they could
never become intimate friends. hawthorne lived in the 01 hanse at Concord

Ifrom 18h2 until lBhb, and in 1852 he and his wife established themselves in

their omn.little villa at Concord. Both Hawthorne and Emerson belonged to

 

 

 

22. Parrington, op. cit., p. th.

the Saturday Club, also, but with all their contacts the two men could
not really get near each other. As Cabot says, "They admired and liked
each other personally, byt they were very unlike in nature .... whey
interdespised each other's moonshine, as very annable and pretty, but
25.

rather childish." hawthorne is one of the few writers whom Emerson
underestimated. ngthorne's writings did not appeal to Emerson personally,
and Emerson had a difficult time in liking literature which did not offer
him something that he hisself could profit by.

Emerson's first comment on Hawthorne appears in 1838. he writes:

”Elizabeth Peabody brought me yesterday {awthorne's Footprints on the

 

Seashore to read. I complained that there'was no inside to it. He and

2s.

Alcott together would make a man." In 1839 he writes,"It is no

 

easy matter to write a dialogue. Cooper, Sterling, Dickens, and Hawthorne
25.
cannot." And a little later, speaking of Charles Dickens, he says,

"Like Cooper and hawthorne he has nociramatic talent. The moment he at-
26.
tempts dialogue the improbability of life hardens to wood and stone."

It is interesting to note that the above two references in connection with
Hawthorne are also Emerson's only two comments on James Fenimore Cooper.

Three years later, in 18h2, we read, "Nathaniel hawthorne's reputation

as a writer is a very pleasing fact, because his writings are not good for
('7
{O

anything, and this is a tribute to the man." This was the year that

hawthorne moved to Concord, and later in the fall he and Emerson went on

__ _— .‘—

23. James Elliot Cabot, A Lemoir of Ra ph waldg_Emerson, I, 375 - 576.

 

2'4- :Ioirtaahi IV: 14-79-
25. gpurnals, V, 257.

26. Journals, V, 201.

 

 

1&2.

two-day walking tour. however, in his account of this walk Emerson says

nothing about their conversation or about the man himself. The following

y ar, 18h3, in a letter to Thoreau, he writes: "hawthorne walhed with me

yesterday afternoon, and not until after our return did I read his Celestial

Railroad, which has a serene strength which we cannot afford not to praise,
28.

in this low life." In a letter to Sterling he says: ”fly neighbors are

Ellery Channing, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, a writer of tales and historiettes,

‘I

whose name you may not have seen, though he too prints books. All tn se
29.
three prsons are superior to their writings." And in lfihb Emerson
writes: "hawthorne invites his readers too much into his study, opens the
process before them. As if the confectioner should say to his customers,
30.
'Eow, let us make the cake.‘ " Icodbury says that when Emerson spoke
of hawthorne, he spoke hesitatingly, as if not fully aware yet of the shadowy
31-
quality of his mind. Hewever, Pmerson did say: “Hawthorne lived afar
from us. he'was always haunted by his ancestry. His gait and moods were of
the sea. he had kinship to pirates and sailors .... His writings are of the
terrible, the grotesque, and sombre. There is nothing joyous in them. his
genius was for the unhappy and her side. It is the same with Hugo. No man
52-

ought to write so."

Emerson has a long passage in Hawthorne in his Jounnals for lBéh just

 

 

after Hawthorne's death. He says: "I thought there was a tragic element in

the event .... in the painful solitude of the man, which, I spppose, could

not longer be endured, and he died of it. I have found in his death a

 

“--

 

28. F. B. Sanborn, "The Emerson-Thoreau Correspondence," Atlantic Lonthly,

 

(Kay, 1892), max, 589.

« W

 

 

29. The Correspondence of Emerson and Sterling, pp. 89 - 81.
30. Journals, VII, 183.

31. Charles J. to dbury, Talks'fiifia;hfil2hiflalfi° Emerson, p. on.

29- Thifl- n- ed“

surprise and disappointment. I thought him a greater man than any of his
works betray, that there was still a great deal of work, in him, and that
he might one day show a purer power .... It was easy to talh'with him, -
there were no barriers, only, he said so little that I talked too much,
and stepped only because, as he gave no indications, I feared to exceed.

He showed no egotism or self-assertion, rather a humility, and at one time,
-' 'l

95)-
a fear that he had written himself out." Emerson also refers to Hawa

thorne when.speaking of the Brook Farm experiment in his essay "Life and

Letters in New England." He writes: Hawthorne drew some sketches, not

happily, as I think; I should rather say, quite unworthy of his genius.

No friend.who kneW'hargaret Fuller could recognize her rich and brilliant

genius under the dismal mask which the public fancied was meant for her in
fia.

Q

that disagreeable story." finerson's last reference to hawthorne, however,
is more favorable. In 1873, in his address at the Opening of the Concord
public library, he says: "Nathaniel Hawthorne's residence in that hanse
gave new interest to that house, and his careful studies of Concord life

35.
and history are known wherever the English language is spoken."

Emerson liked and admired Hawthorne the man, but he could not truly
appreciate anthorne's writings. To Emerson, Hawthorne's tales seemed
immature and shallow, and Hawthorne's shadowy romanticismlheld no appeal for
the shrewd Yankee part of Emerson. Emerson's most important criticism,

however is arainst anthorne's essimism. which was the antithesis of
3 o 3

his own.optimistic philospphy.

 

53. Journals, K, 39 - LO.

5h. Lectures and Biographical Sketches,'Horks,.X, 503 e 36h. Emerson is here

 

referring to the fact that the character of Zenobia in éLglithedale

...—~— -.-- .- —

Romance is usually interpreted as a portrait of Miss Fuller.

 

5r. Liscellanies, Ebrks, XI: 501°

“
—_;

 

Venry‘fiadsworth LongfellOW'is the first real "Brahmin" to come under
the fire of Emerson's criticism. Longfellow‘s position in the Cambridge
group of writers is well summed up by Parrington, who says: "If the high-
est aspirations of the Brahmin nature sought satisfaction in poetry,
Longfellow'may be reckoned its most characteristic product. In his work
the romantic, the sentimertal, and the moralistic, blended in such just
preportions, and expressed themselves with such homely simplicity as to
hit exactly the current taste .... and with his courteous manners he

56.
fitted easily into the little world of Cambridge Brahmins." Emerson
has remarkably little comment to make on Longfellow; In his Journals,

besides the remark already quoted in reference to hhittier, he says. only
9’7.
that,"Longfellow is a poet because he has said 'the plunging wave.'"
Emerson does criticize Longfellow a little more fully, however, in a review
of Longfellow‘s ”The Spanish Student" written for the Dial. Emerson 'writes,
"A pleasing tale, but Cervantes shall speak for us out of LaGitanilla. 'You
must know, Preciosa, the as, to this n we of Poet, few are they who deserve
it,‘ .... 'Is it then so bad a thing to be a poet?‘ asked Preciosa. 'Not bad,‘
replied the Iage, 'but to be a poet and nought else, I do not hold to be very
good. For poetry should be like a precious jewel, whose owner does not put
it on every day, not show it to the world at every step; but only when it
58.

is fitting, and when there is Areasen for showing it.’ "

Although this is really Emerson's last criticism of Longfellow,

I

his remark at Longfellow‘s funeral is interesting and worth mentioning.

Emerson walked up to the coffin, turned to look at Longfellow'for the last

 

36. Parrington, op. 913:, pp. h39 -.hh0.
57. Journals, Ii, 501.

38. Nature, Addresses, Dial Papers, Korks, National Library Edition, IV, 5L2 -5.

 

 

185.

time; then he turned to a friend and said, "That gentleman was a sweet,

'39.
1,0

Cliveiflandell Holmes is the "Brahmin of the Brahmins," and yet

beautiful soul, bvt I have entirely forgotten his name."

Emerson's criticism of him.is more favorable and more frequent than of
any other flew England writer in this group. Eherson.might have known
Holmes a little more intimately through the Stturday Club, and Helmes'
writings no doubt appealed more to Emerson's turn of mind than did the
writings of Longfellow or Lowell.
In a conversation with Charles Leodbury,3merson said,"The connect-
ing link betweem England and America is Oliver'hendell Holmes. If that acute-
minded man had been born in England, they would never have tired fif maxing
such of him. is has the finest sensibility, and catholicity of taste without
which no large and generous nature can be developed. Everything interests
Al.
him. he has phases which make him as welcome to Bacchus as Minerva."
In lBhb, speaking of the celebration in honor of Everett's inauguration
AZ.
at Cambridge, Emerson writes that "Holmes' poem was a bright sparkle."
But it was net until thirteen years after this that Emerson paid his greatest
tribute to helmes in his speech at the dinner to Dr. Holmes. This Speech
appears in Emersonfls 223523} for 1859, and the following passages are ex-
cerpts from it:

"When I read the étlap§i£2_I have had much to think of the benefieence

of wit, its vast utility; the extreme rarity, Out of this presence, of the

 

—.- ...-..- -

 

59. honoure Daniel Conway, Cmerson at here and Abroad, p. 382,

 

F'—

be. ‘arrington, op.cit., P' h.3.

hl. Charles J.‘Eoodbury, TaIES'with Ralph Raldo Emerson, p. 62.

 

 

h2. Journals, VII, 169.

pure article .... lhy, look at the fact. Ihilst, once, wit was extremely
rare and sparse-sown,- rare as cobalt, rare as platina, - here comes the
Doctor and flings it about like sea—sand, threatens to make it common as
"ewtpapers; is actually the man to contract to furnish a chapter of Rabeldis
or Sidney'Smith once a month,- bucketsL§ul of Gre e1: fire against ton us of
paunch and acres of bottom. Of course, the danger was that he would throw
out of employment all the dunces, the imposters, the slow men, the stock
writers; in short all the respectabilities and prefessional let finingof the
time. No wonder the world was alarmed .... Sir, I have heard that when
nature concedes a true talent, she renounces for once all her avarice and
nar31rony, and gives without stint. Our friend here was born in happy hour,
th consenting stars. I think his least merits are not small. he is the
best critic who constructs. Here is the way of dictionaries in this country.
All very well; tut the real dictionary is the correct triter, who makes
the reader feel, as our friend does, the delicacy and inevito bleness of every
word he uses, and xvhose book is so charming that the reader has never a
suspicion, amid his peals of laughter, that he is learning the last niceties

of rramnar and rhetoric. hhat shall I say of hi leli geht in manr ers in
L: d D

societ , in elegance, - in short, of his delight in Culture, which zuakes
him a civilizer whom every man and woman secretly tm ks for valuable
hints? that, then, of his corre c ti of popular errors in taste, in be-

havior, in the uncertain sciences, and in theology, attested by the
alarm of the synods? And this is only possible to the man'who has the
capital.rerit of healthy perception, :ho can draw all men to read him; whose

thoughts leave such cheeful and perfumed memories, that when the newsboy

_---

___. _____ .-—_

 

157.

enters the car, all over the wide wilderness of America, the tired travelle

says, ‘nere conJS the Autocrat to bring me one half hour%7 absolute relief

frOm the vacant mind.'.... For really, that is not pro is of any I

d‘

admire perception wherever i appears .... Rho is lend ll holmes? If it

to all men and we hail it

S
d‘
H
‘ I
'1
‘0
".
(F

J
k)
‘5
i.
C
,J
L)

shines through him, it is
as our own." H

And in 1862 we read, ” hat a convivial talent is that Of T.endcll Iol:.e s}
He is still at his Club, when he travels in.search of his wounded son; has
the same delight in his perceptions, in his wit, in its effect, which he
watches as a belle the efiect of her beauty; would still hold each companion
fast by his spritely, Sparkling, widely allusive talks, as at the Club

table; tastes all his own talent, co.lculates every stroke, ana yet the

ountain is unfailing, the wit excellent, the savoir vivre and savoir
in.

F“)

parler admirable."

In lGéh, speaking of a meeting of the Saturday Club, Emerson says,~
"It was a quiet and happv evening, filled with many good speeches, and a
fine poem by Holmes, read so admirably well that I could not tell whether

LL5-
in itself it were one of his best or not." Six \e rs later he writes,

Wiendell Holmes hits right in every af;ectio onate poem he scribbles, by his

nstinct at obeying a just perception of what is important, instead of
._0.

H.
I...

feeling aoout how he shall write some verses touching the subject."

In his essa 1y on "Clubs" in Society ar d Solitude Emerson is eferring to
Holmes in the following passage: "How delightful after these diSturbers

is the radiant, playful wit of .. one whom I need not name, -- for in every

*w-‘c— -— . --- -— ——-L

h}. Journals, IX, 226 - 9.

LI'LQ JO‘YI‘l’L’llS, 11:, 12.02; - 70

M ..."

 

by. Journals, I, 26.

us. Journals, X, 335.

lee.

society there is his representative. Good nature is stronger than toma-
hawks. His conversation is all pictures; he can reproduce whatever he has

' fl

seen; he tells the best story in the country, and is 01 such genial temper
1—7 0
that he disposes all others irresistibly to good humor and discourse."

And in the manuscript book "Gulistan" Que~son writes of Holmes,

"By his perfect finish, cabinet finish, gem finish, gem carved with a

microscope on the carver‘s eye, and which perfection appears in(;very

conversation, and in his part in a business debate, or at a college dinner

table as well as in his sengs .... Henderful fertility and aptness of

illustration. He is an illustrated magazine with twenty thousand aceurat

engravings .... His undersize might perhaps be suggested by his writings

to one who had never seen him. It is compensated by the con31mmateness,

as of a humming bird or of a flavor, which defies the microscope to find
AS.

a defect in Nature's favorite."

James Russell Lowell is another member of this Cambridge group.
Parrington says: "he'nas not of the Concord line of transcendentalists
individuals, nor of the militant strain of reforming enthusiasts; but of
the true Brahmin line of Josiah Quincy and Oliver Tendell Holmes - men of
sound culture who could serve God valiantly in the Social station in which
He had phased them, without wanting to pull down the old church to build a
new. He would serve culture rather than causes. his gifts were Brahmin
gifts, his prejudices were Brahmin prejudices; he remained at bottom a
Earvard conservative, content with his birthright, hogeful that his ways

'49 .

were God's ways." Considering Lowell's fame and imnortance as a

 

...-.. --.—-—.—.- . .‘.-.- -_-—-‘—.- .— .....- -»—-—‘

 

he. Works, VII, 1422.

m

h9. Parrington, Op. cit., p. th.

I,

(in,
v}.

writer and critic, Emerson has remarkably little comment on him.

Emerson's first mention of Lowell occurs in 1657 in connection
vfith a meeting of the Saturday Club. Emerson says, "fhe flower of
the feast was the reading of three poems, written by our three poets,
for the occasion. The first by Longfellow, who presided, the second

50.
by Holmes; the third, by Lowell; all cxcelhent in their way."

”JG 3

(1'

*all no a ain disearage America ,

l
t.) A.

9....

Five years later he trites:
nQW'that we have seen: hat men it will bear. hhat a certificate of
good elements in the soil, climate, and institutions is Lowell, whose

admirable verses (The Big§IOW'Papers) I have just read! Such a creature
51.

,

rmre accredits tne land than all the fOps of Carolina discredit it."
Emerson's last comment on Lowell appears in 1668 when he urites:

"In poetry, tone, I have been reading some of Lowell's poems, in which

he shows unexpected advance on himself, but perhaps most in technical

skill and courage, It is in talent rather than poetic tone, and rather

exyr sees his wish, his ambition, than the uncontrollable interior im-

520
pulse which is the authentic mark of a new poem...."

Emerson recognized and admired Lowell's talent, and the bigblow

Papers evidently appealed to h'w by their native American quality. However,

 

he realized that Lowell lacked that genius which comes from spiritual in-

sight, from communion with the Over-Soul. To Emerson books were seconda
things; man was greatest in hature where he could commune with the infinite.

To Lowell, literature was an end in itself; hature, from which be derived

no more than a childish delight, was preatest in man.

 

50. Journals, IX, 96.
51. Journals, IX, 5590

52. Journals, I, 267.

Because Emerson himself was a Transcendentalist, he could not enter
fully into the spirit of these New'Ergland writers outside of Transcendental-
.ism. The writings of the Cartridge group are for the most part less force-
ful and less indigenous. Emerson recognized the talents and tle good points
of these writers, but he also felt that the absence of a transcendental
philos0phy in them deprived them of spirituality and true genius.

Bryant was sincere and he did use American materials, but his orthodox
beliefs formed a barrier between Emerson and himself. Also, his appreciation
of Nature merely as a sanative influence was net transcendental enough for
Emerson, and it was the same-with'ihittier. Emerson did admire the Spirit
of freedom which he found in lhittier's abolition verses, however. Emerson's
failure to appreciate Ehnthorne arises largely from Hawthorne's pessimism,
from his outwern Calvinistic belief in sin, and from his romantic attach-
ment to Europe.'maerson had a sincere admiration for helmes' wit and
Sparkle, but he seemed to think Longfellow would have been a better poet
if he had written less. Lowell was promoting an indigenous literature in
his Eigggpfpfggmg§,_but it was through talent not genius.

Emerson did not place as high a value on the writings of the Cambridge
Brahmins as on the literary products of the Transcendentalists. lowever,
his estimates have proved to be remarkably accurate in the light of current
Opinion. ParringtOn says: "Concord has risen as Cclbridge and Beacon Street
have declined, and in the shadow of Emerson and Thoreau, the wit of Back

55-

" Van Eyck Brooks, also, writes that

Bay is in danger of being obscured.
"Itonically enough, it was Boston.and Cartridge that grew to seenzprovinciul,

while the local and even parochial Concord mind, which had always been univer-
311.0
sal, proved to be also natural."

.‘ c. -..“-

 

53. Parrington,_gp;_fl§§., p. LEI.

5L. Brooks, op. cit., p. 530.

XIII.

EMER?ON}S HISCEhLAnEOSS CRITICISZ.

Emerson criticizes many writers who are neither Transcendentalists
nor Brahmins, who do not, in fact, belong in any category. This mis-
cellaneous group ranges from such well-known figures as halt Hhitman and
Bret iarte to such obscure near-poets as Pierpont and Percival, and in
almrt every case Emerson's criticism.is limited to one or two remar:s.

walt'hhitman is the most important figure among these miscellaneous
writers, and Emerson's criticism of him is the most interesting. hhitman
admitted that he owed much to Emerson. 'Whitman is reported to have said,

1.
"I was simmering, simnering, sinnering; Emerson brought me to boil."
There is an Emersonian flavor in Ififfgfihgfngfgfiif 'Hhitman's demands for

a national literature in the Preface to Eeaves of Grass show the influence

 

of Emerson's "American SchoLar" address. Gohdes says that"Whitman's egoism

in Leaves of Gra§§_is the sublime apotheosis of Emerson's Yaikee self-
2.
reliance." Gohdes proves that Thitman.was acquainted with Emerson's

 

ideas before the publication of Leaves of Grass in 1855, and he believes

 

that Emerson is responsible for changing'hhitman from a second-rate
journalist into a prOphet of Democracy. 5. However, if Whitman imitates
Enerson by basing his thought on self—reliance and individualism, he is

at least original in his interpretation and application of these principles.

Foerster says'hhitman's poetic vision is "strikingly like that of the New

England Transcendentalists and at the same time strikingly unlike ....

 

1. Norman Foerster, Nature in.hmerican Literature, p. 202.

 

2. Clarence L.F. Gohdes, "whitman and Emerson," Sewanee Review, XLXXII, 79.

 

3. le.’PO 800

192 0

Leaves of Grass repeats the Transcendental love of nature, faith in

 

individualism, and prephecy of democracy .... but Whitman's conception
Li.
of them is nowise Emerson's." Emerson remains always cool, serene,
detached, refined, Vhitman is intense, emotional, vigorous, crudew Emerson
believed in dualism, in the correspondence of native and spirit, while
5.

Whituan makes the two into a blurred unity. In spite of these
differences, in spite of the fact that Amerson's how'Bngland background
and his own critical theory were offended by'Lhitman's lawlessness in the
subject matter and form of his poetry, nevertheless Emerson's transcendental
belief in the power of Testern,domocracy'made him recognize the sincerity

b. -
and strength behind'hhitman's crudities.

In July, 1855, after the publication of Leaves of Grass Emerson wrote

 

the following letter to hhitman. "I am not blind to the wonderful gift of
Ikggggijgljhgass, I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom
that America has yet contributed. I am very happy in reading it, as great
power makes us happy. It meets the demand I am always making of what seemed
the sterile and stingy mature, as if too much handiwork, or too much lymph
in the temperament, were making our hestcrn'wits fat and mean. I give you
joy of your free and brave thought. I have great joy in it. I find incom—
parable things said incomparably well, as they must be. I find the courage
of treatment which so delights as, and which large perceptions only can
inspire. I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have
had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start. I rubbed my eyes a little,

to see if this sunbeam.were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is a

 

 

_‘____‘ “—.-

h. Foerster, on. cit., pp. 201 - 2.
50 Ibi pp. 201.1. " 50

6. Gohdes, oo.cit., p. 85.

sober certainty. It has the best merits, namely, of fortifyinc and encouraging."

0

On the receipt of this letter Uhitman wrote Eherson.a mawkish letter hailing

him as naster," ‘

out it seems to be more sentimental than sincere. When the
next edition 0f.EEEYE§n9£;EEE§§ appeared, Ihitman exploited.Eherson's ap-
preciation of the book by printing the sentence "I greet you at the be-
ginning of a great career " above Emerson's name on the cover of every cepy.
The letter was printed without Emerson‘s consent, and he admi ted he would
not have been as enthusiastic had he known at was for publication. He said:
"Ehere are parts of the book where I hold my nose as I read. One must not
be too squeamish when a chemist brings to him a mass of filth and says,
'See, the great laws are at work here also;' but it is a fine art if he can
deodorize his illustration. However, I do not fear that any man who has eyes

in his head will fail to see the genius in these poems. Those are terrible

eyes to walk along Broadway. It is all there, as if in an auctioneer's

atalogue." Although Emerson was annoyed by'Uhitman's exploitation, his
:9}.
anger did not really last very long and he soon forgave him. His initial

attitude toward _Eeaves of Grass evidently changed, however, between his

 

letter to Ehitman in July, 1855, and his letter to Carlyle in.an, 1856.

In the latter he says: ";ne book, last summer, came out in Iew York, a
nondescript monster which yet had terrible eyes and buffalo strength, and
was indisputably American,- which I thought to send you; but the book throve
so badly with the few to wdom I showed it, and wanted good morals so much,
that I never did. Yet I believe new again, I shall. It is called leayes of

0—..- “0.

Grass, was written and printed by a journeyman printer in Brooklyn, New York,

 

4— ...»..- —-

7. George'w. Cooke, Ralph'faldo Emerson, p. 235.

 

8. Honcure D. Conway, Emerson at Fgme_a3d Abroad, p. 560.

.—

 

9. £34;er Holloway, ‘.himan, p. 1h}.

1914-0

-V?

nmmed ualter Whitman; and after you have looked into it, if you think that
it is only an auctioneer's inventory of a warehouse, you can light your
10.

pipe with it." .After Emerson's disgust at Thitman's usehf his letter
died away, his attitude t ward Lhitman seems to become more favorable
again. From this time until Emerson's death in 1882 the two men met at
least twenty times and were good friends although they could never be-
come intimate. Emerson gave letters of introduction to'fihitman to in-
troduce him to Sunmer and Chase, and during the war he sent him.money
for the wounded soldiers. They occasionally dined together in flew York
and'Whitman dined once in Concord at Emerson's, in 1872. Their most
famous meeting was on the Boston Common on 1861 and holloway believes

ll.
this to have been a significant and crucial point in.1hirman's life.
Emerson wanted'hhitman to ordt certain passages of "Children of Adam"
from Leaves of Grass, but Lhitman said that he felt the conviction in his

12.
own soul that he must do it his own way. Emerson could not answer this

 

argument since he, too, believed in following one's inner dictates. Gohdes
says that‘hhitmen tried to minimize his obligations to Emerson because
15.

everyone else. attributed so much influence to him. hhitman admitted

that he had called Emerson "master,“ but he added: "So

i-l

did - and master
1L1.

he was for me then. But I got my roots stronger in the earth." However,
Gohdes believes that Whitman.was fascinated by Emerson throughout his entire
life and that the supreme importance of Emerson to‘Khitman appears particular-

ly in.thitman's later life when he not only read Emerson's books but kept
15.
his portrait nea him and referred to him over two hundred times.

10. Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson, II, 251.

 

ll. Hblloway, op.cit., p. 185.

12. Gohdes, on. cit., p- 88- 1h. Ibid,,p. 92.

13. 112:4...‘p. 91. 15. Ibid.’P;). 92 g 930

1950

Emerson's comments on Thitman are few, but they are all interesting pieces of
criticisnn
Emerson's first comment on'Thitman after this letter to Carlyle in

1856 appears in his Journals, for 1863 when he writes: "Good out of evil ....

 

One must thank'Walt Lhitman for service to.American liteizture in the
16.
Appalachian enlargement of his outline and treatment." In a conversation

with Charles .oodbury u;e: son sa: d, "Le aves of C—rass, by .alt hitman, is

 

a book you must certainly read. It is wonderful. I had great hOpes of hhitmai
until he became Bohemian. He contrasts with Poe, who had an uncommon facility
for rhyme, a happy jingle. Poe might have become much had he been capable

17.

of self-e x ression." This nassa e is of particular interest because
t.) ..

1
this is also Emer son' 3 only criticism of Bee. In 1866 he writes: "I suspect
Halt hhitman had been reading these Welsh remains when he wrote his Leaves of
Grass. Thus Taliessin says -

’I am'wate r, I am a wren,

I am a workman, I am.a star;

I am a serpent;

H

am a cell, I am a chink:
18.
I anxa depositary of song, I am a learned person."

In his essayftirt and Criticism" he writes, "Ought not the scholar to convey

his meaning in terms as short and strong as the smith and the drover use to
theirs? .... Whitman is our American master, but has not got out of the

{N

7' -

e-Club and gained the entree of th Wsit 121g rooms." And in a conversation

 

 

fiv— —-—- -——-—-

hé. Journals, IX, 5h0.

17. harles J.'Woodbury, T51h5'withnnalpl1'Weldo umer son, p. 62.

 

18. Journals, 1, 1&7.

19. ha ral Ei§§giJ cf Intellect ,Iorks, XII, 285 - 6.

 

with F. B. Sanborn Emerson said that Leaves of Grass was a combination of
20.

 

the Bl-1a5ava’11ta and th [1' ew York ~1?-e;-‘ald.

 

 

,There is also an int es tin5 sassa5e in Burroughs' note book for December,

1070. P111 1‘05!th {rites

;
E:
H
L I"
[0
p
H-
p...
99
"'3
'1
'40
(D
Q.
Q

.43
‘3“
H.
U)
*1
C
b
3
B
3
’3
9
k I

E!
(D
D
[.1
O
.3

r1 0"

in F eaten the other day and .len 'hitxm an'was mentioned Ir. hnerson sain, '
'Talt sends me his books. But tell alt I am not satisfied, not satisfied. I

1

expect ~ him — to make - the son5s of the - nation — but he seems to be content
21.

to make - the inventories! Ialt laughed and said it tickled him much."

Emerson's last criticism of‘Khitman.was made in a conversation in 1877 with

Edward Carpenter who asl- :ed him Mt he thou5ht of Whitman. Emerson laughed

and said, "hell, I thought he had some merit at one time: "here was a 500d

deal of promise in sfirst ed.ition - but he is a wayward, fans ii‘ul man ....

He had a noisy fire engine society. And he took me there and was like a boy
or)

—£_.

over it, as if there had never been such a thing before."
Enerson's adhntation of Thitman may have lessened with the years, but

nevertheless he was one of the first men in America to appreciate Whitman's

’37 -

{...}.
genius. Emerson's influence on h1Jman.w“s also of the at m1ost importance.
In his demand for a national literature, in his individualism, and in his
democracy, Khitman.was following in the path which Emerson had laid out in
his "American Scholar" address. However, Emerson realized that Vhitman carried
this individualism too far. Rhitman's crudities were offensive to Lherson's
innate refinement, and the freedom of his metre and verse violated Emerson's

more classical theories of erosody, but Emerson did admire the stren5th and

 

 

“ - -. -—.—— .-

20. Elisa Perry, ”a  t".fi1 tman, p. 276. note.

21. Life and Letters of John Burron5hs, I, lhh.

“Hg-u .‘.-

 

 

—~- -..—...-

22. Edward Carpenter, Davs withl alt Whitman, p. 166

“M“ ‘.‘-...-..—

23. Vw T’yck Brooks, "he Flowerw , of New Englandi_p. £50.

*1»;

197..

‘-‘

vigor and native Imerican quilities thich he found in ..‘hitman. Conway adds that

”The Oriental lar5eness and Optimism which 11:10 1011 admired in at cient books

L 21"
are not to .he found in any modern page except that of Walt Thitman."
:11erson seemed to believe, however, that l’.’ipit1-nan's poetry, although it was
grand in scope, was lacking in distinctness.

Emersa looked to the liest for a true I’nnerican literature, as we have
already seen, and he was evidently familiar with the works of at least two
members of this new Pestern group of writers. however, in neither one did
he seem to find the promise and stimulation for which he was seeking.

Emerson has only two comments to make on I—Eret L'arte, who was jvst
beginning to come into his own after the Civil '.’.ar. After he met Ii‘ret liarte

.

in 11,71 he wrote: "fret lIarte's visit. Bret Ifarte referred to my essay on

'.J.

Civil zatien, that the piano comes so quickly into the shanty, etc., and

said, 'Do you know that, on the contrary, it is vice that brings them in?

It is the gamblers who bring in the music to California, and so throughout?‘

I told him that I spoke also from Pilgrim experience, and knew on good grounds
25.

the resistless culture that religion effects." His only other remark is

in his essay on "Greatness" in Letters and Social Aims when we read, "first

 

Irarte has pleased himself with noting; and recording the sudden virtue blazing
26.
in the wild reprobates of the ranches and mines of Cagifornia." EIRG“SOII

also had personal contacts with Karl: Twain and he liked certan passages in

27.

Innocents Abroad, but he was not actively influenced by him. There is one

 

other writer who belongs to the Test in spirit only and that is horace Greeley,

editor of the New York Tribune for so many years. Greeley became the spokesman

 

 

.'.—..-

 

%. Conwar, _o_p_.__c.i.t_._, p. 360,

23. Journals, X, 302 - 3

26. 2313, VIII, 317.

27. Ernest Larchand, ”Emerson and the Frontierflgnfiinca‘ Literatulfg; III",

(1931 - 1952). P- 173-

for Hestern democracy, and he threw himself whole—heartedly into the
agrarian movement. Like Emerson, he saw the west as America's rising
star, although he was much more radical than was Emerson. Ehe only

comments on Greeley in Emerson's Journals refer to his political views,

 

 

but there is an interesting passage in a letter to Carlyle. On his

return.from a lecture tour to fiisconsin, Liohigan, and Illinois, in

lBSh, he writes: "Greeley of the hew'iQEE”EIEPEE§.iS the right Spiritual
father of all this region; he prints and disyerses one hundred and ten
thousand newspapers in one day, - multitudes of them in these very parts ....

28.

He does all their thinking and theory for them, for two dollars a year."
Emerson never lost his own faith in the Meet, however, and his comments

at least reveal his interest in the Best and his cognizance of the new'
writers it was producing.

Emerson was also aware of the influence and currents at work in
the East. Pattee calls the middle decade of the nineteenth century ”The
29.

Feminine Fifties," and Emerson's criticisms reveal that he was con-
scious of the number of women.vriters in America. Besides hargaret Fuller
and Elizabeth Peabody, both of whom belong to an earlier generation,

Emerson comments on no less than five of these feminine writers.

Julia hard Rene is a typical member of "The Feminine Fifties."
She procuded several more volumes of poetry after publishing E25332?-
§195§E§_in ltShs Later in life she turned to essays and lectures at which

she was smch more successful, although a great deal of this success was

due to her personality. However, Emerson seems to have a very high opinion

 

 

———-— ...—L _,— .—~.

28. Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson, II, 25h.

 

 

 

29. Fred Iewis Pattee, The First_Century of American Literature, p. 565.

199

of her as a poetess. He says, "I honour the a uthor of Eatt le_ Hymn and

of The E;e§”_ She was born in the city of new lork. I could'well‘wish she

0.

\u

were a native of Lassachusetts. He he vs no such poetess in Lew' ngland."
Another feminine writer whom Emerson also ov:r-es imated is Catherine
Sedgwiok, who is partly responsible for the beginnir s of the domestic novel

in Algerioa. She wrote a great many novels, such as A new England Tale and

..—

 

 

The Travelers, but none of her literary work has prov-d to have any per-

 

manent qualities. Everson makes only two 001:1..eents on her, bothi in the year
1838. In a letter to Carlyle he says, "I think in a fortnight I shall need

to write again, - probably to introduce to you 3' countrywoman, Kiss

\n
I...)
O

’1 ‘-

Sedgwick, the writer of a11ectionate Jew England tales and the like ...."
His only other comzent apnears in his Journals. the says, "How noble a trait

does Kiss SCdéKiCk drew ’n her hrs. hyde when Lucy Lee says, 'It makes people

40‘“

.1ese novels. How we drivel and

r)
9“.

ll

civil to speak to her.‘ EOW‘we glow over

calculate and shuffle and lie and sLulk in life:
Harriet Beecher Stowe belongs to tho New-nlgland group of writers

and her best work deals with New B oland life. Hewevcr, she Spent several

years in Ohio and'Jest Virginia, and her most famous book and the only one

which Emerson comrents on, Uncle Tom's_Cabin, really belongs in the field

 

of Southern literature. In his essay "Success" Emerson is of c urse re-

ferring to Uncle Tom's Cabin when he says, "as have seen an American we an

 

write a novel of which a million copies were sold, in all languages, and
'which had one merit, of speakin gto the unive1sal heart, and was read equally

vith interest to three audiences, namely, in the parlor, in the kitchen,

 

 

—.—-..-_—.—_—._— “..- .‘.—- .- -

 

30. Journals, X, 325.

31. Correspondence of C rlyle and Emerson, I, 23h.

..

 

52- £323.15. Iv. 1158-

200.

3;-

nd in the nursery of every home." This same passane also occurs in
finerson's Journal for 1852, but he adds the following sentence to it
there: ”nhat a lady read in the drawing room in a few hours is retailed

1

her in the kitchen by the cock and the chambermaid, week by week; they master

5&-

to
one scene and character after another."

Helen Hunt Jackson is known today chiefly for her novel lamona, al-
though she was a prolific writer. Ker literary career began late in life,
but in a brief time she turned out poetry, juvenile literature,'travel
sketches, essays, household hints, and novels. Her work has all disappeared
new, but Emerson seemed to have a very high opinion of her. He writes:

’5

"Newport. hy'chief acquisition was the acquaintance 01 hrs. helen Hunt,

Sarah Clarke's friend, and her poetry I could heartily praise. The sonnet

'Thought' and (Ariadne's'Farewell' were the best, but all had the merit
35.

of originality, elegance, and compression."

Louisa hay Alcott is the last writer of the Feminine Fifties whom
Emerson comments on. Daughter of the Eranscendentalist Bronson.Alcott,
she is now more widely kn.wn than her once-famous father. Emerson knew
her from her childhood days on, but his only reference to her was in a
conversation with Charles'floodbury. He said, "Louisa Alcott is a natural
source ofstories. Then she was seven years old she was the delight of the
community, writing dramas and building heatres at her father's and the

neighbors' houses. She composed a hymn while yet a girl; wrote a book (which

has been printed under the name of hoods) when she was sizteen; another

..-—... .—

 

33. SocietyLenfig§olitude, 39:55, VII, 286.
5b. EEEEEE}§3_VIII: Ebb - 7.

35. Journals, X, 252.

201.

a book of fables, before she was twenty} At nineteen the papers began buy-
ing her stories. She did not want to grow to womanhood. She went out as
a governess, and vrote a story of her experiences for the fltlantig; but
they could not understand it, and told her she had better continue as a
teacher .... She produced her hos;ital sketches in 1865, and is new
(1868), I believe, bringing out what will be her best yet, Eittle;igmgn;
Le all think this is due to her publishing friend, who told her she must
write a girls' book, while she insisted she could not .... She is, and is
50.

to be, the poet of children. She knows their angels." This is Emerson's
only comment in Louisa Alcott, but his forecast has proved to be remark-
ably accurate.

Hashington Irving belongs to the generation preceding Emerson; his
best work was done while mnerson was still in college. Emerson has only
one comment to make on Irving, and that appears in 1822, a year after his
graduation from Harvard, in a letter to his classmate John B. Hill. He
writes,"0ur economical citizens have been quite dead to EIEEEPTEEEELEEQJQ
since its price was known. I have neither read it nor seen a single individual
W10 has read it. The extracts which I have met with have disappointed me
much, as he has left his fine Sketch:3o2k style for the deplorable Dutch wit

57-
of Knickerbocker which to me is verv tedious." It is interestine to
- , U

L)

 

note that in this case Emerson preferred Irving's imitative English manner
of writing to his own native American style.
Emerson was well acquainted with the anti-slavery poets and craters,

since he himself was an ardent abolitionist. However most of his remarks
t.

’ 1

‘96. Charles J. 'uoodbuI‘Y: Tall-‘8 with R9421 -3"€’~1d° VAT-191‘s“, P1" 100 ‘ 1‘

 

37. James Elliot Cabot, A Lenoir of Ralph‘Weldo Emerson, I, 92.

 

202.

f1 .. — o o . o o 1-
on these men. (vharles Sumner, rendell lhilllps, and nllllam Lloyd
Garrison) 2 guy to their political views and not to their writing or oratory.
Of Sumner he says nothing, of rhillips he says only,"fihile I admired his
eloquence, I had not the faintest wish to meet the man. he had only a plat-
53-
form—existence, and no personality." Ten years later, in 1365, he
adds, " I feel that his patriotism or his moral sentiment are not pri-
-marily the inspiration of his career, but his matchless talent of debate
39.
and attack." Emerson comments on Garrison, the poet, however, as well
as on Garrison the crater. In loh5 Emerson reviewed Garrison's Sonnets

and Cther Poems for the Dial, saying, ”hr. Garrison has won his palms in
quite other fields than those of the lyric muse, and he is far more likely
to be the subject than the author of good po m .... Yet though this volume
contains little poetry, both the subjects and the sentiments will everywhere
1!.00
command respect." Of Garrison the orator Emerson says: "Garrison is a
virile Speaker; he lack the feminine element which we find in men of genius.
He has great body to his discourse, so that he can well afford occasional
All.

flourishes and eloquence." Emerson sympathized with the anti-slavery
views of these men, and 119 realized that they could move audiences, but he
kneW'that none of them had genius, not even the genius of eloq ence which
hebster had.

Emerson also knew the work of some of the nineteenth century near-
poets, who had a tremendous reputation in their own day but who have faded
into obscurity during the last hundred years. Percival and Pierpont and

2+2.
undRiohard H. Dana were at one time among the seven ranking poets of America.

... -.—.-

 

338. Journals, VIII, hall. 39. Journals, 2:, lll.

”-fl ---

u

k):
L A'
1.1
O
:5
3

l ‘4
(A
b
\H
\z I
O
O

 

l - o — 1 - II 0-. o-
hO. hature, Addresses, Dial Papers, Jerks, national Llorary r

—_——.-._ ..—

hl. Journals, VII, 97.

1

h2. Pattee, on. cit., p. 575.

'1

Of James C. Percival Van Wyck Brooks says, "he is the classic example
of the almost good in poetry. A typical manhedepressive, whose life was
a mass of pathetic oddities, he was an admirable geologist .... he was

one of the most remarkable Am.ericr in philolob ists of his time, and, as a

linguist, a rival of George BorrOW'.... as made interesting experiments
LL30

in Greek and German metres." His Prometheus was hailed as equal to

 

Byron's Childe Karold, and his peptry as a whole was regrdded asthe most
I
cdassical in.America. Emerson wrote a.revieW'of Percival's The Dream of

"Lr. Percival printed

...—-—_-- ...-‘-'... u—nu—

‘a D31,_ and 0t} er Poems, for tie Di_al_ in ISLE, saying:
his laSt book of poems sixteen ye rs ago, -nd every school boy learned to
declaim his 'Eunker hill.‘ bince which time, he informs us, his studies
h ave been for t} e most part very adverse to poetic inspirations. Yet here
ve lave specimens of no less than one hundred and difsv dif;erent iorms

out example

(1'
H.
U)
:4
c!‘

of stanza. Such thorough workmanship in the poetical ar
or approach in this country .... But unhappily this diligence is not with-
out its dangers. It has prejudiced the creative power .... Our bard has not
quite so much fire as we had looked for, grows warm but does not ignite;
those sixteen years of adverse studies have had their effect on Pegasus,
who nOW'trots soundly and resolutely on, but forbears rash motions, and
never runs away with us .... he is the most objective of the American
1.1.1.4.. '

Poets .... and does his best."

John Pierpont, known to ay only as the gandfather of John Pierpont
Iorgan.was faunas in the nineteenth century as clergyman, poet, and reformer.

Sis most ir Lportant poetical worlzs were his Airs of Palestine (1310) and his

-..... —. -n-I. .. ~—..-—.-....—.-— -—a — -.o.-~---—- - .——~ --.- ~——-—.—. -—o- 0—... ————. .‘- - —-.~—- < -.— -—-

 

he. Frocks, 0p. cit., p. 375.

-v
.‘/'
- r I

M. Mature, Addresses, Dial Papers,’ orks, national Library Edition, IV,

A:
-.-...

 

-—',—--7 l
939 - U.-

. | -‘ I -- o 7-
Anti-ilaverx ioems \lchv) in a review uri Lten for the 01a Eners n
says: "Er. Pierpont has a bood deal of talent, and writes Verys airited
verses, full of points. Ee h s no continuous meanin3’ whie; enables him

to write a long and aloe al 1m em, but every poem is a scr1es of detached

e.igrmcs, some better, some worse. his taste is not alnays correct, and

Pa

rem the boldest fli3ht 1e shall suddenly alight in very low places.

Eeither is the motive of the poem ever very high, so that they seem to

q o

be rather squihs than prephecies or imprecations; but for political sat r

we think the 'TCrd from a Petitioner * very strong, and the 'Gag' the best
. I"
LU.

piece of poetical indi3nation in.America." Enerson realized that

,._.l

neither ‘ercival nor Eierpont were real poets; they had talent and sincerity
but no genius and no actual ability.

Te conclude Emerson's criticism of American liter:ture with his
comments on Ricr Lard henry Elana, the youn3r or, son of the poet. Van'fiyek
Breaks says, "with all the positive traits his father lacked, robust

ml Uclf-rel-~hnt,- he had been one of Emerson's pupils, - he was a day-
lie.

dreamer, like his father, and capable of n; vstical ecstr.a i 3." After

the publith ion of his book, Dana became the sailors' lawyer and spent

his life battlin” for their ri hts. Emerson wrote a review of Two Years
0 _.._.-....._..._. ....

Before the " ast for t e Dial: "This is a voice from the forecastle.

—-.——_

 

Though a narrative of literal, prosaic, truth, it possesses something of
the charm of Robinson Crusoe. F r'mcre interesting chapters of the literature
of the sea have ever filen under our notice .... This simple narrative,

stazm ged with deep sincerity, and often diSplaying an unstudied,

eloquence,1rnay lee d to reflections which mere argunont and sentimental

 

 

1.15. Ibid 01, 11)). 51.19 - 50.

*—

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C O N C L U S I O N.

Although Emerson's position as a critic of American literature
has been une uly neglected, this investigation proves him to be a keen
and searching critic of American letters in the nineteenth century.
his jud 5ment are based on his own theory of criticism, which is the
logical product of his life, his phiIOSOphy, and the tires in.which
he lived.

Emerson's external life is important, of course, but not as
important as the subtler influence at work within his mind. His poverty,
his ill-health, the death of his first wife and his tun brothers, and his
renur cia tion of the ministry creased in.him.the need and desire for some
philOSOphy which weuld relate him more clearly to life. From the beginnin;
the tendencies of Emerson's thou5ht were always idealistic and slightly
m MtiCLl. Throu5h his reading he early became acquainted with tlie ideal-
istic phiIOSOpby of Plato and of Plotinus, the Beoplatonist.. .hilefi - erson
vas encountering these i_iea: at Harvard, they were being given added im-
pulse by the introduction into America of German thought and philosophy
based on these Platonic and heoplatonis doctrines. From Kant came the
distinction of Reason and Understanding; from Schelling the perception
throu5h intuition of the identity of subject and object. Although a
little of this German thought was br ght back directly to harvard in

1819 by Everett, Ticknor, and Bancroft, most of it entered America through

the intermediary sources of the English Romanticists. Dr. Channing was

207

most influential in introducing this English Romanticism.into America,

03

nd his importance to all America as well as to Emerson, cannot be over-
estimated. Channing not only introduced the English Ronanticists into
this country, but he aroused Boston from its alvinism and thus prepared
an audience for Emerson. He also demanded a national liter:ture, and it
was this cry which Emerson himself took up years later. Coleridge was an
important influence because in his Universal Reason we see the counterpart
of Emerson's Over-Soul. Although Emerson began to feel himself a part
of fiature when.he was a boy in Concord, he owes to lordswerth much of his
spiritual appreciation of hature as well as his pantheism and his preference
for plain language. Carlyle affirmed Emerson's Transcendentalism and
self-reliance although his pessimism'st at variance with Emerson's under-
lying optimism. fihen this German idealism and English romanticism'were
superimposed on Sew En5land Unitarianism, the result was New En5land Trans-
cendentalism, a movement of which Emerson'was at the same time a product
and a germinating spirit.

All these forces were at work within Emerson's mind from 1817 on,
but they did not become focused until his trip to EurOpe in 1832. His
meetings with Colerid5e, herdsworth, and Carlyle served to affirm his
doctrine of self-reliance, his belief in his own powers, for he believed
they all lacked insight and spiritual truth. His visit to the Jardin des
llantes in Paris was also important because it gave him an evolutionary
point of view provin5 the gradation of matter to spirit. This affirmed his
cpt'mism and helped to break down his remaining traditional Puritan beliefs.
Emerson's matured philosophy, eXpressing his belief in the Over-Soul,

his idea of nature as a symbol, and his doctrine of self—reliance, first

208.

appeared in.hgturg, published in 1350. His life after that changed very
little. ifs contacts vith his Transcendentalist. friends and neighbors
such as Thoreau and Alcott strengthened his own Transcendental beliefs,
and his late reading of oriental literature gave added support to his own
mystical tendencies. however, Emerson's Yankee shrewdness not only kept
him from going to extremes, in his philosophy, but it also made him veny
aware of wmat vas going on in the world around him. Emerson'was particular-
ly alive to the rapidly developing'fiest, and it was to the west he looked
for an indigenous literature, The individualism, democracy, and optimism
of the frontier all find expression in Emerson. The interaction of all
these forces produced not only Emerson the writer and philosopher but also
Emerson'the critic.

Emerson's theory of literature and criticism.is the logical product
of his life, his philosophy, and his times. He believed that literature
and criticism should be transcendental, moral, and intuitive. He rec05nized
the superiority of 5enius over talent, while at the same time he felt that
talent could correct and improve what was written by inspiration. His belief
in self-reliance made him express freely his own personal ideas in his criticism,

although this occasionally led him.into some iconoclastic opinions. Emerson's

*4.
*Jo

crit c snxis based on the standard of the Ideal in literature, a standard
uhich no one yet has reached or can reach, and this tends to make him a
little too harsh in his judgments sometimes.

Emerson's theory of criticism is not only coherent, but he is con-
sistent in his application of it. Although there are flaws in this theory

which led.Emerson to make errors in judgment, nevertheless on the whole his

criticisms are remarkably accurate and penetrating. It is interesting to

209.

note that many of Emerson's opinions coincide with the opinions of today
rather than with the opinions of his own time.

His criticism of American literature as a whole is based on three
points: its dependence on Europe, its materialism, and its failure to g
use American materials. His self-reliance and individualism, his belief
in his own powers and those of his country made him impatient with.America's
dependence on and imitation of European culture, while his Transcendentalism
makes him impatient with the materialism of Americanthters which widens

the gap between the real and the ideal. His belief that the'fiest would

... vx-g'._-o.m —u.“—f—u‘_fi r

produce a new and indigenous literature is really too Optimistic, however,
and it is no wonder that he never saw the expected fulfillment of promise,
All the evils that Emerson saw in American literature, as a whole,
he saw'in.Amerioan periodical literature. These periodicals were in the
front ranks in their demands for a national literature, and yet they printed
only E;glish materials or third-rate American materials. Even the 213i;
Although it injected native andspriritual qualities into an otherwise barren
field, fell far short of its desired aim. Emerson thought the newspapers
to be on an even lower level than the periodical reviews, but in both fields
his unbounded Optimism apiin.asserted itself, and he again saw the great
possibilities of the future.
Emerson realized that Channing had done a great deal not only for
him but for all how England, but he could not see why Channing did not
do even more. Channing was moral and spiritual and occasionally even
eloquent, but he could not go beyond Unitarianism into Transcendentalism.
Lherson also recognized the debt that America owed to Tioknor, Bancroft,

and Everett for the significant role they played in the dissemination of

210.

German thought, but at the same time he criticized all the American
historians and scholars for their heaviness and mechanical qualities,
for their lack of spirit and vigor. ;
webster's eloquence placed himtumnggfimerson's catalogue of poets,
and his demand for terrestrial freedom paralleled Emerson's own demand for
mental and spiritual freedom..Aftcr'Kebster supported the Fugitive Slave
Law, Emerson saw that he was lacking in spirituality and moral sentiment.

Althcuth Emerson'was a Transcendentalist and believed in a trans—
L

cendental literature and criticism, nevertheless be also criticizes the

‘.‘-r -.._.—.n.-.~ wVv-nu - _n,:'r.‘-(m .x‘u‘u‘iufl

Transcendentalists rather harshly - Emerson was too shrewd a Yankee to
believe in either the extreme mysticism of one aspect of Transcendentalism,
or the crusading reforms of its more practical phase. Emerson criticized
Jones Very, Bronson Alcott, Charles Newcomb, and Ellery Channing because
they all carried their transcendentalism too far into mysticism. Also, they
all believed their writing came through intuition and for that reason they
would not labor over it, and Emerson.was forced to conclude that none of
them could really write. Emerson criticized Kargaret Fuller, Orestes
Brownson, and Theodore Parker because hebould neither understand nor approve
their reforming proclivities. They were all too intense for Emerson's cold
intellectuality.

ltmrsonmuas one of the first men to appreciate Thoreau and to ref
cognize the significance that Thoreau's journals would have if they were
ever published. he adnfired Thoreau's truth, spiritual insight and ap-
;preciation of Nature, but he objected to his sharpness and to the extreme to

'which he carried the idea of self-reliance.

kill.

Emerson also criticized the New England writers outside the Trans-..

cendentalists group. he realized that the Cambridge and Boston writers

were neither indigenous not forceful, but were still too much under the
spell of Europe. He appreciated Bryant's love cf Lature and his use of
American materials, he admired Holmes' sparkling wit, and he recognized

an indigenous quality in Lowell's Bi3low Papers though it was too self-

 

conscious. LongfellOW'was too prolific a writer to be uniformly poetic,
'while Iawthorne's writings were too pessimistic, Calvinistic, and
romantic. None of these writers were Transcendentalists and hence, to
Emerson, they all lacked the necessary spiritual insight.

Emerson was also one of the first men to appreciate what'fialt
Zhitman'was attempting to do in the fulfillment of his own demands for
an indigenous literature. however, he objected to a certain blurring of

detail in ’hitman as we ell as to the Vulgarity into which'fihitman's

extreme self-reliance led him. Emerson.rea1ized that Pierpont, Percival,

and Garrison could never be real poets, and he also forecast Louisa
Alcott as a great children's author.

In all of these estimates Emerson shows himself to be a remarkeoly

keen and accurate critic of American letters. however, there are certain

fle we in Emerson's theor of critic mwhich led him into errors of 'ud
J

3ment

and which helped to keep him from being a great critic. His transcendental—

ism led him to apply a spiritual criticisr r1 to a me ateria 1 age, and the result

is that he occasionalry overrated some one wro had sp T‘iri tual insight but

nothing else, as in the case of Sampson Reed, Jones Very, and Ellery

Chanu1-g. At the same time his insistence on the moral sentiment led him

to underestimate art for art's s eke. her this reason he diszn seed Poe as

‘0

10
....Lr_..

"the jin3le man” and failed to see any of the beauty of hawthorne's -
writings, whil> the moral vrlue he saw in Julia hard Howe and Sampson '

Reed rave them a higher place in me ican literature than they deserved.

\J

10.3“-..1I,

'14

{is intellectuality and lack of emotion also hinder him occasionally from 3
accurately judging writings which had any'great emotional depth. For this
reason he could not fully appreciate Whitman or even.Iargaret Fuller.

Zhese flaws in nserson' 3 critical theory are novnere more apparent than

/ i“: rem-in.hwv- q

in his own poetry. however, the strongest factor in preventin3 Emerson

from becoming a great critic was his own lack of interest in criticism.

-.

He wanted to be, and therefore was, primarily a poet and_phi1030pher, not

. F.

a critic. Nevertheless, if inerson is not a 3reat critic, he is a good

critic and an impvrtant cr 'Wtic 1 force through his influence on Fuller,
Lhitman, Burrou3hs, and even on some of our modern critics. Eis critical
judgments are not only remarl :ably accure.te, but they are not inconsidera ble

'1 quantity and cover almost the entire field of nineteenth century American
literature. Tis criticism ranges from such well-known figures as I wthorne
and Thoreau to such obscure writers as Very, Res d, and Percival, who, however,
-wor: not unimportant in Emerson's day. His criticism also includes the early
nineteenth century writers like Irving and Bryant as vrell as such la oter men
as $-1itman and Harte.

a.

Emerson did not criticize on the oasis of art for art's sake as

vx
J.

08

aid, nor did he regard literature as an end in itself as Lovell ”id.

:1.

Emerson is a 00d critic bec0 use his criticism is not detached from life;
rather, he relates literature to the times in'which he lived, to science,

t

["1

culture, politics, history, reli; ion, and economics. Ererson's mo

sincere criticism appea s in the fragments scattered throughout his ~

0 o "I A.
Journals. The profe331onal book rev1ews he wrote lor the D 1al have a

—.—.

 

 

,.

tmerican authors almost as if he were attempt-

(I)
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P .
e
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tendency to over

ing to encourage the growth of American literature by praising what

there was. In spite of the defects of his critical theory and in spite

of the fact he was not primarily a critic, neverthelesc Emerson'was a

keen and see chins critic of American letters.

"0

r. J.» k “”15me

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Baker, Carlos, "Emerson and Jones Very", New England Quarterly, VII,
90 — 9 (March, 1954).

Barrus, Clara, The Life and Letters of John Burroughs, 2 vols. Boston,
1925.

Blankenship, Russell, American Literature. New York, 1951.

Brooks, Van Wyck, The Flowering of New England, 1815 - 1865. New York,
1956.

Brooks, Van Wyck, The Life of Emerson. New York, 1952.

Cabot, James Elliot, A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 2 vols. Boston,
1888.

Cambridge History of American Literature, 4 vols. New York, 1917 - 1921.

Carpenter, Edward, Days with Walt Whitman. New York, 1906.

Carpenter, Frederic Ives, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Representative Selections.
New York, 1954.

Carpenter, Frederic Ives, Emerson and Asia. Cambridge, 1950.

Conway, Moncure Daniel, Emerson at Home and Abroad. Boston, 1889.

Cooke, George Willis, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Boston, 1882.

Qprresppndence of Carlyle end Emerson, edited by Charles Eliot Norton, 2
vols. London, 1885.

Qprresoondence between R. W. Emerson and Herman Grimm, edited by Frederick
William Halls. Boston, 1905.

Eggrespondence of Emerson and Sterling, edited by Edward Waldo Emerson.
Boston, 1897.

Crothers, Samuel McChord, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Indianapolis, 1921.

 

’.

“-6-.“ MA ‘-

"T ‘1‘“‘_”.—v’7' .Tv. Ti--.

DeMille, George E., Literary_Criticism in America. New York, 1951.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, edited by Edward

 

Waldo Emerson and Waldo Emerson
Forbes, 10 vols. Boston, 1909.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, with a bio-
graphical introduction and notes
by Edward Waldo Emerson, Cente-
nary edition, 12 vols. Boston,
1905.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, National library edi—

 

tion, 5 vols. New York, n. d.

 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Uncollected Writings. New York, 1912.

Emerson — Clough Letters, edited by H. F. Lowry and Ralph Leslie Rush.

 

Cleveland, 1954.

Foerster, Norman, American Criticism. Boston, 1928.

 

Foerster, Norman, Nature in American Literature. New York, 1925.

 

Frothingham, Octavius Brooks, Transcendentalism in New England. New York,

 

1876.

Gay, Robert M., Ralph Waldo Emerson, A Study of the Poet as Seer. Garden

 

City, New York, 1928.

Gohdes, Clarence L. F., The Periodicals of American Transcendentalism.

 

Durham, North Carolina, 1951.
Gohdes, Clarence L. F., "Whitman and Emerson", Sewanee Review, XXXVII,
79 - 95 (January, 1929).
Gray, Henry David, Emerson. A Statement of New England Transcendentalism
as Expressed in the Philosophy of

its Chief Exponent. Stanford Uni—

 

versity, California, 1917.

my: a- «3'9;

‘ ac‘u‘r

Hazard, Lucy Lockwood, The Frontier in American Literature. New York,
1928.

Holloway, Emory, Whitman. New York, 1926.

Hotson, Clarence Paul, "Sampson Reed, A Teacher of Emerson", New England
Quarterly, 11, 249 — 77 (April,
1929).

Letters from Ralph Waldo Emerson to a Friend, edited by Charles Eliot
Norton. Boston, 1899.

Macy, John, American Writers on American Literature. New York, 1951.

Marchand, Ernest, "Emerson and the Frontier", American Literature, III,
149 - 74 (1951 - 1952).

McQuiston, Raymer, "Relation of Ralph Waldo Emerson to Public Affairs",
Universityrpf Kansas Humanistic
Studies, III, no. 1 (April, 1925).

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, by R. W. Emerson, W. H. Channing, and
J. F. Clarke. Boston, 1857.

Mott, Frank Luther, A History oprmerican magazines, 1741 — 1850. New
York, 1950.

Parrington, Vernon Louis, Main Currents in American Thought, 5 vols. New
York, 1927.

Pattee, Fred Lewis, The First Century of American Literature 1770 - 1870.
New York, 1955.

Perry, Bliss, Emerson Today. Princeton, New Jersey, 1951.

Perry, Bliss, Walt Whitman. Boston, 1906.

Sanborn, F. B., "Emerson - Thoreau Correspondence", Atlantic Monthly, LXIX,
577 - 96, 756 I 55 (May and June,

1892).

T ...- ,1. _ “'-‘77_‘“’"‘~‘-.‘""._“"”U

Sutcliffe, Emerson Grant, "Emerson's Theories of Literary Expression",

University of Illinois Studies in

 

Language and Literature, VIII,

 

no. 1 (1925).
Thompson, Frank T., "Emerson's Theory and Practice of Poetry", P. M. L.JA.,
XLVI, 1170 - 84 (December, 1928).
Warfel, Harry B., "Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson", P. M. L. A.,
L, 576 - 95 (June, 1955).

Weiss, John, Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, 2 vols. New

 

York, 1864.

Woodberry, George Edward, Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York, 1907.

 

Woodbury, Charles J., Talks with Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York, 1890.

 

 

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