not clothe his thought in the richest music of numbers. He is profoundly thoughtful; he earnestly strives to voice the speechless messages of the Over-soul. He grows upon us as we grasp more fully his meaning. Though not the most entertaining of our poets, he brings us the deepest and most helpful messages. His poetry, like his prose, brings courage and hope to burdened and struggling men. He calls them to sincerity, to faith, to truth. In the tasks that come to us, divine help is near :

"So nigh is grandeur to our dust,

So near is God to man,

When Duty whispers low, Thou must,

The youth replies, I can.”

If there are any who question this estimate, let them read, besides the poems already mentioned, "Each and All," "The Problem," "The Rhodora," "Astræa," "Sursum Corda," "Ode to Beauty," "Give All to Love," "Voluntaries," and many others.

393. Literary Method.-Emerson was peculiar in his literary methods. It is doubtful whether we have had another author so frugal in husbanding every thought. Besides the work done in his study day by day, he was accustomed to jot down in a note-book the stray thoughts that came to him in conversation or on his walks. The suggestions that occurred to him in his studies, conversations, and meditations he elaborated in a commonplace book, where he noted the subject of each paragraph. He thus preserved the best thoughts of his most fertile moments. When he had occasion to prepare an essay or a lecture, he brought together all the paragraphs relating to the subject in his commonplace books, supplying, at the same time, such new connective matter as might be necessary. This method will explain the evident absence of logical treatment in most of his writings, and also account for the fact, noted by Alcott, that "you may begin at the last paragraph and read backwards." Emerson subjected his writings to repeated and exacting revisions. Paragraphs were condensed, and every superfluous sen

tence and word were mercilessly pruned away.

"Nowhere

else," as Burroughs says, "is there such a preponderance of pure statement, of the very attar of thought, over the bulkier, circumstantial, qualifying, or secondary elements."

394. Twilight Years. The year 1867 is indicated as about the limit of his working life. He gave pathetic expression to his experience in the poem entitled "Terminus":

"It is time to be old,

To take in sail :

The god of bounds,

Who sets to seas a shore,

Came to me in his fatal rounds,
And said 'No more." "

The closing years of his life resembled an ever-deepening twilight. Hearing, sight, memory, slowly but gradually gave way. At last, April 27, 1882, surrounded by those he loved, he was beckoned "to his vaster home." Shall we not say that his life was beautiful? Men testified of him that he was radiant with goodness, that his presence was like a benediction, that he exhibited the meekness and gentleness of Christ. To have been such a man is better than to have been a great writer.

FOR FURTHER READING AND STUDY.

The annotated selection, pages 466-478, is Emerson's essay on "Art," which is illustrated by extracts from his poems and other writings.

In addition to this essay the student is advised to read "History," "Self-Reliance," "Compensation," and "The OverSoul" from the Essays. Among the poems he should read "Woodnotes," "Good-by," "Merlin," "The Snow-Storm," "Musketaquid," "Each and All," "The Problem," "The Rhodora," "Astræa," "Sursum Corda," "Ode to Beauty," "Concord Hymn," and "The Humble-Bee."

J. E. Cabot's "Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson "; G. W.

Cooke's "Ralph Waldo Emerson; His Life, Writings, and Philosophy"; Oliver Wendell Holmes's "Ralph Waldo Emerson (Am. Men of Letters Series); Richard Garnett's "Ralph Waldo Emerson" (Great Writers Series).

For critical estimates consult the general bibliography and Poole's "Index." Edmund Clarence Stedman's "Poets of America"; Matthew Arnold's "Discourses in America "; James Russell Lowell's "Emerson the Lecturer."

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

395. Men of Genius. It is not difficult to portray the lives of ordinary men. Their outward circumstances present nothing unusual, and their inward experiences admit of ready comprehension and description. All that is needed in such cases is diligent research. But it is different with the man upon whom Providence has lavished such a wealth of gifts as raises him high above his fellows. The outward incidents of his life may indeed be easily narrated. But when these have been presented in the fullest measure, how inadequate and unsatisfactory the portrait still remains! That which distinguishes him from other men, and exalts him above them, is felt to be untouched. And when we essay to penetrate the secret of his genius, we are puzzled and baffled at every step. Only unsatisfactory glimpses reward our most patient observation. Strange and beautiful flowers may burst forth under our very gaze; but the marvellous energy that produces them remains invisible and mysterious. These reflections force themselves upon us as we study the life of the most original and most gifted of all our American writers.

396. Ancestry.-The interesting historic town of Salem, Mass., has the distinction of being the birthplace of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Here he first saw the light, July 4, 1804. He sprang from Puritan stock almost as old as the Plymouth colony. The strong traits of his ancestry, as he himself recognized, intertwined themselves with his personality. His ancestors occupied a position of social and official prominence, and won an unenviable distinction in persecuting Quakers and killing witches. For a hundred years before his birth they followed the sea, " a gray-headed shipmaster, in each generation, retiring from the quarterdeck to the homestead, while a boy of