it! so let it be! If it be not so, if the courage of England goes with the chances of a commercial crisis, I will go back to the capes of Massachusetts and my own Indian stream, and say to my countrymen, the old race are all gone, and the elasticity and hope of mankind must henceforth remain on the Alleghany ranges, or nowhere.'

NOTES

NOTES

ENGLISH TRAITS

'HEN Mr. Emerson first sailed for Europe he was, no

WH

doubt, urged by physicians to the measure to restore his shattered health, and by his friends, that his mind might be diverted by the scenes rich in beauty and association, and by the treasuries of art. Then and through life he cared little for travel for amusement; he had all the beauty and the facts that he wanted in the home horizon; but previous experience had shown him that even a rough sea-voyage was helpful, and this trip involved two, in sailing vessels. More than that, he had left his old life behind and now had opportunity to think out alone the plan of the life about to begin. Two or three men lived in Europe the courage and freshness of whose thoughts had cheered and helped him. In his sadder hours he almost wished to find a helpful Master, but his heart told him that this could not be, and thus answered the wish of his weak

ness:

Journal, Rome, April 22, 1833. replies with the tongue of all its days.

Our stern experience
Son of Man! it saith,

all giving and receiving is reciprocal; you entertain angels unawares, but they cannot impart more or higher things than you are in a state to receive, but every step of your progress affects the intercourse you hold with all others; elevates its tone, deepens its meaning, sanctifies its spirit."

But, in the loneliness of an ancient city, and beset with sad memories of home, he felt assurance of helpful and strengthening friendship soon to come. He was to find that friend in Carlyle.

The verses

"In Naples" are sad; the last lines of those "Written at Rome" (see Appendix to the Poems) show hope reviving with health:

Generously trust

Thy fortune's web to the beneficent hand
That until now has put his world in fee

To thee. He watches for thee still. His love

Broods over thee, and as God lives in heaven,
However long thou walkest solitary,

The hour of heaven shall come, the man appear.

Six months before, he had written in his journal: "I am cheered and instructed by this paper on Corn Law Rhymes in the Edinburgh by my Germanick new-light writer, whoever he be. He gives us confidence in our principles. He assures the truth-lover everywhere of sympathy. Blessed art that makes books, and so joins me to that stranger by this perfect railroad."

A few weeks later, having found the name of the unknown champion, he writes, his sickness showing in the shade of

doubt:

"If Carlyle knew what an interest I have in his persistent Goodness, would it not be worth one effort more, one prayer, one mediation. But will he resist the deluge of bad example in England? One manifestation of goodness in a noble soul brings him in debt to all the beholders that he shall not betray their love and trust which he has awakened."

During his short stay in France on his way northward, of which there is no mention in English Traits, he made this entry:

Thus shall I write memoirs? A man who was no courtier, but loved men, went to Rome and there lived with boys.