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But, in spite of the advances which others may have made, it must have been an immeasurable gratification to Emerson in his deelining years to realize how much of real service he had been able to perform in the cause of humanity; how much more of color, warmth and light there was in religious, social and family life than when he first began his work. The thought that most of those whose condition he had improved were hardly aware of the benefit they had received, and were still less aware of who their benefactor was, can never have caused him a moment's regret.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON. The year 1882 has already made itself memorable in the literary record of our country, as the period of the death, first of Longfellow, and now of Emerson. The latter passed away at his quiet home in Concord, with his devoted family gathered around him, thus fitly ending a long, peaceful and happy life. For some time past the admonitions of this finality have been coming to him. Like the old man in the fable, Death had given him warning of his approach in the gradual decay of his once brilliant mental powers. There was still the appearance of physical health, but this outward showing seems to have been in many respects a delusive one. The hold upon life of a man who has made himself illustrious by great mental achievements must be weak when the forces needed to carry on his work are taken from him. He cannot cling to simple physical existence with that tenacity shown by others. to whom physical existence has been everything.

This is not the time or place to give a comprehensive review of Mr. Emerson's life and service. The influences of both were curiously subtile. There was no point in his career in which he suadenly leaped into public favor. His growth in popular estimation (if one can nse that adjective in such a connection) was a steady and progressive one, developing slowly, as men came to understand the man, and to appreciate the sterling honesty and practical morality which colored every line that he wrote. Whatever friction there was In his literary progress was due to the circumstance that, at the outset, he was a long way in advance of his time. In this country he was the prophet of a new dispensation; but, like all great forerunners, he had to encounter the hostility of adverse public opinion. Fortunately, in his case this period of opposition was not a very trying one. The singular equanimity of his temperament permitted him to endure, without feeling the burden, an opposition which would have provoked the resentment of one who had less mental equipose and selfreliance. He went steadily on with his work, setting forth his opinions, not in the vague, figurative language of Carlyle, but in terse, vigorous sentences, the meaning of which could not be misunderstood, and so simple, withal, that a child might comprehend thein. It will be for those who on, write out in its history of his life to B he was responsible for the vaga tached, more or less closely, te transcendental movement. For Emerson was not a dealer in phi

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who read his works find in them practical teachings in the method of living. The abstract forms which some of his followers gave these teachings seem to have been largely of their own creation. In spite of these incumbrances, the ideas forth by Emerson slowly made their way They never in their original form permeate downward into the minds of the great mas of the people. Emerson was an author wh was never generally read. The circle that h directly influenced has always been a narrow But it must not be supposed from thi that his influence was limited. It was his servic to instruct the teachers of the people, and thu Emersonian maxims have been popularized without those who now believe in them eve knowing the source from whence they came The lessened rigidity of religious customs, the broader toleration of differences in creed, the kindlier family methods of the present day, are all evidences of the wide-spread effects of Emerson's work.

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In view of the changed condition of human thought at the present time, it seems hard to realize that Emerson was at one period looked upon as a teacher of heretical doctrines. When he began his life-work the later results of scientific research were a secret to the world. From the first to the last his theories were based on premises which modern scientists would be very slow to accept. There was nothing of agnosticism in his doctrines; they were merely efforts to freshen and revivify those old conceptions of the universe, which men had trusted in for 1800 years. It is doubtful if Emerson ever tried to reconcile his beliefs with the later hypotheses founded on data which science has dug up from the earth, or drawn down from the heavens. This new era opened at a time when he was well advanced in years, and a ready receptivity of mind was no longer in his possession. He could not then begin over again, and, no doubt to him, as to the most orthodox believer, the notion of a universe out of which the Supreme Ruler had been struck, and in which all things were left to the workings of blind force and fortuitous circumstance, was gloomy and depressing. Yet the development of these scientific theories threw Emerson well into the background, so far as advanced thought was concerned. No modern student would consider his writings to be radical, one reason being that the thoughts of the community we live in have almost ranged themselves in a line

while, as another reason, far re those whom the world n as radical thinkers, bend Emerson's position is logical argument can

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