Emerson, Poet and Thinker

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G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904 - 284 pages
 

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Page 90 - and thought in the world ; and through this knowledge, turning a stream of fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and habits which we now follow stanchly but mechanically, vainly imagining that there is a virtue in following them stanchly which makes up for the mischief of following them mechanically.
Page 37 - for He felt that man's life was a miracle, and all that man doth : and He knew that this daily miracle shines as the character ascends. But the word Miracle. as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is Monster. It is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain.
Page 74 - we cannot forgive the poet if he spins his thread too fine, and does not substantiate his romance by the municipal virtues of justice, punctuality, fidelity, and pity. . . . The end of friendship is a commerce the most strict and homely that can be joined; more strict than any of which we have experience.
Page 205 - Little man, least of all, Among the legs of his guardians tall, Walked about with puzzled look. Him by the hand dear Nature took, Dearest Nature strong and kind, Whispered, "Darling, never mind! To-morrow they will wear another face, The founder thou, these are thy race!
Page 200 - The eager fate which carried thee Took the largest part of me: For this losing is true dying; This is lordly man's down-lying, This his slow but sure reclining, Star by star his world resigning. 0 child of paradise, Boy who made dear his father's home, In whose deep eyes Men read the welfare of the times to come,
Page 36 - Wonderful is its power to charm and to command. It is a mountain air. It is the embalmer of the world. It is myrrh and storax, and chlorine and rosemary. It makes the sky and the hills sublime, and the silent song of the stars is it.
Page 75 - We are to dignify to each other the daily needs and offices of man's life and embellish it by courage, wisdom, and unity. It should never fall into something usual and settled, but should be alert and inventive, and add rhyme and reason to what was drudgery.
Page 161 - Landor is strangely undervalued in England ; usually ignored and sometimes savagely attacked in the Reviews. The criticism may be right or wrong, and is quickly forgotten; but year after year the scholar must still go back to Landor for a multitude of elegant sentences; for wisdom, wit, and indignation that are unforgetable.
Page 36 - Thought may work cold and intransitive in things and find no end or unity; but the dawn of the sentiment of virtue on the heart gives and is the assurance that Law is sovereign over all natures; and the worlds, time, space, eternity, do seem to break out into joy.
Page 49 - Up rose the merry Sphinx, And crouched no more in stone; She melted into purple cloud, She silvered in the moon; She spired into a yellow flame; She flowered in blossoms red; She flowed into a foaming wave; She stood Monadnoc's head. Thorough a thousand voices Spoke the universal dame: Who telleth one of my meanings, Is master of all I am.

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