1. "The philosophy of Emerson is Idealism, applied to practical life; its highest truths come through intuitions, not through the 'half sight of science.' In its expression he is sometimes carried in lofty rhapsodies to the verge of mysticism, as in Nature, The Over-Soul, and the poem Brahma; but generally his thought is well anchored in common sense, and he everywhere gives inspiring and illuminating evidence of the possibilities of life on a higher level. He is the mystic and the man. of sense united. His constant theme is the omnipresence of God. Soul permeates all things. His mental attitude is optimistic, always that of trust and faith. His influence is that of an inspirer, giving a spiritual lift to all who reach out to him.”—Selected.

"His eye for a fine, telling phrase that will carry true, is like that of a backwoodsman for a rifle; and he will dredge you up a choice word from the mud of Cotton Mather himself. A diction at once so rich and so homely as his, I know not where to match in these days of writing by the page; it is like homespun cloth-ofgold."-Lowell.

3.

"Emerson's style is epigrammatic, incisive, authoritative, sometimes quaint, never obscure, except when he is handling nebulous subjects. His paragraphs are full of brittle sentences that break apart and are independent units, like the fragments of a coral colony. His fertility of illustrative imagery is very great. His images are noble, or, if borrowed from humble subjects, ennobled by his handling. He throws his royal robe over a milking stool and it becomes a throne."-Holmes.

4. "In certain respects he has gone beyond any other. He has gone beyond the symbol to the thing signified. He has emptied poetic forms of their meaning, and made poetry of that. He would fain cut the world up into stars to shine in the intellectual firmament. He is more and he is less than the best. He stands among other poets like a pine tree amid a forest of oak and maple. He seems to belong to another race, and to other climes and conditions. He is great in one direction-up; no dancing leaves, but rapt needles; never abandonment, never a tossing and careering, never an avalanche of emotion; the same in sun and snow, scattering his cones, and with night and obscurity amid his branches."-John Burroughs.

REFERENCES.

Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Cabot.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Garnett.

Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson, Norton

Talks with Emerson, Woodbury.

Authors and Friends, Mrs. Fields.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ACTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONE.

POETS' TRIBUTES.

R. W. E., Lucy Larcom.

To R. W: E., Susan Coolidge.

The Poet's Countersign, Sanborn.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Cranch.

To Emerson on his Seventieth Birthday, Hayne.
Ion: a Monody, A. Bronson Alcott.

QUESTIONS ON EMERSON.

I. Tell the story of Emerson's Life?
II. What do critics say of his writings?

III. Name some of Emerson's best essays and quote fine passages.

IV. What was the "Brook Farm Community?" Name some of its members.

V. Name four of Emerson's poems. Quote three passages.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

1809-1894.

"The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table."
"The Poet Laureate of America."

He

He read men and women as great scholars read books. handled his rapidly acquired knowledge so like an adept in booklore that one might have thought he was born in an alcove and -Dr. Bigelow. cradled on a book-shelf.

There's Holmes, who is matchless among us for wit;
A Leyden-jar always full charged from which flit
The electrical twinges of hit after hit.

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His are just the fine hands, too, to weave you a lyric
Full of fancy, fun, feeling, or spiced with satiric