Show BRIEF TALK I WITH EMERSON He Says He Is Very Much Subject to Moods SLOW SALE OF HIS BOOKS I A MOST LABORIOUS REVISER OF PROOF SHEETS Ills Charm in Conversation One of His Chief Attractions Mingled Stream of Poetry Provcrlt and IVruiifeceudcntnliKm Influence Steadily Increasing t BY JAMES R GIIMORC Edmund Kirke Copyright 1895 by 5 S McClure Limited Lim-ited Ore morning in the summer of laSJ One morning in the summer ot IS jon j-on the old Coolidge place in Cam bridge Mass saying I ought to go out to see Emerson but I want you to go With me A half hour alone with him would deprive me of the power of speech j uhen can you go AC was about 10 oclock on that morning when I opening a low gateway and pass lag through a prim checkerboard gar I den we stood before the old oaken door i way of Mr i aZ Emersons residence in the very heart of Concord The house was cf oingy white with green blindsone of those unsightly packingbox structures that are so common throughout rural I New England and if ones dwelling is an index to ones character this house indi cated that the poet philosopher was much more of a philosopher than a poet OUr summons was answered by a prim looking woman who seemed a queer com n1h of steel springs Oswego starch i ii and the neatest or Yankee calico She UFheredus into a broad roomy hall and left us standing there while hhe went away noticed to that announce the hall our arrival was lined Then with I I dingy paper that in it stood an oldfash ioned hat standgarnIshed with a broad I brimmed beaver and that a wide half naked stairway was beyond leading to i the second story But soon the door into j too front hall opened and we were face to face with the great oracular philoso pher A leU was on his lips a pen be I hind his ear aid two or three great I blotches of ink were on as muny or his fingers but he held out both his hands to us saying Come in come right into my den Im glad to see you I Emcr oii in Ills Den It was a lowstudded apartment about twenty feet square with the same ugly paper on the walls but this was now paitly hidden by numerous paintings and engravings In the center of the room was a round table on which were some books and pamphlets an ordinary ink stand and a few quires of packetpost paper Near the table was a solid armchair arm-chair and scattered about on tho floor I under the chair and tho table were about twenty sheets of freshlywritten manuscripts manu-scripts Evidently he was at work and we should be an interruption to him I I was about to say so when he motioned us to a couple of chairs and seating himself i him-self said again I am glad you have come My ideas flow slowly this morn lag and a little talk will brush me up I Then I said you do not always write with the same facility Oh no I am very much subject to mocds Often a month passes when I dont put a thought upon paper Well you have a curious way of keep ing your manuscript Yes he answered on the floor When I finish a page Im apt to brush it aside to be rid of it but I gather the sheets up before I leavo the room and I may as well do that now for I shall work no more today With this he stooped down and gathered gath-ered together thi sheets that were en his side of the table while I aided him by picking up the few that were out of his reach saying as I did so Ive often wondered at your clear beautiful handwriting hand-writing An expert would be puzzled to detect in your regular businesslike chirography chi-rography anything of a poet or a philosopher philoso-pher I He smiled saying Well the first es ftntial in handwriting is legibility Emerson a Laborious Reviser But Im surprised to see in your manuscript manu-script no erasures or interlineations Mr Figelow says you are terrible upon proof sheets that he once set up a book of yours where his bill for the plates was only about 400 while for the proof alterations alter-ations it was more than 1300 Mr Emerson smiled again and saId Oh yes That was my second volume of essays I worked very hard ever that book and it never did exactly suit me I suppose I am very hard upon proof sheets for I think no one should give any buthis most mature thought to the public But tell me have you not come prepared to give me the day We would not interfere with your work said Willson but neither of us has anything pressing to call him home Then would you prefer a walk around Wolden pond or a chat with me till dinner din-ner time and then the afternoon with Hawthorne and Alcott Wendell Holmes has sent Hawthorne one of your poems he is delighted with it and would enjoy meeting you There are a great many ponds said Willson but only one Emerson A day I I with you would be a red letter in my calendar cal-endar Xo Portrait Give a Complete Idea I Then let us get out of this den said Emerson rising and leading the way into I in-to a rear apartment I have not attempted at-tempted to sketch his personal appearance appear-ance for I suppose every reader has seen one or more of his portraits I have myself seen at least twenty no two of them alike yet every one resembling I I him in some particulars However none 1 give any complete idea of the manof the serene benignity of his face the unstudied I i un-studied majesty of his manner a certain i unconscious power that seemed to envelop I en-velop his and to lift him far above ordinary or-dinary humanity He was nearer my j ideal of the Christ as he must have appeared I ap-peared when he lived among men than i any other man I ever encountered The room into which he ushered us was as the same size as the others but I I it looked out upon green fields and was odorous with a variety of summer I flowers All sorts of odd knickknacks i covered the walls and on two of its i sides were open shelves filled with cijr ions volumes in antique bindings or no bindings at all Glancing over them I saw they were rare old tomes chronicles I remnants quaint old divines like Hooker I and Jeremy Taylor and precious books i in black letter but there was scarcely a tti eb llil sel i modern volume among them As we seated ourselves Wiilson said I think i I I Mr Emerson that I have read everything I every-thing you have ever written I I I The Sloiv Sale of Emersons hooks And you brought up at the west I i You surprise me said Emerson My I I books have never had a large saleit i i was all of ten years before Nature sold i i 500 copies But it not so now said Willson I i I However your books have always been I read by thinking men who have taken your ideas and scattered them I i Yes said Emerson scattered them i I I often by attempting to refute them I think the world has not yet come to my way of thinking I No perhaps not said Willson The prophet is seldom a prophet to his own century And are not the reading minds of the I present time Mr Emerson incapable of receiving your ideas I asked I once i knew one of the great theological lights < of New England who bewailed the appearance j ap-pearance of Nature as a fascinating but very dangerous publication Who was he asked Emerson with some interest I Old Doctor Emmons I found the book on his table during the last year of his life and you know he lived till he was past 95 I Yes and he was a wonderful old man I remember the advice he once I gave to a young clergyman who had i applied to him for Instruction about writing his sermons Have something to say and then say it What did he I say about Nature I cant recall it all but I distinctly remember that he quoted against YOU what Margaret said to Faust What you say sounds very fine and is vy nearly what the priest tells me only indifferent in-different words For all that thou hast no Christianity I suppose answered Emerson that Doctor Emmons never reflected that the most effectual way to preach Christ is to say nothing about him Is there not enough of scriptural cant already In the world without my adding to It Emersons Charm in Conversation 0 Then the talk drifted into other channels chan-nels and Emerson poured forth a min J I I gled stream of poetry proverb and transcendentalism tran-scendentalism He was the most earnest of talkers and we forgot his wide renown I as a writer in listening to the charm of his conversation He seemed to take in the peculiar tastes and prejuices of each of us by a sort of intuition and we perceived per-ceived our own thoughts more clearly when they came back to us reflected I from his translucient intellect After dinner we spent a couple of hours with him and Hawthorne and then ofter a brief call upon Alcott we took the train back to Boston I would like to relate the interview at Hawthornes I but perhaps I can better fill my remaining remain-Ing space with the views that Willson expressed as wo rode towards home as to the character and influence of Emerson Emer-son Wilson Judgment of Emerson I Emerson he said has been judged by ana I Incorrect standardsas a poet and philosopher I phil-osopher but while ho Is both he Is much more a great spiritual teacher and so I J 4 Li VJLPIIY E3IERSOX great is that quality in him that it overshadows over-shadows every other The more he is read the clearer it appeals that he has the structural principle of thought and the spiritual vision that enable him to see farther and deeper than most men of our time lIe is a seer and he has the literary ability to put his thoughts into words that will wing their way around the world His Influence Is steadily increasing and there is not a cultivated man in this country or England who has not con clously or unconsciously been made more liberal in thought and led to broader views of life and duty by the teaching of Emerson No writer of any prominence promin-ence has escaped his influence He speaks from pulpits that oppose and deplore his doctrines His brilliant points shine In the sentences of his severest critics His phrases and philosophy are in the air men cannot escape them If we look into Nature or English Traits we shall find on every page thoughts that have become common property and arc quoted daily by writers who have no idea whence they came The new ihan brings new ideas Emerson Em-erson had to create his audience but while ho was doing so men became gradually grad-ually aware that his thoughts had value and they accepted them not because they were new but because they felt there was a great ethical powed behind them The w rld has now recognized the seer and so his words will go down the centuries |