EMERSON, GEORGE BARRELL (1797-1881). An American educator, born at Kennebunk, Maine. He graduated at Harvard, where lie was afterwards tutor in mathematics and natural philosophy. He was a popular teacher in Boston for many years, and served as president of the Boston Society of Natural History, and as chair man of the commission for the zodlogical and botanical survey of the State. He wrote a Re port on the Trees and Shrubs Growing Naturally in the Forests of Massachusetts (1846) ; Manual of Agriculture (1861) ; and Reminis cences of an Old Teacher (1878).
EIVrERSON, RALPH WALDO (1803-82). A' famous American poet and essayist, born in Boston, Mass., May 25, 1803. His parents were the Rev. William Emerson and Ruth Haskins, and from them he received the train ing that the better class of New England parents bestowed upon their children. his boy hood was passed mainly in Boston. At the age of twenty lie was graduated from Harvard Col lege, and taught school for a time; then, like a large number of the educated youth of New Eng land at that time, lie studied for the ministry. He was ordained March 11, 1829, and became the col league of Bev. Henry Ware, pastor of the Second Church (Unitarian) of Boston. In September of the same year he married Miss Ellen Louisa Tucker, who died in February, 1832. Shortly after his association with Ware the latter re tired from active service and Emerson became pastor of the church, one of the foremost in New England. On September 9. 1832, however, lie resigned his office, saying, in his farewell sermon, that he had ceased to regard the Lord's Simper as a necessary rite, and that he was unwilling longer to administer it. Up to that time lie had been known as a rather able, earnest. and pleas lug preacher; he now entered upon his lifelong career as lecturer and essayist.
In the fall of 1833 he took his first trip to Europe, where he visited Sicily, Italy, France, and England, and met several well-known Eng lishmen, among, them Landor and Carlyle. In September, 1835, he married Miss Lidian Jackson. The winters of 1835, 1836, and 1837 were marked by series of lectures, delivered in Boston, on "English Literature," "The Philosophy of His tory," and "Human Culture." His more elabo
rated statement of belief, however, was to be found in his first published book, Nature (1830, given out anonymously, hut soon attributed to him. The volume had a small sale and received almost no popular notice, but it was important as an exposition of the basis of Emerson's phi losophy, and was accepted by such men as Carly le as worthy doctrine. Briefly, it was a phrasing of the idealist view of human life, as opposed to the materialist, then common in England and America, and the Calvinist dogma, then still per vasive in New England, and he made the essay a plea for individual freedom. The following year, on August 31st, Emerson delivered the Phi Beta Kappa oration at Harvard College on "The American Scholar." This was called by Holmes the `intellectual declaration of independence' for America. Containing, in general, the lofty ethical principles of the author, it is, in par ticular, a sober and earnest exhortation of his hearers to lead their lives with thoughtfulness, austerity, and self-trust, not leaning for support on the traditions and precepts of the past, but cleaving a way independently in the present. The following year was also notable for proclama tions of emancipation. .July 15th lie delivered an address before the students of the Divinity School at Cambridge expressing his belief in the validity of individual thinking in religious af fairs, and on the 24th of the same month he set forth the same general point of view at Dart mouth College, New Hampshire, in a lecture called "Literary Ethics." The first of these in cited a warm and widespread controversy, in which Emerson, as usual, took no active part. Throughout his life he never did more than state his views in his own vigorous and winning lan guage, content to let others carry on the dis cussion which he might have aroused, or body forth in sonic practical form the impulse which lie had given them.