In 1841 the first series of his Essays appeared. The volume contained several of the papers which have remained of all his work the most popular. It comprised "History,' "Self-Reliance," "Com pensation." "Spiritual Laws," "Love," "Friend ship," "Prudence," "Heroism." "The Over-Soul," "Circles," "Intellect," and "Art." The second series of Essays appeared in 1844, containing such titles as "The Poet," "Manners." "Char acter." In the interval between these two vol umes Emerson had done much writing for the Dial, the organ of New England idealism, or Transcendentalism as it was called. The paper was started in 1840 with Fuller as editor. Emerson himself succeeded her and re mained editor till the collapse of the enterprise in 1814. With the other and better-known ex periment of the Transcendentalists. the Brook Farm Community (q.v.), Emerson had little to do. In 1847 appeared the first volume of Emer son's poems, many of which had been published in the Dial during its brief existence. In the same year he wrote the editor's address for the newly founded Massachusetts Quarterly Review, but did no further writing for it. In October he set sail for Europe for the second time. He delivered in England a series of lectures, some of which he gathered together in a volume entitled Rep reschtatiec Min (1850). The subject suggests Carlyle's Heroes and Hero-Worship of ten years' before; but the treatment of the subjects and the manner of approaching them are different. With t arlyle. the hero, be it in war or in letters, is the man who molds the way of the world; with Emerson the representative man is so called sim ply because he stands for an ideal of individual integrity—a character whence springs his worth. The journey to Europe also resulted in 1856 in it brilliant book of travel, English Traits. In 1860 appeared The Conduct of Lifc, a volume of essays on such subjects as "Power," "Wealth," "Fate," and "Culture." This was followed in 1867 by a collection of poems, which had previously been published in the Dial and the Atlantic Monthly, entitled May Day and Other Pieces, and in 1870 by en tailer volume of ethical essays, Society and Solitude. During the winters of 1868-70 Emer son delivered a series of lectures at Harvard College on the Natural History of Intellect, which were posthumously published (1893). He made his third and last voyage to Europe in 1872. From about this time on his memory began to show signs of giving way, and, though he retained to the end of his life his erenmand of his genera] ethical principles, his work after 1S75 was fragmentary and scattering. In 1874 he made a collection of favorite poems, which he called Parnassus, and the following year his last volume of essays, Letters and Social Aims, ap peared. A revised edition of his poems followed in 1878. and the same year were published a lecture on the "Sovereignty of Ethics!' and one on the of the Republic." His death, which came after a short illness, occurred at Concord, April 27. 1882.
•mersen is described as tall and slender. lie was nearly six feet in height and weighed about 110 pounds. Ile was not erect in carriage. His head was rather small in di mension, long and narrow. but lofty and sym metrical. "Ills face," says 'Holmes. "was thin, his nose somewhat accipitrine, casting a broad shadow; his month rather wide, well formed and well dosed, enrrying a question and an assertion in its finely finished curves; the lower lip a little prominent, the chin shapely and firm. Ilk whole look W114 irradiated by an ever-active inquiring His was noble a ad gra Vi0114." 1114 personal habits were of the simplest sort, lint were in nn eseelie. He is said to have 6'4'11 t oppressed by a feeling, out une,en !!!!! n 'New Englanders. of the more relined sort of physical insufficiency; and this trait May :icemen for the fact that he rn rely hinr-elf In active measures, but chose In lire the eonlemplalive life.
1111 rank among the foremost writer- of his %II his prn.le, with the prim. %Ode •x,,ptien I If or two elunoterm in Enn/i,h Treity and a few hiogrnpliien1 sketehem, limy he strictly They represent a paint of w iew of mother unity and persistence, rani the chronology reap) the addresses printed in the volume called Na ture, together with that tract, all of which were written before 1845, represent a slightly more enthusiastic and zealous spirit than the later essays, and are rather more specific in subject. But, in the main, all the essays set forth a con stant and enthusiastic belief in the value of in dividuality and the need of every man's planting himself in the ground of his own consciousness and natural affection. Being himself a man of
many intuitions and of wonderful vigor in phrasing them, he is to be regarded as a prophet rather than as a philosopher. Ile sought to con struct no system. but stood for a cunstant idealise tie imptilse. \that he wrote was not based primarily on experience, nor did he ever write as the so-called man of the world.
Emerson's poetry is written from much the same point of view as his prose. 1Vhile his con temporaries and friends among American poets were variously expressing themselves, as Poe in the search for beauty, or Longfellow in the phrasing of generous truisms and romance, or Whittier in his anti-slavery verse, or Holmes in his graceful occasional way, Emerson utter ing his feeling for the innate morality of the universe. The number of his poems is not large. for he wrote only when the mood prompted him, and not systematically. Few of his poems are but one is narrative, and almost all may be philosophical and reflective. They are by no means so popular as those of bongfellow or of Whittier; but among them are to be found some of the best poems that .1merica has produced. Among the best-known are: "The Sphynx." "The Problem," "llama treya." "The Modern." "The Humblebee." The Snowstorm." "Woodnotes," the "Threnody." in commemoration of the death of his young son. the "Coneord Hymn." "Brahma!' "Terminus," and the quatrain "Sacrifice." Emerson has been the subject of much criti cism. That of an adverse sort eensures him for relying chiefly or altogether on his intuitive con seiousness instead of submitting his generaliza tions to the test, of reason. Though gifted, to a degree very unusual among men, with a aenius for plowing through appearances, he seldom or never took (lie trouble, say the rationalists, to analyze these vivid impressions with a view to as certaining their verity, The consequence is that, though sonic of his work is fresh and wholesome in its truth-bearing qualities, much of it is chseure and nusubsta tainted in the common ex perience of mankind. Another eriticism some what akin to this is directed at his frequent superfi•inlity, horn of the same failure to verify statements by patient. investigation. In conse quence of this trait., his work is very uneven, disjointed, and formless. It is an agglomera tion of detached sentences and epigrams, rather than n rutsnuable ittul consecutive presentation of t ruth. Finally, it is charged that his influence on his immediate was to cultivate a frequently eitigrammatie :led obscure manner of uttering platitudes and shallow thought, and that. in the main, lie has retarded in America growth of reasonable thinking proeesses. On the other hand, even Iris severest critics would admit that his influence has largely been whole some. in II Hence has eertainly been vast; no other \merienn man of letters, prebably, has been so a soiree of inspiration to his fellows, Coining at a time when the general tendency in America was toward a belief in material happi ness, he taught that a man has also a spring of joy and hope in his inner consciousness. Ho stimulated men to a better faith in themselves, induced them to rely less on number, masses, and externals. Except in a few specific counsels, as about the reading of books, he rarely uttered a particular dogma, hut stood generally for a large and dignified attitude toward life. lie was a firm believer in the inner goodness of his coun try and of his fellow-citizens.
Emerson's manner is unfailingly characteristic and original. He uses homely, simple language, racy of the soil of New England, very specific in its wealth of imagery, but never crude. His writing is almost always lively, but never fails to betray the calm and dignified spirit of the writer. It is often disjointed and often uneven, epigrammatic and choppy, but not infrequently contains a passage of great power and beauty. Many of his sayings. as "Beauty is its own excuse for being," and "A foolish con sistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," are household phrases, and of longer passages few anywhere are more forcible than such as that on the use of books, in "The American Scholar," or the closing paragraphs of his "Lecture on the Times." The precepts of such essays as "Self Reliance" may be said to be part of the mental marrow of every educated man in America.
The standard edition of his works is the River side in eleven volumes (Boston, 1883-34). llis correspondence with Carlyle has been edited by Norton (Boston, 1883).