The Dial Vol. 1
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The Dial O f this supplementary volume, printed in connection with the Rowfant reprint of “The D ial” one hundred and twenty-seven copies have been issued, this being No............. An Historical and Biographical Introduction to Accompany The Dial As Reprinted in Numbers for The Rowfant Club George Willis Cooke In Two Volumes Vol. I Cleveland The Rowfant Club 1902 Copyrighted by The Rowfant Club of Cleveland 1902 Preface In this book an attempt has been made to bring together all the accessible facts about the editing and publishing of “ The Dial.” For many of these facts I have been indebted to other volumes, some of them well known, as in the instance of the biographies of Margaret Fuller, Emerson, and Alcott. Others are rare or but little known, as in the case of Eliza beth Hoar’s biography of Mrs. Samuel Ripley, the biography of O. A. Brownson by his son, and many similar works. Other sources of information have been magazines and news papers, which are to be found in only a few libraries. Many of the facts presented, however, have been obtained at first hand from individuals, by means of interviews and corre spondence. I have letters written me by many of the con tributors to “ The Dial,” and these I have frequently quoted or drawn upon for information. Letters from Lowell, Dana, Alcott, Cranch, Ward, Clarke, Cabot, Hedge, Curtis, W. H Channing, Wilson, Miss Peabody, and Miss Clapp, have been thus used. In the case of those contributors who are well known, the purpose had in view in the following pages has been to state what were their relations to the transcendental club and “ The Dial.” Those not widely known, or of whom lives have not been published, receive a more detailed biograph ical treatment. The biographical sketches have not been proportioned according to the extent of the contributions of v 385270 Preface the several writers to “ The Dial,” but rather with reference to the accessible materials, and the significance of their rela tions to the transcendental movement. Some of the sketches would have been longer if the necessary information could have been secured. In the arrangement of the chapters, the persons connected with the editing and publishing of “ The Dial ” have first received attention, and then the other con tributors have been arranged in the order in which their first contributions appeared. At the end of the book a full list of all the articles has been given, with the names of the authors, so far as these could be ascertained. I am pleased to be able to say that only four short poems remain anonymous. There follows a second list, giving in fall the contributions of each of the several authors. In compiling these lists several sources of informa tion have been available. I have been greatly indebted to Mr. Frank B. Sanborn for information as to the authors, and for other most important aid. He has in his possession Thoreau’s copy of “ The Dial,” in which the latter wrote the names of many of the contributors. As a result of his inti mate friendship with Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, Ellery Channing, and others, Mr. Sanborn has had abundant oppor tunities for procuring accurate information. This he has most generously placed at my disposal. Mr. Alcott also gave me much aid by means of personal interviews. I have had the use of Mr. Emerson’s set of “ The Dial,” into which he had written the names of many of the contributors; and valuable information by letter has been given me by Mr. Edward W. Emerson. Col. T. W. Higginson has also taken a warm in terest in my enterprise, and aided me in many ways. Through the kindness of Dr. Samuel A. Jones, of Ann Preface Arbor, I have been able to make use of the names written into the set of “ The Dial ” contained in the library of the University of Michigan. This set was owned by Daniel Kicketson, into which Ellery Channing wrote the names of many of the contributors. I have used the list contained in the Library of Congress, placed there on the authority of Emerson by Dr. Spofford, the former librarian. The list in the Newbery Library of Chicago has been available, as well as that in the Boston Athenaeum. The library of Harvard University has also its list, which I have used. Several private sets of “ The Dial ” have also been consulted, and among them that owned by William S. Eobinson (“ War rington ”), a native of Concord, and an original subscriber to “ The Dial.” These lists do not always agree with each other, and it is evident that some of them are more or less based on hearsay, and others are defective because memory is fallible. So far as possible the list given at the end of this book has been revised by the aid of the published works of the several authors. This I have been able to do in the case of Margaret Fuller, Emerson, Thoreau, Cranch, Mrs. Hooper, Parker, and Miss Clapp. Correspondence with Lowell, Clarke, Dana, Curtis, and others, has been used in determining what they wrote. In spite of these precautions, however, a small number of the pieces remain somewhat doubtful as to the authorship. At one time it was my intention to call this book a his tory of transcendentalism in New England, but I have thought it better j;o make use of a less pretentious title. This will account for the first two chapters, in which I have attempted to prove that transcendentalism in New England^ was essentially indigenous, and that it was a phase of the^ vii Preface democratic development in this country. I have been much interested in tracing out the way in which transcendentalism influenced the persons who contributed to “ The Dial,” and in finding what a leaven of mental purpose it was to most of them, even those the most obscure. So far as anything in the following pages is concerned, it might be assumed that I am a convinced and unfaltering transcendentalist. The purpose and plan of the book has not made it necessary in any way to discuss the validity of that philosophy, and it is not essential that anything should be said on the subject here. In order to prevent misappre hension, however, I will say that at the present time I am not able to accept the transcendental philosophy. • The in sight, intuition, or direct contact with the spiritual world, of the transcendentalist, in my opinion, is due to that mar vellous process of hereditary and social transmission by which the present is linked to the past. Intuition is the result of that subconscious process of thought by which the individual receives from the past of the race the spiritual issues of its experiences. With this radical qualification, I am not disinclined to accept the teachings of the transcen- dentalists. They often need a serious criticism, however, in order to free them from excess and fanaticism. When Frothingham’s “ New England Transcendentalism ” appeared in 1876,1 wrote a review of it, which I sent to him. His reply may find a place here, as in some degree expressing my own attitude. “ I am happy,” he wrote, “ to know who wrote the admirable article on transcendentalism and the excellent notice of my book which ‘ The Spectro scope’ [published in Milwaukee] brought me. You have caught the very intent and spirit of my essay, and have viii Preface done full justice to my purpose in writing it. My own position, as somewhere between the two theories — and ex pectant of new developments — is fairly indicated. I meant to make it appear that, while my faith in the transcendental method was shaken, my faith in the experimental is not confirmed. Transcendentalism has not been refuted. The new sensationalism has not yet been justified. The lover of truth commits himself to no dogma, neither assails nor fanatically defends, but thoughtfully observes. The scientific method must explain everything before it can be acceptable to the highest order of mind. Its success is promising thus far; but as yet, in my judgment, it requires copious supple menting from the spiritual philosophy. This is all I mean by the reference in the preface to myself, and by the criti cisms here and there in the text. My apparent noncommittal- ism is due to my candor in admitting a state of mental — not of spiritual — suspense. The question with me is [one] of bases, not of superstructure. ‘ The building not made with hands ’ will endure, though its foundations be of other stone than we fancied.” Psychology has made rapid strides since this letter was written, and a new philosophy, that is at once experiential and transcendental, may now be accepted with confidence. It is to this new psychology, based on the development theory, and tested by a rigid scrutiny of facts, that I commit myself. Whatever its exponents may have to say, it vindi cates the better phases of the transcendental philosophy; but on new grounds, and with a truly scientific justification. G e o r g e W il l is C o o k e . B o s t o n , January 7, 1902. ix Historical and Biographical Introduction to The Dial i THE BEGINNINGS OF TRANSCENDENTALISM IN AMERICA It has been assumed that transcendentalism had its origin in Germany, and that it was brought here from that country about the year 1830. In a large degree this is true, and yet it has always been indigenous to New England in some form.