Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson 1820-1872
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jl;<;i, li ili^ liiii'l iliii^ U !.; ri;:,; l|' Ea^i) ^alHo (i^metfiton. COMPLETE WORKS. Centenary EdiiioH. i3 vols., crown 8vo. With Portraits, and copious notes by £d- WARD Waldo Emerson. Price per volume, f 1.75. I. Nature, Addresses, and Lectures. 2. Essays: First Series. 3. Essays: Second Series. 4. Representative Men. S. English Traits. 6. Conduct of Life. 7. Society and Solitude. 8. Letters and Social Aims. '9. Poems. 10. Lectures and Biographical Sketches, n. Miscellanies. 12. Natural History of Intellect, and other Papers, With a General Index to Emerson's Collected Works. Riverside Edition. With 2 Portraits. 12 vols., each, lamo. gilt top, $1.75 ; the set, $zi.oo. Little Classic Edition. t2 vols., in arrangement and con- tents identical with Riverside Edition, except that vol. 12 is without index. Each, i8mo, $1.25 ; the set, $is 00. POEMS, Household Edition, With Portrait. i3mo,$i.5o; full gilt, I2.00. ESSAYS. First and Second Series. In Cambridge Classics. Crown 8vo, $1.00. NATURE, LECTURES, AND ADDRESSES, together with REPRESENTATIVE MEN. In Cambridge Classics. Crown 8vo, $1.00. PARNASSUS. A collection of Poetry edited by Mr. Emer- son. Introductory Essay. Household Edition, izmo, $1.50. Holiday Edition. Svo, $3.00. EMERSON BIRTHDAY BOOK. With Portrait and Illus- trations. iSmo, $1.00. EMERSON CALENDAR BOOK. 32mo, parchment-paper, 25 cents. CORRESPONDENCE OF CARLYLE AND EMERSON. 834-1872. Edited by Charles Eliot Norton. 3 ' ols. crown 8vo, gilt top, S4.00. Library Edition. 2 vols, izmo, gilt top, $3.00. CORRESPONDENCEOFJOHN STERLING AND EMER- SON. Edited, with a sketch of Sterling's life, by Ed- WARD Waldo Emerson. i6mo, gilt top, |i.oo. LETTERS FROM RALPH WALDO EMERSON TO A FRIEND. 1838-1853. Edited by Charles Eliot Nor- ton. i6mo, gilt top, $1.00. THECORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN EMERSON AND GRIMM. Edited by F. W. Holls. With Portraits. x6mo, $1.00, net. Postpaid, fi.05. For various other editions of Emerson's works and Emer- son Memoirs see catalogue. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Boston and New York JOURNALS OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON 1820-1872 VOL. IV Mrs. Ralph Waldo Emerson JOURNALS OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON WITH ANNOTATIONS EDITED BY EDWARD WALDO EMERSON AND WALDO EMERSON FORBES 1836-1838 BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY i^ije mibtmtie p»!$^ €ambtiiiat 1910 T COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY EDWARD WALDO EMERSON ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published November jqio CONTENTS JOURNAL XXVII ^ 1836 (From Journal B) Miss Martineau; law of hospitality. Truth. Spartan. Profanation. Charles W. Upham. Quoted verses. Swedenborg. The scholar's lot; facts his treasure. Cudworth. The poet must have faith. Piickler-Muskau on English dandy. Eve has no clock. Authors' pay. Sentences of Confucius. Alcott's journals. Idealism; books, worship, friends. Nature as aids. Riddle of individuals. Talk with Charles on motives. Coming Revivals Trust and act the God in you. Quotations from Goethe. Man a coal in the fire. Tasks. The reflective poet. Each man's questions. Man is curbed. God finds joys for bar-keepers. "Godliness." All is in Each. The problem of three bodies. Devil's- needle day. Truth heals. Weigh books. Miracle. The brave speaker wins. Greek Drama; Chorus. Notes on Idealism. A Day, a child; their significance. Ideas. Goethe quoted. Edward's superiority. Look for symbols arid learn. Do not waste time on woes. Goethe; Time's verdict on him. Religion must come through the heart. Fragrant piety. Stand for the ideal, respect matter. Man the analogist. Unsafe advan- tages. Expression; imitative writing unsound. Nature vi CONTENTS prompts worship. Self-control. Wisdom manifold; Duty. Express the life of your day. Charles's death; his life, thought, and letters 3-5° Helpers in life; your Parnassus. The One Mind; the generic soul. A friend's conscience. Talk of persons; elegance ofimpersonality in science and ethics. Theism. Wordsworth. Natural education. The odd is tran- sient. Lander. Scholars should be happy and brave. God the servant. The carpenter. Use Nature's help. Parable, the urn and fountain. House painters. The humanity of science; study humanly. Mind is one. Alcott's writing. Communion with God consoles. Faces. Mind has room for books. Your duty, or others'? Estate untaxed. Man creates his world. William Emerson. Uneasiness in society. Writers do not go to Nature; her lesson of power. Bereavement. Alcott's school. Poetry in humblest facts. One in All. Alcott's thought, his limitations. Pan. Divine seed. Understanding and Reason. Alcott's school conversa- tions. Problem of Nature. Boccaccio. Flaxman's Dante. Friendships. Your own Bible. Man. Secrets. The mind's walls. Personal impression. Margaret Fuller's visit. Fathers. The moon. Women's minds. Philisterei. Proof-sheets of JVa/ar^,- sentences; selling thought. The great poets humble. Commencement Day. Harvard's Jubilee; ghosts and boys. Progress. Suum Cuique. "The Symposium"; feminine genius, art proper to the age; return to Nature. Position. American thought; its obstacles, property and imita- tion of Europe. Reason's hours few. Science and Literature, the old and new; European writers; new 3 CONTENTS vii 'questions ; democracy. Religion changes ; the demoni- acal force; virtue; no concealment; conscience. Judg- ment; the ancient sculpture. Want and Have. Beauty in common life; classification. All in Each; the world's will. Curiosity as to other faiths. Art and Architec- ture; Reason makes them. Marriage, its gradual un- folding. Problem of hospitality. Universal laws. Po- litical Economy; sure taxes. Arts in America pause; an Age of reflection. Judgment Days; obstacles. Harmony of the world. Moral sentiment must act; Goodness smiles. Gruff village manners have their use; Common sense against doctrinaires or dreamers. 1— 1 Soul in science 5 1 Symposium at Alcott's. Transcendentalism defined. Preaching at Waltham; the hearers. The mind seeks unity; Goethe; Newton; Lamarck, monad to man. Poet and savant. Goose Pond. Plan of lectures; unity. Self-trust. In teaching omit tradition; go to the Most High. The gifts of man. The God in man; individual and universal; myriad-handed Nature. Time. Nature's surprises. Inexorable thoughts. The soul's speech. Letter to Warren Burton; bereavement. Civil History. Teachers' meeting; spirit endures; Christ a fellow worshipper. Man's construction. Modern study of organic remains; reading Nature's record; her work- shop. Plagiarism due to common Mind. Every man's axis. Reading for a task. Composition; human chem- istry. Birth of a son; father, mother and child. Sect begets sect. Man and Nature. Winter. The Age; speculation in America; all races come. Memories of Charles. George B. Emerson. Passages from Plu- VIU CONTENTS larch's Morals. The hemlocks. Sleep. Preaching down. The Greek genius. Nature still undescribed. Price of wood. Language clothes Nature. Xenophon. Nursery music. Human joys. Falling stars. Novem- ber election. Alcott; large thought; Man between God and the mob. Verdict of the ages. Bentley's scholar- ship. Newton's epitaph. Coleridge a churchman. Phil- osophic history. Orphic words. Otherism. Edward Taylor, his power and charm instinctive. True use of history. Individuals progress, the race not. Colburn. Character, not chance, tells. Moore's Sheridan. Li- beria. Superlative. The spirit behind disguises. His- torians do not portray man; Soul in history. Frozen Walden. Shackford; 'Brownson; Good normal, evil not; Christianity misrepresented. Truth stands alone. Wood-thought. Rhetoric. Composition like archi- tecture. Ecclesiastical manners. The Antique. Speak to men as souls. Webster. George Herbert. Har- monies. Reading 1 14-175 JOURNAL XXVIII 1837 (From Journal C) The poem, the sentence, a mirror; ephemeral or lasting work. Carlyle. Courtesy; influence. A family. Pre- vailing virtue. Great men. Education by facts. The Plymouth freed-woman. God not a person. Num- j/ bers do not count. Warnings. Shakspear. Country bless- ings. The dead-alive. Party Kes. Troublesome wit. CONTENTS ix Be guest in your house. Lecturing. Stamp of the Old and New on all. Edward Taylor's eloquence and hap- piness; his similes. Trust the genius. Stage passengers. Taste. Experiments on living. Carlyle's wide genius; his strength-worship; his style. The Antique. The baby. Shelley quoted. Providences. In writing, trust the people. Slavery. Life tentative. Eckermann. Education at Harvard. Language-study. George Minot. The market-wagon procession. Glances. Retzsch. Attack on Alcott. Camper, Merck, Tisch- bein. New England's factories. Progress. Culture, German and English. Polarity. The financial crisis. What and How. The good villager. Trust the com- mon mind. " Occasional Poems." Indulgence and command. Judgment of Goethe. Jesus. Spring and hard times. Gifts. Our strange lot. Vivian Gray. Paradise Lost znA Inferno. The merchant. Goethe's estimates. Plotinus on Art quoted. Goethe on Seneca and Tycho Brahe. Forlorn pride; affectation. Char- acter above intellect; Daimenisches. Jonathan Phillips on behavior. German lessons from Margaret Fuller. Tides. The gift of a grove. Original action and thought. Heroic manners. Hourly conversion. My trees. Acts and emotions common 179-228 Doom of solitude. Advantages in boyhood of a pious an- cestry: their traditions. Waldo's baptism. Starving souls; real sermons : John Quincy Adams. Dr. Rip- ley's solid facts. Engagement. The baby cousins. The humble-bee. Visits of William, Dr. Hedge, Dr. Channing, Jonathan Phillips; ceremony baulks. Hard times; sleep, gardening and nature the medicine. CONTENTS Alcott's vision. Imperfect union with friends. Boys on a farm. Repulsions. Live tovyard insight. Men are appendages. Symbols, their use. Peevishness. Hard times show^ failure of "the real"; their stern revelations. Poverty the vyise man's ornament; yet pity the common man. Symbolism. Help, or mind your business. Cant; Wordsworth. Composition justi- fied. The Individual; God in us; dualism; the male and female principle; light returns. Nature the thin screen of unity. Symposium; talk with Hedge; over- deference; Nancy's apology. May days. Manfred and Beppo. Sickness; reading Johnson's Life, and his books. Donne's verse on unity. Genius the creator.