PREFATORY NOTE. T seems necessary to say that this essay IT was written over a year and a half ago, and is given here substantially in the form that it then had. No essential change has been made to accommodate it to Mr. Emerson's death, or to do justice to the multitude of sayings that this event elicited. If but little has been added, a few points have been slightly expanded while preparing it for the press. The portion read at Concord, on the day set apart to Emerson by the "School of Philosophy," was a fragment, only a brief synopsis of which was furnished for the book representing the lectures of that body. AMBORLIAD 8 For the privilege of copying so liberally from Mr. Emerson's poems, I am indebted to the courtesy of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.; and to Mr. C. H. Brainard, of Washington, for the right to reduce for an appropriate frontispiece the admirable lithograph of Emerson, which had its origin in a photograph owned by Theodore Parker, and which was Mr. Parker's favorite picture of this author. To many others, also, no other portrait of Emerson recalls him so perfectly in his best attitude, as he was in his prime. I am sure, whatever judgment this essay may provoke, that the addition of Mr. Kennedy's Concordance to Mr. Emerson's poetry, which he has kindly permitted me to make, will prove a welcome feature in this offering. J. B. Amenia, N. Y., Oct. 5, 1882. MR. EMERSON AS A POET. I hold it of little matter Whether your jewel be of pure water, But whether it dazzle me with light. EMERSON. Charm is the glory which makes Song of the poet divine. MATTHEW ARNOLD. ANDOR says, in his "Imaginary Conversations," that "a rib of Shakespeare would have made Milton-the same portion of Milton, all poets born ever since." Something of this largeness and intensity—this supremacy of genius-belongs to Emerson. |