Ames.] 'JU-j [Nov, y, 



or look from his central point of view, and liis thought appears as whole 

 as the globe or the solar system. It would not be easy to find a leading 

 author whose mental products are more coherent or who is so free from 

 self-contradictions. He is indeed at no more pains to protect himself from 

 the imputation of contradiction than is a photographer who shifts his cam- 

 era to secure a dozen views of the same landscape. If the pictures tell 

 different stories, that is no affair of his : let nature look to it ! 



Emerson is said to have pleased himself with the "hope of a world 

 in which we shall see things but once, and then pass on to something 

 new." I construe this extravaganza, not as the sign of a mad love of 

 novelty, but as a rebuke to mental inhospitality, as the expression of his 

 strong faith that all facts and truths must agree, and that the universe 

 can supply inexhaustible variety without danger of falling back into 

 chaos. 



With all his high soarings, he was at home on the ground, and aston- 

 ished his friends by his practicalness and aptness for business. His occa- 

 sionnl deliverances on public affi\irs -were clear and weightj\ One who 

 sat witli him on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, says that 

 his judgment was as much "waited for" as that of any other member. 

 Another testifies that his discretion in regard to investments in stocks, 

 etc., was quite equal to his ability as a writer and thinker. 



It would indeed be possible to gather out of his ten volumes an excel- 

 lent body of maxims for every day use, shrewd, pithy, and full of mother- 

 wit. But his claim to our grateful respect rests on far higher grounds. 

 He was not merely virtuous ; he was virtue itself ; and he taught to all 

 men its open secret. And he has illustrated in life-size, the close-blending 

 of high intelligence with high excellence. In his writings and in himself, 

 the ethical quality is inseparable from thought. He never puts it on, he 

 never puts it off — a sore puzzle to those who judge of possession by pro- 

 fession, or who think of the Holy Ghost as an occasional visitor, and not as 

 a permanent resident in the human temple. 



One who knew him long ago and later, says he gave the impression of a 

 humble listener and learner. This tells the whole story of his greatness. 

 For such an attitude implies neither empty narrowness nor idle passivity. 

 To be, as he was, in sympathetic relations with the thoughts of mankind 

 in all ages, and yet to lie open, as he did, to the teachings of primal 

 reality — passionless, unprepossessed and unprejudiced — requires not only 

 fine susceptibility, but a mind of great breadth and power. But his activ- 

 ity is easy and unconscious to himself ; his faculties play like the strings 

 of an seolian harp, because they are played on by invisible power. One 

 result appears in the impersonal quality of this work. He never attacks 

 and never defends. He searches defects and exposes error as the light 

 does. He criticises, not hy analysis, but by insight ; like his own hum- 

 ble-bee, he simply leaves the chaff and takes the wheat. This mental pro- 

 cess implies great labor-saving. What need to handle over and over the 



