162 BIRDS AND POETS 
Dante, Angelo, Shakespeare, Byron, Goethe saw 
mainly man, and him not abstractly but concretely. 
And this is the charm of Burns and the glory of 
Scott. Carlyle has written the best histories and 
biographies of modern times, because he sees man 
with such fierce and steadfast eyes. Emerson sees 
him also, but he is not interested in him as a man, 
but mainly as a spirit, as a demigod, or as a wit or 
philosopher. 
Emerson’s quality has changed a good deal in his 
later writings. His corn is no longer in the milk; 
it has grown hard, and we that read have grown 
hard, too. He has now ceased to be an expansive, 
revolutionary force, but he has not ceased to be a 
writer of extraordinary gripe and unexpected re- 
sources of statement. His startling piece of advice, 
“‘ Hitch your wagon to a star,” is typical of the man, 
as combining the most unlike and widely separate 
qualities. Because not less marked than his ideal- 
ism and mysticism is his shrewd common sense, his 
practical bent, his definiteness,— in fact, the sharp 
New England mould in which he is cast. He is 
the master Yankee, the centennial flower of that 
thrifty and peculiar stock. More especially in his 
later writings and speakings do we see the native 
New England traits, —the alertness, eagerness, in- 
quisitiveness, thrift, dryness, archness, caution, the 
nervous energy as distinguished from the old Eng- 
lish unction and vascular force. How he husbands 
himself, — what prudence, what economy, always 
spending up, as he says, and not down! How alert, 
