208 FRESH FIELDS 



Emerson split no hairs, but he twisted very little 

 cordage for the rough draught-horses of this world. 

 He tells us to hitch our wagon to a star; and the 

 star is without doubt a good steed, when once fairly- 

 caught and harnessed, but it takes an astronomer to 

 catch it. The value of such counsel is not very 

 tangible unless it awakes us to the fact that every 

 power of both heaven and earth is friendly to a 

 noble and courageous activity. 



Carlyle was impatient of Emerson's fine-spun 

 sentences and transcendental sleight-of-hand. In- 

 deed, from a literary point of view, one of the most 

 interesting phases of the published correspondence 

 between these two notable men is the value which 

 each unwittingly set upon his own methods and 

 work. Each would have the other like himself. 



Emerson wants Emersonian epigrams from Car- 

 lyle, and Carlyle wants Carlylean thunder from 

 Emerson. Each was unconsciously his own ideal. 

 The thing which a man's nature calls him to do, — 

 what else so well worth doing ? Certainly nothing 

 else to him, — but to another ? How surely each 

 one of us would make our fellow over in our own 

 image! Carlyle wants Emerson more practical, 

 more concrete, more like himself in short. "The 

 vile Pythons of this Mud- world do verily require to 

 have sun- arrows shot into them, and red-hot pokers 

 stuck through them, according to occasion ; " do this 

 as I am doing it, or trying to do it, and I shall like 

 you better. It is well to know that nature will 

 make good compost of the carcass of an Oliver Crom- 



