146 INDOOR STUDIES 



on Self-Eeliance, have more logical sequence and 

 evolution than certain others. 



Emerson's style is best when he is dealing with 

 something real and tangible before him, as in his 

 biographical and descriptive papers, his "English 

 Traits," etc., and poorest in his "Dial" papers, etc. 

 His letters often seem stilted and affected, but they 

 nevertheless contain many samples of his best prose. 

 Take this from a letter to Carlyle about "Fred- 

 erick : " " But the manner of it ! — the author sitting 

 as Demiurgus, trotting out his manikins, coaxing 

 and bantering them, amused with their good per- 

 formance, patting them on the back, and rating the 

 naughty dolls when they misbehave; and commu- 

 nicating his mind ever in measure, just as much 

 as the young public can understand; hinting the 

 future, when it would be useful; recalling now and 

 then illustrative anecdotes of the actor, impressing 

 the reader that he is in possession of the entire his- 

 tory centrally seen, that his investigation has been 

 exhaustive, and that he descends, too, on the petty 

 plot of Prussia from higher and cosmical surveys." 



Who will say that the pen which wrote that is 

 not capable of good and sound prose as well as of 

 very acute and telling criticism? Carlyle's egotism 

 and patronizing ways in his histories have never been 

 better touched off. 



If Emerson did not have the gift of style in the 

 rather exclusive sense in which Arnold uses the 

 term, he had something which is a very good substi- 

 tute for it, — he had a fresh, tonic quality of mind 



