162 BIEDS 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, 



