182 BIEDS AND POETS 



the world; he must transfer the point of view from 

 which history is commonly read from Rome and 

 Athens and London to himself, and not deny his 

 conviction that he is the court, and, if England or 

 Egypt have anything to say to him, he will try the 

 case; if not, let them forever be silent." In every 

 essay that follows, there are the same great odds and 

 the same electric call to the youth to face them. It 

 is, indeed, as much a world of fable and romance, 

 that Emerson introduces us to as we get in Homer 

 or Herodotus. It is true, all true, — true as Arthur 

 and his knights, or "Pilgrim's Progress," and I pity 

 the man who has not tasted its intoxication, or who 

 can see nothing in it. 



The intuitions are the bright band, without armor 

 or shield, that slay the mailed and bucklered giants 

 of the understanding. Government, institutions, 

 religions, fall before the glance of the hero's eye. 

 Art and literature, Shakespeare, Angelo, .^schylus, 

 are humble suppliants before you, the king. The 

 commonest fact is idealized, and the whole relation 

 of man to the universe is thrown into a kind of 

 gigantic perspective. It is not much to say there 

 is exaggeration; the very start makes Mohammed's 

 attitude toward the mountain tame. The mountain 

 shall come to Mohammed, and, in the eyes of all 

 born readers of Emerson, the mountain does come, 

 and comes with alacrity. 



Some shrewd judges apprehend that Emerson is 

 not going to last ; basing their opinion upon the fact, 

 already alluded to, that we outgrow him, or pass 



