EMBESON 183 



through him as through an experience that we can- 

 not repeat. He is but a bridge to other things ; he 

 gets you over. He is an exceptional fact in litera- 

 ture, say they, and does not represent lasting or uni- 

 versal conditions. He is too fine for the rough wear 

 and tear of ages. True we do not outgrow Dante, 

 or Cervantes, or Bacon; and I doubt if the Anglo- 

 Saxon stock at least ever outgrows that king of ro- 

 mancers, Walter Scott. These men and their like 

 appeal to a larger audience, and in some respects a 

 more adult one, at least one more likely to be found 

 in every age and people. Their achievement was 

 more from the common level of human nature than 

 are Emerson's astonishing paradoxes. Yet I believe 

 his work has the seal of immortality upon it as much 

 as that of any of them. No doubt he has a mean- 

 ing to us now and in this country that will be lost 

 to succeeding time. His religious significance will 

 not be so important to the next generation. He is 

 being or has been so completely absorbed by his 

 times, that readers and hearers hereafter will get him 

 from a thousand sources, or his contribution will 

 become the common property of the race. All the 

 masters probably had some peculiar import or tie 

 to their contemporaries that we at a distance miss. 

 It is thought by scholars that we have lost the key, 

 or one key, to Dante, and Chaucer, and Shakespeare, 

 — the key or the insight that people living under 

 the same roof get of each other. 



But, aside from and over and above everything 

 else, Emerson appeals to youth and to genius. If 



