ANOTHEE WORD ON EMEKSON 195 



or false. " I unsettle all things. No facts are to 

 me sacred ; none are profane : I simply experiment ; 

 an endless seeker with no Past at my hack." In his 

 random, prophetic way he hits on many suhlime 

 truths — hits on them hy sheer force of affirmation, 

 like the truth of evolution, and of the correlation of 

 forces. Indeed, there are few great thoughts 

 current in our time that were not indicated hy the 

 hold guessing of Emerson. The fragmentary and 

 projectile-like character of his thinking is often very 

 effective. He spent no force upon logic, upon forti- 

 fying his position, hut sent his single huUet as far 

 and as deep as he could. Emerson's hope and con- 

 fidence in the new is shown in his serious prophecy 

 and expectancy of the coming man. 



He was apparently always on the lookout for a 

 new and greater man than had yet appeared. He 

 was always sweeping the horizon for this strange 

 sail. " A new person," he says, " is to me a great 

 event, and keeps me from sleep." He met every 

 stranger with a curious, expectant glance. He 

 looked at you and waited for you to speak, as if the 

 thought that perhaps here is the man I am waiting 

 for, was never absent from his mind. " If the com- 

 panions of our childhood," he says, " should turn 

 out to be heroes, and their condition regal, it would 

 not surprise us." But the experience of most per- 

 sons, I fancy, points just the other way : we are 

 always incredulous when told that our playmates 

 have turned out to be heroes; just as the whole 

 world, except the Emersons in it, are skeptical of 



