"those strong, star-bright companions," of whom he writes so vividly in his "Dirge." He was now gradually forming for himself an ideal philosophy, which came to be called Transcendentalism. It declared that man has innate ideas, and a faculty transcending the senses and the understanding. Coleridge calls this transcendent faculty, reason, and regarded it as an immediate beholding of supersensible things. Those who were in sympathy with the new ideas, began to draw together for the purpose of conference and help. Dr. Channing invited a party of ladies and gentlemen to his house. Emerson was of the number. Meetings were held for conversation at certain times in houses of various friends, and this gathering, which was at first known as a "Symposium," became afterwards the "Transcendental Club." Mr. Bronson Alcott has given an account of these meetings. Many subjects were discussed, and Mr. Emerson was almost always present.

On August 31, 1837, Mr. Emerson gave an address before the Phi Beta Kappa Society. The subject of his address was "The American Scholar." Mr. Bronson Alcott heard that address, and James Russell Lowell describes it as an event without any former parallel in our literary annals, a scene to be always treasured in the memory for its picturesqueness and its inspiration. What crowded and breathless aisles, what windows clustering with eager heads, what enthusiasm of approval, what grim silence of foregone dissent!" A course of lectures on Human Life was delivered in the following winter; and, indeed, Emerson became the greatest lecturer of his age. An address which he delivered in July, 1838, before the graduating class in the Divinity School of Harvard University, on a Sunday evening, was considered by Mr. Alcott to have gone nearer to the "centre and core of things" than almost any other word which had been uttered on the subject. It was the first full statement of Emerson's faith in moral power and in an untrammelled religion of the spirit. "We need," said he, "to trust ourselves to hear the voice within. God is in every man; and He should be heard there.” The Unitarians, of what we may call the orthodox sort, felt it necessary to firmly renounce the new faith. Many of the ideas with which we are more familiar to-day, were brought into prominence by this remarkable man, who said of himself in a letter to Henry Ware, jun., that "from his very incapacity of methodical writing, he was a chartered libertine, free to worship and free to rail, lucky when he could make himself understood." Strange to say, Unitarianism was set for the defence of the Christian faith against Emerson and his coterie. One of their number actually gave an address before the Divinity School at Havard on "The Latest Form of Infidelity," having these men in his mind. Some Unitarian ministers debated whether Emerson was a Christian;

some said that he was not; some that he was an atheist; while others earnestly defended him. Theodore Parker heard him deliver the address, and was roused by it to enthusiasm, saying, "It was the noblest of all his performances, a little exaggerated, with some philosophical untruths, it seemed to me; but the noblest, most inspiring strain I have listened to." It is clear, that to a very great extent, a war of words had arisen, and much of the importance of it must be attached to the circumstance, that Emerson spoke very strongly and fervently, giving great prominence to certain ideas which had laid firm hold upon his nature.

A small quarterly magazine, called The Dial, was one of the results of the Transcendental Club. The first number appeared in July, 1840, and the prospectus stated that its purpose was "to furnish a medium for the freest expression of thought on the questions which interest earnest minds in every community." Margaret Fuller and Theodore Parker were among its contributors. The address of "The Editors to the Reader," in the first number, was written by Mr. Emerson himself. In the list of contributors to the first number, we find the following names:-W. H. Channing, Theodore Parker, Henry D. Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, John S. Dwight, and A. Bronson Alcott. The projectors and contributors to this magazine were all comparatively young; only Mr. Alcott had reached the age of forty. Mr. Emerson himself was then thirty-seven. Margaret Fuller was the editor for two years, and upon her retirement, Mr. Emerson assumed the entire charge. Many of Emerson's poems first appeared in the pages of this magazine. His first series of "Essays appeared in 1841. He was at this time interested in great social and moral reform movements, which were instituted by other people with the best intentions. But so far as he was concerned, he had a distrust of every other method of reform except that of awakening the soul to a sense of its responsibilities. "To redeem the life of men, to establish character, to bring meu into genuine relations with nature-that is, God-was his aim."

All his admirers have become familiar with his essays and lectures. Europe quite early began to hear of him in this way. On August 1, 1844, he gave an address in Concord on the West India Emancipation. On this occasion Thoreau rang the church bell to call the people together, having previously gone to the houses to notify them of the address. The second series of Essays appeared in 1844, and in 1847 a small volume of poems. In 1847, owing to efforts and arrangements which had been made by his friend Mr. Alexander Ireland, of Manchester, he came over to this country again, and delivered two courses of lectures in that city, the first in the Manchester Athenæum, and the second at the Mechanics' Institute. He delivered a special course in London on "The Mind

"Na

and Manners of the Nineteenth Century," as well as upon other subjects. The lectures in London were attended by many eminent persons, among them Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle, the Duchess of Sutherland, Lady Byron, Lady Lovelace, Mr. Arthur Helps, Mr. John Forster, and William and Mary Howitt. It will be remembered with interest that he gave three lectures at Exeter Hall on poleon," "Domestic Life," and "Shakespeare." At their conclusion Lord Houghton (then Mr. Monckton Milnes, M.P.) remarked on the influences which had brought together the diverse elements of Shakespeare, Mr. Emerson, and Exeter Hall. He also lectured in Sheffield, Worcester, Birmingham, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Edinburgh. Daring this stay in Europe he visited Paris in company with the late Arthur Clough. In Jerrold's Newspaper, at the time, appeared the following account of the London lectures :"Precisely at four o'clock the lecturer glided in and suddenly appeared at the reading-desk. Tall, thin, his features aquiline, his eye piercing and fixed; the effect, as he stood quietly before his audience, was at first somewhat startling, and then nobly impressive. Having placed his manuscript on the desk with nervous rapidity, and paused, the lecturer then quickly and, as it were, with a flush of action, turned over the first leaf, whispering at the same time, Gentlemen and ladies.' The initial sentences were next pronounced in a low tone, a few words at a time, hesitatingly, as if then extemporaneously meditated, and not, as they really were, premeditated and forewritten. Time was thus given for the audience to meditate them too. Meanwhile, the meaning, as it were, was dragged from under the veil and covering of the expression, and ever and anon a particular phrase was so emphatically italicised as to command attention. There was, however, nothing like acquired elocution, no regular intonation, in fact, none of the usual rhetorical artifices, but for the most part a shapeless delivery (only varied by certain nervous twitches and angular movements of the hands and arms, curious to see and even smile at), and calling for much co-operation on the part of the auditor to help out its shortcomings. Along with all this, there was an eminent bonhomie, earnestness, and sincerity, which bespoke sym pathy and respect-nay, more, secured veneration."

Upon his return to America, he gave his impressions of the English people in some lectures, which are embodied in his "English Traits." From time to time his lectures were delivered in various parts of the United States, then re-written and published in volumes-"The Conduct of Life," "Society and Solitude," and "Letters and Social Aims." He was to engage in much earnest and helpful work for many a year to come. Slavery was yet to feel some heavy blows from his strong right hand. When John Brown was in his Virginian prison for his armed attack on slavery,

Emerson sent his sharp words among "the fools who could only cry Madman! when a hero passes;" and declared, that if he should be executed, Brown "would make his gallows glorious like a cross." When there was faltering in the camp, among men who should have known better, Emerson rested his faith on the Divine fires within the souls of men, which cannot be quenched. The fervid trust of this man's soul in truth and liberty is apparent in the following lines:

Stainless soldier on the walls,

Knowing this-and knows no more,―
Whoever fights, whoever falls,

Justice conquers evermore,

Justice after as before;

And he who battles on her side,
God, though he were ten times slain,

Crowns him victor glorified-
Victor over death and pain-

For ever.

But space prevents a further glance through the years of service that yet remained for this intrepid servant of truth and freedom. He had a long and peaceful time in the pleasant home which is now for ever associated with his memory. The simple folk of Concord loved and revered him. The old Iconoclast, who had broken so many idols, came to be regarded with such loving admiration, that the troubles of the past were forgotten and forgiven. As Dr. Wendell Holmes has lately said, he took down those idols "from their pedestals so tenderly, that it seemed like an act of worship." His own vision of things human and Divine probably took a wider range, and his heart opened to the best that others could bring him, no matter from what quarter they came. Mr. Whittier said, that one day he was driving with Emerson down one of the Concord roads, and talking about theology. "As we drove past a certain house, Mr. Emerson said, turning his head towards it, 'There lives a good Calvinistic woman, who prays for me every day;' and then, with his fine indescribable smile, 'I'm glad of it.' He was a simple, true-hearted man, whom anybody could instruct if he would only be commonly sensible. Plato and a peasant were alike in his way. He had a "pure, penetrating, far-reaching soul; the quality of his genius was eolian, or like the sound of the horn amid the hills, single, far heard, bewitching, and burdened with beauty and mystery" :-a

Sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man.

"Child of the 'Bay State,' as he continued to be to the very last, he had, as Mr. Lowell observed, "a Greek head on right Yankee shoulders." His Transcendentalism at least tended to

draw men away from the practical materialism which engrossed many of them. His serene transparent character made them revere goodness and truth; and the constantly moral tone and bias of all his writings formed a quiet but effectual protest against the impiety of the time. He had great reverence for humanity, and a constant perception of God in all human affairs. He had always a hopeful word to say for man and his world. When the harps of most good men were hung upon the willows, he swept from his own lyre, sweet music that reminded us of the certain destiny of mankind towards a loftier and brighter day. The Pessimists had no chance with him. He was a man of hope, and he did his best to give his hopes to others.

They laid him to rest in a grave of primæval trees, called "Sleepy Hollow" Cemetery, near to the graves of Hawthorne and Thoreau. Friends, companions, fellow-townsmen, and others, stood around the sacred spot, and every heart bore a tender burden of blessing for the man who, having wrought well, and spoken truly, had fallen" on sleep" at a ripe old age.

WARLEIGH'S

WILLIAM DORLING.

TRUST.

BY THE EDITOR.

CHAPTER XIII.-DOOMED TO CAPTIVITY.

WHEN at last Hilda arrived at River House, she found the side door open as usual-people at Southcombe never thought of locking or bolting any door of entrance till they were shutting-up for the night, and not invariably, then! She slipped quietly in, hoping fervently that her prolonged absence had not been observed, for she felt that evening more indisposed than usual for any kind of altercation. But Janetta had required some little service at her hands which no one else could render so well, and had gone to the nursery in search of her about half-past seven.

Of course Miss Warleigh was nowhere to be found, and Toadles, who always looked for her assistance in putting the little boys to bed, was extremely displeased at her defection, and just in the humour to make all manner of petty complaints to her mistress. It did not take much to work up Janetta's anger where Hilda was supposed to be in fault, and especially as she happened to be waiting somewhat impatiently for an answer to her message.

She was,