eyes and to help them to comprehend and feel the loveliness and grandeur which in vain courted their notice! But every husbandman is living in sight of the works of a diviner Artist; and how much would his existence be elevated could he see the glory which shines forth in 30 their forms, hues, proportions, and moral expression! I have spoken only of the beauty of Nature, but how much of this mysterious charm is found in the elegant arts, and especially in literature! The best books have most beauty. The greatest truths are wronged if not 35 linked with beauty; and they win their way most surely and deeply into the soul when arrayed in this their natural and fit attire. Now, no man receives the true culture of a man in whom the sensibility to the beautiful is not cherished; and I know of no condition in life 40 from which it should be excluded. Of all luxuries, this is the cheapest and most at hand; and seems to me to be the most important to those conditions where coarse labor tends to give a grossness of mind. From the diffusion of the sense of beauty in ancient Greece, and of 45 the taste for music in modern Germany, we learn that the people at large may partake of refined gratifications which have hitherto been thought to be necessarily restricted to a few. ANALYSIS.-27 Dispose of in vain. Mention other elliptical constructions of the preposition and its object. 28. husbandman. Give an equivalent word. 29. diviner Artist. To whom is reference made? 30. glory. Is this figurative or literal? 33, 34. elegant arts. What arts are referred to here? 35. What kind of beauty is meant here? 35 38. What figure in these lines? 41, 42. Of all .... hand. Analyze. 43, 44. coarse labor. Why coarse? Explain what is meant by grossness of mind. 47. partake. Is the meaning figurative or literal? 12. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, 1803-1882. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, poet and essayist, was bcrn in Boston, Massachusetts, May 25, 1803. His preliminary education was received in the public schools of Boston, after the completion of which he entered Harvard in 1817, and graduated therefrom in 1821. The following five years were spent in teaching and in preparation for the ministry. In March, 1829, he became the colleague of Rev. Henry Ware as pastor of the Second Unitarian Church of Boston, but he withdrew from this position three years later, on account of a difference of opinion between himself and the members of his church with regard to the Lord's Supper, and sailed to Europe, where he remained nearly a year. On his return from Europe, in the winter of 1833-34, he began his career as a lecturer, a position in which he has since won great eminence and distinction. In the winter of 1834 he delivered a series of biographical lectures on Michael Angelo, Milton, George Fox, Luther, and Edmund Burke. In 1835 he delivered a series of ten lectures on English Literature; in 1836, twelve on the Philosophy of History; in 1837, ten on Human Culture. in 1838, ten on Human Life; in 1839, ten on The Present Age; and in 1841, seven on The Times. Among Emerson's prominent books are his orations -Man Thinking, published in 1837; Literary Ethics, pub lished in 1838-and his Essays, the first series of which appeared in 1841, the second in 1844, the third in 1870, and the fourth in 1871. In 1846 he published a volume of poems, and in tne year 1848 he delivered a course of lectures in Exeter Hall, London. In the following year he published his Essays on Representative Men, one of his best works, and one of those by which he is most favorably known to the world of letters. It was the publication of his Representative Men that gave to him the title "the American Carlyle," because in his selection of characters he received suggestions from Carlyle's great work, Heroes and Hero-Worship. Emerson removed to Concord, Massachusetts, in 1835, which was his place of residence to the time of his death, April 27, 1882. CRITICISM BY A. BRONSON ALCOTT. EMERSON'S Compositions affect us not as logic linked in syllogisms, but as voluntaries rather-as preludes, in which one is not tied to any design of air, but may vary his key or note at pleasure, as if improvised without any particular scope of argument; each period, paragraph, being a perfect note in itself, however it may chance to chime with its accompaniments in the piece, as a waltz of wandering stars, a dance of Hesperus with Orion. His rhetoric dazzles by its circuits, contrasts, antitheses; imagination as in all sprightly minds, being his wand of power. . . . So his books are best read as irregular writings, in which sentiment is, by his enthusi asin, transfused throughout the piece, telling on the mind in cadences of a current under-song, giving the impression of a connected whole, which it seldom is, such is the rhapsodist's cunning in its structure and delivery. GOETIE. NOTE.-The following extract is taken from Enerson's Represen tative Men. WHAT distinguishes Goethe for French and English readers is a property which he shares with his nation—an habitual reference to interior truth. In England and in America there is a respect for talent; and, if it is exerted in support of any ascertained or intelligible interest or 5 party, or in regular opposition to any, the public is satisfied. In France there is even a greater delight in intellectual brilliancy, for its own sake. And in all these countries men of talent write from talent. It is enough if the understanding is occupied, the taste propitiated— 10 so many columns, so many hours, filled in a lively and creditable way. The German intellect wants the French sprightliness, the fine practical understanding of the English, and the American adventure; but it has a certain probity which never rests in a superficial per- 15 formance, but asks steadily, To what end? A German public asks for a controlling sincerity. Here is activity of thought; but what is it for? What does the man mean? Whence, whence all these thoughts? ANALYSIS.-1. Parse What. What figure in the line? 2. property. Give a synonym. 2, 3. What word is in apposition with property? 3. interior truth. What is meant? 3-7. In England.... satisfied. Is the sentence periodic or loose? 7, 8. Notice the use of even. It periodic. 9. of talent and from talent. Reconstruct this sentence, and make What kind of modifier is each? 9–12. What are the appositives of It? 12 wants. What is the meaning? Name the objects of wants 16. Give the meaning of steadily. To what end? Write as a complete clause. 17. public. What is the meaning of public here? Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a 20 man behind the book-a personality which, by birth and quality, is pledged to the doctrines there set forth, and which exists to see and state things so, and not otherwise, holding things because they are things. If he cannot rightly express himself to-day, the same things sub. 25 sist, and will open themselves to-morrow. There lies the burden on his mind-the burden of truth to be declared, more or less understood; and it constitutes his business and calling in the world to see those facts through, and to make them his own. What significs that he trips 30 and stammers, that his voice is harsh or hissing, that his method or his tropes are inadequate? That message will find method and imagery, articulation and melody. Though he were dumb, it would speak. If not, if there be no such God's word in the man-what care we how 35 adroit, how fluent, how brilliant, he is? It makes a great difference to the force of any sentence whether there be a man behind it or no. In the learned journal, in the influential newspaper, I discern no form; only some irresponsible shadow; oftener some 40 moneyed corporation, or some dangler, who hopes, in the mask and robes of his paragraph, to pass for somebody. But through every clause and part of speech of ANALYSIS.-20, 21. Parse alone. What figure in these lines 24. holding, etc. What does the phrase modify? 20-24. Criticise the construction of the sentence. 29. calling. Give a synonym. 30. trips. Give the meaning. 34. it would speak. What figure? 38. Is no a proper word here? 38, 39. In the learned journal. What figure? 40. from. Give a synonym. 41, 42. What figure? |