Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 7.djvu/229

 RALPH WALDO EMERSON 167 voice, handsome person, and especially noted for his paramount interest in the ethical and universal elements of religion. He died in 1811, at the age of forty- two, leaving his five sons, of whom Waldo, then eight years old, was the second, to the care of his young wife, who had been Ruth Haskins, of Boston. . Emer- son's early growth was under the fostering care of good and refined women. His mother has been described by one who knew her, the late Dr. Frothingham, as " of a discerning spirit, and a most courteous bearing ; one who knew how to guide the affairs of her own house, as long as she was responsible for that, with the sweetest .authority. Both her mind and character were of a superior order, and they set their stamp upon manners of peculiar softness and natural grace and quiet dignity." She was assisted in bringing up, her family by her sister-in-law, Mary Emerson, a scholarly woman, well read in theology and philosophy, whose original ideas and sayings marked her as " a character." Another woman who exercised a great influence upon him was Sarah Bradford, afterward married to his relative, Samuel Ripley. She was as thorough a Greek scholar as any person in America, a good mathematician, and a diligent student of science. Many a Harvard student has she coached in that Old Manse where she resided until her death (1867), and where the writer of this has often listened with admiration to" her extraordinary conversation. At the same time nothing could have exceeded the practical wisdom and tact with which her household was regulated. " She was absolutely without pedantry," said Emerson. " Nobody ever heard of her learning until a necessity came for its use, and then nothing could be more sim- ple than her solution of the problem proposed to her." At eleven years of age, when Emerson was in the Latin school at Boston, he used to send his transla- tions, generally poetic, to Sarah Bradford for criticism. The " Fates" of Michael Angelo, a large copy of which hung in Emerson's study, must sometimes have softened to the faces of the Ruth and Mary and Sarah, who spun for him the fine golden thread of destiny. Mrs. Emerson had the happiness of seeing four of her sons distinguished for their ability ; indeed, it seemed for a time doubtful whether William, Waldo, Edward, or Charles promised the more brilliant career. When the two elder had graduated at Harvard University, they taught at school in order to aid the two younger in completing their course ; but these two died prematurely. William was to have been the preacher of the family, but, while pursuing his studies in Germany, he found that he could not honestly follow his father's profession albeit Goethe, whom he knew, sought to persuade him other- wise. He afterward became an eminent lawyer. His mother's disappointment at this probably led to Emerson's adoption of the profession that his brother had declined. He graduated at eighteen, with a reputation for classical knowledge, general literary culture, and elocution. He had won the Boylston prize for " dec- lamation," and was chosen by his class to deliver the usual poem at graduation. I have heard him say that it was then his ambition to become a teacher of elocu- tion, and that he still regarded it as a less humble aspiration than it might seem. Those who have sat under the spell of Emerson's discourse would certainly never associate anything commonly called rhetoric with him ; but I derived, from con-