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 EMERSON 569 generations, reckoning back to his ancestor Peter Bulkley, one of .the founders of Concord, Mass., there had always been a clergyman in the family, either on the paternal or maternal side. He was the eighth in succession of this consecutive line of ministers. In 1832 he ask- ed and received a dismission from the second church, on account of differences of opinion between himself and its members touching the Lord's supper ; and in December he sailed for Europe, where he remained nearly a year. On his return in the winter of 1833-'4 he began his career as a lecturer, with a discourse before the Boston mechanics' institute on the subject of " Water." Three others followed, two on Italy descriptive of his recent tour in that country, and the last on the " Relation of Man to the Globe." In 1834 he delivered in Boston a series of biographical lectures on Michel An- gelo, Milton, Luther, George Fox, and Edmund Burke, the first two of which were afterward published in the " North American Review." In this year also he read at Cambridge a poem before the Thi Beta Kappa society. In 1835 he fixed his residence at Concord, Mass., where he has since lived. During the winter he de- livered in Boston a course of 10 lectures on English literature. These were followed, in 1836, by 12 lectures on the philosophy of history; in 1837, by 10 lectures on human culture ; in 1838, by 10 lectures on human life ; in 1839, by 10 lectures on the present age; in 1841, by 7 lectures on the times; and since that period he has delivered several courses of lectures in Boston. A small vol- ume entitled " Nature " (1836), an oration before the Phi Beta Kappa society, with the title of "The American Scholar" (1837), an address to the senior class of the Cambridge divinity 'school (1838), and "The Method of Nature " (1841), contained the most prominent peculiarities of his scheme of idealism, and by their freshness and depth of thought, and com- pact beauty of expression, allured many readers into becoming disciples. In 1840 a quarterly periodical called "The Dial" was commenced, with Miss Margaret Fuller as editor, assisted by A. B. Alcott, William H. Channing, Mr. Emerson, Theodore Parker, George Ripley, and others. It was published for four years, and during the last two years of its existence it was under the editorship of Mr. Emerson. In 1841 the first, and in 1844 the second series of his "Essays" were published. In 1846 he collected and published a volume of his poems. The next year he visited England to fulfil an engagement to deliver a series of lectures be- fore a union of mechanics' institutes and other societies. In 1849 he collected in one volume entitled " Miscellanies " his " Nature " and nine lectures and college addresses, which had been previously issued in pamphlet form, or printed in "The Dial." In 1850 "Essays on Repre- sentative Men," a series of masterly mental por- traits, with some of the features overcharged, was published. To the " Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli," which appeared in 1852, he con- tributed some admirable interpretative criti- cism. In 1856 he published "English Traits," a work in which he seizes and emphasizes the characteristics of the English mind and peo- ple ; and in 1860 " The Conduct of Life." His contributions to the "Atlantic Monthly" have been collected. " May Day and Other Pieces " (poems) appeared in 1867; "Society and Soli- tude" in 1870. A revised edition of his "Prose Works Complete" was published in 1869. Mr. Emerson has also delivered many un- published addresses on slavery, woman's rights, and other topics of public interest ; and he has been one of the most prominent of the lec- turers who address the lyceums of the coun- try. As a writer, Mr. Emerson is distinguish- ed for a singular union of poetic imagination with practical acuteness. His vision takes a wide sweep in the realms of the ideal, but is no less firm and penetrating in the sphere of facts. His observations on society, on man- ners, on character, on institutions, are stamped with sagacity, and indicate a familiar knowl- edge of the homely phases of life, which are seldom viewed in their poetical relations. One side of his wisdom is worldly wisdom. The brilliant transcendentalist is evidently a man not easy to be deceived in matters pertaining to the ordinary course of human affairs. His com- mon-sense shrewdness is vivified by a pervasive wit. With him, however, wit is not an end, but a means, and usually employed for the de- tection of pretence and imposture. Mr. Em- erson's practical understanding is sometimes underrated from the fact that he never groups his thoughts by the methods of logic. He gives few reasons, even when he is most reasonable. He does not prove, but announces, aiming di- rectly at the intelligence of his readers, with- out striving to extract a reluctant assent by force of argument. Insight, not reasoning, is his process. The bent of his mind is to ideal laws, which are perceived by the intuitive faculty, and are beyond the province of dia- lectics. Equally conspicuous is his tendency to embody ideas in the forms of imagination. No spiritual abstraction is so evanescent but he thus transforms it into a concrete reality. He seldom indulges in the expression of sentiment, and in his nature emotion seems to be less the product of the heart than of the brain. Mr. Emerson's style is in the nicest harmony with the character of his thought. It is condensed almost to abruptness. Occasionally he pur- chases compression at the expense of clearness, and his merits as a writer consist rather in the choice of words than in the connection of sen- tences, though his diction is vitalized by the presence of a powerful creative element. The singular beauty and intense life and significance of his language demonstrate that he has not only something to say, but knows exactly how to say it. Fluency, however, is out of the question in a style which combines such austere economy of words with the determination to