for moralizing and for meditating over the eternal laws of change in nature. In the beautiful "Forest Hymn," which begins with the familiar words

The groves were God's first temples,

there is an invocation in which his favorite theme is thus expressed:

My heart is awed within me when I think
Of the great miracle that still goes on,
In silence, round me the perpetual work
Of thy creation, finished, yet renewed
Forever. Written on thy works I read
The lesson of thy own eternity.

Lo! all grow old and die-but see again,
How on the faltering footsteps of decay

Youth presses-ever gay and beautiful youth
In all its beautiful forms.

There is little passion and less human sympathy in his His careful workmanship could not cover a cold formalism that marked most of his work. Yet within his obvious limitations Bryant belongs to the leading nature-poets of literature. A tinge of melancholy always characterized his interpretation of nature, but he wrote with genuine inspiration, in a style approaching that of Milton in dignity and elevation. "Thanatopsis" and the best of his lyrical poems have won their place in our literature and are destined to endure.

CHAPTER IV

AN ADVENTURE IN PHILOSOPHY

Transcendentalism—The Dial-Brook Farm-Ralph Waldo Emerson— An Old Puritan Line-The American Scholar-Lecturer and Essayist -The Gathering Shadows-Henry David Thoreau-An Independent Spirit-The Student of Nature-Posthumous Fame-Margaret Fuller— The Waning of the Cause.

1. Transcendentalism.-Most of the writers in the New York group had begun their literary careers as conscious imitators of English originals. As they reached middle life and became somewhat set in manner, they yielded their intellectual leadership to a group of New England thinkers living apart from the practical business world in small towns and villages of eastern Massachusetts. The new movement originated about 1840 and preached a philosophy known as transcendentalism, so called because it taught that in addition to the knowledge derived through the senses or by experience, there is a knowledge that transcends human limitations and is intuitively understood by the human mind. It was an idealistic philosophy, derived from Germany through the writings of Coleridge and Carlyle, and spread in America by Emerson and his associates at Concord and elsewhere. The discussion of this new philosophy brought about a period of liberal ideas in religious matters and of renewed interest in theological disputation.

2. "The Dial."-The literary organ of the transcendentalists was a quarterly called The Dial, which appeared be

tween 1840 and 1844. Its numbers contained some poetry, but were largely devoted to serious essays of a philosophical or critical character. During the first two years Margaret Fuller was editor; later Emerson, assisted by Thoreau, took charge. In the prospectus its readers were warned that the contributions to The Dial would have little in common "but the love of individual freedom and the hope of social progress." As for the editorial policy of those who directed the enterprise, their hearts were more in the future than in the past, and they trusted the living soul more than the dead letter. Some of the leading writers of the transcendental group were among its contributors. The Dial exerted an influence far in excess of its modest paid circulation, which never reached 250 copies.

3. Brook Farm.-In 1841 a group of enthusiastic reformers established at West Roxbury, about nine miles from Boston, a community which they incorporated as The Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education. George Ripley, a Harvard graduate and Unitarian preacher, resigned his pastorate to become the leader of this social enterprise. The residents on the farm shared the work and undertook to carry out in communal fashion the ideals of "plain living and high thinking." Hawthorne spent a short time with the visionaries, but Margaret Fuller was the only important transcendentalist who settled there. From the first the experiment aroused much curiosity; later that curiosity turned to ridicule, when the Brook Farmers became involved in various fantastic schemes to accomplish the social regeneration of the world. Their large main building, or "phalanstery," as they called it, was burned down in 1846, and

lack of insurance on the structure caused the financial collapse of the scheme. Although the experiment was a practical failure, most of those who dwelt at Brook Farm looked back on that period as a pleasant Utopian experience for which this queer old world was not altogether prepared. Ripley and his faithful wife not only stood by the enterprise during its darkest days but even sold their private library to help pay the debts of the association.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

4. An Old Puritan Line. On the historic 19th of April, 1775, a certain William Emerson, pastor of the church at Concord and builder of the "old manse," urged his parishioners to stand their ground as the column of British redcoats advanced on Lexington. Six generations of Puritan ministers were behind that patriot who brought about one glorious incident in American history:

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world.

That zealous preacher handed on the same tradition to his son, another William Emerson, who became pastor of the First Church of Boston. When the fourth of the younger Emerson's eight children was born in 1803, the child was named Ralph Waldo Emerson. Eight years later William Emerson died, but the church generously paid his salary to his widow to help her in her brave struggle to bring up and educate her children. What such a struggle meant may

readily be imagined; at one time Ralph and one of his brothers had to take turns at going to school, as they had only one coat between them.

Ralph's childhood was a period of hard work and devotion to duty. He was a spiritual-looking boy, who rarely smiled and never indulged in childish games or pranks. He attended the famous Boston Latin School and entered Harvard College at fourteen. There he earned part of his expenses by serving as the president's messenger and by waiting on the table at college commons. He also won scholarships and prizes for essays and declamations. His work in mathematics was not so good, and consequently he stood about the middle of his class when he was graduated. For several years he taught in his brother's school, and then entered the Harvard Divinity School. Although admitted to the ministry in 1826, he did not take a pastorate till 1829, when he assumed charge of the old North Church of Boston. His congregation included many worthy and influential persons, but he resigned three years later because he was not in sympathy with their forms of worship.

5. Old World Influences. He sailed for Europe in 1832, and spent most of the following year in travelling from Italy to England. This experience was of the greatest significance in his education. Unlike most tourists, he did not care for sightseeing or adventure; he was chiefly interested in meeting distinguished men wherever he went. He sought out and became acquainted with such English writers as Wordsworth and Coleridge; he even travelled into Scotland to meet Carlyle, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship, that was fostered by a frequent interchange of letters: