I
never should have become a physical investigator, and hence without them I
should not have been here to-day. They told me what I ought to do in a way
that caused me to do it, and all my consequent intellectual action is to be
traced to this purely moral force." After hearing one of Emerson's
lectures, James Russell Lowell wrote, "Were we enthusiasts? I hope and
believe we were, and am thankful to the man who made us worth something for
once in our lives."
Few authors, excepting Shakespeare, have more of the quality of
universality in their writings. Many things in Emerson will fit certain
stages of individual development as well a thousand years hence as to-day
and be as applicable to the moral improvement of the Chinese as of
Americans. If he is not as much read in the future, it will be largely due
to the fact that his most inspiring subject matter has been widely diffused
through modern thought.
Emerson's style is condensed. He spoke of his own paragraphs as
incompressible, "each sentence an infinitely repellent particle." Because
of this condensation, it is best not to read more than one essay at a time.
Years ago some joker said that Emerson's _Essays_ could be read as well
backward as forward, because there was no connection between the sentences.
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