Poems - Household Edition | Page 4

Old World, behind,
and now went to Nature as his teacher, his inspiration. His first book, "Nature," which he
was meditating while in Europe, was finished here, and published in 1836. His practice
during all his life in Concord was to go alone to the woods almost daily, sometimes to
wait there for hours, and, when thus attuned, to receive the message to which he was to
give voice. Though it might be colored by him in transmission, he held that the light was
universal.
"Ever the words of the Gods resound,
But the porches of man's ear
Seldom in this low
life's round
Are unsealed that he may hear."
But he resorted, also, to the books of those who had handed down the oracles truly, and
was quick to find the message destined for him. Men, too, he studied eagerly, the
humblest and the highest, regretting always that the brand of the scholar on him often
silenced the men of shop and office where he came. He was everywhere a learner,
expecting light from the youngest and least educated visitor. The thoughts combined with
the flower of his reading were gradually grouped into lectures, and his main occupation
through life was reading these to who would hear, at first in courses in Boston, but later
all over the country, for the Lyceum sprang up in New England in these years in every
town, and spread westward to the new settlements even beyond the Mississippi. His
winters were spent in these rough, but to him interesting journeys, for he loved to watch
the growth of the Republic in which he had faith, and his summers were spent in study
and writing. These lectures were later severely pruned and revised, and the best of them
gathered into seven volumes of essays under different names between 1841 and 1876.
The courses in Boston, which at first were given in the Masonic Temple, were always
well attended by earnest and thoughtful people. The young, whether in years or in spirit,
were always and to the end his audience of the spoken or written word. The freedom of
the Lyceum platform pleased Emerson. He found that people would hear on Wednesday
with approval and unsuspectingly doctrines from which on Sunday they felt officially
obliged to dissent.
Mr. Lowell, in his essays, has spoken of these early lectures and what they were worth to
him and others suffering from the generous discontent of youth with things as they were.
Emerson used to say, "My strength and my doom is to be solitary;" but to a retired
scholar a wholesome offset to this was the travelling and lecturing in cities and in raw
frontier towns, bringing him into touch with the people, and this he knew and valued.
In 1837 Emerson gave the Phi Beta Kappa oration in Cambridge, The American Scholar,
which increased his growing reputation, but the following year his Address to the Senior
Class at the Divinity School brought out, even from the friendly Unitarians, severe
strictures and warnings against its dangerous doctrines. Of this heresy Emerson said: "I
deny personality to God because it is too little, not too much." He really strove to elevate
the idea of God. Yet those who were pained or shocked by his teachings respected
Emerson. His lectures were still in demand; he was often asked to speak by literary

societies at orthodox colleges. He preached regularly at East Lexington until 1838, but
thereafter withdrew from the ministerial office. At this time the progressive and
spiritually minded young people used to meet for discussion and help in Boston, among
them George Ripley, Cyrus Bartol, James Freeman Clarke, Alcott, Dr. Hedge, Margaret
Fuller, and Elizabeth Peabody. Perhaps from this gathering of friends, which Emerson
attended, came what is called the Transcendental Movement, two results of which were
the Brook Farm Community and the Dial magazine, in which last Emerson took great
interest, and was for the time an editor. Many of these friends were frequent visitors in
Concord. Alcott moved thither after the breaking up of his school. Hawthorne also came
to dwell there. Henry Thoreau, a Concord youth, greatly interested Emerson; indeed,
became for a year or two a valued inmate of his home, and helped and instructed him in
the labors of the garden and little farm, which gradually grew to ten acres, the chief
interest of which for the owner was his trees, which he loved and tended. Emerson helped
introduce his countrymen to the teachings of Carlyle, and edited his works here, where
they found more readers than at home.
In 1847 Emerson was invited to read lectures in England, and remained abroad a year,
visiting France also in her troublous times. English Traits was a result. Just before this
journey he had collected and published his poems.