of the 'fighting parson.' He came honestly by his militant temper, being a grandson of the famous Father Moody who distinguished himself at the siege of Louisburg as a preacher, fighter, and iconoclast.

Besides the gift of eloquence, William Emerson inherited from his father (the Reverend Joseph Emerson of Malden) a love of literature. This he apparently bequeathed to his son, William, who in turn transmitted it to his son, the author of Conduct of Life and Representative Men.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston on May 25, 1803. His father, minister of the First Church of that city, was a man of vigorous intellect, fond of society, and, judging from one of his letters, endowed with a caustic wit. His mother, Ruth (Haskins) Emerson, was distinguished for her high-bred manners and tender thoughtfulness.

Severity on the part of parents was thought good for boys in that day. Ralph never forgot how his father twice or thrice put me in mortal terror 'by forcing me into the salt water, off some wharf or bathing-house; and I still recall the fright with 'which, after some of these salt experiences, I 'heard his voice one day (as Adam that of the 'Lord God in the garden) summoning me to a new bath, and I vainly endeavoring to hide myself.' Left a widow in 1811, with five boys to educate, Mrs. Emerson was forced to heroic exertions. Her sacrifices made a deep impress on the mind of the most famous of those boys.

EMERSON'S LIFE

From the Boston Latin School, Emerson went to Harvard College and was graduated in 1821 ' with ambitions to be a professor of rhetoric and elocution.' After a period of school-teaching, a profession towards which his attitude was unequivocal (Better saw wood, better sow hemp, better hang with it after it is sown, than sow the seeds ' of instruction'), he began his theological studies at Harvard and in due time was approbated to 'preach.' Ill health drove him South for a winter (1826-27), where he saw novel sights, and made the acquaintance of Achille Murat, son of the quondam King of Naples. Emerson had Murat for a fellow traveller from St. Augustine to Charleston: 'I blessed my stars for my fine companion, ' and we talked incessantly.'

On March 11, 1829, Emerson was ordained as colleague of Henry Ware in the Second Church of Boston and a little later became the sole in'cumbent.' He resigned this advantageous post of labor (September, 1832) because of doubts about the rite of the Lord's Supper and the offering of public prayer. To many observers his career seemed wilfully spoiled by himself.

With impaired health and in despondency and grief (he had but recently lost his young wife) ' Emerson tried the effect of a year abroad. He

1 Ellen (Tucker) Emerson was but twenty years of age at the

time of her death. Emerson first saw her in December, 1827. They were married about two years later.

sailed from Boston and arrived at Malta on February 2, 1833. Thence he proceeded to Syracuse, Taormina, Messina, Palermo, and Naples. After visiting the other chief cities of Italy, he journeyed to Paris, which he admired none the less because he felt out of place there; Pray what brought you 'here, grave Sir?' the moving Boulevard seemed to say. But he had the opportunity of hearing Jouffroy at the Sorbonne, and of paying his respects to Lafayette. In London he saw Coleridge. At Edinburgh he learned Carlyle's whereabouts, visited him, and found him, 'good and wise and pleasant.' He was unfortunate in his trip to the Highlands ('the scenery of a shower-bath must be always much 'the same'). He called on Wordsworth at Rydal Mount. In early October he was back at home.

The future was uncertain. Emerson was reluctant to give up the ministry, and preached from time to time as the chance presented itself. For some weeks he supplied Orville Dewey's church in New Bedford, but when it was intimated that on Dewey's resignation he might be invited to succeed him, Emerson made the impossible conditions that he should neither administer the Communion, nor offer prayer 'unless he felt moved to 'do so.' He supplied the pulpit of the Unitarian church in Concord during three months of the pastor's illness and for three years preached to the little congregation in East Lexington.

Having cut himself off from the only 'regular'

EMERSON'S LIFE

mode of life that seemed open to him, Emerson took up the irregular vocation of lecturer. During the winter following his return from Europe, he had lectured before the Boston Society of Natural History. Beginning in January, 1835, he gave a course on Biography' consisting of six lectures: 'Tests of Great Men,'' Michelangelo,' 'Luther,' 'Milton,' ' Fox,' and 'Burke.' During succeeding winters he gave ten lectures on 'English Litera'ture' (1835-36), twelve lectures on 'The Philosophy of History' (1836-37), ten lectures on 'Human Culture' (1837-38), ten lectures on 'Hu'man Life' (1838-39), ten lectures on 'The Present 'Age' (1839-40). He was now fairly engaged in his new calling.

Meantime he had fixed on Concord for his permanent home, bought a house there, married Miss Lydia Jackson of Plymouth, and begun that career of which one of his biographers has humorously complained, 'a life devoid of incident, of nearly ' untroubled happiness, and of absolute conformity 'to the moral law.'

In 1836 there was published anonymously a little volume entitled Nature. It was Emerson's first book. His influence as a man of letters begins at this point. The succeeding volumes consisted in part of lectures which, having stood the test of public delivery, were now recast in essay form. Not every essay, however, had its first presentation as spoken discourse.

On formal public occasions Emerson was often invited to give the address. There was authority in his utterances. That he was not unlikely to say something revolutionary seemed to make it the more important that he should be heard often. He gave the Historical Address at Concord at the Second Centennial Anniversary, the Phi Beta Kappa Oration at Harvard on The American 'Scholar' (August, 1837), and the Address before the Senior Class in Divinity College (July 15, 1838), which brought down on him the wrath of Andrews Norton and a shower of remonstrances from Unitarian ministers who, however, loved him too much to be angry with him.

At the time of the Divinity Hall Address the so-called Transcendental movement was in full progress. The movement grew in part out of informal meetings held by a group of liberal thinkers with a view to protesting against the unsatisfactory state of current opinion in theology and philosophy, and looking for something broader and deeper.'

Transcendentalism was an intellectual ferment. Having a philosophical and religious significance, it was also notable for its effect on social, educational, and literary matters. Emerson defined it as faith in intuitions. It has been called an outburst of Romanticism on Puritan ground.' Certain historians connect it with German tranI Cabot: Emerson, i, 244.