hall hold out his hand and say to her,
Give me your quick intuition and accept in return my ratiocination"----A
ringing laugh here interrupted the speaker. It came from Kate Field.

Mr. Emerson had a brief connection with the Radical Club; and this may
be a suitable place in which to give my personal impressions of the
Prophet of New England. In remembering Mr. Emerson, we should analyze
his works sufficiently to be able to distinguish the things in which he
really was a leader and a teacher from other traits peculiar to himself,
and interesting as elements of his historic character, but not as
features of the ideal which we are to follow. Mr. Emerson objected
strongly to newspaper reports of the sittings of the Radical Club. The
reports sent to the New York "Tribune" by Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton
were eagerly sought and read in very distant parts of the country. I
rejoiced in this. It seemed to me that the uses of the club were thus
greatly multiplied and extended. It became an agency in the great church
universal. Mr. Emerson's principal objection to the reports was that
they interfered with the freedom of the occasion. When this objection
failed to prevail, he withdrew from the club almost entirely, and was
never more heard among its speakers.

I remember hearing Mr. Emerson, in his discourse on Henry Thoreau,
relate that the latter had once determined to manufacture the best lead
pencil that could possibly be made. Having attained this end, parties
interested at once besought him to make this excellent article
attainable in trade. He said, "Why should I do this? I have shown that I
am able to produce the best pencil that can be made. This was all that I
cared to do." The selfishness and egotism of this point of view did not
appear to have entered into Mr. Emerson's thoughts. Upon this principle,
which of the great discoverers or inventors would have become a
benefactor to the human race? Theodore Parker once said to me, "I do not
consider Emerson a philosopher, but a poet lacking the accomplishment of
rhyme." This may not be altogether true, but it is worth remembering.
There is something of the _vates_ in Mr. Emerson. The deep intuitions,
the original and startling combinations, the sometimes whimsical beauty
of his illustrations,--all these belong rather to the domain of poetry
than to that of philosophy. The high level of thought upon which he
lived and moved and the wonderful harmony of his sympathies are his