we recognise at once that the sooner we take off our shoes the better,
for that the ground upon which we are standing is holy. How can we
sufficiently honour the men who, in this secular, work-a-day world,
habitually breathe

'An ampler ether, a diviner air,'

than ours!

But testimony of this kind, conclusive as it is upon the question of
Emerson's personal influence, will not always be admissible in support of
his claims as an author. In the long-run an author's only witnesses are
his own books.

In Dr. Holmes's estimate of Emerson's books everyone must wish to concur.
{218} These are not the days, nor is this dry and thirsty land of ours
the place, when or where we can afford to pass by any well of spiritual
influence. It is matter, therefore, for rejoicing that, in the opinion
of so many good judges, Emerson's well can never be choked up. His
essays, so at least we are told by no less a critic than Mr. Arnold, are
the most valuable prose contributions to English literature of the
century; his letters to Mr. Carlyle carried into all our homes the charm
of a most delightful personality; the quaint melody of his poems abides
in many ears. He would, indeed, be a churl who grudged Emerson his fame.

But when we are considering a writer so full of intelligence as
Emerson--one so remote and detached from the world's bluster and brag--it
is especially incumbent upon us to charge our own language with
intelligence, and to make sure that what we say is at least truth for us.

Were we at liberty to agree with Dr. Holmes in his unmeasured praise--did
we, in short, find Emerson full of inspiration--our task would be as easy
as it would be pleasant; but not entirely agreeing with Dr. Holmes, and
somehow missing the inspiration, the difficulty we began by mentioning
presses heavily upon us.

Pleasant reading as the introductory thirty-five pages of Dr. Holmes's
book make, we doubt the wisdom of so very sketchy an account of Emerson's
lineage and intellectual environment. Attracted towards Emerson
everybody must be; but there are many who have never been able to get
quit of an uneasy fear as to his 'staying power.' He has seemed to some
of us a little thin and vague. A really great author dissipates all such
fears. Read a page and they are gone. To inquire after the intellectual
health of such a one would be an impertinence. Emerson hardly succeeds
in inspiring this confidence, but is more like a clever inval