was one particularly long poem which he had read aloud to my
mother and father; a seemingly harmless thing, from which they
never recovered."
The appreciation the great men of Concord had of one another is
interesting to the outside world. Great souls are seldom
congenial,--popular impression to the contrary notwithstanding.
Minds of a feather flock together; but minds of gold are apt to
remain apart, each sufficient unto itself. It is in sports,
pastimes, business, politics, that men congregate with facility;
in literary and intellectual pursuits the leaders are
anti-pathetic in proportion to their true greatness. Now and then
two, and more rarely three, are united by bonds of quick
understanding and sympathy, but men of profound convictions attract
followers and repel companions.
Emerson's was the most catholic spirit; he understood his
neighbors better than they understood one another; his vision was
very clear. For a man who mingled so little with the world, who
spent so much of his life in contemplation--in communing with his
inner self--Emerson was very sane indeed; his idiosyncrasies did
not prevent his judging men and things quite correctly.
Hawthorne and Emerson saw comparatively little of each other;
these two great souls respected the independence of each other too
much to intrude. "Mr. Hawthorne once broke through his hermit
usage, and honored Miss Ellen Emerson, the friend of his daughter
Una, with a formal call on a Sunday evening. It was the only time,
I think, that he ever came to the house except when persuaded to
come in for a few moments on the rare occasions when he walked
with my father. On this occasion he did not ask for either Mr. or
Mrs. Emerson, but announced that his call was upon Miss Ellen.
Unfortunately, she had gone to bed, but he remained for a time
talking with my sister Edith and me, the school-mates of his
children. To cover his shyness he took up a stereoscope on the
centre-table and began to look at the pictures. After looking at
them for a time he asked where those views were taken. We told him
they were pictures of the Concord Court and Town Houses, the
Common and the Mill-dam; on hearing which he expressed some
surprise and interest, but evidently was as unfamiliar with the
centre of the village where he had lived for years as a deer or a
wood-thrush would be. He walked through it often on his way to the
cars, but was too shy or too rapt to know what was there."
Here's a piece of wisdom on driving or cute car quote to study:
Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly. ~Author Unknown
|
