record of the following incident remained to men--the influence
of his soul would still be great. A working woman after coming
from one of his lectures said: "I love to go to hear Emerson, not
because I understand him, but because he looks as though he
thought everybody was as good as he was." Is it not the courage--
the spiritual hopefulness in his humility that makes this story
possible and true? Is it not this trait in his character that
sets him above all creeds--that gives him inspired belief in the
common mind and soul? Is it not this courageous universalism that
gives conviction to his prophecy and that makes his symphonies of
revelation begin and end with nothing but the strength and beauty
of innate goodness in man, in Nature and in God, the greatest and
most inspiring theme of Concord Transcendental Philosophy, as we
hear it.

And it is from such a world-compelling theme and from such
vantage ground, that Emerson rises to almost perfect freedom of
action, of thought and of soul, in any direction and to any
height. A vantage ground, somewhat vaster than Schelling's
conception of transcendental philosophy--"a philosophy of Nature
become subjective." In Concord it includes the objective and
becomes subjective to nothing but freedom and the absolute law.
It is this underlying courage of the purest humility that gives
Emerson that outward aspect of serenity which is felt to so great
an extent in much of his work, especially in his codas and
perorations. And within this poised strength, we are conscious of
that "original authentic fire" which Emerson missed in Shelley--
we are conscious of something that is not dispassionate,
something that is at times almost turbulent--a kind of furious
calm lying deeply in the conviction of the eventual triumph of