6
THE GENIUS OF EMERSON.
the instincts of her nature. If, as the mother of men, she displays intelligence, patience, and love, reaching to the supremeest heights and to the lowest depths of a reasoning and moral nature; if as a student in all the wide realm of knowledge she can scale the highest peaks reached by man, or dive down to the bottom of the sea and drag up pearls of wisdom; if she can pierce with clear vision into the starry depths of infinite space and trace the planets in their majestic sweep along the highways of the universe, is she not, I repeat it, is she not capable of understanding that little sentence which the founders of the Republic thrust defiantly into the face of the Old World, "taxation without representation is tyranny?"
From a thousand platforms in England, Scotland and America is heard the voice of woman proclaiming in no uncertain tones that she is under no curse but that of ignorance, prejudice, and unjust laws. Mr. Gladstone has said: "We are firm in the faith that enfranchisement is a good thing,
that the people may be trusted, that the voters, under the Constitution, are the strength of the Constitution." Carry this principle to its legitimate conclusion. Let the good work go on. Let every true-minded woman add her influence. "The little rivulet which comes down from the mountain-side seems so small that it can do nothing, but those rivulets meet in a stream, the stream flows on to the river, then the river becomes a flood which is finally lost in the ocean." With a character based upon principle, with a nature full of fine impulses, with intelligence, wisdom, and a firm faith in the justice of God, woman cannot fail to influence the feelings of man to loftiest sentiments, and lead him to results both beneficial and honorable.
O ye who control the destinies of America, no longer refuse to bestow upon woman that which is her due. Open wide all the avenues of life and let her enter and reap, as she justly deserves, honor and fame and wealth, and then humanity will become nobler, purer, and more God-like.
THE GENIUS OF EMERSON.
FRED A. STOCKS, Scientific Department, BLUE RAPIDS, KANSAS.
As the centuries come and go there is a constant increase in the list of those who have fought evil and vice and proclaimed by their words the value of goodness and truth. The time and place where our great men shall live and act knows no rule. They spring up here and there, fulfill their destiny, and die. Perhaps one man will give color and tone to a century, but oftener a group of men will push the world onward and upward. How many that the present regards great will pass muster when posterity calls the roll? Only those in whom appear great deeds, great hearts and great souls. Such was Emerson.
He found America without a literature; her men of letters laughed at, charged with narrowness and with an utter want of originality. The world was just awakening to the great possibilities, in every avenue of advancement, which science offered. Scientific hypotheses threatened to become more harsh and exacting than religious dogmas had ever dared to be. The classic rules and formula of diction were observed closely and literary men wrote with little thought, other than to perfect the form and leave out the soul. It seemed that America, great in almost everything, was destined to a mediocre place in the literary world. But Emerson brought new life and vigor to the realm of thought. He believed that this was an age of expansion in literature, as in all other things. He thought that—
"Great is the art,
Great be the manners of the bard.
He shall not his brain encumber
With the coil of rhythm and number,
But leaving rule and pale forethought,
He shall aye climb
For his rhyme