Journal, 1856. “Eugène Sue, Dumas, etc., when they begin a story, do not know how it will end, but Walter Scott, when he began the _Bride of Lammermoor_, had no choice; nor Shakspeare, nor Macbeth.” [216] _Page 467, note 1._ Journal. “We talked of Scott. There is some greatness in defying posterity and writing for the hour.” SPEECH AT THE BANQUET IN HONOR OF THE CHINESE EMBASSY When the Chinese Embassy visited Boston in the summer of 1868 a banquet was given them at the St. James Hotel, on August 21. The young Emerson, sounding an early note of independence of the past, had written in 1824:— I laugh at those who, while they gape and gaze, The bald antiquity of China praise;— but later he learned to revere the wisdom of Asia. About the time when the _Dial_ appeared, many sentences of Chinese wisdom are found in his journal, and also in the magazine among the “Ethnical Scriptures.” REMARKS AT THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FREE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION In the spring of 1867, a call for a public meeting was issued by Octavius B. Frothingham, William J. Potter and Rowland Connor “to consider the conditions, wants and progress of Free Religion in America.” The response was so large as to surprise the committee, and Horticultural Hall was completely filled on May 30. Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham presided. The committee had invited as speakers the Rev. H. Blanchard of Brooklyn from the Universalists, Lucretia Mott from the Society of Friends, Robert Dale Owen from the Spiritualists, the Rev. John Weiss from the Left Wing of the Unitarians, Oliver Johnson from the Progressive Friends, Francis E. Abbot, editor of the _Index_; and also David A. Wasson, Colonel T. W. Higginson and Mr. Emerson. The meeting was very successful and the Free Religious Association was founded. Mr. Emerson’s genial and affirmative attitude at this meeting was helpful and important. He wished the new movement to be neither aggressive towards the beliefs of others, nor merely a religion of works, purely beneficently utilitarian. Doubtless there were many young and active radicals strong for destructive criticism. Mr. Emerson wished to see that in their zeal to destroy the dry husk of religion they should not bruise the white flower within. His counsel to young men was, “Omit all negative propositions. It will save ninety-nine one hundredths of your labor, and increase the value of your work in the same measure.” [217] _Page 479, note 1._ In the journal of 1837 he said, “Why rake up old manuscripts to find therein a man’s soul? You do not look for conversation in a corpse.” And elsewhere, “In religion the sentiment is all, the ritual or ceremony indifferent.” SPEECH AT THE SECOND ANNUAL MEETING OF THE FREE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION [218] _Page 486, note 1._ Mrs. Julia Ward Howe writes of Mr. Emerson,—