Mr. Emerson struck me as having one of the sweetest expressions I have
ever seen on a man’s mouth. He was very kind in offering help. We
talked besides a little about Swedenborg, for whom he seemed to have
some admiration. ‘To be read as one reads a poet’s ideas,—not
critically,’ he said, and spoke of the pre-inspiration works on
science, etc., as really valuable.
Mrs. Emerson talked a little about ‘women’s questions’, female
franchise, etc.—and spoke of the wonderful blinding power of habit,—as
in slavery question,—looking to Christianity in its advance to set all
to rights.
I remarked that few had done more harm to the cause than St. Paul by
some of his words. She replied very truly that the fault lay rather in
those who would rigidly apply such words and consider them binding out
of all connection of time and place.”
It was left to a later friend to point out that St. Paul showed himself
in this respect the John Stuart Mill of his day when he asserted that
‘in Jesus Christ is neither male nor female.’
“Speaking a little to an old schoolfellow of Emerson’s he told me it
was hard for anyone to say what Emerson’s opinions were. I said I had
heard of him as a pantheist; he said at any rate he was one of the
best of men and had been from boyhood up.”
A few days later she visited Niagara,—“the only ‘pleasure’ thing” she
tells her Mother, “I _resolved_ to do if possible. We hope to spend next
Sunday there,—not a bad church, will it be?” From Niagara she writes to
Mrs. Unwin:
“Sept. 17th. 1865.
Niagara.
MY DEAR LUCY,
I congratulate you with all my heart on the birth of your little
son! I think by this time you will have forgotten all doubts and
difficulties, and all but pleasant feelings of responsibility, in your
great content, have you not? God very seldom sends us either duties or
blessings without showing us how to fulfil and enjoy and use them, and
I do not doubt but you will have found in your own case all sorts of
new powers and instincts develop with the need of them, and will have
by this time a pretty definite idea ‘What to do with a baby’—Is it not
so?...
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account