“The Superlative” will prove light and pleasant reading after these graver essays. [Greek:  Maedhen agan]—­ne quid nimis,—­nothing in excess, was his precept as to adjectives.

Two sentences from “The Sovereignty of Ethics” will go far towards reconciling elderly readers who have not forgotten the Westminster Assembly’s Catechism with this sweet-souled dealer in spiritual dynamite:—­

    “Luther would cut his hand off sooner than write theses against the
    pope if he suspected that he was bringing on with all his might the
    pale negations of Boston Unitarianism.—­

    “If I miss the inspiration of the saints of Calvinism, or of
    Platonism, or of Buddhism, our times are not up to theirs, or, more
    truly, have not yet their own legitimate force.”

So, too, this from “The Preacher":—­

“All civil mankind have agreed in leaving one day for contemplation against six for practice.  I hope that day will keep its honor and its use.—­The Sabbath changes its forms from age to age, but the substantial benefit endures.”

The special interest of the Address called “The Man of Letters” is, that it was delivered during the war.  He was no advocate for peace where great principles were at the bottom of the conflict:—­

“War, seeking for the roots of strength, comes upon the moral aspects at once.—­War ennobles the age.—­Battle, with the sword, has cut many a Gordian knot in twain which all the wit of East and West, of Northern and Border statesmen could not untie.”

“The Scholar” was delivered before two Societies at the University of Virginia so late as the year 1876.  If I must select any of its wise words, I will choose the questions which he has himself italicized to show his sense of their importance:—­

“For all men, all women, Time, your country, your condition, the invisible world are the interrogators:  Who are you?  What do you?  Can you obtain what you wish?  Is there method in your consciousness?  Can you see tendency in your life?  Can you help any soul?

“Can he answer these questions?  Can he dispose of them?  Happy if you can answer them mutely in the order and disposition of your life!  Happy for more than yourself, a benefactor of men, if you can answer them in works of wisdom, art, or poetry; bestowing on the general mind of men organic creations, to be the guidance and delight of all who know them.”

The Essay on “Plutarch” has a peculiar value from the fact that Emerson owes more to him than to any other author except Plato, who is one of the only two writers quoted oftener than Plutarch. Mutato nomine, the portrait which Emerson draws of the Greek moralist might stand for his own:—­