“He had that universal sympathy with genius which makes all its victories his own; though he never used verse, he had many qualities of the poet in the power of his imagination, the speed of his mental associations, and his sharp, objective eyes.  But what specially marks him, he is a chief example of the illumination of the intellect by the force of morals.”

How much, of all this would have been recognized as just and true if it had been set down in an obituary notice of Emerson!

I have already made use of several of the other papers contained in this volume, and will merely enumerate all that follow the “Plutarch.”  Some of the titles will be sure to attract the reader.  They are “Historic Notes of Life and Letters in New England;” “The Chardon Street Convention;” “Ezra Ripley, D.D.;” “Mary Moody Emerson;” “Samuel Hoar;” “Thoreau;” “Carlyle.”—­

Mr. Cabot prefaces the eleventh and last volume of Emerson’s writings with the following “Note":—­

“The first five pieces in this volume, and the ‘Editorial Address’ from the ‘Massachusetts Quarterly Review,’ were published by Mr. Emerson long ago.  The speeches at the John Brown, the Walter Scott, and the Free Religious Association meetings were published at the time, no doubt with his consent, but without any active co-operation on his part.  The ‘Fortune of the Republic’ appeared separately in 1879; the rest have never been published.  In none was any change from the original form made by me, except in the ’Fortune of the Republic,’ which was made up of several lectures for the occasion upon which it was read.”

The volume of “Miscellanies” contains no less than twenty-three pieces of very various lengths and relating to many different subjects.  The five referred to as having been previously published are, “The Lord’s Supper,” the “Historical Discourse in Concord,” the “Address at the Dedication of the Soldiers’ Monument in Concord,” the “Address on Emancipation in the British West Indies,” and the Lecture or Essay on “War,”—­all of which have been already spoken of.

Next in order comes a Lecture on the “Fugitive Slave Law.”  Emerson says, “I do not often speak on public questions.—­My own habitual view is to the well-being of scholars.”  But he leaves his studies to attack the institution of slavery, from which he says he himself has never suffered any inconvenience, and the “Law,” which the abolitionists would always call the “Fugitive Slave Bill.”  Emerson had a great admiration for Mr. Webster, but he did not spare him as he recalled his speech of the seventh of March, just four years before the delivery of this Lecture.  He warns against false leadership:—­

“To make good the cause of Freedom, you must draw off from all foolish trust in others.—­He only who is able to stand alone is qualified for society.  And that I understand to be the end for which a soul exists in this world,—­to be himself the counter-balance of all falsehood and all wrong.—­The Anglo-Saxon race is proud and strong and selfish.—­England maintains trade, not liberty.”

Cowper had said long before this:—­