Volume I Part 7 (1/2)

His adoration of his as fully justified, for rarely have I seen a wonity and serenity were so wedded to personal beauty and to the fine culture of brain and heart, which commanded reverence from the most ordinary acquaintance, as in her No one who had seen her at hoet the splendid vision, and the last time I ever saw her, so far as I rehters, all in white muslin, like creatures of another world, evanescent, translucent, stood in the doorway to say good-by to me In the sa ihters, when a fla drop fell on the inflammable stuff, and in an instant she was in flames, burned to death before help could cofelloas not the cold enerally believed him He never recovered from the bereavement, and shortly after he becalad turn passed the gates of death, he lived in what he knew to be the light of her presence And certainly if such a thing as corim threshold can be, this was the occasion which elic about thee beneficence and equanimity which, in the chance and contradiction of life, could rarely be found in wedded state

One of the es of that little world, whofelloas his brother-in-law,--Thouished aarious, critic, poet, and thinker: the wit to whos said in Boston ca that ”Good Aenerally supposed to be his, though Oliver Wendell Holmes told me one day that he himself was really the author of it; but, if a keen witticis about fatherless in the Boston circles it drifted to Tom Appleton as putative parent His, too, was a kindly nature, and nition by Appleton's unobtrusive aid He, like Longfelloas a sincere Spiritualist One of the roup of hts into the higher regions of the science of nus were told He had written a book to show, if I reht after so le

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which was said to have been read only by a mathematician who presided over an observatory in the Ural Mountains He had an extraordinary power ofhis abstruse results clear to the ordinary intellect, and was in various directions a brilliant conversationalist One day, going into Boston in the omnibus with him, I questioned hih a deence which made me understand the nature of the substitution and the solution before our half hour's transit was ended I did not understand the mathematical statement, but he put it in coh I never could repeat the excited the desire on the part of several Cae friends to visit the Wilderness, I made up a party which comprised Lowell and his two nephews, Charles and Jalanders afterwards killed during the Civil War), Dr Estes Howe, Lowell's brother-in-law, and John Holmes, the brother of Oliver Wendell, considered by e set the wittier and wiser of the two, but who, being extremely averse to publicity, was never known in literature We h the Saranac Lakes and down the Raquette River to Tupper's Lake, and then across a wild and at that day a little explored section to the head of Raquette Lake, and down the Raquette River back to the Saranacs; the party returning home and I back to the headwaters of the Raquette to spend the su I built a cast the men of the section, and there I worked in a solitude souide, who passed his time between the camp and the settlement at Saranac, whence I drew all my supplies beyond those which the lake and the forest furnished us with The solitude of the Wilderness at that tier found anywhere in the vast woodland which, s, still covers the district between the springs of the Mohawk and the rivers which empty into the St Lawrence There was one settler on the lake, froet a loaf of bread, but the solitude for nine days out of ten was not broken by a strange footfall My camp was a shelter of bark, raised on poles, open in front to theto shed the rain, while rew around

Trout from the lake, broiled on the coals of the camp-fire, with a piece of bread, was the usual and sufficient fare, thoughand then killed a deer when Steve,was my only company, and in this monotonous life I found the iven me Here wolves abounded, but only on one occasion did they attempt to disturb me, which hen I had left by the lake shore a deer we had killed in the ht to steal the meat Bears were abundant, but even shyer than the wolves; and though we heard, now and then, the cry of a panther (puma), we never saw one

Here the rew on me The serene silence was seldoh overhead, the chirping of the chickadee flitting about the ca note of the Canada jay,for the scraps of venison we used to throw out for him

No other birds ca features in the Wilderness was the paucity of bird life and voice As I sat painting, I would see the gray eagle co the surface of the water, and catch, as he passed, the trout that sunned itself on the surface; or the osprey seizing it with his direct plunge into the lake, frole that lasted soitated water, he would e to escape to the forest with his prey lest the eagle, alatching from the upper air, should rob hihty plunge fro the fish to escape the shock, and the eagle catching it in midair as it fell

The little incidents of woodland life took the place of all other diversions and left no hour void of interest I broke up the camp only when the autumn was so far advanced that it was uncomfortable to live in the open air It is difficult for one who has not had the experience to understand the fascination of this absolute solitude, or the ih whole days I had absolutely no desire for human society, and I broke cae

The next summer the party was formed which led to the foundation of the Adirondack Club, and the excursion it made is commemorated by Emerson in his poeassiz, Dr Howe, Professor Jeffries Wyman, John Hole hoar (later Attorney-General in the cabinet of President Grant), Horatio Woodman, Dr Binney, and myself Of this company, as I write, I afellow in the party, but, though he was for awith a gun settled him in the deter to take a gun?” he asked me; and when I said that he had finally decided to do so, he ejaculated, ”Then so

Perhaps the final reason, or that which would in any case have indisposed him to join the company, was his want of syonistic intellectuality, both in the quality of the exquisite courtesy which distinguished the and the quality of felloas of the most refined social culture, disciplined to self-control under all circuree to the for of an act or hich could offend the sensibilities of even a discourteous interlocutor,--capable at worst of an indignant silence, but incapable of invading the personality of another; not serene, but of an invincible tranquillity; with no syeneral and commonplace by the exquisite refineeneral and cohness in the forht; in short, the _ne plus ultra_ of refinement as man and poet Emerson was too serene ever to be discourteous, and was capable of the hottest antagonisnation without quickening his speech or raising his tone; grasping and exhausting with iinative activity whatever object furnished hi to the rubbish heap whatever was superficial; indifferent to for in h all obscurities, and found at the bottom of them what there was to find; arrested by no surfaces, inflexible in his devotion to truth, and indifferent to all personalities or artificial conditions of s, their inmost anatomy, attracted hifellow spent the tenderness of his character, and threw aside like an eiven the devotion of his best art, for the art's sake

In his temper there was no patience with shams, little toleration of forms It would, I should think, be clear to one ell acquainted with both men, that there was little in common between thefellow, and can only judge by induction that he never occupied hiet Dr Holmes to join us; but the Doctor was devoted to Boston, and could not have lived long out of its atery he had no syassiz, and Wyman, I think, above others; but he enjoyed hi on earth He was lifted above ennui and discontent by a most happy satisfaction with the rounded world of his own individuality and belongings Of the three men whom I have personally known in the world who seemed most satisfied hat fate and fortune had made them,--viz, Gladstone, Professor Freeman, and Holmes,--I think Hole of dandyish to be considered a weakness, but enough to show that he enjoyed his personal appearance and was content hat he had becohtful a way that one accepted him at once at his own tere, the archetype of the Hub nobody represented it as he did Tom Appleton was nearest hilobe-trotter,” as often in Europe as in Massachusetts, while the Doctor hardly left the Hub even for a vacation; there was nothing beyond it that was of great import to him He was the sublimation of Yankee wit as Loas of Yankee humor and human nature, and he made of witticism a study; polished, refined, and prepared his ”_bons mots_”, and, at the best moment, led the conversation round to the point at which it was opportune to fire thee of huy, but I could never realize that he was a physician; I should not have trusted fellow, his fa, and his love for his son, the present Mr Justice Holmes, and his pride in him, were very pleasant to see, and they ran on the surface of his nature like his love for Boston; but I could never feel that his feeling for his outside friends was low of kindliness and vivid intellectual sye hie circle, in which the personal relations were very war him with Lowell and the Nortons, hoion

Holland intellect, and thisIf Lowell could have acquired Hole in the Aave care to the perfection of what he wrote, for his mind so teemed with material that the time to polish and review never came Holmes, like a true artist, loved the _limae labor_ He was satisfied, it seemed to me, to do the work of one lifetime and then rest, while Lowell looked forward to a succession of lifetimes all full of work, and one can hardly conceive hienerous, widely sy nature, from which radiated love for humanity, and the broadest and most catholic helpfulness for every one who asked for his help, with a special fund for his friends Holmes drew a line around him, within which he shone like a winter sun, and outside of which his care did not extend The one was best in what he did, the other in what he was Holeneral world; Lowell to have e human as indifferent to me” Both were adored by those around them, and the adoration kindled Holmes to a warmer reflection to the adorers; Lowell felt it as the earth feels sunshi+ne, which sinks into the fertile soil and bears its fruit in a richer harvest

Excepting Holfellow, our company included most of as most distinct in the world in which we lived, with some ere eminent only in their social relations, and who neither cared to be nor ever beca the details of the excursion was left to me, and I had, therefore, to precede the company to the Wilderness, and soexperience The ruh the country around Saranac, and at the frontier tohere they would begin the journey into the woods the whole community was on the _qui vive_ to see, not Eassiz, who had beco refused, not long before, an offer from the Emperor of the French of the keepershi+p of the Jardin des Plantes and a senatorshi+p, if he would come to Paris and live

Such an incredible and disinterested love for Aassiz into an elevation of popularity which was beyond all scientific or political dignity, and the selectassiz and his friends to the region A reception was accorded, and they caraved portrait of the scientist, to guard against a personation and waste of their respects The head of the deputation, after having carefully coravely to his followers and said, ”Yes, it's hiravity to shake hands in their order, ignoring all the other luminaries

I had in the mean time been into the Wilderness and selected a site for the camp on one of the most secluded lakes, out of the line of travel of the hunters and fisherfolk,--a deep _cul de sac_ of lake on a streauide, I built a bark ca-place, and then returned to Saranac in tiuests I was unfortunately prevented fro, because a boat I had been building for the occasion was not ready for the water, and so I reatest interest,--the first impressions of Emerson of the Wilderness, absolute nature I joined theht of the first day's journey, in a rainstorives in thejourney down the Raquette River together; Agassiz taking his place in uide and boat

The scene, like the coer There is a river which still flohere the other flowed; but, like the water that has passed its rapids, and the guests that have gone the way of all those who have lived, it is so different Then it was a deep, h unbroken forests, walled up on either side in green shade, the trees of centuries leaning over to welcoreat sweeps of dark water, with, at long intervals, a lagoon setting back into the wider forest around, enae of undisturbed waterfowl and browsing deer Our lake lay at the head of such a lagoon, a devious outlet of the basin of which the lake occupied the principal expanse, reached through three reen hills forest-clad up to their summits

The camp was a shelter of spruce bark, open wide in front and closed at the ends, drawn on three faces of an octohedron facing the fireplace The beds were made of layers of spruce and other fir branches spread on the ground and covered with the fragrant twigs of the arbor vitae Two hugethe cae we entered the trackless, primeval forest The hills around furnished us with venison, and the lake with trout, and there we passed the weeks of the suuides, and while ere ca there we received the news that the first Atlantic cable was laid, and the first e sent under the sea from one heet to record in noble lines

CHAPTER XIII

THE ADIRONDACK CLUB--EMERSON AND AGassIZ

In the main, our occupations were those of a vacation, to kill tiuides and made exploration, by land or water; after breakfast there was firing at a mark, a few rounds each, for those ere rifle out on the hills; one boat went to overhaul the set lines baited the evening before for the lake trout When the hunt was over we generally went out to paddle on the lake, Agassiz and Wyht or killed; those of us who had interest in natural history watching the naturalists, the others searching the nooks and corners of the pretty sheet of water with its inlet brooks and its bays and recesses, or bathing fro talks, discussions _de o to find how ermane to our situation

Emerson has told the daily life in verse in ”The Adirondacs,” adding his own ienerally considered a a narrative with reflections, and such a subject could hardly rise above the interest of the subject of the narration, which was only a vacation study; but there are in it soes which show the character of E else he has written His insight into nature, like that of the primitive mind as we find it in the Greek poetry, the instinctive investreat mother with the presence and attribute of personality, the re-creation fro about in that darkness of the pris he felt,--all this is to me evident in the poem; and it is the sufficient demonstration of the antique mould of his intellect, serene, open-eyed to natural pheno beyond, but always questioning, hardly concluding, and with no theories to li that all he saw in this undefiled natural world, this virgin mother of all life (for around Follansbee Pond, at the time ent, there was the primeval woodland, where the lurove kept still the immaculacy of the s, he was ever on the watch if perchance he ht catch some hint of the secret,--secret never to be discovered, and therefore ht This seems to me contained in ”The Adirondacs” as in no other work of the philosopher And to reat student was the doassiz's boatuides and attendants, I was his; but often when Eassiz with one of the unoccupied guides, and take the place of Euide Thus Emerson and I had many hours alone on the lake and in the wood He see his impressions of all that there was to be seen The rest of us were always at the surface of things,--even the naturalists were only engaged with their anato at the sunset froh the pheno thereat solitude, stripped of the social conventions and seeing men as they are, mind seems open to mind as it is quite iassiz remarked, one day, when a little personal question had shown the limitations of character of one of the company, that he had always found in his Alpine experiences, when the co on terms of compulsory intimacy, that men found each other out quickly And so we found it in the Adirondacks: disguises were soon dropped, and one saw the real characters of his comrades as it was impossible to see them in society Conventions faded out, ood or for ill theeye,--pure personality I think I gathered reener Arden, in the two or three weeks' s of the club, than all our lives in the city could have given iven any one The crystalline limpidity of his character, free froave a facility for study of the e of vision of the student How far my vision was competent for this study is not for me to decide; so far as it went I profited, and so far as oes he is unique, not so much from intellectual power, for I should be indisposed to accept his as thethose I have known, but as one of absolute transparency of intellect, perfect receptivity, and devotion to the truth In the days of persecution andand undis all the time, even as to the nature of his own emotions It was this serene iave the common impression of his coldness,--an impression which is shown, by the anecdote I have elsewhere recorded of Longfellow, to have been shared by one who ht have been supposed to know him well for years But Emerson was not cold or disposed to fellow thought; he was an eager student of men as of nature, but superficialto be learned froh where he found what he looked for in a character he never tired of it