" On being introduced to an invited guest of the
Saturday Club, Emerson said: "I am glad to meet you, sir. I often see
your name in the papers and elsewhere, and am happy to take you by the
hand for the first time."
"Not for the first time," was the reply. "Thirty-three years ago I was
enjoying my school vacation in the woods, as boys will. One afternoon
I was walking alone, when you saw me and joined me, and talked of the
voices of nature in a way which stirred my boyish pulses, and left me
thinking of your words far into the night."
Emerson looked pleased, but rejoined that it must have been long ago
indeed when he ventured to talk of such fine subjects.
In conversing with Richard H. Dana ("Two Years Before the Mast") the
latter spoke of the cold eyes of one of our public men. "Yes," said
Emerson meditatively, "holes in his head! holes in his head!"
In speaking once of education and of the slight attention given to the
development of personal influence, he said "he had not yet heard of
Rarey" (the famous horse-tamer of that time) "having been made Doctor
of Laws."
After an agreeable conversation with a gentleman who had suffered from
ill health, Emerson remarked, "You formerly bragged of bad health,
sir; I trust you are all right now."
Emerson's reticence with regard to Carlyle's strong expressions
against America was equally wise and admirable. His friends crowded
about him, urging him to denounce Carlyle, as a sacred duty, but he
stood serene and silent as the rocks until the angry sea was calm.
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