I such a one was nothing improved by his travels, I very well believe it,' said he, 'for he took himself along with him.'" 1 Both say the intellect is cheerful. Both recognize that wine may stimulate to poetic composition, though Emerson perceives that the great poet depends on the stimulation that comes from within.3 The fact is that these two writers, whatever their superficial resemblances, looked at life with such different selves behind the eyes, that although the angle of approach is somewhat the same, their mental content is almost entirely different. There was attraction for Emerson in finding one who dared to be frank, and dared to please himself. When the more refined nature had gained robustness of style through this Gallic impact, the book from which he had received the rhetorical impulse lost much of its charm. For Montaigne lacks what is a vital part of Emerson's make-up, the aspiration to "live in the spirit." In his masterly essay on Montaigne, Emerson gives almost nothing of biography, but defends the sceptical spirit as a balance to the idealist's ready acceptance of funda I Essays, 1, 38: Hazlitt, p. 129. Cf. Emerson, II, 81. 2" The most certain sign of wisdom is a continued cheerfulness." Essays, I, 25: Hazlitt, p. 93. Cf. Emerson, XII, 416. 3 3 Essays, II, 2: Hazlitt, p. 185. Cf. Emerson, III, 27, 28. mental unity. But when, toward the close, the author speaks about his own kind of scepticism, it turns out to be the scepticism that drives the spiritualist to newer and newer affirmations of the soul, while his followers would linger in the old formulas-perhaps burn their master at the stake. Of such spirituality Montaigne has little or nothing. THE INFLUENCE OF EMERSON BY THIS time the answer to the question with which we started begins to appear. That question was whether the contribution of Emerson to literature is primarily that of a revealer of new thought or of an inspirer to accept and follow the tried and true. The pre-utterance of his ideas by saints and sages of the older time has prepared us to answer the question by crediting Emerson with an uncommon degree of that quality which inspires others to belief and action. A chief function of his life is in fecundating other minds. But before a final and comprehensive statement is attempted, let us make vivid the nature and extent of Emerson's influence by citing actual instances of its workings upon other men. This influence reached those who were not in literary callings as well as those whose habits of thought were along lines like his own. The scientist, Tyndall, declared: "If any one can be said to have given the impulse to my mind, it is Emerson; whatever I have done, the world owes to him." Dr. C. H. Henderson, at the fortieth annual convention of the Free Religious Associa |