[176] system-makers have their place, no doubt, but when we consider how many of them have risen and fallen since Emerson began to write, -Schelling, Cousin, Comte, Mill, down to the Hegel of yesterday and the Spencer of today,--it is evident that the absence of a system is not the only thing which may shorten fame. Emerson's precise position as a poet cannot yet be assigned. He has been likened to an aeolian harp which now gives and then perversely withholds its music. Nothing can exceed the musical perfection of the lines:--
Thou canst not wave thy staff in air,Yet within the compass of this same fine poem (Woodnotes) there are passages which elicited from Theodore Parker, one of the poet's most ardent admirers, the opinion that “a pine tree which should talk as Mr. Emerson's tree talks would deserve to be plucked up and cast into the sea.” His poetic reputation came distinctly later in time than his fame as an essayist and lecturer. Like Wordsworth and Tennyson, he educated the
Or dip thy paddle in the lake,
But it carves the bow of beauty there,
And the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake.
