n the Essay called "The Poet," which are meant for the
initiated, rather than for him who runs, to read:--

"All that we call sacred history attests that the birth of a poet is
the principal event in chronology."

Does this sound wild and extravagant? What were the political ups and
downs of the Hebrews,--what were the squabbles of the tribes with each
other, or with their neighbors, compared to the birth of that poet to
whom we owe the Psalms,--the sweet singer whose voice is still the
dearest of all that ever sang to the heart of mankind?

The poet finds his materials everywhere, as Emerson tells him in this
eloquent apostrophe:--

"Thou true land-bird! sea-bird! air-bird! Wherever snow falls, or
water flows, or birds fly, wherever day and night meet in twilight,
wherever the blue heaven is hung by clouds, or sown with stars,
wherever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets
into celestial space, wherever is danger and awe and love, there is
Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for thee, and though thou should'st
walk the world over, thou shalt not be able to find a condition
inopportune or ignoble."

"Experience" is, as he says himself, but a fragment. It bears marks of
having been written in a less tranquil state of mind than the other
essays. His most important confession is this:--

"All writing comes by the grace of God, and all doing and having. I
would gladly be moral and keep due metes and bounds, which I dearly
love, and allow the most to the will of man; but I have set my
heart on honesty in this chapter, and I can see nothing at last, in
success or failure, than more or less of vital force supplied from
the Eternal."

The Essay on "Character" requires no difficult study, but is well worth
the trouble of reading. A few sentences from it show the prevailing tone
and doctrine.

"Character is Nature in the highest form. It is of no use to ape it,
or to contend with it. Somewhat is possible of resistance and of
persistence and of creation to this power, which will foil all
emulation."

"There is a class of men, individuals of which appear at long
intervals, so eminently endowed with insight and virtue, that they
have been unanimously saluted as _divine_, and who seem to be an
accumulation of that power we consider.

"The history of those gods and saints which the world has written,
a