flower in their button-holes, and the tables
of staid old professors groaned beneath the weight of huge pyramidal
bouquets. The cursory examination of foreign literature had given rise
to an eclecticism which reflected the distinguishing features of that of
Cousin, yet went a step further in daring. Yet this was not an
eclecticism that, gifted with the power of a king, the dignity of a
priest, and the discernment of a prophet, drew from the treasure-troves
of European libraries only their choicest gems. Diamonds, it is true,
flashed among the spoils; sapphires and emeralds gleamed; but beside
them lay bits of sandstone and scraps of anthracite, rainbow-tinted,
perhaps, but of an unconquerable opaqueness. And the alchemy that should
have transmuted these to gold, and educed from the one light and from
the other majesty, was wanting. A trace of Behmen here, a reading of
Cousin's lectures there, some Schiller and more Goethe, some pietism
encouraged by a love of Channing, the American Fenelon, some German
ballads and a flavor of Plato,--all these helped the initiated to a
curious dialect and a curious _melange_. And this was Transcendentalism.
The great revelation that the grand Moonsee of the new movement had
declared necessary in 1838 had been made; the ninth _avatar_ had
descended, and men looked about them for the representative of Krishna,
and reverenced him in RALPH WALDO EMERSON. Under his auspices,
the _Dial_, the organ of the new sect, was published, and the next year,
1841, the first collection of his writings appeared under the simple
caption _Essays_, followed by a second series in 1847.

Spite of the fragmentary Germano-pantheism of the new Philosophy, as set
forth in these volumes, that a grand advance had been made upon the old
modes of thought was proved by the dismay in the opposing ranks. The
outcry against Unitarianism was faint compared with the howls of horror
and defiance that greeted Transcendentalism. The very name was a synonym
for arrogance. The pride of its opponents was touched. Alarming indeed,
and transcendental beyond conception, were the outpourings of thought
that anointed the _Dial_ and these _Essays_. The very chrism of
mysticism trickled along their running-titles, and dripped fragrantly
from their pages. Not only new opinions, but new words and phrases,
puzzled the uninitiated. Among these were _subjective_ and _objective_,
and the concise, comprehensive Germanisms were assailed as sure