Incorporation of the Town. By Ralph Waldo
Emerson. Published by Request. Concord: G.F. Bemis, Printer.
1835." 8vo, pp. 52.--A discourse worthy of the author and of the
town. It is reprinted in the eleventh volume of Emerson's Works,
Boston, 1883.
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I could cry at the disaster that has befallen you in the loss of
the book. My brother Charles says the only thing the friend
could do on such an occasion was to shoot himself, and wishes to
know if he have done so. Such mischance might well quicken one's
curiosity to know what Oversight there is of us, and I greet you
well upon your faith and the resolution issuing out of it. You
have certainly found a right manly consolation, and can afford to
faint and rest a month or two on the laurels of such endeavor. I
trust ere this you have re-collected the entire creation out of
the secret cells where, under the smiles of every Muse, it first
took life. Believe, when you are weary, that you who stimulate
and rejoice virtuous young men do not write a line in vain. And
whatever betide us in the inexorable future, what is better than
to have awaked in many men the sweet sense of beauty, and to
double the courage of virtue. So do not, as you will not, let
the imps from all the fens of weariness and apathy have a minute
too much. To die of feeding the fires of others were sweet,
since it were not death but multiplication. And yet I hold to a
more orthodox immortality too.

This morning in happiest time I have a letter from George Ripley,
who tells me you have written him, and that you say pretty
confidently you will come next summer. _Io paean!_ He tells me
also that Alexander Everett (brother of Edward) has sent you the
friendly notice that has just appeared in the _North American
Review,_ with a letter.* All which I hope you have received. I
am delighted, for this man represents a clique to which I am a
stranger, and which I supposed might not love you. It must be
you shall succeed when Saul prophesies. Indeed, I have heard
that you may hear the _Sartor_ preached from some of our best
pulpits and lecture-rooms. Don't think I speak of myself, for I
cherish carefully a salutary horror at the German style, and hold
off my admiration as long as ever I can. But all my importance
is quite at an end. For now that Doctors of Divinity and the
solemn Review itself have broke silence to praise you, I have
quite lost my plume as your harbinger.

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