THE REACTIONARY DECENNIUM.
3Q5
r
part of a year. Moreover, the present Decennium is a time of subsidence for Emerson s genius, which declines both in the quantity and quality of its cre ative power. Is such a cessation merely a breath
and recuperation, or
ing-spell for rest
is
the lapse
Will he ever regain his former genetic after the energy present submergence ? So we may with interest ask ourselves, casting an outlook upon
permanent ?
the
man
s
future.
Yes, he will come back, but he can never be again the same Emerson. So much we may premise. As
already indicated, he has creatively delivered his message, and Still
it
is
printed, planted, to carry out
Emerson has much
the coming time. at the start of the
He
is
propagated.
and
finish in
only forty-two years old just a little beyond
new Epoch,
And now he the middle year of his entire life. seems to be put under some dark discipline as if Of the change he is for another and later task. -
himself aware
;
we have already noted
in his writ
his ings certain indications of its presence to mind. But does he give any hint of what he aspires
make out of himself next ? Here is a look back think I ward and forward belonging to 1847:
to
"I
have material enough to serve my countrymen with thought and music, if only it was not in scraps. Fragments of philosophy and poetry (thought and music) he has in abundance, if he could only en dow them with some inner order. But he feels: "Men
gots.
do not want handfuls of gold-dust but This last word
in
recalls the criticism of Car-