MR. NICHOL AND THE POEM OF "BRAHMA," BY EMERSON.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " EFFCTATOR.7] SIR,—You did well to correct Mr. Nichol's misquotation, in his '4' History of American Literature," of the above poem ; but there is still another blunder in it, the correction of which will, per- haps, enable him and others to understand this poem better, and which I will explain thus.
When Emerson was last in England, in 1873, he spent his last evening with me before sailing for Boston. When in my library, he asked me if I had an English edition of his " May Poems," as, he said, he had been asked whatever the one on " Brahma " could mean. To which he had replied, call it ." Jehovah," and perhaps you will understand it better. But another friend had said to him that it seemed only nonsense ! I found the poem for him, and on looking it over, he exclaimed, " Well might they call it nonsense ! Not only is the word ` not ' omitted in the third line [as you pointed out], but in the seventh line they have printed vanquished, instead of vanished, which, of course, spoils the whole meaning of the poem." I have always -admired this poem, as clearly giving the Brahmin belief that -each soul is part of the Divinity, and hope this correction will help to make it more clear.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Prince's Park, Liverpool, April 7th. R. C. HALL.
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