Emerson's Centenary : a South Place Lecture. By Herbert Burrows.
(A. and H. Bonner. ld.)—Mr. Burrows anyhow gives some well-chosen extracts from Emerson's writings, and has something to say about the man that is worth reading. He is a little too pugnacious. If the " Encyclopa3dia Britannic& " gives no account of Emerson, it is probable that the omission was not deliberate. Nor was there any occasion to go out of the way to revile Mr. Andrew Carnegie. This gentleman does not come up to South Place ideals ; but if all millionaires were to use their wealth in like fashion, it is at least conceivable that those ideals might be nearer to realisation. The most interesting thing in the pamphlet is Dr. Moncure Conway's letter, with its bit of personal experience. He had written, he tells us, a pamphlet to show that the negro was " not human in the sense of the Declaration of Independence "—"all men are created equal "- and was converted by an article on Emerson in Blackwood's Magazine. He tells also a characteristic anecdote. Emerson asked a young man what was the population of his village. "About 672."—" And how many churches ?"—" Four."—" Six hundred and seventy-two people, six hundred and seventy-two churches : let yours not be tradition."
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