that time, and was an inspiring influence to the students. In the class before his (E.'s) were Furness and Gannett, (afterwards Dr. Channing's co-pastor). Every graduating class in the university elects a poet and an orator for its celebration, which is called 'class-day," and Emerson was chosen as the poet of his class. In his junior year he received a Bowdoin prize for an essay on "The Character of Socrates," and in his senior year he again gained a prize, his subject being "The Present State of Ethical Philosophy." Among his companions he was already distinguished for literary attainments, and more especially for a certain charm in the delivery of his addresses. He was then described as "a slender, delicate youth, younger than most of his classmates, and of a sensitive, retiring nature.” According to his own account he received but little instruction from his professors that was of value to him. His favourite study was Greek, and his translations of the classical authors were neat and happy. In mathematics he could make no headway, and in philosophy he did not get on very well. He was a great reader, and studied much outside of the prescribed course. Even before entering college he was well read. His favourite books were the old English poets and dramatists— Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Shakespeare

he knew almost by heart. Montaigne had special attraction for him. When a boy, he found a volume of his Essays among his father's books; after leaving college it again came to his notice, and he procured the remaining volumes. 'I remember the delight and wonder in which I lived with him. It seemed to me as if I had myself written the book in some former life, so sincerely did he speak to my thought and experience." Tillotson, St. Augustine, and Jeremy Taylor were also among his favourite authors. In 1823 he began the study of theology. At this time Dr. Channing's conversation and preaching were an important influence. "The outcome of this eminent preacher's most cherished ideas being a practical reliance on the soul of man as a medium of truth and goodness, Emerson eagerly embraced the essential spirit of his teaching. To the young student the contact with such a man was worth more than any formal instruction." After graduation he entered upon his studies in the Unitarian Divinity College connected with the University. After he had graduated from the Divinity College and been "approbated" for the ministry, he was led to visit the far South-South Carolina and Florida-on account of impaired health. On his return he was settled in 1829 as colleague to Henry Ware in the

pastorate of the Second Church (Unitarian) of Boston. A year afterwards Mr. Ware's health broke down, and he was compelled to go to Europe, whence he returned only to resign his charge, and Emerson then became sole minister of the church. He was afterwards appointed chaplain to the State Legislature. His preaching attracted considerable attention, though it brought no crowd. Many an old hearer afterwards remembered these discourses in reading his essays. A venerable lady of those days, a member of his congregation, when asked what was his chief characteristic as a minister, said: "On God's law doth he meditate day and night." In September, 1829, he married Helen Louisa Tucker, to whom he addressed a beautiful poem, "To Ellen at the South." She died of consumption in February, 1832.

Emerson's earliest appearance in print, we believe, was in an address, delivered in 1830, at the ordination of the Rev. H. B. Goodwin, as colleague of Dr. Ripley, in the Concord Church. "On this occasion," says Mr. Cooke, "Emerson took part, and gave 'the right hand of fellowship;' and it is the only discourse or address of his printed during his ministry. It indicates a general acceptance of the customs of the church, and a general reception of its most cherished ideas. In personally addressing his friend, he

said, 'It is with sincere pleasure that I speak for the church on this occasion, and on the spot hallowed to all by so many patriotic, and, to me, by so many affectionate, recollections. I feel a peculiar, a personal right to welcome you hither to the home and the temple of my fathers. I believe the church whose pastor you are will forgive me the allusion, if I express the extreme interest which every man feels in the scene of the trials and labours of his ancestors. Five out of seven of your predecessors are my kindred. They are in the dust who bind my attachment to this place; but not all. I cannot help congratulating you that one survives, to be to you the true friend and venerable counsellor he has ever been to me.'

Owing to a conscientious disinclination to conduct the communion service, he decided to resign his pastorate. On September 9th, 1832, he preached a remarkable sermon on the subject, giving a history of the rite of the "Communion Supper," and setting forth his reasons for rejecting the commemoration of it in the sense generally entertained. This sermon has been described as "justifying all the praise accorded to his pulpit abilities-being dispassionate, truly religious, and very charming in its quiet and yet earnest style. The rite seemed to him a repudiation of that spiritual

worship which Jesus taught, and a return to the forms from which he sought to liberate men." Mr. Frothingham, in his “Transcendentalism in New England,” thus characterises the discourse: "It was a model of lucid, orderly, and simple statement ; so plain that the young men and women of the congregation could understand it; so deep and elevated that experienced believers were fed; learned enough, without a taint of pedantry; bold, without a suggestion of audacity; reasonable, without critical sharpness or affectation of mental superiority; rising into natural eloquence in passages that contained pure thought, but for the most part flowing in unartificial sentences that exactly expressed the speaker's meaning and no more."

Many of Emerson's poems were written during these early years-a well-known one among the number beginning

Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home.

Mr. Cooke says it has been referred to the period after his leaving the pulpit, but he adds that this is incorrect. "It simply indicates the spirit and purpose of the young man, his genius, his high ideals, his love of a life of meditation, and his scorn for the shams and shows and low motives of the world. It was written before he left the