The latter said, "There is no other
living writer to whom I feel that I owe so much."
He had no public receptions in foreign cities, but everywhere the finest
people united to honor him. On his second visit to England he complained
that his time was almost consumed in answering letters of invitation. An
English guest at the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa dinner said that when he
returned home he would be asked two questions,--if he had seen Niagara
Falls, and if he had met Emerson. He was a particular favorite with the
English nobility, and whenever we saw a glittering carriage rolling down
Concord turn-pike we felt sure it contained some earl or viscount who
was paying his compliments to the poet of the pines. Emerson liked to
entertain these distinguished visitors in his modest little parlor, but
he never slighted his old friends for them; for he lived the wisdom that
he taught, and the final virtue of this man was the religious humility
of his nature.
MATTHEW ARNOLD'S LECTURE.
During the earlier part of Emerson's career his religious philosophy met
with such decided opposition that his friends were, very properly, all
the more enthusiastic in his defence; and when the tide turned in his
favor, and his fame rose continually higher and higher, the enthusiasm
of his admirers reached a climax, and, like Webster before him, he
became a veritable subject of idolization.
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