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[5]
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I found with pleasure that this conjunction
of Emerson’s name with Franklin’s had already
occurred to an accomplished writer and delightful
man, a friend of Emerson, left almost the sole
survivor, alas! of the famous literary generation
of Boston,—Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. Dr.
Holmes has kindly allowed me to print here the ingenious
and interesting lines, hitherto unpublished,
in which he speaks of Emerson thus:—
‘Where in the realm of thought, whose air is song,
Does he, the Buddha of the West, belong?
He seems a wingéd Franklin, sweetly wise,
Born to unlock the secret of the skies;
And which the nobler calling—if ’tis fair
Terrestrial with celestial to compare—
To guide the storm-cloud’s elemental flame,
Or walk the chambers whence the lightning came
Amidst the sources of its subtile fire,
And steal their effluence for his lips and lyre?’
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