Many “seeking souls” will be looking forward to this new book from Mr. Emerson, in the hope that therein they may find words of help and guidance for themselves in the conduct of their own life. We are very sorry to have to warn them that they will be disappointed—

The hungry sheep look up—and are not fed.

We are sorry; for to be disappointed by a man who has given them reason to hope that he can show them the solution of some of the dark enigmas and hard problems of life, converting these into instruction, makes men feel “poor indeed!”

Many persons have had a superstition about Mr. Emerson, and many owe him gratitude for what he has formerly said and written; but the present work on “the conduct of life” shows his limits. He has come to the end of all he had to say, and is repeating himself, but with a colder and more feeble utterance. He has been chewing his own cud until all savour and nutriment have gone out of it. He is to become a scarecrow likeness of Mr. Carlyle, wearing his old clothes—with a difference. It would be difficult for the most ingenuous youth to find a work less adapted to help him in the “conduct of life.” Not only is the work utterly unpractical, but it is utterly unsuggestive.