was forced by the slaveholding interest, Mr. Emerson could not bear arms, but did better service to his country after his kind. Through the long, cruel conflict he strove, not only in special patriotic meetings, but in his lectures on the great and permanent themes, to keep the hearts of his hearers up and lift their standard higher. Many of these essays, as lectures, had exordiums fit for the day. "Civilization" is but a part of a lecture given at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, in January, 1862, called "Civilization at a Pinch," in which the duty of the hour, Emancipation, was urged. The "Boston Hymn" a year later celebrated its proclamation, and "Voluntaries" was a proud dirge for Colonel Robert Shaw and his officers and soldiers killed on the slopes of Fort Wagner.
But the war made great demands on the resources of those who stayed at home, as taxes and prices rose, and the "hard times" outlasted the four years of actual hostilities. Strictest economies and increased work were required to meet them. Mr. Emerson derived little income from his books, and lecturing was his main resource. Fortunately the awakened heart and mind of the people demanded encouragement and instruction. Not only the lyceums of the older States, where his voice had long been heard, wished to hear his word of hope, but calls came from the new country beyond the Mississippi.
Mr. Emerson's name was now widely known. Many guests from both sides of the ocean came to his door. His children had grown up, and in 1865 his younger daughter was happily married to a brave soldier whose release from a Southern prison came just in time to enable him to be present at the closing scene of the war. Mr. Emerson's delight in children appears in the lecture on Domestic Life and, though it was written in 1859, it very possibly was improved before printing because of the birth of his grandchildren.
