Carlyle and Emerson: Their Long Debate by Kenneth Marc Harris (review)

CARLYLE AND EMERSON: THEIR LONG DEBATE BY KENNETH MARC HARRIS (Cambridge, M. A.: Harvard University Press. 1978. 170 pp. $12.50.) Kenneth Marc Harris' study of the exchange of ideas between Carlyle and Emerson began as the winner of the 1977 Howard Mumford Jones Prize, given at Harvard University. This combined with its subsequent publication by Harvard University Press in an expanded format certainly lends the work solid credentials. I mention this because of the large amount of scholarship which has been devoted to both Emerson and Carlyle. Harris' focus here is again the developing philosophies of the two major figures during the years in which their friendship matured and during which they corresponded, 18341 872. The study traces the development of transcendental ideas on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the gradual split in ideologies, and the periods of antagonism. The chapters progress from a comparison of Nature to the "Natural Supernaturalism" of Sartor Resartus to Carlyle's view of heroism and Emerson's "Representative Men" to an overview of their responses to history and to society. Harris ends with a brief discussion of the manner in which the work of the two authors was received by Arnold and Nietzche. While the work is too short to be an elaborate, detailed study of the two philosopher-artists, it is a solid introduction to their basic ideas and to the basic nature of their personal relationship. Harris soundly reviews the place of Emerson and Carlyle in literary history by presenting the letters within the context of their authors' ideas and idiosyncracies. Harris is sophisticated enough to keep his wits about him by not always taking the substance of the letters at face value. Both authors thrived on contradiction. Ultimately, Harris summarizes the differences and similarities between the two by means of a central duality. He writes, "Carlyle's characteristic gloom is not a symptom of perversity but the product of a fundamental confusion of faith and truth..... Part of Emerson's secret, I feel, is that he could accept the demand for belief as a form of belief in itself. He was fascinated by the very falsehood of belief and by the illusory nature of truth" (pp. 166-67). Harris aphoristically concludes, "The one forces us to admit the truth, the other allows us to entertain the illusions which make the truth endurable" (p. 171). Especially for students of the 19th century, Carlyle and Emerson: Their Long Debate is a book well worth recommending. BRADLEY S. HAYDEN· •BRAD HAYDEN is dissertalingon romanticism and American character at the University of New Mexico. He has published work on Thoreau and on E. L. Doctoro*, has just finished editing T. L. Beddoes' Death's Jest-book and will be presiding over the American Humor section at the 1979 RMMI.A Convention in Albuquerque. ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW53 ...