EMERSON. Coming at a time when the general tendency in America was toward a belief in material happi- ness, lie taught that a man has also a spring of joy and hope in his inner consciousness. He stimulated men to a better faith in themselves, induced them to rely less on number, masses, and externals. Except in a few specific counsels, as about the reading of books, he rarely uttered a particular dogma, but stood generally for a large and dignified attitude toward life. He was a firm believer in the inner goodness of his coun- try and of his fellow-citizens. Emerson's manner is unfailingly characteristic and original. He uses homely, simple language, racy of the soil of New England, very specific in its wealth of imagery, but never crude. His writing is almost always lively, but never fails to betray the calm and dignified spirit of the writer. ' It is often disjointed and often uneven, epigrammatic and choppy, but not infrequently contains a passage of greal power and beauty. Many of his sayings, as '-Beauty is its own excuse for being," and "A foolish con- sistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," are household phrases, and of longer passages few anywhere are more forcible than such as that on the use of books, in "The American Scholar," or the closing paragraphs of his "Lecture on the Times." The precepts of such essays as "Self- Reliance" may be said to be part of the mental marrow of every educated man in America. The standard 'edition of his works is the River- side in eleven volumes (Boston. 1883-84). His correspondence with Carlyle has been edited by Norton (Boston, 1883). Bibliography. Commentary on Emerson is abundant. The chief source of facts for his life is Cabot, .1 Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Boston, 1887). Consult, also: Holmes, in the American Men of Letters Series (Boston, 1885), and Garnett in the Great Writers Series (Lon- don. 1S88), and for a more critical account, Cooke, Emerson: Ilis Life, Writings, and Phi- losophy (Boston, 1882). Sketches of. personal traits may be found in Higginson, Contempo- raries (Boston, 1899) ; Thayer, A Western Jour- my with Emerson (Boston, 1884); Conway, Emerson at Home and Abroad (Boston, 1882) ; and Howells, Literary Friends and Acquaintance l New York. 1900). Good critical essays are those of Matthew Arnold in Discourses in Amer- ica (London, 1885) ; John Morley, in Critical Miscellanies, vol. i. (London, 1893) ; and Robert- son, in Modern Humanists (London, 1891). Con- sult, also: Stedman, The Poets of America (Bos- ton, 1885) ; Richardson, American Literature (New York, 1887-88) : Emerson, Emerson in Concord (Boston, 1888) : H. Grimm, Xew Essays (Berlin, 1805) ; and Wendell. A Literary History of America (New York, 1900). EM'ERTON, Epiiraim (1851—). .An Ameri- can historian, born in Salem. Mass., and edu- cated at Harvard and Leipzig. In the fall of 1876 be returned to America and became a tutor in history at Harvard, and in 1882 was elected Winn professor of ecclesiastical history. His publications include: Synopsis of the History of -Continental Europt : The Study of Church His- tory; The Practical Method in Iliqhrr Historical Education MSS.") ; An Introduction to the Study ■of the Middle Ages (18S8) : Mediirral Europe (1894) ; and Desiderius Erasmus, in "Heroes of 37 EMERY. the Reformation" (1899). ilis two books on the Middle Ages are widelj accepted as stand- ards both in England ami America. EMERY (formerly emeril, from OF. emeril, Sp., Port, esmeril, Lt. smeriglio, from ( ik. <r/ivpis, smyris, a/vpei, smiris, emery). A varietj "i co rundum (q.v.), or of the same mineral Bpeeies .if which corundum and sapphire (with Oriental ruby, etc.) are also varieties. It agree, will' them very perfectly in hardness and specific gravity, but, is dull, opaque, ami not crystallized, sometimes of a grayish black, and sometimes of a. blue color. it contains chiefly alumina and oxide of iron, but less of flic former than does either corundum or sapphire. It may also have small amounts of silica and lime, lt occurs both massive and disseminated; although very com- pact, it has a somewhat granular structure. It is found in several parts of Europe, in Asia Minor, Greenland, etc., generally in masses scattered through aqueous deposits, but in one locality in Saxony in beds of steatite in a schistose rock. Most of the emery used in America comes from Turkey, but in the United States it is known to occur at Chester, Mass., and Peekskill. N. Y.. while corundum in deposits of economic value is found in North Carolina and Georgia. It is found in lumps, having a granular structure. It is prepared for use by first breaking it into pieces about the size of a hen's egg, then crush- ing these to powder by stamps. It is then sifted to various degrees of fineness, which are numbered according to the meshes of the sieve. Plate-glass manufacturers and others separate emery powder into different degrees of fineness by tlie method of elutriation (q.v.). A number of copper cylinders of graduated capacities are placed in a row, and filled with water; the emery, churned up with an abundance of water, is ad- mitted by a pipe into the smallest ; it then passes to the next in size, and finally flows from the largest; and thus, as a given quantity of water with emery suspended in it passes in equal times through vessels of varying capacities, the amount of agitation will obviouslj be greatest in the smallest vessel, least in the largest, and in like proportion with the intermediate; the largest particles, therefore, sink in the smallest vessel, and so on till only the very finest will reach the largest vessel. In this manner any number of gradations of fineness may be obtained, accord- ing to the number of sizes of the vessels. Elu- triation in oil or gum-water is sometimes used on a smaller scale, the emery being stirred up in the liquid, and portions poured off at different intervals of time, the finest being of course the last to settle. The use of the oil or gum is to make the subsidence take place more slowly. Emery thus prepared is used for a great many important purposes in the arts. Being next in hardenss to diamond-dust and crystalline corun- dum, the lapidary uses it for cutting and polish- ing many kinds of stone. Glass stoppers of all kinds are ground into their fittings with it. Plate glass is ground flat by its mean-: it is also used in glass-cutting, and in grinding some kinds of metallic fittings. Whim employed for the polishing of metals, it has to lie spread on some kind of surface to form a sort of fine file. Emery paper, emery cloth, emery sticks, emery cake, and emery stone are various contrivances for such purposes. Emery paper is made by sifting
