His
startling piece of advice, "Hitch your wagon to a star," is typical
of the man, as combining the most unlike and widely separate
qualities. Because not less marked than his idealism and mysticism
is his shrewd common sense, his practical bent, his definiteness,--
in fact, the sharp New England mould in which he is cast. He is the
master Yankee, the centennial flower of that thrifty and peculiar
stock. More especially in his later writings and speakings do we
see the native New England traits,--the alertness, eagerness,
inquisitiveness, thrift, dryness, archness, caution, the nervous
energy as distinguished from the old English unction and vascular
force. How he husbands himself,--what prudence, what economy,
always spending up, as he says, and not down! How alert, how
attentive; what an inquisitor; always ready with some test
question, with some fact or idea to match or to verify, ever on the
lookout for some choice bit of adventure or information, or some
anecdote that has pith and point! No tyro basks and takes his ease
in his presence, but is instantly put on trial and must answer or
be disgraced. He strikes at an idea like a falcon at a bird. His
great fear seems to be lest there be some fact or point worth
knowing that will escape him. He is a close-browed miser of the
scholar's gains. He turns all values into intellectual coin. Every
book or person or experience is an investment that will or will not
warrant a good return in ideas.
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