Hawthorne’s estimate of Emerson was far more just and penetrating; he described him very correctly as “a great original thinker” whose “mind acted upon other minds of a certain constitution with wonderful magnetism, and drew many men upon long pilgrimages to speak with him face to face.  Young visionaries—­to whom just so much of insight had been imparted as to make life all a labyrinth around them—­came to seek the clew that should guide them out of their self-involved bewilderment.  Gray-headed theorists—­whose systems, at first air, had finally imprisoned them in an iron framework—­travelled painfully to his door, not to ask deliverance, but to invite the free spirit into their own thraldom.  People that had lighted on a new thought, or a thought that they fancied new, came to Emerson, as the finder of a glittering gem hastens to a lapidary to ascertain its quality and value.  Uncertain, troubled, earnest wanderers through the midnight of the moral world beheld his intellectual face as a beacon burning on a hill-top, and, climbing the difficult ascent, looked forth into the surrounding obscurity more hopefully than hitherto.  For myself, there had been epochs in my life when I, too, might have asked of this prophet the master word that should solve me the riddle of the universe, but, now, being happy, I feel as if there were no question to be put, and therefore admired Emerson as a poet of deep and austere beauty, but sought nothing from him as a philosopher.  It was good nevertheless to meet him in the wood-paths, or sometimes in our avenue, with that pure, intellectual gleam diffused about his presence like the garment of a shining one; and he, so quiet, so simple, so without pretension, encountering each man alive as if expecting to receive more than he could impart.”

It was fortunate for Hawthorne, doubly fortunate for us who read him, that he could withstand the influence of Emerson, and go on writing in his own way; his dreams and fancies were undisturbed by the clear vision which sought so earnestly to distract him from his realm of the imagination.

On first impressions Emerson rated Alcott very high.  “He has more of the godlike than any man I have ever seen, and his presence rebukes, and threatens, and raises.  He is a teacher.”  “Yesterday Alcott left us after a three days’ visit.  The most extraordinary man, and the highest genius of his time.”  This was in 1835.  Seven years later Emerson records this impression.  “He looks at everything in larger angles than any other, and, by good right, should be the greatest man.  But here comes in another trait; it is found, though his angles are of so generous contents, the lines do not meet; the apex is not quite defined.  We must allow for the refraction of the lens, but it is the best instrument I have ever met with.”