“The beauty of Israel is fallen in its high place!  Mr. Emerson has died; and we, his friends and neighbors, with this sorrowing company, have turned aside the procession from his home to his grave,—­to this temple of his fathers, that we may here unite in our parting tribute of memory and love.

“There is nothing to mourn for him.  That brave and manly life was rounded out to the full length of days.  That dying pillow was softened by the sweetest domestic affection; and as he lay down to the sleep which the Lord giveth his beloved, his face was as the face of an angel, and his smile seemed to give a glimpse of the opening heavens.

“Wherever the English language is spoken throughout the world his fame is established and secure.  Throughout this great land and from beyond the sea will come innumerable voices of sorrow for this great public loss.  But we, his neighbors and townsmen, feel that he was ours.  He was descended from the founders of the town.  He chose our village as the place where his lifelong work was to be done.  It was to our fields and orchards that his presence gave such value; it was our streets in which the children looked up to him with love, and the elders with reverence.  He was our ornament and pride.

                    “’He is gone—­is dust,—­
      He the more fortunate!  Yea, he hath finished! 
      For him there is no longer any future. 
      His life is bright—­bright without spot it was
      And cannot cease to be.  No ominous hour
      Knocks at his door with tidings of mishap. 
      Far off is he, above desire and fear;
      No more submitted to the change and chance
      Of the uncertain planets.—­

      “’The bloom is vanished from my life,
      For, oh! he stood beside me like my youth;
      Transformed for me the real to a dream,
      Clothing the palpable and the familiar
      With golden exhalations of the dawn. 
      Whatever fortunes wait my future toils,
      The beautiful is vanished and returns not.’

“That lofty brow, the home of all wise thoughts and high aspirations,—­those lips of eloquent music,—­that great soul, which trusted in God and never let go its hope of immortality,—­that large heart, to which everything that belonged to man was welcome,—­that hospitable nature, loving and tender and generous, having no repulsion or scorn for anything but meanness and baseness,—­oh, friend, brother, father, lover, teacher, inspirer, guide! is there no more that we can do now than to give thee this our hail and farewell!”

Judge Hoar’s remarks were followed by the congregation singing the hymns, “Thy will be done,” “I will not fear the fate provided by Thy love.”  The Rev. Dr. Furness then read selections from the Scriptures.

The Rev. James Freeman Clarke then delivered an “Address,” from which I extract two eloquent and inspiring passages, regretting to omit any that fell from lips so used to noble utterances and warmed by their subject,—­for there is hardly a living person more competent to speak or write of Emerson than this high-minded and brave-souled man, who did not wait until he was famous to be his admirer and champion.