Emerson One of "Ten Moral Leaders"

1902

Almost feverish eagerness was displayed to get into Tremont Temple by throngs of people to hear Professor E. H. Griggs's closing lecture. There was particular interest in observing how the only American named in the list of "ten moral leaders" would be estimated, in comparison with the nine Europeans.

The lecturer certainly could not have disappointed Emerson lovers through failure to assign a sufficiently high place to him. Not only did Professor Griggs pronounce Emerson "the prophet of democracy," "the most fertilizing mind which our country has produced," but he declared, with passionate eloquence, that Emerson's place is not lower than that of the very loftiest of the nine other moral leaders in the list.

That list comprises, besides Emerson, Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, St. Francis, Savonarola, Erasmus, Luther, Bruno, Victor Hugo and Carlyle. — Boston Daily Advertiser.