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THROUGH THE YEAR
WITH EMERSON SELECTED AND ARRANGED BY EDITH E, WOOD
DODGE 23
PUBLISHING COMPANY EAST 20TH STREET, NEW YORK
Copyright, Dodge
1905,
by
Publishing Company.
THROUGH THE YEAR
WITH EMERSON
(3)
FRIENDSHIP SELECTED GEMS FROM RALPH WALDO
EMERSON'S ESSAY "FRIENDSHIP"
(5>
FRIENDSHIP. January
E
First.
have a great deal more kindness
than
*
*
*
family
is
ever
spoken.
whole
human
is
the
bathed with an
ment of love
like
ele-
a fine ether.
January Second.
The tioti is
effect of the indulgence of this
human
affec-
a certain cordial exhilaration. January Third.
Friendship, like the immortality of the soul,
is
too
'good to be believed.
January Fourth.
,Two may talk and one may hear, but three cannot take part in a conversation of the most sincere and searching sort. January
Fifth.
Almost every man we meet requires some requires to be humored;
*
sane iiiam who exercises not (7)
*
my
*
civility,
but a friend is a ingenuity, but me.
FRIENDSHIP. January Sixth.
,ET the soul be assured that
somewhere
in,
should rejoin
the universe
it
and
it
its friend,
would be content and cheerful alone for a thousand years.
January Seventh. I
my
awoke
this
morning with devout thanksgiving and the new.
for
friends, the old
January Eighth. Let us approach our friend with an audacious trust in the truth of his heart, in the breadth, impossible to
be overturned, of his foundations.
January Ninth.
My
friends have
God gave them
come
to
me
unsought.
The
great
not
glass
to me.
January Tenth.
When threads
friendships of
are
frost-work,
real,
but
know. (8)
they are
the
solidest
thing
we
FRIENDSHIP. January Eleventh.
UR
friendships hurry to Short
and poor conclusions, because
we have made them
a texture
and dreams instead of
of wine
the tough fiber of the
human
heart.
January Twelfth.
A
friend is a person with
Before him I
may
whom
I
may be
sincere.
think aloud.
January Thirteehth, Love, which is the essence of God, but for the total worth of man.
is
not for levity,
January Fourteenth.
For
perfect friendship
may
be said to require na-
tures so rare and costly, so well tempered each, and so happily adapted * * * that very seldom can its satisfaction be realized.
January Fifteenth.
There are two elements that go to the composition of friendship : one is Truth, the other is Tenderness. (9)
FRIENDSHIP. January Sixteenth.
RIENDSHIP—that
select
sacred relation which
the
suspicious
language of love
and
much
is this
ing
so
is
and
a kind
and which even
of absolute,
leaves
is
common, so and noth-
purer,
much
divine.
January Seventeenth. Respect so far the holy laws of this fellowship as not to prejudice its perfect flower by your impatience for its opening. must be our own before we can be another's.
We
January Eighteenth.
Every man alone
is sincere.
At the entrance
of a
second person, hypocrisy begins.
January Nineteenth.
Our
intellectual
and active powers increase with
our affection.
January Twentieth.
A
friend
may
well be reckoned the master-piece of
nature. (10)
FRIENDSHIP. January Twenty-first.
APPY
is
the house that shelters
a friend!
It
might well be
a festal bower or arch, to entertain him a single day. Happier, if he know the built,
like
solemnity of that relation and
honor
its
law!
January Twenty-second. i hate the prostitution of the
signify
modish and worldly
name
of friendship to
alliances.
January Twenty-third. Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo.
January Twenty-fourth.
The only money of God is God. He pays never with anything less, or anything else. The only reward of virtue is virtue: the only way to have a friend is to be one. January Twenty-fifth.
When a man becomes dear to the goal of fortune. (II)
me
I
have touched
FRIENDSHIP. January Twenty-sixth.
O
two men but being
left
alone
with each other enter into sim-
liQtt
'mmm
pler relations. that-
ity
two
Yet
it is affin-
determines
which
shall converse.
January Twenty-seventh.
Let that
me
my
his real
alone to the end of the world, rather thaii i by a word or a look;
friend should overstep,
sympathy.
January Twenty-eighth. Pleasant are these jets of affection which
young world
for
me
make a
again.
January Twenty-ninth.
Almost all people descend must be a compromise.
to meet.
All association
January Thirtieth. I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom
use them. (12)
FRIENDSHIP. January
HE
Thirty-first.
essence of friendship
tireness,
and
is
en-
a total magnanimity
trust.
It
must not
sur-
mise or provide for infirmity. It treats its object as
that
(13)
it
may
deify both.
a god,
COMPENSATION WALDO SELECTED GEMS FROM RALPH
EMERSON'S ESSAY
(IS)
"COMPENSATION"
COMPENSATION. February
First.
HERE
is
always some leveling
circumstance that puts
down
the
overbearing,
the
rich,
the fortunate sub-
stantially
on the same ground
with
all
the
strong,
others.
February Second.
The
voice of the Almighty saith,
forevermore !"
We
"Up and onward
cannot stay amid the ruins.
February Third,
For everything you have missed^ you have gained else; and for everything you gain you lose
something
something.
February Fourth.
Every excess causes a defect; every defect an exEvery sweet hath its sour, every evil its good. cess. February
Fifth,
Treat men as pawns and nine-pins and you shall suffer as well as they. If you leave out their heart you shall lose your own, (17)
COMPENSATION. February Sixth.
LEARN
the
wisdom
of
St.
Bernard, "Nothing can work
me damage harm
except myself; the
that I
sustain I
carry
about with me, and never am a real sufferer but by my own fault."
February Seventh.
The
true doctrine of omnipresence
appears with
all his parts in
is
that
God
re-
every moss and cobweb.
February Eighth.
He who by force of will or of thought is great and overlooks thousands, has the responsibility of overlooking.
February Ninth.
The farmer imagines power and things.
place
But the President has paid dear
are fine
for his
White
House.
February Tenth.
Punishment is a fruit that unsuspected ripens within the flower of the pleasure which concealed it. (i8)
COMPENSATION. February Eleventh.
VERY
opinion reacts
who
utters
ball
thrown
other
it.
It is
on him a thread
at a mark, but the
end
remains
the
in
thrower's bag.
February Twelftfi.
As
the royal armies sent against Napoleon * * friends, so do disasters of kinds * * * prove benefactors.
from enemies became
* all
February Thirteenth.
No man thoroughly understands a truth until he has contended against it.
first
February Fourteenth. In general, every evil to which we do not succumb a benefactor * * * we gain the strength of the temptation we resist. is
February Fifteenth.
Though no checks exist,
and
to a
new
will appear. (19)
evil appear, the
checks
COMPENSATION. February Sixteenth.
VERY
faculty which
is
a
re-
ceiver of pleasure has an equal
penalty put on to
answer
with
its life.
is
its
abuse.
It
for its moderation
February Seventeenth.
Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the ;
seed.
February Eighteenth.
Every man
in his lifetime needs to thank his faults?:
February Nineteenth. Benefit
is
which you
the end of nature.
But
for every benefit
receive, a tax is levied.
February Twentieth.
Always pay
for first or last you must pay your enPersons and events may stand for a time between you and justice, but it is only a postponement. ;
tire debt.
(20)
COlVtPENSATION. February Twenty-first.
HILST
I stand in simple rela-
tions to
my
no
fellow-man I have meeting as soon any departure from
displeasure in him. * * * But
as there
is
simplicity
hate in
*
*
him and
*
there
fear in
is
me.
February Twenty-second.
The wise man always throws his assailants. to find his
It is
weak
more
himself on the side of
his interest than it is theirs
point.
February Twenty-third.
As no man had
ever a point of pride that was not no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him. injurious to him, so
February Twenty-fourth.
Beware of too much good staying in your own hands. It will fast corrupt and worm worms. Pay it away quickly in some sort. February Twenty-fifth.
A
man
cannot speak but he judges himself. (21)
COMPENSATION. February Twenty^sixth.
UR
strength grows out of our
weakness.
Not
until
we
are
pricked and stung and sorely
awakens the indigna-
shot
at,
tion
which arms
itself
with
secret forces.
February Twenty-seventh.
Commit a There
is
crime, and the earth is made of no such thing as concealment.
glass.
February Twenty-eighth.
much, nature takes out of she puts into his chestj swells the esthe owner.
If the gatherer gathers too
the
man what
tate,
but
kills
February Twenty-ninth. All the good of nature is the? soul's, and may be;t had if paid for in nature's lawful coin, that is by labor which the heart and the head allow.
(22)
SELF-RELIANCE SELECTED GEMS FROM RALPH WALDO EMERSON'S ESSAY "SELF-RELIANCE"
(23)
SELF-RELIANCE. March
First.
HERE
is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that * * * no kernel of nourishing corn can
to him but through his bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him
come toil
to
till.
March Second.
To is
believe your
true for
men,
—that
you is
own
thought, to believe that what
in your private heart is true for all
genius.
March Third.
When sweet as
man lives with God, his voice shall be the murmur of the brook and the rustle
a
as of
the corn.
March Fourth.
Do
your work, and you
shall reinforce yourself.
March
Fifth.
A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his
work and done
his best; but
or done otherwise shall give (2S)
him no
what he has peace.
said
SELF-RELIANCE. March
LSE,
Sixth.
if
you would be a man,
speak what you think to-day in
words as hard as cannon
balls,
and
to-morrow
speak *
what to-morrow thinks
*
though
every-
it
contradicts
*
thing you said to-day.
March Seventh.
What
I
must do
is all
that concerns me, not
what
the people think.
March Eighth. Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
March Ninth.
He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. March Tenth. Fear never but you shall be consistent in whatever variety of actions, so that they be each honest and natural in their hour. (26)
SELF-RELIANCE. March Eleventh.
N
every
work
recognize
our
of
genius
own
we
rejected
thoughts; they come back to
us
with
a
certain
alienated
majesty.
March Twelfth. y
Be
it
how
it will,
do right now.
Always scorn ap-
pearances and you always may.
March Thirteenth. Let a man then know his worth, and keep things under his feet.
March Fourteenth, In the Will work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheels of Chance, and shall always drag her after thee.
March
Fifteenth.
It is only as a man puts off from himself all external support and stands alone that I see him to be strong
and to
prevail. (27)
SELF-RELIANCE. March
Sixteenth.
RAYER
that craves a particular
commodity
than
all
— anything
good,
less
is vicious.
March Seventeenth.
Welcome evermore to gods and men is the For him all doors are flung wide.
self-
helping man.
March Eighteenth. If
we
follow the truth
it
will bring us out safe at
last.
March Nineteenth. All persons have their moments of reason, they look out into the region of absolute truth.
when
March Twentieth. you can love me for what I km, we shall be the If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that you should. I must be myself. If
happier.
(28)
SELF-RELIANCE. March
Twenty-first.
HERE
is
Thinker
a
great
and
responsible
Actor
moving
wherever moves a man; that a true
man
belongs to no other
time or place, but
is
the center
of things.
March Twenty-second. Life only avails, not the having lived.
March Twenty-third. Insist
on yourself; never
imitate.
March Twenty-fourth. Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of the highest point of view.
March If
we
live truly,
we
life
from
Twenty-fifth.
shall see truly.
March Twenty-sixth. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. (29)
SELF-RELIANCE. March Twenty-sevejith.
RAVELING ÂŤ
*
me
*
is
a
my
wherever
fool's paradise.
giant goes with
I go.
March Twenty-eighth.
To be
great
is
to be misunderstood.
March Twenty-ninth, * Discontent
is
the want of self-reliknce ;
it is
infirmity
of will.
March
Thirtieth.
We
pass for what we are. Character teaches above our wills.
March
As soon beg.
He
as the
man
Thirty-first.
is at
one with God, he will not
will then see prayer in all action.
(30)
EXPERIENCE SELECTED GEMS FROM RALPH WALDO EMERSON'S ESSAY "EXPERIENCE"
(31)
EXPERIENCE. April First.
O
much
of our time
tion, so
much
much
so
is
is
prepara-
routine,
retrospect,
and
that the
pith of each man's genius contracts
itself
to
a
very
few
hours.
April Second. is a train of moods like a string of beads, and, pass through them, they prove to be many colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus.
Life
as
we
April Third.
We live amid
surfaces,
and the true
art of life is to
skate well on them. April Fourth. If
we will take the good we find, asking no we shall have heaping measures.
ques-
tions,
April Fifth.
To
fill
the hour,
—that
and leave no crevice
is
happiness; to
for a repentance or (33)
fill the hour an approval.
;
EXPERIENCE. April Sixth.
O
not craze yourself with thinkbut go about your business an3rwhere. Life is not intel-
ing,
lectual or critical, but sturdy.
chief good is for well mixed people, who can enjoy what they find without quesIts
tion.
April Seventh:
Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them. depends upon the mood of the man, whether he shall see the sunset or the fine poem. It
April Eighth.
To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours,
is
wisdom. April Ninth.
The results of life are uncalculated and uncalculable, The years teach much which the days never know. April Tenth.
Every man
is
an impossibility*
everything impossible, until (34)
we
until
he
is
see a success.
born
EXPERIENCE. April Eleventh.
LL
good conversation, manners,
and
action,
come from a spon-
taneity which forgets usages,
and makes the moment great. Nature hates calculators; her methods are saltatory and impulsive.
April Twelfth.
Since our office is with moments let us husband Five minutes of to-day are worth as much to me as five minutes in the next millennium.
them.
April Thirteenth.
We
thrive
by
casualties.
Our
chief
experiences
have been casual. April Fourteenth.
We others.
we do not believe in things to ourselves, and that
believe in ourselves, as
We
which we
permit
all
call sin in others, is
experiment for us.
April Fifteenth.
There never was a right endeavor, but it succeeded. Patience and patience, we shall win at the last. (35)
EXPERIENCE. April Sixteenth.
LL
writings
of God, *
ing.
come by the grace
and
ing at
doing and hav-
all
*
*
I
ure, than
can see noth-
success or
last, in
more or
force supplied
fail-
less of vital
from the Eter-
nal.
April Seventeenth.
A man
a bit of Labrador ^par, which has no it in your hand, until you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep and beautiful luster as
is like
you turn
colors.
April Eighteenth.
is
Every man thinks a latitude safe for no wise to be indulged to another.
himself,
which
April Nineteenth.
The
great and crescive
self,
rooted in absolute naand ruins the
ture, supplants all relative existence,
kingdom
of mortal friendship
and
love.
April Twentieth. Life will be imaged, but
doubled.
Any
invasion of
its
(36)
cannot be divided nor unity would be chaos.
EXPERIENCE. April Twenty-first.
HE
most
attractive class of peo-
ple are those obliquely,
stroke:
who
are powerful
and not by the
men
direct
of genius but not
yet accredited: one gets the cheer of their light, without
paying too great a tax. April Twenty-second.
,
Men
live in their fancy, like
drunkards whose hands
are too soft and tremulous for successful labor.
It is
a tempest of fancies, and the only ballast I know, a respect to the present hour.
is
April Twenty-third.
A man
is a golden impossibility. The line he must a hair's breadth. The wise through excess of wisdom is made a fool.
walk
is
April Twenty-fourth.
In popular experience everything good is on the highway. * * * to say nothing of nature's pictures in every street, of sunsets and sunrises every day, and the sculpture of the human body never absent.
(37)
EXPERIENCE. April Twenty-fifth.
AM
grown by sympathy a
eager leave
and
me
sentimental,
but
alone and I should
relish every
brought
little
hour and what
me.
*
*
*
I
it
am
thankful for small mercies.
April Twenty-sixth.
Man
by pulses; our organic movements ar.4' * and the mind goes antagonizing on, such, and never prospers but by fits. lives
*
*
April Twenty-seventh. Life is a series of surprises, and would not be worth taking or keeping, if it were not. God delights to isolate us every day, and hide from us the past and the future.
April Twenty-eighth.
Human
life is
made up
of
two elements, power and
form, and the proportion must be invariably kept,
we would have
if
sweet and sound. Each of these elements in excess makes a mischief as hurtful as its^ it
defect.
(38)
EXPERIENCE. April Twenty-ninth.
EVER
mind
mind the
the ridicule, never
defeat:
up
again, old
heart !— it seems to say,
is
—
^there
victory yet for all justice.
April Thirtieth.
The
ardors of piety agree at last with the coldest that ^that nothing is of us or our works,
skepticism, all is
—
—
of God.
(39)
PRUDENCE
SELECTED GEMS FROM RALPH WALDO
EMERSON'S
ESSAY
(41)
"PRUDENCE"
PRUDENCE. May
E
First.
write
fro.m
and
aspiration
antagonism, as well as from experience. qualities
We
which
those
paint
we do
not
possess.
May Prudence
is
the virtue
science of appearances.
the inward
Second. of
the
It is the
senses.
It
is
the
outmost action of
life.
May
Third.
is false when detached. It is legitimate the Natural History of the soul incarnate, unfolds the beauty of laws within the narrow
Prudence >vhen
it is
when
it
scope of the senses.
May
Fourth.
Nature punishes any neglect of prudence.
May
Fifth.
V/e are instructed by these petty experiences which usurp the hours and years. (43)
PRUDENCE. May
Sixth.
RUDENCE
does not go behind
nature and ask whence It takes
it
is?
the laws of the world
whereby man's being is conditioned, as they are, and keeps these laws that
it
may
enjoy
their proper good.
May Time
is
Seventh.
always bringing the occasions that disclose Some wisdom comes out of every natural
their value.
and innocent
action.
May
Eighth.
—
—and
man keep the law, any law, strown with satisfactions.
Let a will be
May If the hive
his
way
Ninth.
be disturbed by rash and stupid hands, it will yield us bees.
instead of honey
May The
application of
and the songs
Tenth.
means
to ends ensures victory,
of victory not less in a
than in the tactics of party or of war(44)
farm or a shop
PRlitDl^CE.
May
Eleventh.
UR
American
character
is
marked with a more than average delight in accurate perception,
which
is
shown by the
currency of the by-word,
"No
Mistake."
May
Twelfth.
The domestic man, who
loves no music so well as and the airs which the logs sing to him as they burn on the hearth, has solaces which others never dream of. his kitchen clock
May He and
Thirteenth.
that despiseth small things will perish
by
little
little.
May
Fourteenth.
As much wisdom may be expended on a private economy as on an empire, and as much wisdom may be drawn from it.
May In skating over thin
Fifteenth.
ice
our safety
(45)
is in
our speed.
PRUDENCE. May
Y
Sixteenth.
and self-command
diligence let
him put the bread he
at his
own
disposal,
that of others, that he
stand in bitter and tions to other
men
good of wealth
May
is
;
eats
and not
may
at
not
falsef rela-
for the best
freedom.
Seventeenth.
Poetry and prudence should be coincident. Poets should be law-givers that is, the boldest lyric inspiration should not chide and insult, but should announce and lead the civil code and the day's work. ;
May
Eighteenth!
Let him learn that everything in nature, even motes and feathers, go by law and not by luck, and that which he sows he reaps.
May The eye
of prudence
May
Nineteenth.
may
never shut.
Twentieth,
On him who scorned the world, as he said, the scorned world wreaks its revenge. (46)
PRUDENCE. May
Twenty-first.
ANKNESS best
proves to be the
tactics,
for
it
invites
frankness, puts the parties
convenient
a
makes
footing,
on and
their business a friend-
ship.
May
Twenty-second.
Keep the rake, says the haymaker, as nigh the scythe as you can, and the cart as nigh the rake.
May
Twenty-third.
A man of genius, of an ardent temperament, reckless of physical laws, self-indulgent, becomes presently unfortunate, querulous, a "discomfortable cousin," a thorn to himself and others.
May Every in the
is not only a sort of suicide a stab at the health of human society.
violation of truth
liar,
but
is
May Trust
Twenty-fourth.
men and
Twenty-fifth.
they will be true to you, treat them show themselves great.
greatly and they will
(47)
PRUDENCE. May
Twenty-sixth.
HE
good husband
finds
method
as efficient in the packing of
fire-wood in a shed or in the
harvesting of fruits in the lar,
as in the
files
of the
cel-
De-
partment of State.
May
Twenty-seventh.
The prudence which
secures an outward well-being not to be studied by one set of men, whilst heroism and holiness are studied by another, but they are rec-
is
oncilable.
May
Twenty-eighth.
He who of
life
wishes to walk in the most peaceful parts with any serenity must screw himself up to
resolution.
May
Twenty-ninth.
Our words and
actions to be fair must be timely. gay and pleasant sound is the whetting of the scythe in the mornings of June yet what is more lonesome and sad than the sound of a whetstone or mow-
A
;
er's rifle
when
it
is
too late in the season to
hay? (48)
make
PRUDENCE. May
Thirtieth.
ET
him
tues. life
is
practice the
minor
How much
of
lost in waiting!
him not make
vir-
human Let
his fellow crea-
tures wait. How many words and promises are promises of conversation! Let his be words of fate.
May It
(prudence)
moves matter
is
God
Thirty-first.
taking thought for -oxen. It It is content
after the laws of matter.
body by complying with physical and health of mind by the laws of the in-
to seek health of conditions, tellect.
(49)
LOVE
SELECTED GEMS FROM RALPH WALDO
EMERSON'S
ESSAY
(SI)
"LOVE"
LOVE, June
First.
ATURE
* * * in the first sentiment of kindness anticipates already a benevolence
which
shall lose all particular
regards in its general light. The introduction of this felicity is in a private
and tender which is
relation of one to one,
the enchantment of
human
life.
June Second. This passion of which we spdak, though it begin with the young, yet forsakes not the old, or rather suffers no one who is truly its servant to grow old.
June Third.
Love ward. God.
is
omnipresent in nature as motive and reis our highest word and the synonym of
Love
June Fourth..
Every soul
is
a
celestial
Venus
June
Fifth.
to every other soul.
Like a certain divine rage (this enchantment) on man at one period and works a revolution mind and body. (53)
seizes in his
LOVE. June Sixth.
T
matters not, whether we attempt to describe the passion at
twenty,
at
eighty years. it
at
paints
at the first period will lose
some it
or
thirty,
He who
of its later, he
at the last,
some
who
paints
of its earlier
traits.
June Seventh.
Every promise of the soul has innumerable fulfillEach of its joys ripens into a new want.
ments.
June Eighth, Alas! I know not why, but infinite compunctions embitter in mature life all the remembrances of bud-
ding sentiment, and cover every beloved name.
June Ninth. Everything intellect,
is
beautiful seen
or as truth.
But
fro^ the point of the
all is
sour
if
seen as ex-
perien
June Tenth. Details are always melancholy; the plan
and noble. (S4)
is
seemly
LOVE. June Eleventh.
ITH
thought, with the ideal,
immortal joy. sing.
Round But
it
is
the rose of
hilarity,
the muses
all
and
names
with
persons and the partial interests of to-day
and yesterday
is
grief.
June Twelfth;
Every heart has its sabbaths and jubilees in which the world appears as a hymeneal feast. June Thirteenth. All mankind love a lover. The earliest demonstraand kindness are nature's most
tions of complacency
winning pictures.
June Fourteenth, It is strange
how
painful
kingdom of time and and canker and fear. painful
is
—the
the actual world
place.
There dwells care
June Fifteenth.
He
touched the secret of the matter
love, "All other pleasures are not (SS)
worth
who
its
said of
pains."
LOVE. June Sixteenth.
E
our experience in particulars
what got
it
may^ no man ever
the
power to
of
visitations
his heart
which created
all
and
for-
that brain,
things new.
June Seventeenth! Beauty,
teemed
it.
is
ever that divine thing the ancients esis, they said, the flowering of virtue.
It
June Eighteenth. Into the most pitiful and abject
it
will infuse a
heart and courage to defy the world, so only
it
have
the countenance of the beloved object.
June Nineteenth.
The *
*
passion re-makes the world for the youth. * Nature grows conscious. Every bird on
the boughs of the tree sings
now
to his heart and
soul.
June Twentieth,
We
are
by nature observers, and thereby (S6)
learners.
LOVE. June Twenty-first.
HE statue is then beautiful when it
begins to be incomprehensi-
ble,
when
it
*
criticism
mands an go with
passing out of
is
*
*
but
de-
active imagination to
it,
and to say what
it
the act of doing.
is in
June Twenty-second.
The which
strong bent of nature
is
seen in the proportion
this topic of personal relations usurps in the con-
versation of society.
What do we wish
to
know
any worthy person so much as how he sped
of
in the
history of this sentiment.
June Twenty-third.
The Deity sends that
it
may
the glory of youth before the soul,
avail itself of beautiful bodies as aids to its
recollection of the celestial
good and
fair.
June Twenty-fourth. It is a fire that, kindling its first
embers in the nar-
private bosom, caught from a wandering spark out of another private heart, glows and enlarges, * * * and so lights up the whole world and all
row nook of a
nature with
its
generous flame. (57)
LOVE. June Twenty-fifth.
HAT
which
attractive
is
so beautiful and
as
these
relations,
must be succeeded and supplanted only by what beautiful,
and so on
is
more
forever.
June Twenty-sixth.
We
are often
made
but tents of a night.
to feel that our affections are
Though slowly and with
pain,
the objects of the affections change as the objects of
thought do.
June Twenty-seventh.
There are moments when the affections rule and absorb the man and make his happiness dependent upon a person or persons. But in health the mind is presently seen again.
June Twenty-eighth.
By
conversation with that which is in itself excelmagnanimous, lowly and just, the lover comes to a warmer love of these nobilities, and a quicker aplent,
prehension of them.
(S8)
LOVE. June Twenty-nintli.
F
poetry the success tained
wheh
fies,
but
and
fires
it lulls
when us
it
with
is
not at-
and
satis-
astonishes
new
en-
deavors after the unattainable.
June
Thirtieth.,
We
need not fear that we can lose anything by the progress of the soul. The soul may be trusted to the end.
(59)
CIRCLES SELECTED GEMS FROM RALPH WALDO
EMERSON'S
ESSAY
(6i)
"CIRCLES"
CIRCLES. July First.
HE
eye
is
the
first
horizon which
it
circle;
forms
is
the the
second and throughout nature ;
this
primary
picture
is
re-
peated without end.
July Second.
Our
life
an apprenticeship to the truth that
is
around every
circle
another can be drawn.
July Third. St.
Augustine described the nature of God as a
whose center was everywhere and
its
circle
circumference
nowhere..
July Fourth.
There are no fixtures in nature.. The universe is and volatile. * * * Our Globe seen by God law, not a mass of facts. The law transparent is a dissolves the fact and holds it fluid. fluid
July Fifth.
Men walk as
prophecies of the next age. (63)
CIRCLES. July Sixth.
VERYTHING
looks permanent
until its secret is
known.
rich estate appears to
A
women
and children a firm and lasting fact; to
a merchant, one easily
created out of any materials,
and
easily lost.
July Seventh.
The
life
of
man
is
a self-evolving
circle,
a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on
wards to new and larger
circles
which, from
all sides
out-
and that without end.
July Eighth.
The extent to which this generation of circles, wheel without wheel, will go, depends on the force or truth of the individual soul.
July Ninth.
How
Men
often
must we
learn this lesson?
to interest us
when we
find their limitations.
cease
July Tenth.
Beware when the great God this planet. (64)
lets loose
a thinker on
CIRCLES. July Eleventh.
HERE but
is
its
not a piece of science
flank
may
morrow; there ary reputation
may
is
be turned not any *
*
*
to-
liter-
that
not be revised and con-
demned. July Twelfth,
Good as is discourse, silence is better, and shames The length of the discourse indicates the distance
it.
of
thought betwixt the speaker and the hearer. July Thirteenth.
Every man as he
is
is not so much a workman in the world a suggestion of that he should be.
July Fourteenth.
Valor consists in the power of self-recovery, so that man cannot have his flank turned, cannot be outgeneralled, but put him where you will, he stands.
a
July Fifteenth.
Thus but
all
there
is
no
sleep,
no pause, no preservation,
things renew, germinate and spring. (6s)
CIRCLES. July Sixteenth.
HE
key to every man is his thoughts. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which the idea after which all his He can are classified. only be reformed by showing him a new idea which comis
facts
mands
his
own.
July Seventeenth.
No row
truth so sublime but
in the light of
new
it
may
be
trivial
to-mor-
thoughts.
July Eighteenth.
The only sin is limitation. As soon as you once come up with a man's limitations, it is all over with him. July Nineteenth. Life is a series of surprises. We do not guess today the mood, the pleasure, the power of to-morrow, when we are building up our being.
July Twentieth.
No it
love can be
bound by oath or covenant
against a higher love. (66)
to secure
CIRCLES. July Twenty-first.
ONVERSATION In
circles.
pluck up
a
is
conversation
the
termini
bound the common on every
game
of
we
which
of silence
side.
July Twenty-second
Nothing great was ever achieved without
enthu<-
siasm.
July Twenty-third.
In nature every moment
ways swallowed and
new; the best
is
is
forgotten; the coming only
alis
sacred.
July Twenty-fourth.
The sweet
of nature is love; yet if I have a friend I tormented by my imperfections. * * * If he were high enough to slight me, then could I love him,
am
and
rise
by
my affection to new
heights.
July Twenty-fifth.
The
great
man
is
not convulsible.
that events pass over
He
him without much (67)
.
is
so
much
impression.
CIRCLES. July Twenty-sixth.
HE
things which are dear to
men
at this
hour are so on ac-
count of the ideas which have
emerged on zon,
their mental hori-
and which cause the pres-
ent order of things, as a tree
bears
its
apples.
July Twenty-seventh.
to
The continual effort to raise himself above work a pitch above his last height, betrays
himself,
We thirst for approbation,
yet can-
a man's
relations.
itself in
not forgive the approver.
July Twenty-eighth. Infinitely alluring
and
found his shores, found you never see it again.
was he
to you yesnow, you have a pond, and you care not if
attractive
terday, a great hope, a sea to it
swim
in
;
July Twenty-ninth.
The one thing which we is
seek with insatiable desire
to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our pro-
our sempiternal memory and to do something without knowing how or why in short, to draw a new circle. priety, to lose
;
(68)
CIRCLES. July Thirtieth.
VERY that
enly
personal
we
consideration
allow costs us heav-
state.
We
sell
the
thrones of angels for a short
and turbulent
pleasure.
July Thirty-first.
One man's justice is another's injustice; one man's beauty another's ugliness one man's wisdom another's folly; as one beholds the same objects from a higher ;
point of view.
(69)
-SOUL OVER THE GEMS FROM RALPH WALDO SELECTED EMERSON'S
ESSAY
"THE
(70
OVER-SOUL"
THE OVER-SOUL. August
HE
First.
philosophy of six thousand
years
has
not
searched the
chambers and magazines of the soul.
In
its
experiments
there has always remained, in
the last analysis, a residuum
it
could not resolve.
August Second.
Our
faith
Yet there
is
moments; our
vice is habitual.
a depth in those brief
moments which them than to
comes
in
constrains us to ascribe all
more
reality to
other experiences.
August Third. I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call mine.
August Fourth.
Man
is
our being whence.
a stream whose source is hidden. Always is descending into us from we know not
August There of
is
life in
Fifth.
a difference between one and another hour and subsequent effect.
their authority
(73)
THE OVER-SOUL. August
HEN
Sixth.
through his ius;
soul)
(the
it
when
breathes
intellect, it is
it
gen-
breathes through
when
it
flows through his affection,
it
his will,
it
is
virtue;
is love.
August Seventh.
How
dear,
how
soothing to
man
arises the idea of
God, peopling the lonely place, effacing the scars of our mistakes and disappointments!
August Eighth. Ineffable is the union of man and God in every act * * * Ever it inspires awe and aston-
of the soul.
ishment.
August Ninth.
The soul looketh steadily forwards, creating a world always before her, leaving worlds always behind her. August Tenth.. O, believe, as thou livest, that every sound that is spoken over the round world, which thou oughtest to hear, will vibrate
on thine
ear.
(74)
THE OVER-SOUL. August Eleventh.
]0 the soul
in her pure action all
the virtues are natural, and not painfully acquired. his heart,
and the
Speak to
man becomes
suddenly virtuous.
August Twelfth.
A
wise old proverb says, "God comes to see us
without
bell."
August Thirteenth. Those who are capable
of humility, of justice, of
on a platform that comthe sciences and arts, speech and poetry, action
love, of aspiration, are already
mands and
grace.
August Fourteenth. Before the great revelations of the Space and Nature shrink away.
soul,
Time,
August Fifteenth. She has no dates, nor rites, nor persons, nor specialnor men. The soul knows only the soul; all else idle weeds for her wearing.
ties, is
(7S)
THE OVER-SOUL. August
HE
Sixteenth.:
weakness of the
when some
will begins
the individual would be thing of himself. All
reform aims in some one particular
have
to let the
great soul
way through
us; in other words,, to engage us to its
obey.
August Seventeenth.
The heart which abandons itself to the Supreme Mind finds itself related to all its works, and will travel a royal road to particular knowledges and powers.
August Eighteenth.
The most exact calculator has no prescience that somewhat incalculable may not baulk the very next moment. August NineteenthL
The whole
intercourse of society,
its
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
ligion, its friendships, its quarrels,
is
trade, its re-
one wide judi-
cial investigation of character.
August Twentieth. That which we but involuntarily.
are,
we
shall teach, not voluntarily
(76)
'
THE OVER-SOUL. August Twenty-first.
EAL
so plainly with
woman most
as to constrain the ut-
sincerity
hope of is
man and
and destroy
trifling
with you.
all
It
the highest compliment you
can pay.
August Twenty-second.
More and more ter into me,
and
the surges of everlasting nature enI
become public and human
in
my
regards and actions.
August Twenty-tfeird.
The
things that are really for thee gravitate to thee.
August Twenty-fourth.
Some thoughts always so.
Such a thought
is
find us
young and keep us
the love of the universal and
eternal beauty.
August Twenty-fifth.
He that finds God a sweet enveloping thought to him never counts his company. When I sit in that presence who shall dare to come in? i77)
THE OVER-SOUL. August Twenty-sixth.
VERY
friend
whom
not
fantastic will but the great
thy
and
tender heart in thee craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace.
And
this,
thee
is
because the heart in
the heart of
all.
August Twenty-seventh. It IS not in an arbitrary "decree of God," but in the nature of man, that a veil shuts down on the facts of
to-morrow; events day.
it
*
*
*
by
this
which
veil
instructs the children of
men
curtains
to live in to-
August Twenty-eighth.
The is
soul that ascendeth to worship the great God, and true; * * * dots, not want admira-
plain
tion
;
dwells in the hour that
perience of the
common
now
is,
in the earnest ex-
day.
August Twenty-ninth.
The least activity of the intellectual powers redeems us in a degree from the influence of time. In sickness, in languor, give us a strain of poetry or a profound sentence,
and we are
refreshed. (78)
THE OVER-SOUL. August
HE
Thirtieth.
action of the soul
in that
which
is
is felt
oftener
and
left
unsaid than in that which said in
August
is
any conversation.
Thirty-first.
We
owe many valuable observations to people who are not very acute or profound, and who say the thing without effort which hunting in vain.
we want and have
(79)
long been
CHARACTER SELECTED GEMS FROM RALPH WALDO EMERSON'S "CHARACTER" ESSAY
(8i)
CHARACTER. September
E
First.
cannot find the smallest part of
the
weight
personal
of
Washington, in the narrative of his exploits. * * * but
somewhat
resided
in
these
men which
begot an expectation that outran all their performance^
September Second.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
is that which we call Character, a reserved which acts directly by presence, and without
This force
means.
September Third.
The
purest literary talent appears at one time great, another time small, but character is of a stellar and at undiminishable greatness.
September Fourth.
No
change of circumstances can repair a defect of
character.
September
The reason why to be tell
told.
this or that
It lies in the
you about
Fifth.
man
it.
(83)
;
man
is
fortunate,
that is all
is
not
anybody can
CHARACTER. September Sixth.
IGHER
overpower
natures
lower ones by affecting with a certain
sleep.
are locked sistance.
The
up and
faculties
offer
Perhaps that
no
re-
is
the
universal law.
September Seventh.
A
healthy soul stands united with the Just and the True, as the magnet arranges itself with the pole. * * * he is thus the medium of the highest influence to all who are not on the same level.
September Eighth.
Men to
of character are the conscience of the society
which they belong. September Truth
cation of
is it
the
summit
Ninth..
of being: justice is the appli->
to affairs.
September Tenth.
Our stance.
action should rest mathematically on our sub-
In nature, there are no false valuations. (84)
CHARACTER. September Eleventh.
HE
covetousness * * * which saddens me, when I ascribe it
is my own. I am always environed by myself.
to society,
On
the other part, rectitude
is
a perpetual victory, celebrated * * * by serenity, which is
joy fixed or habitual.
September Twelfth. Justice
to
make
must
prevail,
itself believed.
seen through the
and
it is the privilege of truth Character is this moral order
medium
of
an
individual.
September Thirteenth.
How
often has the influence of a true master realriver of command seems ized all the tales of magic !
to run
down from
A
his eyes into all those
who
behold
him.
September Fourteenth. Divine persons are character born, or, to borrow a phrase from Napoleon, they are victory organized.
September Fifteenth.
Those who selfish to
live to the future
those
who
must
live to the present. (8S)
alvrsiys
appeaf
CHARACTER. September Sixteenth.
T
not enough that the intelshould see the evils, and shall still their remedy. postpone our existence, nor take the ground to which we are entitled, whilst it is only a thought and not a spirit that is
lect
We
incites us.
September Seventeenth.
New
actions are the only apologies and explana-
tions of old ones,
which the noble can bear to
offer
or receive.
September Eighteenth.
The history of those gods and saints which the world has written, and then worshiped, are documents of character.
September Nineteenth.
When
the high cannot bring up the low to itself, it it, as man charms down the resistance of the lower animals. Men exert on each other a similar occult power. September Twentieth.
benumbs
Some natures are too good to be spoiled by praise, and whenever the vein of thought reaches down into ^e profound, there is no danger from vanity. (86)
CHARACTER. September Twenty-first.
HARACTER
is
nature in the
highest form.
*
masterpiece
best
is
*
*
This
when no
hands but nature's have been laid
on
it.
September Twenty-second. your friend has displeased you, you shall not sit to consider it, for he has already lost all memory of the passage, and has doubled his power to serve you, and, ere you can rise up again, will burden you with blessings. If
down
September Twenty-third.
Men
should be intelligent and earnest. They must feel, that they have a controlling happy future, opening before them, which sheds a splendor on the passing hour. also
make us
September Twenty-fourth. Character wants room; must not be crowded on by persons, nor be judged from glimpses got in the press of affairs, or on few occasions. as a great building. (87)
It
needs perspective,
CHARACTER. September Twenty-fifth.
VERY
which the
trait
artist re-
corded in stone, he had seen in
life,
copy.
and better than his
We
have
counterfeits, but
seen
we
many
are born
believers in great men.
September Twenty-sixth. I know nothing which life has to offer so satisfying as the profound good understanding, which can sub* * * between two virtuous men, each of sist
whom
is
sure of himself, and sure of his friend.
September Twenty-seventh.
When men factor,
*
*
shall
*
meet as they ought, each a bene-
clothed with thoughts, with deeds,
with accomplishments, it should be the festival of nature which all things announce.
September Twenty-eighth.
We
have no pleasure in thinking of a benevolence only measured by its works. Love is inexhaustible, and if its estate is wasted, its granary emptied, still cheers and enriches. that
is
(88>
CHARACTER. September Twenty-ninth.
RIENDS divine
also follow the laws of
necessity;
tate to each other,
they graviand cannot
otherwise :â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
"When
each the other shall avoid Shall each by each be most enjoyed."
September Thirtieth.
We shall one day see that the most private is the most public energy, that quality atones for quantity, and grandeur of character acts in the dark, and succors them who never saw it.
(89)
NATURE SELECTED GEMS FROM RALPH WALDO
EMERSON'S
ESSAY
(90
"NATURE"
NATURE. October
First.
HE rounded world is
fair to see,
Nine times folded in mystery:
Though bafded
cannot
seers
impart
The
secret
of
its
laboring
heart.
Throb
thine with Nature's throbbing Breast, And all is clear from East to West."
October Second.
A man can only speak, so long as he does not speech to be partial and inadequate.
feel his
October Third. It seems as if the day was not wholly profane, which we have given heed to some natural object.
in
October Fourth.
Nature cannot be surprised in undress. breaks in everywhere.
Beauty
October Fifth.
The
difference
between landscape and landscape
small, but there is great difference in the beholders. (93)
is
NATURE. October Sixth.
ERE we
(at the gates of the forest) find nature to
be the
cir-
cumstance which dwarfs every other circumstance, and judges like a
god
all
men
that
come
to her.
October Seventh.
The
day, immeasurably long, sleeps over the broad and warm wide fields. To have lived through all sunny hours, seems longevity enough.
hills its
October Eighth.
No man
is
quite sane ; each has a vein of folly in his
composition.
October Ninth.
We aim above the mark, to hit the mark. Every act hath some falsehood of exaggeration in it. October Tenth.
The tempered light of the woods is like a perpetual morning, and is stimulating and heroic. * * *
The incommunicable
trees begin to persuade us to live
with them, and quit our
life
of solemn
(94)
trifles.
NATURE. October Eleventh.
E who
knows the most, he who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the water,
the plants, the heavens, and
how
to
come
ments,
is
at these enchant-
the rich and royal
man. October Twelfth.
Only as
far as the
Masters of the world have called
in nature to their aid, can they reach the height of
magnificence.
October Thirteenth.
Nature is always consistent though she feigns to contravene her own laws. She keeps her laws and seems to transcend them. October Fourteenth.
Every moment
dom
is
guess
instructs,
and every object:
infused into every form.
its
*
*
*
we
for wis-
did not
essence until after a long time.
October Fifteenth.
The hunger for wealth, which reduces the planet to a garden, fools the eager pursuer. (95)
NATURE. October Sixteenth.
HE
stars at night stoop
down
over the brownest, homeliest
common, with
all
the spiritual
magnificence which they shed
on the Campagna, or on the marble deserts of Egypt.
October Seventeenth.
The the
reflections of trees
musical
*
*
*
and flowers
south
wind,
in glassy lakes,
*
*
*â&#x20AC;&#x201D;these
are the music and pictures of the most ancient religion.
October Eighteenth.
We
exaggerate the praises of local scenery. In every landscape the point of astonishment is the meeting of the sky and the earth, and that is seen from the first hillock as well as from the Alleghanies.
October Nineteenth.
There are days which occur in this climate, at almost any season qf the year, wherein the world reaches bodies,
its
when the air, the heavenly make a harmony, as if nature
perfection,
and the
earth,
would indulge her
offspring.
(96)
NATURE. October Twentieth.
HE
discovery that
wisdom has
other
tongues and
than
we,
should
that
hold
ministers
though
we
our peace, the
truth would not the less be
spoken,
might
check
injuri-
ously the flames of our zeal.
October Twenty-first.
The beauty of nature must always seem unreal and mocking, until the landscape has human figures, that are as good as
itself.
October Twenty-second.
Nature is loved by what is best in us. It is loved as the City of God, although, or rather because there The sunset is unlike anything that is is no citizen. underneath
it: it
wants men.
October Twenty-third. It is an odd jealousy but the poet finds himself not near enough to his object. * * * What splendid :
what recesses of ineffable pomp and loveliness in the sunset! But who can go where they are or lay his hand or plant his foot thereon? distance,
(97)
;
NATURE. October Twenty-fourth.
ATURE
is
the incarnation of a
and
thought,
turns
thought again, as
ice
to
a
becomes
water and gas.
October Twenty-fifth. "Spirit that lurks each
Beckons to
Self-kindled every
And
form within
spirit of its kin;
atom glows. which it owes."
hints the future
October Twenty-sijcth.
No man can write anything, who
does not think that
what he writes is for the time the history of the world or do anything well who does not esteem his work to be of importance.
October Twenty-seventh.
we sleep off the fumes and and though we are always engaged and often enslaved to them, we bring
After every foolish day furies of its hours
;
with particulars, with us to every experiment the innate universal laws. (98)
NATURE. October Twenty-eighth.
HE
moral sensibility which makes Edens and Tempes so
may
easily,
not
always
be
found, but the material land-
scape
is
never far off. We can enchantments with-
find these
out visiting
Como Lake
or the
Madeira Islands. October Twenty-ninth.
is
We live in a system of approximations.
Every end
some other end, which is a round and final success no where.
also tempo-
prospective of
rary,
October Thirtieth.
We
are escorted on every hand through
spiritual agents,
and a beneficent purpose
life
lies in
by
wait
for us.
October
Thirty-first.
To the intelligent, nature converts itself into a vast promise, and will not be rashly explained. Her secret is
untold.
(99)
NOMINALIST ANo REALIST
SELECTED GEMS FROM RALPH WALDO EMERSON'S ESSAY
"NOMINALIST AND REALIST"
(loi)
NOMINALIST AND REALIST. November
E
First.
have such exorbitant eyes that
on seeing the smallest arc we complete the curve, and when the curtain
we
is
lifted
*
*
are vexed to find that no
more was drawn, than
just
that fragment of arc which first
*
we
beheld.
November Second. Great men or men of great gifts you shall easily but symmetrical men never.
find,
November Third. All persons exist to society
by some shining
trait
of beauty or utility, which they have.
November Fourth.
A
* * personal influence is an IGNIS FATUUS. the Will-o'-the-wisp vanishes if you go too near, vanishes if you go too far, and only blazes at one angle.
November
Fifth.
Beautiful details we must have, or no artist: but they must be means and never other. The eye must not lose sight for a moment of the purpose. (103)
NOMINALIST AND REALIST. November IT
Sixth,
bad
enough, that our cannot do anything useful, but it is worse that no man is fit for society who has fine traits. He is admired at a distance, but he cannot come appearing a near without is
geniuses
cripple.
November Seventh. All our poets, heroes, and saints fail utterly in some one or in many parts to satisfy our idea, fail to draw out spontaneous interest, and so leave us without any hope of realization but in our own future.
November Eighth.
Our life,
proclivity to details cannot quite degrade our
and divest
it
of poetry.
November Ninth. is nothing we cherish and strive to draw to but in some hour we turn and rend it.
There us,
November Tenth. Proportion
There
is
is
almost impossible to
human
no one who does not exaggerate. (104)
beings.
NOMINALIST AND REALIST. November Eleventh.
ENCE
the immense benefit of party in politics, as it reveals faults of character in a chief,
which the
intellectual force of
the person, with ordinary opportunity and not hurled into
aphelion by hatred, could not
have been seen.
November Twelfth. Lively boys write to their ear and eye, and the cool reader finds nothing but sweet jingles in it. When they grow older they respect the argument.
November
Thirteenth.
Wherever you go a wit like your own has been beand has realized its thought.
fore you,
November Fourteenth. Nature keeps herself whole, and her representation complete in the experience of each mind. She suffers no seat to be vacant in her college.
November
Fifteenth.
All things show us, that on every side near to the best. (los)
we
are very
NOMINALIST AND REALIST. November
OR,
Sixteenth.
every
rightly,
through
channel
a
man
is
which
heaven iloweth, and, whilst I fancied I I
was
criticising him,
was censuring
minating
or rather ter-
my own
soul.
November Seventeenth.
The
rotation
which whirls every
leaf
and pebble to
the meridian, reaches to every gift of man, and take turns at the top.
we
all
November Eighteenth.
As long him;
let
as any
him
man
exists there is
fight for his
some need of
own.
November Nineteenth.
Our
and our experience urge that every and a very generous sure to be repaid.
affections
individual
is
treatment
is
entitled to honor,
November Twentieth.
What is best in each kind is an index of what should be the average of that thing. (io6)
!
NOMINALIST AND REALIST. November
T
Twenty-first.
is
commonly
said
by
farmers,
that a good pear or apple costs
no more time or pains to rear than a poor one; so
have no work of or
action,
friend,
I
would
no speech,
art,
thought,
or
or
but the best.
November Twenty-second.
or
The men of fine parts by courtesy; or by
protect themselves satire or
by an
by
solitude
acid worldly
manner, each concealing as he best can, his incapacity for useful association, but they want either love or selfreliance.
November Twenty-third.
How
sincere and confidential we can be, saying all that lies in the mind, and yet go away feeling that all is yet unsaid, from the incapacity of the parties to
know each
other,
although
they
use
the
same
words
November Twenty-fourth. If you criticise a fine genius the odds are that you are out of your reckoning, and, instead of the poet, are censuring your own caricature of him. (107)
NOMINALIST AND REALIST. November
F we we
Twenty-fifth.
were not of
opinions !
not in any
did
shift the
stand,
all
if
moment
platform on which
we
and look and speak from
another
!<
November Twenty-sixth. Each man's genius being nearly and explored, he
ture
is
is justified
affectionately
in his individuality, as his na-
found to be immense.
November Twentypseventh. world that all things subsist, but only retire a little from sight, and
It is the secret of the
and do not
die,
afterwards return again.
November Twenty-eighth.
The reason
of idleness and of crime is the deferring Whilst we are waiting we beguile the our hopes. of time with jokes, with sleep, with eating and with
crimes. (io8)
NOMINALIST AND REALIST. November Twenty-ninth.
E
fancy
men
are individuals; so
pumpkins;
are
pumpkin
in
the
every
but field
goes
through every point of pumpkin history-
November It is all idle talking; as
so
is
he also a part and ;
it
Thirtieth.
much were
(109)
as a
man
is
a whole,
partial not to see
it.
INTELLECT SELECTED GEMS FROM RALPH WALDO EMERSON'S ESSAY "INTELLECT"
(in)
INTELLECT. December
First.
ATER and
dissolves
wood and
iron
water; dissolves air, but
salt; air dissolves
electric
the
fire
intellect
dissolves
Hre,
method and the subtlest unnamed relations on nature in its resistless mengravity, laws,
struum.
December Second. Intellect lies behind genius,
which
is intellect
con-
structive.
December Third, Gladly would
unfold in calm degrees a natural what man has yet been able to mark the steps and boundaries of that transparent essence? I
history of the intellect, but
December Fourth. Intellect is void of affection, it
and sees an object as and disengaged.
stands in the light of science, cool
December
A
truth, separated
subject of destiny.
above care and
by the
We
Fifth.
intellect, is
behold
fear.
("3)
it,
no longer a
as a god upraised
INTELLECT. December
Sixth.
VERY man condition
beholds his
with
melancholy. is
a
As a
human
degree
of
ship aground
battered by the waves, so
man,
imprisoned
coming
in
mortal
open to the mercy of
life, lies
events.
December Seventh. Nature shows
all
things formed and bound.
The
intellect pierces the form, overleaps the wall, detects
intrinsic likeness all
between remote things and reduces
things into a few principles.
December Eighth.
The making a
fact the subject of
thought raises
it.
December Ninth.
What
is
addressed to us for contemplation does not
threaten us but makes us intellectual beings.
December Tenth. All our progress is an unfolding like the vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud and fruit. (114)
INTELLECT. December Eleventh.
ONG
prior to the age of reflec-
tion
mind.
thinking of the
the
is
Out
of darkness
it
came
insensibly into the marvelous light of to-day.
December Twelfth.
And so any from the web ject
fact in our
life,
*
impersonal and immortal.
stored, but
*
*
It
disentangled
becomes an ob-
of our unconsciousness,
is
the
past re-
embalmed.
December Thirteenth.
We
have
little
control over our thoughts.
December Fourteenth. In the fog of good and evil affections to walk forward in a straight line.
it is
hard for
man
December
Fifteenth.
walls of rude minds are scrawled all over with with thoughts. They shall one day bring a lantern and read the inscriptions.
The
facts,
(IIS)
INTELLECT. December
E
Sixteenth.
are
They
the
prisoners
catch us up for
into their
of
ideas.
moments
heaven and so
fully
engage us that we take no thought for the morrow.
December Seventeenth. In the most worn, pedantic, introverted self-tormentor's life, the greatest part is incalculable by him, unforeseen, unimaginable, and must be, until he can take himself up by his
own
ears.
December Eighteenth.
God
enters
by a
private door into every individual;;
December Nineteenth. If
we
consider
profited us,
we
what persons have stimulated and
shall perceive the superiority of the
spontaneous or intuitive principle over the arithmetical or logical.
December Twentieth.
What
is
the hardest task in thej world? (ii6)
To
think.
INTELLECT. December
Twenty-first.
RUST
the instinct to the end,
though you can render no reason.
By
It is
vain
trusting
it
to
to the end,
shall ripen into truth shall
hurry
know why you
it.
it
and you believe.
December Twenty-second.
Each mind has
own method. A true man never What you have aggremanner surprises and delights when
its
acquires after college rules.
gated in a natural it is produced.
December Twenty-third. you and and hurt, tyrannize over most men's minds. Intellect separates the fact considered, from you, from all local and personal reference, and dis-
The
considerations of time and place, of
me, of
profit
cerns
as
it
if it
existed for its
own
sake.
December Twenty-fourth.
The
constructive intellect produces thoughts, senIt is the gen-
tences, poems, plans, designs, systems.
eration of the mind, the marriage of thought with nature. (117)
INTELLECT. December Twenty-fifth.
ESUS
says. Leave father, mother,
house and lands, and follow
Me. more.
Who
leaves
This
is
all,
receives
as true intel-
lectually as morally.
December Twenty-sixth.
Our spontaneous action is always the best. You cannot with your best deliberation and heed come so close to any question as your spontaneous glance will bring you whilst you rise from your bed, * * * after meditating the matter before sleep on the previous night. December Twenty-seventh. Not by any conscious imitation
of particular forms
are the grand strokes of the painter executed, but by repairing to the fountain-head of all forms in his mind.
December Twenty-eighth. If
to
the constructive powers are rare and
few men to be
this descending
laws of
holy ghost,
its influx.
(ii8)
it is
given
man is a receiver of and may well study the
poets, yet every
INTELLECT. December Twenty-ninth.
OD
offers
to
every mind
its
choice between truth and re-
pose.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;^you December
Take which you
please,
can never have both.
Thirtieth.
He in whom the love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, the first philosophy. * * * He gets rest, commodity and reputation but he shuts the door of truth. ;
December
Thirty-first.
The ancient
sentence said, Let us be silent, for so are is a solvent that destroys personand gives us leave to be great and universal.
the gods. ality,
Silence
(119)
HERE ENDS "THROUGH THE iYEAR WITH EMERSON" AS COMPILED BY EDITH E. WOOD AND PUBLISHED BY DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY N.
Y.
(121)
IF