iLPH
WALDO EMERSON E.E. Hale
1
LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS
ALPH
WALDO EMERSON
EDWARD EVERETT HALE
UN
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson BY
EDWARD EVERETT HALE
TOGETHER WITH TWO EARLY ESSAYS OF EMERSON
BOSTON AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION 1904
LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS
Copyright, 1899,
BY BROWN & COMPANY. Copyright, 1903,
AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.
Contents Page
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The The
9
Character of Socrates Present State of Ethical Philosophy
57 .
.
97
Ralph Waldo Emerson An
address delivered before
on Ninetieth Anniverbirth sary of Emerson's
the
the
Brooklyn Institute
Ralph Waldo Emerson Dean WHEN visit
the
Arthur
celebrated
Stanley,
of Westminster, had finished his here in the year 1878, he was asked about
He said in reply that he pulpit. availed had of course himself of every opportuHe had nity to hear the American preachers.
the
American
heard preachers of eminence, he said, in almost " But it mattered not what every communion.
was the name of the communion the preacher," he said, " was always Waldo Emerson." ;
This word of Stanley's
interprets with great
precision the condition of the religious
life
of
America to-day. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was born ninety years ago to-day, found himself uneasy under the restrictions of ecclesiastical organization, and while he never abandoned the pulpit he early severed himself astical connection.
that
it is
One may
from any
say, in passing,
interesting to observe that
iams, John Milton,
indeed,
ecclesi-
many
Roger Willother
men
Ralph Waldo Emerson
io
who have proved to be reformers, did the same And this Ralph Waldo Emerson, who thing. was
first,
second, and
last
a teacher of
man-
kind, proves to be, as the century closes, the religious teacher who has done most for England
and America, and America to-day.
is
doing most for England and
There are many persons in Brooklyn who The majority of the never heard his name. people of this city do not know that they ever read five lines of his writing. Yet it is without hesitation that I say that the life of every person in Brooklyn is to-day affected, and it is affected for good, by the life and the words of this " " Yankee of the latter half of the prophet
nineteenth century. The life of Mr.
Emerson has been written
Few men have been so wonderfully happy as he in his biographers. Not to speak of other studies, there is an excellent little book well.
by Mr. George
him
W.
personally, I
Cooke, who hardly knew
think.
There
and elaborate biography by Mr.
is
the careful
Elliott
Cabot,
Ralph Waldo Emerson
whom Emerson life,
as
had marked, even
one of the
II
in his
clearest thinkers in
younger America.
Dr. Holmes, who was life,
He
his near friend through followed him at college by a few years. took the pains to reread all Emerson's
books, and in his vivid story of his life has given a poet-philosopher's abstract of the philosopherAnd there is a simple and fascipoet's work. nating sketch of his
home
life
which
his
son,
Dr.
Emerson, prepared to read only among friends at first, but which he enlarged, because proved that Mr. Emerson had friends he had never seen all over the world.
it
For
that wider
thousand
rills
view which
shall
whom
study the
by which the fountain of
his life
has enriched the world, the time has not yet come. His power over the English-speaking races will be better measured a hundred years
hence, when some one shall fill this place and be speaking on the anniversary of his birth, than it can be measured now. Our camera is so close to perspective.
him
that
we cannot
But eleven years
rely
upon our
have already
Ralph Waldo Emerson
12
With ten years more elapsed since his death. of his birth, centennial celebrate the we shall as a
few years ago we celebrated the centennial
of Channing. that
I noticed
in that
already, by the constant
celebration
law of history,
those myths were sweeping in upon the picture which seem to belong to biography half a century after the
life
In the next
has been lived.
twenty years such myths will begin to tell their stories of the prophet whom we commemorate
For
to-night.
men
shall say
that I have
no
tears.
Whatever
of him will be colored or flavored
by a sense of the
infinite
service
which
this
wrought for mankind. however, acceded to the request that
great idealist has I have, I
should speak here to-day, not because I think what can only be done a hun-
that I could do
dred years hence; far less because I thought that I could rewrite Mr. Cabot's biography, or
review his work better than Dr. Holmes has
have supposed that a few personal reminiscences of the man himself, and some done.
But
I
reminders as well of the social
conditions in
Ralph Waldo Emerson
which he
lived,
audience.
I
might have an interest for this have fancied that already the
which were
lies
13
told about
him while he
lived
the general public opinion which will for centuries go into are to a certain extent modifying
history.
was born
I
into the
Boston which he loved,
twenty years after him. I was not far away from the scenes of his work during the whole of his active fore, to say details
to
I
may
be able, there-
something of some of the outer
of that
life
which may make
its
comprehend
shall
And
life.
be glad, as one
spirit is
and
its
easier
it
purpose.
glad, if I
I
can do
always anything to present him to those who hear me, not simply as a philosopher, not simply as a poet, not simply as a reformer, but better than these, larger and more than these in the case of his life, if I
was
a
can show him to you as what he
strong,
simple, unaffected,
all-round
man.
Whether
I
can do this or not,
I
sure that I can enter a protest against
am
quite
some of
Ralph Waldo Emerson
14.
the errors of his time,
have wrought a certain
He was
which
I
am
sorry to see
effect already in history.
born in Boston, under as favorable
auspices as could wait on the birth of any child. He had what Dr. Holmes says is the first of
advantages, a line of New England ancestors of the best stock, running back on both sides to the
In the generation of Winthrop and Brewster. lines of that ancestry there were enough ministers
of religion to satisfy Dr. Holmes' requi-
sition.
For
this
genealogy, that
in a
means,
there were so
New many
England lives
of
which, withtemptations of the
quiet, thoughtful, faithful duty, in
out large incomes or
many men and women were
bred to high thinkconscientious and to ing, sharing life with duty, God. William Emerson, his father, was the
flesh,
and
useful, eloquent,
beloved minister of the
First Church of Boston. This is the church to which John Cotton, two hundred and fifty years
ago, gave dignity
;
where, by John Cotton's elo-
Ralph Waldo Emerson
i5
which had been a before was made the first town in the
quence, the failure
little
village
colony ; or, as the joke of the time said, Boston ceased to be " Lost town," and that had been its
nickname
The
before.
honored father of
Rev. William
this
Emerson was the older William Emerson, who, from the window of the Manse, saw Davis fall dead on Concord our Protesilaus bridge, and saw the quick response of the Acton company
as they crossed the bridge
war
against King George. son of the First Church died
and began the
The William Emerwhen our Emerson,
Ralph Waldo Emerson, was eight years old. grandfather, who saw the Concord fight,
The
was the son of a minister, a learned Greek scholar, who was the son of a minister who barely escaped with his life when Ralph destroyed by the Indians.
son was therefore the succession of the
New and
fifth
Mendon was Waldo Emer-
clergyman in direct
name of Emerson.
England ministers, there
Moody, whose names
are
Of other
were Bulkeley well
known
1
Ralph Waldo Emerson
6
among
the antiquarians of
Bliss, a flame of
fire,
New England, Daniel
and
many more of
same curious
that
me
Let
literary aristocracy. say passing that, for more than two hundred years, there was in Massachusetts what the
in
political writers call a peerage for life
men whose incomes were
a body of
them by law, on condition
God
:
they were secured to
that they should seek
happily they might find Him, and that should seek for Him with all their hearts. they Of such a line our hero was the fit descendant. if
was standing with Mr. Emerson once at a college exhibition, where a young man had I
easily taken the
man
in
ested.
most
whom we It
brilliant
was the first time
Emerson.
a
honors,
were both profoundly I
young inter-
ever addressed
Mr.
congratulated him, as I congratulated on the success of our young friend ; and myself, he said, cc Yes, I did not know he was so fine a I
fellow.
And now,
amiss
if
class, or if if
if
something will
fall
out
he should
be unpopular with his his father should fail in business, or
some other misfortune can
befall
him
all
Ralph Waldo Emerson will be well."
me
was green enough and boy what seemed
I
to be inwardly indignant at
enough to
17
But
the cynicism of the philosopher.
did not then
know
that
I
when he was
eight years old his father had died, and that to the penury, shall I say, of those early days
determination
to his mother's
the boy should be bred at Harvard College, to the careful struggles by which each penny was made to work the miracles that
of the broken bread by the Sea of Galilee he owed, or thought he owed, much of the vigor, u Good the rigor, and the manhood of his life. " but bad is a as he said is
good doctor," sometimes a better."
Now
it
is
not
my
place, this evening, to pro-
nounce any eulogy upon not quite a fool. Nor am or restate his philosophy.
than
can.
And
himself,
this prophet. I to
He
analyze states
his it
I
am
work better
take for granted those who hear me can repeat the favorite instructions which he has given them, and can themI
may
and vigor and life, as they oracles of divine truth from his poems.
selves rise to joy recall
I
1
Ralph Waldo Emerson
8
No
;
I
give myself one duty and pleasure to-
I want nothing else. to show how this great leader of the idealists lives in personal touch, glad and homely, with
night, and
I will
his fellow-men.
try for
I
want
to
show
that he
is
not
afraid to bring his idealism to test in the practical
duty of commonplace
life.
talked with him, and loved
We who knew him, him know
that he
found the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. found God reigning in his baby's nursery
He ;
at
when he pruned his apple irees and when he took the train for Boston.
the post-office
;
;
We
want you who have not seen him to believe that the man of ideas was thus a human man, a man with men. He was not a dreamer. He
was an
actor.
He
taught us
how
to live
;
and
he did so because he lived himself.
Here
is
the distinction between this great
who degrade could, perhaps, draw that distincRidicule tion most easily by ridiculing them. idealist
that
is
and the chiff-chaff talkers
name.
I
always easy.
who
u says,
I
might sketch the Pharisee
Lord, Lord," but does not the things
Ralph Waldo Emerson
which he
I
says.
in contrast
present
19
should in that way, perhaps, more clearly the true relig-
who goes and comes as a man who is as sincere as he bids us be. among men, But we may leave to Carlyle that abuse of shams The precious thing in and the unreal man.
ious philosopher,
Emerson's oracles
hardly ridicules
of
humor
is
so
he
abuses nobody. any one, though his sense keen. His business is to
He
is
that
elevate truth and honor, and he will not stop to vilify
drawn
falsehood and shame. this contrast very
Dr. Holmes has
neatly,
where he says
correspondence Emerhe loves what is real, while
that in their forty years'
son shows
how
Carlyle only shows
how
he hates what
is
not
real. I will
example. to
for our I will
hour together follow the great not take your time nor mine
show what he was
not.
I will
try to
show
how, while he spoke such words as no man of his time had spoken, he was living such a daily gave every word its emphasis, as furnished him every minute with his illustrations,
life
as
Ralph Waldo Emerson
2O
and as compelled those of us who saw him, listened to him, and knew him to listen to the
word he spoke, and
to try the counsel for our
lives.
He
had pulled through college by the hardest, knowing what are those small economies which grieve a boy's
so
He
rejoiced in the longer a charge upon
soul.
moment when he was no
mother, but could do his share in caring for her. If ever man were tempted to use matchhis
less
that
power merely for earning money he was " man. " Should he turn stones into bread
when
the
bread was
to feed
his
To that question, to that temptation, " No Get thee behind me, Satan
"
!
!
take as the text of his
from
his
Europe
The
" in
" Journal
highest revelation
my
he
said,
I
may
that sublime passage
1833:
enamoured of moral been
?
written as he returned from
Milton describes himself
more than
life
mother
I.
angel
is
that
God
is
in his letter
perfection.
That which
He
in every
man.
to Diodati as
did not love
it
cannot yet declare has It has from childhood until now. I
Ralph Waldo Emerson
It
me
from men.
It has
has driven sleep from
bed.
separated
my
for
questioned,
has
It
guilt.
be
cannot
my
defeated
"open secret" of
watered
me
with
defeats.
future
;
the
heart.
whole It
is
is
shall
the
be revealed
universe.
now
say,
They
It
It
is
makes
is
the
is
it it
be
only the
it
potentially at the bottom of
as
he affirms his unbelief, to
living hereafter.
I believe
here, I plainly read fire.
;
And
I have to
than you with that question of another in this life.
me
not a sufficient reply to the red and
angry worldling, coloring
Think on
pillow.
hope. cannot
It
the feebleness and dust of the observer that
his
my
has tortured
It
the martyrs apostatize.
the glory that
always
my
by all
though
inspired
21
it
my
continues.
life.
do no more I believe
As long
as I
am
duties as writ with pencil of
speak not of death, they are
woven of
immortal thread.
To
proclaim this gospel wherever men will is his mission, when he lands in his
hear, this
own
country again. Observe, now,- that here
the idealists,
who
is
this
for forty years of
idealist
of
life, after
he makes this decision, never turns his back on
Ralph Waldo Emerson
22 life
daily
or
He buys his petty demands. like the most practical of
its
mutton and potatoes
If he cannot afford to
buy the hind-quarter If the strawberries the he buys fore-quarter. And you are too dear he does not buy them. without and letters search through diary may us.
He who has finding one word of complaint. of the the noblest noble, the most proved to be famous of those of fame, of
life
affairs
;
for years upon years has to practice a severe economy in his and he takes this as a thing of course,
He plants his apple trees He takes care of them like He badly, like most of us.
without a whimper. like the rest of us. the rest
of us
:
carries his letters to the post-office,
and waits
He
goes to the town meeting and listens more than he talks. He manages his own lecture courses and makes for the mail talking politics.
his
liberal
lyceums.
bargains with the poor country In one sense a thousand million
above the world, he is, in the other sense, of the world and in it, like you and me. He makes no pretence that he is
billion leagues
Ralph Waldo Emerson
consorting only with
23
and Uriel, with
Abdiel
cherubim and seraphim. Like the great leader of life, he eats and drinks, when there is need, with publicans and sinners.
This good
instance, in
Carlyle. fifty
It
signal practical habit
Carlyle
a
man
years of England and
would be
thought,
any
is
fair
to
say
to
itself, in
a
whom
the last
America owe much. that
either country,
in
shows
the correspondence with
all
every man of has rendered
who
essential service to either country in that
Betime, has been formed largely by Carlyle. tween Carlyle and Emerson there is a world-wide difference. But Carlyle himself says " You are :
and for a long time have been the one of the sons of Adam who I felt completely understood what that
I
was saying."
Emerson gave Carlyle
It may be Nay. to mankind. It
seems as if his encouragement, his sympathy, were needed to save the sad, dyspeptic pessimist
when he was in the Slough of Despond. Emerson who seized him by the hair head and dragged him through.
It
was
of the
Ralph Waldo Emerson
24
Not to see
to stop to argue about this, let
how
at the
beginning Emerson
me
ask you
appears,
all
through, as the god descending from heaven to straighten out Carlyle's practical affairs. He remits the half-yearly payments for the American He sends the first funds of the pub-
editions. lication
of
" Sartor."
He
never
He
always encourages. growler. think him a sensible elder brother,
chides
You
the
might
humoring
because he would encourage the wincing, fretful, unhappy child, who is yet to help the world.
Emerson winter of
me once
told
18489,
he
left
that
when,
in
the
Liverpool for America,
Arthur Hugh Clough, the young poet, accompanied him to the ship and walked the deck with
him
until she sailed.
departure.
He
said,
Clough was sad about his " You leave all of us
Carlyle has led us into the desert, and he has left us there."
young Englishmen without
Emerson
said to
him
:
a leader.
" That
is
what
all
"
young
and he England have said to me ; " I and hand his on said, placed Clough's head, and ordain you bishop of all England, to go up
men
in
Ralph Waldo Emerson
down among
all
the
young men and
into the promised land."
Alas
one of the leaders of men
And
a follower.
the
and America were
self drink
from the
:
;
!
them
lead
Clough was not
rather a listener and
young men of England
left to
the Master of Life
25
the greater lesson of
that every
must
life
infinite fountain.
for it-
The
days of chieftains, of proconsuls, of dukes and barons and priests are gone by ; the day of the boss and the magician was over when the Master of Life The kingdom of heaven is spoke the Word.
man who
open to each
The kingdom
will thunder at the door.
of heaven suffers violence, and the
sturdy and persevering, and only they, are those
who
take
it
by
force.
Edward Emerson's memoir of one charming idyl of home life which
is
full
his
in
father
is
Concord
of anecdotes of this infinite com-
It is an illustration, well-nigh perthe of fect, application of eternal truth to finite the needs of the place and time. I necessities,
mon-sense.
am tempted which early
to add to those a little reminiscence in life
opened
my
eyes to the needed
Ralph Waldo Emerson
26 vision and
showed me how the most
rare phil-
osopher, because of the fineness of his philosophy, was the most human man.
So soon
as quick railway trains brought to
Boston, daily, visitors from the country towns who went back at night, the great inven-
around,
tion required
new machinery
to provide for such
early in this affair the
changes. Quite and Country Club was proposed think the the idea.
Town
in Boston.
I
name was Mr. Emerson's, and perhaps It was made of men who wanted a
handy place where to write a note, or leave a parcel, or meet a friend in the crowded hours between the
arrival
and departure of their
trains.
Boston has never quite met the need to this hour. The rock on which the craft split was that solid rock always in sight in such beginnings, the stupidity of the cranks. They were
eager that this practical club should consecrate " itself to u hearing papers written by people who could find no other audience. This madness
u
"
is one of the most hearing papers amazing of the trifling inconveniences of our time. Two
for
Ralph Waldo Emerson
27
once appeared in the club the party of these cranks, and the party of working men who wanted a place to eat a chop, to leave an parties at
:
umbrella or borrow one, perhaps to look up a date in an encyclopaedia, perhaps to sleep fifteen Of this party, hard pressed minutes on a sofa. in the
early discussions,
Mr. Emerson,
first,
second, and last, was the chival-
the great idealist,
rous and gallant leader. Always he was urging and mancommon-sense of the need practical
Always, in our many defeats, we agements. And when the rallied round his white plume. club died of an early death died, of course, of
its
regret
of
he had no tears of
undigested papers ;
for to the very last he
Anak who had There
stood by
its
had been the son practical duties.
are philosophical ladies to
of beef tea, a
warm mutton
whom
a
cup
chop, a place for a
carpet-bag seem matters too carnal to arrest Let me the attention of serious-minded men. "
tell
to
them
a
more
pathetic
story
:
In
the
crowd of the Philadelphia Centennial one of the queens of our American life had Mr. Emer-
Ralph Waldo Emerson
28
son as her guest at Philadelphia as he studied the great exhibition. She also had as guests, in the elastic hospitality of her charming home,
New
another distinguished
brought
his
happened
two
that
Englander
boys to see the
little
night,
on one of
!
one of
his
his
many
little
absence, frightened and
It
many hours errands
of the
of mercy.
boys awoke
in
his
sick, in a strange house,
was gone.
His wails of
his little brother,
and both then
to find that his father
sorrow waked
had
gentleman was suddenly
this
called out of the house for
Alas
who show.
joined in chorus.
But
it
was some time before
these strains reached the distant
room of
the
When, at length, she did lady of the house. run to the relief of the lonely little strangers she found that the great idealist was before her. There he was, petting and soothing and comforting those lonely children,
learning, in the
of the
dim midnight, the noblest
most divine philosophy.
learning idealist
who were
it
thus lesson
They were
in the practical teaching of the great
of the world
!
Ralph Waldo Emerson
29
another personal lesson in the At that time of the Irish famine. year
received
I
critical
we were wave
receiving from Ireland the first great The failure of the enforced emigration.
of the potato crop had sent the poor Irish people to America because they would starve at home. In the enthusiasm of a young minister's eagerness, I and my friends in Worcester were trying to meet the occasion, wholly new to us all, which was offered by the arrival of these
Mr. Emerson was my guest starving hordes. " Do at the time, and I said to him, you know, they
we "
cannot
Ah,"
are
so
fond
of
potatoes
that
make them touch Indian meal " !
said this philosopher of the philosophers,
man who, you would
was swinging upon rainbows, you should not have sent them You should have sent them hot Indian meal.
this
say,
"
cakes." It
must have been,
autumn of war, that I met
I think, in
the
1862, the second year of the by invitation eight or nine gentlemen in a 1 private parlor in Beacon street, for conference 1
The home
of the late Martin
Brimmer.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
30
on
The
subject was the necessity of the broadest, freest, and strongest work for enforcing the principles involved in a
matter.
public
the struggle, that they might not be forgotten in our eagerness for recruiting and the crash of
arms.
It
was
a
War
for Ideas,
and those ideas
must not be forgotten. For instance, it was clear that black men must fight for their freedom and their country. But there was still no small sect of Northern men who said they would not
same ranks with niggers. Again, it was necessary that every smallest printing-office in an American town from which was published die in the
a
newspaper should be fully informed, every as to the moral conditions of the great
week,
Once more, was
discussion.
the army, on which
it
not time that
depended, should have its own journal, alive with the fundamental principles of patriotism, to be a message of the all
Eternal Truth as well as an instructor in tactics
and strategy or nine course,
?
men
In that evening meeting of eight of action, I had almost said of
was Ralph Waldo Emerson.
His word,
Ralph Waldo Emerson
31
as always,
was
With such
voices as those of Martin Brimmer,
of John
a practical
the voice of this
man
for the time.
Murray Forbes, of James L.
of
Little,
New
England, you heard prophet of the Idea, as much
leaders in affairs in
a
word
affairs as
they.
That
night, in that
Beacon-street parlor, the plan of the u Army and " Navy Journal was born. That little company
formed itself into the Loyal Publication Society, and the hundreds of broadsides issued by that company were there provided for. to
These memories of the Civil war may appeal some man who remembers the doubts and
fears as to the election
in
Connecticut of that
autumn, when Jo Hawley and half the honest young men in Connecticut were a thousand miles
away
lugging muskets on their
cypress trees and magnolias. was feared that the other half might be out-
shoulders, It
at the front
among
voted by copperheads, saloon-keepers, and other If there be such a man in this audi-
traitors.
let me ask him to hunt up the electioneerof that Connecticut campaign. documents ing
ence
Ralph Waldo Emerson
32
Among them he will
find
prophet pen of Ralph
The "Yankee you mean
If
My object
is
from the
James Lowell calls him.
who is
achieved
not afraid to test
is
the Infinite Idea, as he
of to-day, the name
at least,
Waldo Emerson.
Plato,"
a Plato
two,
turns the
fit
if I
the grindstone one.
can make you read
the oracles of this prophet with the certainty that you can apply them before the day has gone by.
I turn unwillingly from such reminiscences to other considerations which I ought not to pass
by.
A
question has been discussed, perhaps
more than it deserves, as to the training which made this prophet what he was. Was there in in he the schools which was bred anything which shall account for him or his work ? And in that discussion some of the lies of which I spoke in the beginning have been uttered.
For myself, I believe definitely what were the
it
is
idle to state
very
particular steps of the
ladder by which any great
man
rose to the posi-
Ralph Waldo Emerson tion I
which he holds above the
do not
know
that there
is
33
of us
rest
any great use
and
;
in
our
discussing the elements which went to EmerI have satisfied my own conson's education.
science by saying that he did not borrow from any Hegel or Fichte or other German idealist or
metaphysician.
I
might
satisfy
myself by saying
that his thought, as his utterance,
New
England growth.
Indeed,
is
if
purely of
we
are
to
of evolution, his prophecy is clearly a outgrowth and result of William Ellery
speak direct
Channing's ministry and prophecy. As I read Channing and his life, and
member
personally his
effect
as I re-
on the people of
I am amused by the half-way estimate which they formed of his work and power. Here was Channing preaching in Federal-street
his
time,
pulpit
the noblest
and highest idealism.
He God
was preaching the absolute intimacy of Now that we have his diaries and with man.
that Channing, early letters it is manifest from the time he was twenty up, was seeking
his
God
if
haply he might find him.
He was
mystic
Ralph Waldo Emerson
34
of the mystics
Jacob Boehme
Francis of Assisi not more so, or Henry Scougal not more so
in his eagerness
to listen
to the present
God.
When
he spoke he was speaking the oracles of And when in his closet he the present God. he was
prayed
begging
God
to
him
help
through.
Such a man was prophesying from week to week, with the infinite modesty which belongs to such a position, in street.
the
He was
pulpit to
speaking tellectual, well-educated people great
a ;
of
Federal
body of
in-
to people of
promptness, not to covered the world with
decision,
courage,
say shrewdness,
who
commerce, and who meant to make Boston the moral and intellectual capital of the world. their
I
think there never was such a set of determined
future-makers,
men
of
money and men of
ideas,
Phillipses and Quincys and ApNow and to whom he spoke. Perkinses pletons these people, and all Cambridge and half of
as
were those
Boston, took the idea that Channing wrought his
wonders by
a
certain
intellectual power.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
He
had written
35
on Milton and
his great essays
Napoleon, which had won admiration even
in
the lofty circles of dignified England. At the very " said nobody read time when the " Edinburgh
an American book English readers were reading
And
those essays. all
say that
so
all critical
religious Boston, took his
Channing wrought
it
Boston, not to into its head
miracles by
the
clearness of his intellect.
People thought he had a certain veiled trick of elocution in that
quiet
manner which,
in
fact, did
not
know any
I have heard u knew how Channing did had method. The Channing any
of the tricks of the rhetorician.
men it,"
say that they as
truth
is
if
that
it
was it is
his
method
as
tell
what
the
is
as impossible for
men
to tell
for Mr. Langley to-day to method of the hawk or the gull
sweeping over the ocean. The glory of Channing was that he had no method that he sought God and found Him, and then told what God ;
had to say to him.
Waldo Emerson had rous preaching of
strayed from the deco-
Chauncy
place to hear these
Ralph Waldo Emerson
36
God-inspired words street.
of Channing in Federal of those men
Waldo Emerson was one
there are never
such in any age
more than one
in a
who, when they
hundred
listen
to a
prophet, believe that the prophet is in earnest. Ninety-nine people out of a hundred act as if
they believed that the prophet is posing, and is simply saying phrases with nominative cases and verbs and objectives, which he has found out how to arrange by certain rules of grammar.
But Waldo Emerson was one of the few who
man when they hear anybody who will sit down and read
believe a true
And
him. a
dozen of
the central discourses of Channing perhaps there are not more to read will see that, given a
young
true as
near to
enthusiast, brave as
was Emerson and
was Emerson, and given
God
as Ellery
when
a preacher as
Channing was,
it
was
came young to speak he should not speak somewhat as Emerson spoke. He turns aside from all this impossible that
that
interpretation of texts,
from
enthusiast
all this
subjunctive and the optative, from
study of the all
this bal-
Ralph Waldo Emerson
37
ancing of one authority in history against another authority, he shall turn aside from all
and
this,
now
listen
God, and proclaim
to the voice of the living
that voice as
it
now comes
to him.
While he was preaching every Sunday of life,
his
before he had published either of his books
which we now
call
cry was
started all
ducing a
German
most important, the hue and around us that he was intro-
philosophy or
These words
I
German
infidel-
also say, of course,
ity. might were most frequently spoken by those who never read a word of German in their lives, and could
not have read a
German
sentence to save their
They were spoken by those who at other times would have thanked God that they knew
lives.
nothing of German theology, of German religor of German philosophy. Certainly I
ion,
am
not speaking as one who dreads German are all infidelity or German philosophy. receiving too much from Germany every day,
We
and have been receiving too
many
much from German who
every day for a century, for any
Ralph Waldo Emerson
38 is
not a fool to borrow such language.
But
I
am
eager to say, in showing what Emerson was and what he did, that the charge from the beginning that he borrowed from German writers
was ludicrously
false.
in his first visit
to
many. to
He did
one of the
It is to
be observed that
Europe he passed by Ger-
not set foot there.
He
make German
universities, or
did not go
the acquain-
tance of any distinguished writer. He says himself, in one of his early letters, that he never read any German except the fifty volumes
of Goethe.
He
read Goethe, not because he liked
Goethe's philosophy, for as he says again and again he hated it ; he read Goethe as he read the
books of
all
men and had Dr.
other
men who were many-sided
so looked at the world.
Holmes has been
at
the pains to reg-
Emerson's quotations. As he says they are "like the miraculous draught of fishes." His list is of three thousand three hundred and ninety-
ister
three from eight hundred and sixty-eight different individuals. Of this vast number there are
twenty-seven
favorites
whom Emerson
cites
Ralph Waldo Emerson
39
twenty times or more. Among the twentyseven there is but one German writer, and that
Goethe Goethe, with regard to whom he was always breaking lances with Carlyle, and of
is
whom
he has said the bitterest things, perhaps, said about any man of our
which have been time.
Coleridge,
who had
initiated
England
German
thought, only comes out at the end of the list of twenty-seven. In later life into
so large-minded a
man, so many-sided a man
Emerson read German authors
as
as he read the
But it is other leading authors of his time. clear to any man who follows the line of his thought and his work that the prophet began to prophesy, and to mark out the line of his prophecy, without any reference to the other He was what his own prophets of his time.
New
And this was a God who chose to go to God for inHe was at the headquarters, and he structions. chose to commune with the Commander-inHe was ready to talk with the other Chief. England had made him.
child of
aides
j
he liked to talk with the other
aides.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
40
But he Great
listened every day to
Commander had
to say
know what the to him. And no
interpretation of that word by any of these brothers and sisters of his could turn aides
him from the Father. power of Emerson.
This
is
the secret of the
There are possibly ten such men, probably not so many, in the nineteen centuries which we mark as the centuries of the new life men
who
have been great teachers of others, because
they received
their
instructions at
first-hand.
There have been thousands upon thousands of others, men and women, who have pretended so and have pretended so to receive the original instructions, but who have been tempted by this chirping of a sparrow on one side, or to speak,
thundering of an army on the other, or this diapason of an organ, or this song of an enchantWhat is interesting is that the great world ress.
this
makes no mistakes prophets.
You may
in
its
judgments of the
imitate a prophet in his
dress, in his dialect, in the tone
of his voice, in
the shake of his finger; he
stand before you
may
Ralph Waldo Emerson
41
on the same platform where the other prophet and
stood,
he
may prophesy never
prophesied
;
but he deceives nobody.
listens,
nobody remembers, nobody
utmost
that
name
Mr
deftly
it
I
The him
effort
" j
is
and
perfectly.
Emerson himself had
whether
Nobody
cares.
even the newspapers say of
that he " made an extraordinary
they
so
same accents with which the prophet
in the
heard
it
a story
I forget
in a lecture or in conversa-
about a New England come-outer who went into a hat-shop and selected for himself a The hat was put up and the dealer costly hat.
tion
supposed he was to be paid, but the man whom he had thought to be a purchaser said simply,
"
Oh,
I am the pay nothing for anything. The does not believe in money."
I
man who
poor dealer had a note to meet at the bank that day, and hardly knew how to do it ; he looked with
" in
dumb
delight
wish to God,
I
money
you
for
!
Take
coming
upon sir,
his
that
customer, and said,
nobody
the hat, with
for it."
else believed
my
thanks to
Mr. Emerson would
Ralph Waldo Emerson
42
say this was all spontaneous, it was natural, on the part of the customer and on the part of the trader. But when, the next day, another man,
who had
came
heard the story,
and selected for himself
his hat
into the shop and said that he
did not believe in
money, the dealer refused the where he had accepted so readily the
imitator,
inventor.
And Emerson drew
the moral from
the
which
draw now.
story
prophet
who
the
speaks
him from the with
want
I
living
to
word
God
that
speaks, I
God's power. But imitates the prophet has no spell. the
living
A
comes
to
may
say,
he
who
Poor man, he was himself surrounded with cohorts, with legions, of these imitators. Every lazy dog
who
did
ignorant scholar
not want
who
every
weak-minded
would
drift, as
to work, every not want to study, brother who hated law,
did
by some terrible central attraction, to Concord, and lay at Emerson's feet the tribute of his laziness, his ignorance, his law-
These were lessness, or, in general, his folly. the bitter seeds in the food and drink of the last
Ralph Waldo Emerson half of his
gone into
when
life,
all
name and fame had
his
lands.
Dear man, he was
as tolerant of
He would
a saint should be.
Philistine discretion
tramps
43
such folly as all lines of
pass
welcome of such There is a very when a few of them
his
in
at his hospitable door.
amusing letter of Carlyle, joined Bronson Alcott on land to America.
return from
his
Engwould be story
The whole
were
it
not desperately comic. few weeks or months
terribly
tragic
Hoping,
as I suppose, for a
of rest from a chatter which must have become deadly tiresome
when you had
and sixty-five days friends of Bronson
in
the
it
three hundred
year, the
Concord
arranged that he should travel in England and on the continent for a summer and autumn. Alas so soon as
Alcott
!
he arrived in England he met with many friends more tiresome than himself, as the Scripture
would tion.
say.
In
They immediately that
convention
called a
conven-
they immediately voted that America was the place for the redemption of the world, and New England the corner
Ralph Waldo Emerson
44
of America where that redemption should begin. so, before Concord had well turned round
And
in the quiet luxury of those
turned
it is
months, Alcott re-
quite like the
New
Testament
with these others, so much worse parable chatterers than himself, proposing to enter in
and dwell there, so that the last state of ConIt cord should be much worse than the first. is
of these coadjutors in the work of restoring
society that Carlyle wrote, most pathetically, to " Alcott's Emerson, of what he called English tail."
Bottomless
imbeciles
ought
not be seen in com-
pany with Ralph Waldo Emerson, who has already The some listening to him on this side of the water. tail
has an individual or
rest is
old
me
two of
that genus,
and the
For example, I knew mainly yet undecided. myself, and can testify, if you will believe
that
few greater blockheads broke the
world's
may mean
exasper-
bread in his day
if
blockhead
ated imbecile and the ninth part of a thinker. a care of such, I always say to
which you
forgive
me,
Have
myself, and to you,
Ralph Waldo Emerson
But the
certain insight
45
of a child
of
God
the right hand and on the The angel's blazing before. and behind left, sword protected the gateway of the palace. And
guarded Emerson on
the sturdy common-sense, which in
all
that I
have been trying to illustrate, saved not from the annoyance, but from what him, for the rest of us would be the positive danger, of
have said
I
such companionships. " The Dervish whined '
Thou
to Said,
didst not tarry while I prayed.'
But Saadi answered, '
Once with man-like love and
fear
gave thee for an hour my ear, I kept the sun and stars at bay, I
And I
For
The
love, for
cannot all
sell
that rattles in thy brain.'
Saviour
Father, and
words thy tongue could say; heaven again
my
left
led
them
God's there.
"
children If
to
their
you need to
carry out the figure involved in the words " father " and " child," the Saviour bade them
climb their Father's knees, nestle in his arms, trust his full love, tell
him everything, and
listen
Ralph Waldo Emerson
46
From his time to our men and millions of women
to everything.
millions of
taken him
time,
have
word, have trusted the fulness of a Father's love, and have trusted it not in at his
vain. But, as I said, there are hardly more than ten prophets who have so lived in the Father's life, who have so partaken of the divine nature, who have so created as God creates, and so spoken
with the simplicity with which God speaks, that they have swayed the hearts and lives of the great host of their times
who heard them.
The
cynic
might say that there are not more than five or six such persons in the nineteen centuries. The is he whose birth we celeFor the people who speak this English tongue which he so loved, and in which he breathed his word, he speaks the word so
last
of such prophets
brate to-day.
that they
must
"bud of God." is
for
him
shuttle, as
the it
hear.
A
Carlyle's
new-born word, when
child it is
is
a
true,
" word of God." The steamship's dashes back and forth across the
" In the message of God. God," " we when we read this again, prophet's word,
ocean,
is
Ralph Waldo Emerson
and move and have our being."
live
read these words, and as
we
see
how God
alien life
which
the blue.
It
is
we
looking backward
more,
I
draw
is it,
all
is
in
or forward
sets the elm-leaf
with which
I
listen
child of
dom
God
I
shall
nay, that I
I
my
baby
if I
which It
lives, as
Once more, I know that if I am a
told
may myself
no
word
know him and
majesty of that empire, little
was
life
new-born day.
to this prophet's
what was meant when
is it ?
is
dancing against
she exults in the joy of being.
when
This
all.
does not differ from the
life
As we
them once
receive
in in the joy of this
the same
I
47
his king-
enter into the
will
become
as a
child.
do not say,
I
do not need to say, that the
who thus exalts me for the moment, who lifts me above dust and smoke and things, prophet
into the ether of the spirit
heaven, the
I
and of the present
do not say that he understands
work of God
as
He
all
handles matter, or that
he explains it. Why should he understand it ? it ? he It is enough if he should explain Why
Ralph Waldo Emerson
48
comprehend
it,
if
he succeed
when he
bids his
life beat with the pulses of infinite life, if he rise to so high a plane that he looks beyond the
horizon of earth, beyond the horizon of Arcturus and Orion, if he
abundant
life
is
the
more you
To
and me. ing
which
know what
the Saviour promises to
avoid the temptation of explainthe temptation of earth and the flesh, of
;
writing
down on
which regulate
tablets
friction
the mechanical laws
and pain
and hatred
and
cruelty and the other accidents of time to avoid the temptation of throwflesh,
ing
away
and
gives
the
life
upon such conundrums,
true
prophet
his
infinite
this
empire.
And in him whom we celebrate to-night, whom we shall remember to-morrow and with every day of the next year whether we would or no, certainty that he could use these things of time so that the very angels of him yes, while he was light should receive
there
was the glad
into their everlasting habitations. using them In the town-meeting of Concord, in the State street
of Boston, as he spoke in Faneuil Hall,
Ralph Waldo Emerson
49
or as he bought his dinner of the butcher or of the fisherman, he could go and come as the liv-
God, who, for God's present was purpose, going about his Father's business. This vision, as of Apollo dwelling with Admetus, as of Prometheus drawing fire from ing child of a living
heaven to make clay live, as of Mango Capac walking down from the celestial heights of the Andes that the Peruvians might rightly cultivate their potatoes
and lead their llamas to the foun-
which this prophet fulfilled as he went and came, as he made a sacrament of a cup of cold water as he gave it to you, as his common words exalted themselves into the tain, is a vision
oracles of his time. I
remember no other such instance of in
one's
own
visible
life-time
upon was my good fortune to hear, in 183 7, the address which Dr. Holmes calls the Declaration of Independence of Ameri-
victory waiting manly determination.
can Literature July
at
surprise
the Phi Beta
Cambridge. shall
It
So
I
Kappa
oration of
can remember the
I say the indignation
which
Ralph Waldo Emerson
50
the simple, solid, disconnected phrases of that I address awakened among those who heard.
remember the covert criticism of the gay dinnerI remember how afterparty which followed. wards men and women freely said he was crazy. Alas, I
have
on
my own
paper
doubts whether he
the
appreciated
school-boy occasion !
after, in
one of
happened to me, forty years the most exquisite homes in America, some two mile's above the level of the sea, on that easy slope of the Rocky Mountains, among all the It
fresh comforts a
home
which make
a palace as desirable
my hostess, who is herself one to-day, a new edition of this years
before.
amazement.
I
If
read
you
it
will
when you go home you
table of
of the leaders of
oration of forty then, with absolute
look
at
it
will share that
to-night
amaze-
could not find one extravagance. could not find one word which should shock
ment. I
on the
as a log cabin, to find
For
I
the most timid.
It
was impossible
to under-
came
So had he
stand where the craziness
in.
led the age in those forty years, or so
had the
Ralph Waldo Emerson
God who
sent
him
was
51
into the world led
it,
that
over and over again. The extravagance of one day had become the commonplace of another. the prophecy
He
fulfilled
delivered the second Phi Beta
tion in the year 1867.
present, and
be
I
to hear
Kappa
ora-
had the happiness to
him
again.
No
one
then said that he was extravagant, no one said that he was insane. No one found those grave or playful utterances exceptional. Here were a thousand of the best-trained men and women
New
England, delighted that he lived, delighted that they had one opportunity more to hear the silver voice and to take home the of
infinite lesson.
his
He
had not lived in vain
reward came to him
in the
;
and
world which he
had served.
And you and
I, if
we
our gratitude for this celebrate it, are to do
are rightly to express we are wisely to
life, if
so, not
by writing ad-
dresses about him, or listening to them, nor
by
joining in functions in his honor, but by drinking at the fountain where he drank, and living
Ralph Waldo Emerson
52
with
the
life
of the Over-soul
who
inspired
him.
"From thee, great God, we spring, to thee Path, motive, guide, original, and end."
He
found out
that
these
are
we
tend:
true words.
They are poetry because they are true. This is no oriental exaggeration ; this is no finesse of rhetoric.
Here
makes human present love so infinite,
is
life
the
divine, as
human.
abundant
eternal
with
it
In that all
truth
which
makes God's life,
God's
the
joy
life
and
strength, this prophet, and all prophets, command you and me to live. They command us, they implore us, they beckon, they
quicken
we are wise, they compel us. We rise, so that we may see with its infinite perspective. We obey, so that we command with its infinite We listen, so that we may speak with power. We live, so that we may its simple truth. We are all kings, we enter into infinite joy. are all priests, we are all children of God; and with joy we acknowledge that we must go us
;
if
about our Father's business.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
We
rightly celebrate
simplicity, versal
life.
we
53
him when, with
also live in the infinite
his
and uni-
The
Character of Socrates
An
Early Essay of Emerson
The
Character of Socrates
[A Bowdoin Prize
Dissertation of 1810]
"
Guide my way Through fair Lyceum's walk, the green retreats Of Academus, and the thymy vale Where, oft enchanted with Socratic sounds, pure devolved In gentler murmurs. Ilissus
Of these
auspicious
his tuneful stream
From
fields,
the blooming store
may
I
unblamed
Transplant some living blossoms to adorn
My native
clime.
human mind has of commanded an unusual degree of
philosophy of the
THE
late years
attention
1'
from the curious and the learned.
The
increasing notice which it obtains is owing much to the genius of those men who have raised
themselves with the science to general regard, but chiefly, as its patrons contend, to the uncontrolled progress
zeal of
its
of
human improvement.
commendable, has sinned in one have
The
advocates, however, in other respects
laid a little
too
much
particular, they self-complacent stress
The
58
Character of Socrates
on the merit and success of exertions, and in their
their
own
unselfish
contempt of the absurd and trifling speculations of former metaphysicians, appear to have confounded sophists and true philfirst
osophers, and to have been disdainful of some who have enlightened the world and marked out a path for future advancement.
Indeed, the giant strength of modern improvement is more indebted to the early wisdom of
Thales and Socrates and Plato than allowed, or perhaps than
is
generally
modern philosophers
have been well aware.
This supposition is strongly confirmed by a consideration of the character of Socrates, which, in every view,
one
who
is
uncommon and
should read
Xenophon and
admirable.
his life as
recorded
To by
Plato without previous knowl-
edge of the man, the extraordinary character and circumstances of his biography would appear incredible.
It
would seem
that antiquity had
endeavored to fable forth a being clothed with the perfection which the purest and brightest imagination could conceive or combine, bestow-
all
The
Character of Socrates
ing upon the piece only so
make
much
tangible and imitable. imaginary view of the character, to
of mortality as
Even
it
inclined to
59
we
wonder that men, without
in this
have been
a revelation,
by the light of reason only, should set forth a model of moral perfection which the wise of any
And, further, it age would do well to imitate. might offer a subject of ingenious speculation, to
mark the
points of difference, should
modern
superiority of philosophic and theological knowledge, endeavor to create a simBut this is foreign to our purpose. ilar paragon.
fancy, with
It will
all its
be well, in reviewing the character of mark the age in which he lived, as
Socrates, to
the moral and political circumstances of the times would probably exert an important and immediate
on his opinions and character. The dark ages of Greece, from the settlement of the colonies to the Trojan War, had long closed.
influence
The young
republics
had
been
growing
in
strength, population, and territory, digesting their
constitutions and
importance.
The
building
Persian
up
their
War,
name and
that hard but
The
60
Character of Socrates
memorable controversy of rage and spite, conflicting with energetic and disciplined independence, had shed over their land an effulgence of glory which richly deserved all that applause
which
after ages
have bestowed.
It
was
a stern
human
of
trial
pardoned
if,
in
effort, and the Greeks might be their intercourse with less glorious
nations, they carried the record of their long
tri-
umph too far to conciliate national jealousies. The aggrandizement of Greece which followed this
memorable war was the zenith of
and splendor, and ushered of the political fabric.
The
its
in the decay
powers and fall
age of Pericles has caused Athens to be in history. At no time during her
remembered
existence were the arts so flourishing, popular and feeling so exalted and refined, or her
taste
political
relations
so extensive and respected.
The
Athenian people were happy at home, reverenced abroad, and at the head of the Grecian confederacy.
Their commerce was
and their wars few and honorable. period
it
was
In
lucrative, this mild
to be expected that literature
and
The science tering
Character of Socrates
61
would grow up vigorously under the fosThe patronage of taste and power.
Olympian games awakened the emulation of genius and
produced
dramatic
the
efforts
of
/Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, and philosophy came down from heaven
and Socrates.
to Anaxagoras, Archelaus,
Such was the external and obvious condition apparently prosperous, but a concealed evil began to display specific and disastrous The sophists had acquired the consequences.
of Athens,
brightest popularity
and influence, by the exhibiaccomplishments whose
tion of those superficial
novelty captivated the minds of an ingenious people, its
among whom
infancy. sake.
own
modity. such as
was yet
in
Learning was not yet loved for
its
It
The it
exorbitant,
true learning
was prized
as a
com-
saleable
sophists bargained their literature,
was, for a price
;
and
this price,
was yet regulated by the
ability
ever
of the
scholar.
That
this singular order
sess so strong
of
men
should pos-
an influence over the Athenian
The
62
public argues
Character of Socrates
no strange or unnatural
state of
been sometimes represented j it the proper and natural result of improvement society, as has
a
By
money-making community.
is
in
the prosperity
of their trading interests all the common wants of society were satisfied, and it was natural that the
mind should next
urge. its claim to cultivation,
and the surplus of property be expended for the This has been gratification of the intellect. found true in the growth of
all
after successful trade, literature
that
nations,
soon throve well,
provided the human mind was cramped by no u disadvantages of climate or skyey influences."
The
Athenian sophists adapted their course of pursuits of knowledge, with admirable skill, to the taste of the people.
They
first
approved them-
selves masters of athletic exercises, for the
want
of which no superiority of intellect, however consummate, would compensate in the Grecian republics.
They
then applied themselves to the which enabled
cultivation of forensic eloquence,
them
to discourse volubly, if ignorantly,
subject and
on any
on any occasion, however unexpected.
The
To
become
Character of Socrates
63
grand art, it was necessary to acquire, by habit and diligence, an imperturbable self-possession which could conperfect
in
this
front, unabashed, the rudest accident
;
and more-
of respondent and exclamatory phrases, skilfully constructed to meet the emerAfter this gencies of a difficult conversation. over, a
flood
laudable education had thus far accomplished its aim, the young sophist became partially con-
versant with the limited learning of the age in all The poets, the historians, the sages, its subjects. the writers on the useful arts, each and all
And occupied by turns his glancing observation. when the motley composition of his mind was full, it
only remained to stamp upon his character to make him what the peculiarities,
some few
moderns have
"
and his mannerist," education was considered professional complete. When the sophists made themselves known, called a
they assumed a sanctity of manners, which awed familiarity and very conveniently cloaked their sinister designs.
Pythagoras, after his perseverexertions for the attainment of knowledge, ing
The
64
after his varied
Character of Socrates
and laborious
lished a romantic school at
had estab-
Crotona with
tions resembling free masonry, in
travels,
institu-
which had planted
Greece prepossessions favorable
The
to philosophy. of their prejuavailed themselves sophists
dices, and amused the crowds who gathered at the rumor of novelty, with riddles and defini-
with gorgeous theories of existence, splendid fables and presumptuous professions. They laid claim to all knowledge, and craftily
tions,
continued to steal the respect of a credulous populace, and to enrich themselves by pretending When to instruct the children of the opulent. they had thus fatally secured their own emolument, they rapidly threw off the assumed rigidity
of their morals, and, under covert of a sort of perfumed morality, indulged themselves and their followers in abominable excesses, degrading the
mind and debauching
virtue.
Unhappily
for
Greece, the contaminating vices of Asiatic luxury, the sumptuous heritage of Persian War,
had but too naturally seconded depravity.
the
growing
The
The
Character of Socrates
youth of great
which
men
is
65
seldom marked by Their
arrest observation.
any minds have secret workings ; and, though they feel and enjoy the consciousness of genius, they seldom betray prognostics of greatness. Many peculiarities
who were
cradled by misfortune and want have reproached the sun as he rose and went down, for amidst the baseness of circumstances their
large
minds were
bowed lowly
unsatisfied, unfed
to those
many have their own have gone down many ;
whose names
were destined to outlive
;
to their graves in obscurity, for fortune withheld
them from eminence, and
to
beg they were
ashamed.
Of
the son of the sculptor and midwife
know
that he
became eminent
we
as a sculptor,
only but displaying genius for higher pursuits, Crito, who afterward became his disciple, procured for
him admission
to the schools
tion as the times furnished.
and to such educa-
But the rudiments
of his character and his homely virtues were formed in the workshop, secluded from temptation ; and those inward operations of his strong
The
66
Character of Socrates
mind were begun which were afterwards matured in the ripeness
We shall
of
life.
proceed to examine the character of
the philosopher, after premising that we do not intend to give the detail of his life, but shall occa-
of biography as illustrative sionally adduce facts With regard of the opinions we have formed. to the method pursued in the arrangement of our remarks, we must observe that sketches of the character of an individual can admit of definiteness of plan, but
we
shall direct
little
our atten-
tion to a consideration of the leading features of his
mind, and to a few of
which went
to
make up
his
moral excellences
the great aggregate of
his character.
The
chief advantage which he
owed
to nature,
the source of his philosophy and the foundation of his character, was a large share of plain good a shrewdness which would not suffer sense,
be duped, and withal, concealed under a semblance of the frankest simplicity, which itself to
beguiled the objects of his pursuit into conversaThis tion and confidence which met his wishes.
The was the his
and
which enabled him
faculty
own bias
Character of Socrates
67
to investigate
character, to learn the natural
of his
own
tendency
genius, and thus to perfectly
control his mental energies.
There which
is
a story of Socrates, related by Cicero, somewhat with the opinion we
militates
have formed of
his
mind,
that
when
a physi-
having examined his features, had pronounced him a man of bad passions and
ognomist, after
depraved character, Socrates reproved the indignation of his disciples by acknowledging the truth of the assertion so far as nature
cerned, saying that life
it
to eradicate these violent
art,
his
This
passions.
might have been merely a trick of such is consistent with his character. not view
was con-
had been the object of
and as
We
can-
any other light ; for although it is that natural malignity might have very probable darkened
it
his early life, yet
own would his
whole
in
no assertion of
his
convince us, in contradiction with and instruction, that he was ever
life
Such, too, was subject to the fiercer passions. the order of his intellect. He was a man of
The
68
Character of Socrates
strong and vivid conceptions, but utterly desti-
he possessed originality and His powerful sometimes sublimity of thought. mind had surmounted the unavoidable errors of
tute of fancy.
Still,
education, and had retained those acquirements
which are found applicable
mon
life,
comwhatever was
to the uses of
whilst he had discarded
absurd or unprofitable. He studied the nature and explored the desNottinies of men with a chastised enthusiasm. withstanding
the
sober, dispassionate
mind which we have mentioned, he
moved
at all
times;
when he
is
turn
of
not un-
enters into the
upon the immortality of the soul and the nature and attributes of Deity, he forgets his quibbles upon terms, and his celebrated irony, discussion
and sensibly warms and expands with his theme. This was aided by the constant activity of his mind, which endowed him with energy of thought and language, and its discipline never suffered
him
to obtrude an unguarded emotion.
In perfect accordance with this view of his mind is his conduct under circumstances related
The
Character of Socrates
69
by Plato. In prison, whilst under condemnation, he was directed in vision to seek the favor of the
Muses.
This new
upon him
discipline enjoined
temper and His habits of feeling usual to the philosopher. reduce which would and sense logical mind, plain the utterly incongruous with
was
to mathematical everything, however impressive,
measurement, were little conversant, we may supIn fact, we could pose, with poetical visions. not suppose a character more diametrically opposite to the soul of the poet, in all the gradations
of cultivated mind, than the soul of Socrates. The food and occupation of the former has to
do with
dreams, airy nothings, of glory and joy and evil, bright personifications and we imagine him sitting apart, like Brahma, golden
moulding magnificent forms, clothing them with The latter dwells on beauty and grandeur. earth, dealing plainly
and bluntly with
men and
men's actions, instructing them what to do and to forbear ; and even when he desires to lift his it is only to mingle with higher reality, but never forsaking safe,but tedious,paths of certainty.
tone,
The
jo All this
Character of Socrates
we know, and
rates selected to
the
manner which Soc-
perform the task assigned him
creates neither disappointment nor surprise
;
for
perhaps in the biographical annals of his country there
was no
intellect
whose leading
feature
more
nearly resembled his own than ^Esop, whose fables he undertook to versify. It may well be supposed that a mind thus cast
was eminently calculated to
instruct,
didactic disposition always rendered
and
him
his
rather
the teacher than the companion of his friends.
Add
to all this
an unrivalled keenness of peneof others, and hence
tration into the character
arose his ruling motive in all his intercourse with men ; it was not to impart literary knowledge or
information in science or art, but to lay open to
human mind, and all its unacknowledged propensities, its weak and fortified All positions, and the springs of human action. his
this
own view
the
was achieved by the power of
his art,
and
it
enabled him easily to grasp the mind, and mould it at will, and to unite and direct the wandering energies of the
human
soul.
The
Character of Socrates
71
His mind was cultivated, though his learning He was acquainted with the works little.
was
of the most eminent poets of his country, but as he seems never to have made literature his study, the limited erudition he possessed
was probably
gleaned from the declamations of the sophists, whose pride never scrupled to borrow abundantly
from the superfluous light which departed genius His own acquisitions had been made afforded.
workshops of the Athenian artisans, in the and by insociety of Aspasia and Theombrota,
in the
experienced observation. Though living in Athens, he acquired little taste for the elegance or pride of life ; surrounded
telligent,
he was by the living marbles which all succeeding ages have consented to admire, and then
as
just breathing
from the hand of the
artist,
he
appeared utterly dead to their beauties, and used them only as casual illustrations of an argument. In the gratification of his desire to learn
and know mankind, he visited the poor and the rich, the virtuous and the degraded, and set himself to explore all the varieties
of circumstances
The
72
Character of Socrates
occurring in a great city, that he might discover what were "the elements which furnish forth
We may judge
from the acquaintances of the
philosopher what were the minds most congenial Of his great contemporaries, to his own. Euripides Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, He never atalone was his pupil and friend.
tended the theatre only as his tragedies were to This warmth of feeling for the be performed. chaste and tender dramatist should defend
mind from the imputation of
his
utter deafness to
The majestic and sublime and beauty. not so intimately allied was of Sophocles genius taste
to the every-day morals of Socrates
;
Euripides
taught more human nature in mon aspects. The oracle of Delphos
knew and his
choice
2o(/>o'v
in
that
2,o(j>OK\f}S,
remarkable
o-ocjxorepos
its
com-
justified
declaration
:
EuptTTtS?}?, av-
Spcovre iravT&v, ^(o/cpdrrj? cro^coraro?. The fathers, with their usual grudge against the heathen oracles, formed singular opinions
respecting
this
extraordinary
decree.
" The
The
73
of the opinion that the Devil, he delivered that sentence, by giving Socis
great Origen
when
Character of Socrates
rates those partners purposely
whilst he
was
in
obscured his glory,
some measure forced
to applaud
it."
We
have attempted to draw the outline of one of the most remarkable minds which human history has
was rendered
recorded, and which its
wonderful adaptation to the
extraordinary by times in which he lived.
We
must now hasten
to our great task of developing the moral superiority
A
of the philosopher.
manly philosophy has named
temperance, and prudence
fortitude,
prime virtues. All belonged, in a high degree of perfection, to the son of Sophroniscus, but fortitude more particularly.
Perhaps
it
its
was not a
natural virtue, but
the first-fruits of his philosophy. constitution was built up like his
A mind whose the will of
the philosopher moulding the roughest materials into form and order might create its own virtues,
and
set
them
aggregate of character.
in array to
He was
compose the not like other
The
74
men, the
Character of Socrates
sport of circumstances, but by the per-
severing habits
of forbearance and
self-denial
he had acquired that control over his whole being which enabled him to hold the same even, unchangeable temperament in all the extremes of his fortunes.
This exemption from the
influ-
ences of circumstances in the moral world
is
almost like exemption from the law of gravitation in the natural economy. The exemplifications of this fortitude are familiar.
When
all
the judges of the senate, betraying an unworthy pusillanimity, gave way to an iniquitous demand
of the populace, Socrates alone disdained to sacrifice justice to the fear of the people.
On broken
another occasion, in the forefront of a battle, Alcibiades
ness of his master.
owed
his life to the firm-
Patriotic
steadfastness in
resistance to the oppression of the Thirty is
recorded to his honor.
Although
we
Tyrants are un-
willing to multiply these familiar instances, we would not be supposed to undervalue that milder fortitude which Diogenes Laertius has lauded, and which clouded his domestic joys. The vie-
tory over
The
Character of Socrates
human
habits and passions
bring them
75
which
shall
into such subjection as to be sub-
servient to the real advantage of the possessor is
that necessary virtue
nominate temperance. this particularly because
which philosophers de-
We are led its
to speak of
existence in the char-
acter of Socrates has been questioned.
The impurity of public morals and the prevalence of a debasing vice has left a festering reproach on the name of Athens, which deepens as the
manners of
and
improved. and paragraphs formerly led rates.
civilized nations
have altered
Certain in the
many
equivocal expressions Dialogues of Plato have
to fasten the stigma
on Soc-
This abomination has likewise been
laid
of Virgil, and probably with as Socrates taught that every soul was an justice. immutable form of beauty in the divine eternal, to the charge
little
mind, and that the most beautiful mortals approached nearest to that celestial mould ; that it was the honor and delight of human intellect to contemplate this beau ideal, and that this was better done through the medium of earthly per-
The
j6 fection.
For
Character of Socrates
this
reason this sober enthusiast
associated with such companions as Alcibiades, Critias,
A
and other beautiful Athenians.
the Quarterly Review, the better to vindicate the character of Aristophanes late article in
from the reproach attached to him as the author of " The Clouds," has taken some pains to attack the unfortunate butt of the comedian's buffoonIt is unpleasant at this day to find facts misrepresented in order to conform to a system,
ery.
and unwarranted insinuations wantonly thrown out to vilify the most pure philosopher of antiquity,
for
no other purpose than to add the
interest of novelty to a transient publication.
It
a strong, and one would think an unanswerable, argument against the allegation, that his is
unsparing calumniator, the bitter Aristophanes, should have utterly omitted this grand reproach, while he wearies his sarcasm on more insignificant
follies.
Nor
was not accounted of the age
did he pass a
it
crime, as
by because if
it
the fashion
the enormity ; for in this justifies identical play he introduces his Just Orator,
The
Character of Socrates
77
declaiming against this vice in particular and remembering with regret the better manners of
when
better times,
lascivious gestures
were un-
studied and avoided and the cultivated strength
of manhood was devoted to austere, laborious The whole character and public instrucvirtue. tions of Socrates ought to
have shielded him from
imputation, while they manifest its utter When the malignity of an early improbability.
this
historian had given birth to the suspicion, the fathers,
(whose parts),
diffuse
who
often bore no good-will to Socrates acquired greatness eclipsed their natural
often employed their pens to confirm and it owes its old it, and currency chiefly to
their exertions.
We shall not speak particularly of the prudence of Socrates.
He
philosophical
signification
possessed
it abundantly, in the but of the term,
none of that timorous caution which might
inter-
fere with the impulses of patriotism, duty, or
courage. It
to
seems
become
to
have been a grand aim of his life a reformer of the abuses
a patriot,
The
78
Character of Socrates
of morals and virtue which had become a national
He saw
calamity.
plunging without degradation.
country embarrassed, and help in the abyss of moral his
Dissipation
and
made
excess
Athens their home and revelled with impunity. " " Give us a was song of Anacreon or Alcaeus !
common
the
had entwined
A
cry. itself
frightful voluptuousness about the devoted city, and
consequences had begun In these circumstances, when all eyes appeared to be blinded to the jeopardy by the fatal incantations of vagrant vine-clad Muses, its
ultimate baneful
their
this
work.
high-toned moralist saw the havoc that was
in operation.
He
desired to restore his country-
men; he would not treacherously descend to flatter them.
To accomplish this, he selected a different course from the ordinary plans of young men. To after
an Athenian entering on life and aspiring eminence, the inducements to virtue were
weak and few, but to vice numberless and strong. Popularity was to be acquired among these degenerate
republicans
;
not as formerly
among
The
Character of Socrates
79
by toilsome struggles for pre-eminence in purity, by discipline and austere virtue, but by squandered wealth, profligacy, and
their great ancestors,
of the corrupt populace. What, then, had an obscure young man, poor and friendless, flattery
to expect, sternly binding himself to virtue,
and
attacking the prevalent vices and prejudices of a This was certainly no unworthy great nation ?
prototype of the circumstances of the founders of the Christian religion. He devoted himself entirely to the instruction
of the young, aston-
them with
a strange system of doctrines ishing which inculcated the love of poverty, the for-
giveness of injuries, with other virtues equally
unknown and
unpractised.
His philosophy was a source of good sense and of sublime and practical morality. He directs his disciples
to
know and
principles of virtue
;
practise
the purest
to be upright, benevolent,
and brave; to shun vice, TO Orjpiov^ .the dreadful monster which was roaring through
The motives which he presented for their encouragement were as pure as earth for his prey.
The
8o the
life
Character of Socrates
Such inducements
they recommended.
were held up as advancement in the gradations the proud of moral and intellectual perfection,
becoming more acceptable in the eye of Divinity, and the promise to virtue of comdelight of
munications from other and higher spheres of The notions of the nature of God existence.
which Socrates entertained were
infinitely
more
correct and adequate than those of any other philosopher before him whose opinions have
come down
to us.
Additional praise is due to him, since he alone dared to express his sentiments on the subject
and is
"
his infidelity to the popular religion.
God ?
"
said the
disciples to Plato.
What "
It is
" hard," answered the philosopher, to know, and impossible to divulge."
Here
is
that reluctance
which timorous believers were obliged to display. " What is God ? " said they to Socrates, and " The who has God he replied,
himself,
great
formed the universe and sustains the stupendous work whose every part is finished with the ut-
most goodness and harmony
;
he
who
preserves
The them to
Character of Socrates
81
perfect in immortal vigor and causes
obey him with
them
unfailing punctuality and a
be followed rapidity not to
by the imagination himself sufficiently visible by the endless wonders of which he is the author, but this
God makes
This is u Let us not, continues, believe even what we do not
continues always invisible in himself." explicit
and noble.
then, refuse to
He
supply the defect of our corporeal eyes by using those of the soul ; but especially let us learn to render the just homage behold, and
let
us
of respect and veneration to that Divinity whose will it seems to be that we should have no other perception of him but by his effects in our favor.
Now
homage, consists in can and we pleasing him, only please him by this adoration, this
doing his will."
These
are the exalted sentiments and motives
which Socrates enforced upon men, not
in insu-
lated or extraordinary portions of his system but
through the whole compass of his instructions. Convinced that the soul is endowed with energies
and powers, by which,
if
well directed, she strives
The
82
Character of Socrates
and climbs continually towards perfection, it was his object to stimulate and guide her ; to quicken her aspirations with
new
motives, to discover
and apply whatever might spur on conscientious endeavor or back its efforts with omnipotent* strength.
He
wished the care and improvement
of the soul to be of chief concern, that of the
body comparatively trifling. The natural effect of his philosophy was to form an accomplished so perfect a man as was compatible pagan, with the state of society ; and this state should not
be underrated.
A
nation of disciples of Socrates
would suppose a state of human advancement which modern ambition and zeal, with all its superiority of knowledge and religion, might never hope to attain. And, could Athens have her and corruptors, and by exsophists expelled hibiting respect for his instructions have extended
the influence of her most mighty mind until the the chastity of her manners was restored and
of her dotage displaced by active virhad her citizens then become the converts
infirmities
tues,
and advocates of Socratic sentiments,
she might
The
Character of Socrates
83
have flourished and triumphed on till this day, a and admirable commonwealth of philoso-
free
phers, and looked with enviable unconcern
on
the revolutions about her that have agitated and swallowed up nations ; and Philip of Maceall
don and
Mummius
obscurity. offer
But
of
Rome
might have slept in and we can
this is digression,
no apology except the pleasure which such must now proceed to say
We
a vision affords.
something of
The
his
Sai/jLcov
ambiguous genius. of Socrates partakes so much
of the marvellous that there
wonder
arising
is
no cause
for
from the difference of opinion
manifested in
its
to ascribe the
most to
discussion.
Those who
love
inspiration in the prophets
of God's revealed religion claim this mysterious personage as akin to the ministering spirits of
Hebrew faith. know not of this
the
Those who, with Xenophon, similarity, or
who do
not find
foundation for this belief, look upon the Saificov only as a personification of natural sagacity ;
some have
charitably supposed that the philoso-
pher himself was deluded into a false conviction
The
84
Character of Socrates
tnat he enjoyed a peculiar communication with the gods by the intervention of a supernatural learned their will and accomplished their being,
ends.
These supposed claims which
laid to divine inspiration
carry their veneration to a more extent than we can safely follow.
We
are
plausible
willing
to
Socrates
have induced many to
allow
arguments who have
marvellous
they have considered the
that
philosopher in the more imposing view, as an especial light of the world commissioned from
heaven and as a distant forerunner of the Saviour himself.
Dr. Priestley, with a bolder hand, has comparison between Socrates and
instituted a
the Saviour himself.
We
are not disposed to
enter upon these discussions, as they do not lead It is probto truth and serve only to bewilder. able that the philosopher adopted the successful artifice
of Lycurgus, referring his instructions to
higher agents in order to enforce their obediWith regard to the innocence of the ence. artifice, although perhaps no philosopher has a sincerer
reverence
for truth, yet the
doctrine
The
Character of Socrates
was but too common were
free to
at
that
85
time that they
promulgate useful falsehoods
;
and
he imagined that the necessity of the case might acquit Lycurgus, certainly a falsehood of if
a
more heinous nature would
been
present have
at
justifiable.
The entitled
death of this illustrious
him
man
has chiefly
The
to the veneration of mankind.
mild magnanimity which could forgive and justify its unjust oppressors; the benevolence which forgot self and its pains and necessities in the ardor of instructing others ; the grandeur of soul
which disdained self-preservation purchased the expense of inflexible principle
at
the courage these are vir-
;
which stooped not in extremity which the human understanding always must approve, and which compel admiration. We have heard much of triumphant and honor-
tues
able deaths at the stake
or from natural causes in
martyrdom
or by sudden violence, men who have died
of
for liberty, religion, or love
are glorious indeed and excellent.
taking
into
;
these
But without
consideration the allowance to be
The
86
Character of Socrates
made
for exaggeration
lous,
we
and the love of the marvel-
should attribute
much
to the influence
An enthusiast is hurried suddenly of despair. and from family friendship and all the atmosphere his joys and hopes and habits of social life
-
to the place of torture and execution, to pay the
The quick and penalty of adherence to a tenet. fearful change of circumstances bewilders and overwhelms a mind
by things exthe place of takes sensibility of of but mind, and, partially conscious sanity his conduct, he mechanically repeats the language
ternal.
easily affected
Morbid
follows strongly written on his memory ; and it that the ignorant mistake his imbecility for fearlessness,
and
his insensibility for blissful antici-
pation of approaching glory.
Such cases are by
no means improbable, and a strict scrutiny of miraculous last words and dying speeches will^ But in the sacrifice of Socrates there find them. is
no shadow of
might attach
a doubt
itself.
The
on which
incredulity
firmness and uncon-
cern with which he regards the approach of death are truly astonishing ; there does not appear to
The
Character of Socrates
87
of excitement, not the alteration of a degree in his mental temHe met his agitated friends with the perature.
have been the
slightest accession
usual calm discourse and deliberate reasoning. He spoke upon the subject, it is true, when they
frequently introduced
it,
but willingly acquiesced
of superior intelligence, and to unveil the sublime purhis reason employed of Providence. poses in the ordinations
A fortunate
superstition of the Athenians fur-
nished him with the opportunity of manifesting the sincerity and greatness of his philosophy, as the length of time between his condemnation and death enabled him to hold frequent inter-
course with his disciples.
Human
sincerity has
seldom passed a severer ordeal than did the principles of Socrates. Notwithstanding the minute accuracy with which his every action has been detailed, we know not that the fortitude of which
we have spoken
ever abandoned him to a
We
mo-
behold him upbraidthe or ing pusillanimity, soothing the sorrows, of those friends whose office it should have been,
ment's melancholy.
The
88
Character of Socrates
in the ordinary course of circumstances, to alle-
viate his
own
dying agonies.
The
dignity and
grandeur of soul, everywhere predominant, is sustained to the conclusion of the great tragedy, till
we
are irresistibly led to bestow
upon the
pagan the praise of a perfect man. It is melancholy to turn from this heroic event, this mighty giving-up of the ghost, to the dark history of the causes and agents of so foul a der.
We
should avoid
all
recurrence to
mur-
it,
and
save mankind the shock and blush of recollection, did not we think that some palliation might be pleaded to soften this black disgrace on a name we so much love to venerate as that of
Athens.
When
the philosopher began
life
there was
a freshness of glory diffused over his country
which no
after times equalled.
magnificent
success
in
arms
There had been and
arts,
and
which overshadowed the great names of their own romance, Hercules and Theseus and Achilles. These stupendous suc-
achievements
cesses, to
which modern history does not pre-
The
Character of Socrates
89
tend to offer a parallel, had become familiar to
them, and led them to that independence of character the ultimate effect of which was that caprice
which distinguished the people of Athens.
was
natural, further beholding the full disof their play might, which had been thus gloriously exhibited, that these republicans should It
acquire confidence in themselves, a fearlessness
of contending interests about them, and of the consequences of their own actions, which was imparted from the political community as a whole to each separate state, and from the state to each individual.
youthful Socrates.
Such countrymen had the But he lived to see them
degenerate, and crouch to the despotism of the Thirty ; to submit to defeat abroad, and to fac-
home. All this, however, had little on that caprice whose cause we have When the anarchy of the Thirty mentioned. Tyrants was over, the impatience with which the
tion
at
effect
people remembered their
own
submission only nor is it ;
increased the action of their caprice
extraordinary if an overflowing zeal to approve
The
90
Character of Socrates
themselves freemen should have made judgment hasty.
We
should rejoice
were referable merely liberty
;
but
it
if
the death of Socrates
to this
impetuous
spirit
of
belongs chiefly to that general
was the passion attack and reprehend. Their
debasement of morals which of Socrates to
it
progress is sufficiently marked by the successive characters of the comedy, from its primal inno-
cence to
its
third stage,
when
became fashionable which
that
grossness
stains the
dramas of
Aristophanes. But not only their anger at the man who reproached them with their vices induced them to offer violence to him, but likewise his infidelity to the religion of their fathers,
duction of
new
doctrines.
Grosser
and introinfidelity
than that for which Socrates suffered, and which his predecessors Anaxagoras and Archelaus had
wisdom enough to entertain but dared not avow, was openly proclaimed in the licentious theatre, But there is and applauded by the multitude.
The
Character of Socrates
some appearance of
91
plausibility in the
apology
for that inconsistency.
In the theatre, impiety excited strong feeling,
and the people's gratitude to the poet who could so faithfully amuse them would easily find apology for more glaring impropriety. But the philosopher was the teacher of youth, who should do away with every improper impression, and might not be allowed to infringe upon the faith they had been accustomed to venerate. Besides, they came to the lectures of the sage with dispassionate minds, and there was no purpose of feeling to be answered which might pardon the introduction of what they termed pro-
warm
fanity.
We
must confess
check and change the religion.
When
tertains of his
that
it
free tide of
is
hard to
an ancient
old prejudices which man enare fixed ; when he is
Maker
reasoning himself into a consent to the laws of God which govern him ; when he has incorporated the
names and
know and make
attributes of those
his destiny
with
all
his
who views
The
92
Character of Socrates
be
bad or good, be its tendency what it may, till he is convinced of its error he will repel with indigna-
of existence
tion the
;
this religion
that
power
came
to rend
and shatter
the whole constitution of his soul.
The memory
of Socrates was vindicated from
calumny by the subsequent sorrow of the Athenians, who endeavored to atone for their crime by honors splendid executed
the
costly
if
Lysippus of their respect,
unavailing.
tribute
and the vengeance of the senate accusers, in
punishment
fell
upon the
adequate to their guilt.
Socrates led a sanctimonious
life.
He was
abstemious, and his whole demeanor corresponded with the coarseness of his features and the deformity of his person.
By
harsh disci-
pline he endeavored to subdue his corporeal wants so far as to make them merely subservient to the mental advantage, yet never carrying it
to anything like that excess of Indian superwhich worships God by outraging nature.
stition
This unnatural expression of courage has been
The
Character of Socrates
called an assertion of the dignity of
man
93
man.
Hu-
nature wants no such champions. must hasten to take our leave of the
We
illustrious
Grecian.
As
the head of the Ionic
school, he did more to found true philosophy on its legitimate basis than any other master. When
we
consider
how much
this individual fulfilled
of the great duty which every man owes to his that of crowding into a little life fellowmen, the most extended benefit, and contributing the strength of his soul to the aggrandizement of the species,
men can cope
we
acknowledge that few with him. Lord Bacon, the shall
foremost of those few, did not irreproachable character.
come up
to his
The
Present State of Ethical
Philosophy An
Early Essay of Emerson
The
Present State of Ethical
Philosophy [A Bowdoin Prize
Dissertation of 1821]
the present system of things began being, and the eternal relations of mat-
WHEN its
were established, the constitution of moral It began with science was yet to be founded. ter
the social
human
condition,
sense of duty to his
with man's
Maker and
first
to his fellow-
has remained in permanent eternal principles, designed to regulate the present life and to conduct the human race to their unseen
man.
and
It
final destinies.
Its
development was
later
:
with rude and unworthy beginnings, in which
Advancement was long
scarcely perceptible and
always uncertain, and blessed with no charter of exemption from the difficulties of error. For a time
it
was extricating
itself
from the conse-
quences of mistake, and improving
its
condi-
tion, sometimes, however, making a false step and plunging deeper into gulfs of absurdity and
The
98
pollution
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
has finally placed itself on ground in the circle of human
but
;
respectable
it
knowledge. It were a bold and useless enquiry, and leading back beyond the limits of human informaapology of interest and importance, to ask what surpassing mind conceives the germ of moral science, or how tion, certainly claiming the
it
was communicated from heaven
was the
to earth.
It
beautiful and eternal offspring of other
worlds, and conferred on this by interposition which no discoveries might anticipate.
We
shall briefly sketch the history
of ethical
philosophy, and notice some prominent distinctions which separate ancient from modern ethics, before
we
proceed to consider the present state
of the science.
We
find irregular
and casual hints of moral
science thrown out by the most distinguished ancient Greek poets, descending, as is supposed,
We
know remotely from primeval revelation. of none, however, among the first schools of Grecian philosophy, who set himself apart for
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
99
the sublime purpose of gathering up the relations which bind man to the uni erse about him. ;
Ethics were not thus early separated from the immature, misunderstood sciences of logic and metaphysics.
The
world was not old enough
have accurately parcelled and distributed her science into professions. The amassed stores of to
experience were not then overflowing her garners, now, when ages of industry have elapsed to
as
define and multiply the offices of her stewards. Believing, as the philosophical ancients appear to have done, that the world as they found
it
has
forever subsisted, and should continue to subsist,
and that an inscrutable Fate overruled their
destinies,
who might make them,
at pleasure,
demigods or nonentities after death, they had but scanty encouragement for any grand and holy system which the ardor of virtue might induce them to form. Enthusiasm was chilled
by the awful, unrevealing silence which prevailed over nature, and the sanctions which it supplied were inadequate to the support of a great religious faith.
ioo
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
Some, astonished at the lustre and enchantment with which this visible world was illumined and renewed, imagined the possibility of a more intimate connection between man and nature, and hence arose the mysteries of Eleu" The sis, and the doctrine of natural magic.
" Egypt," says Madame de Stael, the system of emanations of the Hindoo, the Persian adoration of the elements, are vestiges of
religion of
some curious
attraction
the universe."
More
which united man
fortunate
is
to
our condi-
we recognize, with scientific delight, ; these attractions ; they are material, still they tion
are the agency of Deity, and we value them as subservient to the great relations we seek and
pant after, in moral attractions,
from
his
affinities
and
intellectual
moral influence.
But the
high and adventurous ends which these interpreters proposed to themselves were unan-
swered and afterwards perverted in corrupt times. Others among the ancients were fain to believe the voice of long
descended tradition, and
awaited the return of the departed gods with
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
101
of ample dispensations, and piously congratulated themselves on the security of human condition under the protection of the
golden age
Others threw themselves head-
Providence.
long on the comfortless creed of the administration of chance, and scoffed at the hopes and terrors of all, as distempered dreams.
To
this frail
and
fleeting order
of beings, per-
secuted by the same natural obstructions to possible aggrandizement, the progress of ages has unfolded, and immediate revelation sanctioned, a system of morality so complete and divine, and its promises attended with presentiments so rich of glory hereafter, as to exalt late the species to the boldest
and assimi-
forms of ideal
excellence.
We
date the reduction of ethics to anything like a separate system from the time of Socrates.
" Socrates
videtur, primus ab occultis rebus et a na-
tura ipsa involutis, in quibus ante eum philosophi occupati fuerunt, philosophiam avocavisse et ad communem
vitam adduxisse."* * Cic. Acadcm. Quacstiones.
IO2
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy-
Others before him had been ambitious of
dic-
tating laws for the government of kings and empires, or had locked up their results and con-
clusions in costly manuscripts, so that their influence upon the public was remote and insig-
But
philosopher extended his wisdom to the body of the people in the first city of the world, and communicated to his nificant.
this patriotic
disciples, not a hieroglyphical scripture to amuse the learned and awe the ignorant, but practical
rules of life, adapted immediately to their
con-
and character, and little infected by the dogmas of the age. To the inquisitive he un-
dition
folded his system, and the laws and dependenThe grandeur of his views cies of morals.
regarding the Deity far outwent those of his contemporaries, whose malice exposed him to op-
probrium as a blasphemer. There is an important circumstance attached to Socrates, which that should not be forgotten in ethical history, from him is derived the modern custom of
grounding virtue on a single principle. In treating of things which are just, by which
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
he meant virtuous^ he declares just
which are agreeable
all
things to be
to the laws. this to
103
Modern
be a flimsy
improvement acknowledges and fallacious criterion, which must necessarily vary under every different government, and which state
sufficiently indicates the then imperfect
of morals.
In the beginning of the seventeenth century, " triBacon's " Inductive Philosophy
when
umphed over
Aristotle,
and the authority of the
Grecian sage began to decline, multitudes united to accelerate his fall. The indignation of the zealots against his errors
went beyond bounds, and
proceeded to abolish his empire in those depart-
ments where
it
deserved to remain entire.
Such
violent zeal will probably create a reaction at The ethics of Aristotle some future period.
have been
little
read, and serve only to aston-
with the comprehenremark and the advancement of knowl-
ish the occasional student
sion of
edge which they contain. Aristotle
pursues different views of morals
from the moderns, and
exhibits
unexpected
'
:
inrrmT
:
io6
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
philosophy never made such vast between Soc-
Unassisted
proficiency as at the time elapsing rates
and
Antoninus.
After
this
time
the
Christian religion comes in, supplying the defects and correcting the errors of morality, and establishing
on the whole a grander system
;
but
human
ingenuity alone never soared so high as the epoch we have marked. during From these philosophers, ethics were delivered
down
to the Christian fathers with all the
new motives and sanctions opened by revelation. With all their parade of schools and disputations, the fathers did little to settle the founda-
They wrote much about them, and collected the crude materials for others to
tions of morals.
analyze.
They endeavored
to
show
a contra-
of reason and revelation, and to substitute their expositions of the one for the
riety in the laws
plain dictates of the other.
of the monastic
which were the
Roman
cell,
and
But the obscurity narrow views
the
upon each succession of Priesthood, were unfavorable to
entailed
grand apprehensions of moral science.
Some
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
107
of them were sufficiently familiar with Greek Roman philosophy to take up the subject on proper grounds, but it was beyond the force
and
of minds perverted by bigotry to continue as had been begun.
The
it
history of this hierarchy must always phenomenon in the annals of the
remain a world.
The commissioned
apostles of peace
and religion were seen arming the nations of Europe to a more obstinate and pernicious contest
with
known ; and pursued with seven successions of
than had ever been fatal
hostility,
bloodshed and horror, on the crimson cross.
till
its
dye was doubled
Not content with
this,
the ambitious popes were embroiled in perpetual disputes with their
every new some new
crowned
subjects,
and from
contest the consecrated robber reaped acquisition to enrich the domain of
the church.
In the theory of
this ecclesiastical
govern-
ment, a different and graver character should naturally have been expected from the vicar of Christ.
From
the
nature of the
institution,
The
I0 g
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
great results in intellectual science might reasonably be expected from the peaceful and educated
Neither domestic relations nor labors
clergy.
to obtain a livelihood interfered to deter
them
from these pursuits, and we can hardly ascribe their failure to want of motive. The difficulty have been lodged in the very spirit which pervaded and characterized the whole
seems
to
church, that of choosing darkness rather than a perverse obstinacy of ignorance. To light, exhibit a system of morals, entire and in all its parts, requires a powerful faculty of generalization,
free
which
is
nourished only where opinion is is valued ; it requires, also,
and knowledge
an accurate discrimination, accustomed to oppose subtlety and sophistry with ambidexter ingenuity, and a complete emancipation from bigotry, the besetting sin of the Roman church.
With
the torch of revelation in their hands,
we
find the Christian fathers inculcating the necessity
of
of
silly
whim
and degrading penances, the offering
or delirium, or bidding the transgressor to the Holy Land, in order to propitiate repair
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
the favor of the Deity.
beyond them
far
in his
The Hindoo
had gone
moral estimates.
thou be not," says the lawgiver riance, by speaking falsely, with
109
" If
"
Menu, at vaYama, the sub-
with Vaivaswata, the punisher, with that great divinity who dwells in the breast, go not on a pilgrimage to the river Ganga, nor to
duer of
all,
the plains of Curu, for thou hast no need of expiation."
the rapid advancement of the collateral philosophy of the mind by the spring imparted
By
by Bacon and Descartes, ethical speculations were matured and improved. It was useless to disclose defects in the culture of the moral
pow-
the knowledge of the mental operations taught how they should be amended and reguers
till
lated.
With Lord Bacon
our remarks have
less
con-
nection than with his less illustrious contemporaries, for in contemplating the science of morals
we have only to speak of who have analyzed,
theorists
have recommended
the classifiers and
not the sages who and applied it. sketch
A
no The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
of the science has no more concern with the beautiful
sentiments
contains or occasions,
it
than the nature of the
owners through which
An much
soil
with the different
its title
had passed.
important controversy which has been agitated
whether
among modern
benevolence or
philosophers,
selfishness
be
the
arose chiefly from the maground of action, levolent spirit of Mr. Hobbes, whose shrewd
speculations discovered to society that relations
were
artificial
and grotesque
;
all
their
and that
nature, which they had ignorantly judged to be so sublime and aspiring, would lead them to the
character and circumstances of bears and tigers. This opinion that nature tends to savageness
and stupidity is not true. For the impulse to exertion, which urges all our faculties to their very powerful and to social intercourse, where alone
highest possible degree,
prompts men
is
We
they have their widest range. delight in exertion of active moral power, and exevery claim against every retrograde step, and against sloth, the antagonist vice, as the brother of ig-
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
Few men, probably,
norance.
feel
1 1 1
any inclina-
tion to perform the experiment of
magnet ting.
;
all
The
prefer to see its
weakening the power accumula-
system of fanatic philosophy which of time was the result of these
in the course
speculations of
Mr. Hobbes, and the accursed
of whose
prevalence were abundantly reaped in France, sweeps away all the duties fruits
which we owe
to others
;
this
would elevate the
ostrich to a higher rank in the
scale of merit
and wisdom than the man, old and honorable,
whose parental
affection dictates actions of wise
and profound calculation. Dr. Cudworth attacked the system of Hobbes, in his " Immutable Morality," with ability and success, and
modern opinion has concurred
boldest positions.
The
fine
in his
remarks of the elo-
quent Burke may be extended to moral nature " Nature is never more truly herself than in her :
grandest forms ; the Apollo of Belvedere is as much in nature as any figure from the pencil of
Rembrandt, or any clown Teniers."
in the rustic revels
After Cudworth
of
we must mention
1 1
The
2
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
Dr. Clark, Dr. Price, and Bishop Butler in
naming Reid, Paley, Smith, Stewart, list of modern moralists.
;
and
we com-
plete the
After any review of the history of the science the question becomes important, In what respects does its ancient and modern history dif-
The
truths of morality must in all ages be the same ; the praise of its teachers consists fer
?
in the ability manifested
A
satisfactory
morals
is
far
their
development. development of these truths in
more
difficult
ences, for the tenure
which
in
is
than in other sci-
exceedingly delicate by can long retain
faculties imperfect as ours
such objects in steady view
;
and
it is
a sagacious
somewhere made in the Edinburgh Review, that our feelings are never in their natural state when, by a forced revocation of
observation,
them, we can attentively study their aspects. Its fundamental principles are taught by the moral sense, and no advancement of time or
knowledge can improve them. It is
otherwise in the sciences which detect
and measure the elements of matter;
there,
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
1 1
3
great advancements may hereafter be made, and what are now regarded as profound and ultimate discoveries
may
distant period be looked
at a
and elementary speculations ; of the golden promises of alchemy many, perhaps, for we have not derived from be realized, may
upon
as superficial
nature any ultimate acquaintance with the conBut in morals, stitution of the external world. what is known now of the good and evil propensities of the heart,
and of the modes of cor-
recting and regulating them, was known two thousand years ago to every discerning and con-
templative
man, and Druid speculated with in the manner that a modern phi-
Druid much
all his imagined immensity of his friend on the converses with improvement, This is abundantly ordinary topics of morality.
losopher, with
proved by the circumstance which almost invaof a philosophic riably attends promulgation authors
theory,
that
antiquity,
and that
which
Pythagoras,
pounded
before.
it
start is
the
Plato,
Pythagoras
up to prove identical
its
theory
or
Epicurus
pro-
is
supposed to
have
114
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
borrowed from the Druids
his imperfect
moral
system.
We
shall
enumerate the chief points of disThe most which has ethics.
tinction in
modern
been done
is
the tracing with great precision the of the systems in order to adapt
lines
boundary them, more and more accurately, to the known relations of truth.
The moderns
have made their ethical writ-
ings of a more practical character than the sages of antiquity. It is common to accuse them of
having written on such subjects as admitted of much display, to have paid more regard to the author than to the reader.
The
ancients bal-
anced the comparative excellence of two virtues ; they determined the
or the badness of two vices
question whether solitude or society were the better condition for virtue. The moderns have substituted inquiries of deep interest for those of
We
would ask, in only speculative importance. what of or Socrates discussion Aristotle passing, can compare,
in this respect,
with the train of
reasoning by which Dr. Price arrives at the con-
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
elusion that every wrong act is a step to tremendous in the universe.
all
1 1
5
that
is
Unlike the
arts, science
becomes simpler
as
it
proceeds. The old enumeration of the elements has been subjected to scientific analysis until their number has been largely multiplied, and we are perhaps
of nature.
still
So
far
removed from the
simplicity
in morals, the first speculators
were propounders of theories which they could not explain, perplexing mankind and themselves As it prowith abstruse, ill-digested systems. gressed, light and simplicity began to be intro-
duced into moral philosophy, but it was always a study which the indolent and mere man of taste abhorred. The moderns have struck nearer the root; they have brought in this simplification
by laying down maxims
in
morals and proposing from mathematical
to introduce demonstrations
analogy. In the the duties
modern systems of ethical philosophy whose performance constitutes virtue
are ranged under three classes
regard
we owe
;
viz., those
to the Deity, those
whose
which we owe
The
Il6 to
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
and those which regard ourselves.
others,
Morality founds these duties on the will of the Creator as expressed in the constitution of the world, and in revelation. In ascertaining the will of God it does not always proceed on the principle
the
that
greatest
intended, for that this
is
possible
happiness
is
true, we cannot know
;
judged safer to reason from adaptation and The object of these reasonings is to analogy.
it
is
confirm the decision of the moral faculty, which recognized as an original principle of our
is
nature,
an
intuition
by which we directly
determine the merit or demerit of an action. these views
man
is
In
regarded as a free agent, at
purposes of which we have any conception, possessed of appetites, desires, and affections which he is to regulate and control. least to all the
The hope opened
to his aspirations
is
a future
the energies of life of retribution to which rational creation look forward, promised by reveall
lation
and confirmed by adaptation and analogy.
Next
to these, philosophy explains the rights of man, as, paternal rights, the rights of person
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
117
and property, implying the right of self-defence. These are better understood now than formerly. Prior to the precise defining of the limits of obligation and right, the paternal authority was extended by the laws of Rome over the life as
well as fortunes of the son, until
the father
should voluntarily resign it. This dangerous paternal prerogative could not be tolerated at the
The wisdom
present time in civilized nations.
of experience has determined that such an institution operates to the mischief of both ; by investing the father with the power it tempts him become a tyrant, and the son of a domestic
to
tyrant
was
peculiar
which
rarely virtuous himself.
traits
it is
in
There
necessary to name.
Moral philosophy recognizes a leveling which makes void the distinctions of
ciple lect
are
morals of remarkable force,
and the pride of erudition.
It is
prinintel-
fit
that
such a rule should be found in the world, else the universe would present an aristocracy odious
God and man, where the splendid but profaned gifts of genius would entitle the possessor
to
1 1
8
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
to the thrones of angels
;
where then should we
look for humble energies, though perhaps entirely devoted to the cause of virtue. In the eye of Deity the prostitution of genius annuls the praise
of
its
acquisitions,
and the improver of one
tal-
ent shall be amply repaid for its proper merit. It is intended that genius should be counterbalanced by worth, and this prevails so far that
perhaps in another state the scale which now measures greatness may be entirely reversed.
There
is
another
distinguishing feature
in
morals which deserves notice, and which bears that a series of some analogy to the last, humble efforts is more meritorious than solitary miracles of virtue.
The
former are unpretend-
ing and unnoticed, opposing more obstacles to pursuit with less outside honor to allure imita-
the latter excite applause, and as their occasions necessarily occur seldom, are of less For example, the utility to the general welfare. tion;
patience of an obscure individual who endures for years the peevishness or fretful disdain of another,
still
preserving his
own
susceptibility,
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
and
at the last feels
for
the offender,
119
every emotion of benevolence a nobler martyrdom than
is
Or
Regulus or Curtius underwent.
supposing
the case that the private life of Curtius exhibited the character we have described, it was a greater merit thus to suffer than to perform his renowned sacrifice.
For the human mind
is
so constituted
expand on extraordinary calls for sentiment and strong feeling to meet the occasion with adequate effort and this spring will alone prompt as to
;
a susceptible
man
to great sacrifices,
even with-
out fixed principles of virtue. Hence all the inducements which this excitement and the love
of fame present subtract from the moral merit ; let any man ask himself in moments of high
and
excitement, whether, had he been placed in parallel circumstances with the Roman, could he
have hesitated a moment to plunge into the
yawning abyss.
We
have sketched the leading characteristics
it is represented by modern by Reid, Paley, Stewart. But there have been always connected with this science
of ethical science as teachers,
1
20
The
disputes
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
on the nature of happiness and of
tue.
The
every
man
vir-
ancient sectarians, in their distinctive moral tenets, only embodied the ideas which
conversant with ethics entertains of
happiness in different
When
moods of mind.
his contemplations are religiously pure,
he ac-
knowledges the truth of Socrates and the
Stoics,
who
placed felicity in virtue j when his mind is relaxed and his heart and taste excited, he imagines the chief good to reside, as the Cyrenaics supposed, in pleasure, or, with the Epicureans, in tranquillity
of mind
;
and when he recollects
these vacillations of opinion, he unites with the
doubting Pyrrho to found happiness on an absolute exemption from scruples and the confession that there evil.
is
no constant nature of good and ingenious theory which has
The most
been proposed to reconcile these lations
on
developing
this
his
theme
is
futile
specu-
Mr. Hume's, who,
scheme of
excitability
in
and ex-
citement, did not attempt to prove the existence of any single splendid quality attainable by the few alone, but to establish a universal equi-
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
librium of capacity for enjoyment and Old systems indicated some one external
121
pain.
quality or affection of the mind as happiness ; the present plan discovered it in the condition of mind,
without regard to the particular objects of contemplation. Whatever may have been the views
which dictated
this
theory,
it
certainly discovers
great philosophical sagacity. In the ardor of reducing all science to ulti-
mate principles, from Socrates to Paley, virtue has shared largely in these attempts of philosoOne maintained a balance among the phers. affections
;
another, action according to the
fit-
ness of things. Wollaston urges the truth, and Goodwin the justice of things. Dr. Paley attempted to reconcile all on the principle of ex-
All understand by it the same thing, pediency. a conformity to the law of conscience. It is
only a dispute about words.
Mr.
Hume
(whose acknowledgment of
daily
contradiction to his theory every one is prone to remember) has attempted to undermine the
foundations of belief, and to represent the eter-
izz
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
nal truths of morality as involved in the
same
gloomy uncertainty with which he would envelop all knowledge. Entrenching himself behind his system, which can find no relation between cause and effect, he wanders on till he has effaced
own
memory, judgment, and,
consciousness
become
idle
;
and the laws
dreams and
finally,
our
of morals
fantasies.
This outrage upon the
feelings
of
human
nature cannot be supported by any dexterous use of argument. If this only be fact, mankind
be deceived
will be content to
of morals which
we
;
if
the system
hold to be true be a dream,
it is the dream of a god reposing in Elysium and who would desire to be awaked from the ;
To this pernicious ingesublime deception ? the common-sense philhas been opposed nuity osophy of which Dr. Reid is the chief champion, which aims at establishing a code of propositions axioms which no rational being will dispute, and, reasoning from these, to refute the visionas
ary schemes of
Mr.
These reasonings
Hume and
as yet
Bishop Berkeley.
want the neatness and
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
123
conclusiveness of a system, and have not been made with such complete success as to remove the terror which attached to the
name of Hume.
has lately become prevalent to speak slightingly of this great man, either lest the ignorant should suspect him to be an overmatch for the It
orthodox philosophers, or in order to that irresistible infidelity
upon Such a course of conduct quiry
such
is
retaliate
weapon, a
sneer.
injudicious, for in-
not likely to sleep in such an age, on a subject ; and if there be formidable
is
doubts to which no unanimous solution can be
formed,
it is
more
philosophical, as well as
manly, to ascribe to
own
more
human
short-sightedness its necessary defects, for the end of all human is
confessedly ignorance. only way to determine the perfection of the present state of ethics is by examining how inquiry
The
far
they
fall
short of the condition at
which we
reasonably expect human improvement to arrive. After ages of separation from our present being we shall be more competent to adjust
may
these estimates.
Every man
is
liable to
be mis-
,
1
24
led
The by
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
his personal
improvement, and an
indi-
life when every a of discovers new set is prone to ideas day mistake the rapid development of his own powers for an accession of light which has broken upon
vidual arrived at that period of
the age. lest
In topics of this nature there is also minute details of some portions which
danger have had peculiar interest for him intrude upon his notice so as
occupy a disproportionate
to
part of the picture.
We must content ourselves
with making observations on the condition of society and its causes so far as they relate to ethics.
Much
has been done in the higher ranks of
modern society by English periodical essays. Ranked with the elegant classics of the age, they have penetrated where treatises professedly moral This is combating would never have come. vice in
its
The most
high places with
abominable
evil
its
own weapons.
becomes seductive by
an unnatural union with elegance, and corrupt genius has accomplished immense mischief by insinuating that
we
abhor what
we
admire.
It
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
125
avail itself of the same just that virtue should advantage and embellish moral truth with intelis
Here there is no disgusting beauty. or repulsion to be overcome; they antipathy lectual
combine perfectly, and in their results we should expect from mankind the creation of demigods.
Very much has been claimed
for
The Spec-
tator in rooting out, first, the lighter follies of
fashion, and afterwards invading vice of a darker
character,
From
particularly
gaming and
duelling.
appears that the real mankind not been overrated, done to has good and the authors of the Tatler, Spectator^ Rambler^
the facts adduced,
it
and Adventurer deserve the praise which They have
Socrates and which Cicero merit. diffused instruction
and inspired a desire
in those
studious of elegant literature to inquire, by unfolding in pleasing forms the excellence of virtue
and by taking advantage of that principle in our nature which induces us to enjoy, with satisfaction and delight, pictures of finished virtue. They have censured the turpitude of wit and recom-
mended
virtuous
feeling
so
artfully
that
the
1
26
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy-
strains could
not displease.
" The good and " are too
evil of Eternity," said Johnson, derous for the wings of wit," but
tain its share
pon-
it
may
sus-
of the burden and prepare the way
for science to soar.
From
these causes of the vast propagation of knowledge in the world is derived the chief
advantage of modern ethics,
that they are disseminated. It is everywhere only from very extensive comedy in the departments of literature that the tone and character of prevalent
conversation which belonged to any period can be faithfully transmitted. Hence if we institute
a comparison between the ordinary colloquial intercourse of ancient Rome and Greece on the
one part and modern
civilized
nations on the
we
are obliged to resort, in forming our other, ideas of them, to the influence of their political condition, and
to
the diffusion of knowledge
which we know them But judged
to have enjoyed.
in these respects,
modern
society
found to outstrip the maturest progress of In every family of ordinary both these nations. will be
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
1
27
advantages in the middle ranks of life the great questions of morality are discussed with freedom
and intelligence, introduced as matters of speculation but as having foundations of certainty like
any other science.
In the lowest orders of the
people the occurrences of the day are debated, the prudence or folly of politicians and private
conduct examined, and all with a reference to principles of ethical science. Anciently,
know the
such views were confined
Out of
philosophers.
the
to small
circles
of
schools they were
regarded as things of remote and partial interest, much as we regard the useless subtleties of the
Now these
schoolmen.
discussions are connected
with the domestic arrangements of every household and are associated with every recollection of his childhood
which the man
upon afterwards.
This
retains
and acts
diffusion of the
knowl-
edge accumulated upon these topics, although it does not multiply new terms of technical value
nor unfold delicate discoveries to the subtle metaphysician,
philosophy
is ;
yet the true and best interest of it marks the boundary line of
for
128
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
truth and speculation,
of the science to be
it
settles the foundations
in the opinions
of men, and
thus confers the only legitimate immortality upon its
constitution and results.
The
last view in which we propose to consider our subject is the influence of the present advanced acquaintance with ethics on political
science.
This influence
to be perceived, but
is
is
not subtle or
difficult
perfectly plain and obvious. Roman church the
After the decline of the
lower orders in Europe had no Indian Brahmin to tell them that in the eternal rounds of transtheir souls could never migration D
rise
above the
the press immejackal ; and the license which to created tended enlighten and directly diately
Such books as Machiavel's emancipate them. Prince," whether designed to favor them or not, could not fail to open their eyes to the bondage under which they groaned. When at length
"
moral discussions, which before were strange and to be underunintelligible to their ears, began
and they comprehended the nature of in a train property and government, things were
stood
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
1
29
of amendment, and popular investigation could There could be little hope left not be averted. to oppressive despotism
after
the peasant
had
learned that the professed object of the robed and reverenced legislator was to u repress all those actions
to produce more pain than and to promote all those which tend to
which tend
pleasure,
The results produce more pleasure than pain." of this progress have been distinctly manifested in the gradual demolition
the rise of the
commons
of the feudal system, by in
Europe ; secondly, by the full development of the science of Representation
;
and
lastly,
by the rebellion of the people
against the throne, everywhere manifested either in dangerous symptoms or in actual revolution.
To
the statesman this crisis becomes alarming; he surveys national embarrassments with regard to their immediate consequences, and that continent is crowded with politicians portending tre-
mendous events about to ensue. But the moralist regards this commotion as the inevitable effect of the progress of knowledge which might have been foreseen almost from the invention of print-
130 ing,
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
and which
must proceed, with whatever
disastrous effects the
crisis
is
attended, to the
calm and secure possession of equal rights and laws which it was intended to obtain.
We
are prone to indulge ideas of the perfectof human nature, when we anticipate the ibility condition of future ages, and attempt to form
estimates of their moral greatness. plating a science whose very object
In contem-
to perfect the nature of man, imagination oversteps unconsciously the limit, to depict miraculous excellence is
which poetry promises and philosophy dares not expect. is
made must go on
The
first
desires but
true advance
in the school in
which
which Reid
Philosophers must agree in terms and discover their own ideas with regard to the moral sense, or, as others term it,
and Stewart have labored.
the decisions of the understanding. They will maxims of moral the code proposed perhaps form
and look no longer for many ultimate principles. It is not necessary to make a moral arithmetic, as
Bentham has done, but it is necessary that they should persevere in accurate classifications ; and
The
when
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
at length the possessors
have agreed
right
must
3
1
of the science shall
in their principles, the precepts
acknowledged
1
find their
of
into the
way
councils of nations.
The
plague spot of slavery must be purged thoroughly out before any one will venture to predict any great treaties
suffering of subsist sole
consummation.
must be kept
inviolate
The
of
partial
and the pandects which the civilized nations that
millions,
between
all
memorial of human fellowship
religiously observed.
capricious policies states, there
faith
even to the
must be
Abolishing the thousand dictate the conduct of
which
must be substituted the one
policy of moral rectitude.
The
eternal
establishing of
American government we esteem as tending a government into powerfully to these objects, which the unclean spirit of barbarous and unequal
the
institutions has not entered, but
which was formed
of enlarged knowledge and libShould these eras of perfection
in the very spirit eral notions.
which imagination
anticipates arrive,
we must
cease to speculate with any reference to the
The
132
Present State of Ethical Philosophy-
progress of science
an advancement,
it
science can sustain such
if
;
must terminate
Ethics
here.
are only the alphabet of the perfection of rational nature ; it here becomes an elementary recollection,
and useless any further.
a sketch of the progress and present condition of morals, of its objects and charac-
Such
is
teristic features,
and of
its
prospects.
cussion of this science carries with
mendation,
that
it
new
a
is
it
Every disrecom-
this
assertion of the
highest human privileges; that, independently of the view which it opens, we only begin speculations states
which we
to other sciences arts
continue in more exalted
shall
of existence. is
The
interest
which belongs
and short-lived
partial
;
the
and physical researches do not awaken the in the young enquirer and in
same enthusiasm the
man who
lingers
on the
old age of the moralist
studious years,
expected results
is
when he
limits
of
;
but the
the harvest of many is
gathering in long-
and solutions, the
experience and much
life
solitary
fruit
thought
of ;
much
and as
The
human fixed
133
imperfections fade before him, his eye
on richer
To it is
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
become
is
acquisitions.
a fervent scholar in this science, its objects and tenconstituted the rule by
only necessary to learn
dencies.
Morality
is
which the world must
stand.
The
laws which
govern society are only compends, more or less The departure imperfect, of natural morality.
from
this
law
is
the
decay of
human
glory.
Formerly, moral corruption struck the blow at and Assyrian, Grecian, and Roman magnificence, at this day sapping the stability of European Amid the violent convulsions of monarchies. is
the political world produced by this energetic principle of desolation, it is well to withdraw ourselves from so wretched a spectacle, to search
out the sources in the passions of individuals. It is ennobling thus to place ourselves on an
eminence from whence we survey at once the whole history of legislation and refer to our
knowledge of
ethical truth in judging of the
or bad spirit of laws.
So
in letters, if
it
good is
a
134
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
iclmed study to examine and compare the literature of different nations and follow the flight of different
reasons
muses,
it is
more
why they give
influence
refined to discover the
pleasure, to trace the moral
which created them, and the
reciprocal
influence which they claimed on morals. But its chief eulogy consists in its effect on
the individual.
It obliterates
the impure lines
which depravity,
error, and example have written upon the mind, and having erased these first impressions, and abolished crime which is engen-
dered by them, substitutes sentiments and precepts which promote the happiness of man, whose exercise generates pure and tranquil enjoyment, and which the Divine Being will justify and
Happiness is incompatible with consciousness of danger; the sense of insecurity
reward.
poisons the
passing
delight with
the constant
apprehension of its loss ; but nothing can alter the peace of mind which dwells, by a divine necessity, with unblemished virtue
;
it is
perpet-
ually advancing towards new relations of lectual splendor and moral sublimity.
intel-
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
We are justified other science
;
in
135
preferring morals to every
for that science has
more perma-
nent interest than any other, which, outliving the substance on which other knowledge is founded, is
to retain
resolved into
its
relations
spirit.
to
us
That which
when man
is
constitutes the
integrity of the universe should be known as far as that universe extends to the intelligences
health
which imbibe and enjoy the benevolence of Author.
its
THIS
BOOK
IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW
RENEWED BOOKS ARE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE RECALL
DEC 1 ? 1968
DEC 12
REC'Q
LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
N2 469951 Emerson, R.W. Ralph Waldo Emerson.
LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS
HIf
ifi :
m