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ON EMERSON

AND OTHER

ESSAYS

THE WORKS OF MAURICE MAETERLINCK ESSAYS of the Humble Wisdom and Destiny The Life or the Bee The Buried Temple The Double Garden The Measure of the Hours Death On Emerson, and Other Essays News of Spring and Other Nature Studies

The Treasure

PLAYS and Abdianb and Barbb Blbub JOYZELLB and MoNNA VaNNA The Blub Bird, A Fairy Play Mary Magdalene Felleas and Melisande, and Other Flays Sister Beatrice

Princess Maleine Intruder, and Other Plays Aglavaine and Selysettb

The

HOLIDAY EDITIONS The

text in each case

an extract from one of

the above mentioned books.

Our Friend the Dog Old-Fashionbd Flowers

The Swarm The Intelligence of the Flowers Chrysanthemums

The Leaf of Olive Thoughts from Maeterlinck

On Emerson And Other

Essays

MAURICE MAETERLINCK Translated by

Montrose

Moses

NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1912

COPTRIGHT, igli.

By Dodd, Miad and Company Published, Sefttmier, 191a

CONTENTS PAGE

Emerson

NovALis

RUYSBROECK

ON EMERSON

AND OTHER

ESSAYS

FOREWORD The

three essays contained in this volume

have for the

first

time been brought to-

gether for English readers.

Emerson has served

its

The one on purpose

preface to seven essays of Emerson, trans-

lated

who took the The other two

Mali,

Mile.

pseudonym of

Will.

were originally intended and were used as introductions to extensive selections

made

and translated by M. Maeterlinck from the workfs

of Ruysbroeck and Novalis.

amended form, found

the

the three essays

French

edition

may be "The

Treasure of the Humble."

his simplest,

it is

not an easy matter

to translate Maeterlinck. Especially difficult is

when one

dealing with .a double

mystic, or rather with the mystic Maeter9

Foreword of

three

transcen-

Many

times

has

interpretation

linck's

dental

thinkers.

our

author expressed himself on the subject of the translator's art, and

ber these words

it is

well to remem-

of his relative to the prob-

lem confronting him when he attempted a translation of

"It

"Macbeth"

that secret life which

to understand

it is

and to reproduce as well

Extreme prudence

one can.

important

required,

since the slightest false note, the smallest

may

error,

destroy the illusion and destroy

the beauty of the finest page."

But

a question whether translation

means alone the understanding of the life

of the piece, or whether

mean

example,

translating

translation of passages is

does not also

faithfulness in reproducing, as near as

possible, the word-structure

For

secret

and the form. Maeterlinck's

from Emerson, one

forced to depart materially from the ex10

Foreword act tenor of

Emerson's thought, and

sake the compact reticence of his it is

to for-

style.

And

not far wrong to consider these quoted

passages in the French as almost para-

Yet the

phrases.

philosophy considered actly.

essay on his fluence,

Emerson's

though

there, even

best to quote

And

secret life of

have

Emerson

ex-

while reading Maeterlinck's

avowed master and

will be

noted

how

greatest in-

completely and

how unconsciously Emerson's thoughts have been assimilated by Maeterlinck. essay there are

many

echoes of

In his

"The Over-

Soul" and "Spiritual Laws."* Maeterlinck's interest in the mediaeval mystic, Ruysbroeck, must have

he was a student Saint-Barbe.

Ornament of

begun while

at the Jesuit College of

was

Spiritual

1891 that "The Marriages"

was

*See Hamilton Osgood's "Maeterlinck and Emer15:563-73. March, 1896; Poet-Lore,

son," Arena,

Jan.-Mar., 1898, 10:76-84.

Foreword from the Flemish, while

translated

there followed the equally

"The

the

Disciples at

Only the year before,

ments."

Maeterlinck had prefaced

When

volume.

it is

1894,

Mali's

Mile.

recollected that

saw the publication of "La leine"

task of

German Novalis's Sais" and "The Frag-

from

translating

1895

difficult

Princesse

1889

Ma-

and "Serres Chaudes," and that "Le

Tresor des Humbles" (1896) was

book of

essays,

one

may

his first

readily understand

what an important part Ruysbroeck, Novalls,

and Emerson had

In the

forming of

Maeterlinck's sympathy with such thought.

The

philosophic studies that comprise the

following volume represent, therefore, the sources

his

philosophic

inspiration.

Maeterlinck once showed to an American acquaintance

his

much worn volume of

Emerson's "Essays," heavily underscored

and

filled

with marginal notes.

thusiasm of the disciple 12

This en-

also discernible In

Foreword toward

attitude

his

and

Ruysbroeck

Novalis,

In his essay on the former there are many

original extracts given than in the

other essays.

And though

one

ways agree with Maeterlinck

may

not

al-

as to the equal

excellence of these passages, one can, nonetheless,

be in hearty sympathy with the

fer-

vour which he displays and with the true conviction he expresses.

Maeterlinck's point of view as a biogra-

pher all

three essays with

external event life.

likewise of significance.

Save

men

deals in

whom

the

was nought beside the inner

in the instance of the pathetic

love tragedy of Novalis, he does not relish fact as

much

as he does the discovery of the

soul's expression.

hastens over the few

events in Ruysbroeck's sainted

life,

relieved

that he can pass quickly to the core of his

philosophy.

And

as for

Emerson, he

gether ignores locality and time. 13

alto-

read-

Foreword ing the essay, one might as well be noting a disembodied spirit.

These

essays,

therefore,

being

largely abstract, I have thought

give a close rendering, departing

very

best to

from the

form only where more clearness might be gained.

In regard to Ruysbroeck, there are a few facts

which might serve to heighten the

ac-

count to be found in Maeterlinck's essay.

Though

the dates of his birth and death

are given,

monk and it

it is

well to realise that the old

lived to the ripe age of one

six years,

and

hundred

that, at the last,

when

was heard how the Admirable John had

passed away, there were many, so William

who believed that Ruyshad been the man nearest God since

Sharp records, broeck Christ.

Throughout

unbounded

his life

spirituality,

he exhibited

and claimed for

himself that he never spoke unless within

him he was moved by the Holy Ghost. 14

Foreword His theology was thoroughly Catholic, and even

as his expression of thought

mystical,

so were

his

actions

at-

are

tended by evidences of mystery. told

by one of the monk's few English

biographers,

who

was

always

Dom

Vincent Scully, C.R.L.,

on Ruysbroeck

also wrote the article

"Catholic Encyclopedia," that "he

in the

loved to wander and meditate in the

soli-

tude of the forest adjoining the cloister; he

was accustomed and on

to carry a tablet with him,

this to jot

felt inspired so to

down

his

thoughts as he

do."

was gentle and fond of

life

around

him, even caring for the birds that came to be fed by him.

So fervent was he

that, like

the Christus in the Passion Play, he often-

times swooned while celebrating the Mass,

through the sheer excess of his emotion.

Legend has

death,

he lay on his

that bier,

performed a miracle, and that iS

spiritual

after

there

his

was

in his vest-

Foreword merits he arose

and celebrated for the

last

time the sacred mysteries of his beloved

Church.

According to broeck,

named

manner

that

was

called

John Ruystown, in the same

authorities,

after his

Thomas

his

Kempis was named,

contemporaries the Ad-

mirable Doctor and the Divine

For many years after

his

death his remains

were most carefully preserved

when Joseph

II.

Doctor.

;

but, in 1783,

suppressed Groenendael

Priory, the relics were transferred to St.

There they remained

Gudule's, Brussels. until the

French Revolution, during which

upheaval they were

The

lost.

sainted Ruysbroeck

was not

officially

recognised by his Church until within comparatively recent years.

were made to reward

was only by

Many

his virtues, but

December

a decree dated

1908, that the

title

attempts

of "Blessed" was be-

stowed upon the devout mediaeval monk. 16

Foreword Though

1869

broeck was issued

a translation of Ruys-

in France,

done by Ernest

Hello, himself a mystic and an influence on

Maeterlinck,

still

to Maeterlinck belongs

the credit of having given an impetus to recent

French appreciation of Ruysbroeck.

In England, portions of Maeterlinck's essay

were published by Jane T. Stoddart

London Expositor

for

amplified in a volume,

the

Mystics

(London, 1896).

1894,

and were

"Ruysbroeck and

Maurice

in the

Maeterlinck"

a later date (Lon-

don, 1905), Earle Baillie translated "Reflections

from the Mirror of a Mystic"

from Hello's "CEuvres Choisies de Rosbrock," with a few passages taken from the

Latin text of Surius. All commentators acknowledge with due gratefulness

the

work of Maeterlinck,

though some Catholic scholars join ing the statement that

in deny-

made by him and

others

Ruysbroeck was ignorant and only 17

Foreword miraculously divined the science of his age

and of the ages

"A word

Scully writes

to come.

of warning

needed against

the assumption of

some writers who vould

exalt the genius of

Ruysbroeck by dwelling

on what they term

and igno-

his illiteracy

a matter of fact, the works of

the Blessed

John manifest a mastery of the

rance.

sacred sciences, and a considerable acquaint-

ance even with the natural sciences of his

day."

Add to this the is

enthusiasm of Surius,

Ruysbroeck's

true

whose admiration linck's

own

who and

commentator, reflected in

Maeter-

attitude

"I do not believe that there

man who

can approach these magnificent and simple

pages without great and singular

profit.

none excuse himself from reading

on the plea of the

this

Let

book

inaccessible sublimity i8

Foreword Ruysbroeck. himself to soul

The all,

great

and

on earth may

man has accustomeH

;the

most abandoned

find again in reading

the path of salvation.

him

Arrows dart from

the pages of Ruysbroeck, aimed by no hand

of man, but by the hand of they embued reader

who

God and ;

deeply

themselves in the soul of the is

a sinner.

Innocent reader,

reader of unstained robe, Ruysbroeck

once most lowly and

most sublime.

In his

description of the Spiritual Espousals, he

surpasses admiration, he surpasses praise; all

the commencement, all the progress, all

the height, all the transcendent perfection

of the spiritual

The

life is there."

reader of Maeterlinck's essay will

in-

fer that the Belgian has oftentimes been

prompted to

stretch his images to the very

limits of consistency, in order to maintain

the comparison of Ruysbroeck's style and

manner with

the

foliage 19

of Iceland or

Foreword This

rather of the glacial regions.

French language

taken with the in

coin

tendency to

of Ibsen's

"Brand"

recognise that the respect,

license

the original soon

little

words.

results

Readers

Norwegian,

in that

followed the custom of Carlyle.

Yet Maeterlinck's

enthusiastic

approach

cannot take from the fact that the quotations

he makes from Ruysbroeck, while

oftentimes rich in imagery and ardent in belief,

are frequently illogical and prolix in

construction

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;two

the untutored. the essay

faults often

apparent in

Nevertheless, as a whole,

of significance in the develop-

ment of Maeterlinck, and

his

French

beautiful.

English readers can do no better than

approach Novalis through the combined appreciations

of Carlyle

and Maeterlinck.

Strange to say, the former adopts the same

method adopted by the on Ruysbroeck.

latter in his essay

mean, he includes

in his

Foreword text

copious

from "The Frag-

extracts

And

ments" of Novalls.

mystic thought,

as examples of

from the Carlyle

cull

translations these excerpts

"Philosophy

properly Home-sickness;

the wish to be everywhere at home."

"We that

are near awakening

when we dream

we dream."

"Man

the higher Sense of our Planet;

the star which connects

world; the eye which

it it

with the upper turns towards

Heaven." "Life

a disease of the spirit; a work-

ing Incited by Passion.

Rest

peculiar to

the spirit."

"If our Bodily Life Spiritual Life

tion (or,

a burning, our

a being burnt, a

Combus-

precisely the inverse the case?)

;

Death, therefore, perhaps a Change of Capacity." 21

Foreword "There and that

but one Temple in the World;

the

holier than this high form.

men

Nothing

Body of Man.

Bending before

a reverence done to this Revelation

We touch Heaven,

in the\ Flesh.

lay our hands on a

"Man

when we

human body." Truth.

If he exposes

Truth, he exposes himself.

If he betrays

consists in

Truth, he betrays himself.

speak not

here of Lies, but of acting against Conviction."

"The actual

true Poet

world

"Goethe

their

in miniature."

in his

all-knowing; he

an altogether practical Poet.

works what the English are

wares highly simple, neat, convenient :

and durable. erature

has done in

German

what Wedgewood did

manufacture. natural turn

He for

Lit-

English

has, like the English, a

Economy, and a noble

Taste acquired by Understanding. 22

Both

Foreword these are very compatible, and have a near

the chemical sense

affinity in

....

'Wil-

helm Meister's Apprenticeship' may be called throughout prosaic

and modern. The

romantic sinks to ruin, the Poesy of Nature,

The book

the Wonderful.

merely

treats

of common worldly things: Nature and

Mysticism are altogether forgotten.

poetised civic and household History; the

Marvellous

and

imagination

Atheism is

expressly treated therein as

Artistic

enthusiasm.

the spirit of the Book.

properly a

Candide,

Poetry: the Book

directed

...

highly unpoetlcal in

respect of spirit, poetical as the dress

body of

are.

against

The

and

Introduction of

Shakespeare has almost a tragic

effect.

The

hero retards the triumph of the Gospel of

Economy; and economical Nature

finally

the true and only remaining one."

In the course of his essay, Maeterlinck 23

Foreword has occasion to refer to Carlyle's attitude

toward Novalis's second romantic attachIn view of the profound

ment.

child, Sophie, ities

upon

offer varied

his

work,

excuses

effect

many

of the

author-

for his sudden

change of heart, after the

girl's

death.

Carlyle thus views the matter

"Yet, perhaps, after

all,

it is

only in a

Minerva-Press Novel, or to the more tender Imagination, that such a proceeding would

seem very blamable. sense,

may

lence ;

and

Constancy, in

be called the root of especially excellence

its

true

all excel-

constancy

in active well-doing, in friendly helpfulness

and

to those that love us,

;

to those that hate

but constancy in passive suffering, again,

in spite

of the high value put upon

Circulating Libraries, virtue, rather

at all events

world.

a distinctly inferior

an accident than a virtue, and is

of extreme rarity

Novalis, his Sophie might 24

this still

Foreword be a saintly presence, mournful and unspeakably mild, to be worshipped

most shrine of this sort

his

memory

in the in-

but worship of

not man's sole business

neither

;

should

tears,

and once more looks abroad with

censure Novalis that he dries his

hope on the

earth,

which

is still,

was

before, the strangest complex of mystery

and

light,

of joy as well as sorrow.

'Life

belongs to the living; and he that lives

must be prepared for questionable is

his

vicissitudes.'

circumstance

perhaps

too

with

great

The

Novalis

rapidity

that second courtship; a fault or misfor-

tune

the

be regretted, as this

marriage also was to remain a project, and only the anticipation of

to be enjoyed

him."

The German

reader of Novalis will find

a copious bibliography extant.

His

chiefest

work, "Henry of Ofterdinger," has been 2S

Foreword translated several times into English.

(J.

Owen, 1842, Cambridge, Mass.; H. H. Moore, 1853.) Now, from these

essays,

which

in their

composition are contemporaneous with the practice of his art theories as exemplified in

the marionnette dramas, Maeterlinck very

well shows his tendency toward the essence,

toward the prose

work of

new

nothing there

spirit

But we note in

There may be

later years. in

his

critical

approach;

certainly nothing controversial or

scholastic

dency

of things, so marked in his

his

biographical researches.

in these essays just

thought and

in interest

that ten-

which was

soon to find expression in "The Treasure of the

Humble" and "Wisdom and

And what may

theory of dramatic art

his philosophic expression

toward the theatre life.

Destiny."

be said of Maeterlinck's

likewise true of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

for his attitude

an attitude toward

an iconoclast in both respects, 26

Foreword which, I take

covered for

means that he has

It,

men

his kinship with

Herein he declares

His genius

son.

On the sur-

not more original than

many

other possessing a similar romantic his philosophy

Emer-

no more tangible than

the genius of those he discusses. face he

redis-

the value of unseen forces.

an-

style.

he has these three masters,

Ruysbroeck, Novalis, and Emerson; in his poetry he Villiers

themselves. his theory

his

indebted to Poe, Whitman, and

de I'lsle-Adam

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Though he of drama,

a queer group in

has had to modify his art theory

still

approach toward

and

life,

this

his

great claim to originality.

has utilised unseen forces he regards ;

men

simply as products of these forces.

has

made

mould

us.

us feel the hidden powers that

He is more aloof than near,

in this respect

Novalis.

Not one of them

racy of Emerson. But his 27

and

Ruysbroeck and has the democ-

artistic ability, so

Foreword closely identified with his philosophic belief,

which he always discourses upon with enthusiasm,

the

new element which MaeterIf there are those

linck has individualised.

who

believe that he has not received

cation for his stand in

justifi-

modern thought,

might be well for them to compare some of the thoughts of Maeterlinck, herein ex-

with

pressed,

philosophy of

the

Henri

Bergson. In the preparation of this translation I

have been

in constant

are in sympathy with Maeterlinck

mystic philosophy.

who

touch with those

and with

Professor Charles

Downer, to the Reverend B. Stuart Chambers,

and to others

assistance

with

indebted for kind

and helpful suggestions.

pleasure

courtesy

Mattos,

who

permission of

that

acknowledge

Mr. Alexander

Teixeira

the

has kindly consented, with the

Maeterlinck, to allow the

present translation.

Mr. 28

Teixeira

the

Foreword official

The

translator of Maeterlinck's works.

following editions were used

L'Ornement des Noces Spirituelles, de Ruysbroeck TAdmirable, Traduit du Flamand et accompagne d'une Introduction par Maurice Maeterlinck. Bruxelles: Paul Lacomblez, 1910.

Les Disciples a Sais

Les Fragments de

Novalis, Traduits de TAllemand et precedes

d'une Introduction par Maurice Maeterlinck. Bruxelles: Paul Lacomblez, 1909.

Sept Essais d'Emerson: Confiance en Soi-

—Le —Compensation,—Lois dl —Caractere,—L'Ame Supreme,—Fatal-

meme, Poete, ite.

I'Esprit,

Traduits par

Will (M. Mali), avec

preface de Maurice Maeterlinck.

Bruxelles:

Paul Lacomblez, 191 1.

Montrose

New

York, June, 1912.

Moses.

EMERSON

ONLY one

thing matters," says

"and that

valis,

moments

in the

and of sages;

and sorrows; and

from

the search for our

This

transcendental self."

self

afar,

discern

words of God, of

poets,

depths of certain joys

in the

and

in sleep, in love

unforeseen crises where

and points out our

the universe.

No-

Some

sickness,

signals us

relations with

philosophers devote

themselves solely to this investigation, and they write those books in which only the extraordinary prevails.

"What

there of

value in books," says our author, "if

net the

dinary?"

transcendental

and the extraor-

These philosophers are

as paint-

ers striving to seize a likeness in the dark.

Some

trace

abstract images for us, very

remarkable but almost 31

indistinct.

There

On Emerson are others

who

and Other Essays

succeed in fixing an attitude

or an habitual gesture of the superior life. number exist who imagine strange be-

ings.

ages.

There are not many of these imThey are never alike. Some of them

are very beautiful, and those seen

them

who have

not

through

dwell all their lives

men who have never come forth into broad daylight. The lines of these images unto

are purer than the lines of heaven

;

but then

these figures appear to us so very distant

that

we know

were created the

not in

they be alive, or

they

They are and man does not

our mind's eye.

work of pure

mystics,

as yet recognise himself in them.

there are

whom we

call poets,

Others

and who

speak to us indirectly of these things. third class of thinkers, elevating

gree the

myth of the old

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

^by

our apparent

A de-

centaurs, has given

us an image of this occult identity

of access

by one

more easy

blending the characteristics of self

with those of our superior 32

On Emerson The

self.

and Other Essays

countenance of our divine soul

smiles at times over the shoulder of the hu-

man

her

soul,

sister,

bent to the humble

labours of thought; and this smile, which gives us a fleeting glimpse of all that lies

beyond thought, alone matters of men.

in the

works

There are not many who have shown us that

man

greater and

than man, and

who have

which we encounter in a gesture,

silence

The

thus succeeded in

some few of the

fixing

and

more profound

eternal

allusions

at every instant of life,

a sign, a look, a

word,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the events which surround

us.

human greatness is the strangest of sciences. None atnong us is ignorant of it; but most of us do not know that we possess it. The child that meets me science

will not be able to tell his

mother what he

has seen however, as soon as his eyes have ;

sensed all

my presence,

he knows

all

that I am,

that I have been, all that I shall be, even 33

On Emerson my

as well as

brother,

than myself.

and Other Essays and

knows me

thrice better

immediately

the past and in the future, in this world

and

here,

in the other worlds, and, in turn,

his eyes reveal to

the role I assume in

the universe and in eternity.

Our

infallible souls discern

each other,

as soon as the child's glance has

and

mine, finite

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;my

face,

attitude

and the

to cling to;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;he knows what

and though he cannot as yet

distinguish the

crown of an emperor from

the wallet of a beggar, he has for one instant as exactly as true that

and our

and

known me

God knows

me.

already act like gods,

entire life passes amidst certitudes

infinite infallibilities.

men who

But we are blind

play with precious stones along

the roadway

in-

which surrounds them and of which

they are the interpreters,

met

;

and that man who knocks

door expends,

greets me,

at the

very

many marvellous 34

moment he spiritual

On Emerson

and Other Essays

treasures as the prince

from death.

whom I have wrested

open to him, and

stant he sees at his feet, as

height of a tower,

tween two of

souls. I

whom

though

all

that takes place be-

woman

judge the country

ask the

way

as profoundly as life

rises rapidly to the

that

She

betrothed.

very greatest mysteries

before answering me; then she quietly,

mother, and her soul has spoken to intimately as that of

in-

though from the

had asked of her the

will be necessary for

tells

knowing on a sudden what

am,

to take the

foot-path to the left for the village.

If I

pass an hour amidst a crowd, without saying anything and without giving

thought,

the living

day?

There are

beings

a single

have judged a thousand times

and the dead.

And

these judgments will be altered

six

in this

which of

on the

room some

who speak of rain and

last

five

of pleasant

weather; but above this miserable conversa35

On Emerson tion, six souls

and Other Essays

carry on a conversation which

no human wisdom could approach without

And though

danger.

they speak through

and

their glances, their hands, their faces,

their assembled presence, they shall ever be

ignorant of what they have said. However, they must wait the end of their elusive converse,

and that

why

they have an unde-

finable mysterious joy in their ennui,

with

out knowing what hearkens within them to the laws of

all

which pass

of death, of love,

life,

like inexhaustible rivers

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;laws around

the house.

Thus

is it

live only

being,

whose

actions

tarily pierce the us.

and thoughts momen-

envelope which surrounds

go to-day

to see a friend

have never seen before, but work, and I dinary,

pressing

know

that his soul

his

extraor-

his life ex-

as exactly as possible, 36

whom

know

and that he has passed it

everywhere and always.

by virtue of our transcendental

and

in ac-

On Emerson

and Other Essays

cordance with the duty of superior I

lects.

full

of uncertainty, and

solemn hour.

enters,

and

intelit is

at the open-

ing of the door which reveals his presence,

every explanation of himself that he has

given us during a number of years into dust. self to be.

thoughts.

falls

He is not what he believes himHe is of another nature than his Once more we prove

that the

emissaries of the spirit are ever faithless.

has said

many profound

soul; but in that small time

a glance that pauses ishes, I

say,

from

have learned

and

all

that he

tivate in his spirit.

longs to

all

things of his

which divides

a glance that van-

that he could never

was never

able to cul-

Henceforward, he be-

Formerly we were

forever.

To-day, something a

united by thought.

myriad times more mysterious than thought gives us to each other.

we had waited

feel that all

this is

For years and years

moment; and, behold,

useless, and, for fear

On Emerson silence,

and Other Essays

who were prepared

we,

each other secret and amazing

show

treasures,

day or about the

talk about the time of

setting sun, so as to give our souls an op-

wonder

portunity to

bind themselves the

murmur

another silence

live

which

and of thought

lips

not be able to disturb. In reality,

and

at each other

will

only from soul to soul,

and we are gods who do not know each other.

it is

ing to bear

among men,

impossible for

and

solitude,

they will only

if I

tell

this even-

should go

that the

storm has beaten down their pears or that the late frost has closed the port. this that I

as full of

though

Socrates,

mouth

for

And yet, I shall my soul as satisfied

have come?

soon go away from

and

new

it,

richness

and power as

had passed these hours with Plato, and Marcus Aurelius.

utters signifies

their presence declares, 38

What

their

nought besides what

and

it is

impossible

On Emerson for

man

What

and Other Essays

not to be great and admirable.

mind thinks

the

beside the truth that

silently affirms itself;

of no importance

are,

and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

if,

a truth

after fifty years

of solitude, Epictetus, Goethe, and

should come to

which

Paul

St.

island, they could

tell

only what the smallest cabin-boy on

their ship

would say

.and perhaps

In truth, what his gravity

and

at the

same time,

directly.

man are hidden wisdom. The

strangest about

his

most frivolous amongst us never

really

laughs, and in spite of his efforts, never

succeeds in losing a minute, for the

human

and does nothing

useless.

soul

Ernst

attentive ist

das Leben: Life

grave,

and

the depths of our being, our soul has not yet smiled.

the other side of our invol-

untary emotions, still,

lead a marvellous

life,

very pure, and very certain, to which

our hands which are outstretched, our eyes

which are

opened,

and our unexpected 39

;

On Emerson

and Other Essays make

glances which meet,

continual allu-

All our organs are the mystical ac-

sion.

complices of a superior being; and

never a man,

known.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;but

I did not see

But

we have that poor wretch who

a soul that

begged for alms on the door.

I perceived

steps before

some other thing

my :

our eyes two identical destinies saluted each other and loved each other, and, just

when

he stretched forth his hand, the small door of the house opened for an instant upon the sea.

"In

Emerson Greek,

dealing with

"my

Latin and

accomplishments and

my money

[in "Over-Soul"],

child," writes

me nothing. They are all lost on him much soul as I have avails. If I am merely wilful, he gives me a Rowland for

stead

but as

an Oliver, one,

mine, one for

sets his will against

and leaves me,

tion of beating

if I please,

him by my 40

the degrada-

superiority of

On Emerson But

strength.

if I

and Other Essays renounce

act for the soul, setting that

between us two, out of

his

my up

will,

and

umpire

young eyes looks

the same soul; he reveres and loves with

me."

But us

if it

be true that the least amongst

not able to

make

the slightest gesture

without reckoning with the soul and with the spiritual kingdoms wherein the soul reigns,

it is

also true that the wisest scarcely

ever thinks of the

infinite

by the opening of an

which

eyelid,

moved

by the bend-

ing of the head, and by the closing of a

hand.

live so far

from ourselves that

are ignorant of nearly everything that

occurs at the horizon of our being.

wander

random

in the valley,

without

suspecting that all our actions are repro-

duced and gain their significance on the

mountain for

and

top,

some one

it is

come 41

necessary at times

to us

and say Raise :

On Emerson your do;

what you

eyes, see it

and Other Essays

not here that

what you

are, see

yonder, high above us, that

live;

This

are.

glance exchanged in the dark; these words

which had no meaning mountain

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

see

at the foot of the

what they become and what

they signify further on the snowy summits;

and how our hands, which we believe so feeble

and so

small,

unknowingly reach

God

every moment.

Some

there are

who have

who have come

touched us

in this

to us,

manner on the what takes

shoulder, revealing to us yonder

place upon the glaciers of mystery.

There were

century!

centuries past

They

There are three or four

are not many. this

and

And

able to say to us

all

five

or six in

that they have been

nought

comparison

with what has taken place and with that of

which our soul does

who

has

matter

not ignorant.

Are we not

lost his eyesight

But what unto a

man

during the

first

On Emerson

and Other Essays

years of his childhood?

has seen the

endless spectacle of beings.

the sun, the sea, and the forest.

has noted

Now, and

always, these marvels are ever-present in his

make-up; and should you speak of them,

and

what

will

you be able to say

what

will

your poor words be beside the

and the dawn which

glade, the tempest, still

live in the

made

to him,

depths of his

part of his flesh?

spirit,

and are

will listen to

you, however, with an intense and astonished joy, and though he

though your

words

know

water represents a broad

man

will

a glass of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the small,

fall

from the

lips

illumine for a

moment

the

ineffective phrases

river,

and

what he

represent

knows more imperfectly than

all,

which

ocean, and the light

and shadow which

dwell amidst the darkness beneath his dead lids.

The

faces of this "transcendental

me," of

which Novalis speaks, are probably innu43

On Emerson

and Other Essays

merable, and not one of the mystic moralists

has succeeded in studying the same.

Swedenborg, Pascal, Novalis, Hello, and several others examine our relations with an abstract, subtle,

They

and very remote

lead us upon mountains

infinite.

whose sum-

mits do not seem natural or habitable to us,

and where we often breathe with Goethe accompanies shores of the sea

difficulty.

our soul upon the

Marcus

of Serenity.

Aurelius places our soul on the hlU-sIde of

an ideal humanity,

somewhat

tiresome,

its

perfect excellence

and beneath too heavy

a foliage of hopeless resignation.

Carlyle,

the spiritual brother of Emerson, this century

who

has given us warning from the

other end of the valley, has brought before us in lightning strokes,

upon a back-

ground of shadow and storm, of an un-

known, heroic like

relentlessly

strange,

moments of our flock

being.

the

only

leads us

frightened by the tempest, 44

On Emerson

and*

Other Essays

toward unknown and sulphurous pastures.

drives us into the profoundest depths of

darkness, which he has discovered with joy,

and where shines alone the intermittent and passionate

abandons

star

of heroes, and there he

with a mischievous laugh, to

us,

the vast reprisals of mysteries.

But the

at the

good

same time, behold Emerson,

morning

meadows, green with

shepherd a

does not lead us

to the edge of a precipice.

make

because

the

does not

humble and familiar

us go from the

close,

pale

new optimism, both

natural and plausible.

glacier,

the

sea,

the

eternal snows, the palace, the stable, the cheerless hearth of the poor,

of the

sick,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

same heaven,

all

purified

by the same

subjected to the same

infinite

came for many

have come, and

just

and the cot

found beneath the

are

just

stars,

and

powers.

when he should

when they had extreme

need of new explanations. 45

Heroic hours

On Emerson

and Other Essays

are less apparent, those of abnegation have

not yet returned; there remains to us only

our daily

life;

and even then we are not

able to live without greatness!

has given

an almost acceptable meaning to

which no longer has

Its

this life

traditional horizons,

and perhaps he has been able to show us that

It Is

strange enough, profound enough,

and great enough end than of

itself.

have need of no other

has no more knowledge

than the others, but he affirms with

more courage, and he has confidence mystery.

You must

live

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

all

of you

who

pass through days and years, without actions,

without thoughts, without

cause, In spite of everything,

Incomprehensible.

You must

no one has the right events In live

light, be-

your live

life Is

because

avoid spiritual

commonplace weeks.

You must

because there are no hours without

nermost miracles and without Ineffable nificance.

You must

live

In-

sig-

because there

On Emerson not an

act,

not a word, there

not

which escapes inexplicable claims

a gesture in a

there

and Other Essays

world "where there are many things to

do and few things to know."

There and

neither a great nor a small

life,

a deed of Regulus or Leonidas has

when

significance

ment of

compare

did,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

done

or they might things

these

with a mo-

They might

soul's secret life.

have done what they not have

do not

touch the soul; and the soul of Regulus, while he was returning to Carthage, was

probably as absorbed and as indifferent as that of the mechanic going toward the factory.

The

deeds;

soul

it is

Deep within it

far

removed from

too far from us

all

our

our thoughts.

all

lives alone a life

of which

does not speak and on the heights where

it exists,

cerned.

;

variety of being

We move,

no longer

weighted down beneath

the burdens of our soul, and there

symmetry between

dis-

and

us.

probably

On Emerson

and Other Essays

never thinks deeply of what can

itself

men,

would without doubt and

their sorrows,

"They seem Be

things."

men

reply,

in their joys, in

in their perturbations,

though thinking of other

great, be wise

soul of the poor

hand

his

this

from another world

after having seen all

The

and

the composite expression of the faces

all

do,

If one could

be read on our face.

ask an intelligence

what

and eloquent.

man who

holds forth

at the corner of the bridge

will

not be jealous, but yours perhaps will envy

him

his silence.

The

hero has need of ap-

probation from ordinary men, but the ordinary heroes,

man

does not ask the approbation of

and he pursues

easiness, as

one

who

his life

has

all his

without untreasures in

a safe place.

"When son, "Lysis

Socrates speaks," writes

and Menexenus are

Emer-

afflicted

no shame that they do not speak. They 48

also

On Emerson

and Other Essays

He likewise defers to them,

are good.

them whilst he speaks. natural

man

Because a true and

and

contains

loves

which an eloquent man

the

same truth but in

articulates,

the eloquent man, because he can articulate it, it

seems something the

he turns to these

inclination

Man

and

with the

respect."

His

eager for explanations.

must be shown to him. he somewhere

and

less to reside,

silent, beautiful,

rejoices

life

when

finds the exact interpretation

of a small gesture which he has been making for some twenty-five years.

earth there

Here on

trivial gesture; there are

in great proportion the attitudes of

quotidian soul.

You

our

will not find in this life

the eternal character of the thought of

Marcus

Aurelius.

par

thought

among

Aurelius ?

Yet Marcus Aurelius Besides,

excellence.

leads

the

HerCj

it is

life

the

of a

man and

who

Marcus nothing

On Emerson more.

and Other Essays

not arbitrarily exalted; he

merely nearer us than usual.

who prunes his

house

harvest;

;

his tree

it is

;

who to me

give you

John

Peter

you who speaks

who

builds

of the

hand.

But

we touch the gods, and we are astonished by what we do. We did not know that all the forces of the soul were present we did not know that all the laws of the universe were about us, and we turn dumbfounded, like people who have we

are so situated that

;

seen a miracle.

Emerson has come

to affirm simply this

equal and secret grandeur of our

life.

has encompassed us with silence and witR

wonder.

He has placed a

neath the feet of the the workshop.

shaft of light be-

workman who has shown us

powers of heaven and of earth, time intent

on sustaining the

leaves all

the

the same

threshold

upon which two neighbours speak of the rain that falls or of the so

wind that blows,

On Emerson And

and Other Essays

above these two passers-by who accost

each other, he has made us see the counten-

God who

ance of

ance of God.

common

to our tive,

smiles with the counten-

nearer than any other

life.

the most atten-

the most assiduous, the most honest,

the most scrupulous, and probably the most

human

of guides.

the sage of com-

monplace days, and commonplace days are in

sum

the substance of our being.

than a year passes by without passions,

without virtues, without miracles. us to respect the

morning spirit

little

hours of

have been able to

life.

Teach If this

act with the

of Marcus Aurelius, do not over-

emphasise

actions, for I

know, even

myself, that something has happened. if

believe I have sacrificed

wretched enterprises, and to prove to

day to

you are able

that I have lived meanwhile

as profoundly as a hero,

has not lost

But

its

and that

rights, then SI

soul

you will have

On Emerson done more than to save

my enemy

creased within ness,

and the

and Other Essays you had persuaded

you have

in-

to-day, for

the amount, the great-

desire of life

in all likelihood, I shall

with

respect.

;

and to-morrow,

know how

to live

NOVALIS

MEN

travel

by diverse roads; who-

soever follows them and compares them will see arise strange figures," writes our author. these

have chosen three of

men whose ways

different summits.

the

horizon

lead us upon three

have seen glimmer on

Ruysbroeck's works the

bluest peaks of the soul, while in

the most

Emerson

humble summits of the human

heart round themselves irregularly.

find ourselves

Here

upon the sharp and often

dangerous convolutions of the brain; but there arc haunts full of delicious shade be-

tween the verdant inequalities of these crests,

and the atmosphere there

unchangeable

crystal. 53

of an

On Emerson It

the

how many ways

splendid to note

human

sible.

and Other Essays

toward the

soul diverge

For an

instant,

They went, each

inacces-

we must follow the

about to men-

in his

manner, much

steps of the three souls I tion.

further than the sure circles of ordinary consciousness,

truths

and each of them met with

which are not similar and which we

nonetheless ought to welcome as prodigal

and reclaimed

sisters.

A hidden truth are

its

what makes us live.

unconscious and silent slaves, and

find ourselves

bound so long

has not

appeared. But should one of these extraordinary beings, which are the antennae of the

human

soul,

many

an instant while groping humblest amongst

in one, in the

suspect

by an indescribably

us,

sudden and inexplicable consequence, freed of something. purer, and

shadows, the

new

feels

truth, higher,

more mysterious, takes the place

of that which

discovered and which dis54

On Emerson

and Other Essays

appears forever, and the soul of

anything betraying inaugurates a

without

presence outwardly,

its

all,

serene era, and cele-

brates profound fetes of the soul, in which

take only a tardy and very remote part.

And

I believe

it is

thus that the soul

and tends toward a goal of which

rises,

alone

knows. All that

can say of

it is

nothing in

Place in one scale of the balance

self.

it-

all

the words of the wisest men, and in the

wisdom of

other the unconscious

the child-

yonder who passes, and you will see that

what

Plato,

Marcus

Aurelius,

Schopen-

hauer, and Pascal have revealed to us will

not outweigh by a line the vast treasures of the unconscious, for the child silent

a thousand-fold

Marcus Aurelius who

Marcus

Aurelius

more wise than

speaks.

had

who

not

However, written

his

twelve books of "Meditations," a part of the

unknown

treasures ss

our child holds

On Emerson

and Other Essays

within him, would not be the same.

haps

who know how

these things, but those

question

Per-

not possible to speak clearly of

profoundly

themselves

and who know how

to live

enough,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;were

only

the fraction of a second and in accordance

with their whole being, It

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

feel that that

some day we may

possible that

cover the reasons why,

is.

dis-

Plato, Sweden-

borg, or Platinus had not existed, the soul

of the peasant,

who

has never read them

and who has never heard

would not be what

But however that may

tell

infallibly

be,

ever lost to any soul, and

of them, is

to-day.

no thought was

who

will tell the

parts of ourselves which live, thanks to the

thoughts which have never been expressed ?

Our gree,

consciousness has

more than one

de-

and the wisest take note only of that

part of our consciousness which unconscious, because

coming

divine.

it is

almost

on the point of be-

increase this transcens6

On Emerson

and Other Essays

dental consciousness

seems ever to have

been the unknown and supreme desire of

men.

rant of

matters

it,

little

that they are igno-

for they are ignorant of every-

thing; and yet they act in their souls as wisely as the most wise.

true that

men are destined to liveonly moment they die. In the mean-

the majority of at the very

time this consciousness increases only by

creasing the inexplicable around us.

seek to

know

in-

order to learn not to know.

We increase only by increasing the mysteries that

weigh us down, and we are

who

are only able to keep in

sire to live

slaves

them the

de-

on condition of making heavy,

without ever becoming disheartened thereby, the pitiless weight of their chains.

The is

history of these wonderful chains

the unique history of ourselves; for

are only a mystery, and

not extensive;

what we know

Thus

not very interesting. Is

far the history

contained in a few

On Emerson

and Other Essays

pages, and the best of us, so are afraid to think of

advance

far

How

it.

as the

claimed,

few dare

human

limits

thought; and give us the names of those

who remain

there a few hours

than one has promised us the history, and a

few others have taken

hand

but a short while after they

lost,

step

was necessary for them

step, the force that

they

moment,

back again into their

to exist there

;

exterior

life,

into the

reason,

and everything glowed afresh,

fell

known

fields

human as

formerly, before their eyes.

In truth, that tion the soul

why

it is

difficult to ques-

and to recognise the small

voice of the child within one, amidst the

Yet nevertheless, how

useless noises around. little

the other efforts of the spirit matter

when one life

thinks of

passes

from us

it,

and how our ordinary

One would

say that in

the outer world only our fellow-creatures of the empty, distracted, and sterile hours ap58

On Emerson

and Other Essays

But here within us

pear.

the only fixed

point of our being and the seat

We must take know

refuge there incessantly.

life.

the rest before any one has spoken

all

to us of

it;

but here

more than can be ment,

itself

when

told

we ;

learn very

and

it is

phrases cease and

much

at this

mo-

when words

conceal themselves, that our restless eyes

suddenly encounter, through the years and centuries, another look in

which lay patiently

wait for our look on the road to God.

Our eyes

eyelids flutter at the

become moist with

dew from that

road.

we .

a sweet

are

not

alone

life?

frontiers;

time, the

and

the same mystery, and

terrible

we know

on the

endless

But what books speak in

same

to us of this place

Metaphysics scarcely touch the

and these once passed,

what remains?

in truth

few mystics who seem

mad, because they would probably

repre-

sent the very nature of man's thought, S9

On Emerson

and Other Essays

he had the leisure or the force to be a true

man. Because we love above

all

the masters

of ordinary reason: Kant, Spinoza, Scho-

penhauer, and some others,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

there

justification for us to repulse the

of a different reason

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

which

masters

an intimate

reason as well and which very likely will be

our future reason. In the meanwhile they have told us some

Open

indispensable things.

the most pro-

found of the ordinary moralists or psychologists,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;he

will speak to

hatred, of pride,

you of

love,

and of the other passions

of the heart, and these things please us for

an instant, stems.

like flowers

plucked from their

But our real and unalterable

life

passes a thousand leagues

from love and

a hundred thousand leagues

from

possess a 5e//

pride.

more profound and more

inex-

haustible than theSelfoi passions or of pure

reason.

There

experience

no need to

when our 60

tell

us what

mistress abandons

On Emerson

and Other Essays

She goes away to-day; our eyes weep,

us.

Maybe

but our soul does not weep. hears the event and transforms for

all

into light,

May-

that befalls shines in the soul.

be also the soul knows nothing of the event; and

if so,

what use

to speak of it?

must leave such small things to those

who do Ifi

not feel that

life is

profound.

have read La Rochefoucauld or

Stendhal this morning, do you believe that I

have acquired some thoughts which make

me more a man, and that the angels, whom we must approach night and day, will find me more beautiful? Everything that does not go beyond experimental and quotidian

wisdom does not belong worthy of our

soul.

to us,

and

Everything that

un-

are

able to learn without anguish lessens us.

you succeed

an egoist even

will smile regretfully should

proving to

the sacrifice of

But what

that I

happiness and of

my life.

egoism compared with so many 6i

On Emerson

and Other Essays

other all-powerful things I feel living In

with an unspeakable life?

not upon

It Is

the threshold of passions that the pure laws

There comes

of our being are to be found. a

moment when

the

phenomena of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;which

ual consciousness

habit-

could be called

passionate consciousness or the consciousness of relations in the

longer benefit I

life.

Interesting In

it is

some phase, and that

know

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

^no

and no longer reach our

character.

its

often

It Is es-

But on the

a plant, whose" roots are timid

of the great central I

degree,

agree that this consciousness

sential to

surface

us,

first

fire

of our being.

can commit a crime without the least

breath disturbing the smallest flame of fire;

and on the other hand

changed, a thought which

look ex-

fails to

unfold, a

minute which reveals nothing, can

stir It In

terrible whirlpools to the depths of treat,

and make

overflow

soul does not judge as 62

this

we judge;

its re-

life. It, is

Our a ca-

On Emerson pricious

and hidden

a breath,

must

thing. It can be touched

and ignored by a tempest.

seek, for

matter

and Other Essays

what touches

there, for

there that

it is

Thus, to return to

this

which reigns supreme

a distance

from our

soul, I

whom

exist.

ordinary con-

sciousness

the one person

the whole

it;

at so great

know more than

the marvellous pic-

ture of Othello's jealousy, for example, no

longer astounds. first circles

of man.

determinate in the

It remains,

provided

one takes care to open neither the doors nor the

windows otherwise the image ;

dust in the breath of

awaits

outride.

logue between the

all

falls into

unknown

that

listen to the

dia-

the

Moor and Desdemona,

as a perfect thing, but

cannot prevent us

from thinking of more profound things. Let the warrior

from Africa be deceived or not

by the noble Venetian, he yet has another life.

There must pass

around

soul

and

his being, at a time coincident

with

his

On Emerson his

and Other Essays

most miserable suspicions and his most

brutal anger, events a thousand times sublime,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;and

through the

^which his cries cannot disturb,

surface

emotion of

jealousy an unalterable existence

which the genius of

man

pursued

has so far shown

only in passing. Is

the source of the sadness that

this

marks some masterpieces ?

Poets can write

them only on condition of

closing their eyes

to the terrible horizons, and of imposing silence

on the grave and numberless voices If they

of their soul.

would have

had not done

lost courage.

Nothing

they

it,

sad-

der and more elusive than a masterpiece, because nothing reveals better the powerlessness of its

man

dignity.

that

to perceive

And

the

grandeur and

a voice does not

most beautiful things

nought beside what we little

its

us more.

are,

warn are

nothing will be-

On Emerson

and Other Essays

'The soul," says Emerson [in "The Over-Soul"],

"is superior to its

wiser than any of

makes us less

feel

its

works.

ries us to

Is,

he has done.

think

to teach us to

Shakespeare car-

such a lofty strain of Intelligent

wealth which beg-

activity, as to suggest a

gars his

great poet

His greatest com-

munication to our mind all

The

our wealth, and then

of his compositions.

despise

knowledge,

own; and we then

feel that the

splendid works which he has created, and

extol as a sort of

self-existent poetry, take

no stronger hold

which

in other

hours

of real nature than the shadow of a passing traveller

The

on the rock."

sublime cries of great poems and of

great tragedies are nothing more than the

mystic cries of anguish which do not belong to the exterior life of these these tragedies.

poems or of

They resound an

out from the inner

life,

instant

and make us hope

On Emerson

and Other Essays

—

know not what of the unforeseen and which we expect, none the less, with so much impatience! until our passions too I

well-known

—

their snow.

—

cover them once more with

...

It is at

these that humanity

such

moments

brought for a second

in the presence

of an angel.

as a

itself,

man is brought Now, it is im-

portant for humanity to place

itself as

often

as possible in the presence of itself, so as to

know what

is.

Should some being of

amongst

the other world descend

mand

and

earth's

what would we give him?

greatness,

Some would

forward the philosophers without

knowing what they

did.

have forgotten

which one has declared that he would Othello,

Ah,

de-

of us the supreme flowers of our soul,

and the claims of the

bring

us,

offer

King Lear, and Hamlet.

well,

I believe that

are not

what these are and !

our soul will die of shame

the depths of our flesh, because 66

well

On Emerson aware that to be

its

and Other Essays

visible treasures are not

made

opened to the eyes of strangers, and

contains only false precious stones.

most humble amongst

us,

The

during the mo-

ments of solitude when he knows what necessary for

him

know,

feels that

has the right to be represented by some-

We are in

thing other than a masterpiece. truth

invisible

beings.

nothing to say to the

should have

celestial

envoy and

nothing to show him, and our most beautiful possessions

would appear suddenly

us like those poor family relics

which seem

so precious in the remoteness of their case,

but which look so miserable

when they

are

brought forth from their oblivion for a second, in order to

show them

some

in-

different person.

are invisible beings

who

live

only

within ourselves, and the attentive visitor

would go away without ever suspecting what he might have

seen, unless in that 67

mo-

On Emerson

and Other Essays

ment our indulgent soul should It

intervene.

away from small

so apt to run

and we have such trouble finding that

fear to call

However,

in life

to our assistance.

ever present, and never de-

it is

ceives itself nor

summoned.

things,

deceived, once

would show

has been

to the unex-

pected emissary the clasped hands of man, his eyes so

full

of nameless dreams, and

his lips unable to speak;

and perhaps the

other, if he be

worthy of understanding,

would not dare

to question.

But

other proofs were necessary to

him, the soul would bring him

whose works almost approach

among

those

silence.

would open the door of the dwellings where a

few loved

the small

for

itself,

movement of

would both climb

taking account of its

the

body.

high

They solitary

plateaus where consciousness rises one de-

gree higher, and where

all

those

who

are

concerned about themselves prowl atten68

On Emerson tively

and Other Essays

around the monstrous

circle

which

binds the apparent world to our superior

The

worlds.

the limits of

soul

would go with him

mankind for ;

it is

where man

seems on the point of finishing that he probably begins; and his essential and indestructible parts find themselves only in the

where

invisible

it is

watch on himself.

essential for It is

him

to keep

on these heights

alone that there are thoughts which the soul

can declare, and ideas which resemble the

and which are

soul

as imperious as the soul

itself. is

there that humanity has dwelt an

instant,

and those peaks, feebly aglow, are

probably the only gleams which show the earth in spiritual spaces.

Their

have truly the colour of our that the passions of the

soul.

reflections

We feel

mind and heart

re-

semble, to the eyes of a foreign intelligence, petty village quarrels; but in their works the

men

whom

speak have emerged

On Emerson from the smallest

and Other Essays and

village of passions,

they have said some things that will terest those

who

in-

are not of this earthly

parish.

Our humanity must agitation

depths, live as

exclusively within like

its life

its

Innermost

Let

should render ac-

The

elder brothers.

mind alone contemplates celebrity

its

horde of moles.

though some day

count of

not keep up

itself, like

a local

which makes the traveller

smile.

There are other things than the mind, and it

not the mind alone which

the universe.

time to confound

What

longer with the soul. us to consider

allies

us to it

essential for

not what takes place as

between men, but what has place within us

above the passions of reason. a foreign intelligence only

If I offer to

La Rochefou-

cauld, Lichtenberg, Meredith, or Stendhal, it

would regard me

I regard,

in the

depths of a dead town, the hopeless bour70

On Emerson geois

who

and Other Essays

speaks to

of his

street,

of his

marriage, and of his business.

What

demand of Titus why

angel will

he has not married Berenice and why An-

dromaque

will Berenice

what

who

promised to Pyrrus?

amount

to, if I

invisible in the

What

compare her

beggar-woman

me or in the prostitute who me ? A mystic word only can now

stops

beckons

and then represent

human being but our ;

soul does not exist in these other regions

without shadows and without abysses. And-^

do you yourselves stop there hours when

Man

life is

heavy on your shoulder?

things are perfect.

But one must speak of

to one's self,

silent

and

concerning them

it is

right to re-

some

knocks one evening at the door.

same

grave

not in these things, and yet these

them only main

in the

visitor should surprise

ment when

soul

if this

at the

mo-

looking for the key

to her nearest treasures in Pascal, 71

Yet

visitor

Emerson,

On Emerson

and Other Essays

or Hello, or, on the other hand, in some

one of those pure beauty,

who were I will

concerned about

not close the book in

embarrassment; and perhaps he himself will take

therefrom some idea of an

mate being condemned

know

at least that

we were not

inti-

or will

to silence,

all

con-

human

soul,

tented inhabitants of the earth.

Among

these envoys of the

Novalis probably represents one of the

most imponderable, one of the most

subtle,

and one of the most transparent aspects of the superior being silent within the depths

us.

line

the strolling soul, the crystal-

bee of this almost immovable group. is

likewise a mystic as the others, but his

mysticism,

of a special kind.

mysticism?" he asks himself fragments,

"And what 72

"What one of

his

should be treated

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; On Emerson mystically?

All

Religion, love, politics.

have some connection with

things

lofty

and Other Essays

mysticism.

men were

If all

only a couple

of lovers, the difference between mysticism

and non-mysticism would be

an end."

Between a mystic thought and an nary thought, however exalted there

the

same

difference as

ordi-

may

be,

between the

dead eyes of the blind and those of the child

who

beholds the mountain and the sea.

The soul of man tion

never errs here.

The

ques-

not alone of mysticism, theological or

ecstatic.

who

All

the customary

perceive things beyond

phenomena of passion or

Had'

reason are themselves mystics also.

Pascal aided Racine while he wrote "Berenice," the lovers of Berenice

been mystic

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

that

to say

would have

more human

and Pascal would have put there an scribable something

inde-

which would have

called the look of the loved one at the

ment when her

re-

mo-

eyes encountered those of 73

On Emerson And

her lover.

the

poem would have been

Instead of which Berenice

inexhaustible.

now

and Other Essays

dry and detached

lives a

ing,

but she does not, like

Cordelia,

which

life

Berenice

will never be renewed.

undy-

Hamlet and

commune with God.

There are

a thousand diverse mysticisms.

"Mysticism," says Matter, the biographer of

Claude

and

rational

many

diverse

further than positive science

and

speculation,

has

gone

"has

Saint-Martin,

But

forms as there are eminent mystics. beneath

all Its

forms

has two ambitions

which are the same to arrive

cal studies as far as intuition,

and

practice as far as perfection. science

metaphysi-

The

and the highest morality:

two words

what

moral

highest

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

this in

looks for, what

has

the determined will to conquer, and the pretension If not to teach

teach

little

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

for

its

conquests

at least to let see Imperfectly."

Novalis does not concern himself ex74

On Emerson

and Other Essays

pressly with theosophy, with magic, with

transcendental pneumatology, with meta-

physical cosmology, or with all

find in

the spacious circles of the mystic, properly

speaking.

mystic

who

cally, since a

an almost unconscious

has no aim.

thinks mysti-

thought which communicates

a certain fashion with the infinite

thought.

thoughts of

a mystic

must everywhere seek for

this kind, for

they are the only

ones in which our soul truly

lives.

these thoughts are very rare,

And

at-

do not mean to say that Novalis

a supremely admirable being.

ing

we must be

contented with the slightest efforts and tempts.

His

teach-

very vague, and he does not advance

any new solution to the great questions of being.

But some of

his thoughts are un-

doubtedly impregnated with

odour of our

soul,

the

special

and you recognise with-

out trouble this odour that no language can

ever define.

has found a 75

way

to clothe a

On Emerson certain

number of

and Other Essays earthly things in mystic

vestments; and these are the calmest, the

most spontaneous, and the most virginal vestments one can encounter. His mysticism is

even so natural and so essential that

do not

see

him,

infinite

formed before you over

all

at the outset.

with grace.

communications realise

it,

are

and extend

does not torture

himself; he does not search in shadows or .in

but he smiles at things with a

tears,

gentle indifference,

and regards the world

with the inattentive curiosity of an angel,

unoccupied and distraught by long ries.

memo-

plays simply In the gardens of

the soul, without suspecting that he has

reached the extreme end of

life,

and that he

often passes his hands between the branches to pluck the flowers

from the other

side of

the burning hedge.

also very far

and obscure joy of the 76

from the exuberant ascetic mystic.

On Emerson

and Other Essays

does not feel the intolerable flames that

melt souls at the opposite poles of divine

He is rather an

love.

who

voiced child

unity.

"There

astonished and sweet-

possesses the

not sad and he

not

restless.

any un-

was

unhappy

tells us;

nor did

and

any other man.

But unhappiness could not sink soul,

not, properly speaking,

happiness in this world," he yet he

sense

into his

succeed in troubling his^

thoughts.

"Sorrow again

;

a divine vocation," he says

but one feels that he has not

sorrow, and that he speaks of ler

who it

as a travel-

has not fathomed the language of

a country through

what

known

which he

may, the soul

passes.

or of joy, and events are not able to

any change

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

heart died his life

it.

When

the only

seemed broken.

work

his little sweet-

woman

he truly loved

did no more

than weep dreamily upon her grave.

the sister of sorrow

On Emerson what point very

in his

and Other Essays

work did

difficult to say;

tears, the angelic

optimism of

not become darkened;

we know but

she die ?

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

all his

his life could

so true

that

a few things concerning the

laws of the soul, and that our action on

That

and, in spite of

life

has no

it.

Besides, he does not concern himself with

anything that

domain of

certain.

erratic intuitions,

elusive

lives in the

and nothing

than his philosophy.

His

mysticism, to use one of his expressions

which he loves and which he often employs

when he speaks of

his science,

magic idealism."

seems to him that noth-

more within reach of

ing

the

infinite,

rather "a

the spirit than

why he scarcely ever field of human thoughts.

and that

enters the ordinary

only wanders over the frontiers of this

thought, but he goes over nearly

all

them.

With

the

greater 78

number of

mystics

On Emerson known that

to us, to say,

mysticism it

habits

and

psychological;

attaches itself to a species

psychology where the

transcendental

soul itself

and Other Essays

endeavours to study

own

its

passions, as our mind, in ordi-

nary psychology, endeavours to study the passions and habits of our being, apart from

The immovable

mystery.

upon

itself

and concerns

soul falls back

itself less

unknown which lies about unknown which lies within

;

with the

than with the

or rather,

per-

ceives accidentally the exterior mystery only

through and

in relation to the inner

In general,

tery.

mys-

mystic only in re-

spect to itself, whereas, in Novalis, the soul

may

be mystic in

its

relation to a chemical

phenomena, a pathological law, or an

arith-

metical problem.

The and

soul shifts position every

finds itself again

itself.

moment,

everywhere outside of

Instead of drawing within

externals

the

and appearances, the soul mixes 79

On Emerson itself its

and Other Essays

with them and so saturates them with

essence that

changes their substance.

It transcendentalises less its It enters

the universe.

morals and ;

own

art,

this art, science,

Self than

science,

and

and morals are

no longer what they were and no longer directly belong to present life.

Moreover, we do not know fine better

how

than Novalis has done,

to deillusive

nature and the particular origin of his

"There are

spiritual emotions.

us,"

he writes,

in all

thoughts which

"certain

seem to have a character entirely

from a

there

born. logue,

fatality;

different

accompanied by

others, for they are

sensation of

yet nevertheless,

no outward reason for them It

seems that

in a

take part in a dia-

and that some unknown and

being gives us

strange

spiritual

manner the op-

portunity of developing the most obvious thoughts. it

This being must be superior

enters en rapport with us in a 80

way

since

impos-

;

On Emerson

and Other Essays

sible to those beings

bound

phenomena.

This being must be homogeneous with since

treats us as spiritual beings,

very rarely

calls

This superior Self nature, or

Man

us,

and only

us to personal activity. is

man what man

what the sage

endeavours to become

to the child.

unto

it,

he endeavours to become similar to the notSelf.

impossible to establish this fact

each of us must experience

This

superior

fact

man

Philosophy

order

superior

that

alone can grasp, but the others

endeavour to bring

essence,

for himself.

out In themselves.

an auto-Ioglcian of superior

an auto-manlfestation

by the

the excita-

tion of the

real Self

Philosophy

the foundation of all the other

and the determination to

manifestations,

philosophise

ideal Self.

the invitation

made by

real Self to take consciousness, to itself,

and to become

would be

the

awaken

spirit."

difficult,

concerning

the

On Emerson

and Other Essays

thought with which we are here occupied,

and which goes beyond the the soul, to find a notion

than that which

"Philosophy,"

means

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

speak

Self

by the

passing

counter:

philosophy,

first circles

only

more acceptable here en-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;and

Novalis

of transcendental

an excitation of the real

"is

ideal Self."

for the nature

of his thoughts, he determines this better

than the most skilful commentator would,

when he

says: "that they [the thoughts]

are accompanied by a sensation of fatality,

and that an unknown being gives him

in a

strange fashion the opportunity to develop the most obvious

The over

among them."

evidence of which he speaks

this fugitive evidence

ceive only at the

But what we scurely

more-

which we per-

most lucid hours of

life.

see only at long intervals, ob-

and without our

any other thing revealing

unknown

satisfaction

realising, it

us^

without save an

and an indefinable 82

in-

On Emerson

and Other Essays

crease of a general force, he perceives every

day, and succeeds in holding fast to a part

of what he perceives.

we must characterise Novalis by a word, we might say that he was a scientific If

mystic,

though he only concerned himself

with science at moments,

where

and

places

was on the point of being con-

founded with poetry.

"There

a divining

atmosphere," he says somewhere; and he the one of those

who come

forth the most

rarely out of this precious atmosphere.

catches a glimpse continually, on the ex-

treme limits of the plausible, of many things of which there

no proof, but which we

ourselves are nevertheless unable to refrain

from recognising and admiring. upon them only

in passing;

touches

and before you

have had time to recover from your astonishment, he awaits you, all smiles, on the

most

solitary cape of the other hemisphere.

Novalis has those eyes which for an 83

in-

On Emerson

and Other Essays

stant bind all worlds together.

Perhaps he

who

has most profoundly pene-

trated intimate

and mystic nature and the

the one

secret unity of the universe.

has the

and the very sweet torment [meaning

sense

that he chafes under the thought] of unity.

"He

sees nothing isolated,"

things he

ment tween

who

the doctor

and above

all

looks in amaze-

at the mysterious relations existing beall things.

gropes without cessa-

tion at the extremes of this world,

the sun only rarely shines,

where

and on every

side

he suspects and touches lightly upon strange coincidences

and astounding

scure, trembling, fugitive,

analogies, ob-

and timid, which

vanish before one has understood.

But he has caught a glimpse of a

would never have

number of

things one

suspicioned,

had he not gone

the clock that has

dent that he has

so far.

marked some of

subtle hours of the

certain

human

soul.

the most It is evi-

more than once been 84

mis-

On Emerson

and Other Essays

taken but despite the winds of folly and of ;

error whirling around him, he has been able to maintain himself a longer time than any

other on the dangerous peaks where

at the point of being lost.

all is

seems to be

the hesitant consciousness of unity, but the

most vaguely complete that we have had thus

far.

beings In

And whom

spiritualised is

there

was more

and more divinely human.

the serene master of Sais:

hears, sees, touches,

and thinks

"He

at the same

Often, the stars seem to him like

time.

men; then again men seem stars, stones like animals,

few human

are

our universe

him

like the

clouds like plants.

plays with forces and phenomena."

Ill

Friedrich von Hardenberg, ture took the

May

who

in litera-

name of "Novalls," was

1772,

in the

born.

old family residence of 8s

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; On Emerson

and Other Essays

Weidestedt, in the ancient county of MansSaxony.

field,

His

soldier in youth,

father,

who had been

and who was an honest and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;who, moreover, never derstood anything of of was of Saxony â&#x20AC;&#x201D;an German,

solid

un-

the genius

the

director

important

his son,

salt-works

employment

that

time,

which assured a very large independence to his household.

whom

His mother, of

little is said,

ac-

cording to custom, though mothers create

was

the soul of beings,

in all likelihood

of those sweet and pious ing through

life

self the attitude

without explaining to her-

remaining

silent

divines,

pass-

of man, contents herself by

knows and smile.

women who,

and by hiding what she beneath a poor, humble

possible

memories of her

that

Novalis had

in describing the

simple

and tender woman who accompanied hero,

one

Henry of Ofterdingen,

voyage. 86

his

in his ideal

— On Emerson It

and Other Essays

was with her and with

his three sisters

that Novalis passed, in this small, lonely

chateau, the whole of his delicate child-

hood. the old

He lived there, German

within the rooms of

—

sombre and crowded silent life

—rooms

dwelling

that

slightly

discreet

and

which allows the inner being time

to find itself

and to question

Then he

itself

from the

studied at the universi-

first

hours.

ties

of Jena, Leipzig, and Wittenberg, and

now we have come ing passed those

to the time when, hav-

obscure years through

which the soul unconsciously makes ready,

—and when

it is

about to enter those paths

of light traced by his work upon his

he does the small 'things of which

life,

lives are

made.

The

year

1794. Thirteen years have

passed since Kant published his "Critique of

Pure Reason"; but not more than four or five

years

spread in

have elapsed

since

this

Germany and began, with 87

book

enthusi-

On Emerson asm and

and Other Essays

anger, the despotic reign of the

While Kant

philosopher of Koenigsberg.

Fichte at the same time recon-

analyses,

the

structs

world

"Doctrine

his

Sciences," while Schelling, in his small at Leipzig, ciples

room

already teaches to those dis-

among whom was

Novalis, the abso-

and of the

lute identity of the objective

sub-

jective.

not the place here to

recall,

apropos

of a rather literary philosophy, the great

German metawe know the youth

quarrels of the golden age in It suffices that

physics.

of Novalis was passed, even in the very centre of this vast conflagration of

human

But never did he enter into the

thought.

narrow prisons of systematic philosophy.

loved better to

according

the

imagine the world free

his

soul than to limit

cies

of a

trary.

first

idea,

had

transports to

the exigen-

irrevocable

genius,

and

arbi-

and Kane has

On Emerson declared

that

and Other Essays has

genius

place

science.

Of the

three great philosophers

governed human thought,

who

certain that

Fichte, the passionate thinker, left the

profound impressions on often recalls

him

his

influence they

had upon

most

mind; and he

his writings.

nevertheless, impossible to

then

know

is,

exactly the

the soul of Novalis,

for the true inner life depends on those

small circumstances which

known.

can never Se

Goethe, In his spiritual autobiog-

raphy, speaks of none of the large events of

many long pages to the his childhood. The soul

his life, but devotes

humble games of never should

listens,

we go

but

sometimes hears, and

to the sources of our

definitive

existence,

there the

word of

we would

new and

often find

a drunkard, of a maid,

or of a prostitute, even where the wisest

among our

masters have spoken In vain.

Besides, the philosopher never remains 89

On Emerson among

long

and Other Essays

his brothers.

"Philosophy,"

Novalis writes somewhere, "rests at this

moment

my library.

am happy in

hav-

ing traversed this labyrinth of pure reason,

and

having dwelt anew, body and

within

refreshing

the

senses.

One

and

the director of his

it.

Mathematics alone do not

the soldier and mechanic

phy alone

the

without resigning one's self to

live solely for

make

soul,

can place philosophy very

high without making house,

countries

will not

make

;

so, philoso-

a man."

same time we

find

ourselves

within the great literary century of Ger-

many. .Goethe, who

so difficult to de-

man with a thousand aptitudes, the Argus who smiles gravely upon all inner fine,

the

truth,

and

about to give "Faust" to the world,

on the eve of publishing "Wilhelm

Meister." illusive

And "Wilhelm

Meister," that

and inexhaustible book of

influences Novalis

till

his death.

all

books,

did

On Emerson not like

it,

and Other Essays

yet he returned to

was obsessed by

forsake

of his

it.

life,

it,

incessantly.

and could no longer last years

In the diary for the

the most important event of the

morning or of the evening was

daily the

impatient and discontented adoration of the

"Meister."

same

He loved it and

whom

This was the book of

and one could say of

heavily

upon

detests a mis-

a mysterious and wretched

law attaches you. life,

and

time, as one loves

tress to

detested it at the

his

that

entire

his

weighed

existence.

wrestled vainly against "the angel of ro-

mantic irony"; he contradicted pulsed,it;

and the

and

arms, his eyes closed in admiration.

into

its

knew, nevertheless, the

breviary of daily

life.

ern and prosaic," he

"It

tells us.

faults of this

entirely

The

mod-

romantic

perishes here just as the poesy of nature

the marvellous. things.

re-

instant after, he fell again

and

speaks only of ordinary

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Artistic atheism 91

that

the spirit

On Emerson

and Other Essays

But "the ardent and sainted

of the book."

Novalls," as Emerson able,

him, was not

calls

amidst the greatest sorrows of his

life,

to forget for an instant this

Candide

rected against poetry, which

till

his last

possessed his soul with the

memory

di-

days

of his

dead sweetheart.

Germany

flourished.

history of the

Romantic

Around Goethe

know

the

all

School. So as to picture the milieu in which his

flowed,

life

that,

very

still

—Novalis great

young,

turned

and

forgot

suffices

the

—almost in

never

which

those

was an

delicious hours steeped him.

intimate friend of the beautiful

two

translations

speare to Germany.

Schlegels,

introduced

He was

France

mystic

—

^Jean-Paul,

Rabelais

of 92

the

whose Shake-

also the friend

of the enormous Jean- Paul, so in

the

and

Schiller,

ecstasy

child

often

quite

tender

know

only to

little

known

romantic and

Germans,

the

On Emerson

and Other Essays

most powerful, the most slovenly, the most the

inexhaustible,

most gentle of

toward the

most chaotic and the

literary monsters.

his final days,

good and

faithful

limpid legends,

who

was Ludwig Tieck,

Tieck of

set

Then,

artless

and

about earnestly

at-

tempting, with Schlegel, to collect the works

of this child

whom

death had impatiently

seized.

But, as yet, death was at the turn of the road.

Novalis had finished his law studies.

likewise applied himself to chemistry

and to mathematics. and

left

Wittenberg

Installed himself at Tennstedt.

Hence-

forward, the several years set aside for the

accomplishment of his work were passed

between Tennstedt, Weissenfels, and Griiningen in Thuringia.

Destiny,

who knows

what must be done, and who draws from some men of

interest to

drawn, places him

her

that can be

the small, drowsy,

familiar and patriarchal 93

all

town of

central

On Emerson Germany.

and Other Essays

easy to picture the sur-

roundings. There are great trees pines

generally

and mountains, the metal-

about,

all

;

The Harz and the The vine banks of the Saale. The in-

bearing Erzgebirge.

great Thuringia forest are near. thrives

on the

habitants

work

copper-mines. inns,

and

There are some

old, squat

under linden

some towers the dark

all

in the salt-mines

theless

grown

trees,

in ruins

in the

by the wayside;

upon the

cliffs;

and

and green confused, yet noneleaning

familiar;

houses,

moss-

stubble and slightly blackened cha-

The

teaux of legendary Germany.

people

gather the harvest, singing the while about the sheaves.

They

over the streamlet to the village at

ing

and

life,

stars, flows in

pass the small bridge

in the forest

mid-day and

;

they return

in the even-

everywhere under the sun expectancy.

In 1776, just at the very

moment

his

days were ironically numbered, the poet, 94

On Emerson equipped

in so

and Other Essays

many

things, prepared to live

in the full exercise of his powers.

en-

tered into the administration of the Saxony salt-mines.

But some months previously,

the greatest event of his pure and simple

took place by chance, without noise and

life

without attracting attention, like

which penetrate the It

was during

which

him

good

his

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Just

who

a visit to Thuringia, in

friend Just accompanied

later

Tieck,

events

soul.

became

and vague biographer.

Ludwig

all

his astonished

I leave the

whose

word

narrative

still

trembles beneath the fresh-coloured hue of this first love:

"He when

arrived at Cronstadt not long ago,

in a

neighbouring country-house he

became acquainted with Sophie von Kiihn.

The ful life.

first

glance he threw upon the beauti-

and marvellous apparition decided

his

can even say that the sentiment 95

On Emerson

and Other Essays

which now penetrated him and inspired him

was the substance and the essence of tire life.

Often

a child, there

his en-

look and features of

in the

an expression which

are compelled to call superhuman or celestial,

since

beauty.

it is

And

of a very angelic and ethereal

when we

usually

nances thus purified and

see counte-

made almost

trans-

parent, the fear comes to us that they are

too fragile, too delicately fashioned for this life;

that death or immortality looks

upon

us very profoundly in those sparkling eyes.

And

often a rapid decay transforms our sad

presentiment to certitude.

These counte-

nances are indeed more impressive still when their first period

happily over, and

when

they offer themselves to us on the flowering threshold of their adolescence.

who had known

this

Every one

marvellous betrothed

of our friend agrees that no description able to convey an idea of the grace celestial

harmony

which

and

this beautiful

On Emerson

and Other Essays

being moved, of the beauty which shone in her, of the sweetness

and the majesty which

Novalis became the poet

surrounded her.

each time he spoke of her.

She had

just

ended her thirteenth year when he saw her for the

summer of of his

life.

first

The

spring and

Every hour he was able

away from

steal

time.

the year 1795 were the flower to

his duties, he passed at

Grijningen; and at the close of this same year,

he obtained from Sophie's parents the

desired consent."

It is

the

probable that the old poet had seen

small

sweetheart

very

into

little

illusions

only

through

However,

ecstasy of his friend.

the

matters

what vase man pours the

of love, and

believe that Tieck

exaggerates the influence this encounter had

on the such

life

and thought of Novalis.

men thought

tral plant

a sumptuous

which protected, 97

rises

and

In cen-

above

all

On Emerson circumstances.

follows

its

and Other Essays

And

way

then, generally, the soul

as a blind

man who

does not

allow himself to be distracted by the flowers

of the road. another soul,

in passing, the soul sees

If, it is

because this other soul

ready travels the same paths. inner being

And

al-

our

Every

almost unshakable.

work by Novalis, written before and after the loss of Sophie von Kiihn, has the happy elasticity

and

of days of pure delirium, of sweet

infinite love.

was

him

itself dwelt,

and the object of

was only an

occasion.

one does not know.

that love

his affection

But really

at heart

Many very vital events

often emanate from the

woman, and

frequently changes the direction of a

But

is it,

indeed, the

womanâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;

woman, who had

she life.

^because she

the influence, and

is it

not rather a soul that has intervened?

the

happens, moreover, that a

life is

without the soul having moved. possible that the

woman's 98

soul

changed

Yet

had an

action

On Emerson more prompt than possible that

may

that

and Other Essays that of the man, or

we remark

However

more.

this extraordinary

be,

you will

thirteen years was, as

to all maidens of her age.

it is

maid of

see, similar

She spoke, she

laughed, she smoothed her hair, she ate

green

fruit,

and she

remained of her last

still

played with what

We find in Novalis's

dolls.

note-books a page of ingenious

memo-

randa, wherein he admires her small gestures

and her

little

school-girl thoughts,

without suspecting that everyone has made those gestures and has had those thoughts since the beginning of the world.

He notes

reverently that she "likes vegetable soup,

beef and French beans, just as she

and wine. a spider.

marriage.

She She

afraid of a

her.

She loves passionately

She

beer

mouse and of

afraid of ghosts.

proper for her to love. beat

likes

She fears all

that

They sometimes

Irritable

and tender-

hearted. Novalis's love often tires her. She 99

On Emerson She

cold.

and Other Essays

an excellent housekeeper.

All alone she tried one day to stop a thief.

She loves to

She

listen to stories.

"Women

ordinarily insincere."

are

extra-

complete than we," he adds, "more proud

They

than we.

are

intuitive

Their nature seems to be our nature their universalise.

Here then

see

They

art.

art,

than we.

and our

individualise;

she

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

such as he loved; and

second with his eyes,

her a

maiden similar to those you

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

find in all well-

to-do houses and In the parlours of all boarding-schools.

admired, and died.

was she

loved and

was because of her that he

He was perhaps

astonishing.

whom he right,

and that

not

Undoubtedly he knew, with-

out being able to confess

And

to himself,

there

was

little

insignificant gestures,

in her.

what

he adored her it

was because

he was not ignorant of the fact that a more 100

On Emerson

and Other Essays

profound being surely lay awake

in the

depths of her commonplace smiling eyes.

One never knows what these lover's enBesides, we can never judge of a woman by what is left of her acts, of

counters hold.

her thoughts, or by what is

said of her.

necessary to have seen her,

and

to have

approached her, so as to know what she

and what the unknown being which

a question of soul.

He was happy ing

all

him,

during

all

one spring, dur-

one summer. But misfortune awaited

all

smiles,

dying year.

on the threshold of the

The

denly and seriously in the liver,

year

little ill.

Sophie

fell

abscess

and her poor virgin

handed over to the

The

worth

For woman, more

lives within her.

than man,

sud-

formed

flesh

was

scalpel of the doctors.

following,

Novalis passed by

wandering from the paternal house, where one of

his brothers lay dying, to the cot-

tage at Griiningen, where his young be-

On Emerson

and Other Essays

trothed was at the point of death.

on March

19,

gave up the dream or

Three weeks

Finally,

1797, Sophie von Kiihn

She was

life.

fifteen.

after, Novalis's brother in his

turn expired. It

not necessary to speak at length of

sorrow.

All that there

of an exterior

sorrow varies according to the days

which we

live,

and what

possesses of an

inner quality can neither be weighed nor

spoken

What was

of.

Novalis

was

at first violent in

transformed

later

into

strange peace, saddened and profound, and the grave and penetrating cold of true life rose out of the depths of his misfortune.

was

as a

drunken man

who

one even-

ing in winter awakens under the stars at the summit of a tower.

From

that

day forth

he smiled profoundly and his dead sweetheart began In

Nothing

him

a pure

and solemn

more nobly sad than

life.

this trans-

formation of sorrow at the depths of a soul, 102

On Emerson

and Other Essays

though nothing perhaps could be But the majority of missive,

less rare.

souls are silently sub-

and we are surrounded by

crowd

of mute and solitary beauties.

He one.

lived thus with this invisible loved I

will quote here a

—

intimate diary

random

—

other, and,

for

page which they

all

his

have taken

resemble

each

one remarks frequently at

approach of death,

the

page from

his

became

life

serene and monotonous.

"May death

—

Forty-eight

thought of her.

upon

Early,

Sophie.

criticism.

days after the as

Afterwards, reflections

Then

After the

'Melster.'

Walk.

meal, lively political discussions.

habit,

the way, happy and profound medita-

tions,

notably on this remark of Goethe's

that rarely

do we know and choose the

proper means towards the end; that very rarely do

take the right way. 103

seems

On Emerson

and Other Essays

am becoming better and more profound. Of late, I have had a most vivid image of her before me in profile, at my that I

side Is

on the sofa with a green kerchief. ;

in such situations

ments that quently.

I like to

charitably.

And

characteristic vest-

remember her most

fre-

All the evening, thought of her

very Intimately.

and

God,

so far, has guided

will continue to

so."

the diary runs thus during three

months, detailing with regularity the same recollections

and the same small deeds:

walks, work, meals, small fetes, visits to the

tomb of Sophie, music under the trees,

and evenings under the lamp.

cial life

linden-

"So-

becomes more and more foreign to

me, and things more and more Indifferent," he remarks; and the next day he rejoices as a child In a beautiful, sunny day, for life In spite

Among

all Is

more powerful than memory.

the insignificant facts, he examines 104

On Emerson

and Other Essays

himself and deliberates: "I have remarked that

it is

attain

destiny in this world never to

anything.

myself

separate

from

necessary that I

everything

its

prime, and only at the end shall I learn the

...

know only now

what

best in

well.

Even

myself.

that I have learned

know myself and to self. And that is why

find pleasure in I

my-

must go from the

world."

He often speaks He questions what would make no being

of a fixed resolution. emptiness

in his family,

and

indispensable.

his

death

realises that

When

with his friends he speaks more than once of suicide. his days

The

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;was

does not say

so.

daily, until the

idea of putting an end to floating in his

The

mind ?

notes continue almost

one hundred and second day

after Sophie's death.

Then

suddenly, on

turning one of the pages, there shines forth the

name of another woman, los

On Emerson

and Other Essays

Novalis, in 1798, had gone to Freyberg, in

order to study mineralogy under the

lustrious

Werner.

Julie

girl,

There he met

il-

young

von Charpentier, and the new

betrothments were celebrated a short while after.

Here,

all

biographers

frightened

are

The good Tieck stammers with

away.

ex-

and the old Just passes rapidly by

cuses,

without daring to look.

Carlyle himself,

even though accustomed to the unlooked-

movements of

for

rassed a

moment, and separates

embar-

active con-

from passive constancy, which

stancy says,

true heroes,

a very

rather than ticular

very

inferior virtue,

is,

an accident

a virtue, and in every parrare

this

Sophie," Re adds, "might presence, mournful

"His

world.

still

be a saintly

and unspeakably mild,

to be worshipped in the inmost shrine of his

memory; but worship of

man's

this sort

sole business; neither should 106

not cen-

On Emerson

and Other Essays and

sure Novalis that he dries his tears,

once more looks abroad with hope on the earth,

which

still

was before, the

strangest complex of mystery and light, of

joy as well as sorrow. living;

and he that

lives

for vicissitudes.' "

should offer

many

should love Novalis twice.

'Life belongs to the

must be prepared

do not believe that

and

explanations,

less

had he not loved

necessary to live naively, and

the dead have other rights over us.

Now,

the

happy days returned, sunnier

and more beautiful than formerly.

had

obtained Important employment In Thuringia, his life enlarged itself,

ond

fiancee

and

awaited him, smiling

sweet Impatience of betrothal.

felt

his sec-

nearer to him the

Never had

warm and

ful presence of good fortune.

the

power-

must

not take too seriously this sensation plenitude, of strength, of

even as

hope and of

do not trust death. 107

of joy,

the

On Emerson instructive

and supreme reaction of

which knows

all,

draws near and feel

and Other Essays life

against misfortune which"

will land to-morrow.

our good fortune most vividly,

we is

because sorrow In passing touches us on the shoulder in order to bid us farewell.

Suddenly, during the at the

moment when

summer of all his

800, just

joys were about

to be realised, the unexpected death of one

of his brothers troubled him so profoundly that a blood-vessel broke in his chest; he

bled profusely.

was carried

den, then to Weissenfels,

to Dres-

where he dragged

on for some time amidst great hope and brilliant projects,

the

sumptives, and died on

had not completed

year.

108

manner of

March his

con-

25, 1801.

twenty-ninth

On Emerson

and Other Essays

IV I shall pass rapidly in review, so as to

end

this

works of Novalis,

the

study,

which, in the original edition, accompany the fragments here translated:

Ofterdingen," which

"Henry of

at the beginning of

the collection by Tieck and Schlegel,

was

written in Thuringia, in the solitudes of

the "golden meadow," at the foot of the Kyffhauserbergs.

was

800, and

No-

vahs, on the verge of death, and engaged a second time,

of hope, of projects,

full

and of ardour, smiled

and

a confidence

at existence with a joy

which

till

then he had

"Henry of Ofterdingen" was intended by him to be the positive never experienced.

of which "Wilhelm Meister" was the negative that

had weighed upon

desired

poetry."

kind

"of

all his

youth.

apotheosis

a complete translation of this 109

On Emerson

and Other Essays

novel must appear before long, I will

dis-

pense with an analysis here.

This work, which he had not the time to finish,

the most continuous and the

most considerable

our author. But

effort of

one will not find here the astonishing and

The

happy audacity of the "Fragments."

"Ofterdingen" wrestles with the

artist in

and

thinker,

moments

their

This

in the struggle.

chrome work, noble.

powers are weakened at

cold,

clear,

mono-

beautiful

and

But the pure essence of the genius

of Novalis appears to a

than elsewhere. end, there

From

less

degree here

the beginning to the

to be found, nevertheless, that

marvellous crystalline clarity which

very own, and which manifests cially in this

book

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

his

itself espe-

book which some one

has said was written by an angel descended

from some paradise of snow and Following Night."

this, is

we have

the

ice.

"Hymns

poems

a brief series of

On Emerson

;

and Other Essays

prose and in verse, written shortly after the

death of his fiancee. Novalis regarded these

poems

most perfect part of

as the

"They

his

work.

are," writes Carlyle, "of a strange,

veiled, almost enigmatical character

;

never-

more deeply examined, they appear

theless,

nowise without true poetic worth; there a vastness, an immensity of idea; a

still

solemnity reigns in them, a solitude almost as of extinct worlds.

Here and

some light-beam

us in the void deep

and we

visits

cast a glance, clear

there, too,

and wondrous,

into the secrets of that mysterious soul." .

Here

one of these poems

"The morning

—

will

—

the effort of the earth

ever return? and

^will it

Evil activity consumes the

of the night.

—

will

celestial

light,

breath

secret oblation of love

never burn eternally?

measured by

knows

The

never end?

Time

but the reign of night

neither time nor space. III

Eternal

On Emerson

and Other Essays

the duration of sleep.

make

Sacred sleep

too rarely happy those

who

do not

are dedi-

cated to the night in their earthly works

The madman

alone

knows no other

sleep than the

disowns

and

you,

shadow you

spread so mercifully upon us in this twilight of the true night.

you

They do

marvellous

oil

fee.l

of the almond, and in the

tawny vigor of the poppy.

know

not

golden flood of grapes, in the

in the

that

bosom of the

not

you who envelops the

virgin,

of her knees.

They do

and makes a paradise

They do not

suspect that

from the depths of legends you advance

half-opening the sky, and that you carry the

key of the dwelling of happiness; messenger of Novalis "Spiritual

infinite secrets."

also the author of a series of

Hymns,"

destined to be sung in

the churches; and of

which

I shall

complete.

silent

some other poems

only mention here so as to be

These "Spiritual Hjmins" have 112

On Emerson

and Other Essays

the clear and sweet harmony, the purity and the strange transparency which characterise the genius of the poet, but there

what he himself

to look here for

no need

calls

"the

core of his soul."

We "The

next find, in the Tieck collection, Disciples

Sai's,"

admirable

the

physical, or rather metaphysical, novel, of

which a made. rious,

complete

has

translation

been

There are few works more myste-

serene,

and more

beautiful.

know

not

has been said that he climbed

mountain known only to him-

what

interior

self;

and that from the height of

summit he saw

this silent

at his feet, nature, systems,

hypotheses, and the thoughts of men.

does not summarise, he purifies; he does

not judge, he dominates without saying anything.

In those very profound and

solemn dialogues, intermingled with symbolical allusions,

which stretch occasionally

much beyond possible

thought, he has fixed

On Emerson

and Other Essays

the remembrance of one of the soul's most lucid instants.

It suffices that the reader

cautioned that he

here concerned with

one of those rare books, where each,

in ac-

cordance with his merits, finds his reward.

Unfortunately

From

work,

the

narrow

and he has been

confines of ordinary forces, able, for a longer

any other, to deviate from it

incomplete.

the beginning, the author has over-

lept the

ing,

became

it.

time than

But one even-

quite necessary for

him

halt in his journey before he could describe

what he had already

seen; for there

abyss between what one

what one

able to say

Later on,

discovers.

berless papers, there

and

num-

in his

were found the notes

which are here reproduced and which seem to refer to

some project interrupted

by awe or death.

What

there

either

it,

here transcribe:

"Transformation

of 114

the

Temple

On Sais.

Emerson and Other Essays

Apparition of

Master. Archaeus. Initiation

Memnon.

Dream

Death of the

Isls.

in the

Temple.

Studio of

Advent of the Greek gods. into

the

mysteries.

Statue of

The

Journey to the pyramids.

The Messiah of nature. The New Testament and the new nature. The New Jerusalem. Cosmogony of the ancients. Hindu divinities." Child and his forerunner.

Let us now leave the fragments of

this

mysterious work which oblivion seems to fret

on every

side, so as to

reach some other

fragments, even more mutilated the whole

work of

still,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

for

this unfortunate poet

an ideal monument which fatality made into marvellous ruins before

was

built.

has been said of Novalis, apropos of these

"Fragments," that he was a German Pascal,

and the phrase,

be regarded as quite

some just.

respects,

may

Certainly he

has not the clear and profound power, the

On Emerson ponderous ity

force,

and Other Essays

and the prodigious

elastic-

of the great wild beast in "Thoughts;" is

a Pascal, slightly somnambulistic,

only very rarely enters the realm of tudes,

where he takes delight

who certi-

in his brother.

But there are some things as beautiful as Pascal had not

certitudes.

known Boehme,

Lavater, Eckartshausen, Zinzendorf, Yung,

and the great Boehme notably

Stilling;

never relinquished the splendid booty that

he seized.

Novalis dwells

hypotheses

and of uncertainty; and the

power of man becomes

regions.

in the

hesitant in those

does not possess the pur-

pose of Pascal he goes in a ;

bandaged

realm of

in the desert;

but

to recognise that his range

circle, his it

eyes

necessary

immense.

wished to accomplish a kind of encyclopedic work, wherein the experiences and the ideas born of the most diverse sciences

would be mutually verified,

cleared, sustained,

tells us.

He ii6

and

probably would

On Emerson

and Other Essays

never have been able to achieve this work, but the scattered remains of

and

are beautiful

strange.

proportion

large

these

"Frag-

ments" has been collected by Schlegel and Tieck

volume which contains the

in the

other works of the poet. Tieck, aided by

new

lished a

Edouard von

series of

846,

Ludwig

Biilow, pub-

"Fragments" which

did not even then exhaust the enormous

mass of notes

left

by the author of "The

Disciples at Sais." In a choice his

from these

my turn,

selections.

have made Novalis, in

work, touches upon most of the human

sciences.

have

set aside a certain

of political considerations which longer offer any interest.

carded physics

everything

that

number

now no

I iiave also dis-

the

advance

and chemistry has made out of date

or erroneous.

gard to certain

have done the same historical questions

in re-

which

bore almost exclusively on the situation 117

On Emerson Germany

and Other Essays the

author

the

time

wrote.

for the

difficult

rest,

the choice

and arbitrary; for

was more

was necessary

to hmit myself at present. Besides,

second volume

sible that a

this

work.

among

that

may

it is

pos-

complete

able to assert, however,

Thoughts,

these

have

gathered those which are impregnated with the

true

and pure essence of Novalis's

whatever the repugnance they have

genius,

to tell their secret.

I close

by hoping that

the reader will pardon inevitable errors. is

not easy to translate into French an ob-

scure

author

speak

in a

who

occasionally

low tone.

seems to

Our language

minute and severe interpreter, which, before agreeing to interpret anything, requires construing,

give

which

it is

often very dangerous to

it.

ii8

;

RUYSBROECK A

great

number of books are more

regularly beautiful than this by Ruysbroeck

the Admirable. are

A great number of mystics

effective

and more timely: Swe-

denborg and Novalis, among many.

most

likely that his writings only rarely

meet the needs of the present. hand, I

know

the other

of few authors more clumsy

at times he loses himself in strange possibilities

;

and the

"Ornament of

first

twenty chapters of the

Spiritual

Marriages,"

al-

though probably a necessary preparation, contain only a

few

indifferent

commonplace premises. no order, no

and

pious,

Externally he has

scholastic logic.

often re-

peats himself, and seems at times to con119

On Emerson

and Other Essays

tradict himself.

joins the ignorance of

a child to the science of

have

just returned

some one who might

a rabid syntax, which has troubled

than once. forgets

it.

from the dead.

has

me more

He introduces an image and He even employs a certain num-

ber of unrealisable images; and

nomenon, abnormal

in a sincere

this phe-

work, can

be explained only by his awkwardness and

his extraordinary haste.

of most of the

ignorant

of speech, and can

artifices

only discuss the inexpressible.

igno-

rant of nearly every practice, every qualification,

every

resource

thought; and he

philosophic

compelled to think only

of the inconceivable.

When

he speaks to us of his small mo-

nastic garden, tell

us what

he can hardly and

happening

writes as a child

would

takes to inform us of

there.

write.

suflSiciently

Then he

under-

what takes place

God, and he writes many pages that Plato 120

On Emerson

and Other Essays

could not have written. In every part there is

an absurd disproportion between science

and ignorance, between force and

desire.

literary

work; you

more than

the convul-

sive flight of a tipsy eagle, blind

and blood-

must not expect a

will perceive nothing

stained above

add

I will

snowy summits.

a final

word

a fraternal warning. to read

in the

manner of

have had occasion

some books which are considered

very abstruse: the "Disciples of SaTs" and the "Fragments" of Novalis, for instance;

"Biographia

the

Literaria"

and

the

"Friend" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge; the

"Timaeus" of Plato; the "Enneads" by Plotinus;

Saint-Denys

the

Areopagite's

"Divine Names" and the "Aurora" by the ;

great

German

whom

our author has a closer analogy.

mystic, Jacob

would not venture

Boehme, with

to say that the

works

of Ruysbroeck are more abstruse than these books, but

are less prone to pardon his 131

On Emerson

and Other Essays we

abstruseness, since here

with an unknown

we have no

ning

essential that

casual

confidence.

reader

are concerned

which from the beginIt

seems to

frankly anticipate the

of this

threshold

the

shapeless temple: for the present translation has only been undertaken for the satisfaction of a

that those

few

Platonists.

I believe

not dwelt

in the inti-

who have

macy of Plato and of

the neo-Platonists of

Alexandria will not proceed very far perusal of

this.

selves in a desert

tion of a abyss,

They ;

will

in the

imagine them-

they will have the sensa-

uniform

into a fathomless

fall

between black, smooth walls.

In this book there light nor air;

and

it is

neither ordinary

a spiritual abode in-

supportable to those not prepared for

must not regard

curiosity; there are

The

out of literary

few bric-a-bracs

spiritual botanists will not find here

flowers than they

it.

would

find

it.

any ice-

On Emerson bergs at the pole. limitless desert,

and Other Essays I

tell

them that

this Is a

where ordinary readers

They

die of thirst.

will

here few

will find

phrases which we, in the manner of literary lovers,

might examine and admire they are ;

either jets of flame or blocks of

not look for roses upon

ice.

May-

this Iceland.

be some solitary corollo awaits between two icebergs; there are, in fact, explosions,

some

some strange

unknown

expressions,

some unheard-of resemblances, but none of

them pays for the time consumed ing from so far to cull them.

com-

must,

before entering here, be in a philosophic state as different

from the ordinary

state as

wakefulness differs from sleep.

Porphyry,

"Principles

his

Theory of Comprehensibles,"

the

seems to

have written the most appropriate warning to place at the

head of

intelligence one says

this

book: "Through

many

source [moral law] which 123

things of the

superior to

In-

On Emerson telligence.

and Other Essays

But one

possessed with an in-

much

better

by an

absence of thought than by thought

itself.

tuitive

knowledge of

This idea

like that

of sleep of which

speak to a certain extent in a state of wakefulness,

but of which

we have knowledge

and perception only by like is

known only by

sleep itself. Indeed, like,

and the condi-

tion of any

knowledge

becomes

unto the object."

most

difficult to

that the subject I repeat,

understand this without

preparation; and I believe, in spite of our

preparatory studies, that most of this mysticism will seem to us purely theoretical, and that most of these experiences of super-

natural psychology are of appeal to us only in the character

The

of spectators.

philosophic imagination

slow and dull faculty of education. there, suddenly, at the outposts of

a very

We are human

thought, and well beyond the polar circle

of the mind.

strangely cold there ; 124

it is

On Emerson

and Other Essays

extraordinarily sombre; yet you will find

there nothing save flames

those

who come

and

light.

there, without

customed their soul to the new

and

as Icy as

The most

ac-

as obscure

though they were painted.

exact of sciences

the question

having

perceptions,

and these flames are

this light

But

at stake here;

looking over the most

rugged and the most inhabitable capes of the divine

"Know

Thyself," and the sun of

midnight reigns upon the swelling

where the psychology of man blends

sea, Itself

with the psychology of God. It

ever of importance to remember this;

you are concerned here with a very profound

science,

Dreams no

and

not

with a dream.

are not for every one ; dreams have

roots, while the Incandescent flower of

divine metaphysics blooms here

roots in Persia, India,

And

yet

as a flower,

and has

its

Egypt and Greece.

[science] seems as unconscious

and

Ignorant of I2S

Its

sources.

;

On Emerson Unhappily

it is

and Other Essays

well-nigh impossible for us

to put ourselves in place of the soul, which,

without

effort,

duce

conceived this science;

can neither perceive

ab intra nor repro-

It lacks for us

in ourselves.

what

Emerson

also

would

taneity."

can no longer change these

ideas into our

own

call

"central spon-

substance; and, at the

most from without, we can only take

ac-

count of the prodigious experiences which are within range of only a very few souls

during the existence of a planetary system. "It

not legitimate," writes Plotinus,

"for us to enquire whence this intuitive science springs, as if

were something

pendent on place and motion; for not come from here, nor does

from there it

we need

not pursue

tion of discovering in

but

we must

does

start out

order to go elsewhere; but

either appears or does not appear.

that

de-

with the inten-

any secret sources

wait in silence until 126

dazzles

On Emerson suddenly upon

and Other Essays

us, in

preparing us for the

sacred spectacle, as the eye waits patiently for the rising of the sun."

And

elsewhere he adds:

"It

imagination or by reasoning, derive

its

picture

to is

obliged to

comprehensible

ourselves to say

what

but by the faculty

not by

from elsewhere, that

principles

things (that

there above),

possess of contem-

plating them, the faculty which allows us to speak of

them

them awakening

man who,

In ourselves

world.

see

same power

when we

are

resemble the

climbing the summit of a peak,

would perceive

own

world.

In us here the

we should awaken in the intelligible

in this

Invisible

eyes for those

objects with his

who have

not climbed

with him."

But though everything, from the stone

and the plant up tions,

and

man, be contempla-

they are unconscious contemplations,

it is

very

difficult

for us to treasure in

127

On Emerson

and Other Essays

some memory of the former

ourselves

tivity of the

dead

We are

faculty.

ac-

in this

respect similar to the eye in the neo-platonic

image: "It moves away from the light so

shadows but because of that

as to see the

very fact

;

does not

shadows within the it

sees the

shadows as far

rally capable of seeing I

know what

They

a deluded

man, of a

fever.

natu-

it is

men will have

will consider

monk, of

recluse, delirious

consumed by

see-

them."

opinion most

of this book.

work of

cannot see

without light

In this way, while not

does not see.

ing,

For

see.

light, yet

They

the

a wild solitary

with

fast,

will see in

and it

extravagant and dark dream crossed with

immense is

flashes,

and nothing more.

the ordinary idea

we have

people too often forget that in

them

has been said,

alone.

After

all certainty is

if it

be true, as

every

man is a we should

all,

that

Shakespeare in his dreams, then 128

This

of mystics, and

On ask

Emerson and Other Essays

every

man

in his life is not a silent

mystic, a thousand times

more transcenden-

who have

limited themselves

tal

than those

by words?

What

whose

motive

last

man And is

the action .of the

is is

not mystic?

not the eye of the lover, or of the mother a

thousand times more abstruse, more impenetrable,

and more mystic than

poor and explainable after

this

book,

all,

all

books which are nought but dead mysteries

whose horizon no longer changes? do not comprehend cause

this, it is

probably be-

we no longer understand anything.

But to return readily

to our author,

recognise

that,

far

some

will

from being

mad by hunger, solitude, and fever, monk on the contrary possessed one of

driven this

the wisest, one of the most exact, and one

of the most philosophical minds that has ever existed.

lived,

are told, in his

hut at Groenendael amidst the forest of Soignes.

This was at the beginning of one 129

On Emerson

and Other Essays

of the most savage centuries of the middle

ages: the fourteenth.

He was

Greek, nor, probably, Latin.

and poor.

know

did not

alone

Yet, in the depths of this ob-

scure Brabantine forest, his soul, ignorant

and

simple, received without

knowing

it,

the dazzling reflections of all the solitary

and mysterious summits of human thought.

knew, unconsciously, the Platonism of Greeks,

the

Brahmanism of

Sufism

India, and the

the

Persia,

Buddhism of

Thibet, and his wonderful ignorance resurrected the

wisdom of buried

centuries,

and

foresaw the science of centuries yet to be born. Plato,

could

Plotinus,

quote whole pages

Porphyry,

the

from

Zendic

books, the Gnostics, and the Kabbala whose

almost divine substance

found

intact in

the writings of this humble Flemish priest.* *

will give only

an elementary example of

two senses of the word.

Ruysbroeck distinguishes

three kinds of life: the active life, the inner life, and the superessential life. The Gnostics distinguish the spirit, the soul, and the material life,

130

On Emerson

and Other Essays

There are here many strange

many

dences and

What

coinci-

disquieting agreements.

more, at moments he seems to have

fathomed accurately most of

his

unknown

predecessors; and just as Plotinus begins his austere journey at the cross-roads

where

Plato, frightened, comes to a standstill

we might

kneels, so

and

say that Ruysbroeck

has awakened, after a slumber of several centuries,

not that kind of thought (for

that kind of thought never sleeps)

but that

kind of speech which was asleep upon the

mountains where Plotinus, dazzled, had forsaken

by placing

eyes, as before

and divide

men

his

an immense

hands over his fire.

the pneumatics or spirituals the psychics or animals and the hyliPlotinus likewise separates in ques or materials. the soul: intelligence, the reasonable soul, and animal nature. The Zohar notes the spirit, the soul, and the life of the senses; and in the two systems, as in Ruysbroeck, the connection of the three principles is explained by a procession assimilated with an irradiation; then the theory of the divine encounter: God coming in us from the inside toward the outside; we, going to him, from the outside toward the inside, etc. Read also the 5th Ennead., into three classes

etc.,

;

etc.

131

On Emerson

and Other Essays

But the organism of singularly.

their

princes of dialectic.

all,

through the

cism

They make seem

thought

differs

Plato and Plotinus are above

They

reach mysti-

science

reasoning.

use of their discursive soul, and

to mistrust their intuitive or contem-

Reasoning contemplates

itself

mirror of reasoning, and forces

itself

plative soul. in the

to dwell indifferent to the intrusion of all

other reflections.

It continues its course as

a river of fresh water in the midst of the sea,

with the presentiment of approaching

absorption. Here, on the contrary,

again the habits of Asiatic thought

shackles of the

less

ror of

known mirror,

None

sure?

human in this

;

the

supreme above the

tuitive soul reigns

cursive purification of ideas

The

we meet

can say. is

book but there ;

dis-

by words.

dream have

intelligence

in-

fallen.

The

mir-

entirely un-

exists

another

more sombre and more profound,

which we harbour

in the 132

innermost depths of

On Emerson

and Other Essays

our being; no detail can be seen there tinctly,

nor can words remain on the

face; intelligence

would shatter

ror], if for an instant

God Himself? One

will

sur-

[the mir-

reflected there

prafane light; but something self there at times:

dis-

else

its

shows

the soul?

it-

or both at the same time?

never know.

And

yet these almost

invisible apparitions are the

unique and

ef-

most

in-

fective sovereigns in the life of the

credulous and of the blindest amongst us.

Here you

will perceive nothing

more than

glittering reflections In this mirror, its

treasure

and

inexhaustible, these reflections

will not resemble

any of those that we have

experienced within ourselves; and despite everything, their certitude will appear ex-

traordinary.

And

that

why

know

noth-

ing more appalling than this sincere book.

In the world there

not a psychological

notion, a metaphysical experience, a mystical intuition,

however

abstruse, 133

however pro-

On Emerson

and Other Essays

found, and however unforeseen they be, that it

would not be possible for

us,

may were

necessary, to reproduce or to revive an in-

stant within ourselves, in order to assure us

of their like

human

But here we are

identity.

unto the blind father no longer able to

None

recall the look of his children.

these thoughts has the

aspect

of an

have

yet

lost

or brotherly

earthly thought;

we seem

the experience of God, and

all affirms

tered into the

filial

we have not enhouse of dreams. Must we to us that

exclaim with Novalis that the time

more when the hensible, is

spirit

God was

compre-

and that the meaning of the world

forever lost ?

That formerly

all

was

ap-

now we observe only some dead reflections that we no longer understand, and that we live only on parition of the Spirit, but that

the fruits of better times I

think

key to

we must

this

book

declare

humbly that

the

not to be found along 134

On Emerson

and Other Essays human

the ordinary paths of the

This key

and we must be worthy of far as possible is still

met

spirit.

not destined for worldly gates,

from

earth.

by going

Only one guide and

in these solitary crossroads,

he can give us the

toward

final directions

these mysterious Icelands of

fire,

and these

Icelands of abstraction and of love.

Plo-

who makes an effort to analyse, by means of human intelligence, the divine tinus

faculty which prevails here.

what we

call

ing, the

same

has

felt

by a word which explains nothecstasies,

which

in reality are

only the beginning of the complete discovery of our being; and amidst their troubles

and

their darkness, he has not for an in-

stant closed the questioning eye of the psy-

chologist

who

seeks to render an account of

some of the most unusual phenomena of soul.

thus the last pier whence

can discern, however

slightly, the

the horizon of this obscure sea. 135

his

waves and

makes

On Emerson an

and Other Essays

extend the paths of ordinary

effort to

in-

telligence to the heart of these devastations,

and that

why we must

ceasingly; for he

tic.

those

return there un-

the only analytical mys-

who

attempt these amazing

excursions, I wish to give here one of the

pages wherein he has attempted to explain the organism of this divine faculty of introspection.

"In

intellectual Intuition,"

intellect sees intelligible objects

over them, and

as it

gives

its

by means of

Supreme Source sheds

the light which the

really sees the

says, "the

in seeing these objects,

same

intelligible light.

But

attention to Illumined objects,

does not see very clearly the principle that

illumines them;

if,

on the contrary,

lects the objects It sees so as to

neg-

contemplate

only the light which renders them visible, it

sees the light itself

light.

But

and the

principle of

not outside of

Itself that

Intelligence contemplates intelligible light 136

On Emerson

and Other Essays

[or the light which makes the object

intel-

In Catholic doctrine, the principle

ligible.

of Intellection.].

It resembles

then the eye

which, without considering an exterior and strange light, before even perceiving

it,

suddenly struck by a splendour which

is its

own, or by a ray which springs forth from itself is

and appears

the same

when

hand,

own

light,

its

light [by

that

lids

and draws from

has

Then, without seeing any-

itself.

thing on the outside,

more than

or when, pressed by the

perceives the light which

within

amidst darkness.

the eye, so as to see no

other objects, closes itself its

at other

which

sees;

moments, for

sees].

The

sees even It

sees the

other objects

saw previously, while luminous, were

not the light

itself.

ligence closes

Its

when

objects,

seeing nothing,

which shines

when way to

Likewise,

eye in some

concentrates within sees not

intel-

other Itself,

an unknown light

in strange forms, but its 137

own

On Emerson

and Other Essays

which suddenly shines inwardly with

light

a pure brightness."*

"It

necessary," he tells us again, "that

God

the soul which studies

Him

idea of It Is

should form an

know Him;

while seeking to

furthermore necessary that, knowing to

what great things

union,

desires to unite Itself,

and persuaded that

should steep

divinity, Itself,

world,

until,

will find bliss In this

Itself In

of contemplating

instead

contemplating

becomes

the depths of

the

intelligible

an object of con-

itself

templation, and shines with a splendour of

conceptions which have their source above."

This tell

nearly

all

that

us here on earth;

human wisdom

can

nearly

that

all

the prince of transcendental metaphysics

has been able to express. explanations,

we must

selves, within the

As find

for the other

them

depths where

Plotinus, sth Ennead. Book V.

M. N. BouiUet.) 138

all

our-

explana-

(Translation by

;

On Emerson tion

annihilated in

this is

above

and Other Essays its

For

expression.

not alone in heaven or on earth

it is

;

within ourselves that there are

all

more things than

all

our philosophers can

and

since

are no longer obliged

to formulate

what

contain,*

are

mysterious in

more profound than

written,

us,

has been

all that

and we are greater than

that

all

exists.

Now,

if I

have translated

this

book,

it is

solely because I believe that the writings of

the mystics are the purest diamonds of the

wondrous treasure of humanity; though translation

may

be useless probably, for ex-

perience seems to prove that

matters

little

whether the mystery of the incarnation of a thought take place in light or in it

suffices that

ever that

may

has taken place. be,

shadow But how-

mystic truths have a

strange license over ordinary truths; they

can neither grow old nor *Cf. "Hamlet,"

Act

die.

Scene V. 139

There

On Emerson

and Other Essays

truth which could not, one morning, de-

scend upon this world, admirable in power, in youth,

derful

and covered with fresh and won-

dew

appropriate to things which

have not yet been

said.

the infirmaries of the

to-day through

human

where

soul

people come to die every day, you will

never find there any mystic thoughts.

They

have the immunity of the angels of Swedenborg which hasten continually toward the springtime of their youth, so that the oldest angels seem the youngest ;

they

come from

and

India,

yet,

whether

Greece,

or the

North, they have neither country nor anniversary,

and wherever we encounter them

they seem immovable and real, like

God

Himself.

A work only its

grows old

proportion to

why

anti-mysticism ; and that

bears no date.

know

that

it is

this

book

abnormally

confusing; but I believe that a sincere and

candid author

never obscure in the ever140

On Emerson

and Other Essays

lasting sense of the word, for he always un-

derstands

what he from

and

himself,

infinitely

beyond

Artificial ideas alone arise

says.

actual shadows,

literary epochs,

and

in the

when

conscious centuries,

flourish only in

bad

faith of too

the thought of the

writer remained on this side of what he ex-

There,

pressed.

was the

a forest, and here,

it is

shade of

fruitful

the obscurity of a

vault wherein are born - sombre parasites.

must also take count of

world which

his phrases

this

unknown

were to enlighten

through the double and poor medium of

words and of thoughts.

Words,

some

one has said of them, were invented for the ordinary uses of lucky, restless

around

a throne,

some royal

life,

and they are un-

and amazed,

vagabonds

when from time

soul leads

on the other hand

to time

them elsewhere. And thought ever the exact

image of the unfathomable which prompted it,

and

not always the shadow of a 141

On Emerson we

struggle which

and Other Essays see in

like that

it,

Jacob with the angel, and confused

in pro-

portion with the size of the soul and of the

angel ? ÂŤ

Woe

we have in we are able to express and to show I know that in these pages there are the reflected shadow of objects we do not recall having seen, whose use the monk does not stop to explain, and which we will only recognise when we see the objects themunto

us, says Carlyle, if

us only what 1

on the other side of

selves

life

;

but,

mean-

while, which forced us to look further,

that his

much.

know

again that

and

many

phrases float almost like transparent

icicles

on the colourless sea of

silence,

but

they exist; they have been separated from water, and that

enough.

know,

finally,

that the strange plants he has cultivated on

the summits of the spirit are surrounded by spacious clouds, but these clouds offend only

those

who

look at them from below, and 142

On Emerson

and Other Essays

should one have the courage to climb, one

would phere

find that they are the very atmos-

of these plants, and the only

itself

one wherein they can bloom, sheltered by inexistence.

For

a vegetation so subtle that

it is

scarcely discernible it

has drawn

its

from the

sap and where

magnifying

like a

shadow and

it is

where

seems

in-

This whole work,

clined to dissolve itself. besides,

silence

to silence;

glass,

applied

and sometimes

one does not see immediately the end of the ideas that

still

are steeped In

thing invisible, which at

and some attention watch

its

returns.

remote from us;

from

moments

some-

appears,

not too

probably at the very

it is

this

evidently necessary to

This book

centre of our humanity.

are too far

it.

But

it is

book; and

if it

who.

seems

to us disheartening like the desert, if the

desolation there,

and

of divine thirst at the 143

love seems

terrible

summits unbearable,

On Emerson it is

not the

we who

and Other Essays

work which

too ancient, but

are too old perhaps, and sad and

without courage, like some old

And

a child.

another mystic, Plotinus,

it is

the great pagan mystic, the upper

those

men around

hand over

who complained

who

us,

probably has

when he

says to

of having seen noth-

ing on the heights of introspection "It

first

necessary to

make

the organ

of vision analogous to and similar to the object which

to contemplate.

Never

would the eye have perceived the sun had it

not

first

taken the form of the sun; in the

same way, never would the beauty itself,

if at first it

and every

soul

have seen

had not become beautiful

man

should begin by mak-

ing himself beautiful and divine so as to obtain the

view of beauty and of divinity."

144

On Emerson

and Other Essays II

The

life

of Jean van Ruysbroeck, like

that of the majority of great thinkers of this world,

entirely within himself;

and

he himself said "I have nothing to do with :

the outside." Nearly all of his biographers,

among

Surius

two

others,

have written almost

centuries after his death,

and

appears rather legendary.

their

work

see therein

a hermit saint, silent, ignorant, extraordi-

narily humble,

unknown

living,

to himself, in the practice

The

of miracles.

went

and

extraordinarily good,

trees,

under which he

pray to God, were illuminated with

an aureole; the

bells

of a Dutch convent

rang of their own accord on the day of death,

and

after the

found

his body,

exhumed

abandonment of

intact,

his

five

soul,

his

years

was

amidst wonderful exhalations

of perfumes which healed the sick brought

from neighboring

villages. 145

On Emerson Here

in a

few

torically certain:

and Other Essays lines are the things his-

at Ruysbroeck,

1274

was born the year a small village be-

tween Hal and Brussels.

was

at first

vicar in the church of Sainte-Gudule ; then

by the counsel of the hermit, Lambert, he left the

Brabantine village and retired to

Groenendael (the Green Valley) within the forest of Soignes, in the vicinity of Brussels.

Some holy companions soon

joined him

and with them he founded the abbey

there,

of Groenendael, whose ruins are to-day.

tracted

was

this

still visible

retreat

by the strange renown of

ophy and of pilgrims, the

his

superhuman

that,

visions,

some

Dominican Jean Tauler and

Gerard the Great, among many

others,

came from Germany and from Holland visit

the humble old man,

therefrom

at-

his theos-

full

and returned

of an admiration of which

they have left remembrance in their works.

died, according to the 146

Necrologium

On Emerson Monasterii viridis

and Other Essays on December

vallis,

138 1, and those of his time surnamed him the Admirable.

that time

was the century of mystics

and the period of and

Flanders

;

sinister

this

forest

and of long

where the

just died,

Brabant

fierce reigns

of the

battles even within

saints knelt.

Bonaventure and Saint

had

of violent nights of blood

and of prayers under the three Johns,

wars

Saint

Thomas Aquinas

and Thomas a Kempis used

go and study God

in this

mirror of the

absolute which the visionary Flemish

abandoned

the remotest part

had

of the

Green Valley, while after John of Bruges, the

Van

Hugh

Eycks, Roger van der Weyden,

van der Goes, Thierry Bouts and

Hans Memlinck were to populate with images the desert word of the hermit. Here is a catalogue of Ruysbroeck's writings; his work was enormous. There are: "The Book of the Twelve Beguins," 147

On Emerson

and Other Essays

"The Mirror of Eternal Salvation," "The Book of the Spiritual Tabernacle," "The Glittering Stone," "The Book of Supreme Truth," "The Book of the Seven Degrees

"The Book of the Seven Chateaux," "The Book of the Kingdom of the Loved Ones," "The Book of the Four Temptations," "The Book of the Twelve Virtues," "The Book of the Christian Faith," and "The Ornament of Spiritual

of Spiritual Love,"

Marriages," and, in addition, seven

two

canticles,

in Surius

and

a prayer,

Epistola septem

dua admodum

spiritales

brevis sed pia valde, of

letters,

under the

utiles,

and Oratio which

title

Cantiones per-

have not

been able to recover the original texts in any of the Flemish manuscripts.

Most of

these writings were edited with

the greatest care, a few years ago, by a society of

Flemish bibliophiles:

Maets-

chappij der Flaemsche Bibliophilen ; and it is

upon the

excellent text of this edition 148

On Emerson that the

and Other Essays

major part of

this translation

has

been based. undertake an analysis of

I will not here

these diverse difficult,

works that ;

monotonous, and

book by our author same

analysis

science; a

would be

useless.

Every

treats exclusively of the

theosophy appropriate to

Ruysbroeck, the minute study of the soul's introversion

plation of

and

God

Introspection, the contem-

above images and

similes,

and the drama of divine love on the uninhabitable summits of the satisfied, therefore, to

extracts

istic

from each of these books.

The "Book

of the Twelve Begulns," in

the Latin translation by Surlus,

I will

spirit.

give a few character-

entitled

vera contemplatione, opus praclarum,

variis divinis institutionibus , eo

quo Spiritus

sanctus suggessit ordine descriptis, exuherans.

That more

work, but

it is

manuscripts.

found

exactly

the

none of the original

tell

describes

the truth, according

149

On Emerson to

the custom

rarely

named

and Other Essays

of his times, his writings;

Ruysbroeck

and the

titles

which individualise them apparently have been interpolated by the copyists,

like the

marginal rubrics of the chapters.

In the

edition of the

Maetschappy der Vlaemsche

bibliophilen are gathered together under the title first,

Dat

hoec van den twaelf beghinen:

this treatise

of the contemplative

life

which Surius speaks, then a kind of manual of symbolic astrology, and flections

finally

some

re-

upon the passion and the death of

our Lord Jesus Christ.

The

three works

are moreover clearly separated, and Ruys-

broeck plainly indicates the place where he renounces the inner universe in order to

descend toward the visible heaven, when he declares, at the close of

"And

after this, I

Chapter

XXXI:

abandon the contempla-

God Himself and which He grants to those who have renounced to themselves and who have followed His tive life,

which

150

On Emerson spirit there

His

where

and Other Essays

enjoys Himself with

Disciples, in eternal glory."

The

first

odd and very

written in

book are

eight chapters of this

beautiful verse,

where there constantly pass ardent flashes across similes, as

dows of and

spiritual

through the win-

a cloister that has been burned,

also

benumbed

somewhat

sadnesses

similar to Villon or Verlaine, on the dark

background of

Here

are

essential love.

some of these

"Contemplation

Which It

verses

a science without form,*

ever remains above reason.

not able to descend into reason.

And

reason cannot

The

absence of illumined form ful

rise

above to

it.

a beauti-

mirror

*The French mode has its English equivalent, with a double meaning. Psychologically, it is defined as "a faculty or a phenomenon of mind considered as a state of consciousness." In the philosophical or physical science sense, it means, "the manner of the existence of a thing, so far as it is ' not essential."

On Emerson

and Other Essays

Wherein gleams the

eternal splendour of

God.

The

absence of form

And

all

The

absence of form

But

it is

without manner,

the works of reason fail there.

not God,

the light which

Those who move Within divine

makes us

see.

of form,

in the absence

light.

See in themselves a largeness.

The

absence of form

above reason,

But not without reason. It sees everything

Astonishment

The

without astonishment.

beneath

contemplative

life is

it;

without astonish-

ment.

The

absence of form sees, but

above everything, and

knows not

what; is

it is

neither this

nor that."

Then,

the

verses were too

poet,

recognising

much wrapped 152

that

his

in darkness,

On Emerson in

their

edge,

and Other Essays

approach toward eternal knowl-

tells

us suddenly and very simply:

"At present

must cease

to rhyme,

So as to speak clearly of contemplation."

From

then, he

makes use of

prose, obscure as the terrible void discerns, exists

a strange

which he

analogous to the great cold which

above images, with bluish

jets

through

And

the obscure coldness of abstraction.

when he descends

moment

to similes, he

touches only the most distant, subtle,

the

most

and the most unknown he thus loves ;

mirrors, reflections, the crystal, fountains, glittering stones, fish,

glasses,

water plants, precious

red-hot irons, hunger, thirst,

the stars and everything that aids

endowing

his ideas with visible

fire,

him

forms and

prostrated before love, on the transparent

summits of the

soul,

and

in fixing the un-

heard-of which he reveals with calm. It is besides useless to IS3

say more, since

On Emerson you

presently

and Other Essays

yourself

will

reach

the

threshold of these spiritual marriages and will thence give

heed to the motionless tem-

pest of joy,

up to the external heart of God.

Alone, in

fine,

he has almost fathomed

thought after death, and has shown a back-

ground of

its

vegetation to come amidst the

unintelligible effluence of the I believe that this

Holy

Trinity.

work which we

shall

remember elsewhere, perhaps, and always.

You

will see, likewise, that the

most amaz-

ing effusions of Saint Therese are already

no longer distinguished from the height of colourless glaciers, without air light,

where we

and without

shall ascend with

him

yond astonishment and emotion,

"be-

above

reason and virtues," in the obscure sym-

phony of contemplation. from

this

"De

Here

a passage

book:

altero verae contemplationis

modo.

"After that comes another form of contemplation. IS4

On Emerson

and Other Essays

"Those who are raised purity of their spirit

the simple

by love and respect

which they bear to God, stand

His

pres-

And

ence the naked and uncovered vision.

from the splendour of the Father radiates a simple light, on the apparition of the bare

and imageless thought, raised above and images,

above

reason

senses

and without

reason, into the exalted purity of the spirit.

"This light

not God, but an inter-

mediary between showy thought and God; it is

self simply,

it,

not according to the distinc-

and the mode of His persons, but

tion in

God or the spirit God manifests Him-

called the light of

of the Father.

the nakedness of

His substance; and spirit

the

His nature and of

Father

also,

speaks the

the

elevated

thought, bare and without images.

template the

as I contemplate you.'

'Con.

same time spread the ingenuousness of

simple eyes, under the shedding of the simISS

On Emerson

and Other Essays

pie splendour of the Father,

and they

per-

ceive the splendour of the Father, that say, the substance or the nature of

God

simple vision, above reason and without

dis-

tinction.

"This splendour and

God

give to the contemplator spirit a real

God, such

science of the vision of

seen in this mortal state.

may

this apparition of

understand

a sensible self in the

image of

wish to give you

When you find your-

dazzling radiance of the sun, and

when you remove your from

In order that you

well, I

it.

as can be

all attention,

eyes

from

all colour,

all distinction,

from everything lighted by the

and

sun, if then

you follow simply with your eyes the

light

and the rays which radiate from the

sun,

you

will be led Into the very essence of the

sun, and, similarly, if

you follow the daz-

zling rays which flow

from the splendour

of God, in your simple vision, you will be led into the source of your creation, and is6

On Emerson there

you

will

and Other Essays nought

find

but

God

alone."

now approach

the second of the works

heretofore enumerated:

"The Mirror

Eternal Salvation" (Die spieghel der Ewigher salicheit)

Is,

like all mystic writings, a

study of the joys of introversion, or of the return of

man

touch with able doctor,

unto himself, so as to be in

God; forwarded by and the

the admir-

excellent contemplator

"To dear Sister MarVan Meerbeke of the convent of Clarisses In Brussels, the year of Our Lord

of the Green Valley, guerite

1356."

In certain manuscripts the piece

"The Book of Sacraments," and it is indeed the poem of Eucharlstic love, above human kind and material things, and amidst called

blind emanations

seems to throw in

from God, where the soul

off

the pollen of

an eternal prevision.

Its

essence

It requires, In

order

to realise slightly, here as elsewhere, these 157

On Emerson

and Other Essays

terrors of love, a tongue

which might pos-

omnipotence of tongues

sess the intrinsic

al-

most immemorial. Now, Flemish possesses this

Flemish words the

and probably

omnipotence,

had

them images of

[Ruysbroeck],

have

epochs.

glacial

therefore,

still

several

at his service

one of the

al-

most primitive forms of speech, wherein

words are with

really

us, ideas

words.

Also

lamps behind

ideas, while

must explain the meaning of I

inclined to believe that

every language always thinks more than

man, even than the man of genius who

and who

employs

heart of

it;

and that

only the momentary

it is

thanks to the

lat-

ter tongue, that a mysterious, ignorant per-

son like Ruysbroeck has been able, by gathering together his forces scattered In the

prayers after so

many

books which scarcely to-day.

I translate

centuries, to write

suit

from

lowing fragment is8

our apprehension this

book the

fol-

On Emerson our

here

"See,

must yield

actions

and Other Essays

;

and

reason

clear

all

for our powers become

simple in love, and remain

silent,

and bend

before the apparition of the Father; for the manifestation of the Father

above reason,

there, the soul

everything,

and

lifts

the soul

bareness without images; simple, pure, in this

and empty of

pure emptiness, the

Father shows His divine splendour. In

neither reason nor judgment,

splendour, neither

nor

observation

this limitless

way

and

for

But the simple

at the heart of intelli-

always open, and sees and contem-

plates with a

naked

very

Yonder

eye,

it,

that they have to flutter be-

eye, above reason, is

below

splendour blinds the spiritual

fore the inconceivable light.

gence,

can

distinction,

enter; all this should remain

eyes, in a

this

light.

vision, this light

there

by that

eye against

mirror against mirror, image against

image.

"By

these three things are 159

unto

On Emerson God, and united in

has

made

Him.

our simple eye

God

and Other Essays For

His image.

His divine splendour from filled

But

this

termediary between it is

that

has super-

no other image

splendour

God and

not an

by which we

in-

ourselves, for

same splendour which we

also the light

the mirror of our soul, so

that no other splendour and

can enter.

His image

;

abundantly

this vision

a living mirror that

see,

and

see,

but not our

eye which sees.

"For though the image of God be

with-

out intermediary in the mirror of our soul,

and though is

be united to

it,

this

not, however, this mirror, for

not become a creature. the image In the mirror

noble that the soul

image

God

does

But the union of is

so great and so

called the mirror of

God. "Then, received,

this

same image of

which we carry

God we

our

have

soul, is the

Son of God, and the eternal mirror of i6o

On Emerson God's wisdom,

and Other Essays which we

see everything

and are ourselves everlastingly

reflected.

However, we are not the wisdom of God; otherwise selves,

we would be

which

that

from

our-

impossible and an heretical

For

proposition.

make

able to

all

that

are and all

we have we hold from God and ourselves.

And

be immense for our

though

soul,

it is

not

this sublimity

none the

less

hidden to the sinner and also to many of those

who

are just.

in the light

All that

of nature

can

know

incomplete, with-

out flavour and without emotion; for

cannot contemplate

God

or find His

fluence in our soul, without

we in-

His aid and

mercy, and without our genuine training in

His love."

The "Book

of the Spiritual Tabernacle"

(Dat hoec van den Gheesteleken Tabernacule).

In Tabernaculiim Mosis,

pertinentia commentaria, ubi multa etiam i6i

On Emerson Exodi, Levitici,

and Other Essays

Numerorum

mysteria,

di-

vino spiritu explicantur, writes Surlus, the longest

work of

the recluse,

fices in

Covenant and of

the ancient law.

generous extracts from interesting ;

the strange,

and arbitrary interpretation of sym-

naiVe,

bols in the ark of the

soul

I will

this,

for

and kindly aspect of

sacri-

give most

shows an

his

Flemish

and the application and subtlety of the

artist

which he employs

to illuminate his

symbols, just as his amusing and simple

complaisance in certain

effects

of colour and

of likeness reminds us at times of his wonderful contemporaries of the school of Cologne,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the

old

dream

painters,

Master

William and Lochner, and the admirable

band of unknown dreamers, who lished far

estab-

from him the almost supernatural

reflections

of spiritual beatitudes of

this

century and of the century following, which

passed away so near to

from

earth. 162

God and

so far

On Emerson Here

and Other Essays

what he says apropos of the

offer-

ing of the poor in the Jewish law

"And

they (the doves) shall hold them-

selves near rivers

so that should

and beside fresh waters,

some bird come from on

high, which might seize ill,

they might recognise

in the water, it.

The

them or do them it

its

reflection

and guard themselves against

fresh water

the

Holy

Scripture,

the life of Saints and the mercy of God.

them when we are

shall see ourselves in

tempted; and thus nothing will be able to

harm

us.

ture,

and from them are often born young

These doves are of an ardent na-

doves, for each time that, in the glory of

God and

for our

bliss,

consider sin with

hate and contempt, and virtue with love,

we bring young doves to say, new virtues."

into the world, that

Here he pictures, by the

aid of these

doves, the offering of St. Paul 163

same

On Emerson "And should

and Other Essays

our Father replied that his grace him, for virtue

suffice

the malady of temptations.

fulfilled in

When

he un-

derstood that, he offered these two doves into the

hands of our Lord.

For he

for-

sook himself and became voluntarily poor

and bent the neck of

his

doves (which were

under the hands of our Lord

his desires)

Jesus Christ and of the

Holy Church. And

Christ broke the neck and the wings of the doves, and then he sire,

became powerless

to de-

or to soar in ways other than what

And

desired.

(that

to say

God

then Christ placed the head

dead

will in impotency) un-

der the broken wings, and then the dove

was ready

to be sacrificed,

Apostle said: glory in Christ

may

'Gladly,

and then the holy therefore,

infirmities, that the

dwell in me.'

will

power of

Listen as well to this extraordinary ex-

planation of the spiritual flowers embroid-

ered on the hangings of the tabernacle 164

On Emerson "On

and Other Essays

four

these

curtains

different

our Lord ordered Bezaleel and

colours,

Aholiab to weave and to embroider thereon,

needle,

many ornaments.

Even

our

so,

submissive will and our intelligence place

upon these four colours diverse ornaments

Upon

of virtues.

nocence,

the colour white of in-

shall place red roses,

resist-

ing forever

all

serve purity

and we mortify our nature and

there

that

evil.

;

red roses with sweet perfume

are

which are very beautiful on colour.

Again we

shall

this

when

obedience; for,

and turns

And

its

till It

its

closes

setting in the west.

up and hides

and awaits the return of the

so,

rays

ever eagerly toward the

itself

at night

colours,

Even

we mean

the sun rises in the

the sunflower expands toward

heat of the sun

white

embroider on inno-

cence some sunflowers, by which

east,

thus pre-

will

Its

sun.

open our heart, through

obedience, toward the light of God's grace; i6s

On Emerson

and Other Essays

and humbly and eagerly we God's grace, so long as we love.

And when

fresh emotions,

no longer

feel the heat of

and when we

that can tempt

the light of grace stays

feel the heat

night wherein

will

;

its

feel a little or

of love, then

it is

shut close our heart to

and thus we

the all

shall enclose

within us the golden colour of love; and

wc shall await a new rising of the sun with new splendours and with new emotions. And in this fashion we are able to preserve innocence ever in

its

splendour.

"Upon the colour of hyacinth, like unto air, we shall embroider birds with diverse plumage that is to say, we shall bear the

;

our minds, with a clear observation, the

life

and the works of

various.

And

saints,

which are

these are their diverse plu-

mage, which are graceful and very admirable,

and

with these plumes that they

have adorned themselves and soared to the life eternal.

There are birds that we must i66

On Emerson remark

them

we wish to resemble plumage, we must follow

seriously; If their

them to

Upon

their eternal rest.

purple, that

which

and Other Essays

blood red,

to say violet or

generosity,

signifies

shall place

and they symbolise a free pos-

water-lilies;

For

God.

session of all the treasures of

the colour

notice four things about the water-lily.

It keeps

ever above water and has

itself

four green leaves between the air and the water, and

above

even

to those

so,

freedom of

and

constantly In the earth,

spread open to the sun

remedy

It is

who

;

and

are too ardent.

it is

And

can,

through generosity and

spirit,

possess the streams of all

And between

the richness of God.

this free

possession of our spirit and the floods of

prodigal gifts from God,

green leaves; that sideration of the erality of

and

God

shall

have

to say, a lofty con-

manner

which the

flows ever with

what manner the 167

gifts

new

lib-

gifts;

flow ever

On Emerson

and Other Essays

generously, according to the

loved one

who

manner the

form of the

them; and

receives

what

chief cause of all gifts

the

noble background of divine love, and the nearest cause, the wise and generous nature

of creatures, which can make them

God's

gifts,

can

give

osity,

and generously

God

all

Let us therefore adorn gener-

and then we

the land of

Holy

out of the treasures of

wisely

creatures.

will be strengthened in

all gifts,

that

to say in the

made And we

firm

to truth

and

Spirit, as the water-lily is

in the depths

of the water.

expand our heart, above

toward the sun of a

unto

excepting the wise and gener-

man who,

ous

For none can know the wealth of

God.

remedy

all,

And

justice.

thus

the whole world;

will

are

for the

generous heart that possesses the treasures of

God must

and

And

cool it

all

fill

up,

those

console,

who

through that i68

are that

refresh, afflicted.

the

pur-

On Emerson pie

colour

that

set

red

the

bright

that

stars,

colour,

There we

to say, in burning love.

place

will

and Other Essays

say,

some pious and devout prayer for the good of our neighbour, and some reverent and

hidden observance between

There are the

selves.

stars

God and

our-

which illumine

with their splendour the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, and they render

luminous and

establish

fruitful

and

inwardly,

the firmament of eternal

life."

After

this, I translate entirely

on Fishes" with

ter

"And

this

Jews to eat pure

and

all

its

why fish

the

"Chap-

astonishing similes.

the law ordered the

having scales and

the other fish were impure to

and forbidden by law. derstand that our inner

From life

that

fins,

them

un-

must have a

vestment of virtue, and our inner being 169

On Emerson

and Other Essays

must be covered over with reasonable consideration, in the

same way that the

covered and ornamented with

And in

fish is

scales.

its

our loving force must be able to move

four ways. That

own

over our

will,

fins

and

middle, a dorsal less

during

why

our

all Its

inner

to acquire virtues.

with which our inner

should swim, like unto of divine grace.

by triumphing

by loving God, by de-

siring to resist nature

These are four

to say,

The fin

fishes. In

has

fish

life

the water in the

still,

which remains motion-

And

movements. feeling,

straight

that in

the

middle, must be empty of everything and

without personal preference

we must

allow

God

;

that

to act in us,

to say,

and

In all

things of heaven and earth.

"And

there

the fourth

fin

which

bal-

ances us in the mercy of God, and in true divine peace.

And

and

scales,

has

fins

thus our inner activity

and becomes for

pure food which pleases God. 170

us a

But the

On Emerson scales

and Other Essays

which clad and adorn our being

should be of four colours, for certain

have grey

scales,

green scales and

The

grey scales

our inner say,

life

we must

fish

others red scales, others still

tell

others white scales.

us that

we must

clothe

with humble images, that think of our

sins,

of our lack

of virtue, of the humility of our Lord Jesus Christ and of His mother, and of

all

things

which could humble us and humiliate

us,

and we should love poverty and contempt as being

unknown

to every one

disdained by every one. colour which

and is

as being

the grey

very beautiful in the eyes of

God. "Finally

we must

clad our inner life with

we must remember

red scales that

that the Son of

God was martyred

;

love for us in

memory,

;

to say,

through

and we must bear His Passion like

unto a glorious mirror be-

fore our inner eye, so as to remind us of

love and to delight us in every sorrow. 171

His

And

On we

Emerson and Other

will also

Essays

remember the many torments

of the martyrs, who, by their sufferings,

lowed Christ up

There are red

and

fol-

into eternal life.

scales well

arranged, and

they clothe agreeably our inner emotion.

"We

must again ornament our inner

being with green

must meditate

scales.

attentively

That

to say,

upon the noble life

of the confessors and of the saints

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

what

fashion they despised the world, and by

what marvellous works and

what

diverse

ways they honoured God and served Him.

There

the colour green which attracts and

delights the eye.

This

amorous heart and the sound why,

let

stir

follow the saints by means of

our all

fins,

the

and

good

works possible. "After being

that,

we must

white scales that ;

array our inner is

to say,

we must

look at ourselves with the purity of virgins,

and observe

and vanquished

what fashion they fought flesh

and blood, that

172

the

On Emerson

and Other Essays

tendency of nature

And

that

why

[natural

inclination].

they carry the crown of

gold and follow the lamb, that

chant

to say

new songs which none

Christ, with

except

those

who have

will

preserved

and body. But if we have we might, however, acquire inno-

chastity of soul lost purity,

cence and clothe ourselves with other virtues,

reaching the day of judgment more

luminous than the sun, and possessing the glory of

God

"And

that

eternally

and without end.

why we must

cover our

in-

ner being with four kinds of scales, and each

kind should have the living will; that

to say,

it is

fins

of good

essential for us to

wish to accomplish by works what derstand by reason.

ishment

pure

;

for

fins

;

and

all science

all virtues

out consideration are

and that

un-

Thus, the inner nour-

dom, without the virtuous without

fins

and

life,

wis-

practised with-

without scales;

why we must know, 173

all

are scales

love,

and

On Emerson

and Other Essays

practise virtues so that our life

and then we fish

be pure;

will be nourished with pure

which have

And

may

scales

and

fins."

the following passage

"Afterwards, each lamp had a vase of gold, full of water, wherein one used to put

out the

fire

church].

taken from the lights [of the

In this

gift requires of

pose

we must

our

learn that each

spirit so

simple a pur-

each cardinal virtue, that

we might

experience in ourselves an amorous predilection

toward the union with God.

that

what we observe,

Christ,

who

And

likewise, in Jesus

our mirror for

all

things

for

He exercised He exceeded so lovingly that He sought with love In every virtue

which

for union with

His Father.

"And we must

reunite all our predilec-

tions in this loving predilection

performed toward His Father 174

which in

every

On Emerson

and Other Essays

For

cardinal virtue.

these loving predilec-

tions are our golden vases, full of water,

that

to say, of truth

must immerse that

and

justice,

and we

them our burning

wicks,

to say, the acts of all the virtues

have practised; we must extinguish them there,

and plunge them

His

mitting ourselves to

ing

ourselves

by com-

therein, justice,

and

His venerable

Without that the wick of

all

join-

merits.

our virtues

would smoke and smell badly before God and

all

His

saints."

Elsewhere he examines the twelve gems of the high priest's breastplate, and observes in

them

reflections

of eternal symbols,

as well as unforeseen, exact,

analogies.

Judge of

and revealing

"In the rays of the sun, the topaz exceeds in

splendour

all

precious stones; and, like-

wise, the humility of our I7S

Lord

Jesus Christ

On Emerson

and Other Essays

exceeds in splendour and sublimity

and

angels,

all saints

by reason of His union with the

And

eternal Father.

in this

tion of the divine sun glorious, that

attracts

union the

reflec-

so bright and so

and

splendour, in a simple vision,

reflects in its

the looks

all

of saints and of angels, and those likewise of

men

all just

and

tracts

And

vealed.

whom

reflects also

which are before

But

clearness. it

this

splendour

it,

within

itself

because of

main

clear.

at-

the looks its

great

you were to cut the topaz,

would become obscured, and

to leave

is re-

topaz

in this fashion, the

in its natural state,

And,

likewise, if

you were

if it

would

you

re-

desire to

search and to fathom the splendour of the

Word

eternal, that splendour will

be ob-

scured and you will lose

it.

But leave

and follow

with a simple

there as

vision, in the abnegation of yourself,

will enlighten you."

176

and

On Emerson Now

and Other Essays

examine the strange relation seen

imperfectly through other stones.

"In

this article

[of the Creed]

we com-

pare Christ to the noble sapphire, of which

two kinds.

there are

with purple

tints,

The

first is

yellow,

and seems mixed with

golden powder; the other

sky blue, and

in the reflections of the solar rays

gives

forth a burning splendour, and one cannot

look through

it.

And we

find all that in

For when

our Lord,

in this fifth article.

His noble

soul ascended to heaven.

body lay

in the

His

tomb, yellow, because of

the flight of the soul; purple because of

His

bloody wounds; and mingled with golden powder, because he was joined to the divinity.

And His

blue, in such

rejoiced

soul descended to hell, sky

manner that His

friends were

and became wondrously happy

His splendour.

"And

His

resurrection, the splendour 177

On Emerson became

so potent

and Other Essays

and so huge

body and

because of the irradiation of the sun

soul,

of the divinity, that

shot forth flashes and

burning rays, and kindled with love it

touched.

And this

that

all

noble sapphire, Christ,

no one can look through, for

without

depth, according to divinity."

pass by the amethyst,

"from which

seem to emanate red roses," and [selection]

of the

by translating the

chrysolite,

the

I close this

final

symbols

emerald, and the

jasper.

In the

first

place, the chrysolite

"This communion of saints and the remission of sins are obtained

the night, that

to say,

by the waves of

by two sacraments

of the Holy Church, baptism and penance.

They

are the

waves which cleanse by

the night of darkness this

sin.

faith

And God made

oath at the time of Abraham, that 178

On Emerson

and Other Essays

would give Himself to us and become one of us

;

and because of His abundant

common

love

blood.

And

doubt believe

wished to wash us

His

we might without

that

His oath which

sworn to Himself,

sealed

He had with His

own death and the rewards of His death He gave in common to the Holy Church for the remission of sins, and to the saints for the ornament of their glory. article,

'the

communion of

forgiveness of

sins,' is

the chrysolite; for

the sea in ness,

And,

and the

symbolised for us by is

like the

translucidity

and what

flections. all

its

saints

This

more,

and

waters of

in its green-

has golden re-

likewise, all the saints

and

the just are translucent through grace

or glory, and they are green through their

holy

life,

and they have golden

reflections

through divine love by which they are transillumlned.

are

common

And

these three ornaments

to all saints 179

and

to all just

On Emerson

and Other Essays

people, for they are the treasure of the holy

churches, here

and

And

in eternal life.

those

who have through

them

the colour of the red sea, that

all

penitence put from Is

to say

a sinful life, are like unto the chrysolite.

"You know

that this sea

red because

of the country and of the depths in which it

is;

between Jericho and Zorah.

moon and Zorah the reason. Between the moon

Jericho signifies the beast that blinds

of inconstancy and the inclination of reason

toward the

beast, resides the red sea, that

to say, an impure

life.

dwell alive In the red

not Is

live In it

why

sea,

creature can

and

all that

has no movement In pitch,

dead

it,

for

and It

sea, because it is

seizes

everything that comes into

It,

unto kills

and

in this

man and

It is

kills

him

spiritually before the eyes of

him

unto sin which seizes

into hell." i8o

and

way

forcing

does

goes to the bottom, and that

called the

bitumen or

God,

On Emerson Here,

and Other Essays the

finally,

the

third

and

application

emerald and of the jasper, to

the'

to the sixth article of the Apostle's Creed

"In of

this article,

God

we compare

the beautiful stone which

emerald, and which

ness

who

greenness.

its

fills

called

green, can-

And by

its

green-

and nourishes the eyes of men

regard

Word

so green that leaves

and herbs, and everything that not equal

Son

to the

Now, when the eternal Father was made flesh, the

it.

of the

colour was the greenest that had ever been seen.

This union

and so

joyful, that

it;

and that

ished the eyes

so green

no other colour can equal

If one should

and polish the emerald, there

ing softer or

more agreeable

can recognise in

everything that

fine

why it has filled and nourof men who have prepared

themselves in a godly vision. cut

and so

before i8i

to the eye,

and observe it,

noth-

and in

as in a mirror.

On Emerson And

and Other Essays

we should detail intently Him who adopted our nature through love of us, we must admire, nor can we satiate with praise, His suhlimity. And when we consider how He was made man, we should, because of His likewise, if

the existence of

humility, hate ourselves ciently to

humble

and be unable

And when we

ourselves.

examine the motive for which

man, we cannot

love

Him

suffi-

He was made

rejoice sufficiently nor can

enough.

"In these three ways we must consider longingly,

and polish and examine

Christ, the noble emerald.

lovingly,

In so doing,

will find nothing so pleasing to the eyes of

our reason, nor anything that attracts them more, for

find

Him

reflected in us

find ourselves reflected in

His grace and

why we temporal

a virtuous

Him

life,

and

through

and that

should turn ourselves away from things

mirror before

and

us. 182

always

carry

this

On Emerson "And,

and Other Essays

another

we compare

article,

Christ to the noble jasper, which

green in

colour and pleasing to the eye, and

almost like the emerald in

And

sion of tiful

why we liken our Lord, who was

that

greenness.

to the ascen-

green and beau-

before the eyes of the Apostles, and so

pleasing, that they

get

its

Him

during

were never able to

And we

all their lives.

shall justly feel the

same thing

for-

in ourselves;

we consider the noble emerald, the eternal Word, as having descended into our nature, and through love for us, with viridity,

and we

that above graces.

all,

a supereffluent

shall ourselves rejoice in

for this vision

full

shall consider afterwards

the glorious jasper, Christ, ascended to

that

how

to say Jesus

heaven with our nature,

and, seated on the right

hand of the Father,

has prepared for us the state of glory.

Amen." 183

On Emerson Then comes

the

and Other Essays book of the "Twelve

Virtues" that Laurentius Surius more exactly entitles

busdam

Tractatus de pracipuis qui-

The hermit of Groenenhave made some violent

virtutihus.

dael appears to effort to

open

his earthly eyes;

and

all his

thoughts are interlaced, with the ingenuousness of divine children, in the green and

blue rays of humility and mercy, while his prose, ordinarily without personalities,

here enlivened with counsels and with verse

Here

events.

di-

fragment on

humility

"To

reach the inferior place [Catholic:

lowest plane]

to preserve nothing of evil;

we have always something to foreas long as we are mortal, we never

and, as sake,

attain the lowest plane, because to perish

to become, not according to the senses, but

according

the

negation

them.*

Translator's note According to Catholic doctrine, the lowest plane of humility is the highest plane of virtue; to die unto one's self is to live. :

184

On Emerson And should some humility

combat

one say that Immersion

would not

that to im-

But

seems to

self in humility

one's self in

God

of humility,

and

for

;

God is the

foundation

at equal height

and

depth above and below from every

And

coming

to the lowest plane, there

between the lowering and the

For

ence, as far as I can see.

lowest plane

to preserve nothing of evil,

merse one's

self in humility,

nihilation in

God and death

"Now, we

to im-

and that

an-

God.

always have something to give

as long as

to give

lowest plane.

a differ-

to attain the

and to experience the abasement

immerse

place.

the lowest plane, I

it.

merse one's

at equal

and Other Essays

and

live,

That

have nothing

to have attained the is

why we

to reach the lowest plane.

are not able

For what man

has been so humble, that he could not have

been more humble

still,

and who has loved

so ardently, that he could not have loved 185

On Emerson more ardently

And

no one.

and Other Essays Save Christ, certainly

still?

that

why,

contented as long as

us never be

let

are mortal, for

become more humble than

can

always

are to-day.

And

have a Lord and a can never render

it is

fortunate that

God

so great that

Him

sufEcient

honour or

homage. "Yes, even all

men and

all

But

ment.

humility, that isfy

one of us could do

we immerse enough for

ourselves in

us,

and we

God by Himself, for we are

immersion a

life

humility

we have lowered

our creation and

who there

fails

since

ourselves below

are absorbed in God,

the foundation of humility.

selves are

sat-

in this

with Him, not according to

but through immersion,

nature,

that

all

angels can do at every mo-

us in nought, for

And

our-

immersed through ourselves

God, and there are no more ceptances, nor anything that i86

gifts

nor

we might

in ac-

call

;

On Emerson there, for there

but

know not

and Other Essays neither here nor there,

where.''''

I transcribe again,

from the same book,

the passage which follows on indifference to everything:

"Now, he who

by reason of

thus in him,

abides in

may

has found

God

grace,

ruling

and who

above the work of fortitude,

dwell insensible to joy, to sorrow, and

to the multiplicity

For God

of creatures.

has penetrated him, and he

inclined^

to look within himself than to look without

and

where man

and

man

him

this essence recalls itself to

found; and

this essence are

this inclination

never forgotten, unless

deliberately turns himself

God, which he

away from

will not willingly

God

who

has tried

turn

away from God; not

in this

happen, for no one

every-

187

do for he ;

way cannot

easily

that this cannot

certain of anything

On Emerson while he

and Other Essays

mortal, unless some revelation

[takes place]

"The man

God

way,

this

that

enlightens

him

God

takes

has penetrated in

him up

divinely,

For he who

have for him a divine taste.

lates everything to the glory of

the taste of

God

reflected for

him

all

and

in all things, for all things

God, has

and God

in all things,

in all things.

re-

For he takes

from God's hand, thanks Him, and

praises

Him

and gleams,

God

in everything, all

and

God

shines

the time, for he waits upon

with great care, and never willingly

turns himself toward useless things.

when he

sees that

less things,

And

turned toward use-

he turns away from them im-

mediately with great bitterness against him-

and laments to

self;

God

of his incon-

stancy,

and determines within himself never

again

less

turn

things.

where there

knowingly

For is

all

not the i88

toward

use-

empty and vain glory

of God,

On Emerson

and Other Essays

or the good of our

own

our

salvation.

"He who less

neighbour,

and

watches thus over himself

for he often has the

less anxious,

presence of his friend, and that rejoices him

above

an intense drinks,

all things.

thirst.

one

who

has

In his thirst he not only

and he can think

successfully of

other things than the thirst which torments

him, but whatever he does and whatever

he be, or whatever object he thinks upon, the image of the drink

creases in

who tastes

man.

not effaced in him

from

as long as he suffers

longer the thirst the

thirst,

more the

And

it is

and the

suffering in-

likewise for

him

loves a thing so profoundly that he

nothing

else,

to his heart, except

what he

loves.

whomsoever he

for nothing else goes

what

possesses

Wherever he be,

him and

be, or

with

whatever he begins and

whatever he does, nothing estranges from

him what he

loves so passionately. 189

And in all

On Emerson

and Other Essays

things he finds the image of

what he

loves,

and the greater and more powerful the the

is it

purpose he

idleness, for

love,

present to him; and in that

not looking for repose and

no anxiety prevents him from

having, ever present, the image of what he loves."

Let us have a glimpse

"The

Christian Faith,"

also of the tract

fide et judicio,

tractatulus insignis, according to Surius.

forms, in

its

twenty pages, a kind of

cate-

chism really magnificent, from which I

ex-

fragment on the hap pi-

tract the following

ness of the chosen:

"We

will contemplate with

our inner eye

the mirror of God's wisdom, things

and

shine

which will ever us.

And we

are

exist

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

all

things

and which can gladden

will hear, with

the melody and the sweet

and of angels who

where

illumined

our outer

hymns of

will praise 190

God

ears,

saints

forever.

On Emerson And

and Other Essays

with our inner ear

will hear the

innate Word of the Father; and in this Word we will receive all science and all truth. And the sublime odour of the Holy Spirit will pass before us, sweeter

than

all

the balms and precious herbs that ever were,

and

perfume

this

selves,

will

draw us from

toward the eternal love of God, and

we shall relish the sweeter than

all

eternal excellence of

will ever

through hunger and

this

thirst the delights

and

thirsty for

reside,

and ever be

the life eternal.

shall understand

shall

and we and

nourishment will ever

"We

;

it,

be hungry and

renewed; and

God,

honey, which will nourish

us and enter our soul and our body

our-

through love, and

be understood through love, and

God

will possess us

Him

by union.

and we

shall possess

will enjoy

God, and

rest ourselves, united to

Him,

And this delight without

form, in this super-

essential repose,

In beatitude.

the supreme foundation 191

On Emerson

and Other Essays

of beatitude, for one

here engulfed above

hunger, in satiety; hunger can no longer enter into

there

all

;

it,

for there

nought but unity

loving spirits will rest there in the

superessential shade;

and nevertheless

wake ever

they sleep and

will

in the light of

glory."

Then comes Stone." filiorum Surius.

the

calculo,

Dei,

The

book of the "Glittering de perfectione

sive

libellus

of the mysterious stone of which the says in the Apocalypse:

Et dabo

centi) calculum candidum,

men novum

Soignes,

same

that

Spirit

Hit (vin-

nemo This

of the

scit nisi

stone, ac-

forest

the symbol of Christ, given to

lovers alone,

love of the

monk

the

et in calculo no-

scriptum, quod

qui accipi (Apoc. ii, 17).

cording to

adds

admirabilis,

point in question here

and

Word

like a flame reflecting the

eternal.

And

then, these

darknesses of love open themselves,

whence emerge,

in palpitating flowers per192

On Emerson

and Other Essays

ceived imperfectly through the gradual ex-

pansions of contemplation, and above unusual greennesses of an unequal joy, ceaseless

"And from that

Examine

sobs of light.

this

there follows the third point,

to say, an activity

above reason and

without form; for the unity in

God which

every loving spirit has possessed in love,

at-

tracts

and claims externally toward the soul

essence, all divine persons

its

And

ing spirits. attraction,

love

and

can no

who

love,

all lov-

prove

this

or less, according to their

their

activities.

watches for it

those

and

this attraction

And and

who

bound

the contemplator,

who

But

longer fall into mortal sin.

has disowned his

being and everything, does not suffer from repulsive force, because nothing to him,

and he

empty of

all;

left

and thus he

can always enter, one and without images, into the

most intimate depths of 193

his spirit.

On Emerson

and Other Essays

There, he sees coming forth an eternal light,

and

this light

he establishes the

everlasting existence of the unity of

And

he himself feels an eternal

which above everything with God.

And

the

attraction or this feels

And

it.

the

fire

God.

of love,

desires to be one

more he observes

more he

exigency, the

more he

feels

this

it,

the more

he desires to be one with God, for he wishes to pay the debt that

him

to pay.

unity of

God

calls

upon

This eternal exigency of the

God works

in the spirit

an eternal

incandescence of love; but, as the spirit pays debt, without interruption, this

its

him an

everlasting consumption

reflection

of unity

all spirits

;

works

for in the

fail in

their

work, and prove nothing other than the con-

sumption of

all in

the simple unity of God.

This simple unity of

God

can one possess

he does not hold him-

self

it,

none can

feel,

nor

before the immense splendour and be-

fore love, above reason 194

and without forms.

On Emerson

and Other Essays

In this presence, the spirit feels in him an eternal burning in love;

and

in this incan-

descence of love he finds neither beginning

And he feels himself one with this love. The spirit lives always in fire itself, for its love is eternal. And

nor end. fire

within

he ever he

feels

himself consumed in love, for

attracted in the refection of the unity

of God, where the spirit burns in love.

he observes himself, he finds a distinction

and a

difference

but where he burns he distinction,

God and

between

and that

himself,

simple and has no

why he

feels

nothing

but unity; for the Incommensurable flame

of divine love consumes and absorbs it

has enveloped in

"And you

its

all

that

essence.

can observe thus that the at-

tracting unity of

God

no other thing

than boundless love, which draws amorously

toward the Inner

life, in

an eternal delight,

the Father, the Son, and

Him.

And we want

all

that dwells in

to burn

195

and consume

On Emerson

and Other Essays

ourselves in this love, eternally, for in

abides the beatitude of all spirits. is

why we must

all

of us establish our

over a fathomless abysm;

And that life

shall thus

able to descend everlastingly in love, and

immerse ourselves through ourselves

in the

limitless depth.

"And by

shall elevate

ourselves

and exceed ourselves

in the incon-

ceivable

heights.

forms,

this

shall

same

love,

And

wander and ;

love it

without

shall mislead

us in the limitless expanse of God's love.

And

there within

outside

should ebb and flow

ourselves,

the

unknown

voluptuousness of the divine goodness and

And

opulence.

this shall

be the fusion and

transfusion, the eternal absorption and reab-

sorption of ourselves,* in the glory of God.

Behold,

show

each of these comparisons

to the contemplator his essence

and

Translator's note: Herein is g^iven the idea of absorbing and of being absorbed. 196

On Emerson his

activities.

and Other Essays

But no other can under-

stand me, for no

man

contemplation.

revealed to the

can educate another

But when eternal truth spirit, it

has taught the

spirit all that is necessary."

the

ought really to translate for you also

many wonders

of Chapters VI, VII

and VIII, which speak "Of the

diiference

between the mercenary ones and the faithful servants of

God," "Of the

difference be-

tween the faithful servants and the secret friends of

God," and "Of the

difference be-

tween the secret friends and the occult

chil-

dren of God," where verily, the anchorite of the Green Valley seems to steep his pen

on the side of

this

world

[in other words,

approaches earth]. But can

much gence

excess? still

do so after so

Finally I ask your indul-

for the following and positively

the last fragment.

It is

tiful.

197

wondrously beau-

On Emerson

and Other Essays

"Now, understand;

the progression

such: in our journey toward God, carry our being and

our works before

all

God we

the presence of

with

shall surpass all creation,

selves.

the

in love,

in the super-

There,

will

an eternal death to our-

that

book

'Blessed are the It

till

kingdom of God.

God And

possess

shall rest ourselves

our works, and dying

all

essential

says

we must

an eternal offering to God; and

us, as

why

the spirit of

the

dead who

God

Apocalypse:

die in the Lord.'

not without reason that these dead are

called the eternally

happy dead, for they remain

dead to themselves, and immersed

through themselves

And

God.

in the joyful unity of

they ever die anew in love

through the attractive

reflection

of this

Then the spirit of God says 'They may rest from their labours,

very unity. again: for

their

works follow them.'

way where we

are born 198

In this

from God

On Emerson a spiritual

in the absence

God,

carry our

as an offering to

God; but

and virtuous

works before us

and Other Essays life,

of plans, were we to die anew

our good

in a life eternally blissful,

works would follow

us, for

they are a

life

with us. In our journey toward God through virtues,

God

to ourselves

God.

we have in us

dwells in us, but in our death

and to

we have

received

all things,

faith,

God and He ;

commandments. His mysterious

counsels. taste

God, or

dwells with-

sends us

keep His

And He

recalls us

friends, if

But above

dwell in

servitors, to

with His mercy, and

abroad as His faithful

hope, and charity,

home

follow His

all things, if

we would

feel in us the eternal life,

must, over and above reason, enter into

God

through our faith

dwell simple,

idle,

;

and there we must

and without models,

ele-

vated by love in the open nakedness of our thought. For In dying in love to in

dying

all things,

Ignorance and In obscurity to 199

all

On Emerson attention,

are elaborated and

Word

by the eternal

And

the Father.

spirit,

and Other Essays

which

made over

an image of our

in the passivity of

incomprehensible

the

receive

splendour which surrounds us and penetrates us, in the

same,

way

that the air

by the splendour of the splendour vision

sun.

pierced

And

nothing more than a

and contemplation.

"What we

are

behold, and what

behold we are; for our thought, our

and our essence are merely united is

And

why,

that

in this

life,

to the

God, and are raised with

truth which

this

limitless

It.

ingenuous vision,

are a life and a spirit with God, and that

what

I call a

contemplative

ing ourselves to

God

life.

through

In bindlove,

God God en-

choose the better part but In regarding ;

thus in superessence,

possess

tirely.

This contemplation

joined to an

activity

without shape, that

to say to an

annihilating

life,

for just 200

when we go from

On Emerson ourselves, In the

and Other Essays

shadows and

in the ab-

sence of limitless forms, the simple ray of the splendour of

God

ever shines bright;

now, we are established

in this ray,

draws us outside of ourselves, essence this

and

in the

and

submersion of love.

submersion of love

super-

And

always accom-

panied and followed by a shapeless activity

For love cannot be

of love.

seeks to enter through into the

knowledge and

taste

immense opulence which dwells

the depths of

itself,

Always

hunger. potency,

passive.

swim

and to

has an insatiable

receive

im-

this

against the stream.

One

can neither do without that nor receive excel himself in that, nor accept silent

nor speak, for

intelligence,

And

it is

it;

It;

remain

above reason and

and that exceeds

all creatures.

why one cannot attain it or follow It, but we shall look within ourselves there we feel that the spirit of God leads that

us and pushes us In this impatience of love; 20i

On Emerson and we

shall look

that the spirit of

and

ourselves,

that

and Other Essays above us; there we

God draws

feel

us outside of

annihilates us in Himself,

to say in the superessential love with

which we are one and which we possess

more profoundly and more abundantly than anything

else.

"This possession

And we

a simple and limitless

good and of

delectation of all

eternal

life.

are engulfed in this delight above

reason and without reason,

the calm

depths of divinity which will never more be disturbed.

that

is,

how

learn,

can

through experience alone

know

or what it is,

that this

it is,

true.

For why

or in what place

and that

why our

which

activity

follows remains without shape, that say,

without manner."

"For the fathomless good which we and

it is,

neither reason nor activity can

possess,

taste

can neither conceive nor un-

derstand, and through our activity

can

On Emerson

and Other Essays

never go from ourselves to enter that

why we

rich in

God,

full

of hunger and thirst in

and satiated and drunk

ourselves,

And

it.

are poor in ourselves and

God,

energetic in ourselves, and with an absolute idleness in

thus forever. love,

who

feels

And we

shall dwell

For without the

activity of

God.

can never possess God. or believes otherwise

And thus we

live

deceived.

completely in God, in pos-

sessing our beatitude,

ourselves

And

and we

live

ourselves

training

wholly

by love

And although we should live God and wholly in ourselves,

toward God. entirely in

this is nevertheless

only a single

life

;

has double and contrary sensations. richness

and poverty,

work and

idleness

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

hunger,

resides,

that,

now

For

gluttony,

these things are abso-

lutely contrary in themselves. It

but

None

the less

that our supreme nobility

and

forever

more,

for

cannot completely become God, nor 203

On Emerson we

can

and Other Essays

lose our created essence; that

impossible.

"But should we remain wholly within

from God, we would

ourselves, separated

be unhappy and not saved, and that

feel ourselves

completely in

wholly within ourselves

two

sensations,

;

why

God and

and between these

shall find nothing except

the grace of God, and the activities of our

For, from the height of our supreme

love.

feeling, the

toward

all

God

splendour of

which teaches

truth,

shines in us;

and pushes us

the virtues in the everlasting love

of God.

"We

follow this splendour unceasingly,

even to the source from whence

there

of the

and

feel

spirit,

nought

always, by

flows

;

and

than the stripping

and the immersion

infinite love,

there

else

forever.

our simple

in simple

we remain vision, we

should ever feel that, for our Immersion in the divine reflection, dwells forever and un204

On Emerson

and Other Essays we have departed from

ceasingly, provided

and provided we possess God

ourselves,

For

the submersion of love.

God

submersion of love, that

in the

God

say in the loss of ourselves,

and we are His, and we immerse through ourselves, is IS

ours

ourselves,

our possession which

God, forever and

This immersion

ever.

necessary by habitual love, and that

why

"And

in this

way,

this

knows

possession of

we have

immersion

God, and of received like

rivers,

the place which

them.

And

alone,

our

likewise, essential

And

this

which, cease-

and forever, flow always

for that

keeps us in the benefits

all

from Him.

unto

or not.

immersion does not

deserve any other praises, but

lessly

has a place during sleep and during

wakefulness, whether one

that

possess

into the sea,

proper for

possess

immersion

God

through

habitual love flows forever, in an abysmal feeling

which we possess and which 205

ap-

On Emerson propriate to us.

and

immersion

above

we were always

we always considered

would always have this

and Other Essays

all

absolutely,

a like sensation.

above

simple,

all

Now,'

virtues,

and

For

it is

the practices of love.

nothing more than an eternal going from ourselves, ness,

by a

distinct prevision, in eager-

toward which we

side of ourselves, as

feel

incline ourselves, out-

toward a beatitude. For

an eternal tendency outside of our-

And

selves,

toward another than ourselves.

that

the closest and the most occult dis-

tinction that

ourselves;

any

can see between

and above

difference.

None

the

there less,

God and no longer

our reason

re-

mains, with open eye, in the shadow; that is

to say in infinite ignorance,

and

in this

darkness remains occult and hidden from us, the limitless splendour, for the coming of

immensity blinds our reason.

But

its

en-

velops us in simplicity, and transforms us

its

essence,

and thus we are elaborated be206

On Emerson yond our

and Other Essays

personality,

and transformed up

to the Immersions of love, bliss

and

where we possess

one with God."

arfe

Here now

the

"Book of the Seven

Steps

of the Ladder of Love" (called by Surius

septem gradibus amoris,

libellus

opti-

mus), wherein the prior of Groenendael studies seven virtues,

which lead from

Intro-

version to the border of absorption. I think this Is saint's

one of the most beautiful of the books

beautiful.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

all

of which are strange and

would be necessary for me

here to translate sufficiently some of these extraordinary passages;

among

others that

wherein he concerns himself with four melodies of heaven, but space

Introduction,

which

lacking In this

already too long.

win therefore be contented with

transcrib-

ing the page which follows

"The Holy

Spirit speaks loudly In us S07

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; On Emerson

and Other Essays

with high voice and without words

Love Who forever loves is

an inner tenderness

voice

flashes that us,

His clamour

you.'

our

The

sends forth open heaven to light

and eternal

The

truth.

heat of His touch and of His love

This

spirit.

terrible than the storm.

and show us

that

'Love

such

wants to consume us wholly.

touch in our

spirit

out unceasingly:

cries

'Pay your debt, love Love loves you.'

From

His

Who

eternally

that are born a great

inner restlessness and a resignation without shape.

For the more we

will desire to love;

love, the

more we

and the more we pay

what love demands of us, the more we dwell

Love

debtors to Love.

cries eternally:

unknown

fight

love and enjoy lives in us

teaches us, love.

not

'Love Love.'

with strange feelings. is

to serve

and

by means of His

silent,

counsels us.

live in

Him 208

suffer.

graces.

and an

To God

orders us

above grace, and

On Emerson above our works, ment.

and Other Essays

in suffering

and

in enjoy-

In us there dwell love, knowledge,

contemplation, and possession, and above

them

Our work

joy.

pleasure

to love

God; our

undergo the entwining of

Love.

"Between love and delight there

Where we adhere through spirits,

but where

and where

strips us

spirit

us toward love and toward it

inspires us

there

both

forth the air which

and

air,

poses our mortal

our

spirit

work

breathes ;

and

in joy,

and

breathe

and breathe

just this

life in nature.

pleasure and in

ways renewed

And

though

its

bliss. It is al-

in grace, in charity,

that

which com-

be enraptured, and though

fail in

virtues.

in us,

it is

spirit,

good works and

in repose

the life eternal; just as

the fresh

are

of our spirit

God

a dis-

grace.

love,

reforms us by His

The

are delight.

God and His

as between

tinction,

and

why, to enter into an

209

On Emerson idle pleasure, to

and

go forth

good works,

to dwell always joined to the spirit of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

God

this

our material

and Other Essays

what

them

Just as

I love.

do we

eyes, so

see

we open

and

;

just as

do we not

rapidly, so

see;

just as we die in God, we live outside of Him, and we dwell one with Him forever."

next have the

Chateaux,"

called

"Book of

the Seven

by Laurentius Surius

De septem custodiis opusculum longe piissimum and which is not without its analogies with the "Chateau of the Soul," by Saint

Therese d'Avila, also with ings,

of which prayer

its

seven dwell-

the portal.

The

hermit of the forest of Soignes sent this book, with the "Mirror of the Eternal Salvation," "to the holy sister Clarisse,

Mar-

Van Meerbeke, of the Convent of Brussels," and that is why the counsel which guerite

he infuses into the prologue ing.

showed her thus

little

touch-

what way she

On Emerson go

will

and Other Essays

window of

the

the parlour;

piously, closing her eyes to the countenance

of man; and the joy of sorrow and the care of the

sick,

with pale counsels of the hos-

pital.

Then

the seven spiritual chateaux of

Saint Claire arise,

whose divine grace

the doors that

open

closes

no longer necessary to

order to see into the streets of one's Listen to what follows,

heart.

ever on

love:

"And

the loving soul cannot give itself

entirely to

for all that

tirely,

what

God, nor can

wanting to

for nought In it

stirred,

Its

God

en-

a trifle

and counts

emotion.

and why

receive

respecting

It,

receives,

And

that

why

sinks in the im-

patience and in the fervour of love; for

can neither do without

God nor can It obtain

Him, reach His depth nor His summit, low

Him

you

will find the tempest

nor abandon Him.

And

It is

and the

fol-

there

spiritual

On Emerson

and Other Essays

plague of which I have spoken to you

for

;

no tongue can describe these many storms

and these agitations which are born from

two

For love makes man

sides of love.

sometimes ardent, sometimes cold, sometimes daring, sometimes timid, sometimes joyful

and sometimes sad

;

brings him fear, hope,

despair, tears, complaining, songs, praises,

and numberless similar

what those

suffer

of love, and yet

who

it is

things.

That

live in the transport

the most intimate and

the most useful life that

man

can

live, ac-

cording to his vocation.

"But where the vocation of man

fails

and

can go no higher, there begin the ways of

God

it is

the one where man, by his suffer-

ings, his love,

and

his unsatisfied desires, en-

twines himself with God, and cannot be united

there, the spirit of our

like a violent fire that

and engulfs everything ner that

man

Lord comes

bums, wastes away, in it; in such

man-

forgets all his activities and 212

On Emerson

and

forgets himself, if

he was a

and Other Essays feels

nothing

and a love

spirit

they are satiated and soothed tain of goodness

overflowed

all,

;

Here

God.

the senses and every force are

than

else

and

silent,

for the foun-

and of divine opulence has

and each has received more

than he could desire.

"Then comes

the third condition which

attribute to our

which

Heavenly Father that :

drains the

memory

of forms and

images, and raises naked thought as far as its is

origin,

which

Himself.

man

There,

strengthened in his beginning, which

God, and there he given him the

force

united.

And

tues.

And he

reason.

And

receives all

has

and freedom to work

wardly and outwardly, by means of

telligence

in-

all vir-

knowledge and

in-

according

activities

he learns the manner of bear-

ing the Inner operation of God, and the

transformation

divine

forms

reason, just as has been said already. 213

above

And

On Emerson above

all

stand,

by the same

and Other Essays

the divine forms, he will underintuition without forms,

God

the essence of

without forms, which

For one can

an absence of forms. express

nor

signs,

neither

by words, nor works, nor forms, nor similitudes, but

shows

itself

spontaneously to the ingenious intuition of the imageless thought.

"But one may show upon the way and

similitudes

which prepare

And

the reign of God. this

essence,

the

where

limitless fire,

man

signs

to see

you will imagine

incandescence of a

all

consumed

in a

calm, blazing, and Immutable conflagration.

And

love,

which

thus with the satisfied essential

a possession of

God and

the saints, above all modes, and above

works, and love

and of

the practices of virtue.

all

This

a limitless calm and flood of riches joys,

lowed up limit.

all

And

where

all

God and

the saints are swal-

in a beatitude

this beatitude Is

214

without

wild and waste

On Emerson as

and Other Essays

wilderness;

there

for

neither

form, nor way, nor path, nor repose, nor measure, nor end, nor beginning, nor anything that one could express by words or

And

show by words. beatitude to

above

superessence reason.

this

our simple

divine essence,

all, this

we want

and without

reason to feel

and our

it,

would be

necessary for our spirit to surpass

above our created eternal center,

And

end. their

essence,

where

lines

this

begin and

center these lines lose

in this

name and

our

all

itself,

toward

all

their distinction,

are united to this center,

and

and become that

very unity which the center

itself,

and

yet converging lines remain always in themselves.

"Look; thus

shall

ever dwell what

are in our created essence, ascent of the spirit,

our superessence. ourselves,

below

and yet by the

pass continually into

ourselves, 215

will be

above

beyond

our

— On Emerson

and Other Essays

breadth, beyond our length, in an eternal

wandering forever." I will

be fairly

silent

about the tract of

"Four Temptations," where there

the

are

considered some very subtle dangers which

menace the contemplator, and of which the most formidable

quietism

discoveries

certain

;

but outside of

the

unknown

—very

psychology of the prayer, the work brief, as I

have

said,

—

offers

no summit

ex-

ceptionally intense to our soul.

The length, is

other

—

that

to say a score of pages,

"Book of

the

entitled

of nearly the same

tract,

the

Supreme

Truth," or "Samuel" according to Surius,

who

adds

Qui

dicitur, veritis

alias

de alta contemplatione

autem apologice quorumdam

sancti hujus viri dictorum sublimium inscrib't possit. it

But

this

book

so wonderful that

would be necessary to

tirely.

I shall not

at present; since

translate

it.

en-

quote anything from

It is

as indivisible as the

216

On Emerson essence of which

and Other Essays

steady effusion in

seems to

illustrate the

unique and fearful

its

mirror. the King-

of Lovers," the strangest and the

most

abstract

the

which

"Book of

then come to the

dom

work

Green the

Valley,

the

midst

the

extends

soul

visionary

and

itself

frightened in a spiritual and without

doubt normal void, evoking for the

spirit,

some

which does not follow

bells absolutely black,

where there are no

air,

there,

glass

nor images, nor anything which

one could exactly conceive, except incessant stars

around the void of

all that

not

eternal.

The book

begins with this verse on wis-

dom: Justum deduxit per vias rectus et ostendit Hit regnum Dei, and involves the three theological virtues and the seven gifts

of the

Holy

Spirit.

I translate

and more amply than

ever.

217

Immediately

On Emerson In the

and Other Essays on the deserts of

place, this

first

the essence

"The that

man being made of from nowhere, man

soul of

God

took

lowed nothing which

part,

nought,

has

fol-

and he has

flowed from his Self in errors, through im-

mersion in the simple essence of God, as'in his

own

depths,

and he

God is to be

die in

ing to his merits in

dead

blissful,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

it is

God and

and each accord-

to be very different

grace and In glory. This bliss

stand

God.

to be understood

to under-

by God,

the joyful unity of divine persons, and to

have emanated through

Now this unity being

superessence of God.

enjoyed

this unity in the

and fructifying

in introversion,

extroversion!,

the

flows

to say the Father begot the

that

fountain

Son, the eternal truth, which

of the Father where

recognized in everything. 218

the

unity

the Image

Himself

shall be

This image

On Emerson life,

and the cause of

that image

all creatures,

for in

everything according to the

lies

mode and by

divine is

and Other Essays

image everything

this

;

done perfectly, and everything

ruled

wisely on this pattern, and on account of the image everything end, as far as priate

;

appropriated to

God

belongs to

for each creature has received the

means of acquiring rational creature

its

But the

beatitude.

not the image of the

Father, according to the effluence of created form, for

flows in

and that

why

creature,

with measure glory.

its

to appro-

capacity of

knows and loves

in the light

For no one

its

of grace or of

possesses divine nature

actively, according to the divine

mode,

if it

be not divine persons since no creature can ;

work according if

to a measureless

mode, for

he should work thus, he would be

and no

God

creature.

"In His image, similar to

God

has

Him, according 219

made

creatures

to nature;

and

On Emerson those

who

and Other Essays

are turned toward

made them even more

Him,

has

above nature

like,

the light of grace and of glory, each [of

them] according to ,

state of its soul or all

those

who

its

aptitude through the

through

its

Now,

merits.

feel the inner touch,

and who

have illuminated reason and the impatience

whom

of love, and to

shown the absence

of mode, have joyful introversion in the superessence of God. to

His essence

in a

Now, God

con-

Ac-

mode

and

the

mode

fixation

cannot

vision

contemplate

Those

who are

and weaker

fail

those

who

what

one

ceaselessly rest

the

attention,

for

shall

enjoys. in

themselves

pleasures, amidst wild solitudes is

in the

but in contemplation

founder,

always

light

;

enjoys.

of the pleasure, the

divine light grows weaker essence without

attached

happy manner, and

templates that very essence

cording to the

the in

where God

possessed in enjoyment; there

fails

the

On Emerson and

light in repose

and Other Essays in the

absence of

mode

God is throned who possess God

the sublime essence. There in

Himself, and

grace and in glory to this degree, are the

those

all

thrones and tabernacles of God, and they

God

are dead in

"From bom,

in eternal rest.

this death, a superessential life

that

to say a contemplative life;

and here begins the God,

essence

which

repose

no more

where

enjoys,

and granting im-

renders alike, gives like-

and

in essence

cause

For

enjoyment,

where

But there where we are one with

unites.

Him

gift of intelligence.

contemplating ceaselessly the very

patience where

wise

gifts

limitless

and

in immersion, there are

nor acceptances.

And

be-

reconciles illumined reason, there

renders alike, he gives also the

splendour there where he unites.

This boundless splendour the Father.

and can be united

the Image of

are created in this image, to

in a sublimity

221

higher

On Emerson

and Other Essays

than the thrones, provided

above

failing,

Father, that

the

glorious

contemplate of

face

the

to say the sublime nature of

divinity.

"Now,

this limitless

common

given in

splendour has been

to all joyful spirits in

Thus

grace and in glory.

flows for

all

as the splendour of the sun, and- yet those

who

receive

ened. glass

The

than through

power and

of the sun.

its

stone,

in glory.

less

and

glass,

its

who

than he

nobility

for sub-

more enlightened

who

less

state,

enlightened

Yet the light of glory

splendour; but our

il-

grace and in

aptitude

its

termediary between the soul and less

every

colour by the splendour

lumined at the same time

grace,

and through

In the same way, each

glory according to limity; but

equally enlight-

bums and shows

precious stone its

all

through

than

crystal

and

are not

sun shines more clearly through

not

in-

this limit-

and the time,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; On Emerson

and Other Essays

and the inconstancy disturb

why we

acquire

are in glory

some

and that

us,

merits,

and those who

do not acquire any.

"This sublime splendour

the ingenuous

contemplation of the Father, and of those

who

all

contemplate in enjoyment, and

who regard

steadfastly,

by means of an

incomprehensible light, each according as he is

illumined.

For endless

without intermission in

man who

all

light

thoughts, but the

dwells here, in time,

whelmed with images,

shines

often over-

in such fashion that

he does not always contemplate actively and fixedly the superessence light.

by means of

But he has possessed

receiving this gift,

when he wishes

It.

this

virtually in

and he can contemplate,

The

which one contemplates

light

by means of

limitless beings

and

what one contemplates being abysmal, this can

never attain that; but fixation and

contemplation dwell eternally in the absence of mode, in the joyful aspect of sublime 223

On Emerson Majesty,

where the Father,

wisdom, regards essence in

its

the

The

book of the "Kingis

written in singu-

ternary and breathlessly

monotonous rhythm the "Stabat

its

mode."

Loved Ones"

verse.

by eternal

the abyss of

fixedly

large part of this

dom of lar

and Other Essays

almost like that of

Mater" only the ;

third verse of

each strophe reproduces the same rhyme

through the whole work, and tained on an abstraction

ever sus-

from whence

arise

the two preceding verses like twin flowers

of restlessness and obscurity.

imagine

this

the inner

One

can

music of the empty author of

dream of the

virgins of

Mem-

linck, whilst their secret senses, their counte-

nance, and their small hands join in ecstasy; but, unhappily, a translation can never

renew

here this taste for shadows and for bread steeped in night ; nor catch the Image of this

impression

obscurity 224

illumined

with

On Emerson with

tears,

Ice

and Other Essays

crossed by red irons, and

That

with oppression without horizon.

why I win only translate one of owy poems. It deals with the telligence

these shadgift of in-

"In order that It

should illumine

this gift

must surpass

it,

Itself

In superessence.

The measureless

will perceive

splendour, there

In deep simplicity.

The

light of truth

Shall flow through him.

And

he will disappear wholly

it.

This general light Shines upon those

And

Illumines

who

are pure,

them according

their

merits.

Then

And

they can regard

contemplate,

without sparing them-

selves, 225

;

On Emerson

and Other Essays

"The aspect of enjoyment. One will always contemplate

What one

enjoys, with confidence,

Remotely

in the loss

of divine grace.

The lover has gone very That which

Toward Yet,

causes the eyes to tend

the sublime beatitude.

it is

And the

far.

attained

lover possesses the beloved,

In the wastes of unity.

We shall then Forcing

Toward It

from

in ourselves

life

necessary to translate a few this

exceptional volume.

chapter,

Palatable

"The table

our whole

the sublime abyss."

time to end at this

dwell thus,

last,

and

entitled,

more bits But

I shall close

"Of

the

with

Gift of

Wisdom."

seventh divine gift

wisdom.

It is

that of pala-

admitted on the summit

of introversion, and crosses intelligence and 226

On Emerson

and Other Essays

will according to their introversion in the

This

absolute.

without

relish

and

measure,

toward the

(in proportion to

spective aptitude to receive

most intimate

sense, that

and hearing, take

side in the marvels that

it)

their re-

as far as the

to say as far as

The

a bodily sensation.

sight

inwardly

flows

and imbibes the body

outside,

and the soul

without end and

other senses, like

their pleasures out-

God

has created by

His glory and for the needs of man. incomprehensible

relish,

above

the amplitude of the soul,

and

ure,

this is the

Holy

spirit,

sensation

the

in-

Below the But

measured.

and

without measSpirit,

comprehensible love of God. spirit,

This

as the

forces are imminent, they inundate everything.

Now,

the Father of etei-nity has'

adorned the introversed

ment

in the unity,

spirit,

and with

sive

comprehension

and

this spirit

with enjoy-

active

in the loss

and pas-

of one's

self,

becomes thus the throne and 227

On Emerson

God; and

the repose of truth, has

and Other Essays the Son, eternal

adorned with His own splendour

introversed intelligence, in order to contem-

And now the

plate the aspect of enjoyment.

Holy

would adorn the introversed

Spirit

and the immanent unity of power, so

will,

that the soul tastes, knows, and proves

great

God

This

is.

relish

how

immense

that the soul imagines that heaven, earth,

and

all

that

and destroyed

them should be dissolved

in this limitless taste.

delights are above

These

and below, within and

without, and have wholly enveloped and sat-

urated the kingdom of the soul.

"Then

intelligence

from whence flow

all

regards

simplicity

these delights.

From

there the attention of illumined reason born.

knows

well, however, that

is is

powerless to understand these inconceivable delights,

for

observes by means of a

created light, while this joy ure.

That

why

reason 228

without meas-

fails in its atten-

On Emerson

and Other Essays

tion; but the intelligence

formed by

this limitless

which

trans-

splendour contem-

plates without interruption the incompre-

hensible joy of beatitude."

remains for

me to

say a

word about

the

diverse translations of Ruysbroeck's work.

Twenty

years ago, Ernest Hello published

a very brief volume in which are gathered,

under mostly arbitrary heads, varied passages from our author, translated from a

Latin translation, written in the sixteenth century by a Carthusian of Cologne, Laurentius Surius.

This translation by Surius, of a subtle and beautiful Latin,

reveals

scrupulously and

admirably the sense of the original; but restless,

some

lengthened, and weakened,

distant picture,

when one

it is

through impure

glass,

sees the queer colours of the primi-

tive Flemish.

There, where the author uses

one word, he habitually puts in two or three 229

On Emerson and then not

and Other Essays

content, he very often para-

phrases what he has already sufficiently translated.

The

anchorite has

some

cries

of love so intense that they are almost blas-

phemous; Surius says

other things.

hermit regards as

still

to speak of

afraid of them, and he

At moments

the old

outwardly, and looks, so

God, for images

garden, the kitchen and in the stars

In ;

the

Surius

does not always dare to follow him there,

and forces himself to weaken the flatters

himself that he ennobles

"He

escapes

as a

text or

it.

vagabond"

says one of the Flemish Beguines, speaking

of Jesus, and others add "I keep house with Jesus.

He is mine and I am His. He dispenses to me night He has stolen my heart I I

and day,

engulfed in His mouth.

have nought to do outside." 230

On Emerson Elsewhere

God

and Other Essays says to

man

"I wish to be thy nourishment,

Thy

host and thy cook.

My flesh On

well prepared

the Cross through pity for thee;

We shall eat and drink together," The

translator

frightened and trans-

forms these singular outbursts into pale terpretations.

The

wild and naive aspect,

and the immense and original wise,

claustral fidelity

cruel love of the

work disappear most often

correct,

phraseology;

in a

and monotonous

fulsome,

remains

in-

though the inner

always

irreproachable.

There are some fragments of

this transla-

tion that Ernest Hello has translated in his

turn; or rather, he has assembled in arbi-

trary chapters,

some phrases taken from

verse portions of the

them by a double

work and

translation, 231

di-

distorted

and from

On Emerson

and Other Essays

has composed a kind of cento, almost

ways admirable, but where, researches, I have bits honestly

for the present translation,

render

it,

would have been

has no

possible to

not more elegant, at least more

from the point of view of

work its

and metaphysical phraseology.

less

translation.

little

theological

But

has

dangerous and more loyal

to hold myself to an almost blind

word

scrupulous literalness.

its

readable, and to clarify the

seemed to

found only three or four

reproduced.

other merit than

Perhaps,

in spite

al-

word

for

have also resisted those

inevitable temptations of false splendours,

for incessantly the spirit of the old

monk

touches strange beauties, which his discretion does not worry,

and

all his

paths are

peopled with splendid, quiet dreams, whose sleep his humility has not dared to disturb.

THE END 232

111!

Ill''