Ralph Waldo Emerson - The Complete Works, Vol. I, Nature, Addresses, and Lectures, 1895 by gnosisclassics

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SJ\&,|,fj«f

NATURE, ADDRESSES, AND LECTURES

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

jaeto ana Hebitifli ©Irtturn

BOSTON HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY New

York

i€fie

11 East Seventeenth Street

Hioetgiie jJtei^, CamBribge

189s

A-

o'j^s'S'

By PHILLIPS, SAMPSON

CO. ahd

RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

CopyrigM, 1883,

EDWARD

W. EMERSON.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass,, Eleetrotyped and Printed by H. O. Hougliton

,i:iii

;

J 14

Y vw^n^i'i J

Iff

XT.

& Company.

PREFATORY NOTE.

The

first

eight volumes of the present edition of

Mr. Emerson's writings contain

his collected Es-

says as he left them, except son\e revision of the

punctuation and the correction of obvious mistakes.

The ninth volume comprises the pieces chosen by " Mr. Emerson from the " Poems " and " May-Day to

form the " Selected Poems," with the addi-

tion of lection,

some poems which were omitted in that

se-

and some that have remained unpublished.

In many instances emendations which were pencilled in the

margin by Mr. Emerson, but were

not adopted in the " Selected Poems," are

now

in-

troduced, upon the ground that, as they seem to

have suggested themselves at the time when his

powers were in their

fullest

vigor, it

may

fairly

be supposed that he would, upon reconsideration,

have admitted them.

umes

The tenth and eleventh

consist of lectures hitherto unprinted,

vol-

and of

" Occasional Addresses " and other prose-writings

which have appeared separately or in

The

selection

periodicals.

from Mr. Emerson's MSS. has

PREFATORY NOTE.

been made in pursuance of the authority given in his will to

me, as his literary executor, acting in

co-operation with his children, to publish or with-

hold from publication any of his impublished papers.

The

portrait in the first

volume was etche4 by

Mr. SchofE from a photographic copy (kindly furnished by Mr. Alexander Ireland, of Manchester, England)

of a daguerreotype

taken in 1847 or

1848, probably in England. J. E.

CABOT.

CONTENTS. PAGE

.13

Nattjee .

The American Scholak. the Phi Beta

An Address

Kappa

Oration delivered before

Society, at Cambridge,

Aug.

31, 1837

College, Cambridge, July 15, 1838

LiTEEAKT Ethics.

117

Oration delivered before the Liter-

ary Societies of Dartmouth College, July 24,

The Method op Nature. An

838

Oration delivered before ,

the Society of the Adelphi, ia Waterville College, Maine,

August

II, 1841

ae,

before the Mechan-

Apprentices' Library Association, Boston, January 25,

215

1841

Lectdre on the Times. Bead Boston, December

The Conservative. ple,

149

181

Man the Eeformee. A Lecture read ics'

delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity

at the

Masonic Temple, 245

1841

A Lecture read in the Masonic Tem-

Boston, December

The Transcendentalist.

277

1841

A Lecture read in the Masonic

Temple, Boston, January, 1842

The Young American.

A Lecture

309 read before the Mer-

cantile Library Association, in Boston,

February

1844

341

NATUEE.

A SUBTLE chain of countless rings The next unto the farthest brings The eye reads omens where it goes, ;

And And,

speaks

all

languages the rose

striving to be

Mounts through

all

;

man, the worm the spires of form.

INTKODUCTION.

OuR^jge

and

ries,

beheld their

It writes biographies, histo-

The

criticism.

God and

not

should not

original relation to the

generations

foregoing

nature face to face

Why

eyes.

It builds the sepul-

retrospective.

dhies of the fathers.

;

we, through

also

we have a poetry and philosophy

and not of to us,

tradition,

and a

and not the history of

for a season in nature,

around and through

and

should iggjght

religion

by revelation

theirs ?

Embosomed

whose floods of

us,

enjoy an

Why

universe?

invite us

life

stream

by the pow-

ers they supply, to action proportioned to nature,

why

should

we grope among

the dry bones of the

past, or put the living generation into masquerade

faded wardrobe ?

out of

its

also.

There

The sun

more wool and

shines to-day

flax in the fields.

There are new lands, new men, new thoughts.

Let us demand our ownworks and laws and worship.

Undoubtedly we have no questions are unanswerable.

must

to ask

which

trust the perfection

INTRODUCTION.

of the creation so far as to believe that whatever our Curiosity the order of things has awakened in

man's condition

can

of things

Vinds, the order is

before he apprehends

nature

scribing its

own

acts it as life,

as truth.

already, in its forms

hieroglyphic to

those inquiries he would put.

Every

satisfy.

a solution

manner,

and tendencies, de-

Let us interrogate the

design.

great apparition that shines so peacefully aroimd us.

Let us inquire, to what end

nature ?

All science has one aim, namely, to find a theory

We have theories of races

of nature. tions,

of creation.

are

now

so far

from the road

truth, that religious teachers dispute other,

and

and hate each

and speculative men are esteemed unsound

frivolous.

abstract truth

But is

Its test

is,

that

sound judgment, the most

to a

the most practical.

true theory appears,

many

and of func-

but scarcely yet a remote approach to an idea

will

will explain

its

Whenever a own evidence.

aU phenomena.

Now

are thought not only unexplained but inex-

plicable

;

as language, sleep, madness, dreams, beasts,

sex.

Philosophically considered, the universe

posed of Nature and the Soul. therefore, all that is separate

com-

Strictly speaking,

from

us, all

which

Philosophy distinguishes as the not me, that

both nature and

art, all

other

is,

men and my own

INTRODUCTION. body, must be ranked under this name,

Nature.

In enumerating the values of nature and casting up

word

their sum, I shall use the

common and

its

in both senses

;

philosophical import.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; In

inquiries so general as our present one, the inaccu-

racy

not material ; no confusion of thought will

/Occur.

Nature, in the common sense, refers to

by man

sences imchanged

the leaf. yiiih.

Art

;

esÂŤ^

space, the air, the river,

applied to the mixture of his will

the same things, as in a house, a canal, a statue,

a picture.

But

his operations taken together are

so insignificant, a little chipping, baking, patching,

and washing, that

of the world on the

the result.

an impression so grand as that

human mind, they do

not vary

;

NATUKE.

CHAPTER To

go into

solitude,

much from Ms chamber

solitary whilst I read

with me. [But look at the

stars.J

and

man

needs to retire as

from

society.

write,

man would be

The rays

that

not

though nobody alone, let

come from those

heavenly worlds wiU separate between him and what

One might

he touches.

made

think the atmosphere was

transparent with tMs design, to give man,

in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of

Seen in the

the sublime.

they are

Jf the

streets of cities,

stars should

how great

appear one night in

how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance

a thousand years,

of the city of

God wMch had been shown

But

every night come out these envoys of beatffy, and light the universe with their

CThe

stars

awaken a

admonishing smile.

certain reverence, because

though always present, they are inaccessible; but â&#x20AC;˘all natural objects

the mind

make a kindred impression, when

open to their influence.

Nature never

NATURE.

Neither does the wis-

wears a mean appearance. est

man

extort her secret,

finding out

came a toy

all

and

to a wise spirit.

mals, the moimtains, reflected hour, as

much

lose his curiosity

as they

Nature never be-

her perfection.

The flowers, the the wisdom of his

ani-

best

had delighted the simplicity

of his childhood.

When we

speak of nature in this manner,

we have

a distinct but mostjpoetical sense in the mind.

mean

the integrity of impression

natural objectsT,' It

this

made by manifold

which distinguishes the

stick of timber of the wood-cutter,

from the tree of

The charming landscape which I saw this morning is indubitably made up of some twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape. uEhere js a 'property in the poet.

the horizon which no

man

has but he whose eye can

integrate all the parts, that

is,

the poet, f This

the best part of these men's farms, yet tolhis their

warranty-deeds give no

\To speak

truly,

title.

few adult persons can see nature.

Most persons do not

At least they The sun illuminates

see the sun.

have a very superficial seeing.

only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.

The

lover of nature

whose inward and outward senses are justed to each other

;

who has

still

truly ad-

retained the spirit

NATURE.

'''

of infancy even into the era of

tercourse with heaven daily food. light runs

Nature

His

manhood.

and earth becomes part

in-

of his

In the presence of nature a wild de-

through the man, in spite of real sorrows.

says,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he

and maugre

creature,

Not the simjjr the summer and season yields its tribute

alone, but every

all

me.

his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with

hour

of delight; for every

hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind,

grimmest midnight.

from breathless noon

Nature

a setting that

equally well a comic or a mourning piece. health, the

fits

In good

a cordial of incredible virtue.

air is

Crossing a bare common, ia snow puddles, at twi^

light,

under a clouded sky, without having in myi.

thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I

have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration.

In the woods,

the brink of fear. off his years, as the

period soever of

too,

am glad to a man casts

snake his slough, and at what

life, is

In the

always a child.

Withia these planta^

woocU Jis j)ergetual_yQiith. .

tions of

God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a per-

ennial festival

dressed,

and the guest

see s

no t

how he should tire of them in a thousand yearsAjn the woods, we r eturn to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing

grace,

can befall

no calamity (leaving

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

me in life, no disme my eyes), which

nature cannot repaii^j Standing on the bare groimd.

NATURE.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; my head

bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted aUmean egotismvanishes. il space,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

into infinite

become a transparent eye-baU all

am nothing;

I see

part_or_garcel of God. /

The

of the nearest friend sounds then foreign

and

through

name

accidental

;

to be brothers, to be acquaintances,

master or servant, I

;

the currents of the Universal Being circulate

;

then a

trifle

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

and a disturbance.

the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty.

In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages.

In the tranquil

landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon,

o^n

man

beholds somewhat as beautiful as his

nature.

'The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister

the sugggation^f^anoccult relation be-

twgen inanand^hejegetable. unacknowledged.

The waving

me and

They nod

I "am not alone and to

me, and I to them.

of the boughs in the storm is

old.

not unknown.

It takes

me by

surprise,

new to

and yet

thought or a better emotion coming over me, I '

Its effect is like that of a higher

when

deemed I was thinking justly or doing right. Yet it is certain that the power to produce

delight does not reside in nature, but in

a harmony of both.

this

man, or

It is necessary to use these

pleasures with great temperance.

For nature

not always tricked in holiday

but the same

attire,

NATURE.

scene which yesterday breathed perfume and tered as for the frolic of the nymphs,

with melancholy to-day. colors of the spirit

glit-

overspread

Nature always wears the

To a marTIaboring under caown fire hath sadness in it.

lamity, the heat of his

Then there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth in the population.

;

CHAPTER

COMMODITY.

Whoever will discern

considers

tlie final

cause of the world

a multitude of uses that enter as parts

into that result.

They

all

admit of being thrown

one of the following classes

into

Beauty

;

Language

;

and

Commodity

Discipline.

jlJnder the general name of commodity, I rank

those advantages which our senses This, of course,

ture.

a benefit which

rary and mediate, not ultimate, like

Yet although low,

soul.

and

owe

it is

its

to na-

tempo-

service to the

perfect in

the only use of nature which all

its

men

kind,

appre-

The misery of man appears like childish petulance, when we explore the steady and prodigal provision that has been made for his support and delight on this green ball which floats him through

hend.

the heavens.

What

angels invented these splendid

ornaments, these rich conveniences, this ocean of air above, this

ocean of water beneath, this firma-

ment

between?

of earth

this zodiac of lights, this

tent of dropping clouds, this striped coat of

mates, this fourfold year?

Beasts,

fire,

cli-

water,

COMMODITY. stones,

The

and corn serve him.

once

field is at

his floor, his work-yard, his play-ground, his garden,

and

his bed. " More servants wait on

man

Than he '11 take

notice of."

Lbfature, in its ministry to

material, but

seed

profit of

work

man.

not only the

and the

also the process

the__paEtÂ§â&#x20AC;&#x17E; incessantly

hands for the

man,

result.

into each other's

The wind sows the

the sun evaporates the sea ; the wind blows

;

the vapor to the field

;

the

ice,

on the other side of

the planet, condenses rain on this the plant

;

the rain feeds

the plant feeds the animal

;

and thus

the endless circulations of the divine charity nourish

man.

rT?he useful arts are reproductions or new combmations by the wit of man, of the same natural benefactors. gales,

no longer waits for favoring

but by means of steam, he realizes the fable

uEolus's bag, and carries the two ,

winds in the boiler of his boat. tion,

and

thirty

diminish

frie^

he paves the road with iron bars, and, mount-

ing a coach with a ship-load of men, animals, and

merchandise behind him, he darts through the country, from town to town,

Hke an eagle or a

By the aggregate of swaUow through the air. how is the face of the world changed, The from the era of Noah to that of Napoleon

these aids,

COMMODITY.

20 private poor

man

built for him.

hmnan

hath

cities, ships,

goes to the post-office, and the

race run on his errands

and the

human

pens, for

him

;

canals, bridges,

;

to the book-shop,

and write of all that hapthe court-house, and nations reHe sets his house upon the road,

race read to

pair his wrongs.

and the human race go forth every morning, and shovel out the snow, and cut a path for him.

But there

no need of specifying particulars in

this class of uses.

The

catalogue

endless,

the examples so obvious, that I shall leave

and

them

the reader's reflection, with the general remark, that this mercenary benefit spect to a farther good.

may be

fed,

but that he

A man may

one which has is

work.

fed, not that

re-

CHAPTER

III.

BEAUTY.

NOBLER want

man

namely, the love of Beauty,

The

ancient

Such

beauty.

served by naturef

is j

Greeks called the world is

koV/hos,

the constitution of all things, or

human

such the plastic power of the

eye, that the

primary forms, as the sky, the mountain, the

and for them-

the animal, give us a delight in '

moand grouping;/ This seems partly owing to

selves ; a pleasure arising tion,

from

tree,

the eye

itself.

The eye

outline, color,

the best of artists.

the mutual action of its structure

and of the laws

of light, perspective is produced,

which integrates

every mass of objects, of what character soever, into a

weU

colored and shaded globe, so that where

the particular objects are

mean and

landscape which they compdse

And

metrical. light

the

first

as the eye

of painters.-

foul that intense

light will

And

the stimulus

sort of

infinitude

unaffecting, the

round and sym-

the best composer, so

There not

no object so

make

beautiful.

affords to the sense,

which

and a

hath, like space

and

BEAUTY.

gay.

make aU matter But own beauty.

time, its

diffused

the corpse has

Even

besides this general grace

almost aU the

over nature,

individual

forms are agreeable to the eye, as is proved

our endless imitations of some of them, as the acorn, the grape, the pine-cone, the wheat-ear, the egg, the wings

and forms

most

birds, the lion's

claw, the serpent, the butterfly, searsheUs, flames, clouds, buds, leaves,

and the forms

many

trees,

as the palm.

For better consideration, we may distribute the Beauty in a threefold manner.

aspects of

l.<, First,

the simple perception of natural forms

a delight.^ The influence of the forms and

man,

tions in nature is so needful to

lowest functions,

seems to

commodity and beauty.

lie

ac-

that, in its

on the confines

the body

and mind

which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature tone.

medicinal and restores their

The tradesman,

the attorney comes out of

the din and craft of the street and sees the sky

and the woods, and

man

nal cahn, he finds himself.

seems to demand a horizon. so long as

we can

their eter-

The health

of the eye

again.

are never tired,

see far enough.

But in other hours. Nature satisfies by its loveliness, and without any mixture of corporeal benefit. I see the spectacle of

morning from the hiU-top

BEAUTY. over against

house, from day-break to sun-rise,

The

with emotions which an angel might share.

long slender bars of cloud

From

sea of crimson light.

I look out Jnto that silent its^ rapid

transformations

reaches

ani

dust,

float like fishes in the

the active enchantment

I dilate and conspire with

does Nature deify us

with a few and cheap elements

and a day, and I rors ridicidous. set

realms of faerie of the senses s hall

dreams.

Not

;

broad noon shall be

health

of empe-

the sun-

;

England

and the understanding; the night

my Germany

mystic philosophy and

less

excellent,

except for our less suscep-

was the charm,

a January sunset.

Give

Paphos, and unimaginable

tibility in the afternoon,

ing,

make the pomp dawn is my Assyria

will

T^be

and moon-rise

I-seem to partake

aea._.

;

How

the__morning_^iod.

the earth, as a shore,

last even-

The western

clouds

divided and subdivided themselves into pink flakes

modulated with

had

the air

tints of

much

unspeakable softness, and

and sweetness that

life

a pain to come within doors. nature would say ?

Was

live repose of the valley

Homer words

What was

was that

there no meaning in the

behind the

mfll,

and which

or Shakspeare could not re-form for

The

leafless trees

become

spires of flame

in the sunset, with the blue east for their back-

)

BEAUTY.

ground, and the stars of the dead callces of flow-

and every withered stem and stubble rimed with frost, contribute something to the mute muers,

sic.

The

inhabitants of cities suppose that the coun-

try landscape

pleasant only half the year.

please myself with the graces of the winter scenery,

and believe that we are as much touched by

by the genial

influences of

tentive eye, each

moment

beauty, and in the same

summer.

the

of the year has its field,

at-

own

beholds, every

hour, a picture which was never seen before, and

The heavens change^ every moment, and reflect their ^lory or The state of the gloom on the plains beneath. which

shall never

be seen again.

crop ia the surrounding farms alters the expression of the earth

of native

from week

plants in the pastures

which makes the the

to week.

smnmer

silent clock

The

succession

and

roadsides,

by which time

the day sensible

tells

wUl make even the divisions The tribes to a keen observer.

hours,

birds and insects, like the plants punctual to their time, follow each other,

aU.

and the year has room for

watercourses, the variety

greater.

July, the blue pontederia or pickerel-weed blooms in large beds in the shallow parts of our pleasant river,

and swarms with yellow

tinual motion.

Art cannot

butterflies 'in

rival this

pomp

con-

of pur-

BEAUTY. pie

and

Indeed the river

gold.

25 is

a perpetual gala,

and boasts each month a new ornament. heauty of Nature which

(TBut this felt as

beauty,

the least part.

dewy morning,

the

chards in blossom, still

the rainbow, stars,

water, and the like,

seen and

The shows

of day,

mountains, or-

moonlight, shadows in too eagerly hunted, be-

come shows merely, and mock us with

their unreal-

Go^out of the house to see^the moon, and

ity.^

't is

mere tinsel; it_wiU not please as when its light sMneuigon_20ur ngcessary journey. The beauty that shimmers in the yellow afternoons of October,

who it is

ever could clutch

gone

;

-'t

windows of ual "Blement

forth to find

it,

and

diligence.

The presence of a

<^ 2>

only a mirage as you look from the

higher, namely, of the spirit-

The high

essential toJia, perfection.

and divine beauty which can be loved without feminacy,

with the sets

upon

that

human virtue.

Every heroic place

act

which wUl.

also decent,

and the bystanders

by great

found in combination

Beauty

mark God

the

Every natural action is

to shine^

are taught

actions that the universe is the property

of every individual in

he wiU.

graceful.

and causes the

it.

Every

rational creature

has aU nature for his dowry and estate. if

ef-

He may

divest himself of

It is his, ;

may

creep into a comer, and abdicate his kingdom, as

;

BEAUTY.

men

most

do, but he

constitution.

thought and

world by his

entitled to the

In proportion to the energy of his he takes up the world into him-

will,

" All those things for which men plough, " The build, or sail, obey virtue ; " said Sallust. self.

winds and waves," said Gibbon, "are always on

So are the sun

the side of the ablest navigators."

and moon and noble act

all

done,

natural beauty

;

When

the stars of heaven.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; perchance in a scene of

when Leonidas and

great

his three hun-

dred martyrs consume one day in dying, and the sun and moon come each and look at them once ia the

steep

defile

Thermopylae

when Arnold

;

Winkelried, in the high Alps, under the shadow of the avalanche, gathers in his side a sheaf of Austrian

spears to break the line for his comrades

are not these heroes entitled to

add the beauty

the scene to the beauty of the deed

When

bark of Columbus nears the shore of America before of

it,

the ;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the beach lined with savages, fleeing out

their

huts of cane

;

the sea behind

;

and

the purple mountains of the Indian Archipelago

around, can picture ?

separate the

Does not the

man from

New World

the living

clothe his

with her palm -groves and savannahs as

pery? air,

Ever does natural beauty_

and envelope great

actions.

steal

When

Vane was dragged up the Tower-hiU,

form

fit

dra-

Sir

Harry

sitting

BEAUTY. a

sled, to suffer

You

death as the champion of the Eng-

one of the multitude cried out to him,

lish laws,

never sate on so glorious a seat "

II., to

Charles

intimidate the citizens of London, caused

the patriot

Lord Eussell

be drawn in an open

coach through the principal streets of the city on his

way

says,

"the multitude imagined jfliey saw liberty

and virtue

among

sitting

ple, the

\In

his side.X

private places,

sordid objects, an act (if""truth or heroism

seems at once to draw to

arms

" But," his biographer

the scaffold.

sun as

its

tem-

Nature stretches out her

man, only

to emb:Eace

the sky as

itself

candle.

let his

thoughts be of

equal greatnessÂť/ /Willingly does she follow his steps with the rose lines of

and the

violet,

and bend her

grandeur and grace to the decoration of

her darling child.

Only

his_Jthou^hts_be of

let

equal scope,^and the^frame will suitJhejiiQture.

A virtuous ma.kes the

man

in unison with her works,

central figure of the

Homer, Pindar,

visible

and

sphere.

Socrates, Phocion, associate them-

memory with the geography and climate of Greece. The visible heavens and earth sympathize with Jesus. And in common life whososelves fitly in OUT

ever has seen a person of powerful character and

happy genius,

will

have remarked how easily he

took aU things along with him, opinions, to

a man.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

persons, the

and the day, and nature became

ancillary

BEAUTY.

There

is still

another aspect under which the

beauty of the world

may

becomes an object of the

be viewed, namely, as

Beside the

intellect.

re-

lation of things to virtue, they have a relation to

though4_

The

intellect searches out the absolute

miud of God, The intellectual

order of things as they stand in the

and without the

colors of affection.

and the active powers seem to succeed each other, and the exclusive activity of the one generates the exclusive activity of the other./ There is something imfriendly in each to the other, but they are like the alternate periods of feeding and worldng in

animals; each prepares and will be followed by the other.

Therefore does beauty, which, in

lation to actions, as

we have

seen,

re-

comes unsought,

and comes because it is unsought, remain for the apprehension and pursuit of the intellect and then ;

again, in its turn, of the active power.

divine dies

All good

The beauty"of nature

Nothing

eternally reproductive.

re-forms itself iu the mind,

and not for barren contemplation, but for new

cre-

ation. \ <Y

AE men

are in some degree impressed

face of the world

;

some men even

b^ the

to delight. {_This

love of beauty is TasteTl Others have the

same

iove in such excess, tha*f not content with admiring, they seek to

embody^it in new forms.

creation of beauty

Art.

The

BEAUTY. The production r<fb

of a

work

of art throws a light

A work of

^pon the mystery of humanity.

an abstract or epitome of the world.

art is is

the

result or expression of nature, in miniaturer^

For

although the works of nature are innumera-bie and a-U different, the result or the expression of

and

all is similar

Nature

single.

and even unique.

radically alike

them#

a sea of forms

leaf,

a sun-

beam, a landscape, the ocean, make an analogous

What

impression on the mind. all,

— that

perfectness

The standard ural forms,

of beauty

— the

common

and -Jiarmony, is

but

only

nature

;

which the nell'

quite beautiful alone; nothing

far beautiful as

J ^racey-The

A single

object

poet, the

painter, the sculptor, the

musician, the architect, seek each to concentrate

world on one point, and each

work

to satisfy the love of beauty

in his several

which stimulates him to produce.

Thus

nature passed through the alembic of man. in art does Nature

work through the wiU

with the beauty of her

first

Axt a Thus

of a

man

works.

l\\The world thus exists to the soul to satisfy the desire of beauty.

eM.

suggests this universal

this radiance of the

filiLad

the entire circuit of nat«^

totality of

beautiful in the whole.

sg^

them

heautj.

ItaKai^-expressed by defining beauty "il piu

jfuno." ra'othiag

This element I call an ultimate

reason can be asked or given

why

the

BEAUTY.

80 soul seeks beauty.

foundest sense,

God

the

Beauty, in

its

largest

and

pro-

one..expression for the universe.

all-fair.

Truth, and goodness, and

beauty, are but different faces of the same All.

But beauty

in nature

not ultimate.

herald of inward and eternal beauty, and alone a solid and satisfactory good. as a part,

and not

is_

the

not

must stand

as yet the last or highest expres-

sion of the final cause of Nature.

CHAPTER

rV.

LANGUAGE.

Language to

man.

a third use which Nature subserves

Nature

the vehicle of thought, and in

a simple, double, and three-fold degree.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;2.

Words

are signs of natural facts.

Particular natural facts are symbols of par-

ticular spiritual facts. .,_ 3. 1.

Nature

the symbol of spirit.>

VVords are signs of natural

of natural history

history

;

facts.

The use

to give us aid in supernatural

the use of the outer creation, to give us

language for the beings and changes of the inward creation.

Every word which

a moral or intellectual is

used to express

fact, if traced to its root,

found to be borrowed from some material ap-

pearance. twisted.

Right means straight; wrong means Spirit primarily means wind; trans-

gression, the crossing of a line ; supercilious, the

raising of the eyebrow.

say the heart to ex-

press emotion, the head to denote thought

;

and

thought and emotion are words borrowed from sensible things,

and now appropriated

to spiritual

LANGUAGE.

Most

nature.

formation

of the process

made,

whicli this trans-

hidden from us in the

mote time when language was framed

;

re-

but the

same tendency may be daily observed in children. Children and savages use only nouns or names of

which they convert into verbs, and apply to

things,

analogous mental

But

acts.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; language, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

spiritual import,

tory of is

this origin of

aU words

that convey a

so conspicuous a fact in the hiss.^is

our least debt to nature,

not words only that are emblematic

;

it is

things

which are emblematic.

Every natural fact is a Every appearance in nature corresponds to some state of the mind,\ and that state of the mind can only be described symbol of some

spiritual fact.

by presenting that natural appearance

ture.

enraged

a fox, a firm

torch. spite

;

man

lamb

lion,

as its pic-

man man is

a cunning

a rock, a learned

innocence; a snake

subtle

flowers express to us the delicate affections.

Light and darkness are our familiar expression for

knowledge and ignorance ; and heat for ble distance behind

our image of

Who and

and before

memory and

looks

upon a

love.

Visi-

us, is respectively

hope.

river in a meditative

hour

not reminded of the flux of all things

Throw a

stone into the stream,

and the

circles that

propagate themselves are the beautiful type of

all

LANGUAGE.

\Man

influence.

conscious j)f ajjniversal soul

within _or behind his

Freedom,

and

arise

Eeason

calls

but we are

its

;

wherein, as in

indiyicjTjal life,

a firmament, the natures of jiJiioe.

it is

are

Jjigtice,

Truth, Love,

{This universal

soul

not mine, or thine, or his, its

property and men.

/And

the blue sky in which the private eartlris "buried, the sky with

ing orbs,

its

eternal calm,

lectually considered

relation to nature,

Creator.

and

full of everlast-

the type of EeasonlT That which intel-

we we

call

Reason, considered in

call

SpiritTtX Spirit is the

Spirit J]|ith_Ii^_^in_itseffi

aU ages and countries embodies as the Father.

And man

in his

language^ ""^

easily seen that there is nothing lucky or

capricious constant,

in these analogies, but that they are

and pervade nature.

These are not the

dreams of a few poets, here and there, but'fman

analogist, is

studies relations in all objects.

placed in the centre of beings, and a ray of passes from every other being to him.

relation

Aqd

and

neither canjnaji_be_undeist©©d-srithout these

objeets^nor these objecte wTjthout-jnan.N All the?

facts in natural history taken

no value, but are barren,

marry

Whole

human

floras, all

by themselves, have

like a single sex.

history,

and

is full

But life.

Linnaeus' and Buffon's volumes,

are dry catalogues of facts

;

but the most

trivial of

;

LANGUAGE.

these facts, the habit of a plant, the organs, oi

work, or noise of an insect, applied to the

illustrar

any

tion of a fact in intellectual philosophy, or in

way most

lively

plant,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

man

human

associated to

course,

nature, affects us in the

The seed

and agreeable manner.

of a

to what aff ectiag analogies in the nature

made use who

little fruit

that

up to the voice

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; "It

man

corpse a seed,

it is

raised a spiritual body."

earth round

of, in

dis-

calls the hu-

of Paul,

sown a natural body

The motion

of the

its axis

and round the sun, makes the

year.

These are certain amounts of

day and the

But

brute light and heat.

analogy between man's

there no latent of an

and the seasons?

life

And

do the seasons gain no grandeur or pathos from

The

that analogy ?

instincts of the ant are very

unimportant considered as the ant's

ment a ray

of relation

man, and the a

little

its,

little

;

but the mo-

seen to extend from

drudge

body with a mighty

seen to be a monitor,

heart, then

its

hab-

even that said to be recently observed, that

never sleeps, become sublime. j<^

Because of this radical correspondence between

visible things

and human thoughts, savages, who

have only what \

As we go back

necessary, converse in figures.

in history, language

picturesque, until its infancy,

when

becomes more

it is all

or all spiritual facts are represented

poetry ;

by natural

LANGUAGE.

make

symbols/' The same symbols are found to the original elements of

languages.

all

has

moreover been observed, that the idioms of aU languages approach each other in passages of the greatest eloquence first

language, so

and power. is

the

Andr as

last,

this is the

This immediate

dependence of language upon nature, this conversion

an outward phenomenon into a type of

somewhat in human It is this

affect us.

life,

never loses

its

farmer or

the conversation of a strong-natured

backwoodsman, which (^

power to

which gives that piquancy to

all

men

relish!

XA. man's power to connect his thought with

proper symbol, and so to utter

it,

simplicity of his character, that

and

of truth

its

depends on the

is,

upon

his love

his desire to cormnunicate it without

loss^ The corruption of ruption of language./

man

followed by the cor-

When simplicity of

and the sovereignty of ideas

character

broken up by the

prevalence of secondary desires, the desire of riches, of pleasure, of power, ity

and of

praise,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

duplic-

and falsehood take place of simplicity and

truth,

the power over nature as an interpreter of the will is

in a degree lost

ated,

and

fraud

new imagery

ceases to be cre-

old words are perverted to stand for things

which are not there

;

a paper currency

no bullion in the

vaults.

manifest, and words lose

employed, when

In due time the

aU power

to stim-

LANGUAGE.

ulate the understanding or

Him-

tlie affections.

may be found in every long-civUized a short time believe and make others

dreds of writers nation

who for

believe that they see

and utter

who do

truths,

not

of themselves clothe one thought in its natural gar-

ment, but who feed unconsciously on the language created

by the primary writers

of the jjoiintry, those,

namely, who hold primarily on nature.

But wise men

fasten words again to visible things

esque language that he

pierce this rotten diction and

who employs

so that pictur-

;

once a commanding it

man

in alliance with

moment our

truth and God. <('The

certificate

discourse rises

above the ground line of familiar facts and flamed with passion or exalted by thought, itself in

images.

man

is ia-

clothes

conversing in earnest,

he watch his intellectual processes, will find that a material image more or less luminous arises in his

mind, contemporaneous with every thought, which furnishes the vestment of the thought.

Hence, good

writing and brilliant discourse are jierpetual gories.

This imagery

spontaneous.

alle-

the

blending of experience with the present action of the mind.

It is proper creation.\ It is the work-

ing of the Original Cause through the instruments

he has already made.

^These

facts

may

suggest the advantage which the

country-life possesses, for a powerful mind, over the

LANGUAGE.

artificial and curtailed life of cities^ We know more from nature-than we can at will communicate. Its light flowsWto the mind evermore, and we for-

get

its

presence.

'The poet, the orator, bred in the

woods, whose senses have been nourished by their

and appeasing changes, year after year, with-

fair

out design and without heed,

—

shall not lose their

lesson altogether, in the roar of cities or the broil

of politics.

Long

hereafter, amidst agitation

terror in national councils, tion,

— these

morning

—

and

in the hour of revolu-

solemn images shall reappear in their

lustre, as fit

symbols and words of the

thoughts which the passing events shall awaken.

the call of a noble sentiment, again the woods

wave, the pines murmur, the river roUs and shines,

and the

cattle

low upon the mountains, as he saw

and heard them in

his infancy.

And

with these

lo^b

o^^^

forms, the speUs of persuasion, the keys of power —n<^ are put into his hands.

are thus assisted

by natural

expression of particular meanings.

objects in the

But how great

a language to convey such pepper-corn informations

Did

need such noble races of creatures,

this pro-

fusion of forms, this host of orbs in heaven, to fur-

nish

man

with the dictionary and grammar of his

municipal speech ?/ Whilst

we use this grand cipher and kettle, we feel

to expedite the affairs of our pot

that

we have

not yet put

to its use, neither are

LANGUAGE.

able.

are like travellers using

tlie

cinders of

a volcano to roast their eggs. \Whilst we see that it

always stands ready to clothe what we would say,

we cannot avoid

the question whether the charac-

ters are not significant of themselves.

and waves, and

tains,

skies,

Have moun-

no significance but what

we consciously give them wh^we employ them as emblems of our thoughts ? The world is emblemi

Parts of speech are metaphors, because the

atic.

whole of na ture

The laws

a metaphor of the

ter as face to face in a glass,;/"

and the

The axioms

laws of ethics.

visible world

est weight

may

of physics translate the

Thus, " the whole

" " reaction

;

The

relation of its parts,- is the dial plate of the

invisible."

part

human mind.

of moral nature answer to those of mat-

greater than

its

; equal to action " " the small-

be made to

lift

the greatest, the

dif-

;

ference of weight being compensated by time " and

many the

like propositions,

well as physical sense.

which have an ethical as

These propositions have a

much more extensive and imiversal sense when aphuman life, than when confined to techni-

plied to cal use.

manner, the memorable words of history

and the proverbs of nations

consist usually of a

natural fact, selected as a picture or parable of a

moral

moss ;

truth. Thus A rolling stone gathers no A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush; ;

;

LANGUAGE.

A cripple in the right way will .

39 beat a racer in the

wrong Make hay while the svm ;

cup even

to carry a full

wine

;

The

shines

Vinegar

;

hard

the son of

ounce hroke the camel's back

last

Long-lived trees

make

roots first;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and the

In their primary sense these are

;

Uke.

but

trivial facts,

repeat them for the value of their analogical

What

import.

fables, parables,

of proverbs,

is true,

and

true of all

allegories.

This relation between the mind and matter

not fancied by some poet, but stands in the will of

God, and so

fortunate hours

man

doubts

known by

free to be

appears to men, or

all

does not appear.

we ponder

men.

When

this miracle, the wise

at all other times he is not blind

and

deaf; "

/ /

And

Can

these things be,

overcome us

like a summer's cloud, Without our special wonder ? "

for the universe becomes transparent,

of higher laws than

its

own

and the

shines through

it.

light

It is

the standing problem which has exercised the won-

der and the study of every fine genius since the

world began

;

from the era

of the Egyptians

the Brahmins to that of Pythagoras, of Plato,

Bacon, of Leibnitz, of Swedenborg.

Sphinx

at the road-side,

There

and from age

each prophet comes by, he

sits

the

to age, as

tries his fortune at read-

LANGUAGE.

40 ing her

rid(31e.

and and of

There seems to be a necessity in itself in material forms;, and day

manifest

spirit to

night, river

and storm, beast and

alkali, preexist in

necessary Ideas in the mind

God, and are what they are by virtue of prespirit. Fact is

ceding affections in the world of the end or is

bird, acid

The

last issue of spirit.

visible creation

the terminus or the circumference of the invisi-

ble world,

philosopher-,

said

^'Material objects,"

" are necessarily kinds of

a French scorice

the substantial thoughts of the Creator, which must

always preserve an exact relation to their origin

in other words, visible nature

;

spiritual

and moral

This doctrine

side."

abstruse,

and though the im-

ages of " garment," " scorise," " mirror," &c., stimulate the fancy, subtler

and more

vital expositors to is

which gave

forth,"

law of

criticism.

may

we must summon the aid

" Every scripture spirit

first

must have a

make

plain.

be interpreted by the same

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

life in

the fundamental

harmony with Nature,

the love of truth and of virtue, will purge the eyes to understand her text. to

know

degrees

we may come

the primitive sense of the permanent ob-

world shall be to us an open book, and every form significant of its hidden life and final cause. \

jects of nature, so that the

new

interest surprises us, whilst,

under the

LANGUAGE.

view now suggested, we contemplate the fearful extent and multitude of objects ject rightly seen, unlocks

;

since " every ob-

a new faculty of the soul."

That which was unconscious

truth, becomes,

when

interpreted and defined in an object, a part of the

domain of knowledge, azine of power.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a new weapon

in the

mag-

CHAPTER

V. '

DISCIPLINE. significance of nature,

In view of the at once at a new

fact, that

nature

arrive

a discipline.

This use of the world includes the preceding as parts of

uses,

itself.

Space, tune, society, labor, climate, food, locomotion,

the animals, the mechanical forces, give us

day by day, whose meaning is unThey educate both the Understanding Every property of matter is a and the Reason. sincerest lessons,

limited.

school for the understanding,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

its

solidity or re-

sistance, its inertia, its extension, its figure, its divisibility.

The understanding

adds, divides, com-

bines, measures, and finds nutriment and its activity

in this

son transfers

all

worthy scene.

these lessons into

room

for

Meantime, Rear its

own world

thought, by perceiving the analogy that marries

Matter and Mind. 1.

Nature

a discipline of the under standing, in

intellectual truths. ects is j

fOur

dealing with sensible ob-

a constant exercise in the necessary lessons

of_^iffereiice^ of likeness, of order, of being

and

DISCIPLINE.

arrangement; of_ ascent

of ^progressive

s eeming',

from particular

to general

of combination to one

;

end of manifold_fgrcesn Proportioned tance of the organ to be formed,

with which

its

tuition

provided,

impor-

to the

the extreme care

— a care

preter-

What tedious traioing, day

mitted in no single case.

form

after day, year after year, never ending, to

the

common

sense

what continual reproduction of

;

annoyances, inconveniences, dilemmas ing over us of

what reckonings

Hand

of the

men what

little

;

of interest,

mind

;

—

;

what

rejoic-

disputing of prices,

— and aU

form the

to instruct us that "

good

thoughts are no better than good dreams, unless

they be executed! \

The same good

and

its filial

" office is

performed by Property

systems of debt and credit.

Debt,

grinding debt, whose iron face the widow, the or-

phan, and the sons of genius fear and hate debt,

which consumes so much time, which so

and disheartens a great

ples

seem

so base, is a preceptor

be forgone, and fer

from

most.

—

crip-

with cares that

whose lessons cannot

needed most by those who

suf-

Moreover, property, which has

been well compared to snow, day,

spirit

;

wiU be blown

— "if

it fall

level to-

into drifts to-morrow,"

—

the surface action of internal machinery, like the

index on the face of a clock.

Whilst now

gymnastics of the understanding,

it is

the

hiving, in

;

DISCIPLINE.

44 the foresight of the

spirit,

experience in profounder

laws.

character and fortune of the individ-

The whole

ual are affected by the least inequalities in the culture of the understanding

perception of differences. t^eisf ore. Time, that

;

for example, in the

Therefo re

man may know

Space, and that things

are not huddled and lumped, but sundered and

A bell

iBjdi^ddual.

use,

and a plough have each

and neither can do the

Water

office

their

of the other.

good to drink, coal to burn, wool to wear

but wool cannot be drunk, nor water spun, nor coal

The wise man shows

eaten.

and

tion, in gradation,

merits

as wide as nature.

range in their

scale,

and what

worst,

In in us

like !

wisdom

The

in separsr

and

have no

foolish

but suppose every

What

every other man.

his

his scale of creatures

man

not good they caU the

not hateful, they call the best.

manner, what good heed Nature forms

Her yea

She pardons no mistakes.

is yea,

and her nay, nay.

The ology hunter,

first

steps in Agriculture,

(those

first

and the

steps

Astronomy, Zo-

which the farmer, the

sailor take), teach that Nature's

dice are always loaded

bish are concealed sure

How_calmly and

;

and rub-

that in her heaps

and useful

genially the

results.

mind apprehends

one after another the laws of physics

What

DISCIPLINE.

noble emotions

dilate the mortal as

the comisels of the creation,

edgejthe privilege to

and

he enters into

feels

His insight

by knowl-

refines him.

The beauty of nature shines in his own breast. Man_is greater that he can see this, and the uni'verse less, because Time and Space relations vanish as laws are

known.

Here again we are impressed and even daunted by the immense Universe to be- explored. " What we know is a point to what we do not know." Open any recent journal of science, and weigh the problems suggested concerning Light, Heat, Electricity,

Magnetism, Physiology, Geology, and judge

whether the interest of natural science

likely to

be soon exhausted.

many particulars of the discipline we must not omit to specify two.

Passing by nature,

The is

exercise of the Will, or the lesson of power,

taught in every event.

From

the child's succes-

sive possession of his several senses

when he

saith, "

Thy wiU be done

to the horn-

" he

is learn-

ing the secret that he can reduce under his wUl, not only particular events but great classes, nay, the whole series of events, and so conform all facts to his character. It is

made

man

r^de.

Nature

to sgrxfii

thoroughly mediate.

It receiiesJhe jdominion of

meekly as the ass^on which the Saviour It offers all its kingdoms to man as the

DISCIPLINE.

raw material wMcli he may mould into what is useMan is never weary of working it up. He ful. forges the subtile and delicate air into wise and melodious words, and gives them wing as angels of

One

persuasion and command. /

after another his

thought comes up with and reduces

victorious^

becomes at

things, until the world

last only

all

real-

ized wiU, ^jthe^doublaxiLthe-man. 2.

Sensible objects conform to the premonitions

Reason and

are moral

;

and

in their boundless changes have an

unceasing reference to spiritual nature. is

All things

reflect the conscience.

Therefore

nature glorious with form, color, and motion;

that every globe in' the

remotest heaven, every

chemical change from the rudest crystal up to the laws of first

every change of vegetation from the

life,

principle of growth in the eye of a leaf, to the

and antediluvian coal-mine, every

tropical forest

animal function from the sponge up to Hercules, shall hint or

thunder to

man

the laws of right and

wrong, and echo the Ten Commandmenfe. fore

her

There-

Nature ever the ally of Religioni^-lends

pomp and

Prophet and

all

riches to the religious sentiment.

David, Isaiah, Jesus, have

priest,

drawn deeply from

this source.

This ethical char-

and marrow of nature, which it was made. What-

acter so penetrates the bone

as to seem the end for

ever private purpose

answered by any member

DISCIPLINE. or part, this

and

public and universal function,

its

never omitted.

hausted in

Nothing in nature

When

its first use.

an end to the-«ttenp^ost,

new m4ans.

regarded by is

to the

whoUy new

Thus the use is

itself,

mean and

mind an education

namely, that a thing

ex-

a thing has served

In God, every end

ulterior service.

into a

for an

converted

of commodity,

squalid.

But

in the doctrine of Use,

good only

so far as it serves ^

that a conspiring of parts and efforts to the pro-

duction of an end first

is essential to

and gross manifestation

any being?'°'"^e

of this truth is our

and hated training in values and wants,

inevitable

iE^orn and meat. ilt,

has already been illustrated, that every nat-

ural process

moral law

the centre of nature

to the circumference.

"j^

W£at

things with which

and marrow

and every pro-

deal,

preach to us.

a farm ^but a mute gospel?

and the wheat, weeds and sects, sun,

—

The

chaff

plants, blight, rain, in-

a sacred emblem from the

furrow of spring to the

last stack

of winter overtakes in the fields.

the

and radiates

It is the pith

of every substance, every relation, cess,

The

a version of a moral sentence.

lies at

first

which the snow

But the

saUor,.

shepherd, the miner, the merchant, in their

several resorts, have each parallel,

and leading

an experience precisely

to the

same conclusion

be-

DISCIPLINE.

Nor

cause all organizations are radieally, alike.

can

be doubted that this moral sentiment which

thus scents the

air,

grows in the grain, and impreg-

nates the waters of the world,

and sinks

it illustrates

mate this?

Who

caught by

The moral

into his soul.

nature upon every individual truth which

to him.

can guess

influence of

amount

that

Who

can

how much

the

tranquillity has been reflected to

esti-

firmness

the sea-beaten rock has taught the fisherman

much

man

how

man from

azure sky, over whose unspotted deeps the

winds forevermore drive flocks of stormy clouds,

and leave no wrinkle or stain? how much industry and providence and affection we have caught from the pantomime

i' '

non

What

of brutes ?

preacher of self-command

a searching

the Varying phenome-

of Health

Herein Nature,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

everywhere.

make an

especially

apprehended the unity of

unity in variety,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which meets us

All the endless variety of things

identical impression^/

Xenophanes com-

plained in his old age, j;hat;7look where he would,

aU things hastened back to Unity. He was weary of seeing the same entity in the tedious variety of forms. The fable of Proteus has a cordial truth.

A leaf,

a drop, a crystal, a moment of time,

lated to the whole, of the whole.

re-

and partakes of the perfection

Each

particle

a microcosm, and

faithfully renders the likeness of the world.

DISCIPLINE.

Not only resemblances exist in things whose is obvious, as when we detect th e type of

alogy

anthe

hiinianjtiamd^in^the flipper of the fossil saurus, but also in objdCra wherein there is great superficial

Thus

unlikeness.

music,"

architecture

and

Stael

x)&

c^Eed " frozen

Goethe.

Vitriraas

thought an architect should be a musician. [/^A GrothiÂŁ ehur(jk," said Coleridge, "is a petrified religion."

architect,

Haydn's

Angelo maintained,

Il^ichael

a Knowledge of anatomy

that, to

essential\)ln

oratorios, the notes present to the "imagi-

nation not only motions, as of the snake, the stag,

and the elephant, but grass.

as the green

;

^X^e law of harmonic sounds reappears in

the harmonic colors. its

colors also

The

granite

differenced in

laws only by the more or less of heat from the

river that wears

The

away.

river, as it flows,

resembles the air that flows over bles the light

currents

with

;

which traverses

;

the air resem-

with more subtile

the light resembles the heat which rides

through Space.

modification of the other

more than the

difEerence,

one and the same.

Each

creature

the likeness in

;

and

A rule

only a

them

their radical

of one art, or a

law

law of

one organization, holds true throughout nature.

So intimate

is this _Unity., that,

is-

easily seen,

liesjinder the undermost garment of .nature, and betrays

its

source in Universal Spirit.

For

per-

DI&CIPLINE.

50 vades Thought

express

a great

words;- implies

on a sphere, comprising

circle ;

comprise

in like manner.

The

sides.

But

Words

has

central TJnity is

'""actions.

all pos-

\Sisesj such truth

the absolute Ens_ seen from one side.

innumerable

It is

which, howeverf-;piay he drawn and

sible circles it

or supposes every

Omne verum vero consona}.

other truth] like

Every universal truth which

also.

still

more conspicuous

are finite organs of the infinite

They cannot cover the dimensions of what They break, chop, and impoverish it. actim^ is the perfection and publication of

mind. is

in truth.

p. right action seems |tO

thought,

to be related to

doing one thing, does

all

fill

man,

one thing he

or, in the

;

the eye, and

'*,The wise

nature.

does rightly, he sees the likeness of all which

done rightly." \

Words Saa brute nature.

actions are

not the attributes of

They introduce us

human

to the

form, of which all other organizations appear to

When

be degradations.

many

that surround

others.

It says, "

From

joy and knowledge

;

and beheld myself I ;

again ; alive."

can yield

this

appears

among

the spirit prefers

it,

so all

such as this have I drawn

in such as this have I found will

speak to

;

can speak

thought already formed and

fact, the eye,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the mind, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

always

DISCIPLINE.

accompanied by these forms, male and female

;

and

these are incomparably the richest informations of

the power and order that

lie

at the heart of things.

Unfortunately every one of them bears the marks as of

some injury

;

marred and

superficially de-

Nevertheless, far different from the deaf

fective.

and dumb nature around them, these aU

rest like

fountain-pipes on the unfathomed sea of thought

and3'irtue whereto they alone, of all organizations, are the entrances.

\J[t were a

pleasant inquiry to follow into detail

their ministry to our education, but

stop ? life

where would

are associated in adolescent and adult

with some friends, who, like skies and waters,

are coextensive

with our idea

;

each to a certain affection of the desire on that side

;

whom we

who, answering soul, satisfy

such focal distance from us, that we can

even analyze them. them.

When much

our

lack power to put at

mend

cannot choose but love

intercourse with a friend has

supplied us with a standard of excellence, and has increased our respect for the resources of

God who

thus sends a real person to outgo our ideal;

when

he has, moreover, become an object of thought, and, whilst his character retains all

its

unconscious

effect, is

converted in the mind into solid and sweet

wisdom,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

ing,

and he

it is

a sign to us that his office

is clos-

commonlj withdrawn from our

in a short tinte.

sight

CHAPTEE

VI.

IDEALISM.

Thus

the unspeakable but intelligible and

meaning

of the world conveyed to

man,

the immortal pupil, in every object of sense.

practicable

this

one end of Discipline,

all parts of

nature con-

spire.

noble doubt perpetually suggests

itself,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

whether this end be not the Final Cause of the Universe

;

and whether nature outwardly

It is a sufficient account of that Appearance

the World, that so

makes

God wiU

teach a

exists.

call

human mind, and

the receiver of a certain

number of

con-

gruent sensations, which we call sun and moon,

man and woman, impotence to

house and trade.

utter

test the authenticity of the report of

senses, to know whether the impressions they make on me correspond with outlying objects,

what difference does

make, whether Orion

up there in heaven, or some god paints the image in the firmament of the soul?

parts

and the end

what

The

relations of

of the whole remaining the same,

the difference, whether land and sea inter-

;

IDEALISM.

and worlds revolve and intermingle without or end, deep yawning under deep,

act,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

numlber

and galaxy balancing galaxy, tkroughout absolute space,

and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or

whether, without

man?

the constant faith of

the apocalypse of the mind,

alike venerable to me.

it is it

alike useful

what

en-

only in

may,

and it is

so long as I cannot try the accuracy of

senses.

The

make themselves merry with the

frivolous

Ideal theory, as as

time

Whether nature

joy a substantial existence without, or

ideal to

relations

same appearances are inscribed in

space, the

if it

if its

consequences were burlesque

affected the stability of nature.

God

does not.

It surely

never jests with us, and will not

compromise the end of nature by permitting any inconsequence in

its

Any

procession.

distrust of

the permanence of laws would paralyze the faculties

of man.

spected,

and

Their permanence his

faith

wheela_ajid._springs of

therein

man

are

stand.

ture, that so

a natural consequence of this struc-

hint that nature spirit.

We are not

be tossed, but like a house to

long as the active powers predominate

over the reflective,

than

"Jhe

set to the hy-

pothesis of the permanence of nature. built like a ship to

sacredly re-

perfect.

The

resist with indignation any more short-lived or mutable

broker, the wheelwright, the car-

IDEALISM.

penter, the tollman, are

much

displeased at the

in.

timation.

But whUst we acquiesce entirely in the perma^ nence of natural laws, the question of the absolute existence of nature

uniform

still

effect of culture

remains open.

the

on the human mind, not

to shake our faith iu the stability of particular phe-'

but to lead us

regard nature as phenomenon, not a substance ;

nomena, as of heat, water, azote

;

attribute necessary existence to spirit j to esteem

nature as an accident and an

effect.

the senses and the unrenewed understanding,

belongs a sort of instinctive belief in the absolute existence of nature.

In their view

are indissolubly joined.

man and

nature

Things are ultimates, and

The

they never look beyond their sphere. ence of Reason mars this faith.

The

pres-

first effort of

thought tends to relax this despotism of the senses

which binds us to nature as

and shows us nature

we were a

part of

it,

aloof, and, as it were, afloat.

Until this higher agency intervened, the animal eye sees, with wonderful accuracy, sharp outliaes

and colored opens,

surfaces.

to outline

When

the eye of Reason

and surface are

grace and expression.

at once added

These proceed from imagi-

nation and affection, and abate somewhat of the

angular distinctness of objects.

If the

Reason be

stimidated to more earnest vision, outlines and sur.

IDEALISM. faces

become transparent, and are no longer seen

best

moments

of life are these delicious

of the higher powers,

ing of nature before

Let us proceed 1.

Our

;

The

causes and spirits are seen through them.

awakenings

and the reverential withdraw-

its

God.

to indicate the effects of culture.

first institution

in the Ideal philosophy is a

hint from Nature herself.

Nature cipate us.

made

to conspire with spirit to

eman-

Certain mechanical changes, a small

al-

teration in our local position, apprizes us of a dual-

ism.

We are strangely affected by seeing the shore

from a moving tints of

ship,

from a balloon, or through the

an unusual sky.

The

least

change in our

point of view gives the whole world a pictorial air.

man who

seldom rides, needs only to get into a

own town, to turn the The men, the women,

coach and traverse his into a puppet-show.

street

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

ing, running, bartering, fighting,

talkT

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the earnest me-

chanic, the lounger, the beggar, the boys, the dogs,

are unrealized at once, or, at least, wholly detached

from "all relation to the observer, and seen as apparent, not substantial beings.

What new thoughts

by seeing a face of cormtry quite far miliar, in the rapid movement of the railroad car Nay, the most wonted objects, (make a very slight change in the point of vision,) please us most. In are suggested

a camera obscura, the butcher's

cart,

and the

figure

IDEALISM.

56 of one of our

own family amuse

us.

of a well-known face gratifies us.

So a portrait Turn the eyes

upside down, by looking at the landscape through

your

legs,

and how agreeable

the picture, though

you have seen it any time these twenty years In these cases, by mechanical means, is suggested the difference between the observer and the specta!

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; between

cle,

man and

pleasure mixed with of the sublime

man

nature.

may

awe from the ;

is felt,

arises a

a low degree

fact, probably, that

hereby apprized that whilst the world

spectadej^somethmg^in himself

same

Hence say,

is stable.

In a higher manner the poet communicates the pleasure.

air,

a few strokes he delineates, as

the sun, the mountain, the camp, the

city,

the hero, the maiden, not different from what we

know them, but only

lifted

afloat before the eye.

from the ground and

unfixes the land and the

sea, makes them revolve around the axis of his primary thought, and disposes them anew. Possessed himself by a heroic passion, he uses matter as symbols of it. The sensual man conforms thoughts to

things

;

the poet conforms things to his thoughts.

The one esteems nature as rooted and fast the other, as fluid, and impresses his being thereon. To him, the refractory world is ductile and flexible he invests dust and stones with humanity, and makes them the words of the Reason. The Imagi;

;

IDEALISM.

may be

nation

defined to be the use which the Rea^

ofthe

son makes

niaterkl world.

Shakspeare

possesses the power of subordinating nature for the

purposes of expression, beyond aE poets. perial

hand

muse

His im-

tosses the creation like a bauble

and uses

to hand,

thought that

embody any

caprice of

The remo-

uppermost in his mind.

test spaces of nature are visited,

from

and the farthest

sundered things are brought together, by a subconnection.

tile spiritual

magnitude of material things

and expand

jects shrink

poet.

scents

Thus

are

made aware

is relative,

that

and aU

ob-

to serve the passion of the

in his sonnets, the lays of birds, the

and dyes

of his beloved

of flowers he finds to be the

time,

;

shadow

which keeps her from him,

his chest ; the suspicion she has

awakened,

her

ornament; The ornament

of beauty

flies

crow which

His passion as

Suspect,

not the fridt of chance;

he speaks, to a No,

in heaven's sweetest air.

city,

it swells,

or a state.

was builded far from accident;

It suffers not in smiling

Under

the

brow

pomp, nor

falls

of thralling discontent;

It fears not policy, that heretic,

That works on

But

all

leases of short

numbered hours,

alone stands hugely politic.

In the strength of his constancy, the Pyramids

;

IDEALISM.

seem to

and love dazzles him with

of youth to

The

recent and transitory.

its

freshness

resemblance

morning Tate

Which

And

those lips

away

so sweetly were forsworn;

those eyes,

— the break of day,

Lights that do mislead the morn.

The wild beauty passing,

of this hyperbole, I

would not be easy to match

This transfiguration which

all

may

say in

in literature.

material objects

undergo through the passion of the poet,

power which he exerts nify the small,

dwarf the great,

— might be

illustrated

examples from his Plays. Tempest, and will

cite

this

mag-

by a thousand

I have before

only these few

—

the

liaes.

The strong based promontory Have I made shake, and by the spurs plucked up The pine and cedar.

Akiei,.

Prospero

calls

for

music to soothe the

Alonzo, and his companions

A solemn air, and the best comforter To an

unsettled fancy, cure thy brains

Now useless,

boUed within thy

skull.

Again The charm And, as the morning

dissolves apace,

steals

upon the

night,

Melting the darkness, so their rising senses

frantic

IDEALISM. Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle Their clearer reason. Their understanding

Begins to swell: and the approaching tide

Will shortly

That now

lie

The perception

fill

the reasonable shores

foul

and muddy.

of real affinities between events

(thatjsjosay, of {^eoTafiinities, for those only are real), enables the poet thus to

make

free with the

most imposing forms and phenomena of the world,

and

to assert the

predominance of the

soul.

Whilst thus the poet animates nature with his

own

thoughts, he differs from the philosopher only

herein, that the one proposes

end

main

his

But the philosopher, not

the other Truth.

;

Beauty as

less

than the poet, postpones the apparent order

and

relations of things to the empire of thought.

The problem of philosophy," according to Plato, "is, for aU that exists conditionally, to find a ground unconditioned and absolute."

It proceeds

on the

phenomena,

faith that a

law determines

all

which being known, the phenomena can be predicted.

That law, when in the mind, is infinite.

are

one,

truth,

the

which

charm

idea.

Its

beauty

The true philosopher and the true poet and a beauty, which is truth, and a is

beauty,

the aim of both.

Is not

of one of Plato's or Aristotle's definitions

strictly like that of the

Antigone of Sophocles

IDEALISM.

60 is,

in both cases, ttat a spiritual

life

has been im-

parted to nature; that the solid seeming block of

matter

been pervaded and dissolved by a

has

thought ; that this feeble human being has penetrated the vast masses of nature with an informing soul, and

recognized

itself in their

memory

harmony, that

In physics, when

their law.

disburthens

itself

seized

is,

this is attained, the

its

cumbrous

cata-

logues of particulars, and carries centuries of obser-

vation in a single formula.

Thus even

in physics, the material is degraded

The astronomer,

before the spiritual. eter, rely

on their irrefragable

dain the results of observation.

mark

of Euler

the geom-

analysis,

and

dis-

The sublime

re-

his law of arches, " This will be "

had

already transferred nature iato the mind, and

left

found contrary to

all

experience, yet

true

;

matter like an outcast corpse. 4. Intellectual science

has been observed to beget

invariably a doubt of the existence of matter.

got said, "

of matter,

may be

Tur-

that has never doubted the existence

assured he has no aptitude for

metaphysical inquiries."

It fastens the attention

upon immortal necessary uncreated natures, that is, upon Ideas and in their presence we feel that the ;

outward circumstance "Whilst

we wait

of nature as

in this

is a dream and a shade. Olympus of gods, we think

an appendix to the

soul.

ascend

IDEALISM. into

theix region,

and know that these are

"the

" These are Supreme Being. they who were set up from everlasting, from the thoughts of the

When

beginning, or ever the earth was.

pared the heavens, they were there

;

he pre-

when he

es-

when he strengthened the fountains of the deep. Then they were by him, as one brought up with him. Of them took he countablished the clouds above,

sel."

objects of

science they are accessible to few men.

Yet aU

Their influence

men

proportionate.

are capable of being raised

And

sion, into their region.

by piety or by pas-

no man ioufihes these

divine natures, withput_becomiag,- in

himself divine.

body.

some

;

Like a new

some degree,

they renew the

become phj^ically nimble and

tread on air

and we think

soul,

;

life is

light-

no longer irksome,

will never be so.

No man

fears

age or misfortune or death in their serene company, for he

transported out of the district of change.

Whilst we behold unveiled the nature of Justice

and Truth, we learn the difference between the absolute

and the conditional or

hend the exist.

absolute.

We^become immortal,

relative.

were, for the for

first

we learn

appre-

time,

that time

and space are relations of matter ; that with a perception of truth or a virtuous will they have 5. Finally, religion

and

ethics,

which

affinity.

may

IDEALISM.

62 fitly

called the practice of ideas, or the introduc-

tion of ideas into

with

all

suggesting

its

dependence on

religion differ herein of

have an analogous

life,

effect

lower culture, in degrading nature and

human

;

Ethics and

spirit.

that the one

the system

commencing from man ; the

duties

other,

from God./Eeligion includes the personality of

God first

They are one to our presThey both put nature under foot. The

Ethics does not.

;

ent design.

and

last lesson

religion

that are seen, are temporal seen, are eternal."

"The

things

the things that are mi-

;

It puts

is,

an affront upon nature.

It does that for the unschooled,

which philosophy

does for Berkeley and Viasa.

The uniform

lan-

guage that may be heard in the churches of the most ignorant stantial

sects

is,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " Contemn

shows of the world

dreams, shadows, unrealities religion."

The devotee

;

the unsub-

they are

;

vanities,

seek the realities of

flouts nature.

Some

sophists have arrived at a certain hostility

theo-

and

in-

dignation towards matter, as the Manichean and Plotinus.

They

distrusted in themselves any look-

ing back to these flesh-pots of Egypt.

was ashamed of his body. all

Plotinus

short, they

might

say of matter, what Michael Angelo said of ex-

ternal beauty, " It is the frail

which

God

into time."

and weary weed,

dresses the soul which he has called

IDEALISM.

It appears that motion, poetry, physical

and

tellectual science,

and

in-

tend to affect

religion, all

our convictions of the reality of the external world.

But I own there

something ungrateful in ex-

panding too curiously the particulars of the gen-

imbue u?

eral proposition, that all culture tends to

I have no hostility to nature, bu^ a

with idealism.

I expand and live in the

child's love to

it.

day

and melons.

like corn

I do not wish to fling stones

mother, nor

soil

warm

Let us speak her at

fair.

beautiful

I only wish to

gentle nest.

indicate the true position of nature in regard to nian, wherein to establish

tends of

;

life,

that

usegi to

uses^fo call real,

caU visionary.

wiU

and that

The

as surely arise

ular faith

is this,

is,

speculative virtue, take.

true, believe

belief that it appears this faith

on the mind as did the

first.

of the jdeal theory over the pop-

that

view which

cisely that

which

real

it is

an afterthought, but with culture

The advantage

mind.

to call that apparent

Children,

in the external world. only, is

the object

of man's connection with

is,

and brings the mind

which

education

Culture inverts the vulgar views of na-

nature. ture,

all right

ground which to attain

as the

human

man

presents the world in preis

most desirable to the

in fact, the view which Eeason, both

and

practical, that

For seen

is,

philosophy and

in the light of thought, the

IDEALISM.

64 world always nates

God.

phenomenal; and virtue subordi-

Idealism sees the world in

to the mind.

and

It beholds the whole circle^ of persons

things, of actions ligion, not

and events, of country and

as painfully accumulated,

atom, act after

a,ct,

atom

re-

after

an aged creeping Past, but

as one vast picture which

God

paints on the in-

stant eternity for the contemplation of the soul.

Therefore the soul holds

and microscopic study respects the end too

itself off

from a too

trivial

of the universal tablet.

much

immerse

itself in the

means. It sees something more important in Christianity than the scandals of ecclesiastical history

or the niceties of criticism

;

and, very incurious

concerning persons or miracles, and not at

turbed by chasms of

all dis-

historical evidence, it accepts

from God the phenomenon, as

finds

it,

as the

pure and awful form of religion in the world. is

not hot and passionate at the appearance of what

it calls its

own good

or bad fortune, at the union

or opposition of other persons.

emy. lesson.

No man

is its en-

It accepts whatsoever befalls, as part of It is a

watcher more than a doer, and

a doer, only that

may

theTetter watch.

its

it is

CHAPTEE

VII.

SPIRIT.

should contain somewhat progressive.

Uses that are exhausted or that may that end in the statement, cannot be of this brave lodging wherein

man

and

be,

that

And aU

less exercise.

summed

man an

in one,

to the cause

and

which yields tKe

had

effect.

activity of

all its

kingdoms,

it is

its origin.

It is a great

aLwaysJp jfche, sunjbehind

The

and end-

faithful

always

It suggests the absolute.

speaks of Spirit. a perpetual

Through

outskirts of things,

whence

true

the uses of nature admit of

infinite scope.

to the suburbs

facts

harbored, and

whereiii all his faculties find appropriate

being

and of

essential to a true theory of nature

man, that

aspect of Nature

It is

shadow poiating

us.

Like the figure

devout.

of Jesus, she stands with bended head, and hands

folded upon the breast.

[

who

learns

_ Of

The happiest man

God

VOL.

from nature the lesson of worshipj^^^

that ineffable essence which

hi that thinks most, wiU say see

least.

the coarse, and, as 5

call Spirit,

can fore-

were, distant

;;

SPIRIT.

phenomena of matter but when we try to define and describe himself, both language and thought desert us, and we are as helpless as fools and savThat essence refuses to be recorded in propages. ositions, but when man has worshipped him in;

tellectually, the noblest ministry of

stand as the apparition of God.

through which the universal

and

individual, to

spirit

strives to lead

nature

It is the organ

speaks to the

back the individual

it.

When we

consider Spirit,

see that the views

already presented do not include the whole circumference

man.

must add some

thoughts.

Three problems are put by nature to the mind What- is matter? Whence is it? and Whereto? The first of these questions only, the ideal theory answers.

Idealism saith

not a substance.

matter

a phenomenon,

Idealism acquaints us with the

between the evidence of our own

total disparity

being and the evidence of the world's being.

one ance

is ;

perfect

the

mind

presently

awake

day.

a part of the nature of things

a divine dream,

the world

ture

Idealism

by other

and chemistry.

The

the other, incapable of any assur-

;

from which we may and certainties of

to the glories

a hypothesis to account for n"

principles than those of carpentr

Yet,

if it

only deny the existenci

; :

SPIRIT. of matter,

does not satisfy the demands of

God

It leaves

spirit.

out of me.

in the splendid labyrinth

tlie

It leaves

perceptions,

Then the heart

wander without end. because

resists

to it,

balks the affections in denying substan-

men and women.

tive being to

vaded with human

humanity in

all

life

and

Nature

that there

so per-

something of

in every particular.

But

this

theory makes nature foreign to me, and does not

account for that consanguinity which

edge to

Let

we acknowl-

it.

stand then, in the present state of our

knowledge, merely as a useful introductory hypothesis,

serving to apprise us of the eternal distinc-

and the world. But when, following the invisible steps

tion between the soul

of thought,

we come to inquire. Whence is matter? and Whereto ? many truths arise to us out of the recesses of

We learn

consciousness.

ent to the soul of essence,

which

power, but

which

all

man

;

that the highest

pres-

that the dread universal

not wisdom, or love, or beauty, or

in one,

and each

things exist, and that

that spirit creates

;

entirely, is that for

by which they are

that behind nature, throughout

nature, spirit is present

;

one and not compound

does not act upon us from without, that- ia,â&#x20AC;&#x17E;in space

and

time, but

spiritually,

therefore, that spirit, that

or _ through ourselves is,

the

Supreme Being,

SPIRIT.

does not build up .naJairfi^arjOUixd-HS but. puts

forth througbus^ as the life of the tree puts forth

new branches and leaves through the pores of the As a plant upon the earth, so a man rests old. upon the bosom of God ; he ing fountains, and draws

Who

power.

man?

nourished by unfail-

at his

need inexhaustible

can set bounds to the possibilities of inhale the upper air, being admitted

Once

to behold the absolute natures of justice

and we mind of

man

learn that

the Creator,

sources of

truth,

has access to the entire

himself the creator in the

This view, which admonishes

finite.

and

wisdom and power

lie,

me where

and points

the

to vir-

tue as to " The golden key

Which carries

upon

because

its

opes the palace of eternity,"

face the highest certificate of truth,

animates

my own

to create

through the purification of

world

soul.

The world proceeds from the same spirit as the body of man. It is_a remoter and inferior incarnation

scious.

God, a projection of God in the unconBuJL

the Jmrnan^-will. us.

is,

from the body

it .differs

tant respect.^ _ It

not, liEeTEat^

Its^

^rend> order

therefore, to

the divine mind.

may measure

-us,

in one impor-

now is

subjected to

inviolable

the present expositor of

a fixed point whereby we

our departure.

As we

degenerate,

SPIRIT.

the contrast between us and our house

We are as

dent.

much

are aliens from God.

notes of birds.

from us

know

;

strangers in nature as

evi-

do not im^derstand the

The fox and the deer run away

We do

the bear and tiger rend us.

the uses of more than a few plants, as

and the apple, the potato and the

not

com

Is not the

vine.

landscape, every glimpse of which hath a grandeur,

a face of him cord

between

Yet

this

man and

may show

freely admire a noble landscape

digging in the field hard by.

men.

you cannot

laborers

The poet

thing ridiculous in his delight until he sight of

us what dis-

nature, for

are

finds some-

out of the

CHAPTEE

VIII.

PEOSPECTS.

In Inquiries respecting the laws of the world and the frame of things, the highest reason is always the truest. That which seems faintly posit is

deepest seated in the

and processes

Empirical science

be-

the

apt to cloud

by the very knowledge

of functions

eternal verities.

the sight, and

and dim mind among

often faint

sible, it is so refined, is

cause

to bereave the student of the

manly

The savant becomes read naturalist who lends

contemplation of the whole. unpoetic.

But the best

an entire and devout attention to truth, that there remains to the world,

much

and that

will see

to learn of his relation

not to be learned by

any addition or subtraction or other comparison of

known

sallies of

quantities, but

the

spirit,

and by entire humility. are far

more excellent

He will

fruitful

that a

by untaught self-recovery,

perceive that there

qualities in the student than

preciseness and infallibility

arrived at

by a continual

;

that a guess

often

than an indisputable affirmation, and

dream may

let

us deeper into the secret of

nature than a hundred concerted experiments.

PROSPECTS. For the problems

to be solved are precisely those

which the physiologist and the naturalist omit to It is not so pertinent to

state.

man

know

the individuals of the animal kingdom, as

know whence and whereto

is this

When

diverse to one form. scape,

it is

the order

know why

less to

I behold a rich land-

of the strata, than to

thought of multitude

details,

lost

I cannot greatly honor

tranquil sense of unity.

minuteness in

and

most

to reduce the

purpose to recite correctly

and superposition all

tyrannizing unity

ia his constitution, which evermore separates classiQes things, endeavoring

all

it is

long

hint to explain the relation

there

between things and

thoughts; no ray upon the metaphysics of

con-

show the

rela-

ehology, of botany, of the arts, to

tion of the forms of flowers, shells, animals, architecture, to the

mind, and build science upon ideas.

In a cabinet of natural history, we become sensible of

a certain occult recognition and sympathy

regard to the most unwieldly and eccentric

forms of beast,

who

fish,

and

insect.

has been confined, in his

own

The American eoimtry, to the

sight of buildings designed after foreign models,

surprised on entering at

Rome, by the

imitations also,

chetype.

York Minster

or St. Peter's

feeling that these structures are

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Nor has

faint copies of

invisible ar-

science sufficient humanity, so.

PROSPECTS.

long as the naturalist overlooks that wonderful

man and

congruity which subsists between

world

most

;

which he

is lord,

not because he

subtile inhabitant, but because

and heartj^and

the

is its

the

head

finds something of himself in every

great and small thing, in every mountain stratum, in every

new law

of color, fact of astronomy, or at-

mospheric influence which observation or analysis lays open.

A perception

the muse

George Herbert, the beautifid. psalroist

of this mystery inspires

The poem on Man.

of the seventeenth century.

are part of his "

Man is

little

all

following lines

symmetry,

Full of proportions, one limb to another,

And

to all the

world besides.

Each part may call the farthest, brother For head with foot hath private amity.

And

both with moons and

;

tides.

" Nothing hath got so far

But man hath caught and kept

as his prey

His eyes dismount the highest star

He is in

little all

;

the sphere.

Herbs gladly cure our

flesh,

because that they

Find their acquaintance there.

"For us, the winds do blow. The earth doth rest, heaven move, and fountains Nothing we see, but means our good,

As our

delight, or as our treasure;

flow;

PROSPECTS. The whole

Or "

either our cupboard of food,

cabinet of pleasure.

The

have us to bed:

stars

Night draws the curtain; which the sun withdraws.

Music and

light attend our head.

All things

unto our flesh are kind,

In their descent and being; to our mind.

In their ascent and cause. " More servants wait on man Than he '11 take notice of. In every path. He treads down that which doth befriend him When sickness makes him pale and wan.

mighty love

Man

one world, and hath

Another to attend him."

The perception

of this class of truths

attraction which draws is lost

men

sight of ia attention to the means.

of this half -sight of science, of Plato, that " poetry

than history." the

makes the

to science, but the

mind

accept the sentence

comes nearer to

Every surmise and

entitled to

end

In view

vital truth

vaticination of

a certain respect, and we

learn to prefer imperfect theories,

and sentences

which contain glimpses of truth, to digested

sys-

tems which have no one valuable suggestion.

wise writer wiU feel that the ends of study and composition are best answered

by announcing undis-

covered regions of thought, and so communicating,

through hope, new activity to the torpid

spirit.

PROSPECTS.

I shall therefore conclude this essay with some traditions of

sang to

;

in the world,

may be

man and

nature, which a certain poet

and which,

as they have always been

and perhaps reappear

to every bard,

both history and prophecy.

The foundations of man are not spirit. But the element of spirit

it,

therefore, the longest series of events, the old-

est chronologies are

of the universal

young and

man, from

whom

is eternity.

recent.

the

viduals proceed, centuries are points, is

in matter, but

In the

cycle

known

indi-

and

all history

but the epoch of one degradation. '

distrust

with nature.

it,

turns.

and deny inwardly our sympathy

We own and disown our relation to We are like Nebuchadnezzar, de-

throned, bereft of reason, and eating grass like an ox.

But who can

set limits to the

remedial force of

spirit ? '

A man is a god in ruins. When men

cent, life shall

are inno-

be longer, and shall pass into the im-

mortal as gently as we awake from dreams. the world would be insane and rabid,

Now,

these dis-

organizations should last for hundreds of years. is

kept in check by death and infancy.

Infancy

the perpetual Messiah, which comes into the arms of fallen men,

and pleads with them

to return to

paradise. '

Man

the dwarf of himself.

Once he was

per-

;

PROSPECTS. meated and dissolved by

spirit.

sprang the sun and moon

from woman the moon.

;

nature

filled

Out from him

with his overflowing currents.

from man the sun,

The laws

of his mind, the

periods of his actions extemized themselves into

day and

night, into the year

and the

But,

seasons.

having made for himself this huge sheU, his waters retired

fits

once far

he no longer

fills

him, but

it fitted

him,

sees that the structure

Say, rather,

colossally.

him from own work. and woman the

corresponds to

adores timidly his

the follower of the stm,

follower of the moon. his slumber,

him

now

and on high.

Now is man

fits

the veins and veinlets

shrunk to a drop.

stiU

;

Yet sometimes he

and wonders

at himself

and

starts in

his house,

and muses strangely at the resemblance betwixt him

and

it.

mount, is

perceives that

if still

his

law

he have elemental power,

still

his

para-

word

sterling yet in nature, it is not conscious power,

it is

not inferior but superior to his wiU.

stinct.'

At fbrce.

Thus

present,

Orphic poet sang.

man

applies to nature but half his

works on the world with his understand-

ing alone.

ny-wisdom

It is in-

;

lives in it

and masters

and he that works most

by a penit is

but a

half-man, and whilst his arms are strong and his digestion good, his selfish savage.

mind

imbruted, and he

His relation to nature, his power

PROSPECTS.

76 over

it,

nure

;

through the understandiag, as by mar

the economic use of

the mariner's needle ture

;

steam, coal,

the repairs of the

and the surgeon. power as ries

;

wind, water, and

fire,

chemical agricul-

human body by

This

the dentist

such a resumption of

a banished king should buy his territo-

inch by inch, instead of vaulting at once into his

Meantime, in the thick darkness, there are

throne.

not wanting gleams of a better

examples of the action of entire force,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with reason as

Such examples

ing.

light,

man upon

as in religious

;

occasional

well as understand-

are, the traditions of miracles

in the earliest antiquity of all nations

of Jesus Christ

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

nature with his

;

the history

the achievements of a principle,

and

political revolutions,

abolition of the slave-trade

;

and

in the

the miracles of enthu-

siasm, as those reported of Swedenborg, Hohenlohe,

many obscure and yet contested now arranged under the name of Animal

and the Shakers facts,

Magnetism the

;

wisdom

;

prayer

;

eloquence

of children.

;

self-healing

power which

and

These are examples

Reason's momentary grasp of the sceptre ertions of a

;

the ex-

exists not in time or space,

but an instantaneous in-streaming causing power.

The of

difference between the actual

man is

and the

ideal force

happily figured by the schoolmen, in say-

ing, that the

knowledge of man

an evening knowl-

edge, vespertina cognitio, but that of

morning knowledge, matutina

cognitio.

God

PROSPECTS.

The problem of restoring to the world original and eternal beauty is solved by the redemption of the soul. The ruin or the blank that we see when

look at nature,

in our

own

The

eye.

axis of

vision is not coincident with the axis of things, 10

they appear not transparent but opaque.

reason

and

why

the world lacks unity, and

in heaps, is because

himself. fies all

lies

broken

disunited with

cannot be a naturalist until he

the demands of the

demand

man spirit.

and

The

Love

satis-

much

as perception.

Indeed, neither can be

perfect without the other.

In the uttermost mean-

its

ing of the words, thought is

thought.

life,

Deep

the marriage

nocent

calls is

devout,

not celebrated.

men who worship God

and devotion But in actual

unto deep.

There are

in-

after the tradition of

their fathers, but their sense of

extended to the use of aU their

duty has not yet faculties.

And

there are patient naturalists, but they freeze their subject under the wintry light of the understanding.

Is not prayer also

of the soul into the

a study of truth,

unfound

infinite?

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

sally

No man

ever prayed heartily without learning something.

But when a

faithful thinker, resolute

to detach

every object from personal relations and see

the light of thought, shall, at the same time, kindle science with the fire of the holiest affections, then will

God go

forth

anew

into the creation.

PROSPECTS.

mind is prepared for invariable mark The study, to search for objects. of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. It will not need,

"What

a day

when

What

the

a year

What

smn-

mer ? What is woman ? What is a child? What is sleep ? To our blindness, these things seem unaffecting. We make fables to hide the baldness of the fact and conform it, as we say, to the higher law of the mind. But when the fact is seen under the light of an idea, the gaudy fable fades

shrivels.

behold the real higher law.

wise, therefore, a fact is true poetry,

woman and

You

also are a

their social

known

of these things

superficial,

enon has

its

man.

and

Learn that none

to you.

but that each phenom-

roots in the faculties

intellect,

nature brings

be solved by your hands.

and

affections of

in the concrete to

were a wise inquiry

for the closet, to compare, point cially at

Man

Whilst the abstract question occupies

the mind.

your

the

and the most

poverty, labor, sleep,

life,

fear, fortune, are is

and

These wonders are brought

beautiful of fables.

our own door.

remarkable

crises in life,

point, espe-

our daily history

with the rise and progress of ideas in the mind.

So eyes.

shall

It shall

intellect,

we come

What

world with new

answer the endless inquiry of the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; What is

to look at the

truth ? and of the affections,

good ? by yielding

itself passive to the

PROSPECTS. Then

educated WiU. poet said ; alters,

Nature

come

shall

Spirit

fluid.

The immobility

it.

what

to pass

not fixed but

moulds, makes

or brute-

ness of nature" is the absence of spirit; to pure spirit

E very

spirit builds itself

fluid,

volatile,

house a world and beyond

Know

obedient.

a house and beyond

its

world a Jieaven.

its

For you

then that the world exists for you.

What we are, that only can we see. All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and can do. Adam called is

his

the

phenomenon

perfect.

house, heaven and earth

house,

trade

;

Kome

you perhaps

;

Csesar called his

a cobbler's

a hundred acres of ploughed land

scholar's garret.

Yet

point your dominion

without fine names. world.

;

call yours,

fast as

line for

Build therefore your own

you conform your

are temporary

influx of the spirit.

appearances,

swine,

pests, mad-houses, prisons,

sordor and

the

life to its

great

A correspondent revolution in things

win attend the disagreeable

for

as great as theirs, though

pure idea in your mind, that will unfold proportions.

or a

;

Hue and point

and

shall

wiU

snakes,

enemies, vanish; they

be no more seen.

filths of nature,

and the wind exhale.

fast

spiders,

The up

the sun shall dry

As when

the

summer comes

from the south the snow-banks melt and the face of the earth

becomes green before

it,

so shall the

PROSPECTS.

80 advancing

spirit create its

and carry with

which enchants

warm hearts,

ornaments along

the beauty

;

shall

it visits

its

path,

and the song

draw beautiful

faces,

wise discourse, and heroic acts, around

its

way, until evil

man

no more

The kingdom

seen.

over nature, which cometh not with obser-

vation,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

dream

dominion such as now

God,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he

der than the blind

beyond

shall enter without

man

stored to perfect sight.'

feels

who

his

more won-

gradually

re-

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR. AN ORATION DELIVEEED BEFORE THE PHI BETA KAPPA SOOIETT, AT CAMBRIDGE, AUGUST

81, 1837.

THE AMEEICAN SCHOLAE.

Me. Peesident and Gentlemen, I

GEEET you on the reconunencement

erary year.

Om-

anniversary

for

games

do not meet

of strength or skill, for the recitation of

and

histories,

tragedies,'

Greeks

for parliaments of love

;

the Troubadours

odes,

ancient

the

and poesy,

nor for the advancement of

;

sci-

and

ence, like our contemporaries in the British

European

lit-

one of hope, and,

perhaps, not enough of labor.

of our

Thus

capitals.

far,

our holiday has been

simply a friendly sign of the survival of the love of letters

amongst a p^ple too busy to give

As such

any more.

it is

indestructible instinct.

ready come when thing else tinent

;

when

to letters

precious as the sign of an

Perhaps the time

al-~^

ought to be, and wUl be, some-

the sluggard intellect of this con-

win look from under

its

iron lids and

fill

the

postponed expectation of the world with something better than the exertions of mechanical

day of dependence,

oui'

skill.

Oiu'_

long apprenticeship to the

â&#x20AC;˘learning of other lands, draws to a close.

The

mil-

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

around us are rushing into

lions that

always be fed on

life,

cannot

the sere remains of foreign har-

Events, actions arise, that must be sung,

vests.

that will sing themselves.

Who

can doubt that

poetry will revive and lead in a new age, as the star in the constellation

Harp, which now flames in oui

zenith, astronomers announce, shall one

pole-star for a

thousand years

day be the

hope I accept the topic which not only

this

usage but the nature of our association seem to

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the Americaij Scholae. Year by year we come up hither to read one more chapter of his biography. Let us inquire what light new days and events have thrown on his character and his hopes. prescribe to this day,

It is

one of those fables which out of an imknown

antiquity convey an unlooked-for wisdom, that the gods, in the beginning, divided

Man

into

he might be more helpful to himself

hand was divided its

;

men, that

just as the

into fingers, the better to answer

end.

The

old fable covers a doctrine ever

sublime; that there

men

particular ulty find

One Man,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

new and

present to

all

only partially, or through one fac-

and that you must take the whole society to the whole man. Man is not a farmer, or a

;

professor, or priest,

and

an engineer, but he

scholar,

all.

Man

and statesman, and producer,

;

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR. and

In the divided or

soldier.

social state these

functions are parcelled out to individuals, each of

whom

aims to do his stint of the joint work, whilst

each other performs

The

his.

fable implies that

the individual, to possess himself, must sometimes

own

return from his

labor to embrace

all

the other

But, unfortunately, this original unit,

laborers.

this fountain of power, has

been so distributed to

multitudes, has been so minutely subdivided and

peddled out, that

spilled into drops,

it is

The

not be gathered.

and can-

state of society is

one in

which the members have suffered amputation from

many walking mon-

the trunk, and strut about so sters,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

good

a neck, a stomach, an

finger,

el-

bow, but never a man.

Man many

thus metamorphosed into a thing, into

things.

The

planter,

who

Man

sent out"

seldom cheered by

into the field to gather food,

any idea of the true dignity

of his ministry.

sees his bushel

and sinks

and

his cart,

into the farmer, instead of

The tradesman

farm.

worth to his work, but his craft,

Man

on the

scarcely ever gives an ideal is

and the soul

becomes a form

priest

and nothing beyond,

;

the mechanic a machine

ridden by the routine of

subject to dollars.

The

the attorney a statute-book ;

the sailor a rope of the

ship.

this distribution of functions

the scholar

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

In the right state_hg_i?

the delegated intellect.

Mgm^_TMnkmg.

In the degenerate

thinker, or

when

state,

become a mere

the victim of society, he tends to

worse, the parrot of other men's

still

thinking.

In with

all

Man

view of him, as

this

ory of his

Thinking, the the-

Him

office is contained.

her placid,

the past instructs

indeed every

;

man

Nature

all

him the future

all

things

And, finally,

behoof ?

the true scholar the only true master ?

Let us see him in his

him

reference

the

be-

too often, the

life,

mankind and

scholar errs with lege. i

not

But the

old oracle said, " All things have two handles

ware of the wrong one."

him

;

Is not

invites.

a student, and do not

exist for the student's

solicits

her monitory pictures

forfeits his privi-

school,

main

and consider

influences

re-

ceives.

The

first

in time

of the influences

Every day, the sun her

and the

;

in importance

that of nature.

and, after sunset, Night and ;

ever the grass

Every day, men and women, conversing,

grows.

beholding and beholden.

men whom settle its

him

Ever the winds blow

stars.

first

upon the mind

this spectacle

The

value in his mind.

There

scholar

most engages.

What

never a beginning, there

he of

all

must

nature to is

never

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

an end, to the inexplicable continuity of this web of

God, but always circular power returning into Therein

self.

resembles his

own

spirit,

beginning, whose ending, he never can find,

Far too

boundless.

entire, so

shine, system

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in the mass

ference,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

as her splendors

on system shooting

ward, downward, without

it-

whose

like rays, up-

centre, without circum-

and in the

Nature

particle.

hastens to render account of herself to the mind. Classification begias.

thing is individual, stands

how

finds

nature

to join

mind every By and by, it in them one

the young

itself.

two things and see

then three, then three thousand

;

tyrannized over by

its

;

and

own unifying instinct,

so,

goes

on tying things together, diminishing anomalies, discovering roots running under ground whereby

contrary and remote things cohere and flower out

from one stem.

It presently learns that since the

dawn

of history there has been a constant accumu-

lation

and classifying of

fication

facts.

But what

is classi-

but the perceiving that these objects are

not chaotic, and are not foreign, but have a law

which

also a

law of the human mind

The

as-

tronomer discovers that geometry, a pure abstraction of the

human mind,

etary motion. intelligible

ence

The chemist

the measure of planfinds proportions

method throughout matter

;

and

and sci-

nothing but the finding of analogy, iden-

;

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

88 tity, sits

The ambitious

the most remote parts.

ill

down

before each refractory fact

;

other reduces all strange constitutions, ers, to their class

ever to animate

and

ing

of day,

relation, is

under the bend-

;

one

leaf

and one

that root?

And

Is not that the soul of his soul?

A thought too bold;

a dream too wild.

this spiritual light shall

sophy that now

and

is, is

Yet when

have revealed the law of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; when

natures,

worship the soul,

pro-

flower

sympathy, stirring in every vein.

more earthly

for-

insight.

suggested that he and

ceed from one root

what

to him, to this school-boy

dome

aU new pow-

and goes on

the last fibre of organization, the

outskirts of nature,

Thus

their law,

soul

one after an-

he has learned

to see that the natural philo-

only the

gropings of

first

its

gigantic hand, he shall look forward to an ever ex-

panding knowledge as to a becoming creator.

shall see that nature is the opposite of the soul,

answering to is print.

Its

part for part.

beauty

One

seal

the beauty of his

Its laws are the laws of his

and one

own mind.

Nature

then becomes to him the measure of his attainments.

much And,

So much of nature as he of his

ignorant

own mind does he not

in fine, the ancient precept, "

of, so

yet possess.

Know

thyself,"

and the modern precept, " Study nature," become at last one maxim.

;

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR. The next

II.

the scholar

great influence into the spirit of

the

mind

—

of the Past,

form, whether of literature, of that

Books are the best type of

inscribed.

— learn the

amount

— by

more conveniently,

in whatever

art, of institutions,

the influence of the past, and perhaps at the truth,

shall get

of this influence

considering their value

alone.

The theory the

first

of books

brooded thereon

bim to

gave

;

own mind, and

his

life; it

him

endures,

now

;

came It

flies,

cisely in proportion to it

scholar of

new arrangement again.

issued, so

him

into

came

and

now

business fact

;

now,

can go.

inspires.

the depth of

high does

truth.

was dead

came

went out from him

It can stand,

quick thought.

which

went out from him

short-lived actions

immortal thoughts.

now

the

uttered

went from him poetry. is

The

noble.

age received into him the world around

it it

Pre-

mind from

soar, so

long does

sing.

Or, I might say, cess

had gone,

depends on how far the pro-

of transmuting life into truth.

proportion to the completeness of the distUlation,

wiU the purity and imperishableness of the proBut none is qidte perfect. As no airpump can by any means make a perfect vacuum, so

duct be.

so neither can any artist entirely exclude the con-

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

from

ventional, the local, the perishable

his book,

or write a book of pui'e thought, that shall be as efficient, in all respects, to

a remote posterity, as to

Each

contemporaries, or rather to the second age. age,

found, must write

its

own books;

rather, each generation for the next

The books

an older period will not

succeeding.

fit this.

The

Yet hence arises a grave mischief.

sacred-

ness which attaches to the act of creation, the act of thought,

chanting was the chant

wise spirit perfect

;

man

The writer was a

henceforward

it is

poet

henceforth just

settled the

and

book

as love of the hero corrupts into worship

of his statue.

the guide

mind

be a divine

divine also.

The

transferred to the record. felt to

Instantly the book becomes noxious

a tyrant.

The

sluggish and perverted

of the multitude, slow to

open to the

incur-

sions of Reason, having once so opened, having

once received this book, stands upon

an outcry on

it.

Man

if it is

Books are written on Thinking; by

wrong, who

set

own men grow up in from

disparaged.

their

men

it,

and makes

Colleges are buUfc

thinkers, not by

of talent, that

is,

who

start

out from accepted dogpias, not sight of principles.

Meek young

libraries, believing it their

duty

accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which

Bacon, have given; forgetful that Cicero, Locke,

and Bacon were only young men in they wi'ote these books.

libraries

when

;

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

Man

Hence, instead of

Thinking, we have the

Hence the book - learned

bookworm.

value books, as such

human

the

who

class,

not as related to nature and

;

constitution, but as

making a

Third Estate with the world and the

sort of

Hence

soul.

the restorers of readings, the emendators, the bib-

aU degrees. Books are the best "f tliings^^ell used

liomaniacs of

among the wo is

What

rst.

are for nothing but tojnspire. see a

book than

clean out of

;

They

attraction

orbit, and made a satellite inThe one thing in the world, of

every

this

although in almost

The

unborn.

its

This every

all

man men

man

and

as yet

soul active sees absolute truth

utters truth, or creates.

en-

contains within him, obstructed,

and

this action it is genius

not the privilege of here and there a favorite, but the sound estate of every man. is

progressive.

The book,

of art, the institution of

past utterance of genius.

let us

hold by

this.

its

essence

the coUege, the school

any kind, stop with some This

good, say they,

They pin me down. They But genius looks

look backward and not forward.

forward

the eyes of

not in his hindhead;

man are set man hopes

in his forehead, :

What ^

I had better never

be warped by

value, is the active soul. to

effect ?

my own

stead of a system.

titled

abused,

the right use ?

means go to

the one end which all

;

genius creates.

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

Whatever

talents

may

the pure efflux of the Deity

and smoke there may

man

be, if tte is

create not,

not his

;

— cinders There

be, but not yet flame.

are creative manners, there are creative actions,

and creative words manners, actions, words, that is, indicative of no custom or authority, but spring;

own

ing spontaneous from the mind's

and

the other part, instead of being

from another mind

let it receive it

were in torrents of

tude, inquest,

and

vice is done.

Genius

emy

sense of good

fair.

its truth,

and a

seer,

though

without periods of

self-recovery, is

own

soli-

fatal disser-

always sufficiently the en-

The literature of The English drahave Shakspearized now for two hun-

of genius

over-influence.

every nation bears matic poets

light,

its

witness.

dred years.

Undoubtedly there it

a right

be sternly subordinated.

way

Man

not be subdued by his instruments,

When

the scholar's idle times. directly, the

hour

other men's

when must,

draw

of reading, so

Thinking must ^i

^ooks

arfi_fQr

he can read God

too precious to be wasted in

transcripts of their

readings.

But

the intervals of darkness come, as come they

— when their

the sun

shining,

—

hid and the stars with-

repair to

the lamps

which were kindled by their ray, to guide our to the East again,

where the dawn

is.

steps

We hear,

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR. that

we may

The Arabian proverb

speak.

says, "

looking on a fig tree, becometh fruitful."

fig tree,

remarkable, the character of the pleasure

They impress us one nature vreote and the

derive from the best books.

with the conviction that

same

reads.

read the verses of one of the

great English poets, of Chaucer, of Marvell, of

Dryden, with the most ure, I

mean, which

modem

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with a

joy,

in great part

pleas-

caused by

the abstraction of all time from their verses. There is

some awe mixed with the joy

when

this poet,

who

lived in

of our surprise,

some past world, two

or three hundred years ago, says that which close to

my own

nigh thought and

soul, that said.

But

which I

had

also

lies

well-

for the evidence thence

afforded to the philosophical doctrine of the identity of all

minds,

we should suppose some

preestab-

lished

harmony, some foresight of souls that were

to be,

and some preparation of

stores for their fu-

ture wants, like the fact observed in insects,

up food before death never

for the

who

young grub they

lay

shall

see.

I would not be hurried by any love of system, by

any exaggeration of Book.

all

instincts,

to underrate the

know, that as the human body can

be nourished on any food, though grass

and the broth

of shoes, so the

can be fed by any knowledge.

were boiled

human mind

And

great and

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

men have

heroic

existed

who had ahnost no

information than by the printed page.

would say that

only

needs a strong head to bear that

One must be an

diet.

other

the proverb says, "

inventor to read well. that would bring

home

the

wealth of the Indies, must carry out the wealth of

There

the Indies."

as creative writing.

then creative reading asjgBU

When

mind

the

labor and invention, the page

braced by

of whatever book

we read becomes luminous with manifold Every sentence of our author see,

what

doubly

significant,

sense

then

as broad as the world.

allusion.

and the

always true, that as the seer's hour

vision is short

months, so

and rare among heavy days and record, perchance, the least part

is its

The discerning

of his volume.

will read, in his

— only — aU

Plato or Shakspeare, only that least part, the authentic utterances of the oracle rest

rejects,

were

never so

many

;

the

times Plato's

and Shakspeare' s.

course there

pensable, to a wise

a portion of reading quite indis-

man.

History q,nd exact science

h,&jauatJeaxa_bj_laborioji« reading.

manner, have their indispensable elements.

Colleges, in like"^ office,

—

to teach

But they can only highly serve us whe%

they aim not to

drill,

but to create

;

when

they

gather from far every ray of various genius to their hospitable halls, and

by the concentrated

fires, set

THE AMERICAN SCBOLAR.

Thought and

the hearts of their youth on flame.

knowledge are natures in which apparatus and pre-

Gowns and pecuniary

tension avail nothing. dations,

though of towns of gold, can never counterForget this,

vail the least sentence or syllable of wit.

and our American lic

foun-

colleges will recede in their pub-

importance, whilst they grow richer every year.

III.

There goes in the world a notion that the

scholar should be a recluse, a valetudinarian, unfit for

The so-caUed " practical men

knife for an axe.

sneer at speculative men, as late or see, they could

said that the clergy,

versally than

day,

— as

any handiwork or public labor as a pen-

— are

if,

because they specu-

do nothing.

— who

any other

spontaneous conversation

I have heard

are always,

class,

addressed as

uni-

the scholars of their

women that the rough, of men they do not hear, ;

but only a mincing and diluted speech. often virtually disfranchised

advocates for their celibacy. of the studious classes,

it is

;

They

are

and indeed there are

far as this

not just and wise.

true

Ac-

tion is withJheuSctolar-«HfeoidiEatejJbuiJ±J£^esse^^ tial.

Without

not yet man.

"Without

Whilst the

thought can never ripen into truth.

world hangs before the eye as a cloud of beauty, we cannot even see

its

beauty.

Inaction

cowardice,

but there can be no scholar without the heroic

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

The preamble

mind.

through which conscious,

passes from the unconscious to the

(Only

life,

The world,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

and whose

this

which unlock

of the soul, or other me,

are the keys

attractions

Its

thoughts

and make me acquainted

I grasp the hands of those next me, and

tumult.

place in the ring to suffer and to work,

taught by an instinct that so shall the

be Tocal with speech. pate

are

I run eagerly into this resounding

with myself.

take

mjin.h i\n T_Vnnyrj gg

not.

shadow

wide around.

lies

f;rt

we know whose words

Instantly

I havejiateebl

loaded with

action.

of thought, the transition

fear

its

;

I pierce

I dispose of

expanding

experience, so

life.

its

abyss

dissi-

;

within the circuit of

So much only of

much

dumb

order

life as

know

of the wilderness have I

vanquished and planted, or so far have I extended

my being, my dominion.

I do not see

how any man

can afford, for the sake of his nerves and his nap, to spare

pearls

any action in which he can partake.

and rubies

to his discourse.

lamity, exasperation, want, are instructors in

quence and_ wisdo m.

The

true

is j

I)rudgfi]g:,_caelo-

scuokr grudges

every opportunity of action past by, ag a 'Joss of

the

raw material out of which the

moulds her splendid products. too,

this

by which experience

intellect

strange process

converted into

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR. thought, as a mulberry leaf

converted into satin.

The manufacture goes forward at all hours. The actions and events of our childhood and youth are now matters of calmest observation. They lie like fair pictures in the air. Not so with our recent actions, with the business which we now have in hand. On this we are quite unable to speculate. Our affections as yet circulate through it. We no more feel or Imow it than we feel the feet, or the hand, or the brain of our body. The new deed is

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

yet a part of

life,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; remains

in our unconscious

hour to

detaches

become a thought

raised, transfigured

;

from the

however base

its

life like

of the mind.

a ripe

fruit,

Instantly

it is

the corruptible has put on in-

Henceforth

corruption.

immersed

In some contemplative

life.

itself

for a time

origin

it is

an object of beauty,

and neighborhood.

Ob-

serve too the impossibility of antedating this act.

its

grub

state, it

a dull grub.

cannot

fly, it

cannot shine,

But suddenly, without

it is

observation,

the selfsame thing unfurls beautiful wings, and

an angel of wisdom.

in our private history,

which

later, lose its adhesive, inert

there no fact, no event, shall not, sooner or

form, and astonish us

by soaring from our body into the empyrean. Craand infancy, school and playground, the fear of boys, and dogs, and ferules, the love of little maids and berries, and many another fact that once filled dle

;

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

the whole sky, are gone already

;

friend and rela-

and party, town and country, nation and world, must also soar and sing.

tive, profession

who has put

course, he

fit

actions has the richest return of wisdom.

forth his total strength

will not shut myself out of this globe of action,

and

transplant an oak into a flower-pot, there to hunger

and pine faculty,

nor trust the revenue of some single

;

and exhaust one vein of thought, much

like those Savoyards,

who, getting their livelihood

by carving shepherds, shepherdesses, and smoking Dutchmen, for

Europe, went out one day to the

all

mountain to find

stock,

had whittled up the

and discovered that they

last of their pine-trees.

Au-

we have, in numbers, who have written out and who, moved by a commendable pru-

thors

their vein,

dence, sail for Greece or Palestine, follow the trap-

per into the prairie, or ramble round Algiers,

replenish their merchantable stock. If

were only for a vocabulary, the scholar

would be covetous of ary.

action.

Life

our diction-

Years are well spent in country labors

;

town in the insight into trades and manufactures ;

in frank intercourse with in science

;

in art

;

many men and women

to the one

end of mastering

;

aU their facts a language by which to illustrate and embody our perceptions. I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived,

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

througli the poverty or the splendor of his speech.

Life

behind us as the quarry from whence we

lies

get tHes and copestones for the masonry of to-day.

This

the

way

grammar.

to learn

Colleges and

books only copy the language which the

field

and

the work-yard made.

But the

final value of action, like that of books,

and better than books, "^

That great principle shows

itself

breath

;

that

a resource.

of Undulation in nature, that

in the inspiring and expiring of the

in desire and satiety

in the ebb

;

and flow

day and night; in heat and cold;

of the sea; in

and, as yet more deeply ingrained in every atom

and every

fluid, is

— these

Polarity,

reflection," as

known "

fits

to us

The mind now his materials,

are

ary.

y> fit re-

has exhausted

the fancy no longer paints,

— he

Character

the function.

The stream

spirit.

and each

artist

and

the law

no longer apprehended and

books are a weariness,

Thinking

law of acts,

When the

when

when thoughts

now

thinks,

produces the other.

live.

— are

Newton caUed them,

of nature because they are the

source to

under the name of

of easy transmission

has always the re-

higher than

Living

intellect.

the function-

retreats to its source.

A great

soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think.

Does he lack organ or medium

his truth ?

can

still fall

back on

to impart

this elemen-

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

100 tal

a partial

This

them.

living

force of

Thinking

Let the beauty of

justice shine ia his affairs.

act.

of af-

Those " far from

cheer his lowly roof.

fection

a total

Let the grandeur

act.

fame," who dwell and act with him, wiQ feel the force of his constitution in the doings

day better than

of the

can be measured by any

Time

public and designed display. that the gphfilaj-Jngpa

and passages

Tinnr

shall teach

Herein he unfolds the sacred germ of his

What

screened from influence. ness

whom

gained in strength.

him

whipb thArnan HveS.

Not out

instiact,

in seemli-

is lost

of those on

systems of education have exhausted their

culture,

comes the helpful giant

to destroy the old

or to build the new, but out of unhandselled sav-

age nature

come

out of terrible Druids and Berserkers

;

at last Alfred

and Shakspeare.

I hear therefore with joy whatever to be said of the dignity

There

every citizen.

and necessity

beginning

of labor to

virtue yet in the hoe

and the

spade, for learned as well as for unlearned hands.

And

labor

invited to

everywhere welcome

work

;

always we are

only be this limitation observed,

man

shall not for the sake of wider activ-

ity sacrifice

any opinion to the popular judgments

that a

and modes of I have

action.

now spoken

the education

the

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR. scholar

by nature, by book s, and by

mains to say somewhat of his

They are such

may

all

become

be comprised in

the scholar

is to

plies the slow,

Man

It re-

Thinking.

They

self-trust.

The

office of

to guide

men

facts ami^st_afipeai;a«i^es.

and

unhonored, and unpaid task of ob-

Flamsteed. and

servation.

action .

duties.

cheer, to raise,

by showing them

101

glazed observatories,

may

Herschel,

their

catalogue the stars with

the praise of all men, and the results being splen-

did and useful, honor

But

is sure.

he, in his pri-

vate observatory, cataloguiag obscure and nebulous stars of the

human mind, which

thought of as such,

as yet

— watching days

sometimes for a few facts

;

correcting stUl his old

— must relinquish display and immediate

records

;

fame.

In the long period of

his preparation he

must betray often an ignorance and popular

arts,

shiftlessness in

incurring the disdain of the able

shoulder him aside.

speech;

no man has

and months

Long he must stammer

often forego

living

the

—

for the

Worse yet, he must accept, how often and solitude. For the ease and pleasure

who

in his

dead.

poverty

of tread-

ing the old road, accepting the fashions, the education, the religion of society,

making

he takes the cross of

his own, and, of course, the self-accusation,

the faint heart, the frequent imcertainty of time,

which are the

nettles

and

loss

and tangling vines in

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

102

way

the

and

of the self-relying

the state of virtual hostility in

self-directed

and

;

which he seems

stand to society, and especially to educated society.

For

all this loss

and

scorn,

what

offset ?

find consolation in exercising the highest functions

human

nature.

one who raises himself

from private considerations and breathes and lives -rmâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;pnhlin TCTul'jVlngJT^innaT thoughts. He is the world's eye.

the world's heart.

is to re-

the vulgar prosperity that retrogrades ever to

sist

barbarism, by preserving and communicating heroic sentiments, noble biographies, melodious verse, and

Whatsoever

the conclusions of history. the

human

hours, has uttered as of actions,

And

oracles

heart, in all emergencies, in all solemn

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; these

commentary on the world

its

he shall receive and impart.

whatsoever new verdict Reason from her

violable seat pronounces

events of to-day,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

this

in-

on the passing men and

shall hear

and promul-

gate.

These being his fimctions, all

becomes him to

feel

confidence in himself, and to defer never to the

popular cry.

The world

Some

He and

he only knows the world.

any moment

the merest appearance.

great decorum, some fetish of a government,

some ephemeral trade, or war, or man, is cried up by half mankind and cried down by the other half, as if all depended on this particular up or down,

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR. The odds are

that the whole question

103 not worth

the poorest thought which the scholar has lost in

Let him not quit his

listening to the controversy. belief that a

popgun

a popgun, though the ancient

and honorable

of the earth affirm

of doom.

silence, in steadiness, in severe ab-

straction, let

him hold by himself

to observation, patient of

own

proach, and bide his

he can

;

add observation

neglect, patient of

time,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; happy

For the

tell his

prompts him. to

instinct is sure, that

down

Success treads on every right

brother what he thinks.

that in going

re-

enough

day he has

satisfy himself alone that this

seen something truly. step.

to be the crack

then learns

into the secrets of his

own mind

he has'descendedriBlJoTKe^^e^iataLiiLall minds. Tie learns that he

who has mastered any law

vate thoughts,

in his pri-

master to that extent of

men

all

whose language he speaks, and of aU into whose language his own can be translated. utter solitude

The

and recording them,

found to have record ed that

which men in crowded

cities find true for

The-orator distrusts at

first

confessions, his

he addresses,

ment

them also.

the fitness of his frank

want of knowledge of the persons

until he finds that

of his hearers

because he

poet, in

remembering his spontaneous thoughts

fulfils

;

for

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that them

the comple-

they drink his words their

own nature

;

the

deeper he dives into his privatest, secretest pre-

TBE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

104

sentiment, to his wonder he finds this

people delight in

;

In seK-trust

The

true.

the better part of every

This ismy^music

feels,

the most

and universally

acceptable, most public,

man

this_is_my§elf

;

the virtues are comprehended,

all

— free and brave.

Free should the scholar be,

Free even to the definition of freedom, " withaut any ;

hindrance that does not arise out of his own consti-

Brave

tution."

for fear

;

his very function puts

It is a

amid dangerous

shame

by the diversion

;

HmTf^is

times, arise from the

women

presumption that like children and

a protected class

Fear always

behind him.

springs from ignorance. tranquillity,

a thmg which a scholar

his is

he seek a temporary peace

of his thoughts

from

politics or

vexed questions, hiding his head like an ostrich m. the flowering bushes, peeping into microscopes,

and turning rhymes, So

courage up.

spect

into its eye

its origin,

which

lies

as a

—

boy whistles let

;

keep

stiU.

him turn and

and search

its

;

his

;

face

it.

in-

he wOl then find its

nature,

see the whelping of this lion,

no great way back

himself a perfect comprehension of extent

the danger a danger

Manlike

the fear worse.

Let him look

— in

nature and

he wiU have made his hands meet on the

other side, and can henceforth defy superior.

pretension.

The world

What

his

who can

deafness,

and pass on

see through

what stone-blind

its

cus-

;

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR. what overgrown error you behold

torn,

sufferance,

lie,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; by your

Yes,

are the cowed,

it its

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we the

;

to be a

trustless.

isj

late into na-'

that the world was finished a long time ago.

the world was plastic

God,

mortal blow.

a mischievous notion that we are come ture

there only

See

sufferance.

and you have already dealt

105

so it is ever to so

bring to

it.

mament

man

fluid in the

ignorance and

adapt themselves to tion as a

and

much of

as they

liis

hands of

we They

attributes as

sin, it is flint.

may but ;

in propor-

has any thing in him divine, the

fir-

him and takes his signet and form. Not he is great who can alter matter, butf he who can alter my state of miud. They are theS kings of the world who give the color of their present thought to all nature and all art, and persuade

men by

flows before

the cheerful serenity of their carrying the

matter, that this thing which they do

the apple

which the ages have desired to pluck, now at

last

The great man makes the great thing. Wherever Macdonald sits, there is the head of the table. Linnaeus makes botany the most alluriag of studies, and wins it from the farmer and the herb-woman Davy, chemistry and Cuvier, fossils. The day is always his who works in it with serenity and great aims. The unstable estimates of men crowd to him whose mind ripe,

and inviting nations

to the harvest.

;

is filled

with a truth, as the heaped waves of the

Atlantic follow the moon.

;

THE AMEBXCAN SCHOLAR.

106

For be

this self-trust, the reason is deeper

fathomed, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; darker

than

I might not carry with

my own

dience in stating

to the doctrine that

man

the feeling of

an-

But I have

belief.

ready shown the ground of

than can

can be enlightened.

al-

hope, in adverting

I believe

one.

man has

been wronged; he has wronged himself. He has almost lost the light that can lead him back to his

Men are become of

prerogatives.

no account.

Men

men in the world of to-day, are bugs, are spawn, and are called " the mass " and " the herd."

in history,

In a century, in a millennium, one or two men that

^ %

is 'to

say,

one or two approximations to the

right state of every man.

All the rest behold

the hero or the poet their

own green and

being,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ripened

so that

may

mony,

full of

demands

;

yes,

and are content

of his

own nature, by who rejoices

the poor partisan, chief.

The poor and

their

immense moral

to be less,

What a testi-

attain to its full stature.

grandeur, full of pity,

borne to the

the poor clansman, in the glory of his

the low find some amends to capacity, for their acquies-

cence in a political and social inferiority. are content to be brushed like

flies

They

from the path

of a great person, so that justice shall be done

him

to that

common

crude

nature which

desire of all to see enlarged

and

sun themselves in the great man's

it is

the dearest

glorified.

light,

and

They feel

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR. to be their

own

man from

their

of a hero,

and

make

107

element.

They

cast the dignity of

downtrod

selves

upon the shoulders

will perish to

add one drop of blood

that great heart beat, those giant sinews

combat and conquer.

lives for us,

and we

live

in him.|/

Men

such as they are, very naturally seek

or power

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

;

money ^

and power because it is as good as money,

"spoils," so called,

"of

office."

And why

not? for they aspire to the highest, and their sleep-walking, they

dream

highest.

this, in

Wake

them and they shall quit the false good and leap to the true, and leave governments to clerks and desks. This revolution

be wrought by the gradual do-

mestication of the idea of Culture.

The main

en-

terprise of the world for splendor, for extent, is the

Here are the materials

upbuilding of a man. strewn along the ground.

man

shall

be a more

formidable to its

its

influence to

tory.

The

private life of one

illustrious

monarchy, more

enemy, more sweet and serene in

its

friend, than

any kingdom in

his-

For a man, rightly viewed, comprehendeth

the particular natures of

aU men.

Each

philoso-

pher, each bard, each actor has only done for me,

by a delegate, what one day I can do for myself. The books which once we valued more than the

apple of the eye, is

we have quite exhausted. What we have come up with the

that but saying that

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

108

mind took through we have been that man, and have passed on. First, one, then another, we drain all cisterns, and waxing greater by all these sup plies, we crave a better and more abundant food. point of view which the imiversal

the eyes of one scribe

;

The man has never lived that can feed us ever. The human mind cannot be enshrined in a person who shall set a barrier on any one side to this unIt is one central

bounded, unboundable empire. fire,

which, flaming now out of the lips of Etna, light-

now

ens the capes of Sicily, and

out of the throat

of Vesuvius, illuminates the towers and vineyards of Naples.

thousand aU.

It is stars.

one light which beams out of a

which animates

It is one soul

men.

But I have dwelt perhaps tediously upon straction of the Scholar.

this ab-

I ought not to delay

longer to add what I have to say of nearer reference to the time

and to

this country.

Historically, there is thought to

be a difference

in the ideas which predominate over successive epochs,

and there are data for marking the genius

of the Classic, of the Romantic, flective or Philosophical age.

and now of the Ee-

With

the views I

have intimated of the oneness or the identity of the

mind through

all individuals,

on these differences.

I do not

much

fact, I believe

each

dwell indi-

;;

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

The boy is a Greek

vidual passes througli all three.

the youth, romantic

;

109

I deny

the adult, reflective.

not however that a revolution in the leading idea

may be distinctly enough traced. Our age is bewailed as the age of Introversion. Must that needs be evil? We, it seems, are critical

;

are embarrassed with second thoughts

cannot enjoy any thing for hankering to

whereof the pleasure consists eyes

;

see with our feet

;

know

are lined with

the time

with Hamlet's unhappiness, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

infected

" Sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."

bad then ?

Sight

Would we be

pitied.

blind

the last thing to be

Do we

fear lest

should outsee nature and God, and drink truth

dry?

I look upon the discontent of the literary

class as

a mere announcement of the fact that they

find themselves not in the state of fathers,

and regret the coming

mind

of their

state as untried

;

a boy dreads the water before he has learned that

he can swim. sire to

be born

when the

If there in, is it

any period one would de-

not the age of Revolution

new stand side by_side_ ani^ admit of being compared when the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope when the old and the

;

historic glories of the old

can be compensated by

the rich possibilities of the

new era ?

This time,

;

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

110

a very good one,

like all times, is

what

do with

we but know

it.

I read witk some joy of the auspicious signs of the coming days, as they glimmer already through

poetry and

through philosophy and science,

art,

through church and

One

state.

these signs is the fact that the same

movement which

effected the elevation of

what was

assumed

called the lowest class in the state,

erature a very marked and as benign an

lit-

aspect.

Instead of the sublime and beautiful, the near, the low, the

common, was explored and

That

poetized.

which had been negligently trodden under foot by

who were

those

harnessing and provisioning them-

selves for long journeys into far countries,

denly found to be richer than

The

all

sud-

foreign parts.

literature of the poor, the feelings of the child,

the philosophy of the street, the

hold

life,

It is a sign,

stride.

when

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the extremities are

rents of

meaning

are the topics of the time.

warm

life

not ?â&#x20AC;&#x201D; of

made

of house-

It is a great

active,

new vigor when cur-

run into the hands and the

feet.

I ask not for the great, the remote, the romantic

what art,

doing in Italy or Arabia

or Proven9al minstrelsy

mon, I explore and

sit

;

what

I embrace the com-

at the feet of the familiar,

the low.

Give

may have

the antique and future worlds.

Greek

insight into to-day,

and you

What

THE AMERICAN SCSOLAR.

Ill

would we really know the meaning of ?

The meal

in the firkin

the street

;

the milk in the

pan

the news of the boat

;

the ballad in

;

the glance of the

the form and the gait of the

body

eye

;

the ultimate reason of these matters

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

show show me

;

the sublime presence of the highest spiritual cause lurking, as always

does lurk, in these suburbs

and extremities of nature

;

let

see every trifle

bristling with the polarity that ranges

on an eternal law

;

undulates and poets sing

;

by which

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and the world

light

lies

duU miscellany and lumber-room, but has

form and order zle,

instantly

and the shop, the plough, and

the ledger referred to the like cause

longer a

;

there is no

trifle,

there

no puz-

but one design imites and animates the far-

thest pinnacle

and the lowest trench.

This idea has inspired the genius of Goldsmith, Burns, Cowpes, and, in a newer time, of Goethe,

"Wordsworth, and Carlyle. differently followed

This idea they have

and with various

success.

contrast with their writing, the style of Pope, of

Johnson, of

This writing find that

Gibbon, looks is

blood-warm.

Man

and is

pedantic.

surprised to

and The near explains

things near are not less beautiful

wondrous than things remote. the far.

cold

The drop is a small ocean. A man is to aU nature. This perception of the worth

of the vulgar is fruitful in discoveries.

Goethe, in

;

TEE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

112

most modern of the modems,

this very thing the

has shown us, as none ever did, the genius of the ancients.

There

one

man

of genius

for this philosophy of

who has done much

whose literary value has

life,

never yet been rightly estimated ;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I m ean Ema

The most imaginative

uel Swedenborg.

of men,

yet writing with the precision of a mathematician,

he endeavored to engraft a purely philosophical Ethics on the popular Christianity of his time.

Such an attempt

course must have difficulty

But he saw and

which no genius coidd surmomit.

showed the connection between nature and the fections of the soul.

af-

pierced the emblematic

or spiritual character of the visible, audible, tangible world.

Especially did his shade-loving muse

hover over and interpret the lower parts of nature

he showed the mysterious bond that evil to the foul material forms,

allies

moral

and has given

epical parables a theory of insanity, of beasts, of

unclean and fearful things. .tVnother sign of

our times, also marked by an

analogous political movement, tance given to the single person.

tends to iusulate the individual,

the

new

impor-

Every thing

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

that

to surround him

with barriers of natural respect, so that each man shall feel the

man

world

is his,

and man shaU

treat with

as a sovereign state with a sovereign state,

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; tends

113 " I

to true union as well as greatness.

learned," said the melancholy Pestalozzi, " that no

man

in God's wide earth

help any other man."

bosom

The

alone.

either willing or able to

Help must come from the

scholar

that

man who must"

take up into himself all the ability of the time,

all

the contributions of the past, all the hopes of the

future.

must be an university of knowledges.

be one lesson more than another which

If there

should pierce his ear,

man

the

ture,

;

The world

it is.

in yourself

;

na/-

of sap

it is for you to dare for you to know all Mr. President and Gentlemen, this confi;

dence in the unsearched might of motives,

to the

all

prophecy, by

American Scholar.

man all

belongs,

American

preparation,

the air

The

spirit

freemanlislalready^suspeeted- to

be timid, imitative, tame.

make

Public and private ava-

we breathe

thick and

fat.

scholar is decent, indolent, complaisant.

ready the tragic consequence.

The mind

The

See

There

it-

no work for any but the decorous

and the complaisant. promise,

al-

of this

country, taught to aim at low objects, eats up on self.

have listened too

long to the courtly muses of Europe. of the

rice

nothing,

in yourself slumbers the whole of Rea-

;

it is

all.

all

the law of all

and you know not yet how a globule

ascends

son

is all

who begin

Young men

life

upon

of the fairest

ovir shores, inflated

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

114

by the mountain -winds, shined upon by all the stars of God, find the earth below not in unison with these,' but are hindered from action by the disgust which the principles on which business is managed

inspire,

and turn drudges, or

some of them

What

suicides.

die of disgust,

the remedy

and thousands

yoimg men

They did not as hopeful now crowding

to the barriers for the

career do not yet see, that

yet see,

the single

himself indomitably on his instincts, abide, the

Patience,

huge world

— patience

;

come round

will

the the

own

;

and

infinite life

plant

to him.

with the shades of

good and great for company perspective of your

man

and there

all the

for solace the ;

and

for

work

study and the communication of principles, making those instincts prevalent, the conver-

sion of the world. in the world, not to

oned one character ; which each

fruit

not the chief disgrace

be an unit

— not

man was

;

— not

to be reck-

to yield that peculiar

created to bear, but to

be reckoned in the gross, in the hundred, or the thousand, of the party, the section, to which we be-

long

;

and our opinion predicted geographically,

the north, or the south friends,

will

— please God,

Not

so,

brothers and

ours shall not be

so.

walk on our own feet; we wiH work with our

own hands; we

will

speak our ownjiiads.

study of letters shall be no longer a

name

The

for pityj

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR. for doubt, of

and for sensual indulgence.

man and

the love of

man

shall

The dread

be a wall of de-

fence and a wreath of joy around aU.

men

115

A nation of

will for the first time exist, because each be-

lieves himself inspired

also inspires all

men.

by the Divine Soul which

AN ADDRESS DELIVEEED BEFOEB THE SENIOR CLASS IN DIVINITY COlLEaB, CAMBRIDGE, SUNDAY EVENING, JULY 16, 1838.

;

ADDEESS.

In to

this refulgent

draw the breath

summer, of

buds burst, the meadow

The

air is

and sweet with the breath of the

new

Gilead, and the to the heart with

its

hay.

grass grows, the

and

spotted with fire

gold in the tiut of flowers.

has been a luxury

The

life.

fuU of

birds,

pine, the bahn-of-

Night brings no gloom

welcome shade.

Through the

transparent darkness the stars pour their almost

Man

spiritual rays.

under them seems a young

The cool night bathes the world as with a river, and prepares his eyes again for the crimson dawn. The mystery of nature was never displayed more happily. The child,

and

his

huge globe a

toy.

corn and the wine have been freely dealt to creatures,

and the never-broken

silence

all

with which

the old bounty goes forward has not yielded yet

one word of explanation.

One

constrained to

respect the perfection of this world in which our senses converse. tation of

How

wide

from every property

man

its fruitful soils

how

;

rich

;

what

invi-

gives to every faculty ;

in its navigable sea

ADDRESS.

120

in its monntains of metal

woods

of all

dients

traction

;

its

;

its forests

chemical ingre-

the powers and path of light, heat,

in.

;

and stone

in its animals

;

and

life,

men

heart of great

at-

well worth the pith and

and enjoy

to subdue

it.

The

planters, the mechanics, the inventors, the astrono-

mers, the builders of

cities,

and the

captains, his-

tory delights to honor.

But when the mind opens and reveals the laws which traverse the universe and make things what they are, then..shr4nliS-JJie_great_world at ongajnto

a mere

illustration

and

What

and fable

is ?

What

of this mind.

asks the

human

spirit

with a

but never to be quenched.

curiosity new-kindled,

Behold these outrunning laws, which our imperfect apprehension can see tend this not come

tions, so like, so unlike

A more appears to

man when

above him.

without bound is

;

forever.

entertain-

spirit ia all ages.

secret, sweet,

and overpowering beauty

his heart

and mind open

Then he

the sentiment of virtue.

what

I would

would admire

These works of thought have been the

ments of the human

that, but

infinite rela-

many, yet one.

;

I would know,

study,

way and

Behold these

full circle.

instructed ia

learns that his being

that to the good, to the perfect, he

born, low as he

now

lies in evil

That which he venerates

is still

his

and weakness. own, though he

ADDRESS. has not realized

it yet.

121

ought.

He knows

the

sense of that grand word, though his analysis fails to render account of

When

it.

in uinoceney or

when by intellectual

perception he attains to say,

" I love the Right

Truth

;

without forevermore.

;

use

;

— then

and God

Virtue, I

thine

save

may be

not virtuous, but vir-

the end of the creation answered,

well pleased.

The ^entiment

of virtue

a reverence and de-

light ia the presence of certain divine laws.

ceives that this

homely game

under what seem foolish tonish.

;

—

and

thee will I serve, day and night, in

great, in small, that I

tue ; "

beautiful within

The

of Hfe

It per-

play, covers,

details, principles that as-

child amidst his baubles is learning

the action of light, motion, gravity, muscular force

and in the game of human appetite,

man, and God,

;

life, love, fear, justice,

interact.

These laws

re-

They wiU not be written out on paper, or spoken by the tongue. They elude our persevering thought yet we read them hourly in each other's faces, in each other's actions, in our own remorse. The moral traits which are all globed into every virtuous act and thought, in speech we must sever, and describe or suggest fuse to be adequately stated.

;

—

by painful enumeration as this sentiment

many

particulars.

Yet,

the essence of all religion, let

guide your eye to the precise objects of the sen-

;

ADDRESS.

122

by an enumeration of some of those classes of facts in which this element is conspicuous. timent,

The sight

intuition of the

moral sentiment

They

These laws execute themselves. time, out of space,

Thus

and not subject

in the soul of

man

retributions are instant

a good deed

mean deed who puts off

man

ia-

the perfection of the laws of the soul.

there

and

a justice whose

entire,

instantly ennobled,

by the action

are out of

to circumstance.

He who

does

who

does

tie

.\ [

at heart just, then in so far is he

itself contracted.

impurity, thereby puts on purity

Jf-

God

the safety of God, the immortality of God, the

majesty of If a

man

God do

man

man with

justice.y

dissemble, deceive, he deceives himself,

and goes out

enter into that

of acquaintance with his

own

being.

in the view of absolute goodness, adores,

with total humility. step upward.

Every

step so

downward,

The man who renounces

himself,

comes to himself. See how this rapid intrinsic energy worketh everywhere, righting wrongs, correcting ances,

and bringing up

thoughts.

facts to a

Its operation in life,

though slow

senses, is at last as sure as in the soul.

man

made

to the

the Providence to himself, dispensing

good to his goodness, and is

appear-

harmony with

always known.

evil to his sin.

Character

Thefts never enrich ; alms never

ADDRESS. impoverish

The

least

murder mil speak out of stone

;

admixture of a

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

make

a favorable appearance,

and

walls.

for example, the

a good impres-

will instantly vi-

and

truth,

help you with

spirits

all

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

But speak the

tiate the effect.

ture

lie,

any attempt

taiut of vanity, sion,

123

all nar-

unexpected

Speak the truth, and all things alive or brute are vouchers, and the very roots of the grass underground there do seem to stir and move furtherance.

you

to bear

the

Law

See again the perfection of

witness.

becomes the law of

The

sociate. vile,

and

applies itself to the affections,

good,

the

affinity,

As we

society.

Thus

vile.

are, so

as-

seek the_goodj_the

affi nity,

of their

own

voli-

tion, souls proceed into heaven, into heU.

These facts have always suggested to

subKme creed

that the world

man

manifold power, but of one wUl, of one mind that one

mind

everywhere

wise.

Good

not absolute of lieat.

is :

All evil

Benevolence

volence as a

man

all

made Evil

positive.

it is

absolute

;

and what-

so,

and not

other-

merely privative,

which

the privation

much death

or nonentity.

like cold, is

and

everywhere balked and

because things are

baffled,

;

each ray of

active, in

the star, in each wavelet of the pool

ever opposes that will

the

not the product of

and

hath, so

real.

much

So much bene-

life

things proceed out of this same

hath he. spirit,

For

which

ADDRESS.

124 differently

named

love, justice,

temperance, in

its

different applications, just as the ocean receives

names on the several shores which it out of the same spirit,

different

AU things proceed

washes.

and

all

conspire with

things

seeks good ends, he

In so far as

of nature.

Whilst a man

it.

by the whole strength he roves from these ends,

strong

he bereaves himself of power, or auxiliaries;

his

being shrinks out of aU remote channels, he be-

comes

less

badness

and

less,

a mote, a point, until absolute

absolute death.

The perception of this law of laws awakens in mind a sentiment which we caU the religious sentiment, and which makes our highest happiness. Wonderful is its power to charm and to com-

the

mand.

a mountain

of the world.

and rosemary. lime, is

and the

made

science or power.

gives {

and

find

no end or unity

of the sentiment of virtue is

the assurance that

natures

all

nity,

do seem to break out into

This sentiment

on the

Law

and the worlds, time,

over

;

is it.

the beatitude of man.

divine It

and habitable, not by

safe

Thought may work cold and

transitive in things,

dawn

song of the stars

silent

the universe

the

embalmer

It is the

air.

myrrh and storax, and chlorine makes the sky and the hiUs sub-

It is

;

in-

but

heart,

sovereign

space, eter-

joy.

and

deifying.

makes him

illimitable.

ADDRESS. Through

it,

the soul

first

125

knows

itself.

the capital mistake of the infant man,

It corrects

who

seeks to

be great by following the great, and hopes to derive advantages

from

another,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; by

showing the

fountaia of aU good to be in himself, and that he, equally with every man, of Keason.

When

is an inlet into the deeps he says, " I ought " when love ;

warms him; when he chooses, warned from on high, the good and great deed; then, deep melodies wander through his soul from Supreme Wisdom. Then he can worship, and be enlarged by his

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

worship

;

for he can never go behind this senti-

ment.

In the sublimest

tude

never surmounted, love

This sentiment

and

lies at

successively creates

flights of the soul, rectiis

never outgrown.

the foundation of society,

aU forms

of worship.

The

Man

fallen

principle of veneration never dies out. into

superstition,

into sensuality,

never quite

without the visions of the moral sentiment.

manner,

all

In like

the expressions of this sentiment are

sacred and permanent iu proportion to their purity.

The

expressions of this sentiment affect us

The

than aU other compositions. oldest time,

which ejaculate

fresh and fragrant.

this

sentences of the piety, are

stiU

This thought dwelled always

deepest in the minds of

men

in the devout

and con-

templative East; not alone in Palestine, where

reached

its

purest expression, but in Egypt,

ADDRESS.

126

Europe has always

Persia, in India, in China.

owed

men found

these holy bards said, all sane

and

And

true.

agreeable

the unique impression of Jesus

upon mankind, whose name

not so

much

ploughed into the history of this world,

What

to oriental genius its divine impulses.

written is

proof

of the subtle virtue of this infusion.

Meantime, whilst the doors of the temple stand open, night and day, before every man, and the oracles of this truth cease never,

one stem condition; It cannot

tion.

speaking,

it is

namely;

this,

guarded by

it is

What

nounces, I must find true in me, or reject his word, or as his second,

accept nothing.

primary faith is

the flood so

false

and

and on

be he who he may, I can

the contrary, the absence of

the presence of degradation.

Let

the ebb.

this faith depart,

spake and the things

hurtful.

the state, art, letters, '

;

he an-

and the very words become

intui-

Truly

not instruction, but provocation, that

I can receive from another soul.

this

be received at second hand.

life.

Then The

made

falls the church,

doctrine of the

divine nature being forgotten, a sickness infects

and dwarfs the

now he

constitution.

all;

And

be-

an appendage, a nuisance.

cause the indwelling

be got rid

Once man was

of,

Supreme

the doctrine of

sion, that the divine

nature

Spirit cannot wholly it

suffers this perver-

attributed to one or

ADDRESS. two persons, and denied to with fury.

The

127

all the rest,

doctrine of inspiration

and denied is lost

the

;

base doctrine of the majority of voices usurps the place of the doctrine of the soul.

Miracles, proph-

ecy, poetry, the ideal life, the holy life, exist as an-

cient history merely; they are not in the belief,

nor in the aspiration of society gested,

seem

Life

ridiculous.

;

but,

when

sug-

comic or pitiful

as soon as the high ends of being fade out of sight,

and man becomes near-sighted, and can only

at-

tend to what addresses the senses.

These general views, which, whilst they are gennone wiU

eral,

contest, find

abundant

illustration in

the history of religion, and especially in the history

of the Christian church.

in that, you,

forth to teach.

young

friends,

have

truth contained are

now

setting

the Cultus, or established wor-

ship of the civilized world, interest for us.

that, all of us

The

had our birth and nurture.

its

has great historical

blessed words, which have

been the consolation of humanity, you need not that I should speak.

I shall endeavor to discharge

duty to you on this occasion, by pointing out

errors in its ad ministration, which daily appear

more gross from the point

now

of view

we have

just

taken.

Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets.

saw with open eye the mystery of the

ADDRESS.

128

Drawn by

soul. its

severe harmony, ravished with

its

beauty, he lived in

Alone in

it,

his being there.

he estimated the greatness of

all history

One man was

man.

and had

true to what

you and

saw that God incarnates himself in man, me. and evermore goes forth anew to take possession

lime emotion, acts

see

said,

or see thee,

;

and memory

Through me, God

Would you

when thou

But what a

think.'

in this jubilee of sub-

divine.

through me, speaks.

;

now

He am

World.

of his

see God,

also thinkest as I

distortion did his doctrine

suffer in the same, in the next, and

the following ages

There

no doctrine

of the

to be taught by the UnderThe understanding caught this high

Reason which will bear standing.

chant from the poet's age,

lips,

and

said, in the next

This was Jehovah come down out of heaven.

I will kin you,

idioms of

his

The

you say he was a man.'

language and

the figures of his

rhetoric have usurped the place of his truth

;

and

churches are not built on his principles, but on his tropes. etic

Christianity

became a Mythus,

as the po-

teaching of Greece and of Egypt, before.

spoke of miracles miracle,

and

all

;

for he felt that man's life was a

man

that

doth,

and he knew

that

this daily miracle shines as the character ascends.

But the word Miracle,

pronounced by Christian

churches, gives a false impression

;

Monster.

ADDRESS. It is not

129

one with the blowiag clover and the falling

rain.

He no

felt respect for

Moses and the prophets, hut

unfit tenderness at postponing their initial reve-

lations to the

hour and the

man

Having seen that the law

man.

he would not

ing,

suffer

ia us

Boldly, with hand, and heart, and it

Thus

was God.

in history 1.

the

first

ical

who has

is he,

now

that

is; to

command-

be commanded. life,

he declared

as I think, the only soul

appreciated the worth of man.

this point of

defect of historical Christianity.

Christianity has

fallen

appeaxsJouSj and- as is

view we become sensible of

into

Histori-

the error that

corrupts all attempts to communicate religion. it

the

Thus was he a true

eternal revelation in the heart.

has-appeared for. ages,

not the doctrine of the soul, but an exag-

geration of the personal, the positive, the ritual. It has

dwelt,

dwells, with noxious

tion about the

person of Jesus.

no persons.

It invites every

The

man

exaggerasoul

knows

expand

the full circle of the universe, and will have no

But by

preferences but those of spontaneous love. this eastern

monarchy of a

Christianity,

which

dolence and fear have buUt, the friend of

made the his name were once

injurer of is

man.

The manner

man

inis

in which

surrounded with expressions which

sallies of

admiration and love, but are

ADDRESS.

130

now

petrified into official titles, kills

sympathy and

aU generous

All who hear me, feel that

liking.

the language that describes Christ to Europe and

America

not the style of friendship and enthusi-

asm to a good and noble heart, but is appropriated paints a demigod, as the Orientals and formal,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

or the Greeks would describe Osiris or Apollo.

Accept the injurious impositions of our early instruction,

echetical

and even honesty and

denial were but splendid sins,

they did not wear

One would

the Christian name.

catself-

rather be

A pagan, suckled in a creed outworn,"

than to be defrauded of his manly right in coming into nature and finding not names and places, not land

and

professions, but even virtue

and truth

foreclosed

and monopolized.

You

shall not

the world ; you shall not dare

and

live after the infinite

own

company with the

and earth

reflect to

be a

shall not

Law

infinite

you

that

man

even.

in you, and

Beauty which heaven aU lovely forms but ;

you must subordinate your nature

to Christ's na-

ture ; you must accept our interpretations, and take his portrait as the vulgar

That

The sublime doctrine.

me,

draw

it.

always best which gives is

Obey

fortifies

me.

excited in thyself.

me by

to myself.

the great stoical

That which shows God

That which shows God out

of me,

;

ADDRESS.

131

makes me a wart and a wen.

There

my being.

necessary reason for

no longer a

Already the long

shadows of untimely oblivion creep over me, and I shall decease forever.

The

divine bards are the friends of

iateUect, of

virtue,

They admonish my mind are they had the like, and

strength.

that the gleams which €ash across

not mine, but God's

;

that

So I

were not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

Noble provocations go out from them,

love them.

inviting

and

serves us,

to resist evil

And

to Be.

and thus

miracles,

;

subdue the world

thus ^byjjisjbyoly thoughts, Jesus only.

To, aim to convert a

man

true

a profanation of the

conyersion5_a_truB Chrjgi^Js now,

made by fs

his did,

them

as.

always»_ to be .

the reception of beautiful sentiments.

true that a great

among

soul.

and rich

the simple, does so preponderate, that, as it

names the world.

to exist for him,

The world seems

so deeply of his sense as to see that only

they grow forevermore.

something

;

it is

by coming

God

in themselves, can

It is a

low benefit to give

a high benefit to enable

do somewhat of myself. all

and they have not yet drunk

again to themselves, or to

soul, like his, falling

The time

comiug when

menjwill see Jhatihe-gift.of-- G«d to the soul

not a vauntin^j_ overpowering, excluding sanctity,

but a sweet, natural goodness, a goodness like thine

ADDRESS.

132

and mine, and that and

tHne and mine

so invites

to be

to grow.

The

injustice of the vulgar tone of preaching

flagrant to Jesus than to the souls which

not less

profanes. his gospel

The preachers do not see that they make not glad, and shear him of the locks of

When

beauty and the attributes of heaven.

I see

a majestic Epaminondas, or Washington ; when I

among my contemporaries a true orator, an upwhen I vibrate to the poem I see beauty that is melody and fancy of a see

right judge, a dear friend

;

And

to be desired.

entire consent of

so lovely,

my human

and with yet more

being, sounds in

ear the severe music of the bards that have sung of the true life

God

Now

ages.

do not degrade the

and dialogues of Christ out of the

charm, by insulation and peculiarity.

and warm, part

as they befel, alive

and

of the landscape

limited

and

circle of this

Xiet

human

lie

life

of the cheerful day.

second defect of the traditionary and

way

of using the

quence of the Nature, that

first

Law

;

mind

this,

of laws

of Christ,

namely

;

soul, is

conse-

that AeJ\Ioral

whose revelations-

duce^ greataes^,"â&#x20AC;&#x201D; yea,' Txod himself,

open

them

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

intro-

into the

not explored as the fountain of the

tablished teaching in society.

Men

have come

es-

speak of the revelation as somewhat long ago given

and done,

God were

dead.

The

injury to

;

ADDRESS. faith throttles the preacher

133

and the goodliest of

;

becomes an uncertain and

institutions

inarticu-

late voice.

It is very certain that

it is

the effect of conversa-

tion with the beauty of the soul, to beget a desire

and need and

to impart to others the

If utterance

love.

like a

burden on the man.

sayer.

Somehow

publishes cil

Always the

dream

his

same knowledge

denied, the thought lies

with solemn joy

is :

told

seer

somehow he

;

sometimes with pen-

on canvas, sometimes with chisel on

stone, some-

times in towers and aisles of granite, his soul's

worship definite

sometimes in anthems of

builded;

music

;

in-

but clearest and most permanent,

in words.

The man enamored of this excellency becomes its The office is coeval with the world. But observe the condition, the spiritual limitation of the office. The spirit only can teach. Not any priest or poet.

profane man, not any sensual, not any liar^not any slave can teach, but only he can give,

only can create,

who

soul descends, through

and every man can open the

;

Courage, piety, love, wisdom, can teach

can teach.

and they

who has

^he man on whom the whom the soul speaks, alone

is.

shall bring

man who

his door to these angels,

him the

gift of tongues.

But

aims to speak as books enable, as syn-

ods use, as the fashion guides, and as interest com-

mands, babbles.

Let him hush.

;

ADDRESS.

134

this holy office

I wish you

selves.

and hope.

desire

you propose

may

feel

your

The_office

the

first ,in.tlie

It is of that reality that it cannot suffer

world.

And

the deduction of any falsehood. to say to

new

to devote youi> call in throbs of

it is

my duty

you that the need was never greater

From

revelation than now.

the views I have

already expressed, you will infer the sad conviction,

which I share, I

The

society.

this occasion,

its fall,

almost

of faith in

The Church

soul is not preached.

seems to totter to

inal

believe, with numbers, of the

and now almost death

universal decay

all life extinct.

any complaisance would be

crim-

which told you, whose hope and commission

to preach the faith of Christ, that the faith of

Christ

preached.

It is time that this ill-suppressed

thoughtful

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

this

of the

men

moaning

of the heart because

consolation, the

come alone out

and over the din

made

bereaved

it is

through the sleep of indolence, This great and

of routine.

per-

not discharged.

the expression of the moral sentiment

in application to the duties of

churches,

all

hope, the grandeur that

petual office of the preacher is

of the culture of the moral nature,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; shoidd be heard Preaching

murmur

against the famine of our churches

-life.

by how many prophets,

In how many tell

me,

sensible that he is an infinite Soul

;

man

that the

;

ADDRESS.

135

earth and heavens are passing into

drinking forever the soul of

now sounds

the persuasion, that

imparadises

my heart,

heaven ?

elder ages father

;

its

very melody

own origin Where shall I hear words such as in drew men to leave all and follow, and

so affirms its

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

and mother, house and land, wife and child ?

Where

shall I hear these august laws of

ing so pronounced as to fiU

The

sion ? its

ear,

my uttermost

nobled by the offer of

Ms mind that God ? Where

moral be-

and I

feel en-

and pas-

action

test of the true faith, certaialy, should

power to charm and command the

soul, as

the laws of nature control the activity of the hands,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

commanding that we find pleasure and honor The faith should blend with the light rising and of setting suns, with the flying cloud, so

in obeying.

the singing bird, and the breath of flowers.

now

But

the priest's Sabbath has lost the splendor of

it is unlovely we are glad when it is done we can make, we do make, even sitting in our

nature

;

pews, a far better, holier, sweeter, for ourselves.

Whenever

the pulpit

usurped by a formalist,

the worshipper defrauded and disconsolate.

then

shrink as soon as the prayers begin, which do

not uplift, but smite and offend us. to

wrap our cloaks about

us,

and

can, a solitude that hears not.

preacher

who

sorely tempted

We are fain

secure, as best

I once heard a to say I

would go

;

ADDRESS.

136 to cliurcli

no more.

Men

they are wont to go, else

temple in the afternoon.

go, thought I,

had no

snow-storm was

The snow-storm was

ing around us.

where

soul entered the

preacher merely spectral, and the eye

real,

the

felt the sad

and then out

contrast in looking at him,

fall-

of the

window behind him into the beautiful meteor of the snow. He had lived in vain. He had no one word intimating that he had laughed or wept, was married or in love, had been commended, or If he had ever lived and cheated, or chagrined. The capital acted, we were none the wiser for it. his profession, namely, to

secret of

had not learned.

into truth, he all his

man had ploughed and

This

talked and bought and sold

heart throbs

;

he smiles and

not a surmise, a hint, in

had ever lived

at aU.

of real history. this,

The

all

planted and

he had read books

;

he had eaten and drunken

life

experience had he yet imported into his doo-

trine.

convert

Not' one fact in

head

his

;

suffers

;

aches, his

yet was there

the discourse, that he

Not a

line did

he draw out

true preacher can be

that he deals out to the people his

passed_ through the fire of thought.

bad preacher, it could not be what age of the world he fell father or a child

a pauper

;

known life,

But

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

of the

told

from

whether he had a

;

his sermon

whether he was a freeholder or

whether he was a citizen or a country-

ADDRESS.

man

137

or any other fact of his biography.

;

seemed strange that the people should come to church.

seemed as

their houses were very un-

entertaining, that they should prefer this thoughtless clamor.

shows that there

moral sentiment, that can lend a

attraction in the

faint tint of light to dulness

name and

in its

place.

and ignorance coming

The good hearer

he has been touched sometimes

;

sure

sure there

be reached, and some word that can

somewhat

reach

When

it.

a commanding

listens to these vain words,

comforts himself by their relation to his remem-

brance of better hours, and so they clatter and echo unchallenged. I

ily, it is

not ignorant that when

we preach unworthThere

not always quite in vain.

some men, that draws supplies

ear, in

There

of very indifferent nutriment.

a good

to virtue out

poetic

truth concealed in all the common-places of prayer

and

of sermons,

may be

and though

wisely heard

;

pression that broke out in a

some stricken or jubilant

made

dogmas

remembered.

foolishly spoken, they

for each

some

moment

soul,

and

select ex-

of piety its

from

excellency

The prayers and even

of our church are like the zodiac of

the

Den-

derah and the astronomical monuments of the Hindoos,

the

whoUy

life

insulated

from anything now extant in

and business of the people.

They mark the

ADDRESS.

138

But this do. a cheek upon the mischief from the good

height to which the waters once rose. cUity

In a large portion of the community,

and devout.

the religious service gives rise to quite other thoughts

and emotions.

servant.

are struck with pity, rather, at the

swift retribution of

happy man I '

that

not give bread of cuses him.

need not chide the negligent Alas for the un-

his sloth.

called to stand in the pulpit, and

Everything that befalls,

life.

Would he

missions, foreign or domestic ? is

ac-

ask contributions for the Instantly his face

suffused with shame, to propose to his parish that

they should send

money a hundred

or a thousand

miles, to furnish such poor fare as they have at

home and would do

well to go the hundred or the

Would he

thousand miles to escape. to a godly

way

of living

fellow-creature to

come

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

Sabbath meetings, when

he and they aU know what

the poor uttermost

Will he

they can hope for therein ?

privately to the Lord's Supper ?

no heart warm formality of wit terror.

them

invite

dares not.

too plain than that he can face a

and energy and put the In the

this rite, the hollow, dry, creaking

street,

The

sees fear in the face, form,

man

invitation without

what has he

bold viUage blasphemer

ister.

urge people

can he ask a

to say to the

village blasphemer

and

gait of the min-

ADDRESS. Let me not

139

by any

taint the sincerity of this plea

oversight of the claims of good men.

honor the purity and

What

of the clergy.

life

know and

conscience of nranbers

strict

the public worship re-

owes to the scattered company of pious

tains, it

men, who minister here and there in the churches,

and who, sometimes accepting with too great

ten-

derness the tenet of the elders, have not accepted

from

others, but

from

their

impulses of virtue, and so

and awe,

own still

heart, the genuine

command our

much

the exceptions are not so

love

Moreover,

to the sanctity of character.

be found in a few

eminent preachers, as in the better hours, the truer inspirations of

every man. still

all,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; nay,

in the sincere

moments

But, with whatever exception,

of is

true that tradition characterizes the preaching

of this country

and not out usual,

;

<jf

and not

that

comes out of the memory,

the soul; that

aims at what

at jEhatJs^necessary

and eternal;

that thus historical Christianity destroys the power of preaching, by withdrawing ration of the moral nature of

lime

is,

from the explo-

man where

the sub-

;

where are the resources of astonishment and

What

to that

Law,

the joy of the whole earth, which alone can

make

power.

a cruel injustice

thought dear and rich

;

that

it is

Law

whose

fatal sure-

ness the astronomical orbits poorly emulate it is

travestied

and depreciated, that

it is

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

behooted

ADDRESS.

140

and behowled, and not a

The

ticulated.

reason,

loses its

And

for

munity

want

sick

trait,

not a word of

pulpit in losing sight of this

and gropes

after

it ar-

Law,

knows not what.

of this culture the soul of the com-

and

faithless.

wants nothing

much as a stem, high, stoical. Christian discipline, to make it know itself and the divinity that speaks through it. Now man is ashamed of himself he ;

skulks and sneaks through the world, to be tolerated, to be pitied,

and scarcely in a thousand years does

any man dare ter

him

be wise and good, and so draw

af-

the tears and blessings of his kind.

Certainly there have been periods when, from the inactivity of the intellect

faith

on certain truths, a greater

was possible in names and persons. The Puri-

tans in

England and America found

of the Catholic

Church and in the dogmas

from Kome, scope

for their austere piety

longings for civil freedom.

But

ing away, and none arises in

man

in the Christ

its

inherited

and

their creed

room.

their

is pass-

I think no

can go with his thoughts about him into one

of our churches, without feeling that what hold the

public worship had on

has lost

its

men

gone, or going,

grasp on the affection of the good and

the fear of the bad.

In the country, neighborhoods,

half parishes are signing

off,

to use the local term.

It is already beginning to indicate character and

religion to

withdraw from the religious meetings.

ADDRESS. I have heard a devout person,

141

who

prized the Sab-

On And

bath, say in bitterness of heart, "

Sundays,

seems wicked to go to church."

the motive

that holds the best there

What was

a waiting.

young and

rich,

old,

now only a hope and

once a mere circumstance,

men

that the best and the worst

poor and the

in the parish, the

the learned and the ignorant,

should meet one day as f eUows in

one house, in sign of an equal right 'm the soul, has

come

be a paramount motive for going thither.

My friends, in these two

errors, I think, I find the

causes of a decaying church and a wasting unbelief.

And what

greater calamity can faU upon' a nation

Then

than the loss of worship ? cay.

all things

go to de-

Genius leaves the temple to haunt the sen-

ate or th-e-mafket.

Science

Literature becomes frivolous.

The eye

is cold.

of youth

the hope of other worlds, and age

Society lives to

trifles,

not lighted by

without honor.

and when men die we do not

mention them.

And

now,

you

brothers,

remedy

by us?

The

already declared in the ground of our

We have contrasted the

complaint of the Church.

Church with the Soul.

In the soul then

demption be sought. Wherever a

comes revolution.

man

What

will ask.

these desponding days can be done

comes,

all

The

old

books are

for slaves.

legible,

let

the re-

man comes, there

When

aU things

trans-

ADDRESS.

142

parent, all religions are forms.

Man

the wonderworker.

acles.

All

men

bless

The

nay, only.

and

seen amid mir-

curse.

saith yea and

stationariness of religion

sumption that the age of inspiration the Bible

closed

acter of Jesus

is religious.

;

the

is past,

as-

that

the fear of degrading the char-

by representing him as a man

—

;

in-

dicate with sufficient clearness the falsehood of our theology.

the office of a true teacher to show y

God

us that spake.

not was

is,

;

The true Christianity,

in the infinitude of

man,

—

—a

men go

All

avoiding the

flocks to

God who

not see in secret

They think

Ah me

;

speaketh, not

faith like Christ's

is lost.

in the soiil of man, but only in

old and departed.

that

None

man

goeth alone.

this saint or that poet,

seeth in secret.

They

can-

they love to be blind in public.

and know

society wiser than their soul,

not that one soul, and their soul,

whole world.

believeth

some man or person

wiser than the

See how nations and races

the sea of time and leave no ripple to

flit

tell

by on where

they floated or sunk, and one good soul shall make the

name

of Moses, or of Zeno, or of Zoroaster, rev-

erend forever. to

None

assayeth the stem ambition

be the Self of the nation and of nature, but each

would be an easy secondary

some

Christian

scheme, or sectarian connection, or some eminent

man.

Once leave your own knowledge

God,

;

ADDRESS.

143

your own sentiment, and take secondary knowledge, as St. Paul's, or

George Fox's, or Swedenborg's, and

you get wide from God with every year this secondary form lasts, and if, as now, for centuries,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

men

the chasm yawns to that breadth, that scarcely be convinced there

can

them anything

divine.

Let me admonish you, to refuse the

first

all,

to go alone

good models, even those which are

sacred in the imagination' of "men, and dare to love

God

without mediator or

shall find

Friends enough you

veil.

who wiU hold up

leys

and Oberlins, Saiuts and Prophets.

God

for these

good men, but

dooms himself

him is

I also

am a man.'

to hopeless mediocrity.

was natural

and so

because

has a charm.

natural,

say,

The imitator The inven-

Imitatign_cannot go_above

tor did

WesThank

to your emulation

its

model.

to him,

In the imitator something

and he bereaves himself

of his

else

own

beauty, to come short of another man's.

Yourself a newborn bard of the Holy Ghost, cast

behind you aU conformity, and acquaint

at first

Look

hand with Deity.

to it first

and

men only,

that fashion, custom, authority, pleasure, and money, are nothing to you,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are not bandages over your â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but with the

that you cannot see, of the

live

immeasurable mind.

periodically

families

Not

eyes,

privilege

too anxious to visit

and each family in your

;

ADDRESS.

144 parish connection,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; when

you meet one

of these

men or women, be to them a divine man be to them thought and virtue let their timid aspirations let their trampled instincts find in you a friend ;

;

be genially tempted out in your atmosphere their doubts

wonder

know

feel that

For

shall gain

all

men

our penny-wisdom, for

all

men have

;

the

life

mark with few interviews we have

dreary years of routine and of

made our

our

;

that

they love

they love to be caught up into the

vision of principles.

memory

all

not to be

it is

sublime thoughts

value the few real hours of

to be heard

trusting

more confidence

soul-destroying slavery to habit,

doubted that aU

you have wondered.

your own heart, you other men.

let

;

that you have doubted, and their

souls wiser

that told us what

;

sin,

that spoke

we knew

be what we inly were.

;

light in the

had, in the

with souls that

what we thought

that gave us leave to

Discharge to

priestly office, and, present or absent,

you

men

the

shall be

followed with their love as by an angel.

And,

to this end, let us not aim. at

grees of merit. it,

Can we

common

de-

not leave, to such as love

the virtue that glitters for the commendation of

society,

and ourselves pierce the deep

absolute ability

and worth?

to the standard of

solitudes of

easily

goodness in society.

praise can be cheaply secured,

and almost

come up Society's all

men

ADDRESS.

145

are content with those easy merits

There are

away.

speakers, but influences for display

we caU

who

;

and

art

selfish,

fair

persons too great for fame,

;

whom

all

seems too nearly allied to

to the exaggeration of the finite

The orators, commanders encroach on us only as

and

the poets, the

but the instant

disdain eloquence artist,

show and by-ends, and

;

God will be to put them persons who are not actors, not with

effect of conversing

loss of the universal.

women

do, by our allowance and homage. them by preoccupation of mind, slight them,

Slight

as you can well afford to do,

by high and universal

aims, and they lastantly feel that you have right,

and that

it is

They also

in lower places that they

feel

your right

;

must

for they with

open to the influx of the all-knowing broad noon the

shine.

you are

Spirit,

which

little

shades

annihilates before

its

and gradations of

intelligence in the compositions

call wiser

and

wisest.

In such high commimion strokes of rectitude

let

us study the grand

a bold benevolence, an inde-

pendence of friends, so that not the unjust wishes of those

who

love us shall impair our freedom, but

shall resist for truth's sake the freest flow of

kindness,

vance

and appeal

and,

;

we know

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; what

sympathies far in ad-

the highest form in which

this beautiful element,

ity of merit, that VOL.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a certain

solid-

has nothing to do with opinion, 10

ADDRESS.

146

and manifestly

and which

that

taken for granted that the right, the

so essentially

brave, the generous step will be taken

nobody thinks

commending

The

not praise an angel.

act,

and

it,

You would

it.

pliment a coxcomb doing a good

virtue,

com-

but you would that

silence

accepts

merit as the most natural thing in the world,

Such souls, when they apare the Imperial Guard of Virtue, the per-

the highest applause. pear,

petual reserve, the dictators of fortune. courage, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they are

not praise their

One

needs

the heart and

soul of nature.

O my friends,

in us on which

we have not drawn.

there are resources

There are

men who rise refreshed on hearing a threat men to whom a crisis which intimidates and paralyzes ;

the majority,

dence and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; demanding not the

thrift,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; comes

graceful

Napoleon said

of Mas-

ness, the readiness of sacrifice,

and beloved as a sena, that he

to go against fall in

bride.

was not himself

him

faculties of pru-

but comprehension, immovable-

;

then,

until the battle began

when

the dead began to

ranks around him, awoke his powers

combination, and he put on terror and victory as

a robe.

in rugged crises, in unweariable

endurance, and in aims which put sympathy out of question, that the angel

heights that

we can

to without contrition

God

scarce

But these are remember and look up shown.

and shame.

that such things exist.

Let us thank

;

ADDRESS.

And now

let

us do what

we can

smouldering, nigh quenched

church that

evils of the

all

shall

to rekindle the

on the

fire

now

What

question returns,

147

The The

altar.

are manifest.

we do?

I confess,

attempts to project and establish a Cultus with

new

and forms, seem

rites

makes

and not we

us,

forms.

it,

faith

own

its

attempts to contrive a system are as

to the goddess of Reason,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the French

to-day, pasteboard

and

and ending to-morrow in madness and Rather

murder.

let

the breath of

by yqu_jhrough_the_

breathed

new

For

shall

become

plastic

their deformity is

evermore, soul.

and new.

The remedy

and second,

first, soul,

soul,

and

whole popedom of forms one

pulsation of virtue can uplift and vivify.

estimable

life

forms, already exist-

once you are alive, you shall find they

ing.

first

Faith

vain.

makes

new worship introduced by

cold as the

filigree,

and

Two

in-

advantages Christianity has given us

the Sabbath, the jubilee of the whole world,

whose

light

dawns welcome

alike iuto the closet of

the philosopher, into the garret of toU, and into prison-cells,

and everywhere suggests, even Let

to the

stand

forevermore, a temple, which

faith,

new

new love, new more than its first

splen-

vile,

the dignity of spiritual being.

sight shall restore to

dor to mankind. preaching,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

And jecffldly-Jtbg^institution speech of

man

men,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

of^

essen-

ADDRESS.

148 tially the

What

flexible of all organs, of all forms.

most

hinders that now, everywhere, in pulpits, in

lecture-rooms, in houses, in fields, wherever the invitation of

you

men

own

or your

occasions lead you,

speak the very truth, as

science teach

hearts of

it,

your

and

life

and cheer the waiting,

men with new hope and new

con-

fainting

revelation ?

I look for the hour when that supreme Beauty

which ravished the souls of those eastern men, and chiefly of those

Hebrews, and through their hps

spoke oracles to

all

also.

West

time, shall speak in the

The Hebrew and Greek

Scriptures contain

immortal sentences, that have been bread of

life to

But they have no epical integrity ; fragmentary are not shown in their order to

millions.

;

intellect.

new Teacher

I look for the

are

the

that shall

foUow so far those shining laws that he

shall see

them come

roimdiag

full

circle;

shall see their

complete grace; shall see the world to be the mir'ror of the soid

;

shall see the identity of the law of

gravitation with purity of heart;

that the Ought, that Duty, ence, with Beauty,

and

shall

one thing with

and with Joy.

show Sci-

LITERARY ETHICS. AN ORATION DELIVERED BEEOKB THE LIIEKAEY SOCIETIES OP DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE, JULY 24, 1838.

ORATION. Gentlemen, Tlie invitation to address you this day, with which

you have honored me, was a

made haste

to obey

it.

call so

with scholars a literary festival, as to

welcome that I

summons is so

to celebrate

alluring to

overcome the doubts I might well entertain of bring you any thought worthy of your

ability to

attention.

I have reached the middle age of

yet I believe I

meeting of scholars, than when, a boy, I the graduates of

man

;

not less glad or sanguine at the

my own

saw

first

College assembled at their

Neither years nor books have yet

anniversary.

availed to extirpate a prejudice then rooted in me, that a scholar

the favorite of

Heaven and

earth,

the excellency of his country, the happiest of merb

His duties lead him directly into the holy ground where other men's aspirations only point.

His

cesses are occasions of the purest joy to all

Eyes

he to the blind

failures, if

tages.

And

;

feet is

he to the lame.

suc-

men.

His

worthy, are inlets to higher advan-

because the scholar by every thought

he thinks extends his dominion into the general

LITERARY ETHICS.

152

mind

of men, he

not one, but many.

scholars in each country,

The

few-

whose genius I know,

seem to me not individuals, but

societies

;

and when

events occur of great import, I count over these rep-

whom they will affect, as And even if his results

resentatives of opinion, if

I were counting nations.

were incommunicable spirit

;

they abode in his own

the intellect hath somewhat so sacred in

its

possessions that the fact of his existence and pursuits

would be a happj' omen.

Meantime I know

that a very different estimate

of the scholar's profession prevails in this country,

and the importunity, with which

society presses

its

claim upon young men, tends to pervert the views of the youth in respect to the culture of the

intel-

Hence the historical failure, on which Europe and America have so freely commented. This

lect.

country has not

fulfilled

what seemed the

able expectation of mankind.

aU feudal

straps

Men

reason-

looked,

and bandages were snapped

der, that nature, too long the

should reimburse

itself

when asun-

mother of dwarfs,

by a brood

of Titans,

who

should laugh and leap in the continent, and run up the mountains of the nius and of love.

West with

But the mark

the errand of ge-

American merit

in painting, in sculpture, in poetry, in fiction, in

eloquence, seems to be a certain g^aco without

grandeur, and

itself

not

new but

derivative, a vase

LITERARY ETHICS. of fair outline,

may

fiH

but empty,

153

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which

with what wit and character

whoso

sees

in him, but

which does not, like the charged cloud, overflow with terrible beauty, and emit lightnings on aU beholders.

I will not lose myself in the desultory questions,

what are the the fact.

limitations,

It suffices

diffidence of

mankind

and what the causes of

to say, in general, that the

in the soiil has crept over the

American mind; that men

here, as elsewhere, are-

indisposed to innovation, and prefer any antiquity,

any usage, any livery productive of ease or

profit,

to the unproductive service of thought.

Yet

in every sane hour the service of thought ap-

pears reasonable, the despotism of the senses insane.

The

scholar

may

lose himself in schools, in words,

and become a pedant; but when he comprehends his duties he above

verses with things. of the world

;

aU men

realist,

For the scholar

and con-

the student

and of what worth the world

is,

and j

with what emphasis is

accosts the soul of

man, such

the worth, such the call of the scholar.

The want

of the times

and the propriety of

this

anniversary concur to draw attention to the doctrine of Literary Ethics.

What

I have to say on

that doctrine distributes itself under the topics of

the resources, the subject, and the discipline of the scholar.

LITERARY ETHICS.

154

The

resources of the scholar are proportioned

tÂť his confidence in the attributes of the Intellect.

The

resources of the scholar are co-extensive with

nature and truth, yet can never be his unless claimed

by him with an equal greatness of mind. not

know them

and impersonality of the

finitude

When

he has seen that

but that that as

it is

it is all

ordinate

it is

the soul which

can-

awe the

ia-

intellectual power.

not his, nor any man's,

made the world, and wiU know that he,

accessible to him, he

minister,

its

until he has beheld with

may

rightfully hold all things sub-

and answerable

it.

divine pilgrim

in nature, all things attend his steps.

stream the flying constellations

;

Over him

over him streams

Time, as they, scarcely divided into months and

years.

inhales the year as a vapor : its fragrant

mid-summer breath,

And

its

sparkling January heaven.

so pass into his mind, in bright transfigura-

tion, the

grand events of history, to take a new

order and scale from him.

the world

aad

;

the epochs and heroes of chronology are pictorial

images, in which his thoughts are told.

There

no event but sprung somewhere from the

man man

;

mind

What

and therefore there can interpret. is

none but the soul

Every presentiment

What

of the

executed somewhere in a gigantic

fact.

Eome, England, France,

St.

else are churches, literatures,

and

else is Greece,

Helena?

soul of

LITERARY ETHICS. The new man must

empires ?

and has not come

155

feel that

into the world

new,

mortgaged to the

opinions and usages of Europe, and Asia, and Egypt.

The sense

of spiritual independence

like the lovely

varnish of the dew, whereby the old, hard, peaked earth and

its

old self-same productions are

new every morning, and shining with

A false humility, a

of the artist's hand.

made

the last touch complais-

ance to reigning schools or to the wisdom of antiq-

must not defraud me of supreme possession

uity,

of this hour.

and

any person have less love of liberty guard his

less jealousy to

therefore dictate to you tors.

and the authors

come; we have been

silence

and now

;

— and not

Say

are thankful to you, as

to the pyramids, is

integrity,

and me ?

will

bom

we Hve,

;

shaU he

to such doc-

are to history,

but

now our day

out of the eternal

—

live for ourselves,

as the paU-bearers of a funeral, but as

the upholders and creators of our age

;

and neither

Greece nor Rome, nor the three Unities of Aristotle, nor the three Kings of Cologne, nor the College of the Sorbonne, nor the

Edinburgh Review

com-

mand any longer. Now that we are here we will put our own interpretation on things, and our own things for interpretation.

scale,

Please himself with com-

wiU,

— for me, things must take my

not I theirs.

I will say with the warKke

plaisance

king, "

who

God gave me

world shall not take

this

crown, and the whole

away."

LITERARY ETHICS.

156

The whole value

increase

of history, of biography,

can be and do.

by demonstrating what man

self-trust,

This

the moral of the Plu-

tarchs, the Cudworths, the Tennemanns, who give

us the story of

men

or of opinions.

of philosophy fortifies

faith,

Any

history

by showing me

that what high dogmas I had supposed were the rare

and

only

now

— were

late fruit of

possible to

a cumulative culture, and

some recent Kant or

Fichte,

the prompt improvisations of the earliest

inquirers; of Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Xeno-

In view of these students, the soul seems

phanes.

to whisper,

There

a better

teach

way than

this indo-

Leave me alone

lent learning of another.

;

do not

out of Leibnitz or Schelling, and I shall

aU out myself.' StiU more do we owe to biography the fortificar If you would know the power tion of our hope. of character, see how much you would impoverish find

you could take clean out of history the these lives of Milton, Shakspeare, and Plato, See you not how three, and cause them not to be. the world

much less myseK in

the power of

—

man would be ?

the poverty of

city of great

I console

thoughts, in the pau-

men, in the malignity and dulness

by falling back on these sublime recoland seeing what the prolific soul could

the nations, lections,

beget on actual nature;

— seeing that

Plato was,

LITERARY ETHICS. and Shakspeare, and Milton,

Then I dare

facts.

;

157

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; three

irrefragable

The

I also will essay to be.

humblest, the most hopeless, in view of these radi-

may now

ant facts, all

theorize

and hope.

the rueful abortions that squeak

spite of

and gibber in

the street, in spite of slumber and guilt, ui spite of the army, the bar-room, and the

will

thank

have been

jail,

these glorious manifestations of the

mind

;

and I

great brothers so truly for the ad-

monition of their being, as to endeavor also to be just too,

and brave, to aspire and

Plotinus

to speak.

and Spinoza, and the immortal bards

ophy,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that which they have written

of philos-

out with pa-

No more

will I dis-

miss, with haste, the visions which flash

and spar-

tient courage,

makes me

kle across

sky

;

bold.

but observe them, approach

them, domesticate them, brood on them, and draw out of the past, genuine

life

for the present hour.

feel the full value of these lives, as occasions

of hope

and provocation, you must come

that each admirable genius

diver in that sea whose floor of pearls

own.

The impoverishing philosophy

laid stress

on the

know

but a successful is

aU your

of ages has

and The youth,

distinctions of the individual,

not on the universal attributes of man.

intoxicated with his admiration of a hero, faUs to see that

only a projection of his

which he admires.

own

soul

In solitude, in a remote vil

LITERARY ETHICS.

158

youth

lage, the ardent

With

and mourns.

loiters

inflamed eye, in this sleeping wilderness, he has

read the story of the Emperor Charles the Fifth,

home

until his fancy has brought

to the surroimd-

ing woods, the faint roar of cannonades in the

Milanese, and marches in Germany.

What

ous concerning that man's day. the crowded orders, the

stem

— Behold

day here

his

curi-

fiUed it?

decisions, the for-

eign despatches, the Castilian etiquette

answers

The

soul

In the sighing of

these woods, in the quiet of these gray fields, in

the cool breeze that sings out of these northern

mountains

in the

;

ens you meet,

—

workmen, the boys, the maid-

ia the hopes of the morning, the

ennui of noon, and sauntering of the afternoon the disquieting comparisons

;

of vigor; in the great idea tion

;

— behold

yet the same

;

cumstance

Charles the Fifth's day

self-same

Pericles's day,

born of women. is

life,

and the puny ;

execu-

another,

behold Chatham's, Hampden's, Bay-

ard's, Alfred's, Scipio's, all that are

;

in the regrets at want

The

merely costume.

—

sweetness,

its

— day

difference of

its

of cir-

tasting the

greatness,

its

not

pain, which I so admire in other men.

foolishly ask of the inscrutable, obliterated past,

what

cannot

tell,

— the

that day, called Byron, or

the enveloping

Now

;

details of that nature, of

Burke

;

— but ask

the more quaintly you

of in-

LITERARY ETHICS.

159

spect its evanescent beauties, its wondeifiil details, its

causes,

spiritual

much

its

astounding whole,

— so

more you master the biography of this and every hero. Be lord of a day, through wisdom and justice, and you can put up the

hero, and that,

your history books.

intimation of these broad rights

in the sense of injury

man

sumption of any

thing that

lies in

familiar

to limit their possible pro-

our line of advance.

of letters that

tion, or build

and he deny

feel in the as-

We resent aU criticism which denies us any-

gress.

man

which men

to the

a steamboat, or be a grand-marshal,

seem

will not

Say

he cannot paint a Transfigura-

him any

to himself depreciated.

—

But

quality of literary or metaphysical

to him genius, plenum annulling the comparative, and he is content; but concede him talents never so rare, denying him genius, and he is aggrieved. What does this mean ? Why simply that the soul has assurance, by instincts and

power, and he

which

piqued.

Concede

a sort of Stoical

presentiments, of all power in the direction of

its

ray, as well as of the special skills it has already

acquired.

In order to a knowledge of the resources of the scholar,

we must not

complishments,

—

rest in the use of slender ac-

of faculties to

other feat with words

;

this

and that

but we must pay our vows

LITERARY ETHICS.

160

to the highest power,

and

pass, if

be possible, by

assiduous love and watching, into the visions of ab-

The gTowth

solute truth.

analogous in

Able men,

of the intellect is strictly It is larger reception.

all individuals.

in general, have

a respect for justice

;

good

dispositions,

because an able

man

and

noth-

ing else than a good, free, vascular organization, whereinto the universal spirit freely flows his

fund of

justice is not only vast,

so that

;

but

inftnite.

All men, in the abstract, are just and good ; what hinders them in the particular

predominance of the

The

general truth.

finite

momentary

the

and individual over

the

condition of our incarnation

in a private self seems to be a perpetual tendency to prefer the private law, to obey the private im-

law of universal

pulse, to the exclusion of the ing.

The hero

great

by means

nance of the universal nature his mouth,

to act,

and

and it

speaks

All

acts.

;

he has only

much

as his

;

to open

he has only to be forced

men

catch the word, or

embrace the deed, with the heart, for theirs as

it is verily

but in them this disease of

an excess of organization cheats them of equal sues.

Nothing

deed, to be simple

more simple than greatness is

be-

of the predomi-

to be great.

The

;

is-

in-

vision of ge-

nius comes by renouncing the too officious activity of the understanding,

and giving leave and amplest

privilege to the spontaneous sentiment.

Out

of this

LITERARY ETHICS. and genial

161

must

all that is alive

Men

grind and grind in the mill of a truism, and

in thought go.

nothing comes out but what was put

moment they

But the

in.

desert the tradition for a spontaneous

thought, then poetry, wit, hope, virtue, learning, an-

Observe the phenom-

ecdote, all flock to their aid.

enon of extempore debate.

mind but reserved habits,

man

of cultivated

sitting silent,

admires the

miracle of free, impassioned, picturesque speech,

man

in the

his

own emotion

in speech.

—a

addressing an assembly;

being and power

how

unlike his

rises

must

own

his lips,

also rise

state of

Presently

and overflows

and say somewhat.

Once embarked, once having overcome the novelty of the

he finds

situation,

natural to speak,

—

just

easy and

speak with thoughts, with

pictures, with rhythmical balance of sentences,

was to

to suffer spirit

sit silent

;

for

itself

through hipi

;

and

as easy as rest.

I pass

II.

—

needs not to do, but

he only adjusts himself to the free

;

which gladly utters

motion

now

to consider the task offered to

the

inteUeet of this

ined

its riches.

country. The view I have taken of the resoiu'ces of the scholar, presupposes a subject as broad. "We do not seem to have imag-

holds out. VOL.

"We have not heeded the invitation as good a scholar as English-

To be 11

LirSRARY ETHICS.

162

men

are, to

have as much learning as our contem-

book that

poraries, to have •written a

isfies us.

assume that

down

long ago adequately set inations in

poems

all

read, sat-

thought

already

— aU imag-

in books,

and what we say we only throw

;

in as confirmatory of this supposed complete body

of literature.

very shallow assumption.

rather all literature

has scarce chanted

yet to be written.

its

admonition of nature to

untried.

song.

first

us,

is,

The

Poetry

perpetual

The world

not believe the past.

Say

new,

I give you the

universe a virgin to-day.'

Latin and English poetry we were born and

— — yet the

bred in an oratorio of praises of nature, birds, mountains, sun, alist of this

and moon

;

flowers,

natur-

hour find that he knows nothing, by

their poems, of

any of these

fine things

;

all

that he has

conversed with the mere surface and show of them

;

and

of their essence, or of their history, know-

ing nothing.

nobody,

Further inquiry wiU discover that

— that not these chanting poets

themselves,

knew any thing siacere of these handsome natures they so commended that they contented themselves ;

with the passing chirp of a bird, that they saw one or two mornings, and listlessly looked at sunsets,

and repeated idly these few glimpses ia their song. But go into the forest, you shall find aU new and undescribed.

The honking

of the wild geese

fly-

LITERARY ETHICS. ing by night

the thin note of the companionable

;

titmouse in the winter day flies,

in autumn,

tering

down on

;

the fall of

of the wood-birds

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

;

poUen

its

the turpentine

indeed any vegeta-

any animation, any and aU, are

The man who stands on the

who rambles

air, pat-

the angry hiss

the pine throwing out

exuding from the tree ;

tempted.

swarms of

from combats high in the

the leaves like rain

for the benefit of the next century

tion,

163

alike imat-

seashore, or

in the woods, seems to be the first

man

that ever stood on the shore, or entered a grove, his sensations

and

his

Whilst I read the

world are so novel and strange.

new But when

poets, I think that nothing

can be said about morning and evening. I see the daybreak I

not reminded of these

Homeric, or Shakspearian, or Miltonic, or Chaucerian pictures.

No, but I

feel

perhaps the pain of

an alien world ; a world not yet subdued by the thought ; or I am cheered by the moist, warm, glittering, budding, melodious hour, that takes

the narrow walls of

soul,

and extends

and pulsation to the very horizon. ing, to cease for

Hiat

down

its life

morn-

a bright hour to be a prisoner of

and to become as large as nature. The noonday darkness of the Anaerican forest,

this sickly body,

the deep, echoing, aboriginal woods, where the

ing columns of the oak and

fir

liv-

tower up from the

tuias of the trees of the last miUenniimi; where,

;

LITERARY ETHICS.

164 from year intruder

;

to year, the eagle

and the crow

see no

the pines, bearded with savage moss, yet

touched with grace by the violets at their feet ; the broad, cold lowland which forms

its

coat of vapor

with the stUlness of subterranean crystallization

and where the

traveller,

amid the repulsive

plants

that are native in the swamp, thinks with pleasing terror of the distant

town

;

this beauty,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; haggard

and desert beauty, which the sun and the moon, the snow and the rain, repaint and vary, has never been recorded by

art, yet is

men

All

passenger.

not indifferent to any

They

are poets at heart.

serve nature for bread, but her loveliness overcomes

them sometimes. Niagara

;

What mean

these pilgrims to the

these journeys to

White

Hills

believe in the adaptations of utility, always

mountains, they the eye.

may

Men in the

believe in the adaptations of

Undoubtedly the changes

of geology have

a relation to the prosperous sproutiag of the corn

and peas in

kitchen garden

but not

;

there a relation of beauty between

soul

less is

and the

dim crags of Agioeoehook up there in the clouds. Every man, when this is told, hearkens with joy, and yet his own conversation with nature is still misung. Is

otherwise with civil history ?

lesson of our experience that every

long enough, would write

not the

man, were

life

history for himself?

LITERARY ETHICS.

What

165

do these vohimes of extracts and manu-

else

script commentaries, that every scholar writes, in-

dicate ?

Greek history is one thing

to you.

Since the birth of Niebuhr and Wolf, Ko-

man and Greek

;

another

History have been written anew.

we see that no but a new classifier

Since Carlyle wrote French History,

we have is safe, new and more philosophical arrangement. Thucydides, Livy, have only provided materials. The moment a man of genius pronounces the name of the Pelasgi, of Athens, of the Etrurian, of the Roman people, we see their state under a new aspect. As in poetry and history, so in the history that

shall give it

other departments.

Eeligion

yet to be settled on

letters,

its fast

foundations

man and pohtics, and philosophy, and art. As yet we have nothing but

in the breast of

and

There are few masters or aone.

;

tendency and indication. This starting, this warping of the best literary

works from the adamant of nature, servable in philosophy.

pretension at last.

it will,

Take

Let

to this complexion

for example the

looks as

it.

they had

strain,

must

come,

;

there

an op-

avows great pretensions.

all truth, in

taking aU the sys-

tems, and had nothing to do but to

and

especially ob-

French Eclecticism,

which Cousin esteems so conclusive tical illusion in

take what tone of

sift and wash and the gold and diamonds would re-

LITERARY ETHICS.

166

main

But, Truth

in the last colander.

such a

flj-

away, such a slyboots, so untransportable and unbarrelable a commodity, that

the light in,

you can

cry,

philosophy. tems,

bad to catch

Shut the shutters never so quick to keep

light. all

it is

it is all

Hold.

in vain

And

;

gone before

happens with our

Translate, collate, distil all the sys-

you nothing

steads

for truth will not be

;

But the

compelled in any mechanical manner.

first

observation you make, in the sincere act of your nature, though on the veriest

view of nature and of man, shall dissolve

Rome, data and food

theories in

trifle,

;

Stoicism, Eclecticism,

and what

for analysis,

Go and word he afloat

of your

little unit.

classifies all things:

Olympus.

The book

and no

less

;

but a wise

man wiU

anything final and transcending.

talk with a

man

utters, sets all

and

mere

only a fact, and no more inspiring

fact than another,

never esteem

lift

up Greece,

not, as

and dispose

profound thought, anywhere,

of philosophy

a menstruum,

shall take

world-containing system as a very

a profound thought will

may open a new

that, like

at large.

of genius,

and

the

first

your so-caUed knowledge

Then

Plato, Bacon, Kant, and

the Eclectic Cousin condescend instantly to be men

and mere

facts.

I by no means aim in these remarks to disparage the merit of these or of any existing compositions

;

LITERARY ETHICS.

any particular portraiture does not

I only say that

any manner exclude or

167

forestall

a new attempt,

when considered by the soul, warps and shrinks away. The inundation of the spirit sweeps away before it all our little architecture of wit and

but,

memory,

as straws

Works

rent.

and straw-huts before the

of the intelleet are great

comparison with each other ley

tor-

only by

Ivanhoe and Waver-

;

compared with Castle EadcHffe and the Por-

ter novels

Homer

;

but nothing

and Milton,

It carries

great,

— beside the

them away

as a flood.

— not

mighty

infinite

Reason.

They are

sleep.

Thus

is justice

done to each generation and

— wisdom teaching man that he shall

dividual,

hate, or fear, or

mimic

not bewail himself, as

his ancestors ; that if

in-

not

he shaU

the world was old, and

thought was spent, and he was born into the dotage of things

news

for,

;

itself

whereon

by virtue of the Deity, thought

re-

inexhaustibly every day, and the thing shines,

though

were dust and sand,

a new subject with countless relations.

III.

Having thus spoken

of the resources

and

the subject of the scholar, out of the same faith

proceeds also the rule of his ambition and

Let him know that the world possess

by putting himself

into

his,

life.

but he must

harmony with the

;

LITERARY ETHICS.

168

He must

constitution of things.

and charitable

borious, modest,

He must

be a

solitary, la-

soul.

embrace solitude as a bride.

mate must be measure enough,

ward enough for him. be solitary and silent ?

his

must

His own

have his glees and his glooms alone.

own

And why must

esti-

praise re-

the student

That he may become

ac-

quainted with his thoughts. If he pines in a lonely place, hankering for the crowd, for display, he

not in the lonely place

he does not see

;

he does not hear

But go cherish your

think.

ions

;

set

his heart is in the market

your habits to a

soul

;

he does not

expel compan-

life of solitude

;

then wiU

the faculties rise fair and full within, like forest field flowers you wiU have results, when you meet your fellow-men, you can communicate, and they wUl gladly receive. Do not

trees

and

;

which,

may

go into solitude only that you into public.

and

stale.

Such

presently come

solitude denies itself

The public can

;

public

get public experience,

but they wish the scholar to replace to them those private, sincere, divine experiences of

have been defrauded by dwelling in the is

which they street.

the noble, manlike, just thought, which

superiority

demanded

of you,

the

and not crowds

but

solitude confers this elevation.

Not

insulation of

place, but independence of spirit is essential, and it is

only as the garden, the cottage, the forest, and

LITERARY ETHICS.

169

the rock, are a sort of meclianical aids to this, that

Think

they are of value. friendly

and

have been hermits

cities

poets

stUl.

Pindar,

anywhere.

solitude

Dryden,

alone,

The

sacred.

and

lived in

Inspiration

may

the instant thought comes the crowd grows their eye fixes

their eye;

cant space

;

with

verities,

but

be,

dim

on the horizon, on va-

they forget the by-standers

personal relations

makes

Angelo,

Eaphael,

crowds

Stael, dwell in

are

all places

who have

they spurn

;

they deal with abstractions,

;

They are alone with the

with ideas.

mind.

course I would not have any superstition

about solitude. solitude

and

serve either.

shuns society, It

Let the youth study the uses of Let him use both, not The reason why an ingenious soul

of society.

end of finding

the

society.

repudiates the false, out of love of the true.

You

can very soon learn

you for one

while.

all

that society can teach

Its foolish routine,

indefi-

nite multiplication of balls, concerts, rides, theatres,

can teach you no more than a few can.

Then

cept the hint of shame, of spiritual emptiness

ac-

and

waste which true nature gives you, and retire and hide

;

come

lock the door falls

of nature. !;^

;

shut the shutters

the imprisoning rain,

Ee-eoUect the

prayer and praise.

;

then wel-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; dear hermitage

spirits.

Have

solitary

Digest and correct the past

LITERARY ETHICS.

170 experience

;

and blend

with the

new and

divine

life.

You wiU pardon rule

me, Gentlemen,

we have need

that

of a

I say I think

more rigorous

scholastic

such an asceticism, I mean, as only the har-

;

dihood and devotion of the scholar himself can enforce.

live in the

sun and on the surface,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

a thin, plausible, superficial existence, and talk of muse and prophet, of art and creation. But out of our shallow and frivolous way of life, how can greatness ever grow ? Come now, let us go and be dumb. Let us sit with our hands on our mouths, a long, austere, Pythagorean lustrum. in corners,

and do chores, and

suffer,

Let us

and drudge, with eyes and hearts that Lord.

Silence,

seclusion,

austerity,

live

and weep, love the

may

pierce

deep into the grandeur and secret of our being,

and

so diving, bring

up out

of secular darkness

the sublimities of the moral constitution.

mean

go blazing, a gaudy

How

butterfly, in fashion-

able or political saloons, the fool of society, the fool of notoriety, a topic for newspapers, a piece of

the street, and forfeiting the real prerogative of the russet coat, the privacy, and the true and

warm

heart of the citizen

Fatal to the lust

man

of display,

being.

of letters, fatal to

man,

the

the seeming that unmakes our

A mistake of

the main end to which they

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

LITERARY ETHICS. labor

incident to literary men, who, dealing with

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

the organ of language,

and

171

strongest,

subtlest,

longest-lived of man's creations,

and only

used as the weapon of thought and of

fitly

justice,

learn to enjoy the pride of playing with this splen-

did engine, but rob to

work with

of its ahnightiness

failing

Extricating themselves from the

it.

tasks of the world, the world revenges itself

exposing, at every turn, the folly of these incom-

scholar

will

feel

The

ghostly creatures.

pedantic, useless,

plete,

that the

romance, the

richest

and

noblest fiction that was ever woven, the heart soul of beauty, lies enclosed in self of

surpassing value,

How

terial for his creations.

human

also the richest shall

he know

crets of tenderness, of terror, of wiU,

How

It-

life.

mar

its se-

and of fate?

can he catch and keep the strain of upper

music that peals from

under the

it ?

Its laws are concealed

All action

details of daily action.

He must bear his share He must work with men in

experiment upon them. of the

common

load.

houses, and not with their

needs,

appetites,

talents,

names in books. affections,

His

accomplish-

ments, are keys that open to him the beautiful

museum

human

life.

Why should he read it as

and not know, in

an Arabian

tale,

bosom,

sweet and smart?

its

hatred, out of earnings,

his

Out

own beating of

love

and borrowings, and

and lend-

LITERARY ETHICS.

172

and losses out of sickness and pain out of wooing and worshipping; out of travelling, and ings,

;

and watching, and caring

voting,

and contempt, comes our

Let him not

beautifid laws.

him learn

heart.

;

out of disgrace

tuition in the serene and slur his lesson; let

Let him endeavor

exactly,

bravely, and cheerfully, to solve the problem of

that Hfe which

set before

Mm.

And

this

punctual action, and not by promises or dreams. Believing, as in God, in the presence and favor of the grandest influences, let favor,

and learn how to receive

him deserve that and use it, by fidel-

ity also to the lower observances.

This lesson

taught with emphasis in the

life of

the great actor of this age, and affords the explar nation of his success.

Bonaparte represents truly

a great recent revolution, which we in please God, shaU carry to

Not the

tion.

farthest consumma-

modern

least instructive passage in

history seems to to the

its

this country,

a trait of Napoleon exhibited

English when he became their prisoner.

coming on board the Bellerophon, a

English

soldiers

a military salute.

file

drawn up on deck gave him Napoleon observed that

manner

of handling their

French

exercise, and, putting

their

arms differed from the aside the

guns

those nearest him, walked up to a soldier, took his

gun, and

himself

went through the motion

;

LITERARY ETHICS. The English

the French mode.

173

and men

officers

looked on with astonishment, and inquired familiarity

such

was usual with the Emperor. man, with what-

this instance, as always, that

ever defects or vices, represented performance in

Feudalism and Orientalism

of pretension.

lieu

had long enough thought the

modem

majestic to do nothing

majesty consists in work.

longed to a class fast growing in the world, think that what a

man can do

be-

who

his greatest orna-

ment, and that he always consults his dignity by

doing a

it.

He was

not a believer in luck

Means

ends. havior.

to ends,

believed that the great captains of

combinations, and

justly

The vulgar is

call

by correct

comparing the relation

between means and consequences,

really

the motto of all his be-

antiqidty performed their exploits only

stacles.

he had

;

means

faith, like sight, in the application of

efforts

and ob-

good fortune that which

produced by the calculations of genius.

But Napoleon, thus

faithful to facts,

had

also this

crowning merit, that whilst he believed in number

and weight, and omitted no part of prudence, he believed also in the freedom and quite incalculable force of the soul.

man

of infinite caution, he

neglected never the least particular of preparation, of patient adaptation; yet nevertheless he

sublime confidence, as in his

all,

had a

in the sallies of

LITERARY ETHICS.

174

the courage, and the faith in his destiny, which, at

moment, repaired

the right

all losses,

and demol-

ished cavalry, infantry, king, and kaisar, as with

As they

irresistible thunderbolts.

say the bough

of the tree has the character of the leaf,

whole tree of the bough, Bonaparte's

so, it is

army partook

of the captain

for,

;

whUst

and the

curious to remark,

of this double strength strictly supplied in

appointments, and everything expected from

its

the valor

and

discipline of every platoon, in flank

centre, yet always

remained his

total trust in

the prodigious revolutions of fortune which his

reserved Imperial if,

in all else, the

lime.

cannon

no longer calculated the chance

ball.

uttermost,

Guard were capable of working, lost. Here he was sub-

day was

was

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and when

of the

faithful to tactics to the all tactics

had come

to an

end then he dilated and availed himself of the mighty saltations of the most formidable soldiers in nature.

Let the scholar appreciate gifts,

this combination of

which, applied to better purpose,

wisdom.

learn the things.

a revealer of things.

Let him

make

Let him

true first

not, too eager to grasp

some badge of reward, omit the work to be done. Let him know that though the success of the market

in the reward, true success

that, in the private obedience to his

the doing

mind

;

in the

;

LITERARY ETHICS.

175

sedulous inquiry, day after day, year after year, to

know how

the thing stands

;

the use

all

means, and most in the reverence of the humble

—

to hearken commerce and humble needs of life, what theysnj, and so, by mutual reaction of thought and life, to make thought solid, and life wise and ;

in a

contempt for the gabble of to-day's opinions

the secret of the world

unfold

skill truly to it

not, that,

senses

to be learned,

acquired.

and the

Or, rather,

this discipline, the usurpation of the

overcome, and the lower faculties of

are subdued to docility

man

through which as an un-

;

obstructed channel the soul

now

easily

and gladly

flows?

The good in his

scholar wiU not refuse to bear the yoke

youth ; to know,

cret of toil

he can, the uttermost

and endurance

acquainted with the

soil

;

tithe

is fed,

and serve the world

;

him

se-

own hands and

comfort and luxury.

and noble man never forgetting mortal divinities

his

by which he

the sweat that goes before

Let him pay his

make

who whisper

as a true

to worship the im-

to the poet

and make

the utterer of melodies that pierce the ear of

eternal time.

the driU

If he have this twofold goodness,

and the

then he

— then he has health

a whole, and not a fragment

perfection of his positions.

inspiration,

—

endowment wiU appear

;

and the

in his com-

Indeed, this twofold merit character-

LITERARY ETHICS.

176 izes ever the

man

The

productions of great masters.

of genius should occupy the whole space be-

God

mind and the multitude of uneducated men. He must draw from the infinite Reason, on one side and he must penetrate into

tween

or pure

;

the heart and sense of the crowd, on the other.

From

one, he

must draw his strength

real

;

Common

at the other.

;

to the other,

At one

the other, to the apparent.

Reason

;

The one yokes him

he must owe his aim.

Sense.

to the

pole

If he be

defective at either extreme of the scale, his philos-

ophy

will

too vague

seem low and

and

utilitarian, or it will

indefinite for the uses of

appear

life.

The student, as we all along insist, is great only by being passive to the superincumbent spirit. Let this faith

then dictate

bribes abound nevertheless. is

Snares and

all his action.

to mislead

him

His success has

;

let

him be

its perils too.

somewhat inconvenient and injurious

true

There

in his posi-

They whom his thoughts have entertained or inflamed, seek him before yet they have learned They seek him, the hard conditions of thought. that he may turn his lamp on the dark riddles

tion.

whose solution they think of their being.

They

inscribed on the walls

find that

a poor, igno-

rant man, in a white-seamed, rusty coat, like themselves, light,

nowise emitting a continuous stream of

but

now and then a

jet of

luminous thought

LITERARY ETHICS. followed by total darkness

make

not

;

177

moreover, that

lie

taper to carry whither he would, and explain

dark

this

can-

of kis infrequent illumination a portable

now The

now that. Sorrow ensues. damp the hope of ingenuous youth has lost a star out of his new

riddle,

scholar regrets to

boys

;

and the

Hence the temptation

flaming firmament.

scholar to mystify, to hear the question, to it,

make an answer Not the

of things.

to the

upon

sit

of words in lack of the oracle less let

him be

cold

and

true,

and wait in patience, knowing that truth can make Truth

even silence eloquent and memorable. be policy enough for him.

Let him

shall

open his

breast to all honest inquiry, and be an artist superior to tricks of art.

Show frankly

as a saint

do, your experience, methods, tools,

Welcome

all

would

and means.

comers to the freest use of the same.

And

out of fhis superior frankness and charity

you

shall

higher secrets

learn

of your

nature,

which gods will bend and aid you to communicate. If,

with a high trust, he can thus submit himself,

he will find that ample returns are poured into his

bosom and of

J)ut

loss.

unfit

what seemed hours of obstruction

Let him not grieve too much on account associates.

When

he sees how

much

thought he owes to the disagreeable antagonism of various persons

who

pass and cross him, he can

easily think that in a society of perfect VOL.

sympathy,

LITERARY ETHICS.

178

no record, would be. He will not much matter what he reads,

no word, no

act,

learn tliat

what he

Be a

does.

scholar,

and he

scholar's part of everything.

room the merchant

shall have the

in the countiag-

cares little whether the cargo

be hides or barilla; the transaction, a credit or a transfer of stocks his

;

commission comes gently out of

it it

letter

what ;

you

may, shall

get your lesson out of the hour, and the object,

whether

be a concentrated or a wasteful employ-

ment, even in readiag a duU book, or working

off

a stint of mechanical day-labor which your necessities or

the necessities of others impose.

Gentlemen, I have ventured to offer you these

upon the

considerations

scholar's place

because I thought that standing, as

now

do,

on the threshold of

and hope,

many

of you

this College, girt

ready to go and assume tasks, public and

and

private,

in your country, you would not be sorry to be ad-

monished of those primary duties of the whereof you will seldom hear from the

intellect

lips of your

new companions. You will hear every day the maxims of a low prudence. You will hear that the

first

uame. this

duty

is to

'What

Beauty

nevertheless

get land and money, place and this

Truth you seek? what

men will ask, with derision. If God have called any of you to explore

LITERARY ETHICS.

179

truth and beauty, be bold, be firm, be true.

you I

shall say,

sorry for

it,

good of the land and pectations go, untU a

then dies the

When

others do, so will I : I renounce,

man

early -visions let

;

I must eat the

learning and romantic ex-

more convenient season

in you

; '

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

then once more perish

;

the buds of art, and poetry, and science, as they

have died already in a thousand thousand men.

The hour and

tory,

tellect.

of that choice is the crisis of your his-

you hold yourseK

see that

fast

by the

sual world that creates the extreme need of priests of science

the intellect to

Bend

in-

domineering temper of the sen-

It is this

and

;

it is

the

the office and right of

make and not

take

its

estimate.

which is flowing to you from every object in nature, to be its tongue to the heart of man, and to show the besotted world

how

to the persuasion

passing fair

wisdom. Forewarned that the and the country is an excessive

vice of the times

pretension, let us seek the shade, in neglect.

your own.

content with a

and

find

wisdom

little light, so it

Explore, and explore.

neither

chided nor flattered out of your position of perpetual inquiry. other's

Neither dogmatize, nor accept an-

dogmatism.

Why

your right to traverse the

should you renounce

star-lit deserts of truth,

for the premature comforts of an acre, house,

barn? Truth also has

its roof,

and

and bed, and board.

LITERARY ETHICS.

180

necessary to the world, and mankind

Make yourself will give

you bread, and

as shall not take

not store of

away your property

it,

yet such

in all men's

possessions, in all men's affections, in art, in nature,

and in hope.

You an

will not fear that I

Ask

asceticism.

not,

enjoining too stem

Of what

ship that systematically retreats better for the philosopher

who

use

or.

a scholar-

Who

the

conceals his accom-

plishments, and hides his thoughts from the wait-

ing world

Hides his thoughts

and moon.

Thought

self to the universe.

were dumb, by

its

is all light,

Hide the sun

and publishes

It will speak,

own miraculous

it-

though you

organ.

It will

flow out of your actions, your manners, and your face.

It will bring

you friendships.

It will im-

pledge you to truth by the love and expectation of generous minds. ture which sincere

By virtue

of the laws of that Na-

one and perfect,

good that

shall yield every

in the soul to the scholar be'

loved of earth and heaven.

THE METHOD OP NATURE. AN ORATION DBLIVEBED BEFOKB THE SOCIETT OP THE ADBLPHI, IN WATBEVILUE COLLEOB, MAINE, AUGUST 11, 1841.

THE METHOD OF NATUEE.

Gentlemen, Let us exchange congratulations on the enjoyments and the promises of this literary anniversary. if it

The land we live in has no interest knew its want, as the fit consecration

Where

of reason and thought.

The

the people perish.

there

so dear, of days

vision,

scholars are the priests of

that thought which establishes the foundations of

the earth.

matter what

their special

work

or profession, they stand for the spiritual interest of the world,

and

it is

common

calamity

they

neglect their post in a covmtry where the material interest is so

predominant as

hear something too ery,

much

it is

commerce, and the useful

puny and a following,

fickle folk.

are

in America.

of the results of machinarts.

are a

Avarice, hesitation, and

The rapid wealth

our diseases.

which hundreds in the community acquire in trade, or

by the incessant expansions

and

arts,

vf one

enchants the eyes of

all

of our population

the rest

;

the luck

the hope of thousands, and the bribe acts

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

184

like the neigHborliood of

a gold mine to impoverisli

the farm, the school, the church, the house, and the

very body and feature of man. I do not wish to look with sour aspect at the

in-

dustrious manufacturing village, or the mart of

I love the music of the water-wheel;

commerce.

I value the railway

;

sight of a ship inspires

I feel the pride which the ;

I look on trade and every

mechanical craft as education criminate what of these

the spiritual act

of the

;

all

same a thousand

taken

let

There

works an act of invention, an

step, or short series of steps, is

But

also.

precious herein.

;

dis-

in each

intellectual

that act or step

mere

the rest

times.

And

repetition

I will not be

deceived into admiring the routine of handicrafts

and mechanics, how splendid soever the

result,

any

more than I admire the routine of the scholars or clerical class. That splendid results ensue from the labors of stupid men, their will,

the fruit of higher laws than

and the routine

result,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 1 would not have the laborer

sacrificed to

convenience and pride, nor to that of a great

class of

such as me.

better men.

Let there be worse cotton and

The weaver should not be bereaved

his superiority to his work,

the product or the skill as

not to be praised for

I would not have the laborer sacrificed to the

it.

and

his

knowledge

that

of no value, except so far

embodies his spiritual prerogatives.

If I see

;

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

185

nothing to admire in the unit, shall I admire a million imits

Men

stand in awe of the

not honor any indiyidual citizen

but do

city,

and are

;

contin-

ually yielding to this dazzling result of numbers,

that which they would never yield to the solitary

example of any one. Whilst the multitude of men degrade each other,

and give currency, scholar

man

force

desponding doctrines, the

must be a bringer

of hope,

against himself.

and must

rein-

I sometimes believe

that our literary anniversaries will presently assume

a greater importance, as the eyes of their capabilities.

men open

Here, a new set of distinctions,

a new order of ideas, prevail. Here, we set a bound to the respectabnity of wealth,

pretensions of the law

must cease

and the church.

to be a bigot to-day.

power cannot enter

circle,

and a bound

bigot

Into our charmed

and the

;

The

to the

sturdiest de-

fender of existing institutions feels the

terrific in-

flammability of this air which condenses heat in

every corner that

may

fabrics of ages.

Nothing

thing

tilts

he too

dead of

rocks.

solid is secure

Even

the scholar

searched and revised.

Is he living in his

mind

forth,

and

restore to the elements the

;

every

not safe

his learning

memory ?

not mortification, but

thou curious child

hoping poet

life.

The power But come

hither, thou loving, all-

hither, thou tender, doubting heart.

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

186

any place in the world's

whicli hast not yet found

market

fit

for thee

any wares which thou couldst

;

— so large

buy or sell, thine and not

on, for the kind

and the whole world

thee,

Smooth thy brow, Heaven justifies

theirs is the hour.

and hope and love

—

thy love and ambition,

feels that

thou art in the

right.

We ought to manly

joy.

celebrate this hour by expressions Not thanks, not prayer seem quite

the highest or truest

with the tion,

name

for our communication

— but glad and

infinite,

— reception that becomes

as the receiTCr

its turn,

only the All-Giver ia part and

I cannot,

infancy.

conspiring recep-

giving in

— nor can any man, — speak but

cisely of things so sublime,

seems to

iii

pre-

the

wit of man, his strength, his grace, his tendency,

and the presence of God.

his art, is the grace

beyond explanation. the rapt saint

When

and

Not

praise.

becomes our

But not

lips,

but

of adulation

are too nearly related in the deep of the mind

to that

honor.

It is

God

in us which checks the

language of petition by a grander thought.

bottom of the heart

It is

and done,

found the only logician.

exhortation, not argument pffians of joy

all is said

child

this fair

and grows. mine are

it is

;

In the

I am, and by me,

body and world of thine stands

lam; aU

thine.'

said

things are mine: and

all

THE METHOD OF NATURE. The

festival of the intellect

187

and the return

to its

source cast a strong light on the always interesting

Man

topics of

minded

man may

be born.

human

breasts.

There

and universality we do not content us. that

Great

find.

makes them conspicuous.

polite

arrive at

they pass from

to another

our

strata, concentric strata, so

laterally,

and as

do not

There

somewhat

They

are poorly

any result !

The

how

tardily

crystal sphere

soils

all

and rocks

lie

men's thinkings

Here comes by a auger and plumb-line, and

never vertically.

great inquisitor with will bore

men

as concentrical as the geological struc-

ture of the globe.

run

there

and various they are shallow.

How tardily men of thought

;

If they are prophets they are

tied to one thought. ;

man

It is their solitude, not their force,

indigent and tedious about them.

egotists

are forcibly re-

The Intellect still asks that a The flame of life flickers feebly We demand of men a richness

hath never been.

and Nature.

of the old want.

an Artesian well through our conventions

theories,

and pierce

to the core of things.

But

soon as he probes the crust, behold gimlet,

plumb-line,

and philosopher take a

lateral direc-

tion, in spite of all resistance, as if

wind took everything

month

after

month

former has made,

to see

some strong

and

if you come what progress our re-

off its feet,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not an inch has he

pierced,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

188

him with new words in the old place, floating about in new parts of the same old vein or crust. The new book says, I will give you the key to nature,' and we expect to go like a thunderbolt to the centre. But the thimder is a surface phenomenon, makes a skin-deep cut, and so does you

still

find

The wedge turns out to be a rocket. Thus a man lasts but a very little while, for his monomania becomes insupportably tedious in a few months. It is so with every book and person and the sage.

yet

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and yet â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we do not

meet a new tion.

And

man

new book

take up a

without a pulse-beat of expecta-

this invincible

hope of a more adequate

interpreter is the sure prediction of his advent.

In the absence of man, we turn to nature, which stands next.

mary ^

In the divine order,

nature, secondary

mind!

;

it is

the

That which once existed in

intellect is pri-

memory

of the

intellect as pure

now taken body as Nature. It existed already in the mind in solution now, it has been law, has

;

precipitated,

and the bright sediment

the world.

We can never be quite strangers or inferiors in nsr ture.

It is flesh of our flesh,

and bone

of our bone.

But we no longer hold it by the hand we have lost our miraculous power our arm is no more ;

;

as strong as the frost, nor our will equivalent to

gravity and the elective attractions. use nature

a convenient

Yet we can

standao'd,

and

the

THE METHOD OF NATURE. meter of our

and

rise

tage as a witness,

fall.

has this advan-

cannot be debauched.

man

curses, nature still testifies to truth

may

therefore safely study the

we cannot

ture, because

mind pool,

189

mind

steadily gaze

When

and

love.

in na-

explore the face of the sun in a

when our

eyes cannot brook his direct splen-

;

dors.

It seems to

able psean

therefore that

we should

were some

suit-

piously celebrate this hour

by exploring the method of nature. Let us see that, as nearly as we can, and try how far it is transferable to the literary

glance

give to the realities around us, with in-

tent to learn, proceeds is

Every earnest

life.

from a holy impulse, and

reaUy songs of praise.

make whether of passionate

What

difference can

take the shape of exhortation, or

exclamation, or of scientific state-

ment ? These are forms merely. Through them we express, at last, the fact that God has done thus or thus. large, in

which we must

necessarily appeal to the intuition,

and aim much

In treating a subject so

to suggest

than to describe, I know

it is

not

easy to speak with the precision attainable on topics of less scope.

I do not wish in attempting to

paint a man, to describe an air-fed, unimpassioned, impossible ghost.

My eyes

and ears are revolted

; :

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

190

by any neglect

of the physical facts, the limitations

And

of man.

one who conceives the true

yet

order of nature, and beholds the visible as proceed-

ing from the invisible, cannot state his thought without seemLQg to those

who study

laws to do them some injustice.

the physical

There

Language

trinsic defect in the organ.

Statements of the infinite are usually

ia-

overstates.

felt to

and blasphemous.

just to the finite,

be un-

Empedocles

undoubtedly spoke a truth of thought, when he

am God

said, " I

his

mouth

revenged

;

" but the

became a

itself for

facts ?

hap

Yet

let us

The method it ?

was out

I hope for

hope that as far as we

we be

felt

by every

receive

true per-

is just.

of nature

who could

ever analyze

will not stop to be ob-

We can never surprise nature in a corner

never find the end of a thread set the first stone.

the egg hastens to

;

never teU where

The bird hastens to lay her egg be a bird. The wholeness we

admire in the order of the world finite distribution.

Its

smoothness

ness of the pitch of the cataract. is

and the world

How can

shoe.

That rushing stream

served.

;

attempts to enunciate spiritual

the truth, so far shall

son to say what

moment

to the ear

the seeming arrogance by the

good story about his better

lie

a perpetual iachoation.

the result of

in-

the smooth-

Its

permanence

Every natural fact

TEE METHOD OF NATURE. emanation, and that from which

emanation

also,

emanation.

emanates

if it

If anything could stand

still, it

were a mind, would be crazed

persons are those

who hold

fast to

;

an ever novel

ways from above.

effect,

would

resisted,

as insane

one thought and

Not the

do not flow with the course of nature. cause, but

and from every emanation is a new

be crushed and dissipated by the torrent

and

191

nature descends

beauty of these fair objects

imported into

from a metaphysical and eternal

spring.

al-

The them

unbroken obedience.

all

animal and vegetable forms, the physiologist concedes that no chemistry, no mechanics, can account for the facts, but a mysterious principle of Hfe

must

be assumed, which not only inhabits the organ but

makes the organ.

How

silent,

how

spacious,

what room for aU, yet

without place to insert an atom

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in

graceful

succession, in equal fulness, in balanced beauty, the

dance of the hours goes forward stm.

Like an

odor of incense, like a strain of music, like a sleep, it is

inexact and boundless.

nor unravelled, nor shown. osopher

wiU not be

Away

dissected,

profane phil-

seekest thou in nature the cause ?

refers to that,

and that

to the next,

the third, and everything refers. in another mood, thou

must behold

must

feel it

This

and the next

Thou must ask and love

in a spirit as grand as that

it,

thou

by which

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

192 it exists,

know

ere thou canst

Known

the law.

will not be, but gladly beloved and enjoyed.

The simultaneous

life

throughout the whole body,

the equal serving of innumerable ends without the

emphasis or preference to any, but the steady

least

degradation of each to the success of

all,

allows the

Nature can only

understanding no place to work.

be conceived as existing to a tmiversal and not

one,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a work

circular

by a

of ecstasy, to be represented

movement, as intention might be There

the kingdoms from the

ment ter

of an individual.

When

by a effect

no revolt in aU

commonweal no Hence the catholic

detach-

an exponent

of the

which makes every

world.

signified

Each

straight line of definite length.

strengthens every other.

to a

and not

particular end; to a universe of ends,

leaf

charac-

we behold the landscape in a poetic

we do not reckon individuals. Nature knows neither palm nor oak, but only vegetable life, which spirit,

sprouts into forests,

and festoons the globe with a

garland of grasses and vines.

That no single end

may be

judged thereby, appears from self

selected

be considered as the end, and

that the final cause of the world

wise or beautiful men,

Read

ceeded. history,

and nature

this, that if

man him-

be assumed

make

holy or

see that it has not suc-

alternately in natural

and

in civil

treatise of astronomy, for example, with

THE METHOD OF NATURE. a volume of Frenchi Mimoires pour

we have

193

When

servir.

spent our wonder in computing this waste-

which boon Nature turns

ful hospitality with

off

new firmaments without end into her wide common, suns and as fast as the madrepores make coral, planets hospitable to souls,

— — and then shorten the

sight to look into this coiwt of Louis Quatorze,

game

see the

that

played there,

shal,

abb^ and madame,

each

and

— duke and mar-

— a gambling

table

where

laying traps for the other, where the end

by some lie or fetch to outwit your rival and ruin him with this solemn fop in wig and stars, ever

—

the king planet

;

— one

can hardly help asking

omy, and

so,

this

whether the experiment have not

and whether

failed,

a fair sjJecimen of the so generous astron-

be quite worth while to make

more, and glut the innocent space with so poor an article.

I think

feel not

much

beholding foolish nations,

otherwise

we take

if,

instead of

the great and

wise men, the eminent souls, and narrowly inspect

None

their biography.

them seen by

himself,

and his performance compared with his promise or idea, wiU justify the cost of that enormous apparatus of means

by which

this spotted

and defective per-

son was at last procured.

questions of this sort. Nature replies,

AH is nascent, VOL.

infant. 13

WTien we are

"I grow."

dizzied with

: ;

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

194

the arithmetic of the savant toiling to compute the

length of her line, the return of her curve, steadied

that all

are

ive accomplishment.

anything

final

;

can point nowhere to

but tendency appears on

all

planet, system, constellation, total nature

ing like a field of maize in July ;

what

by the perception that a great deal is doing seems just begun remote aims are ia act-

else

;

hands grow-

becoming some-

The embryo

in rapid metamorphosis.

does not more strive to be man, than yonder burr of light

call

a nebula tends to be a ring, a com-

a globe, and parent of

et,

new

Why

stars.

should

not then these messieurs of Versailles strut and plot for tabourets

and ribbons, for a

season, with-

out prejudice to their faculty to run on better

errands by and by ?

But Nature seems

fvirther to reply,

tured so great a stake as

I have ven-

success, in

single

The

I have not yet arrived at any end.

creature.

gardener aims to produce a fine peach or pear, but

aim

the health of the whole tree,

stem, leaf, flower,

and

seed,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

root,

by no means

the pampering of a monstrous pericarp at the ex-

pense of

all

the other functions.'

and peculiarity of that immakes on us is this, that it does any one or to any number of particular

short, the spirit

pression nature

not exist to

ends, but to numberless and endless benefit

;

that

THE METHOD OF NATURE. there is in

no private

but the whole

will,

195

no rebel leaf or limb,

oppressed by one superincmnbent

tendency, obeys that redundancy or excess of

which in conscious beings we

With

this conception of the genius or

nature, let us go back to

life

call ecstasy.

man.

method

It is true

he pre-

tends to give account of himself to himself, but, at last,

what has he to

recite

but the fact that there

a Life not to be described or

What

by possession ? essence son, the

account can he give of his

more than so it was to he f The royal reaGrace of God, seems the only description There

of oiu- multiform but ever identical fact. virtue, there

There

not.

God

genius, there

is all

affirm

sin, is

;

and we can show

self-denial

The termination

of the world in a

to be the last victory of intelligence. sal does not attract us until ual.

Who

strife

from the platform

but seen from the platform of

tion there is nothing for us but praise

The ocean

and

a view we are constrained by our con-

stitution to take of the fact seen

of action

success, or there is

Self-accusation, remorse,

and the didactic morals of with

the incoming or the receding of

we can how nor why.

that

neither

known otherwise than

intellec-

and wonder.

man

appears

The

imiver-

housed in an individ-

heeds the waste abyss of possibility? is

everywhere the same, but

has no

character until seen with the shore or the ship.

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

196

Who would value brine bounded

Confine

any number

and the point

;

and longitude ?

granite rocks, let it

where wise men dwell, and sion

of miles of Atlantic

lines of latitude

wasb a

it is filled

of gTeatest interest

where the

So must we admire

land and water meet.

shore

with expres-

man

the form of the formless, the concentration of the vast, the house of reason, the cave of

the play of thoughts tures are these

memory. See

what nimble gigantic

what

saurians,

shall

be named with these agile movers?

great

Pan

of old,

who was

crear

palaiotheria

The

clothed in a leopard

skin to signify the beautiful variety of things and

the firmament, his coat of stars, resentative of thee,

rich

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; was but

and various

the rep-

Man

thou

palace of sight and sound, carrying in thy senses the morning and the night and the unfathomable

galaxy of

in thy brain, the

;

God

;

in thy heart, the

geometry of the City

bower of love and

realms of right and wrong. a fruit

and

which

ripen.S

particular

The

itself

too is a

chaos,

in the experience of every

demon

where he

such in virtue of

late the

the

man

history of the genesis or the old

god thrown

strives ever

things from disorder into order. soul

individual

cost aU the foregoing ages to form

mythology repeats child.

its

Each

iato a

lead

individual

being a power to

trans-

world into some particular language of

ita

THE METHOD OF NATURE. own

not into a picture, a statue, or a dance,

;

why, then, into a trade, an

you

art,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

a science, a mode of

a conversation, a character, an influence.

living,

You

197

admire pictures, hut

as impossible for

to paint a right picture as for grass to bear

But when the genius comes, it makes finpliancy, and the power of transferring Rathe affair in the street into oils and colors. phael must be born, and Salvator must be born. apples.

gers

it is

There

no attractiveness

The

man.

like that of a

new

sleepy nations are occupied with their

England, France and America

political routine.

read Parliamentary Debates, which no high genius

now

enlivens;

trusts his

and nobody wiU read them who

own eye

only they

who

are deceived

the popular repetition of distinguished names.

But

when Napoleon imrolls his map, the eye is commanded by original power. When Chatham leads the debate, listen.

men may

A man,

well listen, because they

a persona,l ascendency,

great phenomenon.

When Nature

done, she creates a genius to do great man,

and you shaU

heart in these ages.

But what

There

know

must

the only

has work to be it.

Follow the

what the world has

no omen like

that.

strikes us in the fine genius is that

which belongs of right should

see

to every

one.

himself for a necessary actor.

A man A link

was wanting between two craving parts of nature,

;

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

198

and that

lie was hurled into being as the bridge over yawning need, the mediator betwixt two else

His two parents held each of one of the wants, and the union of foreign conmimarriageable

stitutions

facts.

him enables him

gracefully what the assembled

not have sufficed to do.

He knows

he applies himself to his work

;

do gladly and

human

race could

his materials

he cannot read, or

think, or look, but he unites the hitherto separated

strands into a perfect cord.

The thoughts he

de-

lights to utter are the reason of his incarnation.

for

him

to account himself cheap

and

super-

by the wayside for opportunities ? Did he not come into being because something must be done which he and no other is and fluous, or to linger

does?

If only

enough.

sees, the

world will be

need not study where to

to put things in favorable lights; light,

from him

centre.

What

and reward ?

all

visible

stand, nor

him

the

things are illuminated to their

patron shall he ask for employment

Hereto was he born, to deliver the

thought of his heart from the universe to the

uni-

verse ; to do an office which nature could not forego, nor he be discharged

immerge again

into the holy silence

out of which as a

man he

many more men than biding

theiif

from rendering, and then

arose.

and

God

eternity

is rich,

and

one he harbors in his bosom,

time and the needs and the beauty

THE METHOD OF NATURE. all.

199

Is not this the theory of every man's genius

Why

or faculty?

then goest thou as some Bos-

well or listening worshipper to this saint or to that?

That

the only lese-majesty.

whom

Here

art thou with

so long the universe travailed in labor ; dar-

est thou think

meanly of thyself

whom

the stalwart

Fate brought forth to unite his ragged

sides, to

shoot the g^ulf , to reconcile the irreconcilable ?

WhUst

man

a necessity so great caused the

to exist, his health

and erectness

consist in the

with which he transmits influences from

fidelity

the vast and universal to the point on which his

genius can

The ends

act.

are momentary;'' they

are vents for the current of inward life which init is spent. A man's wisdom is to know aU ends are momentary, that the best end must be superseded by a better. But there is a mischievous tendency in him to transfer his thought

creases as

that

from the rest

life to

in his acts

the tools run

workman, the human with the a

man

and away with the

the ends, to quit his agency :

as always spoken to

divine.

I conceive

from behind, and un-

able to turn his head and see the speaker.

all

who have heard the voice, none ever face. As children in their play run be-

the millions

saw the

hind each other, and seize one by the ears and

make him walk unseen

pilot.

before them, so

the spirit our

That well-known voice speaks in aU

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

200

languages, governs all men, and none ever caught

a glimpse of obey

it, it

its

longer separate

seem

shall

man

If the

form.

from himself in he shall be

it,

will exactly

he shall not any

will adopt him, so that

his thought

;

If he listen

it.

with insatiable ears, richer and greater wisdom taught him

;

borne away as with a

less of his

ideas, set

the sound swells to a ravishing music, flood,

he becomes

food and of his house, he

and leads a heavenly

But

life.

care-

the fool of

if his

eye

on the things to be done, and not on the truth

that

is still

taught,

and

for the sake of which the

things are to be done, then the voice grows

and

at last is but a

humming

faint,

His

in his ears.

health and greatness consist in his being the channel

through which heaven flows to earth, in

short, in the

fulness in which an ecstatical state takes place in

him.

It is pitiful to be

ing to be artists

artist,

we might be

when by

forbear-

vessels filled with the

divine overflowings, enriched by the circulations of

Are

omniscience and omnipresence.

there not mo-

ments in the history of heaven when the human race was not counted

the Influenced,

was God

individuals, but was only

in distribution,

ing into multiform benefit? ceive, sublime to love,

from

but

God

rush-

sublime to

re-

this lust of imparting as

us, this desire to be loved, the wish to be

recognized as individuals,

lower strain.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

finite,

comes

of a

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

201

we can

Shall I say then that as far as

trace the

natural history of the soul, its health consists the fulness of veneration,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

its

reception ?

that part which the

and do

best in

work

that which the

;

organ-

any work of art but seems to require

itself

man

cannot do again ; that

which flows from the hour and the occasion, the eloquence of

men

in a tumultuous debate ?

was always the theory of

literature that the

a poet was authoritative and

call it piety, call it

in the fact that enthusiasm

What

ized therein.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

final.

word was

supposed to be the mouth of a divine wisdom.

We We

rather envied his circumstance than his talent. too could have gladly prophesied standing in

We so quote our

that place.

Scriptures

and the

;

Greeks so quoted Homer, Theognis, Pindar, and the

modern

If the theory has receded out of

rest.

criticism,

because

Whenever they

we have

not had poets.

appear, they will redeem their

own

credit.

This ecstatical state seems to direct a regard to the whole and not to the parts

not to the ends

;

It respects genius

possession intellect,

;

and not

and not the history ;

duties.

poetry,

to the cause

and not

and

to the act.

hope, and not aU things by the

talent

the anticipation of

works of art

and not

;

to the tendency

;

itself

;

art,

and not experiment

and not ;

virtue,

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

202

There

rightly discharged

ing that

or function of

office

not noxious to him

universal relations.

man

but

this divine method, and noth-

his

detached from

work

its

in the world to

study nature, or the laws of the world ?

Let him

beware of proposing to himself any end.

use ? nature

debased, as

ocean can remember only the price of it

for pleasure ? he

mocked ; there

fatuating air in woods

on the

idler to

for

one looking at the

fish.

a certain

and mountains which draws

want and misery.

There

some-

thing social and intrusive in the nature of things

;

all

they seek to penetrate and overpower each

the nature of every other creature, and in all

in-

itself alone

modes and throughout space and Every

prevail and possess.

contented and insatiable. istry cannot content them.

star in

spirit to

heaven

is dis'

Gravitation and chem-

Ever they woo and Every man who

court the eye of every beholder.

comes into the world they seek to fascinate and possess, to pass into his

mind, for they desire

to re-

publish themselves in a more delicate world than It is not

that they occupy.

enough that they

are

Jove, Mars, Orion, and the North Star, in the gravitating firmament

;

they woidd have such poets as

Newton, Herschel, and Laplace, that they may exist

and re-appear

souls,

and

fill

in the finer world

re-

of rational

that realm with their fame.

is it

THE METHOD OF NATURE. witli all

These beautiful

immaterial objects.

lisks set

203 basi-

their brute glorious eyes on the eye of

every child, and,

they can, cause their nature to

pass through his wondering eyes into him, and so

things are mixed.

Therefore

man must be on

his

guard against

this

cup of enchantments, and must look at nature with

a supernatural eye.

And

it.

because

he safe and commands

knowledge

all

by conversing

piety alone,

with the cause of nature,

assimilation to

the object of knowledge, as the power or genius of

nature

is ecstatic,

tion of

be.

must

its

science or the descrip-

The poet must be a

rhapsodist

inspiration a sort of bright casualty

;

his

;

his will in

only the surrender of will to the Universal Power,

which

will not

be seen face to face, but must be

ceived and sympathetically known. able that

we have out

It is

re-

remark-

of the deeps of antiquity in

the oracles ascribed to the half fabulous Zoroaster,

a statement of this fact which every lover and seeker of truth will recognize. Zoroaster, " to

said

with vehemence, but will

apprehend

you

not proper,"

incline your mind,

you

not too earnestly, but bringing

a pure and inquiring eye. it

" It

understand the Intelligible

You will

when understanding some

but with the flower of the mind. are not attainable by mortals

not understand

particular thing,

Tilings divine

who understand

sen-

TEE METHOD OF NATURE.

204

sual things, but only the light-armed arrive at the

summit."

And

because ecstasy

ture, therefore

and deep a

the law and cause of na-

you cannot interpret

in too high

Nature represents the best

sense.

meaning of the wisest man.

Does the sunset

land-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

those

scape seem to you the place of Friendship,

purple skies and lovely waters the amphitheatre dressed and garnished only for the exchange of

thought and love of the purest souls

It is that.

men have put on it You cannot bathe twice

All other meanings which base are conjectural and false.

same

in the

man

river, said Heraclitus

;

and I

never sees the same object twice

own enlargement

the object acquires

new

add, a

with his aspects.

Does not the same law hold for virtue ? vitiated

by too much

ress should efit.

aim

He who

will.

It is

aims at prog-

not at a special ben-

infinite,

The reforms whose fame now

fills

the land

with Temperance, Anti-Slavery, Non-Resistance,

No Government, Equal

Labor, fair and generous

as each appears, are poor bitter things

cuted for themselves as an end.

when

prose-

every reform,

in proportion to its energy, early disgusts are

dent, so that the disciple

hour of his ness,

first

triumphs with chagrins, and

and a general

distrust

inci-

surprised at the very

;

sick-

so that he shuns his

associates, hates the enterprise

which

lately seemed

TEE METHOD OF NATURE. SO

fair',

and meditates

of that society

arms

to cast himself into the

and manner

newly abandoned with Is

205

much

had

of life which he

pride and hope.

that he attached the value of virtue to

some

particular practices, as the denial of certain appetites in certain specified indulgences,

found himself

still

as wicked

and as far from hap-

piness in that abstinence as he

But the

abuse ?

You

money

the disuse of

had been in the

soul can be appeased not

deed but by a tendency. feels her wings.

and afterward

It is in a

and not

shall love rectitude,

or the avoidance of trade

imimpeded mind, and not a monkish

by a

hope that she

diet

;

sympa-

;

thy and usefulness, and not hoeing or coopering.. Tell

not

how great your

eration of the world,

church,

its

project

establishment of

the

new

cleaner diet, a

the civil

public

division of labor

laws of love for laws of property; plainly there

is,

fence to the nostril.

eternal.

to the

of land,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I say

ulty can aim, so sacred or so large, that,

soul

education,

and

pursued

become carrion and an

The

of-

imalginative faculty of

must be fed with objects immense and

Your end should be one inapprehensible senses

;

then will

be a god always ap-

proached, never touched ; always giving health.

man

you

no end to which your practical fac

for itself, will not at last

the

lib-

conversion into a Christian

adorns himself with prayer and love, as an

TBE METHOD OF NATURE.

206

aim adorns an ness,

brave

man ?

What

action.

and what

strong but good-

energetic but the presence of a

The

doctrine in vegetable physiology

of the presence, or the general influence of any

substance over and above of

man.

You

where you

more predicable

need not speak to me, I need not go

are, that

you should exert magnetism on

Be you only whole and

me. feel

chemical influence, as

its

alkali or a living plant, is

you in every part

sufficient,

and

life

and I

shall

fortune, and

I can as easily dodge the gravitation of the globe as escape your influence.

But there are other examples

of this total and

supreme influence, besides Nature and the

"From

science.

eon-

the poisonous tree, the world,"

say the Brahmins, " two species of fruit are produced, sweet as the waters of ciety of beautiful souls, like the

and Poetry, whose

is it

it is all

Never

abandonment.

and whereof

all others

and indemnities, because is

no longer

hales an odorous

and

his

all

taste

Love,

it is

not a certain other advan-

are only secondaries

this is that in

own

the so-

self-possessed or

admirable wisdom, preferable to

dividual

What

the chief good, but because

overpowering enthusiasm ?

tages,

Love or

;

immortal juice of Vishnu."

and why prudent,

life

which the in-

foolish master, but in-

celestial air, is

wrapped round

with awe of the object, blending for the time that

THE METHOD OF NATURE. otject with the real

omen

every

When we who ride

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

speak truly,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

? his

not he only unhappy

fancied freedom and

much death ? He who

not so

wise and

and only good, and consults

in nature with tremulous interest?

not in love is it

207

becoming wiser,

self-

in love

newly every

sees

time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it

with his eyes and his mind those virtues which

Therefore

possesses.

and expanding

living

But the love remains it

brought him

And

object.

because

;

and

the object be not

he presently exhausts

soul,

in his mind, it

the reason

craves a

why

all

itself

it.

and the wisdom

new and higher men honor love is

looks up and not down;

aspires

and not

despairs.

And

what

Genius but

finer love, a love imper-

sonal,

a love of the flower and perfection of things,

and a

desire to

same ?

draw a new picture or copy

It looks to the cause

and

life

of the

proceeds

from within outward, whilst Talent goes from without inward.

Talent finds

its

models, methods, and

ends, in society, exists for exhibition,

the soul only for power to work. end, and draws tecttire

and

means and the

Genius

is its

own

style of its archi-

from within, going abroad only for audience

spectator, as

to the distance to.

its

and goes

we adapt our

and character

voice

and phrase

of the ear

we speak

All your learning of aU literatures would never

;

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

208

enable you to anticipate one of pressions,

thoughts or ex-

its

and yet each is natural and familiar Here about us coils forever

as household words.

the ancient enigma, so old

hold

there

and

so unutterable.

and the

the sim,

How

the old sun, the old stones.

describe ture

this fitly

Na-

articulate, speaking

a mute.

Yet when Genius

he also

arrives, its speech is like a river

ing to describe, more than there

When

ture to exist.

thought

Genius sheds wisdom

it.

pass.

a mute, and man, her

brother, lo

Be-

rocks

easy were

word can

yet no

;

and the

rain,

vertises us that

wave and

fire

has no

strain-

straiaing in na-

is best,

there

like perfume,

describes.

knows

speaks so musically, because it

most

and

ad-

flows out of a deeper source than

the foregoing silence, that

of the thing

;

so deeply and

it is itself

It is sun

a mutation

and moon and

in music, as astronomy

thought

and harmony in masses of matter.

What

history but the

work

of ideas, a rec-

ord of the incomputible energy which his aspirations infuse into

and

lasting been done ?

any man, but

all

men

inundation of an idea. here

man ?

One man

Has anything

Who it

did

it ?

grand

Plainly not

was the prevalence and

What

brought the pilgrims

says, civil liberty

desire of f oimding a church

that the motive force

infinite

;

another, the

and a third

discovers

was plantation and

trade.

THE METHOD OF NATURE. But

209

the Puritans could rise from the dust they

It is to be seen in

could not answer.

were, and not in what they designed;

what they was the

growth and expansion of the human race, and

re-

sembled herein the sequent Kevolution, which was not begun in Concord, or Lexington, or Virginia,

but was the overflowing of the sense of natural right in every clear Is a

man

and

active spirit of the period.

and

boastful and knowing,

own mas-

his

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we turn

from him without hope but let him be fiUed with awe and dread before the Vast and the Divine, which uses him glad to be used, and our eye is riveted to the chain of events. What

ter ?

a debt

ours to that old religion which, in the

childhood of most of us, stiU dwelt like a sabbath

morning in the country of privation, self-denial

New

and sorrow

England, teaching !

A man was born

not for prosperity, but to suffer for the benefit of others, like the noble rock-maple

which

around

all

our villages bleeds for the service of man. praise, not spirit's

holy errand through us absorbed the thought.

How

dignified

ents

and

was

this

How aU

that

called tal-

success, ia our noisy capitals,

buzz and din before this man-worthiness our friendships and the complaisances us

Not

men's acceptance of our doing, but the

now

Shall

becomes !

How

we use, shame

not quit our companions, as

they were thieves and pot-companions, and betake VOL.

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

210

some desert

ourselves to

cliff

of Moiint Katahdln,

some unvisited recess in Moosehead Lake, to bewail our innocency and to recover it, and with it the power

communicate again with these sharers

a more sacred idea ?

And what

race ?

to replace for us the piety of that

cannot have theirs

from us day by day

;

away

glides

but we also can bask in the

;

great morning which rises forever out of the eastern sea,

and be ourselves the children of the

light.

stand here to say, Let us worship the mighty and It is the office, I doubt not, of

transcendent Soul. this

age to annul that adulterous divorce which the

superstition of intellect

and

been one

many

ages has effected between the

holiness.

class,

The

lovers of goodness have

the students of wisdom another

;

if either

could exist in any purity without the other.

Truth

always holy, holiness always wise.

that

we keep terms with

and

society

no longer, but

and performance. accept us. niscience,

sin

and a

live

Accept the

life of discovery

and

intellect,

wiQ

the lowly ministers of that pure om-

and deny

not before men.

It wUl

bum

profane literature, aU base current opinions,

all

the false powers of the world, as ia a

time.

I wiQ

sinfid literature

moment of

I draw from nature the lesson of an intimate

divinity.

Our

health and reason as

men need

our

respect to this fact, against the heedlessness and

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

The sanity

against the contradiction of society.

man

the poise of this

needs

211

immanent

force.

His

nobility needs the assurance of this inexhaustible

How

reserved power.

great soever have been

bounties, they are a drop to the sea If

flow.

you

The acceptance of the God -â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I shall not seek

say,

If you ask,

admit the force of what you

How

can any rules be given for

the attainment of gifts so sublime

remark that the as there is

life,

derly, they

long

Tenderly, ten-

from every thought

The one condition coupled with the That man

shall be learned

Emanuel to him

his learning to practice.

Swedenborg affirmed that " that the spirits

did

I shall only

court us from every object in

fact in life,

gift of truth is its use.

who reduceth

solicitations of this spirit, as

woo and

in the mind.

are never forborne.

from every

nature,

to pene-

trate the mystery, I say.

vision is

also the act of

its

whence they

who knew

was opened

truth in this

life,

but

not, at death shaU. lose their knowledge."

" If knowledge," said Ali the Caliph, " calleth unto practice, well; if not, it goeth away."

way

The only

into nature is to enact our best insight.

stantly

law.

In-

are higher poets, and can speak a-deeper

what you know, and perception

con-

verted into character, as islands and continents were built

absorb

invisible infusories, or as these forest leaves

light, electricity,

and

volatile gases,

and the

THE METHOD OF NATURE.

212

gnarled oak to live a thousand years

and

most

fixation of the

The

rents.

volatile

doctrine of this

cry of joy and

Supreme Presence

Who

exultation.

the arrest

and ethereal

curis

shall dare think

he has come late into nature, or has missed anything excellent in the past, stars of possibility,

hope glittering with

West ?

who

seeth the admirable

and the yet untouched continent all its

mountains in the vast

I praise with wonder this great reahty,

which seems to drown aU things in the deluge of its

What man

light.

seeing this, can lose

thoughts, or entertain a meaner subject

trance of this into his of

man.

day in

from

his

The

en-

to be the birth

cannot describe the natural history

of the soul, but

not teU

mind seems

we know

that

is divine.

I can-

these wonderful qualities which house

this

mortal frame shall ever re-assemble

to-

equal activity in a similar frame, or whether they

have before had a natural history Hke that

body you

see before

you

;

that these qualities did not

not be sick with

of this

but this one thing I know,

now begin

to exist, can-

sickness, nor buried in any

grave ; but that they circulate tlirough the Universe before the world was, they were.

them

out, or shut

them

in,

Nothing can bar

but they penetrate the

ocean and land, space and time, form an essence, and hold the key to universal nature. I draw from this faith, courage and hope. All things are known

;

TEE METHOD OF NATURE.

213

by any com-

to the soul.

It is not to be surprised

munication.

Nothing can be greater than

those fear and those fawn

her native realm, and

who

it is

will.

soul

Let is

wider than space, older

than time, wide as hope, rich as ity

The

it.

love.

Pusillanim-

and fear she refuses with a beautiful scorn

they are not for her robes,

who

puts on her coronation

and goes out through universal love

versal power.

to uni-

MAN THE REFORMER. A LECTUEB READ BBFOEB THE MBCSANICS' APPEENTICES' LIBEABY ASSOCIATION, BOSTON, JANUARY 26, 1841.

MAN THE EEFOEMEE.

Me. President, and Gentlemen, I

WISH

offer

your consideration some

thoughts on the particular and general relations of

man

I shall assume that the aim

as a reformer.

of each

young man

in this association

highest that belongs to a rational mind.

granted that our

mean

;

that

life,

some of those

lead

offices

it, is

the very

Let

common and

and functions

for

which we were mainly created are grown so rare in society that the

in old books

and

memory

and in dim

them

only kept alive

traditions

;

that prophets

and perfect men we are

poets, that beautiful

not now, no, nor have even seen such ; that some

human instruction are almost unnamed and unknown among us that the commimity in which we live will hardly bear to be told that every man should be open to ecstasy or a divine sources of

;

illumination,

and

his daily

walk elevated by

course with the spiritual world.

we must, yet I suppose none deny that we ought to seek to as

Grant

inter-

all

auditors

this,

wiU

establish ourselves

MAN THE REFORMER.

218

in such disciplines

and courses as

guidance and

clearer

itual nature.

And

will deserve that

communication with the

spir-

further, I will not dissemble

hope that each person

his

own

whom

I address has

felt

call to cast aside all evil customs, timidi-

and limitations, and to be in his place a and helpful man, a reformer, a benefactor, not ties,

free

con-

tent to slip along through the world like a footman

or a spy, escaping as

many knocks

his nimbleness

and

as he can, but a brave

apologies

and upright

man, who must find or cut a straight road

everything excellent in the earth, and not only go

honorably himself, but make follow

him

easier for all

go in honor and with

In the history of the world the doctrine form had never such scope as

who

benefit.

of Ke-

at the present hour.

Lutherans, Hernhutters, Jesuits, Monks, Quakers,

Knox, Wesley, Swedenborg, Bentham, accusations

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; church

society,

all

respected

in their

something,

or state, literature or history, domestic

usages, the market town, the dinner table, coined

money.

But now

all

these

and

all thiags else hear

the trumpet, and must rush to judgment, tianity, the laws,

laboratory calling,

new

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Chris-

commerce, schools, the farm,

and not a kingdom, town,

man, or woman, but

the

statute, rite,

threatened by the

spirit.

What

some

of the objections

whereby our

in-

MAN THE REFORMER.

extreme and speculative,

stitutions are assailed are

and the reformers tend

219

to idealism?

That only

shows the extravagance of the abuses which have driven the mind into the opposite extreme.

when your tastic

facts

by too much falsehood, that the scholar

for refuge to the world of ideas, cruit

It is

and persons grow unreal and and aims

and replenish nature from that

ideas establish their legitimate ciety, let life

will gladly

fair

and

Let

source.

so-

and the scholars

and philanthropists.

no security from the new

It will afford

flies

to re-

sway again in

poetic,

lovers, citizens,

fan-

ideas,

that the old nations, the laws of centuries, the

property and institutions of a hundred built on other foundations.

The demon

cities,

are

of reform

has a secret door into the heart of every lawmaker,

The a new thought and hope have dawned of every inhabitant of every city.

breast, should apprise

new

light broke in

That as

secret

tell

upon a thousand private lo

your

you that in the same hour a

which you woidd fain keep,

you go abroad,

doorstep to

fact that

there

you the same.

hearts.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as soon

one standing on the

There

not the

most bronzed and sharpened money-catcher who does not, to your consternation almost, quail and

shake the moment he hears a question prompted

by the new

ideas.

thought he had some sem-

blance of ground to stand upon, that such as he at

220

MAN THE REFORMER.

least

would die hard; but he trembles and

flees.

and coaches

shall

Then the

scholar says,

never impose on tary

dream

mine

Cities

again

for behold every soh-

;

rushing to fulfilment.

That

fancy I had, and hesitated to utter because you

would laugh,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

broker, the attorney, the mar-

Had

ket-man are saying the same thing.

a day longer to speak, I had been too hold, State Street thinks,

and begins

to prophesy

It cannot

WaU

and

I waited Be-

late.

Street doubts,

be wondered at that

this general in-

quest into abuses should arise in the bosom of

when one

society,

considers the practical impedi-

ments that stand in the way of virtuous young

The young man, on

men.

entering

life,

finds the

way to lucrative employments blocked with abuses. The ways of trade are grown selfish to the borders of theft,

and supple

to the borders (if not beyond

The employments

the borders) of fraud.

merce are

genial to his faculties

general

course

but these are now ia

their

derelictions

and

all connive, that it requires

abuses at which

;

of com-

for a man, or less

riot intrinsically unfit

vitiated

vigor and resources than can be expected of every

young man, them

;

to right himself in

for

is lost in

he cannot move hand or foot in them.

he genius and virtue ? the fit

them ; he

him

grow

in,

less

and

Has

does he find them

he would thrive

MAN THE REFORMER. them, he must

sacrifice all

221

the brilliant dreams of

boyhood and youth as dreams

he must forget the

;

prayers of his childhood and must take on him the harness of routine and obsequiousness.

minded, nothing

If not so

is left

him but to begin the world

anew, as he does who puts the spade into the

We are all

ground for food. in this charge;

it is

implicated of course

only necessary to ask a few

questions as to the progress of the articles of com-

merce from the houses, to

where they grew, to our

fields

become aware that we eat and drink and

wear perjury and fraud in a htmdred commodities.

How many

articles of daily

nished us from the

West

consumption are

Indies

;

yet

it is

fur-

said that

in the Spanish islands the venality of the officers of the

government has passed into usage, and that

article passes iuto

our ships which has not been

In the Spanish

fraudulently cheapened.

islands,

every agent or factor of the Americans, unless he

be a consul, has taken oath that he or has caused a priest to

him.

The

make

abolitionist has

a Catholic,

that declaration for

shown us our dreadful In the island of

debt to the southern negro.

Cuba, in addition to the ordinary abominations of slavery, it appears only

plantations,

and one

men

are bought for the

ten every year, of

dies

these miserable bachelors, to yield us sugar. leave for those

who have

the knowledge the part

MAN THE REFORMER.

222

of sifting the oaths of our custom-houses

I wiU

;

not inquire into the oppression of the sailors

wUl not pry

into the usages of our retail trade.

content myself with the fact that the general

tem

from the blacker

of our trade (apart

;

I I

sys-

traits,

which, I hope, are exceptions denounced and un-

shared by ishness

;

human

reputable men),

all

a system of

self-

not dictated by the high, sentiments of

nature

of reciprocity,

;

not measured by the exact law

much

and heroism, but

by the sentiments

less

a system of

of love

distrust, of con-

cealment, of superior keenness, not of giving but of taking advantage.

delights

not that which a

to unlock to a noble friend;

man

which he

meditates on with joy and self-approval in his hour of love

and aspiration

;

but rather what he then

puts out of sight, only showing the brilliant

result,

and atoning for the manner of acquiring, by

manner

of expending

The

chant or the manufacturer.

belong to no

class, to

sins of our trade

One

no individual.

Every body

plucks,

one distributes, one

eats.

every body confesses,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with cap and knee

teers his confession, yet able.

alter

who must no one

none

He did not create What is he ? an

it.

get his bread.

the

I do not charge the mer-

it.

partakes, volun-

feels himself account-

the abuse

;

he cannot

obscure private person

That

the vice,

feels himself called to act for

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

man, but

only

;

MAN TEE as a fraction of man.

REFORMER.

223

It liappens therefore that

such ingenuous souls as feel within themselves

all

the irrepressible strivings of a noble aim,

who by

the law of their nature must act simply, find these unfit for them,

ways of trade

from

it.

and they come forth

Such cases are becoming more numerous

every year.

But by coming out yourself.

the

The

professions

lucrative

you have not cleared

of trade

and

own wrongs.

its

and very

intelligent conscience

Each

man.

practices of

Each has

for success.

reaches into all

trail of the serpent

Each

finds a tender

a disqualification

requires of the practitioner a

certain shutting of the eyes, a certain dapperness

and compliance, an acceptance tration

of customs, a seques-

from the sentiments of generosity and

love,

a compromise of private opinion and lofty integrity.

Nay, the

evil

custom reaches into the whole

which estab-

institution of property, until our laws lish

and protect

seem not to be the

and reason, but of so

unhappy as

Suppose a

selfishness.

be born a

saint,

ceptions but with the conscience gel,

and he

issue of love

man

and love

an an-

to get his living in the world

finds himself excluded

from

all

tration toward

money, which

buy one requires a is

;

lucrative works

he has no farm, and he cannot get one

money enough

with keen per-

;

for to earn

sort of concen-

the selling himself

MAN THE REFORMER.

224

number

for a

and

him the

present hour

sacred and inviolable as any future hour.

of years,

man

coarse, whilst another

mine, your

title to

yours,

title to

has no land,

at once vitiated.

Inextricable seem to be the twiniugs and tendrijs of this evU,

and we

all involve ourselves in it the

deeper by forming connections, by wives and dren,

and

benefits

chil-

debts.

Considerations of this kind have turned the tention of

many

at-

philanthropic and intelligent per-

sons to the claims of manual labor, as a part of

the education of every young man.

If the accumu-

lated wealth of the past generation

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; no matter how much

must begin to consider part to renounce

mary

it,

and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we

were not the nobler

to put ourselves iato pri-

relations with the soil

staining from whatever

thus tainted,

offered to us,

it is it

and nature, and

ab-

dishonest and unclean,

to take each of us bravely his part, with his

own

hands, in the manual labor of the world.

But

it is

said,

What

will

you give up

the im-

inense advantages reaped from the division of bor,

and

set

every

man

reau, knife, wagon, sails,

be to put act.'

lution

men back

make

his

into barbarism

I see no instant prospect of a ;

own

and needle

la-

shoes, bu-

This would

their

own

virtuous revo-

yet I confess I should not be pained at a

change which threatened a

loss of

some

of the lux-

MAN TEE

REFORMER.

225

uries or conveniences of society, if

from a preference

men

primary duties as

belief that our

proceeded

of the agricultural life out of

to see a high conscience

could be bet-

Who

ter discharged in that calling.

and a purer

tlie

could regret taste

exercis-

on young men ia their choice

ing a sensible

effect

of occupation,

and thinning the ranks of competiof commerce, of law,

and of

tion in

the labors

state?

It is easy to see that the inconvenience

would

last

action,

but a short time.

many persons ity shall

shall

have done

this,

when

When

the major-

admit the necessity of reform in aU these

institutions, their abuses will

way win be open again arise

This would be great

which always opens the eyes of men.

from the division of

lect the fittest

be redressed, and the

to the advantages labor,

employment for

which

and a man may

se-

his peculiar talent

again, without compromise.

But

quite apart

from

the emphasis

which the

times give to the doctrine that the manual labor of society ought to be shared

among

all

the members,

there are reasons proper to every individual

should not be deprived of labor is

it.

The use

why he manual

one which never grows obsolete, and which

inapplicable to no person.

A man

should have

a farm or a mechanical craft for his culture.

must have a basis for our higher accomplishments, our delicate entertainments of poetry and philoso-

MAN TEE

226

REFORMER.

We must have

phy, in the work of our hands.

antagonism in the tough world for of our spiritual faculties, or they

all

the variety

wUl not be

born.

Manual labor is the study of the external world. The advantage of riches remains with him who pro-

When

cured them, not with the heir.

my garden

I go into

with a spade, and dig a bed, I

feel such

an exhilaration and health that I discover have been defrauding myself others do for

me what

own

But not only

hands.

in the work.

that I

time in letting

all this

I should have done with

health, but education

possible that

who

get indefi-

nite quantities of sugar, hominy, cotton, buckets,

crockery ware, and letter-paper, by simply signing

my name of

once in three months to a cheque in favor

John Smith

exercise to

intended for

Co. traders, get the fair share of

by that making all

faculties

matters important to himself, turers

;

and it is

his carriers,

act which nature

these far-fetched

comfort?

It is Smith

and dealers, and manufac-

the sailor, the hidedrogher, the butcher,

who have

the negro, the hunter, and the planter,

intercepted the sugar of the sugar, and the cotton of the cotton.

They have got

the commodity.

This were

the education, I only

all

very well

necessarily absent, being detained

own, like

theirs,

work

should I be sure of

of the

same

my hands

and

by work faculties feet

;

I were of ;

my then

but now

MAN THE

REFORMER.

I feel some shame before

ploughman, and of

self-sufficiency,

227

my wood -chopper, my

cook, for they have some sort

they can contrive without

aid to bring the day and year round, but I depend

on them, and have not earned by use a right arms and

feet.

Consider further the difference between the

Every

and second owner of property. preyed on by

property

timber by rot

rust

;

by moidd,

ions

thieves

;

putridity,

its

own

enemies, as iron

by moths provismoney by

cloth

;

or vermin

an orchard by insects

weeds and the inroad of ;

And

;

a planted

;

cattle

;

field

a stock of cattle

a road by rain and frost

by hunger freshets.

first

species of

;

a bridge by

whoever takes any of these things

into his possession, takes the charge of defending

them from

them

who

this troop

in repair.

builds a raft or a boat to go a-fishing, finds

easy to caulk

it,

What

rudder. his

of enemies, or of keeping

A man who supplies his own want,

own

or put in a thole-pin, or

the

he gets only as fast as he wants for

ends, does not embarrass him, or take

his sleep with looking after.

to give

mend

away But when he comes

aU the goods he has year after year collected,

in one estate to his son,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; house, orchard, ploughed

land, cattle, bridges, hardware, wooden-ware, carpets, cloths, provisions, books,

not give

him

money,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

the skill and experience which

can-

made

MAN THE

228

REFORMER.

or collected these, and the method and place they

have in his own

— not

life,

the son finds his hands fuU,

to use these things, but to look after them

and defend them from

To him they are not means, but masters. Their enemies wiU not remit rust, mould, vermin, rain, sun, freshet, fire, all seize their own, fill him with vexation, and he is converted from the owner into a their natural enemies.

;

watchman or a watch-dog to this magazine of old Instead of the and new chattels. What a change masterly good humor and sense of power and fertil!

ity of resom^ce in himself

;

instead of those strong

and learned hands, those piercing and learned

eyes,

that supple body, and that mighty and prevailing

heart which the father had, feared,

and

whom snow and

fish

seemed

all to

whom

nature loved and

rain, water

know and

and

to serve,

land, beast

— we have

now

a puny, protected person, guarded by walls

and

curtains, stoves

and down beds,

coaches, and

men-servants and women - servants from the earth

and the is

sky,

and who, bred

made anxious by

sessions,

and

all that

depend on

endangers those

forced to spend so

guarding them, that he has quite

him

original use, namely, to help

the prosecution of his love

;

friend, to the worship of his

ment

all these,

much

pos-

time in

lost sight of their

to his ends,

—

to the helping of his

God, to the

enlarge-

of his knowledge, to the serving of his coun°

;

MAN TEE

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

man,

called a rich

runner of his

Hence

229

indulgence of his sentiment

try, to the

now what

REFORMER.

menial and

happens that the whole interest of

riches. his-

Knowledge,

tory lies in the fortunes of the poor. Virtue,

and he

;

Power are the victories of man over his nemarch to the dominion of the world.

cessities, his

Every man ought

have

this opportunity to con-

quer the world for himself. terest

us,

Only such persons

in-

Spartans, Eomans, Saracens, English,

Americans, who have stood in the jaws of need, and

have by their own wit and might extricated themselves,

and made man

victorious.

I do not wish to overstate this doctrine of labor,

or insist that every

man

should be a farmer, any

more than that every man should be a pher.

man's

lexicogra-

In general one may say that the husbandis

the oldest and most universal profession,

and that where a man does not yet discover in himself

any

fitness for

one work more than another,

may be preferred. But the doctrine of the Farm is merely this, that every man ought to stand this

in primary relations with the

ought to do

himself,

work

and not

of the world

to suffer the acci-

dent of his having a purse in his pocket, or his having been bred to some dishonorable and injurious craft, to sever

him from those

reason, that labor

duties

God's education

;

and

for this

that he only

MAN TEE REFORMER.

230 is

a sincere learner, he only can become a master,

who

learns the secrets of labor,

cunning extorts from nature Neither would I shut

and who, by

real

its sceptre.

ears to the plea of the

learned professions, of the poet, the priest, the lawgiver,

and men of study generally ; namely,

the experience of all of

men

manual labor which

necessary to the mainte-

nance of a family, iadisposes and intellectual

I know,

exertion.

disqualifies for

usually happens that where there ization, apt for poetry

that in

of that class, the amount

often, perhaps

a fine organ-

and philosophy, that

individ-

ual finds himself compelled to wait on his thoughts; to waste several days that he rify one

;

and

may enhance and

better taught

by a moderate and

dainty exercise, such as rambling in the ing, skating, huntiag, than

glo-

fields,

row-

by the downright drudg-

ery of the farmer and the smith.

I would not quite

forget the venerable counsel of the Egyptian mysteries,

which declared that " there were two

of eyes in man,

and

which are beneath should be that are above

pair above are

them

closed,

perceive,

when

the pair

and that when

the

which are beneath

closed, those

should be opened."

pairs

requisite that the pair

Yet I wUl suggest

that no

separation from labor can be without some loss of

power and of truth to the

seer himself; that, I

doubt not, the faults and vices of our

literature

and

MAN THE

REFORMEB.

231

philosophy, their too great fineness, effeminacy, and

melancholy, are attributable to the enervated and Better that the

sickly habits of the literary class.

book

be quite so good, and the book-

shoid-d not

maker

and not himself often a

abler and better,

lu-

dicrous contrast to all that he has writteuj/

But granting that for ends so sacred and dear some relaxation must be had, I think that if a man find in himself

any strong bias

the contemplative

life,

to poetry, to art, to

drawing him

to these things

with a devotion incompatible with good husbandry, that

man

ought to reckon early with himself, and,

respecting the compensations of the Universe, ought to

ransom himself from the duties of economy by

a certain rigor and privation in his habits. privileges so rare

and grand,

pay a great

Let him be a

and

tax.

need be, celibate

his meals standing,

also.

and

let

him

For

njot stint

csenobite,

a pauper,

Let him learn

to eat

to relish the taste of fair

water and black bread.

He may

leave to others

the costly conveniences of housekeeping, and large hospitality,

him

who can

and the possession of works of

feel that genius is

must

Let

create works of art needs not collect them. live in

a chamber, and postpone his

indulgence, forewarned

frequent misfortune of luxury.

art.

a hospitality, and that he

This

self-

and forearmed against that

men of genius,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the â&#x20AC;&#x201D; attempt-

the tragedy of genius

taste for

;

MAN THE REFORMER.

232

ing to drive along the ecliptic with one horse of the

heavens and one horse of the earth, there discord

and ruin and downfall

to chariot

and

only char-

ioteer.

The duty

that every

man

should assume his own

vows, should call the institutions of society to count, and examine their

emphasis

we look

at our

fitness to

modes

of living.

housekeeping sacred and honorable ?

and

inspire us, or does

ac-

him, gains in

Does

Is our it raise

cripple us instead?

ought to be armed by every part and function of

household, by all

social function,

by my

by my voting, by my traffic. Yet I am almost no party to any of these things. Custom does it for me, gives me no power therefrom, and runs me in debt to boot. We spend our incomes for paint and paper, for a hundred trifles, I know not what, and not for the things of economy, by

feasting,

Our expense is almost all we run in debt

a man.

It is for cake that tellect,

;

for conformity. it is

not the

in-

not the heart, not beauty, not worship, that

costs so

much.

Why must he

Why

needs any

man

be rich?

have horses, fine garments, handsome

apartments, access to public houses and places of

amusement ? Only for want of thought. Give his mind a new image, and he flees into a solitary garden or garret to enjoy it, and is richer with that dream than the fee of a county could make him.

MAN THE But we are

first

thoughtless,

We We

are moneyless.

must be

REFORMER.

rich.

are

ice-creams.

we have

and then

sensual,

dare not trust our wit for

and

to our friend,

accustomed to carpets, and

not sufficient character to put floor cloths

out of his

we pUe

and then find that we

first

making our house pleasant buy

233

mind

whilst he stays in the house,

and so

Let the house rather

the floor with carpets.

be a temple of the Furies of Lacedsemon, formidable

and holy

enter or so faith, as

all,

much

which none but a Spartan may

and

Expense

We shall

heroic.

soon as there

eat hard

will be inven-

and

Romans

shall dweU. like the ancient

and cush-

society, comfits

ions will be left to slaves. tive

as behold.

soon as there

lie

hard,

in narrow

tenements, whilst our public edifices, like theirs, will

be worthy for their proportion of the landscape in

which we

set

them, for conversation, for

music, for worship. poses

;

Now

poor only for

what help

man who

shall

be rich to great pur-

selfish ones.

we think?

life

art,

honestly ?

— Perhaps with

his

pose he collects or makes them learned their lesson.

Then perhaps he can go

dom and

How

for these evils ?

has learned but one

conveniences of

art, for

riches are in that.

Shall

own ill

can the

procure aU the

;

say

— yet

all

Sup-

hands.

he has

he cannot do that? without.

Immense

It is better to

—

wis-

go with<

234

MAN THE REFORMER.

out,

than to have them at too great a

Let us

cost.

economy. Economy is a humane office, a sacrament, when its aim is grand when it is the prudence of simple tastes, when it is practised for freedom, or love, or devotion. Much of the economy which we see in houses

learn the meaning of high,

;

of a base origin,

and

best kept out of sight.

Parched corn eaten to-day, that I may have fowl to

dinner on Sunday,

a baseness

roast ;

but

parched corn and a house with one apartment, that I

may be

free of all perturbations, that I

serene and docile to what the

and

girt

mind

may

and road-ready for the lowest mission

knowledge or goodwill,

shall speak, of

frugality for gods and

heroes.

Can we

not learn the lesson of self-help

ciety is full of infirm people,

mon

others to serve them.

where to exhaust for their single comfort the

means and appliances

So-

who incessantly sumThey contrive everyentire

of that luxury to which our

invention has yet attained.

Sofas, ottomans, stoves,

wine, game-fowl, spices, perfumes, rides, the theatre,

entertainments,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

all

these they want, they

need, and whatever can be suggested more than these they crave also, as

if it

was the bread which

should keep them from starving

;

and

any one, they represent themselves

they miss

the most

wronged and most wretched persons on

earth.

MAN THE

REFORMER.

235

One must have been born and bred with them to know how to prepare a meal for their learned Meantime they never

stomach.

to serve another person

;

bestir themselves

not they

they have a

great deal more to do for themselves than they can possibly perform, nor do they once perceive the cruel joke of their lives, but the

grow, the sharper

more odious they

the tone of their complaining

Can anything be

and craving.

so elegant as to

have few wants and to serve them one's to have somewhat

ways prompt

left to give, instead of

to grab ?

It is

self, so

being

al-

more elegant

to an-

swer one's own needs than to be richly served elegant perhaps

but

it is

may

;

in-

look to-day, and to a few,

an elegance forever and to aU.

I do not wish to be absurd and pedantic in reI do not wish to push

form.

things

state

mark

that shall

solute isolation

ciety.

criticism

eat nor drink nor

civil

not clear and rational,

so-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;I

wear nor touch any

know

to be innocent,

or deal with any person whose whole

Whose

or to an ab-

plant our foot and say,

food or fabric which I do not

life is

on the

extravagant

from the advantages of

we suddenly

wiU neither

me to that compel me to suicide, around

manner

shall stand stiU.

so ? Not mine not thine not his. But we must clear ourselves each one by the interrogation, whether we have earned our bread to-

I think

;

MAN THE REFORMER.

236

day by the hearty contribution of our energies common benefit; and we must not cease

the

to to

tend to the correction of flagrant wrongs, by lay^ ing one stone aright every day.

But the idea which now begins

to agitate society

has a wider scope than our daily employments, our

households, and the institutions of property.

are to revise the whole of our social structure, the State, the school, religion, marriage, trade, science,

and explore

their foundations in our

own

are to see that the world not only

former men, but

fits

us,

and

What

lies

;

its

man born

former, a Ee-maker of what

nouncer of

;

to clear ourselves of

every usage which has not

mind.

nature

fitted the

own

roots in our

for but to be a Ke-

man

has

made

;

re-

a restorer of truth and good, imi-

tating that great Nature which

embosoms us

and which sleeps no moment on an old

aU,

past, but

every hour repairs herself, yielding us every morning a

new

life?

Let him renounce everything which

day,

true to him, first

and with every pulsation a new

and put

thoughts,

all his practices

conveniences and what

we have

selves, yet it

back on

their

and do nothing for which he has

the whole world for his reason.

because

not

called ruin in the way,

so enervated

would be

not

If there are in-

and maimed

our-

dying of perfumes

sink in the effort to re-attach the deeds of every

day

to the holy

and mysterious

recesses of

life.

MAN THE REFORMER. The power

wliicli is at

in all efforts of reform is

once spring and regtilator the conviction that there

worthiness in man, which will appear

infinite

at the

237

caU of worth, and that

all particular

are the removing of

some impediment.

the highest duty that

man

reforms

not

should be honored in us?

I ought not to allow any man, because he has broad lands, to feel that he is rich in

presence.

ought to make him feel that I can do without his

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; neither by comâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; and though I be utterly

riches, that I

cannot be bought,

fort, neither

penniless,

the poor

and receiving bread from him, that he

man

woman

beside me.

And

if,

at the

same

way

of thinking than mine, I ought to

my respect and obedience, alter my whole way of life, it

time,

or a child discovers a sentiment of piety,

or a juster confess

go to

pride,

though

The Americans have many virtues, but they I know no two words

have not Faith and Hope.

whose meaning

these words as

they were as obsolete as Selah

And

and Amen. ing,

of.

The Americans have

on the power of a dollar

sentiment.

use

yet they have the broadest mean-

and the most cogent application

this year.

rely

lost sight

;

to Boston in

little faith.

They

they are deaf to a

They think you may

talk the north

wind down as

easily as raise society

than the scholars or intellectual men.

faithless

;

and no

class

MAN THE REFORMER.

238

Now

I talk with a sincere wise man, and

who

a poet, with a conscientious youth

friend, with

under the donainion of his own wild

is still

thoughts, and not yet harnessed in the team of society to drag with us all in the ruts of custom, I see at once believers,

tions are,

how

paltry

is all this

generation of un-

and what a house of cards their instituand I see what one brave man, what one

great thought executed might effect.

I see that

the reason of the distrust of the practical all

theory,

whereby we work. which

this

cannot

make a

forests,

Look, he

world of yours

says, at the tools with

As we

to be built.

planet, with atmosphere, rivers, and

by means of the best

carpenters' or engi-

neers' tools, with chemist's laboratory

forge to boot,

man

the means

his inability to perceive

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

so neither can

and

we ever

smith's

construct

that heavenly society you prate of out of foolish, sick, selfish

them

to be.

men and women, such But the

we know

believer not only beholds his

heaven to be possible, but already to begin ist,

to ex-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not by the

uses,

but by

men or materials the statesman men transfigured and raised above

themselves by the power of principles. ples something else

princi-

possible that transcends aU

the power of expedients.

Every great and commanding moment nals of the world

in the an-

the triumph of some enthusiasm.

MAN THE The victories of

REFORMER.

239

the Arabs after Mahomet, who,

few years, from a small and mean beginning, lished a larger empire than that of

ample.

Eome,

They did they knew not what.

in-

estab-

an ex-

The naked

Derar, horsed on an idea, was found an overmatch

Boman

for a troop of

cavalry.

men, and conquered the

The women fought Roman men. They

were miserably equipped, miserably

Temperance flesh

They were

fed.

There was neither brandy nor

troops.

They conquered Asia, barley. The Caliph struck more terror into those

needed to feed them.

and Africa, and Spain, on Omar's walking-stick

who saw

than another man's sword.

was barley bread;

way

times by out

salt.

built of

his sauce

was

salt;

His

and

diet

often-

of abstinence he ate his bread with-

His drink was water.

mud and when ;

left

His palace was

Medina

go to

the conquest of Jerusalem, he rode on a red camel,

with a wooden platter hanging at his saddle, with a bottle of water

and two

and the other dried

But there

will

sacks, one holding barley,

fruits.

dawn

ere long on our politics, on

our modes of living, a nobler morning than that Ara-

bian faith, in the sentiment of love.

This

one remedy for aU iUs, the panacea of nature.

must be possible.

lovers,

and

at once the impossible

Our age and

years, has not

history, for these

the

becomes

thousand

been the history of kindness, but

MAN THE REFORMER.

240

of selfislmess. Our distrust is very expensive. The money we spend for courts and prisons is very ill laid out. We make, by distrust, the thief, and burglar, and incendiary, and by our court and jaU we keep him so. An acceptance of the sentiment of love throughout Christendom for a season would

bring the felon and the outcast to our side in

with the devotion of his faculties to our

tears,

service.

See this wide society of laboring

men and women.

We allow ourselves

by them, we

to be served

apart from them, and meet in the streets. rejoice in their

We do

them without a

live

salute

not greet their talents, nor

good fortune, nor

foster their hopes,

nor in the assembly of the people vote for what dear to them. ish noble

world.

Thus we enact the part

of the

and king from the foundation

self-

of the

See, this tree always bears one fruit.

every household, the peace of a pair

poisoned by

the malice, slyness, indolence, and alienation of domestics.

Let any two matrons meet, and observe

how soon

their conversation turns

on the troubles

from their " help" as our phrase knot of laborers the rich

among his

friends,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

man

is.

In every

does not feel himself

at the polls

he finds them

arrayed in a mass in distinct opposition to him.

complain that the

politics of

masses of the

people are controlled by designing men, and led in opposition to

manifest justice and the common

MAN THE REFORMER. weal,

and

own

to their

241

But the people

interest.

do not wish to be represented or ruled by the ignorant and base.

They only vote

for these, because

they were asked with the voice and semblance of kindness.

They will not vote for them long. They and probity. To use an Egyp-

inevitably prefer wit tian metaphor,

it is

not their will for any long time

" to raise the nails of wild beasts, the. heads of the sacred birds."

flow out to our fellows

the greatest of

;

and

to depress

Let our

afEection

would operate in a day

work

It is better to

revolutions.

by the sun than by the wind. The State must consider the poor man, and aU voices must speak for him. Every child that is bom

institutions

must have a

Let the

just chance for his bread.

amelioration in our laws of property proceed from the concession of the rich, not from the grasping of

Let us begin by habitual imparting.

the poor.

Let us understand that the equitable rule

is,

that

no one should take more than his share,

let

him

be ever so

lover.

Let

rich.

the better for me, act.

see to

and

feel that it

to find

Love would put a new

to be

that the world

reward in the

face on this

weary old

world in which we dweU as pagans and enemies too long,

and

would warm the heart to

see

how

fast

the vain diplomacy of statesmen, the impotence of armies, VOL.

and

navies, 16

and

lines of defence,

would be

MAN TEE REFORMER.

242

superseded by this unarmed child.

where

Love

will creep

cannot go, wiU accomplish that by imper-

— being

ceptible methods,

— which

and power,

Have you not

its

own

lever, fulcrum,

could never achieve.

force

seen iu the woods, in a late autumn

morning, a poor fungus or mushroom,

—a

plant

without any solidity, nay, that seemed nothing but a soft

mush

jelly,

— by

its

inconceivably gentle pushing,

way up through lift

a hard crust on

human

obsolete it

manage

to break its

the frosty ground, and actually to

head ?

its

The

the power of kindness. in

constant, total, and

It is the symbol of

virtue of this principle

society in application to great interests

Once

and forgotten.

has been tried in illustrious instances, with

nal success.

tendom

;

sig-

This great, overgrown, dead Chris-

of ours

still

keeps alive at least the name

But one day

of a lover of mankind. lovers

or twice in history

all

men wiU be

and every calamity wiU be dissolved

in the

universal sunshine.

WUl you portrait of

suffer

man

add one

the reformer

trait

The

mediator be-

to this

tween the spiritual and the actual world should have a great prospective prudence. poet describes his hero

saying,

" Sunshine was he

In the winter day

And

in the

;

midsummer

CoohiesB and shade."

Arabian

;;

MAN THE He who

REFORMER.

243

would help himself and others should not

be a subject of irregular and interrupted impulses of virtue, but a continent, persisting,

person,

— such

and down

we have seen a few

immovable

scattered

in time for the blessing of the world

men who have ity

in the gravity of their nature a qual-

which answers to the fly-wheel in a miU, which motion equably over aU the wheels

distributes the

and hinders

from

falling unequally

in destructive shocks.

and suddenly

It is better that joy should

be spread over aU the day in the form of strength, than that full of

should be concentrated into ecstasies,

danger and followed by reactions.

a sublime prudence which

we know

— sure

There

the very highest that

of man, which, believing in a vast future,

come than

yet seen,

—

pones always the present hour to the whole

postlife

postpones talent to genius, and special results to character.

the merchant gladly takes

money

from

his

man

very willing to lose particular powers and

income to add to his

capital, so is the great tal-

ents, so that

he gain in the elevation of his

life.

The opening

of the spiritual senses disposes

men

ever to greater sacrifices, to leave their signal ents, their best

means and

skill of

ent success, their power and their fame, all

tal-

procuring a pres-

—

to cast

things behind, in the insatiable thirst for divine

communications.

purer fame, a greater power

244 rewards the

MAN THE REFORMER. sacrifice.

harvest into seed.

groimd the

finest ears

come when we too

It is the conversion of our

the farmer casts into the of his grain, the time will

shall hold nothing back, but

more than we now possess into means and powers, when we shall be willing to sow the sun and the moon for seeds. shall eagerly convert

LECTURE ON THE TIMES. BEAD AT THE MASONIC TEMPLE, BOSTON, DECEMBER

18tL

—

LECTUEE ON THE TIMES.

The

Times, as we say

of our social state, the

— or the present

aspects

Laws, Divinity, Natural Sci-

ence, Agriculture, Art, Trade, Letters,

have their

root in an invisible spiritual reality.

To appear

must

in these aspects, they

some

or have

first exist,

Beside aU the

necessary foundation.

smaU

reasons

assign, there is a great reason for the existence

of every extant fact ; a reason which lies

grand and

immovable, often unsuspected, behind

in silence.

The Times

are the masquerade of the Eternities

Past leaves

its

;

the receptacle in which the

history

the genius of to-day

The Times

— the

;

the _c[uarry^out of which

building

up the Future.

nations, manners, institutions,

opinions, votes, are to be studied as omens, as sa-

cred leaves, whereon a weighty sense if

we have

Nature

and

inscribed,

the wit and the love to search

itself

;

tokens of noble and majestic

trivial to the dull,

agents to the wise

^ i

seems to propound to us this

to invite us to explore the

spicuous facts of the day.

out.

topic,

meaning of the con-

Everything that

pop-

LECTVRE ON THE TIMES.

248 ular, it

has been said, deserves the attention of the

and

phUosopher

although

may

this for the obvious reason, that

not be of any worth in

itself,

yet

characterizes the people.

Here

very good matter to be handled,

are skilful ; an abundance of important practical questions which

behooves

us to -understand.

Let us examine the pretensions and defending parties. Here is Conservatism, entrenched in

with Himmaleh for flank,

and Andes

Pacific seas for

planted

its

stripes,

and

its

front,

for its rear,

ditches

its

and

crosses,

of the

attacking

this great fact of

immense

redoubts,

and Atlas

for

and the Atlantic and

and trenches which has ;

crescents,

and

stars

whom

;

and

will,

Conservatism

whom

wlU I exclude and starve ;

and

bow

before

all the children of

when they

man by

his

I will ;

and

so says

men all

attack

but a

A necessity

imposed on the

condition, a deficiency in his rests.

Let

Meantime, on the

other

force, is

the foundation on which

this side

be fairly stated.

part, arises .Eeform,

all,

are old.

not yet commanded, a negative will of

I will, will I give

the colossus in their youth, and

few,

and

various signs and badges of possession,

over every rood of the planet, and says,

hold fast

its

and

offers

the

sentiment of

J[jove as an overmatch to this material might.

wish to consider well this affirmative

side,

which

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

249

has a loftier port and reason than heietofore, which encroaches on the other every day, puts countenance, out of reason, leaves

The

and out

out of

of temper,

and

nothing but sUence and possession.

fact of aristocracy, with its

two weapons of

commanding a feature of the nineteenth century and the American republic The reason as of old Rome, or modern England. wealth and manners,

and influence of wealth, the aspect of philosophy and

religion,

quired the

New

and the tendencies which have acof Transcendentalism in Old and

name

England; the aspect of poetry, as the expo-

nent and interpretation of these things

;

the fuller

development and the freer play of Character as a social

and

political agent

topics will in turn

come

But the subject

of the

question.

"We talk

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; these and other related be considered.

Times

not an abstract

of the world, but

few men and women.

mean your own

;

we mean a

If you speak of the age,

you

platoon of people, as Dante and

Milton painted in colossal their platoons, and called

them Heaven and

we do not go out

Hell.

In our_idea ^f_progress,

of this personal picture.

not think the sky wiU be bluer, or honey sweeter, or our climate

more temperate, but only tha,t _our wUl be simpler and_happieE.

relation to our feUows

What

the reason to be given for this extreme at-

traction which persons have for us, but that they

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

250 are tte

Age ?

they are the results of the Past

They

they are the heralds of the Future.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

;

indicate,

these witty, suffering, blushing, intimidating

fig-

ures of the only race in which there are individuals

or changes, it

drives

how far on the Fate has gone, and what As trees make scenery, and consti-

at.

tute the hospitality of the landscape, so persons are

A cunning mystery by which

the world to persons.

the Great Desert of thoughts and of planets takes this

engaging form, to bring, as

meanings nearer

to the

mind.

would seem,

Thoughts

its

valk and

me new and magnificent scenes. These are the pungent instructors who thrill the heart of each of us, and make all other teaching formal and cold. speak, and look with eyes at me, and transport into

How

I follow them with aching heart, with piaiag

desire

I count myself nothing before them.

would die for them with

How

they will with me.

tongues

How

joy.

they

They can do what

they lash us with those

make

the tears start,

make us

blush and turn pale, and lap us in Elysium to soothing dreams and castles in the air

tones of

triumph, of dear love, by threats, by pride that freezes, these

have the

skill to

make

the world look

bleak and inhospitable, or seem the nest of tenderness and joy.

do not wonder at the miracles

which poetry attributes to the music of Orpheus,

when I remember what I have experienced from

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

are an

They

the vamd.jD£>tes_of the hunianjvoice. incalculable energy which

251

countervails

other

all

forces in nature, because they are ihe channel of

There

supernatural powers.

man

could be

bom

into

redeem and replace that

no interest or

and withered, but

tution so poor

it.

the only fact

it,

he would immediately

personal ascendency,

much worth

of friends of order here in Boston,

—

I re-

considering.

member, some years ago, somebody shocked a that our people were

insti-

a new strong

circle

who supposed

identified with their religious

denominations, by declaring that an eloquent man,

—

him be

let

what

sect soever,

— would

or-

dained at once in one of our metropolitan churches.

To be

sure he would

;

and not only

in ours but in

any church, mosque, or temple, on the planet but he must be eloquent, able to supplant our method ;

and son

by the superior beauty of his own. we have was brought here by some per-

classification

Every

and there

;

pass

fact

none that will not change and

away before a person whose nature

broader

than the person which the fact in question represents.

And

so I find the

happy and hopeful natures,

Age walking about in strong eyes

ant thoughts, and think I read so,

and

pleas-

than in the statute-book, or in the investments

of capital, which rather celebrate with mournful

music the obsequies of the

last age.

nearer and truer

In the brain of a

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

252 fanatic

in tlie wild hope of a

;

know what be

;

mountain boy,

called

boys very ignorant, because they do not

city

his

hope has certainly apprised him

shall

in the love-glance of a girl ; in the hair-splitting

conscientiousness of some eccentric person

who

has

foimd some new scruple to embarrass himself and his neighbors withal is to be

found that which

shall

more than in the now organized and accredited oracles. For whatever is

constitute the times to come,

affirmative that only

and now advancing, contains

which

real

men

it.

_I think

love and_rejoice in;

not what they tolerate, but what they choose

;

what

they_embrace^and avow, and not the things which chill,

benumb, and

And

gallery ?

why

terrify them.

not draw for these times a portrait

Let us paint the

WhUst

painters.

Daguerreotypist, with camera^obscura and plate, begins

our Camera

Let

now also,

silver

to traverse the land, let us set up

and

let the

us paint the agitator,

school,

the

and the member

sun paint the people.

and the man

of Congress,

of the old

and the

col-

lege-professor, the formidable editor, the priest and

reformer, the contemplative

girl,

and the

pirant for fashion and opportunities, the

the world

who has

tried

and knows

amine how well she knows. indicators, indicate those

resent every good

and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

let

us ex-

Could we indicate

who most

evil

;

fair as-

woman

the

accurately rep-

tendency of the general

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

253

mind, in the just order which they take on vas

Time, so that

this can-

witnesses shoxild recog-

all

known form flitted waU, we should have a

nize a spiritual law as each well

moment

for a

across the

series of sketches

which would report

to the next

ages the color and quality of ours. Certainly I think

be much

if this

were done there would

to admire as well as to condemn

;

souls

of as lofty a port as

any in Greek or Roman fame

men

of great heart, of strong hand,

might appear

;

and of persuasive speech subtle thinkers, and men ;

of wide sympathy, and an apprehension which looks

over aU history and everywhere recognizes

To be

sure, there will

men, more than enough end in nothing or

its

own.

be fragments and hints of :

little.

bloated promises, which

And

then truly great

men, but with some defect in their composition

which neutralizes their whole

Damascus

blade, such as you

force.

may

Here

search through

nature in vain to parallel, laid up on the shelf in

some

village to rust

and

ruin.

And how many

seem not quite available for that idea which they represent ? Now and then comes a bolder spirit, I should rather say, a more surrendered soul, more

informed and led by God, which

vance of the

rest, qtiite

beyond

much

in ad-

their sympathy, but

what shall soon be the general fulness when we stand by the seashore, whilst the tide predicts

;

as ia

;

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

254 coming

in,

a wave comes up the beach far higher

than any foregoing one, and recedes long while none comes up to that

some time the whole sea

;

mark

and ;

for a

but after

there and beyond

it.

But we arejiot permitted to stand as spectators which the times exhibit; we are

of the pageant parties also,

and have a

der and comparison that

shall play a

tem moves forward open before so

and

man's

us,

which

responsibility

not

A little while this interval of won-

to be declined.

permitted us, but to the end

manly

and certain

life.

part.

the solar sys-

in the heavens, certain stars

The

stars close

up behind us

reputations that were great

inaccessible change

and

How

tarnish.

were once Lord Bacon's dimensions

reduced almost to the middle height

;

great

now

and many

another star has turned out to be a planet or an teroid

no parallax, or none for

The change and

us.

cline of old reputations are the gracious

our own growth. steals

de-

marks

Slowly, like light of morning,

of it

new fact, that we who were pupils now society do compose a portion head and heart we are wont to think worthy

us, the

or aspirants are of that

as-

only a few are the fixed stars which have

aU reverence and heed. We are the representatives of religion and intellect, and stand in the of

light of Ideas,

whose rays stream through us

those younger and more in the dark.

What

further

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

256

we sustain, what new lodges we are entering, is now unknown. To-day is a king in^isguise. To-day always looks mean to the thoughtless, in the relations

face of an uniform experience that all good and

great and happy actions are

made up

precisely of

Let us not be

so deceived.

Let us unmask the king as he passes.

Let us not

these blank to-days.

inhabit times of wonderful

and various promise Let us not

without divining their tendency. the foundations of nations,

see

and of a new and better

order of things laid, with roving eyes, and an attention preoccupied with

trifles.

The two omnipresent

parties

History, the

party of the Past and the party of the Future, vide society to-day as of old. able multitude of those

who

Here

di-

the innumer-

accept the state and

the church from the last generation, and stand on

no argume nt but possession. also, and, as

monly done

stated.

They have reason

I think, better reason than

is comBurke, no Metternich has yet

full justice to the side of conservatism.

But

however large^ relying not_on_theinÂąelbut on the instinct, blends itself with the brute

this class, lect

forces of nature, is respectable only as nature is; but the individuals have no attraction for us. It is the dissenter, the theorist, the aspirant, who is quitting this

ancient domain to

ture,

who engages

embark on

our interest.

seas of adven-

Omitting then for

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

256

the present all notice of the stationary shall find that the,

into

two

The

movement ^arty

classes, the actors,

and the

actors constitute that great

class,

divides itself

students.

army

of martyrs

who, at least in America, by their conscience and philanthropy ,joccupy:J;he ground which Calvinism

occupied in the last age, and_compose the

^church of

J;he

existing generation.

age will be marked by the reform of domestic, astical institutions.

its

visible

present

harvest of projects for literary,

civil,

The

The and

ecclesi-

leaders of the crusades

against War, Negro slavery. Intemperance, Government based on force. Usages of trade. Court and

Custom-house Oaths, and so on to the agitators on the system of Education and the laws of Property, are the right successors of Luther, Ejiox, Eobinson, Fox,

Penn, Wesley, and Whitfield.

They

have the same virtues and vices

;

impulse, and the same bigotry.

These movements

are on all accounts important

;

tiie

same^noble

they not only check

the special abuses, but they educate the conscience

and the

intellect of the people.

How

can such a

question as the Slave-trade be agitated for forty years

all

the Christian nations, without throw-

ing great light on ethics into the general mind?

The fury with which

the slave-trader defends every

inch of his bloody deck and his howling auctionplatform,

a trumpet to alarm the ear of mankind,

;

LECTURE ON TEE TIMES.

257

wake the dull, and drive aU neutrals to take sides and to listen to the argument and the verdict. The Temperance-question, which rides the converr sation of ten thousand circles, and is tacitly recalled

at every public

with

it all

and

at every private table,

drawing

the curious ethics of the Pledge, of the

Wine-questicm, of the equity of the manufacture

and the

a gymnastic training to the

trade, is

cas^

Anti-masonry

and had a deep right and wrong, which gradually conscience of the time.

uistry

emerged

The

out of the turbid controversy.

sight

touching the Banks

political questions

Tariff

;

the limits of the executive power

;

the

the right

of the constituent to instruct the representative;

the treatment of the Indians the Congress of nations ethical conclusions

and our

these alembics

and

social order.

after

;

social order

and

the Boundary wars

;

are all pregnant with

;

well

government

can extricate themselves from

find themselves

The

still

government

student of history will here-

compute the singular value of our endless

discussion of questions to the

mind

of the period.

Whilst each of these aspirations and attempts of the people for the Better

magnified by the nat-

ural exaggeration of its advocates, until

excludes

the others from sight, and repels discreet persons

by the unfairness of the ple a, the movements are in reality all parts of one TOL. 1."

movement.

There

LECTURE ON TEE TIMES.

258

perfect ctain,

—

emergLng from

see

it,

or see

— of

not,

the surrounding

cherisHngôioeârtôfJjtue_general

must be seen in order Seen in

idea,

and

any

justice to

all

one.

this their natural connection, they are sub-

The conscience

lime.

reforms

darkness, each

Age

of the

demonstrates

it-

man by putting

self in this effort to raise the life of

harmony with his idea of the Beautiful and the Just. The history of reform is always identiit

calj^it js

the comparison of the idea with the.

Our modes

of living are not agreeable to our imag-

ination.

fact.

suspect they are unworthy.

ar-

They appear to us unworthy unfit, of the faculties we spend on them. In conversation with a wise man, we find ourselves apologizing for our employments we speak of them with shame. Nature, literature, science, childhood, appear to us beautiful; but not our own raign our daily employments.

;

daily work, not the ripe fruit of

and considered

everything else, certainly accuses life

should

Why

lead. it

should

the manner of

be hateful ?

Why

contrast thus with all natural beauty

Why

should

Is there a necessity that the

labors

This beauty which the fancy finds

man.

not be poetic, and invite and raise

should be sordid ?

Perhaps

Idea in the mind springs the

not.

works of man

— Out

of this fair

effort at the Perfect.

It is the interior testimony to a fairer possibili^of

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

259

Jife^and^ manners which^ agitates society every day with the offer of some

would make more gin,

strict

new amendment.

inquiry concerning

its ori-

find ourselves rapidly approaching the in-

ner boundaries of thought, that term where speech

becomes

silence,

origin of

reforaa, is in that

moral

of the

alone can

mysterious fountain

sentiment in man, which, amidst the

natural, ever

That

and science conscience. _ For the

cont^i^^e Tsupernatural

for

men.

new and creative. That is^live^ That make a man other than he is. Here or

nowhere

resides

unbounded energy, unbounded

power.

The new

voices in the wilderness crying "

Re-

pent," have revived a hope, which had weU-nigh

perished out of the world, that the thoughts of the

mind may

yet, in

hour, be executed

some distant age, in some happy

by the hands.

of ^Gclfail otiier hopesare parts.

That

the hope,

For some

ages,

these ideas have been consigned to the poet

and

musical composer, to the prayers and the sermons of churches

;

but the thought that they can

ever

have any footing in real Hfe, seems long since to have been exploded by all judicious persons. Milton, in his best tract, describes a relation

religion

and the daUy occupations, which

between is

true

to his pleasure

and

until this time.

A wealthy

man, addicted

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

260 to his

religion

profits, finds

tangled,

and

many

be a

traffic so en-

piddling accounts, that

of all mysteries he cannot skiU to keep a stock go-

What

ing upon that trade.

should he do?

he woidd have the name to be religious

;

Fain

fain he

in that.

What

does he therefore, but resolve to give over

toiling,

would bear up with his neighbors

and and

some

to find himself out

credit he

may commit

his religious affairs

tion that

must

;

associating with

mendatory of

his

say his religion is

man

him a

adheres, resigns the

religion,

into his custody

very person of that

whose care

some divine of note and estima-

To him he

be.

whole warehouse of his

and keys,

factor, to

the whole managing of

;

with alL the locks

and indeed makes the

his religion

;

esteems his

sufficient evidence

and com-

own piety. So that a man may now no more within himself, but

become a dividual moveable, and goes and comes

near him, according as that good the house.

entertaias

feasts him, lodges

him

;

his religion

night, prays, is liberally supped, laid to sleep sey, or

;

man

frequents

him, gives him

rises, is saluted,

gifts,

comes home

and sumptuously

and

after the

malm-

some weU spiced bruage, and better break-

fasted than he whose

morning appetite would have

gladly fed on green figs between Bethany and Je-

rusalem, his religion walks abroad at eight, and leaves his kind entertainer in the shop, trading

day without

his religion."

all

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

261

This picture would serve for our times.

Relig-

ion was not invited to eat or drink or sleep with us,

make

or to

or divide an estate, but was a holiday

Such omissions judge the church

guest.

as the

;

compromise made with the slaveholder, not much noticed at

first,

every day appears more flagrant

But now

mischief to the American constitution.

the purists are looking into all these matters.

intelligent are

They wish

of Marriage.

to see the character re-

There

presented also in that covenant.

nothing brutal in the

woman,

it,

but

much

as the

shall

honor the

the law of Property,

spirit

and accuses men

looks into

of driving

trade in the great boundless providence which

given the

air,

eye on Trade, and

Day Labor, and

and down, paving the earth with

are preparing

It casts

so it goes

eyes, destroying

privacy and making thorough-lights.

nothing

had

the water, and the land to men, to

use and not to fence in and monopolize. its

shall

man and

most diffusive and uni-

Grimly the same

versal action.

The

growing uneasy on the subject

Is all this for

you suppose that the reforms which

wiU be

as superficial as those

know?

By books

the books it

reads and translates, judge what

wUl presently

print.

A great deal

of the

profoundest thinking of antiquity, which had be-

come

good as obsolete for

us, is

now

re-appear-

;

LECTURE ON TEE TIMES.

262

ing in extracts and allusions, and in twenty years

See how daring

will get all printed anew.

the

reading, the speculation, the experimenting of the

now some

time.

who

genius shall arise

unite these scattered rays

And

genius does embody the ideas^ of each time. is

Here

great variety and richness of mysticism, each

now only

part of which the "

could

alway;s_such_ a

forms

thought of some poor Perfectionist or

sole

Comer

disgusts whilst

when

out," yet

some

garniture of

shall

be taken up as the

profound and aU-reconeiling

thinker, will appear the rich

and appropriate

decor-

ation of his robes.

These reforms are our contemporaries ourselves

they only

our own

;

name

light,

and

sight,

and

;

they are

conscience

the relation which subsists between

us and the vicious institutions which they go to tify.

They

are the simplest statements of

these matters

;

the plain right and wrong.

rec-

man

I can-

not choose but allow and honor them. The impulse is

good, and the theory

ful.

The Keformers

they do not trust

it,

;

the practice

is less beauti-

affirm the inward

life,

but

but use outward and vulgar

means. They do not rely on precisely that strength

which wins

to their cause

;

not on love, not on

a principle, but on men, on multitudes, on circumstances,

on money:,_on jpajtyj_that

wrath, and pride.

The

is,

love which lifted

fear,

men

LECTURE ON TEE TIMES.

263

the sight of these better ends was the true

and best

distinction of this time, the disposition to trust

principle

more than a material

the soul of reform

;

force.

I think that

the conviction that not sensual-

ism, not slavery, not war, not imprisonment, not

even government, are needed,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

biit in lieu of

aU, reliance on the sentiment of

work best the more

it is

them

man, which

will

trustedTnbt reliance on

numbers, but, contrariwise, distrust of numbers and

when most The young men who have been

the feeling that then are private

and

alone.

vexing society for these

strongest

last years

methods seem to have made

this

vnth regenerative

mistake

they

;

all

;

exaggerated some special means, and aU failed to see that the

Eeform

Reforms must be accom-

plished without means.

The Reforms have justice,

They

their high origin in

an ideal

but they^io not retain the purityjof-ait-idea.

are quickly organizedTiTsome low, inadequate

form, and present no more poetic image to the

mind than the

evil tradition

which they reprobated'.

They mix the fire of the moral sentiment with personal and party heats, with measureless exaggerar tions, and the blindness that prefers some darling measure to

justice

and

truth.

Those who are urg-

ing with most ardor what are called the greatest benefits of

ceited

mankind, are narrow, self-pleasing, con-

men, and

affect us

arihe insane do

They

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

264 bite us,

and we run mad

I think

also.

tlie

work

the reformer as innocent as other work that

around him not like is

but when I have seen

;

done profanely, not piously

tactics

and clamor.

done

near, I do

done in the same way,

It is

better.

a buzz in the

It is

by management, by

;

ear.

cannot feel any pleasure in sacrifices which display to

such partiality of character.

^^_do

want actionsj^butmen not a chemical drop ;

ter,

but rain

the spirit that sheds and showers ac-

;

tions, countless, endless actions.

occasion played a bold part.

heart and face against society

wrong, and returned lent

not

of wa-

now can

You have on some You have set your

when you thought

frown for frown.

Excel-

you^fford) to forgeLit, reckoning^^

your action no more than the passing of your hand through the

The world

air,

or a

little

breath of your mouth

leaves no track in space, and the great-

est action of

man no mark

in the vast idea.

the youth diffident of his ability and fuU of com-

punction at his unprofitable existence, the temptation is always great to lend himself to public move-

ments, and as one of a party accomplish what he

cannot hope to effect alone. the degradation of a

man

But he must

to a measure.

resist

I must

get with truth, though I should never come to as

you

tion.

call

it,

with

effect.

act,

I must consent to inac-

A patience which is grand

;

a brave and cold

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

neglect of the offices

wMch

265

prudence exacts, so

be done in a deep upper piety

a consent to

soli-

tude and inaction which proceeds out of an unwillingness to violate character,

makes the gem. press the respect

the century which ex-

and joy I

feel before this sublime

now

in their infancy around

connection of reforms us,

Whilst therefore I desire to

I urge the more earnestly the paramount duties

of self-reliance..

I cannot find language of

cient energy to convey

of private integrity.

suffi-

sense of the sacredness

All men, aU things, the

state,

the church, yea the friends of the heart are phan-

tasms and unreal besideJ;he_sanctuary of the heart.

With

much

awe, with so

much

fear, let it

re-

spected.

The

great majority of men, unable to judge of

any principle aware of the

evil that is

men, or slaveholders, or

Then they

persons.

on a

fact, are

not

around them until they

some gross form, as in a

see it in

ate

until its light faUs

class of intemper-

soldiers, or fraudulent

are greatly

moved

;

and mag-

nifying the importance of that wrong, they fancy that

that abuse were redressed all

and they

fill

Hence the missionary, and other If

would go

well,

the land with clamor to correct

it.

religious efforts.

every island and every house had a Bible,

every child was brought into the Sunday School,

would the woimds of the world upright

heal,

and man be

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

266

But the man

ideas,

accountingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;tkeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;ciisuiQ-

Istaace nothing, .judges of the_CQmmonw:.ealtL_irom. (

the state of his

own mind.

'If,'

says,

selfish,

then

lish

wherever I go.

there no slavery, let the laws say what they will.

For

it,

I 'treat

there slavery, or the effort to estab-

men

all

be any such thing

But

as gods,

as a slave ?

how

just,

But how

then

can there frivolous

your war against circumstances.

_iiig_philanthropist

word and

me ?

Does he

look.

Jhis denounc-

himself a slaveholder in every

free

me ?

Does he cheer

the state of Georgia, or Alabama, with

on our

their sanguinary slave-laws, walking here

"We are

northeastern shores.

no more

political power, as

ourselves.

graphical.

obduracy

swears,

;

am am

so thin

how

trivial

are fond of liberty

afraid our virtue

and I can

and

thankful he has

little

not mortified by our vice

colors

our virtue makes

all

and

palters,

end

see to the

me ashamed

;

so sour

;

seem the contests of the

curses and ;

but I own

and narrow,

Then

blind, virtue so vice-like.

geo-

that

again,

abolitionist,

whilst he aims merely at the_ circumstance of the

Give the slave the

slave.

least elevation of relig-

I /

ious sentiment,

slave

;

and he

no slave

;

you are the

he not only in his humility feels his superior-

much

ity, feels

that

a fading

trifle,

deplored condition of his to be

but he makes you feel

it too.

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

267

The exaggeration which our young

the master.

them-

people

make

of his wrongs, characterizes

selves.

What

are no trifles to them, they naturally

think are no

trifles to

Pompey.

sacred in

origin} in

its

These benefactors hope to

timid and profane. raise

movement is management and details,

say then -that the reforming

man by improving

bination of that which

something

alive.

his circumstances

by com-

dead they hope to make

vain.

By new

infusions alone

by which he is made and directed, can he be re-made and reinforced. The sad Pestalozzi, of the spirit

who shared with

all

ardent spirits the hope of Eu-

rope on the outbreak of the French Revolution, after witnessing its sequel, recorded his conviction

that "the amelioration of outward circumstances

wiU be the

effect

but can never be the means of

mental and moral improvement."

Quitting

the class of actors, let us turn to see

how

now

stands

with the other class of which we spoke, namely, the

(5.

studentej_

new

disease has fallen on the life of

human body, has

man.

Every Age,

like every

distemper.

Other times have had war, or famine,

its

own

or a barbarism, domestic or bordering, as their an-

tagonism.

and went of Sin

Onv

forefathers walked in the world

to their graves

tormented with the fear

and the terror of the Day

Judgment.

LECTURE ON TEE TIMES.

268

These terrors have

ment

lost their force,

and our

tor-

Unbelief, the Uncertainty as to what we

we do, and the distrust that the Necessity (which we all at last believe in) is fair and beneficent. Our EeHgion assumes the negative form of rejection. Out of love of the true, we repudiate the false; and the Religion is an abolishing criticism. A great perplexity hangs like a cloud on the brow of

..ought to

;

the distrust of the value of what

a certain imbecility in the

all cultivated persons,

best

do not find the same

Hebrew,

in Greek,

no,

The

men

nothing. find

men

peri-

a natural firmness.

their foot strong,

mistrust, every step

and doubted

take.

the worst thing about time that

not what to do with that

Arabian, in the

did not see beyond the need of the

They planted

hour.

trait in the

Roman, Norman, English

but in other

ods;

which distinguishes the period.

spirits,

we can

neither

it.

we know

are so sharp-sighted

work nor

think, neither read

Plato nor not read him.

Then

there

tendency.

what

Can

called a too intellectual

there be too

much

intellect ?

have never met with any such excess.

But the

levelled at the laws

and man-

criticism which ners,

ends, in

method. -of

life.

thought,

without

The genius

causing

of 'the

dayHoes

incline to a deed, but to a beholding.

new not

It is not

LECTURE ON THE TIMES. men do

that

not wish to act

ployed, hut are paralyzed

;

they pine to be em-

work

of the

the painful perception which keeps

the faculties

them

This happens to the best.

still.

what

the uncertainty

The jnadequacy

they should do.

269

Then,

tal-

ents bring their^jisuaLtemptations, and the current

and poetry with perverse ingenuity draw

literature

us away from

could tary

;

life to solitude

weU be borne, if if the men were

and hurried

into

and meditation.

This

were great and iavolun-

ravished by their thought, Society

ascetic extravagances.

could then manage to release their shoulder from its

wheel and grant them for a time this privi-

But they are not

lege of sabbath.

which was a rage,

become an

art.

gives-me results,, and never invites ent with

him

joy with

him

little

Thinking,

so.

The thinker

at his invocation of truth, its

be pres-

and

to en-

proceeding into his mind.

action amidst such audacious and. yet

sincere profession, that

we begin

doubt

great revolution in the art of war, which has it

that

made

a game of posts instead of a game of battles, has

not operated on Eeform

;

whether this be not also

a war of posts, a paper blockade, in which each party

spirit

and

to display the utmost belief,

and no

resources

conflict occur,

of his

but the

world shall take that course which the demonstration of the truth shall indicate.

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

270

But we must pay they call I think care

for being too intellectual, as

People are not as light-hearted for

it.

men

never loved

and doubt ever wrote

their

on the faces of any population.

which we Saxons had no name, has got a

terrific

names

it.

so legibly

This Ennui, for

this

significance.

and bereaves the day

I question

life less.

word

of its light.

of France

shortens

Old age

life,

begins

in the nursery, and before the young American

put into jacket and trowsers, he says, 'I want something which I never saw before;' and 'I wish I was not

I have seen the same gloom on

I.'

the brow even of those adventurers from the lectual class

who had dived

success into active

sign

life.

iatel-

deepest and with most

I have seen the authentic

anxiety and perplexity on the greatest

forehead of the State.

The canker worms have

crawled to the topmost bough of the wild elm, and

swing down from the atmosphere?

that.

Is there less oxygen in

What

has checked in this age

the animal spirits which gave to our forefathers their

bounding pulse ?

But have a

little

patience with this melancholy

humor. ..Theit_unkelieÂŁ_mses_out of a greater Belief action.

tors

;

their inaction out of a scorn of inadequate

the side of these men, the hot agita-

have a certain cheap and ridiculous

even look smaiierthan~ffie~otEers^

air

;

they

the two, I

LECTURE ON THE TIMES. owfi t like the speculators best.

271

They have some

piety which looE'wrffijSittto^a fair Future, un-

profaned by rash and unequal attempts to realize

And

it.

when we is

truly

much

shall find

to console us,

consider the cause of their imeasiness.

the love of ^greatness,

the need of harmony,

it is

the contrast of the dwarfish Actual with the exor-

No man

bitant Tdea.

can compare the ideas and

aspirations of the innovators of the present

day

how The revolutions not now from ambi-

with those of former periods, without feeling great and high this criticism

is.

that

impend over

society are

tion

and

from impatience of one or an-

rapacity,

other form of government, but from

which

thinking,

new

order,

science,

shall

new modes

which shall animate labor by love and

which

of property

shall destroy the value of

and replace

all

many kinds

property within the

dominion of reason and equity.

There was never

so great a thought laboring in the breasts of

as now.

reeompose society after a

It almost

seems as

men

what was aforetime

spoken fabulously and hieroglyphically, was now spoken plainly, the doctrine, namely, of the indwelling of the Creator in man.

The

spiritualist wishes

this only, that the spiritual principle should

suf-

fered to demonstrate itself to the end, in all possible applications to the state of

man, without the

admission of anything unspiritual, that

is,

anything

; ;

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

272

The

positive, dogmatic, or perso nal.

this class consists in this, that they that, affirmiag the

of living

and

excellence of

have believed

need of new and higher modes

action, they

have abstained from the

recommendation of low methods.

Their fault

that they have stopped at the intellectual perception

;

that their

wiU

not yet iaspired from the

But whose fault is this ? and what a fault, and to what inquiry does it lead! We have come to that which is the spring of aU power, of beauty and virtue, of art and poetry

Fountain of Love.

and who

shall tell us according to

spirations

holden

and

its

what law

its in-

informations are given or with-

I do not wish to be guilty of the narrowness and

pedantry of inferring the tendency and genius of the

Age from

sons.

and

a few and insufficient facts or per-

Every age has a thousand tendencies,

and

it is

only

sides

and signs

when surveyed from

inferior points of view that great varieties of char-

fuU of

and

acter appear.

Our time

performance.

Is there not somethiag comprehen-

sive ia the grasp of ical invention

too

and

activifry

a society which to great mechan-

and the best

iustitutions of property

adds the most daring theories subtlest

;

which explores the

most universal problems?

manifest risk of repeating what every other

has thought of

itself,

we might

say

we think

the

Age the

LECTURE ON THE TIMES. Genius

of this

Age more pMosopHcal than

other has heen, righter in fear, less fable, less

But turn

the deep farj^that

_The main

its

wiU, as

thp,

mean-

this

drives us to

child of the Eter-

is thft

which any aspects of

interest

Times can have for

sort.

we ponder

new thought

TimPi

any-

aims, truer, with less

mixture of any

how we

ing of the times, every

nity.

273

the

the great spirit which

us, is

gazes through them, the light which they can shed

on the wonderful questions.

Whither we tend?

Here we. drift,

how

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but

now darkling

poor weather-tossed^ mariners

pass, or

nal, or floated to us

in the trough

from what port did we

Who knows? Or to what port Who knows ? There is no one to we speak

are? and

do not wish to be deceived.

like white sail across the wild ocean,

bright on the wave,

of the sea

What we

some

are

we bound?

tell

us but such

hoisted some sig-

letter in

a bottle from

But what know they more than w^?_ Toundfhemselves on

this

wondrous

the older sailors, nothing.

whom

ourselves,

a^s

who have

sail ?

sea.

Over aU

They

;

far.

also

from

their speaking-

trumpets, the gray sea and the loud winds answer.

Not

ia us

selves,

;

not in Time.

Where

then but in Our-

where but ia that Thought through which we

communicate with absolute nature, and are made aware that whilst we shed the dust of which we are built, VOL.

grain by grain, tiU I.

all

gone, the law

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

274

which clothes us with humanity remains anew?

where but in

the_intuitioiLS_

us from within, shall less, faithless,

we fancy

which are vouchsafed

learn the Truth ?

part and are not, and do not

know that

much

living

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; immortal

this law.

Underneath

that which

is,

de-

that only

as the law enters us, becomes us,

men,

the law and

the perception of the law are at last one as

Faith-

that with the dust

are

with the immortality of these

all

appearances

lies

that which lives, that which causes.

This ever renewing generation of appearances rests

on a

reality,

To a

and a

reality that is alive.

true scholar the attraction of the aspects of

nature, the departments of his experience,

him

life,

and the passages

of this_supreme nature

which lurks withia aU.

The

That realityj^that caiSing force _is moral.

Moral Sentiment

its

and ite

simply the information they yield

but

its

other name. ~Il makes

presence or absence right and wrong, beauty

ugliness, genius or depravation.

comes to the surface and towers

mountains, and,

we dig down, we

the gran-

into the highest

find

below the

superficial strata, so in aU. the details of our domestic

or civil life

hidden the

eleniental_reality,

which

ever and anon comes to the surface, and forms the

grand men, who are the leaders and examples, rather than the companions of the race. ite is

The

gran-

curiously concealed under a thousand forma.

;

LECTWRE ON THE TIMES. and

tions

and

surfaces,

of these, slight life

fertile soils,

and

but

cities,

but sure signs.

and in weeping eyes

is it

I read

;

the humility of people

;

grasses,

fields,

its

I read

and in

all praise

by-

in glad

in the pride

it is

presence

with the Life of our

and

recognized in every

bargain and in every complaisance, in every cism,

and

makes the foundation

always indicating

so close does that also hide.

;

and

under well-manured, arable

flowers,

large towns

under

275

criti-

it is voted for at elections

;

wins the cause with juries

;

rides the stormy

eloquence of the senate, sole victor; histories are written of

it,

holidays decreed to

churches, built to

and

shun

its

when

honor it

;

yet

statues, tombs,

;

men seem

comes barely

to fear

view in our

immediate neighborhood.

For that

reality let us stand

Only

and for that speak.

;

that let us serve,

as far as iAaÂŁ_shines

through them are these times or any tim es worth consideratioh.

I wish

to speak of the politics, ed-

and

religion around us without

ucation, business,

ceremony or

false deference.

You

will absolve

from the charge of flippancy, or malignity, or the

whomwhen you see that reality is all we prize, and that we are bound on our entrance into nature desire to say smart things at the expense of soever,

to speak for that.

own memories

Let

that in this

not be recorded in our

moment

of the Eternity,

LECTURE ON THE TIMES.

276

when we who were named by our names across the light, we were afraid of any fact, graced the fair

Day by

a pusillanimous preference

of our bread to our freedom.

what

the

new thought

man for,

You

What

the scholar,

but for hospitality to every

Have you leisure, power,

of his time?

property, friends

flitted

or dis-

shall

be the asylum and

patron of every new thought, every unproven opinion, every untried project

which proceeds out of

good will and honest seeking. all the

All the newspapers,

tongues of to-day will of course at

fame what is noble

;

first de-

but you who hold not of to-day,

not of the times, but of the Everlasting, are to stand for it: ceives

and the highest compliment man ever refrom heaven is the sending to him its dis-

guised and discredited angels.

THE CONSEEVATIVE. A

LECTUEB DELIVBKED AT THE MASONIC TEMPLE, BOSTON, DECEMBER 9, 1841

THE CONSEEVATIVE.

The two

parties

of Conservatism old,

wHch

divide the state, the party

and that of Innovation, are very

and have disputed the possession of the world

ever since

was made.

ject of civil history.

This quarrel

The

lished the reverend hierarchies

The

the most ancient world.

and

plebeian, of parent state

The war rages not only and

councils

the sub-

and monarchies

battle of patrician

and colony, of old

age and accommodation to new

and the poor, reappears

conservative party estab-

facts, of

in all countries

us-

the rich

and times.

in battle-fields, in national

ecclesiastical

synods, but

agitates

every man's bosom with opposing advantages every hour. one,

now

renews

rolls the old

world meantime, and now

the other gets the day, and stiU the fight

itself as

names and^ot Such an

for the first time,

irreconcilable

antagonism of

must have a correspondent depth

man

constitution.

Future, of

under new

personalities.

course

of seat in the hu-

It is the opposition of Past

Memory and Hope,

and

of the Understand-

THE CONSERVATIVE.

280 ing and

Reason.

tlie

It is the primal antagonism,

the appearance in trifles of the two poles of nature.

There

somehow

a fragment of old fable which seems

to have been

may

mythologies, which

dropped from the current deserve attention, as

ap-

pears to relate to this subject.

Saturn grew weary of

with none

sitting alone, or

but the great Uranus or Heaven beholding him,

and he created an

Then he would

oyster.

act

made nothing more, but went on Then Uranus cried,

again, but he

creating the race of oysters. '

new work,

Saturn

the old

not good

again.'

Saturn replied, I '

There

fear.

not only the

making and not making, but Seest thou the great sea, how

alternative of

also of

unmaking.

and flows?

so is

I put forth

with

me my power ;

thine

;

and

;

and

hands, I shall not do, but imdo.

Therefore I do what I have done

have got

ebbs

so I resist

;

I hold what I

Night and Chaos.'

Saturn,' replied Uranus, 'thou canst not hold

own but by making more.

Thy

oysters are

barnacles and cockles, and with the next flowing of

the tide they will be pebbles and sea-foam.' '

see,' rejoins

Saturn, 'thou art in league with

Night, thou art become an evil eye

from love ;

now thy words smite

;

thou spakest with hatred.

THE CONSERVATIVE.

281

I appeal to Fate, must there not be rest ?

appeal to Fate

be motion ?

also,'

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; But

said Uranus,

Saturn was

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 'I

must there not

and went

silent,

on making oysters for a thousand years. After

mind

that, the

word of Uranus came

and he made Jupiter

like a ray of the sun,

and then he feared again things that were

into his

and nature

;

froze, the

made went backward, and

to save

the world, Jupiter slew his father Saturn.

This

may

stand for the earliest account of a con-

versation on politics between a Conservative

Eadical which has come down to us. thus.

It is the counteraction of the centripetal

and the centrifugal lient

and a

It is ever

energy

movement.

;

Innovation

forces.

the sa-

Conservatism the pause on the last

'That which

saith Conservatism.

was made by God,'

is is

leaving that, he

is en'

tering this other,' rejoins Innovation.

There

ment

always a certain meanness in the argu-

of conservatism, joined with a certain superi-

ority in its fact.

It affirms because it holds.

fingers clutch the fact, to see a better fact. is set

and

The

will not

castle

open

its

which conservatism

to defend is the actual, state of things,

and bad.

The

project of innovation

possible state of things.

Its

eyes

good

the best

course conservatism

always has the worst of the argument,

always

apologizing, pleading a necessity, pleading that to

THE CONSERVATIVE.

282

change would be to self

ileteriorate

must saddle

it-

with the mountainous load of the violence and

must deny the ^possibility of good, and suspect and stone the prophet^?^

vice of society,

deny

ideas,

whilst iniiovation ant, attacking,

always in the right, triumph-

and sure of

final success.

Conser-

vatism stands on man's confessed limitations,

form on

re-

his indisputable^ infinitude ; conservatism

on circumstance, liberalism on power

make an

adroit

member