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LECTURES

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

BOSTON HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street dte Jfttoergiiie $re$s, Camfcri&Be 1891

A. 5

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The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Company. ELectrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton

)

ftitoetgi&e <Â£&ition

LECTURES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES BEING VOLUME

EMERSON'S COMPLETE WORKS

NOTE.

the pieces included in this volume the

fol-

lowing, namely, those from the " Dial," " Character,"

" Plutarch," and the biographical sketches of

Dr. Kipley, of Mr. Hoar, and of Henry Thoreau,

were printed by Mr. Emerson before I took any

The

part in the arrangement of his papers.

except the sketch of Miss

rest,

Mary Emerson, I

got

ready for his use in readings to his friends or to a limited public.

He had

tice of lecturing,

but would sometimes, upon special

given up the regular prac-

request, read a paper that

him from

in the preface to " Letters

some former new.

had been prepared

his manuscripts, in the

Some

and Social Aims,"

of these papers he afterwards allowed

The

Man

of Letters," "

The

" Historic Notes of Life and Letters in land,"

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

lecture serving as a nucleus for the

to be printed ; others, namely, " Aristocracy," "

ucation," "

for

manner described

Mary Moody Emerson,"

Ed-

Scholar,"

New Eng-

are

now pub-

lished for the first time. J. E.

CABOT.

CONTENTS. Demonology

Aristocracy

Perpetual Forces

Character

!—Ebucation

123

The Superlative

157

The Sovereignty of Ethics

175

The Preacher

207

The Man of Letters

229

The Scholar

247

Plutarch •*

275

Historic Notes of Life and Letters in

New

Eng-

land

305

The Chardon Street Convention

349

(Ezra Ripley, D. D

355

Mary Moody Emerson

371

Samuel Hoar

405

Thoreau Carlyle

419 .

453

DEMONOLOGY.

Night-dreams

trace

on Memory's wall

Shadows of the thoughts

And

thy fortunes as they

The

of day,

fall

bias of thy will betray.

In the chamber, on the Lurking dumb,

Go and come Lemurs and Lars.

stairs^

DEMONOLOGY. 1

The name Demonology

covers dreams, omens,

coincidences, luck, sortilege, magic,

and other

ex-

periences which shun rather than court inquiry, and

deserve notice chiefly because every

man

has usually

in a lifetime two or three hints in this kind which

They

are specially impressive to him. light

also shed

on our structure.

The

witchcraft of sleep divides with truth the

empire of our

This soft enchantress

lives.

visits

two children lying locked in each other's arms, and carries sea,

them asunder by wide spaces

and wide

intervals of time :

" There

a sleeping

What

lies

city,

God

of land

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

dreams

and

an unreal and fantastic world

Is going

on below

Within the sweep of yon enciroling wall

How many Wide

a large creation of the night,

wilderness and mountain, rock and sea,

Peopled with busy, transitory groups, Finds room to 1

From

and never

feels the

the course of lectures on "

Boston, 1839-40. 1877.

rise,

crowd."

Human

Life," read in

Published in the North American Review,

DEMONOLOGY.

10 'T

superfluous to think of the dreams of multi-

tudes, the astonishment

dream

;

we -should

that

remains that one should

resign so quietly this deify-

ing Reason, and become the theatre of delirious shows, wherein time, space, persons,

cities,

should dance before us in merry and sion

;

animals,

mad

confu-

a delicate creation outdoing the prime and

flower of actual nature, antic

with horrid pictures.

comedy alternating

Sometimes the forgotten

companions of childhood reappear

—

" They come, in dim procession led,

The cold, the faithless, and the dead, As warm each hand, each brow as gay,

they parted yesterday: "

—

we seem busied for hours and days in peregrinaand lands, in earnest dialogues, strenuous actions for nothings and absurdities, cheated by spectral jokes and waking suddenly or

tions over seas

with ghastly laughter, to be rebuked by the cold, lonely, silent midnight,

the

memory among motive

Dreams

and

to rake with confusion

the gibbering nonsense to find

this

contemptible

cachinnation.

are jealous of being

remembered; they dissipate instantly and angrily if you try to hold them. When newly awaked from lively dreams, we are so near them, still agitated by them, still their sphere,

in us one syllable, one feature, should repossess the whole j hours

— give

one hint, and we

DEMONOLOGY.

of this strange entertainment would

back to us first

come trooping

but we cannot get our hand on the

;

and the whole

link or fibre,

There

is lost.

a strange wilfulness in the speed with which perses

and

baffles

it dis-

our grasp.

dislocation seems to be the foremost trait of

A painful

dreams.

The

tends them.

imperfection almost always at-

fairest forms, the

most noble and

by some pitiful and The very landscape and scen-

excellent persons, are deformed

insane circumstance.

ery in a dream seem not to

fit

some other person

'or cloak of

cumber the wearer

;

us,

but like a coat

to overlap

and en-

so is the ground, the road, the

house, in dreams, too long or too short, and

if it

how

accu-

served no other purpose would show us

man awake. one memory of waking and

rately nature

There sleep.

are

fits

another of

In our dreams the same scenes and fancies

many

times associated, and that too,

seem, for years.

In sleep one

would

shall travel certain

roads in stage-coaches or gigs, which he recognizes as familiar,

and has dreamed that ride a dozen

times; or shall walk alone in familiar fields and

meadows, which road or which meadow in waking hours he never looked upon.

This feature of

dreams deserves the more attention from

its

singu-

lar resemblance to that obscure yet startling expe-

rience

which almost every person confesses in day

DEMONOLOGY.

light, that particular

passages of conversation and

him

action have occurred to fore,

same order be-

in the

a suspicion

whether dreaming or waking;

that they have been with precisely these persons in precisely this room,

and heard precisely

know

this dia-

not when.

some former hour, they Animals have been called "the dreams of na-

logue, at

Perhaps for a conception of their conwe may go to our own dreams. In a

ture."

sciousness

dream we have the

instinctive obedience, the

torpidity of the highest power, the

same

same unsur-

prised assent to the monstrous as these metamor-

men

phosed

exhibit.

Our thoughts

in a menagerie, on the other hand,

mind us

our dreams.

these imprisoning forms

What

awaken

in a stable or

may

well re-

compassion do

You may

catch

the glance of a dog sometimes which lays a kind of claim to

sympathy and brotherhood.

somewhat

me down

Can he

What!

Does he know

it ?

go out of himself, see himself,

too, as I,

perceive relations

there

fear lest the poor brute

should gain one dreadful glimpse of his condition, should learn in some moment the tough limitations of

this

fettering

organization. It was in this glance that Ovid got the hint of his metamorphoses; Calidasa of his transmigration of souls. For these fables are our own thoughts carried out.

What

keeps those wild tales in circulation for

DEMONOLOGY. thousands of years

What

but the wild fact to

which they suggest some approximation of theory

Nor own

the fact quite solitary, for in varieties of our

species

where organization seems to predom-

inate over the genius of

or Flathead Indian, the same feeling

;

man,

are

and sometimes too the sharp-

man awakens

witted prosperous white

mixed assembly we

Kalmuck

Malay sometimes pained by

In a

it.

have chanced to see not only a

glance of Abdiel, so grand and keen, but also in other faces the features of the mink, of the bull, of

You

the rat, and the barn-door fowl. the

man

own

overlook his

think, could

condition, he could not

be restrained from suicide.

Dreams have a

poetic integrity

limbo and dust-hole of thought

a certain reason, nature

to us to

and

This

truth.

presided over by

Their extravagance from

too.

yet within a higher nature.

suggest an abundance and

thought not familiar to

the waking

They seem fluency of

experience.

They pique us by independence of us, yet we know mad crowd, and owe to dreams a kind of divination and wisdom. My dreams are not me they are not Nature, or the Not-me they They have a double consciousness, at are both. once sub- and ob-jective. We call the phantoms ourselves in this

;

that rise, the creation of our fancy, but they act

ike mutineers, and

fire

on their commander

;

show-

DEMONOLOGY.

is biing that every act, every thought, every cause, counteraction. the contained is act the polar, and in If I strike, I am struck ; if I chase, I am pursued.

"Wise and sometimes terrible hints shall in them

be thrown to the

ligence.

his life

man

shall

by the

out of a quite

intel-

justice as well as the significance of

Once

this phantasmagoria. fetters shall

unknown

be startled two or three times in

seem

ance attained.

or twice the conscious

be unlocked, and a freer utter-

prophetic character in all ages

They are the maturation

has haunted them.

often

of opinions not consciously carried out to statements,

but whereof we

already possessed the elements.

Thus, when awake, I know the character of Rupert,

but do not think what he

him engaged terous, cruel,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; out of

may do. In dreams

I see

in certain actions which seem preposall

fitness.

frightful,

prophecy a year

he is a poltroon.

later.

But

hostile,

It turns out

was already

mind as character, and the sibyl dreams merely embodied

in fact.

Why then

should not symp-

toms, auguries, forebodings be, and, as one said, the moanings of the spirit

by this experience into the high Cause, and acquainted with the identity

are let

region of

of very unlike-seeming effects.

We learn

that ac-

whose turpitude is very differently reputed proceed from one and the same affection. Sleep

tions

DEMONOLOGY.

takes off the costume of circumstance, arms us with

every will rushes to a

terrible freedom, so that

deed.

knowledge

skilful

man reads

yet not the

;

dreams for

his

details,

his self-

but the quality.

What

part does he play in them,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

cheerful,

manly

part, or a poor drivelling part ?

However

monstrous and grotesque their apparitions, they

The same remark may

have a substantial truth.

be extended to the omens and coincidences which

may have

Goethe said

all it is true that

always latent in the individual.

" These whimsical pictures, inasmuch

as they originate

from

ogy with our whole

The

astonished us.

the reason of them

us,

life

may

and

well have an anal-

fate."

soul contains in itself the event that shall

presently befall

it,

for the event

izing of its thoughts.

It is

only the actual-

no wonder that partic-

ular dreams and presentiments should fall out and

be prophetic.

few

The

fallacy consists in selecting

insignificant hints

the same sense.

when

all

are inspired with

one should exhaust his aston-

ishment at the economy of his thumb-nail, and overlook the central causal miracle of his being a man.

Every man goes through the world attended with innumerable facts prefiguring (yes, distinctly an-

nouncing) his

fate, if

only eyes of sufficient heed

and illumination were fastened on the sign

always there,

The

sign.

only the eye were also

;

just

DEMONOLOGY.

speckled sunshine and as under every tree in the spot of light is a every shade no man notices that hour the perfect image of the sun, until in some moon eclipses the luminary ; and then first we notice that the spots of light have

become

crescents, or

annular, and correspond to the changed figure of

the sun.

knows

;

Things are significant enough, Heaven where is he ? but the seer of the sign,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

doubt not a man's fortune

may

by palmistry

lines of his hand,

;

be read in the

in the lines of his

by physiognomy ; in the outlines of the skull, by craniology the lines are all there, but the The long waves indicate to the inreader waits. structed mariner that there is no near land in the face,

direction from which they come.

Belzoni describes

the three marks which led him to dig for a door to What thousands had bethe pyramid of Ghizeh.

held the same spot for so

many

ages,

and seen no

three marks

Secret analogies

tie

together the remotest parts

of nature, as the atmosphere of a is filled

summer morning

with innumerable gossamer threads run-

ning in every direction, revealed by the beams of the rising sun.

All

and betraying.

glance and step and "

Head with

And both

life,

man

all creation, is tell-tale

reveals himself in every

movement and

rest

foot hath private amity,

with moons and tides."

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

DEMONOLOGY.

Not a mathematical axiom bat is a moral rule. The jest and byword to an intelligent ear extends its

meaning to the soul and

productions of

man

to all time.

Indeed,

all

are so anthropomorphous that

not possibly can he invent any fable that shall not

have a deep moral and be true in senses and to an extent never intended by the inventor. the bravest tales of

Homer and

the poets,

Thus all modern

philosophers can explain with profound judgment of law and state

and

ethics.

Lucian has an

tale that Pancrates, journeying

idle

from Memphis to

Coppus, and wanting a servant, took a door-bar

and pronounced over

magical words, and

stood

up and brought him water, and turned a spit, and carried bundles, doing all the work of a slave. "What

is this

but a prophecy of the progress of art ?

For Pancrates write Watt or Fulton, and for "magical words " write " steam ;" and do they not

make an

iron bar and half a dozen wheels do the

work, not of one, but of a thousand skilful mechanics ? " Nature," said Swedenborg, "

much demand on our

makes almost

faith as miracles do."

I find nothing in fables more astonishing than experience in every hour. life is

One moment

And

of a man's

a fact so stupendous as to take the lustre out

of all fiction. call the occult

The

lovers of marvels, of

and unproved

sciences, of

what we

mesmer-

DEMONOLOGY.

ism, of astrology, of coincidences, of intercourse, by writing or by rapping or by painting, with de-

parted lity

spirits,

because

need not reproach us with incredu-

are slow to accept their statement.

It is not the incredibility of the fact, but

a certain

want of harmony between the action and the agents. We are used to vaster wonders than these that are In the hands of poets, of devout and sim-

alleged.

ple minds, nothing in the line of their character

and genius would surprise

us.

But we should look

for the style of the great artist in pleteness and harmony.

it,

look for com-

Nature never works like

a conjuror, to surprise, rarely by shocks, but by infinite

graduation

so that

;

live

embosomed

sounds we do not hear, scents we do not smell, spectacles

and by innumerable impressions

see not,

so softly laid on that though important

discover

For

them

Spiritism,

shows that no

Then

to give evidence.

sincere

we do

not

until our attention is called to them.

among them,

man

almost

is fit

I say to the amiable and

these matters are quite too im-

portant than that I can rest them on any legends. If I have no facts, as you allege, I can very well

wait for them.

content and occupied with

my eyes and ears show me, such as humanity and astronomy. any others are important to me they will cer-

such miracles as I know, such as daily If

tainly be

shown

me.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; DEMONOLOGY.

In times most credulous of these fancies the sense

was always met and the superstition rebuked by the reason and humanity.

grave

spirit of

tor

told that the

When

Hec-

omens are unpropitious, he

re-

plies, "

One omen

the best, to fight for one's country."

Euripides said, "

and he

guesses well,

who

not the best prophet

is is

man whose

not the wisest

guess turns out well in the event, but he who, whatever the event be, takes reason and probability for " Swans, horses, dogs and dragons,"

his guide."

says Plutarch, " cles of the

distinguish as sacred,

and

vehi-

Divine foresight, and yet we cannot be-

men are sacred and favorites of Heaven." The poor shipmaster discovered a sound theology, when in the storm at sea he made his prayer to

lieve that

Neptune, wilt,

and

God, thou mayst save

me if thou me but, Let me add

thou wilt thou mayst destroy

however, I will hold

my rudder

true."

;

one more example of the same good sense, in a story quoted out of Hecateus of

Abdera

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

As I was once travelling by the Red Sea, there was one among the horsemen that attended us named Masollam, a brave and strong man, and according to the tes-

timony of archer.

all

the Greeks

Now

and barbarians, a very

way, an augur called out to them to stand

man

skilful

while the whole multitude was on the

inquired the reason of their halting.

still,

and

this

The augur

DEMONOLOGY.

20 showed him a

bird,

where he was,

;

and told him,

The Jew

they must return.'

and some

but

Why

said nothing, but bent his

This act offended

But he

to utter im-

replied,

How

'Where-

could this fowl give us any

wise directions respecting our journey,

turity,

remain

he flew back

are you so foolish as to take care of this

unfortunate bird?

not save his

remained

all to

and they began

others,

precations against the Jew. ?

;

shot the bird to the ground.

the augur

fore

If that bird

would be better for them

he flew on, they might proceed

bow and

own

life ?

Had he known

when he

could

anything of fu-

he would not have come here to be killed by the

arrow of Masollam the Jew.' It is not the tendency of our times to ascribe im-

portance to whimsical

omens.

But the

pictures

faith in peculiar

takes another form in the

sleep,

or to

and alien power

modern mind, much more

resembling the ancient doctrine of the guardian genius.

The

belief that particular individuals are

attended by a good fortune which makes them desirable

associates in

any enterprise of uncertain

success, exists not only

in political

among

and military

those

who take

part

projects, but influences all

commerce and affairs, and a corresponding assurance in the individuals so distinguished meets and justifies the expectation of

joint action of

others

hand,

by a boundless sir," said

self-trust.

Napoleon

" I have a lucky

to his hesitating

Chan.

DEMONOLOGY. cellor; "those

thing."

whom

This faith

I lay

21 are

fit

for any-

familiar in one form,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

often a certain abdication of prudence and foresight is

an element of success

that children

;

and young

persons come off safe from casualties that would

have proved dangerous to wiser people. not think the young will be forsaken

;

but he

do is

when the sub-miraculous

fast approaching the age

external protection and leading are withdrawn and

committed to his own

care.

The young man

takes a leap in the dark and alights safe.

As he

comes into manhood he remembers passages and persons that seem, as he looks at them now, to

have been supernaturally deprived of injurious fluence on

But he

could not see.

may no

in-

His eyes were holden that he

him.

longer run.

learns that such risks he

observes, with pain, not

that he incurs mishaps here and there, but that his

genius, whose invisible benevolence was tower and shield to him,

no longer present and

In the popular

avoiding millions, speaking to one. tions, fairies, angels

and

itism; so do the agents as sorcerers

active.

ghosts are a selecting tribe,

belief,

saints

In our

show the

tradi-

like favor-

and the means of magic,

and amulets.

This faith in a doting

power, so easily sliding into the current belief everywhere, and, in the particular of lucky days

and fortunate persons,

as frequent in

America

to-

DEMONOLOGY.

day as the faith in incantations and philters was in old Rome, or the wholesome potency of the sign of

modern Rome,

the cross in

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

this

supposed power

runs athwart the recognized agencies, natural and

Heeded

moral, which science and religion explore.

though is

be in

many

make

and partnerships,

actions

not the power to which

and prayers, or which we regard

liturgies

build churches, or in

passing laws, or found college professorships to ex-

Goethe has said in his Autobiography

pound.

what

much

to the purpose

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

" I believed that I discovered in nature, animate and inanimate, intelligent and brute, somewhat which manifested itself only in contradiction,

not be grasped by a conception, It

was not

god-like, since

human,

since

was beneficent

marplot. quel.

;

not angelic, since

not

it is

often a

showed no

se-

pointed at con-

to deal at pleasure with the necessary ele-

ments of our constitution tended space.

Only

which seemed

;

shortened time and ex-

in the impossible

and the possible

seemed

to de-

to repel with contempt.

This,

to insert itself

between

to sever them, to bind them, I

after the

;

devilish,

All which limits us seemed permeable to that.

seemed

light,

by a word.

had no understanding; not

resembled chance, since

less

seemed unreasonable

It resembled Providence, since

nection. It

and therefore could

much

all

other things,

named the Demoniacal, example of the ancients, and of those who had

observed the

like.

DEMONOLOGY.

" Although every demoniacal property can manifest the corporeal and incorporeal, yes, in beasts too

itself in

in a remarkable manner, yet

derful relations with men,

stands specially in won-

and forms

in the

moral world,

though not an antagonist, yet a transverse element, so that the former

may

be called the warp, the latter the

For the phenomena which hence

woof.

are countless names, since

originate there

philosophies and religions

all

have attempted in prose or in poetry to solve

and

to settle the thing once for

this riddle,

as indeed they

all,

may

be allowed to do. "

But

when

demonic element appears most

this

shows

an individual.

itself as

off.

They

In the course of

able to observe several such,

mind or

fruitful

the determining characteristic in I have been

life

some near, some farther

are not always superior persons, either fn

They seldom recommend themselves

in talent.

But a monstrous

through goodness of heart.

force goes

out from them, and they exert an incredible power over all creatures,

how

and even over the elements who

far such

an influence

may

extend

;

shall say

All united

moral powers avail nothing against them. the clear-headed part of ceivers or deceived,

mankind

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

mass

discredit is

or never do they meet their match poraries

verse

;

In vain do

them

attracted.

among

their contem-

they are not to be conquered save by the uni-

itself,

against which they have taken up arms.

Out of such experiences doubtless arose the monstrous proverb, 1

as de-

Seldom

Nobody

against

God

strange,

but God.' "

Goethe, Wahrhek >tnd Dichtung, Book xx.

;

DEMONOLOGY.

It would be easy in the political history of every time to furnish examples of this irregular success, men having a force which without virtue, without

shining talent, yet makes them prevailing.

A power

equal appears in the field against them. goes out from them which draws to favor them.

men and

all

events

The crimes they commit, the ex-

posures which follow, and which would ruin any other man, are strangely overlooked, or do more strangely turn to their account.

down

I set

these things as I find them, but how-

ever poetic these twilights of thought, I like day-

and I

light,

find

blindman's-buff,

somewhat

when men

wilful,

mysteriously of the demonological. tion

that the

known

some play

as wise as

Goethe talk

The

insinua-

eternal laws of morals and

matter are sometimes corrupted or evaded by this gipsy principle, which chooses favorites and works in the dark for their behoof

;

the laws of the

Father of the universe were sometimes balked and eluded by a meddlesome Aunt of the universe for

her pets.

You

will observe that this extends the

popular idea of success to the very gods foster a success to

you which

;

that they

not a success to

all

that fortunate men, fortunate youths exist, whose

good

not virtue or the public good, but a private

good, robbed from the rest.

madness, corrupting

all

who hold

a midsummer-

the tenet.

The

DEMONOLOGY. demonologic

name

only a fine

Nature's settled purpose to postpone.

common

one world

who

all

for egotism;

exaggeration namely of the individual,

are

whom

it is

" There

awake, but

each sleeper betakes himself to one of his own."

Dreams retain the infirmities of our character. The good genius may be there or not, our evil genius is sure to stay. The Ego partial makes the dream the Ego total the interpretation. Life is also a dream on the same terms. The history of man is a series of conspiracies to ;

win from Nature some advantage without paying for

It is curious to see

it.

have a hint of and are

Heaven

is to

what grand powers we

mad

to grasp, yet

how slow

trust us with such edge-tools.

" All

that frees talent without increasing self-command is

noxious."

Thus the fabled ring

ing the wearer invisible, which

modern is

fable

of Gyges,

by the telescope as used by Schlemil,

A new or private language,

simply mischievous.

used to serve only low or political purposes transfusion of the blood tal as to

sal

;

the

the steam battery, so fa-

put an end to war by the threat of univer-

murder the desired discovery ;

loon, are of this kind.

enough in the flying

mak-

represented in

city

through the

of the guided bal-

Tramps

are troublesome

and in the highways, but tramps air 1

and descending on the lonely Heraclitus.

DEMONOLOGY.

traveller or the lonely farmer's house or the bank-

Men

messenger in the country, can well be spared. are not

fit

to be trusted with these talismans.

Before we acquire great power we must acquire

wisdom

to use

Animal magnetism

it well.

inspires

the prudent and moral with a certain terror; so the divination of contingent events,

and the alleged There are

second-sight of the pseudo-spiritualists.

many

things of which a wise

man might

you would the

The

butcher. netic

secrets of the undertaker

and the

best are never demoniacal or mag-

leave this limbo to the Prince of the power

;

The

of the air.

lowest angel

height of the animal

Power

vine.

Great

men

as such

;

and

is better.

It is the

below the region of the

;

feel that

their selfishness

mane

wish to

Shun them

be ignorant, and these are such.

not

known

to the angels.

they are so by sacrificing

falling

in renouncing

di-

back on what

hu-

family, clan, country, and

each exclusive and local connection, to beat with the pulse and breathe with the lungs of nations.

Highland

chief,

an Indian sachem or a feudal

baron

may fancy that

made

specially for

the mountains and lakes were

him Donald, or him Tecumseh

that the one question for history his house,

renown

;

and future ages

will

be busy with his

that he has a guardian angel

not in the roll of

;

the pedigree of

;

that he

common men, but obeys

a high

DEMONOLOGY. family destiny

;

when he

acts,

unheard-of success

evinces the presence of rare agents fall

he dies banshees in foreign parts. this

;

what

him, omens and coincidences foreshow will

;

to be-

when

announce his fate to kinsmen

What more facile than

to project

exuberant selfhood into the region where indi-

viduality

by generic and cosmi-

forever bounded

The deepest

cal laws ?

flattery,

and that

which

we can never be insensible, is the flattery of omens. We may make great eyes if we like, and say of

whom

one on over

him

Universe precise

But we know

and

the sun shines, "

What

luck presides

that the law of

one for each and for

There

all.

the is

as describable a reason for every fact

occurring to him, as for any occurring to any man.

Every is

fact in

which the moral elements intermingle

not the less under the dominion of fatal law.

Lord Bacon uncovers

the

magic when he

" Manifest virtues procure reputation fortune."

Thus the

so-called fortunate

who, though not gifted to speak listen, or to act

;

when

says,

occult ones,

man

with grace or with understanding

to great ends, yet is one who, in actions of a

common

one

the people

pitch, relies

on his

instincts,

low

and simply

does not act where he should not, but waits his time,

and without effort acts when the need is. If you add a fitness to the society around him,

to this

you have the elements of fortune

;

so that in a par-

DEMONOLOGY.

and knot of affairs he is not so much hand of nature and time. Just and work exactly together, hand eye and fasten only to the mark with a stone he has

ticular circle

his

own man

as his to hit

as the

his eye firmly true,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

so the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

on the mark and his arm will swing main ambition and genius being be-

stowed in one direction, the lesser

and

spirits

most men

in-

The

voluntary aids within his sphere will follow. that they are busybodies

;

not wait the simple movement of the soul, but

in-

fault of

terfere

and thwart the instructions

of their

own

minds. Coincidences, dreams, animal magnetism, omens,

sacred

lots,

have great interest for some minds.

They run into this twilight and say, "There's more than is dreamed of in your philosophy." Certainly these facts are interesting, and deserve

But they are attention, and not

be considered.

share of

Nil magnificurn,

nil

generosum

only to

entitled

a large sapit.

Let

share. their

value as exclusive subjects of attention be judged of

by the

infallible test of the

state of

mind

which much notice of them leaves us. Read a page of Cudworth or of Bacon, and we are exhilarated and

armed

manly

duties.

ogy or Colquhoun's Report, and

Read demonol-

we are bewildered

and perhaps a little besmirched. "We grope. They who love them say they are to reveal to us a

DEMONOLOGY.

But sup-

world of unknown, unsuspected truths.

pose a diligent collection and study of these occult facts

were made, they are merely physiological, semi-

medical, related to the machinery of man, open-

how we problems why we

and no aid on the live, and what we do.

ing to our curiosity superior

While

the

dilettanti

live,

have been prying into the

humors and muscles of the

men

eye, simple

will

have helped themselves and the world by using their eyes.

And

this is not the least

the adepts have developed.

remarkable fact which

Men who had

wondered at anything, who had thought

never

the most

natural thing in the world that they should exist in this orderly

and replenished world, have been

unable to suppress their amazement at the dis-

The peculiarity of Animal Magnetism is that it drew in as inquirers and students a class of persons never on any other occasion known as students and inquirers. Of course the inquiry is pursued closures of the somnambulist.

the history of

on low principles.

Animal m agnetism

becomes in such hands a black

art.

peeps.

The

the thing, the commodity, the power, at once to

mind and

direct

the

course

uses of

come

inquiry.

seemed to open again that door which was open to

the

and

imagination of childhood

fairies

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; of

magicians

and lamps of Aladdin, the travelling

DEMONOLOGY.

and the sword

swiftness

shoes of

cloak, the

sharpness that were to satisfy the uttermost wish of the senses without danger or a drop of sweat,

But

be outwitted, as in the

as Nature can never

Universe no

man was

known

ever

to get a cent's

worth without paying in some form or other the cent, so this prodigious promiser ends always and

sorcery and alchemy have done be-

always

will, as

fore, in

very small and smoky performance.

Mesmerism

high

life

below

Momus

stairs;

playing Jove in the kitchens of Olympus.

a low curiosity or lust of structure, and

rated

celestial

these things in any

manner with the

them

sanctions.

bows

to the sun

This

to prefer halos

and moon.

cide.

and

we must

rain-

These adepts have

Were

which they report as the voice of

really such,

super-

to the lofty place of motives

mistaken flatulency for inspiration. drivel

spir-

religious na-

and sentiment, and a most dangerous

stition to raise

and

sepa-

diameters from the love of

It is wholly a false view to couple

itual truths.

ture

'Tis

find out a

I say to the table-rappers

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

this

spirits

decisive sui-

" I well believe

Thou

And

They

are

useful to

wilt not utter

what thou dost not know,

so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate."

ignorant

all

that

healthy and

know, and by laws of kind,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; dunces

DEMONOLOGY.

seeking dunces in the dark of what they call the spiritual

noises

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; preferring

world,

new

rappings a

test,

and

snores

the voice of any muse.

gastric

think the

blue litmus or other

chemical absorbent, to try catechisms with.

detects organic skepticism in the very heads of the

Church.^ "Tis a lawless world.

have

left

the

geometry, the compensation, and the conscience of the daily world, and come into the realm or chaos

and pretty or ugly confusion

of chance

and no

body tors

virtue,

believes only after

his

Meantime

no sanity,

foot-rule,

whim and whim

no guilt

humor, and the

and spectators have no conscience or police,

;

but a droll bedlam, where everyac-

reflection,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; nothing

but

creative.

far be from

the impatience which

cannot brook the supernatural, the vast; far be

from me the

lust

explaining away all

which

appeals to the imagination, and the great presenti-

ments which haunt to

the

us.

Willingly I too say, Hail

unknown awful powers which transcend

the ken of the understanding. tion which this topic has

duces

had

for

And the attracme and which in-

to unfold its parts before

you

precisely

because 1 think the numberless forms in which this superstition

has re-appeared

in every time

and

every people indicates the inextinguishableness of

wonder

man

;

betrays his conviction that behind

DEMONOLOGY.

your explanations

all

a vast and potent and

liv-

ing Nature, inexhaustible and sublime, which you cannot explain. He is sure no book, no man has

him

told

all.

sure the great Instinct, the

circumambient soul which flows into him as

into

has not been searched.

all,

and

his

life,

is sure that intimate relations subsist between his

character and his fortunes, between

will is

him and

his

and until he can adequately tell them he tell them wildly and fabulously. Demonology

world

;

the shadow of Theology.

The whole world

an omen and a

look so wistfully in a corner of God.

The

Why

Man

sign.

Why

the Image

run after a ghost or a dream

voice of divination resounds everywhere and

runs to waste unheard, unregarded, as the mountains echo with the bleatings of cattle.

ARISTOCRACY.

But

thou do thy best,

Without remission, without

And And Even

And

invite the

abhor to feign or seem to those

who

thee should love

thy behavior approve

If thou go in thine

rest,

sunbeam,

health or be

own

;

—

likeness,

sickness,

—

If thou go as thy father's son, If thou

wear no mask or

lie,

Dealing purely and nakedly,

—

„

AEISTOCRACY. 1

There

attractive topic,

out of vogue and

— the an

permanent

traits of the Aristocracy.

human

interest of the

and

inevitable, sacred

which never goes

impertinent in no community,

company

It is

race, and, as I look at

it,

be found in every country

and

in every

it is

that concern which all well - disposed persons

of men.

will feel, that there should

concern with

be model men,

— true

instead of spurious pictures of excellence, and,

possible, living standards.

I observe that the word gentleman

heard in

all

companies

the best young

;

gladly

that the cogent motive with

men who

are revolving plans and

forming resolutions for the future,

the spirit of

They do not

honor, the wish to be gentlemen.

yet covet political power, nor any exuberance of wealth, wealth that costs too

wish

be saints

;

much

;

nor do they

for fear of partialism

;

but the

middle term, the reconciling element, the success of 1

First read

as a lecture

—

England

printed with additions from other papers.

—

1848

;

here

ARISTOCRACY.

36 the

manly

character, they find in the idea of gentle-

be a

It is not to

man.

man

honor, accomplished in

which seems chief of our is

of rank, but a arts

all

modern

;

art of a

man

intellectually held, that

;

true

A reference to society

society.

gentleman

generosities,

them the right mark and the

part of the idea of culture

man

and

;

science of a gentle-

poetry in a gentleman for their

is,

own

sake, for

what they are for their universal beauty and not for economy, which degrades them, worth; ;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

but not over-intellectually, that is, not to ecstasy,

en-

trancing the man, but redounding to his beauty

and

glory.

In the sketches which be surprised

I have to offer I shall not

readers should fancy that I

giving them, under a gayer It will not pain

cation.

title, if

found now and

then to rove from the accepted and theoretic peerage true, that I

if it

a chapter on Edu-

historic, to a

should turn out, what

describing a real aristocracy, a chap-

Templars who

sit

indifferently in all climates

and under the shadow

of all institutions, but so

ter of

few, so heedless of badges, so rarely convened, so little in

sympathy with the predominant

nations, that their

politics of

names and doings are not

re-

corded in any Book of Peerage, or any Court Journal, or

even Daily Newspaper of the world.

I find the caste in the man.

The Golden Book

ARISTOCRACY. of Venice, the scale

European

chivalry, the

Barons of England, the hierarchy of India with impassable degrees,

grade or centigraded Man. Aristocracy

lies

spirit,

found for

moods and

of the State in the

man

many-chambered

already organized in his moods and

Room

faculties.

its

each a transcript of the deci-

all

the departments

faculties of each hu-

with separate function and difference of

dignity.

The

terrible aristocracy that is in nature.

Real

people dwelling with the real, face to face un-

daunted

then, far down, people of taste, people

dwelling in a relation, or rumor, or influence of

good

and

fair,

entertained

it,

superficially

touched, yet charmed by these shadows far below these, gross

man, billows

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and,

and thoughtless, the animal

of chaos,

down

to the

dancing and

menial organizations, I

observe the inextinguishable prejudice

men

have in favor of a hereditary transmission of qualities.

It is in vain to

pears capricious.

and

remind them that Nature ap-

Some

qualities she carefully fixes

transmits, but some,

and those the

finer,

she

exhales with the breath of the individual, as too

But I notice also that they and permanent in any stock, by

costly to perpetuate.

may become

fixed

painting and repainting them on every individual, until at last Nature adopts

into her porcelain.

them and bakes them

ARISTOCRACY.

all

events I take this inextinguishable persua-

sion in men's

universe to riorities as

which

minds as a hint from the outward to inlay as many virtues and supe-

man

he can into this swift fresco of the day,

hardening to an immortal picture.

If one thinks of the interest

which

beauty of character and manners

;

men have

all

that

it is

importance to the imagination and

last

inspiring as

affection,

does that loyalty and worship so

sential to the finish of character,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

of the

es-

certainly, if cul-

ture, if laws, if primogeniture, if heraldry, if

money

could secure such a result as superior and finished

men,

would be the

interest of all

mankind

to see

that the steps were taken, the pains incurred. taxation,

no concession, no conferring of

privileges

never so exalted would be a price too large.

The old French Revolution attracted to its first movement all the liberality, virtue, hope and poetry

in Europe.

the abolition of kingship and aris-

tocracy, tyranny, inequality

Alas no !

;

and fierce

and poverty would

end.

tyranny, inequality, poverty, stood as fast as ever.

We likewise put faith in Democ-

racy ; in the Republican principle carried out to the

extremes of practice in universal suffrage, in the will of majorities.

The young adventurer

finds that the

relations of society, the position of classes, irk

sting him,

and he lends himself

party that assails what

and

to each malignant

eminent.

will one

;

ARISTOCRACY. day know that

this is not removable, but

tion in the nature of things

;

a distinct

that neither the caucus,

nor the newspaper, nor the Congress, nor the mob, nor the guillotine, nor

nor

fire,

all together,

can avail

to outlaw, cut out, burn, or destroy the offense of su-

periority in persons.

The manners,

which annoy me so much, are not built

on a real distinction

panion.

The

me, and

if this

the pretension,

in the nature of

superiority in

him

but

superficial,

com-

inferiority in

companion were wiped

particular

by a sponge out of nature,

my inferiority would still

me by

other persons everywhere

be made evident to

and every day. No, not the hardest utilitarian will question the value of an aristocracy

every

man

he love himself.

the universe proposes to

him

If a few grand natures should duties

and

For,

confesses that the highest good which

offices

make our bread

the highest society.

come

to us

and weave

between us and them,

would

ambrosial.

I affirm that inequalities exist, not in costume,

but in the powers of expression and action itive aristocracy

come here cannot

tell

;

and that we,

certainly,

;

a prim-

have not

describe well-dressed vulgarity.

how English

titles

are bestowed, whether

on pure blood, or on the largest holder in the threeper-cents.

The English government and people, 01 may easily make mistakes

the French government,

ARISTOCRACY.

but Nature makes none.

eon of hers

Every mark and

scutch-

indicates constitutional qualities.

science, in trade, in social discourse, as in the state, it is

Forever and ever

the same thing.

pound

lift

ety to this idea of the Gentleman, and sical

modern all

soci-

the whim-

tyranny of Fashion which has continued to en-

graft itself on this reverence, is a secret reality

This

takes a

a pound.

It is plain that all the deference of *

and love which ought the steel that

homage

to reside in every

man.

hid under gauze and

lace,

And

under flowers and spangles.

instead of this idolatry, a worship

;

it is

plain that

instead of this

impure, a pure reverence for character, a new spect for the sacredness of the individual man,

reis

that antidote which must correct in our country the disgraceful deference to public opinion, and the in-

sane subordination of the end to the means. the folly of too

much

association

to the repose of self-reverence

The game

of the world

man and

From

we must come back

and

trust.

a perpetual

trial of

The common Whatever happens is too much for him, he is drawn this way and that way, and his whole life is a hurry. The superior man is at home in his own mind. We like cool strength between

man

events.

the victim of events.

who neither hope nor fear too much, but seem to Lave many strings to their bow, and can

people,

ARISTOCRACY. survive the blow well enoixgh

fall, if

41 stock should rise

or their family should be dispersed

a slander very well little

;

indeed on

or no impression, and

firmness.

perficial life

of a central

What

money

parties should be broken up, if their

short,

and

who can stand events make

;

whom

who can

face death with

dislike every

mark

of a su-

and prize whatever mark

action,

life.

the meaning of this invincible respect

for war, here in the triumphs of our commercial civilization, that

we can never

trumpet and the drum runs away with

wheel ?

How

all

quite smother the

How is

that the sword

the fame from the spade

and the

sturdy seem to us in the history, those

Merovingians, Guelphs, Dorias, Sforzas, Burgundies

and Guesclins of the old warlike ages

can hardly believe they were

ows as we

;

all

such speedy shad-

that an ague or fever, a drop of water

or a crystal of ice ended them.

We give

From

the same advantage to-day.

soldiers

the most accu-

mulated culture we are always running back to the

sound of any drum and

fife.

in law-courts, in orchard

And

any

trade, or

and farm, and even

in sa-

loons, they only prosper or they prosper best

who

have a military mind, who engineer in sword and

cannon

style,

with energy and sharpness.

but because courage never loses

Why, but

because

we wish

its

Why,

high price?

to see those to

whom ex

ARISTOCRACY.

most adorned and attractive, foremost to for their object, and ready to answer for

istence is peril it

their actions with their life.

existence of an upper class

The

as long as is

it is

not injurious,

For

dependent on merit.

so long

provocation to the bold and generous.

distinctions

exist,

These

and they are deep, not

talked or voted away.

to be

If the differences are or-

power

so are the merits, that is to say the

ganic,

and excellence we describe are real. Aristocracy is the class eminent by personal qualities, and to

them belongs without assertion a proper influence. Men of aim must lead the aimless men of inven;

I wish catholic men,

tion the uninventive.

their science

and

skill are at

and longitude, who thoughts

men

;

home

who by

in every latitude

carry the world

of universal politics,

who

their

are inter-

ested in things in proportion to their truth and mag-

nitude

who know

;

the beauty of animals and the

laws of their nature,

whom

the mystery of botany

and the mineral laws

allures,

;

who

see general ef-

and are not too learned to love the Imagination, the power and the spirits of Solitude fects

;

men who

see the dance in men's lives as well as in

a ball-room, and can

which

feel

and convey the

sense

only collectively or totally expressed by a

men who are charmed by the beautiNemesis as well as by the dire Nemesis, and

population ful

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

;

ARISTOCRACT.

dare trust their inspiration for their welcome

would find

;

who

their fellows in persons of real elevation

of whatever kind of speculative or practical ability.

We are

fallen

on times so acquiescent and

tradi-

tionary that we are in danger of forgetting so simple a fact as that the basis of all aristocracy

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the doing what

be truth,

to be done.

One would

elsewhere

must

pretended

gladly see all our institu-

tions rightly aristocratic in this wise.

I enumerate the claims by which

men

enter the

superior class.

commanding

one finds the best tion, it is

In every company

talent.

man

;

and

there be any ques-

decided the instant they enter into any

practical enterprise.

powder, printing,

If the finders of glass, gun-

electricity,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the healer of

small-pox, the contriver of the safety lamp, of the

aqueduct, of the bridge, of the tunnel ers of parallax, of

new

;

planets, of steam

the find-

power for

boat and carriage, the finder of sulphuric ether and the electric telegraph,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

their secrets, or only

communicate them to each

these

must not the whole race

other,

them

as gods ?

aspect of

men

should keep

mankind

serve

It only needs to look at the social

England and America and France,

see the rank which original practical talent com-

mands.

Every survey

of the dignified classes, in ancient

ARISTOCRACY

44 or

modern

history, imprints universal lessons, and

And

establishes a nobility of a prouder creation.

Roman

the conclusion which

Senators, Indian Brah-

mins, Persian Magians, European Nobles and great

Americans

inculcate,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that which they preach

out

and glitter, out of their modern land-owning, even out of sen-

of their material wealth

old war and suality

and

sneers,

is,

that the radical and essential

distinctions of every aristocracy are moral.

not hearken to the men, but to the Destiny in the

institutions.

and

sincere

men

strong enough,

aristocracy for

whom

composed of simple

who say what they mean and

straight to their objects.

The

nature and ethics are

multiplication of monarchs

graph and daily news from daily papers,

and the

It is essentially real.

known by

tele-

all countries to the

effect of freer institutions in

England and America, has robbed the

title of

king

of all its romance, as that of our commercial consuls as

shall

add " Kings "

the Directory, as etc.

we do

in the " Contents" of

" Physicians," " Brokers,"

In simple communities, in the heroic

man was and

compared with the ancient Roman.

come

chosen for -his knack

living for that

;

got his name, rank

and the best

the aristocrat or king.

ages, a

of the best was

In the Norse Edda

ap-

pears as the curious but excellent policy of con-

tending tribes, when tired of war, to exchange host-

;

and

ages,

in reality each to adopt

from the other a

man, who thus acquired a new country

first-rate

was

ARISTOCRACY.

at once

made a

.keenly resented as

And

chief.

any fraud

In the heroic ages, as we formly has some real

no wrong was so

in this transaction.

them, the hero uni-

call

Homer

Ulysses in

talent.

represented as a very skilful carpenter.

the boat with which he leaves Calypso's

isle,

his

own

builds

and

and inlays

builds the

wooden

with gold and ivory.

Epeus

The English

down

horse.

nation

Northern

to a late age inherited the reality of the

In 1373, in writs

summons

members

of Parliament, the sheriff of every county

cause

"two dubbed

esquires, the

others

;

most expert in

feats of arms,

and of every city, two

in shipping

citizens,

and merchandising,

and

and no

of every skill

to be returned."

ancients were fond of ascribing to their no-

bles gigantic proportions

and

by a head than any

cast.

sever the iron bolt with his sword.

Roland, in the romance,

The

of his tribe.

can throw the bar a greater

The hero

strength.

must have the force of ten men. taller

knights, or the most worthy

borough, two burgesses, such as have greatest

The

palace carves a bedstead out of the trunk

of a tree

stock.

chief

Douglas

Richard can

The horn

heard sixty miles. The

Cid has a prevailing health that

will let

him nurse

the leper, and share his bed without harm.

And

ARISTOCRACY.

body is the pipe through which we tap all the succors and virtues of the material world, it is certain that a sound body must be at the root of since the

any excellence in manners and actions

and supple frame which and

spirits for all the

yields a stock of strength

on a supply of power

When

all extraordinary exertions.

;

man, she puts a symmetry between

a large brain, and joins to it

for

Nature goes

She moulds

the physical and intellectual powers.

ply

a strong

needs of the day, and gener-

ates the habit of relying

create a national

;

a great trunk to sup-

a fine alembic were fed with liquor

for its distillations from broad full vats

in the

vaults of the laboratory.

Certainly, the origin of most of the perversities

and absurdities that disgust us want of

Genius

health.

health and Virtue

we blame also

;

And tion.

is health.

in the half-great

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

resources

primarily, the

is,

health and Beauty

The

petty arts which

seem as odious to them

and despair. puny constituand we must say it

of weakness

the manners betray the like

Temperament

so often.

fortune,

In a thousand cups of

the right mixture,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

When

ing elements.

mixed man

good, with

fire

fine

life,

only one

adjustment to the

that befalls,

when the

exist-

well-

born, with eyes not too dull nor too

of impressions

enough and earth enough, capable

from

all things,

and not too suscep

ARISTOCRACY. tible,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; then no

brings with

gift

him

need be bestowed on him, he

fortune, followers, love, power.

ÂŤ I think he'll be to

Rome

sovereignty of nature."

the osprey to the

who

fish,

takes

Not the phrenologist but the philosopher may me see his brain, and I will tell you

well say, Let if

he shall be poet, king, founder of

cities, rich,

magnetic, of a secure hand, of a scientific memory,

a right

classifier

or whether he shall be a bun-

;

and

gler, driveller, unlucky, heavy,

tedious.

It were to dispute against the sun, to

I bring one bilities,

do with

man

into an estate, he sees

what others might, it.

privilege, land

fit

it.

this

when

vague capa-

could, would, or should

If I bring another

he should do with

deny

I see well enough that

difference of brain.

man, he

sees

what

appreciates the water-

for orchard, tillage, pasturage,

wood-lot, cranberry-meadow

;

but just as easily he

foresees all the means, all the steps of the process,

and could lay

his

hand

as readily on one as on an-

other point in that series which opens the capability to the last point.

the result; steps,

The poet

sees wishfully

the well-built head

supplies

one as perfect as the other, in the

ing this working head in him,

enough all

series.

the

See-

becomes to me as

certain that he will have the direction of estates, as that there are estates.

see tools in a

maga-

ARISTOCRACY.

an anchor, a plough, a pump, a paintbrush, a cider-press, a diving-bell, we can predict well enough their destination and the man's as-

zine, as

file,

;

sociations, fortunes, love, hatred, residence, rank,

the books he will buy, the roads he will traverse are predetermined in his organism.

him, and he

man

rich

Men will

and eminent by nature.

cannot be too late or too early.

Though

hurry or hesitate.

arrived, his seat is reserved.

That

Let him not

millions are already

Though

tend, they only multiply his friends

millions at-

and

never troubles the Senator what

need

agents.

multitudes

crack the benches and bend the galleries to hear.

He who tile

understands the art of war, reckons the hos-

battalions

and

cities,

opportunities

and

aristocracy could not exist unless

ganic.

even so

Men

are born to

command,

spoils.

were

and â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

or-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " come into the world booted and spurred

to ride."

The blood royal never

pays,

say.

obtains service, gifts, supplies, furtherance of

all

kinds from the love and joy of those who feel themselves honored by the service they render.

Dull people think

rich and another poor.

Fortune that makes one Is

it ?

Yes, but the

for-

tune was earlier than they think, namely, in the balance or adjustment between devotion to what

agreeable to-day and the forecast of what will be valuable to-morrow.

;

ARISTOCRACY. Certainly I

not going to argue the merits of

gradation in the universe; the existing order of

more or

less.

Neither do I wish to go ,into a vin-

dication of the justice that disposes the variety of lot.

looks

;

know how

steep the contrast of condition

such excess here and such destitution there

like entire chance, like the freaks of the wind,

heaping the snow-drift in gorges, stripping the plain

;

such despotism of wealth and comfort in

banquet-halls, whilst death

wretched,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

in the pots of the

man to walk much suffering.

behooves a good

with tenderness and heed amidst so

I only point in passing to the order of the universe,

which makes a

rotation,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not

like the coarse pol-

icy of the Greeks, ten generals, each

commanding

one day and then giving place to the next, or like our democratic next,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but the

uted a

new

turn now, your turn

constitution of things has distrib-

quality or talent to each mind,

revolution of things

now

politics,

of this,

now

and the

always bringing the need,

of that,

and

sure to bring

home

the opportunity to every one.

The only

relief that I

know

ousness of superior position faculty

;

for whilst each does that, he excludes hard

thoughts from the spectator. amiable.

against the invidithat you exert your

is,

All right activity

I never feel that any

place, but that the reason

why

man

occupies

I do not have what

ARISTOCRACY.

50 I wish,

is,

that I want the faculty which entitles.

All spiritual or real power makes

by what we

much and is

pass for what

because they

long as I

its

own

place.

and we prosper or

fail

There are men who may dare

are.

will

are,

know they

But

justified in their daring.

place, I

" The best

safe.

lightning-rod for your protection

are in their place.

your own

Let a man's social aims be proportioned means and power. I do not pity the misery

spine." to his

man

of a

ently

underplaced

that will right itself pres-

man

but I pity the

overplaced.

certain

quantity of power belongs to a certain quantity of

Whoever wants more power than

faculty.

legitimate attraction of his faculty,

and must pay for that excess This

the whole

game

Being

of the world.

of society will

the

a politician,

must truckle

;

and the

for

it.

politics

always seem well

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

;

but whether possibly I cannot contrive to seem,

without the trouble of being ?

would have a

career.

better with our love of

the

Duke it

Every Frenchman

English are not any

making a

of Newcastle," says

his Memoirs, " that other,

figure.

" I told

Bubb Doddington

must end one way or

must not remain as

was

;

for I

termined to make some sort of a figure in earnestly wished

but

an-

was delife

;

might be under his protection,

that could not be, I must

make some

figure;

ARISTOCRACY. what

would be I could not determine yet ; I little and consult my friends,

must look round me a

but some figure I was resolved to make." It will be agreed everywhere that society

them?

obtain

Ennobling of

good for one generation

;

not sure be-

Slavery had mischief enough to answer for,

yond.

but

Birth has been tried and failed.

Caste in India has no good result.

one family

must

How

have the benefit of the best leaders.

had

this

good in

it,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

pricing of men.

In the South a slave was bluntly but accurately valued at

five

hundred to a thousand

good field-hand

;

dollars, if

a mechanic, as carpenter or

smith, twelve hundred or two thousand.

Rome

or Greece what sums would not be paid for a supe-

and manager, an

rior slave, a confidential secretary

educated slave in

;

man

of genius, a

Moses educated

I don't know how much

Egypt ?

Epictetus was

and Time was,

sold for, or iEsop, or Toussaint l'Ouverture,

perhaps

was not a good market-day.

in England,

when the

state stipulated

beforehand

what price should be paid for each citizen's he was

killed.

Now,

if it

were possible, I should

like to see that appraisal applied to every

every

man made

citizen,

placed where he belongs, with so

him

man, and

acquainted with the true number

and weight of every adult fided to

life, if

as he could carry

and that he be

much power

and

use.

con-

;

ARISTOCRACY.

In the absence of such anthropometer I have a I think

perfect confidence in the natural laws.

that the community, structing laws

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; every

community,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

and usages are removed,

the best measure and the justest judge of the zen, or will in the long

run give the

ob-

will be citi-

fairest verdict

and reward better than any royal patronage betbetter than any ter than any premium on race ;

;

statute elevating families to hereditary distinction,

or any class to sacerdotal education and power.

The

verdict of battles will best prove the general

the town-meeting, the Congress, will not

out legislative talent.

The

fail to find

prerogatives of a right

physician are determined, not by his diplomas, but

by the health he

restores to

body and mind

powers of a geometer by solving his problem priest

;

the of a

;

by the act of inspiring us with a sentiment

which disperses the grief from which we

suffered.

When

the lawyer tries his case in court he himself

is also

trial

as his client's.

young

writers

and

know

curious

how

written their

all

means

;

man

book,

so only can you

to put

any man in any

negligent the public

a republican, a democrat ?

place.

of the essen-

tial qualifications of its representatives. if

first

its quality.

But we venture is

merits appear as well

old writers are consulted by

who have

they say, Publish certainly

own

his

When

They ask Yes.

Is he

ARISTOCRACY. a

man

of talent ?

ing for an

Is he honest

Yes.

office or

and not look-

any manner of bribe

Well then choose him by acclamation. And they go home and tell their wives with great satisfaction what a good thing they have done. But they forgot to ask the fourth question, not less important than either of the others, and without which the others do not avail. Has he a will? Can he carry his points against opposition ? Probably not. It is not sufficient that your work folhonest.

lows your genius, or

talent

must go

But I should

More than

taste

and

That must

also

be a

to the Will.

gift of nature.

say, if

it is

some

where not to have

expectation and claims of

the duties of this class.

We do

pay.

Some

mankind

indicate

service they

must

not expect them to be saints, and

very pleasing to see the instinct of mankind on

this matter,

not in others.

be a public enemy.

The

it is

;

not in you, you had bet-

ter not put yourself in places is to

you the

organic, to give

magnetic power over men.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; how much they

will forgive to such

pay substantial service and work energetically

after their kind

;

but they do not extend the same

indulgence to those

who claim and enjoy the same The day is golden river runs down into

prerogative but render no returns.

darkened when the

mud

;

when genius grows

idle

and wanton and

ARISTOCRACY.

reckless of its fine duties of being Saint, Prophet,

Inspirer to

and confounds

agances.

fellows, baulks their respect

humble

its

their understanding

silly extrav-

a right aristocracy, to Hercules, to

Theseus, Odin, the Cid, Napoleon; to Sir Bobert

Walpole, to Fox, Chatham, Mirabeau, Jefferson,

O'Connell

;

— to

the men, that

is,

who

are incom-

parably superior to the populace in ways agreeable to the populace,

them what they wish done and cannot

go, doing for

;

—

showing "them the way they should

of course everything will be permitted and

—

pardoned,

gaming, drinking, fighting, luxury.

These are the heads of party, who can do no wrong,

— everything But

those

short of infamous crime will pass.

who merely

are not, like them, able;

fumed gentleman, who and adorns them not, them,

son,

the dressed and per-

serves the people in no wise is

not even not afraid of

such an one go about to

and corrupt them, who burn

and

in their places

sit

shall

set

ill

examples

blame them

they

his barns, insult his children, assault his per-

and express their unequivocal indignation and

contempt to live

eats their bread, he does not scorn

their labor,

and

after breakfast

not remember that there are

human

he can-

beings.

live without duties is obscene. 2.

Genius, what

power to

so called in strictness,

— the

affect the Imagination, as possessed

ARISTOCRACY.

the orator, the poet, the novelist, or the

has a royal right in

being

all possessions

itself representative

because

raises

men

them with beauty. ing

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

privileges,

and accepted by

men

all

indeed the best right,

It has

as their delegate.

and

artist,

above themselves, intoxicates

They

are honored by render-

honor, and the reason of this allowance

that Genius unlocks for

all

men

the chains of use,

temperament and drudgery, and gives them a sense of delicious liberty

The

first

gift of eloquence.

of his all

and power.

example that occurs

an extraordinary

A man who has that

possession

means and that magnetism that he can

times carry the convictions of a public assembly,

we must

respect,

and he

has the freedom of the lect trifles.

thereby ennobled.

city.

entitled to neg-

Like a great general, or a great

or a millionaire, he

may wear

bows, and his hat on his

poet,

his coat out at el-

feet, if

will.

established relation, representativeness.

The

has best

feat of genius is to bring all the varieties of talent

and culture into

its

audience

;

the mediocre

the dull are reached as well as the intelligent.

have seen

Here

conspicuously shown in a

are classes which day

and I

village.

by day have no

inter-

beyond perhaps a surly__nod_in_ But I have seen a man of teeming brain

course, nothing

passing.

come among these men,

so full of his facts, so un-

ARISTOCRACY.

able to suppress them, that he has poured out a

knowledge to

river of

these

men round him,

all

comers, and drawing

all

sorts of

all

men, interested

and bad, bright and stupid, the iron boundary lines had all faded

the whole village, good in his facts

;

away; the stupid had discovered that they were the coldest had found themselves not stupid ;

drawn

to their neighbors

interest in the same

This was a naturalist.

things.

The more

familiar examples of this power cer-

tainly are those

who

establish a wider dominion

over men's minds than any speech can

and

paint,

closets,

and laugh, and weep, in

;

who

and then convert the world

into a huge

whispering gallery, to report the tale to

and win smiles and

tes,

Bunyan, Burns, In the

Dickens. ent age

all

men,

from many generations.

tears

The eminent examples

think,

their eloquent

are

Scott,

Shakspeare, Cervan-

and now we must add

fine arts, I find

none in the

pres-

who have any popular power, who have

achieved any nobility by ennobling the people. 3.

Elevation of sentiment, refining and inspiring

the manners, must really take the place of every distinction whether of material lectual gifts.

The manners

power or

that depth

and firmness

trality

the nature of the man.

of intel-

course must have

of tone to attest their cen-

things themselves shall be judges,

mean

the

and determine.

ARISTOCRACY.

In the presence of this nobility even genius must

For the two poles

stand aside.

nature are

Beauty and Meanness, and noble sentiment highest form of Beauty. in

is beautiful in face,

absorbed in objects

manners, who

port, in

the

which he truly believes to be superior to himself. Is

there any parchment or any cosmetic or any

blood that can obtain homage like that security of air presupposing so undoubtingly the

men

in his designs?

true knight

What

Loyalty to his thought.

sympathy of

that

makes the That makes

the beautiful scorn, the elegant simplicity, the directness,

commanding port

the

which

men

all

admire and which men not noble affect. For the thought has no debts, no hunger, no lusts, no low obligations or relations, no intrigue or business,

murder, no envy, no crime, but large leisures and

an inviting future.

The

service

tual deference.

receive from the great

you deal with the vulgar,

a mulife is

The astronomers know whether the moon has an

reduced to beggary indeed. very eager to

mosphere

;

have one.

only concerned that every

I observe however that

are at-

man

takes two to

make an atmosphere. I am acquainted with persons who go attended with this ambient cloud. It is

sufficient that

what they

say.

they come.

It is not important

The sun and

the evening sky are

ARISTOCRACY.

They seem

not calmer.

have arrived at the

have got rid of the show, and to be serene.

fact, to

Their manners and behavior in the house and

men

the field are those of

strip

who have no one of

what have they

what have they to exhibit?

to conceal?

meet,

at rest

Others I

and who denude and but material values. As

deference,

all attributes

much as much house-room and a man is a poor bag of

health and muscle as you have, as dinner, avails. bones.

much land, Of course

There

inch allowed.

against bone.

thus a Beggar's

Life

know nothing which induces so feeling as when we are treated

gra-

Bone rubs

cious interval, not an

Bush.

base and forlorn a for our utilities, as

economists do, starving the imagination and the

In this impoverishing animation, I

sentiment.

seem

meet a Hunger, a wolf.

alone whilst kine.

Man

live,

Rather

let

should emancipate man.

does

not by jamming him, but by distancing him. nearer the

friend, the

us be

than encounter these lean

more spacious

more diameter our spheres have.

so,

The

our realm,

It is a meas-

ure of culture, the number of things taken for

"When a man begins to speak, the churl him up by disputing his first words, so he cannot come at his scope. The wise man takes all

granted.

will take

for granted until he sees the parallelism of that

which puzzled him with his own view.

;

ARISTOCRACY.

I will not protract this discourse by describing tbe duties of the brave

name

And

and generous.

and the same

the sole condition on which knighthood

will venture to

won

;

namely, loyalty to your

this,

true aristocrat order,

one,

and

he who

is at

own

yet I

almost

order.

the head of his

The own

disloyalty is to mistake other chivalries

Let him not divide

for his own.

his

homage, but

stand for that which he was born and set to mainIt

tain.

was objected

to Gustavus that

he did not

better distinguish between the duties of a carabine

and a general, but exposed himself and was too prodigal of a blood

to all dangers

so precious.

For

a soul on which elevated duties are laid will so realize its special

and

lofty duties as not to be in

danger of assuming through a low generosity those

which do not belong There are levity

all

and giddiness

for a tower of

it.

degrees of nobility, but amid the of people one looks round, as

strength, on

some self-dependent

mind, who does not go abroad for an estimate, and

made up fail. The

has long ago possible to

lesson for the

its

conclusion that

it is

great Indian sages

im-

had a

Brahmin, which every day returns to

mind, " All that depends on another gives pain all that

depends on himself gives pleasure

few words

;

in these

the definition of pleasure and pain."

The noble mind

here to teach us that failure

ARISTOCRACY.

60 a part of success.

young gentlemen, whom such things

for very tent

Prosperity and pound-cake aro

but a hero's, a man's success

;

con-

made up

day, and " the more falls he gets, moves faster on

defeated

all

the time and yet to victory born.

have heard that in horsemanship he

who never was thrown, but

rider

because he experiments and ventures every

failures,

not the good

rather that a

never will be a good rider until he

;

thrown

;

man then

he will not be haunted any longer by the terror that he shall tumble, and will ride business,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

is his

to ride, whether with falls or whether

with none, to ride unto the place whither he

And

bound.

and ensign

know no such unquestionable badge

of a sovereign mind, as that tenacity

of purpose which, through all change of companions, of parties, of fortunes,

jot of heart or hope,

and

arrives at its port.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; changes never, bates

but wearies out opposition,

his consciousness of de-

serving success, the caliph Ali constantly neglected the ordinary means of attaining

grand

its

that tides.

;

and

to the

of no ac-

It prospers as well in mistake as in luck,

count.

in obstruction

angels

a superficial success

interests,

;

delight

make

and nonsense, as well as among the

reckons fortunes mere paint :

perplexity

their

its

;

difficulty

noonday

way without winds and

But these are

rare

and

minds against

difficult examples,

ARISTOCRACY.

we can only

indicate

them

show how high

the

range of the realm of Honor. I

know

the feeling of the most ingenious and ex-

youth in America

cellent

I hear the complaint of

;

we have no prizes offered to the ambition of virtuous young men that there is no Theban Band no stern exclusive Legion of Honor, to be entered only by long and real service and patient climbing up all the steps. We have a rich men's aristocracy, plenty of bribes for those who like them but a grand style of culture, which, the aspirant that

;

without injury, an ardent youth can propose to himself as a Pharos through long dark years, does

not exist, and there

entrance into

life,

left to himself,

dom.

But

having got through the

thickets that oppose his

having got into decent

and

falls

We then see that

are around us, the great are there

society, is

abroad with too much

in the hours of insight

this skepticism.

The youth,

substitute.

first

free-

rally against

the ignorant

much more near

;

that

an order of men, never quite absent, who

names

enroll no

in their archives but of such as are

capable of truth.

chamber

;

They

are gathered in no one

no chamber would hold them

of the vast duration of

;

but, out

man's race, they tower

mountains, and are present to every mind in proportion to

man who

its

likeness to theirs.

The

solitariest

shares their spirit walks environed

ARISTOCRACY.

them; they talk to him, they comfort him, and happy is he who prefers these associates to profane They also take shape in men, in companions. There

women.

no heroic

no sentiment

trait,

thought that will not sometime embody

form of a existence

That highest good of

friend.

itself in the

rational

always coming to such as reject mean

alliances.

One reliance is

more we must

trait

which

so prized a jewel that

The

rules

and

celebrate,

self-

sure to be tested.

discipline are ordered for that.

Golden Table never lacks members

The

all its seats

;

but with this strange provision, that

members

are carefully withdrawn into deep

are kept full

the

the patent of royal natures.

niches, so that no one of

them can

see

any other

them, and each believes himself alone. presence of the Chapter to carry himself royally

it is

In the

easy for each member

and well

;

but in the ab-

sence of his colleagues and in the presence of mean

people he towns.

tempted to accept the low customs

The honor

of a

differency to the persons

and

member

consists in

of in-

and practices about him,

in the pursuing undisturbed the career of a

Brother, as

other existed.

always in their presence, and as

Give up, once for

all,

approbation from the people in the are pursuing great ends. designs ?

How can

the hope of

street, if

you

they guess your

ARISTOCRACY. All reference to models,

all

63 comparison with

and reputations, is the road The generous soul, on arriving in a new port, makes instant preparation for a new voyage. By experiment, by original studies, by secret obedience, he has made a place for himself neighboring

abilities

to mediocrity.

in the world

;

stands there a real, substantial, un-

precedented person, and when the great come by, as always there are angels walking in the earth,

they

know him

own

legitimate fashion distinguishes the true manj___

For he nature

Effectual service inhis-

at sight.

know

that the distinction of a royal

a great heart

that not Louis Quatorze,

;

not Chesterfield, nor Byron, nor Bonaparte

the

model of the Century, but, wherever found, the old

renown attaches

to the virtues of simple faith

and

staunch endurance and clear perception and plain speech, and that there nity communicated

man

a master grace and dig-

by exalted sentiments

to a hu-

form, to which utility and even genius must

do homage.

And

nobility, the

drawing his counsel from

breast.

it is

the sign and badge of this his

own

For to every gentleman, grave and dan-

gerous duties are proposed.

champions.

The world

Justice always wants

waits for

him

as its de-

fender, for he will find in the well-dressed crowd, yes, in the civility of

sentiment.

whole nations, vulgarity of

In the best parlors of modern society

ARISTOCRACY.

devil, the civil sneer

he will find the laughing

English palaces the London twist, derision,

cold-

contempt of the masses, contempt of Ireland,

ness,

dislike of

Commons

the is

The English House

Chartist.

the proudest assembly of gentlemen in

the world, yet the genius of the its

;

legitimate expression,

House

Commons,

In America

a sneer.

he shall find deprecation of purism on

all questions

touching the morals of trade and of social customs,

and the narrowest contraction

Pay

duty of paying money.

of ethics to the one that,

and you may

play the tyrant at discretion and never look back to the fatal question,

that you paid

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; where

know the difficulties in honor. The man of honor

the

humanity.

men, he

tendency,

a democrat.

and does he

law?

had you the money

way

But the

man all

;

coils,

man

of taste and

magnanimous

join the standard of Chartist

and

No, for these have been dragged in

Red

out-

their

Revolu-

they are full of murder, and the student

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

armed

Let him

the rich, and say,

ac-

neutrality, abhorring the

crimes of the Chartist, abhorring the selfishness '

re-

If he cannot vote with

joins the rich.

the poor, he should stay by himself. cept the position of

revolution comes,

ignorance by furious chiefs to the tion

of the

The time

will

come when

these

poor enfans perdus of revolution will have

in-

ARISTOCRACY. structed their party,

counsels will prevail

;

liberty will will take

feited

come up

only by their fate, and wiser the music and the dance of

to bright

ophy who

have

shall not

for-

and act for mankind.'

right to speak

Meantime shame

and holy ground and

Then I

in also.

to the fop of learning

and

philos-

and habit

suffers a vulgarity of speech

him to the grosser vulgarity of pitiless and to hide from him the current of Tendency who abandons his right position of being priest and poet of these impious and unpoetic to blind

selfishness,

;

doers of God's work. sanity,

the

You

must, for wisdom, for

have some access to the mind and heart of

common humanity.

himself.

man

great

rely on the sense

The

exclusive excludes

has existed who did not

and heart

mankind

as repre-

sented by the good sense of the people, as correct-

ing the modes and over-refinements and class-prejudices of the lettered

men

of the world.

There are certain conditions in the highest degree favorable to the tranquillity of spirit and to that magnanimity

And

so prize.

mainly the

habit of considering large interests, and things in

masses, and not too

much

detail.

The habit

of directing large affairs generates a nobility of

thought in every mind of average fairs themselves

be handled

;

ability.

For

af-

show the way in which they should

and a good head soon grows wise, and

does not govern too much.

ARISTOCRACY.

Now

I believe in the closest

affinity

between

Virtue and genius are

moral and material power.

always on the direct way to the control of the ety in which they are found. society that

soci-

the interest of

good men should govern, and there

always a tendency so to place them.

day that now

is,

man

But, for the

of generous spirit will not

need to administer public

offices or to direct large

interests of trade, or war, or politics, or manufacture, but

duct of

he will use a high prudence in the

guard himself from being

life to

on many, things.

There

con-

dissipated

no need that he should

count the pounds of property or the numbers agents

whom

his influence touches ;

it suffices

that

his aims are high, that the interest of intellectual

and moral beings comes into what

paramount with him,

called fine society

that he

from higher

ground, and he has an elevation of habit which ministers of empires will be forced to see and to

remember. I do not

although

know whether signifies

that

a leading idea in recent

zation, is a sufficiently

many

the word

ence in

civili-

broad generalization to con-

vey the deep and grave fact of vated men,

word Gentleman,

self-reliance.

expresses only the outsides of culti-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; only graceful manners, and independ-

trifles

;

but the fountains of that thought

are in the deeps of man, a beauty which reaches

;

ARISTOCRACY.

through and through, from the manners to the soul

an honor which trust

which

name

only a

a trust in

God

Man,

for sanctity, a self-

himself.

Call

man

American who would serve his country must learn the beauty and honor of perseverance, he must reinforce himself by the of honor, or call

power of character, and

the

revisit the

margin of that

well from which his fathers drew waters of

enthusiasm, the fountain I

mean

timents, the parent fountain

from which

Universe flows as a wave.

life

and

of the moral senthis

goodly

PERPETUAL FORCES.

"More

servants wait on

Than he

'11

man

take notice of."

George Herbert.

Ever the Eock

Ages melts

Into the mineral

air,

be the quarry whence

Thought and

its

mansions

built fair.

PERPETUAL FORCES.

The

hero in the fairy tales has a servant

eat granite rocks, another

grow, and a third

an hour

in half

by a gang stints

who can run

;

who can hear

man

a hundred leagues

in nature

surrounded

who can accept harder and help him in every kind.

has a certain omnipotence, but

itself

like contending kings

own the balance

We cannot

and kept

polite

and

of power.

afford to miss any advantage.

was any man too strong for

and

all,

and emperors, in the presence

of each other, are antagonized

long,

who can

the grass

of friendly giants

than these,

Each by

life short,

Never

his proper work.

and he must supply

Art

this dis-

proportion by borrowing and applying to his task the energies of Nature.

show him

Eeinforce his self-respect,

his means, his arsenal of forces, physical,

Show him the riches of him what mighty allies and helpers And though King David had no good

metaphysical, immortal. the poor, show

he has.

from making his census out 1

of vain-glory, yet I find

Reprinted from the North American Review, No. 125, 1877.

PERPETUAL FORCES.

72 it

wholesome and invigorating

enumerate the

re-

we can command, to look a little into this arsenal, and see how many rounds of ammunition, what muskets, and how many arms better than Springfield muskets, we can bring to bear.

sources

out of doors and get the

Ah,

air.

you

knew what was in the air. See what your robust neighbor, who never feared to live in it, has got from

;

strength, cheerfulness,

heartiness

and equality

power

to convince,

each event.

One

All the earths are burnt metals.

half the

avoirdupois of the rocks which compose the

solid

The

ada-

crust of the globe consists of oxygen.

mant

always passing into smoke

;

the marble

column, the brazen statue burn under the daylight,

and would soon decompose

their molec-

ular structure, disturbed by the raging sunlight,

were not restored by the darkness of the

What ity

night.

agencies of electricity, gravity, light,

combine

make every

plant what

it is,

affin-

and

a manner so quiet that the presence of these

mendous powers day

said, "

A grain

not ordinarily suspected. of water

tric relations equivalent to

lightning."

The

ripe fruit

known

tre-

Fara-

to have elec-

a very powerful flash of is

dropped

out violence, but the lightning

fell

at last with-

and the storm

raged, and strata were deposited and uptorn and

bent back, and Chaos moved from beneath, to

PERPETUAL FORCES. and

on your table to-day. The winds and the rains come back a thousand and a thousand times. The coal on your grate create

flavor the fruit

gives out in

amount

decomposing to-day exactly the same

and heat which was taken from the

of light

sunshine in

its

formation in the leaves and boughs

of the antediluvian tree.

Take up a spadeful or a buck-load of loam who it holds ? But a gardener knows ;

can guess what that

is full

combine

its

by and by

virtues

and he

of peaches, full of oranges,

drops in a few seeds by

way

of keys to unlock

lets it lie in

;

and

sun and rain, and

has lifted into the air

its

full

weight

in golden fruit.

hymns

hymns to The Vedas of India, which have a date older than Homer, are hymns to the winds, to the clouds, and to fire. They all have The

earliest

of the world were

these natural forces.

certain properties

which adhere to them, such as

conservation, persisting to be themselves, impossibility of

The sun has

being warped.

the earth no elements

;

gravity

lost

no beams,

as adhesive, heat

as expansive, light as joyful, air as virtuous, water as medicinal as

on the

only transference. not

lost,

first

When

but more heat

is there.

exceeds on the coast, there

When

day.

There

the heat

is less

here

When

drought on the

loss, it is

the rain prairie,

the continent sinks, the opposite continent,

PERPETUAL FORCES.

74 that

to say, the opposite shore of the ocean, rises.

When

life is less

here,

there. series,

no room for the individual

to leave

he only shares them winds blow.

sistible

spawns

an ascending

These forces are in

;

sails the

But behind

rapid and strong

;

man

or atom,

these irre-

all these are finer

them, and much more

sources of

elements, the

;

way

but seem

a new style and

series, the spirit-

and morals appear only the material on a higher plane. The laws of material

Intellect

ual.

forces

nature run up into the invisible world of the mind,

and hereby we acquire a key to those sublimities which skulk and hide in the caverns of human consciousness.

which hides ency

And

the

impenetrable

mystery

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and hides through absolute transpar-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the mental nature, I await the

our advancing knowledge

insight which

material laws shall

furnish.

But the laws of force apply to every form of The husbandry learned in the economy of heat light or

steam or muscular

to the use of wit.

What

it.

fibre applies precisely

I have said of the inexor-

able persistence of every elemental force to remain itself,

the

warping it,

impossibility of tampering with

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the same

to this force of intellect ing, not

the

lav/,

rule applies again strictly ;

that

making, thoughts.

it is

perception, a see-

The man must bend

never the law to him.

PERPETUAL FORCES. The brain

man

7£

has methods and arrangement

corresponding to these material powers, by which

See how

he can use them.

world by any other of

trivial is the use of the

Whilst these

creatures.

from the outside and we are not in

forces act on us

their counsel,

its

call

them

The animal

Fate.

in-

stincts guide the

animal as gravity governs the stone,

and in man that

bias or direction of his constitution

often as tyrannical as gravity.

perament, and ape,

call it

tem-

seems to be the remains of wolf,

While the reason

and rattlesnake in him.

yet dormant, this rules

;

as the reflective faculties

come

to reason and knowlwe see the causes of evils and learn to parry them and use them as instruments, by knowledge, being inside of them and dealing with them as the

open, this subsides.

edge

;

It is curious to see

Creator does. so feeble is

and vulnerable

no match for the wild

none for the or a

damp

frost,

air,

as a

how a

creature

man, who, unarmed,

beasts, tiger, or crocodile,

none for the

sea,

none for a fog,

or the feeble fork of a poor worm,

—

each of a thousand petty accidents puts him to death every day,

—

these terrific forces,

whole frame

yet able to subdue to his will

and more than

these.

His

responsive to the world, part for

part, every sense, every pore to a

that he seems to have as qualities in nature.

many

new

element, so

talents as there are

force but

his force.

PERPETUAL FORCES.

does not possess them, he their currents flow.

a pipe through which

a straw be held

direction of the ocean-current, the

through

as through Gibraltar.

measure strength with them,

still

in the

sea will pour If he should

he should

fight the

sea and the whirlwind with his ship, he would snap

and swamp

his spars, tear his sails,

by cunningly dividing the pest for a

little

his bark

;

but

force, tapping the tem-

side-wind, he uses the monsters, and

they carry him where he would go.

you can give no guess

Look

what power

him

him and

It never appears directly, but follow

his effects, see his productions.

miner, a shipbuilder, a machinist, a

;

in him.

see

a planter, a musician, a

steam-engine, a geometer, an astronomer, a per-

suader of men, a lawgiver, a builder of towns

and each

of these

by dint

series that resides in

of a wonderful

;

method

him and enables him

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or

work

on the material elements.

We are Where

surrounded by human thought and

are the farmer's days gone ?

labor.

See, they are

hid in that stone-wall, in that excavated trench, in the harvest

barren.

tant

grown on what was

swamp

put his days into carting from the

the mountain of

muck which

dis-

has been

it now makes the cover of fruitLabor hides itself in every mode and form. massed and blocked away in that stone house,

trundled about until ful soil. It is

shingle and pine-

PERPETUAL FORCES. for five

hundred

years.

and screwed

It is twisted

hay which fills the barn. It surprises in the perfect form and condition of trees clean of catinto fragrant

and

erpillars

well

it is

;

It is

fruit.

under the house in the

over the house in slates and copper and

water-spout

grows in the corn

;

in the flower-bed

;

the town. ;

;

delights us

keeps the cow out of the gar-

den, the rain out of the library, the

cannon

and loaded

borers, rightly pruned,

with grafted

miasma out

It is in dress, in pictures, in ships, in

in every spectacle, in odors, in flavors, in

sweet sounds, in works

of safety, of delight, of

wrath, of science.

The

thoughts, no

man

ever saw, but

becomes order where he goes

power

;

weakness becomes

surprising and admirable effects follow

All forces are his

a creator.

;

disorder

him

as the wise mer-

;

chant by truth in his dealings finds his credit unlimited,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he

can use in turn, as he wants

the property in the world, all

other sailor

;

every element gravitation ince, first

;

all

;

on is

all

the water as

warmed by

it,

all

man draws on

so a

the air for his occasions, as

other breather

all

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

there were no

the sun, and so of

he walks and works by the aid of

he draws on

all

knowledge as his prov-

beauty for his innocent delight, and

or last he exhausts by his use

the powers of the world.

all

the harvests,

For man, the

receiver

PERPETUAL FORCES.

78 of

of these volumes of power, 1

and depositary

all,

and performance are

to say that his ability

ac-

cording to his reception of these various streams of

force.

define Genius to be a sensibility to

all

the impressions of the outer world, a sensibility so

equal that

receives accurately all impressions, and

can truly report them, without excess or received.

render

and

hoarding

must not only receive

And

all.

of inlet

we were

life,

What

and

loss, as it

but

must

an equality

giving.

Any

disease.

truly to take account of stock before

— that

the last Court of Appeals, tory

man

the health of

outlet, gathering

tumor and

all,

are

our real estate,

resources is

that

were an inven"

Our

amount

stock in

of thought

— and

which we have apThe ground we have thus created is forever a fund for new thoughts. A few moral maxims confirmed by much experi-

which we have had," plied,

and

so domesticated.

ence would stand high on the

supreme prudence.

list,

constituting a

Then the knowledge

able of our private strength, of where accesses

and

facilitations,

and of

unutter-

it lies, of its

its obstructions.

My conviction of principles, — that is great part of

possessions.

Certain thoughts, certain obser-

vations, long familiar to

daylights,

would be

Spain or China,

or,

in night-watches and

capital if

by stranger

I removed to

translation, to the

PERPETUAL FORCES. planet Jupiter or Mars, or to

new

ties.

Every valuable.person who

prise,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

is it

spiritual socie-

a piece of industry, or the founding

some public

of a colony or a college, the reform of

abuse,

an enter-

joins in

some

effort

chiefly brings, all

of patriotism,

he brings,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; what

not his land or his

money or body's strength, but his thoughts, his way And of classifying and seeing things, his method. In proportion thus with every one a new power. to the

depth of the insight

of the

kingdom he

the power and reach

controls.

would be easy to awake wonder by sketching

the performance of each of these mental forces

into the deeps of our past

and oldest experience

and brings up every lost jewel; or its

gay

Memory, which descends

of the diving-bell of the

which sends

;

of the Fancy,

balloon aloft into the sky to

catch every tint and gleam of romance

;

the

Imagination, which turns every dull fact into pictures

and poetry, by making

thought.

What

analyzing understanding,

makes Eloquence

art of compelling belief, the art of

hearts dance to his pipe patience, self-trust,

And

making

not

perseverance,

knowledge, the passion for truth.

less,

love,

;

the

peoples'

method,

desire

These are the

by the hand, these our immorinvulnerable guardians. By their strength we

angels that take us tal,

an emblem of

a power, when, combined with the

PERPETUAL FORCES.

and on the signal occasions

are strong,

reer their inspirations flow t8 us ish

in our ca-

and make the

self-

and protected and tenderly-bred person strong

for his duty, wise in counsel, skilful in action, com-

petent to rule, willing to obey.

I delight in tracing these wonderful powers, the electricity

and gravity

of the

human

The

world.

power of persistence, of enduring defeat and gaining victory by

which never

loses its

The power

charm.

becomes acquainted with the

with his own tools

;

one of these forces

by continuance

increases steadily

defeats, is

man

of a

in one direction.

and

resistances,

increases his skill

and strength

and learns the favorable moments and favorable

accidents.

his

own

apprentice, and more

time gives a great addition of power, just as a ing body acquires

momentum

fall-

with every foot of

fall. How we prize a good continuer! knew a manufacturer who found his property

the

I in-

vested in chemical works which were depreciating in value. self,

undertook the charge of them him-

began at the beginning, learned chemistry and

acquainted himself with

manufacture.

him

to give

in his

the conditions of the

His friends dissuaded him, advised

up the work, which was not

the country.

But he

all

Why throw

persisted,

good money

suited to

after

bad?

and after many years succeeded

production of the right article for commerce,

PERPETUAL FORCES.

brought up the stock of his mills to par, and then sold out his interest, having accomplished the re-

form that was required. In each the talent

and

and which

this

the perception of an order

department he deals with,

series in the

an order and

series

mind

sees

and conforms

The

to.

geometer shows us the true order in figures painter in laws

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; of

which pre-existed in nature,

color;

the

;

the dancer in grace.

Bonaparte, with his celerity of combination, mute,

unfathomable, reads the geography of Europe as his eyes were

telescopes; his will

an immense

battery discharging irresistible volleys of power

always at the right point in the right time.

There was a story in the journals of a poor oner in a Western police-court

might be released

who was

he would pay his

pris-

told

fine.

had no money, he had no friends, but he took his flute out of his pocket and began to play, to the surprise, and, as it proved, to the delight of all the

company; the

jurors

waked

up, the sheriff forgot

his duty, the judge himself beat time,

and the

pris-

oner was by general consent of court and officers

allowed to go his suppose,

way without any money.

And

he could have played loud enough, we

here should have beat time, and the whole population of the globe

would beat time, and consent that

he should go without his

fine.

PERPETUAL FORCES.

I knew a stupid young farmer, churlish, living only for his gains, and with

whom

the only inter-

course you could have was to buy what he had to

One day

sell.

I found his

little

boy of four years

dragging about after him the prettiest cart, so neatly built,

learned that

Papa had made

in that thick skull

which the

little

was

fingers

Art

So near

all.

;

wooden

and

taste

his son

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but she

she

had

he was no peasant

to us is the flowering of Fine

See in a

circle of

one with no beauty, no special

city,

and

too,

that hidden deep

this gentle art

in the rudest population.

school-girls

;

and caresses of

the power to draw out into day after

little

and with' decorations

viva-

can so recite her adventures that

never alone, but at night or at morning

wherever

she

sits

the

inevitable

circle

gathers

around her, willing prisoners of that wonderful

memory and fancy and spirit of life. know where to find her ? Listen for follow the cheerful hum, see where tention, tricity

;

and a pretty crowd

all

Would you the laughter,

the rapt

bright with one

at-

elec-

there in the centre of fellowship and joy

Scheherazade again.

See how rich

life is

;

rich in private talents, each

of which charms us in turn and seems the

we hear music we

give

all to that

;

best.

fall in

game masterly if we first of men

with a cricket-club and see the played, the best player

the

;

PERPETUAL FORCES.

go to the regatta, we forget the bowler for the stroke oar

;

and when the

soldier

comes home from

fills all eyes. But the soldier has the same admiration of the great parliamentary de-

the fight, he

bater.

And

all these

poetry and literature are disdainful of

Like the boy

claims beside their own.

who thought

in turn each one of the four seasons

the best, and each of the three hundred and sixtyfive

days in the year the crowner.

The

sensibility

is all.

Every one knows what are the to put people in

effects of

music

gay or mournful or martial mood.

But these are the effects on dull subjects, and only It is its power on a keener sense. a stroke on a loose or tense cord. The story of

the hint of

Orpheus, of Arion, of the Arabian minstrel, are not fables, but experiments

on the same iron at white

heat.

By this wondrous sions of

Nature the

susceptibility to all the impres-

man

finds himself the recepta-

cle of celestial thoughts, of

men.

The imagination

were no other

and archives

;

the

happy

relations to all

enriches him, as

memory opens

Science her

all

her cabinets

length and breadth

Poetry her splendor and joy and the august of eternal law.

These are means and

ascensions of the mind.

there

circles

stairs for

new

But they are nowise im-

poverished for any other mind, not tarnished, not

;

PERPETUAL FORCES.

breathed upon

for the mighty Intellect did not

;

him and become property, but he

stoop to

and followed

its circuits.

not ours when

it, it is

And

so,

" It

rose to

ours while

we do not use

use

it."

one step higher, when he comes into the

realm of sentiment and

will.

sees the grand-

eur of justice, the victory of love, the eternity that belongs to

all

moral nature.

vent his sentiment or his ing right which he taking

its

The is

act,

sees.

that in a

manner

men makes known ;

are sufficient to is

arrive at virtue by

severs the

him

and of sentiment

man from all

other

that the spiritual powers

no other being existed;

to deal absolutely in the world, as

alone were a system and a state, and though

should perish could

The of

all,

make

forces are infinite.

all

;

that the strain

all

Every one has the might is

that

its

energies

work together on a for each and each for

that they

of mutual aid, all

anew.

for the secret of the world

are solidaires

tem

in-

pre-exist-

direction instead of imposing ours.

last revelation of intellect

that he

does not then

but obeys a

made on one

sysall

point bears on every

arch and foundation of the structure.

But

you

wish to avail yourself of their might, and in

manner

you wish the force of the

force of the will, tion,

you must take

not they yours.

intellect, the

their divine direc-

Obedience alone gives

the

PERPETUAL FORCES. right to

who

command.

It is like the village operator

taps the telegraph-wire and surprises the se-

crets of empires as they pass to the capital. this child of the dust

throws himself by obedience

into the circuit of the heavenly wisdom,

and shares

the secret of God.

Thus

the world delivered into your hand, but

on two conditions,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not

for property, but for use,

use according to the noble nature of the gifts

not for toys, not for self-indulgence. to their ends, not to yours,

any adventurer who

and

;

and

Things work

will certainly defeat

fights against this ordination.

The effort of men is to use them for private ends. They wish to pocket land and water and fire and air

and

like to

all fruits of these, for property,

and would

have Aladdin's lamp to compel darkness,

and iron-bound doors, and and serpents

to serve

hostile armies,

them

like footmen.

and

lions

And

they

wish the same service from the spiritual faculties.

A man has

a rare mathematical talent, inviting him geometry, and wishes to

to the beautiful secrets of

clap a patent on tion of

;

or has the fancy and inven-

a poet, and says,

I will write a play that

be repeated in London a hundred nights

shall

or a military genius,

and instead of using that

;

defend his country, he says, 'I will fight the battle so

tion

;

as to give

place

and

political considera-

Canning or Thurlow has a genius

of de-

PERPETUAL FORCES.

86 bate,

and

says,

I will

know how with

this

weapon

to defend the cause that will pay best and

make me

But

this per-

Chancellor or Foreign Secretary.' version

punished with instant loss of true wis-

dom and

real power.

I find the survey of these cosmical powers a doctrine of consolation in the

dark hours of private or

public fortune. It shows us the world alive, guided, incorruptible its

;

that

its

cannon cannot be

virtues misapplied.

idence, the safeguards of rectitude.

exertion

;

stolen nor

It shows us the long ProvIt

animates

warns us out of that despair into which

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

out of an idolatry Saxon men are prone to fall, of forms, instead of working to simple ends, in the belief that

Heaven always

succors us in working for

This world belongs to the energetical.

these.

a fagot of laws, and a true analysis of these laws,

showing how immortal and how self-protecting they are,

would be a wholesome lesson for every time

and for gether

this time. is

That band which

ties

them

to-

unity, is universal good, saturating all

with one being and aim, so that each translates the other, is only the

partments. law.

There

same

spirit applied to

new

de-

Things are saturated with the moral is

no escape from

grass preach it; rain

every change, every cause in Nature

a disguised missionary.

Violets and

it.

and snow, wind and is

tides,

nothing but

PERPETUAL FORCES.

All our political disasters grow as logically out of our attempts in the past to do without justice, as

the sinking of some part of your house comes of de-

One

fect in the foundation.

tain personal virtue

thing

essential to

plain

freedom

a cer-

;

and

;

begins to be doubtful whether our corruption in this country has not

gone a

little

when canvassed we

safety, so that

over the shall

be made up of a majority of reckless

The

mark

be found to self-seekers.

divine knowledge has ebbed out of us and

do not know enough to be

free.

Half a man's wisdom boy who knows that a

I hope better of the state.

goes with his courage.

bully lives round the corner which he

on his daily way to school,

must pass

apt to take sinister

views of streets and of school-education.

And a New

sensitive politician suffers his ideas of the part

York

or Pennsylvania or Ohio are to play in the

by the elecBut we must not

future of the Union, to be fashioned tion of rogues in

some

counties.

gratify the rogues so deeply.

There

a speedy

limit to profligate politics.

Fear disenchants not

my own

life

respect I

to other men's,

and the world.

am an

impostor, not entitled

and had better creep

I admire the sentiment of

" Nothing

much

If I have

into

Thoreau,

my grave. who

to be feared as fear

himself likes atheism better."

said, ;

For the world

God is

PERPETUAL FORCES.

battle-ground; every principle the most quiet

and protected

a war-note, and

life is at

any moment

The

exposed to incidents which test your firmness.

illusion that strikes

as the masterpiece in that

ring of illusions which our

life is, is

the timidity

with which we assert our moral sentiment.

made

are

the world

it,

dure as they share

telligence exist it

;

it;

all

is built

go against

ies

courts snatch at of law to rule

yet

tite

side.

its

;

to speak of

Nay, we pre-

out

;

Cit-

it.

the college goes against

it,

the

any vicious form

legislatures listen with appe-

to declamations against

Every new

it,

and vote

down.

asserter of the right surprises us, like a

man

joining the church,

in earnest.

we shrink

any precedent,

things en-

him or them who deny

of it

it,

beauty, all health, all in-

or to range ourselves by

sume strength

What we

and we hardly dare

do and suffer

cause of right for which

believe

in moments, but the

labor never dies, works

many checks, gains by our defeats, and will know how to compensate our extremest sacrifice. Wrath and petulance may have in long periods, can afford

their short success, but they quickly reach their brief date

of ideas

and decompose, whilst the massive might

irresistible at last.

Where

knowledge come?

The

soul of

God

Whence

does the

the source of power?

poured into the world through

PERPETUAL FORCES. the thoughts of men.

The world

and not on iron or cotton fire of fire, is

moral

force.

and the iron

of iron, the

cloud on cloud, as snow on air,

and the planet on space

flight, so do nations of

tutions rest

stands on ideas,

the ether and source of all the elements

snow, as the bird on the in its

;

on thoughts.

men and

their insti-

CHARACTER

Shots' passion, fold the Sit

still,

and Truth

Suddenly

Your Wait a

The

hands of

near

;

will uplift

eyelids to the sphere little,

you

shall see

portraiture of things to be.

thrift,

Fok what need Or

I of book or priest

Sibyl from the

"When every I count as

mummied East

star is

many

Bethlehem Star,

as there are

Cinquefoils or violets in the grass,

So many

saints

and

saviours,

So many high behaviours.

â&#x20AC;˘=

CHARACTER.1

Moeals respects what men call all men agree to honor as

which

goodness, that justice, truth-

speaking, good-will and good works.

Morals

spects the source or motive of this action. It is

the

that which all

men

the science of substances, not of shows.

what, and not the how.

and by

profess to regard,

their

which recommend themselves

There

moral cause of the world

truth

Surely

scholastic,

As we

—

no,

respect for

— that it

and goodness, the

behind

it is

sounds a

all else

in the

good, that all

not to prove

things,

lies

was for good,

works.

real

each other.

eternal advantage to morals, that,

is this

in the question between truth

mind.

re-

It is

or show the

little

cold

and

for benefit, that all subsists.

say in our modern politics, catching at last

the language of morals, that the object of the State is

the greatest good of the greatest number,

the reason

world 1

is,

we must

that

it is

—

so,

give for the existence of the

for the benefit of all being.

Reprinted from the North American Review of April, 186&

CHARACTER.

Morals implies freedom and stitutes the

beast

man.

but choice

chooses

here

;

has his

born in him

The

will.

life in ;

will con-

Nature, like a

here

he that

the Declaration of Independence,

the July Fourth of zoology and astronomy. chooses,

But

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

will,

When

creation

as the rest of the

pure and perceiving,

not wilfulness.

a man, through stubbornness,

this or that,

because he

does not.

insists to

something absurd or whimsical, only

will,

weak he blows with his lips dams the incoming ocean ;

against the tempest, he

with his cane. if

were an unspeakable calamity

any one should think he had the right

That

a private will on others. striker,

and

repels, is not

Morals ends.

end.

All violence,

assassin.

dreary

power but the absence of power.

He is immoral who is He is moral, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we say

become a universal beings ;

all that is

the direction of the will on universal

and with Kant,

lius

to impose

the part of a

acting to any private it

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; whose

rule,

with Marcus Aure-

aim or motive may

binding on

all intelligent

and with Vauvenargues, " the mercenary

sacrifice of the public

good to a private interest

the eternal stamp of vice."

All the virtues are special directions of this motive

;

justice is the application of this

whole to the

affairs of

each one

good of the

courage

con-

tempt of danger in the determination to see

this

;

CHARACTER. good of the whole enacted

;

love

delight in the

preference of that benefit redounding to another

own

over the securing of our

sentiment of our insignificance the universe

humility

;

when

the benefit of

considered.

from these external statements we seek to

come a

nearer to the fact, our

little

first

experi-

ences in moral as in intellectual nature force us to discriminate a universal mind, identical in all men.

Certain biases, talents, executive to each individual;

all-commanding

Wrong,

the

of the mind.

men

;

Right and

and command.

We belong to

it,

not

men, and constitutes them men.

dormant, as health

it is

drunken

sense

Its attributes are self-ex-

is alike in all.

It is in all

are special

but the high, contemplative,

vision,

istence, eternity, intuition

mind

skills,

men

however inoperative,

but,

this intuition

tempt at analysis. the perfections

to us.

In bad

entranced or exists under-

The extreme

neath whatever vices and errors. simplicity of

It is the

embarrasses every

at-

We can only mark, one by one,

which

combines in every

act.

admits of no appeal, looks to no superior essence. It is the reason of things.

The antagonist nature into a finite tites

body

the individual, formed

of exact dimensions, with appe-

which take from everybody

propriate to themselves,

else

and would

what they ap-

enlist the entire

CHARACTER.

were pos-

spiritual faculty of the individual, if it sible,

between the dictate of

flict

in catering for them.

and

the wishes

this universal

mind and

the individual, the

interests

moral discipline of

the perpetual con-

life is built.

The one craves a him to re-

private benefit, which the other requires

Every

nounce out of respect to the absolute good.

hour puts the individual in a position where his wishes aim at something which the sentiment of

duty forbids him to seek.

speaks the

that

truth executes no private function of an individual will,

but the world utters a sound by his

who doth a

just action seeth therein

lips.

nothing of his

own, but an inconceivable nobleness attaches to because

a dictate of the general mind.

it,

have no idea of power so simple and so entire as It is the basis of thought, it is the basis of

this.

being.

Compare

private

and personal venture

this

all

that

call ourselves, all

deep of moral nature in which we

private good becomes an impertinence,

lie,

High

instincts,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

before which our mortal nature

like a guilty thing surprised,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Which, be they what they may,

Are yet the

and our

and we take

part with hasty shame against ourselves

Doth tremble

fountain-light of all our day,

Are yet the master-light

our

the world, with

of all our seeing,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make Our noisy years seem moments in the being

CHARACTER. Of the eternal silence, To perish never."

The moral element

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; truths that wake

invites

man

to great enlarge-

ments, to find his satisfaction, not in particulars or

and tendency

events, but in the purpose

bread, but in his right to his bread

corn or wool, but in

Not by adding, help us

;

its

;

not in

much

communication.

then, does the moral sentiment

no, but in quite another manner.

us in place.

;

centres,

It puts

concentrates us.

puts us at the heart of Nature, where

belong, in

the cabinet of science and of causes, there where all the wires terminate which hold the world in

mag-

netic unity, and so converts us into universal beings.

This wonderful sentiment, which endears as

it is

lect if

;

for no talent gives the impression of sanity,

wanting

this

varied names,

its

absorbs everything into

it,

its

faces of one substance, the heart

what are persons, prophets, or

passing agents, momentary rays

light ?

The There

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Before

all.

seraphim but of

nay,

;

Truth, Power, Goodness, Beauty, are

itself.

itself

obeyed, seems to be the fountain of intel-

moral is

sentiment

no labor or

bring a man, and which

Thus there

alone

sacrifice to it

no man who

omnipotent.

which

will not

make

easy.

will bargain to sell his

;

CHARACTER.

say at the end of a year, for a million or ten

life,

any tempo-

millions of gold dollars in hand, or for

rary pleasures, or for any rank, as of peer or prince

but

many a man who

does not hesitate to lay

down

his life for the sake of a truth, or in the cause of

And

his country, or to save his son or his friend.

under the action of heart and

his

this sentiment of the Right,

himself, and

mind expand above

above Nature. Though Love repine, and Reason chafe, There came a voice without reply,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

" 'T

man's perdition to be

When Such

safe,

for the truth he ought to die."

the difference of the action of the heart

within and of the senses without.

One

enthusi-

asm, and the other more or less amounts of horsepower.

Devout men, in the endeavor to express convictions,

this latent force

;

the seed, the Spirit,

as, the light,

Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Daemon,

the

small

still,

and In

their

have used different images to suggest

voice, etc.,

its latency.

all ages, to all

hears

indicating

all

It is serenely

men,

any record or let

all

/ am, ;

its

mediation.

and he who

this

The poor " Let not the Lord

any

Moses speak

the

power

wandering from

of the wilderness cried

speak to us;

above

it saith,

feels the impiety of

revelation to

Jews

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

rival.

to us."

But the

CHARACTER.

Bimple and sincere soul makes the contrary prayer '

Let no intruder come between thee and me

Thou

with

;

let

me know

The

ask no more.'

every true teacher,

excellence

is,

thy

Jesus,

deal

;

and I

will,

and of

that he affirms the Divinity

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

him and in us, not thrusts himself between it and us. It would instantly indispose us to any

person claiming to speak for the Author of Nature, the setting forth any fact or law which

our consciousness.

find in

Come

should say with

smoky cabin

Heraclitus

here also

approve yourself to him."

ception and

command

the Eternal in tances

into this

affirm that in all

saints, heroes, poets, as

merings before It

men

that

is it

each perishing

and degrades

the truth.

;

its

we did not

God

the presence of

man

;

that

dis-

whatever

obscure and confused stam-

silent revelation.

the truth.

When

They report

I think of Rea-

son, of Truth, of Virtue, I cannot conceive

as lodged in your soul

this majestic per-

statements of

all

;

and lodged

them

soul,

but

and I and and I may easily speak of that adorable nature, that- you

are lodged in that

all souls

there where only I behold in such terms as shall

my dim

experiences,

seem to the frivolous, who

dare not fathom their consciousness, as profane.

How is

man

relations of joy

man ?

How

can he exist to weave

and virtue with other

souls,

but

CHARACTER.

100 because he

inviolable,

reflection,

he says

I stand here glad at heart of

the sympathies I can

all

anchored at the centre of

In the ever-returning hour of

Truth and Being ?

awaken and

share, cloth-

ing myself with them as with a garment of shelter

and beauty, and yet knowing that it is not in the power of all who surround me to take from me the If all things are taken

smallest thread I call mine.

away, I have

still

all

things in

relation to the

Eternal.'

We pretend not to define the private heart.

the

way of

its

access to

It passes understanding.

was a time when Christianity existed in one

But

the child

had been

the element have been lost sage, if not

When

killed

by one, then quite

child.

by Herod, would

God

There

sends his mes-

as well

by another.

the Master of the Universe has ends to ful-

he impresses his will on the structure of minds.

fill,

The Divine Mind imparts person

The

aid which others give us

mother

itself

his whole duty is to this rule

the

child,

to the single

and teaching.

is like

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; temporary,

that of the gestative,

short period of lactation, a nurse's or a governess's

care

;

but on his arrival at a certain maturity,

and would be hurtful and ridiculous

ceases,

man.

;

slowly the soul unfolds itself in the

partial at

first,

pro-

Slowly the body comes to the use of

longed.

organs

its

new

and honors only some

101

CHARACTER. one or some few truths.

companions

its

sees

other truths honored, and successively finds their

foundation also in

Then

itself.

cuts the cord,

and no longer believes " because of thy saying," it has recognized them in itself. The Divine Mind imparts itself to the

but because

person

but

men who I

it is

act powerfully

so well that I

thought.

we have heard

must often use them

Yes, because I perceive that

the same truth, but they have heard

That

better.

delight,

Some men's words

and guide.

instruct

remember

express

men

also true that

There are men who astonish and

us.

single

only to say, there

gradation throughout Nature

;

degree and

and the Deity does

not break his firm laws in respect to imparting truth, light.

more than in imparting material heat and Men appear from time to time who receive

with more purity and fulness these high communi-

But

cations.

another that

it is

only as fast as this hearing from

authorized by

its

consent with his own,

pure and safe to each

;

and

all

receiving

from abroad must be controlled by this immense reservation. It

happens now and then, in the ages, that a

soul is born offers

which has no weakness of

no impediment

self,

which

to the Divine Spirit,

which

comes down into Nature as of souls, and

all its

only for the benefit

thoughts are perceptions of

CHARACTER.

102

things as they are, without any infirmity of earth.

Such souls are as the apparition of gods among men, and simply by their presence pass judgment

Men

on them. to give

them a

are forced by their

own

Evil

certain attention.

self-respect

men

shrink

and pay involuntary homage by hiding or apologizing for their action.

When a man

born with a profound moral sen-

timent, preferring truth, justice all

men

any honors or any

the superiority.

poetic anr

~oe

men

readily feel

They who deal with him are elehe lights up the house or

vated with joy and hope the landsc

and the serving

gain,

;

His actions are

in which he stands.

jairaculous in their eyes.

his pres-

ence, or w.^ain his influence, every one believes in

the immortality of the soul. invisible

They

feel that the

The Ara-

world sympathizes with him.

bians delight in expressing the sympathy of the un-

seen world with holy men.

When Omar Where

prayed and loved,

Syrian waters

roll,

Aloft the ninth heaven glowed and

moved

the tread of the jubilant soul.

A chief event of life

the day in which

encountered a mind that startled us by scope.

am in the habit of thinking,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

we have its

large

not, I hope,

out of a partial experience, but confirmed by what

I notice in

many

lives,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

to every serioua

CHARACTER.

103

mind Providence sends from time to time five or six or seven teachers who are of the first importance to him in the lessons they have to impart. The highest of these not so

much

edge, as they elevate

by sentiment and by

give particular knowltheir

habitual grandeur of view.

Great men serve us as insurrections do in bad governments. routine,

gone.

The world would run

shocks us with thrills of

" There rare.

life,

Lucifer's wager

ciples.

into endless

and forms incrust forms, till the life was But the perpetual supply of new genius

no steadfast

"A man

and

recalls us to prin-

in the

man on

old

u^ama was,

earth."

already of conseque

~;e

in the

known that we can implicitly rely on him." See how one noble person dwarfs a whole nation of underlings. This steadfastness we indicate when we praise character. world when

Character denotes habitual self-possession, habit-

and constitutional motives,

a balance not to be overset or easily disturbed by events and opinion, and

by implication

points to the source of right motive.

times employ the

word

consistent will of

men

nsed with emphasis, change, that

Such

souls

it is

ual regard to interior

outward

very

is,

some-

to express the strong of

mixed motive,

but,

and

when

points to what no events can

a will built on the reason of things.

do not come in troops

oftenest appear

CHARACTER.

104

a general without his command, be-

solitary, like

who can understand and uphold

cause those

such

appear rarely, not many, perhaps not one, in a gen-

And

eration.

memory and

the

tradition of such

strange way by is preserved in some who only half understand him, until a true disciple comes, who apprehends and interprets every

a leader those

word.

The sentiment never its

stops in pure vision, but

It affirms not only its truth, but

will be enacted.

It is not only insight, as science,

supremacy.

as fancy, as imagination

rule

and the

impels a

men, or

acts

man

sets

or an entertainment,

;

and poetry are

as friendship

which

him on some

but

it is

suggests

a sovereign

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as when

and impart

to go forth

men

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are

the

to other

hold him to obedience, to abate

some nuisance,

or establish some reform or charity which

mands

asceticism or some prac-

tice of self-examination to

or some zeal to unite

;

homage we render

com-

to this senti-

ment, as compared with the lower regard we pay to other thoughts

and the private or

social practices

we establish in its honor we call religion. The sentiment, of course, is the judge and measure of every expression of Stoicism,

Christianity,

it,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; measures Judaism,

Buddhism, or whatever

philanthropy, or politics, or saint, or seer pretends to speak in its name.

The

religions

call falsa

were once true.

CHARACTER.

105

They also were

affirmations of the

conscience correcting the evil customs of their times.

The populace drag down the gods level, and give them their egotism ture

known

none at

God keeping

all,

their

own

whilst in

Na-

to ;

out of sight, and

only as pure law, though resistless.

Cha-

teaubriand said, with some irreverence of phrase, If

God made man well back.

Phomme

man has paid him Dieu a fait Vliomme d son image, bien rendu." Every nation is dein his image,

" Si

l'a

graded by the goblins

worships instead of this

The Dionysia and Saturnalia of Greece and Rome, the human sacrifice of the Druids, the

Deity.

Sradda of Hindoos, the Purgatory, the Indulgences, and the Inquisition of Popery, the vindictive mythology of Calvinism, are examples of this perversion.

Every particular instruction in a ritual, is

accommodated

minds, and corrupted.

speedily

embodied

humble and gross

The moral sentiment

perpetual critic on these forms, thundering test,

sometimes in earnest and lofty rebuke

sometimes also

it is

its ;

the pro-

but

the source, in natures less pure,

of sneers

and flippant jokes of common people, who

feel that

the forms and dogmas are not true for

them, though they do not see where the error

The ment

religion of

of the next,

one age

lies.

the literary entertain-

We use in our idlest poetry and

CHARACTER.

106

discourse the words Jove, Neptune, Mercury, as

mere

colors,

and can hardly believe that they had

Greek the anxious meaning which, in our towns, is given and received in churches when our religious names are used and we read with surprise the horror of Athens when, one morning, to the lively

the statues of

Mercury

in the temples were found

broken, and the like consternation was in the city as

if,

in Boston, all the

Orthodox churches should

be burned in one night.

The

greatest dominion will be

thought.

The establishment

to the deepest

of Christianity in the

world does not rest on any miracle but the miracle of being the broadest

and most humane

Christianity was once a schism

and

doctrine.

protest against

the impieties of the time, which had originally been

had lost their Varnhagen von Ense, writing in Prussia 1848, says " The Gospels belong to the most

protests against earlier impieties, but truth.

aggressive writings.

leaf thereof could attain

the liberty of being printed (in Berlin) to-day.

What

Mirabeaus,

Heines, and therein

many

Rousseaus,

Diderots, Fichtes,

another heretic, one can detect

But before

was yet a national

alloyed, and, in the

religion

was

hands of hot Africans, of luxu-

rious Byzantines, of fierce Gauls,

tainted with their barbarism.

its

creeds were

In Holland, in Eng-

107

CHARACTER. land, in Scotland,

How

the national narrowness.

it felt

unlike our habitual turn of thought was that

of the last century in this country

spoke continually of angels and

Our

ancestors

archangels with

the same good faith as they would have spoken of

own

their

parents or their late minister.

words pale, are rhetoric, and

Our

horizon

years

credence

all

Now is

the

gone.

not far, say one generation, or thirty

much. The older see two gen-

all see so

But what has been run-

erations, or sixty years.

ning on through three horizons, or ninety years, looks to all the world like a law of Nature, and 't

an impiety to doubt.

us, if

Thus,

't is

incredible to

we look into the religious books of our grandhow they held themselves in such a pinfold.

fathers,

But why not

far as they could see,

through

two or three horizons, nothing but ministers and ministers.

Calvinism was one and the same thing

Old and New England.

in Geneva, in Scotland, in If there

was a wedding, they had a sermon

funeral, then a

sermon

;

a comet, or canker-worms, still

a sermon

or a deacon

Nature was a pulpit

;

and

;

died,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the church-

warden or tithing-man was a petty persecutor presbytery, a tyrant

;

a war, or small-pox, or

many a house

;

the

in coun-

try places the poor children found seven sabbaths in a week.

were

said,

Fifty or a hundred years ago, prayers

morning and evening,

in all families

;

CHARACTER.

108

grace was said at table the

Sunday was kept

And

of clergymen.

an exact observance of

;

laymen

in the houses of

disuse of rites so charged with humanity ration.

But

offices

are

women have

one sees with some pain the

by no means

much

that

disused,

are irreligious

certainly

;

and

aspi-

follows, because those

less integrity or sentiment,

men and

the

not that

but only,

they let

hope, that they see that they can omit the form

without loss of real ground

;

perhaps that they find

some violence, some cramping of their freedom of thought, in the constant recurrence of the form.

They have dropped, with the

clergy.

garb and manners of the trines

last century,

But the

Men

Is he

Is he a benefactor

now where it should

helpful, as having public

otherwise

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are

lives

as he

far the relig-

Persons are discrim-

be.

inated as honest, as veracious, as ,

doc-

ask now, " Is he

a sincere man, who

serious ?

sacerdotal

many

distinctions of the true clergy-

are not less decisive.

teaches

ion

of the

and practices once esteemed indispensable

their order.

man

and manners

of the changed position

illuminated, as

and universal regards, or

discriminated according to their

aims, and not by these ritualities.

The changes

are inevitable

see with the eyes of the last.

what

superficial

;

the new age cannot But the change is in

the principles are immortal,

CHARACTER. and the

rally

become

intellectual.

on the principle must arrive as people I consider theology to be the

The mind

rhetoric of morals.

away from theology advance.

most

and dogmatic,

florid

men

also fell

morals. als,

and

that, in

away from

when it

and that

was the barbarism

theology, and rested in

dogmas

rest

on mor-

only a question of youth or ma-

more or

I conceive

the theology was

that very time, the best

I think that all the

turity, of

of this age has fallen

to morals.

I suspect, that,

the people,

109

less

fancy in the recipient

;

that

the stern determination to do justly, to speak the truth, to be chaste

and humble, was

substantially

the same, whether under a self-respect, or under a

vow made on

When

the knees at the shrine of

once Selden had

Madonna.

said that the priests

seemed to him to be baptizing their own

fingers,

the rite of baptism was getting late in the world.

Or when

once

perceived that the English

missionaries in India put obstacles in the

way

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; do not wish to enlighten the Hindoos, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; seen at

schools, (as is alleged,)

but to Christianize

how wide of Christ is English Christianity. Mankind at large always resemble frivolous chil-

once

dren

they are impatient of thought, and wish to

be amused. like those

said

Truth

too simple for us

who unmask our

illusions.

;

we do not Fontenelle

" If the Deity should lay bare to the eyes of

CHARACTER.

110

men

the secret system of Nature, the causes by

which

all

the astronomic results are effected, and

they finding no magic, no mystic numbers, no ities,

but the greatest simplicity, I

fatal-

persuaded

they would not be able to suppress a feeling of

and would exclaim, with disappoint-

mortification,

ment, 'Is that all?'

And

we paint over

of ethics with the quaint

bareness

the

grotesques of

theology.

boast the triumph of Christianity over Pa-

ganism, meaning the victory of the spirit over the senses

but Paganism hides

;

itself in

the uniform

Paganism has only taken the oath taken the cross, but is Paganism still,

of the Church.

of allegiance,

outvotes the true

men by

spends the treasure, writes the

ries the bag,

elects the minister,

There

which, in

millions of majority, car-

and persecutes the true

a certain secular progress of opinion,

civil countries,

life

is,

and wisdom of every past man

and available

;

Voltaire

accessible

Socrates and Marcus Aurelius

all.

are allowed to be saints

accursed

One make

reaches everybody.

service which this age has rendered

the

tracts,

believer.

;

Mahomet

no longer

no longer a scarecrow

;

Spi-

noza has come to be revered. " The time will come,"

Varnhagen von Ense, " when we shall treat the jokes and sallies against the myths and churchsays

rituals of Christianity

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; say

the sarcasms of

Vol

CHARACTER. taire,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; good-

Frederic the Great, and D' Alembert

naturedly and without offence those

Ill

men mean

since, at

bottom,

honestly, their polemics proceed

out of a religious striving, and what Christ meant

and willed

the

name

more with them than with who only wear and misrepresent

in essence

their opponents,

Voltaire was an apostle

of Christ

of Christian ideas

only the names were hostile to

;

him, and he never knew

otherwise.

the son of the vine-dresser in the Gospel,

No, and went

serve

who

said

the other said Yea, and went not.

;

These men preached the true God,

men

was

justice

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Him whom

and uprightness; but they

called themselves atheists."

When

the highest conceptions, the lessons of re-

ligion, are imported, the nation is

has not genius, but its

is servile.

A completed nation will not

vernacular tongue.

import

Duty grows everywhere,

its religion.

children, like grass

or to Asia to learn lish religion is

not

not culminating,

A true nation loves

;

and we need not go

it.

all

Europe

not sure that the Eng-

quoted.

Even

the

Jeremy

Taylors, Fullers, George Herberts, steeped, all of

them, in Church traditions, are only using their fine fancy to emblazon their memory.

England, which

the ground.

'T is Judaea, not

So with the mor-

dant Calvinism of Scotland and America. quoting distances and disables them

But

since

this

with

CHARACTER.

112

every repeater something of creative force

when we go back

feel

is lost, as

to each original moralist.

Pythagoras, Socrates, the Stoics, the Hindoo, Ben-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; these

men, George Fox,

how many

speak originally; and

we owe to unknown who were not careful to set

sentences and books

authors, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

to writers

or date or titles or cities or postmarks

down name

in these illuminations

We,

must be written on power

ethical principles, so that the en-

of the spiritual world can be enlisted to

hold the loyalty of the

emy

to drive the ponder-

The constitution and law in America

ous State.

tire

want power

in our turn,

citizen,

force of Nature.

and

to repel every en-

The laws

stood on the religious convictions.

of old empires

Now

that their

religions are outgrown, the empires lack strength.

Romanism

Europe does not represent the

real

The Lutheran Church Germany the opinions of the

opinion of enlightened men.

does not represent in universities. nals,

In England, the gentlemen, the

jour-

at last, churchmen and bishops, have away from the Anglican Church. And in

and now,

fallen

America, where are no legal

ties to churches, the

looseness appears dangerous.

Our But

all

religion has got

on as far as Unitarianism.

the forms grow pale.

ple are wasted

and

The

walls of the tem-

thin, and, at last, only a film of

whitewash, because the mind of our culture has aL

;

CHARACTER. ready

our liturgies behind.

left

113 " Every age," says

Varnhagen, " has another sieve for the religious tradition,

and

Something

will sift it out again.

continually lost by this treatment, which posterity

cannot recover."

But

it is

a capital truth that Nature, moral as

well as material,

always equal to herself.

always generate enthusiasm.

The

Morals

end, forms of worship, swiftly decay.

incorruptible essence, very heedless in of

Ideas

creed, the legis

the

its

richness

any past teacher or witness, heedless

of their

lives

are

and fortunes.

wrong

it is all

The

It does not ask

whether you

them

or right in your anecdotes of

in all

how you

stand to your

own

;

but

tribunal.

lines of the religious sects are very shifting

their platforms unstable

;

the whole science of the-

ology of great uncertainty,

and resting very much

on the opinions of who may chance to be the leading doctors of Oxford or Edinburgh, of Princeton or

Cambridge, to-day.

No man

can

tell

what

ious revolutions await us in the next years

education in the divinity colleges tate

and vary.

mutation

;

But the

and whoever

ethical studies

may

;

relig-

and the

well hesi-

science of ethics has

feels

any love or

skill for

safely lay out all his strength

and genius in working in that mine.

The

may

All the vic-

shake, but this platform will not.

tories of

religion belong to the

pulpit

moral sentiment.

CHARACTER.

114

Some poor

soul beheld the

Law

blazing through

such impediments as he had, and yielded himself to humility and joy.

What was

was

that

justification

The Church,

gained by being told

faith ?

in its ardor for beloved persons,

clings to the miraculous, in the vulgar sense, which

has even an immoral tendency, as one sees in

Greek, Indian and Catholic legends, which are used

The

to gloze every crime.

soul, penetrated with

the beatitude which pours into

interpositions,

enough ways

for

it,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; finds

to heaven,

will learn to

no new laws,

asks

all sides,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the old are good

in every cart-path of labor

and the humblest

lot exalted.

Men

put back the emphasis peremptorily

on pure morals, always the same, not subject

doubtful interpretation, with no sale of indulgences

no massacre of

heretics,

no female

slaves,

chisement of woman, no stigma on race

morals the absolute

test,

out the false religions.

no ;

disfran-

make

and so uncover and drive There

not skulked behind them. It

vice that has

only yesterday that

our American churches, so long silent on Slavery,

and notoriously

hostile to the Abolitionist, wheeled

into line for Emancipation.

far

from accepting the opinion that the

elations of the it

moral sentiment are

rev-

insufficient, as if

furnished a rule only, and not the spirit by which

the rule

animated.

For I include

in these, of

115

CHARACTER.

course, the history of Jesus, as well as those of

every divine soul which in any place or time delivered any grand lesson to humanity

and I

;

find in

the eminent experiences in all times a substantial

The sentiment

agreement.

itself

teaches unity of

and disowns every superiority other than of

source,

deeper truth. Jesus has immense claims on the grat-

knew how

itude of mankind, and

tegrity of his brother's soul

guard the

from himself

also

;

in-

but,

him runs away with their reverence for the human soul, and they hamper us with limitations of person and text. Every in his disciples, admiration of

exaggeration of these right,

the

and

New

phers.

inclines the

a violation of the

manly reader

to lay

soul's

down

Testament, to take up the Pagan philosoIt

not that the Upanishads or the

Max-

ims of Antoninus are better, but that they do not invade his freedom

;

because they are only sugges-

tions, whilst the other

of positive authority,

adds the inadmissible claim

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

where command cannot

of an external

be.

This

command,

the secret of

the mischievous result that, in every period of intellectual its

gest

and

forms,

freest

when such minds

received,

charm

draw who best belong there, the larminds, and that in its most liberal

expansion, the Church ceases to

clergy those

into

and

in the

enter

it,

they are coldly

find themselves out of place.

Pagan

This

moralists, of suggestion, tka

CHARACTER.

116

charm from

of poetry, of

mere

truth, (easily disengaged

their historical accidents

to force

on us,) the

New

which nobody wishes

Testament loses by

its

Mankind cannot long

connection with a church.

and the office of this age is to put these writings on the eternal footing of equality

suffer this loss, all

of origin in the instincts of the is

human mind.

certain that each inspired master will gain in-

stantly

by the separation from the idolatry

of ages.

To their great honor, the simple and free minds among our clergy have not resisted the voice of Nature and the advanced perceptions of the mind

and every church divides expectant

class,

on one

itself into

side,

;

a liberal and

and an unwilling and

conservative class on the other.

us now, a few clergymen, with a

stands with theological

cast of mind, retain the traditions, but they carry

them in

In general discourse, they are never

quietly.

obtruded.

If the

England, in

up in the same

clergyman should travel in France,

Italy,

he might leave them locked

closet with his " occasional

at home, and,

little

The orthodox clergymen

firmer to theirs, as Calvinism has a

more tenacious and

he did not return, would never

think to send for them. hold a

sermons

vitality

will only die last

;

but that

doomed

also,

for Calvinism rushes to be

Unitarianism, as Unitarianism rushes to be pure

Theism.

CHARACTER. But the

inspirations are never withdrawn.

and low

ently in high

whom

integrity,

conditions.

and

indiffer-

There

class of imaginative youths,

will al-

whom poetry,

the love of beauty, lead to the adoration of

the moral sentiment, and these will provide

new

organic virtue are born, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the worst times, men of men and women of native

ways be a

117

forms and songs.

historic

Religion

with

as inex-

pugnable as the use of lamps, or of wells, or of

chimneys. teachers. tion,

must have days and temples and

The Sunday

the core of our civiliza-

dedicated to thought and reverence.

It in-

and the noblest

society,

vites to the noblest solitude

to whatever

ment.

means and

Men may

aids of spiritual refresh-

well come together to kindle each

other to virtuous living.

Confucius said, " If in

the morning I hear of the right way, and in the

evening

die,

I can be happy."

The churches already adding to the perennial cent activities, schools, offices

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

indicate the

new

spirit in

office of teaching, benefi-

as in creating hospitals, ragged

of employment

for the poor, appoint-

ing almoners to the helpless, guardians of foundlings

and orphans.

The power

that in other times

inspired crusades, or the colonization of land,

or the modern

New Eng-

revivals, flies to the help of the

deaf-mute and the blind, to the education of the eailor

and the vagabond boy,

to the reform of con-

;

CHARACTER.

118

and

victs

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

harlots,

Head and

as the

war created the Hilton Com-

Charleston missions, the Sanitary

mission, the nurses

and teachers at Washington.

In the present tendency of our

new importance

society, in the

when thrones

of the individual,

are

crumbling and presidents and governors are forced

moment

every

when tion, is

counties

remember

and towns are

and the individual voter

their constituencies

resisting centralizahis party,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

society

threatened with actual granulation, religious as

How many people are there in Some two hundred thousand. Well, then so many sects. Of course each poor soul loses well as political.

Boston

all his

old stays

;

no bishop watches him, no con-

fessor reports that he has neglected the confessional,

no class-leader admonishes him of no penance, no

fagot,

wrong ?

fine,

not this dangerous

but the law of growth.

absences, no

no rebuke. 'T

Is not this is

not wrong,

any

It is not dangerous,

more than the mother's withdrawing her hands from the tottering babe, nursery-floor

at his first

the child fears

the feat, instantly tries

to be assisted more.

And

learn to walk alone. less

;

and

again,

walk across the

cries,

this infant soul

first

forlorn,

but this rude stripping him of

drives

him inward, and he

but achieves

and never wishes

all

must home-

support

finds himself unhurt

;

CHARACTER.

119

finds himself face to face with the majestic Presence,

reads the original of the original of Gospels

Ten Commandments, the

and Epistles

;

nay, his narrow

chapel expands to the blue cathedral of the sky,

where he " Looks in and sees each blissful deity,

Where he

To ion

before the thunderous throne doth lie."

nations or to individuals the progress of opin-

not a loss of moral restraint, but simply a

change from coarser to

finer checks.

come from reform which a deeper thought If there

correct.

evil

can

will not

any tendency in national ex-

pansion to form character, religion will not be a

There

loser.

will not

make a

a fear that pure truth, pure morals, religion for the affections.

When-

ever the sublimities of character shall be incarnated in a man,

we may

rely that

awe and

love

tiable curiosity will follow his steps.

and

insa-

Character

the habit of action from the permanent vision of truth.

life.

man,

It carries a superiority to all the accidents It

compels right relation to every other

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; domesticates

mies.

" But

itself

with strangers and ene-

father," says the wise Prahlada, in

the Vishnu Purana, " know neither friends nor foes, for I behold soul."

Kesava

in all beings as in

It confers perpetual insight.

my own

It sees that

a man's friends and his foes are of his own household, of his

own

person.

What

would

avail me,

CHARACTER.

120 if

I could destroy

many

as is

really in myself,

reach to

Kang

its heart.

There would be

enemies ?

That which

to-morrow.

and no knife

I hate

and fear

long enough to

Confucius said one day to

" Sir, in carrying on your government,

should you use killing at all? desires be for

The

good.

what

why

Let your evinced

good, and the people will be

grass must bend,

Ke Kang,

across it."

when

the

wind blows

distressed about the

number how

of thieves in the state, inquired of Confucius

Confucius said, " If you,

do away with them.

were not covetous, although you should reward

sir,

them Its

it,

they would not steal."

methods are

subtle, it

works without means.

It indulges no enmity against any, knowing, with

Prahlada that " the suppression of malignant ing

itself

government.

a reward."

The more

In a sensible family, nobody ever

hears the words " shall " and " sha'n't

commands, and nobody obeys, but joyfully co-operate. of

feel-

reason, the less

Take

happy houses, and you

all

;

" nobody

conspire and

off the roofs of

hundreds

shall see this order with-

out ruler, and the like in every intelligent and moral society.

Command

exceptional,

break in the link of reason

;

and marks some

as the electricity goes

round the world without a spark or a sound,

until

there is a break in the wire or the water chain

Swedenborg said,

that, " in the spiritual world,

when

121

CHARACTER.

one wishes to rule, or despises others, he is thrust out

Goethe, in discussing the characters

of doors." in "

Wilhelm Meister," maintained " pure loveliness and right good-will manly prerogatives, before which all ism, with

its

lustre

energetic hero-

aud renown, must recede."

perfect accord with this, ".to

his belief that

are the highest

Henry James element in

give the feminine

affirms, that

life

hard-

its

earned but eternal supremacy over the masculine has been the secret inspiration of

There

It can afford to wait called success

;

man

principled

all

past history."

no end to the sufficiency of character. it

;

can do without what

To a

cannot but succeed.

existence

victory.

well-

defends

himself against failure in his main design by mak-

ing every inch of the road to

him

and no obscurity

trifle,

mensity of the chain whose his hand, spirit

hath

What

extols

and

all.

led

whom

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; by

There

feels the im-

last link

he holds in

Having" nothing, this

it.

It asks,

matter by

humility,

pleasant.

with Marcus Aurelius, the good

done

every self-abasement lifted

higher in the scale of being. tions for earthly felicity,

makes no

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; does not

stipula-

ask, in the ab-

soluteness of its trust, even for the assurance of

continued

life.

EDUCATION.

With

the key of the secret he marches faster

From

strength to strength, and for night brings day,

While classes or

The

tribes too

flowing conditions of

weak life,

to master

give way.

EDUCATION.

A new degree of any

may

price.

learn

The

And

laws.

its

power seems cheap

intellectual

use of the world

that

human

the

man

race have

wisely signified their sense of this, by calling wealth,

means,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Man being the

Language

end.

always

wise.

Therefore I praise

New England

country in the world where ture for education.

because

We have already taken,

planting of the Colonies, (for aught I first its

it is

time in the world,) the

the

the freest expendi-

know

initial step,

at the

for the

which for

importance might have been resisted as the most

radical of revolutions, thus deciding at the start the

destiny of this country,

man,

whom

of corn

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

this,

when

freezing feet,

starving, nor a pair of shoes for his is

allowed to put his hand into the

pocket of the rich, and say, not as you

namely, that the poor

the law does not allow to take an ear

will,

ments, but, by

You

but as I will

shall educate

not alone in the

me, ele-

further provision, in the languages,

in sciences, in the useful

and in elegant

arts.

The

EDUCATION.

126

child shall be taken

up by the

State,

and taught,

at the public cost, the rudiments of knowledge, and, at last, the ripest results of art

Humanly ciety, make

and

science.

speaking, the school, the college, the difference between men.

so-

All the

Aladdin or the invisible Gyges or

fairy tales of

the talisman that opens kings' palaces or the en-

chanted halls under-ground or in the fictions to indicate the

When

enlargement. inspired,

when one and

sea, are only

one miracle of intellectual

man

stupid becomes a

the same

man

passes out of

the torpid into the perceiving state, leaves the din of trifles, the stupor of the senses, to enter into the

quasi-omniscience of high thought,

around,

down.

limits

all

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; up and down,

disappear.

horizon shuts

sees things in their causes, all facts in

their connection.

One

of the problems of history is the beginning

of civilization.

serve

The animals

man make no

that accompany and

progress as races.

domestic are capable of learning of tricks of utility or

municate the

Those called

man

a few

amusement, but they cannot com-

skill to their race.

must be taught anew. train another dog.

The

Each

individual

trained dog cannot

And Man

himself in

many

races retains almost the unteachableness of the beast. ests of

For a thousand years the

islands

and

a great part of the world have been

for-

filled

EDUCATION. with savages

who made no

127

steps of advance in art

or skill beyond the necessity of being fed and

warmed.

Certain nations with a better brain and

usually in more temperate climates, have

made such

progress as to compare with these as these compare

with the bear and the wolf. Victory over things course, until

it is

sult of things over him.

his great danger,

world

the office of man.

accomplished,

it is

the war and in-

His continual tendency,

to overlook the fact that the

only his teacher, and the nature of sun and

moon, plant and

animal only means of arousing

his interior activity.

Enamored

of their beauty,

comforted by their convenience, he seeks them as ends,

and

fast loses sight of the fact that they

have

worse than no values, that they become noxious,

when he becomes

their slave.

This apparatus of wants and faculties, this craving body, whose organs ask

all

the elements and all

the functions of Nature for their satisfaction, educate the light,

wondrous creature which they

satisfy

with

with heat, with water, with wood, with bread,

with wool. irritable

and

The

necessities

imposed by

all-related texture

this

most

have taught

Man

hunting, pasturage, agriculture, commerce, weaving, joining, masonry, geometry, astronomy.

Here

world pierced and belted with natural laws, and fenced and planted with

civil partitions

and proper-

EDUCATION.

128 ties,

which

habitant.

all

put new restraints on the young

too

of relations,

must come into

magic

this

and know health and

in-

circle

sickness, the

fear of injury, the desire of external good, the

charm

of riches, the

hold

a school of power.

learn the tragi-comedy of sincere thing, the

of power.

The

house-

There, within the door,

human

life.

Here

the

wondrous composition for which

day and night go round.

In that routine are the

sacred relations, the passions that bind and sever. the wisdom

Here

sities

can teach, here labor drudges, here affections

poverty and

all

its

hated neces-

glow, here the secrets of character are told, the

guards of man, the guards of woman, the compensations which, like angels of justice,

pay every debt

the opium of custom, whereof all drink and

go mad.

Here

many

Economy, and Glee, and Hospi-

and Ceremony, and Frankness, and Calamity, and Death, and Hope.

tality,

Every one has a

trust of power,

every boy a jurisdiction, whether

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; every man, be over a cow

or a rood of a potato-field, or a fleet of ships, or the

laws of a

power

state.

inspires

And what activity the What toils it sustains

sharpens the perceptions and stores the facts.

desire of !

How

memory with

Thus a man may well spend many years

life in trade.

of matter

a constant teaching of the laws

and of mind.

dollar of property can

EDUCATION.

129

be created without some direct communication with

and

nature,

of course

some acquisition

edge and practical force.

of knowl-

It is a constant contest

with the active faculties of men, a study of the

is-

sues of one and another course of action, an accu-

mulation of power, and,

the higher faculties of

the individual be from time to time quickened, he will gain

wisdom and

from

virtue

his business.

every wind draws music out of the iEolian

harp, so doth every object in Nature draw music out of his mind.

not true that every landscape

I behold, every friend I meet, every act I perform,

every pain I suffer, leaves

from that they found

me ?

a different being

That poverty,

love, au-

thority, anger, sickness, sorrow, success, all

cealed faculties of the

mind?

Whatever

or petty ends are frustrated, this end

Whatever the man

swered. falls

that

work

upon our being and unlock for us the con-

actively

private

always an-

does, or whatever be-

him, opens another chamber in his soul,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

he has got a new feeling, a new thought, a

is,

new

organ.

end

man

What

Do we

is fitted

leads

not see

how amazingly

for this

to the world ?

him

to science ?

Why does he

track

in the midnight heaven a pure spark, a luminous

patch wandering from age to age, but because he acquires thereby a majestic sense of power

ing that in his VOL- x.

own constitution he can 9

;

learn-

set the shin-

EDUCATION.

130

ing maze in order, and finding and carrying their it

were, see his simple

giddy distances and

law in his mind, can, as idea realized up yonder

frightful periods of duration.

and

first

bodies all

men

fall to

Newton come

perceive that not alone

certain

the ground at a certain rate, but that

bodies in the Universe, the universe of bodies,

and

fall always,

one rate

;

nature draws to every other the power of his

atom of

that every atom in

atom,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he

extends

mind not only over every

cubic

his native planet, but he reports the condi-

tion of millions of worlds which his eye never saw.

And what

plant, every

the charm which every ore, every

new

fact touching winds, clouds, ocean

currents, the secrets of chemical composition and

decomposition possess for Humboldt that

much

What

but

revolving of similar facts in his mind

has shown him that always the mind contains in its

transparent chambers the means of classifying

the most refractory phenomena, of depriving tbem of all casual

them to

and chaotic

aspect,

to a bright reason of its

man

a sort of property,

and subordinating

own, and so giving

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; yea, the very highest

property in every district and particle of the globe.

By alike,

the permanence of Nature, minds are trained

and made

intelligible to

each other.

In our

condition are the roots of language and communication,

and these instructions we never exhaust.

;

EDUCATION. In some

sort the

end of

131

life

man

that the

should take up the universe into himself, or out of that quarry leave nothing unrepresented.

Yonder

mountain must migrate into

Yonder

magnificent astronomy he

at last to import, fetch-

ing away moon, and planet,

and binal law.

star,

his mind.

solstice, period,

by comprehending

comet

their relation

and

Instead of the timid stripling he was, he

to be the stalwart Archimedes, Pythagoras,

bus, Newton, of the physic, metaphysic

Colum-

and

ethics

of the design of the world.

For truly the population

the globe has

origin in the aims which their existence

and

takes flesh in forms that can express in history

and

to serve

The

so with every portion of them. it

;

its

truth

and thus

an idea always overhangs, like the moon,

rules the tide

which

rises simultaneously in all

the souls of a generation.

Whilst thus the world whilst thus the

man

exists

for

the

mind;

ever invited inward into

shining realms of knowledge and

power by the

shows of the world, which interpret to him the finitude of his office of

own

consciousness,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

a just education to awaken him to the

knowledge of

this fact.

We learn nothing rightly until we learn the bolical character of life.

each

full

in-

becomes the

of facts, dull,

Day

sym-

creeps after day,

strange, despised things,

EDUCATION.

132

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

call heavy, we cannot enough despise, The time we seek to kill saic, and desert.

that

attention

it is

And

us.

the

elegant to divert from things around

presently the aroused intellect finds gold

and gems in one of these scorned that the day of facts fact is

pro-

facts,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; then

a rock of diamonds

;

finds

that a

an Epiphany of God.

"We have our theory philosophy

life,

our religion, our

and the event of each moment, the

;

shower, the steamboat disaster, the passing of a beautiful face, the apoplexy of our neighbor, are

try our theory, the approximate result

all tests to

call truth,

and reveal

its defects.

nounced the search of truth,

If I have re-

I have come into

the port of some pretending dogmatism, some

new

church or old church, some Schelling or Cousin, I

have died to born out of hour.

all

use of these

prolific

new

events that are

time into multitude of

as a bankrupt to

tunities offer in vain.

whom

life

every

brilliant oppor-

has just foreclosed his

freedom, tied his hands, locked himself up and

given the key to another to keep.

When the

mind

I see the doors by which ;

that there

pedant into

whom

God

enters into

sot or fop, ruffian or

thoughts do not enter by pas-

sages which the individual never

expect any revolution in character.

left open, I

can

" I have hope,"

said the great Leibnitz, " that society

may be

EDUCATION.

how much

formed, when I see

133 education

may be

reformed." It

ominous, a presumption of crime, that this

word Education has

treatise

so cold, so hopeless a sound.

on education, a convention for educa-

a lecture, a system, affects us with slight pa-

tion,

ralysis

and a certain yawning of the

when the law touches

are not encouraged

Education

its fingers.

jaws. it

with

should be as broad as man.

Whatever elements are in him that should foster and demonstrate. If he be dexterous, his tuition should

ing

make

men by

appear

;

he be capable of divid-

the trenchant sword of his thought,

education should unsheathe and sharpen

ities,

hasten their action

mercurial,

artificer,

If he is jovial,

a strong commander, a potent

ciety has need of all these.

Why

and never open the

ingen-

ally,

Our

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

so-

The imagination must by

interior of nature, not still,

the Vast an element of the

what book

always coast on the surface

ence, which is surface

ing,

affin-

great-hearted, a cunning

ious, useful, elegant, witty, prophet, diviner,

be addressed.

;

one to cement society by his all-reconciling

of this

but by poetry

sci-

Is not

mind ? Yet what

teach-

day appeals to the Vast ?

culture has truckled to the times,

manworthy.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

to the

If the vast

and the

spiritual are omitted, so are the practical

and the

senses.

It is not

EDUCATION.

134

It does not

moral.

teach boys *" Tia-B iw.h teach

make msn

not give them afcrainrn g as

nobleTIature.

We do not

ar e.

we b elieved

e do

in their

educate their bodies.

scarce

train the eye

do not

to aspire to be all they can.

them

us brave or free. as

We exer-

and the hand.

understandings to the apprehension and

cise their

comparison of some

facts, to

skill in

numbers, in

make accountants, attorneys, words but not to make able, earnest, greatengineers hearted men. The gre at object_of_ Education should we aim

;

be commensurate with the object of be a moral one youthful

man

;

to teach self-trust

lif e. :

It should

to inspire the

with an interest in himself

curiosity touching his

own nature

;

with a

;

to acquaint

him

with the resources of his mind, and to teach him that there

is all his

strength,

and to inflame him

with a piety towards the Grand lives.

Mind

in which he

Thus would education conspire with the Di-

vine Providence.

A man is a little thing whilst he

works by and for himself, but, when he gives voice to the rules of love is

and

justice, is godlike, his

current in all countries

enemies, are

made

;

and

his friends

all

word

men, though

and obey

his

as their

own.

In affirming that the moral nature of man

the predominant element and should therefore be

mainly consulted in the arrangements of a

school,

135

EDUCATION. I

very far from wishing that

should swallow

the other instincts and faculties of man.

all

should be enthroned in his mind, but the

lize

know

man he

if it

monopo-

not yet sound, he does not yet

his wealth.

in danger of

becoming

merely devout, and wearisome through the monot-

ony of his thought. It intellectual

and the

not less necessary that the

active faculties should be nour-

Let us apply

to this subject

the light of the same torch by which

we have looked

ished and matured.

at all the

phenomena

of the time

all

fact constitutes all trust, viz., this

long as there It is

of.

the infinitude,

Everything teaches

namely, of every man.

One

;

that.

satisfaction, inspires

perpetual youth, which, as

any good in

us,

we cannot

get rid

very certain that the coming age and

the departing age seldom understand each other.

The old man thinks the young man has no

distinci.

purpose, for he could never get anything intelli gible

and earnest out

man

does not think

of him.

â&#x20AC;˘

Perhaps the young

worth his while to explain

himself to so hard and inapprehensive a confessor.

Let him be led up with a long-sighted forbearance, and

let

not the

sallies of his

petulance or folly be

checked with disgust or indignation or despair. I call our system a system of despair, and I find all

the correction, all the revolution that

and that the best

spirits of

this

needed

age promise, in

EDUCATION.

136 one word, in Hope.

mind

into the world,

Nature, when she sends a new it

fills

beforehand with a de-

know and do. new creation, of what new organ the great Spirit had need when it incarnated this new Will. A new Adam in the garden, he is to name all the beasts in the field, all which she wishes

sire for that

Let us wait and see what

the gods in the sky.

is this

And

jealous provision seems

to have been made in his constitution that you

and contaminate him with the

shall not invade

worn weeds

charm

of your language

of life

and opinions.

The

this variety of genius, these con-

by which Heaven has modulated the identity of truth, and there is a perpetual hankering to violate this individuality, to warp his ways of thinking and behavior to resemble or reflect A low self-love in your thinking and behavior.

trasts

and

flavors

the parent desires that his child should repeat his

character and fortune child, if justice is

By working on ists,

shall

;

an expectation which the

done him, will nobly disappoint.

the theory that this resemblance ex-

do what in us

lies to

defeat his proper

promise and produce the ordinary and mediocre. suffer

whenever I see that common sight of a parent

or senior imposing his opinion and

way

of think-

ing and being on a young soul to which they are totally unfit.

and enjoy to

make

Cannot we

life in their

that

man

let

people be themselves,

own way

another you.

You One 's

are trying

enough.

EDUCATION.

137

Or we sacrifice the genius of the pupil, the unknown possibilities of his nature, to a neat and safe uniformity, as the Turks whitewash the costly mosaics of ancient art

hood

us have

let

left

on their

men whose man-

only the continuation of their boyhood, nat-

ural characters heroic action

which the Greeks

Rather

temple walls.

;

still

such are able and

;

and not that sad

fertile for

spectacle with which

are too familiar, educated eyes in uneducated

bodies.

I like boys, the masters of the playground of the street,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

who have

boys,

and

the same liberal

ticket of admission to all shops, factories, armories,

town-meetings, caucuses, mobs, target-shootings, as flies

have

;

quite unsuspected,

rally as the janitor,

their pockets,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; known

coming in as natuto

and themselves not suspecting the

value of this poverty

;

putting nobody on his guard,

but seeing the inside of the show,

There are no

asides.

know

have no money in

secrets

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; hearing

brakes,

how

work

hand at every part comotive on the

the

everything that befalls in the fire-company,

man

the merits of every engine and of every

let

all

from them, they

them

;

it,

and

will coax the engineer to

him and

goes to the engine-house.

for fun,

at the

to try their

so too the merits of every lo-

rails,

ride with

and are swift

pull the handles

They

when

are there only

and not knowing that they are

at school,

EDUCATION.

138

much

in the court-house, or the cattle-show, quite as

and more than they were, an hour ago, metic

in the arith-

class.

They know truth from counterfeit as quick as They detect weakness in your the chemist does. eye and behavior a week before you open your mouth, and have given you the benefit of their opinion quick as a wink. They make no mistakes, have no pedantry, but entire belief on experience. Their elections at base -ball or cricket are

merit,

and are

founded on

They don't pass

right.

for swim-

mers until they can swim, nor for stroke-oar they can row contempt.

and I

desire to be saved

from

If I can pass with them, I can

until

their

manage

well enough with their fathers.

Everybody delights

in the energy with

deal and talk with each other

and

earnest, reproach

with which the game

;

which boys

the mixture of fun

and coaxing, love and wrath,

played

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the good-natured

yet defiant independence of a leading boy's behavior in the school-yard.

the

happy youths

How we

whom

envy in

later life

their boisterous

games

and rough exercise furnish the precise element which frames and sets off their school and college and teaches them, when least they think it, the use and meaning of these. In their fun and tasks,

extreme freak they hit on the topmost sense of Horace.

The young

giant,

brown from

his hunting-

EDUCATION. tramp,

Homer,

"Walter Scott

and

interlarded with lucky

tells his story well,

allusions to

trout,

;

139

to Virgil, to college-songs, to

and Jove and Achilles, partridge

opera and binomial theorem, Caesar in

Gaul, Sherman in Savannah, and hazing in Holworthy, dance through the narrative in merry confusion, yet the logic is good.

he can turn his

books to such picturesque account in his fishing and hunting,

it is

each other.

how

easy to see

rience, as he has

more of

And

his reading

and expe-

both, will interpenetrate

every one desires that this pure

vigor of action and wealth of narrative, cheered

much humor and

with so

street rhetoric, should

carried into the habit of the its

young man, purged

uproar and rudeness, but with

tire.

all its

be of

vivacity en-

His hunting and campings-out have given

him an indispensable base I wish to add a taste for good company through his impatience of bad. :

That stormy genius of

his needs a little direction to

games, charades, verses of

society, song,

and a

cor-

respondence year by year with his wisest and best friends. its

Friendship

revelations

an order of nobility

we come more worthily

Society he must have or he

;

from

into nature.

poor indeed

;

gladly enters a school which forbids conceit, affectation,

emphasis and dulness, and requires of each

only the flower of his nature and experience quires good-will, beauty, wit,

and

;

re-

select informa-

EDUCATION.

140 tion

teaches by practice the law of conversation,

;

namely, to hear as well as to speak.

Meantime,

circumstances do not permit the

high social advantages, solitude has also

The obscure youth

its

lessons.

learns there the practice instead

of the literature of his virtues

;

and, because of the

disturbing effect of passion and sense, which by

a multitude of

impede the mind's eye from

trifles

the quiet search of that fine horizon-line which truth keeps,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the way to knowledge and power has ever

been an escape from too much engagement with affairs

and

and possessions

superfluity, but

;

a way, not through plenty

by denial and renunciation,

and privation and, the more is taken more real and inevitable wealth of beaway, the into solitude

ing

;

made known

to us.

The

solitary

knows the

essence of the thought, the scholar in society only its fair face.

men,

There

no want of example of great

who have been monks and habit. The bias of mind is sometimes in that direction. The man is, as it were,

great benefactors,

hermits in irresistible

born deaf and dumb, and dedicated lonely

life.

Let him study the

a narrow and

art of solitude, yield

Why can-

as gracefully as he can to his destiny.

not he get the good of his doom, and eternity a settled fact that he and

if it is

nothing to each other,

why need he

make wry

up a freshman's

faces to keep

from

society shall be

blush

so,

and

seat in the

EDUCATION. fine

Heaven often

world?

141

protects valuable souls

charged with great secrets, great ideas, by long

them up with their own thoughts. And the most genial and amiable of men must alternate society with solitude, and learn its severe lessons.

shutting

There comes the period of the imagination to each, a later youth

;

the power of beauty, the power

of books, of poetry.

Culture makes his books real-

him, their characters more brilliant, more

ities to

effective

on his mind, than his actual mates.

not spare to put novels into the hands of young people as an occasional holiday

above

all,

lyric.

good poetry in

we can touch

and experiment

all

the imagination,

them, they will never forget

"Tom Brown Oxford,"

—

;

but,

kinds, epic, tragedy,

Rugby," read

serve

Let him read

it.

"Tom Brown

better yet, read " Hodson's Life "

Hodson who took prisoner the king teach the same truth,

—a

of Delhi.

—

They

trust, against all appear-

ances, against all privations, in your

own

worth, and

not in tricks, plotting, or patronage. I believe that our

own experience

instructs us

that the secret of Education lies in respecting the pupil.

It is

not for you to choose what he shall

know, what he shall do. dained,

It is chosen

and he only holds the key

to his

and

foreor-

own

secret.

By your tampering and thwarting and

too

much

EDUCATION.

142 governing he

may be

hindered from his end and

kept out of his own.

and

of Nature.

analogies, but not repetitions.

not too

much

Wait

Respect the child.

new product

see the

Nature loves

Respect the

child.

Trespass not on his

his parent.

solitude.

But I hear the outcry which replies to this suggestion Would you verily throw up the reins of :

—

public and private discipline

young child

to the

and whimsies, and the child's nature respect

him

mad

;

would you leave the

career of his

call this

own

passions

anarchy a respect for

I answer,

— Respect

the child,

to the end, but also respect yourself.

the companion of his thought, the friend of his

— but

no kins-

you so true

to your-

friendship, the lover of his virtue,

man

of his sin.

self

that

vice

and the imperturbable

Let him

find

you are the irreconcilable hater of

The two his naturel

points in a boy's training are, to keep

and

train off all but that

his naturel, but stop off

horse-play;

his

slighter of his trifling.

— keep

his

—

to keep

his uproar, fooling

nature and

arm

knowledge in the very direction in which

it it

and with

points.

Here are the two capital facts, Genius and Drill. The first is the inspiration in the well-born healthy child, the new perception he has of nature. Somewhat he sees in forms or hears in music or apprehends in mathematics, or believes practicable

EDUCATION. mechanics or possible in

political society,

one else sees or hears or believes. petual romance of into the old

143

new

life,

This

which no

the per-

houses a young soul with a thought which met, looking for something which

which ought to be there is sure,

God

the invasion of

dead world, when he sends into quiet

and he

the thought

not

dim but it means and

casts about restless for

masters to verify

not there, but

he makes wild attempts to ex-

;

plain himself and invoke the aid and consent of Baffled for want of language and

the bystanders.

methods to convey his meaning, not yet clear to himself, he conceives that though not in this house

or town, yet in

some other house or town

the wise

master who can put him in possession of the rules

and instruments

to execute his will.

child with a bias, with a thought

him, leads him,

now

the fool of an idea.

and

in evil report, in

justify itself

;

it will

into deserts

Happy

now

Let him follow

into cities, it

good or bad company ;

lead

him

this

which entrances

good

will

at last into the illustri-

ous society of the lovers of truth.

In London, in a private company, I became

ac-

quainted with a gentleman, Sir Charles Fellowes,

who, being at Xanthus, in the iEgean Sea, had seen a Turk point with his staff to some carved work on the corner of a stone almost buried in the soil. Fellowes scraped away the dirt, was struck with

EDUCATION.

144

the beauty of the sculptured ornaments, and, look-

ing about him, observed more blocks and fragments

like this.

ers

returned to the spot, procured labor-

and uncovered many blocks.

went back to

England, bought a Greek grammar and learned the language

;

he read history and studied ancient

art to explain his stones

sculptor

;

he interested Gibson the

he invoked the assistance of the English

Government phry Davy

he called in the succor of Sir

;

to analyze the

coins, of scholars

pigments

and connoisseurs

home

his third visit brought

;

Hum-

of experts in

and

at last in

England such

stat-

ues and marble reliefs and such careful plans that

he was able to reconstruct, in the British

where

now

stands, the perfect

trophy-monument,

non

of Athens,

fifty

Museum

model of the Ionic

years older than the Parthe-

and which had been destroyed by

earthquakes, then by iconoclast Christians, then by

savage Turks.

But mark that

in the task he

had

achieved an excellent education, and become associated with distinguished

scholars

interested in his pursuit; in short, college for himself

master, the

;

masters,

whom

the enthusiast had found the

whom

he sought.

genius seeks genius, desires nothing so

Nor

Always

much

be a pupil and to find those who can lend perfect

he had

had formed a

as to

aid to

itself.

are the two elements, enthusiasm and

drill,

EDUCATION. Accuracy is

incompatible.

145

The

essential to beauty.

very definition of the intellect

is Aristotle's

" that

by which we know terms or boundaries." Give a boy accurate perceptions. Teach him the difference

Make him

between the similar and the same. things

Then he

blunder.

you

will give

as long as he lives.

Pardon

names.

their right

call

him no

solid satisfaction

It is better to teach the child

grammar than

arithmetic and Latin

rhetoric or

moral philosophy, because they require exactitude of performance is

;

it is

made

certain that the lesson

mastered, and that power of performance

more than the knowledge. which learn

is is

important to him secured

now

that the

as mechanics say,

learned the use of tools,

it is

worth

can learn anything

easy to

power

when one has work at a new

craft.

Letter by

letter, syllable

learns to read,

syllable, the child

and in good time can convey

the domestic circle the sense of Shakspeare.

many

steps each just as short, the

and the hesitating in college clubs, in

to all

stammering boy

collegian, in the school debate,

mock

court,

comes

at last to full,

secure, triumphant unfolding of his thought in the

popular assembly, with a fullness of power that

makes

But

all

the steps forgotten.

this function of

man mind VOL. z.

opening and feeding the hu-

not to be fulfilled by any mechanical io

146

EDUCATION.

or military method

;

not to be trusted to any

less large than Nature lect the

You must

itself.

skill

not neg-

form, but you must secure the essentials.

we we incur to do wrong. Whilst we all know in our own experience and apply natural methods in our own busiIt is curious are,

how

perverse and intermeddling

and what vast pains and

ness,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

in education our

cost

common

and we are continually trying against nature, in

and

sense fails us,

machinery

costly

patent schools and academies

in great colleges

and

universities.

The natural method forever confutes our experiments, and we must still come back to it. The whole theory of the school mother's knee. the mother

is to

The

child

impart.

on the nurse's or

as hot to learn as

There

mutual

delight.

The

joy of our childhood in hearing beautiful sto-

ries

from some

skilful

aunt who loves to

tell

them,

The boy wishes

must be repeated in youth.

learn to skate, to coast, to catch a fish in the brook, to hit a

mark with a snowball

older

little

is just

these sciences.

Not

or a stone

;

and a boy

as well pleased to teach less delightful is the

him

mutual

pleasure of teaching and learning the secret of

al-

gebra, or of chemistry, or of good reading and good recitation of poetry or of prose, or of chosen facts in history or in biography.

Nature

provided

for

the

communicate or>

;

EDUCATION. by planting with

thought,

a fury to impart

burns to hear ride or

it.

in the receiving

to tell the

See

how

new

far a

every

fact, the

other

young doctor

will

walk to witness a new surgical operation.

have seen a carriage-maker's shop emptied of

workmen from

mind

art, in

'T is so in every

it.

One burns

science.

147

into the street, to scrutinize a

New

who has

York.

in literature, the

all its

new pattern young man

taste for poetry, for fine images, for noble

thoughts,

insatiable for this nourishment,

gets all the world for the

who finds Happy

more learned

and

for-

friend,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

equal joy in dealing out his treasures. the natural college thus self -instituted

around every natural teacher

;

the

young men

Athens around Socrates; of Alexandria around Plotinus

;

of Paris around

Abelard

;

Germany

around Fichte, or Niebuhr, or Goethe in short the :

natural sphere of every leading mind.

moment college

But the The

this is organized, difficulties begin.

was

be the nurse and home of genius

man

born with some de-

termination in his nature, and

a potential genius;

but,

though every young

is at last

to be one

;

it is,

in the most, obstructed

and delayed, and, whatever they may hereafter be, their senses are now opened in advance of their minds.

They are more sensual than

intellectual.

Appetite and indolence they have, but no enthusiasm. These come in numbers to the college few :

EDUCATION.

148 geniuses

for these

and the teaching comes to be arranged many, and not for those few. Hence the

instruction seems to require skilful tutors, of accu-

rate

and systematic mind, rather than ardent and

inventive masters.

Besides, the youth of genius

are eccentric, won't

drill,

explosive, solitary, not

are irritable, uncertain,

men

of the world, not good

You have

for every-day association.

work

for

large classes instead of individuals ; you must lower

your flag and reef your sailors

;

you grow

sails to

wait for the dull

departmental, routinary, military

almost with your discipline and college police.

what doth such a school

What

character?

What Reformer

human

warm mind it

have

prompt

statute

to enrich us

which

fiery soul will it

fortified to

and obscure

inspire?

race

a nation with his charity will it

in private Is

mind the

What

must obey?

What poet will it ? What discov-

will it nurse ?

erer of Nature's laws will disclosing in the

Hope can

abiding

breed to sing to the

But

form a great and heroic

all

matter

send out to

What

tranquil

walk with meekness

duties, to wait

and to

suffer?

not manifest that our academic institutions

should have a wider scope

;

that they should not be

timid and keep the ruts of the last generation, but that wise

men

thinking for themselves and heartily

seeking the good of mankind, and counting the cost of innovation, should dare to arouse the

young

to a

EDUCATION. just

and heroic

life;

149

that the moral nature should be

addressed in the school-room, and children should

be treated as the high-born candidates of truth and virtue ?

to regard the

requires,

young

young man,

child, the

no doubt, rare patience

a patience that

nothing but faith in the remedial forces of the soul

can give.

You

want of those

see his sensualism;

tastes

own

But he has something

vice,

he has

and

its

make

Very

character.

If he has his

else.

Every

correlative virtue.

its

mind should be allowed in action,

see his

and perceptions which make

the power and safety of your likely.

you

its

own statement In these

balance will appear.

judgments one needs that foresight which was tributed to an eminent reformer, of said " his patience could see in the

whom

bud

of the aloe

the blossom at the end of a hundred years." for the cripple Practice

when

with the bird Theory, which

seeks to

flies

your design on the best school.

before

The

Alas

come up

Try

it.

scholars are

of all ages and temperaments and capacities. is difficult to class

are slow,

some perverse.

Each

considered,

requires so

much

morning hope of the teacher,

a day of love and progress,

evening by despair. it is

them, some are too young, some

consideration, that the of

at-

was

often closed at

Each single case, the more shows more to be done ; and the

;

EDUCATION.

150 strict

the

conditions of the

number

on one

hours,

of tasks, on the other.

Whatever

comes of our method, the conditions stand hours, and

six

be-

fast,

a hundred and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

fifty

Something must be done, and done speed-

pupils. ily,

thirty, fifty, or

and

side,

in this distress the wisest are tempted to

and

adopt violent means, to proclaim martial law, corporal punishment, mechanical arrangement, bribes, spies, wrath,

main strength and ignorance,

in lieu

of that wise genial providential influence they

had

hoped, and yet hope at some future day to adopt.

course the devotion to details reacts injuriously

on the teacher. cannot delight

when

friends,

cannot indulge his genius, he

in personal

relations with

young

his eye is always on the clock,

and

twenty classes are to be dealt with before the day is

Besides,

done.

and

genius,

foster

tion of rogue

school

please himself with

modest virtue

and dunce

A sure propor-

finds its

and requires a cruel share

gentle teacher,

youth,

how can he

who wished

way

into every

of time,

and the

to be a Providence to

grown a martinet,

sore with suspicions

knows as much vice as the judge of a police court, and his love of learning is lost in the routine of

grammars and books

A rule apply to

;

of elements.

so easy that

does not need a

man

an automaton, a machine, can be made

keep a school

so.

facilitates

labor

and

151

EDUCATION.

much

thought so

that there

always the tempta-

tion in large schools to omit the endless task of

meeting the wants of each single mind, and to gov-

But

ern by steam.

modes

to de-iorjaasscs

what must be rather, the

aim

of Education

;

»hat oaaaot-be. done for masses, done reverently, one by one: say

whole world

each pupil?

Our

at frightful cost.

to expedite, to save labor

needed for thp tuition o£

TEeadvantages of

this

system of eu£""\

ulation and display are so prompt and obvious, it^J is such a time-saver, it is so energetic on slow and

on bad natures, and

of so easy application, need-

ing no sage or poet, but any tutor or schoolmaster in his first

term can

apply

it,

— that

not

strange that this calomel of culture should be a

popular medicine.

the other hand, total absti-

nence from this drug, and the adoption of simple discipline

and the following of nature, involves

once immense claims on the time, the thoughts, on the

life

of the teacher.

It requires time, use, in-

sight, event, all the great lessons

God ter

;

and only

and assistances of

to think of using it implies charac-

and profoundness

discipline is to be

;

to enter on this course of

good and great.

precisely

analogous to the difference between the use of corporal punishment and the methods of love. so easy to bestow on a uini,

It is

bad boy a blow, overpower

and get obedience without words, that

in this

;

EDUCATION.

152

world of hurry and distraction, who can wait for the returns of reason and the conquest of self

come ?

the uncertainty too whether that will ever

And

;

yet the familiar observation of the universal

compensations might suggest the fear that so sum-

mary a than

its

Now

stop of a bad

humor was more jeopardous

continuance.

the correction of this quack practice

import into Education the wisdom of this military

Her

Leave

life.

hurry and adopt the pace of Nature.

secret is patience.

Do you know how

the nat-

uralist learns all the secrets of the forest, of plants,

of birds, of beasts, of reptiles, of fishes, of the rivers

When

and the sea ?

the birds

fly

before

he goes into the woods

him and he

he goes to the river bank, the

swim away and tience

;

sits

log.

their time,

him down, and leave

sits still

lose their fear.

all

pa-

his.

wish to return to their haunts,

sits still

They have

;

they approach,

sits

upon.

They

curiosity too about him.

the curiosity masters the fear, and they

come swimming, creeping and as he

a statue

reptile, fish, bird

still,

he remains passive' as the stone he

and

These creatures have no value for

begin to return.

By and by

secret

when

reptile

and he must put as low a rate on which

beast,

;

and the

His

alone.

dint of obstinate sitting

and

none

finds fish

is still

flying towards

him

immovable, they not only resume

153

EDUCATION. their haunts ners,

and

their ordinary labors

and man-

him

work-day

show themselves

in their

some degree of advances and good understanding with a biped who behaves so civilly and well. Can you not baffle the impatience and passion of the child

trim, but also volunteer

towards fellowship

by your tranquillity? Can you not wait for him, Can you not keep as Nature and Providence do ? secret, the same cuhis for his mind and ways, for riosity

you give to the

the sheldrake

squirrel, snake, rabbit,

and the deer ?

wonderful methods in him

;

He is,

and

has a secret

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; every

child,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

give him time and oppora new style of man I tell Talk of Columbus and Newton tunity. ;

you the child just born in yonder hovel

the be-

But

ginning of a revolution as great as theirs.

you must have the believing and prophetic eye.

Your

the self-command you wish to inspire.

Have

teaching and discipline must have the reserve and taciturnity of Nature.

Teach them

tongues by holding your own. snarl

;

do not chide

;

Say

to hold their little

;

do not

but govern by the eye.

what they need, and that the right thing

See

done.

I confess myself utterly at a loss in suggesting partieaktg^ceforms in our

cretion that can

ways of teaching.

dis-

be lodged with a school-committee,

with the overseers or visitors of an academy, of a college,

can at

all avail to

reach these

difficulties

;

EDUCATION.

154 and

perplexities,

we leave

but they solve themselves when

institutions

and address individuals.

the male power, organizes, imposes

will,

its

The own

thought and wish on others, and makes that military eye which controls boys as

admirable in it,

and only dangerous when and overuse

to overvalue finer

they must use

leads the

and precludes

who have not

the

force,

first,

and

subtle

lasting

and

I advise teachers to cherish mother-wit. that you will keep the

will.

of re-

creative.

I assume

grammar, reading, writing

and arithmetic in order you

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; deficient

and the breaking down

in instant control sistance, is

Sympathy, the female

means.

men who has workman him from

controls

a fortune to him

its results,

But smuggle

;

't is

easy and of course

in a little contraband wit,

fancy, imagination, thought.

you have a

taste

which you have suppressed because

it is

Set this law up,

those about you, tell

them

that.

not shared

whatever becomes of the rules of the school

must not whisper, much

less talk

;

but

young people says a wise thing, greet

it,

they

one of the

and

let all

They shall have no book but school-books in the room but if one has the children clap their hands.

;

brought in a Plutarch or Shakspeare or ote or

Don

Quix-

Goldsmith or any other good book, and un-

derstands what he reads, put

head of the

class.

Nobody

him

shall

at once at the

be disorderly,

EDUCATION.

155

leave his desk without permission, but if a

from

his bench, or

to check

because the

girl,

some injury that a

fire falls,

dastard

little

boy runs or

is inflict-

ing behind his desk on some helpless sufferer, take

away the medal from the head it

of the class

and give

If a child

on the instant to the brave rescuer.

happens to show that he knows any fact about

as-

tronomy, or plants, or birds, or rocks, or history,

him and you, hush all the classes and encourage him to tell it so that all may hear. Then

that interests

you have made your school-room like the world.

course you will insist on modesty in the chil-

dren,

and respect

stops

you in your speech,

wrong and

sets

to their teachers, but

you

To whatsoever

right,

to educate men. itable sold,

you

raise,

you

cries out that

you embellish

how

you are

mind,

you

whatsoever

committed

simple living, by an illim-

inspire,

teach the beholder

the boy

hug him

upright

beating heart I speak,

you all.

correct,

you

instruct,

your own act you

do the practicable.

Ac-

cording to the depth from which you draw your Ufe, such is the effort,

The

depth not only of your strenuous

but of your manners and presence. beautiful

nature of

the

world has here

Mended your happiness with your power. Work straight on in absolute duty, and you lend an arm and an encouragement to

all

the youth of the uni-

EDUCATION.

156 verse.

Consent yourself to be an organ of your

highest thought, and lo in your debt,

suddenly you put

all

men

and are the fountain of an energy that

goes pulsing on with waves of benefit to the borders of society, to the circumference of things.

THE SUPERLATIVE.

When wrath And

and terror changed Jove's regal port

the rash-leaping thunderbolt

fell short.

For Art,

for

Music

The wine-cup

overthrilled,

shakes, the wine

spilled.

THE SUPERLATIVE.

The

doctrine of temperance

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

but one of great necessity,

and

drinks,

many

that of meats

and

importance cannot be denied and

its

hardly exaggerated.

Maine Law

one of

on a low platform,

It is usually taught

degrees.

But

it is

a long way from the

to the heights of absolute

self-command

which respect the conservatism of the entire ener-

and the

gies of the body, the mind, to point at into

some of

mind and

There

its

I wish

soul.

higher functions as

enters

character.

a superlative temperament which has

no medium range, but swiftly

oscillates

from the

freezing to the boiling point, and which affects the

manners of those who share peration.

Their aspect

ing, convulsed

through

claiming, swearing.

objects 1

had

with a certain des-

grimace.

life,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

They go

tear-

wailing, praying, ex-

We talk, sometimes, with peo-

ple whose conversation

that they

would lead you

lived in a

to suppose

museum, where

were monsters and extremes.

all

the

Their good

Reprinted from the Century of February, 1882.

THE SUPERLATIVE.

160

people are phoenixes prophet's

mar

figs.

;

" most perfect,"

their

naughty are like the

They use the

superlative of

" most

gram-

exquisite," " most

Like the French, they are enchanted,

horrible."

they are desolate, because you have got or have not got a shoe-string or a wafer you happen to want,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

not perceiving that superlatives are diminutives,

and weaken

;

that the positive

the sinew of

If the talker lose

speech, the superlative the fat.

a tooth, he thinks the universal thaw and dissolution of things has come.

Controvert his opinion " and he cries Persecution " and reckons himself !

with Saint Barnabas, who was sawn in two. Especially

we note

this

tendency to extremes

in the pleasant excitement of horror-mongers.

there something so delicious in disasters

Bad news

and pain ?

always exaggerated, and we

may

chal-

lenge Providence to send a fact so tragical that we

cannot contrive to

make

little

worse in our

are unskilful

gossip.

All this comes of poverty. definers.

we hope

From want to

of skill to

move admiration by

guage should aim to describe the

enough to suggest sight

fact.

and magnify

would indicate the true

risome, this

convey quality, quantity.

line.

Lanis

not

it.

Sharper

T is

very wear

straining talk, these experiences all

exquisite, intense

and tremendous,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " The best

;

161

THE SUPERLATIVE. ever saw

;

never in

life

these terms gazetted and forbidden. ite is

not a cherub, nor every eat a

One

wishes

Every favor-

griffin,

nor each

unpleasing person a dark, diabolical intriguer

;

nor

agonies, excruciations nor ecstasies our daily bread.

Horace Walpole

that in the expecta-

relates

London a century

tion, current in

ago, of a great

earthquake, some people provided themselves with dresses for the occasion.

But one would not wear

earthquake dresses or resurrection robes for a work-

make a

ing jacket, nor

codicil to his will

whenever

he goes out to ride; and the secrets of death,

judgment and eternity are tedious when recurring Thousands of people

as minute-guns.

who were

thirsty, or furious or terrified.

made my cipal

live

never, on a single occasion,

hair stand on end

lif e,

and die

hungry or

The books

Who, in

ever had such an experience ?

say, " It

our muni-

Indeed,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

I believe that much of the rhetoric of terror, " It froze my blood," " It made my knees knock," etc.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; most men have

realized only in

dreams and

nightmares.

Then

there

tive contrary,

the sun is

tired

an inverted superlative, or superla-

which

shivers, like

sleep

;

feeds on drugs and poisons

the rainbow a discoloration ers. vOL. A.

Demophoon, in

wants fan and parasol on the cold Friday

-.1

;

finds

hates birds and flow-

THE SUPERLATIVE.

162

The exaggeration

which I complain makes

more welcome and refreshing.

plain fact the

curious that a face magnified in a concave mirror loses

All this

expression.

its

needless.

worth a whole limho of

fact is

little

overstatement

dreams, and I can well spare the exaggerations

which appear to

Among

screens to conceal ignorance.

the

these glorifiers,

coldest

stickler

names and dates and measures cannot lament and coldness

criticism

of fancy.

for his

Think how much

pains astronomers and opticians have taken to pro-

cure an achromatic lens.

has waited for not of

Discovery in the heavens

discovery on the face of the earth

;

I hear without sympathy the complaint

less.

young and ardent persons that they

find life no

region of romance, with no enchanter, no giant, no

nor even muses.

fairies,

eyes,

and

very

much

indebted

content that they should see

the real world, always geometrically finished with-

The more

out blur or halo. the more

How

impatient

tudes, of looseness

Our measure level of

engaged with

it suffices.

are, in these northern lati-

and intemperance in speech

success

the moderation and low

an individual's judgment.

ning's piety

Doctor Chan-

and wisdom had such weight

that, in

Boston, the popular idea of religion was whatever this

eminent divine held.

But T remember

that

i63

THE SUPERLATIVE. a

his best friend,

man

guarded

lips,

speaking of

him in a circle of his admirers, said: "I have known him long, I have studied his character, and I believe him capable of virtue." An eminent French journalist paid a high compliment to the Duke of Wellington, when his documents were published

Here are twelve volumes of

and the word glory

dispatches,

military-

not found in

them."

The English mind

arithmetical, values exact-

statement

ness, likes literal

;

stigmatizes any heat

or hyperbole as Irish, French, Italian,

and

infers

weakness and inconsequence of character in speakers

who use

It does not love the superlative

it.

but the positive degree. chanical existence nights

and

not favorable to flights

;

long

frost hold us pretty fast to realities.

The people

of English stock, in all countries, are

solid people,

ers of land

Our customary and me-

wearing good hats and shoes, and own-

whose

title-deeds are properly recorded.

Their houses are of wood, and brick, and stone, not designed to reel in earthquakes, nor blow about

through the air

much

in hurricanes, nor to be lost

under sand-drifts, nor to be made bonfires of by whimsical viziers

;

but to stand as commodious,

rentable tenements for a century or two.

manner

such as can

All our

on a secure and moderate pattern,

last.

Violence and extravagance are,

of life

TEE SUPERLATIVE.

164 once for

all,

distasteful

competence, quiet, com-

;

the agreed welfare.

fort, are

Ever a low

"I judge by

style is best.

every

man's truth of his degree of understanding," said

And

Chesterfield.

more conspicuous

know any advantage which a man owes to his experiI do not

ence in markets and the Exchange, or

politics,

than

the caution and accuracy he acquires in his report

" Uncle Joel's news

of facts.

a person to it

justly

always true," said

with obvious satisfaction, and said

for the old head, after deceiving

;

many

ing deceived

times, thinks, "

and be-

What 's

the use

of having to unsay to-day

what I

I will not be responsible

I will not add an

;

said yesterday ? epi-

I will be as moderate as the fact, and will

thet.

use the same expression, without color, which I ceived

;

and rather repeat

for word, than vary

The

first

ever so

re-

several times, word

little."

valuable power in a reasonable mind,

one would say, was the power of plain statement, or the power to receive things as they befall, and to transfer the picture of

gel gives,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " In good

them

to another

mind

un-

a good rule of rhetoric which Schle-

altered.

prose, every

word

scored ; " which, I suppose, means, Never

under-

italicize.

Spartans, stoics, heroes, saints and gods use a short

and

centres.

positive speech.

They

are never off their

soon as they swell and paint and find

THE SUPERLATIVE.

3&5

truth not enough for them, softening of the brain

has already begun.

It seems as if inflation were

much

disease incident to too

remedy lay in recourse to

use of words, and the

things.

daily

struck with the forcible understatement of people

who have no literary habit. The low expression is strong and agreeable. The citizen dwells in delusions. His dress and draperies, house and stables, occupy him. The poor countryman, having no circumstance of carpets, coaches, dinners, wine and dancing in his head to confuse him,

able to look

straight at you, without refraction or prismatic glories,

and he

sees whether

whether your head

you see straight

also, or

addled by this mixture of

wines.

The common people diminish " it rains easy

;

" a cold snap

" " good haying weather."

a farmer means to

tell

you that he

" ;

When

doing well

with his farm, he says, " I don't work as hard as I did,

and I don't mean

condemn any treatment " It won't

When

to."

he wishes to

of soils or of stock, he says,

do any good."

Under the

Catskill

Mountains the boy in the steamboat said, " up here, Tony ; it looks pretty out-of-doors."

Come The

farmers in the region do not call particular summits, as Killington, Camel's etc.,

mountains, but only

reserve the

Hump,

"them

word mountains

'ere

Saddle-back, rises,"

for the range.

and

THE SUPERLATIVE.

166

I once attended a dinner given to a great state functionary by functionaries,

and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; men

of law, state,

The guest was a great man

trade.

country and an honored diplomatist in

in his

own

this.

His

health was drunk with some acknowledgment of his distinguished services to both countries, and fol-

lowed by nine cold hurrahs. There was the vicious superlative. his breast,

honor to the

this

He was I,

Then the great

official

latest

moment

answered again by

they should

lie so

of his existence.

and to the commonplace

compliment of a dinner.

Men

of the world value

truth, in proportion to their ability

credness, but for its convenience. cially of diplomatists,

and ingenuity the

not by

;

its sa-

such, espe-

one has a right to expect wit

to avoid the lie if they

with the form. in

Pity, thought

officials.

about their keen sensibility

to the nine cold hurrahs

before,

spoke and beat

and declared that he should remember

Now, I had been

must comply

present, a little

country at a cattle-show dinner,

which followed an agricultural discourse delivered

by a farmer the discourse, to say the truth, was bad and one of our village fathers gave at the " The orator of the day dinner this toast his :

;

subject deserves the attention of every farmer."

The

caution of the toast did honor to our village

father.

much

I wish great lords

respect for truth.

and diplomatists had as

167

THE SUPERLATIVE. recommends

whilst thus everything

But

and temperance of action

ity

ness, the positive degree,

" rightly to be great

;

the utmost direct-

we mean thereby

not to

stir

Enthusiasm

pear, they are to be heartily sought.

the height of

human The

man

;

it is

the passing from the

to the divine.

superlative If

alive.

that

without great ar-

"Whenever the true objects of action ap-

gument."

simplic-

man

good

as the positive, if

loves the conditioned, he also loves

the unconditioned.

don't wish to sin on the

other side, and to be purists, nor to check the in-

vention of wit or the sally of humor. different, this

weak and wearisome

lie,

very

from the

is given by a romancwho does not mean to be exactly taken, like the gallant skipper who complained to his owners that he had pumped the Atlantic Ocean

stimulus to the fancy which

ing talker

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

three times through his ship on the passage, 't

was common to strike

Or what was

hold.

Lord

seals

similarly asserted of the late

Jeffrey, at the Scottish bar,

auditor declaring on one

ment

and

and porpoises in the

of three hours, that

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an

attentive

occasion after an argu-

he had spoken the whole

English language three times over in his speech.

The All

objection to

men

unmeasured speech

an impressive

fact.

is its lie.

The astronomer

shows you in his telescope the nebula of Orion, that

THE SUPERLATIVE.

168

you may look on that which thest-oil

esteemed the far-

land in visible nature.

England they put a scrap

Bank

the

of paper that is worth a

million pounds sterling into the hands of the vis-

Our

itor to touch.

travelling

a sort of search for

the superlatives or summits of art,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; much

human form. memory of Maglia-

the real wonders of power in the

The

arithmetic of Newton, the

becchi or Mirandola, the versatility of Julius Caesar,

the concentration of Bonaparte, the inspiration of

Shakspeare, are sure of commanding interest and

awe

in every

The

company of men.

superlative

the excess of expression.

are a garrulous, demonstrative kind of creatures,

and cannot

live without

sense and nonsense.

that it

mankind have a

much

And

fit

outlet for all our

expression

is so

superstitious value for

rare

it,

and

would seem the whole human race agree to value

man

precisely in proportion to his

pression

;

and

to the

most expressive

existed, namely, Shakspeare, they

power of

man

ex-

that has

have awarded the

highest place.

The expressors are the gods of the world, but men whom these expressors revere are the solid, balanced, undemonstrative citizens who make the

the

reserved guard, the central sense, of the world.

For the luminous object wastes

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

luminous because

it is

itself

its shining,

burning up; and

the

THE SUPERLATIVE.

169

powers are disposed for display, there left

and

for use

too

many

stripped to

the less

talent sucks the

Superlatives must be bought

substance of the man.

The

creation.

is all

Gardens of roses must be

positives.

make a few drops

of otto.

And

these

raptures of fire and frost, which indeed cleanse

pedantry out of conversation and salt

and

being which are

make

the speech

the days of well-

would

cost

now

cheap to me, yet so valued.

biting,

I like no deep stakes. I I will bask in the

a coward at gambling.

common sun a

while longer.

Children and thoughtless people like exaggerated event and activity fire,

to a fight, to

;

run to a house on

like to

an execution

;

like to talk of

marriage, of a bankruptcy, of a debt, of a crime.

The wise man shuns

all this.

knew a grave man

who, being urged to go to a church where a clergy-

man was newly well,

ordained, said " he liked

him very

but he would go when the interesting Sundays

were over." All rests at last on the simplicity of nature, or real being.

teemed.

Nothing

for the most part less es-

are fond of dress, of ornament, of

accomplishments,

talents,

health, of soundness, of

ries are

shorn

off.

distrustful

pure innocence.

ture measures her greatness

by what remains when

but

by what she can

all superfluity

and

Yet naspare,

accesso-

THE SUPERLATIVE.

170

Nor any

there in nature itself any swell, any brag,

strain or

through

;

all

a true proportion between

Semper

her means and her performance.

You

sense

her elephants and lions, through

all

her ducks and geese

ilis.

common

shock, but a firm

shall not catch her in

nor swaggering into any monsters. In

and

that I have sat in town

sibi sim-

any anomalies,

forest, I

all

the years

never saw a

winged dragon, a flying man, or a talking

but

fish,

ever the strictest regard to rule, and an absence of

;

nature encourages no looseness,

pardons no errors

;

freezes punctually at 32Â°, boils

all surprises.

punctually at 212Â° variable angle, in

one

and

;

crystallizes in water at one in-

diamond

at one, in granite at

you omit the smallest condition the

jieriment will not

succeed.

She never

obeys the gospel rule, yea or nay. patiates, never goes into the reasons.

mast and grain, soil

and

comes up, or it

ex-

Plant beech-

Sow

does not come up.

does not come up

and try again, and

ex-

Her communication

put lime into the

this time she says yea.

every question an abstemious but absolute reply.

The ture

like staidness is in her dealings with us. is

always serious,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; does

Where we have begun

in folly,

quickly to plain dealing. ried

on except by

fidelity

Na-

not jest with

us.

are brought

Life could not be car-

and good earnest

;

and

she brings the most heartless trifler to determined

171

TEE SUPERLATIVE.

The men whom she admits

purpose presently.

her confidence, the simple and great characters, are

uniformly marked by absence of pretension and by

The

understatement.

old

clearest insight are plain

men, who have held them-

hard to the poverty of nature.

selves

The can

and the modern sages of

firmest

and noblest ground on which people the real with the real a ground

live is truth

;

on which nothing

assumed, but where they speak

and think and do what they must, because they are and not otherwise.

But whilst the plicity,

the expression of character,

membered,

is,

speech, in torrid climates

re-

a temperate

an ardent one.

Western nations the superlative

tedious

animated,

it is

Whilst

in conversation

and weak, and in character

defect, nature delights in it is

must be

in great degree, a matter of climate.

In the temperate climates there

East

must be sim-

basis of character

a capital

showing us that in the

pertinent, pleasing, poetic.

Whilst she appoints us to keep within the sharp boundaries of form as the condition of our strength, she creates in the East the uncontrollable yearning to escape less all

;

from limitation into the vast and bound-

to use a

freedom of fancy which plays with

the works of nature, great or minute, galaxy or

grain of dust, as toys

and words

of the

culcates the tenet of a beatitude to be

mind

;

found in

ines-

THE SUPERLATIVE.

172

cape from all organization and makes ecstasy an institution. Religion and poetry are

"The ground

Arab.

all personality,

the civilization of the

all

Moham-

of Paradise," said

med, " is extensive, and the plants of Religion and poetry

jahs."

an inexorable destiny;

are hallelu-

the religion teaches

distinguishes only two

days in each man's history, the day of his the day of judgment. icism and fate.

wealth

The

accidental us, are

lot,

and

religion runs into ascet-

The costume,

the articles in which

same extremes.

displayed, are in the

Thus the diamond and

and

the pearl, which are only

and secondary

in their use

and value

The

proper to the oriental world.

diver

dives a beggar and rises with the price of a king-

dom

A bag of sequins, a jewel, a bal-

in his hand.

sam, a single horse, constitute an estate in countries

where insecure institutions make every one

desirous of concealable

and convertible property.

Shall I say, further, that the orientals excel in costly arts, in the cutting of precious stones, in

working in gold, in weaving on hand-looms stuffs

from

silk

and wool, in

drugs, henna, otto

spices, in

and camphor, and

ing of slaves, elephants and camels,

costly

dyes and

in the train-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; things which

are the poetry and superlative of commerce.

the other hand,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

it is

tion of the difference of genius,

a good

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

illustra-

European

173

THE SUPERLATIVE.

nations, and, in general, all nations in proportion to their civilization,

One

iron.

any

understand the manufacture of

of the meters of the height to which

civility rose is

the skill in the fabric of iron.

The

man.

Universally, the better gold, the worse political

economist defies us to show any gold-mine

country that

traversed by good roads

or a shore

where pearls are found on which good schools are

The European

erected.

civility,

positive degree, is established ventilation,

irrigation

or that of the

by coal-mines,

and every

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

skill

by-

in hav-

ing water cheap and pure, by iron, by agriculture for bread-stuffs,

family cloths.

and manufacture

of coarse

Our modern improvements have

been in the invention of friction matches rubber shoes iron

;

and

of the.

;

of India-

famous two parallel bars of

then of the air-chamber of Watt, and of the

judicious tubing of the engine,

by Stephenson,

order to the construction of locomotives.

Meantime, Nature, who loves crosses and mix-

makes these two tendencies necessary each to the other, and delights to re-enforce each peculiartures,

ity

The Northern genius and stimulated by breadth and luxuriance of Eastern imagery and

by imparting the

other.

finds itself singularly refreshed

the

modes of thinking, which go to check the pedantry inventions and the excess of our detaiL

of our

There

no writing which has more

electric

power

THE SUPERLATIVE.

174 to

unbind and animate the torpid

intellect

than the

bold Eastern muse. If

come back however

to the question of final

superiority, it is too plain that there is

that the star of empire rolls

West

no question

that the

warm

sons of the Southeast have bent the neck under the

yoke of the cold temperament and the exact understanding of the Northwestern races.

;

THE SOVEKEIGNTY OF ETHICS.

These

rules

were writ in human heart

By Him who The columns

huilt the

day

of the universe

Not firmer based than

they.

Thou shalt not try To plant thy shrivelled pedantry On the shoulders of the sky.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

Since the discovery of Oersted that galvanism electricity and magnetism are only forms of

and

one and the same force, and convertible each into the other,

we have continually suggested

larger generalization

ments of Nature life

to us a

that each of the great depart-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; chemistry, vegetation, the animal

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; exhibits the same laws on a different plane

that the intellectual

There

to the material.

;

and moral worlds are analogous is

a kind of latent omnis-

man

cience not only in every

but in every particle.

That convertibility we so admire in plants and animal structures, whereby the repairs and the ulterior uses are subserved,

or deficient,

by another

ation proceed

when one part is wounded this self-help and self -cre-

;

from the same original power which

works remotely in grandest and meanest structures

by the same design,

worm

man would

as a wise

poor form.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; works in a lobster or a mite-

imprisoned in that

the effort of God, of the

Supreme

Intellect, in the extreinest frontier of his universe. 1

Reprinted from the North American Review, of May, 1878. VOL. x.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

178

this unity exists in the organization of insect,

beast and bird,

lower type of

ascending to man, and from

still

man

to the highest yet attained, so

does not less declare

to vaunt the

the spirit or

In ignorant ages

gence of the brute.

mon

itself in

human

superiority

intelli-

was com-

by underrating

the instinct of other animals 'but a better discern;

ment

finds that the difference is only of less

and

Experiment shows that the bird and the

more/'

dog reason as the hunter does, that all the animals show the same good sense in their humble walk that the it

man who

their

enemy or

be in smaller measure, yet

as his often

is,

by freak and

friend does it is

;

and,

not diminished, St. Pierre says

folly.

animals that a moral sentiment seems to

of the

have determined their physical organization. I see the unity of thought and of morals running

through

all

animated Nature

of quality, but only of

who

;

no difference

less.

The animal

there

more and

wholly kept down in Nature has no anxieties.

By yielding,

as he

must

do, to

reaches his highest point. hole of a tree,

by yielding

blameless through

its

it,

itself to

low part and

last, casts its filthy hull,

enlarged and

The poor grub,

in the

Nature, goes

rewarded

expands into a beautiful

form with rainbow wings, and makes a part of the summer day. The Greeks caUed it Psyche, a manifest

emblem of

the soul.

The man down in Nature

;

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

warming

occupies himself in guarding, in feeding, in

and multiplying no more, we change is

justify

wrought, a

made a

what

his body, and, as long as

179

he knows

him but presently a mystic new perception opens, and he ;

citizen of the

world of souls

he feels

called duty; he is aware that he owes a

higher allegiance to do and live as a good of this universe.

a man, rises to the universal

this sense

The high

intellect is absolutely at

A thought

nature.

member

In the measure in which he has

imbosomed

life.

one with moral in

a sentiment,

and the attempt to detach and blazon the thought is

show of cut

like a

The moral

flowers.

the

measure of health, and in the voice of Genius I hear invariably the moral tone, even in words

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

health,

long to moral sensibility. the better poet.

justice,

skeptic

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

when

it is

disowned

melody and a wider horizon be-

The finer the sense of The believer says to the

" One avenue was shaded from thine eyes

Through which I wandered

Humility is the avenue. To when we represent these two every man shares them both generally are marked by a

to eternal truth."

sure,

we exaggerate

elements as disunited ;

but

it is

true that

men

decided predominance

of one or of the other element.

In youth and in age we are moralists, and in ma-

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

180 ture

life

gard of

the moral element steadily rises in the re-

all

reasonable men.

"Tis a sort of proverbial dying speech of scholars (at least

it is

Wood

thony

attributed to

many)

that which

An-

reports of Nathaniel Carpenter, an

" It did repent him," he said, " that he had formerly so much courted the maid

Oxford Fellow.

instead of the mistress," (meaning philosophy and

mathematics to the neglect of divinity).

This, in

the language of our time, would be ethics.

And when moral

I say that the world

forces, these are not separate.

made up

All forces are

found in Nature united with that which they move heat

not separate, light

electricity,

not massed aloof, nor

nor gravity, but they are always in com-

bination.

And

for action,

and the more you accumulate, the more

moral powers

;

they are thirsts

they mould and form. It is in the

begins,

stomach of plants that development

and ends in the

circles of the universe.

'T is

a long scale from the gorilla to the gentleman

from the

gorilla to Plato,

Newton, Shakspeare

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to

the sanctities of religidn, the refinements of legislation, the

summits of

science, art

and poetry.

beginnings are slow and infirm, but accelerated march. cled

The

it is

geologic world

The

an alwaysis

chroni-

by the growing ripeness of the strata from lower

to higher, as

becomes the abode of more highly-

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS. organized plants and animals.

men might be as

marked

The

lgl

civil history of

traced by the successive meliorations

in higher

moral generalizations

— virtue

;

meaning physical courage, then chastity and temperance, then justice and love bargains of kings ;

—

with peoples of certain rights to certain classes, then of rights to masses,

— then

at last

day when, as the historians rightly of the world were electrified that all

men

tell,

came the

the nerves

by the proclamation

are born free and equal. in another. The bud extrudes and every truth brings that which will In the court of law the judge sits over

Every truth leads the old leaf,

supplant

it.

the culprit, but in the court of

life

in the

same hour

the judge also stands as culprit before a true tribu-

Every judge

nal.

Montaigne but there

a culprit, every law an abuse.

kills off bigots as

cowhage

durst not soar, of eye so keen that

a realm in which

Frenchman It is the

kills

worms

;

a higher muse there sitting where he

all

can report of

the wit and learning of the

no more than the cunning of a

same

will in the mind,

fact existing as sentiment

which works in Nature as

fox.

and

irresist-

ible law, exerting influence over nations, intelligent

beings, or

down

chemical atoms. shine,

mer

in the

Nature

kingdoms of brute or of is

a tropical

swamp in sun-

on whose purlieus we hear the song of sum-

birds,

and

see prismatic dew-drops

— but her

;

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

182

interiors are terrific, full of

hydras and crocodiles.

In the pre-adamite she bred valor only

by-and-by

;

she gets on to man, and adds tenderness, and thus raises virtue piecemeal.

When we has uses

from the beginning, that ferocity

trace

only so are the conditions of the then

;

world met, and these monsters are the scavengers, executioners, diggers, pioneers and fertilizers, de-

stroying what

making aim

more destructive than

better life possible.

of Benefit in view

from the

they,

and

see the steady

Melioration

first.

The cruelest foe is a masked benefactor. The wars which make history so dreary, have

the law.

served the cause of truth and virtue.

ways an

instinctive sense of right,

There

is al-

an obscure idea

which animates either party and which in long periods vindicates confidence

itself at last.

Thus a sublime

fed at the bottom of the heart that, in

spite of appearances, in spite of malignity self-interest living for the

neficent necessity

and, though

moment, an

and blind

eternal, be-

always bringing things right

we should

fold our arms,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which we

cannot do, for our duty requires us to be the very

hands of

this

guiding sentiment, and work in the

present moment,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

evils

suffer will at last

end themselves through the incessant opposition

Nature to everything hurtful.

The

excellence of

men

consists in the complete-

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS. ness with which the lower system

the higher

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a process of

much

183

taken up into

time and delicacy,

but in which no point of the lower should be untranslated

left

so that the warfare of beasts should

;

be renewed in a finer

for

field,

excellent vic-

Savage war gives place to that of Turenne and Wellington, which has limitations and a code. tories.

This war again gives place to the finer quarrel of property,

where

the victory

wealth

and the

defeat poverty.

The

inevitabilities

always sapping every

are

seeming prosperity built on a wrong.

how you seem

be good for the bee which

how

matter

on a crime, that can never

to fatten

bad for the

hive.

See

these things look in the page of history.

Na-

tions

come and

stincts of

go, cities rise

and

wish, appetite,

them are

hinder none, help perpetuated.

property

the in-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and every

and passion, rushes into act and em-

bodies itself in usages, protects

Some

fall, all

man, good and bad, work,

useful all,

itself

with laws.

and universally acceptable,

and these are honored and

Community of when a Tartar horde or an In-

Others are noxious.

is tried,

dian tribe roam over a vast tract for pasturage or

hunting

;

but

it is

found at

last that

some

establish-

ment of property, allowing each on some distinct terms to fence and cultivate a piece of land, is best for

all.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

184

" For

part," said Napoleon, "

it is

not the

mystery of the incarnation which 1 discover in religion, but the mystery of social order, which associates with heaven that idea of equality which pre-

vents the rich from destroying the poor." Shall I say then

were truer to see Necessity

calm, beautiful, passionless, without a smile, covered

with ensigns of woe, stretching her dark warp

These threads are Nature's

across the universe ?

pernicious elements, her deluges, miasma, disease,

poison

;

her curdling cold, her hideous reptiles and

worse men, cannibals, and the depravities of

civil-

ization; the secrets of the prisons of tyranny, the

slave

and

his master, the

proud man's scorn, the

orphan's tears, the vices of men,

These make

pitiless avarice.

ages.

Humanity sits

the shuttle and

fills

the sable ground of

human

and

loom and throws

at the dread it

with joyful rainbows, until

flowered

over with a woof

all

industry and wisdom, virtuous examples,

symbols of useful and generous

and pure

lust, cruelty

the gloomy warp of

love,

arts,

with beauty

courage and the victories of the

just

and wise over malice and wrong. Nature last of

not so helpless but

every crime.

can rid

itself at

Eastern poet, in describ-

ing the golden age, said that

God had made

so dear to the heart of Nature that, if

lurked anywhere under the

sky,

any

justice

injustice

the blue vault

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS. would

185

to a snake-skin and cast it out by But the spasms of Nature are years and centuries, and it will tax the faith of man to wait

shrivel

spasms.

so long.

Man events,

always throwing his praise or blame on

and does not

see that he only is real,

the world his mirror and echo.

and

imputes the

stroke to fortune, which in reality himself strikes.

The

student discovers one day that he lives in en-

chantment

the house, the works, the persons, the

days, the weathers

that he calls active

—

all

that he calls Nature, all

when once

institutions,

are visions

significant pictures of the laws of the

through this enchanted gallery he

mind

his

wonderful

merely,

mind; and

led

by unseen

guides to read and learn the laws of Heaven. discovery

may come

oftener

when the mind

multitudes of

never comes it

the

but

more mature

men wanting ;

This

later in the school, ;

and

in mental activity

— any more than

ought to come

and

;

— sometimes

early,

nursery, to a rare child

allegories,

poetry or

belongs to the

art.

human

to it

But

intellect,

an insight which we cannot spare.

The idea

of right exists in the

human mind, and

lays itself out in the equilibrium of Nature, in the equalities

and periods of our system,

seas, in the action is

and reaction

in the level of

Nothing

of forces.

allowed to exceed or absorb the rest

;

if it do,

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

186

disease,

it is

and

The

The law

own.

and thou

this beneficent rule.

as the moral element

strength of the animal to eat and to

be luxurious and to usurp ity.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

much

Strength enters just as prevails.

It was an

quickly destroyed.

early discovery of the mind,

To each

rudeness and imbecilshall

be rendered

thou sowest, thou shalt reap.

his

Smite,

Serve, and thou shalt be

shalt smart.

If you love and serve men, you cannot, served. by any hiding or stratagem, escape the remunera-

Secret retributions are always restoring the

tion. level,

when

disturbed, of the Divine justice.

impossible to proprietors

tilt

the beam.

and monopolists of the world

set their shoulders to

heave the bar.

evermore the ponderous equator to

man and mote and it,

or be pulverized

star

It is

All the tyrants and in vain

Settles for its

line,

and

and sun must range with

by the

recoil.

It is a doctrine of unspeakable comfort.

that

plants his foot here, passes at once out of the king-

dom

of illusions.

Others

may

well suffer in the

hideous picture of crime with which earth

and the

life of society

is filled

threatened, but the habit of

respecting that great order which certainly contains i

and

will dispose of our little system, will take all

fear

from the

heart.

It did itself create

tribute all that is created

trusting to

its

and

dis-

distributed, and,

power, we cease to care for what

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS. To good men,

will certainly order well.

good men,

this doctrine of Trust is

call

an unsounded

They use the word, they have accepted the

secret.

notion of a mechanical supervision of

by which that call

18?

God

certain wonderful being

nates the issues of

is ;

whom

they

and somehow knits and

them

in all that

They do not

reach of private faculty.

thought

life,

does take up their affairs where their intel-

ligence leaves them,

that It,

human

co-ordi-

beyond the see that

;

the affair of affairs

;

that he

existence,

and take him from them and they would not

They do not

He,

and within the thought of the

there, next

be.

see that particulars are sacred to him,

as well as the scope

of daily life are his

and outline that these passages work that in the moment when ;

;

they desist from interference, these particulars take sweetness and grandeur, and become the language of

mighty principles.

A man should

be a guest in his own house, and

a guest in his own thought. for truth

;

but who

Some

he ?

there to speak

clod the truth

has snatched from the ground, and with fashioned to a momentary man.

a clod again.

Let him find

not wishing superiority

;

find

which possesses that which poverty to-day

;

fire

Without the

has

truth,

his superiority in

the riches of love

adores

;

the riches of

the height of lowliness, the immensity of

and, in the passing hour, the age of ages.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

188

Wondrous he has

man

state of

and love

exists only in obedience

The

never so happy as when

lost all private interests

fiery soul said

" Let

and regards, and of the Author.

be a blot on

this

fair world, the obscurest, the loneliest sufferer, with

one proviso,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that I know

it is

His agency.

I will

love him, though he shed frost and darkness on

every

way

The emphasis of that The new saint

of mine."

blessed

doctrine lay in lowliness. in infirmities.

Who

or what was he

gloried

His

rise

has fallen in

We perish, and perish gladly, if the

law remains.

and

his recovery

were vicarious.

another ; he rises in another.

I hope

it is

man may go

conceivable that a

gladly, if he see that thereby

he loves and adores.

no shade

We need

falls

to ruin

on that

not always be

stip-j

ulating for our clean shirt and roast joint per diem.\

do not believe the

tation, because

less in

astronomy and vege-

are writhing and roaring in our

beds with rheumatism.

Cripples and invalids, we

doubt not there are bounding fawns in the

and

lilies

with graceful, springing stem

do we doubt or

;

forest,

so neither

the eternal lawA of which Truth gathers itself are such shabby practisers.

spotless

fail to love

and unhurt

after all our surrenders and

concealments and partisanship treachery or ruin of

its

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; never hurt by

the

best defenders, whether

Luther, or William Penn, or St. Paul.

an-

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS. swer,

when they

ther or Paul

tell

us of the bad behavior of Lu-

" Well, what

189

he did

more pained than Luther or Paul ?

Who

Shall

was

at-

tach ourselves violently to our teachers and historical personalities, if

any fault

the truth hurt of gravity

and think the foundation shaken

shown

in their record

No more

by our departure from

We are to

But how

it ?

The law

not hurt by every accident, though

our leg be broken.

lot.

from

their falling

know

that

When we know

the law of justice

it.

not

are never without a pi-

how

to steer,

and dare

The current knows drift. we do not. When the stars and sun appear, when we have conversed with navigators who know the coast, we may begin to put out an oar and trim a sail. The ship of heaven guides itself, and will not accept a wooden rudder. not hoist a

sail,

we can

the way, though

Have you choice, I see

said to yourself ever it is

not for

I abdicate all

to interfere.

I see

that I have been one of the crowd; that I have

been a

pitiful person,

my own

because I have wished to be

master, and to dress and order

way and system of living. it

very well.

I see that

I thought I

whole

managed

neighbors think

so.

have heard prayers, I have prayed even, but I have

now dreamed that management of my own

never until entire

this

undertaking the

affairs

was not com-

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

190

I have never seen, until now, that

mendable.

dwarfed me.

I have not discovered, until

blessed ray flashed just

now through my

this

soul, that

there dwelt any power in Nature that would relieve

my load. But now I see.' What is this intoxicating sentiment

whole of Fate, ages,

that allies

dust to the whole of Nature and the

this scrap of

mocker

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that makes

this doll

at time, able to spurn all

a dweller

outward ad-

vantages, peer and master of the elements ?

taught by vast

web

of being touches me. ;

call the right,

How

came

am representative

this creation so magically

harm

invulnerable.

mischief

invisible fence surrounds all

and the good of the whole, or what

makes me

nothing can do

me from

that what touches any thread in the

of the whole

woven

but myself, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

that

that an

being which screens

that I will to resist

If I will

stand upright, the creation cannot bend me.

But

commit a crime, the

light-

I violate myself,

ning

loiters

by the speed

of retribution,

and every

act is not hereafter but instantaneously rewarded

according to

its quality.

Virtue

this dictate of the universal will.

Character

Religion

the adopting of

mind by the

individual

the habit of this obedience, and

the accompanying emotion, the emotion

of reverence which the presence of the universal

mind ever

excites in the individual.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

191

go to famous books for our examples of

character, just as

we send

England

for shrubs

which grow as well in our own door-yards and cowLife

pastures.

always

graces and forces elevate

and spontaneous

rich,

in every domestic cir-

which are overlooked while we are reading

cle,

something

From

less excellent in old authors.

the

obscurity and casualty of those which I know, I infer the obscurity

consolation

and casualty

and immortality

which I do not know, see not

grand,

why

all

of the like

any of

homes

And

round the world.

to these simple instincts, simple yet

the heights and transcendencies of virtue

and of enthusiasm are not open. enough

balm and

in a thousand

them

move

There

the world

sterility or defect in ethics,

and

;

power

it is

not

but our negligence

these fine monitors, of these world-embracing

makes religion cold and life low. While the immense energy of the sentiment of duty and the awe of the supernatural exert incom-

sentiments, that

parable influence on the mind, verted,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; yet

it is

often per-

and the tradition received with awe, but

without correspondent action of the receiver.

you

find so

Wise on

many men

all other,

they lose their head the

they talk of religion. in the public itself

;

mind

Then

infatuated on that topic!

moment

It is the sturdiest prejudice

that religion

a department distinct from

all

something by other experi.

;

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

192

and

ences,

which the

tests

and judgment men

are ready enough to show on other things, do not

You may

apply.

and best

ligion is broached,

he runs into a childish

When

is.

I talked with an ardent missionary,

and pointed out support in

him

I answer is

that his creed found no

experience, he replied, " It

in your experience, but

God

of re-

supersti-

His face looks infatuated, and his conversa-

tion.

tion

sometimes talk with the gravest

and the moment the topic

citizen,

there

one and omnipresent

the whole fact.

evermore

what

in thought ?

;

no other world.

here or nowhere

The one miracle which God works

in Nature,

When we

the mind.

not so

so in the other world."

Other world

and imparting himself

ask simply, "

What

true

just in action ? " it is the yield-

ing of the private heart to the Divine mind, and all

personal preferences, and

all

requiring of won-

ders, are profane.

The word

miracle, as

it is

used, only indicates the

ignorance of the devotee, staring with wonder

and heedless

of the stu-

pendous fact of his own personality.

Here he

see water turned into wine,

stands, a

lonely thought harmoniously organized

into correspondence with the universe of

matter.

What

from a thousand years ought like this ?

mind and

narrative of wonders coming down

Certainly

it is

charm

human

his attention

to value a general

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

193

consent, a fraternity of believers, a crowded church

but as the sentiment purifies and crowds.

makes churches

one.

other

who

seems as

if,

when

plainly to each soul,

Swedenborg or

thinking for me.

the Spirit

;

leaves

two, churches

fatal disservice does this offers to

rises, it

God

speaks so

were an impiety to be

listen-

Jesus was better than

ing to one or another saint.

others, because he refused to listen to others

and

listened at home.

You

are really interested in your thought.

have meditated in in this world.

silent

You have

You

wonder on your existence perceived in the

first

fact

of your conscious life here a miracle so astounding,

— a miracle comprehending

all

miracles to which your intelligent cess,

—

the universe of

life

gives you ac-

wonder, and leave you no

as to exhaust

need of hunting here or there for any particular

Then up comes a man with

exhibitions of power.

a text of 1 John

v. 7,

or a knotty sentence from St.

Paul, which he considers as the axe at the root of

your it.

tree.

You

say

cannot bring yourself to care for

" Cut

the tree of life."

away

;

tree

Ygdrasil

interrupts for the

—

moment

your peaceful trust in the Divine Providence.

Let him know by your security that your conviction is clear and sufficient, and if he were Paul himself, you also are here, and with your Creator.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

194

all

give

way

which we were born stone

The

;

is still

to superstitions.

The house

not quite mere timber and

haunted by parents and progenitors.

which we were

creeds' into

initiated in child-

hood and youth no longer hold their old place

the minds of thoughtful men, but they are not noth-

ing to us, and

contempt. that

we hate

There

we give

to have

much

them

that

treated with

we do

not know,

to these suggestions the benefit of the

doubt. It is a necessity of the

human mind

looks at one object should look objects.

He may

statement of one

who

that he

away from

all

other

throw himself upon some sharp

some verbal

fact,

creed, with such

concentration as to hide the universe from him

but

warms him. With may work his way through, if only by coming against somebody who believes more fables than he does; and, in trying the stars roll above

the sun

;

patience and fidelity to truth he

to dispel the illusions of his neighbor, he opens his

own

eyes.

In the Christianity

of this country there

wide

difference of opinion in regard to inspiration, prophecy, miracles, the future state of the soul; every

variety of opinion, and rapid revolution in opinions, in the last half-century.

It is simply impossible to

read the old history of the read in the ninth

;

first

century as

was

do so you must abolish

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS. your mind the lessons of

all

195

the centuries from the

ninth to the nineteenth. Shall I light,

make

the mistake of baptizing the day-

and time, and

by the name

space,

John or

Joshua, in whose tent I chance to behold daylight,

What

and space, and time?

we are

anthropomorphists

we cannot let moral distinctions be, but must mould them into human shape! " Mere morality " means, not put into a personal master of morals. Our religion is geographical, in this, that

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

belongs to our time and place thologizes

respects

and my-

some one time and place and person and

people.

;

occasional.

It visits us only

some exceptional and ceremonial occasion, on a wedding or a baptism, on a sick-bed, or at a neral, or perhaps

peace.

But

on a sublime national victory or a

that be sure

universal unsleeping trifles,

still,

fu-

not the religion of the

providence, which lurks in

small voices, in the secrets of the

heart and our closest thoughts, as efficiently as in

our proclamations and successes.

Far be

from me to underrate the men or the

churches that have fixed the hearts of

men and

or-

ganized their devout impulses or oracles into good institutions.

The Church

Rome had

its

saints,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

St. Auand inspired the conscience of Europe gustine, and Thomas a Kempis, and Fenelon.; the

piety of the English

Church

Cranmer, and Her-

;

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

196 bert,

the mystics, kers,

Reformed Church, Scougal Behmen and Swedenborg; the Qua-

and Taylor

the

;

Fox and James

I confess our later

Naylor.

generation appears ungirt, frivolous, compared with the religions of the last or Calvinistic age.

was in the

last

to the spiritual world, ters

There

century a serious habitual reference

and conversation

running through

—

yes,

and

diaries, let-

into wills

and

gal instruments also, compared with which our eration looks a

The

little

le-

lib-

foppish and dapper.

religion of seventy years ago

belt to the mind, giving

A rude people were kept

was an

iron

concentration and force.

by the

deter-

mination of thought on the eternal world.

Now

men

fall

acter

— want

abroad,

and

intellect.

functions of man.

respectable

polarity,

—

suffer in char-

A sleep creeps over Enthusiasm goes

the great

out.

its

stead a low prudence seeks to hold society staunch,

but

its

arms are too

short, cordage

never supply the place of

Luther would cut

theses against the pope

bringing on with

life.

hand

his

all his

of Boston Unitarianism.

and machinery

off

sooner than write

he suspected that he was

might the pale negations I will not

now go

into

the metaphysics of that reaction by which in history

a period of belief in

followed

by an age of

which wit takes the place of

spirits,

criticism,

faith in the leading

and an excessive respect

for forms out of

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

197

which the heart has departed becomes most obvious in the least religious minds.

now explore

I will not

the causes of the result, but the fact must be con-

ceded as of frequent recurrence, and never more evident than in our American church.

To a

self-;

denying, ardent church, delighting in rites and ordinances,

has succeeded a cold, intellectual race, the prayer and psalm of their forefa-

who analyze thers,

and the more

of authority

it is a sort of

dented,

yoke

intellectual reject every

and custom with a petulance unprece-

ity to declare

how

little

mark you

of probity

and

sincer-

believe, while the

mass

community indolently follow the old forms

of the

with childish scrupulosity, and we have punctuality for faith,

and good

taste for character.

But I hope the defect

of faith with us is only

We shall find that freedom has its own

apparent.

guards, and, as soon as in the vulgar cense, sets all reasonable

guards. truly

men on

runs to

li-

exploring those

I do not think the summit of this age

reached or expressed unless

the

attain

height which religion and philosophy reached in

any former

age.

If I miss the inspiration of the

saints of Calvinism, or of Platonism, or

our times are not up to theirs, not yet their

Worship

Men

own is

or,

Buddhism, truly,

have

legitimate force.

the regard for what

above

are respectable only as they respect.

us.

We de-

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

198

light in children because of that religious eye which

belongs to them

;

because of their reverence for

and for

their seniors,

The

their objects of belief.

poor Irish laborer one sees with respect, because he

and

believes in something, in his church,

Superstitious persons

ployers.

because their whole existence

and

their hats

by pictures

away

see with respect,

not bounded by

their shoes, but they

walk attended

of the imagination, to which they pay

You

homage.

cannot impoverish

these objects above

very sad to see

men who

of themselves

it is

;

man by

him without

have been mean.

That which

the iron leaf

;

ruin.

very grateful to see those who this.

All ages of belief have been great

Fate.

taking

think their goodness made

hold an opinion the reverse of

lief

in his em-

The

;

all of

unbe-

Orientals believe in

shall befall

them

written on

they will not turn on their heel to

avoid famine, plague, or the sword of the enemy.

That

is great,

and gives a great

America are charged with a great

in worship

character

;

our trade,

;

and

deficiency

that reverence does not belong to our

that our institutions, our politics, and

have fostered a

small, liliputian, full of fuss at

air to the people.

will bear nothing

and bustle

above us in the

do exceedingly applaud and admire believe in our senses

which

self-reliance ;

we look

state,

and

ourselves, and

and understandings, while

our

199

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

imagination and our moral sentiment are desolated.

In religion too we want objects above

;

are fast

losing or have already lost our old reverence

;

new

views of inspiration, of miracles, of the saints, have supplanted the old opinions, and

them

again.

it is

vain to bring

Revolutions never go backward, and

in all churches

a certain decay of ancient piety

lamented, and all threatens to lapse into apathy

and

indifferentism.

becomes us to consider

whether we cannot have a real faith and real ob-

The human mind,

jects in lieu of these false ones.

when

it is

trusted, is never false to itself.

be sincerity and good meaning

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

If there

there be really

in us the wish to seek for our superiors, for that

which

lawfully above us,

shall not long look

in vain.

Meantime there

great centrality, a centripe-

tenee equal to the centrifugence. ist is

The mystic or the-

never scared by any startling materialism.

knows the laws

of gravitation

and

of repulsion are

deaf to French talkers, be they never so witty.

theology shows that opinions are fast changing,

it is

not so with the convictions of conduct.

These remain.

men

with regard to

The most daring heroism,

the most accomplished culture, or rapt holiness,

never exhausted the claim of these lowly duties,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

never penetrated to their origin, or was able to look

behind their source.

cannot disenchant, we

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

200

cannot impoverish ourselves, by obedience humility we erty

rise,

are rich,

by dying we

ever, only rectitude,

But

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

make

facts i

live.

rectitude forever and

mend one

;

that

is all

that the zealot stigmatizes as a sterile

Now

chimney-corner philosophy. I

but by

by obedience we command, by pov-

are thrown back on

can do.

;

the

first position

is that natural religion supplies

still all

the

which are disguised under the dogma of pop-

The progress

ular creeds.

[its identity

How should

steadily to

not ?

new generation to be edified ? How The life of those once omnipotent

was

really not in the legend, but hi the

is it

of religion

with morals.

traditions

the

moral sentiment and the metaphysical fact which the legends enclosed

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and these

survive.

new

Socrates, or Zeno, or Swedenborg, or Pascal, or a

new crop of geniuses like those of the Elizabethan age, may be born in this age, and, with happy heart and a bias for theism, bring asceticism, duty,

and magnanimity

into

vogue again.

It is true that Stoicism, always attractive to the intellectual

and

cultivated, has

now no

temples, no

academy, no commanding Zeno or Antoninus. accuses us that

has none

now formulated and

that pure ethics

not

concreted into a cultus, a fra-

ternity with assemblings

and holy-days, with song

and book, with brick and stone.

Why have not those

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS. who believe

in it

and love

it left all

icated themselves to write out to

become

its

for this,

its scientific

Vulgate for millions

201

and ded-

scriptures

I answer for

one that the inspirations we catch of this law are not continuous and technical, but joyful sparkles,

and are recorded for

their beauty, for the delight

they give, not for their obligation ; and that priceless

good

men, that they charm and

not that they are imposed.

hymn.

ages must

of true

fire,

cinders can

roll,

their

uplift,

It has not yet its first

But, that every line and word

falling

may be coals

ere these casual wide-

be gathered into broad and

steady altar-flame. It does not yet appear

what forms the

religious

It prepares to rise out of

feeling will take.

all

forms to an absolute-justice and healthy perception.

Here

now a new

public action.

feeling of

Here

humanity infused into

more extended and systematic

scale than ever before

to repair public disasters at a distance, ical

the

support to oppressed parties.

new conventions

money on a

contribution of

and

Then

of polit-

there are

of social science, before which

the questions of the rights of

women, the laws

trade, the treatment of crime, regulation of labor,

come for a hearing.

If these are tokens of the

steady currents of thought and will in these directions,

one might well anticipate a new nation.

know how

delicate this principle

is,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; how

dif-

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

202 ficult of

adaptation to practical and social arrange-

ments.

It cannot be profaned

draw

once

out of

its

are those in which some sect or

and that was an

artificial

men

whom

and

as we recall dogma made the tie,

is it

quite impossible to

man

feels for another

he discovers absolute honesty

feels for

one who thinks

frivolous,

;

to lose at

should be drawn to each other by

the simple respect which each in

element, which chilled and

But

checked the union. believe that

itcannot be forced

Such experiments

power.

all its

;

natural current

;

the respect

quite too coarse

life is

and that he should

like to lift

should like to be the friend of some man's

little,

virtue ? for another who, underneath his compliances

with

would dearly

artificial society,

somebody,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

self useful

and indispensable?

Man

to test his

own

like to serve

by making him-

reality

does not live by bread alone, but by

by admiration, by sympathy.

faith,

very shallow

say that cotton, or iron, or silver and gold are kings of the world

ment make Character

;

there are rulers that will at any mo-

these forgotten.

will.

Men

ernments stand by it, share,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; whether

live

Fear will.

Love

their credence.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; by the

will

Gov-

faith that the people

comes from the religion

which they were bred, or from an original conscience in themselves, which the popular religion echoes. If

government could only stand by

force, if the

in-

203

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS. stinct of the people

to resist the government, it

was

plain the government must be two to one in order

be secure, and then

would not be safe from des-

But no the old commandment, " Thou shalt not kill," holds down New York, and London, and Paris, and not a police or horse-guards. The credence of men it is that moulds them, and

perate individuals.

;

The mind

creates at will one or another surface. as

opens transfers very fast its choice

circumstance to the cause

from inventions

to science,

;

from the

from courtesy

to love,

from London or Wash-

ington law, or public opinion, to the self-revealing

from

idea

;

that

fills

that talent executes to the sentiment

all

the heart and dictates the future of nations.

The commanding

fact

which I never do not

but-

up, in shallow hours or ages, with legends,

tress it

traditions in which

and forms, each good for the one moment

was a happy type or symbol of the Power;

but the Power sends in the next son,

see, is

(he sufficiency of the moral sentiment.

which we

moment a new les-

lose while our eyes are reverted

and

striving to perpetuate the old.

America

shall introduce a pure religion.

are thought not to satisfy affection. ligion

person will,

we have ;

But

all

Ethics the re-

the ethics of one or another holy

as soon as character appears, be sure love

and veneration, and anecdotes

about him, and delight of good

and fables

men and women in

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

204

And what

him.

known

deeps of grandeur and beauty are

what divination or inFor innocence is a wonderful

to us in ethical truth,

sight belongs to

electuary for purging the eyes to search the nature of those souls that pass before is to

and with what power benefits

;

come grandeur

the power of

of its presence to

it.

What armor

from outward or inward harm,

protect the good

converts evil accidents into its

countenance

;

the power

alone comes true friendship

of situation

and

poetic percep-

tion, enriching all it deals with.

Once men thought Spirit divine, and Matter diaone Ormuzd, the other Ahriman. Now sci-

bolic

;

ence and philosophy recognize the parallelism, the

approximation, the unity of the two flects

nay,

how each

re-

the other as face answers to face in a glass

how

the laws of both are one, or

the realization.

The man

how one

We are learning not to fear truth.

of this age

must be matriculated

in the

university of sciences

and tendencies flowing from

must not be one who can be

all

past periods.

surprised and shipwrecked by every bold or subtile word which malignant and acute men may utter in his hearing, but should be taught all skepticisms and

unbeliefs,

and made the destroyer of

and paper

walls,

and the

all card-houses

sifter of all opinions,

being put face to face from his infancy with Eeality.

A man who has accustomed himself to look at

all

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ETHICS.

205

Ms posMs relations to persons, and even Ms opinMs hand, and in all these to pierce to the

his circumstances as very mutable, to carry sessions, ions, in

principle that,

and moral law, and everywhere

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; has put himself out of the reach of

ticism

;

and

seems as

whatever

to find all

most

skep-

affect-

ing and sublime in our intercourse, in our happiness,

and a

in our losses, tended steadily to uplift us to

life so

human.

extraordinary, and, one might say, super-

THE PREACHER.

Ascending thorough

To a consummate As angel blind to

And

bleaching

just degrees

holiness,

trespass done,

all souls like

the sun.

;

THE PREACHER.1

In the history of opinion, the pinch of falsehood shows itself first, not in argument and formal protest,

but in insincerity, indifference and abandon-

ment

of the

Church or the

scientific or political

economic institution for other better or worse forms.

The venerable and

beautiful traditions in which

we were educated are belief,

day by day

;

losing their hold on

tion in the religious world

moment

human

a restlessness and dissatisfac-

of transition

;

marks that we are in a

when the Roman Church

broke into Protestant and Catholic,

or,

earlier,

when Paganism broke into Christians and Pagans. The old forms rattle, and the new delay to appear material and industrial activity have materialized the age, and the mind, haughty with

its

sciences,

disdains the religious forms as childish. 1

Originally written as a parlor lecture to some Divinity-

students, in 1867; afterwards enlarged

and read in bridge,

May

its

5th, 1879.

for January, 1880.

vol. x.

from

earlier writings,

present form at the Divinity Chapel,

Cam-

Reprinted from the Unitarian Review

THE PREACHER.

210

In consequence of

this revolution in opinion,

appears, for the time, as the misfortune of this period that the cultivated

and dignity born too

late for the old

and too early for the new

what

human

nature,

most positive and most rich

and who contain the

to-day and the assurance of to-morrow,

them

are

accustomed to look for tendency and

progress, for

I see in those classes and those persons in

faith.

whom

mind has not the happiness

of the religious sentiment.

character, but skepticism

activity of

—I

see in

a clear enough

;

perception of the inadequacy of the popular

relig-

ious statement to the wants of their heart and intellect,

and

have insight and truthfulness their convictions this I

They

explicit declarations of this fact.

;

do not readily

of the soul,

—

;

they will not mask

they hate cant

The

find.

piety, adoration,

;

but more than

gracious motions

—I

do not

Scorn of hypocrisy, pride of personal

find.

character,

elegance of taste and of manners and pursuit, a

boundless ambition of the

intellect, willingness to

sacrifice personal interests for the integrity of the

character,

—

all

these they have

;

but that religious

submission and abandonment which give

new element and

—

it is

being,

not in churches,

movement, I hear the great

God

and make him it is

man

sublime,

not in houses.

aspirations, but I see not

I see

how

prepares to satisfy the heart in the

;

THE PREACHER.

211

new order of things. No Church, no State emerges and when we have extricated ourselves from all the embarrassments of the

social problem, the oracle

does not yet emit any light on the ual

life.

strong,

thousand negatives

all sides

mode

of individ-

it utters,

clear

and

but the sacred affirmative

;

hides in the deepest abyss.

We do not men from

see that heroic resolutions will save

moon

those tides which a most fatal

heaps and levels in the moral, emotive and lectual nature.

many

It is certain that

imbecilities, periods of inactivity,

when we make no occur.

many dark

progress, but stand

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

intel-

hours,

solstices

still,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

erence of the highest power, and only in that.

never do quite nothing, or never need. if

will

In those hours, we can find comfort in rev-

there were

dured by the elections

It looks as

much

doubt,

best.

Perhaps there must be austere

much

waiting, to be en-

and determinations before any clear

vis-

ion.

age and no person

ment, but in actual history tions are interrupted

and

destitute of the sentiits

illustrious exhibi-

periodical,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the ages of

belief, of heroic action, of intellectual activity, of

men

cast in a higher mould.

But the sentiment that pervades a nation, the nation must react upon. It is resisted and corrupted by that obstinate tendency to personify and

THE PREACHER.

212

bring under the eyesight what should be the contemplation of Reason alone.

The Understanding

will write out the vision in a Confession of Faith.

Art

embody

will

this vanishing Spirit in temples,

The

and hymns.

pictures, sculptures

senses

in-

stantly transfer the reverence

from the vanishing

Spirit to this steadfast form.

Ignorance and pas-

sion alloy and degrade.

want of goodness, himself

that

;

In proportion to a man's

seems to him another and not

becomes more ob-

to say, the Deity

jective, until finally flat idolatry prevails.

course the virtuous sentiment appears ar-

rayed against the nominal religion, and the true

men

are hunted as unbelievers, and burned.

Then

the good sense of the people wakes up so far as to

take tacit part with them, to cast the Church

;

reverence for

off

and there follows an age

This analysis was

inevitable

and

of unbelief. useful.

But

the sober eye finds something ghastly in this empiricism.

first,

delighted with the triumph of

the intellect, the surprise of the results and the

we are who rush

sense of power,

like hunters

and

soldiers

game

battle:

run down, when the enemy

blood at our

we would

feet,

on the

scent

but when the lies

cold in his

are alarmed at our solitude

gladly recall the

life

that so offended us

the face seems no longer that of an enemy.

I say the

effect is withering

for, this

examina-

THE PREACHER.

213

tion resulting in the constant detection of errors,

the flattered understanding assumes to judge all

and

things,

to anticipate the

same

victories.

the activity of the understanding, the sentiments

The understanding presumes

sleep.

above

sphere, and, because

its

in a church, concludes that

because

has exposed errors

a church

an error

;

has found absurdities to which the sen-

timent of veneration tion

in things

attached, sneers at venera-

so that analysis has run to seed in unbelief.

;

There

no faith

We laugh and hiss,

left.

pleased

power in making heaven and earth a

with our

howling wilderness. Unlovely, nay, frightful,

which

soul

der

God

without

the solitude of the

in the world.

day in the sunlight among the

all

mals, unrelated to anything better horse,

cow and

bird,

and

to foresee

speedy end to him and them hurried by with

its

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

see

bold and perfect

men pursuing

behold the

an equal and

no, the bird, as

disclaim his sympathy and declare

;

To wan-

tribes of ani-

flight,

him an

would

outcast.

in faith their varied action,

warm-hearted, providing for their children, loving their friends, performing their promises,

are they to this

Cain, the

man who

no creation

;

aimless

hears only the sound of his

footsteps in God's resplendent creation ? it

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; what

chill, houseless, fatherless,

own To him,

to him, these fair creatures are

THE PREACHER.

214 hapless spectres

he knows not what to make of

it.

him, heaven and earth have lost their beauty.

How gloomy

the day, and upon yonder shining

I cannot keep the pond what melancholy light the purpose that take away sun in heaven, if you !

animates him.

the atmosphere, for meanest

have its

The

ball, indeed, is there,

but his

to cheer, to illuminate the heart as well as

power

gone forever.

uses.

lost their

It is a lamp-wick

The words,

great, venerable,

meaning; every thought

loses all

depth and has become mere surface.

But

religion has an object.

It does not

or robust with the health of the votary.

We are

in transition,

The

and

of adoration remains forever unhurt

grow

thin

object

identical.

from the worship of the

fa-

thers which enshrined the law in a private and per-

sonal history, to a worship which recognizes the

true eternity of the law,

me,

its

equal energy in what

as in what

behold

God

presence to you and

its

called brute nature

called sacred.

in the ethical laws

The next age will as mankind be-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

gins to see them in this age, self-equal, self-executing, instantaneous

and

self-affirmed

;

needing no

voucher, no prophet and no miracle besides their

own

irresistibility,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

tory, private fortunes selves, as

will regard natural his-

and

we have done, but

laws, of that beatitude

politics,

not for them-

as illustrations of those

and

love.

Nature

is too

THE PREACHER. thin a screen

215

One

the glory of the

;

breaks in

everywhere.

Every movement of

religious opinion is of pro-

found importance to politics and social this of to-day

life

and

;

has the best omens as being of the

most expansive humanity, since

seeks to find in

every nation and creed the imperishable doctrines. I find myself always struck

and stimulated by a

good anecdote, any

heroism, of faithful

service.

do not find that the age or country

makes the

trait of

least difference

;

no, nor the language the

actors spoke, nor the religion

which they professed,

whether Arab in the desert, or Frenchman in the

Academy. entious ion,

I see that

men

all

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the religion

of sturdy truth, others.

men and

sensible

consci-

over the world were of one religof well-doing

men

My inference

of religion possible

and daring, men and feeling for

of integrity

that there

which makes

all

a statement

skepticism ab-

surd.

The health and welfare from surfaces tails to

to solids

;

man

knowledge of the design

of talents,

which

lose their

play, to the controlling

;

from

way by

self-activity

the lust of dis-

and reinforcing of

by the emanation of character. religion, all that saints

consist in ascent

from occupation with de-

All that

talents

call

and churches and Bibles

from the beginning of the world have aimed

at, is

THE PREACHER.

216

to suppress this impertinent surface-action,

man

imate

and entire

to central

race are afflicted with a St. Vitus' dance

and

gers

toes, their

members,

and

an.

The human

action.

their fin-

;

their senses, their tal-

ents, are superfluously active, while the torpid heart

When

gives no oracle.

that wakes,

rebels will fly to their loyalty.

own

will revolu-

Let that speak, and

tionize the world.

feats his

Now

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; professes

action,

all these

every

this

man

de-

but practises

the reverse; with one hand rows, and with the

A man acts not

from one mo-

shifting fears

and short mo-

other backs water. tive,

but from

tives

;

many

he were ten or twenty

less

men

than himself, acting at discord with one another, so that the result of

most

play true,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

own kind

;

all his faculties

clear mathematically, is

it is

this will tell in the result as if

operated,

But when

lives is zero.

he shall act from one motive, and

is,

not, that

men had

co-

new wisdom of its more facts, nor new combinot

will give

that

twenty

new

senses,

nations, but divination, or direct intuition of the state of

The all,

men and

things

lessons of the moral sentiment arc, once for

an emancipation from that anxiety which takes

the joy out of

comes

itself

all life.

It teaches a great peace.

from the highest

which being in

all

place.

sound natures, and strongest

the best and most gifted men,

It is that,

we know

to be im-

217

THE PREACHER. planted by the Creator of Men.

It is

a command-

ment at every moment and in every condition of life to do the duty of that moment and to abstain from doing the wrong.

And

it is

so near

compare with it

and inward and

no commandment can

constitutional to each, that in authority.

All wise

men

regard

as the voice of the Creator himself.

know

what

shall

there are those to

be believed

whom

the question of

the more interesting be-

cause they are to proclaim and teach what they believe.

All positive rules, ceremonial, ecclesiastical, distinctions of race or of person, are perishable

only

;

those distinctions hold which are in the nature of things, not matters of positive ordinance.

we stand upon

the

not imperishable, but

chemically resolvable into gases and nebulae, so

earth

the universe an infinite series of planes, each of

which

a false bottom

;

and,

when we think our

now at last on adamant, the slide drawn out from under us. We must reconcile ourselves to the new order of

feet are planted is

things.

But

is it

a calamity

The poet Words-

worth greeted even the steam-engine and railroads

;

and when they came into his poetic Westmoreland, bisecting every delightful valley, deforming every

consecrated grove, yet

manned himself

to say

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

THE PREACHER.

218 " In spite of

all that

Beauty may disown

In your harsh features, Nature doth embrace

Her lawful

offspring in man's art,

and Time,

Pleased with your triumphs o'er his brother Space,

Accepts from your bold hands the proffered crown

hope, and smiles on you with cheer sublime."

And we

can keep our religion, despite of the

lent railroads of generalization, whether

German, that block and

vio-

French or

intersect our old parish

highways.

In matters of

religion,

men

eagerly fasten their

eyes on the differences between their creed and yours, whilst the

charm of the study

in finding

the agreements and identities in all the religions of

What

men.

that whilst he

essential to the theologian

is,

in his opinions, severe in his

is select

search for truth, he shall be broad in his sympathies,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not

any church.

to allow himself to be excluded from

claim for his

is to

own whatever

eloquence of St. Chrysostom or St. Jerome or

Bernard he has

felt.

or George Herbert or that what

dear to

his,

most

St.

So not less of Bishop Taylor

Henry

Scougal.

effective in the writer is

sees

what

the reader's, mind.

not betrayed into undervaluing the churches

which annoy you by their bigoted claims. too were real churches.

They answered

They

to their

times the same need as your rejection of them does

THE PREACHER.

219

The Catholic Church has been immensely rich in men and influences. Augustine, a Kempis, Fenelon, breathe the very spirit which now fires to ours.

So with Cudworth, More, Banyan.

you.

with them more than I disagree.

their heart

and motive

limitations

and surface and language.

ment

grown

Their purpose hatred

on a

of vice.

sweet and poetic

discontent

as fabulous as

with their

Their

state-

Dante's Inferno.

and

as real as Dante's sentiment

Always put the best interpretation

Why

tenet.

;

I agree

I agree with

not on Christianity, wholesome,

It is the record of

a pure and

holy soul, humble, absolutely disinterested, a truth-

speaker and bent on serving, teaching and uplifting men.

Christianity taught the

capacity,

the

element, to love the All-perfect without a stingy

bargain for personal happiness. love

him was happiness,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

It taught that to

to love

him

in other's

virtues.

An the

era in

immense

version

and

human

history

the

life

of Jesus

;

and

influence for good leaves all the persuperstition almost harmless.

Man-

kind have been subdued to the acceptance of his doctrine, and cannot spare the benefit of so pure a servant of truth and love.

course a hero so attractive to the hearts of

millions

drew the hypocrite and the ambitious into and they used his name to falsify his his-

his train,

THE PREACHER.

220

I fear that what

tory and undo his work. religion,

but

I put

conceals the moral sentiment. ple test: Is a rich rogue

among

is called

perhaps pew-holding, not obeys but

made

divines or literary

to this sim-

to feel his roguery

men ?

rogue again under the cassock.

No ? Then 't is What sort of reby

spect can these preachers or newspapers inspire their

weekly praises of texts and

know

that they would say just the

when we

saints,

same things

Beelzebub had written the chapter, provided

stood where

does in the public opinion ? unbelief, anything but losing hold

Anything but

of the moral intuitions, as betrayed in the clinging to a it

form of devotion or a theological dogma

was the

was

liturgy, or the chapel, that

;

sacred,

justice and humility and the loving heart and serving hand. But besides the passion and interest which per-

and not

which impoverishes.

vert, is the shallowness

opinions of

men

lose all

they are

that

ground of their

accurately predictable sect.

The

worth to him who perceives

Nothing

from the

rare, in

any

The clergy are as them apart. It was

man, than an act of his own. I cannot

like as peas.

said

They have

their papers

tell

bronchitis because they read from

sermons with a near voice, and then,

looking at the congregation, they try to speak with their far voice,

and the shock

noxious.

I think

THE PREACHER.

221

they do this, or the converse of this, with their

They look

thought.

into Plato, or into the mind,

and then try to make parish mince-meat of the amplitudes and eternities, and the shock is noxious. It is the old story again ices

and golden

priests,

ices

and wooden

priests.

The

we had wooden chalnow we have golden chal-

once

clergy are always in danger of becoming

wards and pensioners of the so-called producing Their

classes.

on knowledge.

first

duty

is self-possession

The man

founded

practice or worldly

force requires of the preacher a talent, a force, like his

own

;

the same as his own, but wholly applied to

He does not forgive

the priest's things.

an applica-

tion in the preacher to the merchant's things.

wishes

him

have been, had he been

priest.

sincere

ardent in his vocation, and plunged in priest or poet be as

The simple

be such a one as he himself should

good in

it.

and Let

theirs.

fact that the pulpit exists, that all

over this country the people are waiting to hear a

sermon on Sunday, assures that opportunity which is

inestimable to young men, students of theology,

for those large liberties.

The

day, and the pulpit waiting give

him the very

That must be

him value

existence of the Sun-

for

conditions, the

filled,

and he

a weekly sermon, itov <tt5>

armed

he wants.

fill it.

his talent as a door into Nature.

Let

Let him

THE PREACHER.

222

Then,

see his performances only as limitations.

over

him value the

all, let

sensibility that receives,

that loves, that dares, that affirms.

There are always plenty of young, ignorant people,

— though some of them are seven, and some — wanting peremptorily of

them seventy years instruction

;

old,

but, in the usual averages of parishes,

only one person that only that person

The

see.

who

qualified to give

concerns me,

It is

it.

— him only that

others are very amiable

and promising,

but they are only neuters in the hive,

a possible royal bee, but not now

— every one

significant.

does not signify what they say or think to-day the cry

and the babble

only virtue, docility. Lowell,

—

of the nursery,

and

;

It 'tis

their

Buckminster, Channing, Dr.

Edward Taylor, Parker, Bushnell, Chapin, they who have been necessary, and the

opinions of the floating crowd of no importance

whatever.

I do not love sensation preaching, alities for spite,

— the person-

the hurrah for our side, the

re-

view of our appearances and what others say of us

That you may read

in the gazette.

come

church properly for self-examination, for approach to principles to see

how

stands with us, with the

deep and dear facts of right and

same time

it is

love.

the

impossible to pay no regard to the

day's events, to the public opinion of the times,

THE PREACHER.

223

the stirring shouts of parties, to the calamities prosperities of our

town and country

and

war and

;

new events, great personages, to good harnew resources, to bankruptcies, famines and vests, desolations. We are not stocks or stones, we are not thinking machines, but allied to men around peace,

us, as really

though not quite so visibly as the Si-

And

amese brothers.

were inhuman to affect

ignorance or indifference on Sundays to what makes

our blood beat and our countenance dejected Sat-

urday or Monday.

No, these are fair

our doctrines by, and see thing in

life.

ber of things

The value it

of a principle

will explain

;

tests to try

they are worth anyis

and there

the

num-

no good

theory of disease which does not at once suggest a cure.

Man

proposes, but

God

disposes.

We shall not

very long have any part or lot in this earth, in

whose

affairs

and speak cause. evils

so hotly mix,

so energetically of

and where we

feel

our country and our

It is a comfort to reflect that the gigantic

which seem to us so mischievous and so

in-

curable will at last end themselves and rid the

world of their presence, as

But be

must.

all

crime sooner or later

that event for us soon or late,

are not excused from playing our short part in the best

manner we

our aid

may

be.

can, no matter

Our

how

insignificant

children will be here,

THE PREACHER.

224 are not

and

;

their children's history will

But

our action.

the events in which

be colored

we have no children, or

we have taken our part

shall

not see their solution until a distant future, there is

yet a deeper fact

can see and practise tive,

that as

;

to be useful or not.

ground of a new book or a new

essential

sermon

justice as

useful to men, and impera-

whether we can see

The

much

new

The author has a new

spirit.

thought, sees the sweep of a more comprehensive

tendency than others are aware of ; falters never, but takes the victorious tone.

much shown to counsel

there

For power

And

in talent as in tone.

is if

a young preacher, I should say

any difference

of the pulpit

and the

felt

not so I had

When

between the foot-board

floor of the parlor,

you have

not yet said that which you should say. Inspiration will have advance, affirmation, the

forward

foot, the

opener of doors the

new wine

ascending state it

;

will

be an

own methods

will invent its

make

;

the bottles new.

Spirit

Only let there be a deep make light of new shop and

motive and ascending. observer,

new

and he

will

circumstance

old cathedral,

that afflict you;

it is all

one to him.

new

He will

shop, or find the

circumstance not altered, as deep a cloud of mystery on the cause, as dazzling a glory cible law.

Given the

insight,

on the

and he

invin-

will find as

225

THE PREACHER. many

beauties

and heroes and strokes

genius

A close by Mm as Dante or Shakspeare beheld. in vivid thought brings the power to paint it and ;

proportion to the depth of its

the force of

"We are happy and enriched we go

projection.

away

source

its

;

invigorated, assisted each in our

however

different,

and

shall

own work,

not forget to come

again for new impulses.

The supposed embarrassments

men

exist only to feeble

The

consider them.

young clergy-

They need not

wills.

differences

opinion, the

strength of old sects or timorous literalists, since is

not armed with prisons or fagots as in ruder

times or countries, as furnishing a

not worth considering except

needed stimulus.

That gray dea-

con or respectable matron with Calvinistic antecedents,

you can readily

any obstacle

see,

could not have presented

march

to the

of St.

Bernard or of

George Fox, of Luther or of Theodore Parker.

And

though I observe the deafness to counsel

among men, great ; will

and

yet the power of sympathy

affirmative discourse,

often obtain

Such, too,

always

presuming assent,

when argument would

fail.

the active power of good temperament.

Great sweetness of temper neutralizes such vast

amounts of acid! always the same,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

for position, the position

insulting the timid,

taken by storm, but flanked, I VOL. X.

may say, by

and not the reso-

;

THE PREACHER.

226 lute,

simply by minding their

the affirmative

noring of

;

own

Speak

affair.

emphasize your choice by utter

all that

you

reject

;

ig-

seeing that opinions

are temporary, but convictions uniform and eternal,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; seeing that a sentiment never

loses its pathos

persuasion, but is youthful after a thousand

its

years.

The

inevitable course of

remark for

meet each other for meditation on not so

much

when we

us,

and duty,

life

the enjoining of this or that cure or

burning out of our errors of practice, as simply the celebration of the power

and beneficence amid which

and by which we live, not critical, but affirmative. All civil mankind have agreed in leaving one day I hope

for contemplation against six for practice.

that day will keep

man

advises that

honor and

its

we should

see to

A wise

use.

its it

that

we read

and speak two or three reasonable words, every day,

amid the crowd

of affairs

I should say boldly that

and the noise

we should

day by a beam out of eternity the grand secret tion let

from heaven.

;

trifles.

astonish every

retire

a moment

carry in our bosom, of inspira-

But

certainly on this seventh

us be the children of liberty, of reason, of hope

refresh the sentiment

;

think as spirits think, who

belong to the universe, whilst our feet walk in the streets of

little

town and our hands work

small knot of affairs.

in a

shall find one result,

;

THE PREACHER. am

sure,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

originality

certain

227

and a

certain

haughty liberty proceeding out of our retirement

and self-communion, which infinitely

removed from

and which yet cal resistance.

our

world.

streets

It is true that

which they say of

oestrum, which will never let us

but drives us like

sit,

can never give,

vaporing and bravado,

more than a match for any physi-

New England

stand or

all

mad

The calmest and most protected

We want

not save us.

life

can-

some intercalated days, to

bethink us and to derive order to our

life

from the

That should be the use of the Sabbath,

heart.

through the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

check this headlong racing and put us in posses-

sion of ourselves once more, for love or for shame.

The Sabbath changes

its

forms from age to age,

but the substantial benefit endures. recite the old

We no longer

creeds of Athanasius or Arius, of

The forms are flexible, but The old heart remains as human duties. The old intellect

Calvin or Hopkins.

the uses not less real.

ever with

its

simple,

and

insists

Here

old

to pierce the shows to the core.

still lives,

will not

on being of

be antique this

;

Truth

ever present,

age and of this moment.

thought and love and truth and duty,

on the

first

day of

Adam and

new

of angels.

" There are two pairs of eyes in

man

;

and

it is

which are beneath should be closed when the pair that are above them perceive

requisite that the pair

THE PREACHER,

228

and that when the pair above are are beneath are opened." surfaces

and

effects,

ship,

come

only-

the upper eyes behold causes

and the connection of alone, or

closed, those which

The lower eyes see

And when we

things.

into the house of thought and wor-

we come with purpose

be disabused of ap-

pearances, to see realities, the great lines of our destiny, to see that life has is

no caprice or

fortune,

no hopping squib, but a growth after immutable

laws under beneficent influences the most immense.

The Church tions

;

are the aims to educate, fine, to

open to great and small in

labors to set

come

all na-

how unattainable, before men We come

lofty,

to isolate, to

abstractionists; in

open the upper eyes to the deep mystery

cause and justice

and how rare and

effect, to

know

that though ministers of

and power fail, Justice and Power fail

The open

secret of the

world

never.

the art of subliming

a private soul with inspirations from the great and public and divine Soul from which

live.

THE MAN OF LETTERS.

bravely through the sunshine and the showers,

Time hath

his

work to

do,

aud we have

ours-

So nigh

So near

grandeur to our dust, is

When Duty

God

man

whispers low

The youth replies, I '

;

Thou

can.'

must,'

THE MAN OF LETTEES. SOCIETIES

AN ADDKESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE LITERARY OF WATERVILLE COLLEGE,

1863.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Gentlemen of the Literakt Societies Some of you are to-day saying your farewells :

each other, and

You go

honors of the College.

to be teachers, to

become physicians, lawyers, divines

;

statesmen, naturalists, philanthropists of you, to be the

phers kles,

;

to-morrow will receive the parting

men

in due course, ;

I hope, some

of letters, critics, philoso-

perhaps the rare gift of poetry already spar-

and may yet burn.

all events,

before the

shadows of these times darken over your youthful sensibility

and candor, let me use the occasion which

your kind request gives me, to offer you some counsels

which an old scholar may without pretension

bring to youth, in regard to the career of the

power and joy that belong

;

letters,

and

he has drawn the white

The very disadvantages superiorities.

it,

its

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

high

I offer perpetual congratulation

office in evil times.

to the scholar

lot in life.

of his condition point at

too good for the world

;

THE MAN OF LETTERS.

232

in advance of his race

his function is prophetic.

;

belongs to a superior societjr and

born one

or two centuries too early for the rough and sensual

population into which he

But

thrown.

the

knew

that well

enough, and sent him as a leader to lead.

Are men

Heaven which

sent

him

hither

perplexed with evil times

has earlier information, a

him

private despatch which relieves

which presses on the

inviolate soul

communication with the

in perpetual telegraphic

source of events.

The

rest of the

of the terror

community.

a learner of the laws of nature and the experiences of history

;

a prophet surrendered with

self -aban-

doning sincerity to the Heaven which pours through

him

its will

to mankind.

you know how far

this is

This

from the

the theory, but

nothing

fact, that

has been able to resist the tide with which the material prosperity of

down the hope of

America

in years past has beat

youth, the piety of learning.

country was full of activity, with iron, cotton

;

its

The

wheat, coal,

the wealth of the globe was here, too

much work and

not

men enough

it.

Britain,

France, Germany, Scandinavia sent millions of borers

still

;

the need was more.

skill was in demand, and the bribe

intellectual culture,

America ifornia

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Come,

la-

Every kind

men

came

drudge in our

mill.

at large exhibited such a confusion as Cal.

showed in 1849, when the cry of gold was

THE MAN OF LETTERS. first

raised.

All the distinctions of profession and

All the world took

habit ended at the mines. their coats

233

and worked in

Lawyers

shirt-sleeves.

went and came with pick and wheelbarrow of medicine turned teamsters

the bar in saloons

;

off

;

doctors

stray clergymen kept

;

professors of colleges sold cigars,

mince-pies, matches,

and so

on.

the perpetual

tendency of wealth to draw on the spiritual class, not in this coarse way, but in plausible and covert

ways.

It is charged that all vigorous nations, ex-

cept our own, have balanced their labor activity,

by mental

and especially by the imagination,

lieving

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

human power, the angel of earnest and ages. The subtle Hindoo, who carried

cardinal

ligion to ecstasy

and philosophy

bere-

to idealism, pro-

duced the wonderful epics of which, in the present century, the translations have

thought.

The Egyptian

added new regions to

built

on a scale which dwarfs our

Thebes and Karnak

art,

and by the paint-

ings on their interior walls invited us into the secret of the religious belief

The Greek was

whence he drew such power.

so perfect in action

nation, his poems,

charming in form and so true to the that

we cannot

and

in imagi-

from Homer to Euripides, so

human mind,

forget or outgrow their mythology.

The Hebrew nation compensated for the its members and territory by its

cance of

genius, its tenacious belief

;

its

poems and

insignifi-

religious histories

THE MAN OF LETTERS.

234

cling to the soil of this globe like the primitive

rocks.

terranean

the south and east shores of the Medi-

Mahomet impressed

his fierce genius

how

deeply into the manners, language and poetry of

Arabia and Persia

See the activity of the imagi-

nation in the Crusades of fiery shapes

;

the

the front of

morn was

full

chasm was bridged over heaven ;

walked on earth, and Earth could see with eyes the

Dramatic " mysteries "

Paradise and the Inferno.

were the entertainment of the people.

Parliaments

Love and Poesy served them, instead of the House of Commons, Congress and the newspapers.

In Puritanism, how the whole Jewish history be-

came

flesh

and blood in those men, let Bunyan show.

Now

agreed that we are utilitarian ; that we

are skeptical, frivolous ; that with universal cheap

education is

we have There

low.

stringent theology, but religion

much

criticism, not

grounds, but an affirmative philosophy

Our profoundest philosophy

(if it

on deep wanting.

were not contra-

The great poem poem of " Faust,"

diction in terms) is skepticism.

the age

the disagreeable

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

which the " Festus " of Bailey and the " Paracelsus " of

Browning are English

have superficial activity.

We run to

Paris, to

Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Church, as

variations.

sciences, restless, gossiping, aimless

for the

London, to Rome, to

to Pusey, to the Catholic

want of thought, and

those

THE MAN OF LETTERS.

235

who would check and guide have a dreary

feeling

change and decay of the old creeds and

that in the

motives there was no offset to supply their place.

Our industrial

skill, arts

and luxury, have made

ministering to convenience

fore greedy, careful, anxious

downward

expensive,

life ;

there-

have turned the eyes

upward

to the earth, not

and

to thought.

Ernest Eenan finds that Europe has thrice as-

sembled for exhibitions of industry, and not a graced the occasion

;

and nobody remarked the de-

A French prophet

fect.

dicted

that

poem

of our age, Fourier, pre-

one day, instead

battles

and

(Ecumenical Councils, the rival portions of humanity

would dispute each other's excellence in the

manufacture of

"In my

little

cakes.

youth," said a Scotch mountaineer,

Highland gentleman measured his importance by the

number

men

his

domain

could

support.

know how To-day we are

After some time the question was, to

many

great cattle

come

to count the

posterity will ask

would

number

feed.

of sheep.

how many

rats

I suppose

and mice

will

feed."

Dickens complained that in America, as soon as he arrived in any of the Western towns, a committee waited on

him and

ance lecture.

invited

him

to deliver a temper-

Bowditch translated Laplace, and

when he removed to Boston, the Hospital Life As-

;

THE MAN OF LETTERS.

236

Company

surance

insisted that

their tables of annuities.

should make

Napoleon knows the

art

of war, but should not be put on picket duty.

Linnaeus or Robert gooseberries

Brown must not be

set to raise

and cucumbers, though they be

lent botanists.

excel-

shrewd broker out of State

Street visited a quiet countryman possessed of

all

the virtues, and in his glib talk said, "

character

now

I could raise all this

and make an excellent thing There tions die

With your money at once,

of it."

an oracle current in the world, that na-

The

suicide.

sign of

the decay

Niebuhr has given striking examples

of thought.

of that fatal portent

;

as in the loss of power of

thought that followed the disasters of the Athenians in Sicily.

I cannot forgive a scholar his homeless despondency.

represents intellectual or spiritual force.

I wish him to rely on the spiritual arm his strength, not

;

to live

A scholar

his weakness.

by de-

fending the cause of slavery, of arbitrary government, of monopoly, of the oppressor, his profession. is

not company for clean people.

only show him

traitor to

has ceased to be a scholar.

The worst

how independent he

times

of times

only relieve and bring out the splendor of his privilege.

Disease alarms the family, but the physi-

cian sees in

a temporary mischief, which he can

THE MAN OF LETTERS. The

cheek and expel.

fears

and

who watch the markets, the

237

men

agitations of

crops, the plenty or

money, or other superficial events, are He knows that the world is always not for him. that the forces which uphold and itself equal to scarcity of

;

pervade

are eternal.

Air, water,

fire,

iron, gold,

wheat, electricity, animal fibre, have not lost a particle of

power, and no decay has crept over the spir-

itual force less

which gives bias and period to bound-

Bad

nature.

Nature

is rich,

times,

— what

are bad times ?

puny

exuberant, and mocks at the

forces of destruction.

Man makes

no more im-

pression on her wealth than the caterpillar or the

cankerworm whose petty ravage, though noticed in an orchard or a village, exuberance

of the

ployed force in Nature.

Weeks, months pass

springs up, all

rebuilt

France

—a

There

no unem-

All decomposition

War disorganizes, but it is

composition. ize.

insignificant in the vast

summer.

to reorgan-

— a new harvest

and there stand new

cities,

is re-

;

trade

new homes,

and sleepy with permanence.

Italy,

hundred times those countries have

been trampled with armies and burned over

a few

summers, and they smile with plenty and yield

men and new

new

revenues.

If churches are effete, it

You

Heaven forms. power of Nature,

because the

new

are here as the carriers of the

— as Roger Bacon, with

his secret

;

THE MAN OF LETTERS.

238

of gunpowder, with his secret of the balloon and of

steam

as Copernicus, with his secret of the true

;

astronomy ; as Columbus, with America in his log-

book

Newton, with his gravity

;

his circulation lin,

;

with lightning

;

You

are to fashion the

;

Frank-

Adams, with Independence

Kant, with pure reason itual world.

Harvey, with

;

Smith, with his law of trade

;

Swedenborg, with

his spir-

are the carriers of ideas which

mind and

so the history of this

breathing world, so as they shall be, and not otherwise.

Every man

a scholar potentially, and does not

need any one good so much as "

Calm

this of right thought.

pleasures here abide, majestic pains."

Coleridge traces "three silent revolutions," of

which the

A scholar was

Church."

Church clung joy,

was " when the clergy

first

to ritual,

fell

once a priest.

from the

But the

and the scholar clung

low as well as high, and thus the separation

was a mutual

fault.

But I think

which must be healed.

Only the

Church. owned.

Down

sycophants

let

The

duties

it is

a schism

true scholar Intellect

the

must be

with these dapper trimmers and us have masculine and divine men,

formidable lawgivers, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle,

who warp the ditions,

churches of the world from their tra-

and penetrate them through and through

;

THE MAN OF LETTERS. The

with original perception.

239

certainly as water

lives in

perpetual victory.

falls in

rain on the tops of mountains

down

into valleys, plains

fall first

and

man

intellectual

pits, so

and runs

does thought

on the best minds, and run down, from

and works

class to class, until it reaches the masses,

revolutions.

Nature says to the American mensuration and numbers of the

" I understand

I compute the ellipse

;

moon, the ebb and flow of waters, the curve

and the errors of planets, the balance of attraction

and

recoil.

I have measured out to you by

weight and tally the powers you need. the land and sea, the forest

and the mine, the

When

mental forces, nervous energy. culty,

I add brain.

See to

you have rightly done.

You have

it.

and ad-

One thing

Adam who

race.

You

are to im-

your lives and fortunes for a principle. is

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

which snuffling hypocrites

had bound on the weaker ambassador

ele-

diffi-

Other things you have begun to do,

to strike off the chains

peril

add

offered a patch

of land in the wilderness to every son of will till

that you hold

continent for mankind.

minister the

I give you

The

held to maintain the dignity of the

Republic which he represents. scholar represent ? force which creates

The organ

But what does the of ideas, the subtle

Nature and men and

states

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; consoler, upholder, imparting pulses of light and

;

THE MAN OF LETTERS.

240

So let

shocks of electricity, guidance and courage.

and

his habits be formed,

no spoiled

all his

economies heroic

no drone, no epicure, but a

child,

formidable, athletic, knowing

how

stoic,

to be poor, lov-

ing labor, and not flogging his youthful wit with tobacco and wine

man no

youth to be an armed and complete less

I wish the

treasuring his youth.

;

help-

angel to be slapped in the face, but a

man

human

made

dipped in the Styx of invulnerable

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

so,

experience, and

A redeeming trait

self -helping.

of the Sophists of Athens, Hippias

that they

made

to harness

shoes.

Learn

a horse, to row a boat, to camp down in I chanced lately

the woods, to cook your supper. to be at

and Gorgias,

own clothes and

their

West Point,

and, after attending the exam-

ination in scientific classes, I went into the barracks.

The chamber was

in perfect order

the iron camp-bed rolled up, as I asked the first Cadet, "

"Who

"I do." "

Who

the mattress on

makes your bed ? " your water?" "I do."

Who

These are

first

;

ready for removal.

blacks your shoes ? "

in every room.

Learn

fetches

do."

was

Samuel Johnson or David Hume, that

a primary duty of the

steps to power.

man of letters

to secure his

independence.

Stand by your order.

'Tis some thirty years Reform Bill in England, when London you read everywhere plac-

since the days of the

on the walls in

THE MAN OF LETTERS. ards, "

Down with

Grey, who was leader of

that time, Earl

the Lords."

241

Keform, was asked,

in Par-

liament, his policy on the measures of the Radicals.

" I shall stand by

He replied, there

my order." Where The

no vision, the people perish.

with the educated class,

There

thought.

merchant

the

men

fault lies

a very low feeling of duty

and

of study

true to the merchant, the noble in

the

Eng-

land and Europe stands by his order, the politician in his

believes

arts

and combinations; but the

scholar does not stand

men

the

his order, but defers to

of this world.

Gentlemen, I

here to

and profession as thinkers.

art

power.

secret of

you your

It is real.

It is the

commend

command.

It is the art of

world admires comes from within." us

men

the

ranks us

;

work

of the

arts, of all

Men

;

distributes

the prolific source of all

wealth, of all delight, of all grandeur.

are as they believe.

and the

Thought makes

distributes society

world

All su-

" All that the

periority is this, or related to this.

Men

are as they think,

man who knows any truth not yet discerned is master of all other men so far as

by other men, that truth

and

Intellect

its

wide relations are concerned.

measures

itself

its

counteraction to

any accumulation of material force. mass which

The exertions VOL. X.

There

cannot surmount and dispose

no of,

of this force are the eminent experi16

THE MAN OF LETTERS.

242 ences,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; out of a long

that

life all

worth remem.

These are the moments that balance

Bering.

years.

Does any one doubt between the strength of a thought and that of an institution ? Does any one doubt that a good general

better than a park of

See a political revolution dogging a

artillery?

See armies, institutions,

book.

literatures, appear-

ing in the train of some wild Arabian's dream.

Mam-

There is a proverb that Napoleon, when the

eluke cavalry approached the French lines, ordered the grenadiers to the front, and the asses and the

savans to

good

fall into

story,

stands

now ?

the hollow square.

and circulated

The

made a

But how

in that day.

military expedition was a

fail-

ure.

Bonaparte himself deserted, and the army got

home

mains.

it,

could, all fruitless

All that

is left

;

not ^trace of

it is

it re-

the researches of

those savans on the antiquities of Egypt, including

the great work of Denon, which led the

way to all German

the subsequent studies of the English and

on that foundation.

scholars

Pytheas of .ZEgina

was victor in the Pancratium of the boys, Isthmian games.

He came

at the

to the poet Pindar and

wished him to write an ode in his praise, and

in-

quired what was the price of a poem.

re-

plied that he should give

him one

thousand dollars of our money. Pytheas

;

" why, for so

Pindar

talent, about a

A talent

much money I can

" cried

erect a

THE MAN OF LETTERS.

" Very likely."

statue of bronze in the temple."

243

second thoughts, he returned and paid for the

poem. in the

And now not

only

the statues of bronze

all

temples of _5Cgina are destroyed, but the

temples themselves, and the very walls of the city are utterly gone, whilst the ode of Pindar, in praise of Pytheas, remains entire.

The treachery

and should stand good.

The

scholars

They

are idealists,

and public

for freedom, justice,

scholar is

bound

virtues and all the liberties,

to stand for all the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

liberty of trade,

lib-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

erty of the press, liberty of religion,

should open

all

the prizes of success

and

all the

roads of Nature to free competition.

The country complains loudly of the inefficiency of the army.,/ It was badly led. But, before this, it was not the army alone, it was the population that was badly

led.

The

the scholars, the

clerisy,

seers

the spiritual guides,

have been

false

to theii

trust.

Eely on

yourself.

There

respect due to youi

teachers, but every age is new, to solve, insoluble

by the

and has problems

last age.

Men

over fortj

no judges of a book written in a new spirit, Neither your teachers, nor the universal teachers, are

the laws, the customs or

dogmas of

nations, neithei

nor sage, can compare with that counsel whicli open to you. No, it is not nations, no, nor

saint is

ever

;

THE MAN OF LETTERS.

244

masters, not at last a few individuals or any heroes,

but himself only, the large equality to truth of a single mind,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as

if,

in the

narrow walls of a human

heart, the wide realm of truth, the world of morals,

the tribunal by which the universe

room to exist. Our people have

this levity

judged, found

and complaisance,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

they fear to offend, do not wish to be misunderstood

do not wish, of

be in the minority.

all things, to

God and Nature

are

should be as sincere.

altogether sincere, and Art

It is not

enough that the work

should show a skilful hand, ingenious contrivance

and admirable polish and

commanding motive which

as he did,

;

should have a

and condition

We should

was made.

belief of the artist,

finish

in the time

see in

the great

which caused him to make

and not otherwise

;

nothing frivolous,

nothing that he might do or not do, as he chose, but

somewhat that must be done then and there by

him he could not take his neck out of that and save his soul. And this design must

yoke,

through the whole performance.

is,

;

Sincerity

shine in

dangerous times, discovered to be an immeasurable advantage.

I distrust all the legends of great ac

complishments or performance of unprincipled men.

Very little

reliance

must be put on the common

ries that circulate of

this great

sto-

senator's or that

great barrister's learning, their Greek, their varied literature.

That

ice

won't bear.

Reading

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; do

;

THE MAN OF LETTERS.

245

you mean that this senator or this lawyer, who stood

by and allowed the passage of infamous laws, was a reader of

That

Greek books ?

not the question

but to what purpose did they read

I allow them

the merit of that reading which appears in their

and

opinions, tastes, beliefs,

that they might

men

know, did they not

did not know.

knows

perfectly,

And

women.

dictionaries

this

Well, these

which every boy or

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

girl of

men and

rights of

big-mouthed talker, among his

and Leipzic

his knowledge.

They blundered; they were

utterly ignorant of that fifteen

They read

practice.

editions of Lysias,

But the President

had

lost

Bank

of the

nods to the President of the Insurance Office, and relates that

at Virginia

Springs this idol of the

forum exhausted a trunkful of There

classic

always the previous question,

you on that side ?

You

authors.

How

came

are a very elegant writer,

but you can't write up what gravitates down. It

impossible to extricate oneself from the

questions in which our age

is involved. All of us have shared the new enthusiasm of country and of liberty which swept like a whirlwind through all

souls at the outbreak of war,

and brought, by enno-

bling us, an offset for its calamity.

War, seeking for the roots of strength, comes upon the moral aspects at once. fles this

In quiet times, custom

discussion as sentimental,

and brings

brazen devil, as by immemorial right.

sti-

in the

The war up-

THE MAN OF LETTERS.

246 lifted

War

us into generous sentiments.

ennobles

We do not often have a moment of

the age.

deur in these hurried, slipshod havior of the young

men

will not again disparage

men many

lives,

gran-

but the be-

has taught us much.

America, now that we have Battle, with the sword,

seen what

has cut

a Gordian knot in twain which

will bear.

all

the wit of East and West, of Northern and Border

statesmen could not untie. I learn with joy and with deep respect that this college has sent its full quota to the field.

with

had your

I learn

but with honoring pain, that you have

grief,

and that the noble

sufferers in the battle,

youth have returned wounded and maimed. times are dark, but heroic. strength they need.

The

The times develop

Boys are

the

Women

heroes.

have shown a tender patriotism and inexhaustible

And

charity.

on each new threat of

ballot of the people has

But the Slavery

faction, the

been unexpectedly

right.

issues already appearing overpay the cost. is

broken, and,

retrievably.

For such a

we use our advantage, gain, to

end once for

ir-

all

that pest of all our free institutions, one generation

might well be

sacrificed

;

perhaps

continent be purged and a

dawn on be made

the universe.

Who

certain that the

liberty should rise

one generation,

new

will

;

that this

era of equal rights

would

not, if

new morning

could

of universal

on our race by the perishing

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; who would not

consent to die?

THE SCHOLAE.

Foe

thought, and not praise,

Thought

For which I

the wages sell

Will gladly

And

willing

days,

sell

ages

grow

old,

Deaf and dumb, blind and

cold,

Melting matter into dreams,

Panoramas which I saw,

And

whatever glows or seems

Into substance, into Law.

The

sun and

moon

shall fall

Like sowers' seeds into

There quickened

amain

his brain,

be born

again..

THE SCHOLAE.

AN ORATION DELIVERED BEFORE THE WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON SOCIETIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 28TH JUNE, 1876.

Gentlemen

The Athenians took an

oath,

on a certain

in their affairs, to esteem wheat, the vine olive the

The

bounds of Attica.

crisis

and the

territory of schol-

A stranger but yesterday to every

ars is yet larger.

person present, I find myself already at home, for

men

the society of lettered

does not bound

itself

or college, but gathers-in

student into

its strictest

acknowledge these

a university which

with the walls of one cloister the distant and solitary

amity.

ties

Literary

and the stranger a welcome where

But in proportion of life,

we have seen the

surprises.

This

eral law.

men gladly

which find for the homeless least looked for.

are conversant with the laws like.

We are used to these

but one operation of a more gen-

coming among strange faces we

find that the love of letters

makes us

friends, so in

strange thoughts, in the worldly habits which harden us,

find with

some surprise that learning and

THE SCHOLAR.

250

truth and beauty have not let us go itual nature is too strong for us

influences which

men

;

that the spir-

that those excellent

ages have called the

all

Muse, or by some kindred name, come in to keep us warm and true that the face of Nature remains ;

irresistibly alluring.

territorial

monuments

wheat and

olives

I do not

now

which forms

many

and the

are

still

vine.

refer to that intellectual conscience

itself in

tender natures, and gives us

twinges for our sloth and unfaithfulness

the influence I speak of

have strayed from the

of Attica, but here

of a higher strain.

this intellectual conscience,

tasks as scholars,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Stung

we go to measure our

and screw ourselves up

to energy

and fidelity, and our sadness is suddenly overshone by a sympathy of blessing. Beauty, the inspirer, the cheerful festal principle, the leader of gods and

men, which draws by being

and not by

beautiful,

considerations of advantage, comes in and puts a

new

face on the world.

of scholars in a careful

I think the peculiar

office

and gloomy generation

is to

be (as the poets were called in the Middle Ages) Professors of the Joyous Science, detectors and deof

lineators

beauties

wisdom

;

occult symmetries

and unpublished

heralds of civility, nobility, learning and affirmers of the one law, yet as those

should affirm

music and dancing

;

who

expressors

themselves of that firm and cheerful temper,

infi-

;

THE SCHOLAR.

251

removed from sadness, which reigns through the kingdoms of chemistry, vegetation, and animal

nitely

Every natural power exhilarates

life.

ent delights the possessor

was wont to

sician

say, that

a true

;

tal-

A celebrated mu-

first.

men knew

much more he delighted himself with than he did others for if they knew, ;

how

not

his playing

his hearers

would rather demand of him than give him a

The scholar

ward.

here to

fill

re-

others with love

and courage by confirming their trust in the love and wisdom which are at the heart of noble sentiments

to affirm

;

to hear

all

things

them wherever

spoken, out of the deeps of ages, out of the obscurities

of barbarous life,

and

to republish

untune nobody, but to draw

and to keep

men

spiritual

all

and

men

them

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to

after the truth,

sweet.

Language can hardly exaggerate the beatitude of the intellect flowing into the faculties.

the

This

power that makes the world incarnated in man,

and laying again the beams of heaven and earth, setting the north their places.

bounds

;

yet

and the south, and the

Intellect is the science of it

sees

new

All the sciences are

applications, each translatable into

other, of the

one law which his mind

This, gentlemen, is the topic

speak,

metes and

no bound to the eternal proceed-

ing of law forth into nature.

only

stars in

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

the

is.

on which I shall

natural and permanent function of

THE SCHOLAR.

252

the Scholar, as he

no permissive or accidental

appearance, but an organic agent in nature. is

here to be the beholder of the real

;

self-centred

amidst the superficial ; here to revere the dominion of a serene necessity and be

pupil and apprentice

its

by tracing everything home

to a cause

sobered, not by the cares of

life,

;

here to be

men

say, no,

but by the depth of his draughts of the cup of immortality.

One

tempted to affirm the

of the scholar a little the

office

frequent perversity of the class

ashamed of

attributes

itself.

Men

are

The men committed by

their intellect.

profession as well as

and

eagerly, because of a

bias to study, the clergy-

man, the chemist, the astronomer, the metaphysician, the poet, talk hard and worldly, and share the fatuation of

The poet and

cities.

fectly agree in conversation

poet counsels his

own

son as

on the wise if

in-

the citizen perlife.

The

he were a merchant.

The poet with poets betrays no amiable weakness. They all chime in, and are as inexorable as bankers on the subject of real life. They have no toleration for literature ; art

only a fine word for appear-

ance in default of matter. their stoves,

And

they

sit

white over

and talk themselves hoarse over

the

mischief of books and the effeminacy of book-makers.

But

at a single strain of

or at the dashing

among

a bugle out of a grove,

the stones of a brook from

THE SCHOLAR the hills falls

;

sound of some subtle word that

at the

from the

253

lips of

an imaginative person, or even

some moving image

at the reading in solitude of

a wise poet, this grave conclusion

memory; the sun

and the worlds

shines,

blown out of roll to

music, and the poet replaces all this cowardly Selfdenial

and God-denial of the

literary class with the

conviction that to one poetic success the world will

surrender on lot

its

Instantly he casts in his

knees.

with the pearl-diver and the diamond-merchant.

Like them he

and

estates

will joyfully lose

and

credit, in the

days and months,

profound hope that

one restoring, all-rewarding, immense success will arrive at last,

which

will give

And

universal dominion.

prayers are granted,

ment

and

letting in a

nity which burns

this

at one

bound a

for if his wild

to succeed, his achieve-

beam

and

of the pure eter-

limbo of shadows and chi-

meras in which we dwell. ;

;

the piercing of the brass heavens of use

limitation,

for us

him

rightly

Yes, Nature

she will not be denied

;

too strong

she has balsams for

our hurts, and hellebores for our insanities.

She

does not bandy words with us, but comes in with a

new ravishing experience and makes the old time Every poet knows the unspeakable hope, and represents its audacity.

ridiculous.

not disposed to magnify temporary differ-

ences, but for the

moment

appears as

in for-

THE SCHOLAR.

254

mer times learning and intellectual accomplishments had secured to the possessor greater rank and

If this were only the reaction from

authority.

excessive expectations

pointed,

from

now

literature,

were a just censure.

disap-

was super-

much from philosophers and The Sophists, the Alexandrian wits of Queen Anne's, the phi-

stitious to exact too

the literary class.

grammarians, the

losophers and diffusion - societies have not

helped us.

much

Men

Granted, freely granted.

run

out of one superstition into an opposite superstition,

and practical people in America give themselves wonderful

The cant new

airs.

superciliously after the

ideas do not lead to the

are perplexing

Young men, these

believes that

owning of stocks

they

;

and effeminating. I

warn you against the clamors frivolous

self -praising

these busy-bodies

came

gitimate and good

activities,

;

and

official people.

any good end forever be

Action

honored

man, and going forth to

cent and as yet incalculable ends.

Yes

is le-

right,

original, private, necessary action, proceeding

from the heart

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; against

against irrational labor ; against

;

chattering, meddlesome, rich their doing

of the time inquires

ideas;

new

benefi-

but not a

;

petty fingering and running, a senseless repeating of yesterday's fingering

and running

;

ance of the method and frauds of other

accept-

men

THE SCHOLAR.

255

overdoing and busy-ness which pretends to the hon-

but resembles the twitches of St. Vitus.

ors of action,

The action

of these

do not respect

men

I cannot respect, for they

They were

themselves.

better

and asleep. All the this class, all who have any insight or genof spirit are frequently disgusted, and fain

and more respectable abed best of erosity

to put

behind them.

Gentlemen, I do not wish to check your impulses to action

I would not hinder

your arm.

you

of one swing of

do not wish to see you effeminate

gownsmen, taking hold of the world with the tips of your fingers, or that life is

many,

optical,

should be to you as

not practical.

Far otherwise

I rather wish you to experiment boldly

and give

I could prevail

conventional ways.

I should wish

play to your energies, but not, with you, in

your energy to run in works and emergencies growing out of your personal character. fast

Nature will

enough instruct you in the occasion and the

need,

and will bring to each of you the crowded

hour, the great opportunity.

Fame,

erlasting est places

come

Love, Rectitude, ev-

you in

loneli-

with their grand alternatives, and

Honor

will

to each of

watches to see whether you dare seize the palms. I have no quarrel with action, only I prefer no action to misaction,

cation of the

and

I reject the abusive appli-

term practical to those lower

activi-

THE SCHOLAR.

256

Let us hear no more of the practical men, or this, namely, I will tell you something of them, that the scholar finds in them unlooked-for acceptties.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

There

ance of his most paradoxical experience. confession in their eyes, and

they parade their

business and public importance,

by way

apology and palliation for not being the students

and obeyers of those diviner laws. Talk frankly with them and you learn that you have little to tell

them that the Spirit of the Age has been before you with influences impossible to parry or resist. The dry-goods men, and the brokers, the lawyers and the manufacturers are idealists, and only differ from the philosopher in the intensity of the charge. We are all contemporaries and bones of one body. The shallow clamor against theoretic men comes from the weak. Able men may sometimes affect ;

a contempt for thought, which no able feels.

For what alone

interests all

What

men

man

ever

in the history of this world

in proportion as they are

men ?

but truth, and perpetual advance in knowlit, and brave obedience to it in right acEvery man or woman who can voluntarily

edge of tion ? or.

involuntarily give

tion

them any

on these secrets they

will

insight or sugges-

hearken

after.

The

poet writes his verse on a scrap of paper, and stantly the desire

charge of

it,

and love of

if it

all

in.

mankind

take

What

need

were Holy Writ.

THE SCHOLAR. has he to cross the

meddle with ternight's

What

His idlest thought, his yesalready in the Senate.

told

the Genius whispered

men

ported to the young

him

waiting for

hissing at the wharf,

go.

wonderful,

at night

dawn.

him

;

ity.

to excuse

the steamboat

almost scandalous, this

't is

I do not

between

It only shows that such is the gulf

our perception and our painting, the eye

and the hand so clumsy, that have agreed to value a

man

all

the

so wise,

human

For him arms,

art, politics,

Even the demonstrations

for millenniums

end, until this

seem not

trade

manor

of nature

have attained their " I," said the interpreter arrives.

great-hearted Kepler,

years for a reader, since six

race

according to his power

waited like menials, until the lord of the should arrive.

I admit the enormous partial-

it.

of expression.

re-

and the wheels whirling to

extraordinary favoritism shown to poets.

mean

rides in

The engineer

them, he traverses sea and land. the locomotive

Why need he

of his door ?

sill

politics ?

dream

257

may well wait God Almighty

a hundred has waited

thousand years for an observer like myself." is a poor man and has no house, but see, proud landlord who has built the palace and

Genius this

furnished seeches

him

so delicately, opens to

make

and eating bread. vol. x.

him and

be-

honorable by entering there

Where

the palace in

England

;

THE SCHOLAR.

258

if it can make a Pope or Addison or Swift or Burke or Canning or Tennyson ? Or if wealth has humors and wishes to shake off the yoke and assert itself, Will it build its fences oh, by all means let it try very high, and make its Almacks too narrow for a wise man to enter? Will it be independent? I

whose tenants are not too nappy

home

for

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

incline to concede the isolation

may learn

that

it is

which

asks, that

not independent but parasitical.

There could always be traced, in the most

bar-

barous tribes, and also in the most character-destroying civilization, some vestiges of a faith in genius, as in the

exemption of a priesthood or bards

or artists from taxes and tolls levied on other or in civic distinction or in hospitalities

;

or in enthusiastic

men would

homage

signify their

sense that genius and virtue should not pay for house

men

money

and land and bread, because they have

a royal right in these and in

mortgage tbat takes present proprietor.

all things,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

first

effect before the right of the

For they are the First Good,

of which Plato affirms that " all things are for sake,

and

it is

its

the cause of everything beautiful."

This reverence

the re-establishment of natural

made up of inmade of thickened light men know that ideas are

order ; for as the solidest rocks are visible gases, as the

and arrested

world

electricity, so

the parents of

men and

things ; there was never any-

THE SCHOLAR. from a thought.

thing that did not proceed scholar has a

egg. to

He knew

have

the motley system in

— have we not? — a

its

real relation

markets and brokers and currency and coin.

" Gold and silver," says one " grow in the earth

itself

from the

from them."

effluxion

of the

Platonists,

celestial gods,

The unmentionable

— an dollar

has at last a high origin in moral and meta-

Union

physical nature.

Pacific stock is not quite

and essence

private property, but the quality

universe

affairs

;

work of

;

The

manual work or in household

any relation of

man, and

life

or custom of

scholar is to show, in each, identity

and connexion ; he its

is to

show

origin in the brain

its

secret history

the attorney of the world, fluous

of the

less interest in

any object of nature, or in any handi-

man

society ?

Have we

in that also.

ships or in shops, in

The

deep ideal interest in the moving show

around him.

259

and

issues.

and can never be super-

where so vast a variety of questions are ever

coming up to be solved, and for ages. I proceed to say that the allusions just to the extent of his duties, the

every day's events will find that his place is

he comes, will be

imate all

who

see

him

now made

manner in work,

which

may show

no sinecure. The scholar, when known by an energy that will anhim. The labor of ambition and

avarice will appear fumbling beside his.

In the

THE SCHOLAR

260

right hands, literature solation,

not resorted to as a con-

In this country we are fond of

decalogue.

and

and by the broken and decayed, but short ways to

them

and most

;

results

in this

In our experiences, learning

department.

as a

not

The name of the learned, nor is Scholar is taken in vain. We who should be the channel of that unweariable Power which never genius wise.

sleeps,

must give our diligence no

men are planting and running and that he

may

building, baking

sailing,

Other

holidays.

and tanning,

heaving and carrying, each

peacefully execute the fine function

by which they all are helped. Shall he play, whilst their eyes follow him from far with reverence, attributing to him the delving in great fields of thought, and conversing with supernatural allies? If he is not kindling his torch or collecting will fear to

go by a workshop

;

oil,

he will not dare

hear the music of a saw or plane

;

the steam-engine

will reprimand, the steam-pipe will hiss at

cannot look a blacksmith in the eye

;

him

he will be shamed by mowers and reapers. speculative is

man, the

;

in the field

scholar, is the right hero.

The

brave, because he sees the omnipotence of that

which inspires him.

and one warfare? rifle

;

Is there only one courage

I cannot

manage sword and

can I not therefore be brave

there were as

many

courages as men.

I thought

an armed

TEE SCEOLAR. man

Is a

the only hero ?

man

261

only the breech of a

Men

gun or the haft of a bowie-knife ? fail

down malignity because they wear Let them decline armor than their own.

in fighting

other

of thought

henceforward foreign methods and foreign cour-

Let

Let them do that which they can do.

ages.

them fight by their strength, not by their weakness. It seems to

armor but

this

him

man needs no One thing is for

that the thoughtful

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; concentration.

settled, that

come

at his ends.

not there to defend himself, but to deliver his message ; if his voice is clear, then clearly

then huskily ; him, he can

still

write

hands and

off his

his object

feet,

;

husky,

men

our generation that

;

gag

bruise, mutilate him, cut

he can

on his stumps.

not esteem

;

broken, he can at least scream

still

crawl towards

It is the corruption of

value a long

life,

and do

simply as a means of expressing a

life

sentiment.

The great English patriot Algernon Sidney wrote to his father

cution

God

from his prison a

" I have ever had in

should cast

cannot save

he shows resign

it.''

before his exe-

my mind

that

when

into such a condition as that I

life

but by doing an indecent thing

the time has

come when I should

Beauty belongs to the sentiment, and

always departing from those

The hero

little

rises

out of

all

who depart

out of that.

comparison with contempo-

THE SCHOLAR.

262

and with ages of men, because lie disesteems and money, and power, and will

raries

old age, and lands,

oppose

all

mankind

at the call of that private

and

perfect Right and Beauty in which he lives.

Man

The ends I man Commonwealth of

a torch borne in the wind.

have hinted at made the scholar or indispensable to the Republic or

spiritual

Man. Nature could not leave herself without a seer and expounder. But he could not see or teach without organs. The same necessity then that would create him reappears in his splendid gifts. There is no power in the mind but in turn becomes an instrument. The descent of genius into talents is

part of the natural order and history of the

The incarnation must

world.

be.

the granite nor drink hydrogen.

cannot eat

They must be

de-

compounded and recompounded into corn and water before they can enter our flesh.

There

deal of spiritual energy in the universe, but

palpable to us until

There

plenty of

by gathering and

we can make

air,

but

into sails

service to carry us

Then

sea.

it is

of our money.

it is

a great it is

worth nothing

we can

not

into man. until

into shape

and our cargo

across the

get

paid for by hundreds of thousands

Plenty of water

also, sea full, sky

who cares for it ? But when we can get it where we want it, and in measured portions, on a mill-wheel, or boat-paddle, we will buy it with mill full

;

THE SCHOLAR. There

ions.

plenty of wild azote and carbon

unappropriated, but it

into loaves

relations.

nought

it is

till

So we

and soup.

There

steads not until

263

we have made

find

in higher

plenty of wild wrath, but

we can

get

and bottled into persons

racked

;

little

off,

shall I say ?

pure, and not too

How many

much, to every head.

young geniuses

we have known, and none but ourselves hear of them for want in

them of a

little

will ever

talent

Ah, gentlemen, I own I love talents and accomplishments; the feet

Burke right

said,

and hands

genius.

not only our duty to

known, but to make

make the

So I deGodhead in distribution; to see can come at their ends. These shrewd it

prevalent."

light to see the

men

that

faculties

belong to man.

and to see them trained

I love to see them in play, :

this

memory carrying

caves the pictures of all the past,

its

and rendering

them in the instant when they can serve the possessor;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

craft of

mathematical combination,

which carries a working-plan of the heavens and of the earth in a formula.

apt to believe, with

Emperor Charles V., that "

as many languages man knows, so many times is he a man." I like to see a man of that virtue that no obscurity or disguise can conceal, who wins all souls to his way of thinking. I delight in men adorned and weaponed with manlike arts, who could alone, or the as

THE SCHOLAR.

264

with a few like them, reproduce Europe and America,

the result of our civilization.

when the

It is excellent

individual

ripened to

that degree that he touches both the centre and the

circumference, so that he

not only widely

intelli-

gent, but carries a council in his breast for the

emergency of to-day

;

and alternates the contem-

plation of the fact in pure intellect, with the total

conversion of the intellect into energy ; Jove, and the thunderbolt launched from his hand. Perhaps I

value power of achievement a

America there seems

more because

is no more intellectual They are very apprehensive and

I think there

this respect.

people than ours. curious.

little

to be a certain indigence in

But there

sterility of talent.

iron personalities, such as in Greece

and

These

Italy and

once in England were formed to strike fear into kings and draw the eager service of thousands, rarely appear.

no Cyclop arms.

have general

very

little

intelligence, but

intellectual force

makes a disproportionately great impression, and when one observes how eagerly our people entertain and discuss a new theory, whether home-born or imported, and how little thought operates how great an effect, one would draw a favorable inference as to their intellectual and spiritual tendencies. It seems as if two or three persons coming who should add to a high spiritual aim great constructive energy,

would carry the country with them.

;

THE SCHOLAR.

265

In making this claim of costly accomplishments for the scholar, I chiefly

of his is

work by the

wish to infer the dignity

to furnish

him.

lustre of his appointments.

The

not cheaply equipped.

to forge out of coarsest ores

But

the sharpest weapons.

ued for themselves,

universe was rifled

the weapons are val-

assume an inde-

his talents

pendence, and come to

work

for ostentation, they

It was said of an eminent Frenchman, that " he was drowned in his talents."

cannot serve him.

The peril of every fine faculty ing with

for pride.

Talent

the delight of play-

commonly

devel-

oped at the expense of character, and the greater grows, the

the mischief

that presently all is genius, a

and misleading

wrong, talent

dogma or system

;

mistaken for

for truth, ambition for

greatness, ingenuity for poetry, sensuality for art

and the young, coming up with innocent hope, and looking around

them

at education, at the professions

and employments, at religious and literary teachers and teaching,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; finding that nothing outside

corre-

sponds to the noble order in the soul, are confused,

and become skeptical and forlorn.

Hope is taken from youth unless there be, by the grace of God, sufficient vigor

in their instinct to

wrong and human invention.

Heaven that truth

exists

profitable forevermore."

say,

"All

I declare anew from

new and

beautiful and

Order is heaven's

first

law.

THE SCHOLAR.

266

gifts, these senses,

These

these facilities are excel-

lent as long as subordinated

;

wasted and mis-

all

and not

chievous

when they assume

What

the use of strength or cunning or beauty,

to lead

obey.

or musical voice, or birth, or breeding, or money, to

a maniac

Yet

society, in

ject to fits of frenzy

;

which we

sometimes

live, is sub-

for

an age

to-

gether a maniac, with birth, breeding, beauty, cunning, strength

And

and money.

there

but one

defence against this principle of chaos, and that the principle of order, or brave return at to

infinite

all

hours

common-sense, to the mother-wit, to

the wise instinct, to the pure intellect.

When

man

begins to dedicate himself to a par-

ticular function, as his logical, or his remembering,

or his oratorical, or his arithmetical skill

;

vance of his character and genius pauses

;

run to the end of

his line

velopment of that mind is lost in

the showman.

;

book

seal the

is arrested.

Society

;

The

the ad-

he has the descholar

babyish, and

dazzled and deceived by the weapon, without

quiring into the cause for which

it is

drawn

;

in-

boys by the drums and colors of the troops.

The

objection of

call the

men

morbid

at present,

men

of the world to what they

intellectual is

tendency in our young

not a hostility to their truth, but

to this, its shortcoming, that the idealistic views unfit

their children for business in their sense, and do

THE SCHOLAR.

267

them for any complete life of a better They threaten the validity of contracts, but

not qualify kind.

new

do not prevail so far as to establish the

dom which

shall

property.

cannot do

;

supersede contracts, oaths, and

have seen to weariness what you

now show us what you can and

asks the practical

never, new, or

will do,"

man, and with perfect reason.

new

afraid of

are not

king-

old,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; no,

truth,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; of

truth

but of a counterfeit.

Everybody hates imbecility and shortcoming, not

new methods.

The astronomer

inasmuch as he

an astronomer, but inasmuch as

not an astronomer.

cheerly ogies,

not ridiculous

and sovereignly.

that you are

Plotinus

be that

makes no

apol-

he says roundly, " the knowledge of the senses

" Body and

truly ludicrous."

its

properties be-

long to the region of nonentity, as if

more of body

was necessarily produced where a defect of being happens in a greater degree." Plutarch, " this

hour be as

Have you a thought never such need of newspapers, as

and as

direct,

"Matter," says

Let the man of ideas

privation."

in your heart ? it

as now.

There was

As we read

see the effrontery with

money and power carry

their ends

and

honesty and good-meaning, patriotism

seem to shriek like ghosts. them, because to speak for

fully committed.

the

which

ride over

and

religion

We will not speak for them seems

weak and

THE SCHOLAR.

268

We will

hopeless.

hold fast our opinion and die

But a true orator will make us feel that the states and kingdoms, the senators, lawyers and rich men are caterpillars' webs and caterpillars, when seen in the light of this despised and imbecile in silence.

truth.

Then we

Truth alone fool

feel

great.

what cowards we have been.

The

and a shadow before

through him.

It shines

orator too becomes a

this light

which lightens

backward and forward,

diminishes and annihilates everybody, and the pro-

phet so gladly feels his personality torious

The

life.

in its counteraction to force.

There

any accumulation

it.

mankind.

This

of material

no mass that can be a counter-

This makes one

weight for

lost in this vic-

spiritual nature exhibits itself so

man good

against

the secret of eloquence, for

it is

the end of eloquence in a half -hour's discourse,

perhaps by a few sentences,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

to persuade a multi-

tude of persons to renounce their opinions, and

change the course of

men

they came

in,

life.

They go

forth not the

but shriven, convicted, and con-

verted.

have

many

had once what was

revivals of religion.

have

called the Revival of Letters.

wish to see a revival of the

human mind

to see

men's sense of duty extend to the cherishing and use of

their intellectual

powers

their

should go with their thought and hallow

it.

religion

Who-

;

THE SCHOLAR.

269

soever looks with heed into his thoughts will find

mind has not got far. He somebody within him that knows

that our science of the will find there is

more than he does, a certain

wisdom behind

simple

dumb

what not educated or educable terable

life in life

acquired wisdom

all

;

not altered or

;

someal-

a mother-wit which does not learn by

;

by books, but knew

experience or

it all

already

makes no progress, but was wise in youth as in age.

or less clouded

grand

its

than

and

perfect

;

look

known

The

weapons.

ents as he can

;

yet trusted and obeyed

its

salient,

and

great ends.

who has only many tal-

ought to have as

memory, arithmetic, practical power,

manners, temper, if

Its justice is

it.

universal, its light

scholar then is unfurnished

literary

and

becomes active and

makes new means for

limit

It does not put forth or-

rests in presence

happy natures

more musical

object is brought be-

and

is catholic

ubiquitous like the sun. gans,

are

Nobody has found the

already well its

all,

Yet

to every proposition.

grand

Whatever

knowledge.

it is

its

eloquence.

all

of its fore

same in

yet resides the

saying Ay, ay, or No,

lion-heart, are all

he has none of them he can

he have the main-mast,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

good things,

still

manage,

anything.

But

he must have the resource of resources, and be planted on necessity.

For the sure months are

;

THE SCHOLAR.

270

bringing him to an examination-day in which nothing

remitted or excused, and for which no tutor,

no book, no

and almost no preparation

lectures,

can be of the least

avail.

must plainly

certain questions, which, I

cannot be staved

For

off.

have to answer

will

all

men,

tell you,

Time, your country, your condition, the world, are the interrogators

women,

all

invisible

Who are you f What

do you ? Can you obtain what you wish f Is there method in your consciousness f Can you see tendency in

your

life ?

Can you

help any

soul ?

Can he answer them ? Happy

in the order for

these questions if

can he dispose

you can answer them mutely

and disposition of your

more than

can answer them in works of wisdom, bestowing on the general mind of ations, to

art,

men

organic cre-

man

it tells

to Genius,

;

an emana-

whose private counsels

the eye with their pretension.

out into some

camp

of the constitu-

which

not tinged with selfishness, but are laws. fill

who

all

underneath and greater than

and which proceeds out

tion of every

talent

you

or poetry

These questions speak to Genius,

that power which

tion of that

Happy

men,

be the guidance and delight of

know them. all talent,

life

yourself, a benefactor of

of their own,

and

are

Men

They go

noisily per-

suade society that this thing which they do

the

THE SCHOLAR.

271

They have

needful cause of all men.

talents for

and they nourish a small difference a loud quarrel. But the world is wide, nobody go there after to-morrow. The gun they have

contention, into will

pointed can defend nothing but longer than the tificial

man

nor

itself,

What is

by.

But Genius has no

positions?

weaving sand, or for any

trifling,

itself

any

the use of artaste for

but flings

itself

on real elemental things, which are powers, self-defirst subsist,

and then

riably forevermore all that

opposes.

fensive

truth is

;

which

and

clings to

it,

so that

what

not in a by-road, visited only

the great highways of nature, the

Appian Way, and which

resist

unwea-

Genius has says and does

curiosity,

but on

which were before

all souls

must

travel.

Genius delights only in statements which are themselves true,

which attack and wound any who op-

poses them, whether

mains here or not; daily declare fresh

he who brought them here re-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which

are live men, and do

war against

all

falsehood and

custom, and will not let an offender go ciety cannot dispose of or forget,

there

and

will not

down

The

scholar

so-

and

will

but

and must

and done.

must be ready for bad weather, pov-

erty, insult, weariness,

vexations.

which

at anybody's bidding,

stand frowning and formidable, be finally obeyed

;

but which abide

He must

repute of failure, and

many

have a great patience, and

THE SCHOLAR.

272 ride at anchor

and vanquish every enemy whom

his

small arms cannot reach, by the grand resistance of

submission, of ceasing to do. in the last resort he

worked upon.

know

that

not here to work, but to be

to eat insult, drink insult, be

clothed and shod in insult until he has learned that this bitter

bread and shameful dress

some and warm,

same chemistry as also are disgrace

I think

is also ;

and fat

;

that they

praise

and soreness

much may be

living

said.

and

said to discourage

Dissuade

all

Sift the wheat, frighten

away the

come who cannot but come, and who

dis-

Freely

you can from the

lists.

lighter souls.

Let us keep only the heavy-armed.

of the

him who has them.

suade the young scholar from his career.

be that

whole-

in short indifferent

Let

those

see that there

no choice here, no advantage and no disadvan-

tage compared with other careers. Necessity

our patron,

who

For the

great

distributes sun and

shade after immutable laws. Yes, he has his dark days, he has weakness, he

has waitings, he has bad company, he

pelted by

storms of cares, untuning cares, untuning company.

Well,

let

him meet them.

He has

not consented to

the frivolity, nor to the dispersion.

aim

The

practical

forever higher than the literary aim.

submit to degradation, but shall bear

these

shall not

crosses with

what grace he can.

is still to de-

;

THE SCHOLAR. cline

how many and

treat,

273

and

glittering opportunities,

wait.

shall

you find in

this

to re-

penury

and absence of thought a purer splendor than ever

you not

I invite

clothed the exhibitions of wit.

cheap joys, to the flutter of gratified vanity, to

and rosy comfort

sleek

but to bareness, to

no,

;

power, to enthusiasm, to the mountain of vision, to true

and natural supremacy, to the society of the

great,

and to

so that I

know them

Not

Muse.

Give me bareness and poverty

love.

as the sure heralds of

condition, she delighteth.

that would sacrifice

must not leave a few

at her altar

some symbolic

gift.

;

may

and convenience

on a heath without trees

live

an apple,

flowers,

he must relinquish or-

chards and gardens, prosperity

;

sometimes

The

hungry, and sometimes rheumatic with cold. fire retreats

and concentrates within into a pure

flame, pure as the stars to

But, gentlemen, there

first

purpose of confining

a single topic, but

it is

much

things than to explain one. drift of

scholar

mounts.

plainly no end to these

I had perhaps wiselier adhered

I have only begun.

which

I have exhausted your patience, and

expansions.

the

in plenty, not in a thriving, well-to-do

all

"Well,

thoughts, this

illustration to

easier to say

you

many

will see the

namely

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

the

must be much more than a scholar, that his

ends give value to every means, but he VOL. X.

to subdue

THE SCHOLAR.

274

and keep down his methods ; that his use of books that he is occasional, and infinitely subordinate should read a little proudly, as one who knows the ;

original,

and cannot therefore very highly value

the copy.

manner he

is to

hold lightly

every tradition, every opinion, every person, out of his piety to that Eternal Spirit

pressed with him. his destiny. ius

;

to become, not

which dwells unex-

shall think very highly of

here to

know

the secret of Gen-

a reader of poetry, but Homer,

Dante, Milton, Shakspeare, Swedenborg, in the fountain, through that.

If one

man

could impart

his faith to another, if I could prevail to

commu-

nicate the incommunicable mysteries, you should see the breadth of your realm

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that ever

as you

ascend your proper and native path, you receive the keys of Nature and history, and rise on the same stairs to science

and to

joy.

PLUTAECH.

Shall have society of

great, be true,

The

and

The soul own rank

all

the Scipios,

Catos, the wise patriots of

Shall flock to

And

its

Rome,

you and tarry by your side

comfort you with their high company.

PLUTARCH. 1

remarkable that of an author so familiar as

Plutarch, not only to scholars, but to all reading

men, and whose history his works,

the dates of his birth

down

to us.

illustrious

own.

life,

not even

and death, should have come

Strange that the writer of so

many

biographies should wait so long for his

It is agreed that

he was born about the year

50 of the Christian era. as

from

so easily gathered

no accurate memoir of his

has been represented

having been the tutor of the

Emperor Trajan,

as dedicating

one of his books to him, as living

Rome

in great esteem, as having received

long in

from Trajan the consular dignity, and as having been appointed by him the governor of Greece.

He was

man whose

of these flatteries.

real superiority

had no need

Meantime, the simple truth

is,

was not the tutor of Trajan, that he dedicated no book to him, was not consul in Rome, that he

nor governor of

been in

Greece

;

Rome but on two

appears never to have occasions,

and then on

This paper was originally printed as an introduction to Plutarch's Morals, edited by Professor William W. Goodwin,

and published, in 1871, by Messrs. Little, Brown through whose courtesy it is included in this edition.

Co.,

;

PLUTARCH.

278

business of the people of his native city, Chseronea

and though he found or made friends at Rome, and read lectures to some friends or scholars, he did not

know

or learn the Latin language there

;

with one

or two doubtful exceptions, never quotes a Latin

book

;

and though the contemporary,

in his youth

or in his old age, of Persius, Juvenal, Lucan and Seneca, of Quintilian, Martial, Tacitus, Suetonius,

Pliny the Elder and the Younger, he does not them, and, in return, his name

by any Roman writer. munity of letters and

cite

never mentioned

would seem that the com-

of personal

news was even

rare at that day than the want of printing, of

railroads

But

and telegraphs, would suggest

this neglect

to us.

his contemporaries has been

compensated by an immense popularity in modern nations.

Whilst his books were never known

the world in their

own Greek

tongue,

it is

curious

that the " Lives " were translated and printed in

Latin, thence into Italian, French, and English,

more than a century before the original "Works" were yet printed. For whilst the "Lives" were translated in Rome in 1470, and the " Morals," part by part, soon after, the of the Greek "

Works

Hardly current in

first

printed edition

" did not appear until 1572.

his

own Greek,

these found

learned interpreters in the scholars of Germany,

Spain and

Italy.

In France, in the middle of the

PLUTARCH.

279

most turbulent civil wars, Amyot's translation awak-

His genial version of the

ened general attention.

"Lives" in 1559, of the "Morals" in 1572, had

King Henry IV. wrote to

signal success.

Marie de Medicis

" Vive Dieu.

you could not have sent

his wife,

As God

liveth,

anything which could

be more agreeable than the news of the pleasure

you have taken in this reading.

Plutarch always

me with a fresh novelty. To love him is me for he has been long time the instructor

delights to love

;

My good mother,

my youth.

whom

I owe

all,

and who would not wish, she said, to see her son an illustrious

dunce, put this book into

most when I was a child at the breast.

conscience,

many good

and the government of

affairs."

Rabelais cites

him with due

in 1589, says

this

we dare now speak and

had not

this favor

The

ladies

'Tis our brevi-

PensSes, declares, " I

charmed with Plutarch

;

always

in his writings are circum-

stances attached to persons, ;

Montesquieu drew from him his definition

of law, and, in his

ure

lost,

write.

are able to read to schoolmasters. ary."

Montaigne,

"We dunces had been dirt.

ear

conduct

Still earlier,

respect.

book raised us out of the

of his

and maxims for

al-

been

and has whispered in

suggestions

hands

It has

" and adds examples.

which give great pleasSaint

Evremond read

Plutarch to the great Conde" under a tent.

Eollin,

PLUTARCH.

280

drew

so long the historian of antiquity for France,

unhesitatingly his history from him.

Voltaire hon-

ored him, and Rousseau acknowledged him as his master.

In England, Sir Thomas North translated

the "Lives " in 1579, and Holland the "Morals" in 1603, in time to be used plays,

by Shakspeare

in his

and read by Bacon, Dryden, and Cudworth.

Then, recently, there has been a remarkable vival, in

France, in the taste for Plutarch and his

contemporaries critic

ical

re-

;

led,

Sainte-Beuve.

we may say, by the eminent M. Octave Grdard, in a crit-

work on the " Morals," has carefully

correct-

ed the popular legends and constructed from the

works of Plutarch himself

his true biography.

Leveque has given an exposition

of his moral phi-

Physician of the

losophy, under the title of

Revue des Deux Mbndes ; and M. C. Martha, chapters on the genius of Marcus Aurelius, of Persius, and Lucretius, in the same journal; whilst M. Fustel de Coulanges has explored from its roots in the Aryan race, then in their Greek and Roman descendants, the primeval religion of Soul," in the

the household.

Plutarch occupies a unique place in literature as

an encyclopaedia of Greek and Roman

Whatever

eminent in fact or in

antiquity.

fiction, in opin-

ion, in character, in institutions, in science ral,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

natu-

moral, or metaphysical, or in memorable say

PLUTARCH. ings,

drew

281

and came

his attention

more or less fulness of record.

pen with

to his

He is, among prose

ing for it at

is among English poets, a rep, who want the story without search first hand, a compend of all accepted

traditions.

And

writers,

what Chaucer

ertory for those

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

tellectual gifts.

all this

master in any science gus or Solon

;

without any supreme

not a profound mind

;

not the founder of any sect or

community, like Pythagoras or Zeno like

Pliny or Linnseus

of a generation, like

;

not a natural-

not a leader of the

But

Plato or Goethe.

had not the highest powers, he was yet a rare gifts.

He had

genius which

makes

poet in the

mind if

man

that universal sympathy with all its victories his

he never used verse, he had

his

not a

not a lawgiver, like Lycur-

not a metaphysician, like Parmenides,

Plato, or Aristotle

ist,

;

in.

many

own though ;

qualities of the

power of his imagination, the speed of

mental associations, and his sharp, objective

But what specially marks him, he

eyes.

a chief

example of the illumination of the intellect by the force of morals.

Though the most amiable

companions, this generous religion gives

of boon-

him aper-

pus like Goethe's.

Plutarch was well-born, well-taught, well-conditioned

how

;

a self-respecting, amiable man,

to better

who knew

a good education by travels, by de-

votion to affairs private

and public a master ;

of an-

PLUTARCH.

282

cient culture, he read books with a just criticism;

eminently

social,

he was a king in his own house,

surrounded himself with

select friends,

the high value of good conversation

;

and knew

and declares

a letter written to his wife that " he finds scarcely

an erasure, as

a book well-written, in the happi-

ness of his life."

The range

mind makes the glad

reason of Plutarch's vast popularity

A man of

ity.

cal

;

his

human-

upright, practi-

;

a good son, husband, father, and friend,

has a taste for the

society, of affairs

common

camp and the

farm, kitchen and

life,

The

writer.

and knows the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he court,

judgment-hall, but also the forge, cellar,

and every utensil and

and with a wise man's or a poet's fends him from any degradation. his way, for the attractions are

from

use,

Thought

eye.

de-

does not lose

within, not from

A poet in verse or prose must have a sen-

without.

suous eye, but an intellectual co-perception.

Plu-

memory is full, and his horizon wide. Nothtouches man but he feels to be his he is tolereven of vice, if he finds it genial enough a man

tarch's

ing ant

;

of the world to give even the Devil his due, and

would have hugged Robert Burns, when he cried "

O wad

ye tak' a thought and mend!

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

a philosopher with philosophers, a nataralist

with naturalists, and sufficiently a mathematician to leave

some of

his readers,

now and then,

at a long

PLUTARCH.

283

distance behind him, or respectfully skipping to the

But

next chapter.

this scholastic omniscience of

new respect, own diagram.

since they

our author engages a

he understands his

sentences.

taigne

the

he has ever found, though Montaigne

and surprise

of his

Plutarch had a religion which

Mon-

excelled his master in the point

wanted, and which defends him from wan-

tonness his

who was

perpetually suggests Montaigne,

best reader

hope

;

and though Plutarch

moral sentiment

praise has

as plain-spoken,

always pure.

any writer received than he

What better whom Mon-

taigne finds " frank in giving things, not words,"

dryly adding, " it vexes

that he

so exposed to

the spoil of those that are conversant It is

one of the

felicities

with him."

of literary history, the tie

which inseparably couples these two names across fourteen centuries.

Montaigne, whilst he grasps

Etienne de la BoÂŁee with one hand, reaches back the other to Plutarch.

charm best

us,

and honor

These distant friendships

all the parties,

and make the

example of the universal citizenship and frater-

human mind. know where to of Ben Jonson's

nity of the

I do not a phrase

and

find a

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;"

book

borrow

rammed with life,"

this in chapters chiefly ethical,

prone to be heavy and sentimental. illustrate his

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

which are

poet could

thought with more novel or striking

PLUTARCH.

284

His

similes or happier anecdotes. istic,

picturesque and varied;

style is real-

his sharp objective

eyes seeing everything that moves, shines, or threat-

ens in nature or

or thought or dreams.

art,

deed, twilights, shadows,

a charm for him.

omens and

you

spectres have

believes in witchcraft and

the evil eye, in demons and ghosts, if

In-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but

prefers,

please, to talk of these in the morning.

and abundance never leave him

vivacity

or pound on an incident.

crowded

style, as if

His

to loiter

I admire his rapid and

he had such store of anecdotes

of his heroes that he

forced to suppress more

than he recounts, in order to keep up with the

hast-

ing history.

His surprising merit

the genial facility with

which he deals with his manifold

no trace of labor or pain. philosophers and poets love

and

fate

that he recites all that

But he

courtier,

to the sages

and no

and warriors he

re-

I find

better teacher of rhetoric than any modern.

His superstitions are

having a native right to admire and

recount these stirring deeds and speeches.

him a

;

for his pleasure

best in his reading is

ever manly, far from fawning, and

would be welcome ports, as one

There

of virtues and genius

and empires.

prattles history.

Boswell

;

topics.

gossips of heroes,

poet might

poetic, aspiring, affirmative.

rhyme

all

day with

hints

drawn

PLUTARCH.

from Plutarch, page on page.

the

Greek wine, the

us away from the disgust of

Eome charm

But

passing hour.

his

own

and allusion we quickly cease to discriminate

on his

memory

to discriminate all.

and

all

is all

owners, but give

Plutarch,

and do not stop

him the

praise of

right of eminent domain,

property vests in this emperor.

This

facil-

and abundance make the joy of his narrative,

and he rians.

read to the neglect of more careful histo-

Yet he inspires a

curiosity,

a necessity, to read them.

Thucydides

to rival

;

sometimes makes

disowns any attempt

but I suppose he has a hun-

dred readers where Thucydides finds one, cydides

into the ports of every nation,

enter into every private property,

ity

the"

cheerfulness and rude

between what he quotes and what he invents. sail

and

In his immense quota-

health are also magnetic. tion

religion

Thebes, Sparta, Athens

â&#x20AC;˘history of antique heroes.

and

doubt, this su-

modern reader owes much

perior suggestion for the to the foreign air,

285

and Thu-

must often thank Plutarch for that one.

has preserved for us a multitude of precious

sentences, in prose or verse, of authors

are lost

;

whose books and these embalmed fragments, through

his loving selection alone,

of later

ignorance that

have come to be proverbs

my immense makes me believe that they do not

mankind.

I hope

survive out of his pages,

it is

only

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not only Thespis, Pole-

PLUTARCH.

286

mos, Euphorion, Ariston, Evenus,

ments of Menander and Pindar. is

etc.,

but frag-

all events, it

in reading the fragments he has saved from lost

authors that I have hailed another example of the sacred care which has unrolled in our times, and still

searches and unrolls papyri from ruined libra-

ries

and buried

cities,

and has drawn

what an ancient might

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we

attention to

call the politeness of Fate,

more advisedly, the benign Provi-

will say,

dence whieh uses the violence of war, of earthquakes

and changed water-courses, through barbarous ages the

and thus allows us

to save

underground

relics of ancient art,

to witness the upturning of the

alphabets of old races, and the deciphering of forgotten languages, so to complete the annals of the forefathers of Asia, Africa

His delight

in poetry

and Europe.

makes him

cite

with joy

the speech of Gorgias, " that the tragic poet who

deceived was juster than he

who

deceived not, and

he that was deceived was wiser than he who was not deceived." It is

a consequence of this poetic

trait in his

mind, that I confess that, in reading him, I embrace the particulars, and carry a faint

memory

the argument or general design of the chapter

;

but

not less welcome, and he leaves the reader

with a relish and a necessity for completing studies.

Many

examples might be cited of

his

ner-

PLUTARCH. vons expression

and happy

allusion, that indicate

and an orator, though he

poet

not ambitious of

and cleaves to the security of prose nar-

these titles, rative,

287

and only shows his intellectual sympathy

with these sentences

yet I cannot forbear to cite one or two

;

which none who reads them will forget.

In treating of the style of the Pythian Oracle, he

Do you

not observe, some one will say, what

a grace there they delight

in Sappho's measures,

and

tickle the ears

Whereas the

hearers?

and how

and fancies

Sibyl, with

of the

her frantic

grimaces, uttering sentences altogether thoughtful

and

serious, neither

fucused nor perfumed, contin-

ues her voice a thousand years

through the favor of

the Divinity that speaks within her."

Another gives an insight into his mystic tendencies

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

" Early this the

morning, asking Epaminondas about

manner of Lysis's

burial, I found that Lysis had taught him as far as the incommunicable mysteries of

our

sect,

and that the same Dajmon that

waited on Lysis, presided over him, at the pilot

from the sailing of the

of life are large,

but in few are

men

Dsemons.

When

attentively

on Epaminondas, as

Theanor had said

fresh search into his nature

aqd

I can guess

ship.

The paths by the

directed this,

he looked

he designed a

inclinations."

PLUTARCH.

288

And

here

is his

sentiment on superstition, some-

what condensed in Lord Bacon's

citation of

had rather a great deal that men should was no such man

say,

There

at all as Plutarch, than that they

should say that there was one Plutarch that would eat

his children as soon as they were born, as

the poets speak of Saturn."

The chapter

Fortune " should be read by

and other wise men; and the vigor of his pen appears in the chapter " Whether the Athenipoets,

ans were more Warlike or Learned," and in his attack upon Usurers.

There

is,

of course, a wide difference of time

in the writing of these discourses, merit.

Many

and

so in their

them are mere sketches or

for chapters in preparation,

gested or finished.

Many

tions in the lecture-room.

notes

which were never

di-

are notes for disputa-

His poor indignation

against Herodotus was perhaps a youthful prize essay

appeared to

captious and labored

;

perhaps, at a rhetorician's school, the subject of

Herodotus being the lesson of the day, Plutarch

was appointed by

The

lot to

take the adverse

side.

plain-speaking of Plutarch, as of the ancient

writers generally, coming

from the habit of writing

for one sex only, has a great gain for brevity, and, in our

new

tendencies of civilization,

correct a false delicacy.

may

tend

;;

28.9

PLUTARCH.

treats "We are always interested in the man who expect it from the philosothe intellect well.

phy _ from but we

know

Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza

and Kant

that metaphysical studies in

any but

incessant inspiration

minds of large horizon and have their dangers. One asks sometimes whether

The

a metaphysician can treat the intellect well. central fact is

ing into us

from

its

unknown

ceived with religious awe,

But

mixture of our will.

and goes is

;

intelligence, pour-

the superhuman

fountain, to be re-

and defended from any this high Muse comes

and the danger

is that,

when the Muse

wanting, the student is prone to supply its place

with microscopic subtleties fatal to spiritual

" Let others wrangle," will

wonder."

and logomachy.

said St. Augustine

;

Whilst we expect

erence of the spiritual

this

rev-

in the

man

of the world

quiet terms with existing

yet indicates his perception of these

high oracles; as do Plutarch, Montaigne,

and Goethe.

fills

awe and

power from the philosopher

praise

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the man who lives on institutions,

" I

but the logic of the sophists

and materialists, whether Greek or French,

in his closet,

;

Plato and Plotinus are enthusiasts,

who honor the race

with disgust.

It is

health to lose your admiration.

These

men

lift

Hume

themselves at once

from the vulgar and are not the parasites of wealth. Perhaps they sometimes compromise, go out to dine, VOL. x.

PLUTARCH.

290

make and take compliments the source of

wisdom and

formly true to this centre.

wonder.

but they keep open

;

Plutarch

health.

a pronounced

not lost his

idealist,

who does not

hesitate to say, like another Berkeley, " itself privation;

that all

men

is uni-

He had

" and again, "

The Sun

Matter

the cause

are ignorant of Apollo, by sense with-

drawing the rational

intellect

that which appears."

from that which

is to

thinks that " souls are

naturally endowed with the faculty of prediction

he delights in memory, with of resisting time.

He thinks

its

" ;

miraculous power

that " Alexander in-

vaded Persia with greater assistance from Aris" he

than from his father Philip."

totle

who has

own

ideas of his

another man's,

thinks that

a bad judge of

being true that the Eleans would

be the most proper judges of the Olympic games,

were no Eleans gamesters."

says of Socrates,

that he endeavored to bring reason and things gether,

and make truth

to-

consist with sober sense.

wonders with Plato at that nail of pain and

pleasure which fastens the

body

to the mind.

The

mathematics give him unspeakable pleasure, but he chiefly liked that proportion

account that which

which

just,

which teaches us

equal; and not that

equal, just.

philosophy he

than in the method.

interested in the results

has a just instinct of the

PLUTARCH. presence of a master,

and prefers

with Plato, than as a disputant practical character, to

religion,

and, true to his

commend

himself to

and ruling genius

once possess such a

and

to sit as a scholar ;

he wishes the philosopher not

hide in a corner, hut to

of public regards

291

man

with principles of honor

he takes a compendious method, by

doing good to one, to oblige a great part of kind."

men

for, if

man-

a temperance, not an eclecticism, which

makes him adverse to the severe Stoic, or the nosophist, or

Gym-

Diogenes, or any other extremist.

That vice of theirs shall not hinder him from citing any good word they chance to drop. eclectic in

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

willing

an expectant, not a dogmatist.

to be

such sense as Montaigne was,

many

of these chapters it is easy to infer the

between the Greek philosophers and those who came to them for instruction. This teaching was

relation

no play nor routine, but ate.

strict,

The part of each of the

that of the master. ers, to

sincere

and

class is as

They are like the

affection-

important as

base-ball play-

whom the pitcher, the bat, the catcher and the

scout are equally important.

And Plutarch thought,

with Ariston, " that neither

a bath nor a lecture

served any purpose, unless they

were purgative." Plutarch has such a keen pleasure in realities that he has none in verbal disputes ; he is impatient of sophistry,

and despises the Epicharmian disputa-

PLUTARCB.

292 tions

as,

that he

who ran

in debt yesterday owes

man

nothing to-day, as being another

;

so,

he that

was yesterday invited to supper, the next night comes an unbidden guest, for that he is quite another person.

Except as

historical curiosities, little can be said

in behalf of the scientific value of the " Opinions of

the Philosophers," the " Questions " and the " Sym-

They

posiacs."

opinions

;

are, for the

many

them

most

part, very crude

so puerile that one would

believe that Plutarch in his haste adopted the notes

some

of his younger auditors,

dogma of as memoranda

them

jocosely mis-

who

reporting the

the professor,

them aside

for future revision, which

laid

he never gave, and they were posthumously published.

Now

science.

You may cull from this record of

and then there are hints

guesses of shepherds

and

of superior

barbarous

travellers, statements that

are predictions of facts established in modern ence.

Usually,

when Thales, Anaximenes

aximander are quoted,

The explanation Nile,

it is

really

sci-

or An-

a good judgment.

of the rainbow, of the floods of the

and of the remora,

etc.,

guesses are not worse than

His Natural History and not of a physicist.

are just

many

;

and the bad

Lord

Bacon's.

that of a lover and poet,

His humanity stooped

af-

fectionately to trace the virtues which he loved in

the animals also.

Knowing and not knowing

PLUTARCH.

293

the affirmative or negative of the

you

is to

enemy."

quotes Thucydides' saying that " not

honor only never grows

the desire of less also

dog; knowing

be your friend ; not knowing you, your

the inclination to society

old,

and

the State, which continue even in ants

but

much

affection to

and bees

the very last."

But, though schools

curious in the questions of the

on the nature and genesis of things, his ex-

treme interest in every trait of character, and his

him constantly to Morals, to the study of the Beautiful and Good. Hence his love of heroes, his rule of life, and his clear convic-

broad humanity, lead

high destiny of the soul.

tions of the

said that " Plutarch is the genius the rally

moral that ever existed." is

almost inevitable to compare Plutarch with

Seneca, who, born fifty years earlier, years his contemporary, their writings

Plutarch

was for many

though they never met, and

were perhaps unknown to each other.

is genial,

human and

with an endless interest in

divine things

;

keep a sublime path,

humane

forget to

;

open

less

though he

interesting, because

and when we have shut his book, we it

in his opinions,

the

all

Seneca, a professional

philosopher, a writer of sentences, and,

less

La Harpe most natu-

again.

There

a certain violence

and want of sweetness.

sympathy of Plutarch.

lacks

tiresome through

;

PLUTARCH.

294

not happily

living.

Cannot the simple lover of truth enjoy the

virtues

perpetual didactics.

he meets, and the virtues suggested by them, so to find himself at some time purely conof those

tented

Seneca was

more a man

still

of the world

than Plutarch ; and, by his conversation with the

Court of Nero, and his own

men

living with

skill, like Voltaire's, of

of business

and emulating

their

address in affairs by great accumulation of his own property, learned to temper his philosophy with

facts.

ventured

far,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; apparently too

for so keen a conscience as he inly had.

owe as

to that wonderful moralist illustrious

far,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Yet we

maxims

the scarlet vices of the times of Nero had the

natural effect of driving virtue to

its loftiest an-

"Seneca," says L'Estrange, "was a

tagonisms.

pagan Christian, and Christian pagans."

very good reading for our

was Buddhist

in his cold

abstract virtue, with a certain impassibility beyond

humanity. souls."

God

called pity, " that fault of narrow

Yet what noble words we owe divided

each other

from God

;

into

differs

His thoughts

only he had the right to say them.

meantime,

heaven, thought

him:

men, that they might help

and again, " The good man

in nothing but duration."

are excellent,

Plutarch,

man

with

every

virtue

under

the top of wisdom to philoso-

phize yet not appear to do

it,

and

to reach in mirth

PLUTARCH. the

295

same ends which the most serious are propos-

ing.

Plutarch thought " truth to be the greatest good

man can receive, and the goodliest blessing God can give." " When you are persuaded

that that

in your

mind that you cannot

either offer or per-

form anything more agreeable to the gods than the entertaining a right notion of them,

avoid superstition as a

cites

less evil

you

will then

than atheism."

Euripides to affirm, " If gods do aught

no gods," and the memorable

dishonest, they are

words of Antigone, in Sophocles, concerning the moral sentiment " For neither

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

now nor yesterday began

These thoughts, which have been ever, nor yet can

A man be found who their first

entrance knew.''

His faith in the immortality of the soul other measure of his his friends that the

eral

deep humanity.

an-

reminds

Delphic oracles have given sev-

answers the same in substance as that formerly

given to Corax the

Naxian

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

" It sounds profane impiety

teach that

human

souls e'er die."

believes that the doctrine of the

Divine Proviand that of the immortality of the soul, rest on one and the same basis. He thinks it impossidence,

ble either that

man

beloved of the gods should

;;

PLUTARCH.

296

not be happy, or that a wise and just

reans are hateful,

when

who held

man

To him

not be beloved of the gods.

should

the Epicu-

that the soul perishes

separated from the body.

The

soul,

incapable of death, suffers in the same manner in

the body, as birds that are kept in a cage." believes "that the souls of ately into a better

infants pass immedi-

and more divine

state."

I can easily believe that an anxious soul may find in Plutarch's chapter called " Pleasure not

tainable

by Epicurus," and

his "Letter to his

at-

Wife

Timoxena," a more sweet and reassuring argument

on the immortality than in the Phsedo

of Plato

for Plutarch always addresses the question on the

human

side,

and not on the metaphysical;

ter Scott took hold of boys

and young men,

land and America, and through them thers.

Wal-

Eng-

of their fa-

His grand perceptions of duty lead him

his stern delight in heroism

low indulgence for truth

;

a fight with fortune

his love of Sparta,

Aristides, Phocion

highest good

and Cato.

in action.

habitants of Asia

came

He be

stoic resistance to ;

a regard

and

of heroes like

insists that the

thinks that the

in-

vassals to one, only

for not having been able to pronounce one syllable

which

is,

No.

So keen

to right reason, that he

tune whenever she

his sense of allegiance

makes a

named.

fight against For-

At Eome he

thinks

PLUTARCH. her wings were clipped ball, it

297

she stood no longer on a

but on a cube as large as Italy.

thinks

was by superior virtue that Alexander won his

battles in

Asia and Africa, and the Greeks theirs

against Persia.

But vices,

this Stoic in his fight

with Fortune, with

effeminacy and indolence,

woman when

most amiable of men. soul against

gentle

anger

the

that which none but a great is

able to achieve."

"Anger turns the mind out of

as is

" To erect a trophy in the

and victorious puissance

the door."

other strings are touched.

and

doors,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

bolts

has a tenderness almost to tears

when he writes on "Friendship," on the "Training of Children," " There

and on the " Love of Brothers."

no treasure," he says, " parents can give

to their children, like

a brother;

'tis

a friend given

by nature, a gift nothing can supply ; once

lost,

not

The Arcadian prophet, of whom Herodotus speaks, was obliged to make a wooden to

be replaced.

foot in place of that

which had been chopped

brother, embroiled with his

seek in the street a stranger

resembles self

him who

off.

brother, going to

who can take

his place,

will cut off his foot to give

him-

one of wood."

All his judgments are noble. Epicurus, that

it is

receive a kindness.

more delightful

thought, with to

do than to

" This courteous, gentle, and

PLUTARCH.

298

benign disposition and behavior able, so obliging or delightful to

whom we There

converse, as

to those

who have

really no limit to his bounty

be generous to lend our eyes and sible,

not so accept-

any of those with

it."

" It would

ears, nay, if pos-

our reason and fortitude to others, whilst we

His excessive and

are idle or asleep."

humanity reminds one

much

exceeds him.

of Charles

When

Lamb,

fanciful

whilst

the guests are gone, he

" would leave one lamp burning, only as a sign of the respect he bore to bles

an animal as

itself,

and by

covers and

fire.

its

fires,

for nothing so resem-

It is

moved and

nourished

brightness, like the soul, dis-

makes everything apparent, and

in its

quenching shows some power that seems to proceed

from a sists,

vital principle, for it

makes a noise and

an animal dying, or violently

tered ; " and he praises the Romans, who,

re-

slaugh-

when

the

feast was over, " dealt well with the lamps, and did

not take away the nourishment they had given, but

permitted them to live and shine by

it."

I can almost regret that the learned editor of the

present republication has not preserved,

only as

a piece of history, the preface of Mr. Morgan, the editor

1718.

and

in part writer of this Translation of

In his dedication of the work to the Arch-

Wm. "Wake, he tells Primate that " Plutarch was the wisest man of

bishop of Canterbury,

the his

PLUTARCH. age, and, if

299

he had been a Christian, one of the

best too; hut it

was

his severe fate to flourish in

days of ignorance, which,

those

may

winh at ; that our souls ophers together in the puzzle in the

a favorable

Almighty will sometime

opinion to hope that the

same

be with these philos-

state

The

bliss."

worthy translator's mind between his

theology and his reason well reappears in the puzzle of his

sentence.

know that the chapter of " Apothegms

Commanders "

genuine work of Plutarch

and

by some

rejected ;

he had found

it,

the anecdotes

Noble not a good,

and genius, that

he would have adopted

did not compile the piece,

If I

but the matter

so agreeable to his taste

critics as

it.

If he

many, perhaps most of

were already scattered in his works.

do not lament that a work not his should be

ascribed to him, I regret that fered such destruction of his is lost

mankind

he should have

own.

What a

in his Lives of Scipio,

suf-

trilogy

Epami-

nondas, and Pindar

His delight in magnanimity and self-sacrifice has

made

heroes

;

his books, like

Homer's

and wherever the Cid

ends of Arthur,

Iliad,

a bible for

relished, the leg-

Saxon Alfred and Eichard the

Lion-hearted, Robert Bruce, Sydney,

Lord Herbert

Cherbury, Cromwell, Nelson, Bonaparte, and Walter Scott's Chronicles in prose or verse,

PLUTARCB.

800 there will Plutarch,

who

told the story of Leonidas,

of Agesilaus, of Aristides, Phocion, Themistocles,

Demosthenes, Epaminondas, Caesar, Cato and the rest, sit

as the bestower of the

crown of noble

knighthood, and laureate of the ancient world.

The

chapters "

in the " Morals," are

the Fortune of Alexander,"

an important appendix

portrait in the " Lives."

The union

to the

in Alexander

of sublime courage with the refinement of his pure tastes,

making him the

carrier of civilization into

the East, are in the spirit of the ideal hero, and

him to Plutarch. That prince kept Homer's poems not only for himself under his pil-

endeared

low in his

tent,

but carried these for the delight of

the Persian youth,

and made them acquainted

also

with the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles.

persuaded the Sogdians not to

ish their

aged parents

;

not marry their mothers

and not eat fitting

their

;

but to cher-

the Scythians to bury

dead parents.

monument

kill,

the Persians to reverence,

What

of his best days

a fruit and

was

his city

Alexandria, to be the birthplace or home of Plotinus, St. Augustine, Synesius, Posidonius,

nius, Jamblichus,

lonius

Ammo-

Porphyry, Origen, Aratus, Apol-

and Apuleius.

If Plutarch delighted in heroes,

and held

the

balance between the severe Stoic and the indulgent

Epicurean, his humanity shines not less in his in

PLUTARCH. tercourse with

genial host

his

301

He was

personal friends.

and guest, and delighted in bringing

He knew

chosen companions to the supper-table.

and the laws of

the laws of conversation

lowship quite as well as Horace,

and has

good-felset

them

down with such candor and grace as to make them

The

good reading to-day. private board

by the

guests not invited to a

entertainer, but introduced

a guest as his companions, the Greek called shad-

ows ; and the question

debated whether

bring them, and he treats

civil to

concludes : " Therefore, since

it is

was

candidly, but

when I make an

invitation,

hard to break the custom of the place,

my guests leave to bring shadows but when am invited as a shadow, I assure you I refuse to go." He has an objection to the introducI give

;

I myself

tion of

that a all

music at

feasts.

man having a muse

the pleasantness that

ment, would have pipes

thought

in his

would

own fit

wonderful

and

breast,

entertain-

and harps play, and by

that external noise destroy all the sweetness that

was proper and his own. I cannot close these notes without expressing

sense of the valuable service

which the Editor has

rendered to his Author

to his readers.

fessor

Goodwin

and

wherever I have compared the editions.

know how

Pro-

a silent benefactor to the book,

careless

I did not

and vicious in parts the old

PLUTARCH.

302

book was,

reading of the old

until, in recent

on coming on anything absurd or referred to the

new

curate statement in of Plutarch. of authors

translators,

correction

not only of names mis-

whether from negligence or freak.

proof of Plutarch's skill as a writer

lessness

and manifold

its

corrector, I yet confess

old version, for of

its

fifty

that

its care-

doubt

not,

present learned editor

enjoyment of

vigorous English

some forty or

them imperfect

In spite of

faults, which, I

have tried the patience of

work

and ac

and of places grossly altered or

he bears translation so well.

and

clear

It is the vindication

its place.

but of unpardonable liberties taken by the

spelled,

One

The

unintelligible, I

and found a

text

text,

style.

this

The

University men, some of

in their Greek,

a monument of

it is

the English language at a period of singular vigor

and freedom of

style.

I hope the Commission of

the Philological Society in London, charged with the duty of preparing a Critical Dictionary, will

not overlook these volumes, which show the wealth of

their tongue to greater advantage than

books of more renown as models.

many

It runs through

the whole scale of conversation in the street, the

market, the coffee-house, the law courts, the palace, the college and the church.

many

vulgar phrases, and

printer

;

but

There

many

are,

no doubt,

blunders of the

the speech of business and con-

PLUTARCH. and

versation,

in every tone,

303

from lowest

to high-

est.

We owe to these translators many sharp tions of the wit

and humor

adding of the point.

times even to the one, which,

I notice

although the translator has justified

his rendering in

a note, the severer criticism of the

Editor has not retained.

we might, for the

percep-

of their author, some-

Were

there not a sun,

the other stars, pass our days in

all

Keverend Dark, as Heraclitus

calls it."

I find

a humor in the phrase which might well excuse

its

doubtful accuracy.

It is

a service to our Republic to publish a book

that can force ambitious

young men, before they

mount the platform of the county conventions, to read the "Laconic

Apothegms" and the "ApoIf we could keep

thegms of Great Commanders." the secret,

and communicate

aspirants,

we might confide

filtration,

they would easily carry the victory over

all

But, as

competitors.

old patriots to

fill

only to a few chosen

that,

this noble in-

was the desire of these

with their majestic

spirit all

Sparta or Rome, and not a few leaders only, hasten to offer

them

to the

American people.

Plutarch's popularity will return in rapid cycles. If over-read in this decade, so that his

anecdotes and opinions become commonplace, and to-day's

PLUTARCH.

304

novelties are sought for variety, his sterling values will presently recall the eye

and thought

of the best

minds, and his books will be reprinted and read

anew by coming will

generations.

And

thus Plutarch

be perpetually rediscovered from time

as long as books last.

to time

HISTORIC NOTES OF LIFE AND LETTERS IN NEW ENGLAND.

old things all are over old,

Of good things none are good enough

'11

show that we can help

A world of other

stuff."

frame

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Foe Joy and Beauty With

And

planted

faerie gardens cheered,

boding Fancy haunted

With men and women

weird.

;

HISTORIC NOTES OF LIFE AND LETTEES IN NEW ENGLAND.

The

ancient

grew a certain remarked. in the

seted

There

manners were giving way.

tenderness on the people, not before

Children had been repressed and kept

background

now they were

;

and pampered.

I recall the

considered, cos-

remark

a witty

physician who remembered the hardships of his

youth; he said, "It

born

own

was a misfortune to have been

when children were nothing, and to

live till

men were nothing." There are always two parties, the party of the Past and the party of the Future

ment and the Movement. is

;

the Establish-

times the resistance

reanimated, the schism runs under the world

and

appears in Literature, Philosophy, Church, State,

and

It is not easy to date these

social customs.

eras of activity with

gion one

made

itself

any precision, but in

this re-

remarked, say in 1820 and the

twenty years following. It

seemed a war between intellect and affection

a crack in nature, which split every church in Chris-

HISTORIC NOTES OF

308

tendom

into

Papal and Protestant ; Calvinism

Old and New

New

schools;

Quakerism

brought new divisions in

;

into

polities

;

into

Old and

as the

new

conscience touching temperance and slavery.

key

to the period appeared to be that the

become aware of

itself.

Men

grew

The mind had

reflective

There was a new consciousness.

intellectual.

and

The

former generations acted under the belief that a shining social prosperity was the beatitude of man,

and

sacrificed uniformly the citizen to the State.

The modern mind

believed that the nation existed

for the individual, for the guardianship

man.

tion of every

and national movements, in the mind

revolutions

the philosopher had far more precision ual

and educa-

This idea, roughly written in

;

the individ-

the world.

This perception

drawn

before.

a sword such as was never

It divides

and detaches bone and

marrow, soul and body, yea, almost the man from himself.

the age of severance, of dissociation,

Every man

of freedom, of analysis, of detachment.

The

for himself.

public speaker disclaims speak-

ing for any other

The

;

he answers only for himself.

social sentiments are

weak

veneration

;

the sentiment of

low

patriotism

affections

feebler than they were.

;

the natural

People grow

philosophical about native land and parents and relations.

There

an universal resistance

to ties

;

AND LETTERS IN

LIFE

NEW

ENGLAND.

and ligaments once supposed essential to

The new

ety.

race

civil soci-

heady and rebellious

stiff,

they are fanatics in freedom

309

they hate

;

tolls, taxes,

turnpikes, banks, hierarchies, governors, yea, almost

They have a neck of unspeakable tenderness

laws. it

They

winces at a hair.

as against political saints, or

against mediation, or

;

any nobility in the unseen.

The age tends to time

rebel against theological

dogmas

accidental

the detachment intrinsic sociation is for

The

solitude.

association of the

and momentary and hypocritical,

power, merely,

being the enlargement

The as-

and progressive.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

for

means

;

the end

and independency of the

in-

Anciently, society was in the course of

dividual.

There was a Sacred Band, a Theban Pha-

things.

There can be none now.

College classes,

military corps, or trades-unions

may fancy them-

lanx.

selves indissoluble for

but

it is

a moment, over their wine

a painted hoop, and has no girth.

of arithmetic

and of criticism has

tures of old faith in

set in.

every department of society a

few centuries have sufficed to destroy. magic, palmistry, are ghost

is laid.

rogative,

Europe a week.

;

The age The struc-

long gone.

Demonology

Astrology,

The very

its last legs.

last

Pre-

government, goes to pieces day by day.

strewn with wrecks

;

a constitution once

In social manners and morals the revolu-

tion is just as evident.

In the law courts, crimes

HISTORIC NOTES OF

310

of fraud have taken the place of crimes of force.

The stockholder has stepped warlike baron. The nobles

into the place of the shall not

any

longer,

as feudal lords, have power of life and death over

the churls, but now, in another shape, as capitalists,

and peace eat them up as

shall in all love

Nay, government

whom

government was invented

there any brigands on eller in

" Oh, no, set your heart at rest on

France.

fellows keep the

highway

just as effectually,

;

for,

" what should these

when they can

and much more

the bureaus of office

rob

at their ease, in

appeared in the decided

literature the effect

The most remarkable

tendency of criticism.

erary work of the age has for precisely this introversion:

Faust.

" Are

to restrain.

the road ? " inquired the trav-

that point," said the landlord

before.

becomes the resort of those

itself

its

lit-

hero and subject

mean

poem

the

In philosophy, Immanuel Kant has made

the best catalogue of the

human

best analysis of the mind.

faculties

Hegel

In science the French savant, exact, barometer, crucible, chemic

hand, travels into to analyze

and

all

test

and the

also, especially. pitiless,

with

and calculus

nooks and islands, to weigh,

report.

And

chemistry, which

the analysis of matter, has taught us that we eat gas, drink gas, tread

on gas, and are

gas.

same decomposition has changed the whole

The

face of

LIFE

AND LETTERS IN

physics; the like in all

arts,

ENGLAND.

311

Authority-

modes.

Church, College, Courts of Law, Faculties,

falls,

NEW

Experiment

Medicine.

credible;

antiquity

grown ridiculous.

marked

itself

by a certain predominance of

The warm

the intellect in the balance of powers.

swart

Earth-spirit

past ages, mightier

than

stead of science, like

own

her

strength

knew, with instincts

in-

which made the it

a mother yielding food from

instead of preparing

breast

chemic and culinary

sentiment and vegetation,

all

tion.

which

through

;

had struck and other forms arose. social existence

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; warm negro ages of â&#x20AC;&#x201D; gone another hour

skill,

shared,

all

Instead of the

was now separa-

Every one for himself ; driven to find

all his

resources, hopes, rewards, society and deity within himself.

The young men were born with knives in their brain,

a tendency to introversion, self-dissection,

The popular

anatomizing of motives.

many

our fathers had received the

new times

current

of the backsliders

ago

theologians,

severe shocks from

from the Arminians, which was the

;

name

sixty years

religion of

;

from Calvinism,

then from the English philosophic

Hartley and Priestley and Belsbam,

Locke and then I should say much later from the slow but extraordinary influence

the followers of

Swedenborg

;

man

of prodigious mind, though

;

HISTORIC NOTES OF

312

as I think tainted with a certain suspicion of insan-

and therefore generally disowned, but exerting a singular power over an important intellectual ity,

class

;

then the powerful influence of the genius and

character of Dr. Charming.

til

Germany had created criticism in vain for us 1820, when Edward Everett returned from

five years in

his

Europe, and brought to Cambridge

his rich results,

ural grace

un-

which no one was so

and the splendor

duce and recommend.

fitted

nat-

of his rhetoric to intro-

He made

us for the

first

time acquainted with "Wolff's theory of the Homeric

The

Heyne.

writings, with the criticism of

nov-

elty of the learning lost nothing in the skill and

genius of his relation, and the rudest undergraduate

found a new morning opened

room

him

in the lecture-

Harvard Hall.

There was an influence on the young people from the genius of Everett which was almost comparable to that of Pericles in Athens.

tion which did not go

made him

beyond

had an

inspira-

his head, but which

the master of elegance.

any of

readers were at that period in Boston or Cambridge,

they will easily remember his radiant beauty of person, of a classic style, his heavy large eye, marble lids, which gave the impression of mass which

the slightness of his form needed

a voice of such rich

;

sculptured lips

tones, such precise

and

perfect

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; AND LETTERS IN

LIFE

NEW

ENGLAND. 313

although slightly nasal,

utterance, that,

was the

most mellow and beautiful and correct of all the

manner

in the

and

which he spoke

New

classical in

that he spoke,

The word

instruments of the time.

it,

England.

talent for collecting facts,

became current

had a great

and for bringing those

he had to bear with ingenious felicity of the

Let him

moment.

rise to

on the topic

speak on what oc-

a fact had always just transpired

casion soever,

which composed, with some other fact well to the audience, the

cidence.

was remarked that for a

threw out so

many

ing,

and

all his

of the hour. fully

facts

He had

of a blunder.

man who

he was seldom convicted

a good deal of special learn-

learning was available for purposes

was

all

new learning,

took and stimulated the

so coldly

known

most pregnant and happy coin-

that wonder-

young men.

was

and weightily communicated from so com-

manding a platform, as

in the consciousness

consideration of all history

adorned with so of expression,

digressions

and

many simple and

and

all learning,

austere beauties

and enriched with so many excellent

and significant quotations, that, though

nothing could be conceived beforehand less attractive or ticut,

their ical

indeed less

fit

for green boys

New Hampshire and unripe Latin and

discourses in

from Connec-

Massachusetts,

with

Greek reading, than exegetthe style of Voss and Wolff and

HISTORIC NOTES OF

314

Ruhnken, on the Orphic and Ante-Homeric

re-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; yet

this learning instantly took the high-

est place to

our imagination in our unoccupied

mains,

American Parnassus.

All his auditors

felt the ex-

treme beauty and dignity of the manner, and even the coarsest were contented to go punctually to ten, for the

lis-

manner, when they had found out that

the subject-matter was not for them.

In the

lec-

ture-room, he abstained from all ornament, and

pleased himself with the play of detailing erudition in a style of perfect simplicity.

In the pulpit (for

he was then a clergyman) he made amends self

and

to him-

his auditor for the self-denial of the pro-

fessor's chair, and, with

an infantine simplicity

still,

of manner, he gave the reins to his florid, quaint

and affluent fancy. Then was exhibited

all

the richness of a rhetoric

which we have never seen rivalled in

this country.

Wonderful how memorable were words made which were only pleasing pictures, and covered no new or valid thoughts.

abounded in

sentences, in wit,

in satire, in splendid allusion, in quotation impossi-

ble to forget, in daring imagery, in parable and

even in a sort of defying experiment of his own wit and

skill

in giving an oracular weight to He-

brew or Rabbinical words

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

feats

which no man

could better accomplish, such was his self-command

and the

security of his manner.

All his speech

;

LIFE

AND LETTERS IN

NEW

ENGLAND.

315

and invention was music, and with such variety Especially beautiful that the ear was never tired.

were bis poetic quotations.

delighted in quot-

modulation that ing Milton, and with such sweet as he borrowed beauty much as give to he seemed and whatever he has quoted will be remembered by any who heard him, with inseparable association with his voice

mon with

He had

and genius.

vulgarity

walking, sitting,

and

nothing in com-

infirmity, but, speaking,

was as much aloof and uncommon

The

smallest anecdote of his behavior

or conversation

was eagerly caught and repeated,

as a star.

and every young scholar could recite brilliant sentences

from his sermons, with mimicry, good or bad, This influence went

of his voice. for

much

farther,

he who was heard with such throbbing hearts

and sparkling eyes in the lighted and crowded churches, did not let

go his hearers when thÂť church

was dismissed, but the bright image of that eloquent form followed the boy ber

;

home

to his bed-cham-

and not a sentence was written in academic

exercises,

not a declamation attempted in the col-

lege chapel,

but showed the omnipresence of his

genius to youthful heads. his defender,

and boys

This made every youth

filled their

mouths with

guments to prove that the orator had a heart. was a triumph of Ehetoric. lectual or the

was not the

ar-

This intel-

moral principles which he had to

HISTORIC NOTES OF

316

When

It was not thoughts.

teach.

fame

Massachusetts

was not contended that he

was had thrown any truths into circulation. But his power lay in the magic of form; it was in the full of his

graces of

manner

;

in a

new

perception of Grecian

beauty, to which he had opened our eyes.

was that

finish

about this person which

There is

about

women, and which distinguishes every piece of genthat these last are ius from the works of talent, more or less matured in every degree of complete-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

ness according to the time bestowed on them, but

works of genius in still

marks

and

slightest

form are

In every public discourse there was

wholes.

nothing

their first

left for

the indulgence of his hearer, no

of late hours

and anxious, unfinished

study,

but the goddess of grace had breathed on the work

last

fragrancy and aÂť series

glitter.

of lectures largely

and fashionably

attended for two winters in Boston he

made a

ginning of popular literary and miscellaneous turing,

which in that region at

results.

least

belec-

had important

It is acquiring greater importance every

day, and becoming a national

institution.

quite certain that this purely literary influence was of the first importance to the

American mind.

In the pulpit Dr. Frothingham, an excellent classical

and German

acquainted,

scholar,

had already made

prudently, with the genius of Eich

AND LETTERS IN

LIFE

horn's theologic criticism.

little

studies

ENGLAND.

And

Professor Norton

317

gave form and method to the like But I in the then infant Divinity School. later

think the tion

NEW

paramount source of the religious revolu-

was Modern Science

;

beginning with Coperni-

pagan fictions of the that the earth on mankind Church, by showing

cus,

who

destroyed

the

which we live was not the centre of the Universe, around which the sun and stars revolved every day,

and thus

Drama

fitted to

be the platform on which the

of the Divine

Judgment was played before

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " the

the assembled

Angels of Heaven,

of the divine

vengeance " Saurin called

little

scrap of a planet, rushing

our system, which in turn seen at the distance of

scaffold

it,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but

round the sun in

was too minute to be

many

stars

which we be-

Astronomy taught us our insignificance in

hold.

Nature; showed that our sacred as our profane history laws,

had been written in gross ignorance of the

which were far grander than

compelled a certain extension

and his Providence.

views of the Deity

rection of our superstitions

new

science of Geology,

coveries in every

we knew

was confirmed by the

department.

dis-

But we presently

man was

by these errors in his understanding.

religious sentiment

and

This cor-

and the whole train of

saw also that the religious nature in affected

;

and uplifting of our

made nothing

not

The

of bulk or size,

HISTORIC NOTES OF

318

or far or near

space

triumphed over time as well

;

and every lesson

;

charity,

of humility, or justice, or

which the old ignorant

him, was

still

saints

had taught

forever true.

Whether from

these influences, or whether

reaction of the general science, religion

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; there was,

and

mind against the

by a

too formal

social life of the earlier period,

in the first quarter of our nineteenth

century, a certain sharpness of criticism, an eager-

ness for reform, which showed itself in every quarter.

It appeared in the popularity of Lavater's

Physiognomy, now almost forgotten.

Gall and

Spurzheim's Phrenology laid a rough hand on the mysteries of animal and spiritual nature, dragging

down every

sacred secret to a street show.

attempt was coarse and odious to

but had a certain truth in

where the professors denied

scientific

it felt

;

it,

men,

connection

and was a leading

to a truth which had not yet been announced.

the heels of this intruder

The

came Mesmerism, which

broke into the inmost shrines, attempted the explanation of miracle and prophecy, as well as of creation.

What

plative

tended it

could be more revolting to the contem-

philosopher it,

But a

certain

against all expectation.

was genial,

success at-

was human,

affirmed unity and connection be-

tween remote points, and as such was excellent criticism on the

narrow and dead

classification of

NEW

AND LETTERS IN

LIFE

what passed for science

ENGLAND. 319

and the joy with which

;

was greeted was an instinct of the people which no true philosopher

would

fail to profit by.

But while

remained in doubt between the indignation

society

of the old school

and the audacity of the new, a Unexpected aid from high

higher note sounded.

came to

quarters

The German poet

iconoclasts.

Goethe revolted against the science of the day,

French and English science, declared war

against

against the great

name

Newton, proposed his

own new and simple optics ple theory of is all

;

in Botany, his sim-

metamorphosis

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the eye of

only a modified leaf, the

branch of a tree

ing but a leaf whose serratures

extended this into anatomy and animal

his

views were accepted.

Schelling

olution.

The

Hegel

was a return to law

;

and the general mind

in science, in politics, in so-

as distinguished

;

his metaphysics,

to Civil History.

result in literature

cial life

from the

ners and politics of earlier times.

ture,

mity.

Man;

Every immorality

and

manThe age was

profligate

a departure from na-

punished by natural loss and defor-

The popularity the

noth-

life, and The revolt became a revand Oken introduced their

ideal natural philosophy,

and extended

have become twigs.

moral.

a leaf

every part of the plant from root to fruit

Combe's Constitution of

humanity which was the aim of

all

the

;

HISTORIC NOTES OF

320

multitudinous works of Dickens

even of Punch's caricature, was

;

all

the tendency

on the side

There was a breath of new

the people.

air,

much

vague expectation, a consciousness of power not yet finding

its

determinate aim.

I attribute

much importance

two papers of

Dr. Channing, one on Milton and one on Napoleon,

which were the

specimens in this country of

first

England had given Edinburgh Review. They

that large criticism which in

power and fame

to the

were widely read, and of course immediately which

ful in provoking emulation

Dr. Channing, whilst he lived, was

Journalism.

the star of the American Church, and thought,

we do not

still

successor in the pulpit. ported, for his eye

and

fruit-

lifted the style of

we then

think, that he left

could never be

and voice could not be

no re-

printed,

his discourses lose their best in losing them.

He was made for the public his cold temperament made him the most unprofitable private companion ;

but

all

America would have been impoverished

wanting him.

word he uttered

could not then spare a single

in public, not so

much

as the read-

ing a lesson in Scripture, or a hymn, and

it is

cu-

rious that his printed writings are almost a history of the times

;

as there

political, literary,

was no great public

interest,

or even economical (for he wrote

on the Tariff), on which he did not leave some

AND LETTERS IN NEW ENGLAND.

LIFE

321

printed record of his brave and thoughtful opinion.

A poor those

invalid all his

little

men who vindicate

life,

yet one of

the power of the

American

race to produce greatness.

Dr. Channing took counsel in f840 with George Eipley, to the point whether

were possible to

bring cultivated, thoughtful people together, and

make

society that deserved

earlier talked

the

He had

name.

Warren on

with Dr. John Collins

who admitted the wisdom of the design and undertook to aid him in making the experiment. Dr. Channing repaired to Dr. Warthe like purpose,

ren's house

on the appointed evening, with large

thoughts which he wished to open.

found a

well-chosen assembly of gentlemen variously distin-

guished tion,

;

there

was mutual greeting and introduc-

and they were chatting agreeably on

ent matters expectation,

and drawing gently towards

when a

company streamed by excellent wines

side-door opened, the whole

in to ;

indiffer-

their great

and

an oyster supper, crowned so

ended the

to establish aesthetic society in

first

attempt

Boston.

Some time afterwards Dr. Channing opened mind

his

Mr. and Mrs. Ripley, and with some care

they invited a limited party of ladies and gentle-

men.

had the honor

recall the fact, I

be present.

Though I

do not retain any instant conse-

quence of this attempt, or any connection between VOL. X.

;

HISTORIC NOTES OF

322

and the new zeal of the friends who at that time to be drawn together by sympathy of studies and of aspiration. Margaret Fuller, George Rip-

began

ley,

Dr. Convers Francis, Theodore Parker, Dr.

Hedge, Mr. Brownson, James Freeman Clarke,

William H. Channing, and many

drew together and from time

others, gradually

to time spent

af-

ternoon at each other's houses in a serious conver-

With them was always one well-known all a man of letters,

sation.

form, a pure idealist, not at

nor of any practical talent, nor a writer of books

man

quite too cold

liances

and contemplative with rare

friendship,

for the

al-

simplicity and

grandeur of perception, who read Plato as an equal,

and inspired

his

companions only in proportion

they were intellectual,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

whilst the

men

of talent

complained of the want of point and precision in this abstract

These

and

religious thinker.

fine conversations, of course,

were incom-

prehensible to some in the company, and they had their revenge in their little joke.

that " It seemed to

swing

;

him

One

declared

going to heaven in a

" another reported that, at a knotty point

in the discourse, a sympathizing

Englishman with

a squeaking voice interrupted with the question,

"Mr. Alcott, a lady near me desires to inquire whether omnipotence abnegates attribute ? " I think there prevailed at that time a general be-

AND LETTERS IN NEW ENGLAND.

LIFE lief in

Boston that there was some concert of doc-

trinaires to establish certain opinions rate

323

some movement in

religion,

and

of which design the supposed conspirators

were quite innocent

for there was no concert,

;

only here and there two or three

who read and vacity.

and inaugu-

literature, philosophy,

men

and

women

wrote, each alone, with unusual vi-

Perhaps they only agreed

having fallen

upon Coleridge and Wordsworth and Goethe, then on Carlyle, with pleasure and sympathy. wise, their education

Other-

and reading were not marked,

but had the American superficialness, and their studies were solitary.

surprised at this

I suppose

all of

rumor of a school or

them were

sect,

and

cer-

name of Transcendentalism, given nobody knows by whom, or when it was first applied. As these persons became in the common chances of tainly at the

society acquainted with each other, there resulted

certainly strong friendships,

which of course were

exclusive in proportion to their heat

those persons

who were mutually

and perhaps

the best friends

were the most private and had no ambition of publishing their letters, diaries, or conversation.

From tion,

that time meetings were held for conversa-

with very

little

form, from house to house, of

people engaged in studies, fond of books, and watchful of all the intellectual light ter it flowed.

from whatever quar-

Nothing could be

less formal, yet the

HISTORIC NOTES OF

324

and character and varied ability of the company gave it some notoriety and perhaps waked

intelligence

curiosity as to its aims

and

results.

Nothing more serious came of it than the modest quarterly journal called " The Dial " which, under the editorship of Margaret Fuller, and later of some

All

other, enjoyed its obscurity for four years.

papers were unpaid contributions, and

its

was rather

a work of friendship among the narrow circle of

Perhaps

students than the organ of any party. writers were

its

chief readers:

some noble papers by Margaret

yet

Fuller,

numbers had an instant exhausting of papers by Theodore Parker.

and some

sale,

because

Theodore Parker was our Savonarola, an lent scholar, in frank tion with the best

of the people,

and

minds

its

contained

excel-

communica-

affectionate

of his day, yet the tribune

and the stout Reformer

to urge

and

defend every cause of humanity with and for the

humblest of mankind.

was no

ment

of beauty.

What

Highly

artist.

refined persons might easily miss in

him the

he said was mere

most offended you, so bald and detached cared he.

and

ele-

fact, al;

little

stood altogether for practical truth

so to the last.

;

used every day and hour of

and his character appeared in the last moments with the same firm control as in the mid. day of strength. I habitually apply to him the his short life,

AND LETTERS IN NEW ENGLAND.

LIFE

325

words of a French philosopher who speaks of " the

man

Nature who abominates the steam-engine

His vast lungs breathe independ-

and the factory.

ence with the air of the mountains and the woods."

The vulgar

politician

disposed of this

cheaply as " the sentimental class."

circle

State Street

had an instinct that they invalidated contracts and threatened the stability of stocks

fancy brusque manners.

even in

its

live in the city

whilst there

did not

always values,

The clergyman who would

may have piety,

but must have

was often coming, among

Baptist, wild

careless of dress of cities.

and

teachers, inoffensive people, susceptible

of conventional polish.

John the

;

Society

these,

taste,

some

from the woods, rude, hairy,

and quite scornful of the etiquette

There was a pilgrim in those days walking

in the country

who stopped

at every door

where he

hoped to find hearing for his doctrine, which was,

Never to give or receive money. printer, lief of

whom

was a poor

and explained with simple warmth the be-

himself and five

six

young men with

he agreed in opinion, of the vast mischief of

our insidious coin.

thought every one should

labor at some necessary product, and as soon as he

had made more than enough for himself, were corn, or paper, or cloth, or boot-jacks,

give of the

commodity

he should

any applicant, and

in turn

go to his neighbor for any article which he had to

HISTORIC NOTES OF

326 spare.

course

we were

curious to

know how he

sped in his experiments on the neighbor, and his anecdotes were interesting, and often highly creditable.

But he had the courage which

so stern a re-

turn to Arcadian manners required, and had learned to sleep, in cold nights,

when the farmer

whose

door he knocked declined to give him a bed, on a

wagon covered with the buffalo-robe under the shed, or under the stars, when the farmer denied the shed and the buffalo-robe. I think he persisted

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

for

two years in

his brave practice,

but did not en-

large his church of believers.

These reformers were a new

class.

Instead of

the fiery souls of the Puritans, bent on hanging the

Quaker, burning the witch and banishing the Eomanist, these were gentle souls, with peaceful and

even with genial dispositions, casting sheep's-eyes

even on Fourier and his houris.

when

the air was full of reform.

Lanark came

hither from

was a time

Robert

Owen

England in 1845, and

read lectures or held conversations wherever he

found listeners; the candid of men.

most amiable, sanguine and

He had

not the least doubt that

he had hit on a right and perfect socialism, or that all

mankind would adopt

it.

He was

then seventy

years old, and being asked, " Well, Mr. Owen, is

your disciple ?

How many men

sessed of your views

who

will

who

are there pos-

remain after you are

AND LETTERS IN NEW ENGLAND.

LIFE

them

in practice ? "

Robert

Owen knew

gone, to put his reply.

age.

said that Fourier

the truth he

made

had

" Not one," was

Fourier in his old

him

learned of

all

the rest of his system was imag-

;

Owen

and the imagination of a banker.

ination,

327

the best impression

his rare benevolence.

His love of men made us forget his " Three Errors." His charitable construction of

was invariable.

men and their actions

was the better Christian in

with Christians, and he interpreted

his controversy

with great generosity the acts of the " ance,"

whom

and Prince Metternich, with

severing

doctrinaire

" Ah," he said, " you as tender hearts

had

Holy

obtained

may depend on

and as much good

Alli-

the per-

interviews; it

there are

will to serve

men, in palaces, as in colleges."

And cialists,

truly I honor the generous ideas of the So-

the magnificence of their theories, and the

enthusiasm with which they have

been

urged.

They appeared the inspired men of their time. Mr. Owen preached his doctrine of labor and reward, with the fidelity and devotion of a saint, to the slow ears of his generation. as wonderful of

Fourier, almost

an example of the mathematical mind

France as

Place or Napoleon, turned a truly

vast arithmetic to the question of social misery,

has put

men under

mind always

and

the obligation which a generous

confers, of conceiving

magnificent

HISTORIC NOTES OF

328

hopes and making great demands as the right of

man.

took his measure of that which

all

should

and might enjoy, from no soup-society or charityconcert, but from the refinements of palaces, the wealth of universities, and the triumphs of

He and

A man

thought nobly. to the air of

is entitled to

artists.

pure

air,

good conversation in his bringing

and not, as we or so many of us, to the poorsmell and musty chambers, cats and fools. Fourier

up,

carried a whole French Revolution in his head, and

much

Here was arithmetic on a huge

more.

scale.

His ciphering goes where ciphering never went benamely, into

fore,

stars,

atmospheres, and animals,

and men and women, and

classes of every character.

was the most entertaining of French romances,

and could not but suggest vast form

to the coldest

and

possibilities of re-

least sanguine.

We had an opportunity of learning something of these Socialists

and

their theory,

igable apostle of the sect in

Brisbane. all

from the

New

Mr. Brisbane pushed

indefat-

York, Albert

his doctrine with

the force of memory, talent, honest faith and

importunacy.

appeared

As we

listened to his exposition

to us the sublime of mechanical philoso-

phy for the system was the perfection of arrangement and contrivance. The force of arrangement could no farther go. The merit of the plan was that it was a system ; that it had not the partiality ;

AND LETTERS IN NEW ENGLAND.

LIFE

329

and hint-and-fragment character of most popular schemes, but was coherent facts to

and comprehensive of

a wonderful degree.

was not daunted

by distance, or magnitude, or remoteness of any but strode about nature with a giant's step,

sort,

and skipped no

web

of cycle

stery,

fact,

and

but wove

with laudable

its

large Ptolemaic

phalanx and phalan-

epicycle, of

Mechanics were

assiduity.

pushed so far as fairly to meet spiritualism.

One

could not but be struck with strange coincidences betwixt Fourier

and Swedenborg. Genius hitherto

has been shamefully misapplied, a

must now

man and

trifler.

to redress the disorders of the planet

The Desert

inhabits.

of Sahara, the

Roma, the frozen Polar tilential or

man.

the secret of the

the isolation of

drudgery.

circles,

Campagna

which by their pes-

hot or cold airs poison the temperate re-

gions, accuse is

mere

set itself to raise the social condition of

Society, concert, co-operation,

coming Paradise.

men

By reason

at the present day, all

work

of is

concert and the allowing each la-

own work,

borer to choose his

becomes pleasure.

"Attractive Industry" would speedily subdue,

adventurous scientific and persistent tillage, the pestilential

tracts

;

would

give health to the globe

equalize

temperature,

and cause the earth

to yield

"healthy imponderable fluids" to the solar system, as

now

yields noxious fluids.

The

hyaena, the

HISTORIC NOTES OF

330

jackal, the gnat, the bug, the flea,

icent parts of the system

;

were

all benef-

the good Fourier

knew

what those creatures should have been, had not the

mould phere

slipped, through the ;

state of the atmos-

caused no doubt by the same vicious impon-

derable fluids.

man

bad

All these shall be redressed by hu-

and the useful goat and dog and innocent poetical moth, or the wood-tick to consume cidture,

decomposing wood, shall take their place. sixteen

hundred and eighty men

complete in

all

the faculties

;

It takes

make one Man,

that

is,

be sure

that you have got a good joiner, a good cook, a barber, a poet, a judge, an umbrella-maker, a mayor

and alderman, and dents of

so on.

Your community should

two thousand persons,

consist of

omission

to prevent acci-

and each community should

;

Now

take up six thousand acres of land. the earth planted with fifties

phalanxes side by itecture,

what

side,

and hundreds

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; what

refectories,

tillage,

fancy

of these

what arch-

what dormitories, what

reading-rooms, what concerts, what lectures, what gardens, what baths

What

not in one will be

and many will be within easy distance. Then know you one and all, that Constantinople in another,

the natural capital of the globe.

Golden Horn,

will

the Arch-Phalanx be

lished; there will the

and

There, in the

Omniarch

reside.

estab-

Aladdin

his magician, or the beautiful Scheherezade

AND LETTERS IN NEW ENGLAND.

LIFE

331

can alone, in these prosaic times before the sight,

material splendors collected there.

the

describe

Poverty shall be abolished; deformity, stupidity

and crime shall be no more. shall

abound, and

it is

Genius, grace, art,

not to be doubted but that

in the reign of " Attractive

Industry "

all

men

will

speak in blank verse. Certainly

listened with great pleasure to such

The

gay and magnificent pictures. earnestness of the advocate

and

his friends, the

apparent

di-

end they would

se-

comprehensiveness of their theory, rectness of proceeding to the

and

ability

its

they felt and uttered in the

cure, the indignation

commanded our much truth, and promised in the attempts that shall be made to realize it so much valuable instruction, that we are engaged to observe every step of its progress. Yet

presence of so attention

and

much

social misery,

respect.

It contained so

in spite of the assurances of its friends that it

new and widely discriminated from for the regeneration of society, it

teems. fact

Our

feeling

we could not exempt

many

which the brain of the age

was that Fourier had skipped

treats man as a may be put up or moulded, polished, made

but one, namely Life.

plastic thing,

was

other plans

from the criticism which we apply to so

projects for reform with

all

something that

down, ripened or retarded,

into solid or fluid or gas, at the will of the leader

HISTORIC NOTES OF

832

or perhaps as a vegetable, from which, though

now

a poor crab, a very good peach can by manure and exposure be in time produced, ulty of

life,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but

skips the fac-

which spawns and scorns system and

system-makers

which eludes

;

all

conditions

;

which

makes or supplants a thousand phalanxes and New Harmonies with each pulsation. There is an order in which in a sound mind the faculties always appear,

and which, according to the strength

of the

individual, they seek to realize in the surrounding

The value

world.

of Fourier's system

that

it is

a statement of such an order externized, or carried

outward into mistake

that this particular order

to be imposed, all

true

facts.

and and

force or preaching

men, and carried

what life,

correspondence in

its

The

series is

votes,

into rigid execution.

But

and good must not only be begun by

but must be conducted to

Could not the conceiver of

its issues

this design

life.

have also be-

lieved that a similar model lay in every mind, and

that the

method

of each associate might be trusted,

as well as that of his particular Committee and

General

Office,

No. 200 Broadway ?

Let us be lovers and

would be better to

say,

vants of that which

is just,

man becomes public,

Nay, that

ser-

and straightway every

a centre of a holy and beneficent

which he sees to include

like that of Plato,

all

and of Christ.

men

re-

in its law,

Before such a

AND LETTERS IN

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NEW

ENGLAND. 333

man the whole world becomes Fourierized or Christhumanized, and in obedience to his most

ized or

private being he finds himself, according to his pre-

sentiment, though against all sensuous probability, acting in strict concert with all others

who followed

their private light.

Yet, in a day of small, sour

one

friendly aims

portion

;

certifies

theory, It rier's

fierce schemes,

and of such bold and generous pro-

there

strength in it

and

admonished and cheered by a project of such

which

and in so far

and commanding

superior

the presence of so

and

courage

intellectual

much

;

truth in the

destined to be fact.

argued singular courage, the adoption of Fousystem, to even a limited extent, with his

books lying before the world only defended by the

French language.

thin veil of the

Forbear, Fourier said, Indulge. opinion of St.

The

Stoic said,

Fourier was of the

Evremond abstinence from pleashim a great sin. Fourier was very ;

ure appeared to

French indeed.

labored under a misapprehen-

women. The Fourier marwas a calculation how to secure the greatest amount of kissing that the infirmity of human consion of the nature of

riage

stitution admitted.

was

false

and prurient,

absurd French superstitions about

rant

ways

how is

;

serious

how

lawful a class.

and how moral

chaste

women

;

full

igno-

their nature al-

their organization

;

how

HISTORIC NOTES OF

334 It

community that

the worst of

must

inevi-

tably transform into charlatans the leaders, by the

endeavor continually to meet the expectation and

men and women

admiration of this eager crowd of

know not

seeking they

Unless he have a

what.

Cossack roughness of clearing himself of what belongs not, charlatan he must be. It fine

was easy

to see

what must be the

fate of this

system in any serious and comprehensive

tempt to

set it

on foot in

this country.

at-

soon as

our people got wind of the doctrine of Marriage held by this master,

would

fall at

once into the

hands of a lawless crew who would flock in troops to so fair a game, and, like the dreams of poetic

people on the

first

olution, so theirs

outbreak of the old French Rev-

would disappear in a slime

mire and blood.

There run

of course to every theory a tendency to

an extreme, and to forget the limitations. In

our free institutions, where every to choose his

modes

home and

of working

man

his trade,

and

at liberty

all possible

and gaining are open

to him,

made by thousands, as in no Then property proves too much

fortunes are easily

other country. for the man,

and the men of

science, art, intellect,

are pretty sure to degenerate into selfish housekeepers, dependent on wine, coffee, furnace-heat, gas-light

and

fine furniture.

Then

instantly things

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; LIFE

NEW

AND LETTERS IN

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we suddenly find that that what we bragged treacheries that we have opened as triumphs were the wrong door and let the enemy into the castle

swing the other way, and civilization

erowed too soon

;

that civilization

was a mistake

that nothing

;

vulgar as a great warehouse of rooms full of furnithat, in the circumstances, the

ture

and trumpery

best

wisdom were an auction or a

;

foxes and the birds

warm

Since the

fire.

have the right of

hole to keep out the weather,

it,

with a

and no more,

a pent-house to fend the sun and rain

the house

which lays no tax on the owner's time and thoughts,

and which he can leave, when the sun defy the robber.

said that the Fourierists

them

led

real

his

warm, and

who

had a sense of duty which

to devote themselves to their second-best.

And Thoreau gave cious

This was Thoreau's doctrine,

Saxon

in flesh

and blood and

belief the purest ethics.

pertina-

was more

and practically believing in them than any of

company, and

fortified

affirmative experience

Thoreau was in his

you

at all times with

which refused

own person a

be set aside.

practical answer,

almost a refutation, to the theories of the socialists.

He ety,

required no Phalanx, no Government, no soci-

almost no memory.

lived extempore

hour to hour, like the birds and the angels every day a

new

that of yesterday,

;

from

brought

proposition, as revolutionary as

but different

the only

man

HISTORIC NOTES OF

336 leisure in his

town

;

and

his independence

others look like slaves.

Sampson, and carried a counsel "

made

all

was a good Abbot in

his

breast.

Again and again I congratulate myself on

so-

called poverty, I could not overstate this advan-

tage."

to if

What you call bareness and poverty, is God could not be unkind to me

simplicity.

he should

its

I love best to have each thing in

try.

season only, and enjoy doing without

other times.

at all

the greatest of all advantages to

enjoy no advantage at

I have never got over

all.

surprise that I should have been born into the

most estimable place in

all

very nick of time too."

the world, and in the

There

an optimist

for

you.

I regard these philanthropists as themselves the effects of the

with so

many

age in which

live,

and, in

common

other good facts, the efflorescence of

the period, and predicting a good fruit that ripens.

They were not the selves,

creators they believed them-

but they were unconscious prophets of a true

state of society

one which the tendencies of na-

;

ture lead unto, one which always establishes for the sane soul, though

which they paint that which

;

not in that manner in

but they were describers of

really being done.

are phalansteries

argument from

;

itself

and the

The

theorists

large cities

drew

all their

facts already taking place in our

LIFE

NEW

AND LETTERS IN The cheap way

experience.

ENGLAND. 337 make every man

One merchant

do what he was born for.

Fourier project, thought

I described the

whom must

not only succeed, but that agricultural association

must presently

fix

the price of bread, and drive

single farmers into association in self-defence, as

the great commercial nies is

had done.

and manufacturing compa-

Society in

England and

America

trying the experiment again in small pieces, in

co-operative associations, in

well as in

cheap eating-houses, as

the economies of club-houses

and

cheap reading-rooms. It

chanced that here in one family were two

brothers, one close

a brilliant and

fertile inventor,

by him his own brother, a

who knew how instantly

to direct his faculty

and permanently

not the like partnership be

ventor and the

man

lucrative.

and

of business,

and make

Why

could

formed between the

in-

of executive talent everywhere ?

Each man of thought than he,

man

surrounded by wiser

they cannot write as well.

men

Cannot he

and they combine ? Talents supplement each other.

Beaumont and Fletcher and many French novelists

have known

Why

how

to utilize such partnerships.

not have a larger one, and with

more various

members ? Housekeepers say, " There are a thousand things to

everything," vol. x.

and 22

one must study

all

the

HISTORIC NOTES OF

338

strokes to be laid, all the faults to be shunned in a

building or work of art, of sition, its

But the

site, its

its

keeping,

color, there

architect, acting

its

compo-

would be no end.

under a necessity to build

the house for its purpose, finds himself helped, he

knows not how,

into all these merits of detail, and

steering clear, though in the dark, of those dangers

which might have shipwrecked him.

BROOK FARM. The West Roxbury

association

1841, by a society of members,

was formed in

men and women,

who bought a farm in West Roxbury, hundred April.

of about two

and took possession of the place

acres,

Mr. George Ripley was the President, and

I think Mr. Charles

Dana

(afterwards well known

New York Many members took

as one of the editors of the

Tribune),

was the

shares by

secretary.

paying money, others held shares by their

new houses for

labor.

old house on the place was enlarged, and three built.

William Allen was

at first

and

some time the head farmer, and the work was

distributed in orderly committees to the

women. less

found

lucrative

for,

or brought hither by

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; shoemakers,

members, They had good

these

men and

There were many employments more or

ceived pupils for their

joiners, sempstresses.

among them, and so reeducation. The parents of

scholars

;

AND LETTERS IN

LIFE

the children in

NEW

some instances wished

to live there,

Many

and were received as boarders. tracted

ENGLAND. 339

the beauty of the place

persons

at-

and the culture

and ambition of the community, joined them as boarders,

I think the

and lived there for years.

numbers of

mixed community soon reached

this

eighty or ninety souls.

was a noble and generous movement in the

projectors, to try

an experiment of better

living.

They had the feeling that our ways of living were too conventional to

and expensive, not allowing each

do what he had a talent for, and not permitting

men

combine cultivation of mind and heart with

a reasonable time,

selves,

tain,

amount of daily

was an attempt to

and

to share the

with others

labor.

lift

the

same

others with them-

advantages they should

now deprived

at-

of them.

There was no doubt great variety of character

and purpose in the members of the community. consisted in the

main

middle age, and none

and organized

young people,

old.

Those who inspired

were of course persons impatient

of the routine, the uniformity,

say

perhaps they would

the squalid contentment of

them,

society

around

which was so timid and skeptical of any

progress.

One would

the rule in the society,

perhaps

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; few of

say then that impulse was

without centripetal balance

would not be severe to say, intellectual

HISTORIC NOTES OF

340

an impatience of the formal, rou-

sans-culottism,

tinary character of our educational, religious, social

and economical life in Massachusetts. Yet there was immense hope in these young people. There

was nobleness; there were

who compensated

self-sacrificing victims

and rashness of The young people lived a great time, and came forth some of them for the levity

their companions.

deal in a short

And

perhaps with shattered constitutions.

a few

grave sanitary influences of character were happily there, which, I

George

was assured, were always

Curtis of

New York, and

of English Oxford, were

from the

first.

members

felt.

his brother,

of the family

Theodore Parker, the near neigh-

bor of the farm and the most intimate friend of

Mr. Ripley, was a frequent Morton

visitor.

of Plymouth, a plain

man

gaged through many years in the success,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Mr. Iehabod formerly enfisheries

with

eccentric, with a persevering interest in

Education, and of a very democratic religion, came

and

built

a house on the farm, and he, or members

of his family, continued there to the end. ret Fuller, with her joyful conversation

Marga-

and large

sympathy, was often a guest, and always in correspondence with her friends. to

name were

Many

ladies,

to praise, gave character

whom

and varied

attraction to the place.

In and around Brook Farm, whether as mem-

;

AND LETTERS IN

LIFE

bers, boarders,

or visitors, were

for character,

persons,

NEW

ENGLAND. 341

many remarkable or accomplish-

intellect,

ments.

I recall one youth of the subtlest mind, I

believe I

must say the subtlest observer and diviner

of character I ever met, living, reading, writing,

talking there, perhaps as long as the colony held

together is

;

mind fed and overfed by whatever

his

exalted in genius, whether in Poetry or Art, in

Drama

or Music, or in social accomplishment

elegancy; a

man

aims, a student

of no

and

employment or practical

and philosopher, who found

his

enjoyment not with the elders or his exact

daily

contemporaries so

much

as with the fine boys

who

were skating and playing ball or bird-hunting ; forming the closest friendships with such, and finding his delight in the petulant heroisms of boys yet

was he the chosen counsellor to

dians would repair

whom

on any hitch or

and draw from him a wise counsel. subtle, inward genius, puny in body and habit

occurred, fine,

the guar-

difficulty that

girl,

yet with an

disconcerted.

worlds of

life

;

all

aplomb

lived

a general, never

and thought,

in 1842, such

hinging on the thought of Being

or Eeality as opposed to consciousness tellect

hating in; with the ferocity of a Swedenborg. He was

the Abbe" or spiritual bias.

father, from his religious His reading lay in ^schylus, Plato, Dante,

Calderon, Shakspeare, and in

modern novels and

342

HISTORIC NOTES OF

romances of

merit.

There too was Hawthorne,

with his cold yet gentle genius, justice to this

temporary home.

he failed to do

There was the

ac-

complished Doctor of Music, who has presided over ever since in our metropolis.

its literature

Eev.

William Henry Charming, now of London, was

from the

first

a student of Socialism in France and

England, and in perfect sympathy with

periment. well,

English baronet, Sir John Cald-

was a frequent

visitor,

and more or

rectly interested in the leaders

Hawthorne drew some I think

;

this ex-

and the

less di-

success.

sketches, not happily, as

I should rather say, quite unworthy of

his genius.

friend

who knew Margaret

Fuller

could recognize her rich and brilliant genius under the dismal

meant

mask which

the public fancied was

for her in that disagreeable story.

Brook Farm should have this that they made what all people try to make,

The Founders praise,

an agreeable place

to live in.

the most fastidious, found dences.

It is certain that

All comers, even

the pleasantest of resi-

freedom from household

routine, variety of character

and

talent, variety of

work, variety of means of thought and instruction, art,

music, poetry, reading, masquerade, did not

permit routine. it

sluggishness or

There

despondency;

broke up

agreement in the testimony that

was, to most of the associates, education; to

LIFE

AND LETTERS IN

NEW

ENGLAND. 343

many, the most important period of their life, the birth of valued friendships, their first acquaintance with the riches of conversation, their training in

The

behavior.

art of letter-writing,

immensely cultivated.

it is said,

was

Letters were always flying

from house to house, but from room to It was a perpetual picnic, a French Eevo-

not only

room.

an Age of Reason in a patty-pan.

lution in small,

In the American social communities, the gossip found such vent and sway as to become despotic.

The

institutions

the adored

were whispering-galleries, in which

Saxon privacy was

lost.

Married women

I believe uniformly decided against the It

community.

was to them like the brassy and lacquered

life

The common school was well enough, but common nursery they had grave objections.

hotels.

to the

Eggs might be hatched in ovens, but the hen on her

own account much preferred the old way.

hen without her chickens was but half a hen. It

was a curious experience of the patrons and

leaders

of this

agreement with give so

noted community, in which the

many

many hours

in music, in so forth,

parties

was that they should

of instruction in mathematics,

moral and intellectual philosophy, and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

in every instance the

new comers

showed themselves keenly alive to the advantages of the society,

every

and were sure

means of instruction

;

to avail themselves of

their

knowledge was

342

HISTORIC NOTES OF

romances of

merit.

There too was Hawthorne,

with his cold yet gentle genius, justice to this

he failed to do

There was the

temporary home.

ac-

complished Doctor of Music, who has presided over its literature

ever since in our metropolis.

Eev.

William Henry Channing, now of London, was

from the

first

a student of Socialism in France and

England, and in perfect sympathy with this ex-

periment. well,

English baronet, Sir John Cald-

was a frequent

visitor,

and more or

rectly interested in the leaders

Hawthorne drew some I think

;

and the

sketches, not happily, as

I should rather say, quite

his genius.

friend

less di-

success.

unworthy

who knew Margaret

Fuller

could recognize her rich and brilliant genius under the

dismal mask which the public fancied was

meant

for her in that disagreeable story.

The Founders praise, that they

Brook Farm should have

made what

an agreeable place

all

people try to make,

to live in.

All comers, even

the most fastidious, found dences.

this

It is certain that

the pleasantest of resi-

freedom from household

routine, variety of character

and

talent, variety of

work, variety of means of thought and instruction, art,

music, poetry, reading, masquerade, did not

permit routine. it

sluggishness or

There

despondency;

broke up

agreement in the testimony that

was, to most of the associates, education; to

NEW

AND LETTERS IN

LIFE

ENGLAND. 343

many, the most important period of their

life,

the

birth of valued friendships, their first acquaintance

with the riches of conversation, their training in

The

behavior.

art of letter-writing,

immensely cultivated.

room.

was

from room to

not only from house to house, but It

it is said,

Letters were always flying

was a perpetual

picnic, a

French Revo-

an Age of Reason in a patty-pan.

lution in small,

In the American social communities, the gossip

found such vent and sway as to become despotic.

The

institutions

the adored

were whispering-galleries, in which

Saxon privacy was

lost.

Married women

I believe uniformly decided against the It

community.

was to them like the brassy and lacquered

The common

hotels.

school was well enough, but

common nursery they had grave

to the

life

objections.

Eggs might be hatched in ovens, but the hen on her

own account much preferred the old way.

hen without her chickens was but half a hen. It

was a curious experience of the patrons and

leaders

of this

agreement with give so

noted community, in which the

many

many hours

in music, in so forth,

parties

was that they should

of instruction in mathematics,

moral and intellectual philosophy, and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that in

every instance the

newcomers

showed themselves keenly alive to the advantages of the society,

every

and were sure

means of instruction

;

to avail themselves of

their

knowledge was

HISTORIC NOTES OF

344

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but

they be-

in that proportion averse to labor,

and were

manners

increased, their

came

refined,

charged by the heads of the departments with a

and

certain indolence

In practice

it is

selfishness.

always found that virtue

and not

casional, spotty,

people are as bad as rogues

claimed;

the

is oc-

Good

linear or cubic. if

steady performance

conscience of the

conscientious

runs in veins, and the most punctilious in some particulars are

latitudinarian

very gently said that people on all

They saw the

must be done, and did

beforehand

necessity that the

not,

and

many a

the fury of dissent.

dore Parker, " There

certain strength

him, but

all

doubt

drawn from

Thus Mr. Bipley

:he would hoe corn

work

of course fell

be done by the few religious workers.

there was in

whom

was

persons would put the utmost reliance were not

responsible.

others.

told Theo-

your accomplished friend all

Sunday

Massachusetts could not

would

let

make him do

on Monday."

course every visitor found that there was a

comic side to herdesses.

this

Paradise of shepherds and shep-

There was a stove in every chamber,

and every one might burn as much wood she would saw.

day

;

The

as he or

ladies took cold on washing-

was ordained that the gentlemen-shep-

herds should wring and hang out clothes

;

which

NEW

AND LETTERS IN

LIFE

And

they punctually did. cur that

when they danced from

oc-

in the evening, clothes-

The

their pockets.

members naturally were surprised

to ob-

man ploughed all day and one

looked

serve that one

out of the picture,

would sometimes

pins dropped plentifully

country

ENGLAND. 345

window

day, and perhaps drew

all

his

and both received at night the same wages.

One would meet

some modest pride in

also

their

advanced condition, signified by a frequent phrase, " Before

we came out

of civilization."

The question which occurs to you had occurred

much

earlier to

Elysium

Fourier

the dirty

long ago Fourier

How

work

in this charming

to be

and jumped with joy.

"Don't you

And

done?"

had exclaimed, " Ah

I have it,"

see,"

cried,

"that nothing so delights the young Caucasian child as dirt ?

make

See the mud-pies that

all

children

you will let them. See how much more joy they find in pouring their pudding on will

the table-cloth

than into their beautiful mouths.

The children from six to panies with flags

eight, organized into

and uniforms,

shall

com-

this last

function of civilization."

In Brook

Farm was

was no head.

this peculiarity, that there

In every family

every factory, a foreman

a boat, the skipper ity

;

the father; in

in a shop, a master

;

but in this Farm, no author-

each was master or mistress of his or her ac

HISTORIC NOTES OF

346

They

happy, hapless anarchists.

tions

;

after

much

expressed,

perilous experience, the conviction that

plain dealing was the best defence of manners and

moral between the sexes.

People cannot

didates

who

who have

experiment of independence

the

tried

will barter for the

Few

failed

and none

;

others

most comfortable equality the

chance of superiority.

merits.

can-

will present themselves will be those

and ambition, and have

quarrelled.

live to-

The only

gether in any but necessary ways.

Then

all

communities have

people can live together on their

There must be kindred, or mutual

econ-

omy, or a common interest in their business, or other external

The

tie.

Brook Farm

society at

existed,

I think,

about six or seven years, and then broke up, the

Farm was

and I believe

sold,

out with pecuniary

at the

moment, regarded

not think they can so regard as

all

Some

the partners came

the accumulations of years.

all,

loss.

them had spent I suppose they

as a failure.

now, but probably

I do

an important chapter in their experience which

has been of lifelong value.

What

knowledge

themselves and of each other, what various practical

wisdom, what personal power, what studies of character,

bers

what accumulated culture many of the mem-

owed

to it

of each other

What It

was a

mutual measure they took close union, like that in a

LIFE

NEW

AND LETTERS IN

clergymen, young collegians, mer-

ship's cabin, of

chants, mechanics, farmers' sons

men and women culture, yet

shared,

all

life of

manity. sons

ENGLAND. 347

and daughters, with

of rare opportunities

and

delicate

assembled there by a sentiment which

some of them hotly shared, of the honesty

and of the beauty of a

labor

life of

The yeoman saw refined manners

who were

his friends

;

and the lady or the

mantic scholar saw the continuous faculty in people

hu-

in perro-

strength and

who would have disgusted them now spent in the direc-

but that these powers were tion of their

own theory

I recall these

much independent times and

interest,

country.

mind

not

with

now

the

eccen-

show drawn from wide and abundant

sources, proper to

people.

If I

a Continent and to an educated

have owed

ences I have indicated, I excellent in

and increasing

much

and

this

to the special influ-

not less aware of that

circle of

song and in science,

of our cities

nius

but symptomatic of the

or rude in its strength, but is beginning to

a quiet power,

and

none of them of

facts,

I please myself

thought that our American tric

life.

few selected

masters in arts

who cheer

country to-day,

the intellect

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; whose ge-

is not a lucky accident, but normal, and with broad foundation of culture, and so inspires the hope of steady strength advancing on itself, and a day without night.

THE CHAEDON STEEET CONVENTION.

THE CHAEDON STREET CONVENTION.

In the month of November, 1840, a Convention of Friends of Universal

Reform assembled

in the

Chardon Street Chapel in Boston, in obedience to a

call in the

als,

newspapers, signed by a few individu-

inviting all persons to

institutions of

a public discussion of the

the Sabbath, the Church and the

Ministry.

The Convention organized

choice

Edmund Quincy

itself

by the

Moderator, spent

three days in the consideration of the Sabbath,

adjourned to a day in

March

for the discussion of the

and

of the following year,

second topic.

accordingly, a three-days' sessions

In March,

was holden in the

same place, on the subject of the Church, and a third meeting fixed for

the following November,

which was accordingly holden

;

and the Convention

debated, for three days again, the remaining subject of the Priesthood.

any report of arrive at

any

This Convention never printed deliberations,

its

result

formal resolutions 1

;

nor pretended to

by the expression of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the professed

The Dial,

its

sense in

objects of those

vol. iii, p. 100.

THE CHARDON STREET CONVENTION.

352

persons

who

felt

the greatest interest in

its

meet-

ings being simply the elucidation of truth through free discussion.

The

daily newspapers reported, at

the time, brief sketches of the course of proceedings,

and the remarks

These

of the principal speakers.

meetings attracted a great deal of public attention,

and were spoken of in

different circles in every note

of hope, of sympathy, of joy, of alarm, of abhorrence

The composition of the assembly was rich and various. The singularity and latitude of the summons drew together, from all parts of New England and also from the Middle States,

and

of merriment.

men

from the

of every shade of opinion

straitest

many persons one member only.

orthodoxy to the wildest heresy, and

whose church was a church of

A great ticed

;

variety of dialect

and

of costume

was no-

a great deal of confusion, eccentricity, and

freak appeared, as well as of zeal and enthusiasm. If the assembly

was

disorderly,

was picturesque.

Madmen, madwomen, men with

beards, Dunkers,

Muggletonians, Come-outers, Grroaners, Agrarians, Seventh-day-Baptists, Quakers, Abolitionists, Calvinists,

Unitarians and Philosophers,

successively to the top,

and seized

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

their

all

came

moment,

not their hour, wherein to chide, or pray, or preach, or protest.

The

faces were a study.

The most

daring innovators and the champions -until -death of the old cause sat side

side.

The

still-living

THE CHARDON STREET CONVENTION. 353 merit of the oldest

New England

families, glow-

ing yet after several generations, encountered the merit, emerging,

founders of families, fresh

expanding the brows to a a clownish face with

and

new breadth, and lighting The assembly fire.

sacred

was characterized by the predominance of a certain plain, sylvan strength

many

of the

sons

attended

most

and earnestness, whilst

intellectual

councils.

its

and cultivated perDr.

Channing, Ed-

ward Taylor, Bronson Alcott, Mr. Garrison, Mr.

May, Theodore Parker, H. C. "Wright, Dr. Osgood, William Adams, Edward Palmer, Jones Very, Maria

Chapman, and many other persons

of a

mystical or sectarian or philanthropic renown, were present,

and some of them participant.

was no want of female speakers

;

And

there

Mrs. Little and

Mrs. Lucy Sessions took a pleasing and memorable part in the debate,

and that

flea of

Conventions,

Mrs. Abigail Folsom, was but too ready with her interminable scroll. order, there

constitutional

which, in

If there

life,

all periods,

of this part of

was not parliamentary

and the assurance of that love for religion and religious liberty

was

characterizes the inhabitants

America.

There was a great deal of wearisome speaking in each of those three-days' sessions, but relieved signal passages of of thought, vol. x.

and

especially 23

pure eloquence, by much vigor

by the exhibition

of char-

TEE CHARDON STREET CONVENTION.

354

and by the

acter,

victories of character.

men and women were

These

in search of something better

and more satisfying than a vote or a definition, and they found what they sought, or the pledge of

it,

in the attitude taken

number

liamentary usage ciples,

by individuals

in the lofty reliance on prin-

;

and the prophetic dignity and

tion which accompanies, even

and

of their

of resistance to the insane routine of par-

ridicule,

transfigura-

amidst opposition

man whose mind

the great inward

is made up to obey Commander, and who does not

own action, but awaits confidently new emergency for the new counsel. By no means the least value of this Convention, in our anticipate his

the

eye,

was the scope

Alcott,

and not

gave to the genius of Mr.

its least

instructive lesson

gradual but sure ascendency of his of the incredulity first received,

own

failures.

and derision with which he

and in

spite,

we might

add, of his

Moreover, although no decision was

had, and no action taken on

mooted

was the

spirit, in spite

the

discussion,

all

the great points

yet the Convention

brought together many remarkable persons, face to face,

and gave occasion

and conversations, around the doors.

memorable interviews

in the hall, in the lobbies, or

EZRA RIPLEY,

We love the Our

D. D.

venerable house

fathers built to

God

In Heaven are kept their grateful vows, Their dust endears the sod.

From humble tenements around Came up the pensive train

And

in the

That

church a blessing found

filled their

homes

again.

EZRA RIPLEY,

D. D.i

Ezra Ripley was born May at Woodstock, Connecticut.

the nineteen children of

Ripley. ried,

and

1751 (O.

was the

fifth of

Noah and Lydia (Kent)

Seventeen of these nineteen children marit is

stated that the mother died leaving

nineteen children, one

hundred and two grandchil-

dren and ninety-six great-grandchildren. ther

S.),

The

fa-

was born at Hingham, on the farm purchased

by his ancestor, William Ripley, of England, at the first settlement of the

town

;

which farm has

been occupied by seven or eight generations. Ripley followed the business of farming years of age, 1

when

his father

till

Ezra sixteen

wished him to be

This sketch was written for the Social Circle, a club in

Concord now more than a century old, and said to be the lineal descendant of the

Committee of Safety in the Revolution.

Mr. Emerson was a member for ued

its

many

years and greatly val-

weekly evening meetings, held, during the winter, at

the houses of the

members.

After the death of Dr. Ripley,

member and connected with him by marriage, Mr. Emerson was asked to prepare the customary Memoir for

an early

the Club Book.

EZRA RIPLEY,

358

qualified to teach a

D. D.

grammar

school, not thinking

himself able to send one son to college without in-

With

jury to his other children. ther agreed with

the late

this view, the fa-

Rev. Dr. Forbes

Gloucester, then minister of North Brookfield, to

Ezra

fit

college

for

by the time he should be

twenty-one years of age, and to have him labor

during the time sufficiently to pay for his instruction, clothing

But,

and books.

when

fitted for college, the

son could not

be contented with teaching, which he had tried the

He had

preceding winter. sire for learning,

early manifested a de-

and could not be

Always

satisfied without

a public

education.

ministers,

and frequently attempting, when only

five or six years old, to imitate

inclined

them by preaching,

now that he had become a professor of had an ardent

He had

notice

religion he

desire to be a preacher of the gospel.

to encounter great difficulties, but, through

a kind providence and the patronage of Dr. Forbes, he entered Harvard University, July, 1772.

commencement

of the Revolutionary

interrupted his education at college. his senior year, the college

bridge to this town. up.

the

Many class

The

War

The

greatly

In 1775, in

was removed from Cam-

studies were

much broken

of the students entered the army, and

never returned to Cambridge.

There

were an unusually large number of distinguished

;

EZRA RIPLEY, men

1776

in this class of

359

D. D.

Christopher Gore, Gov-

and Senator

ernor of Massachusetts

in Congress

Samuel Sewall, Chief Justice of Massachusetts; George Thacher, Judge of the Supreme Court; Royall Tyler, Chief Justice of

Vermont

;

and the

late learned Dr. Prince, of Salem.

Mr. Ripley was ordained minister of Concord

November

1780, Mrs.

Phoebe (Bliss) Emerson, then a widow

1778.

married,

They had

of thirty-nine, with five children.

children: Bliss,

1789.

To diary,

Samuel, born

born August

May

1784

;

16,

three

1783; Daniel

11,

Sarah, born April 8,

died September 21, 1841.

these facts, gathered chiefly

from his own

and stated nearly in his own words, I can

only add a few traits

from memory.

He was identified with the ideas and forms of the New England Church, which expired about the same time with him, so that he and his coevals seemed the rear guard of the great camp and army of the Puritans, which,

however

clining into formalism, in the

in its last days de-

heyday of

had planted and liberated America. that his old meeting-house should

ernized in his time.

its

strength

was a pity

have been mod-

sure all

who remember

both will associate his form with whatever was grave and droll in the old, cold, unpainted, uncarpeted, square-pewed

meeting-house, with

its

four

EZRA RIPLEY,

360

iron-gray deacons in their pit,

— with

"Watts' s

D. D.

box under the put

little

hymns, with long prayers,

with the diction of ages

;

and not

less

with the

port like musketry from the movable seats.

and

were believers in what

providence,

—

called a particular

certainly, as they held

ticular providence,

King David and

— following the

the Jews,

re-

New England

Contemporaries, the old

his

clergy,

rich

it,

a very par-

narrowness of

who thought

the uni-

verse existed only or mainly for their church and

Perhaps I cannot better

congregation. this

illustrate

tendency than by citing a record from the

diary of the father of his predecessor, 1 the minister of Maiden, written in the blank leaves of the ahnar

nac for the year 1735.

January 31st

The minister writes

The Lord grant

shillings.

against

" Bought a shay for 27 pounds, 10

my family." " Had a safe and

may be a

comfort and

blessing to

In March following he

notes

comfortable journey to

York."

But April 24th, we

turned, with

much

hurt.

wife and I in

find: it,

"Shay

over-

yet neither of us

Blessed be our gracious Preserver.

Part of the shay, as

lay

upon one

side,

went over

my wife, and yet she was scarcely anything hurt. How wonderful the preservation." Then again, May 5th " Went to the beach with three of the :

children.

The

beast, being frightened 1

Rev. Joseph Emerson.

when we

EZRA RIPLEY, were

all

out of the shay, overturned and broke

hope I desire

I desire (I

teach

make

361

D. D.

suitably to repent

suitable

fected with

remarks on

this Providence, to

and

it,

Have I done well

it.

to be suitably af-

me a shay?

to get

Have I not been proud or too fond of ience ?

this conven-

I exercise the faith in the

Divine care

and protection Which I ought to do? not be more in sion?

more than

I hot Withhold

this

expectation."

Favored in

16th

May:

meet from

Well, on 15th

" Shay brought

thirty shillings.

Should I

study and less fond of diver-

pious and charitable uses ? "

we have

it.

Lord would

that the

it)

home

;

mending

this respect

"My

May cost

beyond

wife and I rode

The beast frighted several times." And at last we have this record, June 4th: "Disposed of my shay to Rev. Mr. together to

Ruinney Marsh.

White."

The same

faith

made what was

strong and what

Was weak in Dr. Ripley and his associates.

was a perfectly sincere man, punctual, severe, but just

and charitable, and

strait-jacket to others,

he made his forms a all

Trained in this church, and very well

his years.

qualified

he wore the same himself

his natural talent to

never out of his mind.

work

it, it

was

looked at every person

and thing from the parochial point of view.

I re-

member, when a boy, driving about Concord with

;

EZRA RIPLEY,

362

D. D.

him, and in passing each house he told the story of the family that lived in

it,

and

especially he gave

anecdotes of the nine church

made a

members who had

division in the church in the time of his

predecessor,

and showed me how every one

of the

nine had come to bad fortune or to a bad end.

His prayers for rain and against the "that

may

good weather " that

and against sickness and insanity

his

tossed to

own

and

fro until the

we have not been a

of the day, that

to ourselves

and

not lick up our spirits;" and for

;

we have not been

dawning

lightning,

terror

;

and others " are well remembered, entire faith that these petitions were

not to be overlooked, and were entitled to a favor-

Some

able answer.

member one cinity, when relieve the

of those around

will re-

occasion of severe drought in this

the late Rev. Mr.

Goodwin

vi-

offered to

Doctor of the duty of leading in prayer

but the Doctor suddenly remembering the season, rejected his offer with

some humor, as with an

that said to all the congregation, " This for you

young Cambridge men

getting serious. afternoon,

with his

when

man

;

was in

rake up

air

no time

the affair,

I will pray myself." I

sir, is

One August

his hayfield helping

his hay, I well

him

remember

his pleading, almost reproachful looks at the sky,

when

the thunder gust was coming up to spoil his

hay.

raked very

fast,

then looked at the cloud,

EZRA RIPLEY, and

said, "

rake,

George

hand mind your ; the Lord's hand " and

are in the Lord's

We are in

seemed to say, "

You know me

;

this field is mine,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Dr. Ripley's, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; thine own servant He

used to

363

D. D.

tell

" !

the story of one of his old friends,

the minister of Sudbury, who, being at the Thurs-

day lecture in Boston, heard the officiating clergy-

man praying Overj he

for rain.

went to the

soon as the service was

and

petitioner,

said,

You

Boston ministers, as soon as a tulip wilts under your windows, go to church and pray for rain, until all

Concord and Sudbury are under water."

once rode with

him

to a house at

Nine Acre Cor-

ner to attend the funeral of the father of a family.

He mentioned oldest son,

me on

way

the

who was now

his fears that the

to succeed to the farm,

We presently arrived,

was becoming intemperate.

and the Doctor addressed each of the mourners separately

" Sir, I condole with you."

condole with you." father.

When

" Sir, I

came

knew your

Madam,

great-grand-

to this town, your great-

grandfather was a substantial farmer in this very place, citizen.

a member of the church, and an excellent

Your grandfather followed him, and was

a virtuous man.

Now

your father

to his grave, full of labors

none of that large family

and

left

with you to bear up the good

to be carried

virtues.

There

but you, and

name and

rests

usefulness

EZRA RIPLEY,

364

of your ancestors. is

If you

fail,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Ichabod, the '

and the manly thing he could always

remember a last tie of

his house

said,

ers to

You

speech he

little

blood which held

glory

Right manly he was,

Let us pray."

departed.'

D. D.

made

I can

say.

to me,

me and my

when the

brothers to

was broken by the death of his daughter. on parting, " I wish you and your broth-

come

to this house as you have always done.

will not like to be excluded

;

I shall not like

to be neglected."

When

Put " Merriam,

after his release

from

the state prison, had the effrontery to call on the

doctor as an old acquaintance, in the midst of gen-

Mr. Frost came

eral conversation

tor presently said, "

colleague,

Mr. Merriam,

Mr. Frost, has come

in,

and the

my brother

doc-

and

to take tea with me.

much the causes (which you know make it impossible for me to ask and break bread with us." With the

I regret very

very well) which

you

to stay

Doctor's views

thus much. ety,

and the

was a matter

of religion to say

had a reverence and love

of soci-

patient, continuing courtesy, carrying

out every respectful attention to the end, which

marks what

called the

manners of the old schooL

His hospitality obeyed Charles Lamb's " ran fine to the last."

was always time.

His

rule,

and

partiality for ladies

and was by no means abated by claimed privilege of years, was much adstrong,

EZRA RIPLEY, dieted to kissing

365

D. D.

spared neither maid, wife, nor

;

widow, and, as a lady thus favored remarked to me, " seemed as

he was going to make a meal of

you.

He was of

very credulous, and as he was no reader

books or journals, he

knew nothing beyond the

columns of his weekly religious newspaper, the

and perhaps the Middlesex Yeo-

tracts of his sect,

He was

man.

the easy dupe of any tonguey agent,

whether colonizationist or anti-papist, or charlatan of iron combs, or tractors, or phrenology, or

netism,

who went

Downing's to

letters

at table

by.

the time

were in every paper, he repeated

some of the particulars of that gen-

tleman's intimacy with General Jackson, in

ner that betrayed to

whole for recall

mag-

when Jack

fact.

at once that

To undeceive him,

a man-

he took the

I hastened to

some particulars to show the absurdity of the

thing, as the

Major and the President going out "

skating on the Potomac, etc.

Doctor with perfect faith, " light night

;

and I

Why, "

said the

was a bright moon-

not sure that he did not

die in the belief in the reality of

Major Downing.

Like other credulous men, he was opinionative, and, as I well remember, a great browbeater of the poor old fathers

who

still

survived from the

19th of April, to the end that they should testify to his history as

he had written

it.

EZRA RIPLEY,

366

He was acter

man

D. D.

kind and sympathetic, his char-

was so transparent, and

his merits so intelli-

he was very

gible to all observers, that

preciated in this community.

justly ap-

was a natural

gentleman, no dandy, but courtly, hospitable, manly

and public - spirited

;

his nature social, his house

remember the remark made by the old farmer who used to travel hither from Maine, that no horse from the Eastern country open

to all

men.

would go by the doctor's the

Travellers from

gate.

West and North and South bear

the like

mony.

His brow was serene and open

itor, for

he loved men, and he had no

testi-

to his visstudies,

company could interrupt. His study, and to see them loosened

occupations, which friends were his his talents

and

his tongue.

der and prudence and plenty.

and no

He was

stint.

In his house dwelt

or-

There was no waste

open-handed and

just

and

Ingratitude and meanness in his benefi-

generous.

ciaries did not

Wear out

his compassion

;

he bore

the insult, and the next day his basket for the beg-

and chaise for the cripple, were at Though he knew the value of a dollar

gar, his horse their door.

as well as another

and

man, yet he loved to buy dearer

cheaper than others.

sell

charities,

and

it is

reflection

subscribed to

to say

man

in the

that he was the most public-spirited

town.

The

late

all

on others

Dr. Gardiner, in a funeral sermon

;

EZRA RIPLEY,

367

D. D.

on some parishioner whose virtues did not readily to mind, honestly said, " He was good at

come

Dr. Ripley had

fires."

many

virtues,

and yet

all

will

remember that even in

bell

was rung, he was instantly on horseback with

his buckets

his old age, if the fire-

and bag.

He showed

even in his fireside discourse

traits of

and judgment, softening ever and

that pertinency

anon into elegancy, which make the distinction of

and which, under better

the scholar,

discipline,

might have ripened into a Bentley or a Porson.

had a foresight, when he opened his mouth, of that he

would

say,

and he marched

the structure of his sentences neat, so natural, so terse, his often,

was a

satire

was admirable; so

words

fell like stones

was

it,

his speech

on the loose, voluminous, draggle-tail

periods of other speakers.

parlor

straight to the

though quite unconscious of

had done.

man

sat

down when he

of anecdote, his talk in the

chiefly narrative.

remember the

remark of a gentleman who listened with light to his conversation at the

tor

all

In debate in the vestry of the Lyceum,

conclusion.

and

much

de-

time when the Doc-

was preparing to go to Baltimore and Wash-

ington, that " a

man who

could

tell

a story so well

was company for kings and John Quiney Adams."

Sage and savage strove harder in him than in any of

my acquaintances,

each getting the mastery

EZRA RIPLEY,

368

D. D.

and pretty sudden turns

turns,

" Save us from

the extremity of cold and these violent sudden

" The society will meet after the Ly-

changes."

ceum, as

it is

the evening,

bring people together in

difficult to

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

dead, and I expect

no moon."

" Mr. N. F.

to hear of the death of

It is cruel to separate old people

Mr. B.

from their wives

in this cold weather."

With a his

very limited acquaintance with books,

knowledge was an external experience, an

In-

dian wisdom, the observation of such facts as country

life

for nearly a century could supply.

watched with interest the garden, the

field,

the or-

chard, the house and the barn, horse, cow, sheep

and dog, and

all

the

common

horizon,

kept his eye on the

and knew the weather

like a sea-captain.

The usual

experiences of men, birth, marriage, sick-

ness, death, burial

common

objects that engage

the thought of the farmer.

the

;

ambitions

;

common

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he

temptations

studied them

;

all,

the

and

sympathized so well in these that he was excellent

company and counsel to all, even the most humble and ignorant. With extraordinary states of mind, with states of enthusiasm or enlarged speculation,

he had no sympathy, and pretended to none.

was

sincere,

and kept to

was never remote.

his point,

and

his

His conversation was

He mark

strictlj

personal and apt to the party and the occasion.

EZRA RIPLEY,

eminent

skill

he had in saying

unspeakable things

which

;

369

D. D.

in delivering to

and

difficult

man

or a

other friends had ab-

woman

that

stained

from saying, in uncovering the bandage

all their

from a sore place, and applying the surgeon's knife

Was

with a truly surgical spirit.

man

sot,

a spendthrift, or too long time a bachelor, or suspected of some hidden crime, or

had he quarrelled

with his wife, or collared his father,

or was there

any cloud or suspicious circumstances in his behavior,

the good pastor

tion,

knew

his

way

and whatever

relief to the conscience of

parties plain speech could effect

cured.

all

and commonly

persons concerned.

was sure to be pro-

of family history.

to the love, of the

was the more competent

to these searching discourses

from Ms knowledge

He knew

everybody's grand-

and seemed to address each person

as the representative of his as

both

such passages he justified himself to

the conscience,

father,

straight to that

himself entitled to a full explana-

point, believing

rathej?

house and name, than

In him have perished more local

an individual.

and personal anecdotes of this village and vicinity than are possessed by any survivor.

knowledge of families, and this still

more, his sympathy,

in his parochial visits,

prayers. vol. x.

This intimate

skill of speech,

and

made him incomparable

and in

his exhortations

and

gave himself up to his feelings, and 24

EZRA RIPLEY,

370

D. D.

said on the instant the best things in the world.

Many and many now

he had in his prayer,

felicity

forever lost, which defied all the rules of

the rhetoricians.

did not

good in prayer or sermon, for he had no

and no

art

;

but he believed,

all

know when he was literature

and therefore

spoke.

was eminently loyal in his nature, and not fond

of adventure or innovation.

education, and

more by temperament, he was engaged forms of the tive,

New England

Not

Church.

still

to the old

specula-

but affectionate; devout, but with an extreme

love of order, he adopted heartily, though in

its

mildest form, the creed and catechism of the fathers,

and appeared a modern

ment

to the

man

Hebrew

history

Israelite in his attach-

and

versation were consistent.

short acquaintance.

who was

fit

its

laws a loyal

me from

all

Gov-

the antique

customs are passing away,

that he too should depart,

fall of

ob-

classmate at

Holy Ripley.

now, in his old age, when

Hebraism and

con-

the Doctor's classmate, that

in college he was called

And

was a

and

by a good

Cambridge, Frederick King, told ernor Gore,

life

All his opinions and

actions might be securely predicted

server on

faith.

very easy to read, for his whole

man

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; most

should die*

fit

it is

that in the

MARY MOODY EMERSON. The

yesterday doth never smile, To-day goes drudging through the while, Yet in the name of Godhead, I

The morrow front and can defy Though I am weak, yet God, when prayed, ;

Cannot withhold his conquering

aid.

Ah me it Was my childhood's thought, If He should make my web a blot On life's fair picture of delight, !

My heart's

content would find it right. But 0, these waves and leaves, When happy, stoic Nature grieves,

No human

—

murmurs mine to lull. God hath built

their

this altar

I lay

—

speech so beautiful

vanity and guilt;

Nor me can Hope or Passion urge, Hearing as now the lofty dirge Which blasts of Northern mountains hymn, Nature's funeral high and dim,

—

Sable pageantry of clouds,

Mourning summer laid in shrouds. Many a day shall dawn and die, Many an angel wander by, And passing, light my sunken turf, Mcist perhaps by ocean surf, Forgotten amid splendid tombs, Yet wreathed and hid by summer blooms. On earth I dream; I die to be: Time! shake not thy bald head at me.

—

I challenge thee to hurry past,

for

turn to

fly

too fast.

[ LtJCT Percy, Countess of Carlisle, the friend of Strafford and of Pym, is thus described by Sir Toby Matthews: ] " She is of too high a mind and dignity not only to seek, but almost to wish, the friendship of any creature. They

whom

she is pleased to choose are such as are of the most eminent condition both for power and employment, not with any design towards her own particular, either of advantage

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

or curiosity, but her nature values fortunate persons. prefers the conversation of

men

to that of

She

women; not but

she can talk on the fashions with her female friends, but she is

too soon sensible that she can set

pre-eminence shortens

all equality.

them

as she wills; that

She converses with those

who are most distinguished for their conversational powers. Of Love freely will she discourse, listen to all its faults and mark its power: and will take h deep jpterest for persons of celebrity."

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

wish

meet the invitation with which the

dies have honored

of real

me by

offering

now

vive.

past,

New England

sur-

me a value like that which Madame Guyon, in Rahel, in

find in

Eugenie de Gue'rin, but

hardly admits of a duplicate.

Calvinism and time

New

purely original and

Then

a fruit of

it is

England, and marks the pre-

when the power

to the influence of

modern

of the old creed yielded

science

and humanity.

I have found that I could only bring portrait 1

It has to

many readers

;

and of which I think no types

Perhaps I deceive myself and overestimate

its interest.

cise

la-

portrait

It is a representative life, such as could

life.

hardly have appeared out of

age

them a

Aunt

by of

him and

selections

you

this

my heroine,

Mr. Emerson, and a potent influence on the lives his brothers.

"Woman's Club," " Amita,"

from the diary of

This paper was read before the

Boston, in

1869, under

the

title

which was also the original superscription of the

" Nun's Aspiration," in his

Poems a rendering ;

a passage in Miss Emerson's diary. the motto of this chapter.

into verse of

Part of this

poem forms

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

374

premising a sketch of her time and place.

I report

some of the thoughts and soliloquies of a country girl,

poor, solitary,

self,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; growing

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

a goody

as she called her-

from youth to age amid

opportunities and usually very

Mary Moody Emerson was born outbreak of the Revolution.

slender

humble company. just before the

When

introduced to

Lafayette at Portland, she told him that she was

"in arms" at the Concord Fight. the minister of Concord, a

went as a chaplain deroga

to the

warm

Her

father,

patriot in 1775,

American army

at Ticon-

he carried his infant daughter, before he

went, to his mother in Maiden and told her to keep the child until he returned.

died at Eutland,

Vermont, of army-fever, the next year, and Mary remained at Maiden with her grandmother, and, after her death, with her father's sister, in whose

house she grew up, rarely seeing her brothers and sisters

This aunt and her husband

in Concord.

and the husband a shiftless, easy man. There was plenty of work for the little niece to do day by day, and not always lived on a farm, were getting old,

bread enough in the house.

One

of her tasks,

appears, was to watch for the

approach of the deputy-sheriff, who might come

confiscate the spoons or arrest the uncle for debt.

who had become insane, was end her days. More and saddei

Later, another aunt,

brought hither to

MARY MOODY EMERSON. work for

this

young

375

She had no companions,

girl.

lived in entire solitude with these old people, very

by short

rarely cheered sisters.

visits

from her brothers and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

marHer mother had married again, who succeeded her husband in the at Concord, [Dr. Ezra Ripley,] and had

ried the minister

parish

now a young family growing up around her. Her aunt became strongly attached to Mary, and persuaded the family to give the child up to her on some terms embracing a care of

as a daughter,

her future interests. her by will.

She would leave the farm

her dealings with

though they give

into

and

;

she

gave her no small trouble,

vested in a share of a

many

much piquancy

Finally

after years.

lived as a

came

years after,

This promise was kept

possession of the property

was

sold,

farm

boarder with her

to her letters in

and

its

price in-

Maine, where she

sister, for

many

years.

was in a picturesque country, within sight of the

White Mountains, with a foot of a

high

hill called

little

lake in front at the

Not

Bear Mountain.

far

from the house was a brook running over a granite floor like the

around.

Elm

Franconia Flume, and noble forests

Every word she writes about

tions about

it,

farm

her joys and raptures of religion and

Nature, interest like a romance,

may

this

Vale," Waterford,) her dealings and vexa-

and to those who

hereafter read her letters, will

scure acres amiable.

make

its ob-

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

376

In Maiden she lived through early

all

her youth and

womanhood, with the habit

of visiting the

families of her brothers sity of theirs.

and

Her good

sisters

on any

neces-

will to serve in time of

sickness or of pressure

was known to them, and promptly claimed, and her attachment to the youths and maidens growing up in those families was secure for any trait of talent or of character.

Her

sympathy for young people who pleased her was almost passionate, and was sure to make her arrival in each house a holiday.

Her early reading was Milton, Young, Akenside, Samuel Clarke, Jonathan Edwards, and always the Bible.

Later, Plato, Plotinus, Marcus Antoninus,

Stewart, Coleridge, Cousin, Herder, Locke,

Ma-

dame De

No-

Stael,

Channing, Mackintosh, Byron.

body can read in her manuscript, or

recall the con-

versation of old-school people, without seeing that

Milton and Young had a religious authority in mind, and nowise the quality of Plotinus,

modern bards.

And

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; how venerable and

they are

mind and

"in

her mind

life for

their

slight, merely entertaining

Plato, Aristotle,

organic as Nature

What

a subject

the finest novel

When

her

I read

Dante, the other day, and his paraphrases to

sig-

nify with more adequateness Christ or Jehovah,

whom do you think I was reminded of? Whom Mary Emerson and her eloquent theology?

but

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

377

When

She had a deep sympathy with genius.

was unhallowed, as in Byron, she had none the less,

whilst she deplored

him.

But she adored

and affected to denounce when ennobled by charac-

She liked to notice that the greatest, geniuses

ter.

have died ignorant of their power and influence. opinion," She wished you to scorn to shine. "

she writes, (is) " that a

mind like Byron's would never be satisfied with modern Unitarianism, that the fiery depths of Calvinism, its high and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

mysterious elections to eternal bliss, beyond angels,

and

all its

attendant wonders would have alone

been fitted to fix his imagination."

Her wit was that she never

so fertile,

used

and only used

for display,

a wasp would parade his sting. will

any more than

was ever the

Yet when they marked a memora-

and not the phrase that concerned her.

certain expressions, ble

to strike,

state of

mind

in her experience, recurred to

her afterwards, and she would vindicate herself as

having said to Dr. so, at

or Uncle

such a period of her

tensely true

when

first

life.

spoken.

and

But they were

in-

All her language

was happy, but inimitable, unattainable by talent, as if

caught from some dream.

" the

puny pilgrim, whose

" I like that overset."

She

sole talent is

kind of apathy that

calls herself

sympatby."

a triumph to

;

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

878

She writes 1833 If I

to her

— "I could

nephew Charles Emerson,

had been in aught but dreary

have idolized

been haughty.

deserts, I should

friends, despised the world

taste

was formed

in romance,

I knew I was not destined to please.

and

I never expected connections and

matrimony.

never have adorned the garden.

I love

his creation as I never else could.

I scarcely

enough to

feel the sympathies of this life

and

God

agitate

the pool.

This in general, one case or so excepted,

and even

this is

'T was so in at

the

and Death.

taph should be

And

God through

early days,

you.

when you were

side."

Destitution tion

a relation to

my happiest

Muse

of her genius,

— Destitu-

I used to propose that her epi-

Here

lies

the angel of Death."

wonderfully as she varies and poetically

re-

peats that image in every page and day, yet not less fondly

—

and sublimely she returns

to the other,

the grandeur of humility and privation, as thus

" The chief witness which I have had of a Godlike principle of action and feeling

in the disinter-

ested joy felt in others' superiority. of superior virtue

Where were

thine

mine own

own

gift

For the

love

from God."

intellect if others

had not

lived?"

She had many acquaintances among the notables of the time and now and then in her migrations ;

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

379

from town to town in Maine and Massachusetts, in search of a

new

boarding-place, discovered

For on her

preacher with sense or piety, or both.

any new home she was likely to steer

arrival at

take a boarder that she

knew

;

and as the minister found quickly books and

all his

made shrewd guesses

many

at his character

more, and

and

possibili-

she would easily rouse his curiosity, as a per-

ties,

son

house and pray his wife to

to the minister's

first

some

who could read

his secret

and

tell

him

his for-

tune.

She delighted in success, in youth, in beauty, in genius, in

son

who

manners.

When

interested her, she

she met a young per-

made herself acquainted

and intimate with him or her at once, by sympathy,

flattery,

raillery,

by anecdotes, by

buke, and stormed the castle. tracted or piqued

by her

acquaintance with books

wit, by None but was

reat-

and wit and wide and with eminent names.

interest

She said she gave herself full swing in these sudden intimacies, for she soon,

and resolved

ciety is

knew she should

disgust them

" Soshrewd to detect those who do not belong to

have their best hours.

to her train,

and seldom wastes her attentions." She surprised, attracted, chided and denounced her companion by turns, and pretty rapid turns. But

no intelligent youth or maiden could have once met her without remembering her with interest,

and

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

880

Scorn

learning something of value.

your aims

ity of character

tive

trifles,

do what you are afraid to do

must come from sublimity

lift

sublimof

mo-

these were the lessons which were urged with

vivacity, in ever

new language.

panion was

her impatience knew no bounds.

She

dull,

But

tired presently of dull conversations,

to be read to,

and

her com-

and asked

so disposed of the visitor.

the voice or the reading tired her, she would ask

the friend

and

he or she would do an errand for

so dismiss them.

If her

her,

companion were a

ambitious, and asked her opinions on books

little

or matters on which she did not wish rude hands laid,

she did not hesitate to stop the intruder with

"How's your cat, Mrs. Tenner?'' "I was disappointed," she writes, "in

my little who

Calvinist no companion, a cold

lives in society alone,

specimen of genius. cretly

and

thing

looked up to as a

I performed a mission in

undermining his vanity, or trying

never done but by mortifying

to.

affliction."

country she writes to her sister in town, " not help saying that

finding

little

se-

Alas

From the You can-

epistle is a striking speci-

To which I can only answer that, men in the country, we converse so much more with ourselves, that we are almost led to forget everybody else. The very sound of your bells and the of egotism.

rattling of the carriages have a tendency to divert

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

" This seems a world rather of trying

selfishness."

dispositions

others'

each

381

than of enjoying each

others' virtues."

She had the misfortune of spinning with a greater velocity

tear into the chaise or out of

out of

it,

into the house or

it,

into the conversation, into the thought,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; disdaining

into the character of the stranger,

the graduation steps

She would

than any of the other tops.

all

by which her fellows time their

and though she might do very happily in a

moved with the here by the phlegm

planet where others

like velocity,

she was offended

of all her fel-

low-creatures,

and disgusted them by her impatience.

She could keep step with no

nephew [K.

friendship with

human

"lam

glad the

ripening.

As by

E.] wrote of her

Aunt Mary

seeing a high tragedy, reading a true

novel like

mind

Corinne,' so,

is electrified

Her

being.

poem, or a

society with her, one's

and purged.

She

statute-

book of practical commandments, nor orderly gest of

di-

any system of philosophy, divine or human,

but a Bible, miscellaneous in its parts, but one in its spirit,

wherein are sentences of condemnation,

promises and covenants of love that the

make

foolish

wisdom of the world with the power of God."

Our Delphian was

fantastic

enough, Heaven

knows, yet could always be tamed sincere conversation.

Was

large

there thought

and

and elo-

;

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

382

Her

quence, she would listen like a child.

aspira-

and prayer would begin, and the whim and petulance in which by diseased habit she had grown

tion

to indulge without suspecting

was burned up

it,

the glow of her pure and poetic

which dearly

spirit,

loved the Infinite.

She writes ties

" August, 1847

were never designed

ting constitution, at

and

as to dress,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

first,

effect of

To be

choice, without singular talents

none.

The

self-love."

and

oddi-

an uncalcul ay-

then through isolation

from duty. " It

ridiculous as ungrateful."

and

avoid contact with

all classes to

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; My

Vale.

singular of

virtues, is as

so universal with

that I blame

fact has generally increased piety

As a traveller

enters

finds all the doors closed,

some

and

fine palace

and he only allowed

the use of some avenues and passages, so have I

wandered from the cradle over the apartments

social affections, or the cabinets of natural or moral

philosophy, the recesses of ancient and modern lore.

All say

initiated

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Forbear

birth, wealth, talents

I submit with delight, for

from above

to enter the pales of the

;

it is

and patronage.

the echo of a decree

and from the highway hedges where

I get lodging, and from the rays which burst forth

when

the crowd are entering these noble saloons,

whilst I stand in the doors, I get a pleasing vision

which

an earnest of the interminable

skies where

the mansions are prepared for the poor."

MARY MOODY EMERSON. "

383

live to give

pain rather than pleasure (the

latter so delicious)

seems the spider-like necessity

my being on

earth,

and I have gone on

my queer

way with joy, saying, " Shall the clay interrogate?" But in every actual case, sight of the first necessity,

'tis hard,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; here

red with default in all great

too

and we

lose

amid works

and grand and

infinite

Yet with intentions disinterested, though

aims.

uncontrolled

When

by proper reverence for others."

Mrs. Thoreau called on her one day,

wearing pink ribbons, she shut her eyes, conversed with her for a time.

and

By and by

she

"Mrs. Thoreau, I don't know whether you

said,

have observed that

Madam, I have observed like to

know

the reasons ? "

don't like to see levity in

When

eyes are shut." it."

" Perhaps you

"Yes,

would

" Yes, I should."

a person of your age guilty of such

her dress." her cherished favorite, E. H., was at the

and had gone out to walk in the forest with Hannah, her niece, Aunt Mary feared they were Vale,

lost,

and found a

him

man

and begged The man went and

in the next house

go and look for them.

returned saying that he could not find them. " Go and cry, ' Elizabeth ' " The man rather declined !

this service, as

he did not know Miss H. She was " God has given

highly offended, and exclaimed,

you a voice that you might use

in the service of

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

384

Go instantly and call Eliza The man went immedi

your fellow-creatures. beth

till

and did

ately,

you find them." as he

was

and having found

bid,

them apologized for calling thus, by Miss Emerson had said to him.

When

some

ladies of

telling whal

acquaintance by an

unusual chance found themselves in her neighbor

hood and

them that she was no mouth could play on, but a quite

visited her, I told

whistle that every

clannish instrument, a pibroch, for example, from

which none but a native Highlander could draw music.

In her solitude of twenty years, with fewest books

and those only sermons, and a copy

of " Paradise

Lost," without covers or title-page, so that

when

much

she heard

work, she found

knew

so well,

his

was her very book which

she

— she was driven to

companion and

later,

and sought

of Milton

solace.

find Nature her

She speaks

" her

at-

tempts in Maiden, to wake up the soul amid the dreary scenes of monotonous Sabbaths, when Nature looked like a pulpit."

" Maiden, November 15th, 1805.

— What a

rich

day, so fully occupied in pursuing truth that I

scorned to touch a novel which for so I have wanted.

How

insipid

so small in

many

fiction to

years

a mind

November

16th.

—

expectations, that a

week

touched with immortal views I

;

MARY MOODY EMERSON. visited from necessity once,

read Butler's Analogy tures

;

a few

read in a

book,

little

Scrip-

commented on the

;

morn

for books

and again

— Cicero's Letters, —

touched Shakspeare,

light every

Kose before

industry delights.

385

— washed,

carded,

To-day cannot recall cleaned house, and baked. sacrifice, but more fulness an error, nor scarcely a was felt. of content in the labors of a day never There

a sweet pleasure in bending to circum-

stances while superior to them.

—The

"Maiden, September, 1807. feeling I

rapture of

would part from, for days more devoted But when Nature beams with

to higher discipline.

when the heart

such excess of beauty,

hope in

its

Author, —

more than by any

with

him

feels that it is related to

ties of Creation,

fondly perhaps for a state of trial.

—

But

when the eastern

night, nearer morning,

or appear to

thrills

exults, too

dead of

stars

glow with more indescribable

glow

lustre,

a lustre which penetrates the spirit with wonder

and

curiosity,

—

then,

Since Sabbath,

Aunt

brought here.

however awed, who can fear?

[the insane aunt]

mortifying sight

was

instinct per-

haps triumphs over reason, and every dignified respect to herself, in her anxiety

the smallest

others detains her, not not,

about recovery, and

means connected. one care.

Not one wish But

I shall delight to return to God.

vol. x.

alarms

His name

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

386

my fullest

His

confidence.

sole presence ineffabh

pleasure.

" I walked yesterday five or more miles, lost

mental or heart existence, through fatigue, fit

for the society I

went

into,

all

virtue.

for her cleverness,

and she was never

Met

ure.

The lady

celebrated

so good to

on the accomplishments of Miss

expanded with novel and innocent !

to a lower rank

who would sympathize exalted with satisfaction ? But that is not of genteel people,

I believe.

mediocrity does seem to

with the the case,

from eminent virtue than the extremes

distant

though after

;

pleas-

were virtue, and that of dear heavenly

meekness attached by any necessity

station

jusl

a lady in the morning walk, a foreigner.

— conversed My mind

mildness and the

most commonplace me.

—

ture of the heart.

must depend on the

na-

mediocre mind will be

de-

all it

ranged in either extreme of wealth or poverty, praise or censure, society or solitude.

The

feverish lust of

notice perhaps in all these cases would injure the

heart of

common

refinement and virtue."

Later she writes of her early days in Maiden "

When

I get a glimpse of the revolutions of na-

tions

— that

on in

this part of creation,

retribution which seems forever going

satisfaction that

hood and

since,

from

— I remember with

great

all the ills suffered, in child-

others, I felt that it

was rather

S87

MARY MOODY EMERSON. individual fault. the order of things than their

unpracwas from being early impressed by my poor all in were Prayer and Providence tical aunt, that

Poor woman

all.

Could her own temper in child-

hood or age have been subdued, how happy for herme would have self, who had a warm heart ; but for prevented those early lessons of fortitude, which her caprices taught in

to practise.

Had

I prospered

what a proud, excited being, even to fever-

life,

ishness, I

Loving

might have been.

tered and flattering, anxious,

to shine, flat-

and wrapped in

others,

and feverish as myself."

frail

She alludes to the early days of her solitude, sixty years afterward,

on her own farm in Maine, speak-

by the rich au-

ing sadly the thoughts suggested

tumn landscape around her this afternoon, so

my better

too,

as I walked out

sad was wearied Nature that I felt

her whisper to me, think

Even

these leaves

emblems have

and I weary of

you use

lost their

charm on

—

tired that

pilgrimage,

I must again be clothed in the grandeurs of winter, and anon be bedizened in flowers and cascades. Oh,

there will

there be a

my own dread fetters my lights go out, my tides ebb? Oh for transformation!

is,

eternal infinite,

— and that proclaim, — when

power superior to me,

let

nor have I power or

will,

cease to an

not

but bound and

imprisoned, the tool of mind, even of the beings I

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

388

feed and adorn. passive,

Vital, I feel not

not active, but

and cannot aid the creatures which seem my myself. But you are ingrate to tire of

progeny,

—

me, now you want to look beyond.

'T was I who

soothed your thorny childhood, though you not,

my most

and you were placed in

Yet I comforted thee when going rand, fed thee with

day of bread

failing.

that Cause to

say,

young

first

More, I led thee when thou

active Cause, (any

had been dead eternal matter,)

and from the

;

on' the daily er-

mallows, on the

knewest not a syllable of

more than

knew me

leafless waste.

first

solitary heart taught thee

womanhood, Alive with God

—

enough, 'tis rapture.' " This morning rich in existence

;

the remem-

brance of past destitution in the deep poverty of

aunt,

and her most unhappy temper;

of bit-

when my senses and understanding seemed but means of labor, or to but no learn my own unpopular destiny, and that more joy, hope and resignation unite me to Him and

terer days of youth

;

age,

—

whose mysterious Will adjusts everything, and the darkest and lightest are alike welcome. this state of

mind

longed for."

" I

as though

felt, till

could

above twenty years

old,

Christianity were as necessary to the

world as existence lately

continue, death would not be

;

— was

ignorant that

promulged, or partially received."

was

Later:

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

389

Could I have those hours in which in fresh youth I said, To obey God is joy, though there were no *

hereafter,

should rejoice, though returning to

dust."

" Folly follows

Yet

whole

life

as the shadow does the form.

devoted to find some

which will link

principle which

made me

closer to

poverty, that, should

And

God.

say, in

new

youth and laborious

He make me a

blot

on the fair

face of his Creation, I should rejoice in

has never been equalled, though long

life

of destitution like

of fine health

ward now. more

truth

the simple

His

will,

returns in the

I end days

an Angel.

and cheerfulness without getting up-

How did

I use to think them lost

liberal views of the divine

government make

me to His now may be danger of losing and

think nothing lost which carries

hidden presence, there

causing others the loss of that

awe and

sobriety so

indispensable."

She was addressed and offered marriage by a man of talents, education and good social position, whom she respected. The proposal gave her pause and much to think, but after consideration she refused it, I know not on what grounds but a few :

allusions to it in her diary suggest that it ligious act,

and

it is

easy to

see

was a

re-

that she could

hardly promise herself sympathy in her religious

abandonment with any but a rarely-found partner.

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

S90 " 1807.

Jan. 19, Maiden [alluding to the

sale

Last night I spoke two sentences

of her farm].

about that foolish place, which I most bitterly

ment,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not because they were

arose from anger.

me.

when we have no But this

It is difficult,

kind of barrier, to command our shall teach

humbles

la-

improper, but they

feelings.

me beyond

anything

moment

affected

with hope, fear, or especially anger, about

interest.

I have met, to find myself for a

But I did overcome and return kindness repeated provocations.

What

has been the means of lessening

it ?

for the

uncle

my property.

Ri-

wound him for that. He was honestly seeking his own. But at last, this very night, the bargain is closed, and I am delighted with my-

diculous to

self

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; my dear

self

has done well.

Happy beginning

Never did I of

bar-

so exult in a

trifle.

gain, though

the sale of the place appears to

one of the worst things for me at this time." " Jan. 21. Weary at times of objects so tedious to hear

and

see.

the

power of

vision,

then the

delicate power of the nerve which receives impres-

sions

from sounds

life, let

If ever I

be regaled with music, there are sounds.

spirits

blest with a social

Could I

at times

would remind me

that

Shut up in this severe weather

with careful, infirm,

the accent be grateful.

afflicted age, it is wonderful,

hopes I can have none.

Not a

pros-

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

391

dark on earth, as to knowledge and joy

pect but is

from externals: but the prospect of a dying bed reflects lustre

the rest.

all

"The evening is fine, but I dare not enjoy it. The moon and stars reproach me, because I had to do with mean fools. Should I take so much care to save a few dollars ? Never was I so much ashamed. Did I say with what rapture I might dispose of them

poor

to the

Pho

self-preservation, dignity,

confidence in the future, contempt of trifles I

disgraced. for

Alas,

Took a momentary revenge on

worrying me."

" Jan. 30.

I walked to Captain Dexter's.

Promised never to put that ring on. erably the

month which began

Sick.

Ended

mis-

so worldly.

" It was the choice of the Eternal that gave the

me my

glowing seraph his joys, and to prisonment. gives

I adore

Him.

was His

superiors to shine in wisdom, friendship,

and ardent pursuits, while I pass traces, in the veriest

youth,

its last

shades of ignorance and comI praise

plete destitution of society.

when

im-

vile

will that

strength of

body

Him, though

falters, it is

not

trial

easily described."

" True, I must finger the very farthing candleends,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the duty assigned

so poor are

some of those allotted

weary needy path, that

't is

pride

;

to join

and indeed

me on

benevolence enjoins

the

self-

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

392

Could I but dare

denial.

Could I but

diet

the

first

had ten

half of

live free

in the bread-and-water

from

calculation, as in

when my poor aunt

life,

dollars a year for clothes

and

lived.

and

charity,

I never remember to have been needy, though I

never had but two or three aids in those six years

of earning

home.

That ten

dollars

dear

father earned, and one hundred dollars remain, and

I can't bear to take it, and don't know what to do. Yet I would not breathe to or my want. 'T

only

now

that I would not let

They have enough

hotel-bill.

would send

to do.

pay

Besides,

packing to depend for anything.

Better anything than dishonest dependence, which robs the poorer, and despoils friendship of equal connection."

In 1830, in one of her distant homes, she

re-

proaches herself with some sudden passion she has for visiting her old

home and

friends in the city,

where she had lived for a while with her brother [Mr. Emerson's father] and afterwards with "

widow.

I yearn to be in Boston ?

fatigue, disappoint

;

who have

means, who have always found to seek

them ?

Yet the old

his

'T would

so long despised

a sort of rebellion

desire for the

not so greedy as [mine] to find myself in

worm

old

haunts."

1833.

The

difficulty of getting places of

lovs

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

393

is obvious. And, at moments, I Yet how independent, how better

board for a lady,

tired out.

than to hang on friends that I

am emptied and "

Hard

And

sometimes

fancy

peeled to carry some seed

which no

to the ignorant,

dispense."

wind can so well

idler

to contend for a health

which "

daily used in petition for a final close."

poor victim, swept on through the sternest ordi-

nations of nature's laws

which slay ? yet I

'11

trust."

" There was great truth in what a pious enthusiast said, that, if

God

him

should cast

into

hell,

would yet clasp his hands around Him." " Newburyport, Sept. 1822.

High, solemn, en-

trancing noon, prophetic of the approach of

the

Autumn. God preserve

Presiding Spirit reason

Alone, feeling strongly, fully, that I have

deserved nothing; according idea of

society,

never expect to

;

Adam

done nothing

;

Smith's

doing nothing,

yet joying in existence, perhaps

striving to beautify

one individual of God's crea-

tion.

" try.

Our civilization It is sauced

not always mending our poe-

and spiced with our complexity

of arts and inventions, but lacks somewhat of the grandeur that belongs to a Doric and unphilosophical age.

In a religious contemplative public

would have

less

grander means

;

outward variety, but simpler and a few pulsations of created beings,

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

394

a few successions of

acts,

a few lamps held out in

the firmament enable us to talk of Time, epochs, write histories,

—

God

man.

the revelations of

—

do more,

But

make

to date

these lamps

are held to measure out some of the

moments

eternity, to divide the history of God's operations

in the birth

a goodly

and death of nations,

name

ing, enjoying, acting. it

by every name Yet

imagery.

We personify

It is

it.

call

of fleeting, dreaming, vaporing

We exist in eternity.

nothing.

it is

Dissolve the body and the night are extinguished, and

number

of worlds.

for our notions of breathing, suffer-

gone, the stars

we measure duration by by the

of our thoughts,

the

activity of reason,

the discovery of truths, the acquirement of virtue,

And

the approach to God.

throws his shadows

now

at this,

now

all

the gray-headed god

around, and his slaves catch,

at that, one at the halo he throws

Some-

around poetry, or pebbles, bugs, or bubbles.

times they climb, sometimes creep into the meanest holes

— but

they are

all

alike in vanishing, like

the shadow of a cloud."

To her nephew think of

it ?

Why

Charles

omen paints

War

if it

geography of despotism of its

;

what do I

in your ear I think

better than oppression that

whole

much

were ravaging the it

would be an

high and glorious import. miseries, but does he

know

Channing those of a

MARY MOCDY EMERSON. worse war,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; private

animosities, pinching, bitter

human

heart, the cruel oppression of

warfare of the

by the

the poor

How much

395

rich,

which corrupts old worlds

and They are but letting A blood which corrupts into worms and dragons. harmony the jars of theoloto war-trump would be better,

conflagration of

towns

honest, are storming

gians and statesmen such as the papers bring.

was the glory of the Chosen People, nay,

War

was war in Heaven.

there

means of

discipline, the

it is

among

said

the

rough meliorators, and no

worse than the strife with poverty, malice and ignorance.

War

devastates the conscience of men, yet

corrupt peace does not less. the miseries of the

And

battle-field,

Channing, (of whose love of

you

tell

with the sensitive

life

ashamed),

what of a few days of agony, what of a vulture be-

tomb and parson

ing the bier, to the

away ?

of a hero,

compared

long years of sticking on a bed and wished

For the widows and orphans

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Oh, I could

give facts of the long-drawn years of

imprisoned

minds and hearts, which uneducated orphans endure "

Time

Thou

loiterer.

Thou, whose might

has laid low the vastest and crushed the worm, restest

on thy hoary throne, with like potency over

thy agitations and thy graves. routines give

way

to higher

and

When lasting

will

thy

institu-

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

396

When

tions ?

thy trophies and thy name and

wizard forms be lost in the Genius of Eternity ?

its

In Eternity, no deceitful promises, no illusions,

of thy

ful

Arachnean webs, which decoy and finish

already moth-eaten and of the

destroy.

thy motley work, on which fright-

Gorgons are at play,

beams

fantastic

no riddles concealed by thy shrouds, none

Hasten to

spite of holy ghosts. its

Hail requiem of

departed Time.

Never was incumbent's funeral followed by ant heir with more satisfaction.

mine.

shuttles quaver, as the

loom are shaken.

"Sat. 25.

all

For

in the

weary

Yet not

womb

expect-

his

hope

are prolific num-

memory by the prophecy of others, more dreary, blind and sickly. Yet He who formed thy web, who stretched thy warp from long ages, bers of the same sad hour, colored by the

of defeats in virtue,

has graciously given feel

and

he does,

many

man

throw his

a flowery rainbow,

— labors, rather — evan-

escent efforts, which will wear like

brighter soils

;

shuttle, or

irradiate the filling woof with

— has attuned

his

mind

flowerets in

in such uni-

son with the harp of the universe, that he

without some chord of hope's music. the nature of existence, while there

without the pale of excitement.

pages of

life

seem

all

never

'T is not in

a God, to be

When the

dreamy

turned and folded down to

very weariness, even this idea of those who

fill

the

MARY MOODY

EMERSON'.

hour with crowded virtues,

dust,

up and

lifteth

and raiseth to the

iency in Brougham's

Theology, ing for

the spectator to

and he adores the eternal purposes of

other worlds,

Him who

lifts

397

casteth down, bringeth to

skies.

title

when the moral

whom

of a

a strange

defic-

System of Natural

constitution of the be-

these contrivances were

made

not

The wonderful inhabitant of the building to which unknown ages were the mechanics, is left out as to that part where the Creator had put Not his own lighted candle, placed a vice-gerent. recognized.

complain of the poor old earth's chaotic state,

brought so near in ings

by the

long and gloomy transmut-

its

Yet

geologist.

its

youthful charms as

decked by the hand of Moses' Cosmogony, will linger about the heart, while Poetry succumbs to Science.

Yet there

this poor

a sombre music in the whirl

gone by.

of times so long

And

the bare bones of

embryo earth may give the idea of the In-

finite far, far

and industry

when dignified with arts its oceans, when beating the symages, than when covered with car-

better than :

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

bols of ceaseless

goes of war and oppression. aration for

souls,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

souls

Divinity, before Science

and applied

its steely

How grand who were

its

prep-

feel

analysis to that state of be-

ing which recognizes neither psychology nor

ment.

the

had dissected the emotions,

ele-

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

398

"September, 1836.

which deeply

;

Vale.

shed over the season.

The mystic dream O, to dream more

to lose external objects a little

the hold on them

so slight, that duty

of perhaps, at times.

Sadness

Yet

is lost

sight

better than walk-

ing talking acting somnambulism.

Yes, this en-

with the Being who makes the powers Even Fame, which lives in other states of

tire solitude

life

Virtue, palls.

seems

Usefulness,

requires action,

than the desire of being

less like existence

absorbed in God, retaining consciousness. ber the waste-places of the journey,

martyrdom

of youth, heavier

by the purpose

Him

no mate for those mire, will

no pain.

— and

I love.

The

idea of being

live, as I expect, in

Never do the

and the consciousness

and ignorance, harmonize so well

mystic season in the deserts of tions, the

outlet,

sweetened

Hereafter the same solitary joy

the vision of the Infinite. of the Infinite,

know no all are

intellectualists I 've loved to ad-

go with me, were I not to

frailty

Numsecret

than the stake, I

thought, the narrow limits which the bitter dregs of the cup,

— the

modern German

life.

feelings

finite

as at this

Contradic-

says, of the Infinite

and

finite."

I sometimes fancy I detect in her writings, a certain to the

—

shall I say

name and

—

polite

and courtly homage

dignity of Jesus, not at all spon-

;

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

399

Rev-

taneous, but growing out of her respect to the elation,

and really veiling and betraying her or-

ganic dislike to any interference, any mediation

between her and the Author of her being, assurance of whose direct dealing with her she incessantly invokes

for example, the parenthesis " Sav-

ing thy presence, Priest and Medium of approach for a sinful creature " " Were !

ble that the Creator

has made:

were in the nature of things possible

— I would hold on

withdraw himself, that, at

ent

possi-

was not virtually present with

the spirits and bodies which it

all this it

—

could

to the faith,

some moment of His existence, I was presthough cast from Him,

that,

sorrows,

ignorance and meanness were a part of His plan

death, too,

prayer,

;

however long and tediously delayed

— was decreed, was Oh how — more so scarcely now, not whenfixed.

weary in youth

ever I can breathe, as the Omnipresence

seems, the atmosphere of

then I ask not faith nor knowl-

edge; honors, pleasures, labors, I always refuse,

compared but

partaking of existence

to this divine

;

—

how rare, how dependent on the organs through

which the soul operates

The

sickness of the last

week was

fine

medicine

pain disintegrated the spirit, or became spiritual. I rose,

—I

felt

that I had given to

haps than an angel could,

— had

God more promised

per-

Him

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

400 in

youth that to be a blot on

command, would be

this fair world, at

acceptable.

His

Constantly offer

myself to continue the obscurest and loneliest thing ever heard

of,

with one proviso,

Yes, love Thee, and sheddest frost

all

Thou

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; His

dost,

agency.

while Thou

and darkness on every path

mine."

For years she had her bed made in the form of and delighted herself with the discovery

coffin

;

made every evening on

of the figure of a coffin their sidewalk,

by the shadow

of a church tower

which adjoined the house. Saladin caused his shroud to be made, and carried

to battle as his standard.

shroud, and death

thinking

still

a pity to

She made up her

refusing to come, and she

let it lie idle,

wore

as a

night-gown, or a day-gown, nay, went out to ride in

it,

on horseback, in her mountain roads,

was worn and

out.

up,

as she never travelled without being provided

for this dear lieve she

and indispensable contingency, I be-

wore out a great many.

" 1833.

I have given up, the last year or two,

the hope of dying.

nothing it

until

Then she had another made

ominous

;

In the lowest ebb of health diet

and exercise

restore.

seems best to get that very humbling business

insurance.

month."

I enter

So of

dear sixty the last of this

" 1835, June 16.

Tedious indisposition:

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

— hoped, as

took a new form,

401

would open the

Now existence itself Away with knowledge

sweet grave.

cool,

form

sweet.

alone.

;

communicates

any

— God and

this our condition

humble waiting, or I should never perceive Him. Science, Nature,

page

;

— not

dear worms, take

down

— O,

now, too

I 've yearned to open Ill

late.

— how they

some

health and nerves.

will at

this tedious tabernacle,

some sure time most valuable

companions, instructors in the science of mind,

gnawing away the meshes which have chained

it.

A very Beatrice

in showing the Paradise.

Yes, I

irk under contact with forms of depravity, while I

resigned to being nothing, never expect a palm,

a laurel, hereafter." " 1826, July.

If one could choose,

crime be gibbeted,

— were

and without

not altogether better

away by age without menThe vulture and crow would

than the long drooping tality or

devotion

caw caw, and, unconscious of any deformity in the mutilated body, would relish their meal,

make no

grimace of affected sympathy, nor suffer any real compassion. iads

and mine own companions press nearer to

the throne.

der

His coldest beam

forever holy.

acquisition of

I pray to die, though happier myr-

Had

and diffusing virtue

human sympathy would be vol. x.

will purify

and

ren-

I the highest place of here, the principle

too strong for that

;

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

402

rapt emotion, that severe delight which I crave

nay

for that kind of obscure virtue which

to lay at the feet

so rich

of morality.

Those

(Adam Smith) who

economists

added

of the Author

say nothing

a nation but what

to the wealth of

dug

out of the earth, and that, whatever disposition of virtue

may

something

exist, unless

ciety, deserves

— why

no fame,

such paradoxical kind of facts

done for

so-

content with

but one secret

;

sentiment of virtue, disinterested (or perhaps not), is

worthy, and will

in the world of spirits, of

tell,

God's immediate presence, more than the blood of

many a martyr who

has

" I have heard

not."

that the greatest geniuses have died ignorant of their

power and influence on the

arts

and

sciences.

I believe thus much, that their large perception

consumed

made

their egotism, or

impossible for

them to make small calculations." "That greatest of all gifts, however small my power of

receiving,

— the

capacity, the element to

love the All-perfect, without regard to personal

happiness heTself

— happiness — ?

't is

itself."

amid her passionate prayers

eommunion with God ; sacrifice

to reeord,

quiet for so

many

—

— "I

who never made a

I cowering in the nest of

years

;

— I indulge —

of sympathizing with great virtues,

Original:

Have

She checks

for immediate

I this right?"

the delight

blessing theii

"While

MARY MOODY EMERSON. sympathizing in the government of

perhaps I lose

world,

403

God

over the

Well, I

nearer views.

learned his existence a priori.

object of sci-

ence or observation ever was pointed out to

my poor

me by

His Being and commands

aunt, but

oh how much I trusted I learned the order of

Him

human

;

and

with every event

till

events from the pres-

sure of wants."

What

a timid, ungrateful creature

deepest pit-falls of age, ination at least, to

sand years, larities

with

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with whom

Fear the

pressing on, in imag-

whom a day

all miseries

a thou-

and

irregu-

are conforming to universal good

me who have

Him

when

Shame

learned within three years to

sit

whole days in peace and enjoyment without the least

apparent benefit to any, or knowledge to my-

self

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; resigned,

;

too, to the

of slavery passed in labor loss of that character felt so

memory

of long years

and ignorance,

to the

which I once thought and

sure of, without ever being conscious of act-

ing from calculation."

Her of the

friends used to say to her, " I wish

worm."

And when

rived, the event of

you joy

at last her release ar-

her death had really such a

comic tinge in the eyes of every one

who knew

her,

that her friends feared they might, at her funeral,

not dare to look at each other, lest they should forget the serious proprieties of the hour.

MARY MOODY EMERSON.

404

She gave high

counsels.

was the

privilege of

certain boys to have this immeasurably high stand-

ard indicated to their childhood

;

a blessing which

nothing else in education could supply.

It is frivo-

lous to ask,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " And

practice ? "

Cassandra uttered, to a frivolous, skep-

tical time, the

was she ever a Christian

arcana of the Gods

but

easy

to believe that Cassandra domesticated in a lady's

house would have proved a troublesome boarder. Is it the less desirable to have the lofty abstractions

because the abstractionist

nervous and irritable?

we not keep Flamsteed and Herschel

Shall

observatory, though

in the

should even be proved that

they neglected to rectify their own kitchen clock ? It

essential to the safety of every mackerel fisher

that latitudes and longitudes should be astronomically ascertained

;

and so every banker, shopkeeper

and wood-sawyer has a stake in the elevation of the moral code by saint and prophet. Very rightly, then, the Christian ages, proceeding on a grand instinct,

have said: Faith alone, Faith alone.

;

SAMUEL HOAR. " Hagno se judice qiiisque tuetur Victrix causa deis placuit eed victa Catoni.

A tear ago, how often did we meet Beneath these elms, once more in sober bloom,

Thy tall, sad figure pacing down the street, And now the robin sings above thy tomb Thy name on other shores may ne'er be known, Though Rome austere no graver consul knew, But Massachusetts her true son shall own !

;

Out

of her soil thy

She loves the

man

With upright

The

that chose the conquered cause,

soul that

bowed

God

alone

clean hands that upheld her equal laws,

The The

hardy virtues grew.

old religion ne'er to be outgrown

cold demeanor, the

The simple grandeur

warm

heart beneath,

of thy life

and death. F. B. Sanborn.

April, 1857.

SAMUEL HOAR.

Hebe is

a day on which more public good or evil

be done than was ever done on any day.

this is the

And

pregnant season, when our old Roman,

Samuel Hoar, has chosen to quit

this world.

iniquo certamine indignabundus recessit.

He was ;

star,

mansuetude and nobleness, honor and char-

full of

ity

born under a Christian and humane

and, whilst he was willing to face every dis-

agreeable duty, whilst he dared to do all that might

beseem a man, his self-respect restrained him from

any foolhardiness.

The Homeric

saw the gods mingling in the swords.

So did not he

feel

heroes,

when they

fray, sheathed their

any

call to

make

a contest of personal strength with mobs or nations

but when he saw the day and the gods went

;

against him, he withdrew, but with belief.

mum

Catonis.

the time

an unaltered

All was conquered prceter atrocem ant-

when he went

South Carolina as

Written on the 4th Nov., 1856, the day when Mr. Bu-

chanan was chosen President of the United States. printed from Putnam's Magazine.

He-

SAMUEL SOAR.

408

the Commissioner of Massachusetts, in 1844, whilst staying in Charleston, pending his correspondence

with the governor and the legal

officers,

he was re-

peatedly warned that

safe for

him

was not

to ap-

pear in public, or to take his daily walk, as he had done, unattended by his friends, in the streets of

the city.

was advised to withdraw to private

lodgings, which were eagerly offered

rejected the advice,

him by friends.

and refused the

ing that he was old, and his

life

offers, say-

was not worth

much, but he had rather the boys should

troll his

old head like a foot-ball in their streets, than that

he should hide

And

it.

he continued the uniform

practice of his daily walk into all parts of the

But when the mob

of Charleston

city.

was assembled

the streets before his hotel, and a deputation of

gentlemen waited upon him in the hall to say they

had come with the unanimous voice of the State remove him by

force,

and the carriage was

at the

door, he considered his duty discharged to the last

point of possibility. irresistible

now said,

;

The

force

was apparent and

the legal officer's part was up

time for the military officer to be sent " Well, gentlemen, since

use force, I must go."

But

it is

;

was

and he

your pleasure

his opinion

was un-

changed.

States, as

manner now, when the votes shown in the recent

of the Free

election in the State

;

SAMUEL HOAR. of Pennsylvania,

409

had disappointed the hopes

mankind and betrayed the cause of freedom, he considered the question of justice and liberty, for his age, lost,

and had no longer the

will to

drag his

days through the dishonors of the long defeat, and

promptly withdrew, but with unaltered

belief.

He was a very natural, but a very high man of simple tastes, plain and true

character in speech,

with a clear perception of justice, and a perfect

obedience thereto in his action standing, precise

;

of a strong under-

and methodical, which gave him

great eminence in the legal profession.

rather his reputation for severe lect

method

was

in his intel-

than any special direction in his studies that

caused him to be offered the mathematical chair in

Harvard University, when vacant severity of his logic

The

in 1806.

might have inspired

fear,

had

not been restrained by made him modest and courteous, though his courtHe comesy had a grave and almost military air. his natural reverence,

which

bined a uniform self-respect with a natural reverence for every other easy for

him

man

;

so that

was perfectly

to associate with farmers,

plain, uneducated,

and

crops,

and the common incidents of rural

just as

easy for

and with

poor men, and he had a strong,

unaffected interest in farms, ers,

him

and weath-

meet on the same

with the same plain courtesy,

men

was

floor,

and

life.

of distinction

SAMUEL HOAR.

410

and large

He was fond

ability.

of farms and trees,

fond of birds, and attentive to their manners and habits

addicted to long and retired walks

;

ate to asceticism, for

was

;

rich, of

perfect.

a plainness and almost poverty of

personal expenditure, yet liberal of his

any worthy

temper-

his experience

on him, and his self-command was

lost

Though

no lesson of

use, readily lending

money

young men,

and industrious men, and by no means eager

to re-

claim of them either the interest or the principal.

was open-handed

and every

to every charity,

public claim that had any show of reason in

When

it.

I talked with him one day of some inequal-

ity of taxes in the town,

to pay whatever was

he said

demanded

was

his practice

for,

though he

;

might think the taxation large and very unequally proportioned, yet he thought the well go in this

The

way

as in

any

money might

other.

man

strength and the beauty of the

lay in

the natural goodness and justice of his mind, which, in

manhood and

in old age, after dealing all his life

with weighty private and public infantile innocence, of which

third

example, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the strength

the modesty of a child. or congresses to

sit

interests, left

we have no second

an or

of a chief united to

returned from courts

down, with unaltered humility,

in the church or in the town-house, on the plain

wooden bench where honor came and beside him.

sat

down

SAMUEL HOAR.

He was

man

whom

must

so rare a spirit of justice

one had met him in a cabin or

visibly dwelt, that if

in a forest he

411

still

seem a public man, answerand might

ing as sovereign state to sovereign state easily suggest Milton's picture of

that " he

was a consul from

;

John Bradshaw,

whom

the fasces did

seemed

not depart with the year, but in private

judgment on kings."

ever sitting in

Everybody

knew where to find him. What he said, that would he do. But he disdained any arts in his speech he was not adorned with any graces of rhetoric, "But simple

So cautious was

he,

truth his utmost skill."

and tender of the truth, that he

sometimes wearied his audience with the pains he took to qualify and verify his statements, adding clause

on clause to do

had

little

justice to all his conviction.

or no power of generalization.

But

a plain way he had of putting his statement with all his

of a

might, and

now and then borrowing

the aid

good story, or a farmer's phrase, whose force

had imprinted

his

memory, and, by the same

token, his hearers were

bound

remember

his

point.

The impression he made on juries was honorable to him and them. For a long term of years, he was

at the

also, in

head of the bar in Middlesex, practising,

the adjoining counties.

He had

one side

SAMUEL HOAR.

412

or the other of every important case,

and

his influ-

ence was reckoned despotic, and sometimes com-

Many

plained of as a bar to public justice.

good

stories are still told of the perplexity of jurors

found the law and the evidence on one

side,

who

and yet

Squire Hoar had said that he believed, on his con-

And what

science, his client entitled to a verdict.

Middlesex jury, containing any God-fearing men in

it,

would hazard an opinion in

to what Squire

Hoar

flat

contradiction

believed to be just ?

entitled to this respect

;

He was

for he discriminated in the

business that was brought to him, and would not

argue a rotten cause; and he refused very large

sums

offered

him

to undertake the defense of crim-

inal persons.

His character made him the conscience

community town

was asked, "

And

of the

many a What does Squire Hoar think

which he

lived.

of this ? " and in political crises, he was entreated to write a

few

lines to

make known

to good

men

Chelmsford, or Marlborough, or Shirley, what that opinion was.

was a kind country,

I used to feel that his conscience

of meter of the degree of honesty in the

by which on each occasion

and sometimes found wanting.

was

tried,

sorry to say

he could not be elected to Congress a second time

from Middlesex.

And

in his

own town, if some important end was

SAMUEL HOAR. to be gained,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

as, for instance,

413

when

the county

commissioners refused to rebuild the burned courthouse, on the belief that the courts would be transferred from Concord to Lowell,

bined to send Mr. his presence

building

Hoar

com-

all parties

to the Legislature,

and speech, of

where

course, secured the re-

and, of course also, having answered our

;

we passed him by and

end,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

somebody

elected

else

at the next term.

His head, with singular grace in

its lines,

resemblance to the bust of Dante.

had a

retained to

the last the erectness of his tall but slender form,

and not

less the full strength of his

mind.

was, in old age, the beauty of his person riage, as if the

mind

radiated,

impression of probity on

all

beholders.

halls

the world, this life,

tion

and

Yet how

moved.

latest days, and,

streets

solitary

man

was speedily

to be re-

he looked, day by day in

so revered, this

man

of public

and wide family connecsome reserve of constitution, or was

of large acquaintance !

Was

only the lot of excellence, that with aims so pure

and as

His beauty

now appears, it awakened a certain tender fear all who saw him, that the costly ornament of our

homes and

car-

and made the same

was pathetic and touching in these as

Such

and

single,

were,

poraries

he seemed to pass out of

unknown

to those

and familiars ?

life alone,

who were

and,

his contem-

SAMUEL HOAR.

414

[The following sketch of Mr. Hoar from a different point of view,

slightly

was prepared by Mr. Empaper appeared in

erson, shortly after the above

"Putnam's Magazine" (December, 1856), at the request of the Editor of the "Monthly Eeligious Magazine," and was printed there, January, 1857. It

here appended as giving some additional

a characteristic figure which

traits of

may

serve as

a pendant in some respects to that of Dr. Kipley.J Mr. Hoar was distinguished

in his profession

by the

grasp of his mind, and by the simplicity of his means.

His

ability lay in the clear

apprehension and the power-

ful statement of the material points of his case.

possessed

it,

and he never possessed

equally ready at any

what was no

essential

moment

better,

man embarrassed

to state the facts.

and refuted whatever was

soon

and he was saw

not, so that

himself less with a needless array

of books and evidences of contingent value.

These

tactics of the

lawyer were the

He had uniformly the air of knowing and

of going to that in the shortest

that his character should

make

way.

neither spiritualist nor

literary nor

an executive

talent.

wanted

singular

deep an impression,

standing and working as he did on so

He was

tactics of his life.

just what he

common

a ground.

man

of genius nor of a

strictness the vigor

of his understanding was directed on the ordinary do-

mestic and municipal well-being. cherish him, for he

The useful and

was a main

Society had reason to

pillar

on which

leaned.

practical super-abounded in his mind, and

SAMUEL HOAR. to

415

a degree which might be even comic to young and

he called

lovers,

engagement of two

If he spoke of the

poetical persons.

Nobody cared

a contract.

of thoughts or aspirations to

men out of prison, and their lands Had you read Swedenborg or Plo-

only studied to keep out of attachment.

he would have waited

tinus to him,

till

you had done,

He had

and answered you out of the Revised Statutes. an

affinity for

to speak

a black-letter lawyer, who

mathematics, but

was a

than

taste rather

a pursuit, and of the modern sciences he liked to read

Yet

popular books on geology.

so entirely

natural ability,

and from the order of

"tickling commodity," that

for

every work of nature

and

structure,

and

and only

of society, a if

and

his mind,

and not

was admirable,

one of those opaque

not less perfect in their angles

him

than the transpar-

Meantime, whilst to

his talent

guard the material wealth

disinterested person did not exist.

there were regions of knowledge not open to him,

he did not pretend to them.

He had which

less beautiful,

and diamonds.

his profession led

And

is,

New Hampshire,

ent topazes

this re-

weighing tons, which are found in

crystals, big beryls

A.cworth,

was

ground plan and substructure of society a

spect to the

His modesty was

sincere.

a childlike innocence and a native temperance,

left

him no

temptations,

and enabled him

meet

every comer with a free and disengaged courtesy that

had no memory in

" Of wrong and outrage with which earth

is filled."

person was more keenly alive to the stabs which the

SAMUEL HOAR.

416

men

ambition and avarice of

Yet when

wealth.

politicians or speculators

him, these memories

an unalterable ing to repent

no scar ;

left

tranquillity

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

of,

on the common-

inflicted

and sweetness

had

he had noth-

;

the cloud rest where

let

approached

his countenance

might, he

dwelt in eternal sunshine.

He had

his birth

where the old

and breeding in a little country town,

his energy in creating purity of

ucation.

to him,

manners and

art or practice of the

mind and

farm was unknown of them-

thoy paid due homage to his powers of

to his virtues.

loved the dogmas and the simple usages of Ids

church; was always an honored and sometimes an

;

Law

under the Maine

liquor dealers.

had formed him

seemed as

the

New

England church

its

friend and defender

and assured friend

its

parish by-laws, of

and

its

tithing-

he was a prosecutor of the

its rites,

ac-

never shrunk from a disagreeable

In the time of the Sunday laws he was a

duty.

man

member.

tive

all

careful ed-

and the farmers greeted him as one

selves, whilst

and spent

religion existed in strictness,

social reforms.

He was

those formal but reverend manners which

;

its

the lover ministers,

a model of

make what

called a gentleman of the old school, so called under an

impression that the style suppose,

men

an optical

passing away, but which, I

illusion, as there

of the class remaining, to

whom

these

I have spoken of about himself

;

manners are his

and

modesty

his

are always a few

and always a few young native. ;

he had nothing to say

sincere admiration

was com-

SAMUEL HOAR. manded by

When some

Justice Marshall

one

was

Mason and Mr. Web-

said, in his presence, that

brains enough to furnish three or four

common men would

spect for

find

Mr. Webster's

out."

ability,

with

Mr. Webster's

to lose

common men,

be-

He had a huge rewhom he had often

occasion to try his strength at the bar, ately deep regret at

Chief

Mr. Hoar

failing in his intellect,

remarked that " Judge Marshall could afford

fore

Judge

certain heroes of the profession, like

Parsons and Judge Marshall, Mr. ster.

417

and a proportion-

political course in his

later years.

There was no elegance in

his reading or tastes

He had

the crystal clearness of his mind.

poetry

;

beyond

no love of

and I have heard that the only verse that he

was ever known "

to quote

When

was the Indian rule

the oaks are in the gray,

Then, farmers, plant away."

But I

find

from

all

an elegance in

his quiet but firm

withdrawal

business in the courts which he could drop

without manifest detriment to the interests involved

(and

this

when

in his best strength),

tion thenceforward to

and

his self-dedica-

unpaid services of the Temperance

and Peace and other philanthropic

societies, the

Schools, the cause of Education,

and

University,

and

sense of duty

him

to such political activities as

and the love of order and

Sunday

specially of the

a strong

freedom urged

to forward.

Perfect in his private

life,

the husband, father, friend,

he was severe only with himself. vol. x.

He was

on terms

SAMUEL HOAR.

418

of honor with those nearest him, nor did he think a

life-

long familiarity could excuse any omission of courtesy

from him. his heart

was

carried ceremony finely to the

all gentleness,

last.

gratitude and bounty.

With beams December

planets dart,

His cold eye truth and conduct scanned July was in his sunny heart, October in his liberal hand.

;

But

THOREAU.

A queen rejoices in her peers,

| I

And wary Nature knows her own, By court and city, dale and down, And like a lover volunteers. And to her son will treasures more, And more to purpose, freely pour In one wood walk, than learned

men

Will find with glass in ten times ten.

It seemed as It

seemed

the breezes brought him,

as if the sparrows taught him,

As if by secret sign he knew Where in far fields the orchis

grew.

THOREAU. 1

Henry David Thoreau was scendant of a French ancestor

the last male de-

who came

country from the Isle of Guernsey. exhibited occasional traits

to this

His character

drawn from

this blood,

in singular combination with a very strong

Saxon

genius.

was born in Concord, Massachusetts, on the

12th of July, 1817.

was graduated at Harvard

College in 1837, but without any literary distinction.

iconoclast in literature, he seldom thanked

colleges for their service to him, holding

small esteem, whilst yet his debt to tant.

them

them was impor-

After leaving the University, he joined his

brother in teaching a private school, which he soon

renounced. pencils,

His father was a manufacturer of lead-

and Henry applied himself for a time

craft, believing 1

to this

he could make a better pencil than

Part of this paper was the Address delivered by Mr.

Emerson

Mr. Thoreau, iu May, 1862. In was enlarged and printed in the

its

present form.

at the funeral of

the following

summer

" Atlantic Monthly " in

THOREAU.

422

was then

After completing his experiments,

in use.

he exhibited his work to chemists and

artists in

Boston, and having obtained their certificates to excellence

and

to its equality with the best

its

Lon-

don manufacture, he returned home contented. His

him that he had now opened But he replied, that he should

friends congratulated his

way to fortune. make another

never

pencil.

Why

should I ?

re-

would not do again what I have done once."

sumed

his endless walks

and miscellaneous

studies,

making every day some new acquaintance with Nature, though as yet never speaking of zoology or botany, since, though very studious of natural facts,

he was incurious of technical and textual

Atthis time, a

strong,- healthy

college, whilst all his

companions were choosing

their profession, or eager to begin

employment,

science.

youths freshLfrom

some

lucrative

was inevitable that^ his thoughts

should be exercised on the same question, and

quired rare decision to refuse

all

it re-

the accustomed

paths and keep his solitary freedom at the cost of disappointin g the natural expectations of his family

and Jriendsxff

all

perfect, probity,,

the

was exact

difficult that

in securing his

pendence, and in holding every duty.

But Thoreau never

born protestant.

man

faltered.

he had a

own

inde-

to the like

was a

declined to givejipjiis_large

ambition of knowledge and action for any narrow

THOHEAU.

423

craft or profession, aiming at

a much more com-

prehensive slighted

calling-,

ajÂą_nf_}iy^-ntr wpTT

t.Vio

and defied the opinions of

Vip

was

others, it

only that he was more intent to reconcile his practice

with his

own

Never idle or self-indulwhen he wanted money, earning of manual labor agreeable to him, belief.

gent, he preferred, it

by some piece

as building a boat or a fence, planting, grafting,

surveying, or other short work, to any long engage-

With

ments.

his

skill in wood-craft,

hardy habits and few wants, his

and

was very competent to would cost him

than another.

his powerful arithmetic, he

live in

any part of the world.

time to supply his wants

less

was therefore secure of his

lei-

sure.

A natural

skill for

mensuration, growing out of

mathematical knowledge and his habit of ascer-

his

taining the measures

and distances

of objects

interested him, the size of trees, the depth of

ponds and

rivers, the height of

mountains, and

the air-line distance of his favorite summits,

and

his intimate

Concord,

led

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

drift into

the profession of

had the advantage for him that

him continually

into

new and

secluded

grounds, and helped his studies of Nature.

accuracy and ciated,

this,

knowledge of the territory about

made him

land-surveyor.

which

and extent

skill in this

and he found

all

work were

His

readily appre-

the employment he wanted.

THOREA U.

424

could easily solve the problems of the

"sur*

veyor, but he was daily beset with graver questions,

which he manfully confronted.

interrogated

every custom, and wished to settle

all his practice

He was

a protestant -d

on an ideal foundation. outrance,

and few

He was

tions.

married

;

he lived alone

he never voted State

knew

many

renuneia^

he never went to church ;

;

he refused to pay a tax to

;

he ate no

;

lives contain so

bred to no profession; he ne^er__

flesh,

the___

he drank no wine, he Vever

the use of tobacco

;

and, though a naturalist,.

he nsecLneither trap nor gun.

chose, wisely

doubt for himself, to be the bachelor of thought

and Nature.

knew how

He had no

squalor or inelegance.

way

and

talent for wealth,

to be poor without the least hint of

Perhaps he

of living without forecasting

fell into

his

much, but ap-

" I am often reit with later wisdom. minded," he wrote in his journal, " that if I had

proved

bestowed on

must be

the same, and

still

the same."

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; no trifles.

the wealth of Croesus,

He had

appetites,

means

no temptations to

no passions, no

A fine house, dress, the

fight against,

taste for elegant

manners and

of highly cultivated people were all thrown

him.

He much

aims

essentially

talk

away on

preferred a good Indian, and con-

sidered these refinements as impediments to conversation, wishing to

meet

his

companion on the sim-

THOREAU. plest terms. ties,

425

declined invitations to dinner-par-

because there each was in every one's way, and

he could not meet the individuals to any purpose. " They make' their pride," he said, " in making their dinner cost

much

;

make my

pride in

mak-

When

asked at table what dish he preferred, he answered, " The nearing

est.'*'

had a

dinner cost

little."

did not like the taste of wine, and never

vice in his

life.

said,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; "I have a

faint

recollection of pleasure derived from smoking dried lily-stems, before

supply of these.

I was a man.

I had

commonly a

I have never smoked anything

more noxious."

chose to be rich by making his wants few,

and supplying them himself.

his travels,

used the railroad only to get over $6 much, country as

was unimportant to the present purpose, walking

hundreds of miles, avoiding taverns, buying a lodging in farmers' and fishermen's houses, as cheaper,

and more agreeable could better find the

to him,

and because there he

men and

the information he

wanted.

There was somewhat military in his nature, not to be subdued, always

tender^as sition.

to pillory, I

manly and

able,

but rarely

he did not feel himself except in oppo-

wanted a fallacy to expose, a blunder

may say

tory, a roll of the

required a

drum, to

little

call his

sense of vic-

powers into

full

426 exercise.

he found as

THOREAU. him nothing

It cost it

much easier than

sayNo indeed say Yes) It seemed to

;

his first instinct on hearing a proposition

was

to cont rovertj l n so impatient

was heof the

tions of our daily thought.

This habit, of course,

little

chilling

limita-

the social affections

;

and

though the companion would in the end acquit him of any malice or untruth, yet

mars conversation.

Hence, no equal companion stood in affectionate reand guileless. " I love

lations with one so pure

/Henry," said one of his friends, " but I cannot like

him

;

and

as for taking his arm, I should as soon

think, of taking the

arm

of an elm-tree."

Yet, hermit and stoic as he was, he was really

fond of sympathy, and threw himself heartily and,

company of young people whom whom he delighted to, entertain,â&#x20AC;&#x17E;asjhe_

childlike into the.

he loved, and

only could, with the varied and endless aneedotes__ of his experiences

field

and

river:

and he was

always ready to lead a huckleberry-party or a search for chestnuts or grapes. of a public discourse,

Talking, one day,

Henry remarked,

tha1|

ever succeeded with the audience was bad.

what-

I' said,

" Who would not like to write something, which-all .can read, like

Robinson Qruso'e ? and who does not

see with regret that his page

not solid with a

right materialistic treatment, which delights every-

body ? "

Henry

objected, of course,

and vaunted

THOREAU.

427

the better lectures which reached only a few persons.

But, at supper, a young girl, understanding that he

was "

to lecture at the

Whether

story,

his lecture

Lyceum, sharply asked him, would be a nice, interesting

such as she wished to hear, or whether

was

one of those old philosophical things that she did not care about."

Henry turned

to her,

and be-

thought himself, and, I saw, was trying to believe that he

had matter that

brother,

who were

her and her

fit

up and go

to the lecture,

was a good one for them.

if it

He was such,

a speaker and actor of the truth, born

and was ever running

'from this cause. all

to sit

might

bystanders to

In any circumstance

know what

and what he would say expectation, but used emergency,.,

into dramatic situations

;

part

interested

Henry would take,

and he did pot disappoint

an original judgment on each

In 1845 he built himself a

small

framed house on the shores of Walden Pond, and lived there

two years alone, a life of labor and study.

This actipn

was quite native and

fit

one.

who knew him would

was more unlike his neighbors

than

in*

for him.

his action, -.'As soon as he

in his thought

had exhausted

the advantages, of that solitude, he abandoned

In 1847, lic

'not .approving

tax him with affectation.

it.

some uses to which the pub-

expenditure was applied, he refused to pay his

town

tax,

and was put

in jail

A friend paid the

428

THOREAU.

tax for him, and he was released.

The

ance was threatened the next year.

like annoy-

But, as his

friends paid the tax, notwithstanding his protest, I

believe he ceased to resist. cule

opposition or ridi-

had any weightwith him. He coldly and

fully

stated his opinion without affecting to believe that it

was the opinion of the company.

consequence opinion. sity

was of no

every one present held the opposite

one occasion he went to the Univer-

Library to procure some books.

the President,

who

The

librarian

Mr. Thoreau repaired

refused to lend them.

stated to

him the

rules

and

usages, which permitted the loan of books to resi-

dent graduates, to clergymen who were alumni, and to

some others resident within a

radius from the College. to the President that

Mr. Thoreau explained

the railroad

the old scale of distances, useless, yes,

circle of ten miles'

had destroyed

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that the

library was

and President and College

the terms of his rules,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

useless,

the one benefit he

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

owed to the College was its library, that, at this moment, not only his want of books was imperative but he wanted a large number of books, and assured

him

that he, Thoreau, and not the librarian,

was the proper custodian of

these.

short, the

President found the petitioner so formidable, and the rules getting to look so ridiculous, that he ended

by giving him a privilege which unlimited thereafter.

in his hands proved

THOREAU.

truer

429

American existed than Thoreau.

His

preference of his country and condition was genuine,

and

from English and European

his aversation

manners ancLiasies almost reached contempt* "Jle

news or bonmots' gleaned

listened impatiently to

from London civil,

all .

circles

imitating each

Why

;

and though he

these anecdotes fatigued him.

tried to be

The men were

and on a small mould.

other,

can they not live as far apart as possible, and

each be a

man by

himself ?

the most energetic nature

What

he sought was

and he wished

to go to " In every part of Great Britain," Jie wrote in his diary, " are discovered ;

â&#x20AC;˘Oregon, not to London.

traces of the

Romans, their funereal urns, their

camps, their roads, their dwellings. land, at least, is not based

We have not to lay the

on any

But New Eng-

Roman

ruins.

foundations of our houses

on the ashes of a former civilization." But, idealist as he was, standing for abolition of slavery, abolition of tariffs, almost for abolition of

government,

it is

needless to say he found himself

not only unrepresented in actual politics, but almost equally opposed to every class of reformers.

Yet

he paid the tribute of his uniform respect to the Anti-Slavery party.

One man, whose

personal ac-

quaintance he had formed, he honored with exceptional regard.

Before the

first

friendly

word had

been spoken for Captain John Brown, he sent no-

TEOREAV.

430 tices to

most houses in Concord that he would speak

on the condition and character of John Brown, on Sunday evening, and invited all people to come. The Republican Committee, the in a public hall

Abolitionist Committee, sent

him word

premature and not advisable.

that

replied,

was

— "I

did not send to you for advice, but to announce that I

The. ball was

to speak."

by people

early hour

of all parties,

eulogy of the hero was heard by

many with It

and

his earnest

all respectfully,

a sympathy that surprised themselves.

was said of Plotinus that he was ashamed of

his body,

for

filled at

and

— that

it,

had not

't is

his

skill in

happens often

very likely he had good reason

body was a bad servant, and he

dealing with the material world, as to

men

of abstract intellect.

But

Mr. Thoreau was equipped with a most adapted and serviceable body. He was of short stature,.

firmly built, of light complexion, with strong, seri-

ous blue eyes, and a grave aspect,

—

his face cov-

ered in the late years with a becoming beard. senses were acute, his frame well-knit his

hands strong and

And

skilful in the use of tools.

there was a wonderful fitness of body and__

mind.

He could pace

than another chain.

His

and hardy,

man

sixteen rods

He could find his

said, better

more accurately

could measure them with rod and

path in the woods at night,

his feet than his eyes.

could

THOREAU.

431

estimate the measure of a tree very well by his eye

he could estimate the weight of a calf or a pig, like

From a box

a dealer.

containipg a bushel or more

up with

of loose pencils, he could take fast

enough

He was

hands

his

pencils at every grasp.

just a dozen

a good swimmer, runner, skater, boatman,

and would probably outwalk most countrymen in a day's journey.

was

still

finer

wanted every his

And

the relation of body to

than we have indicated. stride his legs

mind

said he

The length

made.

walk uniformly made the length of his writing.

If shut

He had

in the house he did not write at

all.

a strong common-sense, like that which

Sose Flammock the weaver's daughter in Scott's romance commends in her father, as resembling a yardstick, which, whilst diaper, can equally well

He had

of gold.

measures

dowlas and

measure tapestry and cloth

always a

I was planting forest trees,

new

resource.

When

and had procured half

a peck of acorns, he said that only a small portion of

them would be sound, and proceeded

them and

select the

took time, he said, " I think into water the

ment we

good ones

;

examine this

you put them

will sink

tried with success.

den or a house or a barn

But finding

sound ones.

;

all

" which experi-

could plan a gar-

would have been com-

petent to lead a " Pacific Exploring Expedition

;

could give judicious counsel in the gravest private or public affairs.

THOREAU.

432

He lived for the day, not cumbered and mortified Ms memory. If he brought you yesterday a new

proposition, he

would bring you to-day another not

less revolutionary.

very industrious man, and

setting^ like all highly organized

men, a high value

on his time, he seemed the only man of leisure in town, always ready for any excursion that promised well, or for conversation

prolonged into late hours.

His trenchant sense was never stopped by his rules of daily prudence, but casion.

liked

was always up

when some one urged a vegetable

new

to the

and used the simplest diet,

oc-

food, yet,

Thoreau

thought all diets a very small matter, saying that " the man who shoots the buffalo lives better than the

man who boards at the Graham House." He " You can sleep near the railroad, and never

said,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

be disturbed

Nature knows very well what sounds

are worth attending

to,

and has made up her mind

not to hear the railroad-whistle.

(

But things

re-

spect the devout mind, and a mental ecstacy was

never interrupted." fell

noted what repeatedly be-

him, that, after receiving from a distance a

rare plant, he would presently find the same in his

And

own

haunts.

pen

only to good players

those pieces of luck which hap-

happened

day, walking with a stranger,

to him.

One

who inquired where

Indian arrow-heads could be found, be replied, " Everywhere," and, stooping forward, picked onÂŤ

THOREAU.

433

on the instant from the ground.

At Mount Wash-

ington, in fall,

Tuckerman's Ravine, Thoreau had a bad

and sprained

of getting

his fall,

Arnica

the leaves of the

As he was

his foot.

up from

in the act

he saw for the

first

time

mollis.

His robust common sense, armed with stout hands, keen perceptions and strong for the superiority

hidden there

will,

cannot yet account

which shone in his simple and

I must add the cardinal fact, that

life.

was an excellent wisdom

in him, proper to a

rare class of men, which showed

him the material

world as a means and symbol.

This discovery,

which sometimes yields to poets a Certain casual

and interrupted and whatever might cloud enly vision.

light, serving for the

was

their writing,

faults or obstructions of

it,

use

;

insight;

temperament

he was not disobedient to the heav-

In his youth, he

said,

one day, " The

is all my art my pencils will draw no my jack-knife will cut nothing else I do not

other world

other

ornament of

him an unsleeping

;

as a means."

This was the muse and genius

that ruled his opinions, conversation, studies, workâ&#x201E;˘

and course of

life.

judge of men.

This made him a searching first

glance he measured his

companion, and, though insensible to some fine traits of culture,

and ius

calibre.

could very well report his weight

And this made the

impression of gen-

which his conversation sometimes gave.

vol. x.

434

THOREAU.

understood the matter in hand at a glance,

and saw the

limitations

and poverty

those he

talked with, so that nothing seemed concealed from

such terrible eyes.

men lief

man

that this was the

man

known young moment to the be-

I have repeatedly

of sensibility converted in a

they were in search

of,

should do.

who could tell them all they His own dealing with them was never

./affectionate,

but super ior, didactic, sc orning their

the

of men,

Detty

wayv::r very

sIowly conceding, or not conced-

ing at anpfche-pronTise ofhis society at their houses,

"Would

or even atTiis~own!

them ?

him

as his walk

throw away on company."

him from Admiring to

;

he had no walks

Visits were offered

respectful parties, but he declined them.

friends offered to carry

cost to the Yellowstone River,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

There was nothing

did not know.

so important to to

he not walk with

South America.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

him

to the

at their own West Indies,

But though nothing could

be more grave or considered than his refusals, they remind one, in quite new relations, of that fop

Brummel's reply

to the

gentleman who offered him

his carriage in a shower, "

then ? "

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

But where

what accusing

will

silences,

you

searching and irresistible speeches, battering all defenses, his

the

down

companions can remember

Mr. Thoreau dedicated tire love to

ride,

and what

fields, hills

his genius with such en-

and waters

of his native

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ;

THOREAU. town, that he all

435

made them known and

interesting to

reading Americans, and to people over the sea.

The river on whose banks he was born and died he knew from its springs to its confluence with the Merrimack. He had made summer and winter observations on of

the day and

for

many

years,

The

night.

and

at every

hour

result of the recent sur-

vey of the Water Commissioners appointed by the State of Massachusetts he

had reached by

his pri-

Every

vate experiments, several years earlier.

fact

which occurs in the bed, on the banks, or in the air over

it;

the fishes, and their spawning and nests,

manners, their food

their

;

the shad-flies which

the air on a certain evening once a year, are snapped at

by the

fishes so

of these die of repletion

;

ravenously that

many

the conical heaps of small

huge nests of small

stones on the river-shallows, the fishes,

fill

and which

one of which will sometimes

overfill

a cart

the birds which frequent the stream, heron, duck, sheldrake, loon, osprey

woodehuck and

fox,

;

hyla and cricket, which

were

all

known

the snake, muskrat, otter,

on the banks

make

to him, and, as

and fellow-creatures

;

the turtle, frog,

the banks vocal, it

were,

so that he felt

townsmen

an absurdity

or violence in any narrative of one of these by itself apart,

and

rule, or in

still

of its dimensions

the exhibition of

its

on an inch-

skeleton, or the

specimen of a squirrel or a bird in brandy.

THOREAU.

436

liked to speak of the

manners of the

river, as itself

a lawful creature, yet with exactness, and always to

an observed ponds in

fact.

As he knew

the river, so the

this region.

One of the weapons he used, more important to him than microscope or alcohol-receiyer to other investigators, was a whim which grew on him by indulgence, yet appeared in gravest statement, namely, of extolling his

own town and neighborhood

as the

most favored centre for natural observation.

remarked that the Flora of Massachusetts embraced almost

all

the important plants of America,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; most

of the oaks, most of the willows, the best pines, the ash, the maple, the beech, the nuts.

Kane's " Arctic Voyage " to a friend of

had borrowed the

it,

returned

whom

he with the remark, that " Most of

phenomena noted might be observed

cord."

seemed a

little

in Con-

envious of the Pole, for

the coincident sunrise and sunset, or five minutes'

months

a splendid

fact,

which An-

nursnuc had never afforded him.

found red

that he ex-

day

after six

snow

in one of his walks,

and

told

pected to find yet the Victoria regia in Concord.

was the attorney of the indigenous

owned

to a preference of the

plants, and

weeds to the imported

plants as of the Indian to the civilized man, and noticed, with pleasure, that the willow bean-poles of his neighbor

had grown more than

his beans,

THOREAU. "

See these weeds," he

said, "

by a million farmers

phant over such

all

and

yet have prevailed,

437

which have been hoed

spring and summer, and

just

now come

all lanes, pastures, fields

their vigor.

low names, too,

Amaranth,

have insulted them with

— as Pigweed, Wormwood,

weed, Shad-blossom."

names, too,

out trium-

and gardens,

— Ambrosia,

says, "

Chick-

They have brave Amelanchier,

Stellaria,

etc."

I think his fancy for referring everything to the

meridian of Concord did not grow out of any norance or depreciation of other longitudes or

was rather a playful expression

tudes, but •

conviction of the indifferency of all places,

of his

and that

the best place for each is_where_he stands.

expressed is

once in this wise

be hoped from you,

your feet

—

think nothing

"_I

if this bit

ig-

lati-

mould under

not sweeter to you to eat than any other

in this world, or in

any world."

The other weapon with which he conquered all obstacles in science was patience. He knew how to sit

immovable, a part of the rock he rested on,

until the bird, the reptile, the fish, tired

which had re-

from him, should come back and resume

habits, nay,

moved by curiosity,

should come

its

him

and watch him. It

him.

was a pleasure and a privilege

He knew

walk with

the country like a fox or a bird,

THOREAU.

438

and passed through

as freely

He knew every track

in the

of his own.

snow or on the ground,

and what creature had taken

One must submit

by paths

path before him.

this

abjectly to such a guide, and the

Under

reward was great.

arm he

his

old music-book to press plants

carried an

in his pocket, his

;

diary and pencil, a spy-glass for birds, microscope,

shoes, strong

smilax,

and

gray

and

to climb a tree for a

his

pool, and, it

into the pool for the water-

On the day I speak of

Menyanthes, detected

for the

had

and

hawk's or a squir-

strong legs were no insignificant

part of his armor.

that

wore a straw hat, stout

trousers, to brave scrub-oaks

He waded

rel's nest.

plants,

and twine.

jack-knife,

across

on examination of the

of all the plants that should

the wide

florets,

been in flower five days.

of his breast-pocket his diary,

he looked

decided

He drew

out

and read the names bloom on

this day,

whereof he kept account as a banker when his notes

The Cypripedium not due till to-morrow. if waked up from a trance, in this swamp, he could .tell by the plants what time The redstart of the year it was within two days. fall due.

thought that,

was flying about, and presently the whose

brilliant scarlet "

his eye,"

and whose

fine grosbeaks,

makes the rash gazer wipe

fine clear note

Thoreau com-

pared to that of a tanager which has got rid of hoarseness.

its

Presently he heard a note which he

THOREAU.

439

the night-warbler, a bird he had

palled that of

never identified, had been in search of twelve years,

which always, when he saw

down

diving

it,

vain to seek

it,

you seek in vain full it

His

upon,

like a

become

its

for, half all

your

life,

said, "

dream, and as soon as you find

you

interest in the flower or the bird lay very

by him.

defined

He would

should I ?

nections in

my mind

or valuable to

longs to

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

Nature was never attempted to be not offer a memoir of his

observations to the Natural History Society.

detach the description from

would make

me and :

Why

its

con-

no longer true

they do not wish what be-

jjisjaower of observation seemed to

it."

jndicate_additional senses^.

saw~as with micron

seope, heard as with ear-trumpet, and his

was a photographic register of

You

the family at dinner.

prey."

meaning

heard.

What

one day you

deep in his mind, was connected with Nature, the

was

should

lest life

have nothing more to show him.

seek

him he must

I told

beware of finding and booking

come

and which

the only bird which sings indiffer-

;

by night and by day.

ently

was in the act of

into a tree or bush,

And

yet none

knew

all

memory

he saw and

better than he that

ifc

not the fact that imports, but the impression or

_effecjLof_ the f aetam

your mind.

Every fact^layjn

glory in^ns mind} a type of the order

ldLthe.whole

and beauty

;

THOEEAU.

440

His determination on Natural History

ganic.

was

or-

confessed that he sometimes felt like a

hound or a panther, and, would have been a

born among Indians,

hunter.

fell

But, restrained by

game

his Massachusetts culture, he played out the

in this mild form of botany

His

and ichthyology.

intimacy with animals suggested what

Thomas

Ful-

ler records of Butler the apiologist, that " either

had told the bees things or the bees had told him." Snakes coiled round his hand,

his leg

;

and he took them

pulled the woodchuck out of

and took the foxes under hunters.

Our

naturalist

he had no secrets

find

its

hole

into

;

by the

tail

from the

had perfect magnanimity

he would carry you to the her-

most prized botanical

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; possibly knowing that you

could never

again, yet willing to take his risks. college ever offered

fessor's chair

;

him a diploma, or a

no academy made him

sponding secretary, ber.

out of the water

his protection

on's haunt, or even to his

swamp,

swam

the fishes

its

discoverer, or even its

mem-

Perhaps these learned bodies feared the

\ire of his presence.

Yet

pro-

corre-

sat-

much knowledge

Nature's secret and genius few others possessed;

none in a more large and religious

synthesis.

For

not a particle of respect had he to the opinions of

any man or body of men, but homage truth itself

;

solely to the

and as he discovered everywhere

THOREAU. among

441

doctors some leaning of courtesy,

credited them.

He grew

dis-

be revered and ad-

mired by bis townsmen, who had at

known

first

him only as an oddity. The farmers who employed

him

as a surveyor soon discovered his rare accu-

racy and

skill,'

trees, of birds,

his

knowledge of their lands, of Indian remains and the

which enabled him to

every farmer more than

tell

he knew before of his own farm to feel a little as if

in his land than he. of character

like,

;

so that he

began

Mr. Thoreau had better rights

They

the superiority

felt, too,

which addressed

all

men

with a native

authority.

Indian

relics

abound in Concord,

stone chisels, pestles,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; arrow-heads,

and fragments

of pottery;

and on the river-bank, large heaps of clam-shells and ashes mark spots which the savages frequented. These, and every circumstance touching the Indian, were important in his eyes.

Maine were

His

visits

chiefly for love of the Indian.

had

the satisfaction of seeing the manufacture of the bark-canoe, as well as of trying his hand in

agement on the rapids. the

making

was

its

man-

inquisitive about

of the stone arrow-head,

and in

his last

days charged a youth setting out for the Rocky

Mountains to find an Indian who could that

tell

him

" It was well worth a visit to California to

learn it."

Occasionally, a small party of Penob-

THOREAU.

442

would

scot Indians

tents for a few

visit

Concord, and pitch their

weeks in summer on the river-bank.

failed not to

make acquaintance with the best knew that asking ques-

of them; though he well

tions of Indians is like catechizing beavers

bits.

his last visit to

from Joseph

faction

and rab-

Maine he had great

Polis,

satis-

intelligent Indian of

Oldtown, who was his guide for some weeks.

was equally interested in every natural

The depth

of his perception

throughout Nature, and I

know

not any genius

so swiftly inferred universal law fact.

fact.

found likeness of-law

His

was no pedant of a departmenx.

eye was open to beauty, and his ear to music.

found

these, not in rare conditions,

he went. gle strains

humming

;

thought the best of music was in

sin-

in the

of the telegraph-wire.

lyric facility

had the source

but wheresoever

and he found poetic suggestion

His poetry might be b ad or

wanted a

who

from the single

frond

and technical

he no doubt skill,

but he

of poetry in his spiritual perception.

was a good reader and

critic,

on poetry was to the ground of

and

it.

his

judgment could not

be deceived as to the presence or absence of the poetic element in

for this

made him

any composition, and his

of superficial graces. icate rhythms,

thirst

negligent and perhaps scornful

would pass by many

del-

but he would have detected every

THOREAU. live stanza

443

or line in a volume, and

knew very

well

where to find an equal poetic charm in prose.

was so enamored of the spiritual beauty that he* held all actual written poems in very light esteem

He admired ^Eschylus and when some one was commending them, Pindar but, he said that ^-Eschylus and the .Greeks, in describin

comparison.

the

;

ing Apollo and Orpheus, had given no song, or no

good one.

They ought not

have moved

but to have chanted to the gods such a

would have sung heads,

trees,

hymn

their old ideas out of their

all

His own verses are often The gold does not yet run drossy and crude. The thyme and marjonot yet honey. But if he want lyric fineness J

and new ones

in."

rude and defective. pure,

ram are

anchtechnical merits,

he have not the poetic tem-

perament, he never lacks the causal thought, show-

ing that his genius was better than his talent.

knew the worth

of the Imagination for the uplifting

and consolation of human

and liked to throw The fact you tell is but only the impression. For this realife,

every thought into a symbol. of

no value,

son his presence was poetic, always piqued the curiosity to

know more deeply

He had many

reserves,

to profane eyes

what was

and knew well how experience.

the secrets of his mind.

an unwillingness to exhibit still

sacred in his own,

throw a poetic

All leaders of "

veil over his

Walden "

will

remem-

ber his mythical record of his disappointments

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

â&#x20AC;˘

;

TIIOREAU.

444

" I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse and a tur-

and

tle-dove,

travellers I

on their

still

Many

trail.

are the

have spoken concerning them, describ-

ing their tracks, and what calls they answered

to.

met one or two who have heard the hound, and the tramp of the horse, and even seen the dove disappear behind a cloud and they seemed as anxI have

;

them

ious to recover

His riddles were worth the reading, and I confide

that

any time I do not understand the expres-

Such was the wealth

sion, it is yet just.

truth that .

they had lost them them-

selves." ^

was not worth

His poem

in vain.

of his

his while to use

entitled "

Sympathy "

words

reveals

the tenderness under that triple steel of stoicism,

and the classic is

Smoke " suggests Simonides, but His bithan any poem of Simonides.

better

ography J

makes

His

intellectual subtility it could animate.

poem on

His habitual thought

his verses.

is in

all his

poetry a

hymn to

the Spirit which vivifies and

the Cause of causes,

controls his

own

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

" I hearing get,

who had but ears, who had but eyes before I moments live, who lived but years, And truth discern, who knew but learning's

And

still

sight,

Now And

in these religious lines

chiefly is

only

natal hour,

now my prime 1

Walden

or life

p. 20.

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

lore."

445

TIIOREAU. I will not doubt the love untold,

Which not my worth nor want have bought, Which wooed me young, and wooes me old,

And to

evening hath

this

brought."

Whilst he used in his writings a certain petulance of

remark in reference

churchmen,

to churches or

he was a person of a rare, tender and absolute religion,

a person incapable of any profanation, by

act or

by thought.

course, the

same

isolation

which belonged to his original thinking and living detached him from the social religious forms. is

neither to be censured nor regretted.

long ago explained

it,

when he

said, "

One who

passes his fellow-citizens in virtue is

part of the city. is

Their law

This

Aristotle sur-

no longer a

not for him, since he

a law to himself."

Thoreau was sincerity

itself,

and might

fortify

the convictions of prophets in the ethical laws his holy living.

which refused to be

by was an affirmative experience

set aside.

A truth-speaker he,

capable of the most deep and strict conversation physician to the wounds of any soul

;

a friend, know-

ing not only the secret of friendship, but almost

worshipped by those few persons who resorted to

him

as their confessor

and prophet, and knew the

deep value of his mind and great heart.

thought that without religion or devotion of some

kind nothing great was ever accomplished

and he

THOREAU.

446

thought that the bigoted sectarian had better bear this in

His

mind. sometimes ran into ex-

virtues, of course,

tremes.

was easy to trace

to the inexorable de-

mand on all for exact truth that austerity which made this willing hermit more solitary even than he wished.

Himself of a perfect probity, he

He had

quired not less of others.

re-

a disgust at it.

and

pros-

crime, and no worldly success would cover

detected paltering as readily in dignified

perous persons as in beggars, and with equal scorn.

Such dangerous frankness was

in his dealing that

him " that terrible Thoreau," as he spoke when silent, and was still present when

his admirers called if

he had departed.

I think the severity of his ideal

interfered todeprive

human society. The habit of a

him

of.

a healthy_sufficiene.y_.oi

realist to find things the reverse

of their appearance inclined

ment in a paradox.

him

defaced his earlier writings, not quite outgrown in his

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

its

diametrical oppo-

praised wild mountains and winter for-

ests for their

domestic

find sultriness,

air,

snow and

ice

he would

and commended the wilderness

resembling Rome and Paris.

you might

trick of rhetoric

later, of substituting for

the obvious word and thought site.

to put every state-

A certain habit of antagonism

call it wet."

for

" It was so dry, that

THOEEAU. The tendency

447

magnify the moment, to read

all

the laws of Nature in the one object or one combi-

nation under your eye,

of course comic to those

who do not share the philosopher's perception of identity. To him there was no such thing as size. The pond was a small ocean the Atlantic, a large Walden Pond. He referred every minute fact to cosmical laws. Though he meant to be just, he ;

seemed haunted by a certain chronic assumption that the science of the

and he had

just

day pretended completeness,

found out that the savans had neg-

lected to discriminate a particular botanical variety,

aad failed to describe the seeds or count the u That

sepals.

replied, " the blockheads

not born in Concord

but who said they were

to say,"

;

were It

was their unspeakable misfortune to be born in

London, or Paris, or

Eome

;

but,

poor fellows, they

did what they could, considering that they never

saw Bateman's

Becky Stow's

Pond, or Nine-Acre Corner, or

Swamp

;

besides,

into the world for, but to

Had been

his genius

add

what were you sent

this observation ?

been only contemplative, he had

fitted to his lif eJBuEwitE his

energy and prac-

tical^birity']ie*seemed born for great enterprise for.

command

;

and I

much

and

regret the loss of his

rare powers of action, that I cannot help counting it

a fault in him that he had no ambition.

Want-

ing this, instead of engineering for all America, he

THOREAU.

448

was the captain of a huckleberry-party. Pounding beans is good to the end of pounding empires one of these days

only beans

But

;

but

if,

end of years,

at the

it is still

these foibles, real or apparent, were fast

vanishing in the incessant growth of a spirit so robust and wise, and which effaced

new triumphs.

its

defeats with

His study of Nature was a perpet-

ual ornament to him, and inspired his friends with curiosity to see the world through his eyes,

and

They possessed every kind

hear his adventures. of interest.

He had many

elegancies of his own, whilst he

scoffed at conventional elegance.

Thus, he could

not bear to hear the sound of his own steps, the grit of gravel

;

and therefore never willingly walked

in the road, but in the grass, on mountains

woods. that

His senses were

acute,

and

and he remarked

by night every dwelling-house gives out bad

air, like

a slaughter-house.

grance of melilot.

special regard, and, over

the gentian, and the

liked the pure fra-

honored certain plants with the pond-lily,

all,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

which he

everlasting,"

and a

year when

bloomed, in the middle of July.

then,

Mihania scandens, and " life-

bass-tree

visited every

thought the scent a more oracular inquisition than the sight,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; more

oracular and trustworthy.

scent, of course, reveals

what

The

concealed from the

449

THOREAU.

other senses.

he detected earthiness.

delighted in echoes, and said they were almost/tireâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;-

only kind of kindred voices that he heard/ loved Nature so well, was so

became very jealous of

that he

work which

his dwelling.

destroying his forest.

cities

and the sad

artifices

made

The axe was always

"Thank God," he

down the

" they cannot cut

clouds

said,

" All kinds

drawn on the blue ground with

of figures are

in her solitude,

and

their refinements

man and

with

happy

this

fibrous white paint."

I subjoin a few sentences taken from his unpublished

manuscripts,

not only as records of his

thought and feeling, but for their power of descrip-

and

tion

literary excellence

Some

when you

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

circumstantial evidence

very strong, as

find a trout in the milk."

" The chub

brown paper

a soft

fish,

and

tastes like boiled

salted."

" The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple

on the earth, and, at length the middle-aged

man

concludes to build a wood-shed with them."

" The locust z-ing." " Devil's - needles

Meadow

along

the

Nut-

brook."

" Sugar

not so sweet to the palate as sound to

the healthy ear." vol. x.

zigzagging

THOREAU.

450

"I put on some

hemlock- boughs, and the rich

salt crackling of their leaves

was

mustard

the ear, the crackling of uncountable regiments.

Dead trees love the fire." " The bluebird carries the sky on his back." " The tanager flies through the green foliage 1

would ignite the leaves."

if it

" If I wish for a horse-hair for

I must go to the stable

;

compass-sight

but the hair-bird, with

her sharp eyes, goes to the road." " Immortal water, alive even to the superficies." " Fire is the most tolerable third party." " Nature

made

what she could do

show

ferns for pure leaves, to in that line."

tree has so fair a bole

and so handsome an

instep as the beech."

How

did these beautiful rainbow-tints get into

fresh-water clam, buried in the " at the bottom of our dark river ?

the shell of the

mud "

Hard

are the times

when the

infant's shoes are

second-foot."

whom

to be feared as fear.

Athe-

are strictly confined to our

men

give liberty."

" Nothing

may

ism

is so

much

comparatively be popular with

God

him-

self."

Of what

get ?

significance the things

you can

for-

A little thought is sexton to all the world."

THOREAU. "*

How

451

can we expect a harvest of thought who

have not had a seed-time of character

" Only he can be trusted with gifts

who can

pre-

sent a face of bronze to expectations."

You can

" I ask to be melted.

only ask of the

metals that they be tender to the fire that melts

them.

To nought

else

can they be tender."

known to botanists, one of the same genus with our summer plant called " LifeEverlasting," a Onaphalium like that, which grows There

a flower

on the most inaccessible

cliffs

the Tyrolese

mountains, where the chamois dare hardly venture,

and which the hunter, tempted by by

his love (for it is

its

beauty,

and

immensely valued by the

Swiss maidens), climbs the

to gather,

cliffs

and

sometimes found dead at the foot, with the flower in his hand.

by botanists the Gnapha-

It is called

lium leontopodinm, but by the Swiss Edelweisse,

which

signifies

Noble Purity.

living in the

belonged to him of right. studies proceeded gevity,

The

this plant,

scale

which

on which his

was so large as to require

and we were the

den disappearance. or in the least part, It

Thoreau seemed to

hope to gather

less

lon-

prepared for his sud-

The country knows not how great a son it has

yet, lost.

seems an injury that he should leave in the

midst his broken task which none else can

finish,

kind of indignity to so noble a soul that he should

THOREAU.

452

depart out of Nature before yet he has been really

shown is

to his peers for

content.

ciety

;

what he

is.

But

he, at least,

His soul was made for the noblest

he had in a short

bilities of this

world

wherever there

;

so-

exhausted the capa-

wherever there

is virtue,

he will find a home.

life

knowledge,

wherever there

beauty,

CARLYLE.

Hold

with the Maker, not the Made,

Sit with the Cause, or

grim or glad.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

CAELYLE.

Thomas Carlyle

an immense

talker, as ex-

traordinary in his conversation as in his writing,

I think even more

so.

not mainly a scholar, like the most of

acquaintances, but a practical Scotchman, such as

you would find in any saddler's or iron-dealer's shop,

and then only accidentally and by a

surpris-

ing addition, the admirable scholar and writer he If

is.

you would know precisely how he

suppose leisure

Hugh Whelan

talks, just

(the gardener) had found

enough in addition to

all his daily

work

read Plato and Shakspeare, Augustine and Calvin, and, remaining

Hugh Whelan

all

the time, should

talk scornfully of all this nonsense of books that he

had been bothered with, and you

shall

have just

the tone and talk and laughter of .Carlyle.

I called

him a trip-hammer with " an iEolian attachment." 1

From a

letter written soon after

Carlyle in 1848.

Read before

Mr. Emerson's

visit to

the Massachusetts Historical

Society at their meeting after the death of Carlyle, February,

1881. ner's

Published in their Proceedings, and also in " Serib-

Magazine," May, 1881.

— CARLYLE.

456

has, too, the strong religious tinge

That, and

times find in burly people. ities,

you some-

all his qual-

have a certain virulence, coupled though

be in his case with the utmost impatience of Chris-

tendom and Jewdom and of the good

happy man, hindered by

all

old story.

— profoundly men and

all

existing presentments talks like

a very un-

and

solitary, displeased

things about him, and,

biding his time, meditating

how

undermine and

explode the whole world of nonsense which tor-

ments him.

all sorts of people,

obviously greatly respected by

understands his

as well as Webster, of

whom

own

value quite

his behavior some-

times reminds me, and can see society on his

own

terms.

And, though no mortal to talk with Carlyle, who England as the Tower

in is

America could pretend also as

remarkable in

London, yet neither would

he in any manner satisfy us (Americans), or begin to

answer the questions which we ask.

a very

and would by no means bear transThey keep Carlyle as a sort of portable

national figure, plantation.

cathedral-bell,

which they like to produce in com-

panies where he

unknown, and

the surprise and consternation

set a-swinging, to

of all persons,

bishops, courtiers, scholars, writers,

companies here (in England) no introduced, great

— and,

man

named

the effect and great the inquiry,

CARLYLE.

Rawdon

Forster of

table d'hOte of

457

described to

a dinner at the

some provincial hotel where he

car-

ried Carlyle,

and where an Irish canon had uttered

something.

Carlyle began to talk,

ers,

and then to the

walls,

takably to the priest, in a the whole

and

manner

that frightened

especially those holding liberal opin-

him, but

ions, press to sec

strikes

hot to see the mathematical or

like being

Greek professor

treats

shirt

and reading German

them with contempt

;

to visit

they profess

freedom and he stands for slavery ; they praise publics

and he

Cobden and

likes the

free trade

drink water, and he

re-

Russian Czar ; they admire

and he

economy; they will

political

be-

have got their lesson. It needs something

more than a clean Lim.

to the wait-

then, lastly, unmis-

company.

Young men,

fore they

first

a protectionist in

eat

vegetables and

a Scotchman who thinks

English national character has a pure enthusiasm

and mutton,

for beef

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; describes

with gusto the

crowds of people who gaze at the sirloins in the dealer's

shop-window, and even likes the Scotch

night-cap

;

they praise moral suasion, he goes for

murder, money, capital

punishment,

pretty abominations of English

r.nd

They wish

lav/.

freedom rf the press, and he thinks the he would do, to

other

first

thing

he got into Parliament, would be

turn out the reporters, and stop

all

manner

CARLYLE.

458

mischievous speaking to Buncombe, and wind-bags.

"In

the

Long Parliament," he

says,

"the only

great Parliament, they sat secret and silent, grave as an ecumenical council, and I

would have done

and attempted

know not what they

anybody that had got

to tell out of doors

in there

what they did."

They go for free institutions, for letting things alone, and only giving opportunity and motive to every man; he for a stringent government, that shows people what they must do, and makes them " Here," he says, " the Parliament gathers

it.

six millions of

poor,

pounds every year

and yet the people

would give

starve.

to give to the

I think

they

to me, to provide the poor with labor,

make them work

and with authority

them, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and I

hanged

to be

I did not do

shoot it,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;I

could find them in plenty of Indian meal."

throws himself readily on the other

side.

you urge free trade, he remembers that every borer

a monopolist. The navigation laws of Eng-

land made

its

by the Dutch

commerce. ;

" St. John was insulted

he came home, got the law passed

that foreign vessels should pay high fees, and

cut the throat of the Dutch, and trade."

If la-

made

the English

you boast of the growth of the country,

and show him the wonderful

residts of the census,

he finds nothing so depressing as the sight of a gre'at

mob.

He saw

once, as he told me, three or

CARLYLE. four miles of airth

human

beings,

459

and fancied that " the

was some great cheese, and these were mites."

If a tory takes heart at his hatred of stump-oratory

and model

republics,

replies,

" Yes, the idea of

a pig-headed soldier who will obey orders, and

his

own father

at the

command

a great comfort to the aristocratic mind." so

much

fire

of his officer,

It is not

that Carlyle cares for this or that

dogma,

(the source of all

as that he likes genuineness

strength) in his companions.

camp men will

If a scholar goes into a

gang of

riggers, those

real

lumbermen or a

quickly detect any

Nothing will pass with them

fault of character.

but what

and sound.

this

man

mer that crushes mediocrity and pretension. tects

weakness on the instant, and touches

has a vivacious, aggressive temperament, impressionable. political

sphere,

The

a ham-

de-

it.

and un-

literary, the fashionable, the

man, each fresh from triumphs in his own comes eagerly to see this man, whose fun

they have heartily enjoyed, sure of a welcome,

His

are struck with despair at the first onset.

and

firm,

them with reminds you

victorious, scoffing vituperation strikes chill

and

His talk often

hesitation.

what was said of Johnson

fire

" If his pistol missed

he would knock you down with the butt-end."

Mere

intellectual partisanship wearies

detects in

an instant

man

stands for

him; he

any cause

CARLYLE.

460

not born and organically committed.

which he

natural defender of anything, a lover

live

and die for that which he speaks

for,

who

does not care for him or for anything but his business, he respects

if,

after Guizot

for years, he

;

and the nobler

course, the better.

now

tool of

trifler,

and

Louis Philippe

come and write essays on

the character of Washington, on "

and on " Philosophy

own

this object, of

hates a literary

had been a

will

and who

The

Beautiful,"

of History," he thinks that

nothing.

Great

his reverence for realities,

traits as spring

from the

He humors

tor.

A strong

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

for all such

intrinsic nature of the ac-

this into the idolatry of strength.

nature has a charm for him, previous,

would seem, to

all

by cannonade, every noble nature was made by

divine or diabolic.

the doctrine that

inquiry whether the force be preaches, as

God, and contains, if savage passions, also fit checks and grand impulses, and, however extravagant, will keep its orbit and return from far.

Nor can

that decorum which

the idol of the

Englishman, and in attaining which the English-

man

exceeds

sance.

all nations,

win from him any obei-

eaten up with indignation against

such as desire to make a fair show in the

Combined with

this

and, indeed, pointing

flesh.

warfare on respectabilities,

all his satire, is

the severity

;

CARLYLE. of his

moral sentiment.

461

In proportion to the peals

of laughter amid which he strips the plumes of a

pretender and shows the lean hypocrisy to every

vantage of ridicule, does he worship whatever enthusiasm, fortitude, love, or other sign of a good

nature

in a

There

man.

nothing deeper in his constitution than

humor, than the considerate, condescending

his

good-nature with which he looks at every object in existence, as feels that

man might

look at a mouse.

the perfection of health is sportiveness,

and will not look grave even at dullness or tragedy.

His guiding genius

but that

says,

land.

his

moral

sense, his percep-

importance of truth and justice

tion of the sole

a truth of character, not of catechisms.

" There

These

properly no religion in Eng-

idle nobles at Tattersall's

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; there

no work or word of serious purpose in them have this great lying Church bug." thinks the

prefers

Cambridge

and

life is

;

they

a hum-

to Oxford, but

Oxford and Cambridge education indurates

young men, as the Styx hardened Achilles, so

that

;

when they come forth

are proof;

grees,

of them, they say,

we have gone through

all

"Now

the de-

and are case-hardened against the veracities

of the Universe

;

nor

man

nor

God can

penetrate

us."

Wellington he respects as real and honest, and

;

CARLYLE.

162 as

having made up his mind, once for

will not

have to do with any kind of a

Chadwick

one of his heroes,

provide every house in

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; who

Edwin

lie.

proposes to

London with pure

water,

a penny a week

sixty gallons to every head, at

and in the decay and downfall of lyle

that he

all,

all religions,

Car-

thinks that the only religious act which a

man

nowadays can securely perform

wash himself

well.

course the

new French

revolution of 1848

was the best thing he had seen, and the teaching this great swindler,

Louis Philippe, that there

(rod's justice in the Universe, after all,

Czar Nicholas was his hero

satisfaction.

the ignominy of Europe,

card-houses,

enough to

when

all

was a great ;

for in

thrones fell like

and no man was found with conscience

fire

a gun for his crown, but every one

ran away in a coucou, with his head shaved, through the Barri^re de Passy, one lieved he

man remained who

be-

was put there by God Almighty to gov-

ern his empire, and, by the help of God, had resolved to stand there.

was very serious about the bad times ; he had seen this evil coming, but thought it would

CARLYLE.

463

poetry and such things, to address themselves to the problem of society.

This confusion

the in-

end of such falsehoods and nonsense as

evitable

they have been embroiled with. Carlyle has, best of all the

men

in England, kept

manly attitude in his time.

scholars,

has stood for

asking no scholar what he should say.

Holding an honored place in the best society, he has stood for the people, for the Chartist, for the pauper, intrepidly bles their

and scornfully teaching the no-

peremptory duties.

His errors of opinion are as nothing in comparison with this merit, in

cannot be mimicked ;

And

of the thing.

of aristocracy into society, circles

my it is

judgment.

This aplomb

the speaking to the heart

England, where the morgue

has very slowly admitted scholars

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a very few houses

only in the high

being ever opened to them,

ried himself erect,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he has

car-

made himself a power confessed

all

never feared the face of man.

men, and taught scholars their lofty duty.