Ralph Waldo Emerson - The Complete Works, Vol. III, Essays, Second Series, 1887 by gnosisclassics

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CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

]!!tbei;^ttie (iEtiition

essays:

second series

BEING VOLUME

III.

EMERSON'S COMPLETE WORKS

ESSAYS BY

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

SECOND SERIES

BetD anU

Eetoteclr C^Httton

BOSTON HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY New

York: 11 East Seventeenth Street

1887

Bt RALPH

WALDO

IIMEIISON.

UDWABD

W. EMERSON.

The Hiverside Press^ Cambridge

;

Xlectrotyped and Pruned by U. 0. Iloughton

& Co.

CONTENTS. FAOI I.

II.

The Poet

EXPEEIENCB

III.

Characteb

IV.

Manneks

47 87 115

V. Gifts VI.

151

Nature

161

VII. Politics VIII.

189

Nominalist akd Realist

'New England Eefokmers.

Lecture at

213

Amory

Hall

237

THE POET.

A moody child and wildly wise Pursued the game with joyful eyes,

Which

And

chose, like meteors, their

They

overleapt the horizon's edge.

Searched with ApoUo's privilege

Through man, and woman, and

Saw

way.

rived the dark with private ray

;

sea,

and

the dance of nature forward far

Through

worlds,

Saw musical

and

order,

races,

star

;

and terms, and times

and pairing rhymes.

Olympian bards who sung Divine ideas telow,

Which

And

alvFays find us young,

always keep us

so.

THE POET.

Those who

are esteemed umpires of taste are

often persons

who have acquired some knowledge

of admired pictures or sculptures, and have an inclination for whatever is elegant

whether they are beautiful

own

and

sensual.

but

you inquire

and whether

produce

fire, all

knowledge of the

Their cultivation

is local,

the rest remaining cold.

particulars, or

show.

Their

some study of

rules

some limited judgment of

color

fine arts is

or form, which is exercised for

amusement or for

It is a proof of the shallowness of the doc-

trine of beauty as teurs, that

it lies

men seem

in the

minds of our ama-

to have lost the perception of

the instant dependence of form upon soul. is

their

you learn that they

you should rub a log of dry wood in one spot

and

soids,

acts are like fair pictures,

are selfish

;

no doctrine of forms in our philosophy.

were put into our bodies, as to be carried about

;

fire is

but there

There

put into a pan

no accurate ad-

justment between the spirit and the organ,

much

THE POET.

10 less is the latter the

germination of the former.

in regard to other forms, the intellectual

men do

not believe in any essential dependence of the material

world on thought and volition.

think

meaning tract,

a pretty

Theologians

air-castle to talk of the spiritual

of a ship or a cloud, of a city or a con-

but they prefer to come again to the solid

and even the poets manner of living, and to write poems from the fancy, at a safe distance from their own experience. But the ground

of historical evidence;

are contented with a civil and conformed

highest minds of the world have never ceased to

explore the double meaning, or shall I say the

quadruple or the centuple or

much more manifold Orpheus, Emped-

meaning, of every sensuous fact Heraclitus,

oeles,

;

Swe-

Plutarch, Dante,

Plato,

denborg, and the masters of sculpture, picture, and poetry.

For we are not pans and barrows, nor

even porters of the dren of the

fire,

fire

made

vinity transmuted

when we know

and

least

and torch-bearers, but

it,

Time and and

its

di-

two or three removes,

about

truth, that the fountains

chil-

and only the same

it.

whence

creatures floweth

And all

this

hidden

this river of

are intrinsically

draws us to the consideration and functions of the Poet, or the man of Beauty to the means and materials he uses, and to the general aspect of the art in the ideal

beautiful,

of the nature

;

present time.

THE POET. The breadth

of the problem is great, for the poet

representative.

among

stands

partial

men

man, and apprises us not of his The young wealth, but of the common wealth. for the complete

man

reveres

men

of genius, because, to speak truly,

they are more himself than he

is.

They

receive of

Nature

the soul as he also receives, but they more.

enhances her beauty, to the eye of loving men,

from

their belief that the poet is beholding her

shows at the same time.

this consolation in his pursuits, that all

men

sooner or

and stand

later.

For

among

isolated

contemporaries by truth and by his

all

in need of expression.

they will draw

men

himself, the other half

by truth

live

In love, in

in avarice, in politics, in labor, in games,

The man

to utter our painful secret.

his

but with

art,

we study only half

his expression.

Notwithstanding this necessity to be published, adequate expression is

ity of

come 1

we need an

that

men seem

rare.

know

not

how

interpreter, but the g^eat majorto be minors,

into possession of their

who have

not yet

own, or mutes, who

cannot report the conversation they have had with nature.

There

a supersensual

and water.

man who

utility in the

does not anticipate

sun and

stars,

earth

These stand and wait to render him a

peculiar service.

But there

some obstruction or

some excess of phlegm in our constitution, which

THE POET.

does not suffer them to yield the due feeble fall the impressions of nature

artists.

Every touch should

should be so

much an

on us

make

he could report in Yet, in our

conversation what had befallen him.

have

or appulses

experience, the rays

Every man

thrill.

artist that

Too

effect.

sufficient

force to arrive at the senses, but not enough to

reach the quick and compel the reproduction

The poet

themselves in speech.

whom

these powers are in balance, the

dream

rience,

and

who

man

with-

sees

and handles that which

of, traverses

the whole scale of expe-

out impediment, others

the person in

representative of man, in virtue of

being the largest power to receive and to impart.

bom

For the Universe has three children,

one time, which reappear under different names in every system of thought, whether they be called cause, operation,

and

Jove, Pluto, Neptune the Spirit, and the

;

effect

;

or,

or, theologically,

Son

;

but which

poetically,

the Father,

will call

here the Knower, the Doer, and the Sayer.

These

stand respectively for the love of truth, for the love of good,

and for the love of beauty. These Each is that which he is, essen-

three are equal. tially, so

lyzed,

that he

cannot be surmounted or ana-

and each of these three has the power of the and his own, patent.

others latent in him,

TBE POET. The poet

beauty. tre. is

the sayer, the namer, and represents

a sovereign, and stands on the cen-

For the world

not painted or adorned, but

from the beginning beautiful

made some

alism,

the cre-

Therefore the poet

not any

Criticism

emperor in his own

infested with a cant of materi-

which assumes that manual

the

first

merit of

and do

as say

and God has not is

ator of the universe.

right.

;

beautiful things, but Beauty

permissive potentate, but

skill

and

activity

men, and disparages such

all

not, overlooking the fact thai

some

men, namely poets, are natural sayers, sent into the world to the end of expression, and confounds them with those whose province to imitate the sayers.

and admirable

costly

victories are to

action but

who

quit

But Homer's words are to

Homer

Agamemnon.

Agamemnon's

The poet does not

wait for the hero or the sage, but, as they act and

think primarily, so he writes primarily what will

and must be spoken, reckoning the

though

others,

primaries also, yet, in respect to him, secondaries

and servants

;

as sitters or models in the studio of

a painter, or as assistants rials to

who bring

building-mate-

architect.

For poetry was

all written

whenever we are so

before time was, and

penetrate into that region where the air

we hear

we can

finely organized that is

music,

those primal warblings and attempt to

THE POET.

14 write

them down, but we

lose ever

and anon a word

or a verse and substitute something of our own,

The men

and thus miswrite the poem.

down

delicate ear write fully,

these cadences

come the songs

of the nations. it is

faith-

Words and

modes

For nature

good, or as

and must as much appear as

known.

it is

reasonable,

must be done, or be

deeds are quite indifferent

of the di^dne energy.

Words

are also ac-

and actions are a kind of words.

The

sign

and credentials

announces that which no true

and these transcripts, though imperfect, be-

truly beautiful as

tions,

and only doctor

;

of the poet are that he

man

foretold.

he knows and

tells

;

the

the only teller of news, for he was present and privy to the, appearance

which he describes.

a be-

holder of ideas and an utterer of the necessary and causal. talents,

For we do not speak now of men of poetical or of industry and skill in metre, but of the

true poet.

I took part in a conversation the other

day concerning a recent writer of

lyrics,

man

whose head appeared to be a musicbox of delicate tunes and rhythms, and whose shiU subtle mind,

and command praise.

of language

was not only a

lyrist

confess that he eternal

we could

not sufficiently

But when the question arose whether he

man.

but a poet, we were obliged to

plainly a contemporary, not an

does not stand out of our low

THE POET. limitations, like a

Chimborazo iinder the

ning up from a torrid base through

line, run-

all the climates

of the globe, with belts of the herbage of every lat-

and mottled

itude on its high

ius is the landscape

sides

;

but this gen-

-garden of a modern house,

adorned with fountains and statues, with well-bred

men and women and

standing and sitting in the walks

terraces.

hear, through all the varied

music, the ground-tone of conventional Hfe.

men

poets are

of talents

who

sing,

The argument

dren of music.

and not the

Our chil-

secondary, the

finish of the verses is primary.

For

ment

not metres, but a metre-making argu-

it is

makes a poem,

that

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a thought

so passionate

and

alive that like the spirit of a plant or

mal

has an architecture of

nature with a

new

its

an ani-

own, and adorns

The thought and

thing.

the

form are equal in the order of time, but in the der of genesis the thought poet has a

new thought

rience to unfold

him, and

all

men

;

prior to the form.

or-

The

he has a whole new expe-

he wiU will

teU.

how

was with

be the richer in his fortune.

For the e:xperience of each new age requires a new confession,

and the world seems always waiting for

remember when I was young how much moved one morning by tidings that genius had appeared in a youth who sat near me at table. He had left his work and gone rambling none knew its

poet.

I was

THE POET.

had written hundreds of lines, but could not tell whether that which was in him was whither, and

therein told

How

he could

;

was changed,

gladly we listened

seemed

to be

nothing but that

tell

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; man, beast, heaven, earth how

credulous

and

Society-

We sat in the aurora

compromised.

which was to put out aU the

of a sunrise

Boston seemed to be at twice the distance

much

the night before, or was

Eorae,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; what

Rome ?

was

had

farther than that.

and Homer no more

much

It is

of.

stars. it

Plutarch and Shak-

speare were in the yellow leaf,

should be heard

all

sea.

know

that po-

etry has been written this very day, under this very

by your

roof,

What

side.

has not expired

oracles were all silent,

and behold

;

fine auroras

some

all night,

knows how much

shall

may

concern him.

put the key into

value of genius to us

Talent adds.

may

We know

profound, but who or

we know not. A new person, our hands. Of course the

be our interpreter,

mountain ramble, a new

may

Every one has

advent of the poet, and no one

that the secret of the world

what

from every pore, these

have been streaming.

interest in the

still

had fancied that the and nature had spent her

sparkling and animated

fires

that wonderful spirit

These stony moments are

frolic

Mankind

style of face, a

in the veracity of its report.

and juggle

;

genius realizes and

good earnest have availed so

far

;;

THE POET.

and

in understanding themselves

their work, that

watchman on the peak announces his word ever spoken, and the be the fittest, most musical, and the un-

the foremost

news.

It is the truest

phrase will

erring voice of the world for that time.

All that we birth of a poet

Man, never

call sacred history attests that the is

the principal event in chronology.

so often deceived, stiU watches for the

who can hold him steady to a truth until he has made it his own. With what joy I begin to read a poem which I confide in as an inspiration And now my chains are to be broken I shall mount above these clouds and opaque airs in arrival of a brother

which I ent,

live,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; opaque, though they seem transpar-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and from

and comprehend

the heaven of truth I shall see

my relations.

That

will reconcile

and renovate nature, to see trifles animated by a tendency, and to know what I am doing. to life

Life will no more be a noise

now

;

I shall see

men

and women, and know the signs by which they may be discerned from fools and satans. This day shall

my birthday then I became an animal now I am invited into the science of the real. Such is the hope, but the fruition is postponed. Ofbe better than

;

tener

faUs that this winged man,

me into the and

heaven, whirls

frisks about with

me as

who

will carry

into mists, then leaps

cloud, stiU affirming that he is

were from cloud

bound heavenward

TEE POET.

and

being myself a novice,

know

that he does not is

the

slow in perceiving

way into

the heavens, and

merely bent that I should admire his

like a fowl or a flying fish,

ground or the water ing,

and ocular

nooks, and lead the

and have guide

lost

who can

sldll to rise,

way from

heaven that

man

down again soon

I tumble

inhabit.

little

the

but the all-piercing, all-feed-

;

air of

life

shall never

into

old

of exaggerations as before,

faith in the possibility of

lead

thither where I

would

any be.

But, leaving these victims of vanity, let us, with

new

hope, observe

how

nature,

by worthier im-

pulses, has insured the poet's fidelity to his office

announcement and affirming, namely by the

new and

beauty of things, which becomes a beauty when expressed. tures to

him

Nature

offers

higher

aU her

;

crea-

Being used as

as a picture-language.

a type, a second wonderful value appears in the object,

far better than

ter's stretched

enough,

its

cord, if

old value

as the carpen-

;

you hold your ear

" Things more

musical in the breeze.

excellent than every image," says Jamblichus, " are (

expressed through images."

Things admit of be-

ing used as symbols because nature the whole,

draw

and

in every part.

Every

in the sand has expression

body without

its spirit

effect of character

;

or genius.

;

a symbol, in line

we can

and there

All form

all condition, of

the quality of

;

THE POET. the life

all

;

harmony, of health

;

and for

this rea-

son a perception of beauty should be sympathetic, or proper only to the good.

The

the foundations of the necessary.

beautiful rests on

The

the body, as the wise Spenser teaches " So every

soul

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

makes

spirit, as it is

And

hath in

the fairer

more pure. more of heavenly

the

light,

body doth procure

To habit in, and it more fairly dight, With cheerful grace and amiable sight. For, of the soul, the body form doth take,

For

Here we

soul

form, and doth the body make."

find ourselves suddenly not in a critical

speculation but in a holy place,

warily and reverently.

of the world, there where

and should go very

stand before the secret

Being passes into Appear-

ance and Unity into Variety.

The Universe is the externization of the soul. Wherever the life is, that bursts into appearance around it. Our science is sensual, and therefore The earth and the heavenly bodies, superficial. physics, and chemistry, we sensually treat, as if they were that

self-existent

Being we have.

Proelus,

" exhibits,

;

" in

but these are the retinue of

The mighty heaven," its

said

transfigurations, clear

images of the splendor of intellectual perceptions being

moved

in conjunction with the unapparent

periods of intellectual natures."

Therefore science

;

THE POEr.

always goes abreast with

just elevation of the

tlie

man, keeping step with religion and metaphysics or the state of science

moral power,

dark

an index of our self-knowl-

Since every thing in nature answers to a

edge.

it is

observer

any phenomenon remains brute and

because the corresponding faculty in the

not yet active.

No wonder

then,

these waters be so deep, that

we hover over them with a

The

religious regard.

beauty of the fable proves the importance of the sense; to the poet,

and

aU others;

please, every

man

tible of these

enchantments of nature

or, if

you

so far a poet as to be suscep-

for all

;

have the thoughts whereof the universe

men

the cele-

bration.

I find that the fascination resides in the

symbol.

Who

only poets, and

who

with her ?

live

Who

loves nature ?

men

of leisure ;

does not ?

and

cultivation,

but also hunters, farmers,

grooms, and butchers, though they express their affection in their choice of life

The

of words.

and not in

writer wonders

their choice

what the coachman

or the hunter values in ridiug, in horses and dogs. It is not superficial qualities.

him he holds these worship he

sympathetic

commanded

which he

feels to

When

you talk with His

at as slight a rate as you. ;

he has no

in nature

definitions,

by the

be there present.

living

but

power

imitation or

playing of these things would content him ; he loves

THE POET.

the earnest of the north wind, of rain, of stone,

wood, and

iron.

beauty not explicable

and

dearer

than a beauty which we can see to the end

of.

nature the symbol, nature certifying the super-

natural,

body overflowed by

which he worships

life

with coarse but sincere rites.

The inwardness and mystery drive

The

men

of this attachment

of every class to the use of emblems.

schools of poets

and philosophers are not more

intoxicated with their symbols than the populace

In our political parties, compute the

'with theirs.

power

of badges

and emblems.

See the great ball

which they roU from Baltimore to Bunker HLLL!

^n the

jiolitical processions,

and Lynn

in a shoe,

LoweU

goes in a loom,

and Salem in a

Witness

ship.

the cider-barrel, the log-cabin, the hickory-stick, the palmetto, and

power

all

See the

the cognizances of party.

of national emblems.

Some

stars,

lilies,

leopards, a crescent, a lion, an eagle, or other figure "which

came

into credit

God knows how, on an

rag of bunting, blowing in the wind on a the ends of the earth, shall

make

the blood tingle

under the rudest or the most conventional

The people fancy they hate

old

fort at

poetry,

exterior.

and they are aU

poets and mystics

Beyond this

universality of the symbolic language,

are apprised of the divineness of this superior

'use of things,

whereby the world

a temple whose

THE POET.

walls are covered with emblems, pictures,

mandments

the Deity, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in

;

and com-

there

is no(

which does not carry the whole sense

fact in nature

of nature

this, that

and the

distinctions

which we make

iii*!

events and in affairs, of low and high, honest and

when nature

base, disappear

Thought makes everything

fit

and images excluded from scene,

The vocabl

for use.

man would embrace

ulary of an omniscient

What

used as a symbol.

word^.

conversationj

polite

would be base, or even obscene, to the ob^ becomes

illustrious,

spoken in a new connec-l

Hebrew prophets] The circumcision is an exr ample of the power of poetry to raise the low and ofPensive. Small and mean things serve as well a's great symbols. The meaner the type by which thfe law is expressed, the more pungent it is, and th tion of thought.

The

piety of the

purges their grossness.

sS,

lasting in the

memories of men

;

just as wii

choose the smallest box or case in which any needJful

utensil

can be carried.

Bare

lists

of words

are found suggestive to an imaginative and

mind;

as it is related of

accustomed

was preparing

to speak in Parliament.

enough for

expressing thought. facts?

Lord Chatham thathewajs

read in Bailey's Dictionary when he

est experience is rich

new

exeiterll

Day and

few books, a few

Why

all

The poor-

the purposes of

covet a knowledge

night, house

o'f

and garden, d

actions, serve us as well as would!

THE POET. all

trades

and

spectacles.

all

are far from

having exhausted the significance of the few symbols

use.

can come to use them yet with a

terrible simplicity.

It does not

need that a poem

should be long. Every word was once a poem. Every new relation is a new word. Also we use

and deformities

defects

to a sacred purpose, so ex-

pressing our sense that the evils of the world are

such only to the

In the old mythology,

eTnl eye.

mythologists observe, defects are ascribed to divine natures, as lameness to Vulcan, blindness to Cupid,

and the

like,

For as Life of

— to signify

it is

God

dislocation

exuberances.

and detachment from the

makes things

that

re-attaches things to nature

attaching even

artificial

ugly, the poet,

and the Whole,

who

—

re-

things and violations of

nature, to nature,

by a deeper

yei-y easily of the

most disagreeable

insight,

ers of poetry see the faetory-vUlage

— disposes Read-

facts.

and the

rail-

Way, and fancy that the poetry of the landscape

broken up by these; for these works of art are not yet consecrated in their reading ; but the poet sees tiiem fall within the great Order not less than the tieehive or the spider's geometrical web.

adopts them very fast into her vital

circles,

Nature

and the

gliding train of cars she loves like her own. sides, in

a centred mind,

many mechanical

signifies

inventions you exhibit.

Be-

how Though

nothing

THE POET.

24 you add

millions,

and never

so- surprising, the fact

The'

of meclianics has not gained a grain's weight. spiritual fact remains unalterable,

few

pai-ticulars

;

no mountain

by many or byl of any appreci-

able height to break the curve of the sphere.

shrewd country-boy goes time, and

with

to the city for

the complacent citizen

his little

wonder.

see all the fine houses

It is not that

the

A. firsl;

not satisfied

he does not

and know that he never

saw'

such before, but he disposes of them as easily as the poet finds place for the railway.

value of the

new

fact is to

The

chief

enhance the great an4

constant fact of Life, which can dwarf any

every circumstance, and to which the belt of

pum and

the commerce of America are alike.

and

warn-'1

The world being thus put under the mind foij* is he who can articulate iti, For though life is great, and fascinates and absorbs and though aU men are intelligent of the symbols through which it is named; yet they cannot origiverb and noun, the poet

;;

nally use them. bols

;

birth

We are

symbols and inhabit sym^-

workmen, work, and and death,

all

are

thize with the symbols,

tools,

emblems but we sympa<and being infatuated with. ;

the economical uses of things,

they are thoughts.

The

poet,

we do not know that by an idterior intel-

them a power which makes and puts eyes and a tongue

lectual perception, gives

their old use forgotten,

words and things,

TEE POET.

into every

dumb and

inanimate object.

on the sym-

ceives the independence of the thought

bol, the stability of the thought, the accidency

fugaeity of the symbol.

per-

and

the eyes of Lyncaeus

were said to see through the earth, so the poet turns the world to glass, and shows us all things in their right series :

and procession.

bet-

one step nearer to things,

and

metamorphosis

sees the flowing or

that thought

For through that

ter perception he stands

every creature

higher form

iuses

multiform is

;

perceives

;

that within the

a force impelling

and following with

the forms which express that

form of

to ascend into

his eyes the life, life,

and so

Speech flows with the flowing of nature.

his

All the

facts of the animal economy, sex, nutriment, gestation, birth, growth, are

symbols of the passage of

lie world into the soul of man, to suffer there a (phange and reappear a

new and higher

hses forms according to the tio

the form.

This

life,

fact.

and not according

The poet

true science.

alone

Itnows astronomy, chemistry, vegetation and animation, for

them

he does not stop at these

as signs.

facts,

of space was strown with these flowers

and moons and \vith

stars

;

why the

^vord he speaks he rides on

great deep

animals, with men, and gods

thought.

but employs

He knows why the plain or meadow

them

;

call suns

adorned

for in every

as the horses of

THE POET.

I I

virtue of

tHs science the poet

the

Namer

naming things sometimes

or Language-maker,

after

their appearance, sometimes after their essence,

giving to every one

its

own name and not

thereby rejoicing the

The

words, and therefore language

and

another's,

which delights

intellect,

detachment or boundary.

poets is

made

in'

all the',

the archives of:

we must say it, a sort of tomb of; For though the origin of most of our, the muses. words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke'

history, and, if

of genius,

and obtained currency because

for the;

moment

symbolized the world to the

speaker)

and

to the hearer.

est

word

Language

The etymologist

have been once a

poetry.

is fossil

first

finds the deadj

brilliant picture*

the limestone of

thfe

continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so language tropes,

made up

images

But the

ceased to remind us of their poetic origin. poet names the thing because he sees

one step nearer to sion or

naming

grown out

call

oi-

which now, in their secondary use, have lon^

than any other.

it,

or comei^

This expres-

but a second

nature,,

of the first, as a leaf out of a tree.

What

nature

not

art,

a certain self-regulated motion or

change; and nature does

all

things

by her own

hands, and does not leave another to baptize her

but baptizes herself morphosis again. described

;

and this through the metaremember that a certain poet

thus

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

TEE POET. Genius

and

the activity which repairs the decays

of things,

whether wholly or partly of a material Nature, through all her king-

finite kind.

Nobody cares for planting she shakes down from the gills

doms, insures herself. the poor fungus

;

any one of which,

of one agaric countless spores,

being preserved, transmits new billions of spores

The new

'to-morrow or next day.

old one had not.

(hour has a chance which the jThis

atom

of seed

agaric of this

thrown into a new place, not

subject to the accidents which destroyed

'two rods Ibrought :risk

him

She makes a man

to ripe age, she will

of losing this

|;aches sliafe

off.

from him a new to

So when the

it its

self,

that the kind

soul of the poet has

poems or songs, is

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

JDarry

and

far,

fearless, sleepless,

;

a fearless,

wings (such was the

which they came) which

and

iblyjnto the hearts of men. jbeauty of the poet's soul.

come

ex-

not exposed to the acci-

(vivacious offspring, clad with (virtue of the soul out of

and sends away

dents of the weary kingdom of time

fast

may be

which the individual

keathless progeny, which

them

parent

no longer run the

ripeness of thought, she detaches

from

its

and having

wonder at a blow, but she de-

from accidents

posed.

;

infix

them

irrecovera-

These wings are the

The

songs, thus flying

/immortal from their mortal parent, are pursued by

clamorous flights of censures, which swarm in fai

}

THE POET.

28 greater numbers

and threaten

these last are not winged. short leap they fall

to devour

them

but

;

the end of a very

plump down and

having

rot,

eeived from the souls out of which they

re-

came no |

beautiful wings.

But the melodies

of the poet as-|

cend and leap and pierce into the deeps of

infinite

time.

far the bard taught me,

using his

freeri'

But natiu'e has a higher end, in the pro4 duction of new individuals, than security, namely'> speech.

ascension, or the passage of the soul into higheri

I knew in my yoimger days the sculptoi who made the statue of the youth which stands in.

forms.

the public garden. to tell directly

was, as I remember, unable

what made him happy or unhappy,

but by wonderful indirections he could rose one day, according

tell.

his habit, before the

dawn, and saw the morning break, grand as the eternity out of which after,

came, and for

many

had fashioned out of marble the form

his chisel

a beautiful youth. Phosphorus, whose aspect that

days

be strove to express this tranquillity, and lo

such

said aU persons who look on it become The poet also resigns himself to his mood

silent.

and that thought which agitated him

but alter idem, in a manner totally new. pression

organic, or the

expressed,

The exnew type which things

THE POET. themselves take jects paint their

when

liberated.

29 As, in the sun, ob-

images on the retina of the eye, so

they, sharing the aspiration of the whole universe,

tend to paint a far more delicate copy of their

Like the metamorphosis of

sence in his mind.

things into higher organic forms

;

their change

Over everything stands

into melodies.

or soul, and, as the form of the thing

by the

damon

its

is reflected

by a

eye, so the soul of the thing is reflected

melody. The

sea, the

es-

mountain-ridge, Niagara, and

every flower-bed, pre-exist, or super-exist, in pre-cantations,

which

odors in the

sail like

any man goes by with an ear

air,

and when

sufficiently fine,

overhears them and endeavors to write

down the

notes without diluting or depraving them.

And

laerein is the legitimation of criticism, in the mind's

faith that the

poems are a corrupt version of some

text in nature with which they ought to be

A rhyme

tally.

made

in one of our sonnets should not

be less pleasing than the iterated nodes of a sea^ shell, or the â&#x20AC;˘flowers.

resembling difference of a group of

The pairing

of the birds

tedious as our idyls are

;

a tempest

without falsehood or rant

;

Why ,

idyl,

not

a rough ode,

a summer, with

harvest sown, reaped, and stored,

subordinating

is is

its

an epic song,

how many admirably executed

parts.

should not the symmetry and truth that mod-

ulate these, glide into our spirits,

pate the invention of nature

and we

partici-

THE POET.

This insight, which expresses called Imagination,

itself

by what

a very high sort of seeing,

which does not come by study, but by the being where and what

sees

;

intellect

by sharing the path making

or circuit of things through forms, and so

them translucid

Will they

silent.

A spy they will

suffer a speaker to

not suffer

transcendency of their

The

suffer.

The path

to others.

nature,

thej

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; him they wiU'

condition of true naming, on the poet'd

himself to the divine aura

part, is his resigning

which breathes through forms, and accompanying; that.

;

a secret which

ma4

every intellectual

quickly learns, that beyond the energy of his possessed

and conscious

energy (as of an

intellect

of a

is cp^pable

doubled on

new

itself), bjk

abandonment

to the nature of things

his privacy of

power as an individual man, there

;

that besides i?i

a great public power on which he can draw, by unlocking, at all risks, his

human

the ethereal tides to roll

and

then he

his speech is thunder, his

doors,

and

sufferiujfV

circulate through

caught up into the

life of

thought

him

the Universe;, law,

and his

and The poet knows that he speaks adequately then only when he speaks somewhat wildly, or " with the flower of the mind " not with the itt\ words are universally

intelligible as the plants

animals.

;

iS'

go with them?'

a lover, a poet,

;

own

of things

THE POET.

tellect

used as an organ, but with the intellect

leased

from

rection

all service

from

its

and suffered

celestial life; or as the ancients

were wont to express themselves, not with alone but with the intellect inebriated

the traveller

re-

to take its di-

who has

reins on his horse's neck

lost his

and

intellect

nectar.

way throws

his

trusts to the instinct

of the animal to find his road, so

must we do with

the divine animal who carries us through this world.

For

any manner we can stimulate

if ia

new

this instinct,

passages are opened for us into nature

mind

flows into

highest,

This

and the metamorphosis is

;

the

and tlirough things hardest and

the reason

why

is possible.

bards love wine, mead,

narcotics, coffee, tea, opium, the

fumes of sandal-

wood and tobacco, or whatever other procurers of animal exhilaration.

All

men

avail themselves of

such means as they can, to add this extraordinary

power

to their

normal powers

;

and

to this

end they

prize conversation, music, pictures, sculpture, dancing, theatres, travelling, war, mobs, fires, gaming, politics, or love, or science, or

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which are several

animal intoxication,

coarser or finer g'Masi-mechan-

ical substitutes for the true nectar,

ishment of the fact.

intellect

These are auxiliaries

dency of a man,

which

the rav-

by coming nearer

to the

to the centrifugal ten-

to his passage out into free space,

and they help him to escape the custody of that body

THE POET.

32 in

which he

pent up, and of that jail-yard of

dividual relations in which he

enclosed.

in-

Hence

a great number of such as were professionally expressors of Beauty, as painters, poets, musicians,

and a

actors,

who

have been more than others wont to lead

pleasure and indulgence

life of

received the true nectar

rious

mode

;

all

and, as

of attaining freedom, as

but the few

was a

spu-i

was an eman-i

cipation not into the heavens but into the freedom of baser places, they were punished for that advan-'

tage they won, by a dissipation and deterioration!

But never can any advantage be taken of nature by trick. The spirit of the world, the great eabn

presence of the Creator, comes not forth to the

opium or of wine.

ceries of

comes

to the

sor-r

vision

pure and simple soul in a clean and

That

chaste body.

The sublime

owe

to narcotics, but

and

fury.

not an inspiration, which we-

some counterfeit excitement.

Milton says that the lyric poet

may

drink wine and live generously, but the epic poet,

he who shall sing of the gods and their descend; unto men, must drink water out of a wooden bowl'i

For poetry It is

not

with this as

Devil's wine,' but God's wine;

it is

with toys.

and nurseries of our children with dolls,

drums, and horses

from the plain face and the sun,

;

the hands manner of

fill

all

withdrawing their eyes

sufficing objects of nature,

and moon, the animals, the water, and^

;

THE POET.

So the

stones, â&#x20AC;˘which should he their toys.

poet's

habit of living should be set on a key so low that

common

the

influences

should

air

suffice for his inspiration,

be tipsy with water.

His

should delight him.

cheerfulness should be the gift of the sunlight

That

spirit

;

the

and he should which suffices

quiet hearts, which seems to come forth to such ifrom every dry knoll of sere grass, from every pine-

(stump and half-imbedded stone on which the dull f^''^arch

sun shines, comes forth to the poor and hun-

and such as are

of simple taste.

t,ny

brain with Boston and

ijon

and covetousness, and

s-enses

New York,

If thou

fill

with fash-

wilt stimulate thy jaded

with wine and French coffee, thou shalt find

40 radiance of wisdom in the lonely waste of the pinewoods. '

If the imagination intoxicates the poet,

iiji

the

it is

The metamorphosis beholder an emotion of joy. The

iiiiactive

in other men.

not

excites

use of

symbols has a certain power of emancipation and

aU men. We seem to be touched by a wand which makes us dance and run about hBppUy, like children. We are like persons who come out of a cave or cellar into the open air. exhilaration for

'this is the effect

and gods.

all poetic

Men

trithin their

on us of tropes,

forms.

fables, oracles,

Poets are thus liberating

have really got a new sense, and found world another world, or nest of worlds

;

TBE POET.

metamorpLosis once seen, we divine that

for, the

ics,

now

I will not

does not stop. this

how much

consider

makes the charm of algebra and the mathemat which also have their tropes, but

every definition

;

when

is felt ii.

Aristotle defines spac

an immovable vessel in which things are

to be

tained ;

— or when Plato

ing point

;

bound of

or figure to be a

who does not know something Socrates,

soul is cured of

solid

;

of freedoni

old opinioii

no architect can buUd any house

of artists that

When

conl

defines a line to be a flow^

many the like. What a joyful sense we have when Vitruvius announces the well

Itj

of anatomy.

in Charmides, tells us that thle

its

maladies by certain incantationk

and that these incantations are beautiful reasons, from which temperance

generated in souls;

when

Plato calls the world an animal, and Timseus affirms that the plants also are animals

man

be a heavenly

which

his head,

tree,

upward

man, following him,

writes,

;

growing with

affirnJis

his rocit,

and, as George Chap-

—

)

" So in our tree of man, whose nervie root

Springs in his top

;

—

when Orpheus speaks of hoariness as "that white flower which marks extreme old age " when Pfro;

clus calls the universe the statue of the intelleat

when Chaucer,

in his praise of

Gentilesse,'

com-

THE POET. pares good blood in

though carried

mean

condition to

mount of Caucasus, wUl yet hold

land the

ral office and

]men did

bum

behold

as bright as if

when John

;

its

from heaven as the

untimely fruit ; when alogue of

common

^sop

saw, in the Apoca-

and the

figtree casteth

her

reports the whole cat-

daily relations through the mas-

querade of birds and beasts fjul

natu-

twenty thousand

lypse, the ruin of the world through evil, Stars fall

wMch,

fire,

to the darkest house betwixt this

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we take the cheer-

hint of the immortality of om- essence and

v^ersatUe habit

its

and escapes, as when the gypsies say

of themselves "it

in vain to

hang them, they

cknnot die."

The British

The

ancient

of their

order,

poets are thus liberating gods.

bards had for the

title

Those who are free throughout the world." "i

They make free. An imaginative book renders us much more service at first, by stimulating us through its tropes, than afterward when we arrive at the precise sense of the author. I are free, and they

think nothing

of any value in books excepting

the transcendental and extraordinary.

If a

man

inflamed and carried away by his thought, to that

degree that he forgets the authors and the public

aÂťd heeds only like

this

insanity, let

one dream which holds him

read his paper, and you

^nay have all the arguments and histories and I

criti-

;

THE POET.

All the value which attaches to Pythagoras,]

cism.

Agrippa, Cardan, Kepler,

Paracelsus, Cornelius

Swedentorg, Schelling, Oken, or any other who

in-

troduces questionable facts into his cosmogony,

asi

mesmer we have of depar here is a new witnessL

angels, devils, magic, astrology, palmistry,

ism, and so on,

the certificate

ture from routine,

That

and that

also is the best success in conversation, thi

magic of

liberty,

which puts the world

How

in our hands.

like a baP.

cheap even the liberty theii

seems ; how mean to study, when an emotion contmunicates to the intellect the power to sap and

heave nature

;

how

great the perspective

times, systems, enter

and disappear

tapestry of large figure delivers us to dream, lasts

and many

like threads ip

colors

;

dreaHi

and while the drunkenness

will sell our bed, our philosophy, our

ligion, in

There

ujji-

nations.,

rifi-

our opulence. is

The

liberation.

good reason why we should prize th/s of

fate

the poor shepherd, whi),

blinded and lost in the snow-storm, perishes in a drift within

emblem

waters of

The

a few feet of his cottage door,

of the state of life

and

man.

truth,

the brink of

^n tlie

are miserably dying.

inaccessibleness of every thought but that vfe

are in,

wonderful.

What

you come near to

you are as remote when you are nearest as whdn

you are

farthest.

Every thought

also

a prison

THE POET. every heaven

37 Therefore we love

also a prison.

who

the poet, the inventor,

any form, whether

an ode or in an action or in looks and behavior

has yielded us a new thought.

new

chains and admits us to a

This emancipation

power

to impart

it,

dear to

is it

Therefore

d'ure, all

all

a measure of

which ascend

to that truth that the writer

and uses

as his expo-

Every verse or sentence possessing

tue will take care of

its

own

immortality.

this vir-

The

ligions of the world are the ejaculations of inrlaginative I

But the

re-

a few

men.

quality of the imagination

The poet did not

noit to freeze.

or ,the form, but read their hej rest in this

to flow,

and

stop at the color

meaning

;

neither

may

meaning, but he makes the same ob-

jects exponents of his dil

intel-

books of the imagination en-

sees nature beneath him,

nent.

men, and the

all

must come from ^eater

depth and scope of thought, It'jct.

unlocks our

scene.

new thought.

Here

the

ference betwixt the poet and the mystic, that the

las t nails

a symbol to one sense, which was a true

senise for

a moment, but soon becomes old and

false. is

For

(vehicular

and horses

all

symbols are fluxional

and

transitive,

are, for conveyance,

hohises are, for homestead. tlpe

and

;

all

language

good, as ferries

not as farms and

Mysticism consists in

mistake of an accidental and individual symbol

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; THE POET.

The morning-redness hap-

for an universal one.

pens to be the favorite meteor to the eyes of Jacob

Behmen, and comes faith

;

him

to stand to

and

for truth

and, he believes, should stand for the sarnie

realities to

But the

every reader.

first

reader pre-

fers as naturally the symbol of a mother and child,

or a gardener

a gem.

and

his bulb, or a jeweller polishing

Either of these, or of a myriad more,

equally good to the person to nificant.

whom

Only they must be held

aije

they are sig-

lightly,

and ne

very wUlingly translated into the equivalent ternps

which others told,

use.

And

the mystic must be steadily

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; All that you say

is just

as true without t|ie

tedious use of that symbol as with

little

Let us ha|ve

it.

algebra, instead of this trite rhetoric,

universal signs, instead of these village symbols, J

and we

shall

both be gainers.

The

history

show that all religious error making the symbol too stark and soiid,

hierarchies seems to consisted in

and was

at last nothing but

an excess of the org;an

of language.

Swedenborg, of

all

men

in the recent ages, star ids

eminently for the translator of nature into thoug ht. I do not

know

the

man

in history to

stood so uniformly for words.

metamorphosis continually plays.

which his eye nature.

The

rests, figs

whom

things

Before him Ihe

Everything on

obeys the impulses of mo: I'al

become grapes whilst he

eEjts

THE POET.

When

them.

some of

his angels affirmed a truth,

the laurel twig which they held blossomed in their

The

hands. like

appeared

noise which at a distance

gnashing and thumping, on coming nearer was

found

The men

be the voice of disputants.

one of his visions, seen in heavenly Hght, appeared like dragons,

and seemed in darkness

other they appeared as

;

but to each

men, and when

from heaven shone into

they com-

cabin,

their

the light

plained of the darkness, and were compelled to shut the

window that they might

There was

the poet or seer an object of

man

same

ly that the

see.

him which makes

this perception in

awe and

or society of

terror,

name-

men may wear

one aspect to themselves and their companions,

and a

different aspect to higher intelligences.

tain priests,

whom

Cer-

he describes as conversing very

learnedly together, appeared to the children

were at some distance, like dead horses the like misappearances.

And

;

who

and many

mind

instantly the

inquires whether these fishes under the bridge, yon-

der oxen in the pasture, those dogs in the yard, are

immutably to

fishes,

oxen, and dogs, or only so appear

me, and perchance to themselves appear upright

men

;

and whether I appear as a man

eyes.

The Bramins and Pythagoras propounded the same question,

and

any poet has witnessed the

formation he doubtless found

trans-

harmony with

TEE POET.

40 various experiences.

"We have

all seen

considerable in wheat and caterpillars.

changes as

the

poet and shall draw us with love and terror,

who

sees through the flowing vest the firm nature,

and

can declare

it.

I look in vain for the poet

whom

I describe.

do not with sufficient plainness or sufficient

profoundness address ourselves to

life,

nor dare we

chaunt our own times and social circumstance.

filled

the day with

shrink from celebrating us

many

religion,

bravery,

Time and nature

it.

we should not yield

but not yet the timely man, the new

gifts,

the reconciler,

Dante's praise

whom aU

things

await.

that he dared to write bis auto-

biography in colossal cipher, or into universality.

have yet had no genius in America, with tyran-

nous eye, which knew the value of our incomparable materials,

and saw,

the barbarism and

materialism of the times, another carnival of the

same gods whose picture he so much admires

Homer

;

then in the Middle

Age

;

then in Calvin-

Banks and tariffs, the newspaper and caucus, Methodism and Unitarianism, are flat and dull to

ism.

dull people, but rest

wonder

as the

on the same foundations of

town of Troy and the temple of Del-

phi,

and are as swiftly passing away.

ing,

our stumps and their

politics,

Our

logroll-

our fisheries

our Negroes and Indians, our boats and our repu-

THE POET. diations, the

wrath of rogues and the pusillaniTnity

of honest men, the northern trade, the southern

Oregon and Texas,

planting, the western clearing, are. yet

eyes

its

;

and

Yet America

unsung.

a poem in our

ample geography dazzles the imagination,

will not wait long for metres.

found that excellent combination of

countrymen which I

gifts in

seek, neither could I aid

self to fix the idea of the poet

my my-

by reading now and

then in Chalmers's collection of

English poets.

If I have not

five centuries of

These are wits more than poets,

though there have been poets among them.

But we have our difficulties even with Milton and Homer. Milton is too literary, and Homer too literal and his-

when we adhere

to the ideal of the poet,

torical.

But I am not wise enough for a national critiand must use the old largeness a little longer,

cism,

to discharge

concerning his

Art

errand from the muse to the poet

art.

the path of the creator to his work.

The

paths or methods are ideal and eternal, though few

men

ever see them

;

not the artist himself for years,

or for a lifetime, unless he come into the conditions.

The

painter, the sculptor, the composer, the epic

rhapsodist, the orator, all partake one desire,

namely and abundantnot dwarfishly and fragmentarily. They found

to express themselves symmetrically ly,

THE POET.

or put themselves in certain conditions, as, the

human

painter and sculptor before some impressive figures

ple

;

the orator, into the assembly of the peo-

and the others in such scenes

;

found exciting feels the

new

to his intellect

desire.

Then he

beckoning.

hears a voice, he sees a

rest;

it is

with wonder,

apprised,

can no

he says, with the old painter, "

By God

pursues

what herds of deemons hem him

each has

and each presently

;

me and must go

in.

forth of me."

a beauty, half seen, which

flies

The Most of

before him.

poet pours out verses in every solitude.

the things he says are conventional, no doubt

by and by he says something which

That charms him.

beautiful.

;

but

original

and

would say noth-

ing else but such things.

In our way of talking

we say That is knows well that

it is

and beautiful

him

yours, this

not his as to

you

the like eloquence at length. this

;

mine that ;

;

but the poet as strange

he would fain hear

Once having

tasted

immortal ichor, he cannot have enough of

and as an admirable creative power intellections, it is of the last

things get spoken. said

it is

What

are baled

are exposed,

Hence the

What

drops of

importance that these little of

many

necessity of

aU we know

all the sea of

and by what accident

when

it,

exists in these

our science

it is

that these

secrets sleep in nature

speech and song

;

hence

THE POET.

and heart-beatings in the orator, at the door of the assembly, to the end namely that these throts

thought

may be

Doubt

not,

me, and shall stuttering

and

ejaculated as Logos, or

Word.

Say 'It is ia balked and dumb,

poet, but persist.

out.'

Stand there,

and stammering, hissed and hooted, stand

strive, until at last

rage draw out of thee that

dream-T^owQV which every night shows thee

own

a power transcending

;

all limit

and by virtue of which a man

arise

Nothing walks, or

to that power, his genius

longer exhaustible.

which must not in turn

and walk before him as exponent of his mean-

Comes he

ing.

the conductor of

the whole river of electricity. creeps, or grows, or exists,

thine

and privacy,

All the creatures by pairs and

pour into his mind as into a Noah's ark,

tribes

new

come forth again

like the stock of air for our respiration or for

to people a

the combustion of our fireplace gallons, but the entire

atmosphere

therefore the rich poets, as speare, their

;

not a measure of if

and Raphael, have obviously no

resemble a mirror carried through the

O and

poet

And

wanted.

Homer, Chaueer, Shak-

works except the limits of their

to render

This

world.

limits to

lifetime, street,

and

ready

an image of every created thing. !

a new nobility

pastures,

and not in

blade any longer.

The

conferred in groves

castles or

by the sword-

conditions are hard, but

THE POET.

Thou shalt leave the world, and know the Thou shalt not know any longer the

equal.

muse

only.

men,

times, customs, graces, polities, or opinions of

For the time

but shalt take aU from the muse.

towns

from the world by funereal chimes,

tolled

but in nature the universal hours are counted by succeeding tribes of animals and plants, and by

growth of joy on

joy.

dicate a manifold

God

wills also that thou ab-

and duplex

life,

and that thou be Others shall

content that others speak for thee.

be thy gentlemen and shall represent

and worldly

life for

thee

and resounding actions

;

all

courtesy

others shall do the great

also.

Thou

shalt lie close

hid with nature, and canst not be afforded to the Capitol or the Exchange.

The world is full of leand this is thine

nuneiations and apprenticeships,

;

thou must pass for a fool and a churl for a long season.

Pan has shalt

This

the screen

and sheath

which

protected his well-beloved flower, and thou

be known only to thine own, and they shall

console thee with tenderest love.

And

thou shalt

not be able to rehearse the names of thy friends in

thy verse, for an old shame before the holy ideal.

And

this is the

to thee,

shall fall like

some

reward ; that the ideal shall be

real

and the impressions of the actual world

summer

rain, copious,

to thy invulnerable essence.

the whole land for thy park

but not trouble-

Thou

shalt

have

and manor, the sea

for

THE POET.

thy bath and navigation, without tax and without

envy

;

the woods and the rivers thou shalt own,

and thou shalt possess that wherein others are only

Thou true land-lord seaWherever snow falls or water flows or birds fly, wherever day and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue heaven is hung by tenants and boarders. lord

air

lord

clouds or sown with stars, wherever are forms with

transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets into celestial space,

wherever

danger, and awe, and

love,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; there

thee,

and though thou shouldst walk the world

Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for over,

thou shalt not be able to find a condition inoppor-

tune or ignoble.

: ! ;

EXPERIENCE.

The lords

life,

the lords of

—

life,

I saw them pass,

own

their

guise,

Like and unlike, Portly and grim^

Use and

Surprise,

Surface and Dream, Succession swift, and spectral Wrong-,

Temperament without a tongue.

And

the inventor of the

game

Omnipresent without name

;

—

Some to see, some to be guessed. They marched from east to west Little

man,

Among

least of all.

the legs of his guardians

Walked about with puzzled look

Him by

the

tall, :

—

hand dear Nature took

Dearest Nature, strong and kind,

Whispered,

Darling, never

To-morrow they

will

The founder thou

mind

wear another

face.

these are thy race

EXPEEIENCE.

Wheee

do we find ourselves?

In a

series of

which we do not know the extremes, and believe that

a to

has none.

stair

;

wake and

find ourselves

there are stairs below us, which

have ascended

there are stairs above us,

;

a one, which go upward and out of

sight.

we seem

many

But the

Genius which according to the old belief stands at the door

by which we

to drink, that

too strongly,

now

m'ay

enter, tell

and gives us the

and we cannot shake

at noonday.

aU our

lifetime

day in the boughs All things swim and glitter. Our

of the fir-tree.

not so

lethe

mixed the cup

off the lethargy

Sleep lingers

about our eyes, as night hovers

life is

tales,

all

much threatened

as our perception.

Ghostlike we gUde through nature, and should not

know was

Did our birth fall in some and frugality in nature, that she sparing of her fire and so liberal of her earth

that

appears to us that

fit

our place again.

of indigence

principle, vol,

we lack

the affirmative

and though we have health and reason, 4

ILLUSION.

yet we have no superfluity of spirit for

have enough to

live

new

but not an ounce to impart or to invest. our Genius were a like millers

little

creation?

and bring the year about, more

of a genius

that

We are

on the lower levels of a stream, when

the factories above them have exhausted the water.

We too fancy that the upper people must have raised their dams.

knew what we were doing, or where when we think we best know We do not know to-day whether we are busy or idle. In times when we thought ourselves indolent, we have afterwards discovered that much was accomplished and much was begun in us. All our days are If any of us

are going, then

so unprofitable while they pass, that

't is

where or when we ever got anything of

call

wisdom, poetry, virtue.

on any dated calendar day.

wonderful this

which

never got

Some heavenly days

must have been intercalated somewhere, like those that Hermes won with dice of the Moon, that Osiris might be born.

It is said all

mean when they were

Every ship is a Embark, our vessel and hangs on

romantic object, except that

and the romance every other

sail

quits

martyrdoms looked

suffered.

sail in.

in the horizon.

Our

life

looks

Men seem

have learned of the horizon the art of perpetual

re-

trivial,

and we shun

treating

and

to record

reference.

it.

Yonder uplands are

rich

EXPERIENCE. pasturage,

but

and

my field,'

neighbor

lias

fertile

says the querulous farmer,

meadow,

only holds

I quote another man's saying;

the world together.'

unluckily that other withdraws himself in the same

way, and quotes me. to degrade to-day

where

;

the trick of nature thus

a good deal of buzz, and some-

Every roof

a result slipped magically in.

agreeable to the eye until

bands and deluges of

lethe,

then we find

;

women and

tragedy and moaning

'What's the news?'

lifted

it is

hard-eyed hus-

and the men

ask,

the old were so bad.

How many individuals can we count in society? how many

actions ?

our time

much

how many

preparation, so

So much and

opinions

much

routine,

retrospect, that the pith of each

contracts itseK to a very few hours.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; take the Warton, or Schlegel, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

of literature,

man's genius

The

history

net result of Tiraboschi,

a sum of very few ideas

and of very few original tales variation of these.

of so

;

all

the rest being

in this great society

wide

lying around us, a critical analysis would find very

few spontaneous actions.

and gross

sense.

It is almost all

custom

There are even few opinions, and

these seem organic in the speakers,

and do not

dis-

turb the universal necessity.

What opium

instilled into

shows formidable as we approach last

no rough rasping

friction,

aU it,

disaster!

but there

It is

but the most slippery

ILLUSION.

52 sliding surfaces

Dea

gentle,

;

—

fall soft

on a thought

Ate

;

" Over men's heads walking aloft.

With tender feet treading

so soft."

People grieve and bemoan themselves, hut half so bad with in

them

which we court

it is

not

There are moods

as they say.

suffering, in the

hope that here

and edges But it turns out to be scene-painting and The only thing grief has taught me is counterfeit. at least

shall find reality, sharp peaks

of truth.

know how

shallow

it is.

That, like

the rest,

all

plays about the surface, and never introduces

Was

even pay the costly price of sons and lovers. it

who found out that bodies never come WeU, souls never touch their objects.

Boscovich

in contact ?

we would

into the reality, for contact with which

innavigable sea washes with silent waves be-

tween us and the things we aim at and converse with.

seem

make us idealists. In the now more than two years ago, I

Grief too will

death of

son,

to have lost a beautiful estate,

cannot get

nearer to me.

— no more.

be informed of the bankruptcy of debtors, the loss of

would leave me

nor worse.

is it

principal

property would be a great

inconvenience to me, perhaps, for it

If to-morrow I should

found me,

many

years

;

.but

— neither better

with this calamity ;

does not

EXPERIENCE. touch

;

something which I fancied was a part of

me, which could not be torn away without tearing

nor enlarged without enriching me,

from me and leaves no

grieve that grief can teach

on him, nor water flow a type of us rain,

The

all.

nothing, nor carry

wind should not blow

to him,

nor

fire

burn him,

dearest events are summer-

is left

now but

death.

We look to that

with a grim satisfaction, saying There at least

dodge

reality that will not

I take

when we

lets

them

slip

us.

and

this evanescence

which

lubricity of all ob-

through our fingers then

clutch hardest, to be the most unhand-

some part of our

condition.

Nature does not

to be observed, and likes that fools

and we the Para coats that shed every drop.

Nothing

jects,

The Indian who was

one step into real nature.

laid under a curse that the

falls oÂŁE

was caducous.

scar.

and playmates.

should be her

We may have the

sphere for

our cricket-ball, but not a berry for our philosophy. Dii'ect strokes she all

Our

never gave us power to

our blows glance,

all

make

;

our hits are accidents.

relations to each other are oblique

and

cas-

ual.

Dream of beads,

and there is no end moods like a string we pass through them they prove

delivers us to dream,

to illusion.

Life

and

a train of

TEMPERAMENT.

54 to

be many-colored lenses

their

paint the world

wliicli

own hue, and each shows only what lies in its From the mountain you see the mountain. animate what we can, and we see only what

focus.

We we

Nature and books belong to the eyes

animate.

that see them.

shall see the sunset or the fine

There are always sunsets, and there

poem.

ways genius

we can less

depends on the mood of the

man whether he ;

depends on structure or is

the iron wire on which the beads are

Of what

use

and defective nature or discrimination a

fortune or talent to a cold

man

Who

he apologize

cares what sensibility

has at some time shown, or

falls asleep in his chair ?

gle ? or

The more or temperament. Tem-

relish nature or criticism.

perament strung.

al-

but only a few hours so serene that

he laugh and gig-

infected with ego-

tism? or thinks of his doUar? or cannot go by food? or has gotten a child in his boyhood use

genius,

the organ

Of what

too convex or too con-

cave and cannot find a focal distance within the actual horizon of

brain

human

Of what use, if and the man does

life ?

too cold or too hot,

care enough for results to stimulate

him

ment, and hold him up in

the

finely

it ?

the

not

to experi-

web

too

woven, too irritable by pleasure and pain, so

that life stagnates

due outlet?

from too much reception without

Of what use

make

heroic vows of

;

EXPERIENCE. amendment, yield,

What

them?

when

the same old law-breaker

keep

cheer caji the religious sentiment

that

suspected to be secretly depend-,

ent on the seasons of the year and the state of the

blood ?

knew a

who found

witty physician

the

creed in the biliary duct, and used to affirm that

Calvinist,

and

a Unitarian.

that organ was sound, he

Very mortifying

man became a

there was disease in the liver, the

became

the reluctant ex-

perience that some unfriendly excess or imbecility

neutralizes the promise of genius.

men who owe

us a

new

see

young

world, so readily and lav-

ishly they promise, but they never acquit the debt

they die young and dodge the account ; or live

they

they lose themselves in the crowd.

Temperament also enters fully into the system and shuts us in a prison of glass which

of illusions

we cannot

There

see.

every person we meet.

an optical

illusion

In truth they are

about

all crea-

wUl appear in a given character, whose boundaries they wUl never pass but we look at them, they seem alive, and we tures of given temperament, which

;

presume there it

seems impulse

impulse in them. ;

In the moment

in the year, in the lifetime,

turns out to be a certain uniform tune which the

revolving barrel of the music-box must play. resist the conclusion in the

Men

morning, but adopt

as the evening wears on, that temper prevails over

TEMPERAMENT.

everything of time, place, and condition, and

consumable in the flames of fications the

religion.

is in-

Some modi-

moral sentiment avails to impose, but

the individual texture holds

its

dominion,

not to

bias the moral judgments, yet to fix the measure of activity

and of enjoyment.

1 thus express the law as

form of ordinary

life,

it is

read from the plat-

but must not leave

man

a power which no

praise but himself.

without

For temperament

noticing the capital exception.

willingly hears

any one

the platform of physics

cannot resist the contracting influences of so-called

Temperament pats

science.

know

all divinity to rout.

the mental proclivity of physicians.

Theoretic kid-

the chuckle of the phrenologists.

man

nappers and slave-drivers, they esteem each the victim of another, finger

who winds him round

by knowing the law

I hear

of his being; and,

his

such cheap signboards as the color of his beard or the slope of his occiput, reads the inventory of his

and character.

fortunes

The

grossest ignorance

does not disgust like this impudent knowingness.

The physicians say they are not they are

thinness

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Spirit O

so thin

itual should be, that

What ion!

materialists

but

matter reduced to an extreme

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; But the which

definition of s^^zV-

own

its

notions do they attach to love

One would

;

evidence.

what to

relig-

not willingly pronounce these

;

EXPERIENCE.

words in their hearing, and give them the occasion I saw a gracious gentleman who

to profane them.

adapts his conversation to the form of the head of the

man

he talks with

I had fancied that the value

of life lay in its inscrutable possibilities

new

individual,

keys of

what may

castle in

at the feet of

lord,

befall me.

neighborhood, hidden

future

kindly adaptiag

heads?

When

buy me for a

hand, ready to throw them

know he

dis^

in the

Shall I

by taking a high

and

seat

conversation to the shape of

I come to that, the doctors shall

cent.

distrust the facts is

among vagabonds.

But,

the report to the Institute

ment

I carry the

whenever and in what

guise soever he shall appear.

preclude

in the

;

know, in addressing myself to a

fact that I never

;

sir,

medical history

the proven facts

and the inferences.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;I

Tempera-

the veto or limitation-power in the consti-

tution, very justly applied to restrain

an opposite

excess in the constitution, but absurdly offered as

a bar to original equity.

When

virtue

ence, all subordinate powers sleep. level, or in

see not, if

view of nature, temperament

in presits

own

is final.

one be once caught in this trap of

called sciences,

any escape for the man from the

links of the chain of physical necessity.

Given

such an embryo, such a history must follow. this platform

I so-

one

lives in

a sty of sensualism, and

;

SUCCESSION.

would soon come to that the creative

But

suicide.

impossible

it is

power should exclude itself. Into is a door which is never

every intelligence there

The

closed,

through which the creator passes.

tellect,

seeker of absolute truth, or the heart, lover

of absolute good, intervenes for our succor,

in-

and

one whisper of these high powers we awake from ineffectual struggles with this nightmare. it

into its

own

hell,

We hurl

and cannot again contract

our-

selves to so base a state.

The

secret of the illusoriness is in the necessity

of a succession of

moods or

would anchor, but the anchorage This onward trick of nature J'ero si muove.

When

moon and stars, I seem hurry. Our love of the

quicksand.

too strong for us

at night

I look at the

and they

stationary,

real

Gladly we

objects.

draws us

perma-

nence, but health of body consists in circulation,

and sanity of mind tion.

We need

in variety or facility of associa-

change of

objects.

Dedication to

We house with

one thought

insane, and

must humor them; then conversation

dies out.

quickly odious.

Once

I took such delight in

Montaigne

that I thought I should not need any other

before

that,

Shakspeare

;

Goethe

;

even in Bettine

;

book

then in Plutarch

then in Plotinus ; at one time in Bacon in

the

but

;

now

afterwards I turn the

EXPERIENCE.

pages of either of them languidly, whilst I

So with pictures

cherish their genius.

bear an emphasis of attention once, wliich retain,

still

each will

;

cannot

though we fain would continue to be pleased

How

in that manner.

tures that

strongly I have felt of pic-

when you have seen one

take your leave of

you

;

well,

you must

shall never see

again.

I have had good lessons from pictures which I have since seen without emotion or remark. tion

deduc-

must be made from the opinion which even the

wise express on a

opinion gives

new book

tidings of their

vague guess at the new

Their

or occurrence.

but

fact,

mood, and some nowise to be

trusted as the lasting relation between that intellect

and that

The

thing.

yesterday ?

oldest

Alas

'Mamma, why

child asks,

don't I like the story as well as !

child

when you

it is

cherubim of knowledge.

told

even so with the

But

will

answer

thy question to say, Because thou wert born to a

whole and this story of the pain this it

The reason discovery causes us (and we make

late in respect to

a particular

works of art and

to persons, to

That immobility and absence of

find in the arts,

artist.

Our

There

intellect), is

murmurs from friendship and love.

the plaint of tragedy which

gard

find with

elasticity

more pain

in re-

which in the

no power of expansion in men.

friends early appear to us as representatives of

;

SUCCESSION.

60 certain

wHch

ideas

they never pass or exceed.

They stand on the brink

of the ocean of thought

and power, hut they never take the single step that would bring them

Labrador in your

then

hand

A man

there.

is like

a bit of

which has no lustre as you turn

spar,

until

you come

to a particular angle

shows deep and beautiful

There

colors.

no adaptation or universal applicability in men, but each has his special talent, and the mastery of successful

men

consists in adroitly keeping themselves

where and when that turn practised.

shall be oftenest to be

do what we must, and

the best names

can,

and would

call it

fain have the

praise of having intended the result which ensues.

I cannot recall any form of

But

fluous sometimes.

man who

not worth the taking, to do tricks

course

symmetry we

not super-

not this pitiful ?

Life

in.

needs the whole society to give the

seek.

The

party-colored wheel must

revolve very fast to appear white.

Something

much folly and we are always of

earned too by conversing with so defect.

fine,

whoever

the gaining party.

and

follies also.

sense,

loses,

Divinity

The plays

behiad our failures

of children are non-

but very educative nonsense.

with

it is

the largest and solemnest things, with commerce,

government, church, marriage, and so with the tory of every man's bread, and the ways

his-

by which

;

EXPERIENCE. he

come by

Like a bird which alights

it.

no-

where, but hops perpetually from bough to bough, is

Power which abides in no man and in no for a moment speaks from this one, and another moment from that one.

the

woman, but for

But what help from these

What help from thought? We, I tliiak, in these times,

Life

not dialectics.

have had lessons enough

Our young

people have

much on labor and

reform, and

of the futility of criticism.

thought and written

fineries or pedantries ?

for all that they have written, neither the world nor

themselves have got on a step.

Intellectual tasting

of life will not supersede muscular activity.

man

should consider the nicety of the passage of a

piece of bread

down his throat, he would

Education-Farm the noblest theory of the noblest figures of

;

ises to

would not rake or

would not rub down a horse

and the men and maidens

A political orator

life sat

yoimg men and maidens, quite

powerless and melancholy. pitch a ton of hay

starve.

wittily

left pale

and hungry.

compared our party prom-

western roads, which opened stately enough,

with planted trees on either side to tempt the traveller,

but soon became narrow and narrower and

ended in a squirrel-track and ran up a does culture with us

;

tree.

ends in headache.

speakably sad and barren does

life

Un-

look to those

SURFACE.

who a few months ago were dazzled with

the splen-

" There

dor of the promise of the times.

no longer any right course of action nor any

now self-

among the Iranis." Objections and we have had our fill of. There are objec-

devotion left criticism

and

tions to every course of life

wisdom

practical

infers

and the

The whole frame

omnipresence of objection.

things preaches indifferency. self

action,

an indifferency, from the of

not craze your-

with thinking, but go about your business anynot intellectual or

where.

Life

sturdy.

Its chief

good

who can enjoy what they

but

critical,

for well-mixed people find, without

question.

Nature hates peeping, and our mothers speak her very sense when they say, " Children, eat your

and say no more

uals,

that

happiness

;

of it."

fill

repentance or an approval.

surfaces,

and the true

Under

man

the hour,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the hour and leave no crev-

ice for a

them.

vict-

art of life

We live amid to skate weU.

the oldest mouldiest conventions a

of native force prospers just as

weU

as in the

newest world, and that by skiU of handling and treatment. self is

can take hold anywhere.

Life

it-

a mixture of power and form, and will not

bear the least excess of either.

finish the

mo-

ment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest

wisdonL

number

It is not the part of

of good hours,

men, but of

fanatics,

EXPERIENCE. or of mathematicians

shortness of

you

considered,

life

will, to

say ttat the

not worth caring

it is

whether for so short a duration we were sprawling in

want or

moments,

us husband them.

day are worth as much to

are.

them as

treat

Men

they were real

soft

wise,

and

;

perhaps they

drunkards whose

and tremulous for successful

bor.

It is a tempest of fancies,

last I

know

to-

as five minutes in the

live in their fancy, like

hands are too

with

Let us treat the men and women

our own, to-day. ;

office is

Five minutes of

Let us be poised, and

next millennium.

well

Since our

sitting high.

let

and the only

la-

bal-

a respect to the present hour. With-

out any shadow of doubt, amidst this vertigo of

shows and

politics,

settle

myself ever the firmer in

we should not postpone and refer and wish, but do broad justice where we are, by whomsoever we deal with, accepting our actual companions and circumstances, however humble or odious, the creed that

as the mystic officials to

delegated

its

whole pleasure for

mean and malignant,

the universe has us.

which

a more satisfying echo

than the voice of poets and the casual

sympathy of admirable persons. ever a thoughtful

man may

and absurdities of affectation

If these are

their contentment,

the last victory of justice, to the heart

whom

deny

his

I think that how-

suffer

from the defects

company, he cannot without

any

set of

men and women a

SURFACE.

The

sensibility to extraordinary merit.

frivolous have

coarse and

instinct of superiority, if

have not a sympathy, and honor

way with sincere homage. The fine young people despise

they

in their blind ca-

pricious

and in such as with me to

whom

a day

life,

but in me,

are free from dyspepsia, and

a sound and solid good,

great excess of politeness to look scornful and to

am grown by sympathy a litsentimental, but leave me alone and

cry for company. tle

eager and

I should relish every hour and what

brought me,

the potluek of the day, as heartily as the oldest gossip in the bar-room.

thankful for small mer-

I compared notes with one of

cies.

who

expects everything of the universe and

appointed when anything

is less

than the

friends is

dis-

best,

and

I found that I begin at the other extreme, expecting nothing, and

always full of thanks for moderate

I find

tendencies. also.

I accept the clangor and jangle of contrary

goods.

They give a

account in sots and bores

reality to the circumjacent pic-

ture which such a vanishing meteorous appearance

can in spare.

In the morning I awake and find the

old world, wife, babes,

and mother. Concord and

Boston, the dear old spiritual world and even the dear old devil not far

find,

off.

asking no questions,

measures.

The

we will take the good we shall have heaping

gieat gifts are not got by analysis.

EXPERIENCE. Everything good

the temperate zone.

life,

Between these extremes

the equator

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a narrow

Moreover, in popular experience everything

belt.

good

or sink into that of

lifeless science,

of thought, of spirit, of poetry,

sensation.

A collector peeps into all

on the highway.

the picture-shops of sin,

climb into the thin and cold realm of pure

geometry and

The middle

on the highway.

region of our being

may

Europe for a landscape

a crayon-sketch of Salvator

uration, the Last

;

of Pous-

but the Transfig-

Judgment, the Communion of

St.

Jerome, and what are as transcendent as these, are

on the walls of the Vatican, the

or the

Uffizii,

may

Louvre, where every footman

see

them; to

say nothing of Nature's pictures in every street, of sunsets and sunrises every day,

the

human body never

absent.

and the sculpture of

A collector recently

bought at public auction, in London, for one hundred and fifty-seven guineas, an autograph of Shakspeare let

;

but for nothing a school-boy can read

and can detect

secrets of highest

yet unpublished therein.

I think I will never read

any but the commonest books,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

Dante, Shakspeare, and Milton. patient of so public a life

Ham-

concernment

and

and thither for nooks and

Bible,

Homer,

Then we

are im-

planet,

secrets.

and run hither

The imagination

delights in the woodcraft of Indians, trappers,

and

We fancy that we

and

bee-hunters.

are strangers,

SURFACE.

not so intimately domesticated in the planet as the

wUd man and

But the

ex-

also ; reaches the climbing,

fly-

the wild beast and bird.

clusion reaches

them

ing, gliding, feathered

and four-footed man.

and woodchuck, hawk and snipe and

bittern,

Fox when

nearly seen, have no more root in the deep world

than man, and are just such superficial tenants of the globe.

Then

the

new molecular philosophy

shows astronomical interspaces betwixt atom and atom, shows that the world

is all

outside

;

has no

inside.

The mid-world saint. The

is best.

Nature, as we

know

her,

lights of the church, the ascetics,

Gentoos, and corn-eaters, she does not distinguish

by any

favor.

sinning.

Her

She comes eating and drinking and darlings, the great, the strong, the

beautiful, are not children of our

law

;

do not come

out of the Sunday School, nor weigh their food,

nor punctually keep the commandments. will be strong with her strength

we must not

har-

bor such disconsolate consciences, borrowed too

from the consciences of other nations. set

We must

up the strong present tense against all the ruSo many things

mors of wrath, past or to come. are unsettled which settle

it is

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and, pending

do.

of the first importance to

their settlement,

will

Whilst the debate goes forward on the

equity of commerce, and will not be closed for a

EXPERIENCE.

New

century or two,

Law

shop. right sell

and Old England may keep

and international copy-

of copyright

to be discussed,

and

in the interim

our books for the most we can.

we wiU

Expediency of

literature, reason of literature, lawfulness of writ-

ing

down a

on both

thought,

sides,

questioned

;

much

to say

and, while the fight waxes hot, thou,

dearest scholar, stick to thy foolish task, add a line

every hour, and between whiles add a

line.

Eight

to hold land, right of property, is disputed,

and

the conventions convene, and before the vote taken, dig

away

earnings as a waif or godsend to beautiful purposes. skepticism,

Life

itself is

and a sleep within a

and as much more as they wiU, darling

all

;

thou vnlt not be

flitting state,

;

there are

what

do about

it.

Thy

and thy puny habit require that

thou do this or avoid that, but is

it,

stay there in thy closet and toil

until the rest are agreed sickness, they say,

Grant

sleep.

missed in the scorning and skepticism ;

serene and

a bubble and a

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but thou, God's

heed thy private dream

enough of them

and spend your

in your garden,

know

that thy

life

a tent for a night, and do thou,

sick or weU, finish that stint. shalt not be worse,

Thou

art sick, but

and the imiverse, which holds

thee dear, shall be the better.

Human

life

made up

of the two elements,

power and form, and the proportion must be inva-

SURFACE.

68 riably kept if

Each

we would have

;

makes a mischief

Everything runs to ex-

as hurtful as its defect. cess

sweet and sound.

of these elements in excess

every good quality

noxious

unmixed,

and, to carry the danger to the edge of ruin, nature causes each man's peculiarity to superabound.

Here, among the farms, we adduce the scholars as

examples of

They

this treachery.

You who

tims of expression.

orator, the poet, too near,

more ers,

are nature's vic-

see the artist, the

and find

their life

mechanics or farm-

excellent than that of

and themselves victims of but quacks,

very hol-

partiality,

low and haggard, and pronounce them heroes,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; conclude

failures,

not

very reasonably

that these arts are not for man, but are disease.

Yet nature ture

you out. and makes

will not bear

made men

such,

You

such, every day.

Irresistible na-

legions

book, gazing at a drawing or a cast these millions writers

seize the

how

who read and

and sculptors

quality which

now

pen and

Add

;

yet what are

little

chisel.

a golden impossibility. a hair's breadth. is

made a

of that

reads and sees, and they wiU

And

one remembers

innocently he began to be an

wisdom

behold, but incipient

artist,

ceives that nature joined with his enemy. is

love the boy reading in a

fool.

The

line

he per-

A man

he must walk

The wise through

excess of

EXPERIENCE.

How

would

fate

easily, if

keep forever these beautiful selves,

once for

kingdom

all,

suffer

limits,

we might

it,

and adjust our-

to the perfect calculation of the

known cause and

and in the newspapers,

life

In the street

effect.

appears so plain a busi-

ness that manly resolution and adherence to the multiplication-table

through

But ah

sure success.

weathers wUl

all

in-

presently comes a day, or

only a half-hour, with

angel-whispering, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

its

which discomfits the conclusions of nations and of

To-morrow again every thing looks real and angular, the habitual standards ai'e reinstated, years

common of genius,

sense

as rare as genius,

and experience

enterprise;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

yet,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the basis

hands and feet to every

he who should do his busi-

ness on this understanding would be quickly bankrupt.

Power keeps

quite another road than

the

turnpikes of choice and will; namely the subterra-

nean and is

invisible tunnels

ridiculous that

and channels

,and considerate people; there are these.

Life

life.

are diplomatists, and doctors, ino

dupes like

a series of surprises, and would not

be worth taking or keeping

if it

delights to isolate us every day,

the past and the future.

were

not.

God

and hide from us

would look about

us,

but with grand politeness he draws d own before us

an impenetrable screen of purest sky, and another behind us of purest sky.

You

will not

remember,'

SURPEISE.

he seems to say,

and you

All

will not expect.'

good conversation, manners, and

action,

come from

a spontaneity which forgets usages and makes the

moment

Nature

great.

hates

calculators

by pulses

;

Man

methods are saltatory and impulsive.

her lives

our organic movements are such

;

and

the chemical and ethereal agents are undulatory

and alternate

and the mind goes antagonizing on, fits. We thrive by cas-

;

and never prospers but by

Our

ualties.

The most

chief experiences

are powerful obliquely

men

Theirs

;

one gets the

without paying too great a tax.

beauty of the bird or the morning

thei

and not of

light,

In the thought of genius

art.

always a surprise ; and the moral sentiment well called " the newness," for it is never other ;

there

theii: light

who

and not by the direct stroke;

of genius, but not yet accredited

cheer of

have been casual.

attractive class of people are those

new

child

;

to the! oldest intelligence as to the

young

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " the kingdom that cometh without obserIn

vation."

ilike

manner, for practical success,

there must not be too

much

design.

man

will

not be observed in doing that which he can do best.

There

a certain magic about his properest

action which stupefies your powers of observation, so that

it.

though

The

be exposed.

it is

done before you, you wist not

art of life has a pudency,

Every man

and

wiU. not

an impossibility

until

EXPERIENCE. he

born

success.

;

every thing impossible until

The ardors

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

see a

of piety agree at last with the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

coldest skepticism,

works,

of us or our

Nature

will not spare

nothing

God.

all is of

us the smallest leaf of laurel.

All writing comes

by the grace of God, and aU doing and having. I would gladly be moral and keep due metes and bounds, which I dearly love, and allow the most to the will of

man

in this, chapter,

;

but 1 have set ray heart on honesty

and I can see nothing

success or failure, than

at last, in

more or

less of vital force

The

results of life are

supplied from the Eternal.

The years teach much which the days never know. The persons who compose our company, converse, and come and go, and design and execute many things, and someuncalculated and uncalculable.

what comes

The

aU, but an unlooked-for result.

individual

always mistaken.

many

things,

and drew

designed

in other persons as coadju-

tors, quarrelled

with some or aU, blundered much,

and something

done-; all are a little advanced,

but the individual out somewhat

always mistaken.

new and very

It turns

unlike what he prom-

ised himself.

The

ancients, struck with this irreducibleness of

the elements of himian life to calculation, exalted

Chance into a divinity but that ;

is to

stay too long

REALITY.

72 at the spark,

the universe

pounded but

will

the latency of the same

which

of life

will not be ex-

remain a miracle, introduces a

In the growth of the embryo. Sir

element.

Everard

one point, but

glitters truly at

warm with

The miracle

fire.

new

wMch is

Home

I think noticed that the evolution

was not from one central point, but coactive from three or more points.

Life has no memory.

That

which proceeds in succession might be remembered, but that which

coexistent, or ejaculated

from a

deeper cause, as yet far from being conscious,

knows not

its

own

tendency.

is it

skeptical or without unity, because

forms and

effects all

hostile value,

with

us,

now

immersed in

seeming to be of equal yet

and now

religious, whilst in the re-

ception of spiritual law.

Bear with these

distrac-

with this coetaneous growth of the parts;

tions,

they will one day be members, and obey one wUl.

that one will, on that secret cause, they nail our

attention

and hope.

Life

expectation or a religion.

monious and fection

;

trivial

hereby melted into an Underneath the inhar-

particulars, is

the Ideal journeying always vidth us, the

heaven without rent or seam.

mode

a musical per-

of our illumination.

a profound mind, or

When

but observe the I converse with

any time being alone I

have good thoughts, I do not at once arrive at isfactions, as

sat-

when, being thirsty, I drink water ; or

EXPERIENCE. go to the

fire,

prised of

my By

of Ufe.

being cold ; no vicinity to a

but I

new and

at first ap-

excellent region

persisting to read or to think, this re-

gion gives further sign

of itself, as

were in

sudden discoveries of

flashes of light, in

found beauty and repose, as ered

its

pro-

the clouds that cov-

parted at intervals and showed the ap-

proaching traveller the inland mountains, with the

tranquU eternal meadows spread at

whereon

But every

insight from this realm of thought

felt as initial,

make

;

and promises a

already.

love and

make

I clap

amazement before the

hands in

first

open-

of this august magnificence, old with the

homage

the life of

And

I do not

sequel.

I arrive there, and behold what was there

infantine joy and

ing to

their base,

and shepherds pipe and dance.

flocks graze

life,

of innumerable ages,

Mecca

the sunbright

what a future

opens

beating with the love of the

young with

of the desert.

I feel a

new

beauty.

heart

ready to die out of nature and be born again into

new yet unapproachable America the West

this

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

" Since neither

I have found

now nor yesterday began

These thoughts, which have been ever, nor yet can

A man be found who their first entrance knew." If I have described

now add

that there

life as is

a flux of moods, I must

that in us which changes not

REALITY.

and wMch ranks

all sensations

and

states of mind.

The consciousness in each man is a sliding scale, wMcli identifies him now with the First Cause, and now with the flesh of his body life above life, in The sentiment from which it infinite degrees. sprung determines the dignity of any deed, and the question ever is, not what you have done or for;

command you have done

borne, but at whose

borne

or for-

it.

Fortune, Minerva, Muse, Holy Ghost, are quaint names, too narrow to

The

bounded substance.

— these

cover this un-

must

baffled intellect

still

kneel before this cause, which refuses to be named,

—

ineffable cause,

which every

fine genius

has

sayed to represent by some emphatic symbol,

esas,

Thales by water, Anaximenes by air, Anaxagoras by (Nols) thought, Zoroaster by fire, Jesus and the moderns by love; and the metaphor of each has become a national religion. The Chinese Mencius has not been the least successful in his generalization.

"and beg

fully understand language,"

nourish well

to ask

what you

said his companion.

Mencius, "is great,

and

ish

correctly

vast-flowing vigor."

call vast-flowing vigor ? "

"The

This vigor

difficult.

—

explanation," replied is

supremely

in the highest degree unbending.

and do

said,

-^"

no injury, and

up the vacancy between heaven and

Nour-

it will fill

earth.

This

EXPERIENCE. and

vigor accords with

assists justice

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; In owe more

and leaves no hunger." ing

give to this generalization the

and reason, correct writ-

name

of Be-

and thereby confess that we have arrived as far we can go. Suffice it for the joy of the universe that we have not arrived at a wall, but at interminable oceans. Our life seems not present so much ing,

as prospective; not for the affairs

on which

it is

wasted, but as a hint of this vast-flowing vigor.

Most ulty

;

cheap

of life seems to be

information ;

that

mere advertisement of

given us not to

are very great.

sell

fac-

ourselves

So, in particulars,

always in a tendency or direction,

not in an action.

It is for us to believe in the rule,

our greatness

The noble are thus known

not in the exception.

from the ignoble.

the sentiments,

not what we believe concerning

it is

in accepting the leading of

the inunortality of the soul or the like, but the universal impulse to ielieve, that

cumstance and

which works

themselves,

The

effects.

felt

Therefore

with their

own

the material

cir-

describe this cause as that spii-it is

of mediate organs.

explaining, I not.

directly ?

powers and direct

the principal fact in the history

Shall

of the globe.

or needful

not helpless

It has

plentiful

explained without

without acting, and where I

all

praise.

just persons are satisfied

They

refuse to

and are content that new

explain

actions should

REALITY.

do them that

They

office.

believe that

municate without speech and that no right action of ours

;

for the influence

Why

not to be measured by miles.

and

quite unaffecting to

our friends, at whatever distance of action

we com-

above speech,

should I fret myself because a circumstance has

occurred which hinders expected ?

If I

ence where I

presence where I was

not at the meeting,

pres-

should be as useful to the com-

monwealth of friendship and wisdom, as would be

presence in that place.

power in

ity of

mighty Ideal before us which was

satiating,

;

No man

into the rear.

I exert the same qual-

Thus journeys the

places.

all

never was

known

to fall

ever came to an experience

but his good

tidings of a

In liberated moOnward and onward ments we know that a new picture of life and duty better.

already possible

;

the elements already exist in

many minds around you shall transcend

new statement

of a doctrine of life

which

any written record we have.

The

will comprise the skepticisms as weU.

and out of unbeliefs a creed For skepticisms are not gratui-

as the faiths of society, shall

be formed.

tous or lawless, but are limitations of the affirma/-

and the new philosophy must take and make affirmations outside of them,

tive statement,

them

just as

much

It is very

must include the

oldest beliefs.

unhappy, but too late to be helped, the

EXPERIENCE.

discovery

we tave made

covery

called the Fall of

we exist. That disMan. Ever afterwards

suspect our instruments.

We have learned that

we do

that

not see directly, but mediately, and that

have no means of correcting these colored and distorting lenses which we are, or of computing the

amount

lenses have a creative objects.

Perhaps these subject-

of their errors.

Once we

power

lived in

rapaciousness of this

;

perhaps there are no

what we saw

now, the

;

new power, which

threatens

Nature,

to absorb all things, engages us.

art, per-

sons, letters, religions, objects, successively in,

and God

but one of

phenomena; every

literature are subjective

every good thing

a shadow which

tumble

Nature and

its ideas.

evil

cast.

street is full of humiliations to the proud.

and

The the

fop contrived to dress his bailiffs in his livery and

make them

wait on his guests at table, so the cha-

grins which the

bad heart gives

off as bubbles, at

once take form as ladies and gentlemen in the street,

shopmen

bar-keepers

threaten or insult whatever insultable in us.

People forget that horizon,

and

threatenable and

the eye which

makes the

and the rounding mind's eye which makes

this or that ity,

hotels,

the same with our idolatries.

man

with the

a type or representative of human-

name

"providential man,"

of is

hero or

a good

saint.

Jesus, the

man on whom many

SUBJECT OR THE ONE.

people are agreed that these optical laws shall take

effect.

love on one part

and by forbearance

press objection on tbe other part,

settled that

horizon,

him

will look at

it is

for a time

in the centre of the

him the properties that will But the longest Iov& The great and has a speedy term.

and ascribe

attach to any or aversion

man

so seen.

crescive self, rooted in absolute nature, supplants all

relative existence

and ruins

the

kingdom

mortal friendship and love.

Marriage (in what

called the spiritual world)

impossible, because of

the inequality between every subject and every object.

The

subject

at every comparison

by that

the receiver of Godhead, and

must

cryptic might.

by presence,

this

feel his being

Though not

magazine of substance cannot be

otherwise than felt

;

nor can any force of intellect

attribute to the object the proper deity

or wakes forever in every subject.

make

enhanced

in energy, yet

consciousness

which sleeps

Never can love

and ascription equal

There will be the same gulf

in force.

between every

and thee as between the original and the

The universe

vate sympathy like globes,

the bride partial.

picture.

of the soul./ All pri-

Two human

beings are

which can touch only in a point, and

whilst they remain in contact all other ^joints of

each of the spheres are inert also come,

;

their turn

and the longer a particular union

must lasts

EXPERIENCE. the

more energy

of appetency the parts not in union

acquire.

Life will be imaged, tut cannot be divided nor

Any

doubled.

The

chaos.

invasion of

soul

and though revealing

begotten,

time, child in appearance, sal

unity would be

its

not twin-born but the only

power, admitting no

mit

we do not

and univer-

of a fatal

Every day, every

co-life.

act betrays the ni-concealed deity.

ourselves as

as child in

itself

things to ourselves, and that which

all

men

stance of our faith in ourselves that

speak of crime as lightly as they think

;

differently

quality

never-

murderer

in its consequences.

him from it

its

in the

;

does not unsettle him. or

his ordinary notice of trifles

an act quite easy sequel

;

Murder

no such ruinous thought as poets and

romancers wUl have fright

The

no-

act looks very

on the inside and on the outside

and

call

or every

thinks a latitude safe for himself which

wise to be indulged to another.

per-

It is an in,

sin in others is experiment for us.

man

believe in

believe in others.

be contemplated

;

it is

but in

its

turns out to be a horrible jangle and con-

founding of

all relations.-

that spring from love

seem right and

the actor's point of view, but destructive of society.

that he can be

lost,

Especially the crimes fair

from

when acted are found

No man

at last believes

or that the crime in

him

SUBJECT OR THE ONE.

black as in the felon.

own

in our

ifies

no crime

mian

or hypernomian,

" It

intellect qual-

That

to the intellect.

there

fact.

Because the

For

case the moral judgments.

and judges law

worse than a crime,

antino-

as well as

a blunder,"

said Napoleon, speaking the language of the intel-

lect.

the world

it,

a problem in mathematics

or the science of quantity, and

and blame and

comparative.

leaves out praise

weak emotions. All stealing is you come to absolutes, pray who

all

does not steal ? Saints are sad, because they behold

when they

sin (even

speculate),

from the point of

view of the conscience, and not of the Sin, seen

confusion of thought. is

a diminution, or

or will, it

less ; seen

pravity or had.

it is

intellect

This

it is

not

;

The

intellect

names

The

as essence, essential

inevitably does the universe wear our color,

and every object itself.

The

;

the subject

fall successively into

subject exists, the subject. enlarges ; all

things sooner or later fall into place. I see

evil.

has an objective existence, but no

subjective.

Thus

from the conscience

shade, absence of light, and no essence.

conscience must feel

;

from the thought,

use what language

anything but what we are

;

will,

I am, so

we can never say

Hermes, Cadmus, Co-

lumbus, Newton, Bonaparte, are the mind's ministers.

Instead of feeling a poverty when

we encoun.

EXPERIENCE. a great man,

ter

let

us treat the

new comer

travelling geologist who passes through our estate

and shows us good strong

mind

or limestone, or anthracite,

slate,

The

in our brush pasture.

partial action of each

one direction

objects on which

it is

part of knowledge

is to

a telescope for the

But every other be pushed to the same expointed.

travagance, ere the soul attains her due sphericity.

Do you tail?

see that kitten. chasing so prettily her

own

you could look with her eyes you might

see her surrounded with

hundreds of figures per-

forming complex dramas, with tragic and comic

many

long conversations,

sues,

and downs of fate,

characters,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and meantime

it is

is-

many ups only puss

How long before oui- masquerade will

and her

tail.

end

its

noise of tambourines, laughter, and shout-

ing,

and we

subject

make

shall find it

and an

solitary

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

performance ?

takes so

much

the galvanic circuit complete, but magnitude

adds nothing. ler

was a

object,

What

imports

whether

it is

Kep-

and the sphere, Columbus and America, a reader

and

his book, or puss with her tail ?

true that all the muses and love and religion

hate these developments,

and wiU find a way

punish the chemist who publishes in the parlor the secrets of the laboratory. little

And we

cannot say too

of our constitutional necessity of seeing things

under private aspects, or saturated with our humors.

SUBJECT OR THE ONE.

And

yet

the

God

the native of these bleak rocks.

That need makes in morals the capital virtue of

We must hold hard to this poverty, how-

self-trust.

ever scandalous, and

firmly.

ful

by more vigorous

self-recover-

after the sallies of action, possess our axis

ies,

;

but

The

life of

it is

not the slave of tears, contritions and

perttirbations.

truth

cold and so far mourn-

does not attempt another's work,

nor adopt another's

wisdom

main

lesson of

another's.

I have

It is a

facts.

know your own from

learned that I cannot dispose of other people's facts

;

but I possess such a key to

suades me, against

have a key to

my own

all their denials, that

theirs.

as per-

they also

sympathetic person

swimmer among drowning men, who all catch at him, and if he give so much as a leg or a finger they wUl drown him. They wish to be saved from the mischiefs of their vices, but not from their vices. Charity would be placed in the dilemma of a

wasted on this poor waiting on the symptoms. wise and hardy physician will say.

Come

out of

that, as the first condition of advice.

this

our talking America we are ruined by our

good nature and listening on aU pliance takes ful.

A man

directly is

and

away the power

sides.

This com-

of being greatly use-

should not be able to look other than forthright.

preoccupied attention

the only answer to the importunate frivolity of

EXPERIENCE.

other people; an attention, and to an aim

makes swer,

This

their wants frivolous.

wMch

a divine an-

and leaves no appeal and no hard thoughts.

In Flaxman's drawing of the Eumenides of ^schylus,

Orestes siipplicates Apollo, whilst the Furies

The

sleep on the threshold.

face of the god ex-

presses a shade of regret and compassion, hut

calm

with the conviction of the irreconeilableness of the

two spheres.

bom

into other politics, into

The man

the eternal and beautiful.

at his feet asks

for his interest in turmoils of the earth, into which

And the Eumenides there

his nature cannot enter.

lying express pictoriaUy this disparity.

The god is

surcharged with his divine destiny.

Illusion,

Temperament, Succession, Surface, Sur-

prise, Eeality, Subjectiveness,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; these

are threads

on the loom of time, these are the lords of

life.

dare not assume to give their order, but I

them

my way. I know better than any completeness for my picture. I am a

as I find

to claim

them in

fragment, and this confidently

a fragment of me.

young yet by some ages

I have seen

I can very

announce one or another law, which

tihrows itself into relief

sip for

name

and form, but I

too

to compile a code.

I gos-

hour concerning the eternal

politics.

many

fair pictures not in vain.

derful time I have lived

in.

A won-

not the novice I

EXPERIENCE.

Let who

was fourteen, nor yet seven years ago.

Where

will ask

This

sufficient.

the fruit

fruit,

I find a private fruit

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that I should not ask

for a rash effect from meditations, counsels and the

hiving of truths.

a result on

this

I should feel

The

on the instant month and year.

and secular as the cause. which mortal lifetime tion

;

am and

pitiful to

demand

town and county, an overt It

deep

works on periods in

is lost.

I have

effect

effect is

All I

know

recep-

but I do not get, and when

I have fancied I had gotten anything, I found I did I worship with wonder the great Fortune.

not.

My reception has been so

large, that I

not an-

noyed by receiving

this or that superabundantly.

I say to the Genius,

he will pardon the proverb,

In for a

mill, in for

new

I do not macerate

gift,

account square, for the account square. the

first

a million.

"When

my body

I receive a

make

the

I should die I could not make

The

benefit overran the merit

day, and has overrun the merit ever since.

The merit

itself, so-called,

I reckon part of the re-

ceiving.

Also that hankering after an overt or practical seems to

effect

me an

apostasy.

In good earnest

willing to spare this most unnecessary deal of

doing.

Life wears to

a visionary

est roughest action is visionary also.

choice between soft

face.

Hard-

It is but a

and turbulent dreams.

People

EXPERIENCE.

disparage knowing and the intellectual

urge doing.

That

only I could know.

ment, and would

know a

suffice

an august entertain-

me a

would be worth

little

and

life,

very content with knowing,

great while.

the expense of this

I hear always the law of Adrastia, " that

world.

every soul which had acquired any truth, should he

from harm

safe

know

until another period."

that the world I converse with in the city

and in the farms,

not the world I think.

serve that difference,

day I

shall

know

and

shall observe

the value and

I ob-

One

it.

law of this

dis-

But I have not found that much was

crepance.

gained by manipular attempts to realize the world of thought.

Many

an experiment

eager persons successively

in this way,

make

and make themselves

They acquire democratic manners, they foam at the mouth, they hate and deny. Worse, I observe that in the history of mankind there is ridiculous.

never a solitary

own

their

example

or in reply to the inquiry,

world

But

far be

success,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; taking

I say this polemically,

tests of success.

Why me

from

not realize your

the despair which

prejudges the law by a paltry empiricism there never was a right endeavor but

Patience and patience,

shall

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

since

succeeded.

win at the

last.

must be very suspicious of the deceptions

of the element of time.

It takes a

good deal of

EXPERIENCE.

time to eat or to sleep, or .to .earn a hundred dollars,

and a very

little

time to entertain a hope and

an insight which becomes the light of our

life.

dress our garden, eat our dinners, discuss the house-

hold with our wives, and these things pression, are forgotten next

tude to which every

man

week

;

make no

im-

but, in the soli-

always returning, he

has a sanity and revelations which in his passage

new worlds he will carry with him. Never mind the ridicule, never mind the defeat up again, into

;

old heart

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

seems to say,

for all justice

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; there

victory yet

and the true romance which the

world exists to realize will be the transformation of genius into practical power.

CHAKACTER.

The sun

set

Stars rose

;

but set not his hope

his faith

was

earlier

Fixed on the enormous galaxy,

Deeper and older seemed

And matched The

his eye

his sufferance sublime

taciturnity of time.

spoke, and words

soft

than rain

Brought the Age of Gold again

His action won such reverence sweet,

hid

all

measure of the

feat.

;

Work of his hand He nor commends Pleads for

itself

nor grieves

the fact

As unrepenting Nature Her every act.

leaves

III.

CHARACTER.

read that those who listened to Lord

HAVE

Chatham

man

felt that there

was something

than any thing which he

said.

finer in the

It has

heen

complained of our brilliant English historian of the

French Revolution that when he has told facts about

mate

Mirabeau, they do not justify his

his

all his

genius.

The Gracchi, Agis,

esti-

Cle-

omenes, and others of Plutarch's heroes, do not in the record of facts equal their

own fame.

Sir

Philip Sidney, the Earl of Essex, Sir Walter Ra> leigh, are

men

and

of great figure

few deeds.

cannot find the smallest part of the personal

weight of Washington in the narrative of his exploits.

The

authority of the

too great for his books.

reputation to

name

of Schiller

This inequality of the

the works or the

anecdotes

not

accounted for by saying that the reverberation is

longer than the thunder-clap, but somewhat re-

sided in these

outran

men which

all their

begot an expectation that

performance.

The

largest part of

;

CHARACTER.

90 their

power was

TMs

latent.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a reserved

Character,

that which

force,

call

which acts directly

by presence and without means.

It is conceived

of as a certain undemonstrable force, a Familiar or

man

Genius, by whose impulses the

whose counsels he cannot impart

men

;

guided but

which

com-

pany

for him, so that such

they chance to be social, do not need society

are often solitary,

The

but can entertain themselves very well alone.

purest literary talent appears at one time great, at

another time small, but character

and

of a stellar

What others effect by this man accomplishes by

undiminishable greatness.

by eloquence,

talent or

some magnetism. His

forth."

" Half his strength he put not

victories are

by demonstration

of su-

and not by crossing of bayonets.

periority,

conquers because his arrival alters the face of fairs.

was a god

content the

lole

how

did you

know

" Because," answered lole, " I was

moment my

eyes fell on him.

When

I beheld Theseus, I desired that I might see offer battle, or at least iot-race

;

af-

that Hercules

him

guide his horses in the char-

but Hercxiles did not wait for a contest

he conquered whether he stood, or walked, or whatever thing he did."

Man,

sat,

ordinarily a pen-

dant to events, only half attached, and that awkwardly, to the world he lives in, in these examples

appears to share the

life

of things,

and

to be

ex-

CHARACTER.

pression of the same laws wliicli control tte tides

and the sun, numbers and

But

to use a

quantities.

more modest

illustration

home, I observe that in our

where

this element, if it

occur in

its

and nearer

political

elections,

appears at aU, can only

coarsest form,

sufficiently under-

The people know much more than talent, namely the power to make his talent t ruste d. They cannot come at their ends by sendstand

its

incomparable

rate.

that they need in their representative

ing to Congress a learned, acute, and fluent speaker, if

he be not one who, before he was appointed by

the people to represent them,

Almighty God

to stand for a

was appointed by

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; invincibly â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that the

fact,

persuaded of that fact in himself,

most confident and the most violent persons learn that here

and

resistance

terror are wasted,

men who

on which both impudence

namely faith

of their constituents

what they should

say, but are

themselves the country which they represent

where are

The

in a fact.

carry their points do not need to inquire

its

no-

;

emotions or opinions so instant and

true as in them; nowhere so pure from a selfish infusion.

The constituency

home hearkens

their words, watches the color of their cheek,

therein, as in a glass, dresses its

own.

assemblies are pretty good tests of

Our frank countrymen

Our

and

public

manly force. the west and south have

CHARACTER.

a taste for character, and like to

New the

Englander

know whether

the

a substantial man, or whether

hand can pass through him.

The same motive

force appears in trade.

There

are geniuses in trade, as well as in war, or the State, or letters

man

;

fortunate

and the reason why is

not to be told.

man; that is aU anybody can See him and you wiU know as ceeds, as, if

hend

tell

this or that

It lies in the

you about

easily

why he

it.

suc-

you see Napoleon, you would compreIn the new objects we recognize

his fortune.

the old game, the habit of fronting the fact, and not

dealing with tions of

at second hand,

somebody

trade, as soon as

appears not so

and Minister

else.

you see the natural merchant, who

much a

through the percep-

Nature seems to authorize private agent as her factor

Commerce.

His natural probity

combines with his insight into the fabric of society

him above tricks, and he communicates to own faith that contracts are of no private The habit of his mind is a referinterpretation. to put

all his

ence to standards of natural equity and public ad-

vantage; and he inspires respect and the wish to deal with him, both for the quiet spirit of honor

which attends him, and for the intellectual pastime which the spectacle of so much abUity

affords.

This immensely stretched trade, which makes the capes of the Southern Ocean his wharves and the

CHARACTER.

Atlantic Sea his familiar port, centres in his brain

only

;

and nobody in the universe can make

his

In his parlor I see very well that he

place good.

has been at hard work this morning, with that knitted

brow and that

desire to be

plainly

many

settled

humor, which

courteous cannot shake

how many

off.

all his

I see

how

firm acts have been done ;

valiant noes

have

day been spoken,

this

vvhen others would have uttered ruinous yeas. see,

with the pride of art and skill of masterly

arithmetic and power of remote combination, the

consciousness of being an agent and playfellow of

the original laws of the world.

that none can supply him, and that a

too believes

man must be

born to trade or he cannot learn it. This virtue draws the mind more when

pears in action to ends not so mixed.

works

ap-

with most energy ia the smallest companies and in private relations.

In aU cases

paralyzed by

ical strength is

it is

The

nary and incomputable agent.

it.

an extraordi-

excess of phys-

Higher natures

overpower lower ones by affecting them tain sleep.

When it

The

resistance.

faculties are locked up,

Perhaps that

the high cannot bring

benumbs

it,

vvith

and

a ceroffer

the universal law.

up the low

man charms down

to itself,

the resistance

of the lower animals.

Men

exert on each other a

similar occult power.

How

often has the influence

CHARACTER.

of a true master realized all the tales of

magic

command seemed to run down from his into all those who beheld him, a torrent of

river of

eyes

strong sad light, like an Ohio or Danube, which

pervaded them with his thoughts and colored all " What means eveuts with the hue of "his mind. did you employ

was the question asked

of the

wife of Coneini, in regard to her treatment of

Mary

and the answer was, " Only that

influ-

of Medici

;

ence which every strong mind has over a weak

Cannot Caesar in irons

one."

shuffle off the irons

and transfer them

to the person of

so the turnkey?

table a

bond

Hippo or Thraso immu-

an iron handcuif

Suppose a slaver on the coast of

Guinea should take on board a gang of negroes which should contain persons of the stamp saint

L'Ouverture

or, let

of Tous-

us fancy, under these

swarthy masks he has a gang of Washingtons in

When

chains.

they arrive at Cuba, will the rela-

tive order of the ship's

company be

there nothing but rope

and iron ?

no reverence ?

the same

Is there no love,

Is there never a glimpse of right

in a poor slave-captain's

mind and cannot ;

these be

supposed available to break or elude or in any

manner overmatch the tension

an inch or two of

iron ring ?

This all

a natural power, like light and heat, and

nature cooperates with

it.

The reason why we

feel is

CHARACTER.

one man's presence and do

nofr feel another's

Truth

as simple as gravity.

being; justice

the summit of

the application of

to affairs.

All individual natures stand in a scale, according

The wiU of down from them into other natures, water runs down from a higher into a lower ves-

to the purity of this element in them.

the pure runs as

This natural force

sel.

no more

than any other natural force. stone

upward

yet true that

for a

moment

be withstood

can drive a

into the air, but

stones will forever fall

all

it is

and what-

;

ever instances can be quoted of unpunished theft,

which somebody credited,

or of a

lie

prevail,

and

it is

Character

self believed.

justice

the privilege of truth to is this

and

no longer.

Time and

space, liberty

and thought, are

left at large

encloser.

necessity, truth

it-

moral order seen

through the medium of an individual nature. individual

must

make

Now, the universe

a close or pound.

man tinged with the manWith what quality is in him he

All things exist in the ners of his soul.

infuses all nature that he can reach

;

nor does he

tend to lose himself in vastness, but, at curve soever,

good

at last.

all his

how long a own

regards return into his

animates

only what he animates.

all

he can, and he sees

encloses the world, as

the patriot does his country, as a material basis for his character,

and a theatre for

action.

A healthy

;

CHARACTER.

soul stands united with the Just

and the True,

the maguet arranges itself with the pole stands to

all

;

beholders like a transparent object be-

twixt them and the

sun,

and whoso journeys

to-

wards the sun, journeys towards that person. thus the

so that he

medium

of the highest influence to all

who are not on the same

level.

Thus men

acter are the conscience of the society to

of char-

which they

belong.

power is the resistImpure men consider life circumstances. reflected in opinions, events, and persons.

The natural measure ance of as

it is

They cannot its

see the action until

it is

moral element preexisted in the

wrong

quality as right or

Everything in nature

and a negative a

of this

spirit

and a

a male and a female,

the negative.

north, action the south pole. its

Spirit

Will

Character

pole.

souls are

They look

natural place in the north.

drawn

the

may be It

The

shares the magnetic currents of the system. feeble

its

to predict.

a north and a south.

the positive, the event

ranked as having

was easy

and

bipolar, or has a positive

There

pole. fact,

Yet

done.

actor,

to the south or negative

at the profit or hurt of the action.

They never behold a principle until it is lodged in They do not wish to be lovely, but to be

a person. loved.

Men of

character like to hear of their faults

the other class do not like to hear of faults

;

they

;

CHARACTER. worship events

;

secure to

them a

a comiection,

fact,

a certain chain of circumstances, and they no more. lary

;

The hero

must follow

will

ask

sees that the event is ancil-

A given

Mm.

order of events

has no power to secure to him the satisfaction

which the imagination attaches to

;

the soul of

goodness escapes from any set of circumstances whilst prosperity belongs to a certain mind, will introduce that

power and victory which

natural fruit, into any order of events.

and its

change

of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

We tions

boast our emancipation from ;

but

we have broken any

What

a transfer of the idolatry.

many

idols it is

supersti-

through

have I gained,

that I no longer immolate a bull to Jove or to Nep-

tune, or a

mouse

Hecate

;

that I do not tremble

before the Eumenides, or the Catholic Purgatory, or the Calvinistic Judgment-day, ion, the public opinion as

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

we caU

I quake at opin-

if it

;

or at the threat

of assault, or contumely, or

bad neighbors, or pov-

erty, or mutilation, or at the

rumor of

murder

quake

at ?

If I quake,

Our proper

revolution, or

what matters

vice takes

what I

form in one or

another shape, according to the sex, age, or temper-

ament of the person, and, if we are capable of fear, wlU readily find terrors. The covetousness or the malignity which saddens me when I ascribe it to society, is

my own.

always environed by myself.

;

CHARACTER.

the other part, rectitude

celebrated not

but by serenity, which

It is disgraceful to fly

joy fixed or habitual.

our truth and worth.

to events for confirmation of

The

capitalist does not

a perpetual victory,

cries of joy

run every hour to the broker

to coin his advantages into current

realm

;

is satisfied

money

of the

to read in the quotations of

The same

the market that his stocks have risen.

transport which the occurrence of the best events in

the best order would occasion me, I must learn to

taste purer in the perception that

position

every hour meliorated, and does already

That exultation

those events I desire.

command is

only to

be checked by the foresight of an order of things so excellent as to

throw

all

our prosperities into

the deepest shade.

The

face which character wears to

sufficingness.

unhappy, or a

tron, benefactor,

and

Society its if

man

as alone, or poor, or

but as perpetual pa-

man.

beatified

Character

being displaced or

should give us a sense of mass.

frivolous,

and shreds

its

day

into scraps,

conversation into ceremonies and escapes.

I go to see an ingenious

self

self-

riches

him

centrality, the impossibility of

overset.

client,

so that I cannot think of exiled, or

who

I revere the person

poorly entertained

man

he give

of benevolence and etiquette

;

But

I shaU think my-

nimble pieces

rather he shall stand

CHARACTER. and

stoutly in his place

only his resistance

me apprehend

let

know

;

It is

if it

were

that I have encountered

a new and positive quality; for both of us.

much

— great

refreshment

that he does not accept

the conventional opinions and practices.

That non-

conformity will remain a goad and remembrancer,

and every inquirer wiU have to dispose of him, in the

There

place.

first

that

nothing real or useful

not a seat of war.

Our

houses ring with

laughter and personal and critical gossip, but

But the uncivil, unavailable man, who a problem and a threat to society, whom it can-

helps

not

little.

let

pass ia silence but must either worship or

— and

hate,

whom aU

parties feel related, both

the leaders of opinion and the obscure and eccentric,

— he helps

;

he puts America and Europe in

the wrong, and destroys the skepticism which says, '

man

we can

doll, let

do,'

us eat and drink,

't is

the best

by illuminating the untried and un-

Acquiescence in the establishment and

known.

appeal to the public, indicate infirm faith, heads

which are not built, before

clear,

and which must

The wise man not only

self-moved, the absorbed, the is

;

it.

Foimtains, the

commander because

commanded, the assured, the primary,

are good

a house

leaves out of his thought

the many, but leaves out the few.

see

they can comprehend the plan of

— they

for these announce the instant presence

supreme power.

;

CHARACTER.

100

Our

In nature there are no

substance.

on our

action shoiild rest mathematieally

pound

of water in the ocean

more gravity than

false valuations.

tempest has no

midsummer pond.

in a

All

things work exactly according to their quality and

according to their quantity

cannot do, except

man

;

only.

attempt nothing they

has pretension

he wishes and attempts things beyond his force. I read in a book of English memoirs, " Mr. Fox (afterwards Lord Holland) said, he must have the

Treasury ; he had served up to

Xenophon and

it."

his

it,

and would have

Ten Thousand were

equal to what they attempted, and did that

was not suspected

to be a

Yet there stands that

a high-water

mark

it since,

;

quite

so equal,

grand and inimita-

ble exploit.

attempted

fact unrepeated,

in military history.

and not been equal

Many

have

It is

it.

only on reality that any power of action can be

based. tutor.

institution will

be better than the

insti-

knew an amiable and accomplished person

who undertook a practical reform, yet I was never able to find in him the enterprise of love he took in hand^ He adopted it by ear and by the understanding from the books he had been reading. his action

was

out into the

new

fact,

All

tentative, a piece of the city carried

fields,

and was the

city stUl,

and no

and could not inspire enthusiasm.

Had

there been something latent in the man, a terrible

CHARACTER.

101

imdemonstrated genius agitating and embarrassing his demeanor, is

we had watched

for its advent.

not enough that the intellect should see the evils

and

"We shall nor take the ground

their remedy.

istence,

titled, whilst it is

still

which we are en-

only a thought and not a spirit

We have not yet served up to

that incites us.

These are properties of

life,

and another

Men

the notice of incessant growth.

it.

trait is

should be in-

They must also make us feel they have a controlling happy future opening

telligent

that

postpone our ex-

and

earnest.

before them, whose early twilights already kindle

The hero

in the passing hour.

misreported

;

misconceived and

he cannot therefore wait to unravel

any man's blunders

;

again on his road, add-

domain and new wiU bankrupt you if you have loitered about the old things and have not kept your relation to him by adding to your wealth. New actions are the only apologies and explanaing

new powers and honors

to his

claims on your heart, which

tions of old ones

or to receive.

you

which the noble can bear

to offer

If your friend has displeased you,

down to consider it, for he has aU memory of the passage, and has

shall not sit

already lost

doubled his power to serve you, and ere you can rise

up again

will

burden you with blessings.

have no pleasure in thinking of a benevo-

lence that

only measured by

its

works.

Love

102

CHARACTER.

mexhanstible, and

if its

still

cheers and enriches, and the man,

sleep,

seems to purify the air and his

ary emptied,

though he

estate is wasted, its gran-

house to adorn the landscape and strengthen the laws.

People always recognize this difference. "We

know who the

amount

benevolent,

quite other

means than

of subscription to soup-societies.

only low merits that can be enumerated.

when your well,

friends say to

and say it through

;

Fear,

you what you have done but when they stand with

uncertain timid looks of respect and half-disKke,

and must suspend their judgment for years to come, you may begin to hope. Those who live to the future must always appear selfish to those

Therefore

the present.

who has

Eiemer,

was droU

who

;

good

written memoirs of Goethe, to

make out a list of his donations and good so many hundred thalers given to Stilling, to Tischbein

live to

in the

deeds, as, to Hegel,

a lucrative place found for Professor

Grand Duke for Herder, a pension for Meyer, two professors recommended &c., &c. The longest list to foreign universities Voss, a post under the

;

of specifications of benefit

would look very

A man

a poor creature

so.

For

rule

and hodiernal

tion.

all

The

short.

measured

to be

these of course are exceptions, and the life

of a good

true charity of Goethe

man

is to

be inferred

benefac-

from the account he gave Dr. Eckermann of the

;

CHARACTER.

103

his fortune.

"Each

hon-mot of mine has cost a purse of gold.

Half a

way

in wMcli he

had spent

million of

my own

and the large income derived from

salary

money, the fortune I inherited,

writings for fifty years back, have been expended to instruct

what I now know. I have besides

seen," &c.

own

enumerate

but poor chat and gossip to go to

traits of this

simple and rapid power,

and we are painting the lightning with charcoal but in these long nights and vacations I like to

Nothing but

console myself so.

A word warm

can copy

itself

from the heart enriches me.

render at discretion. genius before this

How

fire

touches that reanimate

death-cold

literary

These are the

of life!

it.

I sur-

heavy soul and give

eyes to pierce the dark of nature.

I find, where

I thought myself poor, there was I most rich.

Thence comes a new inteUectual again rebuked by some

Character repudiates

sion! ;

so,

exhibition of charac-

Strange alternation of attraction and repul-

ter.

new

exaltation, to

intellect, yet

and character passes iato thought,

and then

excites

published

ashamed before new flashes of moral

worth.

Character

nature in the highest form.

of no use to ape

what

or to contend with

possible of resistance,

and of

it.

It is

Some-

persistence,

CHARACTER.

104

and of

creation, to this power, wliicli will foil

emulation.

masterpiece

Tiiis

ture's

best where

have been laid on

no hands but na-

Care

it.

taken that the

up iato life in the shade, with no thousand-eyed Athens to watch and blazon every new thought, every blushing emotion of young genius. Two persons lately, very young children greatly-destined shall slip

most high God, have given

of the

When

thought.

occasion for

source of their

and charm for the imagination,

sanctity as

I explored the

each answered,

seemed

From my nonconformity

;

never listened to your people's law, or to what they call their gospel,

and wasted

tent with the simple

hence this sweetness of that

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

;

pure of

;

my time.

my work never reminds you And nature advertises

be democratized.

stitutionally sequestered

scandal

was con-

my own;

that.'

in such persons that iu democratic

will not

rural poverty of

was only

How

America she and con-

cloistered

from the market and from this

morning that I sent

They

away some wild flowers of these wood-gods. are a relief from literature,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

these fresh draughts

from the sources of thought and sentiment as we read, in an age of polish and criticism, the first ;

lines of written prose

and verse of a

nation.

How

captivating Is their devotion to their favorite books,

whether ^schylus, Dante, Shakspeare, or Scott,

CHARACTER. as feeling that they

105

have a stake in that hook;

touches that, touches them

who

the total solitude of the

;

— and

especially

the Patmos of

critic,

thought from which he writes, in unconsciousness

any eyes that

shall

Could they dream on

still,

ever read this writing.

and not wake

as angels,

comparisons and to be flattered

natures are too good to be spoiled

Yet some and

praise,

wherever the vein of thought reaches down into the profound, there

emn

friends

no danger from vanity.

wiU warn them of the danger

Sol-

of the

head's being turned by the flourish of trimipets,

but they can afford to smile.

remember the

in-

dignation of an eloquent Methodist at the kind ad-

monitions of a Doctor of Divinity,

man can

— 'My

friend,

But

neither be praised nor insulted.'

forgive the counsels

;

they are very natural.

remember the thought which occurred to me when some ingenious and spiritual foreigners came to America, was, Have you been victimized in being brought hither ? '

Are you

or, prior to that,

answer

this,

I have said, Nature keeps these sovereignties

in her

and

—

victimizable ?

own hands, and however

disciplines

pertly our sermons

would divide some share of

and teach that the laws fashion the goes her

own

gait

She makes very

and puts the wisest

light of gospels

credit,

citizen,

she

in the wrong.

and prophets, as

CHARACTER.

106

one who has a great

many more

and no

to produce

excess of time to spare on any one.

There

a class

of men, individuals of which appear at long intervals, so

eminently endowed with insight and virtue

that they have been unanimously saluted as divine,

an accumulation of that power

and who seem

to be

Divine persons are character born,

consider.

or, to

borrow a phrase from Napoleon, they are

They

victory organized. ill-will,

are usually received with

new and because they set exaggeration that has been made of

because they are

a bound to the

Nature

the personality of the last divine person.

never rhymes her children, nor makes two alike.

When we

see a great

man we

men

fancy a re-

semblance to some historical person, and predict the sequel of his character and fortune

which he solve the

sure to disappoint.

problem of

a result

;

None

will ever

his character according to our

prejudice, but only in his

own high unprecedented

way. Character wants room

;

must not be crowded

on by persons nor be judged from glimpses got in the press of affairs or

on few occasions.

needs perspective, as a great building.

may not,

probably does not, form relations rapidly; and we should not require rash explanation, either on the

popular ethics, or on our own., of

I look on Sculpture as history. the

ApoUo and

its action.

I do not think

the Jove impossible in flesh and

CHARACTER. blood.

stone he

107

Every trait which the artist recorded in had seen in life, and better than his copy.

We have

many

seen

old books,

counterfeits, but

How

great men.

believers in

when men were

few, of the smallest

action of the patriarchs.

we are born we read in

easily

require that a

man

should be so large and columnar in the landscape, that

should deserve to be recorded that he arose,

and girded up place.

majestic

his loins,

and departed

The most credible men who prevailed

convinced the senses

;

magian who was sent or Zoroaster.

at their entrance,

happened

to such a

pictures are those of

and

to the eastern

to test the merits of Zertusht

When

the

Balkh, the Persians teU

Yunani sage arrived

day on which the Mobeds

Gushtasp appointed a

us,

of every country should

assemble, and a golden chair was placed for the

Yunani

sage.

Then the beloved

Yezdam, the

prophet Zertusht, advanced into the midst of the sembly.

The Yunani

sage,

on seeing that

" This form and this gait cannot truth can proceed from them."

lie,

as-

chief, said,

and nothing but

Plato said

was

impossible not to believe in the children of the gods, " though they should speak without probable

or necessary arguments."

very unhappy in

I should think myself

associates if I could not credit

the best things in history.

John Bradshaw," says

Milton, " appears like a consul, from

whom

the

CHARACTER.

108

fasces are not to depart with the year

;

so that not

on the tribunal only, but throughout his

would regard him as I find

kings."

information, that one

credible, since

man

the world.

The

know heaven, as many men should

should

the Chinese say, than that so

know

it is

you

upon

in judgment

sitting

life,

virtuous prince confronts

the gods, without any misgiving.

waits a hun-

dred ages tUl a sage comes, and does not doubt.

He who

confronts the gods, without any misgiving,

knows heaven

;

he who waits a hundred ages until

a sage comes, without doubting, knows men. Hence the virtuous prince moves, and for ages shows empire the way."

examples.

But there is

no need

to seek

remote

a dull observer whose experience

has not taught him the reality and force of magic, as well as of chemistry.

The

coldest precisian cannot

go abroad without encountering inexplicable ences.

graves secrets

influ-

One man fastens an eye on him and the of the memory render up their dead; the that make him wretched either to keep or to

betray must be yielded

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; another, and

he cannot

speak, and the bones of his body seem to lose their cartilages

boldness,

;

the entrance of a friend adds grace,

and eloquence

him

;

and there are

sons he cannot choose but remember,

per-

who gave a

transcendent expansion to his thought, and kindled

another

life in his

bosom.

CHARACTER.

What

109

so excellent as strict relations of amity,

when they spring from

deep root

this

and the furniture of man,

The

who doubts

ficient reply to the skeptic

in that possibility of

joyful intercourse with persons, which

makes the

and practice of aU reasonable men.

faith

suf-

the power

know

nothing which hfe has to offer so satisfying as the

profound good imderstanding which can

much exchange

after

virtuous men, each of sure of his friend.

good

whom

offices,

subsist,

between two

sure of himself and

It is a happiness

which post-

makes politics, and commerce, and churches, cheap. For when

pones

men

other gratifications, and

all

meet as they ought, each a benefactor, a

shall

shower of

stars, clothed

with accomplishments,

with thoughts, with deeds,

should be the festival of

nature which aU things announce.

Of such

friend-

ship, love in the sexes is the first symbol, as all

other things are symbols of love. to the best

Those relations

men, which, at one time, we reckoned

the romances of youth, become, in the progress of the character, the most solid enjoyment. If

with

were possible to live in right relations

men

—

we could abstain from asking any-

thing of them, from asking their praise, or help, or pity,

and content us with compelling them through

the virtue of the eldest laws

with a few persons,

— with

Could we not deal one person,

— after

;

CHARACTER.

110

and make an experiment of Could we not pay our friend the

the unwritten statutes, their efficacy ?

compliment of truth, of

Need we be so eager lated, we shall meet.

silence,

to seek It

of forbearing?

him ?

was a

are re-

tradition of the an-

cient world that

no metamorphosis could hide a

god from a god

and there

;

runs, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

a Greek verse which

" The Gods are to each other not unknown."

Friends also follow the laws of divine necessity they gravitate to each other, and cannot otherwise

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

When

each the other shall avoid,

Shall each by each he most enjoyed.

Their relation

must pus,

The gods Olym-

not made, but allowed.

seat themselves without seneschal in our

and as they can

divine.

instal themselves

Society is spoiled

be not society,

And

the

if it

a mischievous, low, degrading

though made up of the

ness of each

seniority

pains are taken,

associates are brought a mile to meet.

jangle,

best.

All the great-

kept back and every foible in pain-

ful activity, as if the

Olympians should meet

to ex-

change snuff-boxes.

Life goes headlong.

chase some flying

scheme, or we are hunted by some fear or com-

mand behind

us.

But

suddenly we encounter a

CHARACTER. friend,

we pause

Ill

our heat and hurry look foolish

;

enough ; now pause, now possession

and

required,

moment from the resources The moment is all, in aU noble rela-

the power to swell the of the heart. tions.

A divine person friend

the prophecy of the

Our

the hope of the heart.

mind

shadow or symbol of strong as write their

with

draws

that.

All force

Poetry

The

;

joyful

and

Men

as they are fiUed

mean our nations we have never seen a man that

History has been

have been mobs

the

inspiration thence.

its

names on the world

this.

beatitude

waits for the fulfilment of these two in one.

ages are opening this moral force.

;

divine form we do not yet know, but only the dream

and prophecy of such

manners which belong exalt the beholder.

most private

we do not know the majestic to him, which appease and

shall one

day see that the

the most public energy, that quality

atones for quantity, and grandeur of character acts in the dark,

What

and succors them who never saw

greatness has yet appeared

encouragements to us in this direction. of those gods

and

saints

it.^

beginnings and

The history

which the world has writ-

ten and then worshipped, are documents of character.

The ages have exulted

in the

manners of a

youth who owed nothing to fortune, and who was

hanged at the Tyburn of

his nation, who,

by the

CHARACTER.

112

pure quality of his nature, shed an epic splendor

aroimd the facts of his death which has transfigured every particular into an universal symbol for the

This great defeat

eyes of mankiad.

But

highest fact. the senses

;

the

mind

hitherto our

requires a victory to

a force of character which will convert

judge, jury, soldier, and king which will rule animal and mineral ratues, and blend with the courses of sap, of rivers, of winds, of stars, and of moral ;

agents.

we cannot

bound

attain at a

to these gran-

do them homage.

deurs, at least let us

society,

high advantages are set down to the possessor as disadvantages.

It reqidres the

our private estimates. friends the failure to

entertain last that

more wariness

know a

When

which we have always longed for is arrived

and shines on us with glad rays out lestial land,

and

fine character

with thankful hospitality.

I do not forgive in

of that far ce-

then to be coarse, then to be critical

treat such a visitant with the jabber

and

sus-

picion of the streets, argues a vulgarity that seems

This

to shut the doors of heaven.

when the

the right insanity, its

own, nor where

due.

Is there

any

confusion, this

soul no longer

knows

its allegiance, its religion,

religion but this, to

know

wherever in the wide desert of being the holy

ment we cherish has opened

into a flower,

are

that

senti-

blooms

CHARACTER. for

me ?

none sees

it,

I see

113

;

aware,

Whilst

alone, of the greatness of the fact.

I will keep sabbath or holy time, and suspend

gloom and

Nature

foUy and jokes.

by the presence of

blooms,

indulged

There are many

this guest.

eyes that can detect and honor the prudent and

household virtues

;

there are

many

that can discern

Genius on his starry track, though the mob capable

;

but when that love which

all-abstaining, all-aspiring, self that it

world sooner than pliances,

which has vowed

win be a wretch and soil its

comes into our

in-

is all-suffering,

also

it-

a fool in this

white hands by any com-

streets

the pure and aspiring can

and houses,

know

only compliment they can pay

its face,

it is

own

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; only

and the it.

;

MANNEES.

How

near to good

Which we no But with the

Our

what

is fair

sooner see, lines

and outward

air

senses taken be.

Again yourselves compose,

And now

put

Of Figure,

all

Or Color can That

the aptness on

that Proportion disclose

those silent arts were lost,

Design and Picture, they might boast

From you

a newer ground.

Instructed by the heightening sense

dignity and reverence

In their true motions found."

Ben

Jonson.

IV.

MAJSnsnEES.

Half

it is said, knows not how the Our Exploring Expedition saw the Feejee islanders getting their dinner off human bones; and they are said to eat their own wives and childi-en. The husbandry of the modern inhabitants of Gournou (west of old Thebes) is philosophical to a fault. To set up their house-

the world,

other half

live.

keeping nothing

but

requisite

two or three

earthen pots, a stone to grind meal, and a mat

which

The

the bed.

house, namely a tomb,

ready without rent or taxes.

through the

no want

roof,

and there

rain can pass

no door, for there

of one, as there is nothing to lose.

If the

house do not please them, they walk out and enter as there are

another,

zoni, to

happiness

among

" It

several hundreds

their

somewhat singular," adds Belwhom we owe this account, " to talk of

command.

among

people

who

live

in sepulchres,

the corpses and rags of an ancient nation

which they know nothing of."

In the deserts of

;

MANNERS.

118

Borgoo the rock-Tibboos

compared by

still

dwell in eaves, like

and the language

cliff-swallows,

of these negroes

bats and to the whistling of birds.

noos have no proper names

;

Again, the Bor-

individuals are called

other accidental

after their height, thickness, or quality,

their neighbors to the shrieking of

and have nicknames merely.

But the

salt,

the dates, the ivory, and the gold, for which these horrible

regions are visited, find their

way

into

and consumer can

countries where the purchaser

hardly be ranked in one race with these cannibals

and man-stealers

countries where

;

man

serves him-

self

with metals, wood, stone, glass, gum, cotton,

silk,

and wool

writes laws,

;

honors himself with architecture

and contrives

through the hands of

many

execute

nations

;

his

will

and, espe-

a select society, running through

cially, establishes all

the coimtries of intelligent men, a self-consti-

tuted aristocracy, or fraternity of the best, which,

without written law or exact usage of any kind, perpetuates

itself,

colonizes every new-planted

and and adopts and makes

isl-

own whatever personal beauty or extraordinary native endowment its

anywhere appears.

What

fact

more conspicuous in modern history

than the creation of the gentleman ? that,

and loyalty

is that,

Chivalry

and, in English literature

half the drama, and all the novels, from Sir Philip

MANNERS.

119

Sidney to Sir "Walter Scott, paint this

figure.

The

word gentleman, which, like the word Christian, must hereafter characterize the present and the few preceding centuries by the importance attached to it,

a homage to personal and incommunicable

Frivolous and fantastic additions have

properties.

got associated with the name, but the steady interest of

mankind

in it

must be attributed to the valu-

able properties which

which unites country,

all

designates.

element

the most forcible persons of every

makes them intelligible and agreeable is somewhat so precise that it is

each other, and once

felt if

an individual lack the masonic

sign,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

cannot be any casual product, but must be an average result of the character and faculties universally

found in men.

average sition,

;

It seems a certain

as the atmosphere

whilst so

many

be decompounded.

gases are combined only to

Comme

ilfaut,

man's description of good society It

a spontaneous

precisely that class

permanent

a permanent compo-

the French-

as vie must

fruit of talents

and

who have most

vigor,

the lead in the world of this hour,

he.

feelings of

who take

and though far

from pure, far from constituting the gladdest and highest tone of

human

whole society permits spirit,

more than

compound

feeling,

to be.

It is

good as the

made

of the talent of men,

result into

of the

and

is a which every great force en-

MANNERS.

120

an ingredient, namely

ters as

virtue, wit, beauty,

and power.

wealth,

There

something equivocal in

all

the words in

use to express the excellence of manners and social cultivation,

because the quantities are fluxionaJ,

assumed by the senses as the The word gentleman has not any correla-

and the

last effect is

cause.

tive abstract to express the quality.

mean, and gentilesse

obsolete.

Gentility

But we must

keep alive in the vernacular the distinction h^tween fashion, a word of narrow and often

sinister

meaning, and the heroic character which the gentle-

man

The usual words, however, must be

imports.

respected

;

they wiU be found to contain the root

of the matter.

The

point of distinction in all this

class of

names, as courtesy, chivalry, fashion, and

the like,

that the flower

and

of the tree, are contemplated. is

fruit,

the aim this time, and not worth.

now

not the grain

It is beauty

The

which

result

in question, although our words intimate well

enough the popular feeling that the appearance supposes a substance. truth, lord of his

own

The gentleman actions,

lordship in his behavior

pendent and

or possessions. force,

lence:

;

servile, either

Beyond

man

and expressing that

not in any manner de-

on persons, or opinions,

this fact of truth

and

real

the word denotes good -nature or benevo-

manhood

first,

and then

gentleness.

The

MANNERS.

121

popular notion certainly adds a condition oÂŁ ease

and fortune

but that

;

a natural result of per-

sonal force and love, that they should possess and

In times of

dispense the goods of the world. violence, every eminent person

many worth at

must

therefore every man's

;

aU from the mass

name

amount

to-day,

society the

and

men

That

is still

par-

moving crowd of good valor and reality are known

in the

rise to their natural place.

transferred from

that emerged

But personal

our ear like a flourish of trumpets.

with

in the feudal ages, rattles in

force never goes out of fashion.

and

fall in

opportunities to approve his stoutness and

war

The competition

to politics

and

trade, but

the personal force appears readily enough in these

new arenas. Power first,

or no leading class.

in trade, bruisers

and

than talkers and clerks. of gentlemen

politics

and

pirates are of better promise

God knows

knock at the door

;

that all sorts

but whenever

used in strictness and with any emphasis, the name will

be found to point at original energy.

scribes a

man

standing in his

ing after untaught methods.

must

first

own

right

It de-

and work-

In a good lord there

be a good animal, at least to the extent

of jdelding the incomparable advantage of animal spirits.

The

ruling class must have more, but

they must have these, giving in every company the

MANNERS.

122

sense of power, whicli

makes things easy to be The society of the en-

done which daunt the wise.

ergetic class, in their friendly is ftill

of courage

the pale scholar. is

The courage which

intellect relies

plies to face these

memory

festive meetings,

and of attempts which intimidate searfight.

on memory to make some sup-

But and

extemporaneous squadrons.

a base mendicant with

girls exhibit

Lundy's Lane, or a

like a battle of

The

and

basket

badge, in the presence of these sudden masters.

The

rulers of society

must be up

to the

work

world, and equal to their versatile office

the right Csesarian pattern,

who have

of the

men

great range of

I am far from believing the timid maxim Lord Falkland (" that for ceremony there must go two to it since a bold feUow will go through the cunningest forms"), and am of opinion that affinity.

;

the gentleman

the bold fellow whose forms are

not to be broken through nature

is rightfixl

and only that plenteous

master which

of whatever person

man

;

the complement

My gentle-

converses with.

gives the law where he

;

he will outpray

saints in chapel, outgeneral veterans in the field,

and outshine

company so that

all cotirtesy in

for pirates

it is

the hall.

good

and good with academicians

;

him

;

useless to fortify yourself against

he has the private entrance to aU minds, and I could as easily exclude myself, as him.

The

fa-

MANNERS. mous gentlemen this

of Asia

strong type

123

and Europe have been of

Saladin, Sapor, the Cid, Julius

;

Caesar, Scipio, Alexander, Pericles,

They

est personages. chairs,

and the

and were too excellent themselves,

any condition

at a

lordli-

sat very carelessly in their

high

to value

rate.

A plentiful fortime is reckoned necessary, popular judgment, to the completion of this the world

;

and

it is

first

Money

has led.

not essential, but this wide affinity

is,

which tran-

scends the habits of clique and caste and makes self felt

by men

a material deputy which walks

through the dance which the is

in the

man

classes.

it-

If the aristocrat is

only valid in fashionable circles and not with truck-

men, he will never be a leader in fashion the

man

;

and

of the people cannot speak on equal terms

with the gentleman, so that the gentleman shall perceive that he der,

already really of his

not to be feared.

own

or-

Diogenes, Socrates,

and Epaminondas, are gentlemen of the best blood

who have chosen

the condition of poverty

that of wealth was equally open to them. these old names, but the

contemporaries.

men

when I use

I speak of are

Fortune will not supply to every

generation one of these well - appointed knights,

but every collection of

men

furnishes some exam-

ple of the class; and the politics of this country,

and the trade of every town, are controlled by these

MANNERS.

124

hardy and irresponsible doers, who have invention

and a broad sympathy which puts fellowship with crowds, and makes their

to take the lead,

them

action popular.

The manners

of this

ciation of these

men ble

observed and

are

class

men

The assomasters with each other and with

caught with devotion by

of taste.

intelligent of their merits, is mutually agreea-

and stimulating.

The good forms,

the happiest

expressions of each, are repeated and adopted. swift consent

everything superfluous

everything gracefid

show themselves formidable

They

man.

dropped,

uncultivated

the

are a subtler science of defence to

parry and intimidate skill of the

Fine manners

renewed.

but once matched by the

;

other party, they drop the point of the

sword,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; points and fences disappear, and the youth

finds

himself in a more transparent atmosphere,

wherein

life is

a less troublesome game, and not a

misunderstanding

rises

ners aim to facilitate

Man-

between the players.

life,

and bring the man pure

to get rid of

to energize.

impediments

They

aid our

dealing and conversation as a railway aids travelliag,

by getting

the road

rid of all avoidable obstructions of

and leaving nothing

pure space.

to be conquered but

These forms very soon become

and a fine sense of propriety

more heed that

fixed,

cultivated with the

becomes a badge of

social

and

MANNERS.

Thus grows up FasHon, an

distinctions.

civil

125

equivocal semblance, the most puissant, the most

and

fantastic

most feared and

frivolous, the

fol-

lowed, and which morals and violence assault in vain.

There

exists

between the

strict relation

power and the exclusive and polished always

last are

men

strong

filled

class of

The The

circles.

or filling from the

first.

usually give some allowance even to

the petulances of fashion, for that affinity they find in

Napoleon, child of the revolution, destroyer

it.

of the old noblesse, never ceased to court the Fau-

bourg

St.

fashion

Germain

;

doubtless with the feeling that

a homage to

men

though in a strange way, represents It is virtue

tue.

humous honor.

gone to seed

all

manly

vir-

a kind of post-

it is

It does hot often caress the great,

but the children of the great

a hall of the

It usually sets its face against the great of

Past.

this hour.

halls

Fashion,

of his stamp.

Great

men

are not

they are absent in the

;

ing, not triumphing.

children

;

of those

commonly

field:

Fashion

who through

in its

they are work-

made up

of their

the value and vir-

tue of somebody, have acquired lustre to their name,

marks

of distinction,

erosity,

and in

means of

cultivation

and gen-

their physical organization a certain

health and excellence which secure to them, the highest power to work, yet high

not

power to enjoy.

MANNERS.

126

The

class of

power, the working heroes, the Cortez,

the Nelson, the Napoleon, see that this ity

the festiv-

and permanent celebration of such as they that is Mexico, Marengo, and is funded talent ;

fashion

;

Trafalgar beaten out thin of fashion run

own,

fifty

back

;

that the brilliant

to just such

They

or sixty years ago.

their sons shall

names

busy names as their are the sowers,

be the reapers, and

their sons, in

the ordinary course of things, must yield the pos-

harvest

session of the

new

competitors with

keener eyes and stronger frames.

said,

city is reit is

every legitimate monarch iu Europe was imbe-

The

cile.

The

In the year 1805,

cruited from the country.

city

would have died

exploded, long ago, but that the fields.

It is only country

day before yesterday that

out, rotted,

and

was reinforced from which came to town

city

and court

to-day.

Aristocracy and fashion are certain inevitable results.

If they

These mutual selections are indestructible. provoke anger in the least favored

class,

and the excluded majority revenge themselves on the excluding minority kill

them, at once a

as certainly as if

by the strong hand and

new class

cream

rises in

finds itself at the top,

a bowl of milk

and

the people should destroy class after class, until

two men only were

left,

one of these would be the

leader and would be involuntarily served and copied

by the

other.

You may keep

this ipinority out

MANNERS. of sight

and out of mind, but

and is more struck with

127

it is

tenacious of

life,

the

one of the estates of the realm. this tenacity,

when

I see

It respects the administration of such

matters, that

we should not look

in its ride.

for

sometimes meet

its

work.

unimportant

any durability

men under some

strong moral influence, as a patriotic, a literary, a religious

ment

movement, and

man and

rules

distinctions

and

feel that the

nature.

ties will

New York

Boston or

all

senti-

other

be slight and fugitive, this

of caste or fashion for example

year to year and see

moral

think

;

yet

how permanent

come from

that

is,

man, where too

life of

in this it

has

not the least countenance from the law of the land.

Not

Egypt or in India a firmer or more impasHere are associations whose ties go over and under and through it, a meeting of merin

sable line.

chants, a military corps, a college class, a fire-club,

a professional association, a convention

;

political,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the persons seem

a religious

draw

insepara-

bly near; yet, that assembly once dispersed,

members

will not in the year

meet again.

its

Each

returns to his degree in the scale of good society, porcelain remains porcelain, and earthen earthen.

The

objects of fashion

may be

objectless,

may

be frivolous, or fashion

but the nature of this union and

selection can be neither frivolous nor accidental.

Each man's rank

in that perfect graduation de-

;

MANNERS.

128

pends on some symmetry in his structure or some

agreement in his structure to the symmetry of

so-

unbar instantaneously to a natural claim of their own kind. A natural gentleman finds his way in, and will keep the oldest patrician Its doors

ciety.

out

who has

Fashion un-

lost his intrinsic rank.

good-breeding and personal supe-

derstands

itself

riority of

whatever country readily fraternize with

;

those of every other.

The

chiefs of savage tribes

have distinguished themselves in London and Paris

by the purity of their tournure. To say what good of fashion we can, it rests on reality, and hates nothing so much as pretenders to exclude and mystify pretenders and send them into everlasting

Coventry,'

its

delight.

contemn in turn every other

gift of

world; but the habit even in

little

men

of the

and the

matters of not appealing to any but our

own

least

sense

of propriety, constitutes the foundation of all chiv-

There

alry. it

almost no kind of self-reliance, so

be sane and proportioned, which fashion does not

occasionally adopt saloons.

and give

A sainted

soul

the freedom of

always elegant, and,

its if

it will,

passes unchallenged into the most guarded

ring.

But

crisis

so will

that brings

long as his head Btance,

Jock the teamster

him

thither,

and

pass, in

some

find favor, as

not giddy with the

and the iron shoes do not wish

new

circimi-

to dance in

MANNERS. waltzes

and

129

For there

cotillons.

nothing settled

in manners, but the laws of behavior yield to the

energy of the individual. ball, the

there

The maiden

at her first

at a city dinner, believes that

countryman

a ritual according to which every act and

compliment must be performed, or the failing party

must be

cast out of this presence.

Later they learn

and character make

that good sense

own forms

their

every moment, and speak or abstain, take wine or refuse

it,

stay or go, sit in a chair or sprawl with

children on the floor, or stand on their head, or

what

new and

else soever, in a

that strong will

always in fashion,

be unfashionable.

All that fashion

composure and

self-content.

way and who wLU demands is of men per-

aboriginal

A circle

;

let

would be a company of sensible

fectly well-bred

persons in which every man's native manners and If the fashionist have not this

character appeared. quality,

reliance that

nothing.

wiU show us a complete which asks no leave or

woman

of nobility. to

self-

sins if

satisfaction in his position,

to be, of mine, or to

any man's

some eminent

of the world, forfeits all privilege

do with him

man

such lovers of

man many

But any deference

good opinion.

man

We are

excuse in a

;

an underling: I have nothing

wUl speak with

his master.

should not go where he cannot carry his whole

sphere or society with him,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not bodily, the whole

MANNERS.

130

of his friends,

circle

but atmospherically.

new company

should preserve ia a

the same

He atti-

tude of mind and reality of relation which his daUy associates

draw him

to, else

shorn of his best

beams, and will be an orphan in the merriest club. " If you could see Vich Ian

Vohr with his tail on But Vich Ian Vohr must always carry his

belongings ia some fashion,

not added as honor,

then severed as disgrace.

There

who

will always

be in society certain persons

are mercuries of its approbation,

and whose

glance will at any time determine for the curious

These are the cham-

their standing in the world.

berlains of the lesser gods.

omen

as an

Accept their coldness

of grace with the loftier deities,

allow them aU their privilege. their office, nor could they

out their

own

merits.

They

and

are clear in

be thus formidable with-

But do not measure the im-

portance of this class by their pretension, or imagine that a fop can be the dispenser of honor

shame.

They pass

also at their just rate

;

for

and

how

can they otherwise, in circles which exist as a sort of herald's office for the sifting of character ?

the

first

thing

so that appears in

man

requires of

aU the forms

man

and by name, introduce the

pointedly,

each other.

Know you

that this

Andrew, and

is reality,

of society.

parties to

before all heaven and earth, this is

Gregory,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they

MANNERS. look each other in the eye

131

they grasp each other's

;

hand, to identify and signalize each other.

A gentleman

great satisfaction.

It is

never dodges; his

eyes look straight forward, and he assures the other party, first of is it

that

many

visits

and

tions ?

Or do we

in the house ?

not insatiably ask.

man

and

vision for comfort, luxury,

taste,

and yet not

who

shall subor-

encounter there any Amphitryon dinate these appendages.

and find a farmer who have come to

Was

may easily go into a great housemuch substance, excellent pro-

hold where there

hospitali-

and decora-

Is it your draperies, pictures,

ties ?

For what

that he has been met.

all,

seek, in so

may go

feels that

into a cottage, is

man

the

and fronts me accordingly.

see,

was therefore a very natural point of old feudal gentleman who received a

etiquette that a

though

visit,

were of his sovereign, should not leave

his roof, but should wait his arrival at the door of his house.

house, though

or the Escurial,

master.

And

hospitality. self

yet

were the Tuileries

good for anything without a are not often gratified

by this

Every body we know surrounds him-

with a fine house, fine books, conservator}'', gar-

dens, equipage to interpose it

toys, as screens

between himself and his guest.

not seem as

ture,

and aU manner of

man was

and dreaded nothing

Does

of a very sly, elusive naso

much

as a full ren-

MANNERS.

132

It were un-

centre front to front with his fellow ?

merciful, I know, quite to abolish the use of these screens,

which are of eminent convenience, whether

the guest

too great or too

many

little.

call to-

who keep each other in play, or by luxuries and ornaments we amuse the young, people, and guard our retirement. Or if perchance gether

friends

a searching realist comes to our gate, before whose eye

we have no

to our curtain,

voice of the

care to stand, then again

and hide ourselves

Lord God

we run

Adam

at the

Cardinal

in the garden.

Caprara, the Pope's legate at Paris, defended himself

from the glances of Napoleon by an immense

pair of green spectacles.

and speedily managed to

Napoleon remarked them,

them

rally

off

and yet

Napoleon, in his turn, was not great enough, with eight hundred thousand troops at his back, to face

a pair of freeborn eyes, but fenced himself with quette and within triple barriers of reserve

;

eti-

and,

knows from Madame de Stael, was when he found himself observed, to discharge his face of all expression. But emperors and rich men are by no means the most skilful masters of as all the world

wont,

good manners. nify skulking

rentroll nor army-list can dig-

and dissimulation and the ;

first

point

of courtesy must always be truth, as really all the

forms of good breeding point that way. I have just been reading. In Mr. Hazlitt's trans-

MANNERS. lation,

133

Montaigne's account of his journey into

and am struck with nothing more agreeably than the self-respecting fashions of the time. His Italy,

arrival in each place, the arrival of a gentleman of

France,

an event of some consequence.

Wher-

ever he goes he pays a visit to whatever prince or

gentleman of note resides upon his road, as a duty to himself

and

to civilization.

When he leaves any

house in which he has lodged for a few weeks, he causes his arms to be painted and

hung up

as a per-

petual sign to the house, as was the custom of gentlemen.

The complement that of

and

of this graceful self-respect,

aU the points of good breeding I most

quire and insist upon,

deference.

every chair should be a throne, and hold a king. prefer a tendency to stateHness to an excess of lowship.

re-

I like that I fel-

Let the incommunicable objects of nature

and the metaphysical

isolation of

man

teach us in-

Let us not be too much acquainted.

dependence.

I would have a

man

enter his house through a hall

fiUed with heroic and sacred sculptures, that he

might not want the hint of tranquillity and poise.

self-

should meet each morning as from for-

eign countries, and,

spending the day together,

should depart at night, as into foreign countries.

all things

violate.

I would have the island of a

Let us

sit

man

in-

apart as the gods, talking from

MANNERS.

134 peak to p6ak affection

all

need invade

and rosemary

This

this religion.

keep the other sweet.

degree of is

myrrh Lovers

If they forgive too

should guard their strangeness.

much,

round Olympus.

into confusion and meanness.

all slides

easy to push this deference to a Chinese etiquette

;

but coolness and absence of heat and haste indicate fine

lady

qualities. is

gentleman makes no noise; a

Proportionate

serene.

those invaders

who

and running,

to secure

Not

less I dislike

neighbor's needs.

fill

some paltry convenience.

a low sympathy of each with his

Must we have

lived long together

salt or sugar.

I pray

for bread, to ask

our disgust at

a studious house with blast

ing with one another's palates

who have

a good understandas foolish people

know when each wants

companion,

and

for bread,

he wishes

he wishes for

me for them, and not to knew already. Every nat-

sassafras or arsenic, to ask

hold out his plate as

ural function can be dignified by deliberation and privacy.

Let us leave hurry

to slaves.

The com-

pliments and ceremonies of our breeding should recall,

however remotely, the grandeur of our destiny.

The

flower of courtesy does not very well bide

handling, but

we dare

explore what parts go to

open another leaf and

its

conformation, we shall

find also an intellectual quality.

men, the brain as well as the

flesh

the leaders of

and the heart

MANNERS.

135

Defect in manners

must furnish a proportion.

Men are too

usually the defect of fine perceptions. coarsely

made

and customs.

for the delicacy of beautiful carriage sufficient to good-

It is not quite

breeding, a union of kindness and independence.

imperatively require a perception

homage

tues are in request in the field certain degree of taste

sit

of,

with.

and a

Other

to beauty in our companions.

vir-

and workyard, but a

not to be spared in those

I could better eat with one

who did

not respect the truth or the laws than with a sloven

Moral

and unpresentable person.

qualities rule the

world, but at short distances the senses are despotic.

The same

discrimination of

with less rigor, into

all

fit

and

fair

parts of Hfe.

spirit of the energetic class is

good

runs out,

The average sense, acting

under certain limitations and to certain ends. entertains every natural gift. it

Social in

its

nature,

respects everything which tends to unite men.

delights in measure.

The

love of beauty

the love of measure or proportion.

mainly

The person who

screams, or uses the superlative degree, or converses

with heat, puts whole drawing-rooms to

flight.

you wish

You must

to be loved, love measure.

have genius or a prodigious usefulness hide the want of measure.

you

will

This perception comes

in to polish

and perfect the parts of the

strument.

Society

social in-

wiU pardon much to genius and

;

MANNERS.

136

special gifts, but, being in its nature it

loves

what

a convention,

conventional, or what belongs to

That makes the good and bad

coming together.

manners, namely what helps or hinders fellowship.

For fashion

not good sense absolute, but relative

not good sense private, but good sense entertaining

company.

It hates corners

character, hates

quarrelsome, egotistical, solitary,

and gloomy people

;

hates whatever can interfere

with total blending of parties peculiarities

and sharp points of

as in

;

whilst

values all

the highest degree refreshing,

which can consist with good fellowship.

And

be-

sides the general infusion of wit to heighten civil-

the direct splendor of intellectual power

ity,

welcome in its

rule

and

its credit.

shine in to adorn our festival,

must be tempered and shaded, or that

also offend.

ever

fine society as the costliest addition to

The dry light must but

Accuracy

essential to beauty,

will

and

quick perceptions to politeness, but not too quick perceptions. precise.

One may be

He must

ness at the door,

beauty.

too punctual and too

leave the omniscience of busi-

when he comes

into the palace of

Society loves Creole natures, and sleepy

languishing

manners, so that they cover sense,

grace and good-wiU:

the air of drowsy strength,

which disarms criticism

;

perhaps because such a

person seems to reserve himself for the best of the

MANNERS.

137

game, and not spend himself on surfaces ; an ignoring eye, which does not see the annoyances,

shifts,

and inconveniences that cloud the brow and smother the voice of the sensitive.

Therefore besides personal force and so

much

perception as constitutes unerring taste, society de-

mands ready

in its patrician

which

intira'ated,

nature,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; expressing

class

all

another element

al-

significantly terms good-

degrees of generosity, from

the lowest willingness and faculty to oblige, up to

the heights of magnanimity and love.

must have, or we miss the

way

shall

to our food

The

and barren.

certain heartiness

Insight we

run against one another and ;

but intellect

selfish

secret of success in society is

and sympathy.

man who

a is

not happy in the company cannot find any word in his

memory

information

happy

that will

little

fit

the occasion.

impertinent.

A man

All his

who

there, finds in every turn of the conversa-

tion equally lucky occasions for the introduction of

that which he has to say.

and what

it calls

spirit

egotism, but

The

favorites of society,

whole souls, are able men and of

than wit, who have no uncomfortable

who

exactly

fill

the hour and the com-

pany contented and contenting, ;

a marriage or a

funeral, a ball or a jury, a water-party or a shoot-

ing-match.

England, which

rich in gentlemen,

furnished, in the beginning of the present century,

MANNERS.

138

a good model of that genius which the world loves,

Mr. Fox, who added to his great abilities the most social disposition and real love of men. Parin

liamentary history has few better passages than the

Fox separated in when Fox urged on his

debate in which Burke and

House

Commons

;

the old

friend the claims of old friendship with such ten-

derness that the house was

moved

other anecdote

is so

close to

hazard the story.

dunned him for a note

to tears.

An-

matter, that I must

tradesman who had long of three

hundred guineas,

found him one day counting gold, and demanded

payment

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " No,"

to Sheridan

;

it is

said Fox, " I

a debt of honor

owe ;

this

money

an accident

should happen to me, he has nothing to show."

" Then," said the creditor, " I change

debt into

a debt of honor," and tore the note in pieces.

thanked the

man

saying, " his debt

for his confidence

was

dan must wait."

of older standing,

Lover of

Fox

and paid him,

and Sheri-

liberty, friend of the

Hindoo, friend of the African slave, he possessed a great personal popularity

him on the occasion " Mr.

;

and Napoleon said of

of his visit to Paris, in 1805,

Fox win always hold

the

first

place in an

assembly at the TuHeries."

We may easily courtesy,

seem ridiculous in our eulogy of

whenever we

foundation.

insist

on benevolence as

its

The painted phantasm Fashion rises to

MANNERS. on what we

139

say.

But I

from some allowance

to Fash-

cast a species of derision

will neither be driven

ion as a symbolic institution, nor from the belief that love that, if

we can

contrasts. often, in all

Yet

;

Life owes

this.

We must obtain

the basis of courtesy.

but by

much

means we must

all

affirm

of its spirit to these sharp

Fashion, which affects to be honor,

men's experience, only a ballroom-code.

so long as

it is

the highest circle in the imagi-

nation of the best heads on the planet, there

something necessary and excellent in

not to be supposed that

men have agreed

dupes of anything preposterous

;

for

to be the

and the respect

;

which these mysteries inspire in the most rude and sylvan characters, and the curiosity with which details of

high

life

are read, betray the universality

of the love of cultivated manners.

comic disparity would be the acknowledged terrific

first

circles

know that a we should enter and apply these

standards of justice, beauty, and benefit to

the individuals

and

felt, if

heroes, sages

Fashion has

actually found there.

and

many

Monarchs

lovers, these gallants are not.

classes

and many

rules of proba^

and admission, and not the best alone. There not only the right of conquest, which genius pre-

tion is

tends,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

individual demonstrating his natural

aristocracy best of the best for the time;

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but

for Fashion

less claims

loves

lions,

wiU and

;;

MANNERS.

140

points like Circe to her horned

company.

gentleman

from Denmark

and that

this afternoon arrived

my Lord

from Bagdat Turnagain

;

here

this

who came

yesterday

Captain Friese, from Cape

and Captain Symmes, from the

rior of the earth

down

Ride,

This

inte-

and Monsieur Jovaire, who came

;

morning in a balloon

;

Mr. Hobnail,

the

and Reverend Jul Bat, who has converted the whole torrid zone in his Sunday school reformer

;

and Signer Torre del Greco, who extinguished Vesuvius by pouring into

the

the Persian ambassador exiled

;

Bay of Naples

nabob of Nepaul, whose saddle

moon. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; But

;

Spahi,

and Tul Wil Shan, the is

the

new

these are monsters of one day, and

to-morrow will be dismissed to their holes and dens

The

;

for in these

artist,

rooms every chair

waited

for.

the scholar, and, in general, the clerisy,

win their way up into these places and get represented here, somewhat on this footing of conquest.

Another mode

is to

pass through

aU the

degrees,

spending a year and a day in St. Michael's Square, being steeped in Cologne water, and perfumed, and dined, and introduced, all

the biography

and

and properly grounded

politics

and anecdotes

of the

boudoirs.

Yet these

fineries

may have

grace and wit.

Let

there be grotesque sculpture about the gates and pf&ces of temples.

Let the creed and command-

MANNERS.

141

ments even have the saucy homage of parody. The forms of politeness universally express benevolence

What

in superlative degrees.

mouths of

selfish

ishness ?

What

bows the true out

they are in the

men, and used as means of

gentleman almost

the false

self-

What

of the world ?

the false

gentleman contrives so to address his companion as civiUy to exclude all others

make them

and

also to

vice

wiU not

from

his discourse,

excluded

feel

Real

ser-

All generosity

lose its nobleness.

not merely French and sentimental

;

nor

be concealed that living blood and a passion of kindness does at last distinguish God's gentleman

from is

The epitaph

Fasliion's.

whoUy

not

" Here

lies

unintelligible

and persuaded

his :

Jenkin Grout age

present

who loved his friend what his mouth ate, his

Sir Jenkin Grout,

hand paid stored

of Sir to the

for

enemy

what

his servants robbed, he re-

woman gave him

ported her in pain

and whoso touched whole body."

Even

terly extinct.

There

pleasure, he sup-

he never forgot his children his finger,

drew

after

the line of heroes stiU ever

some admirable

person in plain clothes, standing on the wharf,

jumps

in to rescue a

drowning man

some absurd inventor of

charities

comforter of runaway slaves

land

;

some Philhellene

;

his

not ut-

;

there

who

is still

some guide and

some friend of Po-

some fanatic who plants

:iJANXÂŁRS.

li-J.

and third generation, grown old some well-con-

shade-trees for the second

and orchards when he cealed piety

;

some

just

;

man happy

in an iU

fame

;

some youth ashamed of the favors of fortune and impatiently casting

them on other

shoulders.

these are the centres of society, on which

an attempt

to organize beauty

and the generous the theory, the doctors and apostles of

of behavior. in

The

returns

These are the creators of

for fresh impidses.

Fashion, which

And

church

Scipio,

beautiful

are,

this

and the Cid, and Sir Philip Sid-

ney, and Washington, and every pure and valiant

heart deed.

who worshipped Beauty by word and by The persons who constitute the natural

aristocracy are not found in the actual aristocracy, or only on its edge; as the chemical energy of the

spectrum spectrmn.

found

Yet that

be greatest just outside of the is

the infirmity of the senes-

who do not know their sovereign when he appears. The theory of society supposes the existchals,

ence and sovereignty of these. their coming. "

It divines afar off

It says with the elder gods,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

As Heaven and Earth are fairer far Than Chaos and blank Darkness, though once chiefs; And as we show beyond that Heaven and Earth, In form and shape compact and beautiful; So, on our heels a fresh perfection treads;

A power, more strong in beauty, bom of us,

143

MANNERS. And fated

to excel us, as

we pass

In glory that old Darkness: for,

That

first in

't is

the eternal law.

beauty shall he

first in

might."

Therefore, within the ethnical circle of good society there is a

tration of

there

narrower and higher

its light,

and

always a tacit appeal of pride and refer-

ence, as to its inner

ment

and imperial court the ;

of love and chivalry.

of those persons in

native ciety,

;

concen-

circle,

flower of courtesy, to which

whom

And

parlia-

this is constituted

heroic dispositions are

with the love of beauty, the delight in so-

and the power

If the individuals

to embellish the passing day.

who compose the purest

circles of

aristocracy in Europe, the guarded blood of centuries,

should pass in review, in such manner as

we could at leisure and critically inspect their behavior, we might find no gentleman and no lady; that

for although excellent specimens of courtesy

and

high-breeding would gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars

we should

detect offence.

Be-

cause elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth.

There must be romance of character, or the most fastidious exclusion of

im pertinencies will not

avail.

must be genius which takes that direction it must be not courteous, but courtesy. High beIt

havior

as rare in fiction as

it is

in fact.

Scott

praised for the fidelity with which he painted the

MANNERS.

144

demeanor and conversation of the superior classes. Certainly, kings and queens, nobles and great lahad some right

dies,

to complain of the absurdity

had been put in their mouths before the days Waverley; but neither does Scott's dialogue His lords brave each other in bear criticism. that

smart epigrammatic speeches, but the dialogue in

costume, and does not please on the second

reading

it is

not

warm

with

In Shakspeare

life.

alone the speakers do not strut and bridle, the dia-

logue

easily great,

and he adds

that of being the best-bred in

to so

man

many

titles

England and

Once or twice in a lifetime we charm of noble manners, the presence of a man or woman who have no Christendom.

are permitted to enjoy the in

bar in their nature, but whose character emanates freely

form

their

in is

behavior

word and

gesture.

beautiful

better than a beautiful face; a beautiful is

better than a beautiful

form

a higher pleasure than statues or pictures finest of the fine arts.

A man

but a

;

gives

it is

little

in the midst of the objects of nature, yet,

the

thing

by the

moral quality radiating from his countenance he

may

abolish all considerations of magnitude,

in his

manners equal the majesty

of the world.

and I

have seen an individual whose manners, though wholly within the conventions of elegant society,

were never learned there, but were original and

MANNERS.

145

commanding and held out protection and prosperone who did not need the aid of a court-suit, but carried the holiday in his eye who exhilarated the fancy by flinging wide the doors of new modes of existence; who shook off the captivity of etiity ;

;

quette, with happy, spirited bearing, good-natured

and free as Robin Hood emperor,

need be,

;

yet with the port of an

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; calm,

serious,

and

fit

stand the gaze of millions.

The open lic

air

and the

fields,

the street and pub-

chambers are the places where

will

let

;

him yield

Woman,

of the house. ior,

Man

executes his

or divide the sceptre at the door

with her instinct of behav-

instantly detects in

man

a love of

trifles,

any

coldness or imbecility, or, in short, any want of that large, flowing, and

which

Our American her,

and

at this

institutions

awkward

have been friendly to

moment I esteem

of this country, that tain

magnanimous deportment

indispensable as an exterior in the hall.

excels in

a chief felicity

women.

cer-

consciousness of inferiority in the

men may give rise Woman's Rights.

to the

new

chivalry in behalf of

Certainly let her be as

better placed in the laws

and

in social

much

forms as the

most zealous reformer can ask, but I confide so en-

and musical nature, that I can show us how she shall be

tirely in her inspiring

believe only herself served. VOL.

III.

The wonderful generosity 10

of her

senti-

MANNERS.

146

ments raises her at times into heroical and godlike regions,

and

Minerva, Juno,

verifies the pictures" of

and by the firmness with -which she upward path, she convinces the coarsest

or Polymnia; treads her

calculators that another road exists than that

know.

their feet

good

But besides

in our imagination the place of

muses and of

women who

Delphic Sibyls, are there not

which

who make

those

fill

our

vase with wine and roses to the brim, so that the

wine runs over and

who

fills

inspire us with courtesy

tongues and we speak

the house with perfume

see ?

;

say things

;

who unloose our

;

who anoint our eyes and we never thought to have

said ; for once, our walls of habitual reserve van-

ished and left us at large

;

we were

children play-

ing with children in a wide field of flowers. us,

in these influences,

cried,

weeks, and

shall be

Steep

days,

for

sunny poets and will write

out in many-colored words the romance that you are.

Was

Hafiz or Firdousi that said of his

Persian Lilla, She was an elemental force, and astonished

me by

her amount of

life,

day after day radiating, every

]oy and grace on all around her

vent powerful to reconcile sons into one society

all

when

I saw her

redundant

instant,

She was a

sol-

heterogeneous per-

like air or water,

an element

of such a great range of affinities that it

readily with a thousand substances.

combines

Where

she

;

MANNERS.

147

present all others will be more than they are wont. She was a unit and whole, so that whatsoever she did, became her. She had too much sympathy and desire to please, than that

marked with

ners were

you could say her man-

dignity, yet

no princess

could surpass her clear and erect demeanor on each

She did not study the Persian grammar,

occasion.

nor the books of the seven poets, but of the seven seemed to be written

all

the poems

upon

her.

For

though the bias of her nature was not to thought, but to sympathy, yet was she so perfect in her own nature as to meet intellectual persons by the ful-

warming them by her sentiments by dealing nobly with would show themselves noble.

ness of her heart,

believing, as she did, that all, all

know

that this Byzantine pile of chivalry or

Fashion, which seems so fair and picturesque to

who look

those

at the

contemporary facts for

ence or for entertainment, to all spectators.

makes

The

constitution of our society

a giant's castle to the ambitious youth

who have

not found their names enrolled in

Golden Book, and whom

has excluded from

They have

coveted honors and privileges. learn that ative

sci-

not equally pleasant

its

it is

seeming grandeur

great

yet to

shadowy and

their allowance

;

its

its its

rel-

proudest

gates will fly open at the approach of their courage

MANNERS.

148

and

For the present

virtue.

those

who

distress,

however, of

are predisposed to suffer from the tyr-

annies of this caprice, there are easy remedies.

remove your residence a couple of

most

miles, or at

commonly relieve the most extreme ceptibility. For the advantages which fashion four, will

susval-

ues are plants which thrive in very confined localities,

Out

in a few streets namely.

of this precinct

they go for nothing ; are of no use in the farm, in the forest, in the market, in war, in the nuptial society, in

the literary or scientific

circle, at sea,

friendship, in the heaven of thought or virtue.

But we have lingered long enough

The worth

painted courts.

must vindicate our thing that

taste for the

called fashion

bles itself before the cause

and

creator of titles of love.

which, in after

its

This

emblem.

Every-

and courtesy hum-

and fountain

dignities,

of honor,

namely the heart

and contingencies,

kind and conquer and expand it.

these

the royal blood, this the

all countries

approaches fact.

of the thing signified

fire,

will

work

all

that

This gives new meanings to every

This impoverishes the rich, suffering no gran-

deur but

its

own.

What

is rich ?

Are you

rich

enough to help anybody? to succor the unfashionable and the eccentric? rich enough to

make

the

Canadian in his wagon, the itinerant with his consul's

paper which commends him " To the

chari-

MANNERS.

149

table," the swarthy Italian with his

few broken

words of English, the lame pauper hunted by overseers

from town

to town, even the poor insane or

man

besotted wreck of

woman, feel the noble

ex-

ception of your presence and your house from the

general bleakness and stoniness

;

make such feel made

that they were greeted with a voice which

them both remember and hope

What

vulgar

but to refuse the claim on acute and conclusive

What

reasons ?

but to allow

is gentle,

it,

and give

their heart

and yours one holiday from the national

caution

Without the rich

ugly beggar. to

The king

heart, wealth

be so bountiful as the poor

at his gate.

of Schiraz could not afford

Osman had

Osman who

dwelt

a humanity so broad and

deep that although his speech was so bold and free with the Koran as to disgust

was there never a poor

all

the dervishes, yet

outcast, eccentric, or insane

cut off his beard, or who had been mutilated under a vow, or had a pet madness in his braia, but fled at once to him that great

man, some

fool

who had

;

heart lay there so sunny and hospitable in the centre of the country, that it

seemed

as if the instinct side.

And

the

madness which he harbored he did not

share.

of all sufferers

drew them

not this to be rich

But I

? this

to his

only to be rightly rich ?

shall hear without pain that I play the

courtier very

ill,

and talk

of that which I do not

MANNERS.

150

It is easy to see that

well understand. called

distinction society

laws as well as bad, has

and much that

and too bad for dition of the

absurd.

said

had

that

Too good

necessary,

for banning,

reminds us of a

tra-

pagan mythology, in any attempt to

settle its character.

said SLlenus,

and fashion has good

much

blessing, it

what

I overheard Jove, one day,'

talking of destroying the earth

failed

;

they were

who went from bad

all

;

rogues and vixens,

to worse, as fast as the days

succeeded each other. Minerva said she hoped not;

they were only ridiculous

little

creatures, with this

odd circumstance, that they had a

blur, or indeter-

minate aspect, seen far or seen near

them bad, they would appear them good, they would appear

;

you called you called

and there was

no one person or action among them wliich would not puzzle her owl,

know whether

much more

all

Olympus, to

was fundamentally bad or good.'

;

GIFTS.

Gifts of one

who

'T was

time they came

When

liigh

loved me,

he ceased to love me,

Time they stopped

for shame.

GIFTS.

said that the world

in a state of haiik-

ruptcy; that the world owes the world more than the world can pay, and ought to go into chancery

and he

sold.

I do not think this general insolvency,

which involves in some sort

all

the popidation, to

be the reason of the difficulty experienced at Christ-

mas and New Year and other gifts

;

since

it is

times, in bestowing

always so pleasant to be generous,

though very vexatious to pay debts. pediment

the choosing.

lies in

comes into

head that a present

to somebody, I

opportunity

gone.

ways

fit

presents

;

But the imany time it due from me

If at is

puzzled what to give, until the

Flowers and fruits are

flowers, because they are a

a ray of beauty outvalues

assertion that

world.

utilities of the

al-^

proud

all

the

These gay natures contrast

with the somewhat stem countenance of ordinary nature house.

they are like music heard out of a work-

Nature does not cocker us

dren, not pets

;

she

not fond

;

are chil-

everything

GIFTS.

154

dealt to us without fear or favor, after severe uni-

Yet these delicate flowers look like and interference of love and beauty. Men use to tell us that we love flattery even though we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance enough to be courted. Someversal laws.

the frolic

thing like that pleasure, the flowers give us

I to

whom

what

these sweet hints are addressed ?

Fruits are acceptable gifts, because they are the flower of commodities,

and admit

ues being attached to them.

If a

of fantastic val-

man

should send

to come a hundred miles to visit

should set before

him and

a basket of fine summer-fruit,

I should think there was some proportion between the labor and the reward.

For common perative leaves

makes pertinences glad when an im-

gifts, necessity

and beauty every day, and one

him no option

;

since if the

man

the door have no shoes, you have not to consider

whether you could procure him a paint-box. as

it is

always pleasing to see a

man

And

eat bread, or

drink water, in the house or out of doors, so is

always a great satisfaction to supply these

wants.

Necessity does everything weU.

dition of universal dependence let

In our con-

seems heroic to

the petitioner be the judge of his necessity,

to give

ience.

that it

first

and

asked, though at great inconven-

be a fantastic desire,

it is

better to

GIFTS.

155

leave to others the office of punishing him.

think of

many parts

of the Furies. rule for a gift, is

that

I can

I should prefer playing to that to things of necessity, the

which one of

we might convey

friends prescribed,

some person that which

properly belonged to his character, and was easily associated with of compliment

barous.

him

Rings and other jewels are not

The only

apologies for gifts. thyself.

But oxa tokens

in thought.

and love are for the most part bar-

Thou must poem

bleed for me.

poet brings his

;

the miner, a

gem

;

and

the painter, his picture

;

handkerchief of her own sewing. pleasing, for

mary

;

but

Therefore the

the shepherd, his lamb

farmer, corn shells

gifts,

a portion of

gift is

;

the

the sailor, coral ;

This

the is

girl,

right

and

restores society in so far to the pri-

when a man's biography is conveyed and every man's wealth is an index of But it is a cold lifeless business when the shops to buy me something which

basis,

in his gift, his merit.

you go

does not represent your smith's.

This

is fit

life

and

for kings,

talent,

and

but a gold-

rich

men who

represent kings, and a false state of property, to

make

presents of gold and silver stuffs, as a kind

of symbolical sin-offering, or

payment

of black-

mail.

The law

of benefits

difficult channel,

requires careful sailing, or rude boats.

which

It is

not

;

GIFTS.

156 the office of a give them

man

some danger of heing

from ourselves

sumes

;

eat,

ence,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

fire

his

hands thou nothing take."

Nothing

less will content us.

do not give

us, besides

and water, opportunity,

love, rever-

and objects of veneration.

as-

Jove to thee a present make,

We ask the whole. We arraign society and

who

because there seems something of de-

Take heed that from

earth

of receiving

sometimes hate the meat

grading dependence in living by " Brotlier,

way

but not from any one

to bestow.

which we

that feeds us

We can receive

bitten.

anything from love, for that it

you

We do

self-sustained.

The hand

not quite forgive a giver. is

How dare

to receive gifts.

We wish to he

a good

man who

can receive a

gift well.

are either glad or sorry at a gift,

and both

Some violence I think is done, some degradation borne, when I rejoice or I am sorry when my independence grieve at a gift. is invaded, or when a gift comes from such as do not know my spirit, and so the act is not supported emotions are unbecoming.

and

the gift pleases

me overmuch,

then I should

be ashamed that the donor should read

and

see that I love his

The

gift,

to be true,

heart,

commodity, and not him.

must be the flowing of the

giver unto me, correspondent to

flowing unto

157

GIFTS.

When

him.

the waters are at level, then

mine

I say to him.

his.

pot of

oil

can you give

this

when aU your

oil

mine, which belief of mine this gift

seems to deny

Hence the

useful things, for gifts. tion,

How

or this flagon of wine

and wine

my goods

All his are mine,

pass to him, and his to me.

is flat

and therefore when the beneficiary

ful, as all beneficiaries

hate

not

fitness of beautiful,

This giving

usurpa-

ungrate-

aU Timons, not

considering the value of the gift but looking back to the greater store

was taken from,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I rather

sympathize with the beneficiary than with the anger of

my lord

mean, and

Timon. is

For the expectation

continually punished

sensibility of the obliged person.

piness to get oÂŁE without injury

from one who has had the

total in-

a great hap-

and heart-burning

ill-luck to

be served by

It is a very onerous business, this of being

you.

served,

of gratitude

by the

and the debtor naturally wishes

slap.

which I

to give

golden text for these gentlemen

you that

admire in the Buddhist, who never

thanks, and

who

says,

"Do

not flatter your bene-

factors."

The reason there

any

gift.

mous

of these discords I conceive to be that

no commensurability between a

You

person.

man and

cannot give anything to a magnani-

After you have served him he at

once puts you in debt by his magnanimity.

The

;

GIFTS.

158 service a

man renders Ms

friend

he knows

compared with the service

ish

is trivial

and

self-

his friend

had Compared

stood in readiness to yield him, alike before he

begun

to serve his friend,

with that good-wiU I bear

and now

also.

my friend, the benefit it is

power to render him seems small.

Besides,

our action on each other, good as well as

evil, is so

and

incidental

the

random

we can seldom hear any person who would

that

acknowledgments of

thank us for a

without some shame and

benefit,

humiliation.

can rarely strike a direct stroke,

but must be content with an oblique one

dom have fit

which

But

directly received.

wonder the thanks of

receives with

of love, which

whom we must

the genius and

god

of gifts,

not affect to prescribe.

rules.

whom we

and not

For the

rest,

to be limited

There This

by our municipal

I like to see that

The

and

always expect fairy-

us not cease to expect them.

let

prerogative,

and

Let him

give kingdoms or flower-leaves indifferently.

are persons from

it,

all people.

any treason against the majesty

I fear to breathe

;

sel-

rectitude scat-

on every side without knowing

ters favors

tokens

;

the satisfaction of yielding a direct bene-

we cannot be

bought and

sold.

best of hospitality

and of

generosity

also not in the will, but in fate.

I find

that I

not

you do not

much

feel

;

you

then

;

you do not need me

I thrust out of doors,

159

GIFTS.

though you proffer vices are of

likeness.

have attempted to join myself to others by it

house and lands.

any value, but only

proved an intellectual

trick,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; no

ser-

When

services,

more.

They

eat your service like apples,

and leave you

But love them, and they

you and delight in

you

all the time.

feel

out.

NATUEE.

The rounded world Nine times folded

fair to see,

mystery

Thougli baffled seers cannot impart

The

secret of its laboring heart,

Throb thine with Nature's throbbing

And

all is clear

from

Spirit that lurks each

Beckons

form within

to spirit of its kin

Self-kindled every

And

east to west.

;

atom glows,

hints the future

which

owes.

breast,

VL NATUEE.

There

are days which occur in this climate, at

almost any season of the year, wherein the world reaches

its

perfection

bodies and the earth,

when the air, the heavenly make a harmony, as if nature ;

would indulge her offspring when, in these bleak ;

upper

sides of the planet, nothing is to desire that

we have heard

bask in the shining hours of

when everything faction,

and the

and we Morida and Cuba;

of the happiest latitudes,

that has life gives sign of satiscattle that lie

on the ground seem

have great and tranquil thoughts.

ons

may

be looked for with a

more assurance

little

in that pure October weather which

by the name

of the Indian

These halcy-

summer.

we distinguish The day, im-

measurably long, sleeps over the broad hUls and

warm wide

fields.

To have

lived through all its

sunny hours, seems longevity enough. tary places do not seem quite lonely. of the forest, the surprised

man

The

soli-

the gates

of the world

forced to leave his city estimates of great and

NATURE.

164 small, wise falls off his

and

The knapsack

foolish.

back with the

Here

these precincts.

of custom

step he takes into

first

sanctity which

shames

our religions, and reality which discredits our heroes.

Here we

find

Nature to be the circumstance

which dwarfs every other circumstance, and judges

come to her. We have crept out of our close and crowded houses iato the night and morning, and we see what majeslike a

tic

god

men

all

that

wrap us in we would escape the

beauties daily

willingly

their bosom.

How

barriers which ren-

der them comparatively impotent, escape the sophistication

and second thought, and

The tempered

to intrance us. is like

a perpetual morning, and

heroic.

The

The stems

and oaks almost gleam

The incommunicable live

like iron

woods

stimulating and spells

of these

of pines, hemlocks,

on the excited eye.

trees begin to persuade us to

with them, and quit our

Here no

anciently - reported

places creep on us.

suffer nature

light of the

life of

solemn

trifles.

history, or church, or state, is interpolated

on the divine sky and the immortal year.

How

we might walk onward into the opening landby new pictures and by thoughts fast succeeding each other, until by degrees the recollection of home was crowded out of the mind, all memory obliterated by the tyranny of the present, and we were led in triumph by nature. easily

scape, absorbed

NATURE.

166

These enchantments are medicinal, they sober

and heal

These are plain pleasures, kindly and

us.

native to us.

come

and make

to our own,

frignds- with -matter,- which~the ambitious chatter

would persuade. us to despige.

of the schools

never can part with

the

;

mind

loves

its

home

old

as water to our thirst, so is the rock, the ground, to

our eyes and hands and is

cold flame

what

;

an old friend, ever

when we

feet.

health,

It is firm water

what

affinity

and takes a grave

human

liberty with us,

and require

for our bath.

room enough.

senses

and nightly

fluence,

Ever

a dear friend and brother

and shames us out of our nonsense. daily

chat affectedly with strangers, comes in

this honest face,

not the

;

much

scope, just as all

go out

on the horizon,

to feed the eyes

There are

Cities give

we need water

degrees of natural in-

from these quarantine powers of nature, up

to her dearest

agination

and gravest ministrations to the im-

and the

soul.

There

the bucket of

cold water from the spring, the wood-fire to which

the chilled traveller rushes for safety,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

there

autumn and of noon. We nestle in nature, and draw our living as parasites from her roots and grains, and we receive glances is

the sublime moral of

from the heavenly bodies, which

and is

foretell the remotest future.

call us to solitude

The blue

zenith

the point in which romance and reality meet.

NATURE.

166 think

we should be rapt away

into all that

dream of heaven, and should converse with Gabriel and

Uriel, the upper sky

would be

all

that would

remain of our furniture. It seems as if the

day was,not whollyjgrofeiie

which we have given heed to some natural

The

snowflakes in a

fall of

each crystal

perfect form

its

still ;

air,

object.

preserving to

the blowing of sleet

over a wide sheet of water, and over plains

waving

ryefield

;

ripple before the eye

;

flowers in glassy lakes

and

the reflections of trees and ;

the musical steaming odor-

ous south wind, which converts ;

the

the mimic waving of acres of

houstonia, whose innumerable florets whiten

harps

the crackling

all trees to

wind-

and spurting of hemlock in

the flames, or of pine logs, which yield glory to the walls

and faces in the sittingroom,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

these are the

music and pictures of the most ancient religion.

house stands in low land, with limited outlook,

But I go with my and with one stroke of the paddle I leave the village polities and personalities, yes, and the world of villages and personalities, behind, and pass into a delicate realm and on the

skirt of the village.

friend to the shore of our

of sunset

ted

man

little river,

and moonlight, too bright almost for to enter without novitiate

spot-

and probation.

penetrate bodily this incredible beauty

;

dip our hands in this painted element; our eyes

NATURE.

167

are bathed in these lights and forms.

holi-

day, a viUeggiatura, a royal revel, the proudest,

most heart-rejoicing

power and

festival that valor

on the

lishes itself

and beauty,

decked and enjoyed, estab-

taste, ever

These sunset clouds,

instant.

these delicately emerging stars, with their private

and

ineffable glances, signify

and

proffer

it.

taught the poorness of our invention, the ugli-

Art and luxury have early learned that they must work as enhancement

ness of towns and palaces.

and sequel structed

to this original beauty.

for

hard to please.

return.

overin-

Henceforth I shall be

I cannot go back to toys.

grown expensive

and

sophisticated.

can no

longer live without elegance, but a countryman

shall be

most

;

He who knows

master of revels.

the

he who knows what sweets and virtues are

in the ground, the waters, the plants, the heavens,

and how rich

come

at these enchantments,

and royal man.

Only

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the

as far as the masters of

the world have called in nature to their aid, can

they reach the height of magnificence.

meaning of

This

the

their hanging-gardens, villas, garden-

houses, islands, parks and preserves, to back their

faulty personality with these strong accessories.

do not wonder that the landed interest should be invincible in the State with these dangerous auxUiaries.

These bribe and invite

;

not kings, not pal-

NATXmE.

168 aces, not

men, not women, but these tender and

poetic stars, eloquent of secret promises.

what the rich man grove, his wine tion

and

invitation

In their

strove to realize in

or Ctesiphon.

We heard

of his villa, his

company, but the provoca-

his

and point of the

beguiling stars.

men

we knew

said,

Indeed,

came out

of these

soft glances I see

what

some

Versailles, or Paphos,

it is

the magical lights of

the horizon and the blue sky for the background

which save

all

wise bawbles. vility

our works of

"When the

which were other-

art,

rich tax the poor with ser-

and obsequiousness, they should consider the

effect of

men

reputed to be the possessors of nature,

on imaginative minds. as the poor fancy riches

band play on the

the rich were rich

boy hears a military

and he has kings

field at night,

and queens and famous chivalry palpably before

him.

try, in the

hears the echoes of a horn in a

converts the mountains into an

and

bill

coun-

Notch Mountains, for example, which

^oUan

this supernatural tiralira restores to

Dorian mythology, Apollo, Diana, and

harp,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

him the divine

all

Can a musical note be so beautiful To the poor young

hunters and huntresses. lofty, so

haughtily

poet, thus fabulous is his picture of society

loyal

;

he respects the rich

sake of his imagination be, if they

;

how poor

were not rich

;

they are rich for the his fancy would That they have some

NATURE.

169

high-fenced grove which they call a park; that

they live in larger and better-garnished saloons

than he has visited, and go in coaches, keeping only the society of the elegant, to watering-places and to distant cities,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; these

make

which he has delineated

the groundwork from

estates of romance,

com-

pared with which their actual possessions are shan-

The muse

ties

and paddocks.

son,

and enhances the

gifts of

herself betrays her

wealth and well-born

beauty by a radiation out of the

and

forests that skirt

favor, as if

air,

and

clouds,

the road, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a certain haughty

from patrician genii to patricians, a

kind of aristocracy in nature, a priuce of the power of the air.

The moral sensibility which makes Edens and Tempes so easily, may not be always found, but the material landscape

never far

off.

We exaggerate the praises

or the Madeira Islands. of local scenery.

astonishment earth,

and that

as well as

In every landscape the point of the meeting of the sky and the

seen

from the

first

hillock

from the top of the Alleghanies.

stars at night stoop liest

can find

Como Lake,

these enchantments without visitiag the

common

v/ith

The

down over the brownest, homeaU the spiritual magnificence

which they shed on the Campagna, or on the marble deserts of Egypt. colors

The uproUed

morning and evening

clouds and the

will

transfigure

170

NATURE.

maples and alders.

The

scape and landscape

difference between land-

smaU, but there

difference in the beholders.

There

great

nothing so

wonderful in any particular landscape as the necessity of

being beautiful under which every landscape

Nature cannot be surprised in undress. Beau-

lies.

ty breaks in everywhere.

But

very easy to outrun the sympathy of

readers on this topic, which schoolmen called natura

naturata, or nature passive. directly of

without excess.

mixed companies what

religion."

One can hardly speak It

as easy to

broach

called " the subject of

susceptible person does not like to in-

dulge his tastes in this kind without the apology of

some

trivial necessity

he goes to see a wood-lot, or

to look at the crops, or to fetch

from a remote

locality, or

or a fishing-rod.

a good reason.

and unworthy. his brother of ers

and

a plant or a mineral

he carries a fowling-piece

I suppose this shame must have

A dilettantism in The fop Broadway.

of fields

Men

nature is

barren

no better than

are naturally hunt-

inquisitive of wood-craft,

and I suppose

that such a gazetteer as wood-cutters

and Indians

should furnish facts for, would take place in the inost

sumptuous drawing-rooms of aU the "Wreaths"

and " Flora's chaplets

" of the bookshops

;

yet or-

dinarily,

whether we are too clumsy for so subtle a

topic, or

from whatever cause, as soon

men

begin

NATURE. to write

on nature, they

171

most unfit tribute to

volity is a

euphuism.

fall into

Fri-

Pan, who ought

be represented in the mythology as the most continent of gods.

would not be frivolous before

the admirable reserve and prudence of time, yet I

cannot renounce the right of returning often to this

The multitude

old topic. its

the true religion.

the

homage

man

of false churches accred-

Literature, poetry, science are

unfathomed

to this

man can

cerning which no sane

ence or incuriosity.

Nature

affect

unlike anything that

underneath

And

men.

God, although,

or rather because there is

indiffer-

loved by what

It is loved as the city of

best in us.

secret, con-

citizen.

The it

sxmset

wants

the beauty of nature must-aLgays seem

unr^JLaadjMLackJagj until thejandscape has figures _tha,t_are as

good as

humaa

If there

itself.

were

good meiiriherejTOuljLnev^r^jerthis-rapture-in nar If the

ture.

the walls. j

filled

king

It is

nobody looks

gone, and the house

in the palace,

when he

the people to find relief in the are suggested

The

we turn from majestic men that

with grooms and gazers, that

critics

by the

pictures

who complain

of the beauty of nature

and the

architecture.

of the sickly separation

from the thing

to be done,

must consider that our hunting of the picturesque is

inseparable from our protest against false society.

Man

fallen

;

nature

erect,

and serves

as a

NATURE.

172 differential

thermometer, detecting the presence or

absence of the divine sentiment in man.

fault

up to nature, but when we are convalescent, nature wHl "We see the foaming brook with look up to us. of our dulness

and

compunction

energy,

selfishness

our

own

are looking

flowed with the right

life

we should shame the brook. The stream of and not with reflex

zeal sparkles with real fire,

rays of sun and moon.

Astronomy

studied as trade. astrology

;

Nature

may be

as selfishly

to the selfish becomes

psychology, mesmerism (with intent to

show where our spoons are gone)

;

and anatomy

and physiology become phrenology and palmistry.

But taking timely warning, and leaving many things imsaid on this topic, let us not longer omit

our homage to the Efficient Natm-e, naturangiu^ runs*- tl^s quick cause before

the driven snows

before

in flocks

itself

;

which

all

secret, its

forms

flee as

works driven

and multitudes, (as the ancients

represented nature by Proteus, a shepherd,) and in

undescribable variety. tures, reaching

from

It publishes itself in crea-

particles

and

through

spicidse

transformation on transformation to the highest

symmetries, arriving at consummate results without

a shock or a leap.

A little heat,

that

little

tion, is all that differences the bald, dazzling

and deadly cold poles tropical climates.

of the earth

from the

mo-

white

prolific

All changes pass without

vio-

NATURE. lence,

by reason

173

of the two cardinal conditions of

Geology has

boundless space and boundless time.

initiated us into the secularity of nature,

and taught

us to disuse our dame-school measures, and exchange

our Mosaic and Ptolemaic schemes for her large style.

We knew nothing rightly, for

spective.

Now we

round themselves before the rock before the rock

broken, and the

want

of per-

learn what patient periods must

formed; then lichen race

first

has disintegrated the thinnest external plate into

and opened the door for the remote Flora,

soil,

Fauna, Ceres, and Pomona to come off yet is the trilobite

how

inconceivably remote

and then race from granite

how is

after race of

to the oyster

;

How

in.

man

must come,

All duly arrive,

men.

a long

farther yet to Plato

the preaching of the immortality of the soul. all

far

far the quadruped

as surely as the first

way and Yet

atom has two

sides.

Motion or change and first

Rest.

and second

identity or rest are the

secrets of nature

The whole code of her laws

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Motion and

may

on the thumbnail, or the signet of a

be written

ring.

The

whirling bubble on the surface of a brook admits us to the secret of the mechanics of the sky. shell

made

on the beach to rotate in

a key to

it.

little

Every'

water

a cup explains the formation of

the simpler shells

;

the addition of matter from

NATURE.

174

year to year arrives at last at the most complex

forms

;

and yet so poor

nature with

all

her craft,

from the beginning to the end of the universe but one stuff with its two

that

she has but one stuff, ends, to serve

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

up aU her dream-like

pound it how man, it is stUl one

she will, star, sand, stuff,

Com-

variety. fire,

water, tree,

and betrays the same prop-

erties.

Nature

js..

always consistent, though she feigns

to contravene her

and seems

to transcend them.

an animal to find

and

at the

own lawÂŁ~^he keeps her

its

laws,

She arms and equips

place and living in the earth,

same time she arms and equips another

animal to destroy

it.

Space

exists to divide crea-

by clothing the sides of a bird with a few feathers she gives him a petty omnipresence. The tures ; but

direction

forever onward, but the artist stUl goes

back for materials and begins again with the elements on the most advanced stage goes to ruin.

we look

at her work,

we seem

catch a glance ol.a system in transition. the

young of the world,

first

otherwise

vessels of health

all

Elants are

and vigor;

but they grope ever^upward towards consciousness; the/tfees are imperfect

men, and seem

their imprisonment, rooted in the

/SSI^M

the novice and probationer of

advanced order.

bemoan The a more

ground.

The- men^ though young, having

tasted the first drop

from the cup

of thought, are

already dissipated

uneormpt sciousness so strictly

come

NATURE.

175

the maples and ferns are

still

when they come to conthey too will curse and swear. Flowers belong to youth that we adult men soon

;

yet no doubt

to feel that their beautiful generations con-

cern not us

we have had our day now let the The flowers jilt us, and we ;

children have theirs.

are old bachelors with our ridiculous tenderness.

Things are so

according to

strictly related, that

the skUl of the eye, from any one object the parts

and properties of any other may be predicted.

we had

eyes to see

it,

a bit of stone from the city

wall would certify us of the necessity that

must

exist, as readily as

makes us

all one,

from natural

also natural.

life,

scale.

man

That identity

the city.

and reduces

tervals on our customary tions

to nothing great in-

We talk of

as if artificial life

The smoothest curled

devia-

were not

courtier in the

boudoirs of a palace has an animal nature, rude

and aboriginal as a white bear, omnipotent to own ends, and is directly related, there amid

its

es-

Himmaleh mountainchains and the axis of the globe. If we consider how much we are nature's, we need not be superstisences

and bUletsdoux,

tious about towns, as if that terrific or benefic force

did not find us there also, and fashion

who made thgâ&#x20AC;&#x17E;magpn, made vnay^asilyrEear too much of rural

ture,

cities.

^v[a^

the house.

influences.

The

NATURE.

176

makes them

cool disengaged air of natural objects

and

enviable to us, chafed

irritable creatures with

we think we shall be as grand as we camp out and eat roots but let us be

red faces, and

they

men

iuotead of woodchucks

elm

;

shall gladly serve

on carpets of

of ivory

and the oak and the

though we

us,

This guiding identity runs through prises

and contrasts of the

Man

every law.

in chairs

sit

silk.

the sur-

and characterizes

piece,

carries the

all

world in his head, the

whole astronomy and chemistry suspended in

Because the history of nature

thought.

tered in his brain, therefore

does not

tie his

charac-

he the prophet and

Every known

discoverer of her secrets.

natural science was divined

somebody, before

fact in

by the presentiment of

was actually

verified.

A man

shoe without recognizing laws which

bind the farthest regions of nature

moon, plant,

gas, crystal, are concrete

geometry and numbers.

Common

own, and recognizes the

sense

knows

its

fact at first sight in chemical

common Black,

sense

the same

Franklin,

common

arrangements which now

The Davy and which made the

experiment.

Dalton,

sense

discovers.

If the identity expresses organized rest, the counter action runs also iato organization.

omers

said,

we wiU

Give us niatter and a

construct the universe.

little

The

astron-

motion and

It is not

enough

NATURE.

177

we should have matter, we must

that

have

also

a single impulse, one shove to launch the mass and generate the harmony of the centrifugal and centrip-

Once heave the

etal forces.

and we can show how

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

all this

from the hand,

ball

mighty order grew.'

A very unreasonable postulate,

said the meta-

physicians, 'and a plain begging of the question.

Could you not prevail to know the genesis of projection, as well as the continuation of it ?

Nature,

meanwhile, had not waited for the discussion, but, right or wrong, bestowed the impulse, and the balls rolled.

was no great

affair,

a mere push, but the

astronomers were right in making there

much

no end to the consequences of the

famous aboriginal push propagates aJl

it,

act.

itself

for

That

through

the balls of the system, and through every atom

of every ball

;

through

the races of creatures,

all

and through the history and performances individual.

Exaggeration

of every

in the course of things.

Nature sends no creature, no

man

into the world

without adding a small excess of his proper quality.

Given the impulse

;

planet,

it is

violence of direction in

put

erosity,

air

its

way

;

its

tion which III.

necessary to add the

rot,

in every instance a slight gen-

Without

and without

men and women 12

little

proper path, a shove to

a drop too much.

would

VOL.

still

so to every creature nature added a

electricity the

this violence of direc-

have, without a spice of

NATURE.

178

bigot and fanatic, no excitement, no efficiency.

aim above tbe mark_to

Every

mark.

hit the

hath some falsehood of exaggeration in

act

And

it.

when now and then comes along some sad, sharpeyed man, who sees how paltry a game is played, and refuses

to play but blabs the secret

Is the bird flown?

then?

no, the

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; how

wary Na-

new troop of fairer forms, of lordlier youths, with a little more excess of direction to hold them fast to their several aim makes them a little ture sends a

;

wrong-headed in that direction in which they are \rightest,

and on goes the game again with new

whirl,

The

child with his

sweet pranks, the fool of his senses,

commanded by

for a generation or

two more.

every sight and sound, without any power to com-

pare and rank his sensations, abandoned to a whistle or a painted chip, to a lead dragoon or a gingerbread-dog, individualizing everything, generalizing nothing, delighted with every at night

new

thing, lies

overpowered by the fatigue which

of continual pretty madness has incurred.

down

this

day

But Na-

ture has answered her purpose with the curly, dim-

pled lunatic.

She has tasked every faculty, and has

secured the symmetrical growth of the bodily frame

by aU first

these attitudes

and exertions,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an end

of the

importance, which could not be trusted to any

care less perfect than her own.

This

glitter, this

opaline lustre plays round the top of every toy to

NATURE. his eye to insure his fidelity,

"We are made

his good.

the

same

Let the

arts.

we do not the meat

eat for the

vegetable

179

and he

stoics

alive

say what they please,

good of

but because

living,

savory and the appetite

life

deceived to

and kept

alive

does not content

from the flower or the tree a single

The

keen.

with casting

itself

seed, but

it fills

the air and earth with a prodigality of seeds, that, if

may

thousands perish, thousands

selves

that hundreds

;

maturity

live to

parent.

plant them-

up, that tens

may

that at least one

may

replace the

All things betray the same calculated pro-

The

fusion.

frame

;

may come

excess of fear with which the animal

hedged round, shrinking from

cold, start-

ing at sight of a snake or at a sudden noise, protects us,

through a multitude of groundless alarms,

from some one real danger at in

marriage his private

no prospective end ness her

own

;

The lover

last.

felicity

and

seeks

perfection, with

and nature hides in

his happi-

end, namely progeny, or the perpe-

tuity of the race.

But the

craft with

also into the is

quite sane

which the world

mind and character ;

men.

made, runs

No man

each has a vein of folly in his com-

position, a slight determination of blood to the head,

make

sure of holding

him hard to some one point

which nature had taken to heart. never tried on their merits

;

Great causes are

but the cause

is re-

;

NATURE.

180

duced to particulars to suit the

and the contention

Not

less

remarkable

size of the partisans,

ever hottest on minor matters. is

the overfaith of^ea^nian in

the importance of what he has to do or say. poet, the prophet, has a higher value for

any hearer, and therefore

utters than

The

strong, self-complacent

The

what he

gets spoken.

Luther declares with

an emphasis not to be mistaken, that " self

cannot do without wise men."

God himJacob Behmen

and George Fox betray their egotism in the nacity of their controversial tracts, and lor once suffered himself to

Christ.

Each prophet comes

perti-

James Nay-

be worshipped as the presently to identify

himself with his thought, and to esteem his hat and shoes sacred.

However this maj^ discredit such perit helps them with the peo-

sons with the judicious, ple,

gives heat, pungency, and publicity to

their words.

A similar experience is not infrequent

Each young and ardent person when the hours of prayer and penitence arrive, he inscribes his soul. The pages thus written are to him burning and fragrant he reads them on his knees by midnight and by the morning star; he wets them with his tears; they in private

life.

Writes a diary, in which,

are sacred; too good for the world, to

be shown to the dearest friend.

child that is born to the soul, culates in the babe.

The

and hardly yet This

and her

the

man-

life still cir-

umbilical cord has not yet

NATURE.

After some time has elapsed, he begins

been cut. to

181

wish to admit his friend to this hallowed experi-

ence,

and with

hesitation, yet with firmness, exposes

the pages to his eye.

The

Will they not

bum

his eyes ?

friend coldly turns them over, and passes from

the writiag to conversation, with easy transition,

which strikes the other party with astonishment and

vexation.

cannot suspect the writing

Days and nights

of fervid life, of

itself.

communion with

angels of darkness and of light have engraved their

shadowy characters on that tear-stained book.

suspects the iuteUigence or the heart of his friend. Is there then

no friend ?

one

may have

not

know how to put

cannot yet credit that

impressive experience and yet

may

his private fact into literature

and perhaps the discovery that wisdom has other tongues and ministers than we, that though

should hold our peace the truth would not the less

be spoken, might check injuriously the flames of our zeal.

A man

can only speak so long as he does

not feel his speech to be partial and inadequate. It is partial, but he does not see

he utters

it.

instinctive

soon as he

and particular and

be so whilst

released from the

sees its partiality, he

mouth in disgust. For no man can write anything who does not think that what he writes is shuts his

for the time the history of the world

thing well

who does not esteem

his

;

or do any-

work

to be of

;

NATURE.

182

My work may be

importance.

not think

of none, but I must

of none, or I shall not

with im-

punity.

manner, there

throughout nature some-

and

thing mocking, something that leads us on

but arrives nowhere

;

keeps no faith with

promise outruns the performance.

E rery

system of approximations.

some other end, which

tive of

end

prospec-

a roimd and final success nowhere.

live in

temporary

also

us.

on,

are en-

Hunger and thirst lead us on to eat and to drink but bread and wine, mix and cook them how you will, leave us camped

in nature, not domesticated.

;

hungry and

thirsty, after the

stomach

is full.

It is

the same with all our arts and performances.

Our

music, our poetry, our language itself are not satisfactions, but suggestions.

The hunger

for wealth,

which reduces the planet to a garden, fools the eager pursuer. to secure the

What

the end sought?

Plainly

ends of good sense and beauty from

the intrusion of deformity or vulgarity of any kind.

But what an operose method! means

What

to secure a little conversation

a train of

This palace

of brick and stone, these servants, this kitchen, these stables, horses

and equipage,

and

;

file

of mortgages

try-house little

this bank-stock

trade to all the world,

coun-

and cottage by the waterside, aU

for a

conversation, high, clear,

and

spiritual

Could

NATURE. it

183

not be had as well by beggars on the high-

way ?

No,

all

efforts of these

wheels of

life,

tion, character,

good as

these things

came from

successive

beggars to remove friction from the

and give opportunity. were the avowed ends

;

Conversa-

wealth was

appeased the animal cravings, cured the

smoky chimney, silenced friends together in a

the creaking door, brought

warm and

quiet room,

kept the children and the dinner-table in a

Thought, virtue, beauty, were the

ent apartment.

ends ; but

and

differ-

was known that men of thought and

virtue sometimes

had the headache, or wet

feet, or

could lose good time whilst the room was getting

warm

in winter days.

Unluckily, in the exertions

necessary to remove these inconveniences, the maiu attention

has been diverted to

this object;

the

old aims have been lost sight of, and to remove friction has

come

cule of rich

men and

now cities

;

That

to be the end.

the ridi-

Boston, London, Vienna, and

the governments generally of the world

and governments of the rich

are not men, but poor men, that

be rich

;

is,

;

are

and the masses

men who would

this is the ridicule of the class, that they

arrive with pains

and sweat and fury nowhere;

when all is done, it is for nothing. They are like one who has interrupted the conversation of a company to make his speech, and now has forgotten what he went to say. The appearance strikes

NATURE.

184

the eye everywhere of an aimless society, of aimless

Were

nations.

and cogent

the

ends of nature so great

as to exact this

immense

sacrifice of

men? Quite analogous to the deceits in as

might be expected, a similar

life,

effect

from the face of external nature.

there

There

felt

summer

enjoying, as

clouds floating feathery overhead,

seemed, their height and privilege

much

of motion, whilst yet they appeared not so

the drapery of this place to

and hour, as forelooking

some pavilions and gardens of

It is

sat-

in every

I have seen the softness and beauty

landscape. of the

flat-

with a failure to yield a present

This disappointment

isfaction.

woods and waters a certain enticement and tery, together

is,

on the eye

festivity beyond.

an odd jealousy, but the poet finds himself

not near enough to his object. river, the

bank

this is

of flowers

Nature

to be nature.

The pine-tree, the before him does not seem stiU.

of the triumph that has passed its

This or

elsewhere.

but outskirt and far-off reflection and echo

by and

now

glancing splendor and heyday, perchance in the

neighboring

fields,

or, if

you stand in the

then in the adjacent woods. shall give

you

The present

this sense of stLUness that follows

pageant which has just gone by. distance,

what

field,

object

recesses of ineffable

What

splendid

pomp and

love.

NATURE. liness in the sunset are, or

Off they

among

or plant his foot thereon?

from the round world forever and

fall

It is the

ever.

But who can go where they

Ms hand

lay

same among the men and women

the silent trees

;

always a referred exist-

absence, never a presence

ence, an

and

satisfac-

Is it that beauty can never be grasped ? in

tion.

persons and in landscape

The accepted and betrothed est

185

charm of

his

equally inaccessible?

lover has lost the wild-

maiden in her acceptance

She was heaven whilst he pursued her she cannot be heaven

of him.

as a star

she stoops to such a one

as he.

What

shall

ance of that

we say

of this omnipresent appear-

first projectile

impulse, of this flattery

and balking of so many weU-meaning creatures? Must we not suppose somewhere in the universe a slight treachery and derision ? Are we not engaged to a serious resentment of

made

Are we

of us ?

nature

One

fools of

and soothes us to wiser

the intelligent, nature converts

it-

a vast promise, and wiU not be rashly ex-

self into

Her

plained.

an CEdipus

secret

;

untold.

Many and many

arrives ; he has the whole mystery teem-

ing in his brain. Alas bis skill

and

look at the face of heaven and earth

lays all petulance at rest, convictions.

this use that is

tickled trout,

the same sorcery has spoiled

no syllable can he shape on his

lips.

Hex

] ,'

NATURE.

186

mighty orbit vaults like the fresh rainbow into the deep, but no archangel's wing was yet strong enough to follow

But

and report of the return of the curve. and

also appears that our actions are seconded

disposed to greater conclusions than

We are escorted on itual agents,

for us.

spir-

lies in

wait

every hand through

and a beneficent purpose

designed.

life

cannot bandy words with Nature, or

deal with her as

deal with persons.

we meas-

we may easily we were the sport of an insuperable desBut if, instead of identifying ourselves with tiny. the work, we feel that the soul of the workman streams through us, we shall find the peace of the morning dwelling first in our hearts, and the fathomless powers of gravity and chemistry, and, over ure our individual forces against hers

feel as if

them, of

life,

preexisting withia us in their highest

form.

The

tmeasrness which the thought of our help-

lessness in the chain of causes occasions us, results

from looking too much at one condition of nature,

But the drag is never taken from Wherever the impulse exceeds, the Rest

namely. Motion. the wheel.

QE_ldeffitity insinuates its

compensation.

All over

the wide fields of earth grows the prunella or selfheal.

After every foolish day we sleep

fumes and furies of

its

hours; and though

off the

are

always engaged with particulars, and often enslaved

NATURE. we bring with us

to them,

innate miiyersal^laws.

mind

the

187

to everj experiment the

These, while they exist

va.

as ideas, stand around us in nature for-

ever embodied, a present sanity to expose and cure the insanity of men.

Our

lars betrays us into a

hundred

era from the invention of a

anticipate a

new

locomotive, or a balloon

with

whilst your fowl

foolish expectations.

new engine

the

;

shall

roasting for dinner

;

modern aims and endeavors, densation and acceleration of objects bol of our

;

ing is

brings

They say that by electrobe grown from the seed

the old checks.

magnetism your salad

servitude to particu-

it is

a sym-

of our con-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but noth-

gained ; natnEe_cannot_becheated ; man's

life

but seventy salads long, grow they swift or grow

they slow. ever

In these checks and impossibilities how-

find our advantage, not less than ia the im-

Let the victory

pulses.

on that

side.

And

fall

where

it will,

the knowledge that

are

traverse

the whole scale of being, from the centre to the poles of nature, bility,

and have some stake in every possi-

lends that sublime lustre to death, which

philosophy and religion have too outwardly and

lit-

erally striven to express in the popular doctrine of

the immortality of the soul. excellent than the report. continuity,

no spent

never rest nor linger.

ball.

The

Here

The

Nature

reality

no ruin, no

dis-

divine circulations

the incarnation of

NATURE.

188

a thought, and turns to a thought again, as ice be-

comes water and gas. tated,

and the

The world

mind

precipi-

volatile essence is forever escaping

again into the state of free thought. Hence the tue and pungency of the of natural objects,

Man

imprisoned,

man

influence on the

vir-

mind

whether inorganic or organized.

man

crystallized,

man

vegetative,

That power which does not respect quantity, which makes the whole speaks to

and the

impersonated.

particle its equal channel, delegates its smile

and distils its essence into every Every moment instructs, and every wisdom is infused into every form. It

to the morning,

drop of

rain.

object

for

;

has been poured into us as blood as pain

;

it slid

;

into us as pleasure

;

convulsed us

enveloped us

in dull, melancholy days, or in days of cheerful la-

bor

;

time.

we did not guess

its

essence until after a long

;

POLITICS.

Gold and iron are good

To buy

iron

and gold

earth's fleece

For

and food

their like are sold.

Boded Merlin

wise,

Proved Napoleon

great,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Nor kind nor coinage buys Aught above its rate. Fear, Craft, and Avarice ,

Cannot rear a

/Out of dust

State.

to build

What is more than dust, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; WaUs Amphion piled Phoebus stabHsh must.

When

the

Muses nine

With

the Virtues meet.

Find

to their design

Atlantic seat.

green orchard boughs

Fended from the

Where

heat.

the statesman ploughs

Furrow

for the

wheat

When When

the state-house

Then

the perfect State

The

the

Church

social worth. is

the hearth.

republican at home.

come,

;

vn. POLITICS.

In dealing with the State we ought that

its institutions

existed before

to'

are not aboriginal, though they

we were born

perior to the citizen

;

that they are not su-

that every one of

once the act of a single

man

was a man's expedient

;

meet a particular case

we may make the young citizen.

as good,

illusion to

them was

every law and usage

that they all are imitable, all alterable

make

remember

;

we may

better. ) Society is

him

It lies before

men and

rigid repose, with certain names,

institu-

tions rooted like oak-trees to the centre,

which

all

round

arrange themselves the best they can.

But the old statesman knows that society is fluid there are no such roots and centres, but any particle may suddenly become the centre of the movement and compel the system to gyrate round it as ;

;

every

man

of strong will, like Pisistratus or

well, does for

a time, and every

Plato or Paul, does forever.

man

But

Crom-

of truth, like

politics rest

necessary foundations, and caimot be treated with

;

'^ POLITICS.

192

Eepublics abound in young civilians

levity.

who

believe that the laws nia?ie the city, that grave

modifications of the policy and

employments ucation,

and

religion,

may be

that any measure, though

imposed on a people voices to

modes

of the population, that

make

voted in or out

were absurd,

;

and

may

But the wise know

a law.

that

sand which perishes

that the State

;

and

only you can get sufficient

foolish legislation is a rope of

in the twisting

of living

commerce, ed-

must follow and

not lead the character and progress of the citizen the strongest usurper

they only

who build on

and that the form

quickly got rid of

;

and

Ideas, build for eternity

government which prevails

the expression of what cultivation exists in the population which permits

orandum. statute

it.

The law

only a

mem-

are superstitious, and esteem the

somewhat

character of living

so much life as men is its force.

has in the

The

statute

we agreed so and so, but how feel ye this article to-day ? Our statute is a currency which we stamp with our own porstands there to say, Yesterday

trait

soon becomes unrecognizable, and in pro-

cess of time

wiU return

Nature

to the mint.

not

democratic, nor limited-monarchical, but despotic,

and

will not

be fooled or abated of any jot of her

authority by the pertest of her sons the public

mind

opened to more

;

and

as fast as

intelligence, the

POLITICS. code

193

seen to be brute and stammering.

It speaks

made to. Meantime general mind never stops.

not articulately, and must be the

education of the

The

reveries of the true

What

and simple are prophetic.

the tender poetic youth dreams, and prays,

and paints

to-day, but shuns the ridicule of saying

aloud, shall presently be the resolutions of public

bodies

then shall be carried as grievance and

;

of rights through conflict

and war, and then

bill

shall

be triumphant law and establi^ment for a hundred years, until ers

and

pictures.

gives place in turn to

The

new

pray-

history of the State sketches

in coarse outline the progress of thought,

and

lows at a distance the delicacy of culture and of

fol-

as-

piration.

The theory of politics which has possessed the mind of men, and which they have expressed the best they could in their laws tions, considers

jects for

and in

their revolu-

persons and property as the two ob-

whose protection government

exists.

_0f

persons, all have equal rights, in virtue of being identical in nature. its

This interest of course with

whole power demands a democracy.

Whilst the

rights of all as persons are equal, in virtue of their

access to reason, their rights in property- are very

unequal.

One man owns

owns a coimty. ly

on the VOL, in.

skill

his clothes,

and another

This accident, depending primari-

and virtue of the 13

parties, of

which

POLITICS.

194 there

every degree, and secondarily on patrimo-

ny, falls unequally,

Personal

unequal.

and

its

j-ights,

rights of course are

universally the same,

demand a government framed on the ratio of the property demands a government framed on the ratio of owners and of owning. Laban, who has flocks and herds, wishes them looked after by census

;

officer

on the frontiers,

drive them off

has no flocks

and pays no tax

ites,

lest the

Midianites shall

and pays a tax to that end. Jacob or herds and no fear of the Midian;

to the officer.

seemed

fit

Laban and Jacob should have equal rights to elect the officer who is to defend their persons, but that Laban and not Jacob should elect the officer who is to guard the sheep and cattle. And if questhat

tion arise whether additional officers or watch-towers should

be provided, must not Laban and Isaac,

and those who must

sell

part of their herds to buy

protection for the rest, judge better of this,

more and a

right,

than Jacob, who, because he

traveller, eats their

and with a youth

bread and not his own

In the earliest society the proprietors made their

own

wealth,

and

so long as it

in the direct way,

comes to the owners

no other opinion would

arise in

any equitable community than that property should

make

the law for property, and persons the law for

persons.

But property passes through donation

or inherit

;

POLITICS.

who do not

ance to those

makes

case,

made

the

create

new

as really the

owner's

first

195 Grift,

it.

in one

owner's, as labor

ia the other case, of pat-

rimony, the law makes an ownership which will be valid in each man's view according to the estimate

which he It

sets

on the public tranquUlity.

embody

was not however found easy to

the

readQy admitted principle that property should

make law since

and persons

for property,

for persons

and property mixed themselves in

persons.,

every transaction.

last it

seemed

settled that

the rightful distinction was that the proprietors

should have more elective franchise than non-proprietors,

which

on the Spartan principle of " calling that

is just,

equal

;

not that which

That principle no longer, looks it

equal, just."

so self-evident as

appeared in former times, partly because doubts

have arisen whether too much weight had not been allowed in the laws to property, and such a structure given to our usages as allowed the rich to en-

croach on the poor, and to keep them poor

mainly because there

instinctive sense,

;

but

how-

ever obscure and yet inarticulate, that the whole constitution of property, njurious,

and

and degrading

its ;

its

present tenures,

influence on persons deteriorating

that truly the only interest for the

consideration of the State

will always follow persons

;

persons

;

that property

that the highest end of

POLITICS.

196

government

the culture of

men

;

and that

men

can be educated, the institutions will share their

improvement and the moral sentiment

will write

the law of the land. If

be not easy to

settle the equity of this ques-

when we take note

tion, the peril is less

the vigilance of such magistrates as elect.

of our nat-

We are kept by better guards than

ural defences.

we commonly

Society always consists in greatest part of

young and

The

persons.

foolish

who have

old,

seen through the hypocrisy of courts and statesmen, die

and leave no wisdom to

lieve their

their age.

their sons. They beown newspaper, as their fathers did at With such an ignorant and deceivable

majority. States

there

would soon run

are limitations beyond which the foUy

ambition of governors cannot go. laws, as well as

with.

to ruin, but that

men

;

and things refuse

Propertyjwill Jbe jgrotected.

grow unless

to be trifled

Corn

planted and manured

farmer will not plant or hoe

and

Things have their

;

will not

but the

unless the chances

are a hundred to one that he vsdU cut and harvest it.

and

Under any will

forms, persons and property must

have their just-^sway.

power, as steadily as matter

up a pound subdivide will

its

They

exert their

attraction.

Cover

of earth never so cunningly, divide ;

melt

to liquid, convert it to gas

always weigh a pound;

wiU always

and ;

attract

197

POLITICS.

and

matter by the full virtue of one

resist other

pound weight

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and the attributes of a person,

his

wit and his moral energy, will exercise, under any

law or extinguishing tyranny, their proper

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

not overtly, then covertly

then against ously

;

not for the law,

not wholesomely, then poison-

;

force,

with right, or by might.

The boundaries

of personal influence

sible to fix, as persons are organs of

natural force.

it is

impos-

moral or super-

Under the dominion

an idea

which possesses the minds of multitudes, as

civil

freedom, or the religious sentiment, the powers persoiis are

nation of

no longer subjects of calculation.

men unanimously bent on freedom

quest can easily confound the arithmetic of

and achieve extravagant tion to their

means

;

of-

or con-

statists,

actions, out of all propor-

as the Greeks, the Saracens,

the Swiss, the Americans, and the French have done.

manner to every particle of property belongs its own attraction. A cent is the representative of a certain quantity of corn or other commodIn

Its value is in the necessities of the

ity.

man.

much it

water, so

will with the

animal

much warmth, so much bread, so much land. The law may do what owner of property

;

its

just

power

The law may

wiU

stUl attach to the cent.

mad

freak say that all shall have power except the

in a

POLITICS.

198

owners of property Nevertheless,

have

they shall

;

by a higher

vote.

law, the property will,

year after year, write every statute that respects property.

The non-proprietor

What

of the proprietor.

will

be the scribe

the owners wish to do,

the whole power of property will do, either through the law or else in defiance of of all the property, not

When it is

course I speak estates.

the rich are outvoted, as frequently happens,

the joint treasury of the poor which exceeds

Every man owns something,

their accumulations. if it is

and

it.

merely of the great

only a cow, or a wheel-barrow, or his arms,

so has that property to dispose of.

The same

necessity which secures the rights of

person and property against the malignity or folly of the magistrate, determines the

form and meth-

ods of governing, which are proper to each nation

and

to its habit of thought,

very vain of our

and nowise transferable In

to other states of society.

this country

political institutions,

are

which are

singular in this, that they sprung, within the

mem-

ory of living men, from the character and condition of the people, which they cient fidelity, to

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and we

any other in

only

history.

fitter for us.

the advantage in

express with

suffi-

ostentatiously prefer

them

still

They

are not better, but

may be

wise in asserting

modern times of the democratic

form, but to other states of society, in which

relig.

199

POLITICS. ion consecrated the monarchical, that

was expedient.

Democraej^

and not

this

better for us, be-

cause the religious sentivient of the present time accords better with

Bom

it.

democrats, we are no-

wise qualified to judge of monarchy, which, to our

was

fathers living in the monarchical idea, atively right.

But our

institutions,

also rel-

though in coin-

cidence with the spirit of the age, have not any

exemption from the practical defects which have discredited corrupt.

other

"What

well.

Every actual State

forms.

Good men must

on government can equal the

satire

severity of censure conveyed in the

which now for ages has ing that the State

The same benign

word

itself,

signified cunning, intimat-

necessity

and the same

of opponents

founded on

instincts,

practi-

which each

and defenders of

the administration of the government. also

politic,

a trick ?

cal abuse appear in the parties, into

State divides

not obey the laws too

Parties are

and have better guides

ovm humble aims than the sagacity of their leaders. They have nothing perverse in their origin, but rudely mark some real and lasting relation. their

might as wisely rfprove the east wind or the

frost, as

a political party, whose members, for the

most part, could

givf.

no account of their

position,

but stand for the defence of those interests in

which they find themselves.

Our

quarrel with

POLITICS.

200

them begins when they quit

deep natural

this

ground at the bidding of some leader, and obeying personal considerations, throw themselves into the

maintenance and defence of points nowise belong-

ing to their system.

rupted by personality. sociation

party

perpetually cor-

Whilst we absolve the

as-

from dishonesty, we cannot extend the

same charity

to their leaders.

and

They reap the

re-

wards of the

docility

they direct.

Ordinarily our parties are parties of

zeal of the masses which

circumstance, and not of principle interest in conflict with the

of capitalists

;

as the planting

commercial

and that of operatives

;

the party

parties

which

are identical in their moral character, and which

can easily change ground with each other in the support of

many

their measures.

Parties of

principle, as, religious sects, or the party of free-

trade, of universal suffrage, of abolition of slavery,

of abolition of capital punishment,

or would

into

personalities,

The

vice of our leading

(which

may

cieties of

selves

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; degenerate

inspire

parties

enthusiasm. this

country

be cited as a fair specimen of these

opinion)

so-

that they do not plant them-

on the deep and necessary grounds to which

they are respectively entitled, but lash themselves to fury in the carrying of sonxe local

and momen-

tary measure, nowise useful to the commonwealth.

the two great parties which at this hour almost

POLITICS.

201

share the nation betweea them, I should say that

one has the best cause, and the other contains the

The

best men. ious

man,

philosopher, the poet, or the relig-

will of course

wish to cast his vote with

the democrat, for free-t ^ade, for wide suffrage, for the abolition of legal cruelties in the penal code,

and for

facilitating in

every manner the access of

the young and the poor to the sources of wealth

But he can rarely accept the persons

and power.

whom

him

the so-called popular party propose to

They have name of are ia it. The

as representatives of these liberalities.

not at heart the ends which give to the

democracy what hope and virtue spirit

our American radicalism

and aimless

it is

divine ends, but

and

selfishness.

tive party,

not loving

;

destructive only out of hatred

the other side, the conserva-

composed of the most moderate,

and cultivated part of the population, merely defensive of property. right, it

destructive

has no ulterior and

aspires to no real good,

proposes no generous policy ;

nor write, nor cherish the

arts,

able,

timid,

It vindicates it

and no

brands no crime, does not build,

nor foster religion,

nor establish schools, nor encourage science, nor

emancipate the slave, nor befriend the poor, or the Indian, or the immigrant.

From

when in power, has the world any

neither party,

benefit to expect

in science, art, or humanity, at all commensurate

with the resources of the nation.

POLITICS.

202

I do not for these defecis despair of our republic.

"We are not In the

ways

at the

mercy

any waves of chance.

human

strife of ferocious parties,

finds itself cherished

convicts at

nature

al-

as the children of the

Botany Bay are found

have as healthy

a moral sentiment as other children.

Citizens of

feudal states are alarmed at our democratic institutions lapsing into anarchy, i,nd the older

cautious

among

ourselves are learning

and more

from Euro-

peans to look with some terror at our turbulent freedom.

It is said that in our license of constru-

ing the Constitution, and in the despotism of public

opinion,

we have no anchor

;

and one foreign

observer thinks he has found the safeguard in the sanctity of Marriage

he has found

among

;

and another thinks

in our Calvinism.

Fisher

Ames

expressed the popular security more wisely, when

he compared a monarchy and a republic, saying that a

monarchy

a merchantman, which

sails well,

but will sometimes strike on a rock and go to the

bottom

;

whilst a republic

raft,

which would

never sink, but then your feet are always in water.

forms can ha ve any dangerous importance whilst

are befriended

by the laws

of things.

makes

no difference how many tons weight of atmosphere presses on our heads, so long as the

same pressure

Augment

the mass a

resists it within

the lungs.

thousand fold,

cannot begin to crush us, as long

203

POLITICS. as reaction

universal,

The

equal to action.

poles, of two forces, centripetal

and each force by

Wild

ops the other.

its

fact of

two

and

centrifugal, is

own

activity devel-

liberty develops iron eon-

Want^jsf liberty, by strengthening law

science.

and decorum,

'Lynch-law'

stupefies conscience.

prevails only where there

greater hardihood

A mob

self-subsistency in the leaders.

and

cannot be

a permanency; everybody's interest requires that it

should not exist, and only justice satisfies

We must trust infijiitely to the sity

which shines through

expresses itself in

them

common

Human nature

all laws.

as characteristically as

statues, or songs, or railroads

the codes of nations

;

in-

and an abstract of

would be a transcript of the

conscience.

Governments have

gin in the moral identity of men. is

all.

beneficent neces-

their ori-

Eeason for one

seen to be reason for another, and for every other.

There ties,

a middle measure which

be they never so

Every man

own. claims

or so resolute for their

finds a sanction for his simplest

and deeds, in decisions of

which he cisions

many

satisfies all par-

calls

aU the

only in these

;

his

Truth and Holiness. citizens find

not in what

own mind,

In these de-

a perfect agreement, and is

good to

eat,

good to

wear, good use of time, or what amount of land or of public aid each is entitled to claim.

and

justice

men

presently endeavor to

This truth

make

appli-

POLITICS.

204

cation of to the measuring of land, the apportion-

ment

and property.

of service, the protection of life

Their

first

endeavors, no doubt, are very awkward.

Yet absolute right government

the

which each community

after

mend its wise man

law, it

governor

first

ward but earnest ;

every idea

aiming to rnake and

The

the will of the wise man.

cannot find in nature, and

by contrivance

or,

;

The

an impure theocracy.

efforts to secure his

by causing the

makes awkgovernment

entire people to

give their voices on every measure

;

or by a double

choice to get the representation of the whole

by a

selection of the best citizens

;

or to secure the

advantages of efficiency and internal peace by confiding the

government to one, who

bolize

may

an immortal government, common to

nasties

himself

All forms of government sym-

select his agents.

all

dy-

and independent of numbers, perfect where

two men

perfect where there

exist,

only one

man.

Every man's nature is a to him of the character of and

vsTong

Whilst I do what

what

is unfit,

their

is fit

sufficient advertisement

his fellows.

right

for me,

my neighbor

and I

and

right

their wrong.

and abstain from shall often agree

and work together for a time to one But whenever I find my dominion over myself not sufficient for me, and undertake the direo-

in our means,

end.

POLITICS. tion of

him

also, I

overstep the truth, and come

into false relations to him.

skill

205

may have

press adequately his sense of wrong, but

and hurts

lie

both him and me.

nature cannot maintain the assumption

executed by a practical

lie,

undertaking for another

namely by

it is

lie,

Love and must be

;

This

force.

governments of the world.

same thing in numbers, as in a

pair, only

I can see well

enough a

not quite so intelligible. great difference between

much

the blunder which stands

in colossal ugliness in the It is the

or strength than he that he cannot ex-

my setting

my going

myself down to

make somebody my views; but when a quarter of

self-control,

act after

and

human race assume to tell me what may be too much disturbed by the

must

all

command.

public ends look vague and quixotic

beside private ones.

men make

the

do, I

circumstances

to see so clearly the absurdity of their

Therefore

else

For amylaws but those which

for themselves, are laughable.

myself in the place of

child,

If I put

and we stand in

one thought and see that things are thus or thus,

law for him and me.

that perception

both there, both

act.

But

if,

are

without carrying him

into the thought, I look over into his plot, and, guess-

ing

how

it is

with him, ordain this or that, he will

never obey me. >â&#x20AC;&#x201D; one

man

This

the history of governments,

does something, which,

is.

to bind

aÂť

POLITICS.

206

A man who cannot be acquainted with

other.

taxes

part of end,

;

looking from afar at

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not

me,

ordains that a

labor shall go to this or that whimsical as I, but as

he happens to fancy.

hold the consequence.

willing to pay the taxes.

government

men

debts

all

What

a satire

Be-

are least

is this

Everywhere they think they get '

their money's worth, except for these.

Hence the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the The is

less

government we have the

better,

fewer laws, and the less confided power.

Government

antidote to this abuse of formal

the influence of private character, the growth of

the Individual

;

the appearance of the principal to

supersede the proxy

man

;

whom

the appearance of the wise

;

the existing government

;

which freedom,

intercourse, revolutions, go to

character

;

that

this coronation of

man

cultivation,

form and

deliver, is

the end of Nature, to reach unto

her king.

educate the wise

the State exists, and with the appearance of

the wise

man

of character

wise

must

That which aU

be owned, but a shabby imitation. things tend to educe

is, it

man

navy,

makes the State

the State.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he loves

or palace, to

The appearance unnecessary. The

the State expires.

men

draw

needs no army,

too well

friends

;

him

ground, no favorable circumstance. library, for

fort,

no bribe, or

feast,

no vantage

;

he has not done thinking

;

needs no

no church,

POLITICS. for he is a prophet

no statute book, for he has the

;

no money, for he

lawgiver

;

home where he

value

no road, for

;

no experience, for the

;

of the creator shoots through him,

life

from

his eyes.

who has all

207

men

and looks

has no personal friends, for he

draw the prayer and piety of

the spell to

unto him needs not husband and educate

a few to share with him a select and poetic

His

men

relation to

myrrh

them;

his

angelic

his

;

life.

memory

and

presence, frankincense

flowers.

We think our

civilization

near

its

meridian, but

are yet only at the cock-crowing and the morn-

ing

star.

character

In our barbarous society the influence of is

its

the rightful lord

infancy.

As a

who

tumble

political power, as all rulers

from

their chairs, its presence is hardly yet suspected.

Malthus and Rieardo quite omit Register it is

is silent

not set down

;

never nothing.

and piety throw

The

and yet

Every thought which genius

gladiators in the lists of

ambition

it;

into the world, alters the world.

all their frocks of force

ence of worth.

Annual

the President's Message, the

Queen's Speech, have not mentioned it is

the

in the Conversations' Lexicon

;

power

feel,

through

and simulation, the

pres-

I think the very strife of trade

confession of this divinity;

and

and suc-

cesses in those fields are the poor amends, the fig-

POLITICS.

208 leaf with

which the shamed soul attempts to hide

its

nakedness.

quarters.

homage we know how much

I find the like unwilling It

because

in is

due from us that we are impatient to show some petty talent as a substitute for worth.

are

haunted by a conscience of this right to grandeur of character,

and are

false to

it.

But each of us

has some talent, can do somewhat useful, or grace-

do, as

an apology to others and

not reaching the

But

mark

of a good

does not satisfy us, whilst

the notice of our companions. in their eyes, but does not

to ourselves for

and equal

thrust

on our splendid

to reflect

humiliation, as act of

many

uent energy.

we go. we are constrained moment with a certain as

somewhat too

acts,

fine,

and not

as one

a fair expression of our perma-

Most persons

of ability

ciety with a kind of tacit appeal. say,

when we Our tal-

a sort of expiation, and

dust

smooth our own brow,

We do penance

walk abroad.

life.

may throw

or give us the tranquillity of the strong

ent

That

or formidable, or amusing, or lucrative.

ful,

not aU here.'

meet in

Each seems

so-

Senators and presidents

have climbed so high with pain enough, not because they think the place specially agreeable, but as

an apology for real worth, and to vindicate their

manhood

in our eyes. .

their compensation to

This conspicuous chair

themselves for being of a

POLITICS.

They must do what they

poor, cold, hard nature.

Like one

can.

class of forest animals, they

nothing but a prehensile If a

crawl.

209

tail

man found

;

have

climb they must, or

himself so rich-natured

that he could enter into strict relations with the best persons and

make

life

serene around

him by

the dignity and sweetness of his behavior, could he afford to circumvent the favor of the caucus

and

the press, and covet relations so hollow and pom-

pous as those of a politician ? Sioxely nobody would

be a charlatan who could afford to be sincere.

Thejendencies of the times favor the idea of government, and leave the individual, for to the

tion

;

all code,

rewards and penalties of his own

constitiiT,

which work with more energy than we be-

lieve whilst

movement in

self-

modem

we depend on

The marked Much has been blind and disartificial restraints;

in this direction has been very history.

creditable, but the nature of the revolution is not

affected

by the

a purely moral

any party

vices of the revolters force.

party,

to the race.

;

for this is

was never adopted by

in history, neither can be.

the individual from

same time

It separates

and unites him

at the

It promises a recognition

of higher rights than those of personal freedom, or

the security of property.

man

has a right to be

employed, to be trusted, to be loved, to be revered.

The power of VOL.

III.

love, as the basis of 14

a State, has never

POLITICS.

210 been

tried.

must not imagine that

are lapsing into confusion

things

all

every tender protest-

ant be not compelled to bear his part in certain social

conventions

;

built, letters carried,

when

nor doubt that roads can be

and the

fruit of labor secured,

the government of force

our methods hopeless

now

an end.

Are

so excellent that all competition is

could not a nation of friends even devise

better ways ?

the other hand, let not the most

conservative and timid fear anything from a pre-

mature surrender of the bayonet and the system of For, according to the order of nature, which

force'.

quite superior to our wUl,

stands thus

;

there

win always be a government of force where men are selfish and when they are pure enough to abjure the code of force they wUl be wise enough to ;

see

how

these public ends of the post-office, of the

highway, of commerce and the exchange of property, of

art

museums and

libraries, of institutions of

and science can be answered.

a very low state of the world, and

live in

pay unwilling tribute force.

There

instructed tions,

men

not,

governments founded on

among

of the

most

the most religious and religious

and

civil na-

a reliance on the moral sentiment and a suf-

ficient belief in the

them that

unity of things, to persuade

society can be maintained without artifi-

cial restraints, as well as the solar

system

;

or that

POLITICS.

211

the private citizen might be reasonatle and a good

neighbor, without the hint of a jail or a confiscation.

What

strange too, there never was in any

sufficient faith in the

him with

man

power of rectitude to inspire

the broad design of renovating^. the Sta,te

on the principle of right and

love.

All those who

have pretended this design have been partial

re-

manner the I do not call to mind

formers, and have admitted in some

supremacy of the bad State. a single

human being who has

steadily denied the

authority of the laws, on the simple ground of his

own moral and

Such

nature.

full of faith as

designs, fidl of genius

they are, are not entertained

except avowedly as air-pictures.

who

exhibits

he disgusts talent

If the individual

them dare to think them practicable, scholars and churchmen and men of ;

and women of superior sentiments cannot

hide their contempt. tinue to

fill

Not the

less does

nature con-

the heart of youth with suggestions of

this enthusiasm,

— — more

and there are now men,

deed I can speak in the plural number,

if in-

ex-

actly, I will say, I

have just been conversing with

whom

no weighLQ£„advgrse experience

_oiie^mai^ to will

make

thousands of

moment appear impossible, that human beings might exercise towards for a

each other the grandest and simplest sentiments, »s well as

a knot of friends, or a pair, of lovers.

NOMINALIST AND EEALIST.

countless upward-striving

The moon-drawn

waves

tide-wave strives

In thousand far-transplanted grafts

The parent

fruit survives

;

So, in the new-born mUlions,

The

perfect

Adam lives.

Not

less are

summer mornings dear

every child they wake,

And

each with novel

life his

Fills for his proper sake.

sphere

vm. NOMINALIST AND EEALIST.

I CANNOT often enough say that a relative

man

only a

Each

and representative nature.

a hint

of the truth, but far enough from being that truth

which yet he quite newly and inevitably suggests to us.

If I seek

him I shall not find

Could

it.

any man conduct into me the pure stream of that which he pretends to be

Long afterwards I

The

that quality elsewhere which he promised me.

genius of the Platonists dent, yet

from

how few

all their

intoxicating to the stu-

particulars of

can I detach

The man momentarily

books.

stands

for the thought, but will not bear examination

a society of men

find

will cursorily represent well

;

and

enough

a certain quality and culture, for example, chivalry or beauty of manners is

;

but separate them and there

no gentleman and no lady in the group.

The least

hint sets us on the pursuit of a character which no

man

realizes.

We have such

exorbitant eyes that

on seeing the smallest arc we complete the curve,

and when the curtain

is lifted

from the diagram

;

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

216 which

seemed to

veil,

we are vexed

no more was drawn than arc which

first

to find that

fragment of an

just that

"We are greatly

beheld.

too lib-

and

eral in our construction of each other's faculty

promise.

the parties have already

Exactly what

done they shall do again

;

but that which we

That

not do.

in nature, but not in them.

happens in the world, which we

Each

a public debate.

himself imperfectly

;

the preoccupation of mind

to speak, judge very wisely

how wrongheaded and baters to his own affair. you shall easily

gifts

of the speakers expresses

and the audience, who have only

;

and not

When

never.

unskilful

to hear

and superiorly

each of the de-

Great men or men of great find,

but symmetrical

men

I meet a pure intellectual force or a

generosity of affection, I believe here then

and

That

often witness in

no one of them hears much

that another says, such of each

in-

wiU

ferred from their nature and inception, they

man

by the discovery that no more available to his own or to

presently mortified

this individual is

the general ends than his companions

power which drew

;

because the

by symphony of his talents. All persons exist society by some shining trait of beauty or utility respect is not supported

the total to

which they have. the

man from

borrow the proportions of

that one fine feature, and finish the

portrait symmetrically

;

which

is false,

for the rest

NOMINALIST AND REALIST. body

of his

I observe a per-

small or deformed.

who makes a good

son

217

public appearance, and con-

clude thence the perfection of his private character,

on which

but he has no private char-

;

a graceful cloak or lay-figure for holi-

All our poets, heroes, and

days. in

based

this is

acter.

some one or

many

parts to satisfy our idea,

draw our spontaneous

fail to

saints, fail utterly

interest,

and

so leave

us without any hope of realization but in our

Our

future. arises

exaggeration of

from the

with the

fact that

all

identify each in turn

But there are no such men

soul.

own

fine characters

no Jesus, nor Pericles, nor Cassar, nor An-

fable

;

gelo,

nor Washington, such as

we have made.

consecrate a great deal of nonsense because

allowed by great men.

There

I believe that

foible.

We was

none without his

an angel should come to

chant the chorus of the moral law, he would eat too

much

gingerbread, or take liberties with private

letters,

or do

some precious

atrocity.

bad

enough that our geniuses cannot do anything useful,

but

it is

who has

worse that no

fine traits.

man

is fit

for society

admired at a distance,

but he cannot come near without appearing a crip-

The men of fine parts protect themselves by by courtesy, or by satire, or by an acid worldly manner each concealing as he best can his incapacity for useful association, but they want ple.

solitude, or

;

either love or self-reliance.

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

218

Our

native love of reality joins witli this experi-

ence to teach us a

little reserve,

Young

persons.

lar excellences

powers and

we grow

The man, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

men and it is

value total

The genius is all. we do not try a solihabit. The acts which

things.

his system

tary word or act, but his

praise, I praise not, since they are departures

you

from

his

faith,

and are mere compliances.

magnetism which arranges polarity

Yet we unjustly

I feel to thee

cable

the

men

and

say,

what heart-drawings of

and incommuni-

constitutional to thee,

Whilst we speak the loadstone

are steel-

what prodigious virtues are these

how

;

The

and races in one

select a particle,

number one

steel-filing

thine

tribes

alone to be respected

filings. '

older

the impression, the quality,

effects, as

the spirit of

to dissuade

people "admire talents or particuas

;

and

brilliant qualities of

a too sudden surrender to the

with-

drawn down falls our filing in a heap with the rest, and we continue our mummery to the wretched ;

Let us go for universals

shaving.

netism, not for the needles.

for the

;

Human

persons are poor empirical pretensions. influence it is

see

great

it,

;

an ignis fatuus. if

they say

and you

its size

its

A personal

If they say small,

mag-

and

it is

small

great, ;

you

by turns it borrows aU momentary estimation of the speak-

see

from the

ers: the

it is

life

not,

Will-of-the-wisp

;

vanishes

you go

too

NOMINALIST AND REALIST. near, vanishes

one angle.

man

or no

you go too

fame ?

and only blazes

Who can tell if Washington be a great Who can teU if Franklin be ? Yes,

or any but the twelve, or of

far,

219

And

six,

or three great gods

they too loom and fade before the

eternal.

are amphibious creatures,

weaponed

for

two

elements, having two sets of faculties, the particular

and the

catholic.

for general observation, easily as

we pick out a

trial landscape.

and sweep the heavens as

single figure in the terres-

are practically skilful in de-

tecting elements for which

place in our

and no name.

dition of is

we have no

Thus we are very sensible an atmospheric influence in men and in bodies men, not accounted for in an arithmetical ad-

theory,

adjust our instrument

their measurable properties.

a genius of a nation, which

in the numerical citizens, but

the society.

which characterizes

England, strong, punctual, practical,

weU-spoken England I should not find go to the island to seek

it.

tional,

number

I should

In the parliament,

in the play-house, at dinner-tables, I

great

There

not to be found

might see a

of rich, ignorant, book-read, conven-

proud men,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; many old women, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and not

anywhere the Englishman who made the good speeches,

combined the accurate engines, and did

the bold and nervous deeds.

It is even worse in

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

220

America, where, from the intellectual quickness of the race, the genius of the country its

ance.

Webster cannot do the work

promise and more slight in

did in

its

splen-

perform-

of Webster.

conceive distinctly enough the French, the

German genius, and it is not the less real that perhaps we shoidd not meet in either of those nations a single individual who corresponded Spanish, the

We infer the

with the type.

spirit

of the nation

in great measure from the language, which

monument to which each forcible individual in a course of many hundred years has contributed a stone. And, universally, a good example of this sort of

social force is the veracity of language,

In any controversy concerning

not be debauched. morals, an appeal

which can-

may be made

with safety to the

sentiments which the language of the people ex-

Proverbs, words, and grammar-inflections

presses.

convey the public sense with more purity and precision than the wisest individual.

In the famous dispute with the Nominalists, the Realists

had a good deal of reason.

are essences.

They

are our gods

General ideas they round and

ennoble the most partial and sordid

way

of living.

Our

proclivity to details cannot quite degrade our

life

and divest

of poetry.

The

day-laborer

reckoned as standing at the foot of the social yet he

saturated with the laws

scale,

of the world

NOMINALIST AND REALIST. His measures are the hours

;

221

morning and night,

and equinox, geometry, astronomy and

solstice

all

the lovely accidents of nature play through his

Money, which represents the prose of

mind.

and which an apology, as roses.

and

life,

hardly spoken of in parlors without

is,

in its effects

and laws, as beautiful

Property keeps the accounts of the world,

always moral.

The property

be found

will

where the labor, the wisdom, and the virtue have been in nations, in

classes,

and (the whole

life-time

considered, with the compensations) in the individ-

How

ual also.

when

wise the world appears,

the

laws and usages of nations are largely detailed, and the completeness of the municipal system

Nothing

ered!

left out.

you go

consid-

into

the

markets and the custom-houses, the insurers' and notaries' offices, the offices of sealers of weights

measures, of inspection of provisions,

pear as

you

one

man had made

go, a wit like

and has teries,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

it all.

and

will ap-

Wherever

your own has been before you,

realized its thought.

The Eleusinian mys-

the Egyptian architecture, the Indian as-

tronomy, the Greek sculpture, show that there

ways were seeing and knowing men in the

al-

planet.

The world is full of masonic ties, of guilds, of seand public iCgions of honor that of scholars, and that of gentlemen, fraternizing for example upper class of every country and every with the cret

;

culture.

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

222 I

very mucli struck in literature by the ap-

pearance that one person wrote

the books

all

;

the editor of a journal planted his body of reporters in different parts of the field of action,

lieved is

some by others from time

to time

and

re-

but there

;

such equality and identity both of judgment and

point of view in the narrative that

plainly

the work of one all-seeing, all-hearing gentleman. I looked into Pope's Odyssey yesterday correct it

and elegant

after our

were newly written. The modernness of aU good

books seems to give

What

man. is

canon of to-day as

me an

existence as wide as

well done I feel as

iU done I reck not

of.

I did

;

what

Shakspeare's passages of

passion (for example, in Lear and Hamlet) are in the very dialect of the present year.

again to the whole over the members in books. in a

faithful

use of

I find the most pleasure in reading a book

manner

I read

least flattering to the author.

Proclus, and sometimes Plato, as I might read a dictionary, for a mechanical help to the fancy

the imagination.

I read for the lustres, as

and one

should use a fine picture in a chromatic experiment, for its rich colors.

'T is not Proclus, but a piece of

nature and fate that I explore. to see the author's author,

It is a greater joy

than himself.

A higher

pleasure of the same kind I found lately at a concert,

where I went to hear Handel's Messiah.

NOMINALIST AND REALIST. the master overpowered the littleness bleness of the performers and tors of his electricity, so it

223

and incapar

made them conduc-

was easy to observe

was making, through so many and imperfect persons, to produce beautiful voices, fluid and soul-guided men and women. The genius of nature was paramount at

what

efforts nature

hoarse, wooden,

the oratorio.

This preference of the genius to the parts secret of that deification of art, all

superior minds.

which

Art, in the

artist,

the

found in

propor-

by an eye And the wonder and

a habitual respect to the whole

tion, or

loving

beauty in

charm

details.

the sanity in insanity which

Proportion

notes.

There

beings.

almost impossible to

de-

human

no one who does not exaggerate.

In conversation, men are encumbered with personality,

and talk too much.

and

picture,

poetry, the

In modern sculpture, beauty

miscellaneous;

the artist works here and there and at

all points,

adding and adding, instead of unfolding the unit of his thought. artist;

Beautiful details

we must

have, or no

but they must be means and never other.

The eye must not purpose.

lose sight for a

moment

of the

Lively boys write to their ear and eye, and

the cool reader finds nothing but sweet jingles in

When

it.

they grow older, they respect the argument.

We obey the same

intellectual integrity

when we

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

224

study in exceptions the law of

tlie

Anom-

world.

alous facts, as the never quite obsolete rumors of magic and demonology, and the new allegations of

phrenologists

They

and neurologists, are of ideal

Homoeopathy

are good indications.

nificant as

criticism

use.

is insig-

art of healing, but of great value as

on the hygeia or medical practice of the

So with Mesmerism, Swedenborgism, Fourierism, and the Millennial Church they are poor time.

;

pretensions enough, but good criticism on the ence, philosophy,

and preaching of the day.

sci-

For

these abnormal insights of the adepts ought to be

normal, and things of course.

All things show us that on every side we are very It seems not

near to the best. cute with too

much

sesthetical, or civil feat,

will scatter,

and we

The reason

of idleness

of our hopes.

worth while to exe-

pains some one intellectual, or

when

presently the

dream

shall burst into universal power.

and

of crime

the deferring

Whilst we are waiting we beguile

the time with jokes, with sleep, with eating,

and

with crimes.

Thus we

settle it in

agents with which

can well afford to

when we

our cool libraries, that

we deal let pass,

live at the centre

I wish to speak with

all

are subalterns, which

and and

life will

the

be simpler

flout the surfaces.

respect of persons, but some-

;; :

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

225

times I must pinch myself to keep awake and pre-

They melt

serve the due decorum.

so fast into each

other that they are like grass and trees, and

them

effort to treat

uninspired

man

them

;

fleet of ripples

But

wiU not be Buddhist

insults the philosopher in every

man

were partial not to see

Na-

moment with a

It is

a whole, so

sur-

she resents generalizing,

million of fresh particulars.

and

does not

this is flat rebellion.

and

as a

man

which the wind drives over the

ture

much

the

he sees them as a rack of clouds, or

face of the water.

needs

certainly finds persons a conven-

iency in household matters, the divine resj)ect

Though

as individuals.

idle talking

he also a part

What

it.

you say in

your pompous distribution only distributes you into

and

You have

your

class

parts

by denying them, but are the more

You

section.

are one thing, but Nature

would conquer

will not re-

to a fury of person-

all things to his

she raises up against

many

She

in a thought, but rushes into persons

and when each person, inflamed ality,

partial.

one thing and the

other thing, in the same moment.

main orbed

not got rid of

him another

poor crotchet,

person, and

persons incarnates again a sort of whole.

She wiU have the parts,

body else,

all. Nick Bottom cannot play all work it how he may there will be someand the world will be round. Everything

must have VOL.

III.

;

its

flower or effort at the beautiful, 15

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

226

coarser or finer according to lieve

and recommend each

society

its

other,

They

stuff.

re-

and the sanity of

She

a balance of a thousand insanities.

punishes abstractionists, and will only forgive an induction which

rare and casual.

and

to a height of land

We like to But

value a general remark in conversation.

not the intention of Nature that general views. all

come

see the landscape, just as

We fetch iire

we should

live

and water, run about

day among the shops and markets, and get our

and shoes made and mended, and are the

clothes

victims of these details

;

and once in a fortnight we

arrive perhaps at a rational

not thus infatuated, to hour,

moment.

we saw

we should not be here

we were

the real from hour to write

and

to read,

but should have been burned or frozen long ago.

She would never get anything done,

she suffered

admirable Crichtons and universal geniuses. loves better a wheelwright

wheels,

she

and a groom who

is full of

She

who dreams aU night is

part of his horse

;

work, and these are her hands.

for

the frugal farmer takes care that his cattle shall eat

down

the rowen, and swine shall eat the waste

of his house,

and poultry

shall pick the crumbs,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

so our economical

mother dispatches a new genius

and habit of mind

into every district

of existence, plants light can fall,

and condition

an eye wherever a new ray of

and gathering up into some man

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

227

every property in the universe, establishes thou-

among her

sandfold occult mutual attractions

aU this wash and waste be imparted and exchanged. spring, that

Great dangers undoubtedly accrue from carnation and

distribution

off-

power may this in-

the godhead, and

hence Nature has her maligners, as

she were

Circe; and Alphonso of Castile fancied he could

But she does not go un-

have given useful advice. provided

she has hellebore at the bottom of the

;

cup.

Solitude would ripen a plentiful crop of des-

pots.

The

recluse thinks of

men

as having his

manner, or as not having his manner ing degrees of

it,

more and

less.

and as havBut when he ;

comes into a public assembly he sees that

men have

very different manners from his own, and in their

way admirable. In his childhood and youth he has had many checks and censures, and thinks modestly enough of his own endowment. When afterwards he comes to unfold stance,

in propitious circum-

seems the only talent; he

delighted

with his success, and accoimts himself already the fellow of the great.

But he goes

into a

mob, into

a banking house, into a mechanic's shop, into a mifl, into a laboratory, into

in each

new

place he

a ship, into a camp, and

no better than an

other talents take place, and rule the hour. rotation wliich whirls every leaf

and pebble

idiot;

The to the

;

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

228

meridian, reaches to every gift of man, and

all

take turns at the top.

For Nature, who ahhors mannerism, has set her all styles and tricks, and it

heart on breaking up is so

much

do what one has done before

easier to

than to do a new thing, that there

may

a perpetual

In every conversation,

tendency to a set mode.

even the highest, there

a certain

which

trick,

be soon learned by an acute person and then

Each

that particular style continued indefinitely.

man

too

a tyrant in tendency, because he would

impose his idea on others

but

Tom

and

their trick

their

Paine or the coarsest blasphemer helps

humanity by

resisting this exuberance of power.

Hence the immense it

;

Jesus would absorb the race

natural defence.

benefit of party in politics, as

reveals faults of character in a chief, which the

intellectual force of the persons, with ordinary op-

portunity and not hurled into aphelion by hatred,

could not have seen.

Since

are

all so stupid,

what benefit that there should be two

stupidities

It is like that brute advantage so essential to as-

tronomy, of having the diameter of the earth's bit for a base of its triangles. rose,

Democracy

or-

mo-

and runs to anarchy, but in the State and in

the schools

it is

idation of all perfect,

why

indispensable to resist the consol-

men

are you

into a

and I

few men. alive ?

John was

long as any

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

man

exists, there

new

some need of him;

fight for his own.

Here

them

Essenes,

man

came

life,

re-

regiment

his

why

so impatient

name ?

effete

Why

man

wanted, and no

he wishes to occupy

us.

I think I have done well

He if

Every

We We

wanted much.

com.

for one star

;

in our constellation, for one tree

But he thinks we wish

Let

have only two or

and not thousands

this time for condiments, not for

grove.

;

Why not a new

want the great genius only for joy

Port-Royalists,

known and

be a new way of living.

three ways

should

we have found

Northampton

Shakers, or by any it

why

;

a new enterprise of Brook Farm,

of Skeneateles, of

baptize

him

let

poet has appeared

section in our old army-files ?

man ? to

new

character approached us

fuse to eat bread until

and

229

in our

to belong to him, as

greatly mistakes us.

I have acquired a

word from a good author; and

new

business with

him is to find my own, though it were only to melt him down into an epithet or an image for daily use:

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

" Into paint will I grind thee,

my bride

embroil the confusion, and

ble to arrive at

make

" !

impossi-

any general statement, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; when we

have insisted on the imperfection of individuals, our affections and our experience urge that every

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

230 individual

treatment

entitled to honor,

and a very generous

A recluse

sure to be repaid.

sees only

two or three persons, and allows them aU

their

room they spread themselves at large. The statesman looks at many, and compares the few habitually with others, and these look less. Yet are they not entitled to this generosity of reception ? and is not munificence the means of insight ? For though ;

gamesters say that the cards beat

though they were never so test

considering, the players are also

and share the power of the

the game,

you

now

are

criticise

are censuring your is

own

and instead

infinite

in every genius, which,

come very near him, sports with tions.

For rightly every man

of the poet,

caricature of him.

somewhat spheral and

man, especially

cards.

odds are that you

fine genius, the

are out of your reckoning,

there

the players,

all

skilful, yet in the con-

all

For

in every

you can

your limita-

a channel through

which heaven floweth, and whilst I fancied I was criticising

ing tier,

this

him, I was censuring or rather terminat-

my own

soul.

artificial,

After taxing Goethe as a cour-

unbelieving, worldly,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;I

took up

book of Helena, and found him an Indian of

the wilderness, a piece of pure nature like an apple or an oak, large as

morning or

night,

and virtuous

as a brier-rose.

But care

taken that the whole tune shall be

NOMINALIST AND REALIST. played.

we were

231

among

not kept

surfaces,

everything would be large and universal

;

now

the

excluded attributes burst in on us with the more " Your brightness that they have been excluded.

turn now,

The

turn next,"

the rule of the game.

universality being hindered in its

primary

form, comes in the secondary form of all sides; the points

come

by the speed

and

in succession to the meridian,

new whole

of rotation a

formed.

Nature keeps herself whole and her representation

She

complete in the experience of each mind.

no seat to be vacant in her

suffers

college.

It is

the secret of the world that all things subsist

do not die but only retire a afterwards return again. cern us is

from

little

sight

and

Whatever does not con-

concealed from us.

soon as a person

no longer related to our present well-being, he

concealed, or dies, as

and persons are related

Really, all things

say.

to us, but according to

our nature they act on us not at once but in succession,

and we are made aware of their presence

one at a time.

All persons,

things which

all

have known, are here present, and

see

world

;

the world

fuU.

a plenum or solid

;

things that reaUy surround us

oned and unable to move.

many more than

the ancient said, the

and

we saw

all

should be impris-

For th'iugh nothing

Impassable to the soul, but aU things are pervious

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

232

and

to it

like highways, yet this is only whilst the

soul does not see them.

any

soon as the soul sees Therefore

object, it stops before that object.

the divine Providence which keeps the universe

open in every direction to the

soul, conceals all the

furniture and all the persons that do not concern a

from the senses of that

particular soul,

Through road as

solidest eternal things the

object, suddenly

finds his

new

soon as he needs a

he beholds

tempts to pass through

ment

man

they did not subsist, and does not once

suspect their being.

When

individual.

it,

and no longer

he has exhausted for the time the nourish-

be drawn from any one person or thing,

that object

though

withdrawn from his observation, and

still

not suspect

in his

immediate neighborhood, he does

presence.

its

feign themselves dead,

and moiu'nful

Nothing

dead

and endure mock

obituaries,

men

funerals

and there they stand

look-

ing out of the window, sound and well, iu some

and strange

disguise.

very well alive

nor Aristotle

them

at-

but takes another way.

aU,

;

Jesus

not dead;

new

nor John, nor Paul, nor Mahomet, at times

and could

believe

easily teU the

we have

seen

names under

which they go. If

we cannot make voluntary and conscious

steps in the admirable science of universals, let us see the parts wisely,

and

infer the genius of nature

;

NOMINALIST AND REALIST. from the best particulars

What

becoming

witli a

best in each kind

233 charity.

an index of what

Love shows

should be the average of that thing.

the opulence of nature, by disclosing to

friend a hidden wealth, and I infer an equal

depth of good in every other direction.

It is

com-

monly said by farmers that a good pear or apple costs

no more time or pains to rear than a poor

one ; so I would have no work of

art,

no speech, or

action, or thought, or friend, but the best.

The end and game, —

life is

the means, the gamester and the

made up

of the intermixture

and

reaction of these two amicable powers, whose marriage appears beforehand monstrous, as each denies

and tends

We must reconcile

to abolish the other.

the contradictions as

can, but their discord

and

their concord introduce wild absurdities into our

thinking and speech.

sentence will hold the

whole truth, and the only way in which we can be just, is

by giving ourselves the

ter than silence

All

;

tilings are in contact

of repulsion

same time there

;

lie

;

Speech

silence is better than speech

— Things

— and the

;

bet;

—

every atom has a sphere

are,

like.

and are

not, at the

the universe over,

but one thing, this old Two-Face, creator-

creature, mind-matter, right-wrong,

proposition

may

be affirmed or denied.

therefore I assert that every

man

which any

Very

fitly

partialist

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

234

him

an instrument by

self-

conceit, preventing the tendencies to religion

and

that nature secures

science

;

and now further

assert, that,

each man's

genius being nearly and affectionately explored, he his individuality, as his nature is

justified in

found to be immense

man

a universalist

spins on

its

own

;

and now I add that every

also, and, as

axis, spins

our earth, whilst the time around

the sun through the celestial spaces, so the least of its

rational children, the most dedicated to his pri-

vate

affair,

works

though as

out,

a disguise, the universal problem.

were under

We fancy

are individuals; so are pumpkins; but every

kin in the

field

goes through every point of pump-

The rabid democrat,

kin history.

men

pump-

as soon as he

senator and rich man, has ripened beyond possibil-

and unless he can

ity of sincere radicalism,

resist

the sun, he must be conservative the remainder of his days.

Lord Eldon

he were to begin

life

said in his old age that "

again, he would be

damned

but he would begin as agitator."

hide this universality

pears at

There

dren.

draw

all points. is

to us but in

a fair

can, but

ap-

ungrateful as chil-

nothing we cherish and strive to

some hour we turn and rend

keep a running

and the

We are as

life

of the senses

girl,

a piece of

it.

of sarcasm at ignorance

fire ;

then goes by, perchance,

life,

gay and happy, and

NOMINALIST AND REALIST. making the commonest

offices beautiful

235

by the

ergy and heart with which she does them

;

en-

and

see-

ing this we admire and love her and them, and say, '

a genuine creature of the fair earth, not dis-

by books, philosophy,

sipated or too early ripened religion, society, or care

and contempt for

all

we had

wrought in ourselves and If

insinuating a treachery

and

so long loved

others.

we could have any

security against

moods

If the profoundest prophet could be holden to his

words, and the hearer

who

join the crusade could have

ready to seU

any

all

and

certificate that to-

morrow his prophet shall not unsay his testimony But the Truth sits veiled there on the Bench, and never interposes an adamantine syllable and the ;

most sincere and revolutionary doctrine, put as the ark of

God were

carried forward

and planted there for the succor in a

few weeks be coldly

speaker, as morbid

was not,"

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

;

some furlongs,

of the world, shall

set aside

by the same

" I thought I was right, but I

the same immeasurable credulity

new audacities. If we were not of we did not in any moment shift the platform on which we stand, and look and speak demanded

all

for

opinions

from another

any

there could be

one-hour-rule,' that a

his point of

man

any regulation,

should never leave

view without sound of trumpet.

always insincere, as always knowing there are

other moods.

NOMINALIST AND REALIST.

236

How

all that lies in

that aU

and

sincere

yet unsaid,

parties to

the

we can be, saying mind, and yet go away feeling confidential

know each

same words

mood and

from the incapacity

of the

other, although they use the

companion assumes to know

we go on from

habit of thought, and

words can, and we leave matters

which

all is said

explanation to explanation until

just as they

at first, because of that vicious assumption.

man

were Is

in-

curable partialist, and himself a universalist ?

that every

believes every other to be

talked yesterday with a pair of philosophers

deavored to show

good

men

that I liked every-

thing by turns and nothing long centre, but doated

man,

on the

men seemed

;

that I loved the

superficies

I en-

;

that I loved

mice and rats

;

that I

revered saints, but woke up glad that the old pagan

world stood glad of

men

its

ground and died hard

of every gift

not live in their arms. stand that I loved to heartily wished

poverty of

come

for

life

and

;

nobility,

that I was

but would

Could they but once under-

know

that they existed, and

them God-speed,

yet, out

and thought, had no word or wel-

them when they came

see me,

and

could well consent to their living in Oregon for

any claim I eatisfaction.

felt

on them,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

would be a great

NEW ENGLAND In the suburb,

EEFORMEES.

in the town,

the railway, in the square,

Came

a beam of goodness

down

Doubling daylight everywhere

Peace now each Beauty for

for malice takes,

his sinful weeds.

For the angel Hope aye makes

Him

an angel

whom

she leads.

NEW ENGLAND

EEFORMEES.

A LECTURE READ BEFORE THE HALL, ON SUNDAY,

Whoever

1844.

has had opportunity of acquaintance

with society in ty-five years,

SOCIETY IN AMORT

MARCH

New England

during the

last twen-

with those middle and with those lead-

ing sections that

may

tation of the character

constitute

any

just represen-

and aim of the community,

wiU have been struck with the great activity of thought and experimenting. His attention must be

commanded by ious party, is

the signs that the Church, or relig-

falling

from the Church nominal, and

appearing in temperance and non-resistance

ties

;

ists

;

movements of

and in very

abolitionists

and

socie-

of social-

significant assemblies called Sab-

bath and Bible Conventions

;

composed

of ultraists,

of seekers, of all the soul of the soldiery of dissent,

and meeting

to call in question the authority of the

Sabbath, of the priesthood, and of the Church. these

movements nothing was more remarkable

than the discontent they begot in the movers. spirit of protest

The

and of detachment drove the mem-

bers of these Conventions to bear testimony against

;

NEW ENGLAND

240

REFORMERS.

the Church, and immediately afterwards to declare their discontent with these Conventions, their inde-

pendence of their colleagues, and their impatience of the

They

methods whereby they were working.

defied each other, like a congress of kings, each of

whom 'had that

made

a realm to rule, and a

way

concert unprofitable.

What

of his

own

a fertility

One men should go to farnung, and no man should buy or sell, that the use

of projects for the salvation of the world

apostle thought all

another that of

money was

the cardinal evil

mischief was in our diet, that

;

another that the

eat

and drink

These made unleavened bread, and

damnation.

were foes to the death

to fermentation.

God made

vain urged by the housewife that

and loves fermentation

as well as dough,

dearly as he loves vegetation

;

was

yeast,

just as

that fermentation

develops the saccharine element in the grain, and

makes

more palatable and more

digestible.

they wish the pure wheat, and will die but not ferment.

Stop, dear nature, these

advances of thine wheels

;

let

No shall

incessant

us scotch these ever-rolling

Others attacked the system of agricul-

ture, the use of

the tyranny of

animal manures in farming, and

man

polluted his food.

over brute nature

these abuses

The ox must be taken from the

plough and the horse from the acres of the

;

cart, the

hundred

farm must be spaded, and the man must

NEW ENGLAND

REFORMERS.

241

walk, wherever boats and locomotives will not carry

Hm.

Even

the insect world was to be defended,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

that had been too long neglected, and a society for

the protection of ground-worms, slugs, and mosquitos

With

was to be incorporated without delay.

these appeared the adepts of homoeopathy, of hy-

dropathy, of mesmerism, of phrenology, and their

wonderfid theories of the Christian miracles

Oth-

ers assailed particular vocations, as that of the lawyer, that of the merchant, of the manufacturer, of

Others attacked the

the clergyman, of the scholar. institution

evUs.

of marriage as the fountain of social

Others devoted themselves to the worrying

of churches

and meetings for pubHo worship

the fertile forms of antinomianism puritans seemed to have their

among

match

new harvest of reform. With this din of opinion and

and

;

the elder

in the plenty

of the

debate there was a

keener scrutiny of institutions and domestic

than any we had known ing against existing of

;

life

there was sincere protest-

evils,

and there were changes

employment dictated by conscience.

doubt

there was plentiful vaj)oring, and cases of backslid-

ing might occur.

emerged a good

But

result,

in each of these

movements

a tendency to the adoption

of simpler methods, and an assertion of the

ciency of the private man.

Thus

was

suffi-

directly in

the spirit and genius of the age, what happened in VOL.

III.

;

NEW ENGLAND

242

REFORMERS.

one instance when a church censured and threatened to

excommunicate one of

of the

somewhat

members on account church which

hostile part to the

his conscience led

ness

its

him to take

in the anti-slavery busi-

the threatened individual immediately ex-

;

comniunieated the church, in a public and formal

This has been several times repeated

process.

was excellent when

was done the

of course loses all value

when

project in the history of reform, no matter

and

lent

surprising,

of a man's genius

and

good when

and

and beautiful in any man

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

whom we

to flow

the dictate

it is

to say,

It is

I will take

measure of corn of

see the act to be original,

from the whole

spirit

and

faith of

him

for then that taking will have a giving as free

divine

;

and

but we are very easily disposed to resist

the same generosity of speech nality

vio-

constitution, but very dull

this coat, or this book, or this

yours,'

Every

how

and suspicious when adopted from another. right

time, but

copied.

first

and truth

when we miss

to character in

it.

There was in aU the practical

England

origi-

activities of

New

for the last quarter of a century, a grad-

ual withdrawal of tender consciences from the social organizations.

There

observable throughout,

the contest between mechanical ods, but with

and virtuous itual facts.

and

spiritual

meth-

a steady tendency of the thoughtful to a deeper belief

and

reliance on spir-

NEW ENGLAND In

politics for

example

gress of dissent.

the country

is full

REFORMERS. is

243

easy to see the pro-

The country is full of Hands off of kings.

rebellion !

;

there

let

be no control and no interference in the administhe affairs

tration

this

kingdom

me.

Hence the growth of the doctrine and of the party and the willingness to try that experiment, in the face of what appear incontestable of Free Trade,

I confess, the motto of the Globe news-

facts.

paper

much umns

The world

the country

that I can seldom find

what

appetite to read :

so attractive to

below

in its col-

governed too much."

frequently affording solitary exam-

ples of resistance to the government, solitary nullifiers,

rights

who

;

who throw themselves on their reserved nay, who have reserved all their rights ;

reply to the assessor and to the clerk of court

that they do not courts of law

know the

and embarrass the

by non-juring and the commander-

in-chief of the militia

The same

State,

non-resistance.

disposition to scrutiny

and dissent

society.

A restless, prying,

conscientious criticism

broke out in unexpected quarters. the

money with which

ap.

and domestic

peaj?ed in civil, festive, neighborly,

I bought

Who my

coat

gave ?

Why

should professional labor and that of the counting-

house be paid so disproportionately to the labor of the porter

and woodsawyer ?

This whole business

NEW ENGLAND

244 of

REFORMERS.

Trade gives me to pause and think, as

tutes false relations

between men

whom

inasmuch

;

as I

behave weU and nobly to that person

pay with money whereas

I had not that

good behavior

;

commodity, I should be put on

aU companies, and man would be a benefactor

man,

to those aids

? is

services

which each

protected a per-

there not a wide disparity between the lot

me and

poor

and

Am I not too

asked of the other. son

as being himself his only certificate that he

had a right

consti-

prone to count myself relieved of any respon-

sibility tp

sister ?

the lot of thee,

poor brother,

I not defrauded of

my best

ture in the loss of those gymnastics which

my cul-

manual

labor and the emergencies of poverty constitute

I find nothing healthful or exalting in the smooth conventions of society

;

I do not like the close air

I begin to suspect myself to

of saloons. prisoner,

though treated with

luxury.

I pay a destructive tax in

The same

all this

insatiable criticism

be a

courtesy and

conformity.

may be

traced in

The pop-

the efforts for the reform of Education.

ular education has been taxed with a want of truth

and nature. to

things

words

was

coni2:>lained that

are

in schools,

and

was not given.

we are shut up

an education students of colleges,

recitation-rooms, for ten or fifteen years,

out at last with a bag of wind, a

memory

and

and come of words,

NEW ENGLAND

REFORMERS.

and do not know a

thing.

hands, or our legs,

or our

245

"We cannot use our eyes, or

our arms.

do not know an edible root in the woods, we

cannot

our course by the stars, nor the hour of

tell

the day by the sun.

skate.

It is

weU

we can swim and

are afraid of a horse, of a cow, of a

The Roman

dog, of a snake, of a spider.

rule

The

old English rule was,

All summer

And

in the field,

and

all

seems as

man

should learn to plant, or to

was

boy nothing that he could not learn

to teach a

standing.

winter in the study.'

fish,

or to hunt, that he might secure his subsistence at all events,

and not be painful

The

fellow-men.

also.

The

telescope

worth

all

shock of the all

electric

the theories

firing of

umes

and

lessons of science should be ex-

perimental is

to his friends

sight of a planet through a

the course on astronomy

;

the

spark in the elbow, outvalues

the taste of the nitrous oxide, the

;

artificial

volcano, are better than vol-

of chemistry.

One

of the traits of the

quisition

fixed

dead langTiages.

new

spirit is

the in-

on our scholastic devotion to the

The ancient

langTiages, with great

beauty of structure, contain wonderful remains of genius, which draw,

likeminded men, in

and always will draw, certain

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Greek men, and Roman men, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

countries, to their study

;

but by a wonderful

drowsiness of usage they had exacted the study of

NEW ENGLAND

246 all

REFORMERS.

men. Once (say two centuries ago), Latin and

Grreek had a strict relation to all the science and

was in Europe, and the Mathematics had a momentary importance at some era of activculture there

These things became

ity in physical science.

reotyped as education, as the manner of

But the Good and though

all

men and boys were now

drilled in

had quite

left

creating and feeding other matters at other

But

ends of the world.

in a

colleges this warfare

Four, or

stiU goes on. is

is.

and dry on the beach, and was

these shells high

and

men

Spirit never cared for the colleges,

Latin, Greek, and Mathematics,

now

ste-

hundred high schools

common

against

six,

sense

or ten years, the pupil

parsing Greek and Latin, and as soon as he

leaves the University, as

it is

shuts those books for the

sands of young

men

ludicrously styled, he

last

time.

Some

thou-

are graduated at our colleges in

and the persons who,

this country every year,

forty years, stiU read Greek, can all be counted on

your hand.

I never

persons I have seen

But

met with

who read

ten.

Four or

five

Plato.

not this absurd, that the whole liberal

talent of this country should be directed in its best

years on studies which lead to nothing?

was the consequence? said or thought,

speU

Some

Is that

to conjure with,

intelligent

What persons

Greek and Latin some

and not words

of reason ?

NEW ENGLAND

REFORMERS.

247

the physician, the lawyer, the divine, never use

come

need never learn

at their ends, I

Conjuring

at mine.

gone out of fashion, and I

omit this conjugating, and go straight to

will

af-

So they jumped the Greek and Latin, and

fairs.'

it.

men

took

read law, medicine, or sermons, without astonishment of

the

come

all,

the self-made

even ground at once with the oldest of the regular graduates, and in a few months the most conservative circles of

forgotten

who

and who was

New York had quite gownsmen was college-bred,

Boston and of their

not.

One tendency

appears alike in the philosophical

speculation and in the rudest democratical move-

ments, through all the petulance and

and arrive by an all

all

the puer-

the wish, namely, to cast aside the superfluous

ility,

methods

at short

intuition that the

;

urged, as I suppose,

human

emergencies, alone, and that

spirit is equal to

man

more often

injured than helped by the means he uses. I conceive this gradual casting off of aids,

and the indication

material

growing trust in the

private self-supplied powers of

the individual, to

be the affirmative princij^le of the recent philosophy, and that

and

it is

feeling its

happiest conclusions. this,

own profound

truth

reaching forward at this very hour to the

I readily concede that in

every period of intellectual activity.

;

NEW ENGLAND

248

REFORMERS. and protest

there has been a noise of denial

was

be resisted,

much was

who were reared

those

;

much

be got rid of by

in the old, before they could

begin to affirm and to construct.

Many

perishes in his removal of rubbish

;

They

the offensiveness of the class.

a reformer

and that makes are partial

They kingdom of

they are not equal to the work they pretend. lose their

way

;

in the assault on the

darkness they expend accidental evil,

and

It is of little

benefit.

all

on some

their energy

lose their sanity

moment

and power

that one or two or

twenty errors of our social system be corrected, but

much that the man be in his senses. The criticism and attack on institutions, which we have witnessed, has made one thing plain, that of

society gains

nothing whilst a man, not himself

renovated, attempts to renovate things around him:

he has become tediously good in some particular

and hypocrisy

but negligent or narrow in the rest

;

and vanity are often the disgusting

result.

handsomer

It is

better

remain in the establishment

than the establishment, and conduct that

in the best manner, than to evil

by some

porting

by a

single

total regeneration.

vain of your one objection. is

only one

part of

make

Alas

society or of

a sally against

improvement, without sup-

Do you

not be

tliink there

good friend, there

life

better than

any other

NEW ENGLAND

2-19

All our things are right and wrong together.

part.

The wave

Do you is

REFORMERS.

evij.

washes

all

our institutions

complain of our Marriage

Our marriage

no worse than our education, our

Do you

our social customs. of Property ?

It is a

diet,

our trade,

complain of the laws

pedantry to give such impor-

Can we not play

tance to them.

alike.

the

game

of life

with these counters, as well as with those

institution of property, as well as out of

it ?

into

the

new and renewing

in the

Let

principle of love, and

property will be universality.

one gives the

impression of superiority to the institution, which

he must give who will reform difference

what you

that you are aloof

say,

from

it.

makes no

you must make it

;

feel

by your natural and

supernatural advantages do easily see to the end

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; do

it,

all

men

how man can do

see

are on one side.

v/ithout

No man

Only Love, only an we hold it.

heard against property. is

against prof)erty as

I cannot afford to be irritable to waste all

it.

time in attacks.

Now

deserves to be

and

Idea,

captious, nor

If I should

out of church whenever I hear a false sentiment X could never stay there five minutes.

come out

when

the street

I get

my speech, When we see

But why and

as false as the church,

house, or

I have not got

manners, or

away from the

lie.

an eager assailant of one of these

^'EW ENGLAND REFORMERS.

250

wrongs, a special reformer, him,

What

right have you,

sir,

This

Is virtue piecemeal ?

like asking

feel

to your one virtue ?

a jewel amidst the

rags of a beggar.

In another way the right wiU be vindicated. the midst of abuses, in the heart of

another,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; wherever, namely, a it

just

wUl do what

and heroic

shall put

that old condition, law or

shall abrogate

school in which

soul

next at hand,

and by the new quality of character forth

the

cities, in

one place and in

aisles of false churches, alike in

finds itself, there

stands, before the

law of

its

own mind. If partiality

was one

party, the other defect ciation.

drove

of the

movement

their reliance on Asso-

Doubts such as those I have intimated

many good

persons to agitate the questions

But the

of social reform. of

fault

was

commerce, the

spirit

revolt against the spirit

of aristocracy,

and the

inveterate abuses of cities, did not appear possible to individuals

;

and

do battle against numbers

they armed themselves with numbers, and against concert they relied on

new

concert.

Following or advancing beyond the ideas of St.

Simon, of Fourier, and of Owen, three communities have already been formed in Massachusetts on kindred plans, and large.

They aim

many more

to give every

in the country at

member a

share in

;

NEW ENGLAND

REFORMERS.

251

the manual labor, to give an equal reward to labor

and

to talent,

to unite a liberal culture with

The scheme

an education to labor.

by the

offers,

economies of associated labor and expense, to

member

every

rich,

on the same amount of proper-

separate

ty that,

member

poor.

make

families,

would leave every

These new associations are com-

men and women of superior talents and sentiments yet it may easily be questioned wheth-

posed of

;

a community will draw, except in

er such

and the good

nings, the able

;

its

begin-

whether those who

have energy will not prefer their chance of superiority

and power

in the world, to the

tainties of the association

;

humble

does not promise to become an asylum to those

have tried and strong rily

;

failed,

cer-

whether such a retreat

who

rather than a field to the

and whether the members

will not necessa^-

be fractions of men, because each finds that he

cannot enter ship

without some compromise.

and association are very

Friend-

fine things,

and a

grand phalanx of the best of the human race, banded for some catholic object

member man.

;

yes, excellent

;

but

re-

that no society can ever be so large as one

He, in his friendship, in his natural and mo-

mentary

associations, doubles or multiplies himself

but in the hour in which he mortgages himself to

two or ten or stature of one.

tw'enty,

he dwarfs himself below the

NEW ENGLAND

252

But the men and

REFORMERS.

of less faith could not thus believe,

to such, concert appears the sole specific of

and you have

I have failed,

strength.

perhaps together we shall not keeping

but

house-

not satisfactory to us, but perhaps a

phalanx, a community, might be. differed in opinion,

could

failed,

Our

fail.

make

and we could

Many of us have no man who

find

the truth plain, but possibly a college,

or an ecclesiastical council, might. able either to persuade

on myself to disuse the

traffic

I have not been

brother or to prevail or the potation of

brandy, but perhaps a pledge of total abstinence

might

effectually restrain us.

party votes for

The candidate my

not to be trusted with a dollar,

but he will be honest in the Senate, for we can bring public opinion to bear on him.

was the

specific in all cases.

better nor worse, neither

make a

statue

But concert

more nor

All the

individual force.

men

can.

fiirst

neither

than

in the world cannot

But

any more than one

there be one man, let there be

let

truth in two men, in ten men, then the

less potent,

walk and speak, cannot make a drop

of blood, or a blade of grass,

man

Thus concert

time possible

moves the world

;

concert for

because the force which

a new quality, and can never be

furnished by adding whatever quantities of a different kind. false

What

the use of the concert of the

and the disunited

There can be no concert

NEW ENGLAND in two,

where there

the individual

way and

backs water, what concert can be

wonder

The world and

;

when

;

his

his sense

;

the other

at the interest these projects inis

awaking

be magic.

will

when

to the idea of union,

and these experiments show what It

;

his actions another

will, enlightened by reason, is warped by when with one hand he rows and with

I do not

When

dual

his faith is traversed b^ his habits

spire.

253

no concert in one.

not individual, but

his thoughts look one

when

REFORMERS.

Men

it is

thinking

of.

and com-

will live

municate, and plough, and reap, and govei'n, as by

added ethereal power, when once they are united as in a celebrated experiment, resiDiration

heavy only,

exactly

man from

together,

four persons

the ground

and without sense

by the

little

But

of weight.

this

lift

use.

The union

are isolated.

by a reverse is

union

when

all

the uniters

union of friends who live in

different streets or towns.

Each man,

to join himself to others,

the union the smaller and the

;

he attempts

sides

all

and diminished of his proportion

But leave him

the methods they

only perfect

It is the

finger

must be inward, and not one of covenants, and to be reached

;

by expiration and

cramped

and the

stricter

pitiful

alone, to recognize in every hour

is.

and

he will go up and down doing

place the secret soul

;

the works of a true

member, and,

to the astonish-

NEW ENGLAND

254

ment

all,

though no

REFORMERS.

the work will be done with concert,

man

spoke.

Government

will be adar

mantine without any governor. The union must be ideal in actual individualism.

I pass to the indication in some particulars of that faith in man, wliich the heart

preaching to

us in these days, and which engages the more regard, from the consideration that the speculations of one generation are the history of the next fol-

lowing.

In alluding just now to our system of education,

But

I spoke of the deadness of its details.

open to graver criticism than the palsy of bers

it is

The

a system of despair.

which the human mind now labors

Men

mem-

disease with

want of

faith.

do not believe in a power of education.

do not think we can speak

man, and we do not

aims.

to divine sentiments in

try.

many

society, are organic,

incurables.

renounce

all

high

many who make

believe that the defects of so

perverse and so

its

frivolous people

and society

a hospital of

A man of good sense but of little faith,

whose compassion seemed to lead him to church as often as he went there, said to to

have concerts, and

fairs,

public amusements go on."

mark

too honest,

gin as the

maxim

that " he liked

and churches, and other I

afraid the re-

and comes from the same

of the tyrant, " If

ori-

you would rule

NEW ENGLAND the world quietly,

REFORMERS.

you must keep

255

amused."

notice too that the ground on which erninent public

servants urge the. claims of popular education fear

' ;

This country

and millions of to

voters,

filling

and you must educate them

keep them from our throats.'

lieve that

up with thousands

do not be-

any education, any system of philosophy,

any influence of genius,

will ever give

Having

sight to a superficial mind.

selves into this infidelity, our sldll is

depth of

expended to

procure alleviations, diversion, opiates. the victim with

manual

skill, his

in-

our-

settled

adorn

tongue with lan-

guages, his body with inoffensive and comely man-

So have we cunningly hid the tragedy and inner death we cannot avert. Is

ners.

limitation

of it

strange that society shoidd be devoured by a secret

melancholy which breaks through all its

gayety and games

But even one It appears that

all its smiles

and

step farther our infidelity has gone.

some doubt

is felt

by good and wise

men whether really the happiness and probity of men is increased by the culture of the mind in those disciplines to which we give the name of education. Unhappily too the doubt comes from persons

who have

scholars,

tried these methods.

from

In their

experience the scholar was not raised by the sacred thoughts amongst which

them

to selfish ends.

lie

dwelt, but used

was a profane person,

NEW ENGLAND

256

REFORMERS.

and became a showman, turning his gifts to a marketable use, and not to his own sustenance and growth.

was found that the

independently developed, that the man, as any

and the for

result

intellect

is,

could be

in separation

from

single organ can be invigorated,

was monstrous.

canine appetite

knowledge was generated, which must stHl be

fed but was never satisfied, and this knowledge, not

being directed on action, never took the character of substantial, it

entered.

expression, the

humane

truth, blessing those

whom

gave the scholar certain powers of

power

etry, of literary art,

power of po-

of speech, the

but

did not bring him to

peace or to beneficence.

When faith,

the literary class betray a destitution of

it is

not strange that society should be dis-

heartened and sensualized by unbelief.

edy

What

Life must be lived on a higher plane.

must go up

to a higher platform, to

always invited to ascend of things changes.

;

rem-

which we are

there, the whole aspect

I resist the skepticism of our

education and of our educated men.

I do not be-

lieve that the differences of opinion

and character

men

are organic.

class of the

I do not recognize, beside the

good and the

vrise,

a permanent class

of skeptics, or a class of conservatives, or of malignants, or of materialists.

I do not believe in two

You remember

the story of the poor wo-

classes.

NEW ENGLAND man who importuned King

REFORMERS.

Macedon

Philip of

gTant her justice, which Philip refused

257

the

woman

exclaimed, " I appeal " the Idng, astonished, asked :

whom

she appealed

the

woman

Philip drunk to Philip sober."

From

text will suit

I believe not in two classes of men,

very well.

man

but in

replied, "

The

two moods, in Philip drunk and

Philip sober.

thinli,

according to the good-

hearted word of Plato, " Unwillingly the soid

deprived of truth." thief,

man

but by a supposed necessity which

he tolerates by shortness or torpidity of soul lets no

Iron conservative, miser, or

man go

sight.

The

without some visitations and

It would be easy by a narrow scanning of any man's biog-

holydays of a diviner presence. to show,

raphy, that

are not so

wedded

to our paltry per-

man

formances of every kind but that every

has at

intervals the grace to scorn his performances, in

comparing them with his do

;

belief of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that he puts himself on

what he should

the side of his ene-

mies, listening gladly to what they say of him,

and

accusing himself of the same things.

What

is it

men

love in Genius, but

hope, which degrades all its

never executed.

Doric column, the the

has done

The

Roman

Iliad, the

III.

infinite

Genius

Its

own

Hamlet, the

arch, the Gothic minster,

German anthem, when they

VOL.

its ?

miracles poor and short.

counts

idea

all

are ended, the

NEW ENGLAND

258

master casts behind him.

REFORMERS.

How

sinks the song in

the waves of melody which the universe pours over his soul

Before that gracious Infinite out of which

he drew these few strokes, how mean they look,

though the praises of the world attend them. From the triumphs of his art he turns with desire to this

With

Let those admire who wiU.

greater defeat.

he sees himself to be capable of a beauty

silent joy

that eclipses all which his hands have done

which human

Well, we are dren of virtue,

all the children of genius, the chil-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

feel their inspirations in

Is not every

happier hours.

Men

ical in politics ?

are least vigorous, or

They

;

hands have ever done.

man

our

sometimes a rad-

are conservatives

when they are most

when they luxurious.

are conservatives after dinner, or before tak-

ing their rest

;

when they

are sick, or aged

in the

morning, or when their intellect or their conscience

when they hear

music, or

they read poetry, they are radicals.

In the

has been aroused

;

of the rankest tories that could be collected in

land,

Old

intellect,

New,

man

when circle

Eng-

let a powerful and stimidating

of great heart

and mind

act

them, and very quickly these frozen conservators will yield to the friendly influence, these hopeless

will begin to hope, these haters

these volve.

immovable statues

wiU begin

will begin to spin

to love,

and

re-

I cannot help recalling the fine anecdote

NEW ENGLAND

REFORMERS.

269

which Warton relates of Bishop Berkeley, when he

was preparing

to leave

England with

among

planting the gospel

" Lord Bathurst told Scriblerus club being

that the

met

say,

members

who was

on his scheme at Bermudas.

ing listened to the

many

savages. of the

at his house at dinner,

they agreed to rally Berkeley, guest,

his plan of

American

the

also his

Berkeley, hav-

lively things

they had to

begged to be heard in his turn, and displayed

an astonishing and animating

his jDlan with such

and enthusiasm that they were

force of eloquence

struck dumb, and, after some pause, rose up all to-

gether with earnestness, exclaiming,

with him

Men

immediately.' "

They

ter than they seem.

know

ment, but they

Let us

set out

aU ways are

bet-

mo-

like flattery for the

the truth for their own.

It is

a foolish cowardice which keeps us from trusting

them and speaking

them rude

sent your honesty for an

you for

always.

each other ?

What

truth.

They

instant, they will is it

to be pleased

re-

thank

heartily wish of

and

flattered ?

No,

but to be convicted and exposed, to be shamed out of our nonsense of all kinds,

stead of ghosts

and made men

and phantoms.

gliding ghostlike through the world, which so slight

and unreal.

come

itself

crave a sense of reality,

though

manlike love of truth,

this

of, in-

are weary of

in strokes of pain.

I explain so,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; those

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

excesses and

NEW ENGLAND

260

REFORMERS.

errors into wtich souls of great vigor, but not equal

They

insight, often fall.

poverty at the

feel the

bottom of aU the seeming affluence of the world.

They know

the speed with which they

come

straight

through the thin masquerade, and conceive a disgTist at the

indigence of nature

Rousseau, Mira^

beau, Charles Fox, Napoleon, Byron, easily

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

add names nearer home, of raging

I could

riders,

who

drive their steeds so hard, in the violence of living to forget its illusion

they would

know

the worst,

and tread the floors of hell. The heroes of ancient and modern fame, Cimon, Themistocles, Alcibiades, Alexander, Caesar, have treated

life

and fortune as

a game to be well and skilfully played, but the stake not to be so valued but that any time

be held as a Caesar, just

trifle

before

courses with the

light as air,

the

could

and thrown up.

battle of Pharsalia,

dis-

Egyptian priest concerning the

fountains of the Nile, and offers to quit the army, the

empire, and Cleopatra,

he will show him

those mysterious sources.

The same magnanimity shows relations,

man

our social

which each

gives to the society of superiors over that of

his equals.

All that a nian has will he give for

right relations with his mates. will

itself in

in the preference, namely,

All that he has

he give for an erect demeanor in every com-

pany and on each

occasion.

aims at such

NEW ENGLAND

BE FORMERS.

261

things as his neighbors prize, and gives his days,

and nights,

good

his talents

and

his heart, to strike

stroke, to acquit himself in all

The

a man.

consideration of an eminent citizen,

of a noted merchant, of a fession

;

men's sight as

man

mark

in his pro-

a naval and military honor, a general's

commission, a marshal's baton, a ducal coronet, the laurel of poets, and,

anyhow procured, the acknowl-

edgment of eminent merit,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; have

this lustre for

each candidate that they enable him to walk erect

and unashamed fore

whom

some persons be-

in the presence of

felt

himself inferior.

Having raised

himself to this rank, having established his equality with

would fore

class after class of those

live well,

whom

have somewhat

seem worthless

his

fairer,

somewhat grander, somewhat

homage

of him.

Is his ambi-

and

his possessions

instead of avoiding these

his fine gold dim,

he will cast

their society only,

all

men who

behind him

woo and embrace

this

humiliation and mortification, until he shall

know why

his eye sinks, his voice

husky, and his

brilliant talents are paralyzed in this presence. is

he stiU finds certain others be-

tion pure ? then will his laurels

and seek

whom

he cannot possess himself, because they

purer, which extorts

make

with

sure that the

things will

mislead him.

tell

soul which

none. it

gives

the

His constitution

cannot carry

lie

to all

will not

itself as it

ought,

NEW ENGLAND

262

REFORMERS.

high and unmatchable in the presence of any if

man

;

makes the sweetdo here withdraw and

the secret oracles whose whisper

and dignity

ness

of his life

accompany him no longer,

—

time to under-

value what he has valued, to dispossess himself of

what he has acquired, and with CaBsar to take in his

hand the army, the

and Cleopatra, and you will show

emf)ire,

say, " All these will I relinquish, if

Dear to us are moments we spend

the fountains of the Nile."

those

who

love us

;

the swift

with them are a compensation for a great deal of

misery

;

they enlarge our

those

who

other

life

reject us as :

life

;

— but

dearer are

unworthy, for they add an-

they build a heaven before us whereof

we had not dreamed, and thereby supply powers out of the recesses of the to

spirit,

to us

new

and urge us

new and unattenipted performances. As every man at heart wishes the best and

not

inferior society, wishes to be convicted of his error

and

come -to

himself,

—

so he wishes that the

same

healing should not stop in his thought, but should penetrate his will or active power.

man suffers more from whom that selfishness benefit.

What

The

his selfishness than

selfish

he from

withholds some important

he most wishes

to be lifted to

some higher platform, that he may see beyond

his

present fear the transalpine good, so that his fear, bis coldness, his

custom

may be broken up

NEW ENGLAND fragments of

ice,

REFORMERS.

263

melted and carried away in the

great stream of good will.

Do you

I also wish to be a benefactor.

ask

aid ?

I wish more to be

a benefactor and servant than you wish to be

me and surely the greatest good fortune me is precisely to be so moved by I should say, Take me and aU mine, and

served by

;

that could befall

you that use

me and mine

not say

ment had come

freely to your ends

for I could

otherwise than because a great enlarge-

my heart and miad, which made my fortunes. Here we are parar

superior to

lyzed with fear

we hold on

;

house and land,

to our little properties,

and money, for the bread

office

which they have in our experience yielded

us, al-

though we confess that our being does not flow through them.

desire to be

desire to be touched with that fire

mand

this ice to stream,

If therefore

benefit.

project,

made

great

;

which

shall

com-

and make our existence a

start objections to

ures.

your

friend of the slave, or friend of the poor

or of the race, understand well that

we wish

drive

you

because

to drive us into your meas-

wish to hear ourselves confuted.

are haunted with a belief that you have a secret

which

would highliest advantage us

we would

force

you

to leani,

to impart it to us,

and

though

should bring us to prison or to worse extremity.

Nothing

shall

warp me from the

belief that every

NEW ENGLANB

264

man

BEFORMERS. lie,

no of

the proposition of depravity

and profanation. ism but

Could

that.

belief, suicide

had a name

There it

no pure

The entertainment

There

a lover of truth.

pure malignity in nature.

the last profligacy

no skepticism, no athe-

be received into

common

would unpeople the planet.

to live in

has

some dogmatic theology, but

each man's innocence and his real liking of his

neighbor have kept

a dead

letter.

standing at the poUs one day

when

remember

the anger of

the political contest gave a certain grimness to the faces of the independent electors, at

side,

satisfied that the largest

ther side,

and a good man

looking on the people, remarked, " I

mean

part of these men, on

to vote right."

am ei-

I suj)pose consider-

ate observers, looking at the masses of

men

in their

blameless and in their equivocal actions, will assent, that in spite of selfishness

and

frivolity, the gen-

number of persons is fidelThe reason why any one refuses his assent to

eral purpose in the great ity.

your opinion, or his aid to your benevolent design, is

you

he refuses to accept you as a bringer of

truth, because feels that

though you think you have

you have

not.

it,

You have not given him

the authentic sign. If

were worth while to run into details this

general doctrine of the latent but ever soliciting Spirit, it

would be easy to adduce

illustration iu

NEW ENGLAND

REFORMERS.

265

particulars of a man's equality to the Church, of his equality to the State,

every other man.

and of

It is yet in

his equality to

aU men's memory

a few years ago, the liberal churches com-

that,

plained that the Calvinistic church denied to them

name

the

religious

borg

I think the complaint was

of Christian.

confession

a religious church would not complain.

man,

Behmen, Fox, or Sweden-

not irritated by wanting the sanction of the

Church, but the Church

feels the accusation of his

presence and belief. It only needs that a just streets to

make

appear

a contrivance

ficial

whose part

how

should walk in our pitiful

and

inarti-

The man

our legislation.

taken and who does not wait for

society in anything, has a

not choose but

man

The

feel.

power which

society can-

familiar experiment called

the hydrostatic paradox, in which a capillary col-

umn

of water balances the ocean, is

relation of one

The

a symbol of the

to the whole family of

men.

wise Dandamis, on hearing the lives of Soc-

Pythagoras and Diogenes

rates,

them

man

" judged

men every way, excepting that much subjected to the reverence of

be great

they were too

the laws, which to second tue must abate very

And

read,

as a

man

to the State, bo he

much

and of

its

authorize, true vir-

original vigor."

equal to the Church and equal is

equal to every other man.

NEW ENGLAND

266

The and a

disparities of all

man

REFORMERS.

power in men are

superficial;

frank and searching conversation, in which lays himself open to his brother, apprises

When

each of their radical unity.

and converse the remark

in a thoroughly

two persons

sure to be made, See

disputed about words!

mind, such as every

sit

good understanding,

Let a

clear,

how we have apprehensive

man knows among

his friends,

commanding poetic genius, I think it would appear that there was no inequality such as men fancy, between them that a perconverse with the most

;

fect understanding,

a like receiving, a like perceiv-

ing, abolished differences

;

and the poet would con-

fess that his creative imagination

gave him no deep

advantage, but only the superficial one that he could express himself and the other could not

;

that

his advantage

was a knack, which might impose on

men

but could not impose on lovers of

indolent

truth; for they

know

price of greatness the

pays.

I believe

it is

the tax of talent, or

what a

power of expression too often the conviction of the purest

men that the net amount of man and man does much vary. Each is incomparably superior to companion in some

faculty.

His want of

yielded

his

skill in

own Each seems to have some compensation to him by his infirmity, and every hinder-

other directions has added to his fitness for his

work.

not

ance operates as a concentration of his force.

NEW ENGLAND

REFORMERS.

267

These and the like experiences intimate that

man

stands in strict connection with a higher fact

There

never yet manifested.

behind

and we are the channels

us,

nications.

say.

or that

another

;

which contradicts what

sits

this

within our eyes dissuades

self

we compose our

vain

and over

so,

would persuade our fellow to

That which we keep back,

him.

commu-

of its

seek to say thus and

our head some spirit

power over and

this reveals.

and our words

faces

holds

;

uncontrollable communication with the enemy, and

he answers

at last

the

There

first

spirit.

a traitor in the house

' !

but

the true man, and I

This open channel to the highest

life

appears that he

the traitor. is

but believes the

civilly to us,

We exclaim,

and

last reality, so subtle, so quiet, yet

so tenacious, that although I have never expressed

the truth, and although I have never heard the expression of

whole truth

from any

answer your questions

know

other, I

What

here for me.

we caU Providence

seek to translate hit or

Every discourse

swer

it is

but

lies

the

the un-

Every time into speech,

whether we miss, we have

the fact. :

What

There

spoken thing, present, omnipresent.

we converse we but whether we

I cannot

not pained that I

cannot frame a reply to the question. operation

that the

an approximate an-

of small consequence that

we do

NEW ENGLAND

268 not get

and nouns, whilst

into verbs

REFORMERS. abides

for contemplation forever.

If the auguries of the prophesying heart shall

make themselves good

in time, the

men and

be born, whose advent foreshow,

who

one

with a higher

life,

destroy distrust

shall

shall enjoy his connection

with the

man who

events prepare and

man

within

man

;

shall

his trust, shall use his native

but forgotten methods, shall not take counsel of

and blood, but

flesh

on the

shall rely

Law

alive

and beautiful which works over our heads and under our

Pitiless, it avails itself of

feet.

when we obey

cess

contravene else the

it.

word

Men justice

believe that the best at last

;

of our ruin

Work,'

would have no meaning is

the true

and not

our suc-

when we

are all secret believers in

or chaos would come.

after their nature,

agent.

and

it,

that right

;

it,

they

done

It rewards actions

after the design of the

man,

saith to

in every hour,

paid or unpaid, see only that thou work, and thou canst not escape the reward fine or coarse, planting

only

whether thy work be

be honest work, done to thine own appro-

bation,

shall earn

as to the thought

you are born well done,

corn or writing epics, so

a reward to the senses as well

no matter how often defeated,

to victory.

to have done

soon as a

man

The reward

of a thing

it.'

wonted

to look

beyond

NEW ENGLAND and

surfaces,

how

to see

REFORMERS. this

high

269 prevails

-will

without an exception or an interval, he settles himself into serenity.

can already rely on the laws

of gravity, that every stone will fall where

due

good globe

the

;

f aithfxil,

securely through the celestial

we need

resigned,

and

carries us

spaces, anxious or

not interfere to help

and

he will learn one day the mild lesson they teach, that our

own

orbit is

aU our

task,

and we need not

assist the administration of the universe.

not

be so impatient to set the town right concerning the unfounded pretensions and the false reputation

men

of certain

They

of standing.

are laboring

harder to set the town right concerning themselves,

and

will

Suppress for a few

certainly succeed.

days your criticism on the insufficiency of this or that teacher or experimenter, and he will have

demonstrated his insufficiency to aU men's eyes.

In like manner, cuits, is

and he

let

man

enlarged.

fall into the divine cir-

Obedience to his genius

the only liberating influence.

make

of inferiority,

self-denying ordinances,

eat grass, all in

We wish to escape

and we we drink water, we laws, we go to jaU it is

from subjection and a sense

vain

by the

we ;

refuse the

only by obedience to his genius, only

freest activity in the

way

constitutional to

him, does an angel seem to arise before a lead

him by the hand out

prison.

of all the

man and

wards of the

NEW ENGLAND

270

That which

wonder as we

befits us,

REFORMERS.

embosomed

in beauty and

and courage, and

are, is cheerfulness

the endeavor to realize our aspirations.

man

the true romance, which

when

The

life

it is

val-

wUl

yield the imagination a higher

joy than any fiction.

All around us what powers

iantly conducted

are

wrapped up under the coarse mattings of

cus-

wonder prevented.

It is so wonderful

man

can see without his

eyes, that it does not occur to

them that it is just them and

tom, and

all

to our neurologists that a

as wonderful that he should

that

unwise wise

see with

;

ever the difference between the wise and the :

the latter wonders at what is unusual, the

man wonders

at the usual.

Shall not the

heart which has received so much, trust the

by which and

it lives ?

listen to the

and taught

May

Power

not quit other leadings,

Soul that has guided

so gently

much, secure that the future

be worthy of the past ?

will